What's your party and why?

[TheFlynn]

When I first saw XIII, I instantly had an affinity for Lightning. Once I saw Fang, I instantly had one there too. But then I thought, "Who would be the third?" I don't really care for anyone else, so I thought of fun reasons why I would include my third.

I went with Hope because he was some shy, annoying little kid for the longest time and then he blossomed into this B.A. tough guy. Good job Hope, as a reward, come kick it with the two most awesome females in the game.

Some of your reasons for your party might be min/maxing, strategy, appearance, or perversions like Sazh asking Fang and Vanille to experiment a little bit. Whatever they are, feel free to share them!

[mountveggie]

Toward the end of the game, Lightning, Fang and Hope. Hope is pretty weak at first, but gets insanely powerful at the end. His higher level ravenger spells are a sight to behold. :D
(And he's an incredible synergist too - but only at the end, after he gains the haste ability)

With that said, your favourite trio and paradigms will likely change quite a bit throughout the course of the game, with more difficult enemies, characters that gain really useful moves, enemies that exhibit different behavior (forcing you to use roles you may not have used before, such as Sentinals), etc.

They've really nailed the combat in this game, it's definitely awesome and really varied (in my opinion anyway, though really traditional RPG fans may prefer slower paced combat). It's really fun to experiement, so let yourself go wild with the combinations! ;)

[Moon Punisher]

Funny enough , my party follows a similar idea to yours lols.

First i decided that i would have light in the party for sure she is to me a must have in this game and i did hear how awesome is fang in combat , therefore i couldnt pass on her either.

That left me with a third slot im still trying to decide on , i will pick either Hope or Vanille here , since this would close the party quite well , i just cant decide which of them would be better lols.

[TotalAbyss]

Lightning snow and that young girl cant remember her name vaneel?

commando command ravenger for them. Just beat the crap out of everything so insanely fast.

rav rav rav for fast chain breaks then back to com com rav.

[mountveggie]

Moon Punisher, I pretty much had a favourite party that consisted of Lightning + a combination of all the other characters, except Snow (he just seemed pretty boring in combat :p ) at various points of the game.

But yeah, once Hope got those huge magic powers - couldn't drop him from the team!

Then it became a toss up between Fang and Sazh. I preferred Sazh in the beginning cuz two synergists were just better than one. After the enemies became more difficult though, Fang's saboteur skills started becoming useful. After enemies became REALLY tough (at the end of the game), her Sentinal abilities were a lifesaver.

So yeah, I really do appreciate how all the tactics are actually really useful, depending on your playstyle, and what the game's enemies currently require. Once again, awesome combat system. :)

[talgaby]

The most popular party seems to be Lightning – Fang – Hope, personally I favour a Fang – Lightning – Vanille party, because imo two SABs are way more useful than a SAB+SYN. Plus Vanille has a lot more HP than Hope in exchange for a lower Magic score, which results in a roughly 10% less damage, but on the other hand makes her a viable COM is an enemy if magic resistant.

[UltimateSWX]

Lightning, Fang, and Hope or Fang, Lightning, Hope in that order. That way all the roles are available for your paradigms and two healer can be used at once.

[Bonobi]

Lightning, Vanille and Fang. Near the end it was Lightning, Hope and Fang. Early on in the game, Vanille seemed stronger than Hope. At the end, though, Hope's skills really helped in winning battles faster, that's the main reason I switched, had Vanille developed her Crystarium the same, I would have kept the same team through the entire game.

I really didn't want this one to come to an end, I'm so happy that we're getting the other ones.

[Crokite]

sazh,snow, vanille. good dps buff (syn) / curses (sab), fast nuke, respeced Sazh com to healing. for a combo of med,sen,med.

[sickVisionz]

Lightning, Fang, Vanille. I pick my party based off of the characters I like and assume that because I'm a gamer, I can get to the point where any party I want is viable, I just have to not suck.

