I really like it a lot. The open areas are actually pretty cool, as they are populated by enemies and such, and there’s a lot of random treasures and such in them, so I haven’t felt they are too open or empty at all They are big, but it’s mostly because what used to be like separate screens is now one big area. I really like that the cities aren’t separate environments from the fields; you just walk out the gate with no load time separation or anything. The biggest changes mechanically are in the combat, which now has like a real-time fighting aspect to it so you can take out smaller enemies without going into the turn-based fights, or soften enemies up before them (they can also soften you up if you aren’t careful). The turn-based battles have some interesting tweaks, mostly bringing in mechanics from later games (but I know you’ve play Cold Steel, so they are mostly familiar). The Orbment system still works like the original game as opposed to the refinements in Cold Steel, which is alright.
The thing that I love in this series is how iterative it is, and this remake is neat because it is the most directly iterative. Seeing old familiar places rebuilt in the new engine is cool, especially how loyal they were to the original designs. The story is almost entirely the same, though there have been a few additional lines/scenes for context, and the voice acting does make a difference, even if I have it in Japanese.
I think they did dod a gooc job of making the somewhat …uh…controversial story the adoptive siblings who met when they were 11 that fall in love with each other a bit less problematic, just by having it be something that is clearly on the minds of the characters early on and that both feel awkward and uncomfortable with it themselves.