Useless characters

[Del Murder]

One complaint I've always had about this otherwise awesome game is that some of the characters get overshadowed by the rest of the cast as the game progresses. It seems like for most of the game the story is all about Zidane, Garnet, Vivi, and Steiner, and characters like Freya, Quina, and Amarant are only relevant when you first get them. Especially Freya and Amarant.

Even in a game with a huge cast like FFVI I felt that the characters all got fair treatment. This was probably because each one had at least one side quest that helped them develop. Yet I don't remember any end game quests that center around Freya and Amarant. Quina at least had the frog quest. Maybe there were some others and I forgot them. It has been a while.

It's a shame, because I really would have liked to get to know some of the less relevant characters more.

[Depression Moon]

I never felt that about IX's cast except for Amarant, but I found that acceptable. I am extremely surprised though that you find the opposite with VI's cast.

[Del Murder]

Well it is my favorite game of all time so maybe I'm biased. But in the WoR the act of getting each character gave them an individual touch. And on top of that many characters had side quests tailored to themselves to acquire some ultimate ability, such as Sabin's Bum Rush, Cyan's dream sequence, etc.

[Jiro]

I find it fitting that you didn't mention Eiko at all. The "other four" really are practically pointless. Freya was just along for the ride, looking for Fratley. Amarant just, well whatever his deal was. Quina wanted food, fair enough, s/he wasn't meant to be a deep character. Eiko was just kind of like "oh we need to make the summoners relevant" or something.

It was disappointing. And I do agree, FFVI made all of the characters seem important. Well, with a few exceptions, but for a cast that big, I think they did well.

[Dreddz]

Kind of hard to develop all the characters as well as carry on the main story arc within a 30-40 hour game. Although IX isn't nearly as bad as some other RPG's I've played.

[Roogle]

Quina is the first character that I think of as useless in Final Fantasy IX. I wish that they had made a serious character instead of Quina as I find very little of what it does funny at all.

[Wolf Kanno]

IX does a fair job compared to some other entries in the series. I do agree that some characters sort of just drop out of the plot (Freya, Vivi, Eiko) while others felt rather pointless and more like you were just filling up your party quota (Quina and Amarant) Steiner loses his relevance after the beginning of the third disc but it's because he resolves his issues rather early. I would say its not any worse than other entries. Even VII and X had some issues of you wondering why half the party was with you.

[drotato]

I dunno... My first reply was to say there ARE no useless characters, just because they are all useful for something... but...

I never, ever use Quina. There has only been one time I've gone through the game and actually tried to use he/she, and it was horrible. So... If I had to label any useless, I guess it would be Quina. /:

EDIT: I do find talking about this sad, though, just because nine is my favorite when it comes to characters. ;~;

[Depression Moon]

I don't see how Freya, Vivi, or Eiko drop out of the plot.

Freya is affected by the plot when she meets Zidane. He is a former friend of hers and is integrated into the plot when Queen Brahne makes an attack on her home. The attack expands to the other Burme- rat home in Cleyra. Fratley her long lost love shows up saves Zidane's skin talks to Freya. Freya finds out he has lost his memory. The general Beatrix shows up steals the kingdom's ancient jewel, and Freya wants to get her revenge. They lose and Brahne is about to destroy Cleyra in minutes. There is barely any time to escape and there's no choice for her but to escape in one of those pods.

With both Burmecian homes destroyed Freya is bent on avenging her people. She is a Dragon Knight after all so she had some rank and dedication to her country. I can't remember clearly, but after the event in Alexandria I believe she and the others stayed to see Garnet's coronation. I sort of forgot how they wound up in Lindblum. Ultimately Freya continues on she wants to keep close to her friends and wants to protect her people and/or avenge her home by eliminating the person who started the whole mess, Kuja.

As for Vivi, well there's little need for any explanation for that. Black Mages is all you need and I believe Vivi had to be lonely as well and a bit afraid. He stayed in a secluded area with his grandpa and was alone for a few months after he died. So lonely people feel comfortable with company.

