Petition to Square Enix to create a new 16 bit FF game

[champagne supernova]

I'll also add that Cid didn't tell her to jump from the cliff. He told her that others had but asked her not to give up hope because he didn't want her to die.

Those others who were here... when they were feeling down they'd
take a leap of faith from the cliffs up north... perked 'em right
up!

There's an exclamation mark in there. Not really discouraging her from jumping off a cliff.

For starters, I won't deny that things are rushed a bit more than they would be in reality or in other media. I mean, would anyone really want to play days, if not weeks of Celes and Cid alone on an island? That said, just because the build up isn't plainly spelled out in dialogue doesn't mean it can't be inferred from what is happening.

It's suicide. Cid literally says people jumped off a cliff and Celes ran off and jumped off a cliff. I'd hope people have more of a think down when they attempt suicide than this.

Accepting that those events are taking place over days at least, if not weeks (otherwise we can safely say Cid died because he was force fed too many fish for one man to digest in a week let alone a day), we have a situation where Celes wakes to find herself in a ruined world and confronted with the possibility that her friends if not already dead are beyond her reach with the world slowly dying. To add to this, everyone else who was on the island already gave up and killed themselves and the only real thing she's left to live for is taking care of the one person in the world she thinks of as family. But is then forced to watch him slowly die the same way the world is. Considering this, it's not even a large step, let alone any sort of leap, to understand exactly why she tries to kill herself. Finding Locke's bandanna on the bird afterward gives her something else to hope for though because she thinks that someone else she cares about may still be alive. This is one of the things that I like about this scene actually because they didn't have to spell everything out. If it's not obvious that Celes would be losing hope and running out of reasons to live in this sort of situation then I'm not sure how it can be made more obvious without beating the player over the head.

But most of this you are inferring. Nowhere in the game does it suggest this takes place over days. It's fairly easy to suggest time has gone past - fade to black and then from back. And yes, you can understand why she'd try to kill herself. But there is never any indication, apart from 2 lines of dialogue, that she understood why she should kill herself. And yes, this is a video game and we can't have weeks of gameplay of Celes getting slowly depressed. But they could just show snippets of scenes: Celes burying Cid, her sitting around doing nothing at the house, sitting at the beach, so on, until she finally says something akin to what she says there: everybody's gone.

If they had done something like that, it would have been a good example of storytelling. The way it comes across is - let's do something dramatic and make our character jump off a cliff.

Compare this to the end of Disc 2 of VII.

(The scene fades in to show Cloud and Tifa alone on the bridge. Tifa is
still watching the clouds go by.)

Cloud
"What are you going to do, Tifa?"

(She turns to him)

Tifa
"Did you forget?"
"I'm... all alone. I don't have anywhere to go."

(The scene fades out, then in to show Cloud and Tifa on a grassy hill.
Tifa stands close to the camera, looking past the player. Cloud is behind
her, staring in another direction. The Highwind hovers above. The only
sound is that of the wind.)

Tifa
"Everyone's gone..."

Cloud
"Yeah, we don't have anywhere or anyone to go home to."

(She looks down.)

Tifa
"You're right..."

(A pause. She looks up and straightens her hair with one hand.)

Tifa
"But... I'm sure someday... they'll come back, don't you think?"

(He crosses his arms)

Cloud
"Hmm... I wonder...?"
"Everyone has an irreplaceable something they're holding on to..."
"But this time, our opponent..."

(A long pause. The sound of the wind fades. Tifa nods)

Tifa
"Hmm... But that's all right, even if no one comes back."
"As long as I'm with you... As long as you're by my side... I
won't give up even if I'm scared."

(He uncrosses his arms and looks at Tifa.)

Cloud
"...... Tifa......"

(She moves her arms behind her.)

Tifa
"No matter how close we are... We were far apart... before this."
"But when we were in the Lifestream surrounded by all those
screams of anguish, I thought I heard your voice..."

(She closes her eyes, crying softly. Her arms fall to her sides and she
bows her head.)

Tifa
"...sniff... you probably don't remember this..."
"But deep in my heart I heard you calling my name... Or at least
I thought I did..."

(Cloud looks away and puts a hand to his face)

Cloud
"Yeah... At that time I heard you calling me."
"You were calling me back in from the stream of consciousness in
the Lifestream."

(He lowers his hand. He nods)

Cloud
"After all, I promised. That if anything were to ever happen to
you, I would come to help."

(Tifa opens her eyes and looks up.)

Tifa
"Cloud...? Do you think the stars can hear us?"

(She gazes off to one side)

Tifa
"Do you think they see how hard we're fighting for them?"

(Cloud looks up at the sky.)

Cloud
"I dunno... But..."
"Whether they are or not, we still have to do what we can. And
believe in ourselves..."
"Someday we'll find the answer. Right, Tifa?"
"That's what I learned from you when I was in the Lifestream."

(She nods)

Tifa
"Yeah...... that's right..."

(Cloud stares off into the distance. He turns away from her slightly and
lowers his head.)

Cloud
"Hey, Tifa...... I...... There are a lot of things I wanted to
talk to you about."

(He shakes his head slowly.)

Cloud
"But now that we're together like this, I don't know what I
really wanted to say..."
"I guess nothing's changed at all... Kind of makes you want to
laugh..."

(Tifa shakes her head)

Tifa
"Cloud... Words aren't the only thing that tell people what
you're thinking..."

(Cloud looks at her. She continues to stare past the player, into space.
She straightens her hair again with one hand.)

Cloud
"............"

(She closes her eyes. The camera pans up, past her, to the sky, as the
scene fades to black.)

(The scene fades in once more to the grassy hill. It is still mostly dark
out, but the hint of a sun is glowing beyond the horizon. Cloud and Tifa
are seated on a small rise in the ground. Tifa is resting her head on his
shoulder; both are dozing. Cloud lifts his head slightly.)

Cloud
"............It's almost dawn..."

Tifa
"H, huh...?"

(He lifts his head further, just enough so that he can look at her.)

Cloud
"Sorry. Did I wake you...? It's almost dawn, Tifa."

(She lifts her head off his shoulder and looks around sleepily.)

Tifa
"Umm... G, good morning... Cloud."
"Give me a little longer... Just a little bit longer..."

(She rests his head on his shoulder again.)

Tifa
"This day will never come again... So let me have this moment..."

(He nods)

Cloud
"Yeah... okay."

(He lowers his head again.)

Cloud
"This is probably the last time we'll have together......"

(The scene fades to black)

What happens there is fairly (if not deliberately) ambiguous, but the way I see it, it is a much more realistic representation of how the two of them would get together than Celes is a representation of how despair would drive someone to jump off a cliff.

EDIT: I counted the credits and there's 300 odd people, which is where I got my figure. Actual individuals on the development teams is a more relevant number. Although I can't find a number for this for VI.