Maximum Battle Members

[AlwaysPrinceLeo]

Hello all, I'm here looking for your opinions!

My current project, Chasing Justice, has 10 party members, with a maximum of 5 party members per battle. This means you can have from 1 - 5 people participating in a battle all at once. I do this because there will many many moments where the entire 10 party crew will have to split into 2 - 5 groups to explore a dungeon, as well as many Combo Special Skills. The game will feature Yanfly's Standard Turn Based Battle System (in this current build), meaning all battlers will execute their actions immediately after their action is given.

One JRPG I really enjoyed was Fairy Fencer F: Advent Dark Force and it allowed the player 6 playable battle members. I thought it was a refreshing change from the typical 4 or 3 common in most (J)RPGs.

My question maintains to the poll and your opinions on such. How many max battle members do you prefer? Would you think 5 is too many for a battle system such as Moghunter's adaptation of the Tales of's Linear Motion Battle System (LMBS), let me know in the comments~!

 

[AmazingKazuki]

Honestly, for me, it just depends on the story and gameplay. If tons of customization class options, probably more than four. If the story focuses around one, or two, characters then seeing those that one or two develop could be totally worth it as well.

 

[Kes]

Please note that General Discussion is not for feedback on individual games. If the conversation becomes broad so that it is applicable to games in general then this can stay here. If, however, you want feedback for your specific game, then it belongs in "Ideas and Prototypes". Could you please clarify what you are looking for.

Having said that, I think that this question cannot be answered in isolation. The story, the style of game play, the amount of customization, the skill level of the developer etc. are all crucial factors.

 

[AlwaysPrinceLeo]

Please note that General Discussion is not for feedback on individual games. If the conversation becomes broad so that it is applicable to games in general then this can stay here. If, however, you want feedback for your specific game, then it belongs in "Ideas and Prototypes". Could you please clarify what you are looking for.

Having said that, I think that this question cannot be answered in isolation. The story, the style of game play, the amount of customization, the skill level of the developer etc. are all crucial factors.

Oh, haha sorry about the confusion.

The topic includes my game- as an example. I just want to see the opinions of people in regards to games with “x” amount of battle members instead of the traditional 4. It’s not for SPECIFICALLY my project. Just broad opinions across all games. Sorry, lol

 

[Sharm]

I don't have a preference. It's all about how the battles are set up. I mean, you get tons of characters in the Fire Emblem series and you need a large number of people to properly battle, but in Chrono Cross there were less people and it was still too many characters. In FFX there was a fun swap out mechanic that added some fun tactics to the battle. If everyone is useful it's fine to have as many characters in battle as you want. But if everyone is bland/uninteresting or you could easily play the game with half the characters and not notice a difference, you probably have too many.

 

[OnslaughtSupply]

For MogHunter's LMBS it gets confusing with over three. With something like DTB or STB 5 or 6 is a good number but it really depends on how many enemies your up against.

 

[KuroVuster]

considering the teams AI. i kind of switch and change the team amounts.
story mode characters = depends on the event, but i try not to go over 3 due to the AI, who may get wiped out and suddenly tank every op attack the enemies do.
mercenary characters/non story = when not in a story area, then i allow only 1 at a time.

 

[mauvebutterfly]

As long as everyone in the party is being used in some way in combat, I don't mind what the number is. What I don't like is when you have a four person combat party but the party itself has five members, and the fifth member just kind of watches the other four die and then stares at a game over screen without doing anything.

You mentioned Fairy Fencer. I haven't played it, but I heard it's the same combat system as Hyperdimension Neptunia Re;birth. In HNR1 you can have three active members but three other members can pair with them and provide passive bonuses and assist attacks. I think that this kind of system is a good way to have larger parties without having everyone as an active battler.

I loved this system when I had 6 or fewer characters, but once I hit 12 towards endgame I basically just ignored all the other characters. The 6 later characters weren't important to the plot and didn't fit in my combat party, so they ended up being forgettable.

 

[A-Moonless-Night]

I'd say more than 5 or 6 may be overkill, but of course it depends on the enemies and the game in general. Suikoden I and II had up to six battle members (and a cast of over 100 characters!).

 

[Dodokajet]

more than 4 is too much for me you waste too much time for 1 turn

 

[Adjorr]

I think 4 is the perfect number, but depends on what type of game your trying to make
for me im using 4 in my project so i can have the traditional RPG roles, tank, healer, mage, rouge. However there are multiple characters of each class and many variations of base skills and equipment they can have so you can really outfit your party any way you feel like. Having more then 4 characters in battle felt to my like it would be to easy of a game, i want my players to have to make decisions on what characters will be the best to bring for a particular encounter.
additionally in my game all party members are hired mercenaries that charge gold every hour so having to many party members can become cost prohibitive, leading to more tactical decisions the player needs to make

 

[Ed19]

For LMBS , four is good enough.

If you'd like to make it 5, try the Lunar series, the games have 5 party members, but it's properly balanced because of stronger enemies.

In my game, only four people can participate in fights, but I'm considering adding an option to change your maximum party members to five.

 

[kaisielizen]

My current game has a party of 8, and all 8 of them can participate in battle at once. But I looooooove it like that!

 

[bgillisp]

I'm using 4 right now, and my battle system is balanced around that. But I've played RPG Maker games that used 5 battlers and felt balanced for that too. It's all in how you balance things.

 

[Lornsteyn]

3-4 are fine, with the possibilty to change party in battle.

 

[Wavelength]

Different numbers of party members can be ideal for different types of experiences. Action RPGs like Dark Cloud, or games with very wide, interchangeable build paths like Persona, can work great with just one party member. Squad-based tactical games like Disgaea or Valkyria Chronicles work best with upwards of ten party members. Even traditional RPGs can work better with two members if you're looking for quick, refined combat, or six members if you're looking for a lot of character expression and don't mind designing long slugfests.

Personally, I find 3 members to be the most common sweet spot when I'm designing JRPGs with characters that have well-defined roles or styles.