Shortly after my stint renting SaGa Frontier from Hollywood Video, I came across SaGa Frontier 2. 1) I hadn't finished any of the storylines in the first game and felt uncomfortable/disillusioned toward the series. 2) From what I read on the back of the game box when I picked it up and even from what I read on Wikipedia now, it seems there's only two protagonists whose stories you follow and apparently battles involve a Tactics-like recruitment I've never been comfortable with. I like to form attachments to my party members by learning their background stories and I don't see that happening in this version. Of course... I've never played it, so I don't know.

By the way, have you tried Ultd. SaGa? I'd suggest you avoid it. Unlimited SaGa broke my brain in its questing and battle systems alone. The questing involves being trapped on a pathway from the moment you make a decision and, if you save at a rest stop along the way, you could end up screwed because the pathway may double in toughness after the reststop where you were given no opportunity to change directions. Questing does not allow you to doubleback so you must make sure to make multiple saves before making any decision because there is no other way back from a situation where your only fate is death.
The battle system was, well, weird. Even melee attacks ran on a slot machine that determined attack strength and whether the attack was a hit or miss.