Am I missing something, or are alchemists borderline-essential party members for successful dungeon runs, at least in the early game?
I'm trying the demo (for the second time) and I'm finding that dungeons become vastly easier with an alchemist in the party. No doubt part of that is because I've stumbled across two shotguns and a sniper rifle, but weapons I've found for other classes don't bring them up to the same level of effectiveness.
Have I just gotten really lucky with alchemist weapons and really unlucky with other class weapons? Is this a "powerful early, mediocre later" thing? Are alchemists just intended to be the preferred source of burst damage while other classes are supposed to be more utilitarian?