Tifa Lockhart, alternatively known by the surname Lockheart, is a playable character and deuteragonist of Final Fantasy VII and Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. She also plays a minor role in Dirge of Cerberus -Final Fantasy VII-, Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII- and Crisis Core -Final Fantasy VII-.
Tifa is Cloud’s childhood friend from Nibelheim, but lost touch with him years ago. When she finds him again and convinces him to join AVALANCHE, the resistance group she is a member of, to fight the Shinra Electric Power Company, whom she hates because of the destruction of her hometown. She supports Cloud as her companion and helps him and his allies fight Sephiroth. Tifa is emotionally shy and empathetic, acting as a motherly figure towards her allies when providing encouragement and emotional support.
Tifa uses her martial arts moves in battle, fighting with her fists as her weapon. His Limit skills make use of his martial arts techniques, and unlike other characters, his Limit Break skills are not selected from a list, and each skill can be used consecutively if the slots stop at “Yeah!” for the skill.
Tifa has dark brown hair, occasionally appearing black, that falls below her waist and is tied at the ends to form a dolphin tail parting. In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children and a few other appearances, her hair is shorter and reaches mid-back; in Advent Children, because her longer hair is difficult to animate. Tifa’s eye color has been officially addressed as red, but they have been described as a brown in some appearances.
In Final Fantasy VII, Tifa wears a white blouse and a black mini-skirt with a belt and suspenders. She wears red and black gloves that extend to her elbows, red boots, black socks, and a metal shield 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 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 replaced with a red and black leather vambrace. She wears boots with black socks.
In Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, Tifa wears a leather garment; a white blouse under a black zip-up vest with black shorts that fold at the waist, forming an additional pocket in the front and a small duster in the back, extending to the heels. She wears a pink ribbon around her left arm in memory of Aerith Gainsborough, and a ring of Fenrir on her right hand. Her gloves are black and shorter than in Final Fantasy VII, covering only her hands. Tifa wears this costume 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
Tifa art by Yoshitaka Amano.
“People have a lot of things repressed inside them. So many things they can never forget. Weird is not it?.”
—Tifa Lockhart in Final Fantasy VII.
Though deceptively strong, Tifa is empathetic and emotionally shy. While identifying and responding to the feelings of others, Tifa doesn’t express her feelings often. Tifa has motherly qualities, acting as a support for others and keeping others around her optimistic.
In Final Fantasy VII, Tifa is a hard worker and spends her time taking care of everyone but herself, keeping her feelings of unease with Cloud at bay. She provides shelter and protects the needy, and is often an emotional support for the other AVALANCHE members to lean on. Tifa thinks they are kindred spirits looking to end the tyranny that the Shinra Electric Power Company brought to the Planet, though initially she joined the rebel group to seek revenge for the destruction of her hometown and the gones of her family and friends. in it. Tifa helps Cloud along the way in his soul quest to find himself, while reminding the other group members to “be strong”.
Unlike the other members of the group, she doesn’t explicitly have a past to tell others, which can in part be attributed to her shyness and in part to how much this is shared with Cloud as they come 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 matured further and tries to keep her family unit together when Cloud falls into depression. She acts as a motherly figure towards the children in her care, both defending them in battle and giving them emotional support. Although she is not clingy, she seems hurt by Cloud’s distance. Tifa drives him to act and stop to think about what he considers his past failures.
History
Beginning of life
Tifa in Before Crisis.
Tifa was born on May 3, 1987, in the village of Nibelheim to Brian Lockhart and his wife Thea, and was a neighbor of Cloud Strife. She was outgoing and had lots of friends to play with named Emilio, Lester and Tyler, who were each roughly the same age, but although she and Cloud were only a year apart in age, they weren’t very close. Tifa’s mother gone when Tifa was eight years old in 1995, leaving her upset and confused. Tifa believed that her mother had gone to Mt. Nibel, and that she could find her again if she crossed the mountain.
Tifa went to Mt. Nibel and Cloud followed her to protect her, but they fell off a wobbly bridge. Tifa’s father found her badly injured (which left her in a coma for seven days) and blamed Cloud for taking her to Mt. Nibel.
In her pre-teens, Tifa’s friends began to see her differently, seeing her as a potential partner in life, though she politely refused to spend time alone with them. Instead, Tifa developed a connection with a white cat she owned named Mal, gifted to her by the village chief. After twisting his ankle when Mal jumped out of his arms and got a fever, the entire village chased the cat to no avail. Later, Claudia Strife brought the cat to Tifa’s house as Cloud had found it in the mountains but was too embarrassed to bring it alone. Tifa developed an admiration for Cloud, believing him to be something unattainable.
