I want to force myself to finish the HD version. Is it worth it?
I would say no, the games are fairly archaic by now. You'd super miss some of the modern entries' conveniences and streamlining.
Fond of the dungeons despite a few stinkers, but combat is significantly more stiff, certainly.
No free run, no side steps, some characters just felt bad to play (looking at you Sheena), Overlimit was difficult to trigger, Mystic Artes had obscure conditions, Exsphere system was meh. I don't remember if you could free target spells.