So, bought played and beat it (finished it a couple nights ago, started it on the 21st).
Overall, it was fun, but I can see how people who weren't die-hards for the original may be disappointed with the game. It's as true as a remake can get, right down to the frustrating ring menu system.
Graphics are good enough for me, I wasn't expecting a FF7-remake caliber game. The music was... ok? I still prefer the original sound track (which you can enable) far and away to the remastered music, with maybe a couple exceptions (Lofty mountains being one of them). New Dark Lich theme is /puke compared to the old one.
Anyway, now I may attempt to tackle some of the more grindy achievements, e.g. all weapons to level 9, all magic to level 8. I don't believe there is a beastiary, so killing all enemy types might be a bit of a bitch. I should have looked at the achievements before I started playing, and I would have made sure to kill at least one of everything along the way.
And while having voice acting added to the game was quaint, I could take it or leave it. Definitely not great quality voice acting.