so figured out what you actually need to do in this, MP is super important in this game and scales like MAT. At first i thought MP would have a minor effect on damage but a +60 MP is about the same as +60 Mat.
Levels are important, as they increase MP by 4 and MAT by 1 each time you level up.
MDEF is useless and DEF is way more important as every enemy does physical damage.
You can train HP and ATT in the Gym.
Go to the asaba mansion between hospital and haunted house to level up quick. One way is to open the up the secret floor and farming the orange enemies there, they respawn everytime you re-enter, and give 960 exp, they get weaker the more levels you have in the 1st 3 areas.
You can also unlock the save option there by going to the final boss and leaving.
Get the fire equip and train this skill Fire 5. It levels up quick and you can easily butcher the church boss with this skill, it uses 40 mp per hit and will keep attacking until you run out of MP in 1 turn.
When you are starting out it is recommended that you get to level 3 fighting the blue ghosts then you go and fight the orange enemy guarding the boss door in the haunted house, this orange enemy is also an autosave point, and the only autosave point in the 3 areas. You just have to re engage the enemy everytime you want to save. This is why farming in the haunted house is best because you can save your equipment rolls without fighting the bosses.
But you should just ignore all orange enemies except the one guarding the boss on your 1st visit, then roll for darkness that prioritises MAT and MP. You should be able to kill the other oranges enemies after that.
Found this neat trick, if you want kana to progress without the time going up you can just continue to exit and enter doors really quickly, kana will still progress but the time never goes up ever. Insane bug.