I'm no hater, but I had a hard time playing it when I tried it for the first time. I couldn't get a grasp on how the combat system worked and I basically got my butt kicked. Before you say "you just suck at it" let me say that, yes, I did suck at FFVII. That's why I'd like to try the game again and give it another go. A remake may also help gamers like me better engage with such an old classic.

Alright then, where to start.

The story was awful. It was essentially a power struggle for Cloud's mind more than it was the fate of the world. In fact, one could even argue that the entire game could be a figment of Cloud's own identity struggles if they wanted to.

Cloud is an awful protagonist. He has no identity at all. Half the game is spent playing as Zack in Cloud's body. They should have made Zack the protagonist since it's been proven that he is a far more likable, and relatable character than Cloud using Crisis Core as example of his character.

Sephiroth is a pointless antagonist. They should have made Jenova the villain since Sephiroth essentially uses her to become the villain of the game anyway. I wouldn't say Sephiroth is a momma's boy so much as he's nothing without Jenova and is an equivalent cry baby to Tidus, although Tidus is more mature about it. Sephiroth is also lazy. He's supposed to be the best of the best, but you never fight him in the epic style you SHOULD be fighting him. Another area where Crisis Core does it better.

The supporting characters may as well be placeholders in Cloud's story. The have hardly any back story and no real purpose in battle. In fact you could play the whole game with Cloud alone and wouldn't have any really different experience.

The gameplay is pretty standard fare, which in itself isn't a bad thing but it's also not revolutionary. The materia system was used once, and it wasn't a completely new system as other variants of it existed in previous RPGs, just not as potentially in-depth as in FFVII

The minigames were terrible. Period.

I mean I can keep going on this. Basically, anything FFVII did, previous FF games did better in terms of everything but graphics, and graphics for that game were obviously outdone after it.

You fail when you try to use Crisis Core as basis for anything. The game didn't exist then and FFVII never suffered from it. Cloud's personality is pretty well established, as is said by Aerith and Tifa, who are mostly confused by his memories and facade manneirisms (absorbed from Zack) and this is mostly evident in flashbacks, which are multiple and thorough. You sir never played the game, or at least, not properly.

This is also one of the only FF games in which the leader actually questions his party of friends: "What are you guys fighting for? What are you doing here?" and they all gave their answers, were you asleep? Also, did you skip all of theirs side-missions? Everyone has at least one and some are pretty lenghty.