Your mages that weren't hideously underleveled died pretty quickly. Considering Alef joins late, and is about as durable as Domingo without a single level...
Edit: While I'm posting, might as well update my run. On the first ship battle now. Nobody died between the laser eye battle and it. Decided to use the ship battle to get all the characters I'm not using up to level 12, and promote them in case I need future back-up. Earnest immediately died to three bat attacks (one a double attack). Whoops.
Current force (could change if back-ups level well): Max, Mae, Pelle, Guntz, Kokichi, Lowe, Khris, Diane, Luke, Domingo, Tao, Zylo
Dead: Hans, Arthur, Anri, Earnest
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SuperNiceDog won the Guru contest. Good job.