Tifa Lockheart

**Tifa Lockhart**, alternatively known with the last name **Lockheart**, is a playable character in *Final Fantasy VII* and *Final Fantasy VII Remake*, She also plays a supportive role in *Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children*, *Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-* and *Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-*. She is Cloud Strife's childhood friend, and a member of Avalanche.

Tifa is Cloud's childhood friend from Nibelheim, but lost contact with him years ago. When she meets him again, she convinces him to join Avalanche, the resistance group she is a member of, to fight Shinra Electric Power Company, whom she bears hatred for due to the destruction of their hometown. She supports Cloud as his comrade and helps him and his allies fight Sephiroth. Tifa is emotionally shy and empathic, acting as a motherly figure towards her allies when providing encouragement and emotional support.

Tifa uses her martial arts moves in battle, equipping knuckles as her weapon. Her Limit abilities make use of her martial arts techniques further. In the original *Final Fantasy VII*, unlike other characters, her Limit Break abilities are not selected from a list, rather, each ability can be used consecutively if the slots land on the "Yeah!" reel for the ability.

## Profile

### Appearance

Tifa has dark brown hair, occasionally appearing black, which falls below her waist and is tied at the tips to form a dolphin-tail split. In *Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children* and some other appearances, her hair is shorter and reaches the middle of her back. Tifa's eye color has been officially addressed as red, but they have been depicted as a brown in some appearances. According to an official artwork, Tifa's bust-waist-hip measures are 92-60-88 cm (37-24-35 inches).

In all her outfits across her many appearances, Tifa has worn some variation of a sleeveless shirt that exposes her midriff, a miniskirt and a white teardrop earring on her left ear. In *Final Fantasy VII,* Tifa wears a white tank top and black mini-skirt with a belt and suspenders. She dons red and black gloves that extend to her elbows, red boots, black socks, and a metal guard on her left elbow. She wears the same outfit in *Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy*, *Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring* and the *Itadaki* series.

In *Final Fantasy VII Remake,* her skirt has pleated segments to make it easier for her to perform her martial arts, she wears black shorts underneath, and a black sports bra under her white tank top. She now wears black leather gloves with metal plates on the back and knuckles, while the elbow pad on her left arm has been supplemented by a red-and-black leather vambrace. The red sections of her vambrace and the larger metal plates on the back of her gloves have runes engraved on them. She wears red boots with black stockings.

During the first Wall Market segment of the original game, Tifa wears an indigo minidress with matching heels. In *Final Fantasy VII Remake*, she has three dresses she can wear during the first Wall Market segment based on the dress mechanics, affected by the player's choices in the discovery quest, "Alone at Last," in Chapter 3 "Home Sweet Slum." The default is a recreation of her original indigo dress, chosen if the player either does not complete the Chapter 3 sidequests, or selects the option "Something mature." If the player selects "Something... sporty?", she will wear a black leopard print cheongsam with her hair up in "odango" buns. Selecting "Something exotic?" will cause her to wear a short black kimono-style dress.

In *Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-*, and in flashbacks in *Final Fantasy VII*, when she is a guide at Nibelheim, Tifa wears a cowgirl outfit with a short leather skirt and vest, a white shirt that reveals her belly, cowboy boots and hat. In *Crisis Core* this outfit is given more detail, changing the top into a patterned, button-up corset, giving pockets and tassels to the skirt and vest and adding a belt around her hips. In her artwork by Yoshitaka Amano, Tifa has white hair and wears a red miniskirt with a white top and red gloves. This attire is an alternate outfit for her in *Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring* and *Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy*.

In *Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children* Tifa wears the Leather Suit: a white tank top under a black zip-up vest with black overhauled shorts that fold at the waist, forming an additional utility pocket at the front and a short duster at the back extending to her heels. She wears a pink ribbon around her left arm in remembrance of Aerith Gainsborough, and a Fenrir ring on her right hand. Her gloves are black and shorter than in *Final Fantasy VII*, covering only her hands. Tifa wears this attire in the *Kingdom Hearts* series and in *Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-*, and it is available as an alternate outfit for her in *Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy*.

### Personality

While deceptively strong, Tifa is empathic and emotionally shy. While identifying and responding to the feelings of others, Tifa does not express her feelings often, and when she does she struggles doing so. Tifa has motherly qualities, acting as a support for others, and keeping the others around her optimistic.

In *Final Fantasy VII*, Tifa is a hard worker and spends her time caring for everyone but herself, keeping the feelings of uneasiness towards Cloud locked up. She offers sanctuary and protects those in need, and is often an emotional crutch for the other Avalanche members to lean on. Tifa finds them to be kindred spirits seeking to end the tyranny the Shinra Electric Power Company has brought unto the planet, although initially she joined the rebel group to seek revenge for the destruction of her hometown and the deaths of her family and friends therein. Tifa helps Cloud along the way in his soul-searching to find himself, while reminding the other party members to "be strong."

Unlike the other party members, she does not explicitly have a backstory to tell the others, which can partly be attributed to her shyness, and partly to how much of it is shared with Cloud, as they hail from the same hometown. This forms a bond between the two, and Cloud is Tifa's emotional link to the old life she used to lead in Nibelheim, which was destroyed by Shinra's influence.

In *Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children*, Tifa has grown more forward and tries to keep their family unit together when Cloud falls into depression. She acts like a parental figure towards the children in her care, both defending them in battle and giving them emotional support. Though not clingy, she appears hurt by Cloud's distantness. Tifa pushes him to take action and to stop brooding with what he considers to be his past failings.