It indeed is. I do think they all have their preferences though, but the story is clear. Hamaguchi joining as the next director probably won't change that. However, I do consider Nojima to really, really enjoy cloti - as weird as it is, I think he's very proud of that pair, and he enjoys it a lot. It's not by chance that a lot of pro-cloti comments come from him, and he's the writer! It's probably writing AC/C and the novellas that made him enjoy them, I think, especially since they are so realistic, which is a feat in a Final Fantasy, after all. I, myself as someone who writes, really admire that. And once again, I don't think it will stop them from putting both cloti and clerith in the next game, because they want their fans to be happy, and it's part of how JRPGs operate.
Speaking of good posts to read,
I'd recommand this one because it's very detailed. She wrote a lot about the LTD, though I think it's wearing her patience thin
But this post is a good recap, and she reminded everyone that she's clerith and if she saw anything that would comment on Cloud's feelings being romantic towards Aerith, she'd be the first to scream it everywhere :') I think
@Fiz should read this one, if he wants to understand why people think cloti is canon. And again I will say this as a cloti, but clerith is a valid ship, both cloti and clerith talk to different people.
Speaking of the LTD, as I'm replaying the OG right now, I'm trying to compare a bit how the OG and Remake are made, LTD-wise. I will say this but: the OG pushed Aerith as the "romantic" outcome, the Remake pushes Tifa as the romantic outcome. And this stems from the fact that they do not use the same tricks for the players - it's part of the reason why they want everyone to play the OG and to be aware of the Compilation. People knowing Aerith's fate is a big factor, as you'll see why.
Now, what do I mean when I say "push"? In the OG, you get clerith scenes even if you chose to favour Tifa. In Remake, you get cloti scenes (a LOT), even if you chose to favour Aerith. In the OG, you notably get Cloud to stutter in Cosmo Canyon "I... We" when he talks to Aerith and tries to cheer her up. And you get the death scene which is superrrrrrrr romantic (it hits all the tropes). Meanwhile the Lifestream scene and the Highwind scene don't get any beautiful video, yet they're super important for Cloud. Because of this, players tend to think "it's in the past" for the Lifestream scene when no, it's not in the past for Cloud, it's still his current feelings. However, with the way Remake is being made, the change will be BIG this time around. Honestly the Lifestream scene looks really weird and is a bit clunky - but my guess is that the Remake is going to make it really beautiful and more mysterious. It will be the big turn of the whole series of games and, seeing how important it is for Cloud, it's going to be really impacting. But I think part of the LTD stems from the difference of Aerith's death scene versus the Lifestream scene - the first is extremely impactful and beautiful and romantic, the second is extremely important but you can totally deem it as "in the past" so it doesn't cross your idea of the canon clerith ending. Again, in the Highwind scene, you can get the lower affection one (even if there is no rejection there, contrarily to what people have been saying...), and the Highwind high affection scene does not get a pretty video nor Cloud's reaction.
Meanwhile in Remake, you get Cloud wanting to comfort Tifa, and helping her specifically, being here for her emotionally when the pillar falls. You get him looking at her all the time, you have her saving him and him saving her. You get the train roll which only Tifa haters will escape by timing out (but it means you are a terrible player and a terrible SOLDIER lol). You get everyone asking or talking about Tifa to Cloud. She is extremely singled out, compared to the OG, while some cleriths interactions have disappeared. It is not 50/50. Hell you even get Aerith telling Cloud to not fall in love with her because it's not real. And even I think i'ts harsh. This is what I mean when I say Remake is based on different tricks for the player. This time around, they don't have to push Aerith as Cloud's romantic outcome to make us love her - we will have her around for at least 2 games if not more. The trick is to make us wonder if we can save her or not. There are much, much less "romance" options in the game; just a few sidequests, and who you wake up in the sewers. I would hardly call that "romancing". Remake has less of these because the devs don't have to rely on the LTD anymore to tell their story, which also allows them to push for cloti - it was another problem of the OG, as I said numerous times; it came as such surprise that people did not believe in it. This time when the Lifestream scene will hit, people will be like "FINALLY!" instead of "uh, say that again?". Although I must say, the scene where Sephiroth manipulates them in Northern Crater to make them doubt of Cloud's identity definitely is going to hit so haaaaaaaaaard.
Playing the OG, we could see Zack's shadow, but it was easily missable. It's easy to see that in Midgar for Remake the devs have chosen to have Aerith confront Zack's death at the end of Remake. It's, I'd say, a little bit earlier than the OG, however it does change a lot of things, in game, for clerith as it colours a lot of their early interactions (sector 5, up until their talk in the park). Aerith says there that she wants and needs to move on, so she recognises it, but she's not able to until at least the end of the game. I do think that part of that weird ending is also a way for Aerith to be able to move on - and at the same time, she'll have even more questions as she saw Zack helping Cloud walk towards Midgar, yet only Cloud is there. So I think she knows something terrible has happened to him.
Some ramblings about Aerith....
Part of Aerith's own character arc growth is to learn to move on, and that's why we'll have more clerith in the next game. In the OG, everything went on so fast that it was easy to miss; in Remake, they're truly expanding that side of Aerith. However, they're also expanding the side of Aerith who knows a lot and whose task against Sephiroth seems to take a larger part in her own character arc, so I don't really know what this means for clerith. In the OG, it was very important for her own arc to voice out to Cloud that she wanted to meet the real him in the GS, which is why I consider it as the canon outcome (and the reason why the HA HW scene is the canon route is exactly the same kind of thoughts, it's the only moment when Tifa gets to voice out her feelings). The way she's voiced her feelings this time make me ponder; I always wonder, if I were in Aerith's shoes in Remake, knowing about Cloud's feelings - which she understood when she saw her flower on Tifa's counter - wouldn't I want to take a little distance and be just friends, to not get hurt? Here it's like... She got hurt before her own feelings were even there? But again, it's not because you don't want to get close to someone that it doesn't happen - and it will certainly happen. In the OG and Compilation, Aerith fell for Cloud, and I do expect this to happen again because Remake is an OG + Compilation tie-in.
I guess my thing is, for us to suggest that real Cloud only emerges at certain times, it kinda opens the door for detractors to discount all of Cloud and Tifa’s moments from when he’s not being his true self, just as people may do with Cloud and Aerith with the same logic.
