Current Events > The most useless party members in a jrpg

(+) Yeah! (+)

He's actually completely wrong here - Locke becomes a great character in the 2nd half of the game because of the Valiant Knife - it ignores defense and does damage inversely proportional to Locke's HP so it's easy to strengthen very quickly
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It has to be someone from Chrono Cross
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SSj4Wingzero posted...

He's actually completely wrong here - Locke becomes a great character in the 2nd half of the game because of the Valiant Knife - it ignores defense and does damage inversely proportional to Locke's HP so it's easy to strengthen very quickly

Ah true, fair enough

Locke with Valiant Knife + Ultima Weapon basically meant his damage never fluctuated with his health, lol.
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Super Slash posted...

Shadow and Locke are literally always useless.

Locke literally has the best stats in the game and can equip all the strongest equipment.
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Noel from Star Ocean 2
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hollow_shrine posted...

Irony posted...

MC_BatCommander posted...

Irony posted...

Abyssion posted...

Why are people naming Yuffie? Just because you don't like her, it doesn't make her useless.

Jogurt is obviously the best one named. But yeah, Chrono Cross and Suikoden are filled with outright bad characters that serve little to no purpose other than roster size.

Don'tCHA know who definitely sucks?

She's no where near the most useless JRPG party member. She's definitely tied with Vincent as most useless in FF7 though.

Not really. Vincent, Cait Sith, and Red XIII are all less useful than she is.

If you manipulate slots Cait Sith's LB is literally a more consistent Zanmato.

That's great.

For random encounters.

Ummm no? Gameover bypasses death immunity even on bosses
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i'd hate to be the kind of guy to use insta-death on bosses
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Shana/Miranda in Legend of Dragoon

GODTIER posted...

It has to be someone from Chrono Cross

Like over half the roster.

CC was such an incomplete mess.
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Spooking posted...

Rico from Xenogears.

He is pretty awful. Chu-Chu is pretty bad as well.
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Rika_Furude posted...

i'd hate to be the kind of guy to use insta-death on bosses

That's the only way I was able to beat Via Infinito but fuck that whole dungeon in general.

>boss from previous floors are random encounter on floor underneath it
>petrify you even if you're immune to petrify with accessories
>multiple attacks so shatter your petrified character (can't revive)
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Trumpo posted...

Shana/Miranda in Legend of Dragoon

lmao that is completely wrong

the useless party member is Kongol cause he's so slow, similar problem Rico has in Xenogears
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For Persona Q, the only correct answer is Teddie
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LoD's Kongol was a pain to use in the party because the moss would grow back by the time it was his turn again.
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Is Magus from Chrono Trigger spoilers?

Anyway, him. Marle isn't perfect but her, Crono and Robo are the best way to kick ass at Ocean Palace.

"That" guy doesn't work well with others, Frog is already there as party boss and his only special skill is learning shadow tech...which has limited use anyway, especially considering Robo already has it covered.

NeonOctopus posted...

Teddie in Persona Q. All his stats and moves are fucking awful except his luck stat, which is pretty useless lol

Damn, I was gonna say this lol. Except it would've included Persona 4 as well. Actually TBH I never used him since he was an annoying little turd.
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Teddie was more useful in P4 than Naoto was
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But Naoto wasn't an un-bear-able douche :<
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What does that have to do with usefulness?
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Absolutely nothing. Man, I need to make this my sig:

Warning for those who do not know me or lack common sense: If my post includes the faces :3 and/or :< then I am joking around. Do not take the above post seriously.

I mean I would love to, but I really like my P3 sig.

...That, and I don't usually have this problem because a vast majority of the board is able to deduce when I'm being facetious.
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Irony posted...

Teddie was more useful in P4 than Naoto was

Naoto in vanilla P4 is the most useless party member, mainly because her megido/la/on used lots of sp, and her hama/mudo keeps missing and obviously useless for boss battles.
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Pretty sure someone said this already, but Edward in Final Fantasy 4.
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MC_BatCommander posted...

Trumpo posted...

Shana/Miranda in Legend of Dragoon

lmao that is completely wrong

the useless party member is Kongol cause he's so slow, similar problem Rico has in Xenogears

It's more than just his lack of speed. He has the worst magic defense, worst Addition modifiers, no useful Dragoon magic, only has three levels on his Dragoon attack, etc.
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Musourenka posted...

MC_BatCommander posted...

Trumpo posted...

