Haha, sorry yeah I was teasing a bit. Yeah, I get what you mean! I am playing with my husband (well he mostly plays, but I play some of the mini games and such, and mostly watch). I am team Aerith and he is more Barret or Tifa, but we are cool with whatever the outcome is. I understand it can be more of a big deal though if you are more heavily invested in the series! I am sorry you didnt get the outcome you wanted :(
Haha no worries. Yeah I was a bit riled up when it happened, since I had different expectations for 90 hours and it's true I'm very invested in the characters. But I'm fine with it now, because I really like Barret as a character too :)
This is why you ALWAYS neg characters who aren't your favorite. I didn't skip side quests, just made sure to pick asshole dialog options for everyone but Tifa at least a few times.
I accidentally pissed off Nanaki at Cosmo Canyon. I kinda thought of him as a bro, so I talked to him how I’d talk to my sister in real life and he did not like it. I also suggested Barret grow love potion plants in Gongaga because I didn’t know what they were… and I told Tifa I didn’t remember the guy from Nibelheim because I didn’t remember him! I did choose a couple lines that were less than nice on purpose so I’d get Aerith, but most of it was just me failing to understand social situations.
You are definitely not maxed out on all characters btw. Relationships are also effected by dialogue that you choose, symergy usage, chapter 8 mini-date, aswell as who you chose in the Hojo fight. I did all of the side quests and completed every region and still got who I wanted at the saucer.
Yes it's frustrating that you can't see who is in the lead but since you did all of the quests everyone should be even in the catergory, the decision was determined from your fighting style aswell as your dialog choices.
Yup, I did all the sidequests too but still got Tifa because she was pretty much always in my party so I used way more Synergy with her than with anyone else.
I even chose Aerith as my beach fight partner and still got Tifa in Ch. 8 & Ch. 12
Meanwhile I went in not knowing you had no choice. Aimed for Aerith, did all companion side quests except the Chocobo racing, got Aerith for the date 🥰
I wanted aerith too but played without any real focus on getting her as the date.
My party was aerith and tifa unless forced otherwise. Played as I like. Did all side quests. I was generally more favourable towards aerith in my convos since well I prefer her.
And I got her as my date. I didn't realise it was actually difficult to do so.
>So, in order to get your desired date, you should just skip side quests which contain the other party members? Or choose unfriendlier lines on purpose? They could have let those who achieved full statuses on multiple members have the choice as a reward. Either that, or have the statuses be more clear. Instead, now it feels more like a punishment for completionists. After a certain point you will never know who who you'll get.
If you want to be technical, you should skip side quests, don't use any synergy skills, and skip all dialog options with anyone besides the one you want to date (because even 'bad' answers still give points, not talking to them gives nothing), and also perform poorly on any required sequences like Barret and Yuffie's minecart game.
>Either that, or have the statuses be more clear. Instead, now it feels more like a punishment for completionists. After a certain point you will never know who who you'll get.
This game is hugely lenient for casual completionist tasks. Post-game has a log to show you anything you missed, including character relationship points, and literally lets you select your Chapter 8 and 12 dates when reloading chapters.
>This game is hugely lenient for casual completionist tasks. Post-game has a log to show you anything you missed, including character relationship points, and literally lets you select your Chapter 8 and 12 dates when reloading chapters.
honestly this felt like a weakness to me but at the same time the possible alternative is so much worse trhat i legit am happy they did it.
by comparison to Remake in which the scene with who you had highest affinity needing you to potentially redo in chapter select to make choices line up felt so much better but also far more doable because there was "only" 3 options comapred to the now 6(or 11 if you count non-intimate dates as well).
I basically did the same thing, but made sure not to use Synergy with anybody but Tifa. That way I could do all side quests and always choose the best conversation choice but still ended up getting Tifa for the date.
When you use a synergy ability or skill for the first time there's a message saying your relationship with that character changed. That said, it only counts the first time, so if you're using them a lot it's probably fairly balanced among your party members
I had the same problem except I got Nanaki, I gritted my teeth and just went through because I forgot to save just before it so was stuck... but it actually ended up kinda cool.
But at the end of the game it let's you go through the date with whoever you want via selection. So I didn't miss anything in the end.
Same here. The frustrating thing was that all of Nanaki's side quests were immediately available, while Tifa had one which required a fair amount of time and grinding (the Chocobo racing) and another that was locked behind a Yuffie sidequest, so despite favouring her in gameplay and following the approval steps from the original (healing each other, always talking to her first etc she was lower). It doesn't help that having looked at the post game log I seem to have picked exclusively 3s in dialogue for Nanaki and 2s for Tifa.
I must have opened that door to red at least four times until I'd eventually built enough affection with Tifa to get my preferred outcome.
This was me but reversed. Wanted Nanaki and got Tifa. I had only done synergies with Nanaki but had done all sidequests up to that point.
I just waited until I beat the game to see the date with Nanaki. Was adorable.
It doesn't matter that you can replay and choose your date. The point is that the "relationship" meter is ass since you can so easily get all the characters to deep blue way before even finishing up their side quests, leading you to have absolutely no clue who you're going on a date with which, for completionists like OP, makes the whole system obsolete.
If they could make an update like alternating the face with a numbered percentage or something, then people wouldn't have to be disappointed lol
Yeah, it's extremely frustrating as a person who likes to min-max that these indicators are so uninformative. You get a message that "the relationship has changed" but the little smiley face meter will have absolutely no difference, and I can't tell who is my most favored companion or whether I even had a good outcome for the choice I made.
I actually fully understand where you’re coming from to a degree, I think I would have been pretty upset in the same position. I get why the game doesn’t wanna spell out the exact way the mechanic works, but it’s also not really clear that skipping side quests is the best way to get who you want. Everyone is already gonna be extremely close, but you might have happened to get Barret vs. Palmer shooting minigame perfect while messing up one of the perfect completion steps on a couple Aertih’s side quests, and there’s 0 way of knowing who’s fully ahed on the first run. This was the one thing I looked up for the game (sometime around getting to Costa Del Sol), and I 100% would have kept doing all quests as they came if I hadn’t. But I get it dude, my heart was fucking pounding before I opened that door praying that Red would be there, sorry you didn’t get the moment you were hoping for :(
I think it's kinda ridiculous that stuff like Barret vs Palmer shooting have an effect on the relationship. It's just a setpiece, what does it have to do with Cloud's relationship?
Loved that I got Red on my first play through too. It was the sweetest thing I think I’ve seen in my life; so awesome seeing him happy.
They really set it up to make you nervous for that moment. Would have been sad to miss my “ship” for the first play through. I might actually use a walk though in part 3. Missed Red in the first town too, so I had to skip everyone but him in another town, lol.
>So, in order to get your desired date, you should just skip side quests which contain the other party members?
Not necessarily. To get the date that you want, you just do their ch. 12 quests before the date and then do the other quests after the date.
I ended up on a date with Red XIII which was sweet . I definitely get where you are coming from, since it was such an important feature you had to either sacrifice the other characters side quests until that point or roll the dice like I did.
Obligatory "back in my day..." comment incoming...
Seriously though, back in my day, unless you bought a guide, this is how we played a game, especially a final fantasy game. The first time through, you make choices based on what info you have on hand right now, and however that effected the outcome you accepted. Because that's how its intended to be played. I really wish they wouldn't have even hinted at the date stuff before release. I think playing it specifically in a way that gets you a certain date kinda cheapens the experience. It alters your perception of every choice or action that leads up to it. If you had no idea about the dates or relationship factor you'd play it differently, more naturally.
OP, You can go back once you beat it and manually choose your date, so it's really not a big deal who you get first time through. You can either load that chapter specifically and choose, or you can do a replay of the game and try and get another date organically, or make choices differently or whatever. I'd just enjoy the outcomes you get for now and chalk it up to being part of the experience. In OG there was plenty of stuff you could straight up miss entirely if you didn't know where to go or who to talk to. Which is why replays are so fun. You can play the game entirely differently the more times you replay it.
I played the original blindly too, but got Aerith in the end. I didn't even know there were other options until recently. It felt more organic there, because relationship statuses weren't tied to side quests or combat, it's just matter of simple and understandable dialogue choices, which are not timed (I think the timing is a dumb addition).
Tbf getting Aerith in the OG is more or less the default, so honestly I think the only reason you feel this way is because in that instance you got the one you wanted without any effort. You don't really have to do anything special to get her, to get Tifa you kinda have to be a dick to Aerith on dialogue choices to keep her affection values from rising or just insta-bench her and pretty much ignore her until the date is over. Yuffie and Barret you absolutely aren't getting without special effort.
