honestly Mass Effect 2 wins each category of this for me. Mass Effect 2's plot on the surface is very Dirty Dozen-ish which isn't all that unique sure, but FFV's plot is..way too barebones for this to be a contest. I've also never been a big fan of FFV's characters, I like Faris but that's about it. ME2 has some great characters like Mordin, Garrus, Tali, Legion and the rest of the cast isn't that much worse (except Jacob, Jacob's boring).

That leaves art direction, and I love ME's art direction. What can I say, I'm a sucker for sci-fi.