You're exactly right, it would need to be a substantially large number of people. But if such a large number of people did participate, why would SE not listen? What if we had more pledges than Amazon had pre-orders?
Also I think you might be underestimating the size of the original fan base. And the people most likely to have strong opinions will be the fans that played the original.
Also there is a third option. If option 1 is SE makes it for the new generation, and option 2 is SE makes it for the original fan generation, and if option 2 seems hopeless, then option 3 is that SE designs it such that you can do either/both, e.g. active vs. turn based.
If nothing else, at least it's an extra data point for SE's R&D, and the fans can at least say they tried.
But you're right, it would need to basically be huge to make a difference. It would be not just collecting a few pledges, but more like trying to represent the majority of the original fan base.
I am not saying it couldn't be done. I am simply saying that FF7R will be aiming for multi-million numbers of sales - the original fanbase - that is to say everyone who played the original when it was first released, not as a result of being brought on the band-wagon by spin-offs like Advent Children etc. (most of which enjoy those spin-offs more so than the original), are most likely not many enough to create the kind of social capital that could pressure SE to make design changes to the game.
As for the 3rd option - I don't see that as feasible. You might be able to create a dualistic battle system (like Dissidia), but it entirely depends on the basics of the battle system (party control with free-movement etc. probably would not work well for a dualistic system).
There's more to the game than the battle system though. There's also the story - the cinematography etc. Having two options for everything like that simply isn't realistic.
Someone in the fan-base are going to have to bite the sour apple here. That's just a fact at this point, I am afraid. I'm hoping it won't be me, but I'm pretty sure it will.
To add on top of that, I would say that no matter how SE made the remake, even if it was EXACTLY how YOU (anyone here reading this) wanted it, it would still not have the same impact as the original. You can't repeat a "first time experience". There's no element of surprise.
This implies that what I enjoyed the most about FF7 was the first-time experience. In my case, that's simply incorrect. I've replayed the game once every 1/2 years since it's release. In my mind, it's still the game I enjoy the most out of every game I've played since it's release and it's the only game in my collection I consistently go back to play. If anything, my best memories of the game was from my second or third play-through, going back to it after completing FF8 - not the first one.
The remake doesn't need to have the same impact as the original, nor is that what I want or ask for. It simply needs to provide a new and fresh way for me to enjoy the narrative and style of the original.
That's why I'm actually in favor of a complete remake. I can play the original any time I want. I can use mods to improve the graphics and such. Given the choice between two nearly identical FF7's, vs having the original AND a remake, I say go with the latter. At least we'll have the opportunity to experience something new and fresh. And it will be really cool to see how they design the game mechanics and such.
I can get behind a completely remake, if it's good in its own right. But, as I've said before - remakes are not made for new fans, or drastic changes. People who think that are fooling themselves. After all - People with no emotional connection to the original material won't have any expectations at all - these people don't know what FF7 is suppose to be to begin with - they might as well be playing FF15, and be non the wiser.
If you're going to remake anything, it's to capture the hearts of those who enjoyed the thing you're remaking. More often than not, this means catering to those people.
If anything, the Resident Evil 1 remake is both the best example of, and proof of, what a remake is supposed to be, and what makes a remake successful. If anyone for a moment thinks that the RE1 remake would be even half as popular if it had been pushed out designed with modern survival horror conventions, akin to The Evil Within etc. they're fooling themselves as well.
One last thought. Should the oldest, most hard core fans always get their way? If you take this idea to the extreme, we shouldn't play any console games at all. We should go back to text based adventure games like Zork. (Which I loved, by the way!)
That's just absurd. If the oldest fans were asking for regression, then they wouldn't be asking for remakes to begin with.
Everybody is obviously fine with graphical improvements, game-play re-balancing, expanded side-quests, or minor design-choices to improve upon dysfunctional or buggy elements (mini-games and button-prompt events etc. could do a lot of work) - they're simply averse to changing the entire style of the original, and literally revamping the game-play entirely, turning it into some hack-n-slash cut-scene ridden action-fest.
Hian has summed up the biggest issue with using photorealistic graphics with the original story. It works with the old style absolutely, but a lot of FF7 will not work with realistic graphics. I would disagree with him that FF7 was not well written, it certainly was (unrealistic scenarios, like cross dressing, in a game are sometimes the price you pay for having a fun game). It had the right balance between gameplay and story, and it made a lot of effort to portray scenes so that you could suspend disbelief to them. Something only a good fiction would do - and something AC and the spin-offs failed miserably at.
You misunderstand me. I am not saying FF7 isn't well written. It's well-written for its time, its format, and its style. It's an amazing piece of story-telling and media.
I am simply saying that it does not compete in the same arena as a lot of other media to begin with, and that compared to what we considered "well-written" in the larger context of art history - it's a pretty simple narrative.
The same way you don't rate fairy-tales against auto-biographies, or documentaries against sci-fi movies, FF7's story is not comparable to the stories in most classic novels.
It did not aspire to be realistic, nor even necessarily all that logical or reasonable.
It did not require players to suspend their disbelief, because any notion of disbelief should have been left at the door the moment you popped the game in the disk-tray after having glanced at the screenshots on the back of the cover.
Semi-realism requires suspension of disbelief - and the more incongruent fantastical elements are with the realism, the more of a struggle the act of suspension becomes.
The same is not true of FF7 because it comes with a guy with gravity defying hair wielding a sword that is literally physically impossible to wield without having the momentum of each swing launching the wielder into orbit - It literally tells us from the get go - This game does not aspire to tell you things that makes sense in your world, so let it go already, and just enjoy the ride.
However, present the narrative of FF7 in semi photo-realism and that suddenly does not work as well anymore. The presentation shouts "this is serious business people", but the physics and the rules of the universe make no real sense, nor the motivations, actions and thoughts of many of the characters.
Seriously - Cait Sith? In "slap-stick, campy, anime FF7" I can accept that without batting an eye, the same way I can accept giant chickens in neo colors being run on race tracks, or Cloud dressing up as a women to sneak into a place he could literally just level with the earth if he wanted to granted his strength.
In moody-broody, photo-realistic FF7R? Hell no. It will look stupid and out of place. Remove it though, and what are we left with? An FF7 without a soul - another re-telling of the Nibelheim flash-back, some choice scenes from Midgard, the back-stories and relevant story-segments of characters like Barret, Vincent, Nanaki, and Cid, the death of Aerith, and the show-down in North Crator.
That's pretty much it - because the rest of the original game, and it's narrative is a roller-coaster of "teh weird", sprinkled with "teh wtf did I just smoke" that falls apart if you apply the same scrutiny to it, that you would to a Tom Clancy story, or something similar.
Nobody did though, playing the original, and neither were we supposed to. That much should be readily apparent after playing the game for less than five minutes.
This does not mean that it's badly written. It simply means that its really well-written fantasy, but really badly written realism.
There's no way I can have any hope for humanity if not.