Final Fantasy fans hoping to see Tifa Lockhart grace the stage of Tekken 8 received a slight nod from series director Katsuhiro Harada. While not a confirmation, Harada’s X post acknowledged the community’s fervent requests and gave a bit of hope.
Following Harada’s post about Tekken 8 and Final Fantasy’s booths standing side-by-side at the Taipei Game Show, Tifa’s inclusion got a lot of buzz. Fans flooded the comments, urging Harada to consider Tifa as a guest character, citing her martial arts prowess and iconic Beat Rush limit break as perfect fits for Tekken’s dynamic combat. Really, it’s because this is Tifa, and everyone likes Tifa.
After a lot of requests, Harada tweeted that he had heard what the fans wanted but wouldn’t give any promises. He acknowledged Tifa’s popularity while stressing that the team has yet to finalize any decisions regarding guest characters in Tekken 8. It’s at least something, and it’d be hard for a developer to ignore the request.
Tekken 8 wants to include fan service in guest characters so they’d win by adding Tifa. Square Enix wants to push the Final Fantasy VII remake so they’d win in marketing and money earned. If anything, everyone wins in this situation.
This isn’t the first time Tekken has welcomed characters from other franchises. Noctis from Final Fantasy 15 was a DLC character in Tekken 7, setting a precedent for cross-series collaborations with Final Fantasy. Tifa is one of the few Final Fantasy characters who specialize in hand-to-hand combat. This, coupled with her established fanbase, makes her a natural contender for a similar guest slot.
Tekken 8’s early success adds fuel to the Tifa speculation fire. The game has already surpassed its predecessor’s peak concurrent player count on Steam, reaching nearly 50,000 compared to Tekken 7’s 19,000 (Per SteamDB). This strong start bodes well for the franchise’s future and opens the door for future guest character additions, including, potentially, the highly-requested Tifa Lockhart.
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