in defense of Ken, he is not actually a healer but more like a all around character, he is quite unnecessary in general but he can complement anything you need in a party.
Yosuke in P4 did the all around character way better, so good in fact that the original 4 were one of the best team compositions in the game. Need physical damage? Yosuke uses Brave Blade! Need magical damage? Yosuke uses Garudyne! Need buffing? Yosuke uses Masukukaja (Not even getting into his special buff in P4G) Need healing? He uses Mediarama. Ken is goddamn useless in P3 when you look into other characters stats and abilities. The only thing he has going for him is that he hits slightly harder than Mitsuru. HP SP etc are all inferior
Akihiko is a better all around character tho. Good damage output, can take hits, can heal in emergencies, and has access to debuffs. He's basically just a worse Akihiko, only saving grace is Mediarahan and a somewhat less exploitable weakness
@@ephemeralbro Also, akihiko has better magic and strength stats than ken, ken has only single target attack and mudo skills are useless against boss. He being weak to mudo skill is instant kill.
Ken isn't really all around. He's a healer that doesn't die as easily as Yukari. He does other things, but the main reason why he would ever make your party is that one. Healers don't heal well if they dead and then it can pretty much be a death spiral. And that major issue is why MC often gets relegated to it for safety. I HATE HATE HATE Ken. I usually love spear users. But, I hate hate hate Ken. Nevertheless, he gets playtime from me. I dunno exactly when, but there's a point where Yukari gets gibbed super easily, and I often find myself switching to Ken for the safety and I tend to not go back. Yosuke in P4 is pretty OP as a hard-hitting fast mage. So I dunno about using him as a measuring stick. I think he hits too hard considering his turn priority. I found the random battles devolved into the main and Yosuke wide-area nuking everything before they could act.
Character's who "can switch their stats and abilities" don't count! But seeing how he's the only one you can directly control in Persona 3....you have a good point there! (Especially if the A.I. which was alright in that game fucks you over! Best Healer is the one YOU can control and decide when to heal or not....especially in a game where you don't want to expand "MP" too much!)
@@ln8496 Yeah, but it nerfs a lot of other stuff, like the fusion spells, and more importantly, the ability to use any weapon you want. I like that you can control everyone in later Persona games, but Persona 3's battle system had some strong points that I wasn't happy were changed for P3P. I would have preferred if it added in the best additions from Persona 4 without having to take other stuff away.
I would personally rather use the protag to attack for bosses, Yukari healing too much was always useful, and Ken never was bad for me (I have only played P3F on hard mode).
Like this page and what I do here? Consider supporting me on patreon! www.patreon.com/davidvinc [0:28] - 10) The Prince of Cannock - Dragon Warrior 2 [1:34] - 9) Shana and Miranda - Legend of Dragoon [2:39] - 8) Tony - Wild Arms XF [3:37] - 7) Noel - Star Ocean 2 [4:30] - 6) Ken - Persona 3 [5:35] - 5) Johnny/ Karyl - Tales of Destiny [6:36] - 4) Tolten - Lost Odyssey [7:30] - 3) The Kustera Party - Secret of the Stars [8:31] - 2) Himi - Golden Sun: Dark Dawn [9:34] - 1) Emma - Wild Arms: Alter Code F
Sophia from Fire Emblem 6. Literally designed to be dead weight. You get her in the worst chapter in the game, she's so weak even at the start of the game she'd still suck, Raigh/Ray exists, Niime comes later and is a powerful prepromote with great staff untility, her growths aren't good enough to be considered an Est and you can't even let her die immediately unless you want the bad ending while you're already trying to protect Roy's worthless ass.
Finally... Shana/Miranda is on a fricken list... *No additions = sucky archer...* Even Rakion's Chaos Archer does multi-hit... aside her basic archer form only shoots 1 arrow at a time...
@@Superluigi881Let's talk about Roy too while we're at it. A lord who can't double attack or deal significant damage throughout 80% of the game until his EXTREMELY late promotion. His sub-par growth rates will make you think he only has growths in HP and luck, and pretty much relies on his 20-use binding blade. Sure, he makes quick work of Zephiel and Idoun, but so do a lot of other units frankly. Speaking of GBA lords, Lyn's strength, HP, defense, and resistance bases are so bad her good growths can't fix them. She's sword-locked in a game that's enemy phase oriented with so many enemies who can attack her from 2 range, and her unique late game weapon, the Sol Katti, is so heavy she can't even double attack with it. And of course she still deals no damage to Nergal and the Dragon. Eirika has essentially the same problems as Lyn, except you have the option of completely ditching her and use Ephraim instead.
