Quote Originally Posted by Fyrebrand View Post
You could have made your point by simply saying "half the games in the series have parties of four." I don't see how mentioning all the games with three-person parties helps your case, as three is a different number from four. Are you trying to say that FFXIV has groups of four because other games had groups of three?
Also, if FFXIV had come out with dungeon parties of five players, I don't think anybody would be outraged at having lost some vague "JRPG feel."
Apparently I didn't make my point at all, if you're objecting to the way it was stated, rather than the fact that the Home Audience for FFXIV was Japanese, used to Final Fantasy games (which are JRPGs), which have traditionally had fewer than 5 party members for encounters.

The fact that you, personally, wouldn't have been outraged if the game lost some of that traditional "JRPG feel" doesn't impress me. Nor does it provide an answer for the question "what's the particular advantage of the 5 member dungeon party?" other than because ... tradition?