Most pointless Final Fantasy character

[Sprites]

Edward's a great character if you take the time to level him particularly in the updated games like Complete Collection, where you have the option of switching party members later in the game his stats start climbing at a really fast rate after level 70 and he has the potential to do the most damage with the right equipment.

His harps are usually pretty successful at inflicting status effects and I always found Salve a useful alternative in the early stages to wasting MP on Cure, let's face it, it doesn't really burn that much of a hole in your pocket to get 99 potions and get a pretty good upgrade in the After Years because you can use it on any kind of healing item, it's got me out of a few pinches being able to heal my entire party with X-potions or revive them with Phoenix Downs all at once in that game.

Edward was the one who brought the group to the antlion's den in order to get the Sand Pearl to cure Rosa and he does the same in the After Years for Harley.

If it wasn't for him either Cecil and the others wouldn't have been able to defeat the Dark Elf as it's him who gives Cecil the Whisper weed and realises when they're in trouble.

He also goes up against Kain to protect his kingdom and refuses to hand over the crystal in After Years and even though he loses he was still willing to do it to protect his kingdom, I'd hardly call him a coward.

Plus in the After Years if you put him, Cecil, Yang and Edge in a party they can do King's Quad an attack that breaks the damage limit.

As for Edward's story, He lost his parents, his wife and his Kingdom was destroyed all in one day and had major survivor's guilt that he couldn't protect anyone for the longest time, seeing him believe in himself after all that, rebuild his kingdom and become stronger as a person is something I love about his character.

Yeah I'm a major Edward supporter.

I'd argue more that Tellah is pretty useless in battle, he takes forever to level, his stats are shit some of them actually get worse as he levels and when you finally do the get the chance to use some of his better magic you only have 90 MP the entire time you use him, but by that time you have Palom and Porom in the party so you already have two better mages in the group and he becomes redundant as a mage until they leave. I didn't like him as a character either, I get his grief over losing his daughter and wanting revenge on Golbez but I never got his harshness towards Edward and his disapproval of him.



I'm also a Gau supported, I wasn't until I took the time to learn his rage techniques but yeah some of those techniques are feckin awesome.

I find Amarant useless story wise but some of his attacks aren't too bad.

 

[Roger]

I'd argue more that Tellah is pretty useless in battle, he takes forever to level, his stats are shit some of them actually get worse as he levels and when you finally do the get the chance to use some of his better magic you only have 90 MP the entire time you use him, but by that time you have Palom and Porom in the party so you already have two better mages in the group and he becomes redundant as a mage until they leave. I didn't like him as a character either, I get his grief over losing his daughter and wanting revenge on Golbez but I never got his harshness towards Edward and his disapproval of him.

Tellah is useful as you get him, unlike Edward. And even if he himself isn't too useful on higher levels, he's still good to have around when leveling Rydia up from level 1. Again, unlike Edward, you don't want to have to do leveling when you have him in your party instead. I think the way Edward came to the rescue against the Dark Elf was hella cool but Tellah>Edward by far.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Edward and Tellah kind of have an interesting inward thing going.

It is true that Edward is more useful in the updated versions, but when you first get him pales to his potential later in every version. Early game Edward sucks, in pretty much all versions. On the flip side, Tellah can be a pretty good crutch when you get him, having a mage that knows that many spells that early can be a real boon, but his use slides downwards the longer he's in the party.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

In terms of story, Edward is probably my favorite character in the IV series, but it's hard to argue with the gameplay gripes against him. Without going out of your way to make him useful, he won't be.

 

[AvecAloes]

Umaro. Amarant.

 

[Ite]

My FFXII party is Penelo/Balthier/Basch because I am not embarrassed by their outfits. I mean, AS embarrassed. Penelo's dress-shorts with the ornate crotch and racing stripes only barely beats Ashe's red pleather miniskirt and coat-tails so extreme you can see her shoulder blades. And while I much preferred Basch's jailbird getup, having a multicolored checkered oven mitt sticking out of your shirt is better than NO SHIRT AT ALL VAAN WHAT PART OF "WE'RE CLIMBING A MOUNTAIN" DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND!?

Ahem, in short, I defend Penelo. Don't know if XII would have been playable without her (I got roommates bro! I can't have Fran's ass on the TV all day!)

Strago should have been an NPC, he gives you one expository scene, and then introduces you to yet another PC who could herself be replaced by a quest item. Umaro takes the cake though.

Also, FFX had four recycled enemy types, each of whom could only be defeated by Tidus, Wakka, Lulu, or Auron, respectively. Every other character could be replaced by a quest item.

FFIX is strangely one of the *only* games where I consider every character a useful contribution to both game and story. And maybe I just like all the PS-era FF characters, so yah.

For your consideration: that moon dude from IV.

 

[Roger]

For your consideration: that moon dude from IV.

