Tifa

Tifa is a character in Kingdom Hearts II that originates from Final Fantasy VII.

Development
Tifa was intended to appear alongside Cloud and Sephiroth in the original Kingdom Hearts, but she was removed due to time constraints.

Tifa, Cloud, Aerith, Yuffie, Cid, and Leon were originally intended to appear in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. However, they were removed from the game because, according to Tetsuya Nomura, there were too many plot lines already, and their inclusion would have made the story confusing.

Kingdom Hearts II
When Sora and company revisit Hollow Bastion for the first time, they meet Tifa in Ansem the Wise's study, who claims she is looking for "a guy with spiky hair". She departs after searching through the study, and apologizes for bothering them.

During the Heartless invasion, Tifa, who has been tracking Cloud, nearly catches up to him, but he chases after Sephiroth, leaving her to fight a large group of Heartless on her own. She later fights alongside Sora in the Ravine Trail, preceded by Yuffie and Leon, and followed by Cloud.

After Sora defeats Sephiroth in battle, he finds Cloud and tells him that Sephiroth is waiting for him at the Dark Depths. When the confrontation reaches its climax, Tifa arrives to help Cloud. To banish Sephiroth's dark influence from Cloud, Tifa claims that all Cloud needs is to surrounded by someone with in light, protecting him from that darkness will always be there. She fights with Sephiroth very briefly, thus giving Cloud the light to overcome his darkness. Afterwards, the two men return to battle and disappear once again, leaving her to continue the pursuit. Before she leaves, Tifa gives Sora the Fenrir Keychain as a token of gratitude for his help.

Personality
Tifa is portrayed as kind and strong, possessing a rather direct personality. She is shown to be unflinchingly loyal and persevering, as demonstrated by her continued quest to help Cloud, despite setbacks. She is brave and confident of her abilities, as shown by her brief fight against Sephiroth.

Appearance
Like Cloud, Tifa's appearance in Kingdom Hearts II is based on her look in Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children. She has long, roughly waist-length, brown hair that is tucked behind her ear on the left side, showing that she has a silver, teardrop-shaped earring. Her eyes are rust colored and she seems to wear pink lipstick. She wears a black, leather tank top with a zipper down the front overtop a slightly longer, white tank top (similar to her original shirt in Final Fantasy VII). Tifa also wears a black, leather skort with two black ribbons tied on either leg. The back of this skort is quite long and reaches the floor. She also wears black, leather gloves and black and white shoes, with black ribbons tied around each.

Abilities
Tifa possesses the same tremendous strength she did in Final Fantasy VII, easily capable of high level martial arts such as lifting a gigantic portrait of Xehanort, and kicking a wall hard enough to shake a whole room (her high physical strength being displayed in a comical way is a small running gag).

She can perform her final Limit Break attack called "Final Heaven", which enables her to send a massive energy blast at her opponent.

Origin
Tifa Lockhart is a character from Final Fantasy VII.

Tifa grew up in the same village as Cloud Strife, Nibelheim, until he left for Midgar to become a Shinra Soldier, not achieving SOLDIER yet. A few years later the fateful Nibelheim Incident took place. Sephiroth killed several people and burned down the village. Tifa, with Cloud and Zack, tried to fight Sephiroth. Tifa and Zack got beaten badly, but Cloud managed to defeat Sephiroth.

In the intervening years between this event and the beginning of Final Fantasy VII, Tifa trained in martial arts to become stronger and joined AVALANCHE, an anti-Shinra group, where she also finds Cloud. When they learn that Sephiroth is still alive and plotting evil, they decide to fight him again, with the help of other characters. This quest to find and battle Sephiroth makes up the bulk of Final Fantasy VII.

Trivia

 * Tetsuya Nomura implied Tifa's role in Kingdom Hearts II is symbolic of Cloud finding light in the darkness.
 * In Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy, Tifa's EX Mode allows her to don her ultimate weapon, the "Premium Heart" set of fighting gloves. In their Dissidia 012 Final Fantasy incarnation, the gloves have a Kingdom Hearts-style heart on them.