After I pick a baseline of what a doable party should consist of, I pick on preference of character
I use the characters I like most, but I have veto power in case any of my favorites are so bad that they'd make things too hard.
Thief, healer, chick with the biggest boobs
far too often I just use the first party members they give me the whole game
I hate Raine in Symphonia and at least for bosses she is a must (and then to grind she needs to be in regular battles too)
linkhatesganon posted...
I hate Raine in Symphonia and at least for bosses she is a must (and then to grind she needs to be in regular battles too)
No she isn't. I've beaten Normal, Hard, and most of Mania (didn't get stuck just got bored/distracted by other things) running Lloyd Zelos Sheena Genis for almost every boss.
You just need to be super aggressive with combo locking the enemy and good at blocking/dodging. Zelos/Kratos along with an item once in a while is as much healing as you really need.
Which is kinda the case for most games, really. If you run a squad without a healer, you need to actually use the fact that you have more output to your advantage. But if you do, it's usually fine.
Thief, healer, chick with the biggest boobs
think my party at most times was Sheena (my main, I could get really good at doing combos with her), Presea, Raine and Genis. And I do like to play super aggressive, the problem is that then my party will get busted too!
You kinda need Lloyd (or Regal) to extend combos long enough to stagger lock enemies enough for non Raine healing to be enough.
Pretty sure Genis or any spell can actually do that