But to use a remake as a smokescreen to reimagine the original and in some strange convoluted way make it a sequel as well is so much more up my alley. In the end if you love the original it's still there.

This is a very good point, and I know a very divisive topic in the FF7 community! Thinking on it a bit, I actually do agree with you regarding the concept of the remake, and turning a turn-based RPG into an ARPG is also a pretty interesting!

But like…the gameplay/controls for FF7 feel…not great, and a lot of dialogue/cut scene movement feel so cheesy, lol. I know the original had cheesy moments, but they weren’t fully cinematic cutscenes, so they had a less of a jarring impact on me.

I had also played DMC5 directly before it, and the combat in that game is so fluid, and the cheese worked for me! So from my perspective at the time, SqEnix had turned a great tbRPG into a kind of mid-ARPG with amazing graphics and soundtrack (seriously, everyone looks AMAZING, and the rerecorded tracks from the original game BANG). But that’s it.

Your comment made consider that maybe I should go back and give 7R another try, especially with Rebirth coming out soon. Thanks for the discussion!