Guilty confession time, I'm actually sentimentally attached to Rab and always have him out even though the other characters have more use. My grandfather passed away when I was really young, so meeting Rab in DQ11 and getting attached to him through the Hero, especially that side-story sequence, got me all misty-eyed and made me realize how much I missed my grandpa. :( So yeah, I'm keeping Rab out at almost all times.
At least Rab is useful. Unlike some other party members in other JRPGs. And his character is necessary to the story. Unlike some other party members in other JRPGs. So in both regards, he’s a step up from other games in the genre. I feel like his being on this list is a bit of a reach. But if I had to choose one party member from the game, it would be him. But that’s saying a lot, considering that all party members in DQXI are useful in one way or another.
I agree that Rab is useful, but he's outshined by another character in any roll he plays. As David said, he would be far more useful if you got him early on.
@@Revz8bit idk he was always switched in on boss fights for me even late game. Tbh all the characters are useful. The game isn’t very hard even with draconian options on
Yeah, I really don't get all the hate for Rab. Having a second healer with a decent magic stat is really good; and his offense is far better than Serena's! Sylvando, on the other hand, has such poor damage output that I don't think he fills the role better at all even with Hustle Dance (at least not where I'm at in the game--maybe that'll change later).
Nice list. Though to be fair there are no bad party members in DQXI. Rab may not be the best but each one is useful for various reasons. I could probably make the same point for Triangle Strategy. Lionel is useful for Charm when you don’t have the dancer. He’s an Aggro tank though not a traditional tank per se. but I found him useful. Loses points for being annoying though lol
Laguna of FF8 would have been awesome if you could have him join permanently when you find him in Esthar. He also has one of my favourite battle themes - "The Man With The Machine Gun".
The problem with a lot of these, is that temporary characters are oftentimes overpowered AF because they are meant to be used in specific scenarios/battles/stories designed specifically for them and they are oftentimes part of a smaller group which is why they need to be powerful. Beatrix as someone else mentioned, is like this. Usually when you have Beatrix in your group, she's either solo, or with Freya or Steiner IIRC, and it's just the two of them. Of course she's overpowered, because she has to be to survive with just her and 1 other. But if you were able to add her to your main group, well... it would completely break the challenge of the game.
I love Tora and Poppi as characters, and they *can* technically become the strongest character in the game... but if you just want to do the main story and sidequests and aren't going for the colosseum or anything, I can definitely see why you'd want to sideline them when excellent and easier to use characters like Zeke and Morag are right there. Also, who the hell approved Linny's design and... concept?! Like, *really* what the hell?!
In Hahn's defence, if you are willing to do a little grinding early, he runs rampant over any and all random encounters for early and late game. Also, Paladin Blow looks dope AF.
I'm a little late to the party here, but for anyone interested...In Destiny of an Emperor, the reason many characters are insignificant and don't level up, is because they're pretty much as inconsequential as they also are within the book the game is based on, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Since this game only concentrates on the exploits of Liu Bei and his two sworn brothers (Guan Yu and Zhang Fei) the only other characters who are really relevant are the other three Tiger Generals of the Shu Kingdom (Ma Chao, Huang Zhong, Zhao Yun) and of course the legendary strategist, Zhuge Liang. The interesting reality not really explored in the game is that the one who ultimately wins despite Liu Bei and the Shu Kingdom's efforts, is the "Hero of Chaos" of the Wei Kingdom, Cao Cao, along with his own legendary strategist, Sima Yi (that later betrays his descendants and ends up overthrowing the Cao family.) And these two are essentially portrayed as the villains of this game, despite actually winning. I highly recommend Destiny of An Emperor II! I think it has the superior storyline and gameplay. And if you want to learn more of the story, I also recommend the Romance of the Three Kingdoms game series, or the Dynasty Warriors series. For an amazing (yet endearingly campy) live action series that tells the story incredibly well, check out Three Kingdoms (2010) on RUclips, entirely free to watch!
Oh man Lionel's saved my ass so many times with his long-range taunt 😅 It's so great using it on mages and standing behind other party members. They can't cast magic and they can't reach Lionel to hit him so they spend 3 turns doing absolutely nothing
Yeah, his final move is one of the most powerful in the game. Plus this is a game where farming money is a NIGHTMARE. But Lionel can help you earn 20k every two minutes. And if you played this game, you know money is essential to leveling up skills.
Honestly, with that long range taunt he can break a few encounters with mages. Outside of his niche, he's not good unless you baby him and get him up. But for those niche situations, he's a godsend and so fun to essentially troll the AI.
Great list as always David! I've been missing these. I've just thought of a deviation : Top 10 worst Jobs/classes, which would include various job-change systems like FF5/tactics or DQ6/7, for example. I know there are few games using these, but it could be interesting.
Going to have to disagree with you about Rab. I found him more useful then other characters like Eric. But each character in 11 had their own usefulness, such a good game. I agree with you on Anastasia from Shadow Hearts: Covenant but I liked her story arc more then other characters like Lucia.
I liked playing with Rab, his pep powers are nice, especially vs the final boss. Also, he has the saddest moment in the game, when he needs a moment alone with his daughter (her defiled tomb, actually).
I love Rab and used him all the way to the end. Dude can do everything. Greatly? Not quite, but he is capable of doing a lot and a backup healer. I never felt forced to use Serena, the "dedicated” healer.
Man the disrespect towards Rab. Yes in a normal run there isn't much use for him, but on Draconian? He is a godsend. In act 1 he is a healer that can take a hit, unlike Serena, debuffs are incredibly important and unlike Veronica, he can debuff and take a hit. In act 2 he becomes a complete monster, not only he gets an easily spammable AOE move but his claw combo absolutely demolishes debuffed bosses. The old guy only falls off when Uber Serena shows up and even then, I'd rather use Rab to clean mobs instead of Jade, SPOILER CHARACTER or Erik. He's only mediocre in act 3 where Veronica becomes actually useful with her final spells. And in act 3, Serena can't debuff anymore, making her the worst character until you have enough money to spam the blue kaioken items. In DQ11 the title of worst party member switches a lot, but Rab always avoids it until your party can be min-maxed. I beg you guys to give him a chance
I'll comment on the characters from games I played. Tora: yeah, he sucks. I ditched him as soon as I could. Noel: she's fine. She's good for regular battles, and she can work against bosses with decent Quartz setups. To be honest, I rarely used her, but I wouldn't say she's much worse than the other characters. Lauren: I barely remember Lauren, but the criticism sounds valid. Rab: I wouldn't call him bad. He can work well enough in the right party, as Dragon Quest XI has no outright useless characters. I used Rab regularly in Part 2 of the game, after *redacted*. Klarth: I've never finished Tales of Phantasia, so I can't say much about him. I'm not sure if his spells freezing battles necessarily makes him bad (depends on how much damage they do). Hahn: at least he's useful in the first dungeon. I don't know who'd want to pick him near the end of the game. He would've been my worst party member if I picked him, but I never did so whatever. Anastasia: I thought she was okay, although I'll generally give characters some credit if they're useful for regular battles (I can't remember the game well enough to properly critique her). I recall finding Gepetto to be the worst in Shadow Hearts II, but I could be wrong about that. Linny: I swear I beat Front Mission 3, but I don't remember this guy at all. I looked him up, and I think I played through the Alisa route, in which he is never a playable character.
Tora has access to arguably the best blade in the game QTpi, problem is that he isn't great through the adventure and you have to work on getting QTpi since her quest is a PAIN and Tiger Tiger but on NG+ with easy ether crystals you can shred through superbosses like butter.
Great video as always David! My biggest pet peeve in JRPGs is when I like a character’s personality, but have to keep them out of my party because they’re terrible in battle…
Yeah 95% of the recruitable characters in Destiny of an Emperor are just party filler while you're recruiting the other good characters. The only reason it doesn't bother me much buying gear for them is since everybody can equip the same gear swapping them out isn't really a hassle.
Rab never really gets a chance to shine. His great opportunity is in the second part after the incident with Veronica, but Serena soon gains her powers and promptly outclasses Rab across the board. Then Serena gets her various hidden costumes and, well, she looks way better in the tiger bikini than Rab would. If he joined at the beginning, he'd have a chance to be awesome.
Been looking forward to another list like this ☺️ Now, for my least favorite Party Member (as much as it pains me cuz this is like my favorite game): Ari + Stan from Okage: Shadow King Ari is just extremely bland, making any modern harem/isekai protag from the last 10 years look like the most well-thought out and perfectly written characters ever created. I understand he’s cast as “the over-shadowed boy” but c’mon! He’s victim to the curse of the Silent Protagonist, but instead of actually being interesting, he’s just…there. they could’ve given the Leading Man role to Your other party member Rosalyn! She has a bigger set of balls than Ari does. Ari could’ve been relegated to a supporting cast member since Rosalyn and Stan have history…could’ve made that story a tad more interesting… Stan, the titular Shadow King, has his moments but honestly he should’ve been utilized more as an actual party member. He just kinda randomly pops up at the weirdest times to deliver an OP attack but honestly, it’s during the absolute worst times in the game. I don’t think he ever did it during any of the actual boss fights where it could’ve been useful…just during random mob encounters that literally only needed one attack and instead Stan decides right then and there is the perfect time to flex his EVIL KING POWERS (TM) on a sad ass frog… And unfortunately, together in battle they are one unit…and you can’t access Stan’s attacks at all like I mentioned, and worst yet: with Ari being the protagonist…he HAS to be in the main party at all times, and EVEN WORST: if he gets killed it’s an automatic game over. And guess who normally gets mobbed first chance 90% of the time?
