Preparation for combat.

[Bishop81]

I would like something more than "watch video, wipe, retry" fights, maybe something more random, or more obvious but more difficult (timing, elemental wheel, status afflictions, reflexes, etc), so I'm not sure I agree 100% with you, but in your case, a spell like "Scan" or "Sense" (Very common in the FF series) would make a lot of sense.

"Scan" is kind of a cheap way out. [1]

I was think more along the lines of hiding the clues in NPC dialogue, books, scrolls ... etc. plus use of common sense, i.e. terrain might play a part in disadvantaging the target.

[1] Actually you can just show the attribute the players need to know on the UI automatically without having to manually activate the a scan-type ability.