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The game kinda implied it was a big deal, but then the rewards I have seen so far haven't exactly blown my mind and it does come at the expense of two of your characters not getting any EXP - when there's already 11 of the buggers not getting any!
Do you use it or ignore it?
It's a roulette really. I've had it complete bone me over where I've been stuck with a group of 3 melee characters with no way to hit ranged targets.
But on the flip-side, the SPP members do count toward "Kill X enemies with Y characters" bonus objectives at the end of missions. As you achieve more and more of these you unlock weapons and costumes for those characters that can be bought with SPP.
Admittedly most of the stuff can also be bought for Gil too, though some of it is quite expensive gil wise.
I find it amusing so I keep using it, but I've seen no real incentive to convince me its actually necessary. There's lots of overworld stuff to do though, so I wouldn't worry too much about mission experience. You can take whoever you want into overowrld fights, and there's a mechanic where you can grow challenge and experience by accepting enemy back-up fights which can get insanely difficult for early levels. They start out a little lower then you and then gain like 5 levels for every fight or something. I made it to fighting level 30 enemies when my people were around 12 and almost got wiped because I'm still getting used to combat mechanics for some reason and my AI team was eating rocket launchers left and right and going out in one hit. I almost didn't make it. But it alludes to an interesting risk/reward mechanic that can make a random encounter a little bit more interesting
If you're a grinder like me you can get some pretty vicious gear early on in game, especially since I"ve been using almost only Queen. And dear god can that women clear out a crowd. <3 (I can now buy a freaking vicious weapon after raising up her kill count and getting the kill so many enemy bounties.)
Here's the main reason to do it:
http://i.imgur.com/iBAQPP0.jpg
Thantos Bow for Trey and Queen's weapon are smurfing brutal once unlocked, so there are those. (Character specific weapons are my reason for grinding up SP right now.)
I've started using it on those brutal challenge, as I find I really need the back up.
Just a note though, I smurfing hate that the game is rewarding you for accepting smurfing back up cause you need the extra meat shields cause you can't keep your group alive otherwise.
YOU SHOULD NOT BE REWARDED FOR SUCKING!
I agree to some extent, though as you can see from the thread I initially just wanted EXP for my characters and you lose out on that rather than let the devs' vanity avatars gobble up all the kills :p
It's easier to grind EXP on open world random battles I find anyway. :p
I've used it for the first two missions and the SPP did provide me with some useful accessory upgrades, but it was really annoying when I wanted to switch controlled characters and both of them were swapped out for the moment.
Did anyone notice the names of the SP squadmates are the same as some of SE's employees? Or am I just making that up?
Yeah they all are. Either SE employees, Japanese voice actors or members of Bump of Chicken.
Haha, that's a pretty cool way for them to get their names in the game! It's a shame they're just black shadows rather than fully fledged models xD
I've only used SPP once and like Del said I didn't like not being able to swap party members. Maybe I should use it more often? I need to level my characters though.
I screencapped this yesterday:Quote:
Originally Posted by Del Murder
Attachment 63717
Yeah I got him, that's how I noticed. :p I wouldn't have recognized most anyone else.
I was just coming here to brag about having him show up. Well, I can do you one better, I also had tonberry show up at the same time too.
You can change this in the Options and select if you want them to look like normal characters in your party.Quote:
Originally Posted by fat_moogle
I got the best SPP assister today.
(SPOILER)Kurasame's Tonberry!
Attachment 63760