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At first there were almost always four characters, besides IV which had 5.

But for some reason in FFVII, it was changed to only three. This continued in FFVIII and X. In IX, the four character party made a triumphant return.

With four characters, you can more easily balance your party. It's an even number. And it's much more fun with four than three.

Anyone know why this was changed?

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Personally I've always been a fan of four or five characters to a party, (Suikoden's six character party works for Suikoden, but wouldn't be balanced for an FF game) and I think the number of characters has to do with the game's balance. The way FF VII was designed, there was a lot more customization and power potential. Leveling up was easier, super-powerful attacks (ie limit breaks and summons) were more accessible, and the characters are stronger and less different; A four person party in FF VII would be a materia struggle early in the game and likely ridiculously unbalanced late in the game. In FF IX, the characters were way less customizable not as easily capable of gi-normous damage. It really depends on how easy it is to do damage and how customizable the characters are to determine what the idea party size is.

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Square really liked the first Wild ARMs, so they did a small tribute to it.

Hey, it's possible...

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Plus as I understand it, at the time it's all they could get the PS to handle.

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Well, in FFVII you only have access to 8 characters at the end (then again, who uses Cait Sith or Yuffie anyway? So 6). Whereas in VI, you had 14. It could have something to with that. Plus, in VII, you could morph those sources and make one godly character unlike in VI or IX.

Then again, if we're arguing the fact about the size of the party changing, you could also discuss the crystals, four elements... you get the idea.

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Quote (Racthoh @ 23rd February 2005 22:58)

(then again, who uses Cait Sith or Yuffie anyway? So 6)

I know loadsa' Yuffie fans. She's powerful, and can attack at full strength from back row. She's also the only character that can do normal damage while using 'Morph'.

Cait Sith is supposed to be best at using Manip...but I'm not sure if it's true.

Just sain' just cos you dun like her, dun diss the Yuff!

Anyway, I think the party of three works well. Because each character could do anything really, so there was no need for a fourth. In a four party system you usually have an attack, healer, magic attacker, and a back-up melee character. Without the need for the fourth (because healers/magic attackers arn't bound by being weak physically when MP is out) then a part of four would be too over-powering.

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Quote (Racthoh @ 23rd February 2005 22:58)

Well, in FFVII you only have access to 8 characters at the end (then again, who uses Cait Sith or Yuffie anyway? So 6). Whereas in VI, you had 14. It could have something to with that.

Meh. FF IX had only eight characters and used a four person party. Skies of Arcadia had six characters and used a four person party (but that's probably a bad example...), Tales of Phantasia had five characters and used a four person party (gah... probably a worse example). Let's not mention Suikoden I-III, with their 108 characters and six person parties or Chrono Cross with their 24 (maximum in one playthrough) characters with a three person party. There's logic to your argument, but the total number of characters is really not a good indication as to the party size.

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However it does back my point. ^^ The games like FFIX and Tales of Phantasia had job-specific characters.

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Quote (King Edgar @ 23rd February 2005 19:55)

With four characters, you can more easily balance your party.

There's your answer. In VII, all the characters were near-identical in battle, so where's the balancing act going to come from?

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Quote (Racthoh @ 23rd February 2005 22:58)

Then again, if we're arguing the fact about the size of the party changing, you could also discuss the crystals, four elements... you get the idea.

Yes, but by that logic and the lack of four crystals (if that's what you're implying), shouldn't FFVI and FFIX also have 3-character parties? And FFIV have 4 since it did have them?

Actually, that's rhetorical -- I'm just being nitpicky.

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Words of Wisdom:

If something can go wrong, it will.

If anything simply cannot go wrong, it will anyway.

If there is a possibility of several things going wrong, the one that will cause the most damage will be the one to go wrong. - Murphy’s Law

Boing! Zoom! - Mr. Saturn

I echo the thoughts of the four-character party being job-specific and well-balanced for that scenario. The three-character party is three characters with a variety of abilities and skills to be exchanged with, thus materia and junction. Some like four, others like three. I could go either way... I love 'em all!

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Quote (King Edgar @ 23rd February 2005 19:55)

At first there were almost always four characters, besides IV which had 5.

