Amid all the announcements during Summer Game Fest week, it's easy to see how even things that would normally get a lot of attention now seem to get lost in the crowd. One such example is the upcoming return of Final Fantasy VII heroine Tifa, and we're not talking about Final Fantasy VII: Revelation, but rather her appearance in Street Fighter 6.
In an interview with IGN, director Takayuki Nakayama explains that discussions began three years ago with a friend who works at Square Enix and is a fan of Street Fighter. They wanted to create a collaboration where a guest character seemed like a natural fit:
"And around that time the Final Fantasy 7 remake series was very active, and looking at the character background, a character like Tifa, who has a heavy martial arts style, we thought that it would be perfect for Street Fighter 6. So it kind of organically led to this happening."
Producer Shuhei Matsumoto also explained the process of integrating such an iconic Square Enix character into Street Fighter, noting that Final Fantasy veteran Tetsuya Nomura himself is involved:
"A lot of things were taken into consideration, like the exaggerations that are required for, for example, when a punch or a kick lands. Ultimately that gets reviewed by the team at Square Enix, including [Tetsuya] Nomura-san from the Final Fantasy 7 team. And then once that's approved, then it's up to the developers on the Capcom side to implement into the game."
They also mention that we shouldn't expect a Street Fighter 7 anytime soon. The sixth instalment is selling very well, and the internal plan was to keep the game going for ten years.