I'm Not Sure XVI Really Has A Party.
I've been replaying Bravely Default on and off, and I really enjoy the closeness between the party members. It builds gradually, but the party really feel like friends by the end of the game. I can easily envision them remaining close friends long into the future.
This led to a thought: once the world has been saved and the dust has settled, would the parties of other RPGs I've played stay in touch?
RPG parties: do they remain friends after canon?
Bravely Default, Bravely Default II: yes, absolutely. One of my favourite things about these games is how intensely the parties bond over the course of their adventure.
Persona 3/4/5: I think these all fall into the category 'the group stays in touch, but some characters are closer than others'.
Final Fantasy VI: there are so many characters! A few will probably drop out of contact, but I think Locke, Terra, Sabin, Edgar and Celes will remain friends, and Sabin might stay in touch with Cyan and Gau.
Final Fantasy VII: I think the two party members I'm most confident will stay in touch are actually Barret and Tifa, but you can probably add Cloud to that. I'm less sure about the others.
Final Fantasy VIII: I think the whole party might manage to remain friends in this one! At some point Selphie and Irvine are going to have a breakup that seems at first like it's going to be really messy. In the event, though, Selphie just pouts for two days and then decides that they're friends again.
Final Fantasy IX: Zidane and Steiner will definitely stay close to Garnet and, by extension, will see a lot of each other. I think the party as a whole will get together occasionally, rather than being a consistently large part of each other's lives.
Final Fantasy X: I think the party will remain friends, largely because they all gravitate around Yuna. Kimahri might spend a lot of time off doing his own thing, though. Paine would stay friends with Yuna and Rikku, but I don't know if she'd bond with the others.
Final Fantasy XII: not really. The party will split off into the Ashe-Basch, Balthier-Fran, Vaan-Penelo pairs, two of which already existed before the party was actually formed. This is part of the reason XII ranks relatively low in the series for me; I never felt like the party really bonded, and I think that's a shame!
Final Fantasy XIII: maybe! I mean, if you ignore the sequel making half the characters disappear. These guys bonded pretty strongly over the course of their journey; they wouldn't all necessarily be the closest people in each other's lives, but I think they'd probably stay friends.
Final Fantasy XV: yes. Yes, obviously. Yes.
Compiling this list, I notice that my favourite Final Fantasy games - VIII, X, XIII, XV - are the ones that lean more towards 'the bonds of the party are strong enough for it to be easy to imagine that they'll all remain friends afterwards'. It's evidently a good way to win me over!
If you have your own thoughts on whether the party of a particular game would remain friends after canon - or whether the central characters of your favourite canon would stay in touch, videogame or not - I'd be interested to hear them! And, of course, feel free to argue against any of my thoughts.
This led to a thought: once the world has been saved and the dust has settled, would the parties of other RPGs I've played stay in touch?
RPG parties: do they remain friends after canon?
Bravely Default, Bravely Default II: yes, absolutely. One of my favourite things about these games is how intensely the parties bond over the course of their adventure.
Persona 3/4/5: I think these all fall into the category 'the group stays in touch, but some characters are closer than others'.
Final Fantasy VI: there are so many characters! A few will probably drop out of contact, but I think Locke, Terra, Sabin, Edgar and Celes will remain friends, and Sabin might stay in touch with Cyan and Gau.
Final Fantasy VII: I think the two party members I'm most confident will stay in touch are actually Barret and Tifa, but you can probably add Cloud to that. I'm less sure about the others.
Final Fantasy VIII: I think the whole party might manage to remain friends in this one! At some point Selphie and Irvine are going to have a breakup that seems at first like it's going to be really messy. In the event, though, Selphie just pouts for two days and then decides that they're friends again.
Final Fantasy IX: Zidane and Steiner will definitely stay close to Garnet and, by extension, will see a lot of each other. I think the party as a whole will get together occasionally, rather than being a consistently large part of each other's lives.
Final Fantasy X: I think the party will remain friends, largely because they all gravitate around Yuna. Kimahri might spend a lot of time off doing his own thing, though. Paine would stay friends with Yuna and Rikku, but I don't know if she'd bond with the others.
Final Fantasy XII: not really. The party will split off into the Ashe-Basch, Balthier-Fran, Vaan-Penelo pairs, two of which already existed before the party was actually formed. This is part of the reason XII ranks relatively low in the series for me; I never felt like the party really bonded, and I think that's a shame!
Final Fantasy XIII: maybe! I mean, if you ignore the sequel making half the characters disappear. These guys bonded pretty strongly over the course of their journey; they wouldn't all necessarily be the closest people in each other's lives, but I think they'd probably stay friends.
Final Fantasy XV: yes. Yes, obviously. Yes.
Compiling this list, I notice that my favourite Final Fantasy games - VIII, X, XIII, XV - are the ones that lean more towards 'the bonds of the party are strong enough for it to be easy to imagine that they'll all remain friends afterwards'. It's evidently a good way to win me over!
If you have your own thoughts on whether the party of a particular game would remain friends after canon - or whether the central characters of your favourite canon would stay in touch, videogame or not - I'd be interested to hear them! And, of course, feel free to argue against any of my thoughts.