History Main / OneManParty

** In the ''VideoGame/DevilSummoner" series the Protagonist is paired with a magic caster at the start of the game, Rei in the Original Devil Summoner and Nemissa in Soul Hackers, and both are incredibly powerful magic casters that will determine the outcome of many of your battles even in the late game, with your Demons often acting as support for your female powerhouses.

* In ''VideoGame/ValkyrieProfile'', Lenneth is required to be in every single battle you fight (except one in the [[GuideDangIt best ending]]), and there's LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters. By the end of the game, Lenneth will invariably be at least a dozen or so levels ahead of anyone else in her party.

* ''VideoGame/{{Suikoden}}'' tends to make sure this doesn't happen too badly. Your protagonist is always in battle and stays a few levels above the rest of the party, but the way the experience scales tends to make sure new additions, latecomers, and those who were gone for a while get up to speed soon enough, often gaining multiple levels per battle until they reach the appropriate ballpark. Given the series' propensity toward LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters, this is pretty much the only way they could have pulled it off.

* Zeorymer of ''Manga/HadesProjectZeorymer''. In ANY ''VideoGame/SuperRobotWars'' game it appeared in, no matter the situation, the player could toss Zeorymer to the enemy's ZergRush and [[EvilLaugh laugh]]. This is a game franchise [[LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters filled to the brim with]] [[SuperRobot Godlike / Magical / Uber-powerful Robots]] including ''[[Anime/NeonGenesisEvangelion Evangelion]]'', ''Anime/{{Rahxephon}}'', or even ''[[Anime/SpaceRunawayIdeon Ideon]]'', and Zeorymer is STILL considered one of the standout GameBreaker and [[GodModeSue God Mode Sues in the SRW franchise]]. What a feat...

A subtrope of GameBreaker. For the storyline version of this, see CantCatchUp, OneManArmy. For a character that appears to be a OneManParty but is later PutOnABus, see CrutchCharacter. For the more overreaching version that covers play styles or balance issues, see UnstableEquilibrium.

* In ''Videogame/{{Earthbound}}'', Ness, whom you've had all game long anyway, and who additionally gets special stat boosts (including LOTS more PP) late in the game, becomes a powerhouse at the end--and while he doesn't have the most efficient damaging attacks (Paula and Jeff take care of that), he has tons of defensive and healing spells and enough PP to spam-cast some of them, and he also has enough HP to last through a lot of attacks, and thus becomes the party's one-boy backup. Not to mention that, even if not efficient, he does have some nastily damaging attacks himself. (It doesn't help that Paula and Jeff start at level 1. Poo starts at level 15, but you're probably way overleveled even compared to that when you get him). This gets particularly nasty at the end where normal enemies can insta kill Paula, rendering her offensive skills moot: even with your entire party at level 99 Paula will only have around a paltry 300ish HP where Ness will easily have over 900 HP (Jeff and Poo will have around 400 and 600, respectively)

*** Each game's Valkyrie is the source of DME (LifeForce) for her entire party and her companions will quickly dissipate if she isn't on the field.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'' has the Viera build with the Spellblade's Blood Price ability, Red Mage's Doublecast, and Summoner's wide area of effect spells, wearing Holy-absorbing armor. With the right positioning, this lets a single character cast Maduin, one of the most practical damaging spells in the game, on multiple enemies, with no mana cost, while healing themselves, TWICE IN ONE TURN. And this is one of their many options. They can also cast any other Red Magic or Summon spell you give them, essentially making them the team healer, damage dealer, buffer, and long-range attacker. The only thing they can't do is tank, but even that isn't impossible when they can cast Regen, Protect, Shell, Reflect and learn the ability Reflex, which makes them immune to normal attacks, and can equip Ribbons to protect them from StandardStatusEffects.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' does split experience among active party members, but using Cecil as a one-man party early on will come back to bite you when he class changes into a level 1 Paladin. That said, though, all party members you have ever had but aren't in the active party get the same amount of LeakedExperience as your active party members, so creative level grinding can affect characters you get early but leave, such as Kain.

