Can't Drop the Hero

In an RPG, you're allowed to switch any character out of your party. Any character except Bob, because he's the protagonist. Depending on the leveling system, this could be a problem if you want to train everyone—Bob's always in the group, so everyone else Can't Catch Up. In more annoying cases this trope goes hand in hand with We Cannot Go on Without You, in which case you also lose the moment Bob dies.

From a story standpoint, this makes sense. The game's not about Alice, Charlie, Dave, or Emily even if they do have more interesting stories than Bob.

See Also: Required Party Member, when it's Alice, Charlie, Dave, or Emily that's forced into your group; and We Cannot Go on Without You when the death of Bob stops the entire plot; even if Alice could resurrect them.

Miscellaneous Game

• Most of the Dept Heaven games play this straight. Knights in The Nightmare is a bit unusual in that while you're always required to have the heroine in your party when she's with you, battles where she actually accompanies you only take up about a third of the game. Yggdra Unison notably averts this completely—you don't have to bring your main characters into battle at all, though it's recommended that you do.

Roguelike

• After beating the main plot of the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games, players are allowed to create any party they want, assigning any recruit to take the lead and let the hero and partner sit on the sidelines. This lets players ensure they have an advantage in most dungeons. However, certain post-game plot dungeons go back to playing it straight, making the hero and partner Required Party Members.