Five years later, in 0000, Emilio, Lester, and Tyler picnicked with Tifa under the water tower, where they mentioned her wish to leave for Midgar to have a better life, leading her to resent the city. Cloud decided to team up with SOLDIER like his idol Sephiroth, in part to impress Tifa. He called Tifa to the water tower to tell her about her plans, and Tifa made Cloud promise that he would protect her if she was in trouble. He left to join SOLDIER the following spring and Tifa kept checking the paper for any mention of him, and asking the Shinra people if they knew him when they came to Nibelheim. She would find nothing, as Cloud never entered SOLDIER, becoming just a humble foot soldier.
Nibelheim incident
Crisis Core art.
“I hate you! I hate Shinra! I hate SOLDIER! I hate you all!”
—Tifa to Zack after the Nibelheim incident
Two years later, on September 21, 0002, 15-year-old Tifa works as a guide on Mt. Nibel and is taking martial arts classes with Zangan. In Before Crisis -Final Fantasy VII- she is hired by the playable Turk to lead a Shinra expedition to investigate a faulty Mako Reactor. The expedition includes Sephiroth and a SOLDIER named Zack. During her stay, she gives Zack tips about a blond-haired SOLDIER.
Unbeknownst to her, Cloud is one of the two Shinra guards accompanying Zack and Sephiroth, but is hiding his identity due to his shame at not joining SOLDIER. Unbeknownst to her, he prevents her from entering the reactor, tries to protect her from a monster attack shortly afterward (trying to anonymously keep her promise) and is helped by her down the mountain. Afterwards, Tifa asks Zack to express his concern for the soldier who helped her.
Sephiroth is furious when he finds out who “his mother” is, and on October 1st, sets Nibelheim on fire before leaving for the reactor. Tifa’s father and others follow, but Sephiroth kills them. Tifa finds her father dead in the Nibel Reactor with Sephiroth’s Masamune. Declaring her hatred for Sephiroth and Shinra, she attacks him, but Sephiroth disarms her and cuts her. Tifa fell down the stairs to the floor.
Zack found Tifa injured, but she didn’t trust him and refused his help. Zack then faced Sephiroth, but was defeated. Cloud arrived and carried Tifa aside before confronting Sephiroth himself, believing Tifa’s injuries to be fatal. Zangan arrived and found Tifa, taking her to safety, unable to save the three (Cloud, Zack and Tifa) from the reactor. He cast Cura on her and was barely able to keep her alive.
Midgar and AVALANCHE
Zangan took Tifa to Midgar for medical treatment. Desiring to avoid Shinra-affiliated clinics, Tifa ended up in the hands of quack doctors, who patched her up but stole money so she owed them and, against her will, took a picture of her topless. Tifa stayed at Stargazer Heights, an apartment complex in the Sector 7 slums owned by Landlady Marle. When Marle needed surgery and saw the picture of Tifa’s surgery at the quack doctor, she became protective of Tifa. Much later, Tifa found and beat up the son of a quack doctor who stole the money.
To pay for her treatment, Tifa worked at a bread stand in the Sector 7 slum. There, she met Barret Wallace and Marlene Wallace at the Seventh Heaven bar and restaurant, which she withprou and became the owner, to give them a place to stay. Tifa joined AVALANCHE, an anti-Shinra resistance group led by Barret, including Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie Rasberry. Jessie liked Tifa, giving her an incentive for which she was grateful.
In addition to managing the bar that housed her headquarters, Tifa managed the cell’s finances, and helped take care of Marlene while Barret was away. The bar became famous around Sector 7 for Tifa’s food and drink. At some point, the cell also worked with an intelligence guy named Al, who stole codes, and at one point hit Tifa with a flower trick that he tried on many women, though she rejected him. Eventually, Barret’s group split from Avalanche HQ over disagreements.
When Cloud returned to Midgar as a mercenary in late 0006, he recognized Tifa. Unconscious, Cloud was in Nibelheim during its destruction, but suspecting something was amiss in his behavior, Tifa recruited him to work for Barret to further examine him. Realizing that Cloud knew several things he shouldn’t and had forgotten things he should have known, and also initially doubting her own memories when confronted with Cloud’s, Tifa withheld this information while trying to figure out the reason behind Cloud’s different personality and memories. inconsistent.
original continuity
AVALANCHE Operations
Tifa asking Cloud to help Avalanche.
On December 9, Cloud returned to Tifa’s bar after a successful mission to destroy the Mako 1 Reactor. Cloud attempted to exit the Avalanche after an argument with Barret, though Tifa diffused the situation. She begged Cloud to stay and reminded him of the promise they made as children, while reminding Barret that the group needed help.
