I can't believe Edward the Bard wasn't mentioned until page 2.

It seems that I am the only person who feels this way but I never liked Tifa in FF7. I just never really felt she was much help in anything. Ever.

Nah, your'e right, but his overworld skill was one of the most useful. You could dig anywhere, right?

Only on certain ground (the brown, cracked earth tiles). Sometimes you'd get small items like Herbs, or a Life1 if you were lucky. I guess "worthless" isn't the best term for him: he did have some story use late game. You needed him to find an ingredient to cure Nina's amnesia, and to get into the final dungeon. He could also dig under those dragon footprints you'd find every so often to snag some rare items. Still, his use in battle was limited. He's kinda like Gobi, weak in a fight but his special skill kinda makes up for it.

I'll have to second the Spoony Bard. I mean, yeah the charm thing could be useful and the using potions on the whole party, but seriously, any other party member at low level through out the entire game is more useful then the prince that couldn't.

Though Cid in FFIV came awful close. That whole cave without metal weapons/armor was not very cool, particularly because you had Cid taking up space. Yes, figuring out enemy weaknesses is cool, but only in the first level of the cave, and then it's completely useless.

The Bard is pretty much useless. But Cid? I don't know, dude's pretty much vital to much of the plot of that game. Especially early on. And come on. Airship.

Also, you are STILL the worst name change I've ever seen. TheR.

Pretty much disagree with all of this. Montblanc has a naturally high magic stat so he makes the perfect magic user. Cierra's slow as fuck, but her Over Skills kick ass (hit all enemies) and her magic stat is through the roof. Wil has the potential to be a ridiculous powerhouse as a Sniper, same as Rebecca. Lucius is extemely powerful and has one of the highest Res scores in the game. Sure, his defense sucks but you shouldn't be putting him into that kind of danger, anyway.. Nino's also really powerful but since she comes so late in the game she's kind of a pain to level. As for Eliwood, eh. He's not really that bad. He just sort of pales in comparison to Hector and Lyn. He still has high accuracy and criticals fairly often. He's solid.

Assuming you're talking about Soren from Path of Radiance, I'll have to disagree there as well. Again, he's got low defense (a problem he shares with every other magic user), but his magic stat usually turns out great. His major problem is his strength, but there are ways to get around that. Certainly not useless at all. I'll admit I'm not a big fan of mages, though. Regardless, he and Ilyana are my mages of choice in PoR.

Also, one last note.. Cid kicks ass in the GBA port of FFIV. I put him in my final party. He does ridiculous damage with that hammer you get from the Mt. Ordeals dungeon.

Vital to the plot of the game yes. Good to have in your party, or should I say, an effective member of the party? No.

As for the name change, I'm not gonna fight you over your opinion. I can see why you would think so... :p

I'm going to have to defend Edward a small bit. I get good damage with him if I level him up a bit (9 or 10) and he's good for the short time you have him for. Worst thing about him is the auto-hide, especially during the castle siege.

Cid is a beast for the short time you have him (notice a trend with FFIV?). Lots of damage and I don't think all his hammers are affected by the cave, IIRC. And yeah, airship. So he'd have an alibi even if he sucked.

I think that had more to do with the large gap of time you didn't have him in your party.

Pretty much 4/5s of the cast in Chrono Cross.

No man would have the balls to say Cid IV sucked. The man threw himself from an airship, over an enormous rent in the earth, with explosives strapped to his body, and lived.

Hell you find him shortly after and he's all 'what up gangstas'

He is the direct ancestor of TG Cid.

Agreed with all the 4/5s of Chrono Cross statements. In fact the only characters worth using in that game are any characters with a Serge/Lynx type element grid such as Pip (his angel version of Sooth is a requirement later in the game), Nikki, Radius, Irenes, Harle, Kid (at least for the first half of the game), and select others like Karsh, Guile, Grobyc (for the express purpose of using black summons) and some others.

