Party Members you never bring along

The Dog from Dragon Age: Origins, who I named Dogmeat. Awesome as he was, I was more intrigued by the backstory of the humanoid characters and the occassionally amusing, occasionally heartwarming comments they made.

"You can only come to the morning through the shadows."

Celes as a better Terra? That's pretty much the reverse of what I usually hear, considering Trance.

I have a message from another time...

I always use everyone. Unless its Cait Sith or the frog dude from Breath of Fire II.

Tranwhatnow? Why would you use Trance when you have Quick and Doublecast and a White-Haired Pretty Boy who can hit 8 times ignoring the restrictions of the accessory that lets you attack 4 times each turn? I never used it, in fact (and to be honest, trance time always ran out before she could even cast one magic when I tried to use it).

And also, what use is a Limit Break if you're able to kick the One-Winged Angel with a team made up only of tier induced scrappies?

edited 8th Jun '10 8:36:17 AM by Zakdos

I ain't saying no showy crap like "later buddies" or something lame like that. I'll be back soon, you bozos!

^ Because it's awesome and I like using it. (And what you need to do is save up Trance time. You get more the more Magic AP you get while she's in the party, and Transe improves after you get yer back in the WOR.)

Conversely, I don't like using Quick + Doublecast. Or Ultima, for that matter.

I have a message from another time...

^Oh, did Terra get trance before WoR? I didn't notice/remember. No, seriously, Terra is awesome before everyone else gets magic, but after getting some magicites I just felt a magic centered character was unnecessary in the party.

edited 8th Jun '10 8:46:20 AM by Zakdos

I ain't saying no showy crap like "later buddies" or something lame like that. I'll be back soon, you bozos!

^ Well, she's mainly a Magic Knight. She gets the best armor/weapons in addition to decent magic growth.

If anyone, Relm is the most magic-centric character.

But eh. Whichever party you want to use is fine. I was just surprised to see the Terra/Celes comparison going the opposite direction.

edited 8th Jun '10 8:49:07 AM by Enlong

I have a message from another time...

^ Yeah, that's why I don't use Relm or Strago a lot, either. But discovering new bugs with Relm was fun. And well, they have their own magics and all.

Also, I always thought Celes was more of a Magic Knight than Terra. I don't know why, the Chickification, maybe. And the Rune Sword skill, I always loved it.

Oh yeah, I forgot Shadow. I never used him because of Guide Dang It!: if you're a damn jerkass with no backstory who will leave my party any time I'm starting to like you, you shouldn't expect that I will be waiting for you.

(yeah, I know he has a backstory, but you only get to know it after Guide Dang It!, at that point he's just a random stranger that throws shuriken)

edited 8th Jun '10 9:08:32 AM by Zakdos

I ain't saying no showy crap like "later buddies" or something lame like that. I'll be back soon, you bozos!

Really? Yosuke and Yukiko were basically the only party members who don't suck in battle, so I would hate not having Yosuke. Agreed about Teddie though.

• Kaiden. When I need biotics, I have Liara. When I need to play with a sonic screwdriver, I can do it myself. And when it comes to blowing shit up... Well, if I can't do it myself (but most often I do!), I still have three folks who do it MASTERFULLY.
• Each of those fucking cripples. In Fallout 2, the party (Sulik, Cassidy, Marcus and, depending on what was necessary, Lenny or Vic) was quite useful (well, maybe apart from Vic, but he was at least handy with a screwdriver), but in Fallout 3, those people (to say nothing of the dog) are USELESS. I watched Pete the Paladin play with Paladin Cross in tow - no smarter than the enemies and just as aggressive as a Feral Ghoul on Jet. Considering my track record, any "helpful" idiot wandering around would only hinder me.
• Qara - even if I need a wizard, I need a wizard who isn't nuttier than the shit of a circus elephant!

"what the complete, unabridged, 4k ultra HD fuck with bonus features" - Mark Von Lewis

I usually don't bring along the magic knight. Even though the magic knight is my most favorite class ever (except maybe gambler), most games do it horribly. I like a magic knight who can combine physical and magical attacks in one, like the magic swordsman in FFV or the rune knight in Disgaea 2. Most games have them as a class that can do either magic or physical in a turn, and can't do either as well as the specialists. Oy.

teal deer: magic knights rock, but most games make them suck.

edited 8th Jun '10 9:07:53 AM by Deathonabun

One of my few regrets about being born female is the inability to grow a handlebar mustache. -Landstander

DYRE - Are you saying Chie was useless in battle? She is a beast! Solid physical attack and she has a good chance of randomly eliminating a mook in one hit via Galactic Punt.

Eh. Chie was only really useful early on when she actually did have strong physical attacks, and after she reached level 70 when she got God's Hand. Admittedly, she was useful, but since the only thing she really did was damage she wasn't as important as Yukiko (who could heal, of course) and Yosuke (mainly because he knows dekaja). Though I did actually have Chie in my party, so I liked her better than the other characters (well, except Naoto, who is awesome... but useless against bosses, which are the hard part)

Naoto could learn Medigo and had enough magic to spam it. She Yukiko and Chie ended up being my party to fight the final boss.

Neh the character in Persona 4 I didn't use consistently was Kanji. His combat prowess was sadly not as awesome as he character development and dialog.

Oh yeah! I forgot about the Dog. The only time I used him after I got other people was in the Deep Roads while trying to get the Effort armor.

^^ Agreed.

