I just finished the part with the rockers singing on the boat and am now on my way to collect 6 dragon shards. About how far into the game am i? Im still on the first disc and wondering how many more hours i got...

Also, is it ok to give characters spells that are opposite to them? For example, is it ok if Lynx casts white attack spells? Or are they hindered that much because of his color?

Also, i just learned that you need to cast summons to get the materials for the rainbow items...
Is it hard, time consuming, annoying, etc to find all of these shiny parts for the items?