So I definitely made Shiva harder for myself too. Once I got the pattern down though, she was pretty easy. Took me several tries thanks to my dog though, haha.

Edit: So, I’m really liking how each person is different in combat, and it really makes me want to switch between characters. Going around with Aerith, she was just sipping through enemies that Cloud was chipping away more slowly. Something seems a little off to me with guarding and dodging, but I’m starting to get the hang of it more. Only character I don’t care for is Barret so far. I just let him do his thing until I want to use his abilities.

In any case, I’ve been thinking about what could have been with XV. It would have been more fun having this level of control over the entire party.