RPGs: Useless companions

[McMarbles]

I almost never use Cid in FF7. By the time I get to where he's available, Tifa's a wrecking machine and Cait Sith is a sponge. I'd replace Cloud if I could, and put Vincent, but eh...

Pretty much every Final Fantasy has at least one person I don't use.

Spoiler: Final Fantasy list

FF1: Thief. Doesn't seem a viable choice in a party of Fighter, Fighter, Black Mage, White Mage
FF2: Been a while since I played last, can't recall...
FF3: As above.
FF4: Never bother with Edge, unless I have to.
FF5: Class-wise, the Ninja. Not sure why...
FF6: Strago. The blue magic system isn't great. On a similar note, Gau.
FF7: The aforementioned Cid.
FF8: Rinoa. The whole love story always felt a little shoehorned, and she's the target.
FF9: Quina, because of blue magic, and Eiko because she annoys me.
FF10: Wakka. So you're good against flying types? Big whoop.
FF11: All of them, because it shouldn't be counted in the numbered games.
FF12: Penelo. When everyone can learn everything (eventually) she seems pointless.
FF13: Hope. He annoys me so.
FF Tactics: Any special characters. I trained my units, dammit, and I'm going to use them!

Hmm... in KotOR I don't use Juhani or Jolee. One Force user is enough, thanks!

Basically, I could go on...

Funny, once I got Cid, he was pretty much perment fixture in my party along with Yuffie.

As for the others...

FF1: Black Belt and Red Mage.
FF2: You're stuck with everyone, but if there was one charcter I'd dump if I could, Gordon.
FF3: Hardly used most of the classes. Never touched Geomancer, Ranger, Evoker, Magus, Bard, Monk, Black Belt, or Viking.
FF4: Once you got to the point where you could switch up the party, I only bothered with Edward, Palom, and Cid to unlock their trials in the bonus dungeon. My go-to party was Rydia, Porom, Yang, and Edge.
FF5: Never bothered with Berserker or Cannoneer. Only used serevral others to master them and get their innates, then used Freelancer for the rest of the game.
FF6: Never bothered with Gau or Umaro.
FF7: As above. Went out of my way to not use Cait Sith.
FF8: My party was Squall/Zell/Quistis for pretty much all of the game.
FF9: I love them all. It's almost impossible to pick a party sometimes.

 

[Jandau]

About Jack: They just neglected to give her a damage-focused power. Warp Ammo is very effective, but ammo powers are boring. Shockwave is handy for taking out multiple waves of Husks and Abominations (provided you have taken out their armor, Husks die instantly if their feet leave the ground). But she needed something like Warp or Reave, which are the stars of the biotic talents in ME2.

The problem with Jack is a problem with Biotics in general in ME2 - on any higher difficulty so many enemies have one or more defensive layers (Armor, Barriers, Shields) that by the time you get to their health bar, you may as well just kill them off. As a result, powers like Shockwave are rendered borderline useless. Anything that can be affected by it can just be gunned down. Anything that you'd WANT to affect with it is likely protected in some way. Warp ammo isn't bad, but there are plenty of other ways to get a group ammo power, so it's not really a selling point...

 

[DracoSuave]

In FFX you're missing out the wonderful Rikku. What's that; you're hideously weak and have no offensive skills? Ok, back to the pile you go!

...she's the best healer in the game...

...her items do lots of damage...

...steal oneshots machines...

 

[DracoSuave]

The problem with Jack is a problem with Biotics in general in ME2 - on any higher difficulty so many enemies have one or more defensive layers (Armor, Barriers, Shields) that by the time you get to their health bar, you may as well just kill them off.

How is this an argument against bringing characters that can oneshot said defensive layers? If Barriers are a problem, Warp them away. Incinerate that armor!

The powers are there to efficiently remove barriers, not to be foiled by them.

 

[DracoSuave]

The problem with Jack is a problem with Biotics in general in ME2 - on any higher difficulty so many enemies have one or more defensive layers (Armor, Barriers, Shields) that by the time you get to their health bar, you may as well just kill them off.

How is this an argument against bringing characters that can oneshot said defensive layers? If Barriers are a problem, Warp them away. Incinerate that armor!

