I'd still call the Magikarp line useless though. Basically, if Gyarados goes up against ANYTHING with an electric attack, he's royally fucked due to the 4x weakness he possesses against them.

Otherwise, I'd call Spinda pretty useless. Doesn't evolve, horrible moveset, even worse base stats.

Chisato can be pretty good really. I think the least useful people are probably just the raw spellcasters by the end of the game and Ernest. Everyone else is good setup the right way, even if Dias and Bowman require manual control to be good.

I still think Bowman is the best character in the game when you control him, but a lot of people really dislike him. :(

Lenny from Fallout 2, whose weak constitution is only matched by his choice of weaponry. Technically his first aid ability is a redeeming factor, but in practice stims are plentiful and he's just a waste of a character spot. I'd much rather have Cassidy or Sulik by my side any day.

Also, Cait Sith is terrible.

Somehow grown men arguing about the weaknesses of pokemon is even more sad than a bunch of grown men arguing about Chrono Trigger.

I'd call Flonne (at least in the original Disgaea) pretty useless. Really, in almost all recent Nippon Ichi games any story character can be dwarfed in power by any max-rank generic character.

Chisato is FAST. That's why she's awesome.

The party I always end up with is Claude, Dias (i kno lolz), Ashton (Pretty good if you want close range, otherwise Opera) and Chisato. Sometimes Bowman.

But if Ernest is worthless, then sir, Noel is absolutely worthless.

Not sure I'd say that... Noel is the only reasonable healer substitute if you don't want Rena in your party. Now from a gameplay standpoint you can say "Why the hell wouldn't you want to use Rena?". Because it's much harder to keep her and Claude from getting together in the ending if you actually use them together in battle.

lol

You covered what I was going to say. Noel isn't terrible, but he isn't necessary either. If you don't care about what ending Claude gets there is NO reason not to use Rena because she's better and you get her right off the bat.

Ernest, Leon and Celine are just outright terrible on higher difficulties far into the game -- EVERYONE ELSE can at least be decent, even Noel, though I'd rather use that character slot for someone else.

Chisato was FAST for you? She seemed slow to me....Maybe I need to replay the game.

My verdict's still out on Noel...

Claude, Ashton and Opera were my mainstays. The fourth slot was a rotation of magic users/Bowman. I like to mix my short-range and long-range fighters.

(And you CAN screw with the Claude/Rena pairings. I had Rena with Opera...LOL)

That's impossible. You can't have both Ashton and Opera.

I wanted to like Opera more, but she always ran out of MP too fast. Far from useless, but I think my party ended up being Claude/Dias/Chisato/Rena when I did the Ashton skip/Rena playthrough.

(anyone else think the topic of SO2 parties is worthy of its' own thread?)

That topic would probably be more engaging. Though picking characters on the lower end of the effective scale in Star Ocean 2 is like pulling teeth in some instances. A Pokémon topic would too... but that's because it's played competitively. I'm not sure I find enjoyment in breaking a static game like Final Fantasy. Yes, Gau is a beast... too bad Final Fantasy 6 isn't that fucking hard to begin with.

The sure fire thing here is that Edward sucks. Really. He does. Can anyone confirm that Gryz sucks from Phantasy Star 4? I'm willing to throw down in that direction.

Final Indalencio would have most, if not all spellcasters redundant, even if their motormouth skill is at 10. That's why I either use the swordfag team (Claude, Ashton, Dias and another one) or the party has Bowman/Chisato on it.

But yes, aside from SO2, Legendia's Shirley Fennes was absolutely shit, from personality to fighting stance. Not to mention her voice acting. Another has been said before: Grey from VP; no matter how you even the quips with say, Arngrim, he ALWAYS ends up weaker. And his Finishing Strike was just :ugh:. In Thousand Arms, I found Kyleen also to be :weaksauce:, even Nelsha was a tad bit more tolerable. Or Sushi.

I understand that he gets a really bitching axe somewhere towards the end which gives him great attack power. The thing is, he's redundant next to Chaz, and using him at the end means he's occupying a slot that could be held by someone with much more utility.

What's-her-name the nurse robot (it's been a while since I played, so sue me) struck me as being of questionable value as well. She's lacking in offensive output, and her "heal everyone" ability doesn't work on herself, so you have to choose who gets HP back that turn. I was kind of glad when she left the party the first time.

Good old Phantasy Star 4, where you can have a swordsman, an alien, a mutant, a robot, and a wizard all in the same party and somehow have it make sense.

I still break out StarOcean 2 from time to time. As the years progress, I find myself liking the spellcasters less and less. Even though I've got pretty much all the awesome gear and all my abilities maxed to 10, the spellcasters just don't have the raw force and staying power that the combat-oriented characters do.

Unfortunately, I didn't use any FAQs or guides when I played through, so I missed out on several characters. I didn't recruit Opera, Ernest and Ashton. I also chose Claude off the bat, denying myself the opportunity to recruit Dias. I feel foolish now, but I worked pretty hard to get all the powerful weapons and I don't have the heart to begin anew.

