I know I'm going to get tied to a stake and burnt for this...but I liked FF2 more than FF1! It actually had a story, the characters actually spoke (!) albeit generically, but the story was more engaging and realistic in my opinion.
FF2 is only poorly rated now because by the time we got it a couple of years ago it paled against more recent, better developed FFs (e.g. VII!!). But back in its day I think FF2 excelled against other RPGs in its genre.
I also really liked the battle system, it was a break from the old levelling-up chestnut, even though it was underdeveloped and could be exploited easily (Maria: "This is for your own good, Firion." SPLAT! HP up. Firion grins and casts Cure, etc). Tee hee hee