History Main / ManualLeaderAIParty

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'':The remake will allow you to control one of your party members at a time and switch them around, while the AI fight with the others.

* ''Franchise/FinalFantasy''

* Strangely enough, [[ArmoredCore Armored Core Verdict Day]] has this in the form of [=UNACs=] (Short for [=UNmanned=] [=ACs=]). Not only you can hire up to three (in World Mode) units, you have one fully customizable UNAC unit to call your own (and with additional ones with DLC purchases). How customizable? Not only you get to determine their loadouts, you get to create their own AI via an full-blown in-game logic programming system [[note]]The same programming which has been evolved by FROM Software themselves as ''the'' AI programming for every enemy behavior since the very first Armored Core game in 1997, according to WordOfGod [[/note]]. However, this is also a partial example, as while you can certainly act as a party leader with AI "party", nothing's stopping you to simply let the AI do the fighting to you while you go about as an Operator; essentially a "Puppet Master" role.
** Arguably, while you can issue rudimentary commands to your "party" while fighting, being in Operator mode is more useful as it lets you modify the AI logic's priorities, essentially modifying their behavior on-the-fly. In short, how good the AI performs is entirely dependent on you, the programmer.

* The NES version of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'' uses this as of Chapter 5, with the hero the only directly controllable character. This leads to quite a large amount of ArtificialStupidity, especially when Kiryl keeps spamming [[UselessUsefulSpell low-accuracy one-hit kills]] instead of healing. The option for direct control is included, and on by default, in the DS remake.

* The DS version of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'' has several AI settings (though by default, everyone is manually controlled). Once you have enough characters, you can even switch out the hero for someone else, which makes grinding a lot faster by merely having to push the "fight" button every turn instead of going through pages of spells and abilities.

* The ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series has the player only able to control the Keyblade-wielding main character(s) of the game. In games that feature party members, Donald, Goofy and whichever character is unique to the world the player is in cannot be controlled, though their behavior and strategy can be changed in menus, and you can use team up moves. ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' has Donald and Goofy replaced by {{Mon}} party members. The right Dream Eater with the right disposition can prove itself to be far more helpful and supportive than Donald and Goofy ever were.

* ''VideoGame/EmeraldDragon'' is an example of this. In battle the combat is shown in a perspective up to down and you control the main character to attack enemies or use items, and the rest of the party is controlled by the AI. It is then up to them if they use attacking/healing spells, or phisically attack enemies

* The recruitable party members in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout|1}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'' allow you to customise how close or far they stay from you, how often to use drugs to heal themselves, and how to use their weapons.

* In ''VideoGame/HalfLife1: Opposing Force'', you're usually teamed up with a squad of AI soldiers which you can direct, and use to perform certain functions (but you can't directly play as one of them). Also in ''VideoGame/HalfLife2'' you take command of a squad of AI resistance fighters.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' you can choose your party's style of attacks (offensive, healing, general) but not control their actions directly. It's also the default for ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' but you can switch to manual control. The ability to switch to manual control was also added to ''Persona 3 Portable''. ''VideoGame/{{Persona 5}}'' meanwhile defaults to manual control, but let's you switch your team to AI control, though not your character.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Sonny}}'', you always control only the eponymous character, with your other members being AI-controlled. In the first game, there's three settings: Defensive, Tactical, and Aggressive, which can only be changed in between battles. In the second game there is five settings: Phalanx, Defensive, Tactical, Aggressive, and Relentless, which can be changed at the start of every turn.

This trope mostly crops up in {{Action RPG}}s (although a turn based RPG might use something similar and team based sports games also tend to favour it). It's when the PlayerParty are controlled by the game's AI, like any other {{NPC}}. This allows games which don't have turn based mechanics to still let the player control all the members of their team at once.

