Starting Guide for new player?

[Penguin]

So long story short I'm new here and would like to be able to get progress through the story line. But at Chapter 2 the enemies just start majorly kicking your ass. Spoilers: You have at least 3 (mini?) boss battles before the boss of Chapter 2, and you can't even save at any point because you're literally forced to go from battle to battle. I ended up losing 5 hours of gameplay. And don't tell me "save more often" I did. I 5 hours ago when I had the ability to, but guess what in this dungeon you can't save your game! WOW!

Any tips or tricks on how to progress? Should I sell all my crafting materials or just keep grinding low level enemies to level up?

[Yann]

Hello,
This game requires some grinding, especially at the beginning I think. The whales in Mechtro Factory give a lot of exp and are not too difficult to kill after lvl 12.
Life rings are a huge help too in early chapters.

There are some guides that can help you too.
This one gives a lot of advice for the whole game and that one gives some interesting grinding places.

I know it is possible to beat chapter 2 at low level, but it generally requires the OP DLC characters (or to be good at JRPGs, which I am not).

[CindyNemi]

Going from the original PS3 release to this one I sure do miss being able to save anywhere

[Shadow]

Grind your level up at least 5 tp 10 levels after every boss fight sure enough and use more status buff skills, buy more items, break enemies guard first