55-
Probably Evan Townshend
I guess I can see where you're coming from, that's just not the way it seemed in the OG game. I felt an overpowering sense of "okay I get what they're doing here," and no narrative explanation could have convinced me that Tifa wasn't created specifically out of a very shallow idea of someone's ideal girl.Can't say I agree with this. She didn't actively ostracise Cloud, Cloud made his own problems by picking fights because he didn't know how to intergrate. And in any case they were kids.
As an adult, she hasn't seen the guy in years, she finds him tripping balls on the streets of Midgar and he's the only person from her time in Nibelheim (everyone else being dead/gone) She realises he isn't all he seems and decides to keep him close to find out what the hell is going on. Sure she develops feelings for him, and helps him regain himself.
Cloud isn't an asshole in the OG - he just doesn't know who he is, the compilation had him doing some questionable things that I think were rather unfair towards Tifa - even if Cloud believed he was doing it for the best.
TLDR there is a lot more to Tifa than boobs, even in the OG and most people here know that
The whole game kinda lacks a lot of depth. Everyone has a slight feeling to me of being more a character type or archetype, rather than fully realized characters.
But yeah, On the Way to a Smile really changed the way I looked at Tifa, and the relationship between her and Cloud. Tifa's like in super mommy mode post-OG. She's got this sweetness and gentility. She's the kind of person with a lot of love to give. It makes a lot of sense why she has had so much patience with this cold, distant, confused asshole (I stand by calling Cloud an asshole). She's the kind of person who takes care of people who don't have the strength to take care of themselves. I find that really cool.
But yeah, did not see any of that in OG. Maybe my vision was just marred by 15-year-old eyerolls, but I honestly think it wasn't there.