I think FFV gets too little love. I thought it did battles better than 1-4, and maybe even 6.
I thought FF4 DS was a good touch, the Augment thing was a great addition, but only to go a step back with After Years. Definitely in trying to cram in more plot than was necessary (though Golbez looked absolutely balls-deep-awesome).
Totally agree on everything. FFV may have had a terrible plot (but not really any worse than FFIVs), but it gave us one of the best skill systems of all time. It also has great atmosphere and locales. Honestly, I think it's everything that FFIV was and more. AND it doesn't have endless, needless resurrections. People die, and they stay dead.
If people lauded it as much as FFIV, I'd probably complain too, but people hate on that game like nothing else, and it just doesn't deserve it.
Well except for X-Death and his splinter shenanigans.
That said, FFV definitely has the best gameplay of the SuperNES era FFs. Mostly for both having an actual difficulty curve (unlike FFVI) that's not entirely dependent on who's been affixed to your party at the moment (unlike FFIV).
Additionally, the Augments of FFIVDS was probably the single best solution to the game's rigid linearity/party system.
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