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[haircut]

A good archer on the front line could survive or evade an enemy assault, but without being able to kill or even injure him, what's the point? Then the number of enemies outside of my formation builds up and then we really start to get in the situation where the guy I kill on the counter-attack has eleventeen buddies to take his place.

The point is to draw the enemy in so you can take care of them on the next turn when you get to choose who gets the exp and you have the benefit of first strike.

It's only worth it for setting traps like that; you wouldn't do it trying to hold off 8+ enemies or anything. But would you really want to do that with Lute either?

Anyway, this has been an interesting discussion for me. Have a good night!

 

[PBalfredo]

It may have been from everybody telling me how good he was but I have to go with Soren. My god the dude sucked, people told me he would be killing crap left and right and the dude couldn't kill shit. I used Tormod instead, now he was a damn good magician, doesn't beat Lugh from FE 6, but damn Soren just completely sucked for me. I tried to level him up but it just didn't happen.

Tormod? I assume you're talking about Path of Radiance, because in Radiant Dawn Tormod and his crew are undoubtedly worthy of this thread. They appear for a bit in the end of Act I and don't reappear until Act IV, all severely underleveled. Add to that the fact his two buddies are laguz, which were all fairly useless in Dawn except for the royalty and the permashifted guy.

 

[Ezalc]

Tormod? I assume you're talking about Path of Radiance, because in Radiant Dawn Tormod and his crew are undoubtedly worthy of this thread. They appear for a bit in the end of Act I and don't reappear until Act IV, all severely underleveled. Add to that the fact his two buddies are laguz, which were all fairly useless in Dawn except for the royalty and the permashifted guy.

Yeah I was talking about in Path of Radiance. Tormod was amazing in that game, I'm trying to go through RD but I'm stuck in the third chapter because of all the shitty characters.

 

[PataHikari]

Mimic/Copy types, that normally take a turn to wait and mimic an ability, then unleash an ability which is generally weaker than the main abilities of standard classes.

Excuse me as I utterly break FF7 with Mime Materia.

Or perhaps use Mime class in FF5 to endless doublecast spam the most powerful magic in the game at no MP cost.

 

[corrosivefrost]

Excuse me as I utterly break FF7 with Mime Materia.

Or perhaps use Mime class in FF5 to endless doublecast spam the most powerful magic in the game at no MP cost.

I remember using GoGo to decimate certain foes in FFVI. I know I routinely set him up to copy things like tools/blitz/(cyan's ability) and the amount of damage I would smash enemies was impressive... enough to me, at least, that I usually made a bee-line for GoGo whenever I could (acquiring/reacquiring).

 

[Gruco]

Well, I mean, honestly... it doesn't really matter if you're sold or not. I've played through the game multiple times and I've taken a variety of different approaches with both characters on different playthroughs, and I can categorically state that they're not useless, and that when trained properly they can be very powerful and flexible members of a team. And my point here wasn't to dismiss the viability of tiamats, just to refute the idea that these two characters are useless, because they aren't. As I said before, if you control for level and skills, any of the specialty characters is going to be flat-out better than any generic male/female soldier based on stat bonuses alone.

Given the sprawl of the thread, it's probably worth clarifying definitions. Obviously FFT has near-complete skillset access to every character and Rafa and Malek could contribute just by making them Summoners and Ninjas or whatever, especially if they have superior growths. So, they wouldn't fall into the Jogurt category just based on the nature of the game. But, for example, a lower or even middle tier Fire Emblem character could be capable of contributing well and still be "useless" in the sense that their niche is filled more effectively or experience-efficiently by someone else and as such there is not gameplay compeling reason to use them. So yeah, 5 slots on FFT, so I'd need more selling if we're discussing that they deserve a slot more than say, a Tiamat. If we're just arguing whether they are capable of contributing in combat, then FF lines up with FF7, FF8, and all of the other blank slate installments in the series.

 

[firex]

The problem I have with Peco is anything you do to nullify his slow speed weakens his defense (chain formation lowers defense when used), and with only 2 actual slots to use on party members, I just can't ever find a good way to fit him in to the party in BoF3. He'd have to take Rei's spot for me. It's really a shame because I think he's cute and pretty awesome as a character, but the restriction to 3 characters and no quick ability to swap them means I just don't use him. I guess that's part of why I like BoF4 better, since nobody in that game is tough to fit into the party, and you can swap them anytime you need. Although in 4, Cray became my least used party member by the end of the game (until I lucked out and got an enemy to drop what I believe is his ultimate weapon).

edit: I am pretty sure the guy talking about Mime using spells for no MP cost in FF5 is wrong. I think that's only 6. At least I know I tried to copy meteor/holy/flare with Mimes in FF5 my first few times, and everybody was low on MP pretty fast. Could have been something else, though.

 

[Blast Processing]

Fail. Her whips own groups of mobs. Plus it's not like you have a choice to leave her out.

 

[haircut]

Fail. Her whips own groups of mobs. Plus it's not like you have a choice to leave her out.

Yeah. Also Oomph, Frizzle, and Sexy Dance are great, plus she's usually fast enough to get a turn before the enemies.

Getting her best whip is a terrible chore though.