And on the subject of other games... in Legaia 2 I never used Kazan or Ayne, not for any real reason, but mostly because the equipment system is so exploitable that it really doesn't matter what characters you use.

In Eternal Sonata I completely avoided using Beat, Polka, and Frederic for as much of the game as possible, due to their suckiness. Then... the part where you have to use all three of them shows up... yeah... Though, for the optional dungeon I did start using Frederic, since he ends up being the strongest character in the game once he's a high enough level.

Aaaaaand, I don't think I've gotten far enough in any other rpgs to list any more...

edited 8th Jun '10 9:38:00 AM by DYRE

In Wing Commander 3 and 4, when you get to choose your wingmen in most cases, Maniac was my absolute last choice. Never mind his propensity to use your ship as a lens to focus his gunfire on a target, that the turkey never obeyed you except when you ordered "break and attack", or on the Kilrah mission series in WC3, where everyone obeys completely, was rather annoying.

Vaquero was my usual second-to-last choice, as he wasn't good at just about anything. Vagabond? Good all-arounder. Flint? Capship chick. Cobra? Maniac's aggression without his habit of ignoring orders. Hobbes? Fairly good, but has Maniac's problem of "friendly fire". But Vaquero? I had to save his ass far more often than all other choices I've flown with, combined.

In WC4? I didn't fly with a lot of folks, but that was less because they sucked than because once I got to the UBW, Primate was awesome. Skilled, doesn't disobey, and fairly assertive about "take it to the enemy". The other pilots don't really stick in my mind as particularly good or bad, except for Maniac and Vagabond  ^*

, who are pretty much their WC3 selves (read: Scrappy jerkass and above-average, respectively).

(What, you thought only RPGs gave you choices in who to go with? )

edited 8th Jun '10 9:43:52 AM by Nohbody

All your safe space are belong to Trump

Every character in Fallout 3. I was just so ticked off that they would even ask, hello, i'm the lone wanderer with a sniper rifle and max stealth why the hell would I want anyone to come along and ruin my strategy, as well as..... my mystique.

FF 6 - Gau, too much time to tech up his rages and not all of them were useful. Also Mog, cutesy character with zerking mode dances and no character development I could notice, nah.

FF 7 - Just like everyone else, I HATED Cait Sith.

FF 8 - Rinoa, I can't even remember why I disliked her more than anyone else, maybe it was cause she was usually underleveled cause she was constantly getting kidnapped.

FF 10 - Khimari (sp?) he has no specialty, I never ended up with any good blue magic for him, and he never developed as a character until 3/4ths of the way through the game, and just barely then.

Breath of Fire 2 - Jean the frog, until you could use your shamans to power him up (about 80% of the way through the game) he was awful, slow, low damage, bad magic, if it weren't for him becoming a badass once you could use the holy+water shaman combo on him, he'd be worse than Cait Sith.

Tales of Vesperia - Exact reason as the OP, I'd rather have a real character that can talk.

Dragon Age Origins - The dog, same thing.

Mass effect - Kaiden, I accidently killed Ashley instead of him, god I wish I hadn't he was a whiner that wasn't even that useful in combat.

Scratch the surface of a cynic and you'll find a dissapointed idealist.

Didn't everything?

I never used Peco, which is a shame, since he apparently exhibits Magikarp Power later on.

...eventually, we will reach a maximum entropy state where nobody has their own socks or underwear, or knows who to ask to get them back.

@Zakdos: That reminds me:

Phantasy Star Universe: Anyone who I don't absolutely have to use. Oh god. Why won't they let me be?! I hate them so much!

edited 8th Jun '10 11:10:11 AM by Miijhal

Naoto does have Mind Charge, and between that and Megido she does decent damage against bosses. You just need to make sure she has SP left over, which I did by spamming Deathbound during the dungeon.

Not having Yosuke was fine since my party was consistently two physical users and Yukiko anyway, and the important part in dungeons was conserving SP. As for Kanji, he's not great in random battles, but he's excellent against bosses, especially once he gets Matarukaja.

Torment liveblog is still hiatusing. You can vandalize my contributor page if you want something to do.

Baldurs Gate 2: Aerie. Unlike the last guy who listed her, I don't use her because I hate her (I actually like her as a character, and she's not nearly as wangsty as people claim she is), but because I don't want to risk a romance conflict with Jahiera. (I do have the BG 2 Tweakpack, which supposedly removes the conflicts, but it still doesn't seem right.)

Tales Of Vesperia: Like others, I didn't have much use for Repede, but he is capable of holding his own, granted.

Fallout 3: Any of the humanoid followers. Sorry Cross and Fawkes, but Dogmeat is all I need. :>

Breath Of Fire: Mogu and Gobi. Except in fusions, of course. I dunno why, it's probably because I've already got a nice team when I meet them.
Breath Of Fire 2: Spar and Jean. Same as above.
Final Fantasy VI: Celes, Setzer, Relm and Mog. I just can't seem to get the use I want out of them...
Final Fantasy VII: Cait Sith. Same as the top one.
Final Fantasy X: Kimahri. ...yeah. No.

edited 8th Jun '10 12:00:13 PM by Lemurian

Join us in our quest to play all RPG video games! Moving on to disc 2 of Grandia!

I brought Kaidan along for most of my first run through Mass Effect 1 for the achievement. I never touched him for runs through anything harder than Normal.

It's funny, since reading Leovinus' LP of FFVIII I, too, find myself possessed of an innate dislike for Zell. Which is a fair turnaround from when I was 12 and he was my favourite character.

"You can only come to the morning through the shadows."