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Its intended to put it simply. If a character has the highest % in the Pi chart for Celica (especially if its more than Celica herself) they can end up having more control over Celica than you do. Its not permanent but it can become a challenge to regain control, especially if you gave that character some of the fox shrine spirit charms to have more power over Celica. 

You can usually still escape and regain control, but for the characters you meet later into the game the tougher it tends to be. The rough thing with the dark world characters is that (pretty sure at least) you can't get kicked out of Celica's body. This tends to be the easier way to regain control, since there are guaranteed ways to regain control from that point.

So for Jade and other dark world characters, you just gotta get the timing right a few times in a row with struggling, and it can take a bit of time.

Edit to add: I've tried this for a few of the main world characters and since Violet is one of my fav interactions I got stuck with her in control for like 5 mins of combats too since she doesn't kick Celica out of her body. This was when i realized your situation can happen lol. 

bro got tilted over an nsfw game lmao

joking aside, I felt a lil frustrated over the jump in enemy power from 1st to 2nd floor in that first dungeon too and kinda rushed the dungeon because of worrying about the soul fragmentation my first time through. But getting like 1-2 good skills solves the combat struggles, and when you clear the dungeon you regain 20 soul fragments (which will go beyond 0 into the negatives). Its basically impossible to lose because of the soul fragments unless you are trying to (once you know what you're doing). There is even a cheap shop item that lets you recover soul fragments easily.

This game is really not as tough/punishing as it might initially seem, and maybe could have better in-game tips/balance (specifically in that first dungeon going from floor 1 to 2) to help make that more clear. But you being an ass about here isn't gonna help anyone. Be constructive or just don't post.

Checked the game out a bit the past few days and its really fun! I was initially worried about the soul fragmentation mechanic, but then cleared the first dungeon and realized I didnt need to worry about it as much as it went negative haha. 

Also might be nice to have a starting Aura and Physical skill right away, since combat early on can feel rough if you don't have either (felt this way once i got to the second level of the first dungeon, but instantly felt manageable again once I had a couple skills unlocked.)

Can't wait for more updates, and loved the different characters/storylines/events so far! Excited to see how everything progresses! (also worth mentioning that I found this because it was recommended from Town of Magic. Loved the crossover secret event from in the library too)

Basically any non-fight encounter/interaction in a dungeon. Similar wording for what is used in Darkest Dungeon. 

Also for your first question, i think its mostly up to rng from multiple different aspects as you play through the game.  You can kinda force certain desire stats through cursed items, certain classes, and maybe a few other ways but im not 100% sure on that. 

To add on with a different point from CloudJiv. You can test "?" items on people you're not dedicated towards leveling up. So if you have class specific items that might be cursed you can wait until you have a back up person to test whether it is cursed or not, otherwise just pull a random new recruit  that you're not interested in leveling and test all potentially cursed items on them.  Then you can dismiss them if they're stuck with annoying cursed items or keep them to try and unlock the fun/good  cursed items for future use.  

That being said i definitely felt that way early on in my first attempt too.