I've observed a lot of complains toward the developers of the Remake series regarding how they handle the LTD. People will often say that certain sections felt forced or out-of-character. I can't help but wonder how much hindsight plays a role in this.
To someone who has played the OG and is familiar with the compilation material (I put myself in this category), it's very difficult to see the Remake series with fresh eyes. Everything is viewed in light of the assumed ending, in this case, Cloud ending up with Tifa. We know the love triangle is a ruse.
But I think we need to keep in mind that the developers fully intend to depict a love triangle in the first two parts of this trilogy. They want new players to experience the ruse for themselves. This is why I don't expect things to be clear in Remake and Rebirth. The developers are trying to recreate the feeling of playing the OG for the first time, for players who are playing Remake and Rebirth for the first time. When we played OG for the first time, we didn't know Cloud had a history with Tifa like that. We didn't know Tifa was devoted to Cloud like that.
So when we look at the dream date, for example, and talk about how out of place it is or why Aerith looks like she fell for Cloud but isn't sure, we need to remember that it's all a part of the ruse. The developers are trying to play with fans' expectations in a similar way to the original.
Watching people who play blind, not knowing anything about FF7 is really an amazing experience. I would advise you to watch Welonz and WhimsyPsyche's let's plays on YT, it will show you what you can guess if you can think about what you see on screen. The first played Remake, CCR and Rebirth, the latter only Remake and Rebirth (and the latter likes to theorycraft and oof, the things she manages to guess are way above your normal player).
Rather than a love triangle, I would say that the developpers did expand on the OG in terms of what we saw there for the relationships between Cloud, Tifa and Aerith; the latter two are best friends, but Aerith falls for Cloud because she sees Zack in him, while Cloud is into Tifa and Tifa is worried about him. Mind you, that was also the story in OG, I'll be back later on to this. But YES, it IS meant to be confusing because we are in the heart of what I call "the Illusion". This lasts until Aerith's death.
Funny but I'm in the camp of OG was indeed kind of vague but Remake/Rebirth seem to be taking a different tack and clearly saying "You should be rooting for CT and ZA respectively here" through the story beats. At least as clearly as they can say it at this point.
We'll see how well this ages of course but if you have even a basic understanding of tropes and assume FF will follow them they're dropping all kinds of hints that CT and ZA are the endpoints that even a complete casual will catch and/or understand. ZA in particular seems to have been taken up to 11 so to speak in Remake/Rebirth vs OG. This whole Zack searching for his love across time and space (while Aerith waffles back and forth not knowing he's still out there) thing is so tropey and only has one acceptable endpoint unless it were Game of Thrones. That paired with all kinds of little hinty things they added to CT that weren't in OG. I mean I just can't see the "Triangle" in Remake/Rebirth when you look at scenes like the train roll and the almost kiss when the other side has nothing like that.
I feel like the distinct contentiousness of the FF7 LTD is 99% the fault of SE. There is a sizeable chunk of people who played the OG, watched/played the compilation material, whose main source of enjoyment in the world of FF7 revolves around Cloud and Aerith. In the years after the OG, leading into the compilation, SE licensed a lot of third-party merchandise directed at the CA audience. There were also CA themed easter eggs in a lot of mobile games before/during the compilation.
Even though we can say "marketing isn't evidence", a lot of CAs feel validated. I don't think it's at all unethical for SE to make money off of this, if indeed they intended the ships to be vague in the OG and wanted people to interpret as they saw fit. But I haven't seen any sign in interviews with Nojima or Nomura that indicate the vagueness of their intentions.
What I mean is, Nojima and Nomura constantly say they have their own interpretations, but don't mind if players come to different conclusions. To me, this sets up a situation where one side is bound to feel bamboozled in the end, as SE is determined to expand the world and character relationships. Because Nojima and Nomura's intentions will eventually come to light.
And when it does, how will all those people feel who bought all that CA merch? I don't think it'll go over well.
SE should have either committed to the vagueness of the relationships, or just went full-on CT from the beginning of the compilation. What they're doing now is going seemingly full-on CT after two decades of compilation material, meanwhile giving CAs just enough to feel satisfied.
I'm going to answer you both here, but, the who Cloud loved and how did the LT end in the OG was
never vague. Replay the OG, look at the options, look at how Cloud answers to Aerith and you will see it as I did back in my first playthrough: Cloud is
not kind to Aerith. Look at how you can never have an unkind answer for Tifa. In my first playthrough, I really hated both Cloud and Aerith because I thought the game would push her as the main love interest, as she was extremely pushy, but I hated that and the fact that Cloud was basically a gigantic arsehole.
Comes Aerith's death and I thought "oh I see they're going to have him lament so much after her now?" but it never came. Instead I had the NC scene where Cloud tells Tifa, while still acting as his ex-SOLDIER persona "only your opinion counts". Uh that sounded oddly romantic for him, I thought, but I went on and came Mideel I was telling Tifa to drop him like a brick because he was a gigantic arsehole not worth of her time (as you can guess, I was so not shipping them together at this point).
Then the Lifestream scene happened and I was shook by how much this guy loved her and only then I went "ok you can have her then". And this is what the devs intended, right there: the LT ends in the LS scene where you find true!Cloud with his real feelings and it was only ever Tifa. And he loved her oh so much that no, there was no space left for any other girl, including Aerith. Even Tifa herself is shook to find just how much he does love her, that's why at the end of the sequence she's having this line about people hiding so much of their feelings or something.
Then the HW scene, whether you consider both the high or low affection doesn't mean jack: both are supposed to be romantic, only Tifa's feelings are considered in this scene to know which one you get. And you have to treat her very poorly to not get the high affection one - the one that is considered canon by SE, by all means.
And in the finale scene, after Aerith saves Cloud, you get Cloud and Tifa promising each other to meet again in the Lifestream after their death to meet all their loved ones that they have lost. It's literally a new promise to meet again
beyond death, all with Tifa's theme playing. I do not see how the OG is vague
at all unless you rely on bad translations to keep your hopes up.
As for the way Aerith was pushed, yeah she dies. So SE wanted to soften that blow, but there isn't much CA merch as it is. And Tifa was
so popular when they released the JP version that they
added the train station scene in the international version. As per the devs' words, that is the reason why they added that scene. There was a lot of CT push that we didn't get to see because it was early internet times and all their promo was basically for JP players only.
But right in 97', you had Nomura saying that Tifa was the story choice, and that Aerith was a player choice. There's nothing much to add to this, really.
The fact that fandom decided that it was vague when it wasn't, that he loved both when he didn't, that he loved Aerith more when ??? How lol, that Cloud and Tifa were just roomates in AC/C (???) is the most WTF moment for me and it's a great thing that both Nojima and Nomura are in to change that.