History Main / RequiredPartyMember

** In Final Fantasy Tactics A2, you were often forced to take certain clan members on certain missions, mostly [[spoiler: Adelle's [[StaffChick Heritor]] missions]] and sub-plots involving the [[OptionalPartyMember optional unique clan members.]]

* In ''TalesOfSymphonia'', Collette is required in all of the early boss fights, while Sheena is required for all summon seals. Also, in order to get the location information for monsters into your Monster Book, you need to use the Magic Lens with Raine, not any of the other characters.

* In ''DragonAgeII'', most of the Companions' Personal Quests will require you to include them in the party. The one exception is Aveline's Act II Personal Quest [[spoiler:which involves her attempts to woo Guardsman Donnic (keyword: attempts)]].

* In ''DragonAgeII'', most of the Companions' Personal Quests will require you to include them in the party. The one exception is Aveline's Act II Personal Quest [[spoiler:which involves her attempts to woo Guardsman Donnic (keyword: attempts)]].

* In ''FinalFantasyX'', while you can usually switch characters at any time, there is a point where you're forced to use Tidus, Wakka, and Rikku, because they're the only ones who are really good at holding their breath.
** Or have had swimming animations made, if you're more cynical.
*** Kimhari would look pretty silly as a wet Ronso.
*** And Yuna, Lulu and Auron all wear outfits that would act like sails/sea anchors. Although imagining Auron trying to swim and getting his legs tangled in his BadassLongcoat is kind of hilarious.
*** You can recruit/remove Wakka from the Besaid Aurochs team, but never Tidus (you don't have to play him, but he takes up a slot).
* At various points in ''FinalFantasyVII'', one character or another is required to be in your party to advance the plot.

** And railroads you entirely on the Leviathan level, by locking you with Carth and Bastila. Of course, because of [[HeroicSacrifice certain]] [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge story]] [[TheReveal events]], the whole thing wouldn't work without them. The ''Brotherhood of Shadow'' mod also forces this in several places. Justified on some of it, as you're [[spoiler: playing a flashback to some event in your life as Revan]].
* ''FinalFantasyVI'' is an odd case in that this happens frequently in the first half of the game (such as with Banon's EscortMission, or Locke and Celes being mandatory for the opera house storyline), but in the second half, almost nobody is ''technically'' required except for a few characters. You could go straight to the final dungeon with only three characters if you wanted to.
** A more minor example of the Event Flag version of this trope occurs in cutscenes after you can begin swapping party members in and out of your group. While dialogue is largely the same regardless of who is with you, particular characters will get lines attributed to them specifically. If that character is not in your group the line will simply have quotation marks around it and no named speaker.

* {{Pokemon}} does this to some extent. It requires you to bring along a mon with certain special attacks if you want to get through certain dungeons. Particularly, you need Rock Climb to [[spoiler:face Red]] in [[PokemonHeartgoldAndSoulsilver HeartGold/SoulSilver]].

This can also be ButThouMust, if the game ''appears'' to give you a choice, but then forces you to use the characters it wants you to anyway. If it's the main protagonist that's forced to be in your party at all times (which is almost always the case anyways), that's [=~Can't Drop The Hero~=].

* In ''TalesOfSymphonia'', Collette is required in all of the early boss fights, while Sheena is required for all summon seals. (Also, in order to get the location information for monsters into your Monster Book, you need to use the Magic Lens with Raine, not any of the other characters.)
** In the original ''TalesOfPhantasia'', Cress wasn't just a required party member - he was the only ''controllable'' party member. Later games made everyone playable.

* ''{{Knights of the Old Republic}}'' gives you numerous quests that cannot be completed without a certain party member. You get forced to take Carth when you first enter Taris, you have to have Mission to get into the Vulkar base, T3-M4 is required to get into the Sith base, you need HK-47 to complete the light-side track with the Sand People on Tantooine, you need Bastilla for the beginning of Dantooine, etc.

* In ''ChronoTrigger'', every character (except [[spoiler:Magus]]) is forced on you for a dungeon when he or she first joins. Frog and Ayla get ''two'' such dungeons and Robo is a mandatory party member when you're exploring the factory ruins. [[CantDropTheHero Crono]] is forced on you for most of the game, but eventually, he becomes optional.

* The {{Required Party Member}}s in ''{{Persona}}'' vary depending on which path you take. In the SEBEC Quest, your party will ultimately consist of the MC, Maki, Mark and Nanjo, with one slot left for you to choose, and in the Snow Queen Quest, your party consists of the MC, Yukino and Ayase, with two slots to choose.

* Every single character in ''AlterAila Genesis'' will be a RequiredPartyMember at some point in the game. Many times in fact, as the plot continually divides and regroups the party. Thankfully near the end you can choose who you want in your party and who all you want to toss out out their butts.

