[General Discussion] Most worthless party members ever!

Originally Posted by RainMan

The shwartz isn't strong with this one. Behold crap incarnate.

I think Jogurt was one of RPG's first legitimately bad characters. Literally nothing more than a hamster with a helmet, but so cool at the same time. Having him actually fight and win is something of an accomplishment, though.

Originally Posted by Conan-the-3rd

I'll whaterv'd any notion that Quina is a piece of shit. I meen, I can only imagine the board meeting for designing it and the game mechanics.

When a character's major contribution to the plot is chasing animals, eating people, and speaking complete nonsense, you'd *think* they'd be awesome, but Quina... well... Quina's okay. Blue Mages are inherently useful for Mighty Guard and White Wind if nothing else, plus Quina fulfills the Final Fantasy requirement of at least one zany, oddball character per game.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Originally Posted by Denicalis

MODERN. MODERN Final Fantasy requirement of at least one zany oddball character.

Heh, I guess you're right (unless you count Gau as oddball, which he was, but not in a Jim Henson-esque muppet sort of way). This is a trait that seemed to start with Nomura doing the designs. My guess would be his early days as a monster designer constantly come back to haunt him and he just *has* to make a weird character or two to satiate his odd creative urges. Final Fantasy XIII is going to have a talking potato with wings for feet and a Napoleon hat, If not as a playable character, then certainly as a supporter. I'm calling it already.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Monkey King

This thread is pretty much about how to competely break every game by exploiting the "useless" characters now, isn't it?

I think it's amazing how many games have characters that would be much less useful if not for exploits or extreme over-leveling. A bad character's best friend is an apathetic programmer.

I'm gonna add another one: Mogu from Breath of Fire. Let me preface: I love Mogu to death; best turban-wearing mole-guy in an RPG to date, but otherwise the least practical character in the game. Lowest HP stat by far, light armor, kinda slow; has pretty decent attack power, but it's out-shown by just about everyone else late game. Can't even merge with Karn. His one technique: Dig. Let's you escape from battles for no MP, but only works outdoors, so not very useful considering the game's myriad of dungeon crawls, plus Bleu learns a better version as spell.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

Originally Posted by a lurker

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 am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Originally Posted by Helloween

Ayla and Marle were semi useful, but i only ever used them for the twin charm attack late in the game.

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:
- 'Karp!

And let's not forget his ugly half-brother Feebas.
- 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.

I was speaking idiomatically.

Originally Posted by Rotorblade

The sure fire thing here is that Edward sucks. Really. He does.

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.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?