I haven't played this in a decade but it's my favorite game of all time. The desert sucks a lot because heatstroke is such a punishing status effect. Make sure you get a lot of the items that cure it. Wet towels I think. When you take so much damage in a single hit that it would kill your characters, their hit points literally have to roll all the way down slowly before they will die, if you burn through the menu choices of your characters and nail them with a heal spell that would raise their life to even 1 before the dial rolls all the way down then you can save them from dying. Very handy and saves you lots of revive items and mp. Buy a lot of bottle rockets for Jeff. The biggest tip I could give though is make sure you are playing with the sound cranked. The music and noises in this game are made by one of the most renowned Japanese composers to ever live. I remember the sounds from this game so deeply that it is part of who I am. The runaway fives bus, the sound spot song, the beach song of summers. So many awesome sounds. I envy your new upcoming experience!