Who was created first: Tifa or Aerith?

Nomura explained six times that Aerith came first

① Nomura: Aerith was designed first

—Aerith and Tifa can be called the two heroines, so how did these two characters come to be?

[Nomura]: I've never talked about this anywhere before. Actually, Aerith was designed first, and her personality was initially closer to the current Tifa's. But since we didn't want the story to follow a traditional heroic route, we decided to have two heroines. At that time, the personality traits of Aerith were split off, and that is how the character Tifa was born. Moreover, because Aerith carries a fate in the story, we further developed her inner world in order to highlight this.

*Young Jump 45th anniversary interview special*

② Nomura: At first there was only Aerith

[Nomura]: Actually at first there was only Aerith, no Tifa. One Sunday evening I got a call from director Kitase and suggested "Let's kill Aerith and bring Tifa out instead (laughs). Two heroines appear, and one of them dies — that kind of type."

③ Nomura: The drawing order was Cloud → Aerith → Barret

Nomura's drawing order was Cloud → Aerith → Barret → Red XIII.

④ Nomura: At the very beginning there was only Aerith

— Were there two heroines from the very beginning?

[Nomura]: No, at first there was only Aerith, and Tifa, as the other heroine, was decided to appear later on. To replace the dying Aerith, we needed another heroine who would accompany the protagonist to the very end. As for Aerith's tragedy — characters had died in FF games before, but we wanted to take a different approach. By portraying the "sense of loss" brought about by Aerith's tragedy, I also wanted to express "life," which is a theme of FFVII.

⑤ Nomura: Tifa was not written into the story in the early stages

⑥ Nomura: Tifa was not among the first three characters

At first the entire game had only three characters: Cloud, Barret, and Aerith

Other evidence

① The fourth companion appears — Red XIII

The previous three are below: Cloud, Aerith, and Barret

② The sixth companion, Tifa

③ The drawing with Tifa but no Aerith was one Nomura drew privately

[Nomura]: (His position at the time was character designer)I drew the character relationship charts myself, but now I don't know where they've gone. I wanted to write a story for 7 in which relationships are interwoven, so I kept writing without anyone asking me to(laughs)

④ When the demo was released, Aerith was the only female character

In the demo you can control Cloud, Aerith, and Barret. However, since this is only a demo, it does not mean that in the full game you can control a party made up of these three characters from the start. Also, in "VII" and "VI," it seems you can freely combine your party from multiple characters, so it's natural that new characters may appear. At present the only female character (Aerith) is clearly the big-sister type, and having at least one other young, lively type of woman competing for the heroine position is an indispensable element of the current "FF" series.

⑤ Aerith was the only female character revealed at the time

Among the characters announced so far, Aerith is the only female one. Her smile is like a gentle Madonna. Yet she tightly grips something like a weapon in her right hand. What kind of attack can it unleash? Or perhaps it isn't a weapon? Many things are still unknown at this point, but she has the air of a character with a major connection to the story. Eyes revealing such inner strength are rare in the current FF series. Perhaps she is a new type of character? The only female character — one to watch!