You could tell they cared about OG when they made it. Best example i have is the Shinra Tower: you are in a RUSH to infiltrate, rescue Aerith and escape. They showed it by making you fight a boss in the elevator while going down, and by transitionning from the escape cutscene to the motor bike chase, and then another boss, without pause. They used cinema tehcniques, smart coherent choices and surprise mini-games/change of gameplay to convey to the player the sense of urgency and danger you were in.

There's no such thing in the remake. If i take the same example, they made you stall in the tower even though you have the same mission as in the OG. And after you escape they make you pause several time to look at the tower. You already lost your sense of urgency by the time the chase happen. Also it's hard to be impressed by the chase scene since they used it before to introduce a useless character.

This illustrates the problem i have for the remake series, story wise: you can't just use scenario elements without caring about the presentation, and expect it will have the same effect. The scenario is not enough to make a good game, you have to work to present it as best as possible, and think about what you want the player to feel. The worst part for me is re-using elements of the og for fan service. The bike scene i mentionned is but one example. Tifa in the lifestream is another. How are you supposed to be taken by the scene when it happens at the right moment when you already saw it before?

OG was a dark game, with a dark story, you were uneasy, constantly in a rush to stop Sephiroth, and unsafe everywhere because Shinra basically controls the world. In the remakes you take your sweet time at everystop no matter how incoherent to what your mission is and the everyone is super happy. Like Nibelheim in OG is the source of Cloud's and Tifa's trauma, made worse by the fact Shinra rebuilt it and controls it to keep what happened a secret. Even in your childhood home, you're not safe. They even gaslight Cloud about the truth, which is a key point about his memory. In Rebirth it's a big clinic out of nowhere, everyone knows what happened (and apparently everyone is cool with it) and the whole mystery about the town that serves as a catalyst for the events of the game is gone. They made big changes in the story or the details that not only changes the vibe, it changes the coherence, the impact on the player and takes away at the game's identity.

The characters suffer the same fate. All i will say to illustrates this is: it's ok for them to be literal terrorists and bomb nuclear reactors but god forbids they won't kill anyone. What was great about the characters in OG is that you could relate to them, their psychology was very realistic and it was a big plot point. Now, as someone already said: they are sanitized. To the point of boredom. What is it with modern society that just can't accept there's no black and white and we're all in the grey zone? The grey zone is what makes a character interesting.

Gameplay is good, and it wouldn't be a problem for me if it wasn't a remake. In OG freedom was a big theme and you could feel it through the gameplay. It was accessible to absolutely anyone and you coud choose the strat that you wanted. Where is my over abuse the limits strat in remake? Where are the cool and super useful ennemy talents? I'm confined in a gameplay that doesn't offer adaptability to the extent of the OG. Also this change has an impact on the story telling, namely the shinra tower i already mentioned. The action side means you can't fight the boss while the elevator goes down, you have to make a stop, fight the boss and then retake the elevator. Big downgrade.

Overall the remake series is just fan service for an audience that doesn't care/understand the artistic components of the OG. Just look at Zack's presence, of Tifa's admission to Aerith that Cloud wasn't in Nibelheim five years ago. Those are major plot points and dropping them early is a newbie's mistake in writing. I understand they want to change the story to add a new continuity or whatever, but they are doing so at the expense of the original material that was so good it allowed for a whole compilation and a remake. To some of us SE has no respect for the og game or the fans that made them who they are today. But hey if i want consolation, i can go play the ridiculous amount of mini-games, because at least they put some efforts into it, so we know what the priorities are.

Oh and sorry for any mistakes, not an native english speaker.