Okay here's the real question while everyone is still in full panic mode. FF7 is linear in terms of progression for quite awhile but when you get the airship it does open up. So the question really should be "can you access older content" in terms of towns and areas. If yes this is fine, it just means we are getting parts of the game early rather then waiting 11 years for a demo that lasted an hour. I don't need a 1 to 1 but holy shit I do need an open world.
Best way to handle it if you have to do this, realistically.
ep1 All the way to clouds story, ends you with a bang and it feels like a cliffhanger even in the original.
ep2 obviously end of disc 1, big moment and the game has still been linear
ep3 Now this is where we get tricky, either we finish the game or if we have to have 4 parts lets go to where the monsters begin to attack. Big events hit, mood is all time high, but for the love of god you better be able to travel to places from the previous episodes.
ep4 again if needed you just finish the game here, although still i think 3 parts makes the most sense here.
Now again we are all emotional, but before we call death to the game lets at least hear their plan out. There's no reason after all the episodes are done they couldn't release a physical complete edition, but the one thing they can't fucking do is make this a linear story where you can pick it up any episode. It just doesn't work!