Party Members you never bring along

I'm afraid that after I finished Jacob's loyalty mission in Mass Effect 2, he never saw much action. I usually try to make sure everyone gets to be in the party, but he never really did it for me. Same for Samara too, unfortunately; it didn't help that her loyalty mission has no combat.

Tales of the Abyss, on the other hand, I tried to use everyone. Fortunately, a four person party with six people makes it easier to rotate them as needed. Luke was my main playable character; even after experimenting with the others, I usually fell back on him. Natalia I believe was the one I used the least; I preferred Tear's healing spells, since they could be used on multiple targets. Also, Tear has actual attack spells. I still used Natalia, though.

Jade, however, is bar none my favorite character.

edited 30th Sep '14 2:30:56 AM by KarkatTheDalek

Final Fantasy VI:

Gau stays on the airship because rage-hunting is Fake Longevity at its finest and because you lose control over him while raging.

Umaro only comes out for the coliseum and maybe the fanatics tower again because you can't control him properly.

Not a fan of dance for similar reasons, but Mog's at least decent with a spear.

Baldur's Gate II - Cernd. He's a druid and I hate druids, and Jaheira is better anyway. I only let him join me if I need to complete the druid grove quest and don't have Jaheira for some reason, and always ditch him as soon as he's outlived his usefulness.

Mass Effect - Kaiden, because he has less personality than a piece of damp cardboard.

Mass Effect 2 - Miranda and Jacob, except for early in the game where they're your only squad mates. I also make sure they die in the suicide mission because they are Cerberus scum.

Xenoblade Chronicles: On my first play-though I hardly touched Riki. Although I made a conscious effort to balance everyone after that.

Disagree. Marle's healing is never completely outclassed, and Magus is a sidestep at best due to his lack of double techs.

I pretty sure there's something wrong with that line of reasoning, but you know what, I don't care.

I like Magus. Seriously, I can manage with him just fine.

edited 30th Sep '14 5:18:32 AM by KarkatTheDalek

Magus is like my least favorite party member in CT. Such a disappointment.

Sumia in Awakening I always bench, because she's such an awful character. Virion I don't like either and just end up having someone else fill the arhcer position. Sometimes I get use out of Stahl at least early game but again being another character I don't like he gets the bench depending on how I'm feeling about pairings. Oh and Henry, screw Henry.

Unless they're required for a quest, I never have any companions with me in Skyrim. They always seem to get in the way.

Final Fantasy VII: Barret, Aerith, and Cait Sith. Aerith dies, Barret's actually a cool enough dude but I prefer Yuffie and Vincent for ranged characters, and Cait Sith I just don't care for. I don't hate him, but I don't really care for him.

Final Fantasy X: poor Kimahri. I actually tend to level him about as much as anyone else for random encounters, but toward the endgame he generally stops coming in to help with boss fights. It especially doesn't help his case that most of his Overdrives are specialty use and/or overshadowed by everyone else in potential utility, mainly excepting Mighty Guard.

Final Fantasy VIII: Selphie and Quistis generally don't get to do much except when the party splits up, mostly because I like everyone else's Limit Breaks more than Blue Magic and Slots.

Final Fantasy VI: Strago, Relm, and Umaro.

Persona 3: Koromaru and Ken.

Persona 4: Overshadowed by Awesome, pretty much.

Kingdom Hearts: I normally just keep Donald and Goofy as my allies, rather than use the level-specific allies. Mostly so that if I come upon a Trinity Mark, I can go ahead and use it.

There are probably more games with party members I serially neglect, but that's all that comes to mind at the moment.

edited 30th Sep '14 7:10:03 AM by EvaUnit01

I try to rotate as much as i can, except in Fire Emblem where that would be painfully difficult.

So filled with hate...

I never use Gregor, for some reason.

If there's one flaw about FEA, it's that the overall cast is too tropey.

What do you mean?

Well...as far as Cerebus goes, Jacob and Miranda aren't nearly as bad as they could be. I mean, they've left by the third game, so that's got to count for something.

They still chose to join and stayed with Cerberus despite knowing that they're basically space Nazis, though. But mostly I just resent being forced to work for them.

edited 30th Sep '14 7:28:18 AM by Nysos

Final Fantasy Tactics Advance: Moogle classes.

Final Fantasy XII: Balthier and Fran. Balthier annoys me, and Fran is just kind of there. I use them sometimes to try and build up a Quickening chain, but then swap them back out for someone else.

edited 30th Sep '14 7:45:46 AM by EvaUnit01

Xenoblade: On my first playthrough, I hardly used Riki because he ended up having loads more EXP than the rest of the party and I wanted the rest to catch up (this was before I even knew what skill links were by the way). After I stopped sucking at the game, Sharla became the benchwarmer. She isn't bad, but everyone else is so good that if you need her to win, your party is probably underleveled. She's also the worst party member to have in a chain attack.

Any character in Fire Emblem that I simply don't like is a character I will not use. Unless I'm trying to build supports. Special mention goes to Lyn, Eirika, and Ephraim since I'm forced to deploy them in maps (being Lords and all) but I always just stick them in a corner because I hate them so much.

Final Fantasy VII: Does anyone use Cait Sith?

edited 30th Sep '14 8:26:54 AM by RavenKingSage

Yes.

It was surprising to play Final Fantasy VII for the first time and see that Vincent kind of sucked. His stats were horrible and his Limits were situationally useful. I didn't use him much. Though, he was the reason I was able to defeat Hojo at all.

Videogame/Gladius: Any light character that isn't a Secutor or a Dervish, any Nordagh characters that aren't Urlan, Ursula, a Yeti, or a Gungir.

Team Fortress 2: Demoknights.

Chrono Trigger: Marle.

XCOM: Enemy Unknown: Any sniper that isn't one of my best. If I have too many snipers or heavies, I turn them into MEC Troopers immediately.

I think I'm the only player around who consistently used Umaro (even brought him into the final boss battle!) in Final Fantasy VI.

Never bother using Gogo though beause I could never figure out how to get the Mimic gimmick to work properly.

@Raven King Sage: <is gobsmacked>

Dragon Age Origins: Morrigan, I love you, but if I'm going to save the world I need to not be Stupid Evil.

Looking back through previous pages, I'm actually kind of astonished at how many examples are from people hating a character/finding a character annoying. Or "useless".

So much negativity.... o.0