Board 8 > So what RPG has the best cast of party members?

(+) Yeah! (+)

Can be Japanese or Western.


All the RPG talk had me thinking about this. I think overall it's Mass Effect 2 by a country mile. There's just too many good characters (and the worst is Jacob who is merely ok). For JRPGs I was thinking it's probably Persona 4 (though I haven't played 5 yet).

Was wondering if this question is as straightforward as I think it is or if I'm missing something big that could make it a debate.
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it's ffvii because vincent valentine is so kawaii
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VeryInsane posted...

For JRPGs I was thinking it's probably Persona 4 (though I haven't played 5 yet).

Persona 5's cast is much better and one of the best for RPGs in general.
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This will just be the most popular JRPG/WRPGs on the board. So Persona 4 will probably win.
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swirIdude posted...

VeryInsane posted...

For JRPGs I was thinking it's probably Persona 4 (though I haven't played 5 yet).

Persona 5's cast is much better and one of the best for RPGs in general.

Damn it I usually wait until the Summer to play big JRPGs for tradition's sake but waiting on P5 is tough
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I haven't played as many RPGs as some of you, but I love Xenoblade's party and the way they all encourage each other during battle. All very likable characters. For full cast of characters, Skies of Arcadia is definitely my favorite.
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Persona 3.

Suikoden III.

Baldur's Gate II.

KotOR II.
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I might throw Dragon Age Origins in here. The individual characters weren't all fantastic, but they played off each other well, especially when they all made fun of Alistair.

azuarc posted...

I might throw Dragon Age Origins in here. The individual characters weren't all fantastic, but they played off each other well, especially when they all made fun of Alistair.

LOL
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Wtf Persona 5's cast is nowhere close to 4's
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Xenoblade. Their interactions with each other are delightful, and you have a real sense of their relationships in a way most games don't give you.
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From a gameplay perspective LISA the Painful's party is fun. There are like 30 of them and they're all one-dimensional (and mostly silent) but they're a good blend of mechanics and flavor. The non-party characters and the MC are good

FFX's characters are good characters.
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Tales of Vesperia

Xenoblade's a good answer too. Both focus on a lot on party banter so it makes sense.
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tazzyboyishere posted...

Wtf Persona 5's cast is nowhere close to 4's

That's true, P5's cast is a whole tier above P4's.
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Guardians crusade

Xenoblade is a pretty good one actually. I like the development of all of them, even Riki.

Plus they all are fun to control as with fairly different play styles which is a pretty neat plus
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I really don't know. I feel like every rpg has at least one character i can barely tolerate.
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Xenoblade
Trails in the Sky
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P5
TitS
Xenoblade
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FFX

Xenoblade if not for Riki and to an extent Sharla

Every character in FFX is deeply explored and has a lot of agency in the story, plus it was one of the originators of the whole banter-during-combat thing
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P4 best cast I've seen in a game still so far. 5's is nowhere near as good sadly since at least half of them are completely forgotten about after like 2-3 months into the game.

Tales of Vesperia
Final Fantasy X

Lunar 1/2 is the correct answer
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I will pitch in a vote for Fire Emblem 7. Everyone who's played it seems to like the cast of that game, even though most people can't pinpoint exactly why (they don't exactly have super deep stories, they're just very, very charming).
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Metal_DK posted...

Lunar 1/2 is the correct answer

Having played Lunar 2 I am struggling to remember any of the character's names right now. *Googles* ok, I was close for Lucia (kept thinking "Lucina...wait no that can't be right"). Completely forgot the rest. Literally forgot Ronfar existed (didn't even have a mental picture of him).

So...I dissent on this one.
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good for you?
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FE7 cast is like a third really good, a third ok, and a third not great/forgettable IMO

I can see the argument for FFX, even if I disagree with it. I think my favorite FF cast is actually VIII which is something I would have never expected to say
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Would like...Mass Effect 2 count?

If not idk, maybe Chrono Trigger or FF6 or something
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Trails SC, absolutely. The interaction between the characters, and how they relate to the world at large is what makes that game so special. Everyone has clear motivations and well-written arcs that bring you closer to them. Endlessly affecting.

Mass Effect 2 is another good answer. It's a bit on the nose, because it's Loyalty Mission: The Game, but they're done very well

Planescape: Torment has the best companions in any cRPG and it isn't even close.
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Pokeymanz

I'm actually kinda serious.

>_>
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Earthbound
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Persona 4 is a good pick for lack of dead weight but I don't think there are any great characters there. I like em all but don't really love most of em. Actually Teddie is beary much dead weight so I can't really agree with it.

