I don't doubt that. However my original post is about Crisis Core and Zack. I'm talking about the attitude towards Zack. How CA's reacted to CC negatively back then because they had had not thought to question Aerith had a love interest that wasn't Cloud.
Advent first release would have drained me XD without complete edition that movie makes each side have something but neither be happy
Anyone who feels this way should go back and read all the historical LTD threads. They're wild.
Pretty much. Let's also look at the facts Ultimania's weren't even really a thing till maybe 2004? And even then they weren't translated till much later. Before that what we had was Dismantled. And it was just accepted as ok Aerith loves Cloud more than Zack.
Koi bito hopefully returns with the new ultimania though I will say one of those weapon fishes looked awfully pink XD
Wow to be fair that is a long time to think something is factual. but even then there's still the lifestream and Highwind. So why did a lot of Cleriths think they were endgame?
Yup, this is my question.
Because of the way the game was designed. It was thought to be player choice and if you're a Clerith who is gonna be in your party ? Who are you going to get the most points with? What date are you going to get?
Oh so the reason people are saying the game is player choice is because the original is also considered player choice.
Yes. It was believed to be so by CAs for a very long time. And the guides especially Dismantled kinda backed up that idea. It was the Ultimania Omega I think that started shifting the idea to huh maybe there is a set narrative and canon route. But that wasn't translated into English for a while so all you saw was fan translations for a good while. And lots of arguments from those. Anyway to be clear Im saying this as my experience that's what I saw. I myself was actually facinated by the idea of Ultimanias when I learned of them.
Generally, the debate has been that it's not, just from different sides. From my perspective, I hold that if you stop playing the game at Disk 1, you would think it's Aerith.
Plus, the low affection version of the Highwind scene is still a mutual confirmation of Cloud and Tifa’s feelings, just less explicit. So it’s not like it’s missable.
Not if you're playing with the Clerith perspective I would argue. Because it's not like Cleriths back then stopped at disk 1. The idea was just oh Cloud and Aerith is a tragic romance so her dying was part of the romance plot. And no offense to anyone who likes Tifa but from the Clerith perspective she had her own arc with Cloud. But it just wasn't considered grander than said tragic romance where Cloud lost Aerith and wants revenge on Sephiroth. This is especially the case if they got the low affection scene for Tifa which again if they favored Aerith is exactly what they got. It in comparison would just seem that CA and CT were options but their focus was on CA. With CA being more important in their eyes. And well, that is just what happens when you have affection mechanics.
Yeah, exactly. Cloud saying that only Tifa's opinion matters is non-optional, the Lifestream scene is non-optional, the Highwind scene is non-optional, Tifa and Cloud cuddling after is non-optional. (Also, Aerith dying is non-optional, lol.)
Yeah, I guess ultimately the issue lies in perception. Fans of CA were so focused on that romance, that they just didn’t register the hardcore CT push in the latter half (regardless of affinity).
Well I really don't know how to convey it to you but that is how it was in the CA perspective. The idea that certain scenes being optional meant you could choose. Then it shifted to "there is no player choice there is a canon" with fights over which was the true canon route CAs obviously arguing for Aerith and now you see more talk about story moments. But when OG was a thing if you said this game is player choice you weren't going to find many people disagreeing. Now in 2024 you think it's weird but 1997 and the years up to AC were just a very different time.
Of course they didn't. It's also impossible that anyone started with Disk 2. It's a thought exercise to demonstrate the framing of the love story, and detach the player from their own expectations.