Indeed. I made the mistake of playing Aqua first.
Now I'm stuck in this position of "why would I stop playing Aqua to play the less awesome side characters?". Her playstyle is great, her story is fun, and I really like her as a character. And I don't really want to play the other two routes, I just want more of Aqua's.
Especially since all the work I did on the Command Deck and such would go bye-bye. I'd rate the battle system as a Number 2 on that list, if not the tops, personally. Aqua is great, but the battle system in this game is just sublime.