So Many Characters are Daunting!

[Electroshock Therapy]

Apologies if I missed a thread on this, but I've searched through half this forum and didn't (or failed to) see one.

I tried playing this game, but I soon stopped because I got to the point where I could choose my party members from a pool. This is when Terra goes into rampaging Esper form, so this is very early game material. But I suddenly became overwhelmed by this decision because I felt I was bound to mess this up.

Let me explain. My first Final Fantasy game was FFX. When I had a choice of forming my party, I pretty much ignored Kimahri. That turned out to be a mistake late game when I had to fight a boss with just Kimahri. I had to spend so much time leveling him up like mad just to scrape through. That experience haunted me (over-dramatic, I know) then and still does now.

With FFVI having the most playable characters in the series, I'm seriously hesitating about continuing through the game. Can anyone give me tips on how to manage so many characters? Is it necessary to work up every character in every location? Is this like FFIV where unused characters still level up with you? Or is this like FFX where they don't and I could potentially screw myself over again... and again... and again?

(I'm also bummed that choosing the wrong party can cost me some story scenes, but this isn't necessary right now.)

This is why I'm also hesitant about playing FFVII onwards. Any help would be greatly appreciated! Like, immensely, sincerely appreciated!

[Wolf Kanno]

It is kind of important to use everyone in the game a little but the game does tend to force you to use certain story relevant characters in the first half for good portions of it. It becomes more important to level everyone in the second half because a few dungeons use a mechanic where you have two or more parties of four to complete, so it helps to use everyone a little.

Your party doesn't technically level with your main party when not in use, unless they are removed from play in story mode, and then they do get a small boost in levels with your party average when they rejoin the party if memory serves me correct. On the brightside, VI is relatively easy as a game and you can beat the whole game with the right set-up in your 30-40 level range. Past level 40 just makes the game a breeze so honestly level grinding is not a big deal despite the large cast. There are no dual-style battles where an underleveled character can potentially make the game unwinnable, but there is a point midway through the game where the difficulty does spike a little and your left with one character. It's possible to simply run from battle until you can get to town if need be so don't fret over this.

VII doesn't have this issue as unused party members do level slowly in reserve and frankly your Materia is more important than your party. VIII is a bit weird in that levels are bad because enemies grow in strength with your party so you genuinely want to stay low level until you get better with the Junction System. Like VII, your characters Junctions are more important than their levels or weapon upgrades.

IX also lacks any real moment where you can get screwed like this, in fact the one character who does get shortchanged levels in the game actually has a short segment in the game designed around power-leveling them to the rest of the parties standard. So yeah, no worries.

[Pumpkin]

This is funny because I'm the opposite. I LOVE large casts of characters, and in X I used every character in every fight

I enjoy using multiple characters so I just put in extra time grinding them all and I always take the lowest level characters with me when I progress the story (meaning during times I can't just switch them out whenever). The enemies and bosses in those areas usually give good experience to catch them up.

VIII is more about junctioning like WK said, so I wouldn't worry about having to catch any up. There's a little bit in IX, but they make it pretty easy to get them caught up.

[Cleric]

It can seem daunting, especially with the amount of characters in VI. Personally, I loved using the majority of the characters. I still had my main party that I preferred, but I would also have a reserve party that I would occasionally switch out and use, and of course a few characters that I just never used unless I had to...

[Electroshock Therapy]

Even the early games seem daunting to me at the best of times. But in those games, at least I only had to worry about a group of characters that either never changed, or the game chose when they come and go. I'm not that great of a FF player to begin with, so laying all those extra characters for me to worry about just overwhelmed me. (That memory of my FFX Kimahri screw up didn't help either.)

Thanks guys. You helped alleviate some of my worries.

[Mirage]

New party members start at a level based on the average of all your existing characters (although I think it is possible that some characters start at your average level plus/minus 1 or 2). There is a point in the game where you temporarily lose access to everyone but a single party member. When you reacquire the other party members after that event, their levels will now all be based on the level of this single character you were in control of.

The first character you rejoin will be of the average level of that single character, which is of course the level (but again, there could be static boosts/penalties for some characters). The second character you meet will be of the average level of the now two party members you have, and so on. Until you have reacquired more characters than you can fit in your party, they will all start at roughly the same level.

This event is pretty far into the game, and you'll "probably" know which one it is when you get there. Until after this point, you never really need to worry about leaving some characters behind, level wise. You can't permanently screw anything up no matter which characters you choose to use, so don't worry too much about it.


Losing scenes because you brought the "wrong" characters is just a good excuse to play the game more than once. Replay value, you know!

edit:
After gaining over a dozen characters, it is actually possible to choose to not re-recruit them again after they temporarily leave. You can technically beat the last boss without having a character pool of more than 4 characters. It is not recommended for beginners though, seeing as those four still need to split into three different parties where they'd fight either alone or as a duo.

[The Man]

There are actually only three characters required to beat the game, namely Celes, Edgar, and Setzer. However, doing this would mean you'd miss out on nearly all of the content from the second half of the game, and is not recommended for a first playthrough. It's also pretty difficult.

[Mirage]

i always forget that sabin is optional

[The Man]

It's easy to do, since the game nudges you really hard towards recruiting him. Technically you can only have a dozen characters in the first half of the game, also; the last two are only available in the second half.

[Spooniest]

Thanks guys. You helped alleviate some of my worries.

Allow me to alleviate further, and btw, I don't think we've been introduced. I'm Spoons...

Final Fantasy VI is a favorite subject of mine; trust me when I say that it truly does not matter who you have in your party, ever. Unless you're talking about triggering a particular event (which are all optional), any party will do, if proper strategy and equipment are employed.

Just keep your equipment up to snuff for whoever is in your current party, and don't be shy about using items and magic to blast the living balls out of whatever you're facing.

But caveat! I would take Celes, at the very least, at this point in the game. The SlamDancers in Zozo have magic that can kill you if you're not careful.

[Electroshock Therapy]

Hi, Spoons!

By the sounds of it, this game was made to be easy to manage. Which makes sense, I guess. I think I over think things, and worry about nothing. I'm itching to go back to this game now. But... I should finish what I'm currently playing.

[Mirage]

No, you should finish FF6. Screw other games. They can wait.

[Rez09]

^
I like this opinion.

[Depression Moon]

IX also lacks any real moment where you can get screwed like this, in fact the one character who does get shortchanged levels in the game actually has a short segment in the game designed around power-leveling them to the rest of the parties standard. So yeah, no worries.

What part are you talking about? Spoiler it if you need to.

[Wolf Kanno]

IX also lacks any real moment where you can get screwed like this, in fact the one character who does get shortchanged levels in the game actually has a short segment in the game designed around power-leveling them to the rest of the parties standard. So yeah, no worries.

What part are you talking about? Spoiler it if you need to.

Steiner gets short changed seeing how he's absent for a good chunk of Disc 2. When he rejoins in Disc 3, he has the defense of the city segment where the enemies drop ludicrous XP to level him up.