Playing Breath of Fire III, I’m discovering another gaming habit that I’ve changed dramatically somewhere along the line. Back when this game was new I used to have a “favorite” team in whatever RPG I was playing, which I did not deviate from unless the game absolutely demanded it. Nowadays I’m far more inclined to cycle through my party, keeping everyone as evenly leveled as possible.
The old rule was, “Use X, Y and Z as much as possible.” The new rule is “Use whichever three characters are on the lowest experience level.”
This actually creates some weird imbalances in the Breath of Fire games, since characters level on different experience curves. But it works out pretty well overall.
Since I know many of you are going to want to compare your favorites to mine, I’ve presented here a list of as many of my favorite teams as I can bring to mind, right up until I stopped playing RPGs the stupid way.
- Dragon Quest IV: Hero, Ragnar, Alena, Mara/Maya
- Chrono Trigger: Crono, Frog, Ayla
- Chrono Cross: Serge, Leah, Grobyc
- Final Fantasy VI: Celes, Setzer, Sabin, Relm
- Final Fantasy VII: Cloud, Tifa, Cait Sith
- Final Fantasy VIII: Squall, Zell, Rinoa
- Final Fantasy IX: Zidane, Freya, Amarant, Quina
- Final Fantasy X*: Tidus, Wakka, Auron
- Breath of Fire*: Ryu, Puka, Mogu, Bleu
- Breath of Fire II: Ryu, Rand, Bow, Nina
- Breath of Fire III: Ryu, Rei, Peco
- Breath of Fire IV*: Ryu, Scias, Ursula
- Super Mario RPG: Mario, Geno, Peach
- Suikoden: Viktor, Flik, Sonya, McDohl, Tengaar, Clive
- Suikoden II: Herokid, McDohl, Flik, Shiro, Georg, Tengaar
- Star Ocean II: Claude, Rena, Ashton, Chisato
- Xenogears: Fei, Citan, Emeralda
- Mass Effect: Shepard, Tali, Wrex
* These games allow you to swap characters mid-fight, but I still found myself defaulting to a particular team whenever I could.
That last one requires some explanation, seeing as how it’s so recent. I actually lapsed back into my old ways in Mass Effect because the interface for outfitting and leveling your away team was so cumbersome. It actually saved a lot of aggravation just marrying myself to two characters and having done with it. Don’t worry, I fixed everything in the sequel.
Did I miss any games? Probably!
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Awwwww, man Terra always trumps Celes in my book, she’s just the bomb, with her esper form you don’t even need super stats to land 9999’s on people, also I’d be curious to hear why you prefer cait sith, I usually go cloud, cid, and Vincent, and I like your style rolling with Peach as well.
Levels don’t mean crap at the end of Xenogears and Fei/Citan/Emeralda is the best party, so why not?
For me, FFVI is Edgar/Mash/Mog/Umaro.
I’m glad I’m not the only one who knows what the best party is in FFIX.
My goto party for ff6 is Edgar (cheep ass crossbow), Sabin (cheep ass blitz), Terra (cheep ass ULTIMA!!!!), and Gogo (Every last one of them cheep ass moves in one package). If needed, I could drop Gogo/Edgar for Mog (cheep ass no-monster item).
I like cheep ass, unbalanced play in my rpg, so as to get to the story quickly and painlessly.
I tend to use the characters with the most emotion invested into them through the story… Usually the characters that I’ve been with the longest. Like, FF6 I usually go Terra/Locke/Sabin/Edgar (sometimes Celes instead of Terra), or Chrono Trigger I tend to stick with Crono/Marle/Lucca (sometimes Frog instead of Marle). Not sure why.
Dragon Quest IV: Hero, Alena, Kiryl, Maya (I sometimes used Meena instead of Kiryl, though)
Chrono Trigger: Marle, Ayla, Frog/Lucca (I never really liked Crono that much; I usually don’t even bother getting the doll)
Final Fantasy III: Dragoon, Dragoon, Dragoon, Dragoon
Final Fantasy V: Mystic Knight/Time Mage (Faris), Dragoon/Monk (Lenna), Ranger/Samurai (Krile/Kara), Berserker/Knight or Knight/White Mage (Butz) (Current/Sub-class. Faris is always in front. ALWAYS.)
Final Fantasy VI: Celes, Sabin, Cyan, Mog/Edgar (Celes and Sabin are my favorites. I’m playing FFVIA now and trying to use Setzer, Relm and Shadow more, though. If I never used Cyan, WIP would murder me.)
Final Fantasy VII: Cloud, Cid, Red XIII (Cid is sexy. I’d replace Cloud with Tifa if I could.)
Final Fantasy IX: Zidane, Freya, Amarant, Quina (I don’t actually have Amarant yet, but when I do..!)
Final Fantasy X*: Yuna, Lulu, Kimahri (Kimahri’s blue magic sucks, but I think he’s badass. I should have used Auron more.)
