i’m trying to come up with a list of rpgs with a single protagonist character and no party system. the definition i would give for the type of game i’m looking for is “rpg in which a single character is a design challenge rather than the norm,” because i’m interested in how these games rework rpg premises to accommodate it, ranging from extreme minimalism to more complex or experimental systems. the restriction is that they can’t be crpgs, pure arpgs (involving both a high degree of realtime movement and positioning and no menu-based combat), bethesda-style wrpgs or adventure games, since all of these routinely feature a single protagonist and their standard genre conventions easily accommodate this. additionally, they don’t actually have to be japanese games; i’m using “jrpg” as a loose, reductive genre term to the exclusion of the ones i listed above.
here are the examples i can think of:
dragon quest
panzer dragoon saga
parasite eve
hybrid heaven
vagrant story
lightning returns: final fantasy xiii
undertale
Another interesting aspect of the battle system is the summon system. As you go through the game, you’ll collect magic amulets. In order to use magic, you have to fit the magic “pieces” into each amulet’s particular shape. Some magic will be a square, others different sized triangles or a rhombus. Once fit together perfectly, you’ll be able to summon that amulet’s respective creature. These creatures act like a second party member, though you aren’t in direct control of them. Some will simply attack the enemy, others will give you status boosts or heal you. If summoned, they will also suck up a little bit of your magic power each turn. When your MP hits zero, the summon is simply rendered inactive.
And if you’re willing to entertain Battle Network, you might also consider Lost Kingdoms, which has a similar strategic element that disrupts the pure action you might expect from args.
It’s definitely dealing with design fallout from a single-character; the character is trapped in small locations so dodging is limited, card powers require resources and success is more about proper usage and resource management than 3D placement; powers that protect or heal the protagonist are rare and weighted against other attacks (healing from a single character stalls the game loop much more than it does in a party).
Paper Mario 1 works I think. Your pals are barely party members
A few extensive Live a Live and Dragon Quest 4 chapters are solo
There’s Great Greed for the gameboy. It owns
Roguelikes feel like the natural evolution of the single player jepg. Shiren-likes… And Dicey dungeon / Slay the spire for movement-less examples
i feel like excluding arpg’s is tricky here bc i think introducing more real time action elements often is an accomodation for single character control. im gonna chuck in phantom dust, which has a lot of realtime movement but still has menu based combat, and kingdom hearts chain of memories, which, same. mm battle networks already been mentioned. i feel like a lot of deckbuildy stuff counts? but thats just my sense of some of them v much feeling like theyve grown out of more standard jrpg systems
otoh, for the frog the bell tolls imo, and maybe dandy dungeons and some like idle game stuff w completely automated combat??
