SP RPGs with large party sizes

HangTime

HangTime

HangTime

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I am not a massive RPG afficionado but I have enjoyed games like Vampire Bloodlines, KOTOR series, ME series, Diablo 2, Torchlight etc in recent years. However one thing that bugs me is the party limit... in KOTOR/ME you get max 3 characters in use at a time, in DA this is upped to 4. Pathetic.

What I want to see is, say I've got a party of 10 characters, I want to be able to use them all at once! Probably the first party RPG I really got in to was Shining Force 2, which let you use up to 12(?) characters in each battle. That's what I'm looking for, some kind of epic fights where I've got warriors charging into the thick of it, artillery dishing out a salvo, snipers trying to off elite opponents, healers protecting my forces, casters blasting away with majic, rogues sneaking round the back etc, all the while keeping one or two guys back to firefight in case of emergencies.

So can anyone recommend me some RPGs like this? I know that it would be harder to pull off, you'd be placing much more demands on the hardware to render the extra stuff, much more planning would need to go into cutscenes etc, but it's just really frustrating if you build up an interesting party of characters but you never get to use them much. In KOTOR, HK-47 (a legendary character) barely got used at all by me.

It just feels like a waste, you've got a big party, lots of gear to share around, but then when you leave your ship/camp/base you are like "tell you what boys, you 6 stay here and play Monopoly, I'll just take these 2 with me to the BIG FIGHT OF IMPENDING DOOM VS THE GREATEST EVIL THE UNIVERSE HAS EVER FACED"
 
That only thing that really comes close to what your wanting is Mount & Blade: Warband. But I actually can't think of any like your description.
 
I've got that on Steam so might check it out sometime.

Just to clarify when I talked about big battles I'm not thinking Total War type scale here, still a proper RPG like what Bioware churn out but just with the ability to use more of your characters in battles.
 
I think the only games where you'll find a style like this is turn-based rpgs like HoMM, or any of the many others (FF tactics was one of my favourites on PSP). When you get to that many characters in real time it would feel more like an rts game, I guess developers want to distinguish themselves as one or the other. Your involvement would be 90% just moving them around and saying what to attack, which is very rts. Personally I'd like to see something in this niche as well, but I just feel like you'd get more out of a turn-based scenario, with more rpg style control and development.
 
Yeah to be fair the game I referenced (Shining Force 2) is turn-based. I quite like the DA approach of tactics slots where basically you can pause and micromanage if you want, otherwise your party executes predefined actions based on various criteria (e.g. if Ally health less than xx% then cast healing on them).

Also the kind of thing you describe (RTS/RPG hybrid) does make sense, there are some RTS games like Warcraft 3 and Dawn of War 2 that try to bring in some RPG elements at least in terms of character development.

I've also got HoMM5 on Steam so another one to add to the list, thanks.
 
The Last Remnant, 30 chars in battle you can have and a roster to choose from.You get formations for each regiment you place them in with having 5 characters in each also gaining different attributes/bonuses depending on the formation used.

The battles are good the more you progress, the game at the start seems a bit slow aswell as easy but picks up around 4h or so in but be warned it's a long rpg! especially if you want everything from it.(use wiki to unlock ancient ruins)

I was a huge Shining Force fan back in the day yet the above seemed to be similar or well the only rpg i've played in recent years that i've played which is like it.(i've played many many games :p)

Yeah i mention it again but it's a great game and it's exactly what you are after.

It's also Steam tied game too as i purchased retail version which registered on Steam.:)
 
Baldurs Gate allowed 6 - IMO this was about the right amount. It allowed good variation of personalities and skills, and it allowed you to take characters who were weak or non-essential just because you liked their 'chat'.

Example in point - in KOTOR, HK47 was useless in battle so I never chose him. Dragon Age, because the parties are so small, you "have" to take a Tank, Mage and Healer to get the balance, and if you're not one of those classes (like I was a Rogue/Ranger) then you're pretty limited in character choices.

In BG, you had your mage, tank and healer, and you STILL had 3 slots to play with, giving loads of scope for other NPCs.
 
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