A subtrope of GameBreaker. For the storyline version of this, see CantCatchUp, OneManArmy. For a character that appears to be a OneManParty but is later PutOnABus, see CrutchCharacter. For the more overreaching version that covers play styles or balance issues, see UnstableEquilibrium. [[JustForFun/IThoughtItMeant Not to be confused with]] a political party with only one member.

A subtrope of GameBreaker. For the storyline version of this, see CantCatchUp, OneManArmy. For a character that appears to be a OneManParty but is later PutOnABus, see CrutchCharacter. For the more overreaching version that covers play styles or balance issues, see UnstableEquilibrium.

* ''VideoGame/TacticsOgre'' avoids this mostly by keeping the bell-curve very low and punishing you severely if you are surrounded (with [[NintendoHard permanent character death]] thrown in for good measure). However, there is a {{Game Breaker}} spell that will resurrect a dead character as an undead with half hp/mp and the same other stats, and a second [[BonusDungeon post game]] {{Game Breaker}} that will convert an undead character to a Level 1 Human -- with the same stats. Characters that go through this are [[AGodAmI several order of magnitudes]] better than anything else you can field.

* This is an easy mistake to make early in the ''Franchise/FireEmblem'' games, but standard practice in the late game. Players new to the series tend to use their CrutchCharacter to hog all the kills, thus denying the experience points from being divided with relative equality. Due to the team-based nature of the game, weaker characters are eventually going to start getting [[FinalDeath killed off in one hit]] and the powerhouse, outnumbered, will suffer a DeathOfAThousandCuts. But by the end of the game, at least a third of your party will be able to waltz into the middle of a battlefield on their own and leave all enemies within range dead by the next round.
** Some characters, like Ike from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemPathOfRadiance Path of Radiance]]'', can get a little out of control later in the game.
** Seth from ''[[VideoGame/FireEmblemTheSacredStones The Sacred Stones]]'' is arguably the most egregious example in the series. He has all of the tools needed to effectively solo the game, to the point where a "Seth solo" run is often argued to be easier than playing the game normally with a full party.

* Generally averted in the ''VideoGame/WildArms'' series, as most of the time you don't pick your party members, though the Luck rune in ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 3}}'' plays it straight as that character that equips it can get an ability that allows them to get more XP per battle than the others.
** Raquel in ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 4}}'' is the exception to the rule. She has superior attack strength and battlefield mobility than the other characters, and in ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 4}}'' whichever character strikes the killing blow will gain additional experience points. The result is that Raquel will often power ahead of everyone else and not look back.
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIII'' makes this easy as all party members other than the main character are optional and XP is split between party members instead of copied; you can reduce your party to just the hero and be earning 4x the "normal" XP, allowing the main character to level up enough that it doesn't matter that he's alone. A character of the Sage class can also be something of this, as they can cast both Priest and Wizard spells but with better weapons and armor than either of those classes.
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestIX'' does the same, plus the XP split is weighted in favor of the stronger characters. If someone falls behind because their class needs more XP to level up than another guy's, they're not going to start catching up until the others start hitting the level cap.
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestV'': Many of your party members either start underleveled, are taken away for long periods of time, or have hidden level caps that basically make the undroppable hero the strongest in most cases. You can only have eight party members at once, four fighting and four in the wagon, and those in the back (which can include the hero) don't get experience for fights that happen in places where you can't take the wagon (i.e., most dungeons).
* ''VideoGame/DragonQuestVI'' averts this somewhat, in that all eight party members gain experience from fights all the time, be they in the wagon or not. Leveling up vocations depends on the number of level-appropriate battles the character has been through (including the wagon).
* Taken to its logical conclusion in ''VideoGame/DragonQuestMonstersJoker2'' -- The game has a size ranking, you have a party limit of 3 units of size, and monsters are 1-3 units large. Size 3 monsters are ''[[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin literal]]'' one man parties, you cannot have anyone else if you are using them. But they're also only available in the post game and ''easily'' equal in power to full parties. There are also reasons to take the other combinations -- 3 size 1s will have more skills, and ultimately do more damage... if you can keep them all alive as they have 3 weaker targets to kill as opposed to 1 big target.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTactics'' by the Tactics Ogre team does something similar -- your party is limited to 5 characters max, but your available pool is 16 (24 in the [[UpdatedRerelease PSP port]]). The result is that you level up 5 characters (to replace them with overpowered {{NPC}}s that join you later) and let the second stringers do the text-based missions at the bar the entire game.
** Similarly, Orlandu joins the party with the ability to learn every single special sword attack in the game, but knowing few other skills. [[strike: With a little work,]] Orlandu easily surpasses the other characters and stays way out ahead.
*** Particularly notable in that Orlandu not only possesses all the attacks of a previous character, AND the attacks of an enemy (Who cannot join your party), but the attacks of a character who has yet to join your party. Despite being VERY powerful, Melidoul is never used simply because Orlandu beats her to the punch and does it better, and has abilities that work on monsters (who you fight a lot of later in the game)
*** Although in the remake, Meliadoul was buffed considerately because her abilities were able to be used against monsters, which in turn meant they could be used against bosses with thousands of HP. They could also damage about as much as Orlandu's, outclassing Beowulf easily.
*** Really, Orlandu is the epitome of the One Man Party, as he's widely considered the resident Game Breaker. He's basically the I Win button. (Guess there's a reason why he's referred to as Thunder God in the story)

