I know its breadth of cast can be spoken for as essential to theme (all important links in the chain), but I’ve always felt that with half (or less) of the playable character count, more specific skills per char and a battle system built around that, to match the pace of Trigger’s
Cross would absolutely be among peaks of the genre.
It still kinda gets there on soul as is, but yeah I’ve never been a big fan of its systems otherwise.