I played the original game earlier this year to give it a spin and in preparation for this remake, and yeah, there was a ton of love and care put into this remake and it shows.

Not only is it really damn faithful to the original with how everything looks, controls, sounds, feels, they also introduced some QoL improvements to bring SMRPG up to the standards of most RPGs in the current era. You can carry multiples of the same item, a dedicated fast travel has been implemented, timing hits has an indicator that eventually disappears once you've mastered timing. The post-game content is also really damn nice too. The bosses are tough as hell and I like how there's a gimmick for each of them to have you genuinely think on each of your moves, and the new dialogue for the post-game content is also just as witty as the game's original writing.

Really the only thing I can dock points off the remake for is the odd lack of sound design in the cutscenes. I didn't expect this remake to have voice acting (I mean who honestly did), but its weird that the boss intro cutscenes they made specifically for this game just has no sound effects at all. Outside of like Smithy's but that's only because the wooden stake comes crashing down and Smithy transforming afterward.

Overall, a great remake of an already great game. If you're new to SMRPG, this is definitely the best way to play it.