As to my own worst JRPG party member, I can go obscure: Lucius from Unchained Blades. He's a samurai and can deal a lot of damage... to one target. He only has two of three potential AoE skills, all but one are random target, and all of them use claws, instead of his best weapon the katana. This is even worse in a game where a normal encounter has 5-15 enemies, and even bosses have multiple targets, so single target damage only is not reliable. He also has no multi-target debuff skills, and his most common weapon effect is instant death.... which again, does not work on bosses or other tough enemies. Add that to the fact that you have to play the entirety of chapter 3 with Lucius solo, and he gets no healing techniques and has to rely on expensive heal items, making your first introduction to him a slog. Oh, and he's also a huge grump and not even fun to be around! Even with Hector's and Mari's limited capabilities, I still pick them over Lucius any day.
What I love about your lists is you take the whole game into account and not just the last dungeon/final boss fight. Too many people doing these lists will rank a character who is terrible for the first 65 hours, but great for the last 5 hours higher than a character who is great for the first 65 hours and only okay for the last 5 hours. Lionel is the perfect example. I have seen several youtubers list him as 'S' tier because his unlockable weapon skill is an area of effect charm with 100% chance of success. It can change the tide of battles, but it is only available for the last couple of battles and only if you waste precious resources on upgrading him. For the first 90% of the game he is useless. He is basically the mediator from FFT, already one of the worst FFT jobs, without the ability to use guns, permanently recruit people or permanently raise/lower faith/brave. Which were the only remotely positive things about the mediator class.
I love Klarth's design! ^_^ I also think it's wonderful how Rinwell echoes his design and fighting style. Thank you for your hard work in making and sharing these videos.
+1 for Destiny of an Emperor. It's honestly one of my favorite NES RPGs and one I've still enjoyed playing. The characters who don't grow in stats don't really bother me much here because you can recruit newer and stronger units, then move on when they're out classed. Before the end of the game you'll have a full party of characters who DO grow, so it won't even matter eventually anyway.
THANK YOU for calling out Tora! Xenoblade 2 has a LOT of critical flaws in its combat system (Blades gotten at random and you can't reassign them, etc)...but *Tora makes every single one of those flaws worse.* His one single blade has a single element that can't be changed until WAY late in the game, which locks you out of doing most Blade Combos, preventing you from accessing some really important ones... And THEN, when you FINALLY unlock Chain Attacks way too late in the game...The fact he only has 1 blade makes it impossible to COMPLETE a chain attack, even if you manage to set it up perfectly, because Poppi will end up too tired to continue, which will end the combo even if you COULD have kept going! By the time he FINALLY gets a second blade like halfway through the game, you get your first *REAL* tank. At which point I immediately booted his ass out of the party. >:(
You just don't know how to use him. If you don't upgrade Poppi correctly then you would be able to fully utlize him, I've played the game for over 800 hours. If you don't switch between Poppi's 3 forms you won't be able to get the chain attack. You obviously don't know how to play the game.
@@DJK1NGGaming According to google "You can't get elemental cores as drops until you start chapter 8". So yeah, for far more than half the game, you can't change Poppi's Elements. I'm correct there. And I'm ALSO right that you only have *one* single Poppi Form until near the end of *chapter 4.* Before then, it is *physically impossible* to fully complete a Chain Attack, because Poppi goes on Cooldown and *you only HAVE that one form.* While *yes* near the end of the game Tora becomes completely overpowered because you can fully customize the hell out of Poppi...For a large chunk of the game you cannot do those things because you have not unlocked them yet. The problem isn't that I don't understand how to play the game, it's more that your reading comprehension needs work. :)
@@AegixDrakan once again you don't know how to play the game. If Rex, Nia, Zeke or Morag doesn't have Rare Blades that work well with the Elements or Driver Combo with Tora you won't get Chain Attack or anything done. You upgrade Poppi by doing the minigame if you don't do that you wont get far with Tora.
@@DJK1NGGaming My dude. These upgrades you're talking about, that would have helped me do those chain attacks unlock: 1) at the end of Chapter 4 (A second Poppi Form), and b) sometime during chapter 8 (custom elements). For around 2 whole chapters of the game, *I literally did not have access to those upgrades.* Which is the problem. Also, I quit the whole-ass game by chapter 6 because of a combo of losing interest in the combat, AND the story. So yes, I don't know what the endgame of Xenoblade 2 looks like. Because the game lost my interest LONG before then. And part of that was caused by Tora gumming up the combat mechanics for almost half the freaking game.
“Combat is not Lionel’s forte!” I heard someone say his weapon skill makes him S tier. I have yet to allow myself to put any precious resources into developing him that far.
David, I love you but… XD Holy crap hard disagree on Lionel in this list. Fury is one hell of a busted skill in TS and Lionel is one of the few able to use it. There are also many fights in TS where it is optimal to have an enemy approach you, only making his drawbacks regarding movement less an issue. I didn’t use him much my the first half of my playthrough but that was before I l figured out fully what abuses could be done regarding fury status. Enemy mage or healer is about to give you problems? Easier to let Lionel walk out of formation to cast fury status over Erador. Holding Lionel in center formation? Fury status a melee unit and watch them do nothing for several turns. He buys you time which is a huge asset in this game that throws barrels of enemies at you. There are even a few major characters you can hit fury status on (Erika being a big one). Anyway, always love this series of vids so hope there will be many more in the future.
There are two times in the game when Rab is good. Right after I got Pearly Gates I respeced him into claws. With MP absorb, a strong single target physical attack, and a powerful screen clearing attack he was one of my stongest party members. He is also good super later game with Kacracrackle and Kazammle, but by then everyone is super powerful.
I missed these! And now I would like to nominate Jim the Knight from Hydlide (yes, that is his canonical name). Of course, nobody should ever play Hydlide to BEGIN with, but when you die from bees, trees, rocks, slimes, or standing perfectly still in the desert, lexicographers scramble to redefine "pathetic". Oh yes, and Pearl from Legend of Mana. Yes, I know she can become Black Pearl, but tell me this: what does Pearl herself do? No, really, what does she do? She...um...distracts the enemy? I could be wrong, but I remember her (and probably a few others) being completely worthless.
I was actually expecting you to put Serena on this list instead of Rab. He learns the better healing spells quicker than she does, and he also has some good utility abilities and spells on top of that. Then again, I could be wrong. My memory holds as much as a colander, so I might have forgotten something good she has.
Good list, but I can’t believe you’re doing my boy Tora like that?!? While I agree wholeheartedly that Tiger! Tiger! totally sucks and also that it’s less than ideal that it takes soooooo long to get 3 “blades” on Tora.... once he gets there, with the proper investment he can become an absolute powerhouse. Not only the best tank, but a total beast on DPS as well.
Klarth nooooooooo. I even dressed up as him for Halloween a few years ago and people were like...who are you suppose to be? He's one of my favorite Tales characters. I just have a thing for summoners.
Hahn really isn't all that bad. Sure, he's outclassed by Raja but in the endgame, he's got Astral and Nares spells. I'd say he's a fairly mid character.
Could not disagree more with Noel her abilities to disable by debuffing , delay enemy turns from a distance and attack groups of enemies is very useful when the rest of the party has to use magic or crafts to do similar , while she can do it with her base attack. I love at 2:06 you show her nearly wipeout a group of enemies and put a few of them to sleep making them easier for your party to take them out while keeping them at bay showing how effective she can be, if you buff her strength with say a master quartz or equipment she can wipeout entire groups of enemies fast even with out her ultimate which is great when you encounter enemies such as those you find in monster chests that are too dangerous to have a long a battle with .Her abiltiy to debuff the strength of her target including certain bosses with her melee craft and limit groups of enemies movements making the party harder to kill with her net craft shes borderline broken .
Gonna once again nominate Darius from Vandal Hearts. His problem is that he's just unnecessary. By the time you get him, you already have three other potential archers. And turning him into an Airman is just begging for trouble. While yes, he does get good mobility, the downside is that one archer is liable to knock him down with a single shot. And practically every encounter is going to have at least a few of them to guarantee that. Unless you just want him around to loot chests and grab hidden items or be a decoy, he's just a giant target waiting to be bombarded. He's also the last character you recruit into your party. And whereas a lot of games tend to save their best for last, this guy is anything but,. Especially compared to the second to last to join, Zohar, who pretty much breaks the game.
Kurt Vander from Trails of Cold Steel. Kurt's the weakest link in Class VII. Rean's better at countering and impeding, Fie's much faster, and Juna's better at taking hits and countering. You're stuck with him for the first half of Cold Steel 3 and 4, and after Musse and Ash join, he becomes irrelevant. And with CS4's huge party roster, you're better off benching him in battle.
for CS4 Kurt even on Very easy mode is still useful including his orders command I find Alisha Emma Elliot in all 4 games + Hajimari to be totally useless since I'll NEVER have spells outdamage s craft damage and from CS3 onwards Elliot LOSES his only ATTACK s craft from the first 2 games and so does Emma.
