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I've heard a good number of people saying that the more characters you have in an RPG, the less character development you can devote to each character. While this may make sense, I decided to test it on FFIV, FFV, FFVI, CT, and SMRPG. Here I've analyzed the character data by counting the number of "significant" characters in the plot of each game, and then dividing that by the total number of characters. (I've listed different answers for potential disputes over Golbez, Umaro, and Gogo.) By "significant" I refer to those characters whose character/personality (no pun intended) the player gets some insight into by knowing backstory and/or major (and/or many) plot events due to those characters. I've given 1/2 scores to characters that are borderline cases and cases where the character is rather flat and non-historied but has a significant plot involvement or vice versa.

FFIV: Cecil, Kain, Rydia, Rosa (1/2), Tellah, Edward, Yang (1/2), Twins (together they count as 1/2), Cid (1/2), Edge, FuSoYa (1/2), Golbez (9.5/14)
FFV: Butz (1/2), Lenna, Galuf, Faris, Cara (4.5/5)
FFVI: Terra, Locke, Edgar, Sabin (1/2), Shadow (1/2), Cyan, Gau (1/2), Celes, Setzer, Strago, Relm (1/2) (9/14, or 9/12 if you don't count Umaro and Gogo)
CT: Crono (1/2), Marle, Lucca, Frog, Robo, Ayla, Magus (6/7)
SMRPG: Mario (1/2), Mallow, Geno, Bowser, Toadstool (4.5/5)

Well, here are the scores:
FFIV, 14 characters, 9 "significant", fraction=.68
FFV, 5 characters, 4.5 "significant", fraction=.9
FFVI, 14 or 12 characters, 9 "significant", fraction=.64 or .75
CT, 7 characters, 6.5 "significant", fraction=.93
SMRPG, 5 characters, 4.5 "significant", fraction=.9

The fraction of "significant" characters does decline somewhat with the increasing number of characters, but not that much. It is indeed possible to make many characters interesting even if there are a whole bunch of them. Well, it does show that Square does quite well at character development, but the point here is that it gives evidence that more characters does lead to less character development on average (i.e. not necessarily meaning that all characters are less developed, but more often development is not as even over the many characters), but also shows that the degree to which character development is sacrificed can be increased or reduced.

So what do you think? Feel free to post your own study results, or your attempt to figure out whether more or less characters is better for an RPG.

Edit: I clarified my definition of "significant", added Rosa (1/2), gave Tellah 1/2 more, added 1/2 for the Twins and 1/2 for FuSoYa, as well as 1 for Golbez, took 1/2 from Shadow and Gau each, added 1/2 for Crono.

I agree with DP's point about Crono, since he does have a house where he "lives" with his mom, and he also has a girl who likes him. He also has a huge role in a few critical places in the plot. But he almost completely lacks personality, and says nothing (except in one of the endings).

Butz does put the entire party together, but most of the plot doesn't involve him directly; he merely acts like a "leader".

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 5th April 2004 01:31

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

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Interesting, sort of. You said you left out those whose absence would have done no harm to the plot? I think you ignored how important everyone else was in IV.
Rosa - well, she may have been just a plot device, but she was what made everything happen in the second quarter of the game.
The twins - remember what happened after they beat Kainazzo/Cagnazzio?
Tella only gets a half for his lack of influence on the overall story, but I think it should bump up to one for his part of the story. Shows how much there really was to him.
FuSoYa helped bring down Golbeze, and opened up Cecil's past for him. He deserves at LEAST a half.
Did you add one to the total?

Crono and Butz deserve a little more, since they were kind of what held the party together. Without them, the other characters would have no reason to even hang around each other.

You gave Shadow a bit much. All he did for the actual plot was just being there for the Floating Continent and the trip to Thamasa. I would give him a 1/2 for his back story, which you can skip entirely.
Gau deserves a 1/2. He helped you get past one point in the game, which had nothing to do with the plot, and did nothing else.

The problem with alot of characters is not how many can be considered significant, it's just that only so many of them can be significant at a time.

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"I had to write four novels before they let me write comic books."
-Brad Meltzer

Thanks for the input. I'll edit my above post.

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

But Shadow has a great part of responsability of the apocalypse. He disturbed the balance of the Statues. Which statues that destroyed the world. In other words, he gave to Kefka his dream's world.

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«À l'aventure compagnons, je suis parti vers l'horizon! J'aurais mieux fait de rester au lit, ce donjon, il est pourri!» - Pen of Chaos

Well, Kefka shifted them out of balance first anyways. Shadow only shifted them further in order to pin down Kefka temporarily, and I'm pretty sure that didn't make much more of a difference.

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

You can find me on the Fediverse! I use Mastodon, where I am @[email protected] ( https://sakurajima.moe/@glennmagusharvey )

Whether or not the Ninja o' the Nasty contributed significantly to the planetary rearrangement is probably debatable based on how one thinks those statues work. The thing that stands out for me is that the game's script (at least the American one to my recollection) downplays it and effectively makes no mention of it. For that reason I would lean towards his role in the cataclysm as being superficial.

PB78

1) Cecil
2) Cain
3) Rydia
4) Tella
5) Gilbert/Edward
6) Rosa
7) Yang
8) Palom
9) Porom
10) Cid
11) Edge
12) FuSoYa
13) Golbeze

That's thirteen. Who am I missing?

And I kinda think the twins should at least get 1/2 each. Cecil was completely reliant on them as he reached the game's climax, and I already mentioned the second most memorable part of the game (after "You Spoony Bard").
You have to consider how the characters were important DURING the time they were present, not throughout the entire game.

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"I had to write four novels before they let me write comic books."
-Brad Meltzer