One of the most-talked about games coming out of E3 2019 is undoubtedly Final Fantasy 7 Remake, whose impressive showing left fans excited to see more. The game features brand new character models for the main cast that are significantly improved compared to their blocky PS1 counterparts, and this has come with some changes to the characters' designs.
This includes Tifa Lockhart, whose design has been tweaked Final Fantasy 7 Remake compared to how she looked in the original game. According to Final Fantasy 7 Remake director Tetsuya Nomura, the developers were told to "restrict" Tifa's chest by Square Enix's ethics department.
"It was necessary to restrict her chest," Nomura said in an interview with Famitsu, as the ethics department felt she would look "unnatural" in action scenes otherwise. This was accomplished by giving Tifa black underwear similar to a sports bra that she wears underneath her usual attire, which makes sense for someone with Tifa's athletic fighting style.
In the same interview, Nomura also touched on one of the more controversial scenes from the original Final Fantasy 7 where Cloud cross-dresses. It was previously confirmed that the Cloud cross-dressing scene would be back for Final Fantasy 7 Remake, but Nomura has indicated that the cross-dressing scene will be updated for modern audiences. What exactly he means by this is unknown at the time of this writing.
Some fans may decry these decisions by Square Enix as censoring the game, but it's worth pointing out that Square Enix itself is making these decisions. While the notes about Tifa's chest came from Square Enix's ethics department as opposed to one of the developers themselves, they still didn't come from an outside entity, which is an important distinction.
Overall, Tifa's appearance in Final Fantasy 7 Remake doesn't seem to have drummed up much controversy. The Final Fantasy 7 Remake trailers and gameplay footage from E3 2019 seem to have been met with a mostly positive reception from the community, and so now all Square Enix needs to do is stick the landing come the game's release date next year.
Final Fantasy 7 Remake will launch on March 3, 2020 for PS4.