The powers are there to efficiently remove barriers, not to be foiled by them.

 

[DustyDrB]

About Jack: They just neglected to give her a damage-focused power. Warp Ammo is very effective, but ammo powers are boring. Shockwave is handy for taking out multiple waves of Husks and Abominations (provided you have taken out their armor, Husks die instantly if their feet leave the ground). But she needed something like Warp or Reave, which are the stars of the biotic talents in ME2.

The problem with Jack is a problem with Biotics in general in ME2 - on any higher difficulty so many enemies have one or more defensive layers (Armor, Barriers, Shields) that by the time you get to their health bar, you may as well just kill them off. As a result, powers like Shockwave are rendered borderline useless. Anything that can be affected by it can just be gunned down. Anything that you'd WANT to affect with it is likely protected in some way. Warp ammo isn't bad, but there are plenty of other ways to get a group ammo power, so it's not really a selling point...

Well, Warp and Reave are probably the best two attacks in Mass Effect 2, so I can't diss Biotics as a whole. It's just that a few of the biotics in the squad (Jack and Jacob only have crowd control biotic powers. You might include Morinth as well).

But I always take squad members with Shockwave or Throw with me to places with a lot of Husks. If you have someone with Shockwave and two squad members (possibly including Shepard) with armor-killing powers, then you can take out Husks in a hurry. You just set up the anti-armor attacks first, one for a group of husks in the front and another for a group further back. Then wait a fraction of a second before you send out a Shockwave, taking out numerous of them in a row. It works very well in places like the derelict Reaper.

For most enemies, you are right. You might as well just kill them with your weapons because they don't instantly die once they leave their feet like Husks and Abominations do.

Supposedly, they're going to fix biotics in Mass Effect 3. Armor and universal cooldowns really nerfed biotics in ME2. Remember how (especially in the final battle) in the first game how you could pull enemies off the ground and then throw them into the void of space? That was satisfying. Universal cooldowns definitely need to go away.

 

[Jandau]

The problem with Jack is a problem with Biotics in general in ME2 - on any higher difficulty so many enemies have one or more defensive layers (Armor, Barriers, Shields) that by the time you get to their health bar, you may as well just kill them off.

How is this an argument against bringing characters that can oneshot said defensive layers? If Barriers are a problem, Warp them away. Incinerate that armor!

The powers are there to efficiently remove barriers, not to be foiled by them.

Actually, the fun Biotic powers ARE there to be foiled by defenses...

Have you ever used Shockwave or Pull against any Barrier, Armor os Shield? You know what they do? Diddly squat. Nothing. Nada. Barely scratch it. What powers does Jack have? Shockwave and Pull. Do you know what almost every enemy has on any difficulty higher than normal? Armor, Barriers or Shields. You see where I'm going with this? I'll give you a hint - Jack sucks, and not in the romantic way...

Yeah, Warp and Reave are great, but they are also quite boring. They're just point&damage. You go Biotics to toss people around, at least you did in ME1. ME2 screwed Biotics over by making everything that had any protection be immune to physics effects. And by the time you drop the protections you might as well just finish shooting the target.

 

[sumanoskae]

I never really felt like my companions were much use beyond distractions in Mass Effect 2.

 

[DementedSheep]

DA:O
Leliana, never found her useful. I only used her to *cough* pickpocket people in towns. But otherwise if I wasn?t playing a rogue myself I would take Zev. I?m probably a bit bias tho because I don?t like her.
Dog take up a slot but doesn?t feel like a full companion so I never used him. It would have been better if there was a pet slot.
Oghren, you get him pretty late so can?t level him up yourself.

Mass effect 2.
Jacob, I barley ever used him.
Mordon, tho I never really tried with him. Maybe I was just using him wrong
Allot of people thing Jack is useless. It true on higher difficulties when all enemies have defences it disarms her somewhat, she certainly isn?t the most powerful and using her effectively requires micro management but she is still very useful against husks IMO. She has the fastest cool down of your biotics, shockwave and pull. Group them up, strip their defences, use CC and watch them all fly. Shockwave can also slow enemies down and knock them out from behind cover so you can take them out even if it won?t send them flying tho flashbang is better for that. I just wish she wasn?t using a shotgun. It?s the worst weapon to go with her skills and means she runs in and gets herself killed if you don't watch her.

