Solo vs. Party-Based

[Lucumo]

Solo, all a man needs is his sword.

 

[lvl 2 Blue Slime]

If an RPG has many builds/classes, then I think party-based is almost mandatory, as who wants to immediately replay an entire game just to experience another class?

Depends on the game. The less story focused and more Rogue/Diablo-like it becomes, the more replayability.

Some RPGs are are more replayable than others yes, but say Diablo 2, it has 7 classes, do you really want to force the player to replay the game 7 times just to experience all the classes, 21 times when you consider that each class has 3 skill trees.

 

[octavius]

If an RPG has many builds/classes, then I think party-based is almost mandatory, as who wants to immediately replay an entire game just to experience another class?

Depends on the game. The less story focused and more Rogue/Diablo-like it becomes, the more replayability.

Some RPGs are are more replayable than others yes, but say Diablo 2, it has 7 classes, do you really want to force the player to replay the game 7 times just to experience all the classes, 21 times when you consider that each class has 3 skill trees.

Force?
It's up to the player how many times he will play. You may want to only play once, or only the ones that sounds more fun or powerful, or you may want to try most of them.

 

[Saint_Proverbius]

Solo character allows the game to have multiple ways of doing things based on that particular build of that character. That's something you don't really have with party based CRPGs because you expect a party to have all the bases covered. You don't really need to make a thief/sneaky way of doing something, and a combat way of doing something, and a diplomatic way of doing something, and so on. That's not to say that a party based CRPG can't include those things, but there's very little need to include multiple avenues for completing tasks when you have a party.

Typically when you have a party based CRPG, you primarily throw in traps and hidden doors and things like that just to make sure the player creates a balanced party. With a solo character CRPG, you toss in those things specifically for those characters who are built that way typically have an optional way of doing something. I think nearly all developers will acknowledge that the majority of players out there will go the combat route and nearly everything in all CRPGs can be resolved that way. So, if the focus of your game is combat and you don't really care about adding different ways of completing things because that's not the focus of the game, it doesn't really matter if it's solo or party. In fact, party based might actually add something to the flavor of the game by allowing different tactical options for the player.

I think part of the problem is that a lot of developers don't really want to add all those methods of completing quests these days in either single player or party based games. How many branching design quests do Bethesda games have? They're solo character, but pretty much every single quest is resolved the same way each time because they don't really bother allowing multiple ways of doing things. In Skyrim, you can be a fighter build and be a high ranking member of the Mage Guild because Bethesda doesn't bother to design things any other way other than just beating the shit out of whatever bad guys the game throws at you.

 

[Falksi]

 

[Nifft Batuff]

Killing hundreds by just yourself is not realistic.

 

[kalash19]

Solo, but i will always bring at least a sexy waifu along in every journey if possible.

 

[Zoo]

I voted for party-based, but I love the different methods if they work good. It will be boring, if all of the RPGs would be either solo or party-based.

Solo: Gothic, Alpha Protocol, The Wicher, Deus Ex.
Semi-solo: Dragon's Dogma, Fallout.
With premade characters: Betrayal at Krondor, Jagged Alliance 2, Final Fantasy VII (it's a jRPG, as juvenile RPG, but I like the key party members, the romance and bromance weren't feeled forced).
With custom party: Might and Magic, Wizardry, Realms of Arkania.

And there is Battle Brothers, the characters have history, but they are not realy flashed out characters, neither fully customized. Or there is King's Bounty, where you can have a wife in the inventory (in The Legend), but it is a solo heavily tactical role-playing game with armies as instruments.

I love all of the above mentioned.

 

[HarveyBirdman]

When the best party-based RPG is Pokemon, you know that the party-based system is trash. It could work in theory, but always ends up being a lame therapist mini game that busts the skills systems.

 

[Abu Antar]

Party-based.

 

[Jacob]

Both can be good and allow complex gameplay. I really wish there are more solo fallout/underrail-style fantasy RPGs though. It's not like we're lacking dark fantasy settings to pull inspirations from, we even have popular fantasy video games that disagree with

Fantasy is about jolly adventuring and camaraderie, hence party.

this opinion, such as Dark Souls.

 

[Russia is over. The end.]

Both can be good and allow complex gameplay. I really wish there are more solo fallout/underrail-style fantasy RPGs though. It's not like we're lacking dark fantasy settings to pull inspirations from, we even have popular fantasy video games that disagree with

Fantasy is about jolly adventuring and camaraderie, hence party.

this opinion, such as Dark Souls.

