Were there ever any RPGs other than Suikoden and final fantasy 4 that had a party of more than four at a time? It seems like four or three is universal, with a few exceptions like dragon quest/warrior 1 with one person and the mario & luigi series with two
Breath of Fire 4 did this an interesting way. Your party had up to 6 people in it, but in battle you had three active members and three in a hidden "back row" who didn't actively participate, but you could swap people around as needed. I thought it was a good compromise between having a large party all together but not wanting the battle to get too crowded (physically or strategically).
@dodec Final Fantasy X has the same setup. I'm not really counting that as more than 4 active party members, though, since they don't all get a turn each turn
Ultima IV had 8 party members at once, and it definitely made battles feel very slow when you had to cycle through giving all of them commands one at a time.
@dodec Oh yeah, there are definitely good reasons to have less than that. Suikoden's 6-member party worked pretty well, largely because the "auto" option was good and the battles were streamlined (multiple attacks happen at once, etc)
Yeah, they definitely learned how to make it work smoothly.
Also I just remembered the Final Fantasy Legend games, where you often had 4 main characters plus a fifth character in a rotating "guest" slot.
@dodec You can't control the guest character though, right?
You can. I don't remember if they gain XP or let you change their equipment around (it's been a while) but you do at least command them in battle.
@dodec Oh! It's been a while here too.
That reminds me a little of final fantasy 4, where the entire party functions like that; you don't get a say in who's in the party at any given moment, it's all just what the story dictates
@Felthry Lost Odyssy gives you five eventually, but it takes a looong time to get that many
@Felthry
The Lunar series had 5...
Older compy RPGS of the 80s (Ultima, Phantasie, Wasteland, Might and Magic, BardsTale, etc...) freqvently had 6 party member slots...