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In RPGs or other games with a separate battle screen, in Preexisting Encounters, you may end up fighting a number of enemies, even though there's only one sprite on the map that confronts you. Games without separate battle screens, such as Chrono Trigger, avert this entirely, of course.

When the heroes do this, it's Party In My Pocket. See also Preexisting Encounters.

Needs A Better Description, I know.

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Examples:

• The Trope Namer comes from a Flash RPG called Mardek, which Lampshades many RPG tropes. Early in Chapter 2, you fight a bandit who, just before attacking you, says, "Now, Guards, you stand no chance against me, 'cause I'm actually four blokes!" Cue a battle with four bandits.
• The Final Fantasy games do this a lot, though averted in Final Fantasy XII, as there isn't a separate battle screen.
• Pretty much every single fight in Super Mario RPG, as you'll only see one sprite on the main map, then go into battle and see a lot more.
• Both the Mario And Luigi and Paper Mario series have this. One enemy on the map can easily be between three and five enemies in battle, including those that only show up alongside other enemies in battle.
• As stated in the entry, averted in Chrono Trigger, as it doesn't have a separate battle screen. However many enemies are on-screen are the enemies you'll be fighting.
• Averted and played straight in The Reconstruction. The Preexisting Encounters on the main map are only one sprite but usually trigger a few monsters in battle. However, all unavoidable Preexisting Encounters have you fight exactly the number of enemies as there are sprites. This includes boss battles, almost all of which have flunkies that you can see clearly on the map pre-battle. (Except for chapter 1's boss, which has its flunkies come out of nowhere)
• Destiny of an Emperor has battles between armies of thousands, but only the generals leading each army are seen.
• In Advance Wars every unit is depicted as a single soldier of vehicle on the map, but (unless it's a particularly big unit like a bomber or megatank) is shown to contain between 1 and 5 units in battle animations, depending on how much HP the unit has left.
• In the Heroes Of Might And Magic series groups of enemies on the map are represented in the form of a single sprite. The game lets the player view the size of the enemy, though.
  • Heroes Of Might And Magic actually takes this a step further as the images on the batlle screen don't represent single monsters either, but whole stacks of them. This can lead to situations where you see a picture of a single green dragon on the map decide to engage it and suddenly find yourself in battle with five pictures of green dragons that actually represent 10 dragons each at which point you probably wished you had checked the size of the enemey group before attacking it. To make matters worse armies aren't always soley composed of the enemies that are shown on the map since sometimes a small number of upgraded versions of the monster is mixed into it.
• Averted in Earthbound: when you engage an enemy on the map screen, you can see other nearby enemies rushing to join the battle. If there aren't any, or they don't reach you in time, you only fight the one you touched. Played straight in Mother 3, however. (except in unavoidable Preexisting Encounters)
• Pokemon averts this by having the Pokemon be inside the Pokeballs before they're sent out to battle.

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