I finished Torna last night. I knew I wasn't exactly in for a happy ending, because prequel, but damn. Really not a fan of how they pulled an X and forced me to do an arbitrary number of sidequests to progress the story (especially where I wanted to do most/all the sidequests anyway, I was just hoping to power through the story first to make sure I finished it before 3 came out), but it worked out. Dunno when I'll get back to it to finish everyone's affinity charts and kill the superbosses, since I'll be moving on to 3 after I pick it up later today and will presumably be Xenoblade'd out by the time it's done, but it was a good time.
For what it's worth, 2 is a lot more similar to 1 than X. X was very much a departure from what seems to have become the norm for the series, placing a much larger emphasis on open-world exploration (for which it was an absolutely fantastic game) than more linear storytelling (for which it was pretty bad), so if you would have preferred the latter, disliking it is to be expected and doesn't necessarily mean you'll dislike 2. I like 1 better than 2 overall, and that preference is even stronger as far as first impressions go (2 takes a while for the battle system to come into its own, and even longer for the story to go anywhere meaningful), but it's still an excellent game.
If you're interested, I'd say your best bet would be to grab the Definitive Edition of 1 when it's on sale, rather than diving into 3. My understanding is that 3 can be played standalone (I obviously haven't confirmed that yet), but that having played the first two will enhance the experience, so you might as well start with one of the other ones that are cheaper and enjoy them until 3 gets a sale (or you decide you like the others enough that you don't mind paying full price).