Final Fantasy VII Remake: Tifa Lockhart (ESFJ)

This is our third installment of the Final Fantasy VII Remake character analyses. We have been working our way through both games that are currently out: Final Fantasy VII Remake and Crisis Core – Final Fantasy VII – Reunion. As of now, we only have Aerith left to publish. Other characters, like Sephiroth, require more development before we can definitively publish opinions on their personality types. For Tifa, we considered both ESFJ and ENFJ. (In our opinion, Fe dominant was fairly obvious.) Ultimately, we settled on ESFJ for Tifa, and we’re going to explain why.

Fe:

“A whole lotta normal people with families and friends work for Shinra. People just trying to support their loved ones as best they can. I know it’s not exactly a revelation, but… it’s easy to forget.”

“We make a great team.”

“That’s enough from both of you. Stupid arguments aren’t going to get us there faster.”

From the beginning of her debut into the show, Tifa displays Fe prominently. Tifa values connecting with others, and relying on a group. She constantly encourages Cloud to build connections, and even helps him do it. She emphasizes the importance of knowing people, and utilizing those connections. At one point, she makes the statement, “It’s not what you know, it’s who you know.”

Similarly, Tifa is naturally team-oriented. She works well with others, and tries to encourage those around her. Her tendency to use collective phrasing demonstrates her group-oriented nature. When working with a group, she usually uses collective phrasing, rather than referring to herself or anyone else individually. For instance, she’ll say things like, “We can do this”, “We make a great team”, or “We did this”.

Tifa focuses on others. She’s quick to pick up on what people are feeling, or empathize with their situation. There are situations where she’s shown cautioning Barret to remain quiet, rather than going on one of his rants, because of the state of the people around them. In one instance, she tells him to look around and notice how terrified everyone is, emphasizing that now was not the time to make a scene. Similarly, she’s shown expressing empathy for the Shinra employees, in spite of them working for the enemy.

Si:

“We did this. This is our fault.”

“We’ll meet again. It’s a symbol of reunion.”

Tifa tends to rely on concrete information, and reference the past. Near the beginning of the game, Cloud gives her a flower. Tifa researches the meaning behind the flower, and then learns it symbolized reunion. (She doesn’t appear to derive any meaning of her own, beyond what has been established.) She later reiterates that meaning to Leslie, who was questioning the meaning of a necklace that had been left for him. In a separate scenario, Tifa is shown comparing instructions for the pump system in the sewers to what she knew from the bar.

Tifa initially struggles after seeing the plate dropped on Sector 7. Because the action was stated to be in retaliation to Avalanche, Tifa looks around at the tragic consequences, and states that it’s their fault. Their past actions had caused this. Barret, who always keeps moving forward, tells her that she can’t think that way.

Tifa is typically cautious. While she will take calculated risks, she overall tends to be careful when approaching something unknown. For instance, when infiltrating Shinra’s main building, they see a blue, translucent wall protecting the reception desk. Because they don’t know what it is, Tifa emphasizes that they shouldn’t try touching it.

Ne:

Unless the character is looping, tertiary functions tend to be hard to peg in characters. For Tifa, we see some low level speculation, in the form of worrying or hopefulness. For instance, when dealing with Leslie, she tries to encourage him that his girl could still be out there. In the another instance, when hearing that Shinra was going to drop a plate, she started worrying about whether that’d actually happen, if Shinra would actually be willing to do something so drastic. Aerith tries to distract her at one point by asking what she wanted to do for fun once she returned top side. As a testament to her low Ne and higher Si, Tifa responds with a very practical desire: to buy new decorations and coasters for the bar.

Ti:

Tifa’s inferior Ti manifests in a couple of different ways. The first is that she struggles to speak out against her group. Near the beginning of the game, Tifa expresses a moral concern to Cloud about something that the group planned to do. At the time, she wouldn’t fully explain to him, mostly just focusing on being unsure of exactly what to do. Cloud encouraged her to listen to her feelings. If it felt wrong, don’t do it.

Another manifestation of her Ti shows up when Corneo tells them that Shinra is going to drop a plate on sector 7. Out of fear of this potentially happening, amongst worrying about it, Tifa tries to convince herself that Corneo was lying, because there’s no way they’d actually do that. Her Ti essentially links up with her low Ne here, as she tries to rationalize what she wants to be true.