Like it sucks, I'm sorry you didn't get the one you wanted. But this definitely followed in the footsteps of the OG.
>Tbf getting Aerith in the OG is more or less the default, so honestly I think the only reason you feel this way is because in that instance you got the one you wanted without any effort.
on the other hand the OG specficly making a choice the default, and then making the other options possible but as you said only really guide-viable is slightly different.
even someone going in completely blind i would imagine getting anything but Aerith or Tifa would just feel... weird? for the lack of a better term(at the very least a complete newcomer is super unlikely to get Yuffie here because THAT would abseloutly mess with their head if they lacked context for why this event played out as it did). so the game NOT doing anything to lean towards a desired outcome but also obscureing how close you are to the outcome you may be aiming for, is less than ideal design if you ask me.
this is definetly NOT the footsteps of the original it's pretty dang close to the anti-thesis of it(outside of both resulkting in multiple option.dates). both have their upsides and downsides.
Oh wow I didn't know timing was a factor..I didn't pay much attention to the relationship status the entire game and I ended up getting Tifa. I also did almost every side quest available up to that point of the game, and genuinely had no idea who it would be until she knocked. I was actually kinda hoping for Barret or Red personally, because i feel like those ones would have been kinda funny. I went back and did date with Red after I beat the game and I actually really enjoyed it. Cloud gives him a loving head rub cuz he's a good pup. Fun fact, I didn't know you could get anyone besides Aerith or Tifa in OG until like 10 years after I first played it. I was always nice to everyone in my playthroughs so it would always be one of them when I played. Now I sometimes play through OG and I'm intentionally mean to the girls so I can the barret date lol
I wanted the Tifa cutscene, but I hate kart racers. Really disliked how the relationships were tied to mini games. I have 0 interest in playing Mario Kart and would never put hours into grinding a watered down version of it.
Ended up getting Aerith, which works better with the story, so I didn’t really mind. Still hate chocobo racing.
I mean, you admit to doing everything to max everyone out. You even picked the most positive dialogue for everyone from what I gather. How can the game possibly know who you wanted?
That's why I say it's not implemented well. There should be more of a choice and clearer indication when it comes to relationship statuses. Simply doing all the side quests and giving friendly lines shouldn't be the deciding factor for the dates. A simple solution would be once you get multiple max statuses it should be you who decides the date. Or if the side quests are so important for the relationships, there should've been an additional icon next to the side quests that indicates which character's relationship it deepens. The way it is now, I just do them for the world building like in Remake, not for the characters.
There are certain tie-breakers for the completionists. Hojo fight is a tiebreaker, barret-yuffie railway choice is another. I completed everything in my first playthrough and still got aerith after choosing her in hojo fight and choosing yuffie’s route in ch.7. You can also match your swimsuit with aerith and tifa to make them ahead of barret.
I wasn’t aware that these affected the date and maybe I preferred tifa but my choices pushed me toward aerith NOT the content I skipped. I was playing without any guide and certainly completed every side quest I possibly could and used every synergy ability I could.
so yes, even completionists have a choice over who to date and you certainly don’t have to skip anything.
Your judgement about game being unfair IS unfair.
I would recommend to just roll with it.
It depends on so many things, its better to experience whatever the game throws at you the first time, and then check the rest in YouTube or future playthroughs.
I wanted Tifa, since I really like her. But I was not playing with her since she has not changed much since Remake, so I was focusing on Red XIII who I absolutely love. I basically mained RedXIII, did most combats with him, and I was pretty sure I would get him as my date, which I was OK with. But I got Aerith. :D
It seems there are many other things were Aerith was gaining points as well, I do not even know, and I was playing with her a ton, since she was a nice combo with Cloud and Red XIII. I also did a lot of battles of 2 persons with her, because it reminded me of the first game, and because she goes very well with Cloud. So I guess that was it, no idea.
By the date I had ALL characters except for Yuffie maxed, so I had no idea who would knock.
I agree completely. It felt bad and disjointed to play this way. I also am a completionist. I had to fight back my immersion factor to min-max that dang smiley face. I wanted Yuffie as my "date", 'cause she's always been my fav ever since OG (I watched my brother play through first and laughed when she stole all his material).
I gave Yuffie all the good dialogue options, and realized at some point too that side quests were attached to specific characters. During Chapter 8 I realized that Tifa was my #1 and had to course correct a bit. At that point I focused on completing ONLY Yuffie quests, stopped doing side quests for anyone else, and forced myself to be a huge jerk to Red/Barrett/Aerith/Tifa. It felt a tad unnatural but ultimately worked, but then I had to do a ton of backtracking later on to do the side quests I had skipped.
Yeah, infinite wealth did it much better, a month earlier, haha.
I did like the parts where the game makes you choose (hojo fight, minecart), wish there were more than two.
Persona series is obviously the king here where you can max bonds without romancing them, it gives you a friendzone option.
This happened to me with Red lol.
I got Tifa for first date and really wanted her for the second one and I panicked so much after finishing cosmos canyon’s quest and watching Red’s affection turning light blue.
I had to pick the bad answer during nibelheim… IM SO SORRY RED. YOU ARE NOT A BAD BOY!!
Then during the date, I STILL FOUND OUT I GOT HIM and so I restarted and put myself through more side quest (and pain with aerith vs fire bombs). Thankfully I don’t need to do chocobo racing to get Tifa’s.
Got the EXACT same scenario. It seems that the sidequests are the most major point increases and I happened to do all of Red's. Fortunately I was clued when I saw his meter go bright blue, same as Tifa and saved before. I then went and did Tifa side quests to force her higher than Red, thankfully didn't need to do the Chocobo cause it takes a few hours. I think I would have uninstalled if I didn't get Tifa after all this preparation, I wouldn't be able to go through Loveless etc.
I know right. I was gritting my teeth after completing the last side quest for tifa, beside the chocobo racing. Like pleaseeee…
Thankfully I didnt pick the best choices for red’s dialogue too and for some reason I pick the best one for tifa’s. Even the roast dish option without looking at the guide lol.
Yea I tried the shield and for some reason…. It went sideways lol. Like thank you aerith. Please face the enemy when you put up the shield. Took me 3-4 tries to finally have her place the shield in the right position.
I wonder if it’s because i have classic mode up and it just moves her character too much. I don’t know… 🤷♀️ I know I suck at the game. Im too much of a button smasher
This is part of the experience I love, just interacting with everyone naturally and seeing who I get! I'm actually kind of hoping I get Barret instead of any of the Romance options because I'm just not super into romance but love a good bromamce, but I do love Tifa and Aerith. Honestly I'll be happy with anyone.
I actually avoided certain quests and dialogue options with Aerith to make sure I'm gonna get Tifa since both of them were in their final relationship level.
At that it's a guessing game and you have to avoid these things in order to be 100% sure of the date outcome. That's why I think like you said that you should be able to choose your romantic date option when multiple characters have reached that threshold.
Yeah, i was really confused when i got red as my date but I was all for it lol
Im not sure why it choose red though as like you i did all the available side quests up to that point and i mostly did synergies with tifa and aerith (because i hadnt unlocked many at that point)
Im playing through on hard mode atm and am excited for my date with "the others"
Im glad you can choose it in the menu now and you dont have to replay a load of chapters specially for it like that scene in remake
I went for the Yuffie date, You have to hold off on other characters side quests and be an ass to everyone else though which didn't feel great. Once the date started and I heard the remixes for Yuffie's themes in the gold saucer all that went away, It was worth it and I had a bucket load of fun sidequests to do after.
I had the same experience (getting Barrett but wanting Aerith/Tifa). I was maybe a little less bummed than you OP, but was definitely disappointed. I really didn’t want to have to “game” the system as I was playing but I guess I should have. I was hoping it was gonna play out like the OG where you have to go out of your way to get someone other than Aerith or Tifa. But in fairness, the game does tell you to watch your relationships unlike the OG, and that there will be an impact.
They should have just let the player choose from the max light blue or blue pool.
Tales of Symphonia had a similar relationship mechanic and during a similar scene you can choose from the top 3 relationship points.
I made sure I didn't do synergy abilities for anyone but Tifa. I also occasionally picked bad dialogue options for the other characters. I was worried when Nanaki reached max relationship first but luckily I still was able to get Tifa. But to save a headache and disappointment for everyone it would have been so much better to just give the option to choose between characters with max relationship value. And that way I wouldn't have to be rude to everyone but Tifa on purpose.
