To those of you who have successfully played though Ni no Kuni, I could use some advice. How do you deal with your AI controlled party members? Ever since Esther joined my party, I've been having trouble with boss fights since the AI doesn't seem to ever bother blocking the powerful attacks bosses have. This far too often results in the demise of whoever I'm not controlling at the moment, which in turn causes me to lose a battle otherwise going quite well. Maybe I'm missing something really obvious here, but I could really use a hand.
I really don't want to quit the game out of frustration, since it's pretty amazing in most other areas. (I'm loving the beautiful art and orchestral soundtrack)