[color:"orange"]The 3rd Person perspective is much different than the isometric perspective - lots of different gameplay possibilities are available exclusively to each and parties like that or Baldur's Gate is one of those exclusives to the isometric perspective. [/color]
In SW: KotOR, the main character can be accompanied by two other characters which can be controlled by the player by pausing the game now and then and stacking commands. The Fall: Last Days of Gaia is another example of a 3rd person RPG with a party (of six characters, in this case, and you can control all of them). It works. And in my eyes, it's a lot more believable to defeat groups of opponents with a small team than to slay them all single-handedly. Computer-controlled pets can't really replace a party. If you want to control just one character, it should be possible to let any others be controlled by the AI, maybe according to some guidelines you set.
