Loving the game so far! A few questions

[FakeSympathy]

1. How do you exactly switch party members with those in the reserve? I see the tutorial page for it, but I don't know how to access that option

2. Any way to track side-quests? The map does show the main quest and story so far section, but nothing on side quests or activities that I've been assigned to

3. Are there no weapon shops? I see armor and item shops, but no weapon shops. Am I supposed to just level up the default weapons at the blacksmith?

[Syselie]

Switching Support/Attendant slots have to be done via "Form Party" at inns or with Ymir I think.

Sadly, no, or I haven't found a tracker for sidequests/recruits.

Yes, each hero only has one weapon. The blacksmith upgrades those. You can only add rune enchantments on top of the blacksmith upgrades.

[GrazztTheDark]

3. You need to find a blacksmith. Everyone has a bespoke weapon, and it just gets upgraded.

[jmporkbob]

#1 I'm not sure what you mean? If you're talking about swapping different characters into the party, you can only do that at inns or by speaking to a character named Ymir. If you mean in the middle of the battle, you can't do it.

#2 No, there is no sidequest tracker. It's very 90s esque in that regard. However, basically every "sidequest" is just for a character recruit, so technically when you eventually get the fortune teller you will be able to view all currently available recruits by talking to them at your base.

#3 You only upgrade the weapons in the blacksmith. They will change names as they reach certain levels, but yeah that's how Suikoden always has been.