Bad ass characters tend to be what people like these days. Not girls with hot mini skirts who go into sexualized poses during the game (that kind of thing was popular twenty years ago).
If you didn't manage to come away with the conclusion that 'Tifa is a badass' then I have to wonder if we were playing the same game.
Tifa is not a bad ass. Badass girls these days aren't dressed in miniskirts and placed in positions in order to show off their chests.