Let's talk turn-based RPGs

What's the best number of characters to have in a party at any given time? Which game did it best?

I've only recently played Suikoden 2 for the first time and having 6 people in your party is pretty rad.
I'd even love to have up to 8 people in a party if possible.
The minimum should always be 4 though. Any less is just bleh.

It depends on what the game is balanced around. I feel like 4 is probably the best number to give a good balance of tools and limitations to the player.

Consider the following, designing a game without having a prominent healing class or role is borderline suicide in JRPGs.

4-6
Jagged Alliance 2 if that counts

6+ is fun. A lot of games with 4 seem to trap me in the mindset of: "Well, I need a tank, a healer, and someone to disable the traps."

I really depends. From 3, 4 to 6 it's all good. I probably prefer 3 or 4. More than 6 probably wouldn't work.

I would argue that giving the player too many options would make the game too easy. At least in the hands of anyone competent. Sometimes less is more.

4 characters

>Those names
End yourself my man.

whatever you say fampay

>not doing BALS TO THE WALL

I find more makes the game easier as it gives you more room to mix and match classes so you don't have to balance one character as much. I think 3 is a good number, it keeps it interesting. 4 and 5 is good, 6 is too many.

This is actually a great question as I am making an rpg right now and want to know if I should do
>Limit party to 4 chars, forced to drop chars to pick up new ones
>Any party size, choose 4 to take in battle, rest are benched
>Larger battles, maybe up to 6 in battle, bench or no bench
Personally benched parties bother me because you pick 4 you like and then later in the game when you need to use other members on a boss for the elements or whatever they're under-leveled

Is your game a blobber or is positioning involved?

What are some good turn-based rpgs for the vita? I've been playing Digimon and persona 4 but I think it's time for a new one

Didn't like trails.

As usual, it depends on the game. There's more than one right way to do things: I've played a tactical RPG with a party size of 2 that worked well, and a traditional JRPG that allowed 9 characters in a party without issues.

That said, I tend to prefer groups of 6-8 characters, in part because I like tactical RPGs and dungeon crawlers. In tactical RPGs, this is enough to have fights on multiple fronts, but not so many that turns take forever to resolve. In dungeon crawlers and traditional JRPGs, it gives some room to really customize your party rather than to just fulfill a few required roles.

It all depends on what the game is balanced for. 6 characters isn't that many if you're facing diverse groups of 20+ enemies.

It's not for everyone, but I'm quite fond of Oreshika. The clan management gimmick is pretty interesting, and the combat ends up being pretty good despite a lack of unique mechanics. The game has a lot of skills and every one of them is at least situationally useful, and the bosses are diverse enough to require different tactics.

The plot and exploration are both very bare-bones, though.

Also, if you like dungeon crawlers, Dungeon Travelers 2 is a very good one.

You might also consider something akin to the FFX approach, where you have a small number of active characters that can be switched out for your inactive characters mid-battle.

What's a blobber?
There's no positioning, I was thinking of a rear-view battle system akin to the old phantasy star.

Possibly...
I think what would be cool is that any benched characters can be called upon for assist/combo moves ala disgaea, but that'd be complicated to code I'm sure.

I kind of like the 3 character limit, It makes the battles feel shorter and less of a chore when grinding

Speaking of difficulty/grinding, it seems like in discussions turn-based RPGs are usually criticized for being too easy, or they're criticized for having too much grinding. Are there any games that manage to avoid this? Where it's fairly difficult, but you know that if you lose it's because of your strategy, not your level.

Have there been any good RPGs that got rid of the leveling system entirely?

Sorry if these questions sound dumb, I don't usually play turn-based RPGs.

Yeah, job changing systems like Final Fantasy V or III, or Dragon quest VII are vastly superior to character changing systems for the reason you just gave. It also lets you focus the story and character development on a small number of people, rather than trying to manage a giant cast of boring characters.

4-5 is the best. 3 is too small to let you use your favorite characters and 6 makes it take too long to enter commands every turn.

The entire party , it always pissed me off that you have a parry of 8 all talking shit to a boss and you can only use 4 of them.

There is something SERIOUSLY wrong with her face.

Chrono Cross has a system where you get stat increases by bosses defeated. It's part of why bosses like Miguel are so difficult, you can't grind to overpower him.

That sounds good, thanks.

>4 front line characters
>4 support characters you can switch with
>rest is benched

Anything greater than but not equal to 3

I think 4
Although I like really really hard RPGs with unique mechanics

Bravely Default gets pretty good in the second half with its balls-to-the-wall battles, but I prefer Final Fantasy VI's cast system where each person has job abilities tied to them

What do you guys like to see in RPGs? What kind of twists? What kind of bosses/final boss? Do you like battle systems like Etrian Odyssey where you look forward or systems where you see your team members like in Final Fantasy?

Those criticisms are almost entirely from people who fucking suck at RPGs.

>too easy
You can just spam attack and win.
>too much grinding
You can't just spam attack and win (without loads of grinding).

There's really not that many games that have the second problem, it's mostly from peoples lack of understanding of mechanics and/or an unwillingness to explore them or the options given.

>Are there any games that manage to avoid this? Where it's fairly difficult, but you know that if you lose it's because of your strategy, not your level.
The quintessential example of this IMO, is FF5. Just put in a little thought into how your characters will be built outside of facing bosses, and play around with stuff if you get stuck or are having a hard time, and there's no need to grind or follow guides because of the way the job system is balanced to not have any one specific way to beat the game. The four job fiesta is a testament to this.

>Have there been any good RPGs that got rid of the leveling system entirely?
Not really, or at least none that I consider worth playing. FF2 comes to mind as an example.
Though not entirely, Chrono Cross does a good job of making it feel like it doesn't by having stats determined by story progress and not level.
Also, though not turn-based games, I think the Dark Cloud and Soul Blazer series have interesting leveling and skill-based combat systems. But those are also action games, so that might not be what your looking for.