Could be better. Much better, I mean.
There are so many monsters in a dungeon that would keep the story progressing too fast so lots of easy sidequests cannot be done in time, only the hard ones are left and aren't able to be beaten because the jewels/money are rather difficult to earn.... there aren't many sidequests as well (just huge dungeons).
Once you are about half way of the game, hordes of powerful monsters would swarm you and... the money they drop usually isn't enough to pay for repairing weapons....
After the first game, there is only the "proved" class and the level of the three companies remain. No weapons, no specail attacks, no items, no status......
I like the opening song though :p (is the lyric really in Japanese?)