I know it's not your first time playing this game, I'm going to write this as if it is. That's only because it may help if there's a few things you didn't notice before.
Quote Originally Posted by sir helix View Post
Attack your self to boost hp lvl, self mutilation at its best
Sorry, this is actually bad advise. Well, maybe not bad, just unnecessary. You don't need to hurt yourself to boost your HP stats; they will grow as you progress through the game. While this game introduced rows, keep everyone in the front row. You WANT to be hit! People like to put Maria in the back row, but because that significantly decreases her chance of being struck by goblins or other vanilla beginner enemies, she will probably be far behind in HP when the real monsters come. The only time I place mages in the back row is for tough boss fights.

MP is the hardest thing to grind for. I don't know about the PSP version, can you turn auto-targeting off? If an enemy dies before a character has a chance to attack a targeted enemy, the character will automatically switch to another target. If you turn this off, the character will attack the air and have no effect. This prolongs battles and, since gaining MP is determined by how much you use per battle, you will gain MP more often. This helps gaining weapon and magic levels, too.

Lastly, beginners like to load their characters down with armour, especially mages. This is a no-no. Remember what people said above about hidden stat penalties (like the bow)? Most armour has this effect on MP. If you find yourself wondering why magic sucks in this game, travel light and un-equip weapons. Your mage will suddenly be powerful again. Also, most armour weighs down your characters decreasing your evade. I like evade. You want to get hit, but this game also has a ridiculously high encounter rate. I think this gives the game a bit of balance.

Shields are always good. They boost your evade, which is nice. I always upgrade my shield. But for the rest, if you must have armour, equip light armour. Cloth and Plates/Cuirass (depending on the translation) are usually good. Chain mail or just anything that sounds like it would weigh a ton, ignore. In my experience, most of the armour in this game hinders your party rather than helps.

That's how I play it, anyway. Others will have their own styles, but I found the HCBailly's method (YouTuber) to be very beneficial.