* The NES version of ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIV'' uses this as of Chapter 5, with the hero the only directly controllable character. This leads to quite a large amount of ArtificialStupidity, especially when Kiryl keeps spamming [[UselessUsefulSpell low-accuracy one-hit kills]] instead of healing. The option for direct control is included in the DS remake.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' uses a system where the player sets up the AI for every party member (including the leader). The camera stays focused on whoever is set as the party leader (unless they die, in which case the game pauses and has the player choose a living leader), but the player can issue commands to anyone or even turn off the AI controlling them and manage the entire party's actions directly. The lack of such control as this game allowed is one of the reasons both ''Final Fantasy XIII'' and ''Final Fantasy XV'' took massive flack from players.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'': The player controls Noctis, with the rest of the party backing him up. Until a recent patch, there was no way of controlling the AI, but you could direct them to use special moves. The game received big criticism from players on that field, and some even loathed the whole combat system solely because of it. After the patch 1.20 (Which took ''two years'' to come, mind you), you can freely control all four of them.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyType0'' is fairly similar to ''XV'', where you control a lead character with the AI backing you up, but with the option to switch between your three party members on the fly. Given this game was directed by [[Creator/HajimeTabata the same guy]] in command of ''Final Fantasy XV'', one wonders why in the hell he didn't do the same to the flagship game for two years after its launch.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'': Tetsuya Nomura paid attention to how bad Tabata's approach to ''XV'''s battle system was [[note]]Notably, the fact that you could only control Noctis until ''two years later'' with Patch 1.20.[[/note]]. In order to avoid this, the remake will allow you to control one of your party members at a time and switch them around, while the AI fight with the others.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyType0'' is fairly similar to ''Kingdom Hearts'', or ''Final Fantasy XV'' in that you control a lead character with the AI backing you up, with the option to switch between your three party members on the fly. Given this game was directed by the same guy in command of ''Final Fantasy XV'', one wonders why in the hell he didn't do the same to the flagship game for two years after its launch.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyType0'' is fairly similar to ''Kingdom Hearts'', or ''Final Fantasy XV'' in that you control a lead character with the AI backing you up, with the option to switch between your three party members on the fly. [[note]]One wonders why Hajime Tabata took ''two years'' to apply this to ''Final Fantasy XV''.[[/note]]

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'': Tetsuya Nomura paid attention to how polemical Tabata's approach to ''XV'''s battle system was. In order to avoid this, the remake will allow you to control one of your party members at a time and switch them around, while the AI fight with the others.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'': The player controls Noctis, with the rest of the party backing him up. Until a recent patch, there was no way of controlling the AI, but you could direct them to use special moves. The game received big criticism from players on that field, and some even loathed the whole combat system solely because of it. After the patch (Which took ''two years'' to come, mind you), you can freely control all four of them.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIIRemake'' allows you to control one of your party members at a time, while the AI fight with the others.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyType0'' is fairly similar to ''Kingdom Hearts'', or ''Final Fantasy XV'' in that you control a lead character with the AI backing you up, with the option to switch between your three party members on the fly.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'': The player controls Noctis, with the rest of the party backing him up. Until a recent patch, there was no way of controlling the AI, but you could direct them to use special moves. After the patch (Which took ''two years'' to come, mind you), you can freely control all four of them.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'': The player controls Noctis, with the rest of the party backing him up. Until a recent patch, there was no way of controlling the AI, but you can direct them to use special moves. Now, you can freely control all four of them.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXII'' uses a system where the player sets up the AI for every party member (including the leader). The camera stays focused on whoever is set as the party leader (unless they die, in which case the game pauses and has the player choose a living leader), but the player can issue commands to anyone or even turn off the AI controlling them and manage the entire party's actions directly.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'': The player controls Noctis, with the rest of the party backing him up. There's no way of controlling the AI, but you can direct them to use special moves.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyType0'' is fairly similar to ''Kingdom Hearts'', with the option to switch between your three party members on the fly.

* The ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' series has the player only able to control the Keyblade-wielding main character(s) of the game. In games that feature party members, Donald, Goofy and whichever character is unique to the world the player is in cannot be controlled, though their behavior and strategy can be changed in menus. ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'' has Donald and Goofy replaced by {{Mon}} party members. The right Dream Eater with the right disposition can prove itself to be far more helpful and supportive than Donald and Goofy ever were.

** This appears in most of the ''StarOcean'' series.

** ''VideoGame/TalesOfVesperia'' is similar to the ''StarOcean'' example, in that it also allows you to set the behavior of AI controlled party members. However, it gives the player far more options to work with, from selecting formations, setting the distance AI team mates should maintain between the PlayerCharacter and the enemy, and whether to allow them to use items (and how often).

* ''StarOceanTillTheEndOfTime'' allows the player to control one character, or the entire party, by setting all characters to "manual" in the options menu. In addition, you can set the behavior of AI controlled party members from a selection of tactics, with some being unique to certain characters. This works, for the most part, [[ArtificialStupidity but every so often...]].

* Pretty much all of the ''TalesSeries'' games do this, with varying levels of complexity depending on the age of the entry. Most of them include preset orders for defensive and aggressive behaviors, which can then be further customized in the strategy menus. You can also choose to enable and disable certain of your party members' abilities, and most entries allow you to choose how often they use special techniques, and in some cases what kind (for example, you might be able to set the healer to focus on conserving mana, healing everyone, or casting a lot of support spells). You can also set their default distance from the enemy when they enter battle, how closely they choose to engage the enemy when actually in combat, and sometimes what kind of enemies they focus on attacking (same as the player, different from the player, flying enemies, etc).