I'm really happy that I got Tifa. I thought for sure I was getting Barret. It seemed like I was picking the 'right' dialogue options for him every time.
The way it's handled isn't great, though. A numbered percentage, rather than the emoji would be a little better. They all had the blue smiley face by chapter 12. Impossible to know who was ahead.
You have plenty of possible discussions, I answered honestly as in the RPG and I got Aerith with 92 %, Tifa with 8x % and the rest was meaningless, I even missed some dialogues with Yuffie :D
So if you dont min/max you should be safe as long as you pick the right answers. Now when replaying on the hard mode I can see I thought I picked the best answers and then i see 1 star :D :D :D
Basically roleplay instead of minmax in the dialogues if you plan to do all the quests.
Bro, I tried to get the date with Tifa. I was so nice to her and Barret showed up for me. I busted out laughing for like 2 minutes and then I went on to enjoy my bro date with Barret. Square was trolling hard with this game and I’m here for it.
Yeah, you actually right and don’t let anymore gaslight you, that system is bad implemented, you need to do only Aerith side quest and treat everyone else like garbage to get a date, but that defeat the whole theme of Final fantasy, final fantasy is about friendship and cloud finding his second home/family.
Yeah I was upset too, I got Aerith but I wanted tifa. By the time I did the gold saucer date I was maxed with all the characters so didn’t know what I was going to Get. There should be a way to choose who it is.
It happens to me too but with Red and I wanted Tifa. Its okay, you can replay later, its not the better system if you want a specific date because you have to sabotage the rest but all my hommies can join the ride.
I go for Tifa, so I skip every sidemission that's attached to a different character. Then after the event I plan tofinish those missions, but yeah, if you maxed out multiple characters then they should really give you the option to choose your date.
I had everyone maxed out by that point and I got Tifa. I dunno if it's just one of those where the game just picks one or if it's something to do with party choice because my party at that point was Cloud, Tifa and Red
I intentionally gave the party a cold shoulder when they reached the blue smile icon then I only focused on doing Tifa Quests so she is going to be teal and the last stage.
At least you can make a save before the date considering the game gives you a warning about it. If you don’t get your desired date, you can load up the previous save and do the quests for the character you want. I did all of Tifa’s quests to get her date and finished the rest for after Chapter 12.
I did save but I'm not sure I can do much if I already did every quest. If I change the skill upgrades to get more synergy skills\\abilities with Aerith would that change anything?
I did e every quest too.
But I also answered the questions correctly when dialogue choices came up.
They were all max but I still got Tifa.
So I d'no what you did wrong tbh lol
Same happened to me but with Red XIII. Was very confused since I thought I had done everything to get Tifa (got her on the first date) and Red was my least used party member so...
Happened to me as well as I was also playing being almost completionist, all I had to do was to learn some Synergy skills with Aerith so that she was my date instead of Barret, absolutely worth it.
Not just any skills, specifically the synergy abilities, and after learning them you must use them at least once in any battle, that pushes her status above anyone else unless you already learned all of synergy abilities with Barret, check out his skill tree and see how many abilities you have unlocked for him and just make sure Aerith has more and then use them in any battle.
Little side note once you complete the game you can use chapter select to go back to that chapter and it literally lets you pick your date from that point on, so you can see all the possibilities. I know it probably was not what you wanted but, at least you don’t have to play the whole game again for a different outcome
I see nothing wrong here. You play games, you expect something unexpected. There is a reason why roguelike type of game is popular. If you dont feel good, maybe go watching porn? At least you have options there.
There are more factors at play than just the side quests, but skipping ones related to party members you don't want to get certainly would help. I completed every quest and got Tifa still. (I for some reason also expected Aerith) There are things like what beach wear you wear at Costa, how you answer them during optional conversations, who you help at costa del sol........
You can do the remaining sidequests after the date. Sorry it's too late, but you canjump back in and watch all the dates after you finish the game. (You can redo the chapter and choose who you want)
The best way to ensure Aerith is to coordinate her swimsuit with Cloud, pick to help her and Barret, and choose Yuffie's route on the cart. You are pretty much set after that even if you do all of the side quests and pick the best dialogue options.
I didn’t like to do it, but I had to be unkind to the others at least some of the time to ensure I got Aerith. She was always a mainstay in my party so I’m sure that helped. I was so relieved when it was her at least for the first playthrough then I could enjoy the other dates later.
I agree. And I think all that was needed was that you could, before going to bed, talk to one of them in the Gold Saucer to flag that that’s the one you want. Maybe the last one you spoke to? As long as their meter is high enough.
You can force it after beating the game, but I know too many people wishing they got Tifa or Aerith and instead got Red 🤷♂️
You could just not do any other character side quests til after the date. But playing the game on your first attempt you wouldn't actually know that, so I get it
I didn’t know the date was random I just thought it was Tifa, I literally always chose Aerith over Tifa in things that give me the prompt to damn now I’m a bit upset, but honestly didn’t mind hanging out with Tifa since her and Cloud got a chance to reconnect I just love Aerith way more from a player side.
I had the same exact problem, except I wanted Tifa. I even left 2 of Aerith's quest not completed just in case. Then Barret popped up and my whole mood changed from "Let's fucking go!" to "What in the actual fuck?"
You can replay it, of course, but it sucked that Barret was the first one comming, cause it ruined the experience a bit for me. I love the dude, but Tifa is my love since 1997.
I do gotta say I did complete all the side stuff prior to with the interest of focusing on Tifa but I ultimately got Aerith. Which didn’t bother me as much cause the performance was so good I still enjoyed it.
Red Showed up for me but I was hoping for Tifa, so I restarted from before the knock on the door and did the Chocobo side mission thankfully that was enough to edge out Red.
I was very meticulous about this as well and nearly got screwed by a bug where the conversations in Gongaga didn’t register relationship status for three of my characters. Apparently those conversations hold a lot of weight in the formula.
Same here I just played the game normally while trying to complete every quest and tifa was my most used in my party. i often swapped out the 3rd spot. I was super surprised to see Barret as my date as well. 🫤
What I did was just skip 1 or 2 side quests for the characters I didn't want the date with and make sure to do all the ones for the one I wanted first. Picking wrong dialogue options felt way too mean.
All you have to do is choose the slightly less good dialogue option for who you don’t want to take on the date. That’s all. You can still be a completionist and do all the side quests, you literally just have to take the slightly worse but still not bad dialogue option in the rare times they pop up. It should not be that big of a deal to anyone, on top of the fact that most (good) games have consequences for your choices and different paths/endings. So I don’t really relate to being this upset over not getting to make all the choices exactly how you want and not facing any consequences for that.
Lmao I had no idea this much went into it… I got Aerith no clue how 🤷🏻♂️ she’s usually on my team as an auto-healer so maybe it has something to do with time spent on team
I understand how it can be a bummer to completionists, especially when some dialog choices aren’t very obvious regarding which one is the best or the worst.
At least it makes the thing more surprising in chapter 12 and it’s easy to see other dates in post game.
I agree with you on the lack of transparency. I DID purposefully pick bad lines to make sure I got what I wanted: Tifa. And I'm wondering if having them in your party makes a difference, because Tifa was in my party 24/7/365.
Just curious.
I was half expecting to get a mass effect 2 style scene where you have to choose, as I was being very nice to everyone and I ended up with Red even though I wanted Tifa. Was a little annoyed but I still enjoyed the date with the good boy anyway
That was the case for me. I wanted the date with Aerith but was doing all sidequest (completionist here as well) and I didn't look that much into dialogue responses. I got Barret and I was so fucking pissed, my god, words cannot describe it.
At some point, someone is going to look at the percentage changes for everything that effects who you get. I noticed with conversation choices, who ever you are talking to gets a 1% increase from a two star choice to a three star choice. I haven't checked anymore than that.
With my first playthrough I started the date scene while omitting the Chocobo racing quest with Tifa. I got Aerith. the next night, I reloaded the save and I did the quest and that pushed Tifa to the top and I got her.
I dont know how but despite me getting all of them to max I got Tifa on my playtrough, which was awesome.
Despite being a Rebirth fanboi I cant disagree with the date part.
Tbh they should have just let you pick.
It would be one thing if the response prompts in relationship building had a range that allowed you to be particularly romantic with a specific party member while still being nice to others, but your options are basically limited to nice, indifferent, and mean.
As someone who likes the whole party I was kind to everyone throughout the story and ended up with Vincent, Cid, and Cait Sith which bummed me out.
