Look, there are plenty of things to enjoy about video games and the video game community. However, there are things that are also a bit annoying about games and the gaming community. For example, there are gamers who sometimes take things WAY TOO SERIOUSLY, even when the situation doesn’t call for it. One of those types of fans are shippers, who believe that certain characters “must be together” or are the “best outcome” for a certain story featuring multiple characters. In Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, the second part of the “Remake Saga,” that has never been more true, as certain fans can’t stop talking about Cloud, Aerith, and Tifa.
The irony of this is that, unlike in the original game, there is a “definitive side” taken in who Cloud Strife wants to be with. The game’s director even noted that the team intentionally did the scene in the Golden Saucer with Cloud and Tifa kissing to show the “progression” of their relationship. However, later on, the director later said that while Cloud does love Aerith, it’s more of a “sisterly” kind of thing instead of a true romance.
That set shipper fans off, and that led to Briana White, the voice of Aerith in Final Fantasy VII Rebirth, to reveal how fans should handle this “new set of feelings:”
So, why is this such an intense debate all these years later? Part of it has to do with history itself. When the first game came out, the “relationship” between Cloud and Aerith was very flirtatious, with Aerith even tricking Cloud into a date and flaunting it at times in front of Tifa, whom Cloud had a “unique” relationship with due to their childhoods.
However, as time went on, revelations changed things for certain people. Revelations like when Aerith died, and Cloud was found to simply have the memories of his friend and fellow “Soldier” Zack Fair, who had a relationship with Aerith previously.
For some, it was clear that Aerith liked Cloud because he reminded her of Zack, something that was fleshed out in the first and second parts of the “Remake Saga.” Meanwhile, Tifa became the true love interest for Cloud across multiple media, including Kingdom Hearts, where it was her “light” that helped him finally beat Sephiroth. Kind of. That franchise is complicated.
The point is that the team used the Remake Saga to help “put to bed” the love story between these three, and given the final events of the second game and what’s coming in the third, it’s clear that it’s Cloud + Tifa forever.
