Game spoilers, ahoy.
If you don't likey, don't highlight. (I'm assuming beige doesn't show up against grey or white very well.)
I find excessive leveling + all the licenses for suppourt skills = kickassery. Usually. The higher level marks are definitely doing a good job kicking my arse, though. Why this snake in the Caverns (Dalmasca Westersand entrance) and this wyrm (West part of Westersand) and some other level 3+ marks (Like the giant, headless tortoise in Giza, Rain Season) just about killed me. I needed to switch in my other three characters, just so that I'd have enough hp buffer to zone and raise them all.
Currently 31, with 2400-ish HP. The license for +500HP rocks. :p
Mist Knacks/Quickenings also increase your MP, so find and get them as quickly as possible. Chaining Knacks allowed me to half kill Belias and fully kill Vossler with one go. To chain: press one of the buttons that show up during the countdown. If they say "Mist Charge", press it again, after they "charge". If there are no buttons, press R2, repeatedly, until a button shows up. Countdown gets shorter, the more you chain.
I give the story an AWESOME on a scale of 1 to 10, 10 being great and 1 being good. Advice for relative ease of gameplay: kill everything in your way that you are capable of killing. Even if you don't have to. Not only do they offer LP for those pesky licenses, you can sell the loot for future armoury investments. (Related: set a gambit to steal. :3 )
Nitpick: Androgyny, androgynous.
I'm also pretty sure I missed something in posting, but it's 2AM, rawr.