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Despite several attempts, I've yet to finish an RPG Maker project, so right now I'm preparing to begin work on what might become my first game, and I'm debating with myself on how I should handle the player's party. A search of this forum shows me a number of threads asking things like, "how many party members is too many," but for my part I'm looking to keep the numbers down, so as to keep things simple for my first game, and since I don't think an army of characters is necessary. The last time I attempted the game, I had ideas for five playable characters. This time I'm looking at a maximum of six (three new characters replacing two of the original ones), but I'm debating with myself on whether or not I should be a little more selective.
Beyond just the simplicity of having fewer characters, the size of the group also changes the atmosphere of the game. Part of me would be fine with just having one playable character. I know RPG Maker isn't really geared toward single-character games, but there are some situations where I think it would be nice. As an example, I'd like to have my games include a few strange (and perhaps creepy) Easter eggs for players to stumble on. If you have the lone protagonist as the player's avatar and have him/her run across something like that, it's a much different feel from putting the same unusual thing in a standard RPG, where you have four or more characters present to comment on it and discuss what they've found.
Something I've considered is having one or more playable characters as temporary or periodical additions to the party. I could even have the game break away from the main party once in a while to follow these more independent characters, but that might be too ambitious for a first game. The biggest headache would probably be keeping the various inventories separate, which I'm not sure is easily possible without some kind of script/plugin.
I guess I'm posting this looking for examples of decisions other people have made with regard to party size that might help me with mine, or any opinions people may have on the subject. Besides that, some specific questions I have are:
Beyond just the simplicity of having fewer characters, the size of the group also changes the atmosphere of the game. Part of me would be fine with just having one playable character. I know RPG Maker isn't really geared toward single-character games, but there are some situations where I think it would be nice. As an example, I'd like to have my games include a few strange (and perhaps creepy) Easter eggs for players to stumble on. If you have the lone protagonist as the player's avatar and have him/her run across something like that, it's a much different feel from putting the same unusual thing in a standard RPG, where you have four or more characters present to comment on it and discuss what they've found.
Something I've considered is having one or more playable characters as temporary or periodical additions to the party. I could even have the game break away from the main party once in a while to follow these more independent characters, but that might be too ambitious for a first game. The biggest headache would probably be keeping the various inventories separate, which I'm not sure is easily possible without some kind of script/plugin.
I guess I'm posting this looking for examples of decisions other people have made with regard to party size that might help me with mine, or any opinions people may have on the subject. Besides that, some specific questions I have are:
- Is it possible to make a single-character RPG with a turn-based battle system that isn't completely boring?
- Would having a main character who's temporarily joined now and again by other characters be a better option?
- What's the best way to handle separate inventories if I want a party to split up at some point? (I'll be using MV, myself, though answers for any platform might be helpful to somebody.)