I've been playing Agarest War, and I'm not sure I have the fortitude to actually play that on Hard for 100 hours to finish it. 
 
It's all really great, except the combat. I enjoy combining skills and all that, but I just started Gen 2 and I'm kind of in a rut where I can't really upgrade anything and the battles are still a bit rough from time to time.  Often it just seems that I send people in to die just to get the big attacks activated and then just kinda go off all over the enemy's faces. This strategy unfortunately requires a lot of Fragments of Life, time, and a bit of luck.
 
Any protips out there? (other than 'Buy the DLC points')

When I'm feeling underpowered I'll go to a quest section and grind for a few battles to level up my characters. Quest areas have random battles so they won't count against your total turns. Past that I'm not really too far into the game, and unfortuneately there aren't as many quest areas as I'd like so far.

I'm about in the middle of generation one, i kinda got confused on the turns and racked up a lot cause of my grinding, i'll make sure next time I keep that to the Quest area's for now on.

I'm playing this game on and off but I like the idea. I have it for the PS3. 
 
I would have to agree with Eelcire's comments about the grinding. Quest areas are nice if you feel under powered and I feel that sticking with a group you like will be your best bet to advancing in the game. I never felt the need to get everyone in my group to be the same level as me.