I didn't liked the lack of impact that attacks had in SD3 in comparison to Secret of Mana even 20 years when playing it on an emulator like 20 years ago. Just play the Trials remake unless you plan on playing co-op.
I'm replaying SD3 currently (via the Collection of Mana) - the original was one of my first-ever import games and back in the day I made it to the final boss in the Japanese version before my brother overwrote my save game. The combat in SOM and SD3 are pretty janky, especially nowadays. In SD3, you can't dodge magic attacks and it doesn't really feel like much of an action game like say, the Ys games. There's a lot of move priority and input buffering, it just doesn't have that flow that say, LTTP or Terranigma or most 2D ARPGs have. Also while the multi perspective thing is cool, with different events that happen depending on who you select as a party member, the overall story is pretty basic. I remember after the halfway point of the game, it just became a simple "go here, kill the boss" ad nauseum until you get to the endgame. Dungeon design is also weak in SD3, both FFA and SOM have a leg up on it. Dungeons in SD3 are little more than small rooms with multiple exits, where one of the exits is correct and the others quickly lead to dead ends in which you need to beat all the enemies to escape. Aside from the puzzle-based wind dungeon, and the occasional "select the correct elemental spirit to get past this impasse", there are also no real puzzles. Really, the main reasons to play through SD3 are for the incredible spritework (especially the bosses!) and soundtrack. It's also still better than any Mana release that came later.
I played the demo of the PS4 SD3 remake and that was pretty decent. Not quite on the level of a modern Ys but still enjoyable. I might go through that next year just to see how faithful it is to the original, while the original is still fresh in my head...