Meh. They've now all but confirmed that it's going to be a "new story", not an expanded re-telling of the original, so I'm basically going to tune out until the finished game hits the bargain bins.

A few months ago they assured us that part 2 was going to return to the original storyline. Either they were lying, or they had literally no idea what they were going to do and have spent that time writing something completely new.

Now, there's a certain appeal to the idea of an original story set adjacent to the FFVII universe. But the latest interviews have made it pretty clear that Testuya Nomura is calling all the shots on FFVIIR, and he's shown that he's just not capable of delivering of a coherent story that will actually lead to a satisfying conclusion.

If someone was taking bets, I'd put my money on more time ghosts, more universe-hopping time portals, and more giant time ghosts throwing increasingly-huge objects for Cloud to chop in half. Even if there are story beats and even entire scenes lifted from the original game, it'll just culminate in a bombastic clustersmurf where the heroes fight something huge - and probably Sephiroth too - inside some kind of magical portal outside reality, followed by a cliffhanger ending that doesn't really explain anything except an assurance that eVeRyThInG hAs cHaNgEd fOrEvEr.

...Sorry, it seems I've become just a tad bitter and jaded about all this.