** In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsAdvance'' it was entirely possible for an Assassin, due to her GameBreaker status, to become one of these without trying very hard. The Assassin has access to an attack called "Last Breath", a One-Hit KO spells. Like most spells of its kind, it is supposed to be balanced by its low accuracy. However, it is fairly easy to have an Assassin level as an Archer until it learns the Concentrate ability. Concentrate is a support ability that raises the accuracy of all abilities (Even non-archer ones) to around a 90-99% success rate. As you might be able to guess, Concentrate is nerfed into a much more moderate increase in the sequel.
** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyTacticsA2'' has the Viera build with the Spellblade's Blood Price ability, Red Mage's Doublecast, and Summoner's wide area of effect spells, wearing Holy-absorbing armor. With the right positioning, this lets a single character cast Maduin, one of the most practical damaging spells in the game, on multiple enemies, with no mana cost, while healing themselves, TWICE IN ONE TURN. And this is one of their many options. They can also cast any other Red Magic or Summon spell you give them, essentially making them the team healer, damage dealer, buffer, and long range attacker. The only thing they can't do is tank, but even that isn't impossible when they can cast Regen, Protect, Shell, Reflect and learn the ability Reflex, which makes them immune to normal attacks, and can equip Ribbons to protect them from StandardStatusEffects.

** Some characters, like Ike, can get a little out of control later in the game.

* ''VideoGame/ArcTheLad'' has a 50-level dungeon in the first game where you have to traverse all 50 levels in both directions, without any save points or exits in-between. It is quite possible to have only a single character survive this process, and this character may become considerably more powerful than the others as a result. With the second and third game allowing you to bring in characters from the previous games at certain points, this character may continue being a dominant force for some time. The character in question is usually Tosh, the swordsman, becoming the sole survivor around the 20th level on the way down... meaning he fights 80 difficult levels entirely on his own. Thanks to his time out before getting re-recruited in the later games, the rest of the party is finally able to catch up late in the third game....
** ''Arc 2'' has optional character Choko, a walking, talking [[GameBreaker game breaker]] who's a force to be reckoned with even at level 1! Level her enough and its no exageration that you'll probably never have to attack with anyone else for the rest of the game. And thats even before the optional sidequest that unlocks her ultimate attacks. Equip her with the infinite MP accessory, and she's invincible. Though the final boss is so damn [[NintendoHard hard]] that using her is almost a requirement.
* In an obscure RPG ''Sangokushi Sousouden'', which is based on the Three Kingdoms period and has Cao Cao as its main character, the enemies' level are based around the average level of everyone who you have sent out in that battle (and there can be up to 15 participants in bigger fights). Can you imagine what it would be like if you send out Cao Cao at max level (50) and everyone else at a very low level (like 3-5 or so)?