But for some reason in FFVII, it was changed to only three. This continued in FFVIII and X. In IX, the four character party made a triumphant return.

With four characters, you can more easily balance your party. It's an even number. And it's much more fun with four than three.

Anyone know why this was changed?

I don't know why it changed. To me that really sucks! Too bad they did that.
I've been wondering why they changed the party to only three characters.
Does anybody else know why they changed that? I bet it was really easy. They probably thought it was too easy, so they changed the amount of characters to three.

Perhaps Square figured a lot of n00bs would be playing this game and that they wouldn't be able to handle the hefty micro-management involved with a 4 or 5 character party. Or maybe Square thought the battles would be quicker and less tedious, which to some extent is probably true. Or it could be one of the other reasons already mentioned.

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Personally I've always been a fan of four or five characters to a party, (Suikoden's six character party works for Suikoden, but wouldn't be balanced for an FF game) and I think the number of characters has to do with the game's balance. The way FF VII was designed, there was a lot more customization and power potential. Leveling up was easier, super-powerful attacks (ie limit breaks and summons) were more accessible, and the characters are stronger and less different; A four person party in FF VII would be a materia struggle early in the game and likely ridiculously unbalanced late in the game. In FF IX, the characters were way less customizable not as easily capable of gi-normous damage. It really depends on how easy it is to do damage and how customizable the characters are to determine what the idea party size is.

I would think that this is the main reason. The characters could end up all being uber with 13-commands a piece. There was simply no need for more and any less would be too difficult to start.

I have to go with the fact that four and five character systems are more job specific. In FFVI and FFIX, the characters are, well, restricted to their classifications. Zidane steals things, Steiner hits things, Garnet heals, and Vivi blows stuff up, whereas, if you align the materia, you can have one character who steals, hits, heals and blows stuff up.

It seems like a matter of versatility; since the characters are easily manipulatable and interchangeable, to teh point that all the seperates them is thier availability of materia they can use, individual attributes and limit breaks, where as youc an't manipulate the characters array of abilities as you can in FFIX.

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Dammit, Janus, you took the words right out of my mouth.

But to be a bit more specific; there were "roles" in each of teh past games. One was always a knight/fighter, there were black and white wizards, thieves, etc. And only one character had one of each characteristic/role (or occasionally a balanced person). So, with only three party members, you would have only three roles. But in FFVII, not only can you change the roles between the characters easily, but you could assign multiple roles to each one! I remember someone boasting that they had managed to get Aeris strong enough to kill most enemies in one hit with her physical attack (remember, she is the character with the weakest physical attack). With the loss of boundries, having four uber-characters would be overkill.

Plus, with the tweaked ATB, it would be tougher to manage. I'm not saying impossible, or even really hard, but more annoying.
And then there is the general "more is better" idea. Having more party members makes things easier, since you don't have to multitask. If the enemies worked together as well as the average party (my guys are always busy with healing and support), they would be much tougher.

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Hmm... my first response was really torn apart... anyway:

3 Characters
3 Disks
3 Pieces of Equipment per character
3 Weapons that you fight for great gear

Could be anything. Maybe it was just for a change of pace. Compare it to FFIV. You had two fighters, an offensive magic user, a curative/defensive magic user, and a fighter/magic user at the end. The roles were set. Move onto FFV, anyone is everything, a lot like the first three Final Fantasy games. Onto FFVI, characters are geared towards a specific build, but can be manipulated through espers (turn a knight into a powerful spell caster). You had no choice in FFIV, you needed more characters, having just four would be too difficult to advance. In FFV, you can switch classes at anytime to match the situation. In such a case, you don't need as many party members. Almost the same logic applied to FFVI, but since you have 14 characters you just pick and choose to match the situation ahead. In FFVII, each character can deal a lot of physical damage with a basic attack. Materia allowed a single character to possess the abilities that you needed four characters to cover in previous games. I could have a Cloud doing massive physical damage and magical as well. Another character using healing and support magic. The final guy... whatever command materia I've got I'll throw on him. There was no need for a fourth character with the system that was created. A fourth character would've meant dividing more materia and forcing the player to resort to the past routines. Thus, it was a change of pace.

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