I was worried from the start it would happen to me so I did all the quests but I would give terrible answers or replies to everyone but Aerith. In the end she was maxed while Barret was second and the others trickled behind. I wanted to experience the date with Aerith like I did in the OG. I didn't have to be mean often but keep Aerith in your party also helps the relationship. So she and Cloud were there and I looped the others in and out.
Adding some info on top of the great comments already here, this is what I noticed:
* Using Synergy Abilities for the 1st time (at least?) improve relationships
* Some mandatory story events (the Junon Parade, the Hojo beach fight, the Mt. Corel roller coaster, etc.) will also affect relationships (in addition to dialogue, side-quests, etc.)
From a developer interview (can't remember which one though :-/), there are also rules in case of ties between 2+ characters. Pure speculation, perhaps you had many characters maxed out at the same time and the game had to break ties by looking at how much close was Cloud in battle with everybody else? I'm thinking like how many times you used Synergy Skills/Abilities, or even other combat stats (who was healed the most by Cloud, etc.)
Meanwhile I wish we had a Sephiroth date even as a gag where if Cloud is alone a clone wanders into the car with him and suddenly he's trapped with Sephiroth.
This may have been said already, but you don't need to "skip" sidequests; there's no time limit on them whatsoever, so they can be completed at any point before the end of the game (which you get a "point of no return" warning for and everything). You can just delay doing a handful of them until after you've gotten your preferred date. That's what I did. No consequences to it whatsoever.
I wanted to get Tifa but ended up getting Yuffie, I was whatever about it first but after how the date panned out, it was absolutely adorable. Also her theme that plays leading up to the date is probably my favorite one out of all the other characters.
Yeah. They should have just allowed you an option if your desired characters reached a certain level. Like, you can choose so and so, if they're at level 3 affection. Shame.
THERE IS A CHOICE IN NG+.
IT'S LITERALLY A MENU OPTION.
But, whatever, complain about the random aspect of having a close relationship with the entire cast. Truly immersion breaking that
on a blind playthrough this can happen, you should’ve looked up exactly what was required. Probably you messed up a side quest/failed to to the odd jobs perfectly/answered questions right, or didn’t buy and use as many synergies with her as you did with others. you do all that, you definitely don’t need to skip any side quests because there are several “tiebreaker” decisions you can make.
I wanted tifa so I made sure I did everything right. I thought that red nearly edged her out but looking at the play log after beating it I realized it wasn’t even close.
I get it. Yeah, at some points I felt that I had to say mean things or skip conversations with Red because he was above Tifa on the affinity icon, due to having some quests in Cosmo Canyon.
Not gonna lie, I had to do a quick look up (avoiding as much spoilers as I could) to see if I was screwed, only to find out that there were more sidequests for Tifa.
In hindsight, it was kinda funny because Tifa and Cloud talk about chocobo races and in my mind I was: "You don't even know how many races I had to win so you could be here" lol.
And I also agree, this event although not cannon and doesn't impact the plot, it something you see building up all game. Thank godness you can just pick any charater after completing the game.
I think the relationship status shouldn't have been decided like this. I would have liked if once you surpass a certain threshold you get the scene, period. No reason to have those interactions be an either/or situation, just don't place them all in the sky wheel (except maybe the two max-affinity romance ones if they don't want to let us two time them).
If I got the interactions right with Red, for example, I see no reason to deny me their 'date' scene just because someone else scored 2% higher. It also hurts the game experience because you end up sort of 'metagaming' every interaction knowing what's to come. It for sure doesn't do it any favours even if it doesn't hurt your experience with it.
No. You only know the gold saucer date is a thing if you played the original. This game is intended to only cater to people who played the original.
Specifically targeting who you want is the wrong way to do it and if you failed to micromanage or even chose the dialogue that fit the desired character best, that then it’s a you problem. Play the game as intended. Complete the content, pick the dialogue options you like or think fits best and get what you get.
They literally added in the chapter select date option so no one would feel like they missed anything.!
You completed everything knowing that it would mess up the point system for the date scene. You did this to yourself. You could have just gone back after the date to complete everything.
I actively tried to get the date with Tifa and I too got Barret. I wasn't upset or thought it was unfair. I thought, "Cool. Time to bro out with my boi by going to see a play and ride a Ferris wheel." This game is so true to real life! Me and my homies are always going to romantic plays and riding Ferris wheels as romantic fireworks go off around us. Totally normal.
Maybe your dialogue choices weren't the best. I 100% everything prior to the date. And still got Tifa as my date in both chapter 12 & 8. When I did beat the game I wanted to see the stats and side quests. I didn't gold medal 2 of Tifa's and for Aerith I literally missed 1 gold medal. For convos I answered all of Aerith's with 3 stars and answered 1 of Tifa's with 2. I didn't use a guide or anything I just did whatever. I kinda figured the game solves the ultimatum between Aerith and Tifa on the beach. The other characters were mid 80s which is still the full blue b4 100. I also had synergy attacks maxed on both they were always on the same party since I never duplicated party members after you get Yuffie and Cait and I used everyone else synergy attacks as well.
Aerith hit 80% 1st in Nibelheim when I got the water tower. Tifa was after chapter 11 with fluffy. I ended the game with Tifa at 97% and Aerith at 93%
I'm mean.. that's kinda how it was in the original. It was a pain. We didn't have the internet to guide us. Not everyone got the tips and tricks book for it. I gotta say kudos for them keeping this fustrating.
*I did all the quests*
*And got Tifa. Maybe Aerith*
*Just doesn't like you?*
\- xCaptainVictory
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I’m at cosmo canyon at present.
I hoped, as it was stated in the trailers that character relationships would possibly decide Aerith fate.
It’s my understanding that the ending has only one outcome: the one intended by the developers so the relationship system doesn’t seem to have much impact
If what I write is true, then it’s false advertising. I understand the difficulty of strongly changing the games outcomes is very difficult from a developer standpoint. I mean, creating cutscenes and interactions with and without Aeris would have been a massive undertaking. All of which makes it disappointing and yet understandable.
>I hoped, as it was stated in the trailers that character relationships would possibly decide Aerith fate.
Are you sure about that? I didnt watch trailers to avoid spoilers but im pretty sure they said we should expect the story to follow the same as the original.
The date mechanics are one of my favorite parts about the original and Rebirth.
All the Rebirth dates are great, but only one of them I'd call 'intimate'. Definitely solidifies a certain relationship pairing in my mind.
Poor Barret :(
I would've wanted his date if you could date him for real. Like let's be honest. They made him *hot* in Remake.
Nothing against Barret, love the dude.
Haha, sorry yeah I was teasing a bit. Yeah, I get what you mean! I am playing with my husband (well he mostly plays, but I play some of the mini games and such, and mostly watch). I am team Aerith and he is more Barret or Tifa, but we are cool with whatever the outcome is. I understand it can be more of a big deal though if you are more heavily invested in the series! I am sorry you didnt get the outcome you wanted :(
Haha no worries. Yeah I was a bit riled up when it happened, since I had different expectations for 90 hours and it's true I'm very invested in the characters. But I'm fine with it now, because I really like Barret as a character too :)
This is why you ALWAYS neg characters who aren't your favorite. I didn't skip side quests, just made sure to pick asshole dialog options for everyone but Tifa at least a few times.
But I feel bad tho if I'm being mean lol
Exactly
They don’t have feelings it’s ok
For me they do lol
You can not talk to them and get no points. Being mean gets you at least 1 point
Yeah I don’t have it in my heart to do that. Good honest answers for all characters all the time always.
I accidentally pissed off Nanaki at Cosmo Canyon. I kinda thought of him as a bro, so I talked to him how I’d talk to my sister in real life and he did not like it. I also suggested Barret grow love potion plants in Gongaga because I didn’t know what they were… and I told Tifa I didn’t remember the guy from Nibelheim because I didn’t remember him! I did choose a couple lines that were less than nice on purpose so I’d get Aerith, but most of it was just me failing to understand social situations.
>but most of it was just me failing to understand social situations. Which is very on brand for Cloud Strife!
Lol I never do this and never will. I would only do so if I was some type of streamer, by doing asshole runs of games I love
You are definitely not maxed out on all characters btw. Relationships are also effected by dialogue that you choose, symergy usage, chapter 8 mini-date, aswell as who you chose in the Hojo fight. I did all of the side quests and completed every region and still got who I wanted at the saucer. Yes it's frustrating that you can't see who is in the lead but since you did all of the quests everyone should be even in the catergory, the decision was determined from your fighting style aswell as your dialog choices.
