Played through the end of Chapter 1. I still suck and have to reset all the time. Everytime I change someone's job, I forget to do things like set Item for their secondary skill. It just doesn't work when the only guy you remembered to give Item to, doesn't know how to use Phoenix Down. Anyway I am running a Knight (Ramza) with Guts, a Monk with Basic Skills (for Accumulate, which is great for getting JP all the time), and two Wizards with Item. Ramza has great support skills that are unique to him which is really quite annoying because I want him to be my main DPS guy. I still get in the occasional Yell but I mostly just have him attack.
I still don't get how spells work sometimes. Sometimes I cast Bolt and it goes off right away, sometimes 2-3 other people do things before it goes off. This can end badly for me if they move next to one of my guys when it goes off. Ramza died like that once but apparently he's invincible and just got back up a few turns later with <10 HP somehow. White Magic still seems unnecessary right now since I can just use items to heal though. Although having Item secondary does stop my Wizards from using Time Magic, etc. Ehhh, I'll worry about it later.
Storywise I am wholly uncaptivated. Apparently there is some sort of war going on and my half-brothers are the bad guys which kind of sucks... I guess?
--
-Merc