I absolutely loved how the game framed some of Cloud and Tifa's scenes in Ch. 3 + 4 to highlight
their strict adherence to social distancing guidelines emotional distance from one another.
This is some basic ass of rule of thirds analysis, but by putting them at the extremities of the frame, not only does the game draw attention to the space between them, but it also serves to make the audience feel
slightly uncomfortable. You can divide any image into thirds horizontally and vertically. The subject(s) of the scene will usually be found at one of the intersection of these lines, so when an image doesn't adhere to these rules, it just feels a little wrong.
(A show like
Mr. Robot plays with this to an extreme, by constantly placing its characters in the extremities of the frame to draw attention to their anxiety and amp up the anxiety for the audience).
FF7R is not shot like an experimental film and largely adheres to the standard design rules. Even within the same scene, we see a basic shot-reverse shot, with the characters in the "correct" place. (I was too lazy to add the horizontal lines, but you get the picture)
Cut to the Ch. 14 resolution scene, we have this shot, which again highlights the emotional distance between the two and recalls the scenes mentioned above, but something is a bit different this time. They're both in the "right" place, so to speak, yet our attention is still split between two subjects so there is still something to be resolved.
Which, of course they do, with the hug. I especially loved when we pan out to the "wideshot" of the hug.
Now, look at that framing. They're
exactly where they're supposed to be. Feels good, feels right.
I always thought it was kind of weird that we got this random shot of Cloud and Tifa outside while Barret was having his moment with Marlene, but now I appreciate that we get a nice little image of their physical closeness outside of a mission/life or death context. Growth!