Very dry
I think the game needs to grow up.
That means, real physics, real characters.
I know the game is essentially fantasy, but it still needs to be somewhat plausible, especially in today's more adult audience.
This is a horrible sentiment.
Nothing "needs" to do anything when it comes to art and media - Art and media is not made because of needs, it's made because of wants and desires, often the express visions of the artists, not the demands of the people who feel entitled to engage with the product.
Today's audience is no more "adult" than it was back when the original was released, and the ratio of adults vs young adults vs kids playing the remake is not necessarily going to be different from the original.
To say that fantasy needs to be plausible is ridiculous. Fantasy is essentially and necessarily implausible. The only factor important to writing fantasy is consistency.
FF7 is consistently implausible, which makes it consist with itself. The more "realism" you add to it, the more glaring the absurdities of the game becomes, because it's now being inconsistent with what is realistic and what isn't, and it's being so selectively and arbitrarily.
You always have to suspend disbelief or conventional ideas of realism for fantasy to work within a narrative. You want Cloud to stop using swords in combat against people with machine-guns because it's unrealistic? Then why stop there? Why not remove the Buster Sword entirely?
After all, wielding the Buster Sword is physically impossible given Cloud's size.
It doesn't actually matter if Cloud is super-strong etc. because the weight of the blade, and the momentum created by swinging the blade would literally launch Cloud up into the air and send him flying off into the horizon unless it hit a solid object capable of withstanding the blow mid-swing.
So, why does one aspect demand realism but another does not?
I'd also make the argument that the sentiment of wanting games to "grow up" is essentially a childish and immature sentiment.
An adult doesn't feel insecure to the point that they can't engage with or enjoy with whimsical and fantastical narratives.
Case in point, plenty of adults enjoy Pixar and Disney movies.
while Materia would be a genuine scientific product as hinted at in the original game with some sort of electro chemically focused energy.
Where exactly is this hinted at? Sephiroth clearly explains that materia is a natural phenomenon, and not a scientific product.
"Summons" are superfluous and unnecessary and detract from the overall game IMO.
Superfluous in comparison to what? Again, things like these aren't there because they have to be - they're there because someone wanted them to be. The same can be said for absolutely anything in the system. The limit breaks don't have to be there either. Do they objectively add something important to the game-play the summons don't? Not really.
They're just there, because it's fun and interesting.
Also, how do they actually detract from the game? Care to qualify or elaborate?
Likewise the "Weapons" should have been constructed by the Cetra, and not the planet.
Why?
Ultimately what would like to see is a story with more depth and credibility. More science, less ridiculousness and real-time combat done correctly. I.e swords are useless unless close up, so cloud should use a gun for the most part unless he employs some sort of shield, i.e mass effect
Then go play a science-fiction game like Mass Effect.
Cloud uses a sword because he's a person who's enhanced by Mako and Jenova cells, who also knows how to use magic using materia. What use is a gun to him, when he can outmaneuver any ordinary human that might try to shoot him with a gun, and spend most of his time fighting huge monsters?
A gun runs out of ammo, and a gun's damage capacity is limited to its core components and ammunition (I.E facing an enemy like Jenova, clearly Cloud's sword will do more damage than a hand-gun will, for instance).
Melee weapons in the FF universe are clearly the better option for most battle scenarios these people face. It's also pretty clear that the vast majority of characters who rely on firearms usually do so because A.) they don't know how to use materias, or B.) are too weak to use melee weapons.
(Barret clearly didn't know how to use materia prior to meeting Cloud, and Vincent carries a gun because he's a former Turk)
Of course, this is post-hoc rationalization on my part. The only reason FF7 features both guns and swords, is because it fantasy, and the creators thought that would be cool. You can justify it though, just as you can make arguments that it doesn't work.
My point here though, is that this is a matter of taste, not of objective quality.
If you don't like that aspect of FF7, then you don't really like FF7 for what it is - and that point my question would be, why should the remake be catering to people like you? You'd be better off just playing Mass Effect.
I don't think that Nomura will do that. It will be a more controllable version of the FF13 battle system.
I would love it it if they make it like Chrono Trigger.
I am hoping for something similar.
On map, no transition entry for a menu-based combat system.
Have the enemies on screen, and the encounters triggered by touch - like Chrono Trigger.
Then, I'd like the rest of it to be more or less like FFX-2, regular ATB, but livened up by having the characters move about a bit,
and perhaps added variations to the attack animations etc. to make the combat seem more fluid and alive.
This way the game would play a lot like the original, but look and feel more up-to-date and probably satisfy younger and new fans as well. It would also mean that you could keep the battle theme, and the victory theme in as well.
After all, if it ends up being like FF15, the soundtrack transitions wouldn't work very well.
Imagine the FF7 battle theme cross-fading in and out constantly as you move in and out of range of enemies on the map, and the victory theme being cut off abruptly if another enemy walks into range just as you defeated the last ones to be in range previously.
Wouldn't work, and they'd likely cut it out, or make new themes entirely, and that would be just another stylistic change to the game that nobody really wants.