Party Size

[Jessweeee♪]

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.

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

[Iceglow]

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.

[Raistlin]

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.

EDIT:

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.

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.

[Yar]

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

[Jiro]

It depends on the size of the cast.

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

Clearly you've never played WoW.

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.

[qwertysaur]

4 Active.

[Depression Moon]

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!

[Shauna]

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

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. :{