 

[Red Scarlet]

I was going to say Katrina in Ultima 4, but I believe Saduj from Ultima 5 wins this contest. If Saduj is in your party, he will attack YOUR PARTY in battle, and can steal items from other party members, including key/important items that can force you to start the game over. I think he wins..

If you get that double whip strike attack and equip whips, Jessica should do the most damage in the party for about the last 95% of the game.

 

[JessicaPadkin]

G0-T0 from Kotor2 for me. A terrible floating blob with a side-story I honestly did not care about. He felt like an afterthougth from the devs the moment he forced himself into the storyline.

This was my first thought too. He was a tedious jerk who looked stupid, and what little animation he had looked ridiculous. I think he was just a clone of the evil ball that interrogates Leia in the film, actually. Also, he was extremely weak compared to the other droids, his 'power' (I can't even remember what it was offhand) was pointless, and he seemed to die way too easily.

 

[-PXG-]

This guy. You get him too late in the game.

 

[Lombaszko]

Banon from Final Fantasy 6. Sure he can heal everyone, but if he dies it's game over.

 

[PataHikari]

edit: I am pretty sure the guy talking about Mime using spells for no MP cost in FF5 is wrong. I think that's only 6. At least I know I tried to copy meteor/holy/flare with Mimes in FF5 my first few times, and everybody was low on MP pretty fast. Could have been something else, though.

No you're wrong.

Here you see MP before and after a Doublecast of Flare. Quite a dent in MP, no?

Here you see Doublecast Flare being mimed, and the aftermath.

Notice that the MP hasn't changed.

 

[DJ_Lae]

Cait Sith from FF7. I never found a reason to use him over any other character, as I hated him, his weak attacks, and pathetic limit breaks. I realize this thread is about useless characters (and he is!) but I'd lump him in there for most annoying characters too.

Nalia from Baldur's Gate II. I've never really found much use for dual-class characters in D&D games, to be honest, but Nalia was doubly screwed as you were far better off with Yoshimo as your thief, and Imoen's matching dual-class and better stats just made Nalia even more embarassing. Low-level mage spells are more or less useless in the game anyway and her thieving skills were weak, making her only useful as cannon fodder in the one quest she gives you (and you don't even have to take her along).

Katrina from Ultima VII. Nothing like having the brute strength and crook of a female shepard in your quest to save the world.

 

[firex]

Yeah. Also Oomph, Frizzle, and Sexy Dance are great, plus she's usually fast enough to get a turn before the enemies.

Getting her best whip is a terrible chore though.

Or getting really lucky in the second casino!

 

[FishSquared]

Banon from Final Fantasy 6. Sure he can heal everyone, but if he dies it's game over.

Couldn't be more wrong, he has the potential to level your characters to 99.

 

[HiResDes]

Cait Sith from FF7. I never found a reason to use him over any other character, as I hated him, his weak attacks, and pathetic limit breaks. I realize this thread is about useless characters (and he is!) but I'd lump him in there for most annoying characters too.

Nalia from Baldur's Gate II. I've never really found much use for dual-class characters in D&D games, to be honest, but Nalia was doubly screwed as you were far better off with Yoshimo as your thief, and Imoen's matching dual-class and better stats just made Nalia even more embarassing. Low-level mage spells are more or less useless in the game anyway and her thieving skills were weak, making her only useful as cannon fodder in the one quest she gives you (and you don't even have to take her along).

Katrina from Ultima VII. Nothing like having the brute strength and crook of a female shepard in your quest to save the world.

Just wanted to say y hello thar, remember me from GS?

 

[Vespene]

I hated this fella.

 

[HiResDes]

Mr Mime was the most dissappointing character I had in my Pokemon group, but I kept using him because of his novelty...Same thing happened with the Do-Do's and Pizza guy golem in Enchanted Arms.

 

[DemiMatt]

its funny because Ive been playing through old RPGs and my whole goal is to use guys who i never used.

So in Chrono Trigger this time around I am using

Marle, Lucca, alot more, and I must say, unless your using magic alot Luccas phsycal sucks, and Marle still just sucks ass, haha.

FF7 i am going to try Cait Sith, Yuffie, and Tifa (once cloud dies off) as my permanent team.

As for useless characters, in ffx def Kimari.

Lulu and Rikku are really good, Lulu is OP magic, and Rikku is good mid game once yuna dissapears because her overdrive mix does crazy stuff.

 

[Entropia]

Couldn't be more wrong, he has the potential to level your characters to 99.

Lete River ftw! :lol

 

[Dwight Schrute]

Genis in ToS ?

 

[Shotgun Kiss]

In Persona 4, I found

Spoiler

Naoto

to be pretty damn useless. She learns no elemental attacks at all, making her the only character who can't exploit an enemy's weakness to get a second turn (unless they're weak to Light or Dark, which is incredibly rare). Light and Dark spells are far too SP-costly to be using as often as she would have to in order to be good, and her Strength stat is average, meaning she doesn't even excel with her physical attacks.

Her Magic stat is pretty good, so she can use Almight attacks effectively, but since nothing is weak to Almighty, you're better off using another character.

Oh, and she learns no support moves at all. No heals or buffs.

 

[disappeared]

Unless you give him invincibility (PC version), he's as good as dead within a couple of battles.

 

[KittyKittyBangBang]

110 or so characters in Suikoden 1