Some play him as the evasion tank and i don't get why. He has never enough range to counter unless i place him right next to the enemies. Juna is a better evasion tank, Ash and Rean are better in damage and Musse and Altina better in magic. Kurt is just there. poor guy even in the story he is not very relevant most of the time. It is the same with Machias in the first half of the arc for me. I just did not know what to do with him.
@@zillo1600 Yeah, like I said, you're better off benching Kurt in the long run. They only added him in just to have a bishounen character, and he has even less of a character than Rean.
Noel is one of the weaker party members, but she isn't that bad. First off, she's the best character for AoE attacks in the game AND one AoE attack puts enemies to sleep. Couple that with status quartz and she'll status enemies all day. Next, her Heavy Smash can lower attack which is extremely useful for boss Fights in Nightmare mode. I think it's actually the only attack that can do this. Just look at her clip at 2:03 , her Sleep Grenade completely owns the enemies. 3 asleep and one frozen.
Hahn was supposed to be the all-rounder magic user, with a variety of great spells. He had that, but his HP and Defense were not worth the liability of someone you'd have to revive a lot. You're right, he's not objectively bad but he's not built in a way to make him deeply appealing. Gryz's only problems were low Tech Defense but mostly his lack of skills. The developers didn't put a lot of effort into such a cool character, but I'd prefer him over Hahn.
Hahn's spell selection let him do the most combo attacks in the game. Being able to kill every enemy on screen in one turn is enough to make him very useful.
I may have some characters if you decide on doing a part 9 : Ema and gary in suikoden tactics. They join late in the game and besides talking to each other they dont do much. Like one of them can only use items or so. Cloud in final fantasy tactics : Hes optional and for good reasons. He starts at level 1 (while all your other characters and enemies are wayyyyyy over) and by the time he does any action, he's dead. You have to grind him to get his limits but they are long to cast and he dies again. Plus he NEEDS the materia blade to be able to use his limits. So i only get him to basicly get him. Nelsha : thousand arms What a weakling and her special abilities arent good either. Some sort of costumes. Its been so long that its pretty much what i remember in the game.
I can't argue with Tora. I'm using him right now and I found myself saying "He's going to include him, I just know it.". I love his tanky aggroness. It's so useful for the tougher fights. But that's just me loading him up with HP+ equipment. But he really lacks in options, since that's the only thing he's good for. And I find myself calling him Riki after the much better Nopon from the first Xeno game.
Lacking options? You can change the elements of each Poppi form and their battle roles as well as general aux core kinds of things. Using Poppi is different, but the options are basically infinite. I barely touched Tiger Tiger and still had loads of Poppi parts from enemy drops, quests, chests and doing the challenge mode battles and I could make her slightly broken once I wrapped my head around Poppiswap.
Lionel is freaking amazing in Triangle Strategy: he has the best taunt and the best charm in the game. Both are also AoE. Seriously, he is one of the best characters in the entire game. --- While Hahn is definitely not the best option for Phantasy Star IV endgame (but the problem here is that there is only one open slot and Raja overshadows everybody else), he is actually pretty useful if recruited. He brings very reliable instant kill moves (that are effective for the entire final dungeon super high encounter rate of fodder enemies) combined with the Paladin Blow combo move, that is the strongest two-men single target Combo for Chaz (the main character, you know...), so he can still contribute to the final battle damage once the instant kills aren't useful anymore. So you reach the ending boss faster and wasting less resources for the entire party and then he is still useful, unlike the typical death spell specialist during the final boss battle. Of course there is the whole issue that since you don't have Raja now you are forced to use Rika (potentially your best damage dealer) as a dedicated healer, but again this is about the "totally not namekian" priest being utterly broken in the game economy, not Hahn being bad.
I absolutely LOVE these videos you make. Your top 10s are just the best. It took me awhile to realize how bad Rab was. However, he did have a few pretty good abilities I liked. I've never been a huge fan of the blue mage like you. Definitely agree that bosses are always too immune to status effects. It makes no sense when it's a main part of the character's toolkit.
😂 Oh my god Lionel, I didn't use him either. I tried him in a mock battle at the tavern and I promptly said to myself...."Nope, so he won't be used ever unless I am forced." It's just why doesn't he have larger range...or at least some sort of throw coins skill where he can hit better or some fun risk move to him. (Yes his ultimate weapon skill isn't bad, but you can't just bring him out for that, at least give him the throw coins as a base skill that's upgrade in his ultimate) I guess for a friendly merchant he rips us off more than he helps.
Rab is key if you play with hard enemies mode in DQ11. You absolutely need to use everyone as a matter of fact. That game is such a masterpiece in character balance.
Hahn always gets too much hate. He is one of the most useful characters in PS4. He is able to do more combo attacks than any other character in the game. Whenever he is in the party, he makes most battles almost trivial because of it.
Hahn is nice when he's with you but he doesnt exist for majority of the game and when he does come back he's pretty much outclassed at everything by rune at that point
I like the concept of 10's customizable nature, but the execution definitely was not good. Feels like there's been many entries that got shown up by later party members like 8. 6 and 4 remind me how I don't gel too much with Summoners and Blue Mages for feeling like gimmicky versions of other Mages, only with more non-playable creatures involved in name only. 3 made me think, "Oh, it's one of those games" over the mostly useless cast. 2 feels like the cost of an environmentally friendly machine. Shame 1 isn't very good since it sounds like an interesting archetype in a game that can't reasonably use it.
Glad to see Cosmic Star Heroine on there, if for the wrong reason 😂. What a great game. Great developer too.. I've played multiple Zeboyd games and love them all.
Klarth? I get where you're coming from with the time stops and how long the summons can take (but I absolutely love him smacking enemies around with a book lol), but I always thought Chester was the worst in that version.
I'll have to go through older videos since I just came across this, but my vote is for "anyone that joins the party as a guest kn Final Fantasy II". It's basically "Sweet! A burden with terrible stats!"
Cool video. I thought Rab was ok but I never really had him in my party. I freaking love Lauren from Cosmic Star Heroine ❤ I always enjoyed having her in my party but I was like in love with her so not surprised 😅🥰
It's not quite 'a party member' but it botheres me how all the golems in Enchanted Arms become useless once you have a full party of humans. They're just pointless.
With Eiyuden Chronicle released, I want to bring my attention to Faye, Leon and Reid. With 120 characters to recruit, you're bound to run into a few stinkers. Faye and Leon will have all of their stats in the double-digits while everyone else would have at least one stat in the triple-digits. Reid is another story. In battle, I don’t think he's all that bad. The problem is that to recruit him, you need to go through that stupid Beigoma Quest that just drags on. And by the time you are able to get him, he's just almost not worth it. I wouldn't be surprised if most players had Perrielle die in the end because of this guy.
Yeah... Anastasia hurts to put on this list. She's a solid mage with the crest system, for sure. But... Pretty much everyone can be a good mage with that. And they still have their unique mechanics to play around with, too. What hurt the most was Lauren. I wanted to like her so dang much. I absolutely love her design! But yeah, the character whose occupation is singer is NOT the one to utilize the awesome, incredibly helpful song mechanic. Nope... those belong to the cybernetic hive-minded bug character (Psybe)? Don't get me wrong; bug dude is awesome, but those songs really should have been part of Lauren's core skillset, not her base equipment that gets outclassed almost immediately (Cosmic Star Heroine has your equipment add supplemental abilities that can be used once per battle; Lauren's songs are from her very first piece of armor and that's the only instance she has of them). If you're still looking for candidates for another installment, I'm gonna throw Faize, from Star Ocean 4 out again. This guy just doesn't know what he's doing in a fight. He uses swords as his weapon (increase base strength for attacks), but his skills are all magic spells. Star Ocean mages are notoriously bad in most cases, just because most powerful enemies have no elemental weaknesses and multiple resistances. While the physical attackers of the game get to set pretty much any skill they want onto their special attack buttons, SO4 mages can only put basic and intermediate tier spells. Meaning, if you want to cast your higher level spells, you need to pause the battle to manually select them from the menu. That, or just spam your useless Ice Needles. I love that he's a fellow lefty (we don't get much representation in RPGs). But, I guess it's only fair that some of them suck.
Should have spoken in third person on that last one! At least Rab has Multiheal before Serena. And Multiheal while out of battle is pretty damn helpful. Going to SPOILERS Which is ironic when Serena also becomes a Sage (which in DQ is the Red Mage on steroids and are generally useful at that)
I gotta agree about both Tora and Rab. Tora was just … teeth gritting. I spent hours hearing him yell “OW OW OW” each time he gets smacked. And sweet Jesus could he NOT keep aggro. I was so happy when other characters joined. He got sidelined like a bad hook up. I realized that years & years ago I only played Anastacia because she’s the peppy, lighthearted female character I loved when I was a younger gay. 😂
Great list :) - Regarding Rab (or Theo) : his special attack is very useful against basic enemies. I agree that he doesn't match against bosses. - Anastasia : As a summoner (what she is), she is incredibly powerful. Together with Joachim, Karin and Yuri = The Perfect SHC Team :) - I disagree partially regarding Noel as she is interesting in Hajimari no Kiseki and not that bad in Zero and Ao no Kiseki. - I have the feeling that a vast majority of the cast of Front Mission 3 & Phantasy Star IV is, at least, forgettable ;) Question : with the amount of characters in Suikoden (8 games) and Radiata Stories; would you do a special video "worst Party members" for these franchises / games?
holy crap!! Dave. RUclips more or less made sure I did not see hyde nor hair of you for MONTHS!! Crazy, I was always watching and then bam. Algorithmd.
