Yep, the reviews are a helpful perspective and I've been changing a lot of these things. I agree about there not being enough playtesting.
Yep. In the Sportsdome you can talk to your party members between tournament matches when you can explore. You need to give them the right response 4 times and you'll trigger the route. Note that if you talk to both of them the one you talk to last will be the route that is activated. As for what the correct responses are, the hint is that you challenge your party members rather than side with them.
If that's not enough, spoilers: top answers for Lanks bottom answers for Cyclops