And a master of none. He has low attacking and magic power, his Hama spell is situational af, he’s forced to learn Spear Master, which doesn’t even really do much to fix his damage output, and lastly, Akihiko, Yukari, and even Aeigis have better utility in the last half of the game than Ken.
Ken has skills in a lot of things, but yeah not great at any of them while other characters are way better. And that mudo weakness is a huge liability. Oddly enough, Koro is weak to light, but it doesn't seem to snuff him out nearly as much as darkness does to Ken.
Ken's got his utility. He's my go to healer on hard mode actually. His extra durability alone is a godsend. The zio line is also a lot more useful than Garu but it does mean that you need to pick up the elemental flack since he shares magic with the best character Aki.
Because of the way weapons work in P3, Ken is actually a decent physical attacker too solely based upon spears as a weapon type. His moves that do extra damage to downed enemies are very relevant, as well, and not really having a weakness is a huge deal, too. But I agree that sharing zio with Akihiko is a big drawback, even if shock is one of the best status ailments in the game.
I prefer Ken much more than Yukari. His extra bulkiness is awesome. Also, unlike Yukari, if the enemy nullifies the character's element, Ken doesn't stay like a sitting duck since he has better physical attacks. His weakness is also much rarer than Yukari's so he does his job as a healer. I don't see sharing Zio with Aki as a problem since I made sure protag-kun could cover all bases. So basically for the final fight I had protag with personas very good with agi, bufu and garu, Aki for debuffs, Ken for healing and Aigis for physical attacks and party buffs
Ken's actually quite good, to be honest. Main reason being that he's tankier then Yukari. Yukari has low hp but Ken has pretty good hp. I'd prefer using Ken in lategame, tbh. And his zio spells can also shock and shock is amazing in persona 3
On top of that, his weakness is harder to get hit with in the Full Moon boss fights because Mudo skills are rarely used for them. He is essential for the Hermit battle because Yukari is weak to lightning and Hermit is all electricity all the time.
Yep i hated yukari she had good healing spells but since u couldn't control them she was always a wild card especially with her weakness in trh answer she smuch better but i like the different team build ups and my main always had a banging healing persona or 2
I have not played Persona 3 yet but in Persona Q and Q2 Ken is with the right build pretty overpowert. Who would think that an absurd high luck staat would lead to an broken build.
@@sofaris576 I don't know if it's the same in Q2, but in the first Persona Q, the hit rate of status effects was greatly influenced by the users Luck stat...which Instant Death is grouped into. As such, Ken and Naoto are excellent for dealing with generic Shadows, ESPECIALLY if you get the Impure Reach skill on them (Koromaru's luck is kinda middling, so he's tends to have issues hitting reliably with Mudo, at least for me anyway).
@@SSBBPOKEFAN Yes I knew that but since Bosses and FOEs are not immun to status effects it makes those 2 amazing not just against generic shadows. Even the Velvet Siblings are succeptable to status effects. In Persona Q2 you get instant kill spells much latter. I actully dont know if Aliements arts effects those. Either way status effects and binds are still really good.
I remember playing with ken for a bit. I remember he got instantly murderized by a mudo spell. I put yukari back in and never looked back. I never used koro either because that hama weakness was too much for me. I liked it when they combined curse and bless in p4 with Naoto and made her immune to both.
Poor Tony. He is a just a cute sweet dog. Does his job admirably, despite having no Job classes. He is not pretending to be some type of hidden dragon.
Louis DellaLucca it would be just as subjective as Worst Party Members. Besides this is David’s channel, and he can have an opinion on something that’s just for amusement.
Well for the record Ken is a All around type and how I see it he obviously is less stronger that Akihiko and Yukari but that’s the trade off for being able to do TWO characters jobs (besides he also learns up to Ziodyne and Diarahan, also for anyone complaining about Ken, use him as a personal supporter/sidekick to you, then he really shines more)
It helps that, unlike the specialists (Yukari, Aigis), you can bring Ken into a battle and be sure that he'll at least do /something/ to the enemy. There's bosses in Tartarus that Aigis and Yukari can't even touch because they resist all their damaging elements, not to mention just regular enemies. P3's got enough options to cover weaknesses as is, even if it's just burning through Homunculi, so having a weakness isn't as big an issue as it is in a game like SMT: Nocturne.
I love Ken's character, but I never used him much. I prefer the 'pure class' types rather than the jack of all trades types. I tended to bring Ken for mobs or particular mini bosses, then switch him out for the proper boss fights. Even then it was only some of the time. It's not like the game's all that hard or punishing, so it isn't as though it matters one way or the other anyway. Definitely one of those characters I wanted to love but just couldn't get there. Same with Naoto in P4, Kimahri in FFX, Shana in LoD, Vincent in FFVII etc. Looking forward to playing Vincent in FF7R at least.
