Final Fantasy 7's Tifa and FF8's Irvine Have Something Interesting in Common

gamerant.com:

The storytelling in the Final Fantasy games has long been one of the biggest draws to Square Enix's flagship franchise. However, as the series continues with Final Fantasy 16 currently in development, some fans have gone back through classic titles to see some of the trends and tropes that Square Enix has utilized to tell these stories.

One interesting discovery has been made about Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy 8, where two characters behave in similar ways to reveal secrets down the line in the story. These are also two of the most prominent Final Fantasy characters to share a cowboy-themed fashion sense at certain points in their respective titles, which makes their connection all the more entertaining for fans.

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As pointed out in a post on the Final Fantasy subreddit, by Reddit user DupeFort, Final Fantasy 7's Tifa Lockhart has similarities to Final Fantasy 8's Irvine Kinneas. While a close-quarters martial artist might not seem to have much in common with a sharpshooter, both take the story function of holding onto memories that contradicts those told early on by the protagonists. In both cases, these true memories appear later on in the story to fill in the gaps created by traumatic events that have altered the perspective past of the other characters around them. This comes in the form of false memories that block out the death of Zack for Cloud, and the price of junctioning with Guardian Forces for Squall and the rest of the Final Fantasy 8 cast.

It's interesting to see that Square Enix used this same trope of an altered memory for two games in a row, all with additional characters that conveniently knew the truth and kept it hidden until