Party Size

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Originally Posted by Remon

7+ parties are sort of uncool because you kinda don't feel like using the rest of the cast. If they could arrange a system like FFX, where you can switch characters mid battle, then it would be fine. But in games like Persona or previous fantasies, I only leveled one main team and left the rest rotting in reserve.

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Yeah, Persona 3 I leveled everybody up, because you needed to make sure all your bases were covered for every boss fight, but in Persona 4 they added Defending, so you weren't totally screwed if you took someone who would be vulnerable. Characters I really liked just got left behind because it was more rewarding to keep them out :(

Sometimes you just can have too many characters in a party (here's looking at you Sukioden series, with your 108 stars of destiny) I remember in Sukioden 4 I never managed to level up all of the actual battle characters because it took so damn long. This meant that when I tried to go through a later naval battle I ended up dying. I didn't even have all 108.

Six is ideal, as long as the cast is sufficiently large enough. After playing a game like Suikoden, it feels annoying, restrictive, and boring to go back to a three-member party. Five is also acceptable.

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Originally Posted by Iceglow

I remember in Sukioden 4 I never managed to level up all of the actual battle characters because it took so damn long. This meant that when I tried to go through a later naval battle I ended up dying. I didn't even have all 108.

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No one levels up all the battle characters (what is that, about 60 characters?) -- although I probably came relatively close in end-game S3, as it's so damn easy at that point (and in S5 you need 18 battle-worthy characters for the final dungeon). Especially not in Suikoden IV, which is probably the easiest in the series (instant healing after battle + obnoxiously overpowered magic characters). But if you skim through the game and don't bother recruiting many of the characters, the major battles are definitely more difficult.

If it's FF I'd stick with 4 but if you mean like FFT, I'd say 7 or 8

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Originally Posted by Bunny

It depends on the size of the cast.

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WoW has massive raids and that's pretty sweet I guess.

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Clearly you've never played WoW.

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Clearly. To be honest I have played it for like three hours on a mate's pc. But that's semantics. In theory, huge raids are cool.

4 Active. :p

VI had too much IMO. 13 characters is odd and a good deal of them really don't add much to the story. The story of the game wouldn't change without Gau, Relm, Mog, Umaro, and Gogo.

As for in battle parties I prefer 4 in FF games and the next one better have 4. I don't care in other games. In Uncharted 2 I like the size of the parties and it's crazy when you have a custom match with ten people. Love it!

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Originally Posted by Raistlin

and in S5 you need 18 battle-worthy characters for the final dungeon

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I remember having to do that. Barely scraped myself through the final couple of boss battles. xD Good times though.

I dunno about optimum party size. Depends on the size of the cast, as Bunny said. But, if I've been playing Suikoden, going back to a small party is just no fun. :{