Yeah but if you just use the ideal party (which is argue are the best characters plot wise in persona 3 as well) being Yukari,Akihiko,And Aigis you’ll steamroll everything as they provide buffs and great damage as well as making it so the protag doesn’t have to specialize in every element. But I can see where you’re coming from and I respect your opinion!
When it comes to Ken VS Yukari, I'd say it depends on the party you wanna fight with, and what the enemies/boss has. For instance, if you wanna use Aigis for your tank, I'd say Ken is the better choice for healer, as Yukari shares Aigis' weakness to Lightning magic. Same for if the upcoming boss/area has a lot of Hama using Shadows. Then there's Persona Q, but that's not Persona 3 so it's not all to relevant here.
The thing about Himi being mage-like is...well...she's a girl. Let me clarify, Golden Sun's character stats and abilities are defined by one major difference. Their gender. Male Adepts tend to have more HP and Attack than their female counterparts. While Females tend to have more PP and Agility. Males tend to.have more DPS abilities while females tend to have more healing and support abilities. The only exception seems to be Sveta who is a more warrior type.
Himi's issue is how absurdly late she comes into the game. She's the final party member, and you get her at the tail end of the game...right before the final dungeon. She's fine as is (Golden Sun party members don't tend to be bad because of how the Class system works), but her late availability kills any chance she'd have of being good in the main game. If I were to give a worst character for the entire series, it'd probably be the non-password squad in The Lost Age. They come with 3 Djinn each, bad equipment for when you get them, and the real kicker, Level 28. When your party is ~Level 40. That's way worse than Himi could ever hope to be. Dark Dawn fans tend to put Amiti as the worst character though. He comes right after you get Rief, and Rief is a better spellcaster than Amiti is, and you already have two physical beaters in the party in Matthew and Tyrell. Best character's Sveta by a country mile though, her werewolf form is bonkers strong.
Shana is one of the best characters for boss battles in LoD. She straight up has the best magic in the game as well, like no ands ifs or but’s, hers is the best.
Azure Neko Ya, Rose is good too. Honestly the only bad character is Kongol. I like the game, but the story is mediocre at best. It starts off great but drags real bad at the end, which is too bad as it has potential.
@@wschippr1 Kongol is the heaviest hitter and has the best physical def, his additions have the least hits to them. And if you use the infinite use speed up item his speed is decent. The only enemy whose magic is a threat to his massive hp is the optional boss Faust. So I'd have to respectfully disagree.
Scott Rauch And you’d be wrong. Kongol doesn’t actually hit that hard (because the multiplier on his additions are so low) and physical defence isn’t that important, magical defence is. He’s too slow (that infinite magical item only lasts for three turns and is better used in someone else) so even if he did hit the hardest (which he doesn’t) other characters would still out damage him due to getting more turns.
Scott Rauch Oh, he also needs constant healing because his Magic Defence is so low (even with the casque) that magic attacks do major damage. So more wasted turns and he needs all the speed equipment (because he’s stupid slow) so no equipment to reduce magical damage or heal every turn. Plus, you’re denying the use of those items for a better character (like Albert or Haschel).
Good series man. I know you already covered Chrono Cross, but you should mention Pip in particular, who is miles worse than all of the other 40+ characters. It's kind of sad though, he was supposed to be good, but poor programming sabotaged him. He's supposed to evolve like a Pokemon, but for some reason even after evolving, he retains his baby form's low stats and limited elemental grid.
While it's true Himi just joins near the end of Dark Dawn she still has access to some of the most powerful Venus psynergies in the game which are pretty useful against the game's Superbosses.
I wouldn't discount Shana and Miranda's magic skills like that. They are actually the best healers in the game. Their first spell, Moonlight, can not only heal an ally for 100% of their HP but can also REVIVE a fallen ally with 50% of their HP restored. Star Children is a multi-target Light-aspected spell that can do massive damage to Dark-aspected enemies and is especially useful in the boss battle on the Ghost Ship, where it one-shots the four Ghost Knights so you only have to deal with the Ghost Commander. Gates of Heaven can heal all party members for 100% of their HP, and White Silver Dragon can do that while also doing MASSIVE damage to all enemies! Comparatively, Meru only has a single healing spell, Rainbow Breath, which only heals your party by 50% while curing status ailments, so she's a much more situational healer who does better as a fighter.
