RPGs where party members would split up, say to tackle a dungeon?

[Dark_Castle]

I don't see this very often, but one of the things I loved about FFVI is there are dungeons or instances where the party members will split up as they go to different places for different objectives, and you can play through them by seleting their pov, or just splitting up to tackle a dungeon, like Kefka tower, or to defend Terra with Locke and the various moogles in the beginning. It was really cool, and made me wish more RPG did this. Anyone has some examples of games that do this? Other games I know that does this off the top of my head is Infinity Undiscovery and FFVIII.

 

[CeroMiedo]

Shadows of Valentia?

 

[Symphony]

Persona 3 let you split the party up to search each floor of Tartarus.

 

[DimitriLH]

I might be mis-remembering since its been awhile but Tales of Symphonia had a few story/dungeon segments like this.

 

[Zukuu]

FF7's last dungeon.
FF7 Type 0 also did this.

...and I hate that shit, since I have a "main party" and everyone else is not equipped and leveled, so my main party-guys have to carry their representative party.

 

[Deleted member 18400]

Tokyo Xanadu EX+ does this a few times.

 

[Hours Left]

This happens a few times in the Suikoden series.

 

[TeddyShardik]

I really like the idea, but every time this happens the game manages to seperate all my lowest level party members from my main party.
This instilled a fear into me to use every party member equally throughout the game every time, just so I wouldn't get stuck with the underleveled, almost game-breaking party at that point in the story.

 

[Shepherd]

FFXIII does this for the first 40 hours.

 

[Gots]

FFIX does this

 

[pg2g]

FF7's last dungeon.
FF7 Type 0 also did this.

...and I hate that shit, since I have a "main party" and everyone else is not equipped and leveled, so my main party-guys have to carry their repräsentative party.

Click to shrink...

I'm with you, it's the worst

 

[MongKey]

Suikoden 3 have a three protagonists system where you play from their point of view in each chapter of the story. For example, in Chapter 1 you play with protagonist A and experience their story and then when you play protagonist B story, it will be completely different. Sometimes the stories intersect and bring them to the same spot and you'll go so that's what they've been doing here. The different POVs also brings different understanding of the story and shape the way you see the world; from the overall politics to more personal relationships. Some characters are seen as enemies in one POV, are then seen as ally in another so there's a lot to think about and take in as you progress through the story. We see the characters grow, find closure and discovering the truth all the way until they all converge on the penultimate chapter in the end after all the individual chapters are finished.

 

[5taquitos]

Suikoden 2 when you go after Luca.

 

[Dazraell]

A final mission of Mass Effect 2 uses entire team, splitted up in smaller groups.

 

[ChakosCough]

Tales of Vesperia has at least one dungeon that this happens in. If I remember correctly, the final dungeon of FFVIII also does this

 

[Ruby-Eyed Witch]

I think the Magic Candle games let you do this.

Heroes of a Broken Land requires up to four separate parties for some dungeons.

 

[SofNascimento]

KoTOR2 had a few of these. I remember in on mission you had to divide your party in three strike teams that would attack at the same, but you controlled each one in turn.

 

[Why would you do that?]

I might be mis-remembering since its been awhile but Tales of Symphonia had a few story/dungeon segments like this.

Click to shrink...

Yes, it does.

Tales of Graces f does this as well, only during the post-game f story arc. And Tales of Vesperia does it on the ghost ship.

It's kind of interesting, because usually, each Tales character controls differently from one another, so you'll have to get used to a new character.

 

[kubev]

Skies of Arcadia handles this really well, though you actually get split up well beforehand as part of the story, and you end up reuniting after both parties unknowingly help one another to get through a dungeon. Such a great game. Great characters, too.

 

[Buckle]

Oh god.

Yeah, that might be my least favorite thing ever in a game.

Got a bunch of characters you've been ignoring for half of the game and are underleveled and wearing nothing? Throw em in there.

 

[seldead]

Ride ze shoopuff? - final fantasy X. I remember getting stuck at that boss forever when the game was first released.

 

[DonB(qv.YankeeTeachings)]

I love it when games do this - perhaps for some of the same reasons others dislike it - forces me/gives me an excuse to get to know each character and level them. As noted, Suikoden 3 embraces this idea as its core narrative organizing principle, and pulls it off really well.

Another PS2 rpg that does the same is Arc the Lad TotS, which has parallel alternating tracks for the "light" and "dark" protagonists before they come together. It's nice because you see more of the world from a broader range of perspectives.