* If a game has experience points divided amongst the party, some players may intentionally kill off specific party members or let them succumb to a specific status effect that prevents that character from gaining experience points so that the character(s) of their choosing can get more experience points for themselves. Just because you CantDropTheHero doesn't mean there's nothing stopping you from knocking them out so that the rest of the party can catch up.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' does split experience among active party members, but using Cecil as a one-man party early on will come back to bite you when he class changes into a level 1 Paladin. That said, though, all party members you have ever had but aren't in the active party get the same amount of LeakedExperience as your active party members, so creative level grinding can affect characters you get early but leave, such as Kain.
* Party leader Cloud of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' will out-level the other characters very quickly by virtue of CantDropTheHero, and to add insult to injury has [[MasterOfAll some of the best all-around natural stats and Limit Breaks in the game]]. Late-game materia combinations like Cover and Counter + Slash All make it easy for him to zip around the battlefield, taking hits for the rest of the party and dealing out hot death in return; the other two characters don't have to do much more than stand there and maybe cast Regen and Big Guard to make him even ''tougher''.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'', the main character Zidane eventually does orders of magnitude more damage with his standard attacks and is much faster than Steiner (without his secret weapons) or Freya. Vivi can eventually outmatch him once he gets Doublecast, but at the cost of ludicrous amounts of MP. Unless Freya has her Dragon's Crest ability and the party has killed enough dragons, in which case she winds up dealing 9999 damage every turn, regardless of enemy defence, for a paltry MP cost. However, a player can either knock Zidane out or infect him with the Virus status to let other party members catch up. The game splits EXP among conscious and non-Virus party members after a battle so there's no lost experience for doing this.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyCrystalChronicles: My Life as a King'' suffers from this a bit, as the difficulty level of the dungeons goes up quite fast, and any weaker characters tend to get left in the dust.
** Not to mention the fact that whoever completes any behest that involves killing a boss (ie. most of them that aren't just "explore location x") is awarded a medal that either changes one of their AI traits or increases their base stats by a varying amount depending on the relative difficulty of the boss they killed. Since the stat-boosting medals are available in unlimited quantity, the stronger the character, the more likely they are to kill the boss and because all the medals are awarded only to the party leader, this is a far bigger factor in making a single character stupidly overpowered.
** The first game can be an example of this if you don't have a spare GBA or two for multiplayer
* In the Soul of Rebirth mode in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyII'', while the first three members have decent-at-best stats and early-game gear, the fourth member, [[spoiler:Ricard Highwind]], will likely have endgame stats and equipment, letting him single-handedly bulldoze through encounters that challenged the other three. Even once the others catch up, [[spoiler:Ricard]] remains the hardest hitter of the Soul of Rebirth party.
* In ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIX'', the main character Zidane eventually does orders of magnitude more damage with his standard attacks and is much faster than Steiner (without his secret weapons) or Freya. Vivi can eventually outmatch him once he gets Doublecast, but at the cost of ludicrous amounts of MP. Unless Freya has her Dragon's Crest ability and the party has killed enough dragons, in which case she winds up dealing 9999 damage every turn, regardless of enemy defence, for a paltry MP cost.
** However, a player can either knock Zidane out or infect him with the Virus status to let other party members catch up. The game splits EXP among conscious and non-Virus party members after a battle so there's no lost experience for doing this.

* ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' does split experience among active party members, but using Cecil as a one-man party early on will come back to bite you when he class changes into a level 1 Paladin. That said, though, all party members you have ever had but aren't in the active party get the same amount of LeakedExperience as your active party members, so creative level grinding can affect characters you get early but leave, such as Kain.

* Party leader Cloud of ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' will out-level the other characters very quickly by virtue of CantDropTheHero, and to add insult to injury has [[MasterOfAll some of the best all-around natural stats and Limit Breaks in the game]]. Late-game materia combinations like Cover and Counter + Slash All make it easy for him to zip around the battlefield, taking hits for the rest of the party and dealing out hot death in return; the other two characters don't have to do much more than stand there and maybe cast Regen and Big Guard to make him even ''tougher''.

