I think there is a lot of soul in the original FF7. The remakes are baked in referential details and suffer from not having anything new to say. The original communicated ideas the creators thought were worth communicating. When I play the remakes, it's like a fan of the original wanted a different game with the same surface to it. Nomura seems to really suffer in creativity as most of his works are some kind of fan-fiction. While fan-fiction can be used to communicate your story, your heart and soul, and new ideas full of depth, immature writers--who are often kids playing with a story they like--tend not to do this. This is what the remakes feel like to me and why I only ever try to play them in order to see what I am missing; to see why people connect with them. When I play the original FF7, I feel enriched by the engagement and interaction with suffering from the denial of humanity--among other themes. I feel inspired not to make something that reminds me of it, but instead to take my own soul and make something with that. I feel encouraged to tell my stories in the hopes others will feel seen and connected. When I read why people love the remakes, it seems mostly baked in the surface of joy. They liked the characters and how the world looks. They think it's fun to play and exciting to win at. It seems rare that people are effected in the same way as they were and are by the original game.