Party Members you never bring along

Chrono Trigger: Marle. Sure, she knew haste, but she still couldn't do anything that other party members couldn't do better, or at least just as well.

Final Fantasy VI: Umaro. Also, Cyan. Berserkers are bad, and I couldn't find any decent use for Cyan.

Final Fantasy VII: Cait Sith. Need I even say why?

Final Fantasy X: Kimahri. Once again, he couldn't do anything that others couldn't do better. And blue magic in FFX was pretty awful.

Fallout 1/2: Anyone. At all. The last thing I need is my back perforated.

Dragon Age: The dog. In my case, named "Vecna". Sure, he was a decent character, but you don't get much in the way of interesting conversation from a canine.

edited 8th Jun '10 12:21:40 PM by Darxzero

Escape.

Oh, yes. In Fallout 3 i never used Cross because Fawkes is so overpowered it makes no sense to not use him instead. And in Chrono Trigger I always used Robo for healing and Frog for when I was really desperate for Water magic, my two least used characters were Frog and Marle. All-melee with Robo Crono and Ayla took care of most threats and Magus Luca and Robo were for when I actually had to use magic.

edited 8th Jun '10 12:46:06 PM by TheAdversary

Well, I like to imagine there was a reason you find him in the World Of Ruin inside the now lifeless Moogle Den, staring at a charm named after one of the moogles that helped you at the start.

Also, he can naturally equip lances, so he makes quite the effective Dragoon.

As for Cyan, the trick is to set up your turn order so that you have him charge while everyone else is performing their powerful, long-animation attacks. Or put him in a team with berserkers. Either way, you've set things up so that his charge times aren't impeding your team's fighting ability.

And I like Gau, because of Catscratch.

Yeah I don't know why I'm spending a lot of this thread defending characters instead of calling them out. Sorry 'bout that.

Oh! Actual contribution! Final Fantasy Tactics A 2. Screw you, Al-Cid. You take up a character slot on my clan that I would otherwise use for an awesome Generic, I can't drop you from the clan, I have to get you for 100% Completion, and unlike Adelle, Hurdy, Vann, and Penelo, you don't even have the decency to be able to change classes?! You have no excuse- no excuse not to be able to change classes like the entire rest of the recruitable characters. I was planning to make you an awesome Agent/Fighter hybrid, but no. You had to lock yourself into one class, so you are getting one or two token battles to keep my clan's average levels up, but do not think I'm going to use you in serious battles. You blew your chance, buddy.

I have a message from another time...

^ Al-Cid was a dick. And his skills were shameful.

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

Yeah pretty much.

Also, FFX...Khimari, because why the hell would they make blue magic(the only good thing about him) require a special move to get, then make it a LIMIT BREAK? That defies all sense. Also, though I seem to be in the minority, Wakka. For some reason he just annoyed me. I didn't much care for him as a character, I didn't like his pitiful(in comparison) damage, though I'm told it gets better, I couldn't find it in me to play that much blitzball, even though I do enjoy. It's just tedious. All in all, I never used him. EVER.

:smug:

If i was allowed to Jaster Rogue would never be permitted to step off of the Dorgenark. He's just so damn boring.

And while i'm talking about Sky Pirates, I never looked twice at Enrique when it came to choosing my fourth party member. I guess there's nothing too wrong with him, but compared to Drachma and Gilder... Yeah, no.

Another for Kaidan from Mass Effect.

Would have been the same for Jacob but he became "that guy I bring when I have Miranda with me".

Umbran Climax◊

Actually you can just equip everyone with Silvite Rings/Valuan Medallion and have Gilder spam Aura of Denial, which prevents Status Ailments from affecting you. Only thing you have to worry about then is the attacks of enemies.

Fallout 3: Fawkes, Butch, Clover

Kot OR: Mission, Zalbaar, T3 Mass Effect 1: Kaiden, Liara. Mass Effect 2: Miranda, Jacob.

"It's so hard to be humble, knowing how great I am."

I can think of maybe one time I seriously used Lakilester (the Lakitu-partner... I use him so little I don't even remember his name!) in battle. All he does is hit one guy for damage, hit everyone for weak damage, possibly clear the field (but no Star Points!), and let Mario possibly dodge attacks for 5 turns... he has nothing to do serious damage to enemies.

Mind you, anytime I wasn't interested in battle, I liked to ride him around since he goes faster than Mario can walk...

It's just weird that they made him the only talking moogle and then he never really says anything. Maybe I'm misremembering.

Also, very true about the dragoon thing, I never realized that spears did better damage with Jump until I got the GBA version though *facepalm*

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

The problem with that is that by the time Cyan actually gets to use that bushido you've charged up, everything's dead already.

Would an entire generic class count here? Or does that go in the equipment/powers thread? I'm talking about FFTA 2's Tinkers. Seriously, they'd be fun if the computer wasn't fudging the coin tosses. At least that's how it feels a lot of the time.

I heard the trick with Cyan was to bump him with a Relic that makes him get initiative.

Also, Gau's Rages are powerful; you just have to pick the best (Stray Cat is actually pretty useful if you're like me, who only gives the Quick + Ultima to the mages)

INT is knowing a tomato is a fruit. WIS is knowing it doesn't belong in a fruit salad. CHA is convincing people that it does.

