Technical question – dialogue quote party priority mechanics

EDIT: If anyone actually has the patience to get as far as understanding this post, then awesome.

So I’ve been replaying this game, and out of pure curiosity, trying to understand the mechanics of who says what based on who is in your party.
For instance, at Fort Condor, when you go rest, only one person will ask, and after testing it a little by moving my party around and going to rest, it seems like there is a character priority order, and not who’s 2nd or 3rd in your party. Like, Aeris takes priority over everyone, then Tifa over anyone else, and Red XIII will never ask (still not sure about Cait Sith, Vincent, and Cid and where they are on this scale, as I have yet to get them, but just an example).

So I’m messing around a little with the Dolphin scene in Junon right before Bottomswell. So, in that scene, one of the two custom party members says something about how they hate Shinra, while the other freaks out about the monster (and you can tell who will say what by who’s standing on the right and who’s standing on the left). So I had a party with Aeris and Yuffie. Aeris talked about Shinra, while Yuffie freaked out about the monster. I tried swapping their positions in the party to see if they’d swap roles, but they kept the same role. So, conclusion, there is some priority factor. That still doesn’t mean there is necessarily a linear order (example being Aeris might be with Yuffie and Aeris talks about Shinra, Yuffie might be with Red and Yuffie speaks of Shinra, and Red might be with Aeris while Red would say it). Of course if it is a linear order, the Shinra line’s priority order would be the monster line’s order backwards.
But after testing each of the 10 pairs it seems there IS a linear priority order, the one for Shinra being: Aeris, Barret, Tifa, Red XIII, Yuffie.
Meaning, Yuffie will never have a line about Shinra, while Aeris will never have a line about the monster.

Except, one problem with my whole deduction is this Youtube video contradicts it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhMPAedu4h0
Here we have Red XIII and Aeris, and Red says the line about Shinra, while AERIS says the line about the monster. Also, I can even testify that in MY game, every party I make with Red and Aeris, makes that scene the other way around no matter what the party order, as I said before.

So my question is… how is this possible? Is it just different in different versions of the game? Or is there a customary status determining the priority for such things, rather than a set-in-stone order? Like how many battles they won or monsters they killed?

Anybody know?

woah I think my brain just exploded with an information overload

I think I might have a save close to there somewhere. I’ll check it out and come back and report though the only thing missing would be how many monsters who and who killed and other stuff. This is probably an old file.

Maybe a faq might have something that can help you solve this?

Hmm, this is kinda interesting. I suppose it’s possible there could be a difference in different versions of the game. Sometimes there are differences between the PC and the Playstation version. Zak, what version are you using? If you’re doing it on Playstation, I could see about maybe investigating it for the PC version, if you like.

Since I only have the greatest hits version of this game someone might want to try to see if its the same for black label too,

and we can all come back and see what we find out. Sadly I checked my data and don’t have a save data at Junon (or close by it), but I don’t have a problem playing this game. So I can do it, and check out what I get.

If that’s cool with everybody, that is?

Edit: Also might be how long you wait till you get Yuffie, Might be like the dating part at Gold Saucer? I forget how is that determined?

Agent – yes, it is the PlayStation version.

Also, for those willing to check, also see if your prority order is the same for who asks to rest in Fort Condor. For me it’s: Aeris, Tifa, Yuffie, Barret, Red XIII.

I also tested the priority order for who asks to rest in the Junon house (when the old woman invites you in before you have a dream about Tifa). That order is Aeris, Barret, Tifa, Red XIII, Yuffie (same as the priority order for who comments on Shinra).

Another thing I’d like to know, for anyone with a save file that far in who hasn’t got Yuffie, are Cait Sith, Vincent, and Cid’s quotes for the getting Yuffie event. For that, it appears every character has a quote for the following things:
-What you say when you talk to them
-Comment about money being gone
-Comment about Yuffie having disappeared
Which by the way, party placement DOES matter for that event if you wanna see who says what.

hmm well your last post makes me think about the video in your first post. Mabye they didn’t have Yuffie so it made the order go different? Just a thought

Zak, I tested Fort Condor on one of my saves for the PC version and my priority was Tifa, Aeris, Yuffie, Barret and Red XIII. I was thinking– perhaps it has to do to some degree with the date mechanics? I.E. the values that affect what character you "date" at the Gold Saucer (can be either Aeris, Tifa, Yuffie or Barret) might also affect the priority order?

I’ll test some of the others when I have the chance.

hmm well your last post makes me think about the video in your first post. Mabye they didn’t have Yuffie so it made the order go different? Just a thought

Nope, because I also saw a video with Yuffie saying the Shinra line.

Well, here’s the latest– I tried altering the affection values (for the date) via Jenova (the save file editor) and as far as I can tell, they don’t make a bit of difference as far as this goes. More to come…

Zak, I have to commend you for discovering this new, intriguing "mechanic" in the game.

But good god, how bored were you?

But good god, how bored were you?

I lol’d at this