it's not world class, but definitely has its merits
the graphics were ahead of their time. the aliasing and large pixels are a turn-off to a finicky graphics *****, but for the most part they impress. even today, the music is a beaut, ranging from serene to moody to upbeat, etc. but any RPG's battle theme will make you want to rip substantial sums of hair from your head after a while. the sound effects can be grating sometimes.
the evil "empire" seeks the long lost power of magic for the purpose of world domination. to do so, they are searching for mystical creatures called espers so they can kidnap them and drain their powers. a mysterious girl named Terra, who was once a slave for the empire, gets mixed up in the beginning of an underground rebellion. a somewhat formulaic premise, but the flow of the plot makes up for that. a lot of the characters are well developed, since their backgrounds are partially revealed as the story goes on. plenty of surprises are thrown at you too.
its just another menu-based rpg with random encounters and alternate background, while you wave your weapons at what appears to be paintings of monsters, so you probably wonder what's so special about the gameplay.
well, just like in the fourth, each character has their own specialty or variety of unique moves. such a concept was executed better in this game, since personal abilities are more versatile and distinguish the characters more, and come in a greater variety than in the fourth FF. the best example is some guy whose moves are contingent on particular button inputs, and has a (relatively) large variety to choose from. plus, once you reach a certain point, any character can use spells by equipping magicites, which teach the spells over the span of several battles. magicites also improve certain stat increments at level-ups and can be used for a specific summon once a battle.
as far as weapons and armor, restrictions on what character can use them are not too stringent, compared to other FF's. most characters can equip several kinds of armor, and weapons are not overly character-specific. a great deal of the weapons are swords, interestingly.
the perks are also the flaws. because any character can learn any spell, and stat discrepancies are relatively small, there wont be much difference between your characters, except their personal abilities. this reduces the importance of picking party members. plus, magicites make peoples' stats shoot through the roof, potentially making the differences even smaller. in addition, some characters are overpowered anyway, sometimes without the help of their abilities, which can be impractical sometimes anyway. sadly, due to all that, the fights are considerably broken, and are not all that challenging.
the game is good enough so that I can imagine someone would play it again just for the hell of it. a good enough game doesn't need much reason for replay.
this game is an example of unfulfilled potential, but i was highly impressed anyway. this FF is exemplary indeed. if a game were to borrow elements from FF6, it would have to take them further, though.