Xenoblade 2 Torna already had assets to work with from the previous game and it is a lower quality project productionwise,why do you even compare the timeframes of such fully different games.

Also this is still a remake and does not matter how many times you say it is something else,it does not have to be extremely traditional to the source product.

Except there is no jrpg remake which changed completely the main story like this, the final villain could become an antihero, an ally in the next part and fighting together against a new villain. A remake could change the graphic, art style, battle system, music, add a lot more contents or whatever except the main plot. All JRPG remakes existed so far have changed a lot of things but not the story. FFVIIR did it, mean it's not a remake anymore, changing the major plot = rebooting the story.

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.

I understand that you feel betrayed or feel tricked, but you got to remember back in 2015, when they said the Remake will be a multipart series, and that the first game will be set in Midgar. Everyone was under the false impression that it'll be a 5hr game, but later in that same year SE confirmed that each part will be comparable to a full Final Fantasy game. Midgar alone being the first part of a 30-40hr game is one big confirmation that the story is expanded upon, and in other words, changed. When you put 1 and 1 together you get 2. It shouldn't come as a surprise. What surprised me was how cool the changes are, it's unfortunate some don't feel the same.

As we have already told you multiple times, one thing is introducing changes and additions that expand upon the original story to flesh out characters, expand the lore and add more context to what happened. That's how remakes work and I think all of us expected such things to happen because... well, it's a remake, we have all seen the trailers, the developers told that they wanted to do that... etc.

But literally taking the original story and restart it by changing absolutely everything and turn it into another different plot... that's definetely not something people could have expected, because there was no indication that something like that would happen. It goes against what makes a remake and it goes against what Square Enix sold to people: reviving the story of FF VII better than ever.

You seem to be morbidly possessed by this game.

Are you interested in something different ?

I'm interested in many things. However, if people keep responding me on this thread, I'll keep up the discussion until we arrive to some conclussion. Or until I'm tired of the topic, whathever happens first.

Now, allow me to ask you something. Why are you so bothered about people saying that the game is not what was promised? It seems like you are taking this very personally... and I can't quite understand why. You even try to downplay people by saying thay they don't even like FF or JRPGs in general. Who do you think you are to tell people what they like or what they don't?

Honestly, are there people out there who literally just wanted the same exact plot over again? 

I've been generally avoiding spoilers, but I'm personally SUPER excited to see what changes are made and how the story and characters are altered. I still have the original FFVII in all its glory, that continuity is never going away. to me, this is an AU version of the same story but with a different plot (as in, same themes, same characters, same world, different series of events). That's what I expected, that's what I wanted from day one, and it sounds like that's what I'm getting. 

Honestly, are there people out there who literally just wanted the same exact plot over again? 

Yeah, and apparently some are oblivious to it. SE said it clearly from the very beginning that the story will be expanded, and Midgar will be the first game of a multipart series. That alone is enough to figure out that the Remake is not 1:1 with the original. Can't elaborate any clearer than that.