The remake is interesting in that it very clearly from the start isn't intending to be a simple remake and is instead going to tell a different story parallel to that of the original, itself serving as a meta narrative about the legacy of the game in our culture.
The things it does well are the boss battles and some of the now expanded narrative sequences. The character models for all the main characters are incredible too, (though I'll always think that Nomura didn't necessarily have to take the Tifa design in the delicate anime figurine direction) and the music is outstanding.
As for what it does less well... FFVII was a very formative game for me when it came out, I've played it many times in the decades since and had my recent playthrough just before attempting this remake. Certain things just "belong" to FF7 in my view, so to a new player maybe they won't care but the sunnier and more upbeat/populated interpretation of the slums doesn't at all rhyme with the dour, dark, and sketchy slums of the original. A ton of the personality of the game is gone in this remake overall, and some sequences such as the Shinra HQ one are just outright inferior to the original. There's also just a lot of stuff that is straight up not fun, which makes you wonder why things which took a minute or three in the original had to be expanded into a few hours of monotony.
It's a good game, and hopefully gets people to check out the original, it might be interesting to contrast and compare what is changed and what you prefer.
I did play a few hours of the INTERgrade dlc with Yuffie, personally I found it incredibly uninteresting as it has nothing at all to do with events from the original and functions more as a way for players to get some extra gameplay and content they liked from the remake. In that sense it's totally fine, just completely not why I'm here for this game personally.
The things it does well are the boss battles and some of the now expanded narrative sequences. The character models for all the main characters are incredible too, (though I'll always think that Nomura didn't necessarily have to take the Tifa design in the delicate anime figurine direction) and the music is outstanding.
As for what it does less well... FFVII was a very formative game for me when it came out, I've played it many times in the decades since and had my recent playthrough just before attempting this remake. Certain things just "belong" to FF7 in my view, so to a new player maybe they won't care but the sunnier and more upbeat/populated interpretation of the slums doesn't at all rhyme with the dour, dark, and sketchy slums of the original. A ton of the personality of the game is gone in this remake overall, and some sequences such as the Shinra HQ one are just outright inferior to the original. There's also just a lot of stuff that is straight up not fun, which makes you wonder why things which took a minute or three in the original had to be expanded into a few hours of monotony.
It's a good game, and hopefully gets people to check out the original, it might be interesting to contrast and compare what is changed and what you prefer.
I did play a few hours of the INTERgrade dlc with Yuffie, personally I found it incredibly uninteresting as it has nothing at all to do with events from the original and functions more as a way for players to get some extra gameplay and content they liked from the remake. In that sense it's totally fine, just completely not why I'm here for this game personally.