Let's Split Up, Gang!: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

In a [[RPG]] with more playable characters than there are allowable party members, there is usually a point in the game during which the party splits into groups in order to accomplish some goal. This is typically a test to make sure that you've been training all the characters, not just the few you always use. [[Leaked Experience]] and the [[Bag of Sharing]] come in very handy at this point.

 

Usually accompanied by scrambling to find enough armor or other equipment to cover everybody.

 

 

When just one person suddenly leaves the party without warning, it's a [[Sneaky Departure]]. For the opposite, see [[Never Split the Party]]. Compare [[The Fellowship Has Ended]], where the team permanently splits up after fulfilling their mission.

 

 

== Anime and Manga ==

* In ''[[One Piece]]'' arcs, this happens from time to time when the Straw Hats are breaking into their destination. In the Alabasta arc, the crew splits up to act as decoys to engage the Baroque Works Officer Agents so that Vivi can stop the rebellion. In the Skypiea arc, they split into two groups- one to find the gold and one to get the Merry to a place where the gold team can meet it to escape, but as a result of a variety of happenings related to the Survival Game (like Eneru attacking the Merry and a snake causing the gold team to get separated), this doesn't work out as they expect and the crew ends up separated until the climax. In the Enies Lobby arc, the crew is forced to split up to fight the CP9 agents who hold the keys to Robin's handcuffs. In the Sabaody Archipelago Arc, Luffy has his crew split up when the enemies that arrive prove too strong for them, but {{spoiler|after Kizaru cuts off their escape, Kuma appears and sends all the Straw Hats to separate islands}}.

* In season 2 of ''[[Digimon Adventure]]'', they go around the world in this manner, dealing with the global outbreak of Digimon appearances (Subverted somewhat in that each group teams up with regional Digidestined).

* ''[[Fullmetal Alchemist]]'': In Episode 19 of Brotherhood, Mustang splits the group at a junction to make finding Barry the Chopper easier. [[It Got Worse|It doesn't turn out too well...]]

 

== [[Comic Books]] ==

* Referenced in ''[[X-Men|New X-Men]]'' in one of the franchise's more [[Genre Savvy]] moments:

'''Kitty''': You mean split up? I gotta sit you down in front of some good horror movies, babe. }}

 

== Films ==

* ''[[Ghostbusters]]''. The title characters are looking for a ghost in a hotel.

'''Peter''': Yeah, we can do more damage that way. }}

** Parodied in ''[[The Intercontinental Union of Disgusting Characters]]'':

'''Everybody else:''' "Oh no! They can do more damage that way!" }}

* ''[[Sky Captain and The World of Tomorrow]]''. While in Dr. Totenkopf's abandoned uranium mine, the title character says "We'll have to split up." Little does he know that Polly Perkins has already wandered off on her own.

* ''[[Tank Girl]]''. Tank Girl and Jet Girl when they enter Liquid Silver.

'''Mace:''' You're probably right. We might get picked off one at a time by aliens. }}

* ''[[Scary Movie]] 2'' lampshades this trope ''heavily'', along with [[Black Dude Dies First]].

'''Brenda:''' We gonna die, y'all. }}

* ''[[Fright Night]]''. While Charley Brewster and Peter Vincent are looking for the vampire's coffin in the basement they hear a noise. Charley tells Peter to continue looking for the coffin while he checks out the noise. This results in Charley confronting a vampire by himself and almost being killed.

 

== Literature ==

 

* ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]''

** Resisted by Anya at the beginning of season 6 ("No -- bad idea!"), but the gang splits up anyway.

** Lampshaded by Willow in the season 1 episode "Nightmares":

'''Willow''': Oh, uh, faster, but... not really safer. }}

** In "Anne":

'''Buffy''': ...OK, where did I lose you on the whole splitting up thing? }}

'''Rimmer''': What's the hurry? Have you got some major luncheon appointment you have to rush off to? }}

'''Jackson''': yes, you go down the dark hallway, alone, and I'll wait here in a dark room, alone. }}

* ''[[Smallville]]''. In "Supergirl", when Clark and Kara enter the S&M club Clark suggests splitting up so they can cover more ground.

* In ''[[Power Rangers Operation Overdrive]],'' when the Rangers do this, Dax says that this is just like the part in a horror movie where everyone splits up and gets picked off one by one. Nobody listens to him. (They don't get picked off one by one, but one Ranger ''does'' get kidnapped.)

** Goes back to the original: The Green Ranger storyline had Tommy kidnap Jason at one point, then [[Curb Stomp Battle|defeat both sides]]. Later, during the green candle episodes, the party was again split, with Tommy fighting a monster and Jason trying to capture the eponymous candle.

