Okay, I just bought the Vita version. I kinda worried that I might hate it, but something tells me it might be one of those arcane games that really clicks for me. We'll see.
I bought the physical version just in case I hate it, so I can trade it in.
Any tips for a new player?
A simple way to understand the link system.
Your units are A,B,C,D and move in that order.
Move A.
You can now optionally reserve B,C,D.
Now B's turn. As long as you do something to chain the rest (ie, attack, guard, potion, etc) you can move B AND A, then reserve C and D.
C's turn, same thing, but now you can move C and B and A, and reserve D.
D's turn, you can move everyone.
Obviously, there are cases where it may make sense to move D earlier, or you may not be able to chain someone, etc.
But effectively, even against a massive army your first to move (often Geoff), can move up to 4 times before the enemy gets a turn IF you always kill the next queued enemy during each turn.
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Your gunners will take pot shots at anyone they can if the enemy tries to attack you. This occurs before any attack, so if you know a weakened enemy is going to attack you, if you place your gunner(s) correctly they can often kill him before he even swings.
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Do the math. If you can kill a zone mob with 2 characters on your first turn, they'll advance after the victory. Reserve the other two, or if you can use one to kill the next queued if possible. If it's going to take all 4 of your characters to kill just one zone, your winners will advance but all the rest of the enemy will get to chain their moves... consider other options.
I often find myself moving Geoff and my gunner on 'turn 1' - Geoff softens up the closest mob while my gunner snipes and kills next queued. Since the rest are reserved, I can now attack with Geoff and 1 other warrior, and my gunner snipes the next one. And now I get one more turn where everyone can move. Depending on how many enemies are left, it's either easy cleanup, or else it's time to put Geoff on defend or evade, and pull the rest back.