Hoping to make your life's design a bit more dynamic!

Ok, I've cheated a little bit by playing this before finishing Silva Saga 2. but I was curious about the many people you can recruit to your party. They do seem to be more distinct from each other than the mercenaries of Silva Saga 2. So is my main decision on whether I want extra healers or mages or is it more than that? Are some healers clearly better than other healers?

I'll tell you something I didn't learn myself except by accident.

My favorite party (and also the most well balanced in my opinion) has always been: (Hero), Barbara, Vada, Stacia and Dan. In the case of Gaou, Chocolate and Mevius who already start with a partner, I leave out Stacia, creating a team of three fighters and two mages. As for the main charater, Ryuu is definetly my favorite. I never really liked or used Lisa for various reasons, nor the other characters. Lisa is basically just a worse version of Shen... Though story wise, it doesn't matter what mercs you have in your party if that's what your asking.

My favorite main characters are Gaou and Mevius hands down, not only because of their combat effectiveness but
also because they are just plain cool.
As for recruitable team members, I'd say Lisa is important in any party so you won't waste as many main character
turns healing up. Other than that, Vada is worthy enough to be in your party if you need a strong melee hitter, same for
Kidd and as Recca says Dann is a good choice towards magic (I like to combine Dann and Rafe for my party mages, as I found
Stacia to be a bit meh). That said, the mages' spell set is largely the same from a practical sense, so in the end
its a matter of taste more than anything.

Every mage has the following (conforming to their given element):

- Weak single healing spell
- Weak single attack spell
- Strong single attack spell
- Weak multi attack spell
- Strong multi attack spell
- Elemental dragon multi spell

There are some tweaks to the formula, like Dann having stone mist along the way, but generally
the gist of it is outlined above.

Basically anyone but Stacia. She's good until she gets Poison Cloud and insists on casting that and Freeze Barrier for every random battle.

Would be great if BH had a feature to toggle AI spells like the Tales and Star Ocean series have. It allows a very nice level of control over AI actions in battle.

I have just completed the game.

Here is what I think about mercenaries.

Mages & Masters: All mages suck except Rafe. Stacia and Dann waste time with useless spells, Dann especially. He petrifies an enemy, and then your party has to spend half-a-dozen rounds finishing it off. Rafe does nothing but dispense incendiary murder. Rafe hemorrhages MP, so capsules are a must. Equip Rafe with the Red Bow until you get to Act Three, where better stuff can be found.

Masters are the bees' knees. They shoot stuff with a bow, and heal your hp and remove status effects. They also get a party-wide healing spell. Equip them with armor and helmets with high magic. As you only have the one to choose from, recruit "her".

Fighters & Samurai: Equip Fighters with spears, as they do a dump-truck load of damage over daggers. Samurai are vastly superior to Fighters, as they, and their swords, just kill stuff better. Barbara is the easy choice for one, so pick her up, hand her something sharp, and let her do her thing.

Equip them with helmets and armor that grant high magic, and shields that grant high defense. There is no threat of being beat to death by bosses, but by their spamming hit-all spells on you. Formations can accommodate for this, but not nearly as effectively as just wearing the right armor. During random battles stay in an "H" formation and you'll usually win through attrition long before they reduce your HP down.

Hunters & Brawlers: The difference between them is barely noticeable. Daggers & Bows vs. Knuckles & Thrown Weapons, respectively. Other than that, they are more agile than fighters, but only do more damage when subject to specific formations. Kiddo looks pretty cool, which is the best reason I can think of to have one of these guys.

Best Party: The best mercenaries to have in your party are Lisa, Rafe, and Barbara, with any other Fighter, Hunter, or Brawler. Dann and Stacia are complete wastes of space, and tie for the worst character.

This party, equipped with high-magic armor, is basically this game's "repeatedly hit button A to win" method. Figure out which of your formations results in the most damage output, and you're good to go.

So there is no way to get certain members to conserve MP better? Could any formations help reduce their usage? Lately I've been just bringing dozens of capsules with me everywhere.

Bringing a load of capsules is just what you have to do.

Why Rafe is so good, is that he does not waste MP by casting status changing spells--he always dishes out damage. Capsules are pretty inexpensive, and by the time you hit Sunset Port you should be able to keep up a constant stock of 99 of them.

Dann will petrify an enemy, and then try to petrify it again on his next turn. Petrified enemies also have a high chance to block your physical attacks, and although they are not a threat, you still have to spend the time to kill them.

As an aside, the best formations for general use are those that are "H" and form a left-facing triangle with your lead at the apex.

Also, Barbara at level 30 with a Burning Sword, and given a Power Potion, will deal 999 damage per hit to the final boss.

Congrats on finishing the game, Wes Falls.

I agree with most of your opinion on characters and the fact capsules are pretty much vital no matter what spell caster you choose but I also think Dann isn't a worthless choice, even if he's not as offensive as Rafe, I think his stone mist spell is actually very helpful as you have one less enemy poking at you. That and Sandstorm is as good as a multi hitter as any other mage spell.
The only mage I felt was below the bar was Stacia, but that's probably the AI's fault, even though Blizzard isn't a shabby attack spell.

As for general class usefulness, I think the only one that is not particularly useful are rangers (then again I don't recall ever recruiting Gucci into any party of mine). Brawlers are a tradeoff, they tend to hit harder than fighters but have even lower MDef than them, so its a gamble. Lastly I agree completely about Samurai and for some reason Barbara always seemed much more reliable in combat than Iris, despite the latter being a guest character.