Shana/Miranda in Legend of Dragoon

lmao that is completely wrong

the useless party member is Kongol cause he's so slow, similar problem Rico has in Xenogears

It's more than just his lack of speed. He has the worst magic defense, worst Addition modifiers, no useful Dragoon magic, only has three levels on his Dragoon attack, etc.

he is so useless, you have to buy his dragoon stone.
the more I remember about LoD, the more I realize how sucks that game is.
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Garr in BOF3. His low speed and the fact that Peco was better than him in almost any way. Ironically, because of Peco's appearance, many people who say Peco and not Garr.
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Ricemills posted...

Musourenka posted...

MC_BatCommander posted...

Trumpo posted...

Shana/Miranda in Legend of Dragoon

lmao that is completely wrong

the useless party member is Kongol cause he's so slow, similar problem Rico has in Xenogears

It's more than just his lack of speed. He has the worst magic defense, worst Addition modifiers, no useful Dragoon magic, only has three levels on his Dragoon attack, etc.

he is so useless, you have to buy his dragoon stone.
the more I remember about LoD, the more I realize how sucks that game is.

Eh, I wouldn't say that. Overall a great game IMO, translation is rough though.
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sfgiants posted...

Garr in BOF3. His low speed and the fact that Peco was better than him in almost any way. Ironically, because of Peco's appearance, many people who say Peco and not Garr.

Garr gets a dragon-killing weapon and has good. Peco also starts at level 1 and takes a long time to grind to get him useful and can't do anything except regular attacks + very small amount of Enemy Skill. Additionally, he has the highest HP so dragon transformations like Behemoth benefit from it.

I mean I'd argue Rei is less useful given that his only defining power makes him attack your own team.

But all is moot since once you can do Myrmidon the game becomes ezmode.
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MC_BatCommander posted...

Ricemills posted...

Musourenka posted...

MC_BatCommander posted...

Trumpo posted...

Shana/Miranda in Legend of Dragoon

lmao that is completely wrong

the useless party member is Kongol cause he's so slow, similar problem Rico has in Xenogears

It's more than just his lack of speed. He has the worst magic defense, worst Addition modifiers, no useful Dragoon magic, only has three levels on his Dragoon attack, etc.

he is so useless, you have to buy his dragoon stone.
the more I remember about LoD, the more I realize how sucks that game is.

Eh, I wouldn't say that. Overall a great game IMO, translation is rough though.

I'd say it had potential to be a great game, but fall on mediocrity.
even back then, the only thing I found better than other JRPGs are the beautiful backgrounds. additions gets old quickly, the story is very clich even for JRPG standards. it has some nice BGM like the boss battle, but nothing else is memorable. and like you said, the translation makes it even worse by kiddifying everything.
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Ryo_the_Inferno posted...

Noel from Star Ocean 2

A strong contender, yeah. Too squishy to be a fighter, offensive magic mostly sucked in that game in terms of dps, and his healing was unnecessary if you're planning with Rena in the party (which... everyone does?).

Decent if controlled by the player (leaving Claude to AI devices, which isn't half bad), but if we're going for player controlled badasses, that's Bowman imo :D
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Adray from star Ocean 3
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Eldar from Shining Force 3

MoreRpgs posted...

Eldar from Shining Force 3

I never played shining force 3 but there is no way he can be worse than jogurt unless he dies as soon as the battle starts.
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ChromaticAngel posted...

MoreRpgs posted...

Eldar from Shining Force 3

I never played shining force 3 but there is no way he can be worse than jogurt unless he dies as soon as the battle starts.

I feel like joke and mascot characters should be excluded from this or be contained to a separate category specifically for them. "Serious" terrible party members can't compete with mascot trash
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Wonder-Director in Wonderful 101. Slowed movement speed and you game over in 1 hit, lol.
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Ricemills posted...

MC_BatCommander posted...

Ricemills posted...

Musourenka posted...

MC_BatCommander posted...

Trumpo posted...

Shana/Miranda in Legend of Dragoon

lmao that is completely wrong

the useless party member is Kongol cause he's so slow, similar problem Rico has in Xenogears

It's more than just his lack of speed. He has the worst magic defense, worst Addition modifiers, no useful Dragoon magic, only has three levels on his Dragoon attack, etc.

he is so useless, you have to buy his dragoon stone.
the more I remember about LoD, the more I realize how sucks that game is.

Eh, I wouldn't say that. Overall a great game IMO, translation is rough though.

I'd say it had potential to be a great game, but fall on mediocrity.
even back then, the only thing I found better than other JRPGs are the beautiful backgrounds. additions gets old quickly, the story is very clich even for JRPG standards. it has some nice BGM like the boss battle, but nothing else is memorable. and like you said, the translation makes it even worse by kiddifying everything.

