Combat with more than 3 party members?

[Waffly]

I think it would be pretty sick if we could end up using more than just 3 party members in combat in future parts of remake. I know it's super unlikely but it would be sick if they could somehow incorporate every party member in combat. Eventually I would love if we would have control over all the party members at once in battle, even if it's just for one big sequence of the game where the whole party would be forced to fight at once. In part 2, since we would have a bigger party I wonder if we would control Cloud, Aerith, Tifa, Barret, and Nanaki all at once, basically increasing the controllable party member size.

After seeing the Synergy mechanic in Episode Intermission, it made me think they'll handle the "Extra party members" (The party members that would be left over after you picked your main three) like Sonon. Maybe some characters can be placed as AI assist that can also be called to do do Synergy attacks with, basically you would have a main party and a sub party which are just the AI teammates that you synergize with.

I just hope the game doesn't just make up excuses for some party members not to be around/fight during parts of the game, or just have characters pop up during cutscenes and dialogue only. Another option is maybe having two different parties being created that do different parts of the story/missions, think Cloud, Tifa, Barret, and Aerith in one and Yuffie, Cid, Cait Sith, Nanaki in the other. Kinda like how another party was formed by Cid to go stop the train in Mount Corel in the original.
There's just tons of ways they can handle the big party size.

 

[Mayo Master]

I agree, and like you, I don't really have my hopes up about SE implementing a combat system going beyond 3 characters on the field. Swapping characters mid-combat may be the easiest thing to implement (sort of like FFX, but in dynamic combat). For having more playable characters involved in combats, I think the difficulty is about balancing the mechanics and avoiding making the field too crowded and haphazard (though the combat vs Beck's badasses had a lot of people in it, and it worked well). In that respect, it might be easier to set it up for boss fights. Maybe a good trade-of would be '3-character party for regular mobs, whole-party for boss fights only'? We'll see.

 

[Ite]

I’m looking at one of the best fights in the Remake which was against the Sword Dance (I don’t remember it’s remake name…). During the mid-boss cutscenes, Red XIII stays in the fight but Barret and Cloud leave the party and Aeris and Tifa replace them. I would love this to be a more common thing for boss fights as the party roster expands.

I anticipate being able to switch party members mid-dungeon, between normal combats, much like FFXII.

 

[FFShinra]

I sort of want it to not only remain 3, but also have party choice be limited to specific story beats to make it more strategic who you choose for a given dungeon.

 

[Sephiroth Crescent]

Rebirth Sephiroth is the most obvious candidate for this but it sure could be implemented in a more general scope.

 

[Ashen]

I think that'd be too chaotic. I'd rather have the option to quick-switch characters mid battle, if anything.

 

[Fiz]

4 would be cool and I don't think it would be too chaotic provided the AI is improved and has strategy settings. Tales games manage it just fine.

 

[Ashen]

4 would be cool and I don't think it would be too chaotic provided the AI is improved and has strategy settings. Tales games manage it just fine.

4 is perfectly possible. When I said 'chaotic' I was thinking on the suggestion of 'incorporating every party member in combat', and suddenly, I pictured the 9 characters all in the battlefield and my head exploded.

 

[Fiz]

4 is perfectly possible. When I said 'chaotic' I was thinking on the suggestion of 'incorporating every party member in combat', and suddenly, I pictured the 9 characters all in the battlefield and my head exploded.

Ah, right. Yeah, that would be too much.

 

[Golden Ear]

Well we will probably have 5 characters on the way to the Chocobo farm, if we're controlling 3-4 characters at a time I guess the other 1-2 will be AI controlled but standing back a bit from the action but can be swapped in when needed?

 

[Ashen]

Well we will probably have 5 characters on the way to the Chocobo farm, if we're controlling 3-4 characters at a time I guess the other 1-2 will be AI controlled but standing back a bit from the action but can be swapped in when needed?

Now that you mention, I didn't though on that. Now battles are real time, so there's no screen switch where the non active characters simply disappear..... If, like many people think, the characters are going to travel all toghether, I can't picture very well how they'll handle that. Will they stay back waiting like you said? Disappear from the area until the battle is done....?