The Internet Needs To Stop Talking About Tifa’s Breasts

The video game community has long-since been stereotyped as a male-dominated and highly-sexualised group of basement-dwellers, which has been a hard stereotype to shake.

However, thanks to a rise in female streamers and esports pros, blockbuster-esque video games that appeal to everyone, and generally just a scoop of understanding and nice-ness from the gaming community, we’re finally at a place where women are as welcome in the world of games as men are.

Credit: Square Enix

And then we get this. Crawling out of the remnants of E3 2019 and its slew of Final Fantasy-related content comes a sudden and unwelcome obsession with the physique of character, Tifa Lockhart.

Tifa is one of the most badass characters in gaming, and yet for those who haven’t played any of the Final Fantasy games and spin-offs she appears in, she’s probably just known as ‘the one with the t*ts’ thanks to recent controversies.

Credit: Square Enix

The fuss about Tifa and her body started just after E3, when more information about the upcoming Final Fantasy 7 Remake was revealed.

Shortly after E3, the game’s director Tetsuya Nomura told Japanese publication Famitsu that Tifa’s chest posed a bit of an issue for the ethics department at Square Enix. Although this was later put down to a mistranslation, it caused a lot of consternation among fans at the time.

“We wanted Tifa to have abs, so she has an athletic body type. The ethics department at Square Enix also told us that we had to tighten her chest as not to get unnatural during all the intense action. From there we got the black underwear and fitted tank top,” said Nomura in the original (mis)translation.

According to Kotaku, this didn’t necessarily mean that Tifa’s chest was minimised, but rather that Tifa’s new look is more sporty, and includes a sports bra.

However, this mistranslation began a discourse that – frankly – is completely unnecessary, as people can’t seem to stop weighing in on Tifa’s breasts.

Tifa’s boobs have hit the headlines once again, this time thanks to Dissidia Final Fantasy NT, in which Tifa has just joined the roster as a new fighter.

https://twitter.com/kchironis/status/1141723748199911424

Director Takeo Kujiraoka recently told Famitsu that “they still bounce,” apparently in reference to the character’s chest.

Sigh.

Women in video games have come a long, long way from what they once were in the early 1990s, so why has the industry taken a sudden back step?

Credit: Square Enix

Surely the gameplay is a LOT MORE IMPORTANT than the size of Tifa’s boobs. There’s a hundred million things more important about Tifa than her t*ts, so can we just all stop talking about them now please?!

Featured Image Credit: Square Enix