Unnecessary Characters

[Cz]

FF parties have always consisted of two groups. A few main characters, each with a deep plot of his/her own, and a second group of lesser characters. These members have little to no story, and on occasion, are completely useless in battle, too.

Now, I'm not referring to secret characters, as they are entirely optional, and are designed to be a treat for players. I'm referring to characters that 'make up the numbers'. Often, they exist only to occupy a space in battle that no other character can fill, but some aren't even particularly useful fighters.

Personally, I was never that fond of Strago or Relm in FFVI. Sure, they have high magic power, but at the point in the game at which you get them, they're so far behind the rest of your party in terms of magic they have learned. Their personalised abilities weren't particularly useful, either. Strago's Lores were not only time-consuming to learn, but little more than glorified versions of other attacks when you received them! As for Relm, the Sketch bug rather ruined her ability.

Of course, there are plenty of other characters like this. I don't really think they're pointless, they all have their moments. But some of them are perhaps unnecessary. Which character do you think an FF could have done without?

[PhoenixAsh]

I didn't think FFVII had any pointless characters. Yuffie didn't really advance the plot, but she was secret and they put a Hell of a lot of effort into making her not feel tacked on.

Everyone except the main party of four was pretty pointless in IX. Eiko was probably on Yuffies level.

In VIII and X both Lulu and Quistis started well, then faded into just being there to provide good magic after a few hours.

[Outsider]

Originally posted by Black Mage 121

Personally, I was never that fond of Strago or Relm in FFVI. Sure, they have high magic power, but at the point in the game at which you get them, they're so far behind the rest of your party in terms of magic they have learned. Their personalised abilities weren't particularly useful, either. Strago's Lores were not only time-consuming to learn, but little more than glorified versions of other attacks when you received them! As for Relm, the Sketch bug rather ruined her ability.

Strago was useful... Just raise his Mag. Power and learn "Big Guard" and "Grand Train", then teach everything you want to them...

And Relm has great Mag. Power when she gets in the group, and when you equip her with that Fake Mustache she is good...

I always found Mog being way LESS useful than anyone else in FF6


EDIT - Mog is unnecessary... What the hell was I thinking when I said he was useful?

[i90east]

Yeah Relm could have been good if she didn't freeze up the game every time you used her. Fake Mustache eliminates the bug? Unfortunately by the time you control enemies, they're dead. It doesn't seem worth the trouble. In some types of games controlling enemies is the coolest thing ever, but not in RPGs.

Relm and Strago were nice additions to the game storywise, and their unique personalities were welcome. When you think about it, the game wouldn't be the same without them, even though they may not be great in battle. If they would have been powerful fighters they would have been perfect. The only way to make them powerful is through a lot of effort.

Most people seem to prefer pickup-and-play characters. I've noticed that a lot of people don't like Gau because they don't know how to use him. That's gotta be the biggest irony of the FF series, since he is an awesome character. The problem with pickup-and-play characters is, their abilities tend to get boring. It's the unique abilities that are interesting and fun to use. Sketch is one of those fun abilities, but it freezes the game Tragic.

[MagicKnight Locke]

how about strago...

[Cz]

I quite like Strago's personality. He didn't get much development, though. I would have loved it if he'd had an in-depth story in the WoR.

I'm not saying that I don't like Strago and Relm, just that the game could have gotten on quite well without them. The casual player would most likely not use them at all, consdiering that the WoR can be completed without even using them, and the scetion of the game where they're involved in the plot is pretty small. I'd have liked to see them more involved in the story, but I guess that was too much to ask of a game with 14 characters total.

I'm rather fond of Gau, though. He's incredibly versatile, and his wild-animal demeanour is quite endearing.

I guess the reason that a lot of these characters exist is to add versatility to the game. Taking FFIX as an example, had the game used only the main story-driven characters (Zidane, Garnet, Vivi, Steiner) it would have been left with a pretty dull battle group. But by adding a Dragoon, Ninja/Monk, and Blue Mage, they added versatility to the group, even if they didn't add a lot of depth, plot-wise.

[PhoenixAsh]

FF1 got on just fine with a less diverse party than the main four in IX. Throwing in characters for the sake of it pretty cheap IMO. VI got away with it because it was actually fun getting them, and there were fourteen.

[Cz]

I can't argue with that. FFI's system was just fine, regardless of whether the characters had variety or not.
I suppose that's just not what people want in a game right now. The emphasis is all on replay value, depth etc. That's what the recent FF's have given people.

[black orb]

>>> I dont see the problem with them, you are always free to choose the characters you want in the party.