If you exist in the venn diagram centre of Final Fantasy fan and Tekken enjoyer, than chances are you've encountered the countless online pleads for Final Fantasy 7's Tifa to be added to the fist-fighting series. Maybe you're one of the people who've begged for it yourself over the years. Good news, then: all hope isn't lost for a collaboration.
Earlier this month, Tifa stans reacted about as well as you'd expect when Tekken 8 revealed that the last DLC character coming in its Year One roadmap was none other than Final Fantasy 16's Clive - a real 'we were this close' situation. Tekken is traditionally a hand-to-hand fighting series and Tifa is her series' most famous boxer, so it seemed like a perfect match. Series producer Katsuhiro Harada even acknowledged the intense fan demand earlier this year, only to pull a switcharoo with Clive.
But, now, when asked about the possibility of other Final Fantasy characters joining the game, Harada laughingly told IGN that "it's not like we're only limited to one character from Final Fantasy." He obviously doesn't say anything definitive aside from the fact that it "might be cool if we had two, who knows," while acknowledging it's "not something that we can decide alone" since Square Enix would also need to sign off on it.
Harada went on to say that when deciding on crossover fighters, the team takes into consideration what's a "good match for our brand," what character's "fighting style" fits in with the rest of the roster, and the "atmosphere of the character that we think would go quite well with Tekken," as well as "timing" the collaboration well so both series benefit from the DLC.
I don't mean to get anyone else's - or my own - hopes too high, but Tekken 8 is gearing up for a Year 2 pass that'll add even more fighters to the mix throughout 2025. Tifa lovers can just keep their fingers crossed and fists clenched, then. Or you can see more from her in Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth's PC port coming next month.
Or you can let some of that anger out with the best fighting games of all time.
"I didn’t have a single ally": Tekken 4's negative reception put series boss Katsuhiro Harada under so much stress that he left Namco for a year
Final Fantasy 7 fans have been begging for Tifa to be added to Tekken 8, so they're taking the news of FF16 star Clive being added as well as you'd expect: "IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN HER"
