I noticed, just from all the "DUNBAN! NICE DODGE!"s. Then I immediately gave him +50 in agility gems. Dunban and Reyn both look like they have some options on the offensive side too though.
I figured the game making me actually play as another character, Melia, for once was a hint to try playing as her more. Maybe I'll re-read the in game tips relating to her and try again. I didn't really understand how summoning worked. Shulk is still my go-to guy because the angle of attack based moves are much more satisfying and being in control of Monado powers is useful. I'll switch when I get bored of combat, which is going to happen pretty soon I'm sure. Haven't got any new artes for Shulk in a while besides the shitty sacrifice half your life for some Monado gauge one.
Well, Shulk only learns new Monado arts and gets little to no customization due to those arts taking up a different art palette, while the other characters all have lots of interchangeable ones you can play around with.
Melia's all about stacking summons (they work like a literal stack, as in the last summon you call is the first one you discharge). When she reaches burst mode after enough elemental discharges, some extra arts of hers become available, but that's exactly when discharging summons deals some nice extra damage, with the only downside being that there's a small chance that her burst mode ends right after each use.
Sleep is a great status effect for shattering visions, but you should remember to have your party NOT attack the target so that it stays asleep for as long as possible.
Later on, she gets the stab thing + starwhatever kick combo that's a guaranteed topple, which is kind of funny and useful at the same time.
lol, I was expecting that. They introduced Melia and Riki in quick succession who remind me of Tales of the Abyss characters Natalia and Mieu... and it's hard for me to get over something that reminds me of Mieu. The mascot character with an annoying voice tagging along for no real reason. OK, I guess. There's nothing to his backstory or personality and he kind of sticks out like a sore thumb in cutscenes. To be fair though I'm not finding any of these characters to be very good. The protagonist not being an unlikeable whiny idiot with self esteem issues is cool for a JRPG though.
You shouldn't doubt this year's heropon! He was a bit weird for me at first too, but later on he grew on me (note that I was using the japanese voice track, so he sounded even more like your token cutesy mascot).
Character wise, I felt like they weren't the best I've seen by far, but they still managed to be decent enough. The context-sensitive mid-combat banter really helped their characterizations, though, and I wish they'd have talked a bit more often at times, such as when discovering a new area or spotting a named enemy (you know, things that wouldn't happen all the time, so that you wouldn't get tired if they only recorded one or two variations of the dialogue).
