oop i got a discord dm and got distracted and never never posted this lol

this is the removed rufus and cloud scene from the ps1 game. rufus asks him how sephiroth is, and he seems to have thought that cloud would know something, since cloud is a sephiroth "clone".

(i assume rufus opened w/that cause he goes on to say that shinra thinks if seph dies, then meteor goes away. he wanted info on seph?)

cloud's group believes they can utilize the power of the planet + the ancients + themselves to stop meteor, which rufus finds unrealistic.

but cloud and go are confident because of the power of friendship (read: aerith). the text notes that rufus genuinely trying to save the world is Pretty Cool (so nojima wrote this). and while a location was TBD, it could have taken place on a gondola ride.

rufus also does the typical anime "please stay out of our way" thing, but contextually... aint that cause cloud and co just sabotaged the rocket plan? an npc in rocket town will even tell you that rufus was genuinely raging after it failed lol.

anyway, it was suggested to take place on the gondola ride, it's at the gold saucer.

this was totally a date scene and i cannot wait for nojima to decide to pick it up off the floor and put it in remake so i can fucking date rufus, even if it's as cloud.

now that i re-read this, just replace "finds this unrealistic" with whatever han says in a new hope about the force being ~hokey~. https://twitter.com/ph14basicbitch/status/1298165676465512448

my qs for the rufus gondola date scene:

- what will the game mechanic be to determine what he wears on the date? (e.g. parade score?)
- is he going to "disguise" himself for a night out?
- will i see reno lurking behind every corner, ready to kill cloud?

also:

- do i get different remixes of the shinra bgm w/his outfit intro? (reference: the remixes of aerith's theme when she appears in wall market)

hum... after flipping around thru the various scenarios, im not sure if any of this should even be taken as canon compliant or "this happened off screen, the player just didn't see it in the final game".

Forgot to mention the line after the anime one, he says this is it - their last shot at survival. (not sure what this is based on, perhaps shinra ran out of viable ideas, or meteor was very close in proximity, or maybe old scenario difference) https://twitter.com/ph14basicbitch/status/1298166832981872640?s=19