RPGs: Useless companions

[Brawndo]

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

FF5: Class-wise, the Ninja. Not sure why...

Then you don't know about the Ninja ability Gil Toss, which practically breaks the game.

Step 1: Throw gil at enemies for massive damage
Step 2: Get gil from dead enemies to replace gil thrown at said enemies
Step 3: Repeat Steps 1-2 in every battle ever
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Profit

 

[TD_Knight]

Jack. She's useless and uninteresting.
that thief chick. Ditto.

Jack's shockwave was somewhat handy against husks and the like, and she did have pull to set up warp detonations. And she's a tsundere woobie, go give her a hug

As for Kasumi, her flashbang was one of, if not, the most overpowered abilities in the game. I mean seriously, an ability on a relatively short cooldown that staggers enemies through shields/armour/barriers, causes weapon overheats, does damage, has a huge radius, and knocks down unshielded targets for about 7 seconds or so.

Forget her shadow strike, flashbang's where it's at.

Anyways, Sten from DA:O lacked a specialization and didn't really have anything to compensate, and Zevran was supposed to be a Cunning based Assassin but he starts out with high Dexterity instead, and his friendship bonuses give him more Dexterity, even though the Assassin tree scales with Cunning and Lethality makes rogues use Cunning in place of Strength.

Oghren too, since 2H warriors in DA:O weren't that great even if you micromanaged them and weaved in Sunder Arms/Armour in between normal strikes.

So, I'd just go with those three.

 

[ms_sunlight]

- Same goes for KOTOR 1 and 2. Mission, T3, G0-T0, Carth *ugh*, Bao-Dur... those games were all about the Jedi party members for me. I appreciated that KOTOR 2 gave most of your squadmates a chance to shine through their solo / group missions though.

Bao-Dur can be a Jedi if you want. He's brilliant as a Jedi Guardian, does serious damage and can tank too. He's one of my favourite characters in that game - I love his relationship with the Jedi Exile.

I love the Exile's companions in general, especially if you go light side; if I had to pick the best set of companions in any RPG ever, they would probably be it.

 

[JesterRaiin]

Jack. She's useless and uninteresting.
that thief chick. Ditto.

Jack's shockwave was somewhat handy against husks and the like, and she did have pull to set up warp detonations. And she's a tsundere woobie, go give her a hug

As for Kasumi, her flashbang was one of, if not, the most overpowered abilities in the game. I mean seriously, an ability on a relatively short cooldown that staggers enemies through shields/armour/barriers, causes weapon overheats, does damage, has a huge radius, and knocks down unshielded targets for about 7 seconds or so.

Forget her shadow strike, flashbang's where it's at.

Naaaaaaaaaaah. Other Shepardites were way much better without any supervision whatsoever... I'm not big fan of doing it hard way.

 

[everythingbeeps]

There are companions in EVERY RPG I don't use, because I'm one of those people who will typically find my three or four favorites and ride them the whole game.

Perfect example is Mass Effect 2. My go-to party will include two of the following: Mordin, Miranda, Jack, or Tali. The rest of the companions sit unused in their little hidey-holes. It's not that they're "useless" per se, I just have no use for them.

 

[McMarbles]

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

FF5: Class-wise, the Ninja. Not sure why...

Then you don't know about the Ninja ability Gil Toss, which practically breaks the game.

Step 1: Throw gil at enemies for massive damage
Step 2: Get gil from dead enemies to replace gil thrown at said enemies
Step 3: Repeat Steps 1-2 in every battle ever
Step 4: ???
Step 5: Profit

And if Gil-Toss/Zeninage doesn't break the game, dual-weilding/the Ranger's Scattershot does.

 

[putowtin]

I got a confession, my first playthrough of Fallout 3, I didn't even realise you could have companions!
In my second playthrough I used companions... never again! Idiots just run off and get shoot or shot me in the f@cking back!

 

[Reishadowen]

While not technically an RPG it is described as one, Mass Effect 2's Jack has to be one of the most useless characters ever. In a possible case of worst false adverting ever, Jack is described as being one of the most dangerous and most powerful biotic in the galaxy. And when you first meet her, it seems that way as she has single handedly almost destroyed half the prison complex where she is being held. However, once she joins you cheery cast of misfits...well...my cat is a more powerful biotic. Her only use is to make the biotic shield during the suicide mission and thats it. Ever get the feeling you've been conned?