Eiko had to be the loneliest of them all though. She was the last survivor of her tribe and was living only with moogles for a time being. She also had to steal to eat. When she met Garnet, she was excited to see another summoner. The main point when she becomes a part of the party is when she breaks her promise to her grandfather and leaves the village so that she can see the world.

Amarant joined because he was interested in finding out what Zidane's deal was as he didn't believe anyone could be that noble and what made him so strong. He also had a bit of beef against since he set him up a few years ago. He was curious astounded when he saw the power of the Eidolons. When they went back to Alexandria...hmm, I guess he just continues because he's still not sure about Zidane?

As for Quina yes she was primarily meant to be a humorous character, but Quina also shows that the bizarre are actually not so bizarre and she shows that she cares more than just about food. As for battle purposes, maybe you don't know how to use her. She is a Blue Mage that acquires her abilities by eating weakened monsters. These abilties come with a wide amount of varities. I mostly used White Wind (healing), Magic Hammer (MP depleting), Earthshake (ground damaging), Twister (air damaging), Frog Drop (number, lvl based damage), Angel's Snack (erasing), and Matra Magic (Quick eating and boost for Pumpkin Head and Limit Glove) with her, but I also used Mighty Guard on occasion along with Limit Glove, Pumpkin Head, Frost, and Mustard Bomb for 1 hit kills. Quina's weapon deals random damage but there is a good chance for it to do a lot of damage and some of her weapons have excellent effects like Needle Fork which petrifies, Silver Fork which slows, and I can't remember if any others had effects attached. You can also use 1000 Needles to have her do consistent damage. Quina is also the only one who has the Gillionaire ability.

See? She has a lot of options.

[Quindiana Jones]

I agree with you Del. It's especially disappointing because there's obviously so many things that were meant to be a big part of this game, yet they all seemed to have fizzled out, most likely due to release date issues etc..

Trance was clearly supposed to have a bigger part, the Freya/Fratley thing was obviously supposed to have more stuff happening as well. Amarant's revenge/redemption thing was barely touched upon, but when it was touched (lol), it was well done and seemed really intriguing.

[Vyk]

I agree, since this game was supposed to be a throw-back, you'd think they'd try to weave more relevance for the characters into the plot like they did with FFIV and VI. But since the main four or five characters pretty much carry the game, you don't really need to think about the left overs that much. If they weren't there the game would still be just as fun. It just seems like a waste to have them there and not do much with them, story-wise. Especially when everyone but maybe Quina has so much potential for character development and stuff

[Roogle]

As for Quina yes she was primarily meant to be a humorous character, but Quina also shows that the bizarre are actually not so bizarre and she shows that she cares more than just about food.

How does Quina demonstrate this? I can only recall it talking about eating from my recent memory of the game.

[Vyk]

Well ... she did seem pretty happy to marry Vivi.. Not sure if that counts as that was obviously meant to be funny more than demonstrating her character's "soul"

[Heath]

I pretty much agree with what Del said in the first post.

I think that although you could make an argument that, say, it was fitting for Amarant to have little development because he was 'just there for the ride,' I still think it would've been nice to give the other characters a little more to go off. I genuinely feel that Freya is given a disappointingly back seat role after Cleyra. Quina, I never really had a huge problem as I viewed her as a novelty character along the likes of Umaro and Mog in FFVI.

[Depression Moon]

As for Quina yes she was primarily meant to be a humorous character, but Quina also shows that the bizarre are actually not so bizarre and she shows that she cares more than just about food.

How does Quina demonstrate this? I can only recall it talking about eating from my recent memory of the game.

At the game's ending Quina says to the other chefs that the most important thing to do when cooking food is to cook with your heart. This is especially important among friends. From that statement Quina has shown that there are things beyond eating. Just simply eating isn't enough it is best accomplished only when someone has somebody to cook for or eat with that cares about them.