There are some JRPGs that are structured in a rather interesting way:
* At the start of the game, the game will follow one party of adventurers. (Note that I am including singleton parties, those that have only one character, whenever I say "party".)
* After you complete that part of the game, it then switches you to an entirely different party, somewhere else in the game's world, that you then follow for the next part of the game.
* This may repeat itself a few times.
* Eventually, all the parties that you've controlled throughout the game, with the exception of what are obviously temporary characters, join into one big party. (With that said, it's worth noting that you usually can't use everybody at once.)

The earliest RPG I'm aware of that does this is Dragon Quest 4. In Chapter 1, you control Ragnar, who is tasked with rescuing some children. Then, once you've done that, the game switches to Chapter 2, where you control princess Alena who decides to go on an adventure. It's not until Chapter 5 (which I believe is longer than Chapters 1-4 combined) where you finally control the legendary hero (whose name and gender you choose before Chapter 1) who unites the chosen ones from the first 4 Chapters in order to tackle the root cause of the evil.

I'm playing The Alliance Alive, and the game just switched me to an entirely different party in a different part of the game universe, which is what makes me think of this.

So, what do you think of this particular way that an RPG can be structured?

(Also, are there any WRPGs that take this approach?)

I don't know of any. The most similar I can think of is Betrayal at Krondor where the party composition changes in different acts (iirc in the 2nd half of the game you basically switch between two different parties), but there is some continuity in characters from the start of the game.

Not the same, but in the SaGa games, you play each chapter with a party leader, and the party members can participate in each other chapters.

I think they stupid i don't really like controlling 4 a 5 party members because creators where to lacy to create a good script.
also i find it bit of breaking game immersion if i group up with 5 other people i can't control each freaking aspect ether right?

Breath of fire does this as well, a lot. Usually it's a little of what happens right before you meet up with the party, but it does split up a bit.

Don't remember BoF2 doing it.

Actually FF8 did it a lot as well... Especially dream sequences.

yes stop these spamm threads

Sometimes i do enjoy to be forced to cope with chars or skills i normally discard for various reasons

final fantasy XIII for example or Aarklash

though i also find that they never manage to really explain, or maybe implement the somewhat more specific sort of skill sets.

of course there is merit in discovering not named possibilities

Yeah, this came to my mind too. Aarklash Legacy and its predecessor, Confrontation (not on GOG). Several times during the game, the big party splits up, does different things and they meet up at the end (but usually only within a single chapter).

I was about to type "A-Series" (, [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ambermoon]2, [url=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albion_(video_game)]3[/url]) but they're more or less classic un-japanese storytelling, including the things you don'tg want to see in games (meeting only one other playable character). They're all exceptionally good storytelling games IMHO and I'm sure you've already played them.

At any case, what you're describing is how many japanese stroywriters learned how to write "modern" stories. You won't find this often in games not made by japanese people. I don't know any eastern novels that establish characters in similar vain than the japanese. Its not that japanese storytelling is better, its simply just a different approach that is related towards the modern japanese mentality.

The crux of this certain cluster of tropes is that japanese writers are basically replacing established characters with different ones entirely. You sometimes see this in anime as well in which characters die off to then be entirely replaced with another character. It changes the dynamic of the plot while also serving as a handy plot device besides going hand-in-hand philosophically in terms regarding the japanese understanding of witherness and progress (someone else must make room for the change to appear as nothing lasts forever). This perspective is something that happen to be cultivated in japan because has seen huge changes within the past 100 or so years alone. Furthermore, Japans past history with inner-country strife has lead to a huge rise in classical eastern stoicism that is lasting for over half a millenium now.

To be honest it is also a good way to put emphasis in atmosphere and not character development alone because the reader is introduces to many characters at once. In many ways, this causes writing to get off the rails fast but its easy to implement in a video game because there are many ways to flesh out atmosphere other than the writing alone. Many books written by more recent contemporary writers actually are classically western in terms of their approach towards characterdevelopment and progress within the plot. How the characters grow, etc.

Most western storytellers start the story with the character being almost solitary in focus so the reader can grasp the maincharacter themselves so they can feel more immersed while everyone else around that character only plays a very minor role.

So in short. Western storytellers are focusing their writing to be more about personal immersion, fleshing out more and more characters the more you've read the book. While eastern storytellers in general focus more about the atmosphere in which the main characters operates in. In the end, both ways of storytelling have similar impact to the reader.

EDIT: I'm lazy and won't change links, its pretty obvious to what games these links refer to anyways.

They're not really separate chapters; they're entirely separate quests, with each quest essentially being an entirely separate playthrough.

I would compare it to having multiple games on one disk, and you selecting which one you want to play when you start up.

Also, not every SaGa games does this; SaGa 1-3 do not (the structure is more traditional, though it does have you going between worlds, though in a linear fashion), and Romancing SaGa 2 does not either (you just control the current Emperor/Empress, and when they die you just choose a new heir). SaGa Frontier 2 only sort-of does this, but it's worth noting that there's two main plot threads, and by later events, many characters have died or retired from adventuring, and you get to control characters who weren't even born as of the earlier events.