It occurred to me that I could name one of my party members "Healbot" and get away with it.

Thing is, the SaGa 2 remake adds magic circuits that allow robots to be decent magic users; equip some magic circuits and some healing magic item (like the Cure Tome or Staff of Healing) and you now have a robot healer.

I usually either pick names that sound similar to names of the era, or I take portions of other names and combine the prefix of one with the suffix of another, sometimes adding some random element that sounds unique. For example...

Gwyldayne
Rondelyth
Eondarra
Horwend
Frambrosia
Vichtenstal
Meredontia

It keeps things fresh and unique and not sounding like common names in the 2020s.

My main is always called Kanantus and if it's a party based rpg then the others will simply be named after what I think sounds cool in the moment and based on setting ie. fantasy will have fantasy typed named and sci fi rpgs will have sci fi names etc.

How do you decide who your main is in games where the game doesn't make an obvious distinction?

Maybe a vague self-insert type of character variation plus setting appropriate names.

If a suggested name is offered many times I will go with that.

The rest of the Saga series on PC when?

Actually, 4 robots is not a bad party, and it should not have any trouble getting through the game.
* Making a physically strong robot is easy; get a bunch of light sabers (or, later, catclaws) and give them to a robot. The robot will then hit fast and hard. Also, the remake adds fans, which do agility based damage to an entire group.
* There are plenty of fixed power weapons that affect a group. With any other race (except monsters for obvious reasons), these would be too expensive to use sustainably, but robots don't have that issue; one inn trip and durability is restored.
* One nice thing about the remake is that there are magical circuits that robots can equip to get magic power. Equip some of them, along with a healing staff, and you now have a character who can heal the entire party. Attack magic items can also be used, like that Flare Tome that's expensive, normally has only 10 uses, and is only briefly available in the shop (though it becomes available again end-game). Give it to a robot, and those 5 uses recharge at the inn; furthermore, this item provides 144 HP; the only item that provides more I believe requires beating a very hard optional challenge and getting lucky.
* Later on, there's a couple healing items that don't even need magic power to work well. High agility + full cure is *very* useful in emergencies.
* All this without the tedious task of raising human or esper stats to decent levels.

(My 2 robot 2 monster playthrough many years ago (playing on the imported cart) was one of my fastest due to not having to deal with slow human/esper stat growth.)

One crucial difference between my party and your FF1 example:
* Each FF1 class is assigned a specific role. Monks are heavy damage users who do not get spells or multi-target attacks; white mages are focused on healing and have very little in offensive power, except against undead.
* Each SaGa 2 race is quite flexible. Any race can be a physical powerhouse (might be harder for espers and monsters, but it's still feasible, but note that the esper will focus on AGI-based damage just like a robot would). In the DS version, any race can be an effective spellcaster (in the original, robots have no way of boosting their magic power, so they don't work as mages). Hence, single race parties can be balanced.

Like the others, usually names which suit the era & type of game involved. Certainly helps if there is a randomize option :).

For me it's simply the first character I make that gets to be my "main". It's something self-imposed in games like Icewind Dale or Storm of Zehir (Nwn2) where you create the party from scratch. Usually my main char is also a self-insert so someone that looks like me and acts like me (though not always).

This is also on a first playthrough. If I play the game a second time (usually the evil route) my main will be very different from me and my first main char.

But it really depends on the setting of the game and my mood.

My parties usually consist of Baldur's Gate or Tolkien characters. Not *too* original, but i like it that way!

I've done that in the past, except that the character names would come from JRPGs, like Dragon Quest 4, for example.


By the way, one thing that occurred to me:

* Dragon Quest 3's main character *does* have a canon name (though the game doesn't reveal it until the very end). However, if you try to actually use that as your main character's name, the game will not let you; trying to give that name to somebody else will actually give you an in-world explanation as to why that name isn't allowed, which is actually rather interesting. (There are a few other names that are forbidden, mainly names of story characters, but I note that one of the forbidden names is a common real name, so some players would get confused by the "Enter your name!" message when they try to use their own name.)

* Undertale, while there's only one character you can name, does special things with certain names. Some are allowed, some are not, one makes the game harder (and makes it end after the first major boss), and then there's the name "Gaster".

I often use an online genrator like this one for RPG :
https://www.aidedd.org/dnd-gen/index.php?l=1

Names from mythology work pretty well. Even animals like Sleipnir.

that or 'dude'. Works well in games that say your name like Zelda

As an aside, Stardew Valley's name generator (for naming your pet, horse, and then farm animals -- can also be used to name your children) is one of the best "random" name generators ever.

Good, but doesn't have any option for robot names.