Is that last 10% such a dealbreaker that it retroactively cancels out that 90% OG goodness?
I certainly think so, that OG goodness means nothing ultimatrely when it all comes crashing down at the end, for me, and many I believe, few sections in isolation are not what good stories are about, the whole needs to come togheter and reinforce each part, good stories have good setups and good payoffs, we have 90% set up, 10% nonsesne and no pay off, sure you can say next parts will, but that last 10% made sure to kill my interest.
as well as the connections of the Whispers to Advent Children and the overall lore of the Lifestream.
Introducing new rules for the lifestream and the planet is not the same as expanding the lore, sound more like retcons, to me it achieves the opossite, it damages their consisntency. Weapons were just sleeping creatures woken up to attack and destroy, now it can create magical ghosts that revive people? and somehow defeating them changed another timeline?
and apparently you can use the lifestream to time travel physically or just your concisousnes? I'm sorry, I don't see how that's an interesting expansion of the lore but a confusing mess of new rules for the sake of... "surprise" I guess.
Storytelling tools are just tools. It's up to the authors to use them well, or badly.
True, I don't think they used them well.
Those same memorable and beloved moments in the original are still present in Remake. Those "events leading to it and the lasting effects" are still there.
I disagree, the build up to Sephiroth as a villain and the trail of blood, two of the most memorable moments of the orignal are gone, Aerith's fate is probably going to be changed, who knows, Zack's lasting effect on Cloud and Aerith's characters is most certainly going to change, Barret's arc is not nearly as interesting now that we know avanalanche is absolved of all guilt, Avalanache member's and most of the slums survivinng means the consequneces are not as high anymore. One of the few additions I thought were great was witnessing the destruction after the first bombing, but again, that was Shinra not you, so it only serves to establish Shinra as cartoonishly evil instead of the nuanced gray of Avalance.
It actually doesn't ultimately mean nothing. Throughout the game, we have instances of the plot diverging from the original, but the Whispers intervene to keep things in line with the original game. Barret's "death" was one of the more drastic examples of that. Just seeing it as some kind of unearned ressurection that lowers the stakes doesn't take into account what happens later. After that scene, your party goes on to defeat the Whispers entirely. Aerith states that what lies beyond is boundless terrifying freedom, as Zack also exclaims that the price of freedom is steep. By defeating the Whisper Harbinger, the party and the story is no longer bound by the shackles of the OG's storyline. Now, Barret can totally die because there won't be any Whispers to save him. Death as a theme is still very much present in Remake. The stakes and the drama are higher now because you have no guarantee that any one thing in particular will happen exactly the same.
I don't know, interpretaton is open I guess, but the concept of the whispers in itself is so flawed to me that anyhitng they do, including reviving people, even if it serves a greter purpose, seems cheap, especially when you give no time to process it.
That being said, they chickcened out killing anyone in this remake, I don't think they will do anything drastic in that regard in next parts, even blood was replaced with purple goop, to me what they established was that they want to lower the stakes not raise them.
Speaking of lasting effects, the "price of freedom" had a different meaning originally, you have to fight for your freedom even if it kills you,
basically Zack's death was the price to pay for Cloud's freedom, that's powerful, and now it means the price for the new game is killing the OG timeline? and if we take the metanarrative into account (which that last part totally is) meaning you free yourself from the responsibility of doing a proper remake? no man, I don't like that one bit.
Other thing that bothers me is the fact that the metanarrative is so blatantly meta it doens't feeel like an organic part of the story. If there's one answer I want is this:
Aerith states that what lies beyond is boundless terrifying freedom.
We know what that means for the devs and the audince, but what does it mean for the characters within the stablished story?