A difficult game to judge objectively. It's pretty simple, but it was never intended to be anything other than a breezy, charming entry point for RPG beginners. Had I played the original during its release, it likely would've captivated me and set me down a path of loving RPGs — something that in this timeline was reserved for Final Fantasy VII many years later. It doesn't have the depth of even some of its contemporaries, let alone games that followed, but I had fun with it.

That said, the changes made in this remake are all fairly detrimental to the whole package. The additions made to the battle system (splash damage, team attacks, swapping characters mid-battle) are neat, but they make an already easy game even less dependent on strategy. I would've loved to see an optional hard mode in addition to the even-easier mode they added.

Aesthetically, I'm glad they resisted any temptation to bring the character models closer to the modern Mario style guide, but things still feel a little sanitized. It's technically a very faithful adaptation of the original graphics, but it doesn't quite capture the game's atmosphere. And don't even get me started on the dialogue font, which is a problem in nearly every Square remaster/rerelease of the last several years and continues to be a huge sore spot for me.

Still, it's a good time, and the fact that Nintendo can sell what is essentially an SNES game in 2023 is a testament to its quality. Even if I would rather play that original.