The Reconstruction

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isnt Essence individual for each (surviving) character (as well as half of it for currently recruited ones)? The Prologue Characters are never Part of the active team, I can't see which the point would be either way.

Yeah, the prologue's full of lots of ifs and buts like that. I probably should have kept my explanation simpler, but I have a bad tendency to overcomplicate things. :< I honestly feel the prologue's very poorly designed; I guess Deltree intended it to be a simple no-consequence sandbox where people could get used to the mechanics, but the end result is way too complicated and it goes against the grain of many seasoned RPGer tactics (like the "keep everyone alive to preserve exp" thing) without giving you any reason to suspect you're supposed to take it easy. Just making it so you don't get essence at all, to make it clearer that this is an offshoot thing with no bearing on the main game, would have been a wiser choice. Cutting "Peaceful Approach" might have been a good idea too.

(As with many things, I feel IMTS did this better -- exp isn't split, you don't work with throwaway characters before getting the main cast, and you're exposed to mechanics gradually instead of getting everything dumped on you at once.)

By the way, if you ever get stuck on the other bosses, I've outlined some basic strategies in my running review series. Don't look at them until you've reached that point in the story though, I'm pretty liberal with spoilers: boss 1, boss 2, boss 3, chapter 4's optional boss, boss 4, and a certain chapter 2 quest I would have really appreciated some help on my first time through.

You do get essence in the prologue, but you don't level up automatically, they're spent at in a special menu you only get access to afterwards. So you can't level up during the mission itself.

i actually kept reloading when it became apparant i was gonna get stomped

Nooo, never give up! The show's not over until you see that game over screen! That battle in particular is fast-paced and your healer is almost guaranteed to go down, but the boss isn't terribly sturdy either. You can take him down with only a few casts of Fiery Raid.

Murdering your way through the prologue doesn't do anything, since you can't level up. If anything it will only weaken you between battles. The boss is difficult no matter what, though you do get a second chance if you fail.

author=Deltree
The single-character vantage is a very good point, and I'm glad you're tackling it. I assume movement is on a 2-dimensional plane as opposed to 1D like it is in TR; what happens if two characters or enemies are on the same space? Is that even possible? If not, it sounds like it could get crowded or easy to get boxed in accidentally. Six PCs and 6 enemies in one battle is almost half of the entire board.

2D, you can move in all four directions. It should look similar to chess.
There can be multiple people on the same space, but I will probably limit it to 3 or 4 to prevent cluttering.

author=Deltree
This will also do interesting things to the Enchant mechanic, should you choose to maintain that!

I still don't know what to do with rush/chain/enchantments, but I will probably implement all three.
Rush will be similar to morale in The Last Remnant, it will shift as you exploit weaknesses and other similar things.
Chain is tricky, I will probably make it individual if I implement it.
I think I'm gonna let every character enchant their own or adjacent square with their elemental. There will also be abilities that let you enchant an area or use enchantment of another elemental.

author=Deltree
Also, I hope the math isn't too overwhelming. Personally, I would have divorced it from Initiative entirely and just had a static "move" stat for each character (2 for most; faster/frailer characters get 3) and one action per turn. But, if that level of simplification isn't necessary, then go for it!

Well, since initiative is pretty fixed you just need to calculate the movement cost when you are making your character, it is pretty much just another number on your sheet. I like the idea that faster characters move more quickly.
The math shouldn't be too much, since most of it will be DM's obligation.

Positioning and engagement
This is something I was thinking about this for some time. The battlefield is divided in 25 fields, using a 5x5 grid. Each field represents a small area. Moving to an adjacent field costs the amount of initiative points equal to 36-initiative value. Classes with high initiative move faster.
Engaging an enemy costs 15 initiative points, and it can be a side effect of some attacks. You can only engage an enemy in the same field. Engaging an enemy is basically focusing on that enemy allowing you to intercept any attack that the enemy performs. This interception costs 10 initiative points.
This is very different from the original, but I think it still keeps the same "feel". The main reason for this is because in a tabletop you only control one character, so the original system wouldn't work well without some serious strategical planing, and if your individuality is severely limited that kills the fun.
Thoughts?

Pretty much. You get x initiative points every round, and it takes 40 to perform an action. Every class has different initiative, ranging from the slow but powerful Trudge Knight (did I get that right?) who will probably have 18 initiative to speedsters like WhiteWind (did I get that one right?) that will probably have 23. On one hand it is small difference, but on the other it is still important enough.