I had the green-sided “Greatest Hits” version of FFVII that I bought from a kmart as a young teen. Game absolutely blew me away. Cosmo Canyon’s theme song was one of the first songs I ever learned to play on my first bass guitar. I immediately developed, and to this day actively maintain, a crush on Nanaki.

I borrowed the PC port from a friend for awhile sometime around 1998-1999 and enjoyed that as well, tho I don’t remember what was different about it to be honest

Remake on PS4 blew me away. I loved it. The redone intro still brings tears to my eyes. Rebirth on PC also really really impressed me. I have spent 160 hours playing it according to Steam. I WEPT when arriving at Cosmo Canyon and hearing the reimagined theme song. I went through the Nanaki date at least ten times now.

With all that said, it’s really hard to say if the original is “better” than the 2/3 of the remake I’ve played so far. The gameplay and presentation are so wildly different,. But I guess in nearly every way, yes. all I really miss is having nearly the whole world eventually accessible to me at once. Which the third installment might address.

Neither is perfect, for sure. Original has not aged well in so, so, so many ways. And the shit with the phantoms in the new games just instantly makes my eyes glaze over.

but all in all, short answer, gun to my head? Yes.