Just saying that if you prefer Tifa it's not that complicated to have her date. Like not at all. It's not some kind of ultra secret options or some other things i've read for many years. If you like cute brunette childhood friend from the moment you meet her at the bar, just talking to her like normal unlocks the date.
And you don't even have to be an ass with Aerith.
So this canon thing is still copium even in OG imo.
And the story stay the same in the end, so even the game doesn't care about "player choices" it's just a good illusion
It's what I like to call the "under the hood fallacy".
These people think that they can use data that's not supposed to be seen as evidence. But the problem is that the gears of a system can't be used to show you how you're supposed to interpret the end result.
It's like if someone tried to argue that there are multiple Chadleys running around by hacking the game and through some developer mode seeing that when you are talking to Chadley in Costa Del Sol there is another Chadley model in Junon and Gongaga, etc.
That doesn't show that there are multiple Chadleys, it just means that they don't despawn models when you're not supposed to be able to be in 2 places at once anyway.
Same here. This idea that since Aerith starts with more affection points that that means she's the canon, or even intended, date, doesn't automatically hold water. And the idea that it means there is ACTUALLY more affection there is completely bonkers. It's just a programming choice, you can't read the programmers mind from it. Maybe they wanted it to be about equal and discerned that since it's easier to get points with Tifa this makes it about 50-50. Maybe Tifa requires more effort because she's more timid and therefore requires more points to push her over the edge, but starting her off with fewer points is just the easier way to program that (it is). And yes, maybe they wanted to push the Aerith date more during a first playthrough, and Tifa on a second, without that being intended to insinuate only one is canon, as Rebirth has now made concrete.
The point is you can't just look under the hood of the game and use what you find there are evidence.
Slightly off topic but, I'm replaying the game on hard mode and have just finished the loveless play for the second time, and yet again, as I've stated before I'm not so good at this whole "interpreting" thing, and I can't really make heads or tails of what it's supposed to represent/foreshadow, if anything at all.
So I'm sorry if this is a tired topic or if no one cares, but I'd like to hear what ye think of it and or what it means. That way I might be able to piece something together, thanks.
It's not off topic, but I also can't answer it for you. Ever since Crisis Core I don't want to think about loveless. I think the entire point is that you can take it a thousand ways. Like predictions, which is why I hate thinking about it. I do get the feeling that the Hero and Rosa are meant in some way to represent Zack and Aerith though.