Final Fantasy X probably has the most of my favorites, particularly if you include Seymour, but kind of a lot of dead weight there.

Fire Emblem 7 would win on sheer quantity for me but the more featured characters (Eliwood and especially Lyndis) are some of the weaker ones which hurts it a lot. And outside of the best few the characters are merely good, and a LOT of dead weight.

Yeah I just don't know it's a really tough question. I'd respect those three answers but don't really think they're right. It's probably one of the games in here I haven't played like ME2 or Trails
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Super Mario RPG
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Tales of Vesperia easily.
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Xenoblade
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I think it depends on how bad the worst party member. Unpopular opinion here, I cannot stand Yuffie or Cait Sith so FFVII cast isn't great for me. FFVIII I don't love Irvine or Selphie. FFIX, FFX, and FFXIII are all pretty good because I only don't like one members of their cast (Eiko, Rikku, Hope). FFXV actually is pretty good. Talking outside of the FF games may be a little harder.

The more think while I type this I think the answer may be Chrono Trigger.
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not a big RPG player but persona 4 and mass effect 2/3 are my favorites
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eaedwards6400 posted...

I think it depends on how bad the worst party member. Unpopular opinion here, I cannot stand Yuffie or Cait Sith so FFVII cast isn't great for me. FFVIII I don't love Irvine or Selphie. FFIX, FFX, and FFXIII are all pretty good because I only don't like one members of their cast (Eiko, Rikku, Hope). FFXV actually is pretty good. Talking outside of the FF games may be a little harder.

The more think while I type this I think the answer may be Chrono Trigger.

Bad party member being docked depends on how prominent they are for me. If I really liked FFVII's playable cast and disliked Yuffie (neither one of these are true for the record-- maybe it'd be different if Yuffie was in the game more) I'd probably not dock it all that much since Yuffie is so minor. Cait Sith isn't really that big either. Hating Cloud or Tifa would be a much worse problem.
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Final Fantasy XV. Everyone is good and they work so well together
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Xenoblade

It has the best feeling of a true "party" I've seen in an RPG.

Mass Effect 2 has one of the best ensembles of individual characters, but they're isolated and almost never speak to anyone but Shepard.
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me1/me2/p5

PRESSLY
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UltimaterializerX posted...

The human characters in the Mass Effect games are usually too awful to be much good, Miranda Lawson aside. Jacob is so terrible in ME2.

Undertale or Final Fantasy Tactics for me.

FFT is good but then there is Marach, Rapha, and Meliadou
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I'm torn between Mass Effect 2 and Planescape: Torment. For entirely different reasons; I think Torment has the best written characters in a game, but I think I find myself empathizing with the ME2 cast more than any other game.
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Some of the opinions in this topic baffle me, particularly people thinking P5 has a better cast than P4 and... Vesperia? The Tales game with the dullest supporting cast?

Persona 4, btw. Every one of them feels like a complete person and the cast's chemistry is what carries the game. Persona 5's group doesn't have the same feel to it because they're so serious all the time (only in Palace 5, though).

Tales of the Abyss has 4 A+ party members, one that's okay, and one that's utterly terrible, so that'd definitely be a consideration if it weren't for that last one. A far superior cast to Vesperia's, which had one of the best protagonists in history but too few moments of chemistry and a supporting cast with sparse backstory and no reason to travel together. Even Graces is better than Vesperia because that cast has so much personality, even if the plot is just as uneventful as most of Vesperia.

The best casts have chemistry and feel like complete people - each with their own sense of humor, with their backstory, with their motivation. The ones where everyone is either serious or incomplete or lacking motivation just don't cut it.
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Persona 4. 5 isn't bad, but give me Yosuke/Teddie/Kanji over Ryuji/Morgana/Yusuke any day.
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Imagine thinking Vesperia has the worst/dullest cast when Yuri Lowell alone is better than the entire cast of many Tales of games. Yuri could just talk to himself and still be a better cast than Legendia, Symphonia and Graces f at the very least.

This might partly be recency bias but Tales of Berseria would get my pick.

Tales games almost always have great casts that are dragged down by one weak link. Abyss had Anise (I actually like her more than most people do, but she's still an obvious step below the others), Vesperia had Estelle, Graces had Cheria, and so on. Berseria didn't really have that problem. Rokurou was probably the least interesting one just due to lack of storyline relevance, but he still had a lot of chemistry with the rest of the party that really shone through in skits.
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Mass Effect 2.
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