What difficulty did you play in Trails to Azure? Noel's status inflicting crafts and very high range are very useful on Hard and Nightmare where it is not that easy to just wipe out the enemies, especially in the early game. On easy and normal, you don't need them because the enemies are not threatening, so I understand thinking than Noel is worthless if you only played on those. I agree that Rab is the worst character in DQ11 and is outclassed in the lategame, but he is still useful in part 1 and part 2 before you get Veronica and Serena back. I actually prefer him to Serena in part 1 because he is bulkier, learns sap to greatly increase your damage output and even does decent damage with his claws once you debuff the enemies.
I agree, Rab is ment to be a Sage yet his gameplay is more akin to a Red Mage from FF. He gets access to both schools of magic yet is outclassed by the sister's individually in terms of specialising, he doesn't get the best spells from both schools (E.g Omniheal, Magic Burst, etc), he's tankier than the average mage yet doesn't get access to the best armours and he can use melee weapons like Claws. Yet ironically enough even as a "Red Mage" he still gets outclassed by Sylvando lol! I dunno even since the Sage in FF3 (NES) almost every other incarnation of that job/class/vocation in any other JRPG is just ok at best.
Her strength debuff is very good too. Yeah, Noel falls behind by the end game when bosses finally become immune to debuffs, but she's great for the early and mid game. I always liked Noel.
I'll only play on Easy mode and NOEL still SUCKS then I'll NEVER attempt AO No kiseki on Nightmare mode WITHOUT STARTING out at its max lv of 150 and even then Noel would still SUCK.
great list as always david. and as always your judgement is well informed. my only gripe is i think you were a little harsh on anastasha as she can come in handy at times. but other then that a superb top ten list david. keep up the good work and have a good day.
These lists are fun excuses to be catty! 😼😸 It was amazing that a NES game like Destiny of an Emperor packed in a hundred-some historical figures. But yeah, they're all bit players: maybe useful as cannon fodder at the point they join, then never again. Having that "the gang's all here" with the party members in Phantasy Star IV's endgame was nice in theory. But Hahn and Gryz just brought nothing new or unique to the table.
Ngl in triangle strategy I use Lionel is a full support tank with defensive equipment and he seemed to preform decently later in the game. I fell Geela the healer falls off extremely quickly once you get the other healers in the game though. Also what made triangle strategy difficult?
Lionel is amazing. He has the longest taunt range in the game and can make opposing mages and healers completely useless while staying relatively safe. There are certainly worse party members like Picoletta or Hossabara
Lionel is one of the best character in triangle strategy imo lol. He is what you use when you’re farming money. Ruffle feather is very very useful to apply fury on enemies. If lionel is out of reach, furied enemy will not attack and will just try to get close to him. And it renders enemy mages useless since they’ll rush into Lionel with normal attacks only. And his weapon skill is one of the most OP skill in the game granted you have the money, it’ll deal a lot of damage and will tempt them in AoE fashion. Lionel is a very late game heavy character, and i only appreciate him on new game plus on hard mode where you’ll want to grind for money, and bloated enemy stats. If we’re talking about Triangle strategy, the most useless character in the game is Hossabara imo. Decent attack stats, but she doesn’t have any good offensive skill, jank healing range, and quite frail for a supposed offensive jack of all trade.
Having just beaten Bahamut Lagoon recently, I also have to nominate the Mini-Devils and the Lancers. Once you could remove the minis, did you ever actually USE them? No. No you didn't. Also, as much as I like Donfan, what do the lancers actually contribute? Mid-range weak attacks? Whoopee. I kept a few around to round out a few teams, but the only thing they ever did was take hits and whittle down the damage sponges. Even Matelite can do that. Since we're talking Bahamut Lagoon, I'd like to nominate Princess Yoyo as an OP character. While her actual character development is...complicated, there's no question that her summons OBLITERATE the enemy (with some help from Sendak). Admit it: you've used her to clear out massive randos and rip bosses to shreds.
I know you already picked on the Phantasy Star 2 cast earlier in the series, but seeing Hahn on this list reminded me of just how much they all suck except for Rudo and maybe Amy.
What's funny is that I love Rab and always keep him in my party 😂😂 I usually roll with Hendrick, the hero, Erik or Sykvando and then Rab I do think Erik is kinda useless but he's honestly so hot that I keep him around 🤣🤣😍😍😍😍🤤🤤🤤
Oh no, I love Tora and Poppi! I do hate the Tiger Tiger minigame though. But even with minimal Poppiswap upgrading, I've found them to be a pretty good NPC tank through normal playthrough. Probably far below par in postgame without being upgraded, though.
Tora is the best character due to the fact he's the only character to do the break-topple-launch-smash all by himself when he gets his final blade poppi form.
Yeah I used him as secondary healer to Serena but as a "Sage" he kinds does fall flat on fitting that role in the party (Even tho I enjoyed his character).
I think difficulty is a big factor. I found Rab extremely useful while playing on the hard difficulty where even with amazing equipment everything still hits like a truck. The base difficulty is easy to brute force through which ends up favoring characters with more explosive offense
To be fair with poppi and her other forms is yes it take a while but once you put the work in you have almost unkillable tanks and if I remember right you can do the driver combo with just Tora
As worst party member in any game i'd say any unnamed character in disgaea (any), where the ultimate goal in the game is to grind those characters that you'll grow attached to only to unlock named characters that will make them totally useless. They're the WORST of em all, they exist only to eventually be thrown away.
Agreed on Tora, Its a shame that he has the potential to be the strongest, but buffing poppy is such a pain. Also, fuck Tiger Tiger. I was forced to ask my wife to help me reach 50k points to unlock poppi's affinity chart.
My hated ones: All 3 of Breath of Fire V - Nina’s whining when she casts spells, Ryu slowly transforming into a dragon and forces you to speed run while not being able to enjoy it and the gunner girl because “hey! Hey!” was effective but I hated her expressions. I think you mentioned Sarah from star ocean 5 but I HATE HER SOOO MUCH! “Byyeee saaarah” in the space ship had me hating the game so much 😩 If you didn’t mention Wakka yet from ff 10 then his fake black accent was just suuuuper off putting. Valkyrie Profile 2 - the main character and the fact that all the power ups you spend on her are disregarded at the end when the valkyries fuse anyways + she barely has any character besides when Silmeria takes over…. I forgot her name. 😹😹😹
Guilty confession time, I'm actually sentimentally attached to Rab and always have him out even though the other characters have more use. My grandfather passed away when I was really young, so meeting Rab in DQ11 and getting attached to him through the Hero, especially that side-story sequence, got me all misty-eyed and made me realize how much I missed my grandpa. :(
So yeah, I'm keeping Rab out at almost all times.
At least Rab is useful. Unlike some other party members in other JRPGs. And his character is necessary to the story. Unlike some other party members in other JRPGs. So in both regards, he’s a step up from other games in the genre. I feel like his being on this list is a bit of a reach. But if I had to choose one party member from the game, it would be him. But that’s saying a lot, considering that all party members in DQXI are useful in one way or another.
His healing and damage are actually pretty good
I agree that Rab is useful, but he's outshined by another character in any roll he plays. As David said, he would be far more useful if you got him early on.
@@Revz8bit idk he was always switched in on boss fights for me even late game. Tbh all the characters are useful. The game isn’t very hard even with draconian options on
Yeah, I really don't get all the hate for Rab. Having a second healer with a decent magic stat is really good; and his offense is far better than Serena's! Sylvando, on the other hand, has such poor damage output that I don't think he fills the role better at all even with Hustle Dance (at least not where I'm at in the game--maybe that'll change later).
Rab's a god in draconian mode
Nice list. Though to be fair there are no bad party members in DQXI. Rab may not be the best but each one is useful for various reasons.
I could probably make the same point for Triangle Strategy. Lionel is useful for Charm when you don’t have the dancer. He’s an Aggro tank though not a traditional tank per se. but I found him useful. Loses points for being annoying though lol
Love these, David! I thought you did this, but, I couldn't find it, can you do a list of temporary JRPG characters you wish were permanent?
Seconding because my vote would go to Reddas from FF12 in a heartbeat.
Laguna of FF8 would have been awesome if you could have him join permanently when you find him in Esthar. He also has one of my favourite battle themes - "The Man With The Machine Gun".
Beatrix from ff9 for sure comes to mind.
The problem with a lot of these, is that temporary characters are oftentimes overpowered AF because they are meant to be used in specific scenarios/battles/stories designed specifically for them and they are oftentimes part of a smaller group which is why they need to be powerful. Beatrix as someone else mentioned, is like this. Usually when you have Beatrix in your group, she's either solo, or with Freya or Steiner IIRC, and it's just the two of them. Of course she's overpowered, because she has to be to survive with just her and 1 other. But if you were able to add her to your main group, well... it would completely break the challenge of the game.
