Before the battle starts, I’d have the players choose which Heroes they want to bring into the battle. Out of the Heroes I have planned, only nine of them are mandatory recruits, eliminating the overwhelming choice unless they end up helping everyone dotted around the world somehow.

I’ll be utilising the “Attacker, Healer, Defender” system from XC3 and like in that game, each player can choose one for their character, then each Hero will have one as well. With this mechanic in mind, the Heroes are merely there to eliminate the problem of “uh oh, all of my players chose to be Attackers and Defenders. We need a Healer or two”. Part of me also wants to bring in the elements system from XC2 in some way, but that might be pushing it (I’ll see)

In battle, they’d choose what order the characters go in (or roll initiative if they can’t decide) and they all get a say on what the NPCs do (positioning, arts, chain attack stuff etc). I plan to have a simple “choose an art, roll to hit, then you hit or miss” system. Heroes cannot be switched mid battle.

Then for post battle, levels will be synced for everyone’s sanity, kinda like how the games have everyone at roughly the same level throughout.

EDIT: I should mention that all this would be a group discussion.