Hey, just popping in with an update: I got past Forneus. A while back, actually. I don't exactly remember the details 100%, but I do know that Boston, Robin and Ellen played offense with their strongest attacks and healing was shared between Harid and Robin. I think Robin was the last man standing when Forneus was finally beat. I think Suction is what saved the day, but honestly it's all a blur now.

I also went and beat Arakes, closing a second abyss gate earlier than I'd expected to. In fact, while I'd assumed it would take at least three tries, I beat him in one go. Awesome. That was much easier than Forneus. As per @Rez09's suggestion, I equipped Harid with Spider and slapped Power Glove onto Ellen-- so that probably helped a whole ton.

Now I've taken to the Dry River and wound up in Mung Village. Undine got booted out of the party and replaced by Zhu Lin, though I find I'm actually okay with this. While I do miss having a base af mage, Zhu Lin is already proving useful with her marksmanship. I don't even know what the heck I'm doing at this point. Just... going to some cave to fight bad-guys? We'll see.

Meanwhile I've been seriously considering buying Minstrel's Song. I'll likely have enough free time for it so I'm probably gonna just buy a used version on Amazon. That's how I usually get old games these days, anyhow. If @Fynn gets it too, maybe we can start it up at the same time and compare our progress as a fun little experiment. :P See how different each playthrough actually is.
But yes, do feel free to join us in nerding out, Fynn. The SaGa franchise needs more love.