* Played straight for most of the game yet also subverted at one point in the RPG ''SailorMoonAnotherStory''. There are times in the game where you play as one set specific character or a set group of characters, and this holds for the first 3/5ths of the game. In the fourth "chapter" you're allowed to choose groups of Senshi, though Sailor Moon is usually required (in a few cases, Chibi Moon is). At the beginning of the fifth chapter, the Senshi split up, one group going to rescue Sailor Moon's little brother and the other to go visit the Crystal Palace. In the cut scene before choosing teams, it looks like Mars, Venus, Jupiter and Mercury are going with Sailor Moon, while the other five (the "Outers" and Chibi Moon) are the other group. However, aside from Chibi Moon and Sailor Moon, you actually can mix this up and choose whoever you want to be in which group. There is different dialogue in the cut scenes depending on who's in which group, but I just think it's interesting that the game has the Senshi say they're going to make the groups be a certain way but then the game allows you to mess that up.

* Tons of JRPG games in general pull this trope for the main character. Even if your party grows big enough to be able to form multiple teams, the main character (like [[FinalFantasyVII Cloud]] and [[SuperMarioRPG Mario]]) can never ever be swapped out of the active party roster unless the plot says otherwise.

* There are various points in ''CrossEdge'' where you'll be forced into using one or two other characters during a battle. York (Main character) and Raze get this treatment the most.

* A few of the stars in ''{{Suikoden}}'' games get thrown into your party for plot. Luckily, due to the game's levelling system, even if they're weak when you get them, they catch up fairly quickly. These are also the characters that tend to get the most characterization.

** Certain characters ''are'' required for OneHundredPercentCompletion, though. For example, the Doma Castle sequence in the World of Ruin is only possible if you go in with Cyan in your party, and Gau and Shadow's backstory flashbacks are triggered by having them in your party at certain times.

* Various characters during the seven heroes' games in ''SagaFrontier'' ''have'' to join your party just to advance the plot. Others, like [[TheAlcoholic Gen]] and Fuse are required to do certain quests.

** And, more annoyingly, one boss fight becomes {{Unwinnable}} [[GuideDangIt unless you have]] Tron in your party.

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<<|VideoGameTropes|>>

* ''GuildWars'': features a few quests and missions which require a particular hero in the party. It also has the inverse; a quest in which you ''can't'' bring a particular hero, lest the correct NPCs fail to spawn.

* At various points in ''FinalFantasyVII'', one character or another is required to be in your party to advance the plot.
* FireEmblem has several chapters in most of it's games where a character is forced into the party and absolutely must be used for that chapter.
* The ''[[DotHack .hack]]'' games would occasionally require you to use specific teams for story events. When this happened, you could bet you were going to see an FMV before the dungeon was out. There were also side-dungeons which your party members invited you to, thus requiring you to use that particular person. At one point this results in an inadvertent TwoTimerDate when Kite is invited to the same dungeon by both Black Rose and Terajima Ryoko.

* In ''PokemonMysteryDungeon: Explorers Of Time/Darkness'' you are required to bring both your partner (IE: The one you initially chose at the start of the game) and [[TierInducedScrappy Cresselia]] along for the final battle against [[spoiler:Darkrai]]. Also, you CANNOT bring any other Pokemon with you.
** This can be especially aggravating if you are a grass-type Pokemon or have chosen one as your partner since the dungeon is inside a volcano and you'll run into fire-types quite often.
** Likewise, certain regular "rescue missions" and the like can only be done if a certain Pokemon is on your team.
* In ''FinalFantasyTactics'', an {{NPC}} will occasionally take up one of your precious party member slots, most annoyingly in the [[LuckBasedMission Riovanes rooftop battle]] where Malak is [[spoiler: dead and can't be revived until the post-battle cutscene]] and a suicidally angry Rafa, who will charge headfirst into death unless your party is fast enough to intercept.

* In ''ManiacMansion'', TheHero Dave is required to participate in the rescue, while you can choose two other characters to use at the start of the game.

* There are various points in ''CrossEdge'' where you'll be forced into using one or two other characters during a battle. York (Main character) and Raze get this treatment the most.

* Nei in ''PhantasyStar II'' insists on coming with Rolf everywhere he goes [[spoiler:until she's murdered by her "sister" Neifirst]]. In ''Phantasy Star IV'', the party right up until the final dungeon is determined by the plot at any given point.
* DevilSurvivor occasionally has missions where you're required to dispatch a specific party member.

* EnchantedArms requires the player to always have the main character, Atsuma, at the head of the active party. Jarring, in that the game provides you with a large pool of optional "battle golems" to fill out the rest of your party. Not to mention that, in areas with enemies that either resist fire or possess strong water attacks, Atsuma can be a liability.
* NeverwinterNights2 had an interesting take on this that alleviated the more annoying aspects of the trope. It forced you to take Shandra along for an entire chapter.... but raised the party member limit by one to accommodate her, allowing you to take whatever team you were comfortable with in the previous chapters, plus her. When [[spoiler: she died, the extra spot became open]].

* Every single character in AlterAila Genesis will be a RequiredPartyMember at some point in the game. Many times in fact, as teh plot continually divides and regroups the party. Thankfully near the end you can choose who you want in your party and who all you want to toss out out thier butts.

** And railroads you entirely on the Leviathan level, by locking you with Carth and Bastila. Of course, because of [[HeroicSacrifice certain]] [[RoaringRampageOfRevenge story]] [[TheReveal events]], the whole thing wouldn't work without them.