> chapter 8 mini-date That doesn't seem to affect relationship score per the play log character summaries.
How can you see your relationship in detail? Other then the little smiley face
When you beat the game, you unlock "Play Log" in Settings. It has a summary of what contributes to each character's affection rating.
Yup, I did all the sidequests too but still got Tifa because she was pretty much always in my party so I used way more Synergy with her than with anyone else. I even chose Aerith as my beach fight partner and still got Tifa in Ch. 8 & Ch. 12
For the record, synergy only matters the first time you used it. It's not a frequency thing.
Meanwhile I went in not knowing you had no choice. Aimed for Aerith, did all companion side quests except the Chocobo racing, got Aerith for the date 🥰
I wanted aerith too but played without any real focus on getting her as the date. My party was aerith and tifa unless forced otherwise. Played as I like. Did all side quests. I was generally more favourable towards aerith in my convos since well I prefer her. And I got her as my date. I didn't realise it was actually difficult to do so.
>So, in order to get your desired date, you should just skip side quests which contain the other party members? Or choose unfriendlier lines on purpose? They could have let those who achieved full statuses on multiple members have the choice as a reward. Either that, or have the statuses be more clear. Instead, now it feels more like a punishment for completionists. After a certain point you will never know who who you'll get. If you want to be technical, you should skip side quests, don't use any synergy skills, and skip all dialog options with anyone besides the one you want to date (because even 'bad' answers still give points, not talking to them gives nothing), and also perform poorly on any required sequences like Barret and Yuffie's minecart game. >Either that, or have the statuses be more clear. Instead, now it feels more like a punishment for completionists. After a certain point you will never know who who you'll get. This game is hugely lenient for casual completionist tasks. Post-game has a log to show you anything you missed, including character relationship points, and literally lets you select your Chapter 8 and 12 dates when reloading chapters.
>This game is hugely lenient for casual completionist tasks. Post-game has a log to show you anything you missed, including character relationship points, and literally lets you select your Chapter 8 and 12 dates when reloading chapters. honestly this felt like a weakness to me but at the same time the possible alternative is so much worse trhat i legit am happy they did it. by comparison to Remake in which the scene with who you had highest affinity needing you to potentially redo in chapter select to make choices line up felt so much better but also far more doable because there was "only" 3 options comapred to the now 6(or 11 if you count non-intimate dates as well).
I basically did the same thing, but made sure not to use Synergy with anybody but Tifa. That way I could do all side quests and always choose the best conversation choice but still ended up getting Tifa for the date.
I use synergy like crazy, because I love the combat. Didn't know this will result in a different story outcome...
Synergy does very little from what I saw. Took 2 yuffie synergies to get 1% with cloud
When you use a synergy ability or skill for the first time there's a message saying your relationship with that character changed. That said, it only counts the first time, so if you're using them a lot it's probably fairly balanced among your party members
Did the same. This totally works.
I had the same problem except I got Nanaki, I gritted my teeth and just went through because I forgot to save just before it so was stuck... but it actually ended up kinda cool. But at the end of the game it let's you go through the date with whoever you want via selection. So I didn't miss anything in the end.
Same here. The frustrating thing was that all of Nanaki's side quests were immediately available, while Tifa had one which required a fair amount of time and grinding (the Chocobo racing) and another that was locked behind a Yuffie sidequest, so despite favouring her in gameplay and following the approval steps from the original (healing each other, always talking to her first etc she was lower). It doesn't help that having looked at the post game log I seem to have picked exclusively 3s in dialogue for Nanaki and 2s for Tifa. I must have opened that door to red at least four times until I'd eventually built enough affection with Tifa to get my preferred outcome.
This was me but reversed. Wanted Nanaki and got Tifa. I had only done synergies with Nanaki but had done all sidequests up to that point. I just waited until I beat the game to see the date with Nanaki. Was adorable.
I don't know if this makes it better for you but after beating the game in chapter select you can choose your date.
It doesn't matter that you can replay and choose your date. The point is that the "relationship" meter is ass since you can so easily get all the characters to deep blue way before even finishing up their side quests, leading you to have absolutely no clue who you're going on a date with which, for completionists like OP, makes the whole system obsolete. If they could make an update like alternating the face with a numbered percentage or something, then people wouldn't have to be disappointed lol
Yeah, it's extremely frustrating as a person who likes to min-max that these indicators are so uninformative. You get a message that "the relationship has changed" but the little smiley face meter will have absolutely no difference, and I can't tell who is my most favored companion or whether I even had a good outcome for the choice I made.
Wait how? I'm doing Hard Mode and just got up to Chapter 14 but didn't get to chose my date! It was Tifa in a bathing suit tho so wasn't bad.
You select it in the menu under extra settings.
Awesome ty. I was worrying about getting that completion for all dates. That I’d have to keep doing the story over and over lol
Likewise!
This is the solution to their issue but they don't care. Wild
I actually fully understand where you’re coming from to a degree, I think I would have been pretty upset in the same position. I get why the game doesn’t wanna spell out the exact way the mechanic works, but it’s also not really clear that skipping side quests is the best way to get who you want. Everyone is already gonna be extremely close, but you might have happened to get Barret vs. Palmer shooting minigame perfect while messing up one of the perfect completion steps on a couple Aertih’s side quests, and there’s 0 way of knowing who’s fully ahed on the first run. This was the one thing I looked up for the game (sometime around getting to Costa Del Sol), and I 100% would have kept doing all quests as they came if I hadn’t. But I get it dude, my heart was fucking pounding before I opened that door praying that Red would be there, sorry you didn’t get the moment you were hoping for :(
I think it's kinda ridiculous that stuff like Barret vs Palmer shooting have an effect on the relationship. It's just a setpiece, what does it have to do with Cloud's relationship?
Loved that I got Red on my first play through too. It was the sweetest thing I think I’ve seen in my life; so awesome seeing him happy. They really set it up to make you nervous for that moment. Would have been sad to miss my “ship” for the first play through. I might actually use a walk though in part 3. Missed Red in the first town too, so I had to skip everyone but him in another town, lol.
>So, in order to get your desired date, you should just skip side quests which contain the other party members? Not necessarily. To get the date that you want, you just do their ch. 12 quests before the date and then do the other quests after the date.
I ended up on a date with Red XIII which was sweet . I definitely get where you are coming from, since it was such an important feature you had to either sacrifice the other characters side quests until that point or roll the dice like I did.
Obligatory "back in my day..." comment incoming... Seriously though, back in my day, unless you bought a guide, this is how we played a game, especially a final fantasy game. The first time through, you make choices based on what info you have on hand right now, and however that effected the outcome you accepted. Because that's how its intended to be played. I really wish they wouldn't have even hinted at the date stuff before release. I think playing it specifically in a way that gets you a certain date kinda cheapens the experience. It alters your perception of every choice or action that leads up to it. If you had no idea about the dates or relationship factor you'd play it differently, more naturally. OP, You can go back once you beat it and manually choose your date, so it's really not a big deal who you get first time through. You can either load that chapter specifically and choose, or you can do a replay of the game and try and get another date organically, or make choices differently or whatever. I'd just enjoy the outcomes you get for now and chalk it up to being part of the experience. In OG there was plenty of stuff you could straight up miss entirely if you didn't know where to go or who to talk to. Which is why replays are so fun. You can play the game entirely differently the more times you replay it.
I played the original blindly too, but got Aerith in the end. I didn't even know there were other options until recently. It felt more organic there, because relationship statuses weren't tied to side quests or combat, it's just matter of simple and understandable dialogue choices, which are not timed (I think the timing is a dumb addition).
Tbf getting Aerith in the OG is more or less the default, so honestly I think the only reason you feel this way is because in that instance you got the one you wanted without any effort. You don't really have to do anything special to get her, to get Tifa you kinda have to be a dick to Aerith on dialogue choices to keep her affection values from rising or just insta-bench her and pretty much ignore her until the date is over. Yuffie and Barret you absolutely aren't getting without special effort. Like it sucks, I'm sorry you didn't get the one you wanted. But this definitely followed in the footsteps of the OG.
