A month later and I still absolutely love the Remake. I just finished completely Chapter 8 on hard mode, and I may actually consider going for the Platinum trophy. It's definitely one of my all time favorite PS4 games.
I agree that stuff like the Whispers and the Chapter 18 stuff got a little too cryptic for its own good, but it's really not game ruining factor, or even detriment to me, it's just some additional stuff that's just "there".
Not to say I don't have zero anxieties about how some stuff might get handled in the future installments. For me namely, the nature and exactly how much Aerith "knows" and whether or not she will definitively about her death going into it, and exactly how Zack "surviving" longer than he originally did is going to play out and/or will be resolved; but even with those anxieties, the developer statements (particularly the ones from the Ultimania) give me confidence and faith that by the end of the of the project, the majority of concerns will be addressed and the story will remain recognizably the FFVII story.
Like Jirard The Completionist
said in his review of the Remake, for me the new themes and elements of the Remake don't replace the OG's themes and concepts, but rather exist alongside them, even if and when the execution isn't completely perfect (but neither was the OG IMO), it creates a very engaging experience.
As for the more moment-to-moment character writing and dialogue, I find this element of the Remake to be extremely superior to the OG, I find the characters far more engaging and maturely written than they were in the OG (a lot times in the OG I was intently aware of how certain things only "work" because I have to accept these are popeye polygon characters). In the Remake the characterization is far more naturalistic and I love the integration of elements from the Compilation as well as just making the setting of the story feel more "lived-in" and alive. Aerith, Tifa, and Barret all greatly benefit from the expansion and additions to their characters in this Midgar section of the story, especially the cutting of the more juvenile elements from the OG.
I basically see this as a successful video game version of what The Hobbit trilogy was trying to do in regards to expanding the original The Hobbit novel.
The gameplay is extremely fun, I don't think I need to go much further into that. The side-quests I really enjoyed, maybe my standards are just easier to please in regards to what constitutes a "quality" side-quest since I play FFXIV.
And from what I've seen many newcomers are enjoying the Remake fine and easily (though most newcomers "know" the big future plot twists in the same way many people are pre-spoiled on the OT Star Wars before ever actually watching them). And I definitely don't see this as releasing a "Pride and Prejudice and Zombies" story but advertising it as "Pride & Prejudice", I don't think that's accurate comparison at all, and I don't see newbies getting that impression either.
EDIT: Oh, if this isn't already known by most and/or helps give greater context, I was introduced to Final Fantasy in general in 2006 thanks to a childhood neighbor friend renting Advent Children on DVD (plus owning Kingdom Hearts games on their PS2), but I didn't actually get into FFVII (or other FF games) until 2011 after discovering and watching Advent Children Complete (and enjoying it a lot more than my zero-context first watch of AC in 2006), after that I immediately got to watching "cinematic" walkthroughs of the FFVII games (except for BC which I just read a summary of, currently watching a walkthrough now) and discovering this site's articles and audiobooks. I then played and completed FFIV (the 3d DS remake) and then played and completed FFVII OG proper (plus FFVI) on mobile a year or two later. Then got into FFXIV in 2018 (and then beat all the KH games on the Remix collections) and just finished FFX HD earlier this year.