I loved the combat system, so I enjoyed every fight in game (except flying monsters in the first game if you didn't have barret around). I think it's my favourite hybrid combat system that allows both tactical and reactionary attacks and shines the most when you're juggling between characters to get the ATB gauges up on everyone as quickly as possible so you have more toys to play with constantly.

The Yuffie DLC (Intermission) then expands upon the traversal mechanics and team based combat mechanics which were a whole lot of fun. A lot of this carried over to Rebirth as well but expanded upon again. Still ended up with Yuffie being one of the most fun to play though because she was originally designed to play mostly solo from her DLC, but having a character that is more fun to play isn't a bad thing obviously.

Story wise, without spoiling too much, I love how, much like a lot of the mechanics, tries to expand upon old elements rather than outright replace them. And the story being some kind of pseudo-sequel where meta-textuality enhances the experience it ensures that these games are not replacements of the original. Which makes me laud it up in the highest regards. If they had just tried to replicate everything I think it would've felt even weirder it trying to be a wholesale replacement of the original like a lot of standard remakes try to be (think resi and silent hill). I don't know how others can replicate what square is doing though since a lot of it is rooted in it's story and doesn't deviate far from the elements introduced in the original and the compilation games. Resi could not have replicated this intertextuality between versions of the game. You could argue silent hill could due to its story elements but they just focused on making it an enhanced version of the original.

I think I'm starting to ramble too much now so I'll start to end it. I think the fact I can ramble about these games and gush about them so much shows how much I love them.

Other than astro bot rebirth was one of the most refreshing breaths in gaming for me, despite me more often than not despising both large open worlds and ubi style towers. Yet I felt compelled to almost 100% the game just due to the amount of fun I was having that I could just not get anywhere else.

And now I have two extra games (eventually three) I can regularly replay for my FFVII itch, alongside the original which has been a bi-yearly ritual to replay since before my age was in double digits. I couldn't be happier. Though Rebirth will always be the highlight when replaying just due to the combat overhauls they made which in retrospect makes the first look like a tech demo.