Aerith/Tifa common background

Interviewer: Aerith and Tifa as these sort of “dual heroines,” right? But how exactly did they come about?

Nomura: I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this anywhere before, but Aerith was created first. However, her personality was actually close to Tifa’s. But I didn’t want to follow the usual formula up to that point, and instead decided to go with dual heroines. At that point, I split up the personality that belonged to Aerith and thus the character of Tifa was born. And since Aerith has this burdensome destiny she shoulders during the story, I developed her inner personality to emphasize that aspect.

Source : Young Jump Vol. 42 (Released September 19th, 2024)

Bottom line : Early in FF7 development, there were 4 characters. Cloud, Blow (= Barret), Sephiroth (who looked like Vincent at the start) and a sole heroine "Aerith".

That heroine was linked to Sephiroth and had mostly Tifa's personality (even her design and/or earring in the earliest drafts) until Nomura decided to split that character into the two heroines we know and love.

Here goes down the narrative that Tifa was an fanservice afterthought created only to have a romantic interest surviving after Aerith's demise