It's not a disagreement, it's a thematically different genre.

 

[NecroLord]

A party of Player Characters, as the hobby was intended.

Ditto.
Allow the Player to fully customize and assign stats, skills and role to each party member.

Solo can be interesting, but one has to either overly specialize in a specific way or be a multiclass character, jack of all trades but master of none.

 

[NecroLord]

Killing hundreds by just yourself is not realistic.

Laughs in Barbarian.

 

[Jacob]

Both can be good and allow complex gameplay. I really wish there are more solo fallout/underrail-style fantasy RPGs though. It's not like we're lacking dark fantasy settings to pull inspirations from, we even have popular fantasy video games that disagree with

Fantasy is about jolly adventuring and camaraderie, hence party.

this opinion, such as Dark Souls.

It's not a disagreement, it's a thematically different genre.

Zoomers ruined my vocabulary. But I meant you can have a fantasy setting that's not about jolly adventuring and such, making it more suitable for solo-based gameplay.

 

[Baron Tahn]

For me there is only one situation where solo is better and that is an atmospheric dungeon crawl like Ultima Underworld/Arx Fatalis/System Shock.

 

[mondblut]

Party, of course. Because neither Nazi Solo nor Bolshevik Solo have ever accomplished anything notable.

 

[CryptRat]

Solo RPGs do exist but are a marginal weird thing, not a ordinary thing.

I'd often rather play a solo game than a game with one character escorted by characters generated by the dev but that's a different debate.

The problem is not that recruitable characters on top of the player's party exist, these are perfectly fine, the problem is the abundance of devs creating the kind of campaign which can't accomodate a player made party and instead go from some special kind of campaigns with one more important character among the party and you end up starting the game with only this one special character. Again this kind of campaigns exist but they are not the norm and not the kind of campaign I like myself.

With a typical RPG campaign the players who prefer to play with one character + pregens would be able to play this way, with all the extra dialogs, options and such, while the players who prefer to play with their own party would be able to play this way without any problem.

For all the talks about CYOA vs RPGs here people don't often mention how games like The Witcher, Mars : Wars Logs and even Planescape : Torment despite the settings are games which use the kind of campaigns you typically find in CYOA books instead of the kind you find in your typical D&D campaign book.

 

[Gibson]

Party-based if i can create my whole team.
If i need to "deal" with my party members, then i prefer solo.

I don't wat to deal with written dialogues between members, romances, quests...just stfu and be a combat pawn as intended.

 

[Average Manatee]

There needs to be more party based RPGs that have creatable characters who come with personalities. Real personalities not just voice sets described as "stern" or "boisterous". Add in an attached personal quest for good measure

 

[Butter]

Frodo was stupid. Imagine how much faster he would've leveled up if he left all those goons in Rivendell.

 

[vitellus]

when you can create all the characters, it is extremely beneficial as scripted party members have just that, scripts. in wotr, if you use a full party of mercs, resting just pops up and disappears since there's no dumbass flavor text to fire off. if stuck with pregenerated fucktards, prefer solo.

 

[mondblut]

There needs to be more party based RPGs that have creatable characters who come with personalities. Real personalities not just voice sets described as "stern" or "boisterous". Add in an attached personal quest for good measure

If you're missing respec in your biowarean romance simulators, just say so.

 

[mondblut]

Frodo was stupid. Imagine how much faster he would've leveled up if he left all those goons in Rivendell.

To be fair, filling the party slots with hobbits was stupid to begin with. I'd swap them for a couple more dwarf fighters or elf archers at the first opportunity.

 

[Average Manatee]

There needs to be more party based RPGs that have creatable characters who come with personalities. Real personalities not just voice sets described as "stern" or "boisterous". Add in an attached personal quest for good measure

If you're missing respec in your biowarean romance simulators, just say so.

Man all I want is something like "personality trait: hates vampires, unlocks a quest to kill vampires, leaves party if you let in an undead".

To be fair, filling the party slots with hobbits was stupid to begin with. I'd swap them for a couple more dwarf fighters or elf archers at the first opportunity.

Gandalf figured this out quick, that's why he sent the rest of the party away so he could solo the balrog and took levels in the white wizard prestige class because of it.