I do like how they handled our heroes failing over and over - most other RPGs, FF included- only have our heroes fail once or twice and then the plot generally moves forward into a resolve of the conflict. WA handles it very well, and each time it feels different yet our characters reactions are genuine and feel real, not just "oh shit, we need to step it up" but it teeters very well on hopelessness, esp after the demons destroy yet another town - this time, very much BECAUSE of your party making its existence and importance known.
Additionally the "not really the end" happens in the latter 3rd of the game, so you can actually think its the legit final goal.
I like that Jack (right? the dude with the rat) has a great back story that is just a long cut scene that plays if you leave your game on the start screen for a while - no intro, no meaning, just story set aside from the first 1/2 of the game (or even really 3rd) - the ps2 remake I think explains this more in game and in line with other character progression... I do not know how I feel on it, mostly because I liked the orig.
I do not like the increased "involvement" of the secondary players the remake puts - I very much liked the deep character connection of the three main actors - although I will admit, it was odd in the orig that in the anime opening it focused on characters that were just...peice players - so I guess that fixed that...maybe they orig wanted them to be more but didn't have time/dev time etc.