Yes.
I agree.
I agree.
Haha, I am the same myself….. I keep saying to myself I will choose something new… but when I get the chance.. I choose the same again. Of course that might be the problem with the choices you get being too easy especially in BG it is ussually easy to tell which path is "evil" for example.
To me it's simple… 8 is too much
Several reasons:
- Long battles: 8 characters means enough monsters to have 8 characters challenged, or big opponents go against 8, but then it's like, too many hands in the cake.
- Micromanagement hell: I like controlling each character, but with 8, might be easily cumbersome to handle equipment, skills, spells, etc.
- Replayability: One of the main factors for replayability (for me) is try different party compositions. 8 seems to me that I'll probably have pretty much 1 of everything, leaving few things out to try (that are not really a variation of something I already saw).
- Characters: Just like students in a classroom of 40 get each less attention than those in a classroom of 30, my attention to each character will 'dilute'.
So, to me, 6 is the magic number. Enough to make tactical battles interesting, not too many as to have my brain treat each character as just a class instead of a character.
6 PCs really is a magic number I think. Think of all the classics: Wizardry 8, JA2, Gold Box, etc, etc.
I find I hate NPCs, even if they're 100% the character I would have created anyway, I don't like taking them along. Something about the feeling they're stealing my XP and might just leave at any time so I'm always hesitant to give them any decent equipment. Games like KotOR or Drakensang where it's you + NPCs, I never feel the same attachment to the characters.
Wizardry 8 had 8 party members (two RPCs and 6 PCs…all of them controlled by the player). JA2 had 18 party members, split into 'squads' of no more than 6 (one of the weaknesses of the game IMO. Would have been a lot better to not limit squad size at all).
Well, the problem is if you have 18 as the max limit, you can have fights that lasts forever. Imagine spending several hours in each fight? that's why I am against having too many party members which you can use at the same time.