Minwu always in My heart
David!!! We got BEEF now!! You put some respect on Rab’s name!! He is NOT useless!! Okay. Yes he is. 😂
I love Tora and Poppi as characters, and they *can* technically become the strongest character in the game... but if you just want to do the main story and sidequests and aren't going for the colosseum or anything, I can definitely see why you'd want to sideline them when excellent and easier to use characters like Zeke and Morag are right there.
Also, who the hell approved Linny's design and... concept?! Like, *really* what the hell?!
In Hahn's defence, if you are willing to do a little grinding early, he runs rampant over any and all random encounters for early and late game. Also, Paladin Blow looks dope AF.
I'm a little late to the party here, but for anyone interested...In Destiny of an Emperor, the reason many characters are insignificant and don't level up, is because they're pretty much as inconsequential as they also are within the book the game is based on, Romance of the Three Kingdoms. Since this game only concentrates on the exploits of Liu Bei and his two sworn brothers (Guan Yu and Zhang Fei) the only other characters who are really relevant are the other three Tiger Generals of the Shu Kingdom (Ma Chao, Huang Zhong, Zhao Yun) and of course the legendary strategist, Zhuge Liang. The interesting reality not really explored in the game is that the one who ultimately wins despite Liu Bei and the Shu Kingdom's efforts, is the "Hero of Chaos" of the Wei Kingdom, Cao Cao, along with his own legendary strategist, Sima Yi (that later betrays his descendants and ends up overthrowing the Cao family.) And these two are essentially portrayed as the villains of this game, despite actually winning. I highly recommend Destiny of An Emperor II! I think it has the superior storyline and gameplay. And if you want to learn more of the story, I also recommend the Romance of the Three Kingdoms game series, or the Dynasty Warriors series. For an amazing (yet endearingly campy) live action series that tells the story incredibly well, check out Three Kingdoms (2010) on RUclips, entirely free to watch!
Oh man Lionel's saved my ass so many times with his long-range taunt 😅 It's so great using it on mages and standing behind other party members. They can't cast magic and they can't reach Lionel to hit him so they spend 3 turns doing absolutely nothing
Yeah, his final move is one of the most powerful in the game. Plus this is a game where farming money is a NIGHTMARE. But Lionel can help you earn 20k every two minutes. And if you played this game, you know money is essential to leveling up skills.
Honestly, with that long range taunt he can break a few encounters with mages. Outside of his niche, he's not good unless you baby him and get him up. But for those niche situations, he's a godsend and so fun to essentially troll the AI.
Great list as always David! I've been missing these. I've just thought of a deviation : Top 10 worst Jobs/classes, which would include various job-change systems like FF5/tactics or DQ6/7, for example. I know there are few games using these, but it could be interesting.
Going to have to disagree with you about Rab. I found him more useful then other characters like Eric. But each character in 11 had their own usefulness, such a good game. I agree with you on Anastasia from Shadow Hearts: Covenant but I liked her story arc more then other characters like Lucia.
I liked playing with Rab, his pep powers are nice, especially vs the final boss.
Also, he has the saddest moment in the game, when he needs a moment alone with his daughter (her defiled tomb, actually).
Tora and Poppy have so much potential though! I liked that you could change Poppy's element. Usefull for combos.
Good potential, but annoying implementation. Plus a character design and personality that can be very annoying.
I love Rab and used him all the way to the end. Dude can do everything. Greatly? Not quite, but he is capable of doing a lot and a backup healer. I never felt forced to use Serena, the "dedicated” healer.
Return of the king! I love your content, but its cool to see the series I found the channel with come back :)
Man the disrespect towards Rab. Yes in a normal run there isn't much use for him, but on Draconian? He is a godsend. In act 1 he is a healer that can take a hit, unlike Serena, debuffs are incredibly important and unlike Veronica, he can debuff and take a hit. In act 2 he becomes a complete monster, not only he gets an easily spammable AOE move but his claw combo absolutely demolishes debuffed bosses. The old guy only falls off when Uber Serena shows up and even then, I'd rather use Rab to clean mobs instead of Jade, SPOILER CHARACTER or Erik. He's only mediocre in act 3 where Veronica becomes actually useful with her final spells. And in act 3, Serena can't debuff anymore, making her the worst character until you have enough money to spam the blue kaioken items. In DQ11 the title of worst party member switches a lot, but Rab always avoids it until your party can be min-maxed. I beg you guys to give him a chance
I'll comment on the characters from games I played.
Tora: yeah, he sucks. I ditched him as soon as I could.
Noel: she's fine. She's good for regular battles, and she can work against bosses with decent Quartz setups. To be honest, I rarely used her, but I wouldn't say she's much worse than the other characters.
Lauren: I barely remember Lauren, but the criticism sounds valid.
Rab: I wouldn't call him bad. He can work well enough in the right party, as Dragon Quest XI has no outright useless characters. I used Rab regularly in Part 2 of the game, after *redacted*.
Klarth: I've never finished Tales of Phantasia, so I can't say much about him. I'm not sure if his spells freezing battles necessarily makes him bad (depends on how much damage they do).
Hahn: at least he's useful in the first dungeon. I don't know who'd want to pick him near the end of the game. He would've been my worst party member if I picked him, but I never did so whatever.
Anastasia: I thought she was okay, although I'll generally give characters some credit if they're useful for regular battles (I can't remember the game well enough to properly critique her). I recall finding Gepetto to be the worst in Shadow Hearts II, but I could be wrong about that.
Linny: I swear I beat Front Mission 3, but I don't remember this guy at all. I looked him up, and I think I played through the Alisa route, in which he is never a playable character.
David. I know I love this video before I even watch it. I love watching videos about worst and best party members
Tora has access to arguably the best blade in the game QTpi, problem is that he isn't great through the adventure and you have to work on getting QTpi since her quest is a PAIN and Tiger Tiger but on NG+ with easy ether crystals you can shred through superbosses like butter.
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I got way too much mileage out of Rab's Pearly Gates to let you slander him like this.
Great video as always David! My biggest pet peeve in JRPGs is when I like a character’s personality, but have to keep them out of my party because they’re terrible in battle…
Is that worse than a character whose personality you hate but they have indispensable skills?
@@ArcCaravan oooooh, good point!
Yeah 95% of the recruitable characters in Destiny of an Emperor are just party filler while you're recruiting the other good characters.
The only reason it doesn't bother me much buying gear for them is since everybody can equip the same gear swapping them out isn't really a hassle.
Rab never really gets a chance to shine. His great opportunity is in the second part after the incident with Veronica, but Serena soon gains her powers and promptly outclasses Rab across the board. Then Serena gets her various hidden costumes and, well, she looks way better in the tiger bikini than Rab would.
If he joined at the beginning, he'd have a chance to be awesome.
Been looking forward to another list like this ☺️
Now, for my least favorite Party Member (as much as it pains me cuz this is like my favorite game):
Ari + Stan from Okage: Shadow King
Ari is just extremely bland, making any modern harem/isekai protag from the last 10 years look like the most well-thought out and perfectly written characters ever created. I understand he’s cast as “the over-shadowed boy” but c’mon! He’s victim to the curse of the Silent Protagonist, but instead of actually being interesting, he’s just…there. they could’ve given the Leading Man role to Your other party member Rosalyn! She has a bigger set of balls than Ari does. Ari could’ve been relegated to a supporting cast member since Rosalyn and Stan have history…could’ve made that story a tad more interesting…
Stan, the titular Shadow King, has his moments but honestly he should’ve been utilized more as an actual party member. He just kinda randomly pops up at the weirdest times to deliver an OP attack but honestly, it’s during the absolute worst times in the game. I don’t think he ever did it during any of the actual boss fights where it could’ve been useful…just during random mob encounters that literally only needed one attack and instead Stan decides right then and there is the perfect time to flex his EVIL KING POWERS (TM) on a sad ass frog…
And unfortunately, together in battle they are one unit…and you can’t access Stan’s attacks at all like I mentioned, and worst yet: with Ari being the protagonist…he HAS to be in the main party at all times, and EVEN WORST: if he gets killed it’s an automatic game over. And guess who normally gets mobbed first chance 90% of the time?
As to my own worst JRPG party member, I can go obscure: Lucius from Unchained Blades.
He's a samurai and can deal a lot of damage... to one target. He only has two of three potential AoE skills, all but one are random target, and all of them use claws, instead of his best weapon the katana. This is even worse in a game where a normal encounter has 5-15 enemies, and even bosses have multiple targets, so single target damage only is not reliable.
He also has no multi-target debuff skills, and his most common weapon effect is instant death.... which again, does not work on bosses or other tough enemies.
Add that to the fact that you have to play the entirety of chapter 3 with Lucius solo, and he gets no healing techniques and has to rely on expensive heal items, making your first introduction to him a slog.
Oh, and he's also a huge grump and not even fun to be around! Even with Hector's and Mari's limited capabilities, I still pick them over Lucius any day.
