What RPG to move on to? (Star Ocean TLH really &$!#ing made me mad)?

I got Star Ocean - The Last Hope and I was really enjoying it. Was making solid leveling progress, story started to get interesting, Edge was mackin on Reimi.....then it froze, and I had to repeat four hours of gameplay. Then it froze again. And again. And on the fourth time I broke the disk in half. I was about to beat a boss after a long dungeon with no save points and it froze. Out of the 35 hours I put into it, I had to repeat nearly half of it. Never had this happen with any games, ever (and I even play PC games).

Now that I've gotten that off of my chest, I'm looking to start over with something more fulfilling. I have a few RPGs here I've never really touched, and was wondering which you all think I ought to play. My biggest draw to this genre is story. I love RPGs because its like playing a book. So keeping in mind epic story arcs and characters who you actually become attached to are my favorite elements of RPGs, which should I play? Or do you have a better suggestion of one to buy? (I own PS2 & XBox 360).

- FF IX

- FF Tactics

- FF X

- FF XII

- Mass Effect

- Saga Frontier

- Threads of Fate

(Already played Fallout 3, Morrowind, Oblivion, and FF VII to death.)