Really? The only playable character with any kind of connection to the main villain as well as by far the most powerful character in the game without extensive (or any) levelgrinding, that's your answer?

 

[Ite]

Uh, I mean, Quina.

 

[Ⓐaron]

I can't imagine not wanting/needing control over any character in any case. Really? Any character you can't control is a character you're unable to utilize for anything reliably, damage, support, reviving, etc.

The enemies in the Tower are pretty strong, and dangerous, and Umaro just isn't powerful enough to justify him being uncontrollable; any, literally any, other character has the potential to kill everything in the Tower much faster than Umaro.

The thing is, Umaro does nothing other than attack. Ever. And there isn't really any reason to have any character do anything other than attack in the Fanatics' Tower. And if you've levelled him at all, he'll be able to do pretty significant damage to enemies in the Tower. So I don't really see the inability to control him as a particularly big disadvantage in this case.

 

[Flintlock]

Also, FFX had four recycled enemy types, each of whom could only be defeated by Tidus, Wakka, Lulu, or Auron, respectively. Every other character could be replaced by a quest item.

Is Tidus even necessary? I know he's supposed to be the go-to character for killing "nimble" enemies, but as far as I can tell, the attacker's accuracy and the enemy's evasion are the only things taken into consideration when determining if an attack hits or not, so Wakka beats him there, too.

If I'm wrong about that, I'd like to be corrected. As it stands, I think the reason people think Tidus is necessary is because there are a lot of enemy formations with one flying fiend and one wolf/dingo-type fiend, so Tidus gets to kill the latter while Wakka takes care of the former.

I'd say Wakka and Lulu are the only two irreplaceable characters. Auron is needed to deal with armoured enemies, but Kimahri also has piercing weapons, so they usually end up sharing that duty unless the player chooses to turn Kimahri into a second Lulu or Yuna.

 

[Skan]

I actually never really used Lulu after the blobs disappeared.

Rikku was probably the most useless combat character for me.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

The thing is, Umaro does nothing other than attack. Ever. And there isn't really any reason to have any character do anything other than attack in the Fanatics' Tower.

Yes there is, because the Fanatics Tower is a dangerous place, where the lack of an able body to heal and revive means a lot. Status inducing attacks, heavy spells like Quake, and instant death spells like X-Zone means that even powerful parties are vulnerable to needing healed, something Umaro can't do.

And even if that wasn't the case and all you needed to do was attack, Umaro stills falls short because where he can attack, most other members can attack with Magic better.

And if you've levelled him at all, he'll be able to do pretty significant damage to enemies in the Tower. So I don't really see the inability to control him as a particularly big disadvantage in this case.

But his attack, even when leveled (and keep in mind leveling him means leveling up everyone else who can still do more damage) pales in comparison to almost anyone else's magical attacks.

Umaro is more useful than say, a dead body, but he's still the most useless compared to literally anyone else you can bring. If we're arguing most useless character, Umaro wins. Umaro is more useful than a houseplant or something, but please tell me any character that is more useless than Umaro. I'll wait.

Trick question, because there isn't. Any character that can learn Magic (all of them except Umaro) can do more damage than Umaro by default. It is mathmatically impossible via the mechanics of FF6 to prove otherwise. The additional fact that every single character except Umaro can do things like heal and whatnot is just icing on the already obvious cake.

Rikku was probably the most useless combat character for me.

I initially thought so too. However thanks to Use and Mix, Rikku is probably one of the most freakishly overpowered FF characters in history.

 

[Ⓐaron]

In my many trips through the Tower I've rarely ever needed healing in battle. And even with Umaro's inability to use healing magic, you still have three characters who can use it. There is no reason to need four characters who can heal unless you're sorely under-levelled.

As for damage, maybe it's possible for characters to outdo a well leveled Umaro with the Gem Box. Which you get in the Fanatics' Tower (and only one character can use). But on the whole, the amount of damage they can do isn't really that much greater.

Well, I guess there's also Quick. But that's a pain in the arse to keep re-casting, not to mention it uses tons of MP (though admittedly Osmose makes this pretty much a nil consideration).

 

[Cat Rage Room]

As for damage, maybe it's possible for characters to outdo a well leveled Umaro with the Gem Box. Which you get in the Fanatics' Tower (and only one character can use). But on the whole, the amount of damage they can do isn't really that much greater

It can be very easy to statistically prove that higher tier magic (without even a Gem Box or Quick) outdamages an equavalent Umaro's attacks, there's no maybe about it, especially when you consider Magic that hits multiple targets.

lol do u really want 2 do this


Keep in mind that I'm not saying that Umaro is totally useless no matter what. He's more useful than an empty slot. But please provide me with facts that any other character (even Cyan's low Magic stat havin' broke ass) cannot outperform Umaro.

