Sounds fun, and I'm happy you chose Sten over Katt. Yes, R.I.P. is useful to keep him alive, but it just means better characters will be taking more hits so I feel its not as good of a tradeoff, especially since I feel Sten much like Spar and Jean have to rely on the Shaman system to be useful, cause their normal stats are not so great.

I'm assuming you won't be using the Shaman system as well? How about power leveling by exploiting the Giant Monster Island? Will you fight Barubary alone as well, to make it more challenging?