Party members in RPG's: Do you try to use all of them, or just focus on a few?

Gennadios

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Aug 19, 2009
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It really depends on what kind of RPG, JRPGs I mix and match mostly because there aren't as many clearly defined roles, it doesn't matter if there's a mage/thief/warrior/healer in the party because consumables are pretty much able to cover what you're missing.

Western RPG parties I just build around my main character. Just slot the best party members to support him and the rest can go about their emo poorly written business. Except for Obsidian games, I usually give all the characters a fair shake in them because I generally like their story quests.
 

Saltyk

Sane among the insane.
Sep 12, 2010
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It can vary.

I generally do switch out my characters quite a bit. I may favor some, but I'll usually use a variety of characters.

Though, there will be some that I just don't use. Like Cait Sith. I seriously just plain hate Cait Sith. And it's not even just story related. I didn't like him before he betrayed you.

In Suikoden, I didn't use characters that were just plain weak and useless. I'm looking at you, Tuta. With your weak stats, pretty worthless Rune, and you weren't even good in the war battles. I also didn't use Vicki due to all her magic being able to backfire.

In games where all your characters level at more or less the same rate, like in Mass Effect or even Chrono Trigger, I tended to mix and match. Using the characters that would be best suited to what I wanted to do. And would also compliment each other.

Though, in games were leveling seemed to take a long time, I usually focused on a core group. Maybe leveling some of the others slightly.
 

Buidoirican

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May 24, 2010
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As a rule of thumb I'm always rotating. Usually swapping every boss battle. The strategy is good if you're trying to get the Hardcore Rise Fan trophy in Persona 4G. I will say that I don't do it to get everyone evenly leveled up or based off weaknesses unless it's a Fire Emblem game or Pokemon. I guess I just like getting a feel for everyone.
 

Caiphus

Social Office Corridor
Mar 31, 2010
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N'ah, I usually focus on a few. Sometimes I look to build my party for tactical advantage if I need it, like in Dragon Age where you're likely to be fucked if you don't have a tank and a mage. Otherwise I just pick my favourite group, like in Persona 4 or Mass Effect, and then continue to just use them for the entire game.
 

Mike Hoffman

In the middle of calibrations...
Sep 25, 2013
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In most games I find a couple characters whose personalities I really like and I use them most of the game, even if it doesn't have any payoff and I might be at a disadvantage in gameplay.

I really appreciated the attempts in the Mass Effect series to get you to use different party members. In ME1 you get one at a time, even though Wrex, Tali, and Garrus are all pretty much at the same time. But then you get a trophy/achievement for using each party member for the majority of the game (minimum of 3 playthroughs to get all six trophies/achievements). ME2 had the staggered building and the loyalty missions. ME3 was pretty much just the staggered recruiting, which kind of disappointed me because I rarely used James, EDI, and the Virmire survivor. That said, I have played through the series using just Garrus and Tali cause Team Dextro 4 life.

Rambling... Basically, I usually just use the characters that I connect with most, but I appreciate a game that encourages mixing it up (loyalty missions being the best example).
 

Aethren

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Jun 6, 2009
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I usually try to level everyone up equally, but then Fire Emblem: Awakening happened.

Yeah, that's so not happening.
 

DanielBrown

Dangerzone!
Dec 3, 2010
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Mostly I just stick with the ones I think are the coolest. The only exception I can think of atm is FFX, where I always let everyone get one strike in each battle so they'll all gain exp. Quite an annoying system tbh.
 

DementedSheep

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Jan 8, 2010
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I like to mix and match them (though usually have a go-to team for anything difficult). It's one of the reason I like to play all rounder classes even though specialising is usually more powerful in anything party based. It means I can swap in and out party members to whatever I feel like and have my PC fill roles that need patching. Most games aren't hard enough that you actually need to min max.

It can be a pain when XP isn't global across all companions if the game expects you to focus on a few and they get underleved.
 

Colour Scientist

Troll the Respawn, Jeremy!
Jul 15, 2009
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TizzytheTormentor said:
Depends on the party, in Final Fantasy 8, all party members lacked anything to make them unique in combat except their limit breaks, so I just stuck to the same 3.

Games like Final Fantasy IX I switch between members because they all have unique abilities and strengths that can make or break battles.
Pretty much this.

That and if you don't keep your entire team somewhat level in FFIX, the part where they split up your party can be really sucky.
I made that mistake the first time I played it as a kid, sent my super strong magic party to Oeilivert because I'm a genius and ended up having a pretty weak party in the castle.
That was a long play through.
 

DarkhoIlow

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I tend to stick to the same party usually. It depends what role they have of course and how well they are interacting with each other.

