???
You're trying to tell me that THIS is how they treated Corneo in the original? Yeah, they made him seem REAL dangerous... lol
Also, there was no "them" in the original. It's just Corneo and his nameless goons, all of whom were summarily taken care of within 10 minutes of screentime. As a reminder, Corneo is only in TWO scenes in the original and he's not played off as a goofball, he's portrayed as the spineless creep that he is... and he pays for it the second time you meet him in Wutai.
The honchos I was referencing are the hand massage woman, the cowboy with the monotone voice acting, and the gay dancing guy. All awful people that the writers want us to think are quirky people... if you ignore the sex trafficking. Like I said: tone-deaf.
I've said it before and I'll say it again: when the story sticks to script, it's excellent. But when they try new things, it often falls flat on its face.
But having said all that, I still love the game overall because the good outweighs the bad. Just because I'm not afraid to criticize the flaws doesn't mean I'm a hater or whatever nonsense that diehards think.