Ok in that case you can say part 1 is indeed a reboot, but it falls in that grey area where you can say it's reimagining. I seriously don't see it as a bad thing lol.

No, what SE said is that this will be a "very faithful," but expanded remake.  They lied.  This is a reboot, using the name remake to sucker people into buying the game because they were expecting something similar to the OG game's plot.  SE has now officially destroyed those expectations with the last parts of this game and can go in whatever direction they want with the story.  Again, this is a reboot, not remake.  How anyone can make excuses for their blatant false advertising is beyond me.

Alright I caved and read the spoilers and it does sound like Nomura has gone and fucked it up bad. I'll still purchase and play this episode since it looks like they've only screwed up the end in order to allow themselves more leeway for the next parts (I had this nagging feeling they couldn't pull off all of what was in FFVII even with 3 games). The battle system from the demo was very interesting and I want to experience what they do with it. I'll take and wait and see approach for whether the next episodes are worth it.

I don't see any grey area. But even if there was, we are no longer talking about remakes. We are talking about either a reboot or a reimagining (concepts that are very very similar), none of which was what Square Enix sold to people. That's the problem.

You don't see it as a bad thing because you like the changes and you don't care about being tricked. But that's just you. You need to understand that, liking the changes or not, this is not what people signed for and that's why the opinion about the game is polarizing (among other things, because the game has quite a few areas that could have been done better to say the least).

To me it seems the harshests comments are from people that really loved the original.

You are not include. Don't worrry.

Not so sure about that, the story is like "what if scenario", that is an alternative route from a game which have multi routes, FFVIIR compared to the original is like that. People on many gaming sites like Neogaf and Resetera are piss off with this "Kingdom Hearts" thing, someone even joked about the seven guardian of light including Cloud and ... the protagonist of Crisis Core will fight against the 13 darkness Sephiroth in the end. Or even better, Sephiroth will turn out to be an antihero and join forces with Cloud to take out an even bigger villain, we are Naruto now! 

Whoa-oh hold your horses there. I'm not "tricked" more like pleasantly surprised. Seems like the majority who "signed for" is in agreement that the changes are fine. The likes and reviews can attest to that.

By the way reimagining is closer to remake. It shares attributes with both remake and reboot. Reboot is a brand new game.

I've read about 20ish international reviews of the game ranging from 90 to 60 on Metacritic (I'm ignoring the 100 reviews because they don't have anything bad to say about the game... and it clearly has. Even outside of the story department). As for the topic we are discussing, the feeling is quite diverse. A few recognize the issue, but are curious to see how things play out in the end. Some recognize the issue and don't know how to feel about the changes. Some are directly bothered by the direction the story took in the end. And the vast majority play safe and instead of taking a position for good or bad, warn their readers about how this may like some and absolutely disgust others. As for the players... well, this is a hot topic in lots of sites. Many people are concearned.

In the end, while there are a lot of people that definetely like the changes, there are also a lot of people who don't like the changes or at the very least admit that there is an issue that might bother people. Why? Because as I said, Square Enix tricked people into buying something that wasn't what they promised. People expected to revisit FF VII story. They won't. Some might not be bothered  by this. But some obviosuly will. It is what it is, however you might feel personally.

And no. This game does not reimagine the story of FF VII. This game acknowledges said story and literally restarts it at certain point to tell a different one. It's literally restarting (rebooting) the story. There is no way around it.

But as I said, it doesn't matter the word you pick. Reimagine or reboot, either way is not a remake.

Basically FF7 fans are where I stand when Halo Reach the game retconned Halo Fall of Reach novel, which is the most beloved novel in the extended universe. To this day I consider Halo Reach to be fan fiction and recognize it as a great video game, nothing more.

Then you have to argue with fans who only play the video games and take it as gospel, leading to a complete fracture between lore and game fans. I don’t envy the arguments that will take place regarding which FF7 is the definitive story. Good luck on that. 

To the fans who feel outraged by the changes, you have every right to complain as they took something you held dear and made it different (in many cases worse) for no reason.

To those downplaying these concerns, you simply can’t relate and or aren’t half as invested in the IP as the one voicing their critiques. This is not an insult, this is just acknowledging the gap of perspective.