Ever since The Lord of the Rings, and Dungeons and Dragons, Japanese role-playing games have had parties - groups of characters that go on an important quest together. While the standard party size seems to fluctuate between three and eight characters, depending on the game, it has increased over time due to technological advancements and the introduction of additional classes.
Some parties are so big that it's almost surprising that so many playable characters could fit into the game. From around 14 members to over a hundred, here are some of the biggest parties in JRPGs.
10 Final Fantasy 6
Despite being almost two decades old, Final Fantasy 6 still has the largest number of party members in the mainline series, with 14 members total. In case that wasn't enough, there are also 15 guest characters.
It may be more common knowledge now, but when it first launched for the Super Nintendo in North America in 1994, it was known as Final Fantasy 3, since localization was behind, and those who worked on it didn't want to confuse audiences by going from Final Fantasy 2 - which itself was actually Final Fantasy 4 - directly to Final Fantasy 6. This was fixed once the games were re-released about a decade later.
9 Valkyrie Profile
Valkyrie Profile, the beloved Square Enix JRPG developed by tri-Ace for PlayStation, has 22 characters that can be in your party, with three other characters only in the party during specific events.
While the battle system in Valkyrie Profile is turn-based, instead of each active member attacking enemies one at a time, all active members attack at once with each of them being connected to different buttons. They could even chain their attacks together so that enemies didn't get a chance to heal or defend themselves.
8 Chrono Cross
While it isn't a direct sequel to Chrono Trigger, 1999's Chrono Cross for the original PlayStation does take place in the same world, but deals with parallel universes rather than time travel. Due to the focus on parallel universes, 45 total party members can be recruited, but they can't all be in battle simultaneously.
The 2022 remaster, Chrono Cross: The Radical Dreamers Edition, doesn't add any new characters, but it did add updated HD graphics and character models, improved music, the ability to turn off enemy encounters, an auto-battle setting, and other improvements to make battles more manageable.
7 Xenoblade Chronicles 2
The main party in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is only made up of about 12 characters, six drivers, and the Blades that serve them. Due to more obtainable Blades that can be used by almost any driver, 53 Rare Blades can join the party, with some only obtainable in the post-game. A nearly infinite number of Common Blades can be recruited, since their appearance and stats are randomly assigned.
The Common Blades are much less notable, all being blue ethereal-looking characters, similar to Fi from Skyward Sword. In contrast, many Rare Blades look different due to being drawn by various artists.
6 Dragon Quest 5
The party in Dragon Quest 5 constantly changes throughout the in-game eras, with different human members joining and leaving due to various events. In addition to these human party members, there are also around 72 monsters that can be recruited.
What's interesting about the monster recruiting mechanic is that they were streamlined into the Monster Master class for Dragon Quest 6 and were expanded upon in the Dragon Quest Monsters spin-off series. The original version of Dragon Quest 5 also launched for the Super Famicom in 1992, four years before Pokemon, although it wasn't released internationally until the 2009 Nintendo DS remake.
5 Fire Emblem: New Mystery Of The Emblem
Fire Emblem: New Mystery of The Emblem launched exclusively in Japan for the Nintendo DS in 2010. It is a remake of 1994's Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem for the Super Famicom, and is the only Nintendo DS Fire Emblem game to remain Japan-exclusive.
The base game has 77 playable units and four more through DLC, which means it has the most playable units in the series - not counting the DLC or Spotpass units from Fire Emblem: Awakening. This also means that New Mystery of The Emblem has four more units than the internationally released Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, which had 73 playable units total.
4 Super Robot Wars 30
Super Robot Wars 30 may not even have the most playable units in the Super Robot Wars series, but it was the first with licensed characters to receive a worldwide launch. The roughly 108 playable units include characters from several Gundam series, Code Geass, SSSS. Gridman, Ultraman, and many more.
It also features music and animated attack scenes from the unit's respective series. Many of the stories for each series are also combined to fit into the Super Robot Wars universe, which creates a very odd timeline.
3 Suikoden 2
Suikoden 2 launched exclusively on the original PlayStation, like its predecessor, in 1998. It has 108 recruitable characters, known as the 'Stars of Destiny' like all other games in the series, but is often considered to be the best of them.
Suikoden 2 is also unique in that it has traditional turn-based battles where a party of up to six characters fights against various enemies, as well as strategic grid-based battles called Massive Battles - where players must use their collected units to defeat the opposing army. Characters can also permanently die if they are killed during a Massive Battle.
2 Radiata Stories
The main cast of Radiata Stories consists of only three characters, but 176 recruitable NPCs can join the party. These NPCs are recruited through various means; including but not limited to completing fetch quests for them, having specific characters reach the required level, or even by fighting against them.
Since all NPCs can be kicked by the player, you can attempt to fight with any of them, but they may call guards into battle to try and get an advantage. However, not all NPCs can be recruited in one playthrough, meaning multiple playthroughs are necessary to see them all.
1 Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon
Despite the player being the only human character in the party, and the fact that they don't join the fighting themselves, Pokemon deserves a spot on this list over other monster-taming games, purely due to the constantly expanding number of Pokemon the player can add to their party.
More recent, games like Pokemon Sword and Shield may be known for their reduced number of obtainable Pokemon, but the mainline Nintendo 3DS games that came before them, Pokemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon, had a total of 793 obtainable Pokemon. This puts the JRPG among those with the most recruitable party members, if not the largest overall.