''Barbara goes down one corridor, Ian another and the Doctor and Susan take the third. Less than five minutes later the angriest pepperpots in the entire history of time and space make their television debut.'' }}

* In one of the more commonly cited episodes of ''[[Criminal Minds]]'', ''The Big Game'', Reid becomes excited about an epiphany he's had and tells JJ, who he's with, that they should split up. She weakly protests but complies anyway, and it [[It Got Worse|all goes to hell]] from there. The stupidity of their actions is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] in a later episode when JJ says to Reid, "No matter what happens this time, we don't split up, clear?"

 

 

== Video Games ==

** In the Tower of Mana, the party leaves half the party on the switches in the lobby and takes the rest through a door. In the Palmacosta Ranch, the player forms two parties, as a result of needing to deactivate the security at the end fo the ranch where the prisoners are being kept to reach Kvar. In the Iselia ranch, the player forms two groups- one to rescue the prisoners and one to stop the reactor, because they are short on time due to {{spoiler|the Great Seed going out of control}}, and the player does not control the party that frees the prisoners.

* From the ''[[Final Fantasy]]'' series:

*** Don't forget that one half of the tower forbids you from casting magic while the other half has enemies only vulnerable to magic.

** Several times in ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]''. The final dungeon in fact requires three teams to get through. The ability to switch between them at any time lets you park one group on a save spot and lets you save at any time as the other party moves up.

*** On the other hand, the final dungeon in [[Final Fantasy VII]] does require splitting up your party, and even the penultimate boss can be fought with multiple parties.

** Similarly, the final dungeon of ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'' requires two teams of three to act independently to solve many puzzles.

** Also happens at other points in ''[[Final Fantasy VIII]]'', where, for some, the main worry was having enough GFs to junction the entire team.

*** However, it was possible to transfer GFs and junctions between party members even if the sending character wasn't available. You just had to remember this every time you had to switch...

** ''[[Final Fantasy IX]]'' simply let you choose three party members to go with Zidane on one quest, and then take control of the other four as they battle through a dungeon. The next time you split up into four pairs only in the story sense, as you only control Zidane/Quina.

* Happens once in ''[[Shadow Hearts]]'', with the added twist of the individual paths being tailored to exploit the weaknesses of each group. For example, the group which includes your most potent mage has to traverse an anti-magic dungeon.

** In ''Covenant'', the party has to split up in order to get through the Mikasa Warship...with two security keys.

** The original ''[[Knights of the Old Republic]]'' had a sequence in which you must choose a party member to go rescue the main character and his/her two potential love interests, and ''[[Jade Empire]]'' features several such sequences, mostly during the end game.

** ''[[Mass Effect]]'' would appear to be the exception. You're never limited in your choice of party {{spoiler|if they're still alive, and at least one will be dead by the end of the game}} and they stick to you like glue up to and including the final showdown with the [[Big Bad]].

** ''[[Mass Effect 2]]'', on the other hand, makes extensive use of this trope. During the final mission, you split into three groups (two strike teams plus a tech specialist), meet up halfway through, split up again (diversion team and strike team with a biotic specialist), only to meet up one more time before splitting up so your crew can [[Hold the Line]], while you fight the [[Final Boss]]. And it can either go horribly wrong as per the stereotype, or [[Crowning Moment of Awesome|turn out]] [[Everybody Lives|brilliantly]], depending on who leads which team.

** ''[[Dragon Age Origins]]'' has a minor instance during the [[Final Battle]], when the Warden and three party members go after the Archdemon, the rest stay behind to [[Hold the Line]]. When the Warden approaches Fort Drakon, the control [[And Now for Someone Completely Different|suddenly shifts to the party members you left behind]] and you have to repel a wave of Darkspawn at the city gates (it is also notable for being the last instance when you see {{spoiler|Morrigan}}).

*** Also in ''[[Dragon Age]]'', there's a part were the protagonist is captured, and you're presented with two options: Break out yourself, or select two companions to control and break you out in [[The Infiltration]]. Choosing the latter will lead to several of the funniest moments in the game, like Oghren and Sten's circus act, as well as ''every'' other bluffing attempt.

* While not developed by BioWare, ''[[Star Wars]]: [[Knights of the Old Republic]] II'' had this in spades. In one instance, one path is taken by the player and two mandatory party members, and the other by three party members of the player's choice. At another point, the main character gets kidnapped and must be rescued by two party members of the player's choice. Then there are at least three moments when one predefined party member must win a fight without assistance from the rest of the party; more were planned, but those [[Dummied Out|were cut]] due to [[Executive Meddling|time constraints]].

* In ''[[Breath of Fire II]]'', players who refused to use Sten and/or Jean got the unpleasant shock of their lives when they had to use those characters alone in certain important stages. Cue much wailing and gnashing of teeth.

