History Main / PartyInMyPocket

** ''VideoGame/TimeSplitters2'' mixes this with the first game's ShroedingersPlayerCharacter in that, with the exception of the "Wild West" and "Space Station" levels (more on that later), Player 2's character is never present during a single-player game. For the most part it can be assumed they were either BehindTheBlack during the cutscenes (P2's character usually starts a fair distance away from P1's starting location) or arrived "afterwards" (e.g. Mr. Underwood was waiting for Viola in the sewers in "Notre Dame", Chastity came to rescue Ghost after he was beaten by Sadako in "Neotokyo", Hank's MissionControl said they'd send someone to assist him in the intro to "Planet X", which can be assumed to be Candi). However, there's two levels where P2's presence is inexplicable; in "Atom Smasher" where both players start in a sealed room with no way in, and "Space Station" where P2's character is supposed to be ''dead''.

If TheLancer, WhiteMagicianGirl or other party members are ever needed, either the screen will fade out, then back in with the necessary person(s) now standing alongside the Hero, or in some cases, they will simply ''[[HammerSpace walk out of the Hero's body]]'', do or say what they need to, then walk back in.

* ''VideoGame/RakenzarnTales'' also plays it straight with the fade out maneuver. While it's justified for the party members, as Kyuu explicitly has the power to teleport them in and out at will with his book, allowing them to suddenly be there as needed, it doesn't quite explain where the [=NPCs=] you start gathering show up from.

* The trope is played humorously in ''Machinima/FinalFantasyVIIMachinabridged'', when every time the party enters or leave Cloud, it makes a squelching sound.

** ''VideoGame/GhostRecon: Future Soldier'' has a [[SarcasmMode similarly-inventive solution]] for this in the one storyline mission where the player character actually is going it alone - if played in co-op anyway, cutscenes have the other player(s) just standing around not doing anything at all while the first player's character pretends they aren't there. The rest of the game averts this where additional players for co-op take control of one of the other three teammates, complete with them carting around whatever primary weapon that player was last carrying during cutscenes.

** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVII'' uses this trope unabashedly. In most cases, when your current party members have something to say, they will run out of Cloud's body, say or do whatever they need to, and promptly walk back in, as though Cloud is some sort of MobileSuitHuman. It gets turned UpToEleven when, after taking a moment to recoup before heading down the train tunnel to the Sector 5 Reactor, Cloud and Tifa enter Barret, Barret speaks one line of dialogue, and abruptly transforms into Cloud. In addition, a deleted scene would have had Jessie, Biggs, and Wedge try to do the same thing (and fail). Cait Sith's joining of the party is signified by him forcibly walking into Cloud's body, despite Cloud's protestations.

* This can literally be done in ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons'' 3.5 edition, if the entire party is [[UpToEleven good enough]] at the Escape Artist skill. It can also occur simply if one or more players are playing as Tiny races, such as fairies or sprites, as they can quite comfortably fit into a normal-sized backpack or even belt pouch.

** It's shown again [[http://www.captainsnes.com/2013/07/08/827-proper-gratitude/ with Samus ang Golbez.]]

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* ''VideoGame/JoJosBizarreAdventureEyesOfHeaven'' has a literal and justified example, since it uses a canon character: Coco Jumbo, a turtle from ''[[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureVentoAureo Vento Aureo]]'' whose [[FightingSpirit Stand]] lets people enter an extradimensional "hotel room" within his back. For much of the game, [[Manga/JojosBizarreAdventureStardustCrusaders Jotaro]] carries Coco around in his jacket pocket, pulling him out when new people join the group or when he needs to speak with someone.

* In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'' and ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'', you can only have three party members active in the field and battle at a time, even though the extra party members are shown to still be in your company during important cutscenes. Disengaged [[BondCreature Blades]], in contrast, are shown hanging out at Garfont Village waiting for you to take them out into the field again. ''VideoGame/XenobladeChroniclesX'' instead went with a more realistic approach, requiring you to seek out party members at their normal hangout spots to put them into your party.

* ''[[VideoGame/KunioTachiNoBanka Kunio-tachi no Banka]]'' has the heroes Kunio and Riki being joined by their respective girlfriends, Misako and Kyoko, for a brief period. The player can switch between any of the four characters at any time, but only two of them (depending on whether a second person is player) appear on-screen at the same time.

Goes in and out of AcceptableBreaksFromReality. Developers in the old days found it challenging to work out animations and pathfinding for multiple party members outside of scripted scenes, or apart from enemy encounters that cut away to a separate turn-based battle mode. In these games, multiple party members clumping around the player could block their view of the environment and become problematic to represent in tight spaces. AllInARow is one way to make controlling a visible party simple, but having all the important characters follow you in a neat line like ducklings can look kind of silly, and create issues such as party members getting stuck in a wall, accidentally setting off traps, or triggering a fight with a RoamingEnemy (or at least forcing them to be conspicuously intangible so they won't). It can even render a puzzle UnWinnableByMistake if one of your party members stands in the way of something and there’s no way to clip through them or command them to move. It’s a lot simpler if everyone just disappears into the player's body until they’re needed.

