Ended up picking this up and parking Wukong temporarily.
This is actually quite good and I've sunk 24 hours into it so far and just started Chapter 5.
The visuals and art style are top tier, and the combat, while slow, opens up nicely one you have more elemental vessels to choose from to try to put together a build of some kind.
Difficulty is all over the place though.
Normal is so easy it's a joke, meanwhile Hard has a nice challenge with bosses, but then the nemesis related enemies on the field go from "that was fine" to "lol 2 party members one shot". They also have way too much health from a difficulty bump.
Also, the party AI is shocking, but that's the Mana series for you, Trials of Mana was the same. Be prepared to watch them do shit all and stand still in aoe's and get one shot if you play on hard lol.
Gripes aside, still enjoying it and look forward to playing it further when I can.