Jintor said:
Ah, I see. Most of the Sidequests I've done so far have primarily been just jumping between town nodes.
Where's the botanist prior in time to the coconut decision? (Or whatever it is)?
Starting to grind. I fucking hate grinding.
You do not generally need to grind, but I will caution that some people felt they hit a difficulty jump in Chapter 4 AH or so... Like the previous poster said, sidequests make you backtrack quite a bit, so you end up leveling up as a result.
To make the battle system more fluid, you should really combo and switch around characters' turns in order to help you combo better and faster. Just knock enemies into each other with line attacks or orientation switch attacks (left attack/right attack, etc) and battles go by faster. If you alternate between physical attack, magic, physical attack, magic and so on, your combo meter goes up more and you will be able to deal slightly more damage. If you are doing character sidequests for their extra skills, it contributes to making the battle system a little more fun and more fluid. At least, that's how I felt. I can see how some people can see it differently, however.
The sidequests are generally like that. Not all of them, though. If you're doing the "What Was Inherited" quest, the botanist you are looking for lives in Alistel (go to a Standard History Chapter 1 node that is in Alistel---it's called... "To Granorg", I think?)... his kids are to the right of the weapon shop. Talk to them first, and then go into his house (it's to the right of the weapon shop, iirc).
If you need more sidequest help, go
to this thread on GameFAQs (but I will caution that some spoilers are in it; but since you're in Chapter 5, you should be a little ok). You just need ten sidequests for the true ending, though. I've outlined which ones in
an earlier post.