* Used in ''[[Suikoden II]]'' for the battle against Luca Blight (the three parties fight him in sequence) and in ''[[Suikoden V]]'' for the final dungeon. Given that you need to recruit 108 characters in each game, being able to use 18 of them instead of the usual 6 is kind of welcome.

* Happens in ''[[Ogre Battle|Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis]]'', and given the nature of the game it is definitely meant to strike a blow against the players who didn't bother to train multiple characters.

* ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' and ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics Advance]]'' had at least one or two occasions where the main character is separated from the rest of his party, forcing him to fight alone in a one on one fight, and usually their opponent was absurdly strong.

** In fact, the first time this happens, Ramza is paired off against {{spoiler|Gafgarion}}, who you will recall, has strong long range attacks. The only feasible way to beat him (barring excessive [[Level Grinding]] before the battle) is to reunite with the party on the other end of the board by raising the portcullis on the city gate.

** In Advance and A2, "dispatch" missions involve sending off a character to do a mission, and their statistics determine their chance of success. It's possible to send off several members at once on dispatch missions while your main group does missions of its own (which are sometimes necessary to progress the dispatch missions).

* ''[[Eternal Sonata]]'' does this for a large part of the middle of the game.

* The original ''[[Resident Evil 1]]'' (and 2002's Remake) has a prime example of this in Jill's scenario; Not content with having Chris and Wesker disappear within the first 5 minutes, Jill and Barry decide it's a ''great'' idea to split up, despite being stuck in a mansion in the middle of nowhere, in the dark, just after having seen a zombie eating another team-mate (although to be fair this example is something of a plot device more than anything else).

** Somewhat justified as S.T.A.R.S. members are [[All There in the Manual|specifically trained to work independently]], so splitting up is less bizarre and more standard operating procedure.

*** Lampshaded ''constantly'' in-game, with poor Leon growing more and more exasperated that Ada and Claire insist on ditching him when he thinks they should just be working together. This is understandable for Ada {{spoiler|who is a spy anyway}}, but since Claire is constantly harping on Sherry to stay with her, it gets weird when she leaves Leon half-informed most of the time.

* ''[[Gears of War]]'' did this. It never helped.

*** Some of the split-ups were completely arbitrary, also. There was a section where you had to either choose between a hall filled with lasers or a hall filled with buttons that turned off said lasers. But the doorway at the end of the latter was wide open. There was nothing stopping the player from walking away and leaving the other player to die.

** Further clarification: On one team, you had a warrior with ridiculous combo attacks and party-leadership skills, an elf who was the only one with decent healing, since items either healed half of what she could heal in one go, or were rare, and, to top it off, a Magic Knight of a dwarf who could use insanely powerful fire spells in addition to ridiculously strong defensive buffs and powerful melee attacks. On the other, you had a ranger who had a bunch of debuffing attacks, but low damage, a rogue who had an entire skill tree revolving around stealing stuff (Mana, health, items), weak attacks, low hp, and pathetic equipment (Out of all the characters, she was the least likely get items dropped for), and, finally, the guy with a spear who tries to be a Magic Knight but fails: his melee attacks are typically single-attack with effects that usually help the enemy and magic attacks that only support... and ONLY support (Dispel, deplete enemy mana, transfer mana/health to/from others). Basically, you had a team that ripped open enemies and a team that could barely defeat a group of enemies from 10 levels ago.

** This troper disagrees, the spear user was a perfectly viable party member if used right as he could use his magic abilities to steal life from the enemies as well as channel his own health to heal his allies. In this troper's playthrough he was almost always in the party because he was, to quote a friend, a "soul stealing death vampire."

** In the fight with Beth'tilac, a few members must fight her on top of her web while the rest fight down below. However, it is possible to only send a tank and a healer up, and it is possible (albeit difficult) to send no one up at all.

* You can issue this command to your teammates in ''[[Persona 3]]'', emphasizing exploration (that is, finding exits) over fighting Shadows, or vice versa. [[Never Split the Party|It's not very advisable to do this]], as every single Shadow in the game tends to be a [[Demonic Spider]] and can kill lone teammates easily, there's a fair chance that they'll run into the [[The Grim Reaper|Reaper]], and they'll [[Kleptomaniac Hero|keep all the money they find in treasure chests]] (they do give up any consumable items they recover.) At least, you can still heal them via the menu screen as long as they're in the same room as the main character, and you can join in their battles at any point.

** Also enforces the [[Arbitrary Headcount Limit]] during the final boss fight by requiring any team members that aren't part of your standard four-member party to stay behind to hold off the encroaching mass of Shadows.

* Happens a few times in ''[[Sonic Chronicles]]: The Dark Brotherhood''. Depending on which bit of the story it is, some characters are locked into particular parties.

