For all of my friends here who will eventually be playing Tears to Tiara 2...
...please do all of yourselves a favor & use this link that I (contributed a little to), and a G*FAQs friend, hasegewa, did all of the heavy-lifting on, as it covers, *Literally* everything
http://ps3imports.org/forum/index.php?/forum/833-tears-to-tiara-ii-heir-of-the-overlord/
Wow, excellent work. I'm so going to keep this at the ready when I start up my game. I downloaded Arwan and Riannon a while ago, but I never got Aru. I'll have to get her. When's the best time to do the Apple Trick, btw? As soon as I can or wait until post-game?
It really depends on the playthrough & what you're going for
If you're doing your "
Get All S-Ranks" playthrough...definitely wait until post-game; otherwise - you'll hurt yourself by having all over-leveled characters (which, detracts from your ranking score).
I tried to be smart & just level up the "right" characters (you're allowed ONE over-leveled character per stage) but...there's enough battles where you'll be forced into using characters that you wouldn't want to use together; cuz they're over-leveled.
On a 2nd (after getting the S-Rank trophy) playthrough, it's actually probably better doing it earlier...it will make you op'd and speed-up the 2nd time through, greatly