RPGs: Useless companions

[Souplex]

Tali in Mass Effect 1 and 2.
She's boring, and she's pretty damn useless.

 

[scorptatious]

I kind of make it a habit to rotate party members throughout an RPG so they all get a chance to shine.

That being said, I do have some party members that I don't use as much as others.

Chrono Trigger DS: Ayla. Sure, she can do some pretty serious damage. But I always preferred some of the other characters.

Mass Effect 1: Probably Kaiden. This kind of depends on which of my Shepards I'm using though. I tend to use him a bit more as my Fem Shep as I was romancing him as her.

Mass Effect 2: I used Zaeed the least. I never really liked the guy that much. Compared to say, Kasumi, he was sort of seemed like an afterthought.

Final Fantasy VII: Used to be Cait Sith. But on my second playthrough I gave him more of a chance. I found him to be rather useful despite popular opinion.

Final Fantasy IX: Freya. Don't get me wrong, I really liked her character. And she is a good party member. Late game though, I found myself using her less and less. She sort of became a jack of all trades kind of character and I much preferred using characters like Eiko (best healer in the game IMO) and Quina (Absolute beast if you spend enough time getting some of his/her blue magic spells like Angel Snack and Auto-Life. Both of which are useful for the final boss.)

Final Fantasy X: Kimahri. Same problem as Freya. I liked his character, but compared to everyone else, he didn't really improve too much in terms of damage output.

Final Fantasy IV DS: Um... No one. The game doesn't let you pick party members.

Final Fantasy XII: Probably Fang. She was kind of my least favorite character in that game.

 

[DustyDrB]

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.

Another archery fan in Dragon Age: Origins? Nice to meet you.
Yeah, Song of Courage + Aim + Far Song/Marjolanne's Recurve/Sorrows of Arlathan= Win. You pretty much auto-crit by mid-game.

 

[ecoho]

ok lets see

ME1: i never used wrex.....yeah i love him as a character but i needed tali and garus more.
ME2: jacob and samara. nevr found a good use for them.
DAO: morigan,dog,ogran,and zevran. dont like morigan. dog was just useless.ogran do i even have to say? zevran is out classed by liliana
DA2: anders,carver,and isibella. anders why oh why did you change?! carver cause hes useless. isibella cause i never found a use for her.

 

[Jfswift]

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?!

Ack, and I had almost erased that one from my memory too. Yea I remember that worthless thing although it was useful for one single boss fight (atop Solaris or w/e that place was called).

 

[Mr Dizazta]

Dragon Age Origins:
Zevran (never really used him much. Always used Leliana over him)
Oghren (I don't need a 2-hander in DAO and I usually get him late)
Sten (Same reason a Oghren, but this guy gets only half the specializations)
Barkspawn (doesn't really feel like a really companion to me. Only redeeming fact is that he is excellent against dragons)

Dragon Age 2:
Isabela (never really used her much in the game. I usually just used Varric as my go to rogue)

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim:
Every companion I ever used. Only useful as an extra backpack. And for The Nine's sake get out of my way. Oh and please do not pick a fight with one of our allies.

Mass Effect:
Kaidan (not used much because I prefer using Wrex/Garrus/Liara)
Ashley (Generic soldier. Why do I need another soldier when I am already one?)
Tali (Too squishy to justify shotgun talent. Garrus is just better that her.)

Mass Effect 2:
Jack (Powers are underwhelming)

 

[Double A]

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

Basically, I could go on...

Jolee is a badass and his backstory is amazing. He's also quite funny. I soon realized that I was doing scores more of damage with a saber (and only one at that) than anyone had with a blaster or vibrosword, so once I got the chance, I started using only Jedi, unless there was a character who had unique missony crap, or there were mines.

I'll probably do it different next playthrough, whenever that may be, but no matter what, the fuzzball is completely useless after you get lightsabers. Oooh, you're a melee-based character, but can't use any of the best weapons in the entire game? Greaaat. Now go play with Mission while I save the galaxy.

In Golden Sun Dark Dawn, Reif is completely useless. Karis can do party healing AND attacking. At no point in the absurdly easy game did I need a Pure Wish at the end of the turn more than a Healing Gust at the start of it (the same thing happened to me with Jenna and Mia in TLA). I also found the Fire Adepts to be my second least used, because all they have going for them is damage. With low PP and nonexistant speed, that really doesn't mix. Himi's complete lack of single-target Psyenergy and low attack made her extremely useless to me as well, seeing that I usually only use Psyenergy for tough fights (which are EXTREMELY rare and even rarer against multiple foes). Everything else is just attack spam with the awesome new weapons. All of this wouldn't be such a big deal if Sveta wasn't so glaringly overpowered - speed, attack, defense, PP, spells, and the insanely awesome Werewolf form. I feel like a hack for having her in my party.

