I haven't read the novel but the first chapter seemed very confusing for me indeed after trying to read it twice, due to how rushed it is, i was checking out the older manga and it turned out that the MC had much backstory during the first chapter.
I get how the mistake of the first manga is overload of dialogue and information that it gives us and plus the artstyle that i didn't like that much compared to the remake, but i could say that the remake has presented far less information than needed in order to enjoy and understand the story.
(In short) LOTM Remake: 'Story-line' < 'Quality of art'