If You Had To Cut The Roster Down To 6...

who would you cut out and why? Keep in mind that I am only talking about the original Symphonia and not DotNW. Also, Kratos/Zelos is still just one character slot.

If I had to cut the roster down to 6, I would take the spells that Genis has and give them to Raine. She could still heal and have the recovery/status-boosting artes, but I feel to an extent that the relationship with Genis is pretty replaceable. As for the second cut, I feel like it would have to be between Sheena, Presea, and Regal. If I had to choose, I would cut out Regal. Between the 3 characters I mentioned above, he seems to have the least importance to the plot.

The reason that I ask is that it seems the newer Tales games are sticking to just parties of 6 and I thought it would be a good discussion.

cut out sheena, make regal the new summoner
he would have to wear sheena's outfit though as an homage to her so i demand fanart of this

Cut out Regal, make Sheena the long lost CEO who was kidnapped at birth, dumped in a forest and then raised by the Mizuhoans. ...Oh no wait, then we wouldn't have a dude cooking with his feet or his infamous tropey lines.

HMMMM. I'd definitely cut out Presea, because I feel like they planned more for her and then ultimately didn't pull through. Then, combine Genis and Raine into one character. So it'd be... Lloyd's half-elven best friend who I guess is also his teacher...? Maybe more focus on the teacher thing, because Lloyd's best friend position is also being filled by Colette to some degree.

I'd merge Raine and Genis into one half-elf as well. Both in regards to personality and importance to the plot, as well as Artes. I'm not sure about his or her gender yet though.
Of course, this does create a couple of problems. For example, the optional bonding scene between Mithos and Genis when they try to find a cure for Raine would have to be skipped.

Lloyd, Colette, Kratos and Zelos are pretty much undroppable. Without them the game's plot would fall apart.
Skipping Sheena is probably doable if Yuan himself would tell the main heroes about Tethe'alla and someone else became the resident summoner. If Sheena were to be removed from the game, someone else would need to become hypercompetent.

Or the summon spirits would have to be divided amongst all characters.

On the other hand, Regal's backstory is incredibly similar to Kratos', and bears a strong resemblance to that of Lloyd and Genis as well. But Meowzy has a point. Nobody cooks with his feet as Regal does. And there's also the fact that he's important to the plot as the president of the Lazerano Company. Though the latter can probably be forced onto Zelos.

Chosen. Playboy. Billionaire. Philantropist.

The character who would be easiest to leave out is probably Presea.
Looking back I'm not even sure what she contributes to the plot anymore except for sneaking into the Tethe'alla Royal Palace and saving Colette at Dragon's Roost.
Although in DotNW she's kind of hilarious...

Meowzy wrote:

Lloyd's best friend position is also being filled by Colette to some degree.

Regal and Presea are the obvious choices, but I like them both.

Fusing Genis and Raine into one character could work fairly well so why not fuse some other characters? Lloyd/Collete could be the chosen and the hero who's a clumsy idiot and later decides that he wants to live and save both worlds. Regal/Presea could be a mountain gorilla who chops down trees and used to be the heir to the Lazerano Company before experimentation caused him/her to stop aging.  Lastly Zelos/Sheena could be the Chosen assassin from Tethe'alla who can summon and later decides to not kill Lloyd/Collette (but might betray him/her later).

The last one could actually work kind of well I think.

I have few problems with that Groundhog,

Merging Lloyd and Colette would shave off a lot of impact the story has. We would not have had the epic coffee scene for example, nor the scenes where Colette is writing in Lloyd's palm and Lloyd swears he will change the system.

The problem I have with a Zelos and Sheena merge is that Tethe'alla would never under any circumstances send their own Chosen to kill the one from Sylvarant. They need him as a sacrifice incase the Chosen of Sylvarant completes the trial. They can't risk getting him killed (or running off) in the other world. After Colette comes to their world they become much more lenient. After all, Sylvarant can't complete it's trial if their chosen is not in Sylvarant in the first place.

I know Presea and Regal are the obvious choices, but thinking more shallowly, i literally never used Regal and don't care for his contributions, so if I had to cut it would be him. I really love Presea so the next one to be cut would be Genis. I don't really like merging characters, plot relevance or not it doesn't hit off well with me since once a character's been "born" so to say I feel wrong erasing them. Plus I love characters for how they are, don't want random elements thrown into them. If it was me I'd make Genis a highly functional NPC, for Sylvarant he'd be constantly sent back to Dirk on Noishe by his sister after doing something useful after finally catching up (like freezing the geyser). In Tethe'alla he'd follow silently on the Rheaird and the Presea and Mithos scenes he'd end up being present for. He'd then become conflicted after the Mithos reveal.