 

[Mathmarauder]

There was a raid in Lord of the Rings Online that did this, there were three paths and they criss crossed and wove around, you started the encounter and the three groups had to move through the different paths keeping time with each other. The goal was to get everyone to meet up in the boss room at the end.

There were all sorts of mechanics associated with losing, such as if someone fell too far behind it would wipe the entire raid. One path had elite enemies that you slowed and brought into the boss room, another path had lots of normal enemies so you had to run and kill at the same time, if the normal enemies made it into the room they got/gave a buff to the boss.

It was a very good encounter but from a logistics standpoint people HATED it.

 

[Rad]

I really hate this because I always just level the main party. But to answer OP, Suikoden 3 comes first to mind.

 

[Red Liquorice]

I'm not really a fan of this, especially when it comes out of the blue without letting you change their gear before losing party members.

It's been a couple of weeks since I played, but I am playing FFVI and I'm not that far in, but there's been a lot of following different groups of characters and people leaving/returning to the party. I'll say it was quite novel how you could pick from the 3 scenarios in any order you wanted - but I thought it all came far too soon in the game to be having/losing so many party members - I just lost track of who was who and they weren't really characters to me, just random 16bit RPG avatar designs I was using to progress through the game.

In general I just don't enjoy party members leaving on the fly. As a rule I'd rather pick up party members as the story progresses and have the choice of which members to use actively, I feel I have more input then, rather than having party members snatched away from me without warning.

 

[Deleted member 29682]

KoTOR2 had a few of these. I remember in on mission you had to divide your party in three strike teams that would attack at the same, but you controlled each one in turn.

Click to shrink...

There was also that bit at the end where 2 individual characters had their own solo boss battles.

Spoiler

Atton vs Darth Sion was fine because if you lost, Atton just died and the game continued.

Brianna vs the Handmaidens was really rough though, since I never used her and suddenly had to beat a group of high-level enemies solo in order to progress. I'd have been softlocked if I wasn't on PC and could just cheat her stats up. That's not the kind of thing you can just reload either: you'd need to replay pretty much the whole game to make her viable.

 

[SofNascimento]

There was also that bit at the end where 2 individual characters had their own solo boss battles.

Spoiler

Atton vs Darth Sion was fine because if you lost, Atton just died and the game continued.

Brianna vs the Handmaidens was really rough though, since I never used her and suddenly had to beat a group of high-level enemies solo in order to progress. I'd have been softlocked if I wasn't on PC and could just cheat her stats up. That's not the kind of thing you can just reload either: you'd need to replay pretty much the whole game to make her viable.

Click to shrink...

Spoiler

I don't remember those! And I played with the restoration mod. Although I didn't get Brianna in my part so at least one of these it's obvious why I didn't see it.

Anyway, this might be why sequences like this are not super popular. Taking control of a character(s) you basically ignored and having to do something challenging with them is not fun.

 

[Rirse]

Final Fantasy V had a part where you have to split your party up the Fork Tower, as both groups need to kill the boss of the dungeon at the same time, so you control one group going up the tower, then the other group climbing up it, then two boss fights in a row.

 

[SaberVS7]

Bonus points when this scenario also leads to one of the characters doing something Bloody Stupid in the plot without the rest of the party to handhold them. My mind primarily associates this trope with one of the party members getting seduced or corrupted by the villains and betraying the rest of the party for completely fucking stupid reasons.

Never Split The Party. That's when the Liabilities of the party become the most dangerous.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Everyone mentions FFVI, but Final Fantasy V did it first and it was more interesting because there's no spare party members in that game, so you get split into two parties of two characters.

EDIT: Beaten like Galuf

 

[Deleted member 29682]

Spoiler

I don't remember those! And I played with the restoration mod. Although I didn't get Brianna in my part so at least one of these it's obvious why I didn't see it.

Anyway, this might be why sequences like this are not super popular. Taking control of a character(s) you basically ignored and having to do something challenging with them is not fun.

Click to shrink...

I think Dragon Age Origins did it ok. The prison break sequence at least let you pick who would break you out (and led to some fun interactions between pairs), and the siege at the end had enough of your party present that as long as some of them were up to a proper level you'd be fine.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Final Fantasy Tactics

 

[BrightLightLava]

This is different but in RPGs, it always cracks me up when you have a party of ten or whatever and at the end you have to go kill god and the six people you don't use are just like "all right, good luck you four, we're gonna chill here".

