Hey there everyone!
I was away from the LTD for years, but I have watched ACC some days ago and I was looked at the ultimania translations, so I was flared up again a little bit.
Anyway, I'm not a shipper, I do not have anything against Aerith x Cloud together too, but I'm seeing the compilation very strongly Cloti. It's a "real life relationship", not some kind of "fairy tale romance", and Cloud x Tifa portrayed EXACTLY as a romantic couple in ACC.
As for the ultimanias and official sources, when I have read the following TWO quotes (I know there're a lot more, but these two is perfectly sufficient), it made my heart kinda warm:
FF 20th Anniversary Ultimania
Thanks to Tifa, Cloud regains himself, and before the final battle with Sephiroth, without using words, he confirms with her that their feelings match.
So, going with the high affection scene, Cloud DOES love Tifa romantically. No more interpretations on Cloud feelings if the player chooses Tifa in the game, eh?
Crisis Core Ultimania
In FF7, Tifa is the only one who knows Cloud’s childhood, and furthermore, she holds the key to people involved in the story of Nibelheim’s burning down, which is also depicted in CC. She and Cloud came to realize their feelings for each other in the end of the story, and live together in AC and DC.
Combinig these two entries, if the player plays out the high affection scene in FF7, then Cloud and Tifa realize that they love each other romantically, and after Cloud's Geostigma ordeal they leave together happily after ACC. Maybe it's not that bad of a "real life fairytale romance", eh...?
One last thing. A lot of You are quoting from the official script. Can I find it somewhere on the net, or only bundled together with the collector's edition of AC (which I won't really plan to get, I'm not THAT big of a fan).