Useless RPG Characters

[keillord]

I have recently noticed that most rpgs that I play have 2 or 3 main characters that are well developed, cool, fun to play as ect. I also noticed that most of these rpgs also have 2 or 3 extra main characters that seem to be just tacked on for no reason. The final fantasy series does this alot. For example: do we really need a cat seith, yuffie, riku, that blue cheif from FF9.The game would proceed the same without them, perhaps even better.

I was wondering why they do this?

Also I could only think of Final fantasy examples, if you guys know other rpg examples, tell me.

 

[thenoblitt]

well youve already said mine, i would have to say cait sith is pretty pathetic

 

[Toar]

Okay, think back to Resident Evil Code Veronica. Remember that one kid/teen with the gold lugers? NO? Well, that is because they threw him in when he clearly didn't matter and didn't continue a plot in the games after.

Also, this doesn't count, but Louis from L4D. I HATE him with a capital HATE. The mother f***er watched me as I died! Now I'm trolling on a thread mad...

Oh, just thought of the reason. There is the off chance that a character will be loved b/c of his obscurity. Look at Vincent from FFVII. Completely optional character, but he gets his own game. The character doesn't necessarily need development to be good, but it helps.

 

[RatRace123]

It's a given that in RPGs with a large cast there will be like maybe 4 people you will use throughout the entire game.

I can't think of any at the moment, except for the Dog in Dragon Age. He was a decent damage dealer, but far outshined by Allistair, Sten, Shale, Oghren and potentially your own character.

Still he was the most fun to talk to.

 

[Nigh Invulnerable]

I found basically all non-Jedi characters in KOTOR to be essentially useless. At least in the second game you could train them in Jedi levels. In Shadow Hearts: From the New World I thought Hilda was fairly useless.

 

[likalaruku]

For me, it's usually the NPCs that are useless. The possible tag-alongs you never add to your party, the merchants who sell shit way below your level, the other merchant in the same town who sells the exact same shit, the NPCs you add via mods who's only purpose is to make the towns look more occupied.

 

[M5Henry]

I would say Ramus from LUNAR: Silver Star Story, but I'm not sure he counts since he's only in the party until after the first/second(depending on what verion you're playing) boss.

 

[GreyFox389]

Pretty much everyone on Chrono Cross.

I played through that game maybe 8 years ago and I'm pretty sure more than half the characters were pointless.

And the game doesn't really make an effort to hide this. You use them once to do something arbitrary, then they just sit in your party queue and you can put them in your team if you want.

 

[gigastrike]

You know, I hear Rikku has great overdrives.

I hated having to lug Cid around in FF4 (Japanese). He's a weak fighter that's supposed to be balanced by being able to take advantage of enemy weaknesses, but the enemies aren't hard and, right before you hit a point where his analyze ablility would actually be useful, he leaves!

 

[Altorin]

You know, I hear Rikku has great overdrives.

If you import Albhed Primers to get the reward early, Rikku's Overdrive is the best thing in the game to that point.

Underdog's Secret + Underdog's Secret = dead anything, or nearly dead anything.

 

[NeutralDrow]

Hard to say. I'm one of those people who deliberately tries to use everyone, and I have to say it's usually worked for me.

Closest I've ever come to the opposite would be in Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, but I wouldn't call all the late-joining characters "useless." I simply didn't need them, because I flat-out refused to let any of my early units get killed.

_>

And not just for gameplay reasons. Their death lines can be fuggin' tragic. Rhys and Rolf even made my eyes water in guilt.

 

[TheRocketeer]

All but about three or four characters in FFVI. Some characters have only one or two instances in which they are even remotely relevant to the narrative, and a good number of the characters are almost as unimportant as the joke characters. It's amazing that an entire cast can be made up of dead weight.

I still get a kick out of people suggesting that Terra isn't the main character of FFVI.

 

[Sovereignty]

Zaeed in Mass Effect 2. I didn't like him. Felt no need to pursue conversation with him. Never put him in my party. And he stole my shoes =(

 

[shini]

At least half the characters in any Suikoden game. Made worse by the fact that you need to actively hunt them down.

 

[Chris Sharka]

Well this one time I made a Ranger in 3.5 ed. DnD ...

Oh. Video games. Right.

Mass Effect 2 has so many characters that they can't all be useful mechanics wise. Legion for example was almost the exact same as Tali mechanics wise. The real difference being Sniper vs Shotgun. I personally used Miranda and ... uh ... the Drell guy. They both had Warp.

This was both more and less true for Mass Effect for two reason.
One: Achievements. Everyone aside from the characters you achievements for are useless.
Two: After you've played through the game 3 times, it really depends on what you need. Do you need someone with Electronics and Decryption? Do you need a biotic god who makes it so that your enemies stand no chance facing down your bullets?
Or, I guess, just choose whoever you please. That's what I did.

 

[FalloutJack]

Let's see...

Everyone from FF8 is useless.

Relm and Strago from FF6 are kinda' useless.

Cecil from FF4 is useless once he becomes a Paladin. Also, the bard is fantastically useless all the time. Tellah is useless until he remembers his spells (and then he DIES soon after). Rydia is useless until she ages in Bahamut's realm.

Chu-Chu from Xenogears. Seriously, WTF? Get out of my game and get me a death machine or something.

Momo from the first Xenosaga game. I understand they did better later, but for now...no.

(All games I have not mentioned, I either made the characters awesome in them or I haven't played it yet. Or I forgot about it.)

 

[BattlePope]

I'd have to say that Yuffie at least had an ultimate/final weapon that so long as the creatures were stronger than her she did more damage with it, and she was an optional character to recruit, but I at least had fun with the side quests that were caused by her mischief and she was more or less added as comic relief. Cait Sith is okay since in a single hit with dice (provided it's sufficiently leveled) can make Ultima Weapon run away on that first scripted encounter. I felt that other than his Limit Breaks, Cloud was pretty useless for the story.

Ten had Tidus and Wakka. I love how we have an emo kid with blond hair and an overtly racist Caribbean stereotype to choose from. And then we have just about everything/everyone in the Halo universe and the Gears of War universe as well.