Haha truth. I have no idea why the devs thought the shockwave power was remotely useful for anything in that game. At least she has pull?

Well, while I admit "pull" kinda sucks, as does her special ammo power, she is the only team-mate to learn Shockwave. While not great, it absolutely SHREDDED husks like a hot-knife through butter. One well-aimed blast and you could take out a whole platform of them; those that didn't go off cliffs would insta-die anyways regardless. Another fun use was that it destroyed destructible cover almost instantly, and it would often send enemies that were taking cover(destructible or not) flying out into the open.

But otherwise, I too feel she was a little bit of a letdown when you finally recruited her.

I would also comment about Fire Emblem characters, but if I did, I'd be here all d*mn day. To put it VERY short and generalized list, pretty much anyone who isn't a Lord, Amelia from Sacred Stones(as general-class), or part of the Greil Mercenaries, has a better chance of sucking than being good.

 

[GundamSentinel]

Skyrim - everyone is useless unless as pack animal or distraction, hardly ever use them.

KotOR 1 and 2 - I never use any of the robot companions (even though HK-47 is hilarious), them being mechanic is just too much hassle. Oh, and never Juhani either, because she annoys me.

FFX - I practically never use Rikku, she just doesn't fit in my playstyle, except when going against machines.

FFXIII - I only use Lightning, Fang and Hope, because they are the best for their roles, the rest can stay on the bench.

Mass Effect 2 - I practically only use Miranda and Grunt, the rest is on the B-team, especially Jack, she can rot for all I care.

Fallout 3 - Does anyone need anyone other than Fawkes?

Dragon Age: Origins - I hate every single one of them, except the dog. Stop judging me, self-righteous assholes! Especially you, Morrigan!

 

[Nouw]

Is it fair to say that Lydia from Skyrim was supposed to be more than just a temporary container until you bought a house?

 

[FalloutJack]

I almost never use Cid in FF7.

To be fair, though, a team of absolute destruction can be found in Cloud, Barret, and Cid. They're the ones I used to kill Sephiroth BEFORE he could cast Super Nova once. Their final Limit Breaks are so powerful that it's just like that. (Cid's own is, of course, a bomb-run with the Highwind, with many high-damaging explosions.)

Still, to my mind...I could say any number of character that's already been said, but the ULTIMATE useless RPG companion in is the one they throw at you who has NO IMPACT ON ANYTHING EVER.

Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance 2 - There is a point towards the end of the game where you are off to fight the villain by traversing a wasteland full of the undead and a castle with shadow-creatures all throughout the place, all to meet a sinister vampire. You have two companions who will fire an endless array of knifes and fireballs at the enemies...which do ABSOLUTELY NO DAMAGE. I checked! I walked around as they attacked a skeleton and waited for the sucker to die. NOTHING HAPPENED. Those two are there to look pretty, not to actually have any bearing on ANYTHING. Worthless!

 

[Veylon]

Rafa and Malak from Final Fantasy Tactics. They get a whole plot arc where a villain is trying to get his hands on their powers. I have no idea why; all they do is imprecisely throw some energy around. Many of the other named characters are similarly underpowered and, in a game where you only get to bring five to a battle, there's no reason to ever use them. If I didn't suffer from bouts of completionism, I'd tell them to hit the road.

 

[ResonanceSD]

Is it fair to say that Lydia from Skyrim was supposed to be more than just a temporary container until you bought a house?

She looks good in full daedric.

 

[ultrachicken]

Leliana. Annoying voice, useless abilities, massive waste of space.

She comes with the Bard specialization, and can be made into a powerful archer, and archers are insanely good DPS when built right. I wouldn't classify her as having useless abilities. The worst thing about her is how keeping her in your party means sucking the Chantry's collective dick whenever she commands.

OT: All companions in Skyrim are all pretty much useless. Even if they can actually hold their own sufficiently, letting them do your fighting hampers your rate of skill increase. Their only redeeming quality is that they can carry all your crap, but once you get a house you can just dump anything you don't want to sell in a chest.

Fallout 3 - Everyone except Fawkes

This. Fawkes is the reason why I always play a good karma character (that, and the fact that I have an amazing amount of sympathy for the plights of various collections of pixels).

