Heh I think Valjean forgot what forum he's in hehe.
You do have to play Konquest to get the hidden characters. Konquest is kind of fun, though. Just keep your eyes open. There's FAQs online and stuff too if you really want to breeze through and get everything. There was one on this site that I used, but it wasn't working last time I looked for it. You could try GameFAQs.