How big do you want your JRPG battle party Sir/Mam?

[Xavillin]

Kingdom Hearts III blew my mind when they revealed Buzz and Woody would not only join your team, but they would be joining and battling at the same time even with Goofy and Donald in the team, meaning 5 characters all at once. Only Sora's playable, but still, 5 characters!

Give me 5 member battle parties, or 4 at the very least. That's why it's called the PS5, it stands for
Playable
characterS
5

 

[nachum00]

4 or 5 is the sweet spot.

 

[Scrappy-Fan92]

Could we get a title change for those who don't go by sir or mam?

And I'll take all of the above, with a preference for three-to-four party members.

 

[Septimus Prime]

5, and don't let every character do everything.

 

[Mona]

the correct answer is 4

 

[SageShinigami]

Nothing less than four.

 

[Biske]

4 to 5 is fine. More than that is just pain to manage.

 

[Mechaplum]

Four with subs yeah ala Persona 5.

 

[Weltall Zero]

Can't decide between 4 and 5. 3 is too few and 6 too many.

5 is Final Fantasy IV

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And 4 is Final Fantasy V. OK, yeah, it's every pre-PSX FF except IV. :)

 

[Zukuu]

3-4, anything more is exhausting.

I limit my party always to 5 maximum in any game that has bigger parties (Three Houses, cRPGs etc)

 

[robot]

4 sometimes feels like too many, but 3 more often feels like too few so I'll go 4.

Spoiler: secret answer

Whatever the creators designed for. Even a 1-person party can be interesting with the right design.

 

[RomanticHeroX]

Suikoden II's 6 character party is the Platonic ideal for a turn-based combat system. For an ATB style I think 3-5 are all valid choices.

 

[JCX]

Size doesn't matter as long as I'm able to swap party members on the fly instead of being restricted to certain points

 

[Blackleg-sanji1]

Suikoden 3 style 6 baby!!!

 

[ARobotCalledV]

Nothing less than 4, but preferably more or at least with mid battle swapping

 

[Lightjolly]

?(Also, what game is the 2 person party from?)

Click to shrink...

Chaos rings 2

 

[Look over there]

Four. After all, it is the number of death
...
for your foes.

 

[RPGam3r]

I prefer 4.

Also don't do Breath of Fire like that, it's only 3 active.

 

[Faiyaz]

Fire Emblem size. Over 50 of them.

 

[LordHuffnPuff]

But actually you may wish to check out I Have Low Stats But My Class Is "Leader", So I Recruited Everyone I Know To Fight The Dark Lord for a party of 99.

 

[Jonathan Lanza]

Whatever the number I want them all out on the field at once

 

[Sabortin]

For me, 5 is probably the best. I think it's because I really like having front/back "lanes" and gameplay that goes along with that. It's harder to make that work with a smaller count. It also lets you make more decisions that a traditional 3/4 party member team. However, my favorite party size is the one where I'm always using all of the members available. I hate having characters in reserve (even if they still get exp or w/e).

 

[Giga Man]

Six has to be the limit?

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That BoF4 is pretty misleading as it's only 3 active.

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I was just about to ask.

Anyway, I'd honestly prefer to have 4 party members total throughout the whole game. No more, no less. No reserves, just 4 playable characters.

 

[EntelechyFuff]

3 appears to be the "scientific" perfect party size, based on what every series is doing these days.

But I prefer 4. Just enough to make things awkward and break out of the fighter/mage/healer triad.

 

[RPGam3r]

Whatever the number I want them all out on the field at once

Click to shrink...

See I actively don't want this.

How else will I bench Kimahri, Amaranth, Cait Sith, Rab, or even going WRPG Garrus, Ashley, Kaidan?

 

[Modest_Modsoul]

3 is the minimum.

4 is the max.

 

[SkyOdin]

That BoF4 is pretty misleading as it's only 3 active.

Anyway I voted for 4.

Click to shrink...

Breath of Fire 4 does have the cool quirk that occasionally the camera will zoom out to actually show the back line characters standing behind your front three. They do pitch in with attacks and stuff too.

 

[evrythngwastakn]

4. 5 for FFTactics tho

 

[Stabi]

4 is really a good number for me

Usually games that have more than that have either redundant characters or have too complex skill personalisation options.

 

[SirNinja]

Usually four is the sweet spot, though I also like it when it's taken to extremes. For instance, here's The Last Remnant's eighteen-member active party:

(TLR fans will note the two union leaders here who can summon a Remnant onto the field, making it 19 total!)

And sometimes all you need is one:

 

[steejee]

I'm a fan of 5, 4 as runner up. Let's you get some interesting synergies and specializations with 5.

 

[Yunyo]

2-3 is my preference. Less menuing, less management, more on the ground strategy.

 

[Wood Man]

Really liked Suikoden's six party team

 

[Dary]

It all depends on how the systems and encounters are balanced. I think 3 became the "default" in part because the "fighter-healer-tank" set-up is easy to work with.

I think you really need to start working in things like field positioning and combination abilities once you hit five - and that takes a lot more work to build encounters around!

 

[hyouko]

7? Think bigger. Pretty sure Lufia: The Legend Returns on GBC had parties of 9 characters:

And Labyrinth of Refrain lets you command something like 15 characters in one party - though they're arranged into subunits of 1-3 characters apiece and you generally don't control each one directly:

(that may be covered under the "Disgaea" option since it's some of the same folks, though, I think)

 

[Ghil]

I like 4, it feels balanced.
I love when game have switch characters in the middle of a fight, like FFX or BoF4, or a front and rear, like Suikoden.

 

[ThatNerdGUI]

4 is perfect.

 

[RiOrius]

3 is enough, but 4 is preferred. More than that and there's too much overlap.

Like, it can work in tactics games, since you need more than character of a given role to cover more ground. But what am I gonna do with seven characters in a line? Have only one person per element? That's just lame: I'd rather have fewer customizable, multipurpose characters.

 

[Hu3]

All of them, 3 or 4 at front row the others at back row so I can switch on the fly

 

[Dogui]

Voted 6 thinking it was the entire party because i can't read :p

4 is the best, but 3 is also okay.

 

[NattyBo]

6, in 2 rows of 3. Suikoden got it right and nobody has done it since

 

[Dezzy]

At least 4, if not more. Less than 4 just isn't enough to play around with different class combos and synergies.

It's also weird when you have a big party of people traveling together, but then when a fight starts, half of them just sit out.

 

[Weebos]

The more the merrier.

 

[MysticGon]

4 during battle but a whole bunch to choose from.

 

[B.K.]

No more than five. No fewer than three.

 

[Quinton]

4-5.

 

[Sybil]

One row of 4, or 2 rows of 3. etrian odyssey does 3 front, 2 rear (+ the other way around) which I kind of liked too

 

[Firenoh]

3, up until a giant boss fight and you can get all 7 out.

 

[BasilZero]

4 is okay and 5 is ideal.

 

[Shawn The Wonder]

Oh I guess you mean in battle. 5 is fine like in Final Fantasy IV. It would be nice to see Final Fantasy go with a five party again.
I also like single like in Pokemon.