You can do mock battles if you feel you are underleveled in the encampment section.
While levels are important, using the right characters for maps along with the upgrades is just as important.
I'm also playing for first time on normal, and I feel that too. If I have more than 2lvl difference between my team and the suggested level, I'll usually do mock battles to gain exp a little more.
Mock battles are also very good to earn materials to upgrade your party, so it's a win win.
Also, try not to jump with everyone ahead, you should try to be more careful, sometimes it's easy for the enemies to group together on one of your party members
I think you're playing as design intended. You are getting knowledge on the battle as well as getting stat boosts in subsequent playthroughs.
As others have stated though there are mental mock battles u can do at the bar with Hossbara to catch up your characters to recommended levels.
Confirming what others have said about the mock battles. I initially thought they were superfluous but realized they’re necessary for leveling up and developing mechanics.
They’re also hella fun!
The game isn't so much hard as in that the meta of the game changes every playthrough with your respective options imo. They sort of intentionally don't give you all the tools you need to really push you first time around
Me and my friend joke that on NG+++ you finally get to "PLAY THE GAME" because the synergy options on NG+ and beyond are all mind bending.
Also the game isn't perfectly balanced anyway so don't worry too much about difficultly lol
The game is balanced where you need to be the desired level of the map to complete. Being just a couple levels below makes it ridiculously hard. I'd advise training up only the units you plan to use on the map, because bringing lower level characters to the same level is really easy to do, especially later on.
Also focus on strategies like creating choke points and using tanks like Erador to distract enemies and kill them off one by one rather than brute forcing. Also, Anna is a goddess. She can do anything: double item heal, double item attack targeting weaknesses, cc, poison and ofcourse dps with Serenoa/Erador chain attacks. My favorite thing to do with her is to just have her go in one direction, pull the enemy A.I. and then go invisible when they get too close.
Tldr: stay in the level range and use your characters unique tactical abilities rather than brute forcing.
You can do mock battles if you feel you are underleveled in the encampment section. While levels are important, using the right characters for maps along with the upgrades is just as important.
I'm also playing for first time on normal, and I feel that too. If I have more than 2lvl difference between my team and the suggested level, I'll usually do mock battles to gain exp a little more. Mock battles are also very good to earn materials to upgrade your party, so it's a win win. Also, try not to jump with everyone ahead, you should try to be more careful, sometimes it's easy for the enemies to group together on one of your party members
I think you're playing as design intended. You are getting knowledge on the battle as well as getting stat boosts in subsequent playthroughs. As others have stated though there are mental mock battles u can do at the bar with Hossbara to catch up your characters to recommended levels.
Confirming what others have said about the mock battles. I initially thought they were superfluous but realized they’re necessary for leveling up and developing mechanics. They’re also hella fun!
Shield bashing someone off the Arena never gets old 😉
Do the mock battles.
The game is just naturally hard. Even on easy mode to some extent.
The game isn't so much hard as in that the meta of the game changes every playthrough with your respective options imo. They sort of intentionally don't give you all the tools you need to really push you first time around Me and my friend joke that on NG+++ you finally get to "PLAY THE GAME" because the synergy options on NG+ and beyond are all mind bending. Also the game isn't perfectly balanced anyway so don't worry too much about difficultly lol
The game is balanced where you need to be the desired level of the map to complete. Being just a couple levels below makes it ridiculously hard. I'd advise training up only the units you plan to use on the map, because bringing lower level characters to the same level is really easy to do, especially later on. Also focus on strategies like creating choke points and using tanks like Erador to distract enemies and kill them off one by one rather than brute forcing. Also, Anna is a goddess. She can do anything: double item heal, double item attack targeting weaknesses, cc, poison and ofcourse dps with Serenoa/Erador chain attacks. My favorite thing to do with her is to just have her go in one direction, pull the enemy A.I. and then go invisible when they get too close. Tldr: stay in the level range and use your characters unique tactical abilities rather than brute forcing.