Still, I can attest to Chisato being pretty fucking awesome. She is fast, fast, fast. Her Killer Moves are particularly harsh. Flamethrower is beastly; Rising Dragon is even nastier; Preparation is downright lethal as tons of bombs drop from the sky. Her normal attacks aren't the strongest but she moves around the battlefield like a bolt. If anyone is going to get to the enemy first, it's Chisato.

Right now, my party consists of: Claude/Bowman/Chisato/Celine. I missed out on Ashton, else he'd replace Celine. Bowman's Explosion Pills are ungodly destructive. I've always wanted to try Precis but you can't have Bowman if you take her, and who wouldn't want Bowman? Celine is the last party member because she's got the best assortment of combat spells. Her destructive power isn't quite as strong as Leon's but she's far more versatile.

I didn't think that Noel sucked as much as he didn't seem to fill a particularly useful niche. His combat skills are okay but he requires knuckle weapons and is prone to heavy hits. His Killer Moves didn't impress me that much. His non-combat abilities also didn't seem to be of much use. He's an animal wrangler, so I suppose his "Come On Bunny" ability is well-honed but who needs that once you can fly?

Honestly, I found Lena to be the least useful. Healing is nice but I get by without it during most combats.

Sorry, I didn't mean it the way I worded it. It was late when I wrote it. I meant they were ALWAYS in my party when I had them. (That still doesn't sound right, but I hope you know what I mean).

But, there's always been one instance in Suikoden that bothers me. They MADE a character useless. When Kuromimi joins in the battle in the Kobold Village, he's always in the back. He's a short-range fighter and should be in the front. But, no, he's in the back--where he can't do a damn thing. After that, he's fine....

There's no denying that. Ed's a lover, not a fighter. Probably more at home back at his castle trying on robes than whackin' monsters with his harp, but FFIV Advance really helped him. He's still not great, but Cheer is a much better skill than his songs were, and the "Invincible Edward" glitch can be sorta useful. Kinda sad that his legacy is his "Hide" skill, though. The Bard class in FFV gets it as a normal ability and it's pretty funny to see someone scamper off the battlefield for no real reason only to do nothing until you tell them to come back.

Speaking of FFV, if job classes are allowed, I'm going to throw in Geomancers. They were a pretty good all-around class in Tactics, but in FFV they're a bunch of bell-ringing clowns (literally!) with very low attack, low health, light armor, and nothing of great virtue to offer any other class except the ability to walk on damage tiles without getting hurt, which is only useful in Exdeath's castle in World 2. Beastmasters weren't that good either, but their outfits were awesome.

In the beginning, that ability can resurrect dead party members. So Demi is actually useful in the beginning if you want to try your hand at killing a Sand Worm or two when you get access to the Land... Rover... thing. She serves a decent purpose given that she's dispensable and can help your other characters power level early on.

On Edward/Gilbert. I get his purpose, it's intrinsic to the story of FFIV. Wish that moment where he wakes your party was the only time he remotely saw combat.

All the girls in FF VIII were useless, their limit breaks were pathetic (at least compared to the guys).

Quistis. Degenerator. Red Dragons.

The most useless characters I can think of:

Llewywen from Valkyrie Profile. There are a lot characters that aren't so great in VP, but Llew takes the cake.

Edward from Final Fantasy 4. Not much needs to be said that you guys haven't posted already.

Rafa and Malak from FFT. At least Rafa was usable to find items, but their Truth and Untruth skills were totally useless.


Anyway, I pretty much agree with you, Crash. Spellcasters in SO2 just can't keep up with some of the better melee characters. Chisato is definitely one of the best and I really love using her. I think the best party is Claude, Chisato, Bowman, and Opera.

When I was younger I never bothered to get Opera because I liked Ashton a lot, but I do think she's better than him in the long run. Precis really isn't bad and I also used her a lot when I was younger. If you want to try something different you outta try her out in a different play through someday.

I didn't think Rena was totally useless since her healing helped out a lot, but she's definitely replaceable later on. I think the most useless character in SO2 is probably Ernest. He's just not a very strong fighter and his skills suck.

How could there be a worthless character thread without mention of Pokey from Earthbound? (Unless I missed it). Dude was the DEFINITION of worthless. Sure, you only had him for ten minutes tops, but I don't care. WORTHLESS.


"Pokey hides in a corner!"

Worthless bastard.

After getting a lot farther into Breath of Fire 3 recently, I have to give Nina the boot. It doesn't help that spells are nowhere near as effective as Garr's physical power, Ryu's Dragon damage, Momo's assist/healing/elemental weapons, or Rei's insane speed/Weretiger + Influence. Even Peco can become a freakin powerhouse with proper usage of the master system.

Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn

Meg

Why? Well, even the Prima guide and various posters say that she's weak, dispite her wearing an armor. And dude, if you really want to use her. The only time would be to only deliver the finishing blow.

Winged class fighters. They would succumb to the enemy's pincer attacks and the mages Elfire, Elwind and various other magic attacks.

Micaiah. Even in my gameplay Illayana was a more powerful magetress than her. Dispite that Illayana receiving the same ammount of attacks.

Aeris, she was seriously useless.

Not only was she weak, she really didn't have a huge role in FVII, or had a role that was some how important to the storyline.