Fighting games has always had their fair share of guest fighters to come in and show off their moves in a different franchise. Mortal Kombat has done it before and are still doing it now, as they have Omni Man, Homelander, and Peacemaker as their confirmed guest fighters for Mortal Kombat 1. Prior to that, Mortal Kombat has had Jason Vorhees, RoboCop, Rambo, and even the God of War himself, Kratos.
Another game that has had guest fighters in the past is Tekken. Although they have only started doing guest fighters during Tekken 7, they actually did it before with Gon in Tekken 3. They then had guest fighters come back in Tekken 7, with Negan from The Walking Dead, Geese from Fatal Fury, Akuma from Street Fighter, and Noctis from Final Fantasy XV.
Now that Tekken 8 is out, fans are itching to have more Final Fantasy characters come in for the brand new entry, and there is one character that everyone will agree will fit into the world of Tekken 8: Tifa Lockhart from the Final Fantasy VII series.
Tifa is the only character in Final Fantasy VII (and the Remake) to fight with their fists and kicks. The other members of the party all have weapons of their own, like Cloud’s Buster Sword or Barret’s machine gun hand. But throughout the whole game, Tifa is the only one in the group throwing hands to any enemy that comes her way, which makes her a great addition to Tekken 8.
This idea has gotten so much attention, that even Katsuhiro Harada, the Executive Game Director for Tekken 8, has responded to the requests of fans about getting the acrobatic hand to hand fighter into Tekken 8.
No Plans For Guest Characters… For Now
Harada has taken to Twitter (or X) to address the requests of fans all over the world to get Tifa into Tekken 8 as a guest character.
“We all know she is attractive and I understand that.” Harada starts. “But as yet we have not decided anything about guest characters etc.” Is his response to a fan asking to bring Tifa into Tekken 8.
We all know she is attractive and I understand that.
But as yet we have not decided anything about guest characters etc. https://t.co/dkuMm1pnGG— Katsuhiro Harada (@Harada_TEKKEN) January 26, 2024
It’s understandable that there are no plans for now, as Tekken 8 has only just released and they have already planned their DLC fighters prior to release already. So, even if we do get confirmation that Tifa will be in Tekken 8, it will most likely be late 2024 or early 2025, since they will need to plan out their next batch of DLC fighters.
In the meantime, however, you can utilize the character customization feature in Tekken 8 to recreate popular characters like John Wick, Goku, Solid Snake, and even Toji from Jujutsu Kaisen in the game.
Fine, I will do it myself @Harada_TEKKEN https://t.co/Qq2jPbYtDA pic.twitter.com/d88kBicy1S
— Fighting-Games Daily (@FGC_Daily) January 26, 2024
Twitter user Fighting Games Daily shares an image of Reina dressed up as Tifa thanks to the character customization feature. While it’s not officially Tifa, this is the closest thing we will get to a playable Tifa in Tekken 8 for now.