 

[ABLb0y]

Miranda in Mass Effect 2. Thanks, but I don't want to listen to her whining about how much it sucks to be impossibly beautiful.

Lightning in Final Fantasy 13. It's bad enough she's on the front cover without even being the main character. And besides, whatever she can do Fang and Sazh can do better.

 

[targren]

Black Belt gets swiftly outclassed by Fighter.

Only if you make the common mistake of keeping him equipped with a weapon through the whole game. I always thought it was weird in the original how he only had two weapons (wooden chucks and iron chucks) and you got the second very early on (Elfland, I think? Definitely before the earth cave.)

Once his levels are up, though, you unequip him and let him fight bare handed, and he will regularly out-damage a knight with Excalibur, if only by the virtue of doing 8 hits without casting "Fast" on him.

 

[AD-Stu]

- 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.

True, you can make him a Jedi, but I screwed up somehow by not taking him on enough sightseeing tours to gain enough influence with him to do it or something. Plus you can make pretty much everybody that isn't already a Jedi into one in that game.

 

[Ordinaryundone]

Garrus from Mass Effect 1. Sure he has a cool personality, but he is squishy as all get out and not really any more effective than anyone else in combat. Only able to wear Medium Armor+No shield boosting abilities=A Turian who will die. A lot. My team was usually Wrex and Tali, if just because Wrex could wear Heavy Armor and also Fortify, and Tali can boost her shields to completely unreasonable levels. On higher difficulties, I don't need help killing the enemies, but I do need distractions. And Garrus simply could not provide a decent one.

He's great in ME2 though. Assault Rifles, Snipers, and Overload? And I can recruit him almost immediately upon starting the game? I get the feeling he was a pretty constant third in most people's parties for that reason alone. He still seems to die a lot, though :/

 

[TheOneBearded]

Every companion in Skyrim. I only use them as meatbags to hold my stuff and I don't even notice them unless they block a door or entrance. This is not how a companion should be used for. In my opinion, the companions were better done in New Vegas.

 

[Kermi]

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.

I was actually just playing ME2 last night (trying to round out my careers before ME3 drops) and did the collector ship. I'm playing as a Sentinel and have pimped out my Tech Shield and Warp. Warp does jack against barriers, but ruins the day of armour and shields. I see anything put a purple bar, I tap RB and bam, no more collector. Even those pain in the ass scions don't stand up to too much punishment. If I need to spam a little SMG fire to take down barriers, first, that's fine too.

But yeah, I don't really use Jack either. NPCs don't use their biotics effectively/intelligently, so I usually take people who are better with guns or have better offensive powers. My most common combination is Tali/Garrus or sometimes Thane/Grunt if I want to mix it up. Sometimes I take Mordin just to hear the shit he says sometimes.

 

[Melon Hunter]

I am working on a hardcore play through of Fallout New Vegas, so all of the side kicks are avoided because I don't want them to die.

Oh, yeah. I feel for you. I've tried to play a Hardcore run with companions, but damn is it difficult to keep them alive. Pretty much every fight we have with Cazadors is bookended with me pumping a dozen Stimpacks into them because they will never use Antivenom for some reason. Still, so far I've kept everyone alive, if only because they're encased in the best armour I can find.

Personally, I've found the New Vegas companions to be OK. However, the Fallout 3 companions were atrocious. I gave up on them after Star Paladin Cross walked off the end of a ruined overpass one too many times, and after that only ever let Fawkes follow me. Hell, I didn't even find Dogmeat until my third playthrough

 

[Josh Hibbard]

Any arcane caster henchman in Neverwinter Nights outside Nytherra. Cast fireball at a rat, pha!

 

[JimmyC99]

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

wow really?, i loved Leliana, Lock-picking and giving her dual weilding and some archery worked wonders for me, plus she has a French accent, dam i is that sexy

OP: i hate hope from Final Fantasy XIII, god do i hate him soooo very much.

ME2 Jacob and Zaeed i didn't like at all his personality sucks and he is basically a soldier well you sir are never getting of the ship, and i didn't like Jack, don't know why just didn't.

 

[ms_sunlight]

Every companion in Skyrim. I only use them as meatbags to hold my stuff and I don't even notice them unless they block a door or entrance. This is not how a companion should be used for. In my opinion, the companions were better done in New Vegas.

I don't even bother with companions in Skyrim. I've done a stealth / archery playthrough, where companions would just be a hindrance. I'm now playing as a conjuror, with all the atronachs and zombies you could want to tank and damage for me. Who needs other people?