PARTY SIZE

This is such a moot thread. It's a personal choice, a story choice, and gameplay choice... whatever works in the game you're making, really!

No, 4 parties of 4 for a total of 16 party members, with the ability to toggle through the 4 parties, from a choice of 96 classes of which characters can earn up to two subclasses is the ONLY choice.

Appropriate party size (as opposed to pool) depends on where/when you are, as that tends to define what you'll be facing. In my own current project, for a fair portion of the time you'll have exactly one character to mess with - at those times, that's all you'll need. At the far end of the spectrum, there are other times where you'll (potentially) have 2x(4|2) - two toggled parties of four, plus two reserves in each party. And I intend to make it clear that that at least the two parties really ought to be full...

As for total party pool (all playable characters, period) - I'm going to be trying something I read about a while back, that kind of takes Kentona's 'no legendary hero' logic to its ultimate conclusion: If the hero's hometown is threatened, why wouldn't the entire town plan how to fight back? Party pool consists of somewhere between 40-48 characters - including the shopkeepers, the village elder, the blacksmith, etc...

I've gone crazy, haven't I?

The main problem with most rpg games, in my opinion, is the addition of new characters through noncommittal happenstance. Both in RM games and commercial ones, characters are brought into the story so randomly that it becomes impossible for the player to become interested in their past. It's a trend that just keeps on going, usually when there are more than four or five main characters.

I prefer when heroes have history with one another from the get-go. It immediately draws you in, especially when there's some sort of rivalry involved.

I also kinda hate it when the game begins with a full party. It can be alright from a gameplay point of view, but in terms of story, if that is your main focus, it sucks. There needs to be some kind of gradual evolution of the party.

Or just simplify the battle system. See: Diablocide. Fourteen completely unique PCs. I like you, stoodyhoo.

Yessss. *Craze gains +5 Shameless Plug skill.

Eh when it comes to larger parties, I've always liked the base four members party, mostly because games that do this usual flesh out the characters quite a bit. However when it comes to large parties, which can be great, the biggest problem is if you just make them blank slates. Like in FF7 or FF8 where all the characters had little or no variation in stats and they were built completely by how you did it in the game. Which can be boring since then you'll just use your three favorite characters instead of changing the party to the situation...I.E. Cloud w/ Materia spec, seriously, buff guy with a giant sword using magic?? Just weird...

Another thing to remember is that if you put in these extra characters; you need to flesh them out and make relevant to the plot. Give them a motivation for following the hero. So chose your workload carefully.

I like the concept of having enough party members to fill your battle roster, and no more than that. What I do like having a lot of is options for what your characters can do, but I'd rather the cast be small and fleshed out than huge with characters that you don't get attached to.

Case in point? For me, Final Fantasy XII. The main characters I used were Basch, Balthier, and Ashe. Why? They were the most relevant to the plot, that's why. And because Basch is a sexy beast. Vaan was just a tag along kid that was more annoying than anything. Penelo got captured. Yay. And Fran was just Balthier's partner who the game really could have gone without. All she added was that she was hot, if you're into the whole furry thing. Basch was Ashe's guardian, Ashe was trying to recover the rights to rule her country, and Balthier was helping them. The cast was too big, and it was only six characters. Half of them were pointless in being there.

I felt like all of the six character cast of Tales of the Abyss were justified in being a part of Luke's party, even if some of it felt forced at first, the story eventually opened up to all of the characters and the reason why they were doing what they were doing. Even though the cast was six, and you could only have four per battle party, it was interesting to use the other characters to see how yours battles would change, and by not using the main hero or his love interest would trigger alternate endings, too.

So, I think it's about how you want your plot to go. If you can manage a crapton of characters, then go right for it. I'm happy with my current project being akin to Dragon Quest 8. Four spots in a battle party means four characters. That way you get a lot of interaction with them and you can really get attached to them.

Seems like this topic revived.

Generally I stand by my statement on the first page.

V&V had a battle party of four, with eight to choose from, AW (would have) had a battle party of four with six to choose from. Harbinger has up to six battle members with 44 (all story characters on a class system) to choose from.

So yeah, mind hasn't changed. =p