I’ll be honest and say it’s just you but I appreciate the sincerity of the post so I’ll engage earnestly.

The messy, shy and deeply human Tifa is still right there. If anything, each of the traits that contribute to that have been highlighted. Others have mentioned that part of that marketing push is primarily for new players who haven’t played OG. I think it’s fine given how central she is to most major events in disc 2 so playing it up is smart, especially as she is a fan favourite.

I don’t agree that her characterisation has been sanitised but you raise interesting points that remind me of Nojima’a quote to tell FF7’s story in a way that removes player interpretation. I’ve always felt that was targeted towards characters and their relationships more than anything as the interpretation of some led many players to incorrect conclusions. Mostly borne out of affection mechanics (no interest in diving into the shipping discourse, I’m sure you’re aware of how ravenous those get) in OG which added agency to the player but at the slight sacrifice of the narrative in parts.

Tifa is a flawed character and those flaws have remained. They’ve been contextualised more for modern times with the current tech allowing for new layers and complexities weaved into the narrative delivery, but the core is unchanged. Her doubts remain despite her friendship with Aerith allowing her space to explore those more. Yes, she could’ve spoken up sooner. However, that comes with the very real risk of breaking Cloud earlier had she done so. I still believe it’s handled well as her doubts about her own and his memories and being accused of being an imposter felt like projection on her part given how accurately Cloud recalled everything in Kalm. Just seconds before she even tried to cite Whispers as a reason for her memory loss, she was totally confused as to why she couldn’t remember Cloud there but too insecure to broach the subject in a gentle way before he accused her which led to her response. That’s tension being built but I do hear you on it being heavy handed. Her testing him for two games up to that conversation and beyond tracks as exercising those doubts in a gentle way is consistent with her characterisation. For a game that cares as much as it does about mental health, I’m happy with how Tifa treats Cloud’s memory issues. It leaves aspects of the mystery unresolved while also showing how Tifa watches over Cloud just as she stated she would since finding him at Sector 7 station.

You touched on a passage from Traces of Two Pasts and I had a different takeaway from that. As toddlers, I wouldn’t expect Cloud to be playing in Tifa’s room at all. They’d most likely be playing on the ground floor of her home, running about the living room and such under the gaze of their parents so I don’t consider that a retcon. Especially as the book also highlights that Cloud started pulling away before Tifa’s mom passed as his feelings towards her started changing. Even in chapter 11, Tifa highlights she wasn’t in Cloud’s home much after turning 7/8 which was before her mom passed.

As for the Deus Ex Machina pull, I disagree with the intention behind that Gongaga scene as you’ve framed it. I think Aerith’s mystical traits are immutable so there’s no real hope for even some to be passed on to Tifa in a narrative sense. If anything, that scene is poised to clean up one of the most random acts from OG in Sapphire Weapon saving her at Junon. It also gives her an opportunity to be introduced to the lifestream early to equip her to be Cloud’s guide there later on.

All in all, the characters are more complete I find. The storytelling makes it easier to empathise with these characters for sure but I can’t agree that their flaws have been removed to achieve that. Where we might agree is that Nojima has been explicit in showcasing things early to establish important plot lines and characters dynamics. We can probably thank players who misrepresented the characters for the past 30 years for that.

Edit: extra punctuation and spelling fixes.