Please people stop posting so I can answer lol.
Yeah, I think so to...BUT, that's my interpreting that line. They could have been concrete about it.
English speakers are
weird. They need so much confirmation when it's all there lol. I'm gonna say it because Nomura says that if we look at the story then the player might feel he has no choice but Tifa. Which means the fact that there is no branching path equals to it being Tifa being the true love interest.
Also at some point we have
so many confirmations through the various Ultis AND even the devs talking about the under the HW scene that you'd think all of that would have settled this LTD for once and al.
Imagine being Tifa, having all these heart to hearts with Aerith, helping her with her pain over Zack, talking about boys, you have a date at the GS with Cloud, you then almost kiss him in Gongaga, Aerith is all supportive telling you it'll be alright, you go back to the GS, you kiss Cloud. And then suddenly when no one is watching Aerith uses her ancient powers to go on a dream date with Cloud and following Clerith interpretations confess her feelings to him......I can say it in no other way than FUCK this woman. Right now I can still find some reasons to give Aerith the benefit of the doubt, mostly the fact that I think Aerith is desperately projecting her feelings for Zack onto Cloud even during the dream date, and is only doing it because she knows this is the end and she wants closure. Aka, she is in no way trying to get between Cloud and Tifa here, she knows that there is no outcome to this date that would result in Tifa being hurt since even IF they both had feelings for each other, that date would still be the end of it and Cloud would go on to Tifa.
I think this is exactly why some CTs really dislike Aerith.
Personally I think they took out Tifa's jealousy because there was no reason anymore, since they developped the CT relationship this much in Rebirth. Like Cloud keeps showing her he is very much into her, so she needn't to worry.
As for Aerith, the fact that she knows no social cues is probably why she keeps taking Cloud to "dates", that's the only reason I can think of; after all she's been sheltered and had no friend up until well, Zack and later on the whole gang. So to her it's a discovery and she caught feelings on the way.
EDIT- I think if they wanted to show a tale of friends, they could have avoided the LT entirely, not presented Aerith as an option whatsoever, really make Aerith a long lost sibling, half sister or something, etc. I would say a lot of CAs aren't playing to be told psyche gotcha it's friends isn't that great lol, I imagine the reaction is something like the Bugs Bunny meme with "No", like just don't bait in the first place.
Aerith in the OG falls for Cloud, so it was always going to be present since the Remake trilogy is a reimagining of the OG.
But then again Welonz completely missed the subtext that Aerith was into Cloud until the dream date (she had Yuffie for the GS date), while also
doing all the sidequests. Which leads very much into the "we are looking at this knowing that Aerith falls for Cloud, so we search for clues, but if new players aren't able to tell that Aerith is into Cloud, maybe Cloud himself isn't able to tell Aerith is into him either".
As I see it personally, CA serves Aerith's character, but Cloud's character suffers from it, generally speaking. It does not make him look good if you think he fell in love with a girl in 18 days and that erased his deep love for Tifa that grew over the years. This is why I'll be personally out if this ever happens, because I refuse to see Tifa being trampled on like this. Aerith already has a grand love story, it would be pretty unfair to get a second one, take from Tifa's role and get away with it, especially considering ACC, to our knowledge, still happens. As I often say, if the goal was to have CA as a the canon ending, they wouldn't need a Tifa to remain by the hero's side until the end.
But Aerith's character is probably an exploration of the "death" theme; I have already noted it in Remake, but she sees (and isn't afraid of) ghosts, she can't move on from Zack (and goes out of her way to save him IMHO), she is alluded to die. So in Rebirth she has to try again to move on from Zack (and doesn't fully move on either), her ancestors are all dead, and she dies herself. If in Remake and Rebirth she connected to Cloud through Zack, in p3 she will reconnect to Zack through Cloud I think. And that's why we also see her feelings, even if they bring confusion to her and sadness. One-sided feelings often bring a lot of depth to characters and I think that's what's happening to Aerith there. So not everything is in vain.
You know, I think it was after the Johnny thing in the scrapyard when Tifa says, "Cloud your eyes" and Cloud goes all, "It's the mako~ all SOLDIER have them~". And Tifa gives this sigh and says something, "Right. SOLDIER." Which I took as that she likes Cloud but then she gets reminded all over again that he's SOLDIER now.
Rather than that, I think Tifa was pointing out at the coldness in his eyes (that scares her), and Cloud misinterpreted and thought she was talking about their colour. IIRC that's hinted at in French and JP.
