Well, now I've finished the game, I gotta say I wasn't expecting to like it so much at first, but it turned out to be a really good game, and I really liked a lot the characters.
I like that, since you don't have a main party member that has healing (apart from a certain side quest, well, technically 2), it makes you really rely on items, and since money is a big problem for most of the game, it really ask you to manage well your ressources. It makes for a much more interesting rpg, since most gives an easy access to healing and money.
Probably haven't found every side quest, and only the part one of the diarie, but I still did quite a lot.
(Btw, the game which will have Shida as a protagonist, will it be a prequel or a sequel?)