BG2.
Been years since I played that game but I don?t think I ever really used Jaheira or Haer'Dalis.

 

[Aris Khandr]

In FFX you're missing out the wonderful Rikku. What's that; you're hideously weak and have no offensive skills? Ok, back to the pile you go!

Rikku not only was my favorite FFX character, but one of my favorite characters period. And if you level her up, she's amazing. I took her through EVERYONE's sphere grid.

 

[vasudean]

Me personally, when it came to Final Fantasy, I never had much use of the Red Mage or Black Belt. The first one because when I am constructing a team, I try and balance it by picking specialization characters, Fighter is my tank, Black Mage is my Artillery, White Mage as my healer and undead stomper, and Thief as my escape artist in case I need to get the heck out of there. Red Mage doesn't really fit in my party and doesn't get the spells that are exclusive to Black Wizard and White Wizard and the Black Belt gets swiftly outclassed by Fighter.

With the rest of the Final Fantasy's, I pretty much gave the Blue Mage a very wide berth, for they only learn spells from monsters and to me, they're too much hit-and-miss for me, which has absolutely no place in my party.

 

[carpathic]

About Jack: They just neglected to give her a damage-focused power. Warp Ammo is very effective, but ammo powers are boring. Shockwave is handy for taking out multiple waves of Husks and Abominations (provided you have taken out their armor, Husks die instantly if their feet leave the ground). But she needed something like Warp or Reave, which are the stars of the biotic talents in ME2.

The problem with Jack is a problem with Biotics in general in ME2 - on any higher difficulty so many enemies have one or more defensive layers (Armor, Barriers, Shields) that by the time you get to their health bar, you may as well just kill them off. As a result, powers like Shockwave are rendered borderline useless. Anything that can be affected by it can just be gunned down. Anything that you'd WANT to affect with it is likely protected in some way. Warp ammo isn't bad, but there are plenty of other ways to get a group ammo power, so it's not really a selling point...

Too true. Playing an adept on anything above normal in ME2 wasn't just un-fun and useless it was FUCKING FRUSTRATING! They could not deal enough damage to kill off things. ME2 was as close as mass effect could be to being a straight shooter. Shockwave on easier difficulties was fun, heck, playing an adept on easier difficulties was pretty fun (not as fun as ME where you could stack your powers and use stasis-lift-throw and send the huge Geth Colussus flying but still pretty fun).

 

[Grimfolse]

Yeah, I've got a few...

In FFX, I used just about everyone, but Kimahri was my least useful, overall. I only brought him out in fights to gain experience/throw out a Mighty Guard...until my second playthrough that is. That's when I took him through Auron's part of the grid and he became rather awesome, like a mini-Auron.

FFVI suffered from Too Many Characters Syndrome. By the endgame, the only characters I actually used with any regularity were Celes, Sabin, Edgar, Setzer, Terra, and Locke. The rest were basically filler.

In Breath of Fire 2, I only really used 4-5 of the characters: Ryu, Katt, Rand, and Nina/Bleu. Bow was a possibility, but since his shaman transformation meant I couldn't use Katt's transformations at all (and given that she's my favorite character...). Sten was boring and unimpressive, I only used him until I passed the dungeon where having him is a requirement. Spar and Jean are both boring and not as useful as my main party.

In Chrono Trigger, I drop Marle pretty early. No multi-target healing spells? No thanks. The main reasons to use her are Arise and Haste (and Haste Helms can be used by some characters to make up for not using her).

Mass Effect 2: Jacob, Zaeed, and Jack. Zaeed's more useful than the other two, but there's almost always better options for squadmates. I hardly used any of these three outside their loyalty missions. Also, Legion, if only because you have to unlock him so late in the game if you want the best ending. I also almost never used Samara. Just never liked her or her daughter.

Dragon Age 1: Sten, Oghren, Morrigan. I preferred Sword/Shield tanks to 2H warriors, and Wynne was much more useful for me as a mage/healer. Sten's personality was awesome though, so I did use him more than the other two.

