This game has a lot of characters, so the most important menu in the game is the Formation screen.  Here, you can assign up to 4 Units to a Squad, and you can field up to 8 Squads for a total of 32 characters.

Here is just a handful of the cast:

That's a lot to keep track of, especially since the arrangement really matters!  

• Characters have different Range preferences and will have more Action Points (AP) when in their comfort zone
• The Squad Leader gets a boost to all stats
• Units get a boost when their fellow Squad members share their Element
• Units get a boost when they have a strong bond with someone in their Squad such as a brother and sister, best friends, or a runaway princess and her dream-eating pet tiger (*ahem* Yuri and Nora)

I've had several iterations of the Formation menu since the start of this project as the mechanics evolved, and I've tried to improve it each time.  I'm still in the early stages of my newest version of the Formation menu, but it's coming together and hopefully it will be a nice improvement.

Here's a really early one.  Minimal stats shown, but you could assign Units to Squads via drag-and-drop:

Then this was next.  More detail, but it's so busy!  In this example I have 9 Units on the left who aren't assigned to Squads, then in the middle the 4 Units of the currently selected Squad, and then on the right the 5 Squads who currently have Units (and the option to create a new Squad):

Here's the current version.  It's one of the oldest systems in the game at the moment, and while it works fairly well it isn't very visually appealing and still feels busy.  I cheated and have all the characters in the game, so there are 5 pages worth on the left waiting to be assigned to a Squad.  This is a definite improvement, but I'd like to try a new approach.

My goal is to make it intuitive and to show off the art some more.  Instead of trying to fit everything on one screen, I'm going to give it more space by using several screens, dropping the stat icons, and using some of the newer GUI elements I've put into the buttons, dialogue, and battle systems.

Here's the same party as the previous screenshot, but I think they look  much better this way!  

There is still a good deal of work left to make the Formation screen work better (and show detail without being overwhelming), but I'm happy with the progress so far and I hope you think it's an improvement!

Updated 3/24/2020

Here's an update with more built out - this is the most complicated it should get, with 8 squads filled out.  The yellow outline tells us who the leader is, and clicking/tapping on a Unit or empty box will bring up a menu where you can move them, make them the leader, or take them out of the Squad

The characters' elemental auras are animated on this screen, and will grow larger when there's elemental synergy - below, Heart and Naomi get a bonus for being the same element (Life), and their aura appears larger than the other characters' auras

The letter grades on the top are the characters' growth rates in each stat.  On the bottom the grades show the characters' range preferences, but I'll likely change this as it seems confusing

It's a lot of information to convey and I will still add/remove from it, but making progress.     

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Meet Salome

Salome is the captain of her hometown militia, and is the first character you recruit in the current Story Mode.

She's calm, collected, tough, and fair.  She's also a proud mother of five kids with her husband Heart.  When they're on the same Squad, they fight even harder!