Texture issues aside (which are real), to imply the level of detail, design, and depth which was conveyed throughout all of the environments of Midgar in this Remake are inferior to the static albeit well designed 2D backgrounds, is the height of misplaced nostalgic bias. Yes, those static, two-dimensional backgrounds were beautifully crafted and exhibited a high degree of artistic talent, for 1997. We're in 2020 game design now. To somehow ignore the actual laborious talent and effort exhibited creating these computer generated models, textures, landscape designs and the plethora of new artistic material to give Midgar a scope far beyond anything imagined in over 10 years, just boggles my mind.
I couldn't disagree with you more here. I've worked as a game developer, and between today's modern tools like terrain and character generators you can have a fully-realized mockup of a world up in weeks, if not less, with a very small team. World Creator and iClone's Charactor Creator can accomplish these easily, and I'm sure SE has equal if not better tools to use for these sorts of things. I can create 50 fully 3-D modeled characters in iClone with every bit the detail the NPCs in remake have, all with varying features, in a few hours. What once was a 'laborious' thing to do is no longer that way. It's quite easy to do these days.
To better define 'laborious' I'd offer up these candidates:
Climbing up and down a ladder to the weapon shop area in the slums and hearing the same group of NPCs on the rooftop say the same thing 4 times in a row in a matter of minutes. It kills the mood. Since there's so much unprompted dialogue in the game the player's forced to listen to it every time you walk by a particular set of NPCs. And it's not even that I dislike the unprompted dialogue.. it creates a lively atmosphere. But, for heavens sake, could we not give them a few different lines so they're not spouting the same thing at us over and over ad nauseum without choice? They couldn't fit a few extra lines of NPC dialogue in that 100 gigs? It wasn't filled with textures.. that's become apparent from the N64-level textures we're seeing throughout the slums area.
What's 'laborious' is the hotspots being so small that Cloud has trouble pressing buttons or finding levers, or squeezing between objects. You often have to re-position him 3-4 times before he can find a switch or lever.
What's 'laborious' is the camera that, far too often, sways around the scene like a drunken sailor at sea whenever you're climbing or descending ladders, rounding stairwells, or in battle.
None of these things have anything to do with 'nostalgia'; they're simply lack of detail and/or optimization. And, while I agree with you that the original had some mishaps (This guy are sick, etc.) on a whole they were far fewer than Remake's have been so far.
You've completely confused the emotional resonance you felt in the past, with the technical skill and talent exhibited here in the present. And now you are somehow expecting a similarly talented work with it's own unique highlights, to fill that requirement which it simply cannot.
Why can't it? Games have obviously evolved over time, but you can still have games that elicit a similar feel of quality today. For a near-perfect example within the last few years I'd nominate Horizon Zero Dawn. Perfect third-person camera, hi-res textures as far as the eyes can see, no unprompted NPC dialogue that you have to hear over and over ad nauseum, a sky that actually scrolls above you instead of just being printed to your screen (the clouds in Remake do not move; they're a static skybox), easy-to-reach hotspots, etc.
And I don't even know what to say about everything else. So you hate techno/dance/bluegrass..? What music do you even like? Should the Remake of FFVII in 2020 completely ignore the numerous genres of music and creativity that have emerged since it's creation, just to structurally adhere to something from the 90s?
Never said I "hated" techno/dance/bluegrass. I happen to like both techno and dance a lot.
There are some they've evolved well, such as the reactor music and Wall Market, which are nice modern touches on the originals. Others not so much. Just about every track on the original was beautifully composed and unique for its time. There are many tracks on Remake that are simply filler and very similar to background music you've heard in dozens of games already, with no emotional pull one way or the other.
This one's a more difficult one to discuss, however, as it often comes down to personal tastes. My comment had absolutely nothing to do with me disliking techno or dance, however.
Also, I certainly prefer summons having their own unique lore, combat and in-universe explanation, coupled with uses beyond simply being All-Targeting spells. It beats just finding them on the ground.
Summons are better implemented. Boss battles as well. These are two things that they did a great job with. The voice acting for the main characters has also been much better than I anticipated it would be, and that was a significant accomplishment for them.