 

[Paladin Anderson]

That freakish pink animal thing in Xenogears. The game tries so hard to be serious all the time, but do they realize the main character is followed by a freakish girly carebear / muppet thing?!

Actually, in that one underground area at the end of the game, can't remember where it is it's been many years, you can buy state increasing items for your characters. Now, doesn't help much in the end game since most fighting takes place in mechs...

Except for the giant pink thing. You can throw a fortune of them on it and when it grows to giant mech size it'll be more powerful than any of your robots AND it doesn't have to worry about fuel.

 

[Paladin Anderson]

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.

There's a mod you can download that makes Dog (Barkspawn in my game) an summon. So you get to have him as a full fledged party member without losing the character slot. You'll want to crank up the difficulty a notch to compensate.

 

[Shoggoth2588]

hm...good question.

Dragon Age Origins: Alistar. He annoyed me to no end. When forced to interact with him I was always a dick towards him.

Dragon Age 2: Humans, especially what's-her-name...the pirate wannabe. She reminded me of Megan Fox in that she always seemed look like she was sticky and, dirty. Don't care much for slutty girls either to be honest.

Fallout 3: I actually didn't use any of the companions until I ran into Fawkes. The dog seemed useless to me and I didn't want anyone else following me around.

Fallout New Vegas: What's-her-name from the Brotherhood of Steel. Love the Brotherhood but she seemed kind of bland.

Final Fantasy 7: I didn't care for Barrett or, Aerith to be honest. Nanaki was also someone I just couldn't get into. My party always ended up being Cloud, Yuffie and, Vincent.

Final Fantasy 8: I had a powerful dislike of the Laguna sections, mainly because of Ward. Kiros was freaking awesome though. I also kept Irvine out of my party after playthrough 2 or 3 (whichever one it was when I started paying attention to the story). You couldn't take the shot Irvine?! Well fine then, get the hell away from us and leave Selphie alone too!

Final Fantasy 9: Eiko for being annoying and, Freya. I never cared for Jumping and Dragoon powers.

Mass Effect: Humans. I want to be part of a massive space odyssey, I can't do that with a bunch of freaking humans all over the place and sharing in my wonderment.

Mass Effect 2: Same as above but since there are more aliens...no, still just humans. I should have used Thane a lot more than I did but Grunt is a tank and, Mordin is hilarious.

Knights of the Old Republic: For this one, I almost exclusively had another force-user and, a droid. I disliked Juhani and, Bastila. Carth was fine but I didn't care too much for him and Zalbaar...he can take his life-debt with Mission and just leave.

Sith Lords (KotOR 2): Atton, Handmaiden, Mira and, Visas. I never liked using any of them but, especially Atton. It's funny if he goes Sith but he turns into a freaking henchman.

 

[Battleaxx90]

Xenoblade Chronicles: The only party members I ever used in my first playthrough were Shulk (The main character with the magical sword), Reyn (The tank) and Sharla (The healer). I occasionally switched out Sharla or Reyn with Dunban (DPS), but not often. Once I got the 7th party member*, I pretty much stuck with Shulk/Reyn/7th for the rest of the game. I considered Mellia (Black Mage) to be too fragile to be useful; and Riki? Well...

Everything you need to know about him, right there.

It was only AFTER I finished my first playthrough that, due to the way the level-up system works, it's best to vary your party as often as you can... and I was wondering why the Final Boss was givin' me grief.

* No, I'm not telling you who the 7th Party Member is. Deal.

 

[Pontus Hashis]

Fallout New Vegas: What's-her-name from the Brotherhood of Steel. Love the Brotherhood but she seemed kind of bland.

BLASPHEMY!!!
Love Veronica, she is such a lovable but tragic chracter!

Anyway, for me I'll sa that I've never found a companion that I like in a Bethesta game. Dogmeat doesn't really count, since that is just an old FO1 charchter.

In New Vegas, I don't like the Granny-Mutant, and I don't care for Cass nor Boone (The Genocidal A-hole).

I don't like the Mass Effect humans, except Jack.

Planescape, I dumped Fall-from-grace and took here earings for the Tiefling. I need to finish that game.

Fuck the robots from Kotor.

I need to get DA:O again.