CRPGs with high companion count.

[Tytus]

Most non-Japanese RPGs when it comes to party size stick to the 2-6 format. With a few outliers like Dungeon Siege with 8 characters or Wasteland 2 with maximum of 7. But were there ever any game that tried for the LOTR (TM) sized party of 9? Or bigger?

What Western or European CRPGs with large parties are you aware of?

Furthermore, what do you think about large parties. Do they impact the gameplay negatively? Turn the game into a slog?

I would want to try playing some other CRPGs with a large party beside Dungeon Siege, but can't think of any. Help me out.

 

[Krivol]

Well, if you consider JA2 an RPG...

 

[Dorateen]

Eight party members was standard when you could have NPCs who would join the player's six characters.

All the Gold Box Games
Might & Magic II and III
Wizardry 8
Temple of Elemental Evil
Grimoire

Most recently, Knights of the Chalice 2: Augury of Chaos can have up to nine party members, when the NPCs are included.

 

[Tytus]

Eight party members was standard when you could have NPCs who would join the player's six characters.

All the Gold Box Games
Might & Magic II and III
Wizardry 8
Temple of Elemental Evil
Grimoire

Most recently, Knights of the Chalice 2: Augury of Chaos can have up to nine party members, when the NPCs are included.

Wizardry is an JRPG, though. So, it doesn't really count. A lot of JRPG have large parties. Last Remnant can have up to 20 character party. I am more interested in the Western/European games with big parties.

Including NPC is kinda cheating though, I was more interested in games where you can control the whole squad. Thanks for the input.

 

[Viata]

Wizardry is an JRPG, though

And codex has finally reached retardation levels.

 

[Berengar]

Well, if you consider JA2 an RPG...

and Battle Brothers

 

[Dorateen]

Wizardry is an JRPG, though.

No it's not.

 

[Tytus]

I stand corrected. Never played Wizardry games and got it confused with the made in Japan spin-off portion of the series.

 

[TheHeroOfTime]

 

[Torus]

Strange how it really does seem to be a JRPG thing. First one i thought about was Labyrinth of Touhou 2 because it actually makes sense to swap people in and out from battle with your party of 12. One of the best ways I've seen large parties done since you get fast random encounters and complex boss battles.

 

[V_K]

Geneforge games have 1 main char and up to 7 creations that act as party members.
Towers of Twilight is an experimental RPG with a potentially unlimited party size.

 

[Nortar]

Dungeon of Naheulbeuk: base party of 7 + 1 optional out of 3.
In DLC you can field all 10 at once.

KotC2: base party of 6 + up to 2 optional characters joining later.

 

[Mr. Magniloquent]

Doing a full party in Arcanum with a persuasion build could get really messy. 8 characters in that ruleset was an absolute cluster. Even worse if you had summons or spider mechs. I would typically elect no more than a party of 4 for that game. My most comfortable play throughs were basically my PC + Virgil, or even solo. Party size mostly matters when it comes to ruleset. In AD&D games, the scope of character actions were relatively limited. In blobbers, party is mostly an HP accounting gimmick. These games I typically go with max party because you're probably hitting XP cap well before the end of game. Same thing applies for Dungeon Siege I where your characters have 2 action slots. Even a party of 8 mages with 8 summons is easy to manage and resolves quickly since it's real-time.

For a true 3E game like ToEE it's different. Having nearly the full range of actions are available makes every character much more involved. I played with 8 characters a few times and found it suboptimal. ToEE fields alot of monsters and turns are slow anyway, so I can't say the pacing is all that different. It's mostly a disadvantage when equipping that many characters. Crafting didn't help because you need to operate efficiently to have the excess XP for it. The turns could get a bit long as well in ToEE, but I can't say that bothered me too much. The thought of having a party of 8 in a game like DOS sounds really painful. Turn based would be slow enough, but the whole battlefield landscape can literally change multiple times in just one turn. A party of 8 might work OK for PFKM as long as you keep things real time, but the thought also seems a bit exhausting. Parties about 5-6 probably only works in games with relatively little mechanical depth.

 

[Berengar]

[QUOTE="Nortar, post: 7891423, member: 24293"
KotC2: base party of 6 + up to 2 optional characters joining later.[/QUOTE]

And on top of that you have summons and situational Nature checks that can have you rolling with a party of 14 or so for certain fights!

 

[Butter]

Summons aren't party members. Wizardry 6 doesn't have a party size of 11 just because you can summon in 5 etherial bats.

 

[Tyranicon]

Furthermore, what do you think about large parties. Do they impact the gameplay negatively? Turn the game into a slog?

Depends on action economy. If combat's relatively basic and every character has movement + 1 action, it can go by pretty quick. If you're casting 10 different spells a turn on a character, there's no way I would advise more than 8 player-controlled chars per combat encounter.

Dnd-like games I would go with 4 as a minimum, 8 as a maximum. 5-6 is the sweet spot.

 

[JarlFrank]

Wizardry is an JRPG, though.

It can't be a JRPG because it's good.

 

[Viata]

Can't also be a CRPG for the same reason, though.

 

[0sacred]

You could have a lot of party members in Natuk. I think it was 8 or 10. Not sure about NPC's tho

 

[octavius]

Yeah, 8 in both Natuk and Nahlakh.

If you consider them as CRPGs with a strategy layer:
OpenXcom: 14 characters
JA2: 12?

 

[PorkaMorka]

Yeah, 8 in both Natuk and Nahlakh.

Also 8 in Helherron

I never played Wizard's Crown but I read that it inspired a bunch of these CRPGs to use 8 player characters, unfortunately this kind of game died out.

 

[Zed Duke of Banville]

Kenshi permits up to 20 characters in a single squad, and the player can manage up to 10 squads simultaneously, although this pushes the boundary of what would normally be considered a character-focused RPG versus a unit-focused tactics game.

I generally limited my main squad to 8 characters, with the rest assigned to base-building (and only recruited when I started building a base).

 

[Darth Canoli]

KotC2: base party of 6 + up to 2 optional characters joining later.

Now you can field 6 + 2 right from the starting village with the new companions.

Also, it's 6 + 2 + 1 in chapter 4, it's not a full fledge party member as you can't equip him but it's not a summon either and he'll stick with the party until you clear the map or he gets banished.

 

[wishbonetail]

It would be a bit crowded, no? You really should consider an RTS genre.
Warlords Battlecry, Spellforce, Warcraft.

 

[mondblut]

Most non-Japanese RPGs when it comes to party size stick to the 2-6 format. With a few outliers like Dungeon Siege with 8 characters or Wasteland 2 with maximum of 7. But were there ever any game that tried for the LOTR (TM) sized party of 9? Or bigger?

What Western or European CRPGs with large parties are you aware of?

Challenge of the 5 realms has 10 slots in the party, some of them accomodating units of several soldiers each.

Kenshi has up to 30 vanilla, moddable to 256.

Fate: Gates of Dawn has parties of 7, and you can run up to 4 of these. JA2, 3x6 vanilla and 4x8 modded.

If Mount & Blade counts, it has 16 unique characters to equip and develop.

Furthermore, what do you think about large parties. Do they impact the gameplay negatively? Turn the game into a slog?

I love it, the more the merrier. Played Kingmaker with mods with a platoon of like 20 characters.