* The last portion of ''[[Popful Mail]]'' has the heroes doing this when fighting the Overlord and his henchmen. Gaw takes on Morgal, while Tatto fights Necros and Mail deals with the Overlord himself.

* ''[[Anachronox]]'' only allows you to control a maximum of three characters at a time, forcing you to swap characters at a bar where the currently unusued characters presumably wait around getting plastered until you come back. At the end of the game, however, all seven characters must enter the [[Big Bad]]'s fortress at once. To avoid having to rewrite the interface, the game creates THREE separate parties, two each of three characters, and one of one, between which the player may swap at will. All three parties must act in concert to reach the [[Final Boss]].

* The ''[[Super Robot Wars]]'' series often has Route Splits: missions where the group has to split up to deal with simultaneous crises, or where a part of the group has a separate mission, and usually ends up picking up a number of new party members along the way. The player, playing the part of an [[Original Generation]] character, will always get the choice of which group they want to join up with. This helps to add replay value to the game, as you can make one choice the first time you play through, then try out the other choice the second time around.

** Well, she had been recently impaled and saved with Alternate Dimension Alien Magic, and Gordon is <s>basically</s> the Messiah. Made more forgivable by the fact that she assists you with a sniper rifle for the second half of the segment.

* ''[[Mega Mari]]'' Has the two heroes split up before the third stage of Patchouli's castle/library. There's no apparent reason for this, however.

* In ''[[Rainbow Six]]'', the team is split up in the last four missions; one team goes to Sydney to prevent a bio-terrorism attack on the Olympics, while the other goes to Brazil to capture the people responsible.

* In ''[[Summoner]]'', there is a part of the plot which requires Flece to act alone. Then it's Flece and Joseph, then Flece, Joseph and Rosalind, then the whole party again. Later there's a point where Jekhar and Rosalind have to fight alone; they're typically the least leveled, so I suggest level grinding here.

** In ''[[Summoner 2]]'', there are a couple of plotlines which require you to split up the party. You need to split up into pairs to activate switches at one point, and in the final dungeon the party splits up into pre-ordained groups to follow different enemies.

* In ''[[Corpse Party]]'', the protagonists are split up against their will. They're cast into separate "closed spaces". Part of the plot is figuring out how to reach each other.

* In the ''[[One Piece]]'' action game for the [[Game Boy Advance]], Luffy's crew runs ahead of him every time a level starts, just so he's forced to search for them. It's also a form of [[Bag of Spilling]] because they're used for special attacks.

* The [[Very Definitely Final Dungeon]] of ''[[Black Sigil]]'' requires splitting up into two parties to open up the path. At this point, you have at least 6 characters, and [[Arbitrary Headcount Limit|only 3 can take part in a battle at a time]].

 

== Web Comics ==

** Appropriately, the fourth compilation book, which covers this storyline, is called ''[[Never Split the Party|Don't Split the Party]]''.

* [http://yahtzee.comicgenesis.com/d/20020313.html This].

** And [http://yahtzee.comicgenesis.com/d/20020628.html this]!

* The players in ''[[Darths and Droids]]'' seem to be quite fond of splitting up. The DM usually lampshades the fact that their strategy makes little sense.

 

 

== Western Animation ==

'''Everyone''': HUH??? }}

* ''[[Avatar: The Last Airbender]]'' does this in the series finale {{spoiler|Zuko and Katara head off to confront Azula, Aang goes to confront the Firelord, and everyone else goes to stop the fleet.}}

** In the previous season, Aang had gone off to learn from a guru, Sokka went to meet the Water Tribe warriors, Toph went to meet her mother {{spoiler|and gets captured by the bounty hunters her parents sent to bring her home}} and Katara stays in Ba Sing Se to help plan and organise the invasion of the Fire Nation. {{spoiler|Meaning none of them are around to realise that Azula, Mai and Ty Lee have infiltrated the city}}.

*** {{spoiler|Except Katara. Who didn't even go to see who she thought was Suki.}}

** Even ''Johnny'' of all people points out how stupid this is:

'''Freddy:''' "Well...yeah." }}

** In another episode, Dr. Blight gave nukes to a couple of people in Israel, a couple in Northern Ireland, and a couple in South Africa...giving one to each side. The Planeteers had to split up to fight them.

'''Jonathon''': I know! Let's have everyone who enjoys having obstacles in their life which they can overcome go this way, and everyone whose insecurities sabotage their potential to overcome those obstacles go that way. }}

** Made hilarious by the fact that everyone neatly separates into two groups without hesitation, and someone remarks "Well, that was easy!"

* Subverted in the ''[[Jonny Quest]]'' episode "The Devil's Tower". While Jonny, Race and Hadji are searching for Dr. Quest, Hadji suggests splitting up but Race says that they should stick together.

 

== [[Real Life]] ==

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Team Shuffle Tropes]]