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NewsVGC Top Ten - Worthless RPG CharactersBy Stephen Kelley 28th Aug 2009
Role playing games are littered with great characters, including ones that will live on forever in 15 year old girl's fan fiction and Deviant art Accounts. These characters make us feel what they feel, love who they love, and hate who they hate. Then on the flipside there are the characters that we all hate. These may include evil villains that try to take over the world or double agents who sell us out. Then there is a third tier, those characters we simply don't care about. Whether it be by a huge character flaw, or complete worthlessness, some characters are not designed to be loved or hated, just forgotten. VGC Top Ten proudly presents: The Top Ten Worthless RPG Characters.
10. Jogurt - Shining Force
Imagine a character that can’t attack for more than 1 HP at a time, and will never level up past level 1 because he is an honest to Gosh hamster. look no further than Jogurt from Shining Force to meet these qualifications. Quite possibly the most slapped together character in history, Jogurt is a hamster wearing a huge helmet. Simply attaining Jogurt was waste of time involving a complex multi-step quest. His only real use aside from roster filler is a dumb item you can get. When he "gains a level" for the first time, you obtain an item called the “Jogurt Ring” the wearer of which will look like Jogurt in the character avatar and on screen.
9. Cloud - Final Fantasy Tactics
When speaking of Final Fantasy Tactics, one may argue that the brother and sister team of Malak and Rafa should make the list, but at least they don’t promise to be good, and then slap you in the face with failure. It was a great idea to toss Cloud from Final Fantasy VII into the original Final Fantasy Tactics game. Problem was that he was not worth the mountain of trouble you had to go through to get him. The quest that eventually takes you to Cloud involves many meandering sub-stories involving robots, mythical creatures, and legendary literary heroes. After all of that, at last you have Cloud! But wait he doesn’t have any weapons yet, and is incredibly slow at his attacks. Guess what here is another quest to find his sword! Haven’t had enough yet? Get ready to level him up until your eyes bleed, so you can actually use him and his spells! Whoo hoo!
8. Poshul - Chrono Cross
Aside from Earthbound’s Pokey, I can’t think of a more worthless dog character in any RPG as bad as Poshul. Chrono Cross was a good game, but got bogged down a bit because of far too many characters with no reason to have that many, and a confusing storyline. When you have characters like an animated tree named Mojo, there is no stretch of the imagination that you could play as a pink chi’tzu. In Chrono Cross Poshul can really brighten up some dreary points in the game, but it’s about as needed as Jar Jar Binks making the Final Battle in the Phantom Menace more comedic. In theory you could build Poshul into a “tank” character that rivals all others, but c’mon it’s a talking pink chi’tzu!
Note: After I wrote this, I noticed that I had somehow mixed up Ness's Dog King (useful) and Pokey the annoying worthless character you get later in the game. Since I haven't played the game for many years, it blurred together. I don't want to stealthly edit this, so I'll let it stand....oops!
7. Kimahri - Final Fantasy X
I know it’s cool to hate customizable characters in RPGs, but the trend of making them as generic as possible is getting old. First it was Gau having no back-story in FF6, then Quina was too weird and had no backstory in FF9, then we have Kimahri in FFX. When I played Final Fantasy X, I never used Kimahri because I couldn't have cared less about his character due to his lack of personality, backstory, and dialog. The game's artists could have traded him for a picture of Keanu Reeves on a piece of plywood, and I probably would not have noticed the change. This could have been rectified had he been a good character battle-wise, especially with his pedigree as a huge awesome looking lion-dude, sadly I was disappointed. Kimahri’s only skill was that he could move around the Sphere Grid faster than anyone else. Potentially you could make him into the greatest character ever, that is if you care enough.
6. Magikarp - Pokémon
There are some good Pokémon and there are some bad ones. While some just look dumb, it takes a special breed to be as bad as our number six entry. Magikarp is the worst Pokémon, plain and simple. This is because it has no real physical attacks at all and is almost comedically worthless. The original move it has is called Splash, which does nothing. Let me rewind that for you one more time: “The original move it has is called Splash, which does nothing….” Aside from splash the only move it originally had that even did some damage was Tackle, but you couldn’t get that until level 15 or so. Since the Gold and Silver games, Magikarp also has had the move Flail, but it would be worthless if you stuck with Magikarp long enough to get the move instead of evolving it into Gyarados.
5. Mieu - Tales of the Abyss
I believe this video speaks for itself:
4. Hans - Valkyria chronicles
Hans had the potential to be a cool character, (flying pig = awesome) problem was that he really had no relevance to the game's overall story, and kind of disappeared in most of the game. When speaking of cutesy mascot characters, even ones like Pikachu in Pokémon or Chu Chu in Xenogears had the one awesome scene where the character's worth to the party is materialized. Hans was there as just a token pointless cute thing that Sega will obviously use to sell plushies.
3. Cait Sith – FFVII
Cait Sith from Final Fantasy VII is a neat idea for a character. For those that do not know, Cait Sith appears to be a cat riding around on a giant stuffed animal that yells into a blowhorn, and fights with gambling equipment. Can you think of anyone at all that played through the entire game using Cait Sith? Nope, because it has never happened. He happens to be one of the many RPG novelty characters that you say, “heh!” and never use again. “What makes him so bad?”, you may be asking, well there are a few reasons. He is incredibly weak unless you build him up to ungodly proportions, but many will never go that far. Cait Sith’s limit breaks are completely random, and caste all sorts of random status ailments, and may even heal the enemies that you are fighting. Ouch!
2. Thief - Final Fantasy I
When you see the name “thief” one would assume that this person may in fact do things like thievery or backstabbing, or even taking candy from a baby. Not so for the old Final Fantasy I thief, a character that seems to be a good choice at first, but will leave you cursing your way to the reset button. Not only does he not steal, but his intended purpose to run away from battles better only really happens if he's front row. Since he is weak against attacks, this will make him die far more often than he should. When I am forming a party I tend to stay away from people with credentials like these:
1. Qlon – Suikoden
Words cannot express the worthlessness of Qlon from the original Suikoden game. Imagine a job that lies below that of a supermarket door greeter in terms of skill level. Door greeters at least have to pay attention to shop lifters and put stickers on things, but not our good friend Qlon. Whether rain or shine, sleet or snow he (….wait a minute…is Qlon even a man? ....) stands outside your castle and regurgitates the same saying over and over and over again:
I wish I could buy a signpost instead...
More VGChartz Top Ten Lists: VGC Top Ten - Best Game Over Screens VGC Top Ten - Sexually Awkward Videogame Moments VGC Top Ten - Playstation 3 Games VGC Top 100 Best Games of All Time |
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