I'm going to break the combo here and say that I honestly preferred Kaidan over Ashley, ability-wise anyways (story-wise, well, I don't particularly care for either of them), to the point of, yes, rescuing him on Virmire.

In my experience, anyways, squadmates in ME1 were only useful for a. any tech/biotic abilities they had, and b. their ability to serve as meatshields, with "b" being rather intermittent. Given that Ashley is strictly limited to the latter and Kaidan isn't, well...

While I did make it a point to rotate my squadmates as much as possible in both games, in the first one I left Ashley organizing the armory most of the time.

edited 8th Jun '10 5:42:11 PM by Reflextion

Meanwhile, I thought Combat was brutally overpowered in the first game, and had the option to sit back with a martini while Ashley and Wrex did their thing.

As a character though, I'm not afraid to admit I preferred Kaidan over Ashley. While she certainly had an excuse for it, the Fantastic Racism was a turnoff.

I have yet to play the second, but in the first Mass Effect, the only four squadmates to ever set foot outside the Normandy after their recruitment were Liara, Tali(my primary two, considering I play as a Soldier/Shock Trooper), Wrex(only until I recruited Liara, and then later for Pinnacle Station), and Garrus(only for Pinnacle Station).

I am a proud member of the Western Federation's Anti-Japan Media Task Force. My work is very important.

The "trick" with Cyan is to teach him that spell that costs 99 MP and gives the caster two actions. What the description underemphasizes is that time stops until both actions are selected, and what it doesn't mention at all is that you can still charge his techs during the time stop. 99 MP is worth it for two uses of his seventh tech at 8,000 damage each.

Edit: In regards to Kaidan and Ashley, all my playthroughs have been as a guy, and I never engage in romances in games where the main character is an audience stand-in—it makes me feel sleazy, you know? After I bluntly told both Ashley and Liara to go away, they still fought over me, and I was forced to choose one. Having heard the spoilers ahead of time, I picked Ashley and killed her off just so I wouldn't have to deal with the romance thing.

edited 8th Jun '10 5:57:54 PM by feotakahari

That's Feo . . . He's a disgusting, mysoginistic, paedophilic asshat who moonlights as a shitty writer—Something Awful

I almost never used Magus and Robo in Chrono Trigger, but I don't think they're bad characters. For the record, my favorite team consists of Crono, Frog and Ayla.

As for Mass Effect, my squad choice in the first game depended on which class I made my Shepard. I didn't use Ashley when I went through the game as a soldier, but she was pretty valuable when I went through it as an adept. In the second game, though... Jack is always on the sidelines for me. Generally speaking, I'd rather use a vanguard-type like Jacob or Thane than a straight-up adept, and even in that department I prefer Samara.

Hmm, something's different about this topic... how many geth are linked together? All of them?! They're in the system! Shut everything down before— ASSUMING CONTROL OF THIS THREAD

Logged: The commanding officer is aboard. XO Pressley stands relieved.

Knights of the Old Republic I: Mission, Zaalbar, and both droids.

Knights of the Old Republic II: All of the droids.

I actually liked switching around everyone in Mass Effect.

@feotakahari: Economizers/Celestriads.

INT is knowing a tomato is a fruit. WIS is knowing it doesn't belong in a fruit salad. CHA is convincing people that it does.

Or Osmose.

Annoying. The word you were looking for was annoying. His range of spells and the damage he did with some of them easily offset being incapable of triple-techs without an accessory. Put Crono in as a second party member, and it doesn't matter who you pick for the third.

Also, what's with all the Umaro hate? Sure, you don't control him, but outfit him with a Blizzard Orb and a Rage Ring and just watch him go to town.

edited 8th Jun '10 6:49:14 PM by Zephid

I wrote about a fish turning into the moon.

FinalFantasy7 Cait Sith, like most of y'all. Also Yuffie. SO Yuffie, she was so fucking useless in combat, and Aeris, well, because I can't exactly keep her. I stayed with Cloud, Cid, and Vincent most of the game.

FinalFantasy8 Rinoa, she wasn't interesting to me and she was so pitifully weak in both body and mind(Couldn't fight and had no backbone). Also Selphie, same reason I didn't use Yuffie. I stayed with Squall, Irvine, and Zell.

MassEffect Also Kaidan, I tend not to use Biotics and I only kept him around until I got Garrus to be my hacker and cracker/sniper. I romanced Ashley because Liara was a twit, and I like a woman who can cover a sector with a rifle.

MassEffect2 Miranda and Jacob. I didn't think Jacob was interesting enough, and a combination of Mirandas huge manjaw, rabbit teeth, and constant insistence that she was genetically modified to be beautiful and physically perfect when I found her ugly made me ditch her. I also don't use biotics when More Dakka is available in the form of Soldier Shep, Garrus, and Tali is always mandatory.

edited 8th Jun '10 6:49:35 PM by Barkey

I have a tendency to only use the alien characters in the Mass Effect games.

Especially Garrus and Tali. Mmmm....

edited 8th Jun '10 7:13:25 PM by Deathonabun

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