So it turns out there are mimics in this game... and with how the combat works, it is almost unwinnable based on rng. I am level 72 and just starting the desert where I found 2 of them. Both game over. The first I was curious what the arouse stuff would look like, it was meh. The second time I actually tried to beat it, had potions made just in case and everything. I got it to almost half health then it took 4 turns in a row, forcing me to heal, then it attacked, grabbed, wasted my turn to struggle it off, then repeated until I died. The fact that you can get caught in an infinite loop with encounters because the struggle just eats your entire turn is fucked for this exact reason. Already had a situation where I spent 40 minutes in a loop with the weird demon octo's in the marsh, but the mimic is just to strong for this to be excused. Level 72 and it still chunks me for 326 each hit, and it takes 2 - 4+ turns before I can do a single turn.
The Mimic's level scales with Celica, so even having companions with isn't advantageous unless their levels are close (everyone should be able to hit the 80 cap). It is also ridiculously fast, so having a Speed of 50+ helps tremendously.
EDIT: Letting Nel power level you (and potentially two party members) also has the advantage of never encountering a Mimic.
imo having Nel encounter the mimic would at least semi balance it :/ she literally regenerates both health and mana mid fight. She also seems to have a much higher chance of just breaking out of being grabbed, and has a speed bonus. Because hot damn does Nel get a lot of bonus stuff we just don't get >_> seriously, the number of times she auto breaks out and attacks same turn is much higher than I get. And I run relatively high will and even wear that one item for the increased struggle chance. Regardless, if the mimic scales to Celica's level for damage, fine. But it shouldn't be able to just lock you into a death combo of attack then grab =_= let alone sometimes just choosing to go 4 attacks before you get 1