12 is substantially more grindy, though, isn't it? I might remember it wrong, it's been some years.
Yes and no. Compared with 8, you're not drawing spells to have a backup reservoir on pack mule characters. Also there is a 2x and 4x Fast Forward and your AI companions are programmable with Gambits (biconditional statements where you tell them what to do in a situation). So really you can just speedrun through a field of mobs and your team will annihilate it based on what you've told them to do.