GBA vs. DS version

[RedPouch]

I think having 5 full sized people attacking a single person would look really silly in a battle.

Nah, I don't really see why. It would look closer to what a normal battle looks like. Just look at FF XIII [I don't mean graphics-wise, I just mean proportional-wise], FF IX, FF VIII, FF X, etc.

In order to fit everyone on the screen the would have to essentially zoom the camera out to the point where the party would still look the same size on the screen

Actually you wouldn't have to do this. It's very easy to play with proportions, angle work, etc. to get what you want. I understand what your concern is, but it really isn't so bad to do this. Now it would be bad in a game that doesn't really have perspective, and a rigid default camera angle which never shifts [FF IV for the SNES], but they have 3-Dimensional freedom here, so let's not kid ourselves.

At its heart the FFIV battle engine is always 'my side vs your side' and if you have 5 people on one side and one on the other, the screen will look very empty and awkward on one side.

I don't think so. A lot of games have accomplished this with ease aside from the ones I listed. Of course, 5 people in a party is rarely done, but in reality you actually only need to do very little to compensate for this. And I find this all to be over-dramatized, because in essence, all you would be doing is adding some height and slight width to each character, and possibly pan the camera back slightly to compensate. Any of those that have experience with 3D editors [like Spore perhaps?] probably understand. Intimidating boss models are done by appearance and detail, and not necessarily by size [like Bahamut in the DS version of FF IV for example. He's fairly decently-sized dragon, but I wouldn't exactly call him huge]. I also don't think that having a serious/cool/intimidating/whatever boss model means that your characters have to look like 12-year-old cosplayers. I'd like my protagonists to look awesome, too. :rolleyes2