Battle (term)

===Player party===
{{See Also|Party}}
The player party is comprised of a number of playable characters. A party usually consists of three or four members, but varies to a maximum of six. The series' spin-off games that are of different genre often have just one party member in a battle, the sole playable character throughout the game. The earlier games of the ''Final Fantasy'' series organize the players into one of two [[Row]]s, the front row and the back row. The front row is often considered the norm, where attack damage and damage endurance are at a normal rate.

Moving a player to back row will decrease damage dealt to enemy units, while decreasing the damage inflicted by the enemy to the player unit. Accuracy rates may also differ in some games, and the [[Long Range]] support ability found as its own ability, or sometimes automatically equipped to weapons, allows players in the back row to deal damage as if they were on the front row.

[[File:Chocobo encountered ff7.png|thumb|Player party faces a Chocobo's party in ''Final Fantasy VII''.]]
The player party is built up of differing units. There is usually an amount of user customization in how the player wants to manipulate their units, however, there is also a level of initial individual differences, as well as different level progression in different areas. For example, in ''Final Fantasy II'' the player has three main playable characters throughout the game, but while any character can equip any weapon, [[Guy]] has the most [[Strength]], HP, and [[Stamina (stat)|Stamina]], suiting him for a front row, strong weapon wielder. [[Maria (Final Fantasy II)|Maria]] starts off with a higher [[Intelligence (stat)|Intelligence]] stat making her better suited as a [[Black Mage (job)|Black Mage]], and her low HP suits her for a back row positioned [[Bow (weapon type)|Bow]] wielder, as her equip defaults suggest.

Other games give more inclination into what a character is best suited for by limiting their equips. In the original ''Final Fantasy'', the [[job system]] allows the player to choose jobs for their characters. This predefines what [[Magic (term)|Magic]] they can learn, and what equipment they can equip. On the opposite end of the scale, other games with the job system may give less inclination into what each character is best suited for. ''Final Fantasy V'' allows each character to switch job class as the game progresses, with little individual differences between the characters, allowing them to customize each character's role in battle.

In most games the player's party is fixed once the battle begins. In the old games the player can never change party members, the party members changing at predetermined point in the game, dictated by the game's plot. This evolved into a system where the player is allowed to choose the battle party, but only allowed to switch members in specific locations, such as the [[Airship (term)|airship]] in ''Final Fantasy VI'' or [[Save point]]s in the games on the PlayStation One era. In ''Final Fantasy X'' and ''Final Fantasy XII'', the player can freely switch members in and out of the battle party even during battle.