having played the original and not retaining any sort of reverence for the story like a million other people do, i fucking love the audacity of squeenix to do something as bold as they did with the ending of this remake. og ff7 is one of the medium's most beloved titles, especially for its plot and characters, so i wasn't expecting anything but squeenix to play it safe and keep fans happy considering the years-long anticipation and how much resources they're pouring into it. kojima is the only other big AAA name i could think of that would be willing to do something as bold with the amount of money and the storied reputation riding on this project.
it's fascinating how so much of this remake is in conversation with the original and the legacy it left behind. there's just no denying the history of ff7, both in-universe and on a meta level, and i'm very glad nomura and co. decided to confront it directly. just making it as faithful as possible to the 97 version would have been... fine. definitely would have made it less controversial and financially risky! personally, i don't think i would love it as much as i do now if they had gone down that route. i wasn't even planning on playing it anytime soon, but the word-of-mouth regarding the entire ending sequence got me hyped enough to preorder the digital version a couple of days before release to preload it. zero regrets! i'm also just way more excited to see where they take the story! i went from not really caring about this to being bummed at the idea of having to wait so much longer to get the sequels, because let's face it, they aren't coming out anytime soon!
i say all this being fully aware that the new direction has WAY more potential of turning into hot garbage narratively simply because of the nature of time travel/alternate dimension fiction and what people say about nomura's handling of kingdom hearts' story (i dunno i only played the first). but i'm always for the excitement of the promise of something new, and i applaud risk-taking in media. time will tell if it pays off, but right now i'm
living
in the moment where potential can go so many ways.
and if it does turn out to be a trainwreck, the original will always be there!
also, as long as the combat remains amazing and gets refined for the better, i'd go along for any wild narrative ride.