Goes in and out of AcceptableBreaksFromReality. Developers in the old days found it challenging to work out animations and pathfinding for multiple party members outside of scripted scenes, or apart from enemy encounters that cut away to a separate turn-based battle mode. In these games, multiple party members clumping around the player could block their view of the environment and become problematic to represent in tight spaces. AllInARow is one way to make controlling a visible party simple, but having all the important characters follow you in a neat line like ducklings can look kind of silly, and create issues such as party members getting stuck in a wall or accidentally setting off traps. It can even render a puzzle UnWinnableByMistake if one of your party members stands in the way of something and there’s no way to clip through them or command them to move. It’s a lot simpler if everyone just disappears into the player's body until they’re needed.

* Zig-zagged with the ''[[VideoGame/LunarSilverStarStory Lunar]]'' [[VideoGame/LunarEternalBlue games]] - PartyInMyPocket is in effect in dungeons, but the games revert to AllInARow for all other areas. You can usually tell if a boss is coming up (and, thus, that you should be healing up and saving) if you come to a new area in a dungeon and all your party members are suddenly walking behind you.

** ''VideoGame/{{Persona 3}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Persona 4}}'' notably avert it, as party members follow after you in the dungeons, and can even get separated from you or get in your way while you're trying to maneuver (that one's mostly in P3, though).

* In ''VideoGame/BoxxyQuestTheGatheringStorm'', the party members walk into and out of Catie as they’re needed. This gets played with a few times, like when the others take turns leading after Catie gets tired walking up a long flight of stairs. Or when a {{Bouncer}} refuses to let Catie into a concert, because she only has one ticket and “[he] can tell a nested party when [he] see[s] one.”

* ''VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft'' characters can carry any amount of pets and mounts in their inventory. You heard me. ''Mounts''. A couple of mounts have the player carrying just an item to summon it.. but most of them have you apparently stuffing them into your bag and carting them around.

Goes in and out of AcceptableBreaksFromReality. Developers in the old days found it challenging to work out animations and pathfinding for multiple party members outside of scripted scenes, or apart from enemy encounters that cut away to a separate turn-based battle mode. In these games, multiple party members clumping around the player could block their view of the environment and become problematic to represent in tight spaces. AllInARow is one way to make controlling a visible party simple, but having all the important characters follow you in a neat line like ducklings can look kind of silly, and create issues such as party members getting stuck in a wall or accidentally setting off traps. It can even render a puzzle UnWinnableByMistake if one of your party members stands in the way of something and there’s no way to clip through them or command them to move. It’s a lot simpler if everyone just disappears into the players boost until they’re needed.

Goes in and out of AcceptableBreaksFromReality. From a development standpoint, it cuts cost having less models on the screen at once, lets the player see more of the world, and sometimes having three, four, or more party members on the field at once can clog it. It'd also be annoying for a puzzle to become unwinnable because you have to push someone out of the way. The alternative is AllInARow, which can sometimes have pathfinding issues such as characters getting stuck in a wall or accidentally setting off traps.

* ''[[VideoGame/EternalSonata Eternal Sonata's]]'' party balloons to about ''twelve'' characters, but you only walk around as Allegretto or Polka. Beat also gets a turn in one chapter. The only time Chopin is shown as the lead is in a cutscene. (So much for the game being about him.)

* In VideoGame/SoulNomadAndTheWorldEaters, only the leader unit of a squad (containing up to nine people) appears on the mini-map.

* Used confusingly in ''VideoGame/CastlevaniaPortraitOfRuin''. You can have both your characters onscreen, with whichever on you're not following close by, and can be used to add to attacks, assist in pushing, or even a handy footstool. Sometimes however, this becomes trouble in itself, as your partner takes MP damage(and only MP thankfully) when hit, and one boss can even turn one against the other. to prevent this, the other partner can be dismissed at any time. The game knows this makes no sense and doesn't really try to explain it. But there's a cute [[LampshadeHanging lampshading]] -- if you hold Up in front of Vincent with just one character out, he panics, fearing that the worst has happened to your partner.

* The trope is played humorously in ''Machima/FinalFantasyVIIMachinabridged'', when every time the party enters or leave Cloud, it makes a squelching sound.

[[caption-width-right:280:[[http://inyuo.deviantart.com/art/Party-in-my-Pants-106975435 ...and everyone's invited!]]]]

* ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts 1'' and ''2'', lacking a FightWoosh, has your party members simply follow you around visibly, but when you have an additional character in your party, (Jack Skellington/Sparrow, Simba, etc.) the extra 4th member simply seems to not be anywhere. Likewise during Limits not involving a character, they will simply disappear.