I actually played RE3 original this month too. I didn’t feel like either were very scary and that both leaned more toward being action experiences. I was pleasantly surprised with the original, but I didn’t think either the original or the remake provided a definitive experience.

In the remake, Jill has a much more dynamic and satisfying character arc. You can see she’s processing the trauma of the events of RE1 and she’s actively investigating the missing STARS members, which provides a bit more buildup to Nemesis compared to the exposition dump you get from Brad on PS1. By the ending, you feel like she’s finally faced her demons and won, and I really enjoyed that depiction of Jill. None of that’s really present in the original, where she’s basically self-actualized as a character after the first game.

I loved the gameplay of the original and being able to use dodging as an offensive tool. It’s basically the most fun I’ve had with tank controls since Onimusha and Outbreak, and I prefer Jill’s dodge in the original than in the Remake.

The Nemesis stuff is probably better in the original, but a few things were frustrating about how he appeared in the original. He has a major weakness in that he’s incredibly easy to dodge if you circle around his right arm, so he was only really scary to me in cramped hallways, whereas he was always stressful in the Remake. I was really frustrated with the PS1 version because I actually beat Nemesis in his first encounter, but then he didn’t drop the weapon parts because that’s exclusive to hard mode. Why? I beat him fair and square when I could have just taken the other branching path, so I should get the same reward for my trouble.

I’ve been hearing for years from fans of the original that there’s a bunch of cut content in the remake and that the original is so much bigger and expansive, and that’s not what I personally observed. I actually finished the original in half the time, and while some areas were cut, the remake adds so much more detail to the stores and streets that stayed it. Quantity versus quality, almost.