There’s no denying that Final Fantasy VII is one of the most popular and well-received entries in the franchise’s history. With its colorful cast of characters, unforgettable set-pieces, and accessible yet powerful Materia system, this was the game that really marked the JRPG’s arrival in the West.
Heroine Tifa Lockhart is one of the game’s deepest and perhaps most relatable characters — a caring, good-hearted, fiercely loyal friend who doesn’t want to be a heroine but will unleash some of the greatest physical strength of any Final Fantasy party member when necessary. Does she have what it takes to defeat some of gaming’s most infamous and toughest villains? Here are some she’d fare very well against, and others she might not.
10 SHE BEATS: Dr. Neo Cortex (Crash Bandicoot Series)
Some villains tend to favor the brains-over-brawn strategy, relying on fancy contraptions, intricate traps, and other such chicanery to keep themselves safe from their nemesis. Doctor Neo Cortex of Crash Bandicoot fame is a perfect example of this.
The Crash Bandicoot games are surprisingly difficult platformers, but the dastardly doctor wasn’t much of a factor in that. Boss battles against him are a real mixed bag (Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back features one of the worst final boss fights of all time). Crash easily overpowers Cortex when he finally catches up with him, so Tifa could probably Dolphin Blow him into the year 3035.
9 SHE LOSES TO: M. Bison (Street Fighter Series)
The Street Fighter series has a wide selection of villainous types to offer, but M. Bison tends to be regarded as the big bad of the franchise.
The Shadaloo leader has no shortage of brute strength, and he and Tifa would surely put on a fantastic show if they went head to head on those terms. However, M. Bison isn’t simply a powerful human. Through the unfathomable strength of Psycho Power, he can teleport, infuse his body with deadly energy, and so much more besides. It’s tough to make a comparison between the two titles’ different universes, but M. Bison arguably has the canonical upper hand.
8 SHE BEATS: Bowser (Super Mario Series)
Speaking of brute strength, there are few villains in the industry who embody those virtues like Bowser. The Koopa King is rarely seen using magical abilities or other trickery like that. He prefers to assert his dominance in a simpler yet equally effective way: by being a gigantic, fire-breathing powerhouse of a scaly lizard.
Tifa has tangled with huge, angry creatures of roughly Bowser’s proportions before, with a little help from her friends. Mushroom Kingdom power-ups versus Final Fantasy’s signature magic/summons might cloud the issue, but it really comes down to this: Mario has taken Bowser down hand-to-hand many times over the course of his career, so Tifa can too. In fact, it would be great to see her spin him around by the tail and heave him face-first into a distant bomb, a la Mario in Super Mario 64.
7 SHE LOSES TO: Dracula (Castlevania Series)
Perhaps the most resilient and unstoppable villain in gaming history, Count Dracula of the iconic Castlevania games is clearly playing the longest of long games. Though he has been ‘defeated’ countless times, he always has a trick up his sleeve and always returns in some brilliantly contrived fashion or other. Dracula has come within a hair’s breadth of victory on various occasions, and he’s not done yet.
The issue with defeating Dracula, as any Belmont will tell you, is that only certain artifacts will vanquish him. Couple this with the fact that he’s not a simple hand-to-hand fighter (utilizing a wide array of magical abilities across his many appearances) and Tifa would be unsure how to really approach a showdown like this. In the end, Dracula would leave her nothing more than a miserable little pile of Materia and martial arts prowess that couldn’t cash the check.
6 SHE BEATS: Mr. X (Streets Of Rage Series)
Fans of Sega’s classic beat ‘em up franchise Streets of Rage will have many memories of Mr. X. Or, more accurately, of the hours they spent pummelling his vicious henchmen and mopping up all the rage they’d spilled all over those streets.
Mr. X is the main antagonist of all three original titles (though in Streets of Rage 3 he’s merely an animated brain in a glass jar, ridiculously), the leader of a deadly crime syndicate. With no superhuman powers of his own, he tends to engage the heroes in simple brawls as the final boss, the perfect environment for Tifa to thrive in. She’d certainly take him down quickly.
5 SHE LOSES TO: Albert Wesker (Resident Evil Series)
What a wild ride the Resident Evil franchise has been for Albert Wesker. He’s gone from a sly, double-crossing, relatively human agent to mutated hunks of superhuman flesh burnt in a volcano and blown up with rockets in five easy games. He’s always been such an interesting enigma.
As he delved deeper into Umbrella’s experimentation with bioweapons and deadly viruses, he pumped himself with tremendous power at the cost of his humanity. As players saw in Resident Evil 5, he eventually developed such powers that Chris Redfield and Sheva Alomar couldn’t hope to take him on without debilitating him in various ways first. Depending on his condition and the equipment each combatant had available, a match between Tifa and Wesker would be tough to call, but he’d probably come out on top.
4 SHE BEATS: King K. Rool (Donkey Kong Series)
Donkey Kong’s archenemy King K. Rool is very reminiscent of Bowser. He’s a huge, towering, brutal fighter, a great fan of fights that allow him to showcase his limitless brawn. Both are also enormous heavyweights in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, though K. Rool has enough recovery to see him safely back onto the stage from several solar systems away.
What this means, however, is that he will quite probably come up short against Tifa for the same reasons as Bowser. She boasts stunning agility and power, while this scaly green heavyweight is sorely lacking in the former.
3 SHE LOSES TO: Shao Kahn (Mortal Kombat Series)
There are many formidable villains in the Mortal Kombat franchise, but Shao Kahn may be the most powerful of all. The Outworld Emperor is another combatant (or should that be “kombatant?”) who could certainly match Tifa when it comes to raw strength, but there are several factors here that suggest a loss for Tifa.
Shao Kahn’s status as an Immortal means… well, it’s a heck of a roadblock for anybody who tries to defeat him, for obvious reasons. That aside, he boasts supernatural magical abilities so potent that he can claim the souls of other beings and even bring allies back from the dead (on the rare occasions he cares enough for others to do so, of course). It’s tough to see how Tifa could compete.
2 SHE BEATS: Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII)
It’s true that Final Fantasy VII’s Sephiroth possesses extraordinary magical power. He could go toe to toe with other classic villains from the franchise, such as Kefka, on that front. There’s more to the equation than that, though.
Discounting the fact that Tifa obviously has beaten Sephiroth in battle alongside the party, the battle against Sephiroth(/JENOVA in the guise of Sephiroth) was largely a psychological one for much of the game. There, too, Tifa prevailed, unlocking the truth of Cloud’s past along with the troubled young man while they were in the Lifestream. It’s a complex matchup, considering the context and everything known about Tifa and Sephiroth, but she really could prevail here.
1 SHE LOSES TO: Kuja (Final Fantasy IX)
To finish on another Final Fantasy note, Kuja is another villain with tremendous magical power. As the main characters discuss later in the game, he destroyed an entire planet single-handedly, simply in a rage at having discovered the truth about his identity. Not someone to take lightly.
There’s no saying what he may be capable of. In terms of physical strength, perhaps Tifa could best him, but whether she’d have an opportunity to do so is another matter. It’s tough to judge power levels when very different worlds collide, but Trance Kuja at the peak of his powers is an opponent of such high caliber that it’s hard to devise a winning scenario for Tifa.
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