Anything I should know before playing?

Off the top of my head: Attempt to draw a lot of every magic and attempt to draw from every enemy, you don't want to miss a possible GF or good magic to junction to your stats. As well there is no real "MP" in the game, you have a certain number of times you can use the magic, being able to stock 100 in total from enemies (each character can hold 100 of each type of magic). The more you have of a magic the higher it increases your stats when junctioned (it'll make more sense with the tutorial in the game). Try to stay as low level as possible. The game levels up with you and the enemies get higher stats by comparison to you when you level up. So run from any random encounters (L2 + R2 at the same time is to run, something it doesn't tell you until a little later). There's a whole "Power Up" guide that refers to this, but I wouldn't desperately worry about trying not to level up if you're just wanting to experience the game normally. That's about all I can think of off the top of my head sadly sorry, I'll write something else here if I can think of it. Hope you enjoy the game, it's hit or miss for most people.