What I love about your lists is you take the whole game into account and not just the last dungeon/final boss fight. Too many people doing these lists will rank a character who is terrible for the first 65 hours, but great for the last 5 hours higher than a character who is great for the first 65 hours and only okay for the last 5 hours.
Lionel is the perfect example. I have seen several youtubers list him as 'S' tier because his unlockable weapon skill is an area of effect charm with 100% chance of success. It can change the tide of battles, but it is only available for the last couple of battles and only if you waste precious resources on upgrading him. For the first 90% of the game he is useless. He is basically the mediator from FFT, already one of the worst FFT jobs, without the ability to use guns, permanently recruit people or permanently raise/lower faith/brave. Which were the only remotely positive things about the mediator class.
I love Klarth's design! ^_^ I also think it's wonderful how Rinwell echoes his design and fighting style. Thank you for your hard work in making and sharing these videos.
+1 for Destiny of an Emperor. It's honestly one of my favorite NES RPGs and one I've still enjoyed playing. The characters who don't grow in stats don't really bother me much here because you can recruit newer and stronger units, then move on when they're out classed. Before the end of the game you'll have a full party of characters who DO grow, so it won't even matter eventually anyway.
THANK YOU for calling out Tora!
Xenoblade 2 has a LOT of critical flaws in its combat system (Blades gotten at random and you can't reassign them, etc)...but *Tora makes every single one of those flaws worse.* His one single blade has a single element that can't be changed until WAY late in the game, which locks you out of doing most Blade Combos, preventing you from accessing some really important ones...
And THEN, when you FINALLY unlock Chain Attacks way too late in the game...The fact he only has 1 blade makes it impossible to COMPLETE a chain attack, even if you manage to set it up perfectly, because Poppi will end up too tired to continue, which will end the combo even if you COULD have kept going!
By the time he FINALLY gets a second blade like halfway through the game, you get your first *REAL* tank. At which point I immediately booted his ass out of the party. >:(
You just don't know how to use him. If you don't upgrade Poppi correctly then you would be able to fully utlize him,
I've played the game for over 800 hours.
If you don't switch between Poppi's 3 forms you won't be able to get the chain attack.
You obviously don't know how to play the game.
@@DJK1NGGaming According to google "You can't get elemental cores as drops until you start chapter 8". So yeah, for far more than half the game, you can't change Poppi's Elements. I'm correct there.
And I'm ALSO right that you only have *one* single Poppi Form until near the end of *chapter 4.* Before then, it is *physically impossible* to fully complete a Chain Attack, because Poppi goes on Cooldown and *you only HAVE that one form.*
While *yes* near the end of the game Tora becomes completely overpowered because you can fully customize the hell out of Poppi...For a large chunk of the game you cannot do those things because you have not unlocked them yet.
The problem isn't that I don't understand how to play the game, it's more that your reading comprehension needs work. :)
@@AegixDrakan once again you don't know how to play the game.
If Rex, Nia, Zeke or Morag doesn't have Rare Blades that work well with the Elements or Driver Combo with Tora you won't get Chain Attack or anything done. You upgrade Poppi by doing the minigame if you don't do that you wont get far with Tora.
@@DJK1NGGaming My dude.
These upgrades you're talking about, that would have helped me do those chain attacks unlock: 1) at the end of Chapter 4 (A second Poppi Form), and b) sometime during chapter 8 (custom elements).
For around 2 whole chapters of the game, *I literally did not have access to those upgrades.* Which is the problem.
Also, I quit the whole-ass game by chapter 6 because of a combo of losing interest in the combat, AND the story.
So yes, I don't know what the endgame of Xenoblade 2 looks like. Because the game lost my interest LONG before then. And part of that was caused by Tora gumming up the combat mechanics for almost half the freaking game.
“Combat is not Lionel’s forte!”
I heard someone say his weapon skill makes him S tier. I have yet to allow myself to put any precious resources into developing him that far.
David, I love you but… XD
Holy crap hard disagree on Lionel in this list. Fury is one hell of a busted skill in TS and Lionel is one of the few able to use it. There are also many fights in TS where it is optimal to have an enemy approach you, only making his drawbacks regarding movement less an issue.
I didn’t use him much my the first half of my playthrough but that was before I l figured out fully what abuses could be done regarding fury status. Enemy mage or healer is about to give you problems? Easier to let Lionel walk out of formation to cast fury status over Erador. Holding Lionel in center formation? Fury status a melee unit and watch them do nothing for several turns. He buys you time which is a huge asset in this game that throws barrels of enemies at you. There are even a few major characters you can hit fury status on (Erika being a big one).
Anyway, always love this series of vids so hope there will be many more in the future.
Had the day off, just binged most of your vids, I gotta say, I hope you do well as a model. But don't stop making vids, please. Thank you
There are two times in the game when Rab is good. Right after I got Pearly Gates I respeced him into claws. With MP absorb, a strong single target physical attack, and a powerful screen clearing attack he was one of my stongest party members. He is also good super later game with Kacracrackle and Kazammle, but by then everyone is super powerful.
I missed these! And now I would like to nominate Jim the Knight from Hydlide (yes, that is his canonical name). Of course, nobody should ever play Hydlide to BEGIN with, but when you die from bees, trees, rocks, slimes, or standing perfectly still in the desert, lexicographers scramble to redefine "pathetic".
Oh yes, and Pearl from Legend of Mana. Yes, I know she can become Black Pearl, but tell me this: what does Pearl herself do? No, really, what does she do? She...um...distracts the enemy? I could be wrong, but I remember her (and probably a few others) being completely worthless.
I was actually expecting you to put Serena on this list instead of Rab. He learns the better healing spells quicker than she does, and he also has some good utility abilities and spells on top of that.
Then again, I could be wrong. My memory holds as much as a colander, so I might have forgotten something good she has.
Nah rab is good. Sylvando is actually kinda worse albeit all the cast are actually good to decent gameplay wise
Getting an ability faster doesn't mean much when someone who can use it better gets it later on.
that and Serena can easily help you fight/Kill Metal King Slimes faster then Rab ever will.
Good list, but I can’t believe you’re doing my boy Tora like that?!?
While I agree wholeheartedly that Tiger! Tiger! totally sucks and also that it’s less than ideal that it takes soooooo long to get 3 “blades” on Tora.... once he gets there, with the proper investment he can become an absolute powerhouse. Not only the best tank, but a total beast on DPS as well.
Klarth nooooooooo. I even dressed up as him for Halloween a few years ago and people were like...who are you suppose to be? He's one of my favorite Tales characters. I just have a thing for summoners.
Hahn really isn't all that bad. Sure, he's outclassed by Raja but in the endgame, he's got Astral and Nares spells. I'd say he's a fairly mid character.
A character I always hated was Edge in Final Fantasy 4. You lose Yang, who is amazing, and get Edge as a replacement who is worse in every way.
Could not disagree more with Noel her abilities to disable by debuffing , delay enemy turns from a distance and attack groups of enemies is very useful when the rest of the party has to use magic or crafts to do similar , while she can do it with her base attack.
I love at 2:06 you show her nearly wipeout a group of enemies and put a few of them to sleep making them easier for your party to take them out while keeping them at bay showing how effective she can be, if you buff her strength with say a master quartz or equipment she can wipeout entire groups of enemies fast even with out her ultimate which is great when you encounter enemies such as those you find in monster chests that are too dangerous to have a long a battle with .Her abiltiy to debuff the strength of her target including certain bosses with her melee craft and limit groups of enemies movements making the party harder to kill with her net craft shes borderline broken .
Gonna once again nominate Darius from Vandal Hearts. His problem is that he's just unnecessary. By the time you get him, you already have three other potential archers. And turning him into an Airman is just begging for trouble. While yes, he does get good mobility, the downside is that one archer is liable to knock him down with a single shot. And practically every encounter is going to have at least a few of them to guarantee that. Unless you just want him around to loot chests and grab hidden items or be a decoy, he's just a giant target waiting to be bombarded.
He's also the last character you recruit into your party. And whereas a lot of games tend to save their best for last, this guy is anything but,. Especially compared to the second to last to join, Zohar, who pretty much breaks the game.
4:08 -- Don't forget Klarth's "locker room talk" (or "male bonding" as he calls it) on the ship! :D
Love these videos! And, oh no! I just started “Trails of Azure”! Don’t tell me Noelle sucks in it, LMAO!!!
Lionel is one of the few characters that I didn't even bother leveling in triangle strategy.
Kurt Vander from Trails of Cold Steel. Kurt's the weakest link in Class VII. Rean's better at countering and impeding, Fie's much faster, and Juna's better at taking hits and countering. You're stuck with him for the first half of Cold Steel 3 and 4, and after Musse and Ash join, he becomes irrelevant. And with CS4's huge party roster, you're better off benching him in battle.
for CS4 Kurt even on Very easy mode is still useful including his orders command I find Alisha Emma Elliot in all 4 games + Hajimari to be totally useless since I'll NEVER have spells outdamage s craft damage and from CS3 onwards Elliot LOSES his only ATTACK s craft from the first 2 games and so does Emma.
Some play him as the evasion tank and i don't get why. He has never enough range to counter unless i place him right next to the enemies. Juna is a better evasion tank, Ash and Rean are better in damage and Musse and Altina better in magic. Kurt is just there. poor guy even in the story he is not very relevant most of the time. It is the same with Machias in the first half of the arc for me. I just did not know what to do with him.
