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I90east's topic about party size in battle gave me an idea about a similar thread. What do you all prefer when it comes to how big or home many people are in your party as a whole. For instance do you you prefer the small amount such as in FFV where they give you only enough to fight or as in Chrono Cross where you have over 40 people to choose from.

Myself the smaller the better, because I like to try and build everyone up but in games like Choro Cross it is impossible so you have exclude some people unless you play a thousand hours straight. I like games the games where you can evenly distrubute the wealth. That is why I loved FFX cause with every battle every character could gain the same number of EXP. points. That is the only thing I did not like about FFVI though. Also it is easier to keep track of storylines with less characters I bleieve. What do you all think, the more the merrier or less is better?

This post has been edited by BGrugby on 31st March 2004 05:02

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U sir R a n00b >:-( - Cactuar

more the merrier but like 40 in Chrono Cross is a bit much for me too. i like FFT 16 wa it? yeah 16 is a good number! but i also liked ff9 8 so between 8 and 16...

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I personally prefer a group that equals the battle party size, since it seems rather illogical that X portion of your entire set of Y characters isn't fighting the enemy when they could make life easier for the other Y-X characters. Of course then the story has to accomodate such groups, and that's a challenge. CT, FFVII, and SMRPG don't really do that good of a job at it; FFVI is better, and FFV is exemplary.

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I have mixed feelings. I like short parties so they all get character development, but at the same time I like a diverse selection of races and personalities. If there is enough, say, 8, and they are all well developed then I like that. FFIX got it right.

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I like a good sized group like in FFVI, 14 is a bit too much, but I think 12 is a good amount as well. Too little like in FFV is bad. In FFIV, you get a character for such a short time at around the beginnig of the game.

I like it when you have only as many characters as your battle party can hold. That way, you are not always trying to go back and forth in the game, trying to figure out if you have the correct people in your party. Plus, if there is alot of characters, character development and storyline gets greatly sacrificed.

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

I think that FF6 has only a few too many characters (and you don't have to get them all). So I think that game did it just right. To those that like only enough to fight,while that allows you to get to know a character better, I like getting to see the differing personalities of a lot of people e.g. Edgar's attempts with the ladies, Cyan's mournfulness (did I make that word up?), Terra's conflict of self, Locke's quest for repentance, Shadow's uber-coolness and mystery, Relm's fiestiness (sp?), Mog's Moogleness, and Sabin's muscle-head antics (or so he wants us to think). Even just these interesting characters make up 2 full parties. You'd have to play the game over and over again to really get to know all of these characters.

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At first I thought the thread refered to battle party size, not total party size, but I get it now.

FFX really wanted you to use everyone with the battle system, even based dialogue on how you interact with them. The problem I find with it is a lack. I think "OK, time to switch in my really cool character... where did he go? Wait, there is none!" Somehow FFX removed the notion of a staple character. Earlier FFs that let you choose teams had that staple character, whoever it may be for you. Without a staple character, you're going to have trouble loving your team. It could be one guy out of a dozen, and yet you craft your perfect team. Even with one guy out of six or 26, you still have a team.

However, FFX managed to make the party consistent... you witness the party travel with you. No 20-some odd characters magically swapped into your active team in the deepest dungeon while they actually sat at home.

One note before the main body of this post: I should have included FFIV in my last post under "exemplary", since in that game, as well as in FFV, the plot skillfully weaves in such a way that you always have <=5 or <=4 characters in your party.

EDIT: I deleted the rest of a long post and used that to started a new topic.

This post has been edited by Glenn Magus Harvey on 2nd April 2004 06:36

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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 )