This game is a lot of fun and better than the first one (this is switch version but I had the delisted mobile and battles weren't interesting and you couldn't skip cutscenes). I want to get this out of the way: play on Easy mode if struggling, but never buy those QOL DLC. It's bs of them to charge extra, let alone battle shortcut never worked as I'm still fighting slimes I can one shot (and I one-shotted these enemies), so I would halve or remove encounters entirely.
I like how defense reminds me of spirit in legend of legaia, to have a stronger second turn (it usually was useless in Final Fantasy and dragon quest, with dq8 psyching up not increasing defense, and being useless until you craft a timbrel of tension). Overkill definitely is an exciting concept though it helps to conserve some energy when fighting a boss or multiple opponents. No idea why they didn't market these things as features.
The cutscenes are good but very wordy and it kinda reminds me of golden sun with the dynamic battle camera in 3d. I also edited out the flash before thr fire to start the encounter, though I feel it looked worse in recording than actual gameplay as it started right with the flash.