As this was likely the last time that I would ever play it (I had beaten it at least twice before, probably three times), I decided that I was going to "100% the game" by earning all of the achievements available for it on Steam. This included beating the Ruby and Emerald Weapons, getting my characters to level 99, maxing out all of the materia (the Enemy Skill materia is the hardest), finding all of the character's level four limit breaks, and earning 99,999,999 gil--all things that I had never taken the time to do before. It required a lot of grinding, and I was reminded why I always before ran out of patience and just ended the game. Thankfully, there are plenty of online guides to help as some of the achievements required playing one-time events perfectly or patiently hunting specific monsters in specific areas who only appeared rarely and randomly.
I still enjoyed playing the old game. Sure, the graphics and animations are considerably dated, and the translation is questionable in places, but the game is still fun to play, and the story--as convoluted and inexplicable as it can get--is still riveting. I especially enjoyed experimenting with new and powerful strategies that I had not considered before (I really love the Mime materia now).
Still, the Remake took almost everything I liked in the original game and made it better. The combat, the mechanics, the story, and (of course) the graphics and sound are all what I feel the original game was meant to be and better reflect my memories of the game than playing the original game did. I also better appreciated some of the changes that the Remake made to the characters and story, as the Remake--while still a fantasy--felt quite a bit more real.
It was nice playing through an old favorite again, but a little sad as well, for I know I don't want to put that kind of time into playing it again.