Newcomers, please start with the remake first, I wish I had waited for the remake, and instead what I got from reading this first was being spoiled on the remake's Near Side routes, the emotional impact was greatly diminished.

While amateurish at times, since Nasu was new to writing at the time, Tsukihime is definitely a passion project. Its impact on the VN medium is undeniable, and if you had to use the "soul" buzzword for something, it'd be this.

While it is enjoyable, though, and I enjoyed it more after my reread, it still isn't anything too crazy to me outside of the Hisui and maybe Kohaku routes. It has a lot of repetition where the VN doesn't recognise what is obviously mostly previously read text as such, the sex scenes aren't very tasteful (I don't just mean that they read like a joke, I think they're straight-up tasteless sometimes) a lot of the time, the Ciel route needed 20 years to get better, and the good endings in Near Side are thematic assassinations on the VN. They basically undo the issues of the routes with solutions that seem extremely easy and shit on the suffering and great lengths the characters went to in the main story.

Additionally, I don't really feel like this VN is all that ambitious with the themes, characterisation, storytelling or the use of the medium, but it's still pretty good on that front. I just don't feel like Tsuki has much to offer to me in terms of stuff that I feel like I've seen done better in my opinion elsewhere. In terms of denpa it's pretty cool, and the magic system is a lot more consistent than Fate's. It also has a sort of "grounded" urban fantasy/mystery feel that is gone from later Type-Moon entries outside of F/SN.

Overall, definitely worth reading, and most people will probably like it, but it's not really my kind of thing.

After finishing both routes, I'd say this is probably a perfect remake to me. The main problems with the Near Side routes were that action was unappealing and Ciel's route was too similar to Arcueid's. Welp, this fixes both of those problems. The actions become an absolute spectacle to watch, while still retaining all the heartfelt moments, while Ciel's route is basically completely changed and gives her character far more to work with.
Not to mention, the production on this is insane. While slightly less cinematic than Mahoyo, the amount of backgrounds and CGs is truly astounding.
My only complaint is really that it's only half the game, but I already know that Red Garden's version of the Maid routes will have me bursting into tears so I'm willing to wait.
10/10