Most RPGs force you to have a particular size. In first person games, this might be done to prevent them from clogging doorways and such. In others it might fix the difficulty. What are some games that say something like: “you can bring 4 other party members, because…”?
For example:
Chrono Trigger - you can only have 3 people because the time flow won’t work with more than that, or something similar. At one point you try, and can’t.
Earlier Fallouts - tied into your charisma stat, presumably they don’t want to be in a crowd unless you’re really persuasive
Mount & Blade - based on your charisma, fame, leadership skill. And a bigger army can lower morale. Raising these stats increases the size. NB: this game party size can be over 100, mostly mooks.
Some of these might be somewhat forced, but they at least tried to give an explanation. Any good ones?
Other examples that don’t count:
Final Fantasy I - pick 4 characters at beginning, keep them the entire time. This is functionally the same as collecting people along the way until you have the max, but current party size always <= total party members.
FFV - has 5 characters and 4 slots, but you can’t choose, and the extra one is essentially a sprite swap.
FFIV and maybe a few others - you have up to 5, but you’re forced to use a specific group. Characters might die, or retire, and will be replaced with someone else. I understand the remakes changed this.
FFVI - my favorite one but still pretty egregious. At the beginning, you go through several permutations of your party, and thus are forced to use 4 given characters. Eventually you can choose from any 4, I don’t remember if any reason is given. At one point, you assault what you think is the final dungeon (not even close). You are forced to only choose 3 characters. The actual reason is that your 4th is waiting to join when you enter the dungeon. But he was previously a temporary character and you had no way of knowing that he’d be waiting. This one lets you use all/most characters at once, but only split into parties of 4 and only in a few places.
FFVII and on (I think) - must use only X people because.