Role Playing Game

• In Saga Frontier, you're allowed to send out any party on any fight, whether it has the protagonist in it or not.
• In Chrono Trigger, the trope is played straight for the majority of the game, but some kind of crisis forces the main character out of the party temporarily. The crisis is resolved, but thereafter the main character can be freely switched out for the rest of the game. When Chrono Trigger came out, this was an insanely cool development.
  • Alternatively, you can always choose to fight the Final Boss (and win) without resolving the crisis, thus beating the game without actually having your main character in your party.
  • In Chrono Cross, Serge must always remain in the party for the main game. However, in New Game+, you get an item that allows you to swap him with a different character, but only for battles (Serge still shows up on field screens).
• Final Fantasy:
  • Final Fantasy X, Final Fantasy XII and Final Fantasy XIII have mechanics wherein the main party can be switched up however you like, and it's just assumed that the rest of the party is traveling with your chosen group. Therefore, the main hero isn't required to be part of the battle party for most of the game. (Unfortunately, of the three, only FFXII bothered to avert the Lazy Backup problem.)
    • The fact that it's not as clear cut who the main character is than in some of the previous games doesn't hurt.
    • You still have to control Vaan in towns however in XII and Tidus when on the map anywhere (Except for that one scene where you play Yuna).
  • Final Fantasy VI has moments throughout the game where certain characters have to be used, but by the end, you can have a party of anyone. You can have Umaro, Gogo, Mog, and Relm be the saviors of the world. Heck, you can just have Umaro be the savior of the world.
    • Terra, Celes, and Locke probably have the most instances where they have to be in the party but FF 6 is the only one in the series that is mostly completely devoid of this trope. This mostly have to do with the fact that there really is no main character. Though many would agree that Terra is the most plot important character, you don't even have to get her for 2nd half of the game. Heck Terra's probably the one character who spends the most time out of your party.
  • Final Fantasy IX did some aversions, however most of them were when your perspectives were splitting, such as when the party is split up in Desert Palace. However, in the final dungeon, you are free to remove Zidane from your party freely if you wish. (You still walk around with him, though.)
• Both Knights of the Old Republic games have scenes in which you control only one or two characters while the hero (you) is imprisoned: the escape from the Leviathan in the first game, and Freedon Nadd's tomb and multiple sections of Nar Shaddaa (including Goto's yacht) in the second. There is even a section in part two where you have to split the team in two, with one full-strength party led by you on the main mission, while the other (led by a party member of your choice) provides a distraction.
  • Jade Empire used the same technique in the siege of Dirge, ensuring that all party members had a role to play in the event. It should be pointed out that all three games otherwise followed this trope, although the party probably doesn't want to leave Revan, the Exile, or the last Spirit Monk behind.
• Surprisingly, Pokémon, which plays an incredibly high number of RPG tropes straight, averts this. You get your starter 'mon but there's nothing forcing you to keep it. Generally the starters are decent though so it's worth sticking with them, but in the competitive battling scene it's unlikely you'll find a person using a starter Pokémon just because it was their first 'mon. You can even release them into the wild, never to be seen again.
  • The spin-off Pokémon Ranger Guardian Signs plays it straight, as Pichu will always stick with the main character.
  • Even in Pokémon Yellow, which had the Pikachu-following gimmick, if you wanted to you could put Pikachu in the box and never let him out.
• In Sonic Chronicles: The Dark Brotherhood, Sonic is a permanent fixture in the team's lineup for almost all of the game. There are two instances where the team splits into two groups, but in both those cases, You instead have two Required Party Members per team (out of four) and Sonic's on one of them anyway.
• Later games in the Tales (series) avert this trope. There are only a few times when you are required to have a certain character in your party, otherwise you can play through most of the game without the protagonist in your party. The games also use Leaked Experience, so you don't have to switch characters out to level other characters (although you do need them to fight if you want them to learn new abilities).
  • Tales of Symphonia Dawn of the New World allows you to remove Emil and Marta from the party, but they're the only 2 that can be in the on screen character slot (the top slot) (you can switch characters in battle, but as soon as the fights over you switch back to the on screen character). As with the previous one it too allows non-active characters (in this case the monsters in your party) to gain levels without going into battle. Also, if you keep one of them out of the main line up for long enough they complain about it in a skit.
    • The Final Boss battle has special Boss Banter for every character, not just Emil and Marta, if that character is the party leader. However, because you can't have anyone but Marta or Emil as your party leader, you can't hear them without hacking.
• In Dragon Quest IV, Dragon Quest V and Dragon Quest VI, you are allowed to set up the active party however you like, even putting the main character on standby. However, when you're in a town or certain dungeons, all you can do is rearrange the active party. None of these games are very consistent about this, but usually when you see the wagon behind you, it's possible to switch out characters. In V, you can make an active party of just recruited monsters, so if you wanted to, you could follow a theme to beat the rest of the game, such as an all-slime party. In the latter two games, you are even allowed to leave some of your party members at Patty's Party Planning Place (which means they're not in your active party OR in the wagon) but because of this trope, the player character can't be left there. In VI, Ashlynn can't either, despite not being a Required Party Member for any mandatory portion of the game.
• In The Reconstruction, you can switch Dehl out of your party at any time once you can switch characters. There's even one sidequest where it's very likely you'll need to do this.
• Breath of Fire I subverted this trope; all future ones played it straight.
• Brave Story: New Traveler plays this one straight. Like Chrono Trigger, all of the "unity" combo techs can only be done with the main character.
  • There are "Triple Techs" in Chrono Trigger that don't involve Crono, but you need to equip one of the party members with a special accessory in order to use them.
• Eye of the Beholder. As soon as you get a fifth party member, you can drop any of the four you started with.
• Although the Xbox version of The Last Remnant required Rush to be in your party at all times, the PC rerelease removed this restriction.
• Might and Magic I-V averts this by letting you switch out all members of the party. VI, VII and IX averts it by not letting you switch any member of the party. VIII plays it straight, however.
• Black Sigil regularly switches up the party. Kairu is the protagonist, but often you'll be leading a party without him in it.
• The second Golden Sun allows the player to take Felix out of the main party. You even get special Battle Theme Music based on who's in the party. The first game also briefly allows one to run around as the three non-Isaac party members.
  • Not to mention you didn't even start the game as Felix, but rather as his sister Jenna, though you only play as her briefly.
    • The battle theme only has 2 factors: Felix and Isaac. If Felix is in the party, his theme will play. If Felix isn't but Isaac is, Isaac's theme will play. If neither Isaac nor Felix is in the party, Jenna's theme will play, even if Jenna isn't either.
  • They probably allowed Felix to switched out because Isaac is also the main character, probably more so than Felix.
• The Icewind Dale series allows you to switch out and add new party members at will (up to the maximum of six characters), even the person in the first slot—the story is about the party and the characters are all Player Mooks. This can lead to the amusing situation where none of the party members you started out with are in the game at the end, but everyone acts like they're the same people.
• Dragon Age Origins has two sequences near the end of the game where you can take control of a group of characters without the Warden, once to break the captured Warden out of prison and once to hold Denerim's gate while the Warden hunts the Archdemon.
• Played straight in the Suikoden series until being partially subverted in the fifth game. You cannot remove the main character from the party, but since it is made up of six battle slots and two follower slots meant for non-combatants and NPCs, he and another mandatory party member can be placed in the follower slots and switched with battle members like any other battle-capable character.
• In Endless Frontier, Haken is basically the character the plot revolves around. Doesn't mean you have to put him into battle, though. The game only ever forces character use when the enemy is of particular importance to one of your party members (for example, when Suzuka confronts her possessed lover).
• In Digital Devil Saga you can freely switch around your party members, and there are times when Serph won't be in your party at all.
  • Though, when the main character is knocked out in most other Mega Ten games, it's an immediate game over regardless of the state of the rest of your party. There's usually a justification in-game, but it's a Scrappy Mechanic to some.
• In Alter AILA Genesis every single character is sprited to be outside of battle. And thus any character you get can lead your party, and on those rare occasions you have more then 3 characters you can boot whoever you feel like from the party entirely.
• Averted in Shadow Hearts, although the third game will make you unable to switch out whatever party member is important to the dungeon (like Mao during the Alcatraz dungeon). In addition, you need Natan in the party to do his sidequests.
• Legend of Dragoon averts this only when there's no battles to be fought. It happens once when you're traveling by ship for the first time in disc 2, having you control every party member and get some plot-based dialogue happening. It happens again when the party is split late in disc 4 during a series of character-specific boss battles. When the hero is out of the party though, random battles are turned off entirely.
• In Riviera the Promised Land, this trope's played straight for Ein in regular battles, but in the practice battles, you can choose not to have him in.
• In Super Mario RPG you can switch up your party however you like, but Mario can never be swapped out at all, most likely due to him being tasked to solve whatever problems the game presents.
  • Paper Mario and Paper Mario the Thousand Year Door use similar logic for keeping Mario in the party at all times, although in the former game your companions don't have hit points, as the few enemies that can directly or indirectly attack your current partner will just stun them for a few turns. Swapping out Mario would have just let enemies stun lock you until you reset the game.
• The Inazuma Eleven series allows you to set a "Story" team and a "Connect" team, each of which can have 11 to 16 members of your party of up to 100 characters (and overlap is allowed between the two teams). Endou is locked to the first slot of the Story team, but you can rearrange the Connect team however you please. The Connect team is meant primarily for multiplayer matches (hence the name), but you can also use it for optional sidequest matches.
  • After beating the main story of Inazuma Eleven 3, you're also allowed to rearrange your Story team as you please, which also allows you to have 4-on-4 mini-battles without Endou (since mini-battles use the first 4 slots of your Story team).
• In Star Ocean First Departure you can swap any party member in and out of the main party and even choose which one you directly control while the others go to their AI script.
• Averted in Xenoblade Chronicles, where anyone can be the party leader, and is also the only character you control directly in combat and on the field.

