I am like you. This is my first Tales games and I am loving it. I´m about 25 hours in, so I´m not gonna say anything not to spoil the story.
As for strategy, I use your balance Yuri and Karol as melee, Rita as offensive spell caster and Estelle as defensive. I use a very personalized Moderate for normal battles, but when boss fight comes I go with Full-charge.