Most people including yourself know how powerful Magic is in FFVI. Umaro cannot outdo a well casted Quake (which you will be able to cast by the time you get him), Flare, Ultima, Meteor, or even a Level 3 elemental spell. He cannot, cannot, cannot. The math just doesn't allow for it, assuming an even halfway competent spellcaster. The Magic stat is far more mathmatically weighted towards damage than physical attacks, even disregarding the fact that Magic can hit multiple targets. Magic is fucking ludicrous in FFVI, allowing you to hit max damage with Fire 2 and shit before physical attacks can do even half of that. That's just how the game is built, and the fact that Umaro is limited to physical attacks cripples him.

He's not useless, but he's the most useless, by mathmatical definition. It is not possible, all conditions equal at their best, for Umaro to outperform anyone in the cast of FFVI. It's just not doable.

Anyone who can cast Magic is more powerful than Umaro all conditions equal, which is everyone.

ybe it's possible for characters to outdo a well leveled Umaro with the Gem Box. Which you get in the Fanatics' Tower (and only one character can use).

Any character who can use magic can use the Gem Box. Except Umaro.

 

[Ⓐaron]

No, my point is there's only one Gem Box. You can only give it to one character by definition.

Magic is unquestionably powerful, but the fact that there's a damage cap in this game makes that a bit less important. It's not that difficult to get either physical attacks or magic to hit the damage cap, unless you're running a low-level game.

 

[Cat Rage Room]

No, my point is there's only one Gem Box. You can only give it to one character by definition.

Ah, correct, yes.

Magic is unquestionably powerful, but the fact that there's a damage cap in this game makes that a bit less important. It's not that difficult to get either physical attacks or magic to hit the damage cap, unless you're running a low-level game.

What I'm saying is; if the argument is; 'Who is the most useless character in FFVI', the answer is pretty much objectively Umaro, since he is unable to do something even as basic as heal, and he definitely can't take advantage of Magic, which is leagues more powerful than almost every other option any character can take, with a few exceptions (none of which Umaro can utilize). Given that every other character can utilize the fantastically powerful option of magic except for Umaro, he wins Most Useless Character.

If a possible counterargument of this is; 'He's useful in the Fanatics Tower', this is still quite not correct, because his status as the Most Useless Character, he can't utilize Magic like everyone else can. The argument of 'well, what if you don't have powerful magic at that point', it's still not correct, because if you have Umaro, that means you must also have Tritoch and Terrato, which also means you also have the means to Level 3 Elemental spells and Quake, some of the most powerful spells in the game.

This isn't even going into the fact that if you can get to the Fanatics Tower, then you have the airship anyway, which means that the entire world is available to you. Given that by the time you have Umaro, are able to access the Fanatics Tower, that means the player also has a wealth of other options avaliable to them to use, all of which are more powerful than Umaro. Meaning that while Umaro can still be of some use in the Tower, he's still less useful than everyone else, making him Most Useless.

As far as Magic vs. Physical, that's still a no brainer. With the exception of stuff like the Lightbringer, Valiant Knife, Fixed Dice, and some other setups, it is actually not that easy to consistently hit for 9999 damage with physical attacks with the way that the damage formulas are set up, and it's certainly not possible for physical attacks as a whole to beat the inherent advantage that Magic has to hit all targets. Basically, if you're consistently hitting for 9999 damage with physical attacks with two or so party members, that means the player has also the opportunity to do the same with Magic for most party members, on all targets, quite some time ago.

The Magic advantage this game has is that significant.

 

[Splintered]

Wait, people actually use Umaro? I don't know whether I should be impressed or judgmental.

I support Penelo, I like that she brings simplicity to the XII cast, a useful mage, and she's adorable.

I have a decent hate of Amarant for not being just a useless add on to a rather excellent IX cast, but he's also irritating in personality. At least Quina is funny and memorable. Sometimes I forget Amarant exists, and when I do remember I'm just annoyed.

But I would put Umaro in there.

 

[The Twilight Mexican]

Give Umaro some love, people. He slid right into that empty slot in the roster game data like it was programmed for him.

 

[LicoriceAllsorts]

Are we agreed, then, that it's between Umaro and Amarant?

 

[Cat Rage Room]

Amarant actually doesn't have bad skills. His Trance form abilities are rad, too.

Storyline wise he's worthless though, yeah.

 

[Celes Chere]

im laughing really hard because i remember that i named amarant the flaming cheeto

 

[Ghost X]

I liked Amarant . I guess in my headcanon thing he was more cool and exciting.

 

[SirVival]

Are we agreed, then, that it's between Umaro and Amarant?