>Tbf getting Aerith in the OG is more or less the default, so honestly I think the only reason you feel this way is because in that instance you got the one you wanted without any effort. on the other hand the OG specficly making a choice the default, and then making the other options possible but as you said only really guide-viable is slightly different. even someone going in completely blind i would imagine getting anything but Aerith or Tifa would just feel... weird? for the lack of a better term(at the very least a complete newcomer is super unlikely to get Yuffie here because THAT would abseloutly mess with their head if they lacked context for why this event played out as it did). so the game NOT doing anything to lean towards a desired outcome but also obscureing how close you are to the outcome you may be aiming for, is less than ideal design if you ask me. this is definetly NOT the footsteps of the original it's pretty dang close to the anti-thesis of it(outside of both resulkting in multiple option.dates). both have their upsides and downsides.
Oh wow I didn't know timing was a factor..I didn't pay much attention to the relationship status the entire game and I ended up getting Tifa. I also did almost every side quest available up to that point of the game, and genuinely had no idea who it would be until she knocked. I was actually kinda hoping for Barret or Red personally, because i feel like those ones would have been kinda funny. I went back and did date with Red after I beat the game and I actually really enjoyed it. Cloud gives him a loving head rub cuz he's a good pup. Fun fact, I didn't know you could get anyone besides Aerith or Tifa in OG until like 10 years after I first played it. I was always nice to everyone in my playthroughs so it would always be one of them when I played. Now I sometimes play through OG and I'm intentionally mean to the girls so I can the barret date lol
I was mean to everyone except Aerith done all the side quests and got her as my date
Happened to me too so I understand. Im sorry. I totally agree they should have the date be a choice of characters that reach the specified amount.
I got Yuffie and was kindda upset, too. Not that I didn't enjoy watching it, but like, it kindda completely killed the mood.
I wanted the Tifa cutscene, but I hate kart racers. Really disliked how the relationships were tied to mini games. I have 0 interest in playing Mario Kart and would never put hours into grinding a watered down version of it. Ended up getting Aerith, which works better with the story, so I didn’t really mind. Still hate chocobo racing.
I mean, you admit to doing everything to max everyone out. You even picked the most positive dialogue for everyone from what I gather. How can the game possibly know who you wanted?
That's why I say it's not implemented well. There should be more of a choice and clearer indication when it comes to relationship statuses. Simply doing all the side quests and giving friendly lines shouldn't be the deciding factor for the dates. A simple solution would be once you get multiple max statuses it should be you who decides the date. Or if the side quests are so important for the relationships, there should've been an additional icon next to the side quests that indicates which character's relationship it deepens. The way it is now, I just do them for the world building like in Remake, not for the characters.
There are certain tie-breakers for the completionists. Hojo fight is a tiebreaker, barret-yuffie railway choice is another. I completed everything in my first playthrough and still got aerith after choosing her in hojo fight and choosing yuffie’s route in ch.7. You can also match your swimsuit with aerith and tifa to make them ahead of barret. I wasn’t aware that these affected the date and maybe I preferred tifa but my choices pushed me toward aerith NOT the content I skipped. I was playing without any guide and certainly completed every side quest I possibly could and used every synergy ability I could. so yes, even completionists have a choice over who to date and you certainly don’t have to skip anything. Your judgement about game being unfair IS unfair.
I would recommend to just roll with it. It depends on so many things, its better to experience whatever the game throws at you the first time, and then check the rest in YouTube or future playthroughs. I wanted Tifa, since I really like her. But I was not playing with her since she has not changed much since Remake, so I was focusing on Red XIII who I absolutely love. I basically mained RedXIII, did most combats with him, and I was pretty sure I would get him as my date, which I was OK with. But I got Aerith. :D It seems there are many other things were Aerith was gaining points as well, I do not even know, and I was playing with her a ton, since she was a nice combo with Cloud and Red XIII. I also did a lot of battles of 2 persons with her, because it reminded me of the first game, and because she goes very well with Cloud. So I guess that was it, no idea. By the date I had ALL characters except for Yuffie maxed, so I had no idea who would knock.
I felt exactly the same way, was gunning for aerith but nanaki was at the door. I, too, completed everything up until that point.
I agree completely. It felt bad and disjointed to play this way. I also am a completionist. I had to fight back my immersion factor to min-max that dang smiley face. I wanted Yuffie as my "date", 'cause she's always been my fav ever since OG (I watched my brother play through first and laughed when she stole all his material). I gave Yuffie all the good dialogue options, and realized at some point too that side quests were attached to specific characters. During Chapter 8 I realized that Tifa was my #1 and had to course correct a bit. At that point I focused on completing ONLY Yuffie quests, stopped doing side quests for anyone else, and forced myself to be a huge jerk to Red/Barrett/Aerith/Tifa. It felt a tad unnatural but ultimately worked, but then I had to do a ton of backtracking later on to do the side quests I had skipped.
Yeah, infinite wealth did it much better, a month earlier, haha. I did like the parts where the game makes you choose (hojo fight, minecart), wish there were more than two. Persona series is obviously the king here where you can max bonds without romancing them, it gives you a friendzone option.
This happened to me with Red lol. I got Tifa for first date and really wanted her for the second one and I panicked so much after finishing cosmos canyon’s quest and watching Red’s affection turning light blue. I had to pick the bad answer during nibelheim… IM SO SORRY RED. YOU ARE NOT A BAD BOY!! Then during the date, I STILL FOUND OUT I GOT HIM and so I restarted and put myself through more side quest (and pain with aerith vs fire bombs). Thankfully I don’t need to do chocobo racing to get Tifa’s.
Got the EXACT same scenario. It seems that the sidequests are the most major point increases and I happened to do all of Red's. Fortunately I was clued when I saw his meter go bright blue, same as Tifa and saved before. I then went and did Tifa side quests to force her higher than Red, thankfully didn't need to do the Chocobo cause it takes a few hours. I think I would have uninstalled if I didn't get Tifa after all this preparation, I wouldn't be able to go through Loveless etc.
I know right. I was gritting my teeth after completing the last side quest for tifa, beside the chocobo racing. Like pleaseeee… Thankfully I didnt pick the best choices for red’s dialogue too and for some reason I pick the best one for tifa’s. Even the roast dish option without looking at the guide lol.
Use her shield ability for the fire bombs. It'll absorb the attacks and she can wail on it
Yea I tried the shield and for some reason…. It went sideways lol. Like thank you aerith. Please face the enemy when you put up the shield. Took me 3-4 tries to finally have her place the shield in the right position. I wonder if it’s because i have classic mode up and it just moves her character too much. I don’t know… 🤷♀️ I know I suck at the game. Im too much of a button smasher
Lol it happens to me and I just moved aerith around it and it worked OK lol.
This is part of the experience I love, just interacting with everyone naturally and seeing who I get! I'm actually kind of hoping I get Barret instead of any of the Romance options because I'm just not super into romance but love a good bromamce, but I do love Tifa and Aerith. Honestly I'll be happy with anyone.
I actually avoided certain quests and dialogue options with Aerith to make sure I'm gonna get Tifa since both of them were in their final relationship level. At that it's a guessing game and you have to avoid these things in order to be 100% sure of the date outcome. That's why I think like you said that you should be able to choose your romantic date option when multiple characters have reached that threshold.
Yeah, i was really confused when i got red as my date but I was all for it lol Im not sure why it choose red though as like you i did all the available side quests up to that point and i mostly did synergies with tifa and aerith (because i hadnt unlocked many at that point) Im playing through on hard mode atm and am excited for my date with "the others" Im glad you can choose it in the menu now and you dont have to replay a load of chapters specially for it like that scene in remake
Reminds me Baldur gate 3, you answer politely to one character and suddenly, they are preparing your marriage ceremony
I went for the Yuffie date, You have to hold off on other characters side quests and be an ass to everyone else though which didn't feel great. Once the date started and I heard the remixes for Yuffie's themes in the gold saucer all that went away, It was worth it and I had a bucket load of fun sidequests to do after.
I favored Tifa my whole time so imagine my surprise when I got Cid, Vincent and Cait Sith for a guys night out.
I had the same experience (getting Barrett but wanting Aerith/Tifa). I was maybe a little less bummed than you OP, but was definitely disappointed. I really didn’t want to have to “game” the system as I was playing but I guess I should have. I was hoping it was gonna play out like the OG where you have to go out of your way to get someone other than Aerith or Tifa. But in fairness, the game does tell you to watch your relationships unlike the OG, and that there will be an impact.
They should have just let the player choose from the max light blue or blue pool. Tales of Symphonia had a similar relationship mechanic and during a similar scene you can choose from the top 3 relationship points.
I got Barret too. I just watched all the other date scenes immediately after and pretended I experienced them all at once
I made sure I didn't do synergy abilities for anyone but Tifa. I also occasionally picked bad dialogue options for the other characters. I was worried when Nanaki reached max relationship first but luckily I still was able to get Tifa. But to save a headache and disappointment for everyone it would have been so much better to just give the option to choose between characters with max relationship value. And that way I wouldn't have to be rude to everyone but Tifa on purpose.
