Fans ofFinal Fantasy 7have debated “Tifa vs. Aerith” for over 23 years, and now thatFinal Fantasy 7 Remakeexists, the debate has only gained traction and will more than likely never end. Each side prefers the qualities of the character that they’re arguing for. For Tifa, it’s her dependable and robust nature; for Aerith: her sweet and goofy heart.
In defense of their preferred character, fans have even gone so far as to saySquare Enixpreferred one over the other, and, unsurprisingly, Square Enix has decided to respond to this accusation.
RELATED:Final Fantasy 7 Remake Gets Lengthy, Spoiler-Filled Launch Trailer
Co-Director Naoki Hamaguchi and Producer Yoshinori Kitase addressed fan’s concerns on behalf of their development team. Hamaguchi doesn’t necessarily believe that that the team favored either character but does admit their roles may be somewhat unbalanced in the original title.
He admits thatAerithcomes off as the hero of the story, while Tifa, despite being an important character, mainly serves as the push for Cloud’s character arc. How fans interpret this explanation is up to them, as it could mean Tifa’s better for Cloud due to changing him or Aerith’s better because the story suggests it.
Either way, Hamaguchi assures fans that Square Enix knows just how much the base cares about this question and its featured characters. As such, the devs tackledFinal Fantasy 7 Remakewith the goal of balancingTifaand Aerith’s screentime as much as possible. They claim to have also made sure that if one character has a unique interaction with Cloud, the other would have one available as well.
In other words,FF7 Remakewill see Aerith and Tifa share the advantages they had over one another in the originalFinal Fantasy 7. Both characters will look like heroes in the story and both will help Cloud reach his final destination as a character.
Unless they have an early copy, fans will have to wait forFinal Fantasy 7 Remake’s launchto see how exactly this balanced screentime plays out, and how the game will handle “the date,” if it does.
In the originalFinal Fantasy 7, the player gets to choose to have a date with either Aerith or Tifa, but the decision doesn’t come until later than whatRemake’s first episodecovers. However,Remakepromises to have some surprises the original didn’t, so who knows what it has in store for Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa.
Final Fantasy 7 Remakewill launch on August 03, 2025, for the PlayStation 4.
