Which party member do you like the most but use the least and vice versa?

[Burnouts3s3]

I like to play RPGs with party members and watching them interact with one another. However, I find myself thinking about how I could bring certain party members along more than others but can't. This is when I realized what ludonarrative dissonance was and how it changed by experience. Mainly, it showed me which characters I liked but didn't bring with me and characters I actually despised but brought with me. I'm not talking about games like Divinity: Original Sin 2 (brilliant game BTW), where abilities, class, combat rolls and spells are interchangeable but games where abilities usually are not interchangable for the majority of the game.

For example, I like the Coon in South Park: Fractured But Whole but don't bring him along often because of his poor range and mobility. On the other end, I dislike Anders from DA2 because of how his character was handled but brought him along often because he's the only healing mage in the group when I'm not playing a mage.

Have you ever experienced anything like this?

 

[Xprimentyl]

What you?ve described is more a character?s practicality/functionality/ability weighed against their subjective appeal; ludonarrative dissonance is when gameplay and narrative are diametrically opposed to one another, almost oxymoronic, i.e.: when a young Lara Croft is a scared little girl in cutscenes, then turns into a ruthless killing machine during gameplay.

But OT, I?ve played plenty of RPGs where I favored one or another party member?s usefulness despite not liking them as a character. In Shining Force II, I favored Kazin?s unique magics earned when promoted with a special item despite his general pathetic-ness as a character. In in Final Fantasy VIII (yes, I?m of the few that actually loves that game,) Selphie is annoying as SHIT, but her limit breaker saves my ass constantly during some of the later fights, so Zell who?s only slightly more likeable as a character but whose limit breaker is shit (well, more a pain to use) gets left out when given the choice.

 

[CritialGaming]

I really really loved Aerith on my team. But I barely used her....for reasons .

I don't really have hated characters that I used because I hated them....errr well Vanielle from FFXIII, I hated that dumbass, but she was SOOOO strong.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Kasumi Goto - love her character, but her ME2 build just isn't that good. She's too weak to be a glass canon and no enough tactical skills to be viable.

The Coon from Fractured But Whole. Simply not good enough, despite being a major character. Always went with Callgirl, Captain Diabetes, and the Mosquito.

Also in KOTOR after you get Juhani, there's no reason not to just go all Jedi all the time. You can just annihilate any enemy in seconds with 3 leaping, twisting, casting Jedi doing force all over the place.

 

[meiam]

I generally find RPG to be pretty easy game, so it's hard to justify benching someone I like for someone I dislike just to get good ability. Maybe some fire emblem game, but most of them let you bring so many character that you never really have to make that choice.

Mass effect 2 on insanity maybe, I did bring Miranda a lot despite her character being so-so. But even then I don't think I would have brought Jacob along even if he had the perfect set of skill to balance my main character. In persona 5 I used Ryuji quite a bit in my party despite finding him more annoying than a screeching garbage bag, but that was mostly because I didn't find most of the other characters that were benched to be all that interesting, so the pain of switching him out wasn't really compensated.

 

[Ironman126]

Kasumi Goto - love her character, but her ME2 build just isn't that good. She's too weak to be a glass canon and no enough tactical skills to be viable.

Thane for me. Thought he was the most interesting ME2 character, but goddamn he is of no value.

On the other end, I dislike Anders from DA2 because of how his character was handled but brought him along often because he's the only healing mage in the group when I'm not playing a mage.

Merril, Varric, Isebela, and rogue Hawke is the only party you'll need. Now, I know what you're thinking, "Ironman, you daft scunner, you have no tank!" Yeah, nah, yeah, nah, mate. You don't need a tank, cuz nothing will live long enough to cause any damage. Except the fucking high dragon...

From Dragon Age: Origins, definitely Zeveran. I like him loads more than Leliana, but he can't pick locks from the start, so he can wait at camp. If rogues weren't complete dead weight, I might take him for combat reasons, but alas, they're useless.

Oh, and Veronica in Fallout New Vegas. She's great, but she punches things and I like to not run head-long at the deathclaws.

 

[Arnoxthe1]

Also in KOTOR after you get Juhani, there's no reason not to just go all Jedi all the time. You can just annihilate any enemy in seconds with 3 leaping, twisting, casting Jedi doing force all over the place.

Pretty much this. I never saw a point to the non-Force-sensitve party members. Except maybe Mission with her stealth abilities.

 

[Tanis]

FF12:
Fran is, technically, one of the weaker playable characters...but I still love having her in my party because she's got one of the better 'walk' animations.

 

[immortalfrieza]

I like all the cast in all the Tales Of games I've played, but by necessity there's really only a few I ever bother to use to actually fight with unless I'm required to, and chances are they are the first ones to join the group. The main as the fighter I'm controlling, another fighter for the AI, the best of the healers, and finally a mage to nuke everything while the rest of the party keeps the enemy busy works pretty well. I might switch them all out every so often if there's a skit in it for me, but otherwise I don't bother with anyone else but I love all the characters. I'd say the same about Dragon Age and Mass Effect

I can't think of any party members off the top of my head that I particularly hate in any given game I enjoy, chances are if there's a party member I hate as a character I won't use them either in combat just to avoid having to deal with them.

One of the reasons I like FF15 so much is because all of the party are useful and great characters at the same time, and since there's only 4 of them they all get large amounts of character development, which is how I think parties in general in RPGs should be structured, keep the numbers down so nobody sidelined and everybody is useful.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

Also in KOTOR after you get Juhani, there's no reason not to just go all Jedi all the time. You can just annihilate any enemy in seconds with 3 leaping, twisting, casting Jedi doing force all over the place.

Pretty much this. I never saw a point to the non-Force-sensitve party members. Except maybe Mission with her stealth abilities.

Mine was T3-M4 for his hacking. I love Mission Vao too, but I just had a stealthy Jedi to cover for her.
Never to my knowledge used Canderous or Zaalbar

 

[sXeth]

Baldurs Gate in a nutshell really. A lot of the interesting characters were kind of crap in their prebuilds (or showed up late game and were behind level curves or whatever, or you didn't have gear for them unless you had a guide on what to save).

The second one particularly had an issue with Rogues. The one lone pure rogue (and this was kind of important to disable instakill traps) becomes unusable partway through, leaving you to drag a rogue who has limited levels and can only level as a mage, or one of the two actual multiclass rogue/mages. When you really want a mage to have levels in all mage, because higher level spells.

 

[Kyrian007]

In in Final Fantasy VIII (yes, I?m of the few that actually loves that game,) Selphie is annoying as SHIT, but her limit breaker saves my ass constantly during some of the later fights, so Zell who?s only slightly more likeable as a character but whose limit breaker is shit (well, more a pain to use) gets left out when given the choice.

I enjoyed VIII quite a lot as well. Selphie is very annoying but next to the Lionheart her limit break is the best (aura without wasting auras to junction without even mentioning full-heal.) But to the question in the OP I really thought Quistis had the most interesting character of the SEED's but I almost never use her because Blue Magic is a pretty lame limit break and really only situationally useful.

 

[Saelune]

I forget his name, but the human companion in Mass Effect 1. I like him, but I play Sentinel which is what he is, so after the start, I never use him. I even pick him to die...cause I like him and want to give him a dramatic death.

Cant really think of the reverse, cause I usually will use someone I like even if its not the best choice. Yes, I like Xan in Baldur's Gate and use him as my main wizard.