Anyways, maybe this is actually a strategically great party but I think Fang is badass and has a cool accent and awesome final attack, Lightning has a gun sword and does cool ♥♥♥♥ in cutscenes, and Vanille isn't really any better a character than Hope or Snow but at this point I already have two females so I might as well as go the full monty. Plus, I like the idea of this dainty girl fighting with what looks like a broken fishing pole and beating the crap out of people.

It's a fun team. I like all the characters and they can lay waste to opponents. In Gran Pulse/Post-Game they keep you on your toes because you're making people who aren't really good at certain roles be like critical components to your team in that role. Like there are times when I know if I had Fang+Sazh/Snow I could really lay waste to a staggered enemy in Tri-Commando mode but with Vanille in there, it's feels more like a race where every debuff and buff (buffs from characters who aren't even great at buffing) counts and I really need to time stuff where like the last buff/debuff is right before an enemy is staggered or else I'm not going to get 5 gold stars and I might have like a big green turtle dude regrow his legs and now I'm going to rightfully get a crappy rating on a battle.

[A Greg to the Past]

My first 3 or 4 playthroughs were always Lightning, Fang, and Hope. This time it's Fang, Vanille, and Snow, just to make things different and interesting.

[Blind]

Adamantoise farming for the last 20 hours, so Vanille/Fang/Snow -> Not quite enough power to do it with damage yet.

[✪Chaos]

Yea, Fang/Lightning/Hope is the most popular here and for good reason. I have the same main party too.

Fang is in because she is cool and cool characters must be the leaders :D Lightning is in because I figured out a ridicilous equipment combination for her with Axis Blade and speed items (speed sash, whistlewind scarf etc) that increase ATB recharge rate + survivalist catalog for Random: Instant Chain passive Hope is in to fill the holes of other characters , being Medic and Synergist.
I like to throw Snow in from time to time because he is a monster Medic and sometimes Saboteur late game and Vanille for farming Long Guis

[Scarlet Crusade]

Lightning, Fang, and Vanille is my main party. Occasionally, Sazh will sub in. I never use Snow and Hope unless the game makes me do it.

The way I see it, Snow and Hope resolve their story in Chapter 9, and they're just kind of along for the ride for the rest of the way. Sure, Snow's there for Serah, but there's not much more interesting than that. Hope... doesn't have anything else, really.

Lightning is the main character, obviously, and so she should be in the whole time, all of the time. And after Chapter 10, going down to Pulse, Vanille and Fang just make sense to be the party as it is their home and who better to have in your traveling party than two natives?

Sazh isn't very much revelant (again, like Snow, aside from Dajh), but he does have the one string of scenes with Cactuars on Pulse, at least, and the fight with Gigantuar is just a chore without him leading the group. So I use him for that. Sazh is also my specialist when I really need a SYN before the roles open up significantly in postgame.

[Xerkics]

Sazh is comic relief character who is pretty much just a tag along, hope is very 1 dimensional and bland after he resolves his "I hate snow" plotline so far and Snow i found very slow animation wise so didnt like using him.
My favourite character is Vanille so far. I use :
Lightning Vanille and Fang as was mentioned before Double SaB is great Fang is good sentinel and Lightning can either go double commando with fang or double ravager with vanille
In chapter 11 atm doing stone quests.

[Maechen]

Fang for being the best commando, by far and best one to control for turtle farming because of Highwind. She's also a great synergist with bravera/faithra. Vanille and Hope for Curaja and Ruin spamming in commando.6atb bars from both(3xcuraja) heals the party to full from 1 HP. All 3 have reprieve as well. Can't go wrong with this party.

Lightning is a pretty average character. Good at everything but not excellent in anything. The only fight I used her for was the last mission for slightly quicker staggers with Lionheart. I used her sometimes just for fun but my main farming party is me controlling Fang with Vanille and Hope.

This is a min/max party. If I was going for aesthetics I'd take Lightning over Hope.