@@zillo1600 Yeah, like I said, you're better off benching Kurt in the long run. They only added him in just to have a bishounen character, and he has even less of a character than Rean.
@@veghesther3204 Isn't Elliot supposed to be your healer?
Noel is one of the weaker party members, but she isn't that bad. First off, she's the best character for AoE attacks in the game AND one AoE attack puts enemies to sleep. Couple that with status quartz and she'll status enemies all day. Next, her Heavy Smash can lower attack which is extremely useful for boss Fights in Nightmare mode. I think it's actually the only attack that can do this. Just look at her clip at 2:03 , her Sleep Grenade completely owns the enemies. 3 asleep and one frozen.
The merchant from triangle strategy is truly bad. I love that game but I have no love for him.
Hahn was supposed to be the all-rounder magic user, with a variety of great spells. He had that, but his HP and Defense were not worth the liability of someone you'd have to revive a lot. You're right, he's not objectively bad but he's not built in a way to make him deeply appealing. Gryz's only problems were low Tech Defense but mostly his lack of skills. The developers didn't put a lot of effort into such a cool character, but I'd prefer him over Hahn.
Hahn's spell selection let him do the most combo attacks in the game. Being able to kill every enemy on screen in one turn is enough to make him very useful.
I didn't say he was bad, only that his survivability made him a liability in boss fights.
Equip two shields, problem solved. Now Hahn is your best tank!
@@RwnEsper Works great. It is the same thing I do with Rune once I hit the second planet.
I may have some characters if you decide on doing a part 9 :
Ema and gary in suikoden tactics.
They join late in the game and besides talking to each other they dont do much. Like one of them can only use items or so.
Cloud in final fantasy tactics :
Hes optional and for good reasons. He starts at level 1 (while all your other characters and enemies are wayyyyyy over) and by the time he does any action, he's dead. You have to grind him to get his limits but they are long to cast and he dies again. Plus he NEEDS the materia blade to be able to use his limits. So i only get him to basicly get him.
Nelsha : thousand arms
What a weakling and her special abilities arent good either. Some sort of costumes. Its been so long that its pretty much what i remember in the game.
I can't argue with Tora. I'm using him right now and I found myself saying "He's going to include him, I just know it.". I love his tanky aggroness. It's so useful for the tougher fights. But that's just me loading him up with HP+ equipment. But he really lacks in options, since that's the only thing he's good for. And I find myself calling him Riki after the much better Nopon from the first Xeno game.
Lacking options? You can change the elements of each Poppi form and their battle roles as well as general aux core kinds of things. Using Poppi is different, but the options are basically infinite. I barely touched Tiger Tiger and still had loads of Poppi parts from enemy drops, quests, chests and doing the challenge mode battles and I could make her slightly broken once I wrapped my head around Poppiswap.
Apparently Lionel is the highest damage dealer in new game+/hard mode with his weapon skill or something.
But yeah, he is creepy looking haha
Lionel is freaking amazing in Triangle Strategy: he has the best taunt and the best charm in the game. Both are also AoE. Seriously, he is one of the best characters in the entire game.
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While Hahn is definitely not the best option for Phantasy Star IV endgame (but the problem here is that there is only one open slot and Raja overshadows everybody else), he is actually pretty useful if recruited.
He brings very reliable instant kill moves (that are effective for the entire final dungeon super high encounter rate of fodder enemies) combined with the Paladin Blow combo move, that is the strongest two-men single target Combo for Chaz (the main character, you know...), so he can still contribute to the final battle damage once the instant kills aren't useful anymore.
So you reach the ending boss faster and wasting less resources for the entire party and then he is still useful, unlike the typical death spell specialist during the final boss battle.
Of course there is the whole issue that since you don't have Raja now you are forced to use Rika (potentially your best damage dealer) as a dedicated healer, but again this is about the "totally not namekian" priest being utterly broken in the game economy, not Hahn being bad.
I absolutely LOVE these videos you make. Your top 10s are just the best.
It took me awhile to realize how bad Rab was. However, he did have a few pretty good abilities I liked.
I've never been a huge fan of the blue mage like you. Definitely agree that bosses are always too immune to status effects. It makes no sense when it's a main part of the character's toolkit.
😂 Oh my god Lionel, I didn't use him either. I tried him in a mock battle at the tavern and I promptly said to myself...."Nope, so he won't be used ever unless I am forced." It's just why doesn't he have larger range...or at least some sort of throw coins skill where he can hit better or some fun risk move to him. (Yes his ultimate weapon skill isn't bad, but you can't just bring him out for that, at least give him the throw coins as a base skill that's upgrade in his ultimate) I guess for a friendly merchant he rips us off more than he helps.
I've played 120 hours of Triangle Strategy and completely forgot Lionel was playable in the game.
Rab is key if you play with hard enemies mode in DQ11. You absolutely need to use everyone as a matter of fact. That game is such a masterpiece in character balance.
"I just don´t like his hat, that´s why he´s here, just kidding"
no no I agree, that hat is terrible
Love this series. Glad to see a new entry.
Hahn always gets too much hate. He is one of the most useful characters in PS4. He is able to do more combo attacks than any other character in the game. Whenever he is in the party, he makes most battles almost trivial because of it.
Hahn is nice when he's with you but he doesnt exist for majority of the game and when he does come back he's pretty much outclassed at everything by rune at that point
I like the concept of 10's customizable nature, but the execution definitely was not good. Feels like there's been many entries that got shown up by later party members like 8. 6 and 4 remind me how I don't gel too much with Summoners and Blue Mages for feeling like gimmicky versions of other Mages, only with more non-playable creatures involved in name only. 3 made me think, "Oh, it's one of those games" over the mostly useless cast. 2 feels like the cost of an environmentally friendly machine. Shame 1 isn't very good since it sounds like an interesting archetype in a game that can't reasonably use it.
Glad to see Cosmic Star Heroine on there, if for the wrong reason 😂. What a great game. Great developer too.. I've played multiple Zeboyd games and love them all.
It was on a list of games I wanted at one point and then I totally forgot about it… until this video. So I just bought it for $5 on Switch. lol
Klarth? I get where you're coming from with the time stops and how long the summons can take (but I absolutely love him smacking enemies around with a book lol), but I always thought Chester was the worst in that version.
I'll have to go through older videos since I just came across this, but my vote is for "anyone that joins the party as a guest kn Final Fantasy II". It's basically "Sweet! A burden with terrible stats!"
Cool video. I thought Rab was ok but I never really had him in my party. I freaking love Lauren from Cosmic Star Heroine ❤ I always enjoyed having her in my party but I was like in love with her so not surprised 😅🥰
It's not quite 'a party member' but it botheres me how all the golems in Enchanted Arms become useless once you have a full party of humans. They're just pointless.
With Eiyuden Chronicle released, I want to bring my attention to Faye, Leon and Reid. With 120 characters to recruit, you're bound to run into a few stinkers.
Faye and Leon will have all of their stats in the double-digits while everyone else would have at least one stat in the triple-digits.
Reid is another story. In battle, I don’t think he's all that bad. The problem is that to recruit him, you need to go through that stupid Beigoma Quest that just drags on. And by the time you are able to get him, he's just almost not worth it. I wouldn't be surprised if most players had Perrielle die in the end because of this guy.
I could go on a David-style rampage over my disdain of Veronica in DQ11. Whooooooooffff
Glad that this series is back.
YES! Put Linny in his place! You gotta force him to level up other weapon skills if you want him to be useful in close range combat.
True, but missiles with big bigpack + salvo and which act cpu is almost as broken as body shot and which act cpu
I agree on most generals being useless in Destiny of an Emperor, but I do love the game
Really on point with Hanh.
After you get him back he is leveled up,but like griz ,you have better options there
Yeah... Anastasia hurts to put on this list. She's a solid mage with the crest system, for sure. But... Pretty much everyone can be a good mage with that. And they still have their unique mechanics to play around with, too.
What hurt the most was Lauren. I wanted to like her so dang much. I absolutely love her design! But yeah, the character whose occupation is singer is NOT the one to utilize the awesome, incredibly helpful song mechanic. Nope... those belong to the cybernetic hive-minded bug character (Psybe)? Don't get me wrong; bug dude is awesome, but those songs really should have been part of Lauren's core skillset, not her base equipment that gets outclassed almost immediately (Cosmic Star Heroine has your equipment add supplemental abilities that can be used once per battle; Lauren's songs are from her very first piece of armor and that's the only instance she has of them).
If you're still looking for candidates for another installment, I'm gonna throw Faize, from Star Ocean 4 out again. This guy just doesn't know what he's doing in a fight. He uses swords as his weapon (increase base strength for attacks), but his skills are all magic spells. Star Ocean mages are notoriously bad in most cases, just because most powerful enemies have no elemental weaknesses and multiple resistances. While the physical attackers of the game get to set pretty much any skill they want onto their special attack buttons, SO4 mages can only put basic and intermediate tier spells. Meaning, if you want to cast your higher level spells, you need to pause the battle to manually select them from the menu. That, or just spam your useless Ice Needles. I love that he's a fellow lefty (we don't get much representation in RPGs). But, I guess it's only fair that some of them suck.
