I've played some more at last! I've now just completed the Nia Khera segment. As expected, re-summoning the four doesn't work (because of course it wouldn't).

Alvin is behaving rather suspiciously, and I caught him out in a lie by going back and getting a sub-event with Ivar. Alvin claimed the villagers overpaid him so it is his sworn duty to rejoin the gang (which in itself is a shaky assessment). My chat with Ivar proves that Alvin didn't communicate with the villagers. So why is he tagging along? Hmm. I'm getting 'backstabber' vibes from him already. It's not exactly subtle. Still, I'm in love with his charm, so I'm hoping he gets a good redemption arc at some point. This is all assuming I'm correct about his backstabbing, but the game is making it too obvious.

I tried Milla for a bit. She's slightly harder to use, as holding down circle changes the arte. Not to mention her tier 2 arte spells have a much longer casting animation. Not that I use them that much anyway; they're both magic floor glyphs, which is really only useful for area control. That, and the time it takes to cast means I'm probably better off just free running away.

I also tried Alvin briefly, but to be honest the A.I plays Alvin just fine. He's a tanky bruiser, so I can just leave him be and slug a few hits. I'm playing with Jude, mainly. His artes are just simple, no charging required.

Honestly the hardest part is remembering which arte is mapped to which button. I'm finding myself having to open the menu mid-battle just to remind myself what's which. For obvious reasons, this is more frequent with Milla and Alvin. I'm doing my best to co-ordinate, though. Attacks which knock enemies into the air is often assigned to up, while healing or defensive moves are assigned to down. I'm only really starting to use the arte shortcuts. All in all, I'll get the hang of it... eventually.

One exciting thing that happened: I took a wrong turn and entered the Xagut Floodmeadows. The enemies there are way harder, but I managed to actually defeat an enemy, and the EXP was incredible. But yeah, I avoided that place afterwards, I barely scrapped through.