If I were going to create this game myself, I'd have made very little changes, if any at all.
It's been such a faithful retelling of the story, and having played the original probably a hundred times, there's so many little bits and pieces that they nailed. The whole mood, and some of the weirder, general FFVII stuff, all perfectly on brand.
There's a fair amount of what feel like fetch quests, and I didn't indulge in a lot of them. Would've I preferred one game, roughly the same length as the original, with the same graphics of the Remake but a load of the content from this one taken out? Ask me again if/when the entire "game" is finished. At the moment, my answer is yes, I'd have liked a roughly 1:1 game as the original with the uprated graphical, musical, and voice acted elements. In fact I'd have taken one that had the graphics of, say, XIII, or even X-2 at a push. They could've remade FFVII on any PlayStation since the PS1 and I'd have loved it I think.
I've only just finished it this afternoon so I need time to organise my 35 hours of gameplay, since Friday afternoon, into something cohesive.
I sincerely hope the opinion of it being a split timeline is wrong.
And, I'm of the opinion that it isn't correct. And I base that assertion off of Advent Children and Crisis Core.
We've already seen all of the foretelling. Aerith (I really struggle calling her that, she's always been Aeris) dies, it's tragic, but it's also part of what made the original so great. Aerith getting to live feels cheap, and her sacrifice means nothing. Besides, we know she doesn't die, since nobody dies, they just return to the planet.
In terms of sending the story in any other direction, i.e. a different path where Aerith still dies, then I'm not sure. All the while playing this part 1 I've been imagining what the Gold Saucer, Cosmo Canyon, Rocket Town, Temple of the Ancients, Chocobo farm etc. will look like fully rendered with the new graphics, and all the other little places in between.
My theory is that extra content at the end of Midgar, i.e. the battle with the whispers and Sephiroth (which isn't actually Sephiroth, as his body is in the Northern Crater), is mostly fan service to whet the appetite of the fans. Can you imagine how much of a anticlimax it would've been just to leave it at the end of them just walking out of Midgar? This way they've managed to squeeze in a fight with Sephiroth, an early fight with Jenova, leave you on a massive high, and also show bits and pieces from Crisis Core. It's all lore, as far as I'm concerned, and all canon.
Where that doesn't make sense if the bit about the unknown story etc. But I think that's just Square Enix toying with us.
Still, an interesting take, and it wouldn't totally surprise me if true. But I know a lot of fans wouldn't be happy with that.