I've returned after not playing for a few months, and now after putting 40 ish more hours into the game, it really feels like Sal is more consistently strong than the other characters, especially Rook. I feel like Rook has very weak negotiation playstyles and is worse in battle overall than Sal. I haven't played enough with Smith yet to get a good read on his negotiation, but he definitely has some strong battle options.

I've beat Prestige 7 with Sal, and I'm pretty familiar with this game as well as the genre as a whole (lots of time in StS). Either I haven't been able to find any strong, consistent cards with Rook, or he's just weaker. Then there's also the fact that he starts with lower base stats... I don't know. I get that they're very different, and I need to play the character more to get a better feel for them, but it still seems that there's a pretty substantial divide between the characters' viability. What do you think?