Played through the first area on hard mode, many things to say.
1: Even with the tutorial the combat system is unintuitive. What do the skill levels do? What does the sign above the enemy's head mean? What do the new stats do? How do statuses work in this game? Why is there a visible turn order that suddenly changes when I finish selecting a move? Does the ultimate bar charge while travelling (It feels like it does but again, no way for me to tell) and where can I find it outside of battle? While the tutorial is effective at conveying the basics, it unnecessarily withholds information that would be very helpful to the player.
2: The enemies in the forest are very imbalanced. Their default attacks only deal around 20 damage but some of the specials can do upwards of 100. The hornets are also capable of stun-locking you and don't even convey you've been stunned. On top of that, most of Nana's attacks aren't very effective (which I believe is intentional, but she is in the zone where it comes off as reasonable to win anyway) with the exception of "Full Claw Charge" which kills everything even at a low level. It doesn't help the imbalance when the ultimate still charges the meter (which also covers up part of the first enemy's health bar due to positioning). Using this and the EXP shards, Nana was over level 20 by the time I left the forest opening. If you don't want players to fight in the first area, make it so that the enemies aren't worth fighting rather than just making them hard to kill.
3: Much of the equipment found in the forest has the wrong name assigned to it when you obtain it from a chest (i.e., small ribbon instead of blue ribbon) and there is nothing that tells the player when they obtain EXP shards. Herbs only restore 50 HP instead of the tooltip's 75. The way to recheck the effects of Nana's form shouldn't be buried in the key items. Odyssey of Gianna (another transformation-heavy game, though this one is 18+) has a dedicated journal for both enemies and status effects/transformations linked to the main screen of the menu making it much easier to find.