I'd prefer it if they left that stuff out of this adaption to be honest. If they're making a CVIII mini series then that's what it should be about. CoD is CoD; it's own thing. Though added to CVIII's backstory it is not actual original CVIII material. The visual nods I can let slide but I'd prefer a more authentic CVIII experience.
I also would like a faithful adaptation, but at the same time, I would like if they leave small mentions to past games in the timeline.
As long as it doesn't change the original story itself too much. I don't mind small additions that actually increment the story.
A straight literal adaptation of the 3rd game wouldn't work too well, the timeline was only growing back then, at the time Dracula's Curse was the first game in the timeline, but this is not the case anymore, so I would like reflections of that in this animation.
While I want the original story to be the same, I think it will be great if they focus on adding details from the backstory and all, as long as they don't make up things that didn't really exist.