*** Likewise, played straight in the original ''VideoGame/{{Persona}}'', as characters gain EXP based on how useful they were in the fight. The strong get stronger, and the weak fall further and further behind.

** ''[[Franchise/ShinMegamiTenseiPersona Persona]]'':

* ''VideoGame/{{Fallout}}'' games have frequently suffered from this, even more so in the modern FPS-based versions - sure, you can take on that pack of Deathclaws, but is anyone else in your party really going to survive?

* In the ''Star Wars: KnightsOfTheOldRepublic'' games, the player character is forced to be by his or herself numerous times, and they wind up learning combinations of abilities that the others can't learn and don't even fight the final boss with them.

* This is an easy mistake to make early in the ''FireEmblem'' games, but standard practice in the late game. Players new to the series tend to use their CrutchCharacter to hog all the kills, thus denying the experience points from being divided with relative equality. Due to the team-based nature of the game, weaker characters are eventually going to start getting [[FinalDeath killed off in one hit]] and the powerhouse, outnumbered, will suffer a DeathOfAThousandCuts. But by the end of the game, at least a third of your party will be able to waltz into the middle of a battlefield on their own and leave all enemies within range dead by the next round.

* In ''KingdomHearts'', [[CantDropTheHero Sora]] gains experience at the same rate and at times is a lower level than Goofy. However, he gains more abilities to fight with, can use all the spells Donald can and has stronger weaponry than either. They're still plenty capable of taking out enemies on their own, though.

* In ''Videogame/{{Earthbound}}'', Ness, whom you've had all game long anyway, and who additionally gets special stat boosts (including LOTS more PP) late in the game, becomes a powerhouse at the end--and while he doesn't have the most efficient damaging attacks (Paula and Jeff take care of that), he has tons of defensive and healing spells and enough PP to spam-cast some of them, and he also has enough HP to last through a lot of attacks, and thus becomes the party's one-boy backup. Not to mention that, even if not efficient, he does have some nastily damaging attacks himself. (It doesn't help that Paula and Jeff start at level 1. Poo starts at level 15, but you're probably way overleveled even compared to that when you get him.)
** This gets really nasty at end game where normal enemies can insta kill Paula, rendering her offensive skills moot.

* Most entries in the ''[[Franchise/SaGaRPG SaGa]]'' series by Creator/{{Square|Enix}} drop a straight leveling system in lieu of stat based skill-ups that are capped based on the strength of enemies you are fighting. For example, fighting fast Werewolves will increase speed and agility, while smacking down Golems will increase defense and health. The problem arises when characters are switched out -- the new characters will gain stats very fast from the monsters the rest of the party can survive... but only if they live through combat (and get a hit in, or get hit and live!). That's a big ''if'' in the later areas, when, for example, a random Waitress or out of work Bum joins your party.

** This continues in ''VideoGame/TatsunokoVsCapcom'' with the [[HumongousMecha humongous mechas]], [[Anime/OugonSenshiGoldLightan Gold Lightan]] and [[VideoGame/LostPlanet PTX-40]]. Both are giants, so they play through matches without a partner. Though Gold Lightan averts this since he's considered to be low tier.

* Generally averted in the ''WildArms'' series, as most of the time you don't pick your party members, though the Luck rune in ''VideoGame/{{Wild ARMs 3}}'' plays it straight as that character that equips it can get an ability that allows them to get more XP per battle than the others.

* Most entries in the ''VideoGame/{{SaGa}}'' series by Creator/{{Square|Enix}} drop a straight leveling system in lieu of stat based skill-ups that are capped based on the strength of enemies you are fighting. For example, fighting fast Werewolves will increase speed and agility, while smacking down Golems will increase defense and health. The problem arises when characters are switched out -- the new characters will gain stats very fast from the monsters the rest of the party can survive... but only if they live through combat (and get a hit in, or get hit and live!). That's a big ''if'' in the later areas, when, for example, a random Waitress or out of work Bum joins your party.