Turn-Based Strategy

• In Final Fantasy Tactics, you can play without Ramza in random encounters, but not story battles. More importantly, if you try to actually dismiss Ramza from your party, you get specifically told you can't. If you try it in the endgame, Ramza outright tells you "I'm you. This is my story."
  • This also applies to Final Fantasy Tactics Advance and Final Fantasy Tactics a 2 with their respective main characters, who also can't be Dispatched on missions since that would mean leaving the party when they possibly might be needed for something plot-related.
• In Disgaea and its sequels, you can send any party of ten people into battle. (But the ensuing cutscenes assume that the main characters were in it.)
  • Ditto La Pucelle.
• In Makai Kingdom, the only required "character" is Book-form Zetta, who serves as the "base" from which your playable generics are summoned, but he doesn't count towards your character limit and can't move or defend himself.
• Similarly in Phantom Brave, Marona is the only character who 1) doesn't disappear after an Arbitrary Time Limit and 2) can Confine the other characters.
  • Her stat growth is some of the worst in the game, but her ability to confine makes her something of a living home base who can barely fight. At least her speed is good, and with the right weapon in Phantom Brave, any stat can become your damage dealing stat...
  • In fact, Marona has a problem with Can't Catch Up herself because you don't want her to fight directly and the levelling up tricks don't work on her.
• Almost every Fire Emblem game forces the player to deploy whoever is the main character at the moment in every battle, except The Sacred Stones, where you aren't forced to use the mains on the skirmishes/optional battles. They're still forced for plot fights though.
  • Later games like Awakening, Fates, Echoes, and Three Houses have auxiliary battles where you can bench the heroes if you wish. Many players use these maps as a chance to train low-level party members or build supports.
• The original Vandal Hearts plays this straight, except for a few battles in Chapter 3. You play a few missions where Clint, Eleni, Huxley and Darius have to escape from prison without the others.
• Super Robot Wars hits this bad - if a stage focuses on a certain series, then characters from that series will instantly deploy. Even the ones you've decided you didn't want to upgrade and level up. Even more damming if that person is a required character to survive.