Lucca and Robo got pretty useless late in the Chrono Trigger game. Ayla and Marle were semi useful, but i only ever used them for the twin charm attack late in the game. Once you have a leveled up Crono Frog and Magus team there's no need to use anyone else.

Reading this thread has only reminded me of how few RPGs i've really played, and how many are sitting on my shelf unplayed.

From a strictly game perspective, story thrown out the window, he's not much to write home about. But you never saw Edward jumping with explosives strapped to himself into anything of worth. That's how you get paid the big bucks, apparently.

Um... Magus was really only good because he started with much higher magic then other characters. If you max out everyone's magic Lucca's Flare and Robo's Shock does more damage then Dark Matter. Not saying he sucked, but I really only used Magus more then them because of his coolness factor.

The annoying thing about Magus is that he doesn't have any double techs, and no triple techs involving Crono.

Yeah, my CT party was consistently Crono, Lucca and Frog for their double tech. <3 frogflare

See, my CT party was always Crono, Ayla, and Magus. Crono for his Life spell, Ayla for Triple Kick, and Magus for all magic types, since magic weaknesses played a fairly significant role in the game.

Robo and Lucca were always the weakest in my opinion. Flare's a good spell, but her Wondershot caused her to do random, unreliable damage and other than Flare her spells were weak. Lucca's only redeeming quality were the three Antipode spells with Marle.

Frog was...weak after a certain point in the game. He was really really good for a while, but Frog Squash is stupid and his magic is fairly weak, and Crono's swordplay outmatched Frog's. Confuse for teh win.

Robo didn't play a big role in my games either. Laser Spin is a great spell early on because it's the first attack-all spell with little MP cost, but other than that, no good. Not to mention I hate weapons like Crisis Arm. Sure it'd be fine if you could swap weapons during battle, but to have to have that thing equipped 24-7 is retarded.

Ayla was good if only for Triple Kick. The only other attack beside Confuse that hit multiple times and thus able to break the 9999 damage cap. She couldn't use any magic, which was only really a problem when you fought Spekkio and had to rely on double-techs instead.

And since noone said it yet, I guess I'll have to:
http://images.wikia.com/es.pokemon/i...1/Magikarp.png - 'Karp!

And let's not forget his ugly half-brother Feebas.
http://content.answers.com/main/cont.../25/Feebas.png - Snuh?

Here they are, the bottom of the poké-barrel. They don't even get an attack until level 15, and by then they're so outclassed it's not even an issue. When they evolve it's an entirely different story, but leave them like they are...

There are several other Pokémon that don't quite make the grade, either. Balance was never a true priority for Nintendo when making the games, even if they are supposed to be played competitively.

Calling certain pokemon useless isn't that difficult. In fact, a majority of pokemon are useless unless you specifically raise them and go through the breeding and battling nonsense. The total of good Pokemon without any adulteration is pretty low.

Actually, Ayla's spin attack that makes that Tornado counts as magic. Easily the strongest one hit attack in the game if you actually raise her magic. The only problem is she has to be below them on the screen and you can't control positioning very well.

I found Ayla to be pretty good later on in Chrono Trigger once you levelled her up high enough to get the various fists. I think my final party is usually Crono, Ayla, and either Marle or Frog.

Also, when you get captured onto Daulton's flying fortress Ayla is the best thing ever, since she doesn't use weapons. If you're a high enough level she can take on battles by herself and you don't have to bother with any of that sneaking junk.

Calling party members useless in Chrono Trigger is moot, given how easy it is to break the game early on. Tech grinding makes the game a cake walk.

Plus, I think CT was one of the more balanced RPG's around (one of the benefits of only working with 7 characters as compared to 40+). My A-team was always Crono, Marle and Frog...Loads of combined healing and Arc Impulse. Last time, I used Robo and Ayla with Crono and it wasn't pretty for the other side.

He's right up there with Chisato. Her attacks were ridiculous and didn't do as much damage as you thought they should.

Really? Chisato was a beast on my team...Claude, Ashton, Chisato (and Rena) = win!