some advice. Try to level up Aeris, and get her final limit break asap.

I love this game. I've played it from start to finish multiple times.

I haven't played it, but I've done this stuff before. Play the original first... then the newer one if you want. You want to experience games like this one in their original form.

I'm not sure what ending I got but I'm certain it wasn't the best ending available because without spoiling it for others, a certain character who may or may not die - did die in my playthrough and I failed to meet a certain character back at the meeting spot at the end of the game. I realised this in the credits but I tend to avoid reloading to change decisions as it feels fake and contrived when you do that anyway. I wish I'd organically chosen to meet that character at the end, but I just forgot.

It's a very special game. It has to be to overcome the fact that it's almost 20 years old and I'm playing it now for the first time. It has certain game mechanics and innovations that amazingly are still unspurassed almost 20 years later. I don't know if you've played Dragon Age Inquisition but that game attempts to have a sort've "run your own castle" system like in Suikoden II and it pales in comparison to Suikoden's. Other things like the 6 character battle system, the best sprite art I think I've ever seen, the timeless soundtrack and the unique strategy segments. I wish someone like Sony would purchase this dormant series off of Konami and make a Suikoden 6, hiring core people from the previous games. I find it staggering that Suikoden II has a metascore of 8.1. FFXIII for example is an 8.3.

Suikoden II is still the only one I've played. I've purchased the first game but haven't played it yet as Suikoden III is meant to come out any day now in my territory and I'd rather play that first.

I agree with everything you said but you in particular adress something I have concerns about - which is the tone of the remake. I think one of the biggest contributors to the woes of the JRPG in the 7th generation was that the slapsticky, non-serious, cheesy style of writing seen in almost every JRPG didn't translate well in high definition graphics and fully voiced casts. Your Barret example is perfect as I too cannot imagine Barrett ever doing that iconic hands in the air, side to side jump he used to always do. I wouldn't want them to do it either, it'd look stupid in HD graphics. That's the sad reality of trying to make JRPGs today. But there are things that I would want to stay in the game but I believe will not be in the game. Things like The Honeybee Inn and Don Corneo Mansion, the political correctness also of Cid and Shera scenes etc.. Do we really expect to see Cloud dress up as a woman in the FF7-Remake, which is one of the most iconic moments in the entire Final Fantasy series? I don't. If I had a gun to my head I would predict that they would not put that in the game. Why? Probably because its too Eastern a thing to have in a modern JRPG (even though I don't think it is) - and that's the sad mindset that's doing a lot of damage to this genre.

I want to this game to be a success because unlike the OP, a lot of people will never consider to play this game because it's too old because they have the mindset of this ednice dude. I have a friend for eg. who is a huge fan of FF10 and FF12, but feels like he missed the window to play FF7. If the remake can be a gateway for people like him, that's great. What will kill me though is if they take out all my favourite moments of the original game and dumb down it's systems and strip entire locations out of the game - and then my mate plays the game and says he didn't like it, and then says something like "how is this your favourite game?" lol.

Love the idea of Sony getting the band back together. The first game is rough, but if you manage to 100% it (getting all 108 stars), you'll get an amazing treat in #2. In fact, you'll just appreciate #2 all the more after playing #1.

#3 is good, but it changes the formula a bit; I initially hated it. On my second attempt I found killing the optional bosses strewn throughout made it a much better game. Also, once you've played through it, the manga adaptation is a fun read. 11 volumes long IIRC. I completely forget what loading your Suikoden 2 save does for #3.

I'm sorry for calling you an asshole.

Ok you're right I don't know that much about this game and the remake being better isn't a sure thing so there's a lot they might change but at the end of the day, and sorry if it sounds like I'm dismissing you cause I'm not I read all you wrote and while it's all valid, you don't in fact know that it's going to suck and neither do I and we're both making assumptions when the easy answer is "wait for a proper game reveal".

Like you might've guessed I'm biased about FF and you still saying grafics hold me back(you're misinterpreting btw) is just annoying.

I'm sorry for calling you annoying.

I would just wait for the remake. That's what I'm doing. For me at least, it's not even a graphics thing. It's not about the graphics, it's the lack of voice acting. 

Even if you play the Remake first in the far far future you'll probably find enough differences in the two to justify playing the original.

So go for it. Of course, that's if you want to play the two games in the first place and can tolerate the PS1 graphics.

The way I see it is quite simple: Final Fantasy VII is a tremendous game that does so much right. I loved it when it came out, I love it everytime I replay it. There's so many people that love it like I do that the demand for a remake never stopped through the years. Without an outstanding game to start with there would be no remake at all so of course when someone asks if it's worth it to play the original the answer is a most definite YES! The fact there's a remake in the works is proof this game is something special.

But according to David Cage, the more polygons the characters have the more emotions they have. Because polygons are inversely proportional to emotion, and people can't empathize with characters without emotions, we can conclude that PS1 graphic suck and can only be tolerated for their lack of emotion/polygons.