Would this appeal to someone who greatly prefers FFV to FFVI?
I didn't really care for the characters in VI and found the gameplay inferior to the more systems driven approach in V.
Unequivocally
yes. While it shares some aesthetics with VI, it has a job system not dissimilar to V, and greatly rewards people exploring and finding synergy within that job system — as well as creative use of its original Break/Boost systems.
It's essentially a JRPG's take on an open-world where the player has complete agency over what they do, where they go, what they acquire, and when.
Goddamn it. Why is it not on sale in the NA shop too. :(
If it isn't going on sale in the U.S. eShop, presumably you can change your region.
Someone who has played a lot and exploited these systems:
What is the main benefit to exploring secondary classes? I've unlocked a few, and I've switched some classes around for some of my characters, but I'm not sure if I'm seeing any major benefits yet or what I'm supposed to be exploiting. For example, I turned Ophelia into an apothecary, and I guess it's cool that she can use an axe now, but what else?
Are you looking mainly to stack different job passive skills, or do certain classes give significant stat buffs to certain characters?
Can you give me an example of a non spoilery combo you found useful?
The long-term goal of using the sub-job system is to learn passive skills, which your characters can equip four of regardless of their current jobs (e.g. you can learn a Scholar's passives on Primrose, then change her to a Thief and still equip those Scholar passives).
Short-term benefit of changing your characters' class combinations would be weapon/magic type coverage for breaking, access to a certain job's active skillset, etc.
As you fully unlock each class' passive abilities, stay on the lookout for ones that would benefit other characters. A common and extremely powerful example is the Cleric's final passive, Saving Grace, which allows that character to be overhealed beyond their total HP. That's potent on any and every character, so every character has a reason to spend JP in the Cleric job.
The Warrior's final passive, Surpassing Power, is another crucial one for endgame builds, because it changes a character's damage cap from 9,999 to 99,999.
As for job combinations for each character, well, there's loads of viable builds. Without mentioning advanced jobs: Thief/Merchant for Therion makes him a useful SP battery and support debuffer for your team. Apothecary/Warrior makes Alfyn a meaty tank who can still use his Concoct to be a healer, too. Merchant/Cleric or Merchant/Scholar allows Tressa to offensively spend SP because she can Rest to regain SP (Therion can do the same thing with SP Thief).