That does sound very crappy but if we didn't have to cut them from the start then everything would be the same until Mithos's identity is revealed, then during his conflicted phase he'll decide he agrees with Lloyd but doesn't want to fight, rather than wanting to fight and maybe understand Mithos, though i already think that's ooc for original Genis. XS I'm not the best at rewriting plots, just take these as a couple random thoughts. I'd so much rather improve on what's there than cut. ;p

Get rid of Genis and Sheena. That way the most annoying and the most useless party members are gone.

Slivendiferious wrote:

I have few problems with that Groundhog,

Merging Lloyd and Colette would shave off a lot of impact the story has. We would not have had the epic coffee scene for example, nor the scenes where Colette is writing in Lloyd's palm and Lloyd swears he will change the system.

The problem I have with a Zelos and Sheena merge is that Tethe'alla would never under any circumstances send their own Chosen to kill the one from Sylvarant. They need him as a sacrifice incase the Chosen of Sylvarant completes the trial. They can't risk getting him killed (or running off) in the other world. After Colette comes to their world they become much more lenient. After all, Sylvarant can't complete it's trial if their chosen is not in Sylvarant in the first place.

I was mostly joking with Lloyd/Colette and Regal/Presea, but I guess it kind of slipped my mind that Tethe'alla wouldn't really want their Chosen traveling too far away.

Really I've always found that Symphonia (and Tales games in general) only really needs 4-5 of its main characters. Removing the others (in this case Genis, Raine, Presea, and Regal) would be a bit messy and a lot of fun interactions would be lost, but for the most part the story could still be done with a bit of re-writing. Maybe make Colette or Kratos/Zelos a better healer, give Sheena magic and you'd have a well rounded if not boring 4 man party.

Bo Staff Katana wrote:

The reason that I ask is that it seems the newer Tales games are sticking to just parties of 6 and I thought it would be a good discussion.

And newer Tales games are missing out! ;p

Regal and Presea can go, honestly Genis and Raine and do everything they did on the character front. Raine and Genis need to stay if for no other reason than because without them Mithos' suddenly rendering the entire conflict around half-elves at the last minute is even more distant than it already is, and as characters they do different things. Which really leaves Sheena and Zelos. Sheena's real purposes are getting the rest of the crew to Tethe'alla and summoning, and Zelos, someone correct me if my memory is just that hazy... is a mole for Cruxis the whole time and then drops them at the last minute. Zelos might be the easier to drop of the two, the game would just be a lot less interesting without him- but then when we're cutting up a finished product, we're being utilitarians, not authors.

Not even thinking about gameplay, because there isn't really a way to reconcile Regal's role in the story (Mostly minor) with his being the other other "technical" melee character besides Lloyd (Pretty dang major). You take one or the other.

Slivendiferious wrote:

Meowzy wrote:

Lloyd's best friend position is also being filled by Colette to some degree.

Not until Dawn he ain't.

BlazingFiddlesticks wrote:

Slivendiferious wrote:

Meowzy wrote:

Lloyd's best friend position is also being filled by Colette to some degree.

Not until Dawn he ain't.

iirc, if you go the flanoir route with Zelos, Lloyd and Zelos end up as (vitriolic) best buds.
In any case, there's nobody Zelos trusts more than Lloyd at the end of the game.

Slivendiferious wrote:

BlazingFiddlesticks wrote:

Slivendiferious wrote:

Meowzy wrote:

Lloyd's best friend position is also being filled by Colette to some degree.

Not until Dawn he ain't.

iirc, if you go the flanoir route with Zelos, Lloyd and Zelos end up as (vitriolic) best buds.
In any case, there's nobody Zelos trusts more than Lloyd at the end of the game.

For sure, their conversations always struck me as a foundation, not a building- what we know will happen, not we we see in front of us. Which is no one's fault but the fact that JRPGs almost never spend any time in the world after the final boss goes down. It's hard to say Zelos fits the best friend role during the game itself when half the time their jumping the giant hurdle that the same differences that would make them perfect friends also make them kind of uncomfortable- it's one part of the game's resolution, really. By the time they're mostly past that, game's almost over. I guess I don't feel it.