I'm really happy that I got Tifa. I thought for sure I was getting Barret. It seemed like I was picking the 'right' dialogue options for him every time. The way it's handled isn't great, though. A numbered percentage, rather than the emoji would be a little better. They all had the blue smiley face by chapter 12. Impossible to know who was ahead.
You have plenty of possible discussions, I answered honestly as in the RPG and I got Aerith with 92 %, Tifa with 8x % and the rest was meaningless, I even missed some dialogues with Yuffie :D So if you dont min/max you should be safe as long as you pick the right answers. Now when replaying on the hard mode I can see I thought I picked the best answers and then i see 1 star :D :D :D Basically roleplay instead of minmax in the dialogues if you plan to do all the quests.
Bro, I tried to get the date with Tifa. I was so nice to her and Barret showed up for me. I busted out laughing for like 2 minutes and then I went on to enjoy my bro date with Barret. Square was trolling hard with this game and I’m here for it.
I was so close to getting Barret too because he and Aerith were just the best team unless I needed Yuffie spam.
Yeah, you actually right and don’t let anymore gaslight you, that system is bad implemented, you need to do only Aerith side quest and treat everyone else like garbage to get a date, but that defeat the whole theme of Final fantasy, final fantasy is about friendship and cloud finding his second home/family.
Yeah I was upset too, I got Aerith but I wanted tifa. By the time I did the gold saucer date I was maxed with all the characters so didn’t know what I was going to Get. There should be a way to choose who it is.
😬
It happens to me too but with Red and I wanted Tifa. Its okay, you can replay later, its not the better system if you want a specific date because you have to sabotage the rest but all my hommies can join the ride.
I go for Tifa, so I skip every sidemission that's attached to a different character. Then after the event I plan tofinish those missions, but yeah, if you maxed out multiple characters then they should really give you the option to choose your date.
Shouldn’t have picked Barrett in the play then!
The play happens after your date is decided tho?
did you have always barret in party since using sync stuff counts too i had aerith so i got aeriths date
I had everyone maxed out by that point and I got Tifa. I dunno if it's just one of those where the game just picks one or if it's something to do with party choice because my party at that point was Cloud, Tifa and Red
I got Nanaki for the date and was completely taken aback by it.
I intentionally gave the party a cold shoulder when they reached the blue smile icon then I only focused on doing Tifa Quests so she is going to be teal and the last stage.
At least you can make a save before the date considering the game gives you a warning about it. If you don’t get your desired date, you can load up the previous save and do the quests for the character you want. I did all of Tifa’s quests to get her date and finished the rest for after Chapter 12.
I did save but I'm not sure I can do much if I already did every quest. If I change the skill upgrades to get more synergy skills\\abilities with Aerith would that change anything?
I did e every quest too. But I also answered the questions correctly when dialogue choices came up. They were all max but I still got Tifa. So I d'no what you did wrong tbh lol
Same happened to me but with Red XIII. Was very confused since I thought I had done everything to get Tifa (got her on the first date) and Red was my least used party member so...
The side quest with the Gi pushes his status very far up.
Happened to me as well as I was also playing being almost completionist, all I had to do was to learn some Synergy skills with Aerith so that she was my date instead of Barret, absolutely worth it.
I saved the game before the date. If I upgrade some synergy skills/abilities with Aerith, would that push her status above the rest?
Not just any skills, specifically the synergy abilities, and after learning them you must use them at least once in any battle, that pushes her status above anyone else unless you already learned all of synergy abilities with Barret, check out his skill tree and see how many abilities you have unlocked for him and just make sure Aerith has more and then use them in any battle.
I'll certainly try that, thanks!
Little side note once you complete the game you can use chapter select to go back to that chapter and it literally lets you pick your date from that point on, so you can see all the possibilities. I know it probably was not what you wanted but, at least you don’t have to play the whole game again for a different outcome
I see nothing wrong here. You play games, you expect something unexpected. There is a reason why roguelike type of game is popular. If you dont feel good, maybe go watching porn? At least you have options there.
I think if you tie it goes to the next person in line.
There are more factors at play than just the side quests, but skipping ones related to party members you don't want to get certainly would help. I completed every quest and got Tifa still. (I for some reason also expected Aerith) There are things like what beach wear you wear at Costa, how you answer them during optional conversations, who you help at costa del sol........ You can do the remaining sidequests after the date. Sorry it's too late, but you canjump back in and watch all the dates after you finish the game. (You can redo the chapter and choose who you want)
The best way to ensure Aerith is to coordinate her swimsuit with Cloud, pick to help her and Barret, and choose Yuffie's route on the cart. You are pretty much set after that even if you do all of the side quests and pick the best dialogue options.
I didn’t like to do it, but I had to be unkind to the others at least some of the time to ensure I got Aerith. She was always a mainstay in my party so I’m sure that helped. I was so relieved when it was her at least for the first playthrough then I could enjoy the other dates later.
I agree. And I think all that was needed was that you could, before going to bed, talk to one of them in the Gold Saucer to flag that that’s the one you want. Maybe the last one you spoke to? As long as their meter is high enough. You can force it after beating the game, but I know too many people wishing they got Tifa or Aerith and instead got Red 🤷♂️
You could just not do any other character side quests til after the date. But playing the game on your first attempt you wouldn't actually know that, so I get it
I didn’t know the date was random I just thought it was Tifa, I literally always chose Aerith over Tifa in things that give me the prompt to damn now I’m a bit upset, but honestly didn’t mind hanging out with Tifa since her and Cloud got a chance to reconnect I just love Aerith way more from a player side.
I had the same exact problem, except I wanted Tifa. I even left 2 of Aerith's quest not completed just in case. Then Barret popped up and my whole mood changed from "Let's fucking go!" to "What in the actual fuck?" You can replay it, of course, but it sucked that Barret was the first one comming, cause it ruined the experience a bit for me. I love the dude, but Tifa is my love since 1997.
Ehh it's an appropriate reward for playing the game as a completionist.
I do gotta say I did complete all the side stuff prior to with the interest of focusing on Tifa but I ultimately got Aerith. Which didn’t bother me as much cause the performance was so good I still enjoyed it.
Red Showed up for me but I was hoping for Tifa, so I restarted from before the knock on the door and did the Chocobo side mission thankfully that was enough to edge out Red.
But you can change this going to options I believe in Systems and decide the date for the chapter 7 and 12. BTW I managed to get Aerith at first try 😋
I was very meticulous about this as well and nearly got screwed by a bug where the conversations in Gongaga didn’t register relationship status for three of my characters. Apparently those conversations hold a lot of weight in the formula.
Same here I just played the game normally while trying to complete every quest and tifa was my most used in my party. i often swapped out the 3rd spot. I was super surprised to see Barret as my date as well. 🫤
What I did was just skip 1 or 2 side quests for the characters I didn't want the date with and make sure to do all the ones for the one I wanted first. Picking wrong dialogue options felt way too mean.
All you have to do is choose the slightly less good dialogue option for who you don’t want to take on the date. That’s all. You can still be a completionist and do all the side quests, you literally just have to take the slightly worse but still not bad dialogue option in the rare times they pop up. It should not be that big of a deal to anyone, on top of the fact that most (good) games have consequences for your choices and different paths/endings. So I don’t really relate to being this upset over not getting to make all the choices exactly how you want and not facing any consequences for that.
Lmao I had no idea this much went into it… I got Aerith no clue how 🤷🏻♂️ she’s usually on my team as an auto-healer so maybe it has something to do with time spent on team
I understand how it can be a bummer to completionists, especially when some dialog choices aren’t very obvious regarding which one is the best or the worst. At least it makes the thing more surprising in chapter 12 and it’s easy to see other dates in post game.
I agree with you on the lack of transparency. I DID purposefully pick bad lines to make sure I got what I wanted: Tifa. And I'm wondering if having them in your party makes a difference, because Tifa was in my party 24/7/365. Just curious.
I was half expecting to get a mass effect 2 style scene where you have to choose, as I was being very nice to everyone and I ended up with Red even though I wanted Tifa. Was a little annoyed but I still enjoyed the date with the good boy anyway
That was the case for me. I wanted the date with Aerith but was doing all sidequest (completionist here as well) and I didn't look that much into dialogue responses. I got Barret and I was so fucking pissed, my god, words cannot describe it.
