I've seen some walkthroughs/faqs/character-creation guides and some claim that the front character gets hit the most (I suppose "front character" means the left-most?). But in my experience, I can hardly say that's true. Also, official manual doesn't mention it. In MM7, it also seems that the party member order matters for bowmen - as the arrow flies from the left, middle or right, depending on the position. But that's about all I noticed.

So, could you please tell me more about the order of party members, particularly in MM6, MM7 and MM8?