Should have spoken in third person on that last one!
At least Rab has Multiheal before Serena. And Multiheal while out of battle is pretty damn helpful. Going to SPOILERS
Which is ironic when Serena also becomes a Sage (which in DQ is the Red Mage on steroids and are generally useful at that)
I gotta agree about both Tora and Rab. Tora was just … teeth gritting. I spent hours hearing him yell “OW OW OW” each time he gets smacked. And sweet Jesus could he NOT keep aggro. I was so happy when other characters joined. He got sidelined like a bad hook up.
I realized that years & years ago I only played Anastacia because she’s the peppy, lighthearted female character I loved when I was a younger gay. 😂
Great list :)
- Regarding Rab (or Theo) : his special attack is very useful against basic enemies. I agree that he doesn't match against bosses.
- Anastasia : As a summoner (what she is), she is incredibly powerful. Together with Joachim, Karin and Yuri = The Perfect SHC Team :)
- I disagree partially regarding Noel as she is interesting in Hajimari no Kiseki and not that bad in Zero and Ao no Kiseki.
- I have the feeling that a vast majority of the cast of Front Mission 3 & Phantasy Star IV is, at least, forgettable ;)
Question : with the amount of characters in Suikoden (8 games) and Radiata Stories; would you do a special video "worst Party members" for these franchises / games?
Seems like we're more in the realm of "Top 10 Medicore JRPG Party Members" at this point... Time for a new series, mayhap?
holy crap!! Dave. RUclips more or less made sure I did not see hyde nor hair of you for MONTHS!! Crazy, I was always watching and then bam. Algorithmd.
You leave Hahn alone! Vol and Savol saved me many times.
Also helped me figure out I was gay.
What difficulty did you play in Trails to Azure? Noel's status inflicting crafts and very high range are very useful on Hard and Nightmare where it is not that easy to just wipe out the enemies, especially in the early game. On easy and normal, you don't need them because the enemies are not threatening, so I understand thinking than Noel is worthless if you only played on those.
I agree that Rab is the worst character in DQ11 and is outclassed in the lategame, but he is still useful in part 1 and part 2 before you get Veronica and Serena back. I actually prefer him to Serena in part 1 because he is bulkier, learns sap to greatly increase your damage output and even does decent damage with his claws once you debuff the enemies.
I agree, Rab is ment to be a Sage yet his gameplay is more akin to a Red Mage from FF. He gets access to both schools of magic yet is outclassed by the sister's individually in terms of specialising, he doesn't get the best spells from both schools (E.g Omniheal, Magic Burst, etc), he's tankier than the average mage yet doesn't get access to the best armours and he can use melee weapons like Claws.
Yet ironically enough even as a "Red Mage" he still gets outclassed by Sylvando lol! I dunno even since the Sage in FF3 (NES) almost every other incarnation of that job/class/vocation in any other JRPG is just ok at best.
Her strength debuff is very good too. Yeah, Noel falls behind by the end game when bosses finally become immune to debuffs, but she's great for the early and mid game. I always liked Noel.
I'll only play on Easy mode and NOEL still SUCKS then I'll NEVER attempt AO No kiseki on Nightmare mode WITHOUT STARTING out at its max lv of 150 and even then Noel would still SUCK.
Lionel is one of the very best late game characters, especially on hard.
great list as always david. and as always your judgement is well informed. my only gripe is i think you were a little harsh on anastasha as she can come in handy at times. but other then that a superb top ten list david. keep up the good work and have a good day.
These lists are fun excuses to be catty! 😼😸
It was amazing that a NES game like Destiny of an Emperor packed in a hundred-some historical figures. But yeah, they're all bit players: maybe useful as cannon fodder at the point they join, then never again.
Having that "the gang's all here" with the party members in Phantasy Star IV's endgame was nice in theory. But Hahn and Gryz just brought nothing new or unique to the table.
Like I need an excuse to be catty LOL
@@davidvincIt's one of the reasons I subscribed to you 🤷🏻♂️😆
Almost every fire emblem game has a handful or more of terrible characters so that would probably be my pick.
I'm probably wrong, but I remember a previous list crammed them all together in one entry.
Ngl in triangle strategy I use Lionel is a full support tank with defensive equipment and he seemed to preform decently later in the game. I fell Geela the healer falls off extremely quickly once you get the other healers in the game though.
Also what made triangle strategy difficult?
Lionel is amazing. He has the longest taunt range in the game and can make opposing mages and healers completely useless while staying relatively safe. There are certainly worse party members like Picoletta or Hossabara
Now for the next top 10 best jrpg characters list. 😍
Lionel is one of the best character in triangle strategy imo lol. He is what you use when you’re farming money. Ruffle feather is very very useful to apply fury on enemies. If lionel is out of reach, furied enemy will not attack and will just try to get close to him. And it renders enemy mages useless since they’ll rush into Lionel with normal attacks only. And his weapon skill is one of the most OP skill in the game granted you have the money, it’ll deal a lot of damage and will tempt them in AoE fashion. Lionel is a very late game heavy character, and i only appreciate him on new game plus on hard mode where you’ll want to grind for money, and bloated enemy stats. If we’re talking about Triangle strategy, the most useless character in the game is Hossabara imo. Decent attack stats, but she doesn’t have any good offensive skill, jank healing range, and quite frail for a supposed offensive jack of all trade.
He doesn’t even play games all the way through. What did you expect. Most of his RPG knowledge sucks.
@@Jgor215 well, i guess so. But i just thought a lot of these are just misunderstood
Having just beaten Bahamut Lagoon recently, I also have to nominate the Mini-Devils and the Lancers. Once you could remove the minis, did you ever actually USE them? No. No you didn't. Also, as much as I like Donfan, what do the lancers actually contribute? Mid-range weak attacks? Whoopee. I kept a few around to round out a few teams, but the only thing they ever did was take hits and whittle down the damage sponges. Even Matelite can do that.
Since we're talking Bahamut Lagoon, I'd like to nominate Princess Yoyo as an OP character. While her actual character development is...complicated, there's no question that her summons OBLITERATE the enemy (with some help from Sendak). Admit it: you've used her to clear out massive randos and rip bosses to shreds.
I know you already picked on the Phantasy Star 2 cast earlier in the series, but seeing Hahn on this list reminded me of just how much they all suck except for Rudo and maybe Amy.
What's funny is that I love Rab and always keep him in my party 😂😂 I usually roll with Hendrick, the hero, Erik or Sykvando and then Rab
I do think Erik is kinda useless but he's honestly so hot that I keep him around 🤣🤣😍😍😍😍🤤🤤🤤
Oh no, I love Tora and Poppi! I do hate the Tiger Tiger minigame though. But even with minimal Poppiswap upgrading, I've found them to be a pretty good NPC tank through normal playthrough. Probably far below par in postgame without being upgraded, though.
Yes Hahn sucks. Yes horrible how in DOE nobody grows stats. Guess it’s a dinosaur. Nes rip
I'm screaming because my bf and I have been ragging on Lionel since he first picked up the game 🤣
Tora is the best character due to the fact he's the only character to do the break-topple-launch-smash all by himself when he gets his final blade poppi form.
Have to disagree on Rab, he was a lifeline for me his healing skills at higher levels were very useful indeed.
Yeah I used him as secondary healer to Serena but as a "Sage" he kinds does fall flat on fitting that role in the party (Even tho I enjoyed his character).
I think difficulty is a big factor. I found Rab extremely useful while playing on the hard difficulty where even with amazing equipment everything still hits like a truck. The base difficulty is easy to brute force through which ends up favoring characters with more explosive offense
@@lynxfresh5214 Exactly it. He had a high magic stat. Made him a good back ip healer/ 2 healer set up on tougher fights
To be fair with poppi and her other forms is yes it take a while but once you put the work in you have almost unkillable tanks and if I remember right you can do the driver combo with just Tora
As worst party member in any game i'd say any unnamed character in disgaea (any), where the ultimate goal in the game is to grind those characters that you'll grow attached to only to unlock named characters that will make them totally useless. They're the WORST of em all, they exist only to eventually be thrown away.
Agreed on Tora, Its a shame that he has the potential to be the strongest, but buffing poppy is such a pain. Also, fuck Tiger Tiger. I was forced to ask my wife to help me reach 50k points to unlock poppi's affinity chart.
My hated ones:
All 3 of Breath of Fire V - Nina’s whining when she casts spells, Ryu slowly transforming into a dragon and forces you to speed run while not being able to enjoy it and the gunner girl because “hey! Hey!” was effective but I hated her expressions.
I think you mentioned Sarah from star ocean 5 but I HATE HER SOOO MUCH! “Byyeee saaarah” in the space ship had me hating the game so much 😩
If you didn’t mention Wakka yet from ff 10 then his fake black accent was just suuuuper off putting.
Valkyrie Profile 2 - the main character and the fact that all the power ups you spend on her are disregarded at the end when the valkyries fuse anyways + she barely has any character besides when Silmeria takes over…. I forgot her name. 😹😹😹
Aw Lauren lol I'm currently playing Cosmic Star Heroine so that was good/sad to hear