Six-man party?

I’ve always wondered why FFXII didn’t allow you to use all your characters in one party. Seems like it was made for that sort of thing, especially with gambits accounting for the basic actions of characters you aren’t controlling yourself.

IMO, if FFXII had done that and put enemies in larger groups rather than just two or three as is usually the case, it would have made for some much more epic battles. Also, does anyone forsee this sort of thing happening in future FF games?

Maybe because it would be overkill and you would be able to breeze through areas and battles quickly, and probably complete the game in 20-40 hours.

Also, would you really want to divide the meger 20 EXP you get from the early monsters and locations between 6 party members? You would probably finish the game with the party at level 20…

Maybe because it would be overkill and you would be able to breeze through areas and battles quickly, and probably complete the game in 20-40 hours.

Not if they had enemies in larger groups.

Also, would you really want to divide the meger 20 EXP you get from the early monsters and locations between 6 party members? You would probably finish the game with the party at level 20…

Well no, you would do exactly the same amount of training as you do in a normal game. The amount of grinding you do doesn’t change just because you don’t have to switch in the reserves anymore.

i think it would have caused issues with the speed the game ran at and suchlike. look at FF9 – when they reintroduced the four character party in that, the battle speed definitely suffered as a result. would be pretty sweet though, all the same.

It would have slowed down the game too much, I guess.

On a related note, I read somewhere that originally every character was in a single party, but there was only 4 of them (Ashe, Basch, Balthier and Fran). Then Vaan was added in, but 5 was apparently too many. So they put Penelo in to round off the group into two parties of three.

It would have slowed down the game too much, I guess.

On a related note, I read somewhere that originally every character was in a single party, but there was only 4 of them (Ashe, Basch, Balthier and Fran). Then Vaan was added in, but 5 was apparently too many. So they put Penelo in to round off the group into two parties of three.

If that were true, I wish they would have kept it like that. Vaan and Penelo really didn’t add much to the story except at the very beginning of the game, or so I feel.

Well, apparently they only put Vaan in because market tests showed that games with younger main characters sold better than those with older protagonists (originally Basch was the main character). Vaan and Penelo were just shoved in at the last minute…supposedly why they were so under-developed and added nothing to the story.

Well, apparently they only put Vaan in because market tests showed that games with younger main characters sold better than those with older protagonists (originally Basch was the main character). Vaan and Penelo were just shoved in at the last minute…supposedly why they were so under-developed and added nothing to the story.

Yup, Japanese audiences in particular were thought to be more receptive to a younger, effeminate male protagonist. It kind of sucks that the market demanded a character that was nonessential to the plot (or two, counting Penelo), although I think the developers still did a good job considering the constraints they were under.

I think FFXII’s rather narrow field of view would have caused quite a few issues for large party management. The only RPGs I can think of that allow for large (5+) parties are all overhead/isometic with pretty generous FoVs. Even with the gambit system, FFXII’s over-the-shoulder camera perspective would have made it difficult to keep track of what all your party members were doing had the party limit been twice the size.

That being said, I think 3 party members is pretty limiting. Considering that the Infinity Engine PC RPGs allow you to use 6 party members AND up to 5 summon monsters at any one time, 3 PCs/1 PC and 1 summon is kind of a joke.

Hey, Throne, I was wondering where you’d got to. Good to see you back.

There seems to be some general agreement that 6 party members would have been a no-go for FFXII, but does anyone see it happening in future FFs, particularly those on the PS3?

I’d have thought the PS3/360 would be able to handle larger party sizes, so I’m all for it. Of course, they’ll have to have something similar to gambits if the game is going real-time – imagine trying to manually control 6 characters at once, with enemies bombarding you all the while…

I don’t think we’ll see significantly larger parties. Even western developers seem to be forgoing six character parties in favor of three or four as of late.

I misread the title of the thread believing it to be a sex romp of buttsex and the like.

How sadly mistaken I was. 🙁

I’ve always wondered why FFXII didn’t allow you to use all your characters in one party. Seems like it was made for that sort of thing, especially with gambits accounting for the basic actions of characters you aren’t controlling yourself.

IMO, if FFXII had done that and put enemies in larger groups rather than just two or three as is usually the case, it would have made for some much more epic battles. Also, does anyone forsee this sort of thing happening in future FF games?

That’s a great point. I think it would have improved the game indeed.

The only reason I suspect that didn’t do that, was to keep the game as user friendly as possible. I think that was one of the angles they did that. Even though the gambits are very accomodating, controlling 6 characters at once is still no easy feat.

I don’t think it would be a good idea, the only game that has a 6 man party are the suikoden games and that’s because there are so many characters. If a FF game started having 6 character parties than it would just be weird and possibly a rip off of suikoden.