Almost done with Shining Force 1 as well. It's solid. Very simple though. This game has not convinced me the Genesis is superior, yet, but the SNES did not have any SRPGs other than Ogre Battle (right?) and I like this game better than Ogre Battle so if you prefer SRPGs to JRPGs then the you may like the Genesis better.
I hope Suikoden II's characters have more development than the characters in this game because the characters in this game are just a portrait and sprite with minor variation in combat. Just like Chrono Cross, which also had a lot of dull, meaningless, and uninteresting characters.