Why do most jrpgs and turn based rpgs still stick to 3 active party members?

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rabidtictac
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Re: Why do most jrpgs and turn based rpgs still stick to 3 active party members?

Post by rabidtictac » Mon Mar 05, 2018 3:58 am

3 party members is just way too restrictive. 1 of 3 will always be a shitty healer and then you have to select from what's left. Niche classes or oddly-balanced characters don't get a chance to shine. 4-5 characters allows you to have your healer, your tank, your damage-dealer + two others of choice.

When I think of the magic number for JRPGs, I think of Final Fantasy IV. I think you get 5 characters at a time in that game. The battle system is a form of active time battle, so everyone is always either charging up for or taking their turns. Later FF games reduced the number of party members down to 4 and 3. 3 is extremely shit for reasons I said. What the hell am I supposed to do with only 3 characters?
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Re: Why do most jrpgs and turn based rpgs still stick to 3 active party members?

Post by mistermott » Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:05 am

CIANIgger wrote:
Fri Mar 02, 2018 2:55 am
The highest amount of characters I've ever been able to use in any RPG was 4.

It suffers from some of the speed issues mentioned above, but I find that is the magic number for active party members.


What most of those games lack in my opinion is a mid battle switch option so you can tag in different members for bigger strats. Also more often than not the bosses are either stupidly OP damage sponges, or have a shit gimmick that you bring the appropriate items and spells to counter.

I hate Final Fantasy mostly, always on a story basis though. They've had some interesting systems of combat over the years, I give them that.

My favorite game of all time is Legend of Dragoon. THAT game needed combat party switching and a finer tuned combo system, as well as 4 active party members.

Nevermimd it's awful over world that's just straight lines between some fun and memorable sandbox dungeons. 3 years of development hell and it came soooo close, yet so far lol.
I have big respect for those who remember Dragoon. I miss Meru.

I always thought most games had the 3 Person party cause of Game balance or perhaps they don't want the player to get bored going through more then 3 party members leveling wise? who knows.
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Re: Why do most jrpgs and turn based rpgs still stick to 3 active party members?

Post by Kugelfisch » Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:11 am

I've decided to play M&M 3 soon. It's been too long since I've played a proper CRPG and I'm getting that itch again. Looks like you can have up to 8 party members in it. I suspect that two of them are hired members as that would make sense for M&M which has mostly six members and for CRPGs of the era, like the Gold Box games, that always kept open spots you can only fill with optional, hired members.
I'll see how that turns out.
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Re: Why do most jrpgs and turn based rpgs still stick to 3 active party members?

Post by mad bum » Mon Mar 05, 2018 8:32 am

I want to get back into the gold box but I'm not gonna lie it's really really hard to play some of them today, and I usually have a good head space for playing those old games.
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Re: Why do most jrpgs and turn based rpgs still stick to 3 active party members?

Post by rabidtictac » Mon Mar 05, 2018 8:37 am

I can't play the old style western rpgs unless it's turn based. I get destroyed when they have a more active system where you need to manually pause and shit.
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Re: Why do most jrpgs and turn based rpgs still stick to 3 active party members?

Post by Kugelfisch » Mon Mar 05, 2018 12:12 pm

mad bum wrote:
Mon Mar 05, 2018 8:32 am
I want to get back into the gold box but I'm not gonna lie it's really really hard to play some of them today, and I usually have a good head space for playing those old games.
The start is a bit rough and I totally recommend having a walkthrough by your side at the beginning and for your first dungeon. That's what I did with Pools of Radiance. Once you're familiar with the system again you can go on your own. The combat system still holds up rather well and, unlike in modern RPGs, the quests have you figure stuff out on your own and it offers dungeons that are actually dangerous and mysterious.
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Re: Why do most jrpgs and turn based rpgs still stick to 3 active party members?

Post by MegaNigger » Mon Mar 05, 2018 1:58 pm

mistermott wrote:
Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:05 am
CIANIgger wrote:
Fri Mar 02, 2018 2:55 am
The highest amount of characters I've ever been able to use in any RPG was 4.

It suffers from some of the speed issues mentioned above, but I find that is the magic number for active party members.


What most of those games lack in my opinion is a mid battle switch option so you can tag in different members for bigger strats. Also more often than not the bosses are either stupidly OP damage sponges, or have a shit gimmick that you bring the appropriate items and spells to counter.

I hate Final Fantasy mostly, always on a story basis though. They've had some interesting systems of combat over the years, I give them that.

My favorite game of all time is Legend of Dragoon. THAT game needed combat party switching and a finer tuned combo system, as well as 4 active party members.

Nevermimd it's awful over world that's just straight lines between some fun and memorable sandbox dungeons. 3 years of development hell and it came soooo close, yet so far lol.
I have big respect for those who remember Dragoon. I miss Meru.

I always thought most games had the 3 Person party cause of Game balance or perhaps they don't want the player to get bored going through more then 3 party members leveling wise? who knows.
My very first playthrough I mained Dart, Haschel and Albert.

After that I realized you can switch up the party through the game and get everyone up to be used. Doesn't excuse the things the game lacked, but I love that game to death.
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Re: Why do most jrpgs and turn based rpgs still stick to 3 active party members?

Post by mad bum » Mon Mar 05, 2018 7:14 pm

Fucking lavitz. HARPOOOOOOOON!

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Re: Why do most jrpgs and turn based rpgs still stick to 3 active party members?

Post by VoiceOfReasonPast » Mon Mar 05, 2018 8:20 pm

rabidtictac wrote:
Mon Mar 05, 2018 3:58 am
3 party members is just way too restrictive. 1 of 3 will always be a shitty healer and then you have to select from what's left. Niche classes or oddly-balanced characters don't get a chance to shine. 4-5 characters allows you to have your healer, your tank, your damage-dealer + two others of choice.
3 is also really odd when the total number of characters in your party is around 2+x as big. I mean, dafuq are these guys even doing?

5 like in Etrian Odyssey is pretty interesting when combined with a front/back row system, cause filling your back row with ranged and utility dudes comes at the cost of having only 2 guys at the front tank everything.
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Re: Why do most jrpgs and turn based rpgs still stick to 3 active party members?

Post by AdorableOtter » Mon Mar 05, 2018 10:44 pm

Kugelfisch wrote:
Sun Mar 04, 2018 8:17 pm
Depends on the game. M&M really needs all six party members. You'd have to sacrifice too much utility. I also like the large mob sizes, which you'd have to make smaller or turn into cannon fodder it the game had fewer party members.
But M&M6 (and later) went with 4 party members though. I guess it's situational after all.

Btw, I kinda tried to play M&M 3-4-5 but gave up on character creation screen because learning new stuff hurts my brain. Another series I'm interested in but can't dive into for the same reason is Realms or Arkania. That game looks great but my brain hurts.
Kugelfisch wrote:
Mon Mar 05, 2018 4:11 am
I've decided to play M&M 3 soon.
No forget MUNT

mad bum wrote:
Mon Mar 05, 2018 8:32 am
I want to get back into the gold box but I'm not gonna lie it's really really hard to play some of them today, and I usually have a good head space for playing those old games.
I recommend you to get Knight of the Chalice with your mystical bum power (especially when you're already familiar with D&D3.x rules). That game is basically modern updated SSI game with D&D3.5OGL rules. You won't regret it.

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