A good example would be Dragon Age Origins where throughout the whole game I always used Alistair (Tank), Morrigan (Mage,Healer), Lelliana (Archer/Buffer) and myself (2handed dps) and never switched anyone else in. No wonder Sten left me at the end poor guy.
 

Auron225

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Oct 26, 2009
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Variety is the spice of life. I swap around a lot and try to keep everyone even.

One of my first RPGS was FFX and I basically ignored Kimahri and Rikku for some reason. None of their skills felt needed I guess. I used them more the last time I played. The other occasion when I didn't really was FF6; just cause there're too many possible party members! It would have taken way too much grinding to have ALL of them ready to fight whenever! I chose to ignore Mog, Gau, Umaro and Gogo completely. That still left me with a choice of 10 characters!

Other than that I try and keep everyone evenly leveled and swap around frequently.
 

FFP2

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Veylon said:
I got all the way to the Elite Four before I was forced to use things other than my starter. Which meant that everything else I'd randomly captured on a whim suddenly had to gain forty levels via grinding. I don't know too many other RPGs where this happens.
Yup. Exact same thing happened to me in Fire Red and Ruby. Even managed to beat the 2 of the 4.
 

Jolly Co-operator

A Heavy Sword
Mar 10, 2012
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I try to keep everyone evenly leveled. It's mostly because I'm paranoid that, at some point in the game, my party is going to be split up, and that some characters will be screwed over if I haven't trained them.
 

scorptatious

The Resident Team ICO Fanboy
May 14, 2009
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Aethren said:
I usually try to level everyone up equally, but then Fire Emblem: Awakening happened.

Yeah, that's so not happening.
Yeah, when it comes to games like Fire Emblem or Diagaea, I tend not to bother leveling EVERY SINGLE character. Especially because some of the story characters you get might not even be needed by the time you get them because you'll probably already have a generic unit that fills their role. (For example, I never used Sapphire in Disgaea 3 since I already had a pretty competent gunner)
 

Mikejames

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Jan 26, 2012
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I like seeing how different characters affect things, but I usually have a go-to group.

Then there are games like Persona 4 where some characters are useless in certain fights, so you have to put up with the incessant squeaking of Teddie's footsteps and bad puns for the sake of his ice powers.
 

scorptatious

The Resident Team ICO Fanboy
May 14, 2009
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Mikejames said:
I like seeing how different characters affect things, but I usually have a go-to group.

Then there are games like Persona 4 where some characters are useless in certain fights, so you have to put up with the incessant squeaking of Teddie's footsteps and bad puns for the sake of his ice powers.
"Bearsona!"

"Bear-pile on the enemy!"

:p

In all seriousness though, I like Teddie. He's usually the one providing buffs for my party when I use him.
 

white_wolf

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Aug 23, 2013
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As the game progresses and I encounter each new group member I will take them out at least once with a person I already like and see how they do if I feel like their fighting style could be useful with another combination I'll mix and match that person till I find the combo I like after that it will depend on the situation do I take team A or team C for what the game is telling me is out next objective. Occasionally though I get a combo that is a win combo like team dextro from Mass Effect and so I'll rarely ever switch them out for another party type. Then there are those in the group that I hate personality wise so they'll get tested once just incase and then I'll let them sit at camp the rest of the game.
 

DEAD34345

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Aug 18, 2010
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99% of the time, I find one team I like and then stick with them through the whole game. It's usually something of a middle-ground between the characters that actually perform well in a team, and characters I just like for whatever reason.

In some games I theoretically should switch between the different characters to take advantage of their unique attributes or abilities or whatever, but in my experience this is pretty much always pointless or impossible (or both). In the Persona games for example, I *could* switch between party members in order to get an advantage fighting certain bosses or monsters, but first of all I have absolutely no way of knowing what enemy I'm going to be fighting against in advance, and secondly by sticking with the same members as much as possible I gain a huge advantage anyway by having each character be much higher level than they would otherwise be.

I can't actually think of a time I have switched characters in a party at all, it just seems pointless. I beat the entirety of Pokemon Yellow with a Pidgey I found on the first route for crying out loud.
 

StormDragonZ

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Dec 6, 2013
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An example of when I try to use all of them is Tales of Symphonia. Every character brings an uniqueness that certain situations require everyone's characteristics or skills. Although Regal shows up last, he's easily one of my favorites for final areas.

An example of when I try to use only certain ones is Breath of Fire. Once you know the three specific characters that make up the super form of another character, they become obsolete very quick. Then when you get the "ultimate super form", it becomes obsolete to even use the party...

Notable mentions for "All Of Them" would be Final Fantasy VI & Chrono Trigger.
Notable mentions for "Single Team" would be Final Fantasy VII, Paper Mario: Thousand Year Door & Chrono Cross.