Multiple parties

So for a project I was thinking about having two different parties working independently and the game would switch back and forth between the two. They would start out in different regions of the world and progress separately until partway through the game (probably between a quarter and a half of the way through) where they would join up as one party.

My question is, as long as there's not a lot of redundancy between parties (exploring the same areas, identical character roles, etc.), would this be fun from the player's point of view, or would it be too jarring to keep switching back and forth?

I was also thinking about letting the player switch freely, say at save points, so long as one party doesn't get too much farther than the other- like, the player can progress Party A as far as they want to until they get to Checkpoint 1A, but they have to wait until Party B gets to Checkpoint 1B until Party A can move any farther... but, I'm just throwing that out there as something that occurred to me. I'd mostly just like some opinions on dual parties in general.

Hime have a script for this.

I am really hoping that the player will have fun with this, because my current project involves 2 parties which you switch back and forth between, starting out in different parts of the world before eventually joining up.  Sounds familiar?  I've got up to about 8-9 hours' gameplay, and they aren't together yet.

And following on from Oriceles, I do use Tzukihime's script.

There are many ways to do this. The way I've done it with my most recent project is to simply have 2 entirely independent playthroughs. The player gets to pick which party's story they want to play from the start and they can play it for as much as they want. They can play through one story completely and then start on the other, or they can keep saving and switching between them as they wish.

As long as your character development is good that should work. You don't want your players feeling disappointed when they have to switch between a party with good characters to a party of boring characters.

The basic idea is sound and can work very well, Front Mission 3 comes to mind as something similar where you can play the same basic story from 2 different perspective (even fighting characters that would be on your team had you made a different choice), though not switching between them mid-game as you are wanting to do.

I enjoyed how Wild Arms did it.


Many games provide puzzles where you have to split up your party to complete tasks.


It also forces you to actually train other characters cause at some point you're going to end up with a bunch of weak characters that can't do anything on their own.


Lots of potential.

Thanks for the script link Oriceles! And thank you Tsukihime for the script of course, I'm sure it'll help out a ton :)

Hmm, interesting that we have the same idea. How is it working out for you so far?

There was a SNES rpg called Secret of the Stars which had a two party system. From what I recall you needed to use both parties to get through certain puzzles to progress, which forced the player to switch between the two groups and keep them both at a similar level.

I also recall that there were bars which party B could enter, but party A could not (party A was a group of youths destined to save the world). So they at least did some interesting things with the concept.

For what it's worth, you could research into how SotS did things, and what reviewers thought of the game and the two party mechanic.

@reno385

It's coming along well.  What is difficult are things like:

- ensuring that the characters of both parties are equally well developed.

- that both parties have their own story as well as contributing to the overarching story

- that both parties are viable, in terms of ensuring that they have the necessary skills without duplication, because once they have joined up, I don't want any to be redundant.

- that the sections where you are playing one party are long enough to ensure that you stay familiar with the characters and skills without being so long that you forget those of the other party.

- remembering that what one party knows, the other doesn't.

If you have ever played SaGa Frontier 2, this game involves multiple parties that explore the world together but generally never connect together. I think it is quite an interesting concept but it would be necessary if the two parties were to convene that they have the same end goal in mind. Perhaps not started with the same goal but eventually getting there.

Also mentioned already, be careful of redundancy. 

I think it is a great idea if you can leave the player with a cliffhanger with one party but immediately engage them when the switch to the next.

Just my thinking. Hope it contributes. 

Yeah, redundancy is something I really want to avoid. Ideally no one will have the same kinds of abilities and skills, so even though each party has a healer when they eventually get together it won't just be two versions of the same job/class.