Final Fantasy X-2*: Berserker/Gun Mage/White Mage (Yuna), Alchemist/Thief/Gunner (Rikku), Dark Knight/Warrior/Black Mage (Paine) (My favorite game ever. I’m considering this “change in-battle” because of garment grids.)
Final Fantasy XII*: Balthier, Basch/Ashe/Fran (My Vaan was level ~35 going into the final battle, iirc.)
Final Fantasy XIII: Lightning, Fang, Snow (Snow is my favorite, although I actually dislike Sazh and like Hope. Does that make me a bad person?)
Breath of Fire IV*: Cray, Scias, Ursula (If I was a furry, I would be Cray.)
Suikoden II: Herokid, Flik, Shiro, Georg, Clive, Lorelai; mages in my Entourage (I think I also used some badass chick a lot, but there are too many to remember)
Suikoden V: Prince, Miakis, Kyle/Lorelai, Belcoot, Zegai, Zerase; Lyon, grumpy Sindar explorer dude, some mage and some other mage in my Entourage (Josephine, I wish you were good enough)
Xenosaga 1/2/3*: Jr., Ziggy, chaos/MOMO (That’s it, Ziggy, all over me, please. I mean, I actually always cycle through everybody (see below)).
Mass Effect 2: FemShep, Miranda/Mordin/Garrus/Jack (Garrus and Jack are my favorites, but I don’t use Garrus as often as Miranda. Morden is woefully underused, but I really didn’t use the other characters at all except the black guy when he was all I had.)
Dragon Age: Warrior Hero, Alistair, Morrigan, Zevran (My first time, I ONLY used these characters (and killed most of the rest). On my second go I actually switched between everybody a lot.)
About Xenosaga 3 (the one XS game anybody can play, don’t bother with the rest unless you actually care about the story): this is my most most replayed game ever. I switch between everybody all the time in this game, simply because everybody is fun to use and plays differently. Shion and MOMO are both casters/healers, but Shion is also good at choking Biological enemies into Break status, and MOMO is more focused on her Ether casting. chaos gets the Vampire skillset and likes to shut down enemies, and Jin gets some really cool sword attacks with different sorts of areas of effect. chaos and KOS-MOS share some anti-Gnosis skills, but chaos is more of a saboteur/Breaker while KOS-MOS has big, flashy and expensive skills that obliterate all into fiery bits. Jr. is terrific at mopping up groups of enemies with his random attacks and can heal well on the side, even if his Ether set isn’t very offensive (iirc). Ziggy points at you and you enter Break status.
I can’t remember all my regulars too well, but I do have some favorites in stuff.
Dragon Quest IV: My group usually goes Hero-Alena-Kiryl-Maya, but I’ll more often than not stick Torneko in place of Alena or Maya for the hell of it. I love his appraisal text and semi-random antics.
Dragon Quest VI: I’m still playing through this, but more often than not I’ll have Hero-Carver-Ashlynn taking up 3/4ths of my main party. What can I say? I love their Party Talk, and I need the MC to hear it. There’s also another character I like to use, but that one’s kinda spoilery.
Rocket Slime: Only applies with tank battles, but jailcat’s one of my favorite crew members to have along.
Etrian Odyssey III: I know, you make your own party, but my party always has a prince and almost always has a farmer.
Final Fantasy IV Advance: I replace Edge with Yang. Nuff said.
Final Fantasy VI: Shadow and Gogo were pretty much regulars in my WoR group, since I like to throw and mime thing. I’m sure I used Sabin quite a bit too, since I like his fighting game commands.
Final Fantasy VIII: Zell’s pretty much a regular.
Final Fantasy X: Yuna, because I like the white mage/summoner combination.
Strange Journey: I know there’s tons of demons and all, but I’ll almost always have some kinda Jack in my group.
Pokémon: I know they’re mediocre, but I always like to try and fit a Lickitung or Meowth in my group somewhere. In later gens, that applies to Mawile and Pachirisu, too. As for more competent Pokémon, Magmortar’s my Gen 4 fave.
Dragon Quest Monsters: MadKnight/Axe Knight all the way. I love the crazy knight that guards Erdrick’s armor.
Chrono Trigger: Marle, Frog, Robo. Uber-healers FTW.
Final Fantasy VI: Celes, Sabin, Relm, Mog
Final Fantasy VII: Cloud, Tifa, Red XIII
Final Fantasy IX: Zidane, Freya, Eiko, Quina
Final Fantasy X: Yuna, Lulu, Kimahri
Breath of Fire III: Ryu, Rei, Nina
Super Mario RPG: Mario, Mallow, Peach
Suikoden: Viktor, Flik, Sonya, McDohl, Eileen, Rubi
Suikoden II: Rikimaru, Riou, Sierra, Rina, Sasuke, Kinnison
Star Ocean II: Celine, Leon, Rena, Opera
Xenogears: Fei, Maria, Emeralda