Another chapter in and I still don't know what's going on in this world. At least it is pretty clear that my goal is to liberate these cities (only to see them be destroyed?).

I'm also still getting used to the battles. Locking randomly switches to some other enemy and I never know when to stop dodging frantically and start attacking. Also MP management becomes an issue.

I'm not sure where you guys are getting summoning from. I went through the whole chapter and I didn't need or know how to summon anything. I killed everything with my characters, but not after losing half of them. I still die frequently in battles even with my 'best' team. Each time I end up settling on a character who just rocks the rest of the mission. In that one cave it was Cater and in the last mission for Ch. 2 it was Eight.