Thanks for the feedback! We really appreciate you taking the time to play the game so much and tell us your thoughts.
Sorry about the poor experience with the game locking up. We definitely did notice a few instances where that could happen and issued a patch last week. Can you confirm if you have version 15.6? It should be on the bottom right of the title screen. If you do, then our play testers have definitely missed something and we will figure it out ASAP. Appreciate the details there.
We certainly have more in mind for the full game with regards to characters. As may be evident from the title screen, we will have "fixed" characters in the game as well as characters you can design yourself. Some of them will be in the party initially and others can be recruited as you play specific missions or at specific locations in the game. We will have a lot more customization options to choose from for designing the characters.
Yeah, the "turn based" vs "squad based" decision was a tough one for the team. The original idea for the game was to go back to the "retro" JRPG "initiative" style turn order while still having the tactical element. It's definitely something we are thinking about and testing and we will take your feedback under consideration as we continue development.