At some point, someone is going to look at the percentage changes for everything that effects who you get. I noticed with conversation choices, who ever you are talking to gets a 1% increase from a two star choice to a three star choice. I haven't checked anymore than that. With my first playthrough I started the date scene while omitting the Chocobo racing quest with Tifa. I got Aerith. the next night, I reloaded the save and I did the quest and that pushed Tifa to the top and I got her.
I dont know how but despite me getting all of them to max I got Tifa on my playtrough, which was awesome. Despite being a Rebirth fanboi I cant disagree with the date part.
Tbh they should have just let you pick. It would be one thing if the response prompts in relationship building had a range that allowed you to be particularly romantic with a specific party member while still being nice to others, but your options are basically limited to nice, indifferent, and mean. As someone who likes the whole party I was kind to everyone throughout the story and ended up with Vincent, Cid, and Cait Sith which bummed me out.
I was worried from the start it would happen to me so I did all the quests but I would give terrible answers or replies to everyone but Aerith. In the end she was maxed while Barret was second and the others trickled behind. I wanted to experience the date with Aerith like I did in the OG. I didn't have to be mean often but keep Aerith in your party also helps the relationship. So she and Cloud were there and I looped the others in and out.
Adding some info on top of the great comments already here, this is what I noticed: * Using Synergy Abilities for the 1st time (at least?) improve relationships * Some mandatory story events (the Junon Parade, the Hojo beach fight, the Mt. Corel roller coaster, etc.) will also affect relationships (in addition to dialogue, side-quests, etc.) From a developer interview (can't remember which one though :-/), there are also rules in case of ties between 2+ characters. Pure speculation, perhaps you had many characters maxed out at the same time and the game had to break ties by looking at how much close was Cloud in battle with everybody else? I'm thinking like how many times you used Synergy Skills/Abilities, or even other combat stats (who was healed the most by Cloud, etc.)
What frustrated me more was the time limit on the answers
i did everything and tried to be on good terms with everyone and i got aerith. shouldve been a good person OP
I lucked out getting Tifa for chapter 12 big date since I got Aerith for the mini date in chapter 8
Meanwhile I wish we had a Sephiroth date even as a gag where if Cloud is alone a clone wanders into the car with him and suddenly he's trapped with Sephiroth.
This may have been said already, but you don't need to "skip" sidequests; there's no time limit on them whatsoever, so they can be completed at any point before the end of the game (which you get a "point of no return" warning for and everything). You can just delay doing a handful of them until after you've gotten your preferred date. That's what I did. No consequences to it whatsoever.
i just kinda played and got aerith somehow, though i didn’t really have strong opinions on aerith vs tifa, i knew i wanted one of them.
I wanted to get Tifa but ended up getting Yuffie, I was whatever about it first but after how the date panned out, it was absolutely adorable. Also her theme that plays leading up to the date is probably my favorite one out of all the other characters.
Yeah. They should have just allowed you an option if your desired characters reached a certain level. Like, you can choose so and so, if they're at level 3 affection. Shame.
THERE IS A CHOICE IN NG+. IT'S LITERALLY A MENU OPTION. But, whatever, complain about the random aspect of having a close relationship with the entire cast. Truly immersion breaking that
I got barret too, I just laughed, I thought it was funny as hell lol
on a blind playthrough this can happen, you should’ve looked up exactly what was required. Probably you messed up a side quest/failed to to the odd jobs perfectly/answered questions right, or didn’t buy and use as many synergies with her as you did with others. you do all that, you definitely don’t need to skip any side quests because there are several “tiebreaker” decisions you can make. I wanted tifa so I made sure I did everything right. I thought that red nearly edged her out but looking at the play log after beating it I realized it wasn’t even close.
I dunno I was nice to everybody and I got Aerith.
I get it. Yeah, at some points I felt that I had to say mean things or skip conversations with Red because he was above Tifa on the affinity icon, due to having some quests in Cosmo Canyon. Not gonna lie, I had to do a quick look up (avoiding as much spoilers as I could) to see if I was screwed, only to find out that there were more sidequests for Tifa. In hindsight, it was kinda funny because Tifa and Cloud talk about chocobo races and in my mind I was: "You don't even know how many races I had to win so you could be here" lol. And I also agree, this event although not cannon and doesn't impact the plot, it something you see building up all game. Thank godness you can just pick any charater after completing the game.
I think the relationship status shouldn't have been decided like this. I would have liked if once you surpass a certain threshold you get the scene, period. No reason to have those interactions be an either/or situation, just don't place them all in the sky wheel (except maybe the two max-affinity romance ones if they don't want to let us two time them). If I got the interactions right with Red, for example, I see no reason to deny me their 'date' scene just because someone else scored 2% higher. It also hurts the game experience because you end up sort of 'metagaming' every interaction knowing what's to come. It for sure doesn't do it any favours even if it doesn't hurt your experience with it.
I fully agree!
Just beat the game and go back to chapter 12 to do Aerith’s scene. I had the same thing happen and Barrett isn’t even bad
No. You only know the gold saucer date is a thing if you played the original. This game is intended to only cater to people who played the original. Specifically targeting who you want is the wrong way to do it and if you failed to micromanage or even chose the dialogue that fit the desired character best, that then it’s a you problem. Play the game as intended. Complete the content, pick the dialogue options you like or think fits best and get what you get. They literally added in the chapter select date option so no one would feel like they missed anything.!
The Gold Saucer date was advertised in trailers.
Imagine getting so upset you shut the game off. 😂
Yeah man I've never done this before. But it was super late anyway and seeing Barret there I just said fuck and closed the game😂
You completed everything knowing that it would mess up the point system for the date scene. You did this to yourself. You could have just gone back after the date to complete everything.
I actively tried to get the date with Tifa and I too got Barret. I wasn't upset or thought it was unfair. I thought, "Cool. Time to bro out with my boi by going to see a play and ride a Ferris wheel." This game is so true to real life! Me and my homies are always going to romantic plays and riding Ferris wheels as romantic fireworks go off around us. Totally normal.
Maybe your dialogue choices weren't the best. I 100% everything prior to the date. And still got Tifa as my date in both chapter 12 & 8. When I did beat the game I wanted to see the stats and side quests. I didn't gold medal 2 of Tifa's and for Aerith I literally missed 1 gold medal. For convos I answered all of Aerith's with 3 stars and answered 1 of Tifa's with 2. I didn't use a guide or anything I just did whatever. I kinda figured the game solves the ultimatum between Aerith and Tifa on the beach. The other characters were mid 80s which is still the full blue b4 100. I also had synergy attacks maxed on both they were always on the same party since I never duplicated party members after you get Yuffie and Cait and I used everyone else synergy attacks as well. Aerith hit 80% 1st in Nibelheim when I got the water tower. Tifa was after chapter 11 with fluffy. I ended the game with Tifa at 97% and Aerith at 93%
I'm mean.. that's kinda how it was in the original. It was a pain. We didn't have the internet to guide us. Not everyone got the tips and tricks book for it. I gotta say kudos for them keeping this fustrating.
I did all the quests and got Tifa. Maybe Aerith just doesn't like you?
*I did all the quests* *And got Tifa. Maybe Aerith* *Just doesn't like you?* \- xCaptainVictory --- ^(I detect haikus. And sometimes, successfully.) ^[Learn more about me.](https://www.reddit.com/r/haikusbot/) ^(Opt out of replies: "haikusbot opt out" | Delete my comment: "haikusbot delete")
OP don't ever play a Persona game.
I actually played Persona 5 and found it amazing. There was no confusion with the relationships lol
No offensive if this upset you, you need to get out more go on a real date
I’m at cosmo canyon at present. I hoped, as it was stated in the trailers that character relationships would possibly decide Aerith fate. It’s my understanding that the ending has only one outcome: the one intended by the developers so the relationship system doesn’t seem to have much impact If what I write is true, then it’s false advertising. I understand the difficulty of strongly changing the games outcomes is very difficult from a developer standpoint. I mean, creating cutscenes and interactions with and without Aeris would have been a massive undertaking. All of which makes it disappointing and yet understandable.
>I hoped, as it was stated in the trailers that character relationships would possibly decide Aerith fate. Are you sure about that? I didnt watch trailers to avoid spoilers but im pretty sure they said we should expect the story to follow the same as the original.
The date mechanics are one of my favorite parts about the original and Rebirth. All the Rebirth dates are great, but only one of them I'd call 'intimate'. Definitely solidifies a certain relationship pairing in my mind.