Fighting Games Friday: Let’s Relax a Bit About This Tifa in Tekken Stuff

It’s been one week since Tekken 8 released, and the fanbase and overall fighting game audience seems largely satisfied with it despite the initial server hitches. Sure, the online netplay isn’t as consistent as it could be, about on par with Street Fighter V’s during its worst moments. But the package seems to be satisfying overall, with the characters and gameplay feeling great and the single-player story mode reportedly being far better than Tekken 7’s.

The release is also mimicking other popular fighting games through how the fanbase is intensely posting wish lists full of characters that will hopefully arrive in future seasons as downloadable content. Well, beyond Eddy Gordo, the first character set for release as DLC in the first season, complete with a Killmonger haircut. They’re also requesting guest characters, the kinds of roster additions that have had a small home in the franchise since Gon in the PSOne version of Tekken 3. He’s also apparently the reason why only the arcade version of the game has been rereleased since the late 1990s.

At the top of this list right now is… Tifa Lockhart from Final Fantasy VII. This actually makes sense. Tifa is currently atop many minds, with Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the second game in the Final Fantasy VII Remake series, due for release at the month’s end.

Fans are crazy about her, but they should relax a bit. As good as Tifa is, there are several characters the Tekken team should prioritize first. Tekken 8 launched with a solid roster count with 32 characters available. It’s close to the 36 characters Tekken 7’s home console version launched with. But like that game at launch, this one still lacks several Tekken legacy characters. The likes of Julia Chang, Lei Wulong, Bob, and Craig Marduk remain MIA, alongside characters released near the end of Tekken 7’s support — including poor Lidia Sobieska, the very last character released. Those should be the top priority.

Chances are, some internet types will be upset when Tifa is absent from the first season of DLC released over the next year. But it takes a lot of time for a team to prepare a character, including their move set, balancing, and, to a lesser extent, their extensive wardrobe.

All that said: I agree that Tifa would be a great character in Tekken 8, as her previous fighting game appearances show. She worked well in the Dissidia: Final Fantasy games, though those titles notably featured a dizzying array of Final Fantasy series characters with multiple weapon and magic usage.

Her move set in Ehrgeiz: God Bless the Ring (still an incredible name, by the way) is an even better point of reference, a one-on-one arena fighter in which most characters relied on their fists for fighting. The arcade version was even published by Namco years before their merger with Bandai and between Tekken installments. Its character designs were provided by Tetsuya Nomura, and the arcade version included Cloud and Tifa as guest characters. Squaresoft (years before their merger with Enix) published the home version, which added Vincent, Yuffie, and Sephiroth. It’s been a remarkable 25 years since that game, and we’re due for another fisticuffs fighter with Tifa. She would fit right into this game.

Her move set in FFVIIR will help her fit in even better than she did in the Dissidia games and Ehrgeiz, and she’d have a unique style among all of Tekken’s fighters thus far. It’s also not unprecedented for Tekken to have a Final Fantasy character, considering Final Fantasy XV protagonist Noctis Lucis Caelum made his way into Tekken 7.

Tifa will fit in Tekken like a pair of fighting gloves with her reliance on fisticuffs. Some Tekken characters do bring extra weapons with them, as series mainstay Yoshimitsu commonly does, and new Tekken 8 character Victor Chevalier has done. But most characters nonetheless fight with their powered-up fists, and even those who have weaponized options don’t fully rely on them for all their attacks and combos.

I’d be surprised if Tifa didn’t come to Tekken 8 at this point. Tekken series producer Katsuhiro Harada addressing the requests on Twitter got this story picked up by the enthusiast press. This might be enough to get Bandai Namco and Square Enix talking to form a deal regarding implementing her. It’s not like they haven’t worked together for a guest character before, so it may not take them long to come to an agreement. Her appearance here would be welcome in lieu of another Dissidia game, and in the wait between the second and third titles in the FFVII remake series. If she doesn’t come, well, Harada might have to lock his account.

That is, assuming Twitter’s still around this time next year. But that’s a topic for another series of posts. Let’s see if the FF franchise’s favorite brawling bartender gets ready for the next battle.