Four Years After Release, Square Enix Censor Tifa’s Cowgirl Outfit In ‘Final Fantasy VII Remake’
Ryan Pearson
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While many fans had hoped that recent moves by Square Enix were a sign that their infamous Ethics Department was no more, a recent and censorious update to Tifa Lockheart’s ‘Nibelheim’ character model in the four-year-old Final Fantasy VII Remake suggests this is far from the case.
Pushed out to all versions of the game on February 26th, this update for Final Fantasy VII Remake released with only a brief patch note indicating that its dev team had made “fixes to several bugs”.
However, fans quickly discovered that Square Enix’s changes ran deeper than simple coding updates.
In a thread (which was unsurprisingly later locked by moderators) discussing the exact content of the 8GB update, Steam user Briarpack noticed that the patch also “edited Tifa’s flashback outfit to show less cleavage.”
Sure enough, during Cloud’s Chapter 7 flashback to her role in the ‘Nibelheim Reactor’ incident, Tifa’s ‘cowgirl’ outfit now has her previously-exposed cleavage now covered up with an undershirt.
This brings her model in line with how it appears in the demo for Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and suggests that, sometime in the four years since Remake hit shelves, Square Enix felt her appearance had to be ‘corrected’.
Combined with the recent censorship of the game’s ‘panty-stealing scene’, many fans have taken this Remake patch as proof positive that the company’s aforementioned Ethics Department is alive and well.
First unveiled to the world in 2019 after Final Fantasy VII Remake series director Tetsuya Nomura confirmed that Tifa’s chest had been “tightened” in Remake based on the department’s recommendations, Square Enix originally claimed that its only function was to “[evaluate] game content to make sure it is aligned with the anticipated age ratings standards across the globe.”
However, a 2022 job listing revealed that the Ethics Department’s duties also entailed “[checking] all game expressions, including scenarios, illustrations, designs, and effects, to ensure that they do not contain expressions that are discriminatory, prejudicial, or offensive”.
As noted above, this censorious move unfortunately comes just after a pair of recent developments had had given rise to fan hopes that Square Enix had shuttered the department’s entire operations.
The first of these developments came in January of this year when, per a report from Niche Gamer, it was discovered that the Ethics Department’s recruitment page had been taken – and still remains – offline.
The second was the reveal of Tifa’s wardrobe options for her upcoming trip to Costa del Sol in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth.
In addition to the casual beach-wear worn by the girls in the game’s final trailer, a clip shared by Japanese video game news outlet Famitsu revealed that Tifa (as well as Aerith) would also have the option to hit the beach in a particularly ‘flattering’ bikini.
Unfortunately, despite the fact that such normally presumed Ethics Department targets as Tifa’s deep cleavage and Cloud clearly gawping at her chest made it into Rebirth, it now seems their inclusion was more of a fluke than an actual sign of change within Square Enix.
Final Fantasy VII Rebirth is set to cut its way exclusively onto PlayStation 5 consoles – at least until May 29th, 2024 – on February 29th.
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