Tifa then accompanied Cloud and Barret to the Mako 5 Reactor. Their ID cards failed the security check while aboard a train, and they were forced to jump off and walk the rest of the way on foot. While in Reactor 5, they spoke to President Shinra, who mocked them before launching the Air Buster at them. After destroying it, Cloud was torn apart as it crashed into the slums below. Barret and Tifa returned to the hideout and found someone spying on them, who upon interrogation, revealed that he worked for crime boss Don Corneo, also a Shinra informant. Against Barret’s advice, Tifa went to Don Corneo’s mansion in disguise, posing as one of his chosen “brides” for the day, traveling to Sector 6 in a Chocobo carriage. Cloud noticed Tifa being taken to Don’s house and infiltrated Corneo’s mansion with a girl he met in the Midgar slums, Aerith Gainsborough.
Later, in “To Corneo Hall”, Cloud and Aerith found Tifa at Corneo’s mansion. In the ensuing confrontation, Corneo revealed that Shinra planned to drop the Sector 7 sign to crush the slums, before evicting the group through a trapdoor. In “Preventing the Dish from Falling”, Tifa, Cloud and Aerith passed through the sewer system and crossed the Train Cemetery to reach Sector 7. Tifa asked Aerith to find Marlene and keep her safe, while driving the support pillar of the Sector 7 with Cloud. The two found Biggs, Wedge, and Jessie in critical condition, before reaching Barret at the top. After a brief battle with the Turks, the pillar was destroyed, and while Tifa, Cloud, and Barret escaped, Shinra captured Aerith. In “Secret of Aeris”, Tifa and the others visited Elmyra Gainsborough’s home where they found Marlene, and discovered that Shinra wanted Aerith in her inheritance as an Ancient.
In “Storming the Shinra Building”, Tifa, Barret and Cloud infiltrated the Shinra Building to save Aerith. Barret wanted to storm the building from the front, but Tifa strongly objected and asked them to go upstairs. They rescued Aerith from Professor Hojo, along with another research experiment called Red XIII, who joined the group. They were caught by the Turks on the way out and introduced to President Shinra, who mocked their efforts to stop Shinra’s hegemony. The group was locked in cells, beginning “The Nightmare Beginning Anew”. Tifa was trapped with Cloud, but they could still hear and talk to others in the adjacent cells: Aerith on the left and Barret and Red XIII on the right. When Cloud talked to Aerith through the cell wall, she reminded him that his business was to be her bodyguard in exchange for a date. Tifa looked upset before changing the subject to ask what Aerith knew about the promised land, the fabled land of the Ancients.
The next day, the group awoke to find that Sephiroth had attacked the building and killed President Shinra. When the president’s son Rufus Shinra arrived, Cloud stayed behind to give the group time to escape, though Tifa stayed behind to help him. When Cloud escaped, Tifa stole a light blue pickup truck from Shinra’s showrooms and escaped the building with Aerith in the passenger seat, Barret and Red XIII in the back, while Cloud supported them on a stolen motorcycle. Leaving Midgar behind, Tifa agreed to follow the group’s journey to find Sephiroth, noting that she had nowhere else to go.
Persecution of the Sephiroth
In Kalm, Cloud told the group how he was sent to Nibelheim with Sephiroth and how the latter destroyed the city. His version of events was flawed, but the confused Tifa did not confront him, doubting her own memory of the events and wanting to protect him. Afterwards, the group traveled the world tracking Sephiroth, with Tifa supporting the group. They recruited new members, including Cait Sith and Yuffie Kisaragi. In Corel Prison, with Barret struggling to come to terms with his own past, Tifa noted that the two weren’t that different, both being taken to Avalanche after their hometowns were destroyed by Shinra.
In Gongaga, the group met Zack’s parents, who had not heard from their son in years. Knowing that Zack was the SOLDIER member who had come to Nibelheim with Sephiroth instead of Cloud as he had told, Tifa was upset but lied to Cloud when she asked if she knew Zack. When the group reached Nibelheim, they found the city recognizable.It was built, inhabited by Shinra employees hired to cover up the incident, who denied that Cloud or Tifa ever lived there. The group soon met Vincent Valentine, who joined the group, along with Cid Highwind, who later joined them in Rocket Town.
When the group stayed at Gold Saucer while the cable car was being repaired, Tifa was one of Cloud’s possible date options. During their encounter, she regretted being insecure about her feelings, and how she wished she could tell Cloud something (likely referring to the inconsistency in her memories). In the Temple of the Ancients, Sephiroth manipulated Cloud into abandoning the Black Materia, a powerful Materia that would allow Sephiroth to summon Meteor to harm the planet itself. Aerith fled to the Forgotten City alone, and when Cloud doubted he should continue the search, Tifa and Barret encouraged him, promising to support him. They witnessed Sephiroth murder Aerith and Tifa kneels beside her body before running away in tears.
