I'd say FFV is definitely more underrated than FFVIII, but I think people have given VIII a bit of a hard time in the past - and I'd include myself in that. I actually replayed the game a few years ago with the intention of reappraising my opinion and was pleasantly surprised by how much more I seemed to enjoy it. That said, I am still not inclined to differ from my opinion that if I were going to rank the games in the series, VIII would be in the bottom half.

I really enjoyed the first two discs of VIII and found that the quality dropped after that. I'd also say I found the character development rather disappointing. The game itself is fun, graphically, for the time, it's pretty great, and it actually has some of the best music in the series, I think. I think to a certain extent VIII is unfortunately placed too - after VII and before IX. Although the latter isn't the most universally loved entry in the series, it's one of my favourites and when I inevitably compare the three games I always find it comes off worst.