It has great graphics, some good art direction, and the general scope of the Dragon Campaign is pretty unique, but yeah. It was one of many JRPGS made after FF7's success that felt like it was made by people who've never played a JRPG. A game about the Dragon Campaign itself probably would have been a better game.

It also has probably one of the worst main villains/final bosses in a JRPG.
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LoD was definitely a lot worse than I remembered when I replayed it.
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I'll preface this by saying I'm not a huge JRPG guy, but I have to vote Frog from Chrono Trigger.

Frog isn't awful, but he's a master of none type character. Want a psychical attacker? Crono, Ayla, and Robo are better options. Want a healer? Marle and Robo are better options. Ayla is an equal option. Want a magic attacker? Lucca and Magus are better options. Everyone else is an equal option outside Ayla.

Honorable Mention #1: Any mortal in Lost Odyssey

Honorable Mention #2: Regal from Tales of Symphonia since you have many better options by the time you encounter him.
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TheBiggerWiggle posted...

Honorable Mention #2: Regal from Tales of Symphonia since you have many better options by the time you encounter him.

I'd argue that Sheena is worse than Regal.

I won't deny that Regal isn't a "good" party member (even if I use him the most, along with Kratos/Zelos) but going strictly with utility, I say Regal brings a little more than Sheena, be it in a battle with your team or solo.

In Niflheim (a post-game puzzle of sorts that sometimes challenges you to advance to the next floor), the game sometimes forces you to have a character fight solo for an entire floor. In Sheena's case, you have to rely on cooking/items (and sometimes the dungeon itself prohibits you of items) solely to heal yourself. For Regal, he does have a form os self-sustain, albeit a very slow one (Healer and Grand Healer/Chi Healer, depending on attribute you got for the character, either T or S) making him a little less risky than Sheena, not to mention that Regal has higher HP and probably Defence stats, and maybe similar or slightly lower Avoid.

Plus, he has higher attack, and can have combos of 25+ with spell cancelling (same as Sheena, seeing how she too can spell cancel, but her overall combo damage probably will be lower).

Neither are super top tier, and a party of Lloyd [Filler] Genis and Raine is probably more than enough to clear anything the game throws at you,so it doesn't really matter if someone is really bad, but I'll say that Sheena is worse than Regal, and probably the worst party member in that game. I would say Presea too, but she seems to have a lot of range to cover herself (for when she gets to fight solo) and can take quite the beating, unlike Sheena.
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I've never gotten behind how most Tales of games feel designed around the player using exclusively the main character and all the others are just AI support.

Yuri just infinite combos the entirety of Vesperia and can you really tell me that there's parity between Lloyd and the rest of the cast?

They got better with Graces since Asbel isn't even the best playable party member. Berseria's better, too, despite the memes about Velvet.
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ChromaticAngel posted...

MoreRpgs posted...

Eldar from Shining Force 3

I never played shining force 3 but there is no way he can be worse than jogurt unless he dies as soon as the battle starts.

She is pretty useful. There's several treasure chests that only she can grab, and the flying movement in general is more helpful in SF3 than other games.

Justin is probably the worst character not named Penn. Completely outclassed by Haywood and he has the worst movement in the game.

Also, for Chrono Trigger, Frog is a better healer than Marle. Frog has a party heal and Marle's Life 2 doesn't matter when she is tied with Lucca for worst HP and defense.
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SolKarellen posted...

I've never gotten behind how most Tales of games feel designed around the player using exclusively the main character and all the others are just AI support.

Yuri just infinite combos the entirety of Vesperia and can you really tell me that there's parity between Lloyd and the rest of the cast?

They got better with Graces since Asbel isn't even the best playable party member. Berseria's better, too, despite the memes about Velvet.

Yuri might be that good, but he's no Rita, bla bla bla TIDAL WAVE! x 10000
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DuranOfForcena posted...

the stereotypical female childhood friend of the protagonist

...Unless she's amazing.

http://skiesofarcadia.wikia.com/wiki/Aika
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Tifa_Lockhart
http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Nemissa / http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Hitomi
http://starocean.wikia.com/wiki/Sophia_Esteed
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hollow_shrine posted...

DuranOfForcena posted...

the stereotypical female childhood friend of the protagonist

...Unless she's amazing.

http://skiesofarcadia.wikia.com/wiki/Aika
http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/Tifa_Lockhart
http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Nemissa / http://megamitensei.wikia.com/wiki/Hitomi
http://starocean.wikia.com/wiki/Sophia_Esteed

This is a good answer.
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Uuugggghhh, I have to add another vote in for Tellah. Most worthless and bad character I've ever dealt with. He's not much better at max level either. His only saving grace is knowing most white and black magics but that's if you can keep him alive.
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