I know its pretty early after the release but this is one of my hugest pet peeves with RPGs in general. I hate being forced to use a character 25 hours in that i never even used and then have to grind to get them on the level of the rest of the party. So does the game force me to use a certain character?

Characters you don't use don't get EXP and don't get affinity for the affinity quests so...rotate them as you see fit.

I don't know for certain about to what degree this is (and if it's only a few characters it doe this with) but there are points where a mission will require a certain party member present (i.e. because they have spoken lines in cut scenes). It might be that the game is pretty obvious about which characters are vital to the main story which will be asked for (in which case you could just play with them).

That said, some pre-release players were saying their favourite missions were the side affinity content where they build up the personality and story of specific characters (like those missions in mass effect). So you should at least try every character just to experience these. Though these can just be ignored.

I won't get the game until after next weekend to find out for sure.

from what i experienced, you need certain party members for some story missions, also for little affinity missions you need certain members to meet the requirements. Took a screenshot of what i'm talking bout.

Wait, for real? That seems like a huge step back from the previous game, where reserve members would generally be 1-2 levels behind your main party, even if you never used them. Even their Arts and Skills would level. That is a really strange thing to leave out, if true.

I don't think I'll mind having the party members, as long as I literally never have to see their faces. I hate 90% of the faces in this game. Creepy doll eyes and shit. Can I put paper bags on their heads?

@jeffrud: You can put helmets on them (which carries over to cut scenes)

It's insane to me that JRPGs will still have the mechanic where unused party members earn no EXP. It doesn't make any sense for the game to do that. I think it was Persona 3 Portable where I actually had to fucking fight a boss or multiple bosses in a row near the mid-end game with 1 or 2 forced party members that I never used. They were insanely underleveled and I only managed to progress through the fucking game and beat that battle because my other characters were incredibly overleveled.

That's why I love FF8, the characters are different based on their limit breaks and personalities. Other than that everyone can be customized the same way and even have their customizations switched on the fly, because levels are pointless in that game. They actually did it right.

I can see the thought pattern of "Well, the game is really huge anyway. There will be time to level them up," coming from the development team. That, or they didn't want some sort of auto-leveling because it would screw something else up.

With how Xenoblade Chronicles X is structured, you'll always have Elma and Lin by your side. The 4th slot is extra. And the only progression-critical 4th party member is Gwin, according to Games Radar.

@jeffrud: I dont think the faces are that bad, but I put a helmet on Lin, now she looks like a small, demonic Master Chief...and it's awesome