Re: Characters are pretty weak?
Not to worry I had the same issues with things like the Rocktoise on my first game, just cos its got high defence and projectile defence skill makes things like Serawi's wind magic useless except at point black range. With creatures that hit quite hard I would recommend making use of cover and guardian skills as it is possible to have one character 'guarded' for all 3 attacks, altho Im not sure you would have the 'guardian' skills yet at that stage
Im at the end of a NG+ atm and I can say that Will is prolly my toughest character and hits the hardest without the use of Prevail or weapon skills, so don't worry too much about him
I also almost always have him with a shield equipped. There r some characters that I find too weak tho, not so much they arent useful in the first game but in a NG+ characters like Aht that are suppose to be 'tough' really aren't due to not havin high enough def and no survival skills like prevail. As much as I like Melo she also often needs help (with things like cover) to survive attacking in melee and Crayl has trouble dealing decent dmg due to lowish STR, however this is helped a bit by getting skills like Flurry
Keep at it, tis still a fun and addictive game/visual novel imo
...Now if only I could find a way to survive my first trip to Advent Bay/Pagan Seal... :O