XSEED Games' revealed on their official Facebook account today that those who carry over their save files from the first Trails of Cold Steel to The Legend of Heroes: Trails of Cold Steel 2 will receive a special bonus:

Do you have your clear save data from Trails of Cold Steel ready? Certain actions from the first game will carry over into Trails of Cold Steel II! New items, things like who you chose to bond with or NPCs you decided to help will all play a small factor in how you continue to interact with them.

And for those worried that they're missing out on something, don't worry--while having NPCs remember you or slightly intimate more conversations with party members do happen as a result of carrying over save data, the overall story will not be impacted. This is mostly for fun.

Bonding events will make their return as well! But we'll save that for next time.

Seeing choices from the first game actually influence certain events in the second is a pretty cool feature, not to mention a good incentive to completely beat the original game.