40 hours in FF 7 Rebirth. Just about to wrap up North Corel and Gold Saucer. Very faithful remake so far, more so than the first game in Midgar, and I keep getting surprised by just how ambitious this game really is. I really enjoy Squares approach to the open world formula, by having a semi open world structure where you're exploring, activating towers and doing side quests and then switching to linear story telling. It feels true to the original game in every sense. Square has not only recreated every little thing you can remember, they've done so without losing the charm of FF7s world building and story. I'm constantly smiling when I notice these little attention to details, that might seem minor, but adds so much to the overall feel of FF7.
One example is in Costa Del Sol. In the original game, some kids were playing around with Red XIII and tried to grab his tail or whatever, and Red didn't like that. I always thought that scene was funny and added to Reds character. It was small things like these that made the game feel alive. And the same scenario is recreated in Rebirth. The fact that Square haven't forgotten about all of these minor details is so great, because they've could've just omitted it and nobody would care, and stuff like that makes me love this remake even more. They've expanded greatly on the original game, but they've kept everything that made the original game so good.