I can't speak for rpg-y, but it did fix every issue I had with the original game's combat, mainly that you can give your characters elemental attacks so they don't need materia to exploit it. They also added synergy attacks that do allow you to play more strategically.
did they fix the combat ai of doing more than regular attacks? because micromanaging their spells and abilities sucked.
You can get auto-ability and auto-magic materia, but not as many of them as you want, unfortunately. And by RPG-y oh boy... the open world is absolutely gigantic. You'll go crazy trying to 100% even Kalm in one sitting.
Having too much shit to do is one of the critiques people haul out for Rebirth. Multiple zones with cities that have NPCs with whole arcs tha chang as th gam progresses, minigames out the ass at the Gold Saucer, a fully fleshed out card game and quest line... It's multiple times bigger than Remake and Revelation is set to be similar. Easily can spend over 100 hours if you want to do everything.
Try minigames out the ass in general. Fort Condor makes a return, there's Gadgets and Gambits, the Chocobo glide challenge, a dolphin thing, the Honeybee Inn dance minigame got copied for the Junon parade (and holy fuck did that take me several tries to get the best result, but worth it), and there's a piano one in various hubs that's HARD AS FUCK. I wound up getting a trainer to auto-complete the last few songs because I just could not do it without my brain getting cross-wired and constantly moving the wrong sticks the wrong way from how fast and precise you needed to be. Sadly the version of Those Who Fight/Let the Battles Begin that's the final challenge for it isn't nearly as good as the one from Advent Children.
thanks. too bad all the fat ass mods are broke
having more to do is better than having nothing to do.