tl:dr I need to write the train sequence as anything other than a simulation.
So I'm not very well known here, I wrote a full novelization of FF7 CRISIS CORE as a pet-project. When I ripped the serial numbers off the first cutscene in the game to see if the story stood on its own, everyone hated it. This is a problem as I want the story to not just resonate with a handful of fans, but with people who read novels in general. Hence, the opening train sequence has to go.
The original SqE concept is that Zack and Angeal get in a shootout 007 style on top of a train, save the day, but Zack screws up in a fight against Sephiroth and the entire scene disintegrates, revealing the whole mission to be a pixelated hologram. Everyone HATED this (even most ppl who knew about the game). I've done some damage control and rewritten it to where there is no train, Zack and Angeal get into a 007 fight in the Train Graveyard, and the objective is to save Reactor 1 from blowing up. Zack messes up and types the abort code in wrong, which blows up the facility anyway and the scene disintegrates revealing everything to be a simulation. People seem to like this better.
What everyone is still irate about is the whole fact that it's a "simulation." I've gotten feedback that it's a complete letdown and I see their point. Someone had the idea to change it to a dream sequence, in which Zack wakes up instead of the whole mission disintegrating to a training room. There is always the option to make it an actual mission but it would have to succeed, and then what is even the point of the game's story? I kinda wanted to scrap the whole thing and make it a failed duel against Sephiroth, in which he tells Angeal "he's not ready" and we jump straight to story, but I have a feeling it would turn into a logistical nightmare.
What do you guys think? How would fans of the game want to see the simulation thing made less anti-climactic? Or what would you want them to do instead?
(Shoutout to awesome posters in the acknowledgements)