Was it really necessary? (some spoilers)

[Tokimadoushi]

As we know, in the original FF2 Firion and the gang destroyed the Emperor of Hell at the end of the game, and that was that. However, in the Advance and PSP remakes, another scenario was added called the Soul of Rebirth, where the Emperor apparently split into two entities after he was killed the first time and yadda yadda yadda. Then Josef and Minwu and the other dead characters all defeated the Light Emperor at the same time as Firion and co. defeated the Dark Emperor.

Do you really think all this plot tweaking was necessary??
I personally found it a little overdone, no use trying to kick a dead horse 20 years after it's died.
Then there's Dissidia. But that's another story altogether...

[Crossblades]

Story-wise, it wasn't really necessary, but it's a nice feature IMO. SE added this as a bonus for players who have played the game before. Some people can do without it, but there are some people who would gladly replay the game just for extra features, like me :p

[Evastio]

Well, I'd like to see what better extra features (in-game so not stuff like the bestiary and music player) you could implement in FF2. Also, the personalities of most of the characters in Soul of Rebirth weren't really as fleshed out as they were in the main game (except for Ricard's). Also, a side story of the characters that perished seems to fit more for FF2 than the features in the other Advance remakes like swapping team members (you could only swap in two other members, Gordon and Leila, unless they let you use Pavel which would be strange) or a bonus dungeon (I don't know why but a Bonus Dungeon in FF2 seems weird to me).

As to not let this thread go off topic, I'll respond to your question about Dissidia in your usernotes.

[Hot Shot]

I actually quite liked it. Admittedly, it didn't add much to the story, but if SE added something with high significance to the story then so many fans would be complaining saying "Why add that? The story was fine how it is!" But the addittion Souls of Rebirth just made the game longer and allowed us to play with the cool characters again (Mindu/Minwu is my favorite), and who's gonna complain about that?

I much prefered the added story in II than FFI's bonus dungeons, they were just long, annoying and the items you get aren't great. I mean, the reward items weren't bad, it's just that for the amount of time and effort (which wasn't that much) they weren't worth it.

[theundeadhero]

This pretty much pissed me off because I unequipped all those characters just before they died and then the bonus dungeon made me crawl to a town before I could buy them gear :/