Amarant has his uses. Just the fact that he is somewhat annoyingly placed within the plot renders him from completely pointless and forgettable character to someone whose existence you at least realise. Same can't be said for Umaro who unfortunately has absolutely nothing going for him. If it weren't for the battles, one couldn't even dislike him. I would also add Penelo to the list, because If it wasn't for google I wouldn't have even remembered who she is. Same goes pretty much for the whole cast of FFXII. I don't remember ever playing a Final Fantasy game where each one of the characters bored the fuck out of me. It's just a question of which one of them is the most boring. I guess SE also realised this and therefore included the playboy-bunny to somehow enable the player to endure the tedious world-exploring that has been done 100x times better in 10000 other video games.

I would also like to add that Quina is one of the characters that can easily grow on you after the initial dislike. He/She is also potentially very hilarious and definitely adds some replay -value to the game. I emphasise the fact that even if everything else here is a matter of opinion, objectively speaking Quina is far from being a useless character (even if I personally hate her. Him.)

 

[Ⓐaron]

I just thought of the other place where Umaro is useful: The Colosseum. He is the only character in the entire game that is guaranteed never to do anything stupid in the Colosseum. (I guess you can also change Gogo's commands so (s)he only has Fight, but that seems like a lot of pointless work).

 

[Jason Tandro]

Oh boy, prepare for some ranting:

Final Fantasy IV: Edward. I know his bard skills were useful, but I personally hated him. Though he's redeemed by being the character responsible for one of the best songs in the game.

Final Fantasy V: Bard Role. All the characters can choose a variety again, and once again, I know they can be useful, but I just have no love for bards. Bards were not handled correctly until FFX-2 (YES I SAID IT. SONGSTRESS MAY HAVE HAD ANNOYING SOUND EFFECTS BUT THE SKILLS WORKED WELL AND WERE DAMNED USEFUL)

Final Fantasy VI: Umaro. Yeah I'm sure I'm gonna get some flak, but come on. Yeah he's a very powerful physical attacker and primed well I'm sure he's very useful, but he's uncontrollable, and as a character pretty weak. In terms of sheer pointlessness he probably meets every possible criteria.

Final Fantasy VII: Cait Sith. Though bear in mind, this is only because I had to choose one. Cait Sith I view as useless because of his Limit Breaks which are really the only set-apart ability. There are only two variety and while there is the super effective instakill attack, most of them are pretty unremarkable compared to the others.

Final Fantasy VIII: Quistis, again only going by her Limit Break. I love the character, but her most powerful attack, Shockwave Pulsar, is still woefully unimpressive, compared to Renzokuken, Irvine's Pulse Ammo, Zell's Duel, and Rinoa's Angelo tricks. Even Selphie's Slots can bring up some incredibly powerful options.

Final Fantasy IX: Oh Quina, come on now, what a joke of a character. Okay so here's the deal. We're gonna take the Gau and Strago and combine them into one amorphous blob of a character with a limited backstory, limited vocabulary and limited combat usefulness and call it the 8th character. While I ended up using her more than Amarant (just because I don't personally care for him) I still have to say she is the less useful of the two.

Final Fantasy X: Gonna give it to Wakka on this one, but it was very hard to choose. FFX is the best example of the game working around your party. There are certain types of monsters that can only be defeated by one of the members of your party and then there's Kimahri who is a versatile role and can fill in as a double of anybody (I usually take him down Rikku or Lulu's path myself). So when deciding this I had to factor end-game usefulness and Wakka's status specific skills just become less viable options towards the late stages of the game. He gets nerfed worse than any other character... unless of course you've power-leveled him into Auron's stage in which case he quickly becomes a beast.

FFX-2: Black Mage - Going with roles again for this game and yeah, talk about a nerfed role. You can learn 12 spells, all the main elemental spells. Sure you get "Focus" but that too has been severely nerfed. When you used Focus as Vivi, you were going to wreck somebody. When you use Focus as FFX-2... eh. The role description seems almost sarcastic with its "What spell will you use? Will it be Thundara or Blizzara? Firaga or Waterga?" They may as well have said "Hey... this is pointless after chapter 2"

FFXII: Can't really attest to pointless, but I hate Penelo. And I hate Vaan. The two kids seem so pointlessly wrapped up in the big boys and girls quest. And yes, I know that's the point, but I'd much have preferred dealing with Basche, Balthier, Ashe and Fran and not be broken up by Vaan and Penelo being Vaan and Penelo.


FFXIII: Vanille... I don't hate the sound of her voice... it's actually quite nice. I hate the sound of her voice... all the time. Seriously, this girl never shuts up. And yes, I know the whole element of her is "the light that shines the brightest hides the darkest shadow." but still. She never shuts up. But this is not "which character do you hate" this is "which character is pointless." And for that the answer is Hope. He was the weakest character, and his summon I literally never used. Vanille at least has that beast of a summon which is easily the best and she learns the Death Spell which can be used to bring down even the Long Gui's.