I replayed the original in December. Midgar was about 1/10 of the time experience. Never really thought about how much text it took up compared to the original. My playthrough was a fairly standard 40 hour affair with minimal grinding.
After having a lot of time to digest the ending, and the overall gameplay experience that I viewed... I don't hate it in theory.
I dislike anything that adds timeline bullshit to something that didn't need it.
To me that is a lazy plot device unless done in a proper and compelling way. This was.... A lot of Nomuraisms. I am not a big fan of Kingdoms Heart, and the ending had those storytelling tropes written all over it. I could find a "what-if" and an alternate "retelling" quite compelling if it was done by a writer and director I trusted. Nomura is neither of those things. Worst of all to me is now he has essentially lifted up the chains of the original's plot and severed them. I am a bit apprehensive of where the next parts are going with that in mind. He has free reign to turn this into another mess like the what is it... ten Kingdom Hearts games? And I dont think the the enigmatic spectres of fate will ever stop bugging me.
The ending and spectres aside, I don't have too many gripes with the minor changes made to the plot. In fact that's how I would want a remake to be done tastefully. Characters get a lot of expansion, and the NPC hubs like the sector 7 slums and especially Wallmarket look amazing (if not quite as charming as the handdrawn backgrounds of the original, but certainly far more gritty). The place looked legitimately lived in. A lot of work, effort, and polish went into the visual presentation of this game. The graphics in Square games have never really been a sticking point for me (at least not in the past 5 to 10 years).
My main gripe is the zones seem too big in some places. The sewers in particular. I can ignore shitty side quests, I expected those - but the game spends a lot of mandatory time in these expanded zones that add little to the narrative. Maybe it is more fun to play through, but even the friend I was watching stream it said some of it was needless and exhausting and he just wanted to get to the next story beat. The original game had stellar pacing, and I am sad to see that is something that is lost.
Overall I am not too terribly torn up that they are splitting it into parts - I just want each part to be compelling and content rich. Nomura has a penchant for padding, buildup, minigames, and fairly lack luster and long winded payoffs with Kingdom Hearts in mind. So as I said before, I am tremendously apprehensive where the next parts would even go. Nomura isn't really known for respecting a player's time or intelligence.
As it stands from a viewer's perspective the first part of this remake looks like the first 90% of the game would be enjoyable for me - especially reliving that childhood nostalgia but expanded upon and deepend in parts. It's the ending and needlessly large sub-areas that I can't really agree with. I'd say from just viewing my friend stream it the game.... The game would be a 7 out of 10 for me up to Jenova in the Shinra building. Everything to do with Jenova and after is a much lower score from my own metric. So that first 90% the game while not the best score still looks perfectly playable to me and quite good. I just can't really get behind the ending and call it respectful or tasteful to the original
I feel like Nomura could have done this what-if scneario without involving a time traveling Sephiroth or as my friend puts it "anime-bullshit" that cheapens the narrative buildup to that point.
I just want them to make a decent FF16, which I don't think will ever happen for me. I kind of want a break from gaming remakes at the moment.
So for me it's really mixed! To those of you who liked it, I am really happy for you! Legitimately. I kind of wish I could be in your camp.