Thanks I'll update the thread title

Great game. Best gameplay in the series since the PS1 titles. For sure.

I don’t think the added story elements were necessary to make it a “stand alone” experience, but I’m curious to see where they go from here.

It’s interesting to see the reactions to it all. Like many people misinterpret some stuff, but I can understand the worries about those elements.

I don’t think any of the major story beats will be changed, but it does seem like the devs opened things up a little for themselves so they can play around with the ways or methods to get to those major story beats.

Most of the story elements are exceptionally well done though, and I had a blast going through the game. This shit is at times relentless and gets the heart pounding!!

Some people seem to think a particular character survived. I don’t understand why they’d think that. Since all we saw of that character were flashbacks. 

In the end, I don’t think the meltdowns are justified. This is, along with RE2, the best remake of a game I’ve ever seen. And I can’t wait to see how the second part plays out.

But one thing is for sure, Square-Enix is doing a Jenova on the players and tries to manipulate them into thinking things will play out differently than in the original. Which is understandable since they most likely want a certain event to be as impactful as it was in the original...

My guess is that the devs don't know what to do with the more open parts of the game and are using the alterations/additions to make it easier on themselves when tackling those parts.

I had no problem with those parts. Since it makes sense. Tifa wouldn’t wait long to ask Cloud what the heck is wrong with him, for example. 

But I think there are many things that will be addressed in Cloud’s flashback sequence in Kalm, at the beginning of part 2. If they don’t change that up. That would be unfortunate if they didn’t use that part to serve as a sort of story digest to kickstart the game and put everyone (characters and gamers alike) on the same page.

It’s unfortunate in a sense to have already experienced the story, because it is impossible for it to have the same impact on you since you understand pretty much everything that is going on already, minus the ghosts stuff.

Because we have experienced the original, we have pre-conceived expectations, and may not be as open to divergence in story elements and whatnot. If it was our first time experiencing this story, everything would feel fresh, expectations would be a different kind, and the story would have a different impact and feel, without having us make a direct comparison to how things are in the original.

I kind of envy the gamers who are experiencing this story without those shackles.

Are you joking? Do you expect to run 10-15 steps every time to reach a new corridor?

There's actually additional content and there's padding in existing content as well. Chapter 4 is completely new stuff and Chapter 5 is old content greatly modified and enhanced.

I am already 80 hours in and still having fun replaying everything.

People need to have an open mind for this game and apparently that's something rare in these days.
See it as a standalone game, of very high quality, excellent gameplay, music, and characters I might add. Yes, they have made some changes to the story and timeline of events but I personally don't mind at all. How could it have been exactly similar? For one thing, that leaves nothing open and thus nothing to long for.

I am curious to see where it goes for part 2!

Some elements could have been portrayed even darker for my taste and the story is... well, you have to look past what you know from the original!

But all in all, I am a very, very, satisfied customer and have not been this excited about a game since the Ps1/2 days. And if you'll excuse me, I am going back to chapter 3. 

Think about what your asking - Imagine getting a to a new town in an overworld map in any Final Fantasy vs the same journey in world made to scale. It SE kept the same scale from original it would take 5 steps to reach end of every dungeon.

Ok I'm very early on but ... what the absolute fuck is going on in this game

There's an assumption that you've played the first.  Otherwise I can see some parts being confusing.