This game, to me, just felt off. It felt like a game with FF7 characters and locations, that never captured the feeling of the original. Crossing the swamp was nothing like FF7 (I know, much longer). Some of the music changes I didn't enjoy (mainly Shinra/Sephiroth themes), but others were amazing (temple of ancients theme and final JENOVA battle theme). The sense of foreboding in Shinra mansion wasn't there. I did every sidequest, 100% non-hard minigame world intel, every mini-game I at least tried, and most, like Queensblood I beat every opponent/every GS challenge. I didn't do Gilgamesh fight, hard mode, or max out mini-games. I clocked in just under 70 hours. Without all the side stuff, it would have been a 30 hour game at most. I didn't enjoy the slow traversal animations, forced walking, and many convos being cutscenes with unskippable dialogue (why not just let us skip thru when we read it always?). I didn't mind the silly stuff, the original was silly, but it never captured the sense of foreboding and urgency from the original.
I have no idea what timeline we're in, who's from which one, etc. Did not enjoy that change, or the ending in the slightest. To also remove that Aeris scene the way they did was criminal in this game - that was the only scene that HAD to be there IMO.
Overall it was an awesome game I had a great time with, and was sad to see it end. Either scale the open-world AC stuff way back in part 3, or diversify it more. Ideally they do both those things.
I know a lot of people who were over the moon for this game have come back to earth, and as more beat it and hate the ending, I think that sentiment will continue. I am happy for those who view it as best FF in decades or game of the generation, but I am just not there personally.