As a note to anyone struggling with the imbalanced battles... if you haven't found the skill learning system, you can go to the skill menu and learn skills once you have some Credits. The Energy Blast skill ended up extra powerful, so use that for help defeating enemies. Last Stand is also powerful if Astra's health is getting low.
Also, if you've gotten to the ending, the new party member has a skill called Vital Breaker that is extremely overpowered.