 

[NoKisum]

This technically happens in Final Fantasy XV late in the game, and with the updates, you can see the other side.

 

[DonB(qv.YankeeTeachings)]

There are plenty of reasons why splitting the party makes sense, even if many games handle this badly. See, e.g., the Lord of the Rings for a classic example.

Although it's an effective narrative technique, it may be more delicate to get the gameplay balance right.

 

[Jessie]

This is rarely ever done well, which makes me sad, because VI had some really cool dual party puzzles.

 

[The Unsent]

This is rarely ever done well, which makes me sad, because VI had some really cool dual party puzzles.

Click to shrink...

At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the random battles make it more annoying though when you're trying to find the right panel to put each group on.

It's annoying in FF IX aswell, in Kuja's palace when you try and figure out puzzles with a divided team and the random battles.

I don't mind Via Purifico in X because Tidus' part is just an underwater tunnel with a boss and Yuna's part has teleporting panels and you can just breeze through it.

 

[Kinn]

Skies of Arcadia handles this really well, though you actually get split up well beforehand as part of the story, and you end up reuniting after both parties unknowingly help one another to get through a dungeon. Such a great game. Great characters, too.

Click to shrink...

This.

 

[DiipuSurotu]

Wild ARMs III

 

[Dogui]

This happens several moments in The Last Story. Won't say it's particularly well made tho.

 

[Capra]

Skies of Arcadia handles this really well, though you actually get split up well beforehand as part of the story, and you end up reuniting after both parties unknowingly help one another to get through a dungeon. Such a great game. Great characters, too.

Click to shrink...

Good to see someone's already given Skies a mention. It works so well because I genuinely care about these characters too. I can't really recall a single weak link in the bunch, which makes for a really compelling split and reunion.

 

[Piston]

Trails in the Sky the 3rd has a whole chapter like this and the final boss sequence also. It really made me consider how to balance the teams. Thankfully the XP mechanic in the game made it pretty easy to play catch up on levels and the items in chests along the way were mostly the best weapons/armor in the game so if you were neglecting some characters they could become strong fast. This was for four parties too, because you get access to 16 characters.

I got to explore some characters I had barely used... it was a positive experience.

 

[Deleted member 29464]

I remember Kotor had a pretty cool one at the Leviathan when the crew is captured.

 

[HK-47]

There was also that bit at the end where 2 individual characters had their own solo boss battles.

Spoiler

Atton vs Darth Sion was fine because if you lost, Atton just died and the game continued.

Brianna vs the Handmaidens was really rough though, since I never used her and suddenly had to beat a group of high-level enemies solo in order to progress. I'd have been softlocked if I wasn't on PC and could just cheat her stats up. That's not the kind of thing you can just reload either: you'd need to replay pretty much the whole game to make her viable.

Click to shrink...

Your fault for not using one of the best party members =p

 

[Transistor]

Ctrl + F: "Shadow Hearts Covenant"

0 results

For shame, Era. For shame.

 

[Aexact]

This happens several moments in The Last Story. Won't say it's particularly well made tho.

Click to shrink...

It's too bad because they had control schemes for a lot of characters as evidenced in the online mode but 90% of the main game is controlling the main character. I think you only take control of a mage like three times.

... it ain't even fun to play as a mage. The online knew staying stationary to cast spells sucks, so the channeling cooldown is reduced but not so in the main game!

 

[Pla-pla-place holder]

Oh god.

Yeah, that might be my least favorite thing ever in a game.

Got a bunch of characters you've been ignoring for half of the game and are underleveled and wearing nothing? Throw em in there.

Click to shrink...

You just had to go there

 

[KaiPow]

This is literally the gimmick to Hyakki Castle.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/686740/Haunted_Dungeons_Hyakki_Castle/

 

[Encephalon]

Happens a lot in Sen no Kiseki III and IV

 

[Theswweet]

Trails in the Sky the 3rd has a whole chapter like this and the final boss sequence also. It really made me consider how to balance the teams. Thankfully the XP mechanic in the game made it pretty easy to play catch up on levels and the items in chests along the way were mostly the best weapons/armor in the game so if you were neglecting some characters they could become strong fast. This was for four parties too, because you get access to 16 characters.

I got to explore some characters I had barely used... it was a positive experience.

Click to shrink...

What especially helped make this work, is since you've spent 3 games using these characters - most of 'em you're probably already very familiar with. Fantastic ending for a fantastic game.