Dragon Age 2: Fenris, Isabela. Fenris was not only a jerk, but since I was playing a 2H warrior Hawke he was also redundant. Isabela I rarely used because there was a glitch that could screw up your attack speed permanently if you gained her friendship. Shame, she was pretty cool otherwise.

 

[Lev The Red]

Fallout 3 - Everyone except Fawkes

Fawkes is the uber companion. it was actually kind of ridiculous and unfair to NPCs just how strong and useful he is.
as awesome as he was, he actually died on me once. somehow, he got stuck on some derbies, wouldn't move or fight back, and got mowed down by a laser turret. it was actually kind of funny: he just stood there for almost 30 seconds while this laser turret chipped away at his health.

 

[Lev The Red]

every companion i've had in Skyrim. i can't count the number of times i've had to Fus one of them out of a doorway so i could get past.

 

[Leemaster777]

Lets see:

Final Fantasy X: Kimarhi. I like the guy, but he's easily the weakest of the bunch. He's just so... vanilla. Also, to the guy bashing Wakka, if you level up his attack enough, and you're good at the slots, his limit does AWESOME damage.

Persona 4: Naoto. Again, a character I like, but I absolutely DESPISE one-hit kill attacks, so I never use her. And having access to the "Megi" line of spells isn't enough in my book.

Pokemon: There are WAAAAY to many to list here. The list starts with "Starter Rats" and goes around the block. Twice.

 

[Somatsu]

I liked everyone in final fantasy 7, no one in 8, Auron in 10, Paine in 10-2 and Balthier in 12. Everyone else in final fantasy was always so unnecessary. I liked everyone in DA:O including Orhgren and Sten but I tended not to use Leliana or dog because Zevran's personality was better.

 

[gigastrike]

In ME2, I shelved Jacob as soon as I could; he's pretty much a weaker Grunt. I also didn't use Mordin much since he only has that one offensive skill and no gun talent. Also, I don't think people are giving Jack enough credit. Sure she isn't that useful in general situations, but there is no party member that can tear through husks like she can.

 

[Roselina]

All companions in skyrim since mostly they get within the way of my fireballs or poison arrows.
In KOTOR2 i never used disciple, mira, GOTO, and whichever scout i had. Its not that they were bad they were just tardy to the party and had to sit on the back of the bus.
In Mass Effct 2 i never seemed to use jacob, jack, or grunt again cause they didn't complement my fighting style.

 

[SuperSuperSuperGuy]

I don't use any monster-type unit but Desco in Disgaea 4. Their skills are nowhere near varied enough for my preference, but Desco gets a free pass because she's a story character.

I don't ever use Meg or Fiona in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn. They are the worst units in the game, bar none.

In the post-game of The World Ends With You, when you can switch partners, I never used Shiki. The other 2 were just so much better for me.

In Tales of Symphonia, Regal spent maybe 5-10 battles in my party. I used Presea occasionally, but my party was almost always Lloyd, Genis, Raine and Zelos, sometimes Colette or Sheena.

In Dragon Age, I never used Sten or, surprisingly, Morrigan. Sten because I like Alistair more as a knight and Morrigan because I always keep Wynne around for her healing and I play as a mage so my party is frequently too defensively-impaired by the presence of 2 mages to survive having another one around.

I rarely put Gafka in my party in Radiant Historia because he never stood out to me. His attacks are powerful, but they're not all that interesting and his Elemental Beads attack was a big turn-off because Marco and Rosch could do the same thing with Grapple for a lower MP cost and both of them could take more hits than Gafka.

From Persona 4, Naoto sadly had to take a back seat. As much as I love her as a character, her skills are sub-par and she has nowhere near a high enough SP pool to use them effectively. It doesn't help that she has to dump her physical skills in order to get the skills she's really good with, those being the Hama and Mudo spells which are ineffective against bosses and unreliable without Hama and Mudo Boost, which take up 2 more slots in her movelist. In addition, she gets the powerful Megido skills which have such an insanely high SP cost that they're rarely justified without the use of Mind Charge.

In a similar vein, Ken from Persona 3 was pretty bad. He used Hama skills primarily, and never got Hama Boost. His Zio skills were useless compared to Akihiko and his healing is outclassed by Yukari's. I would talk about how I never get the chance to properly use Shinjiro, but that would be spoilers.