Party Members We Don't Need (or Want)

Looking back at all of the Final Fantasy games I've played, there is always at least one character that I've been forced to take into the party, but never use at all unless there's an obligation in the storyline. So, this thread is for sharing those characters we could do without.

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So, here's my list, with reasons, 'cause I'm bored:

FF VI: Gau.
He is a waste. His Rages, while possibly powerful (I never got any good ones, so I have no clue), meant that I had to give up control of him, and I hate, hate, hate that. I like having people free to throw a potion or phoenix down if needed. So, I lost him on the Veldt whenever possible.

FFVII: Cait Sith, Vincent, and Tifa.
Cait Sith is a given. His limit breaks, especially in comparison with the rest of the characters, are downright shitty. He has decent enough starting magic stats, but I'm more of a physical attacker than a magic user, so that wasn't helpful to me. I used him enough to teach him all of his limits (because I'm a perfectionist that way), then shelved him for the rest of the game. Vincent is basically the same deal. His limits were sucky in the same way as Gau's Rages above. I had better attackers with more useful limit breaks. And really, I just didn't like him. It was like the developers tried too hard to make him cool. Tifa was useful early on, but she grew more and more unneeded as the rest of the characters grew stronger.

FFVIII: Selphie and Irvine.
Selphie's limits were annoying to shift through, even when I popped the top on my ps1 to 'pause' the battle while I was doing it. And really, limits are the only things that make the characters unique in battle. Irvine annoyed me because I had to make and use up ammo for him. I jealously hoard my items. It wasn't worth it to me to use up my energy crystals to make ammo for him, when Squall could just Lionheart anything that got in my way.

FFIX: Dagger/Garnet.
She flakes out in Disc 3 and becomes completely worthless. After that, even when she got over herself, I decided not to mess with her and focused on the reliable summoner/healer, Eiko.

FFX: Kimahri.
I guess the game set him up on the sphere grid as a clean slate that you could choose to do whatever you wanted with. But the fact is, I never could really decide what the best path would be. So he ended up most of the time just sitting in one spot while everyone else improved. If he'd had his own portion of the sphere grid, I probably would have used him a lot more, because some of his Ronso Rages were good.

XII: Penelo.
Every character is the same, really, but she was the one that I just couldn't be bothered doing anything with. Fran and Balthier had long range weapons, for when that was necessary, and Ashe, Basch, and Vaan took care of everything else.

 

I agree with this, though I found Red more useful than the others I mentioned. Again, for me, it comes down to limit breaks. Red's final was a disappointment, and a lot of his others were not fantastic, either.

Are you trying to use Selphie's The End? You know that the enemies get harder the higher your level, right?

Are you leveling up his strength stat? Of course if you don't do anything with him, he'll suck.

To add to my list, I'll give a sort of honorable mention to Krile (FF V). You don't get the choice not to use her, unfortunately, but she was definitely unwanted, and I wish she weren't needed.

 

See, what I usually end up doing is starting him down Rikku's path, so that he can steal when he gets to the Biran/Yenke fight (I'm usually desperate for the level 3/4 keyspheres by that time). But that means that his strength is sucktacular, and it takes a long time for me to catch him up with the likes of Wakka, Tidus, and Auron.

I used Garnet a lot in the beginning- I always want a white mage in the party. But Eiko is really just so much better. She doesn't have as many summons as Garnet, but hers are better, and Eiko learns more white magic, too.

I forgot about him. >_< Pretty useless (though not as bad as Gau).

I do this all the time. Actually, most of the characters I've already listed are some of those I just can't stand.