A tip for those who want to get child characters early

[Raven the Obsidian]

So, certain child characters are listed as "Only available after chapter X" on this page here. That's actually not true! See, many of the sidequests link into one another on the world map, so you can actually access child characters as early as possible if you have certain children available. For example, Cynthia's map, Sidequest 9, is normally not available until after Ch18. But if you also have access to Selena, sidequest 10, which links to sidequest 9 and is also linked to a chapter that will already have been completed prior (10 and 13), you can access Cynthia's map as early as right after chapter 13! The same goes for all the other child characters whose maps are normally inaccessible due to a lack of a path until a certain story chapter is complete. As long as you have the sidequests that link into one another, you can access all the child characters as early as possible.