>>3826487
Even by that point, the game had kind of missed its chance to bank nostalgia the same way that 4 and 6 had. Most people capable of emulating would have likely been teenagers, and as you said, already played FF7/8, and I think those are two things that really undercut the FF5 experience, and it's why it has this reputation of being the "bad story, bad characters, good jobs" game among westerners.

In Japan, people don't say that about FF5. It's legitimately just a fan favorite with no asterisks attached, because most Japanese fans played it in the right place, at the right time, in the right mindset. There's even arguably a cultural component, as Japan was suffering a recession at the time thanks to a refusal to invest in future generations, and generational support and legacy is obviously one of the game's biggest themes—it's a very popular theme in anime/JRPGs in general, but particularly in the 90s, for this very reason.

I think the whole game would have much better reception in the west if people had played it in the early 90s while they were still in grade school. The game's got a lot of heart that I don't think people were much inclined to enjoy after the edge of 7 and 8. Heck, the west was shitting on 9 before it even came out, thanks to the reputation 7 and 8 gave the series.