The thing about Shana/Miranda is that you almost have to revolve your entire team and strategies around her, you can basically wreck havok using her with attack items but that means that your other characters won´t have any addition progression at all since enemies will die quicker... however, Shana can perform semi-well with the right party members, and recently it was discovered that she and Miranda had planned additions but were unfortunately scrapped In the upside, the White Silver Dragon summon is the single most powerful D-Magic in the game AND it heals your entire party, it cost a ton of MP but you can bypass this with proper equipment that boost your MP reserves
Yeah, I gave them the MP regeneration ring and BAM! Infinite healing and MP to spare for attack spells that pack a punch. Plus, the dragon summon takes the second position in damage, but it also HEALS the party. What more do you want? When hunting for cash for the best equipment in the game, I also found out out that she's the second fastest character in the game and the most accurate. And they also have the second highest magic defense stat in the game, which is vital. The worst character is Kongol. It doesn't matter that he has the most HP of all the caracters, his abysmal magic defense will have him die to every big magic spells from the bosses (they're not shy about using those). It also doesn't matter that he has the highest strength stat in the game, his last Addition has the lowest strength multiplyer of all the ultimate Additions in the game. And his 30 speed, the lowest in the game, is just horrible in a battle system where speed matters. It's never his turn. And his dragoon spells are all attacks and no support, so they suck because he has the lowest magic stat in the game.
@@claude-alexandretrudeau1830 Kongol's really good if you can compensate his issues. I ground enough Gold for the Legend Casque and Dancer's Shoes, now his speed's on par with Dart and is practically magic-immune. Conversely, I snagged the Armor of Legend for Shana/Miranda and Meru. Now they're mages who are pretty much immune to physical damage
Legend armor and casques are for everyone and truly overpowered. Grinding for those means you essentially won the game. As for the speed items, Kongol's speed will only reach Dart's, which is average. In other words, it takes investment to keep his head above the water, while the same effort will net much better results in another character. Now, if only his awesome strength had proper multipliers from Additions, he'd really feel like a giant muscle guy and have something the other characters don't. From his total of 3 Additions, to his 4 Addition Dragoon attacks instead of 5 and unimaginative spell selection (all attacks that use the lowest magic stat of the game), Kongol feels awfully nerfed. I want to love the big guy. I really do. But everything is stacked against him and the only solution to make him viable is to use the game breaking items.
@@claude-alexandretrudeau1830 I don't grind enough for both on all toons. That's just plain madness.. I just grind what's needed to set those toons up right.
Shana/Miranda: • Second best Speed stat in the game(pretty much the most important stat in the game) • Best Magic stat in the game • High speed mostly offsets the low damage by getting 2-4 hits in vs the other characters, able to spam magic items for huge damage • High speed also means she will gain Dragoon Levels faster than anyone else • Gains 150 SP per attack at Dragoon Level 5. She will always have Dragoon available for emergency healing • Every Dragoon spell is top tier. Final spell is amazing while everyone else have garbage finals • Therapy Ring lessens early game low HP by healing every turn, Dragon Helm practically negates it by increasing max HP by 50% • Mage Ring will ensure she never runs out of MP when it's needed • Fighting against Darkness enemies isn't that bad since she has the highest Magic Defense stat Kongol: • Worst Speed stat in the game. Everyone, enemy included, will get 2-3 turns for every one of his • Worst Magic stat in the game • Absolutely horrible magic defense. Having the highest HP means nothing when he dies in 1-2 hits from spells • Highest Attack stat doesn't offset his extreme slowness • Has terrible Additions • Worst Dragoon Magic by a wide margin • The only character to have a 0% chance to evade attacks • Fighting against Wind enemies is a death sentence But sure, Shana/Miranda is the worst party member
@@willamdafoe9300 Some people only look at the initial low hp, low physical damage, and lack of additions and write her off. She's easily the best/second best character in the game. It's stupid since no one whines that the white mage/black mage has low hp and does low physical damage in other games.
She is definitely one of the best in the game. I use to think she was bad, until I played the game again. In the Japanese edition, she is a must have in bosses. In American, just having meru is fine, but I still use shana or miranda for heals
@@eddiemeddie2018 Meru is pretty good even though she only has a Healing Breeze spell instead of Healing Rain like Shana/Miranda. In certain situations Meru's healing spell can be better since it restores status effects as well. I usually always have either Shana/Miranda or Meru in my party depending on how I'm feeling for that particular playthrough. Maybe Rose if I want a little more challenge.
@@ZeredHeizien What I remember is that Shana's white dragon spell also restores stats effects. I remember I was facing an enemy that poisoned dart and I used her spell and removed that effect.
How about Fiona from Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn? She joins at level 9 with horrible base stats near the end of Part 1, then you can only use her for two chapters. You can use her again in Part 3 but she’s super outclassed by everyone and the map terrain doesn’t favor her horse movement type. You could use bonus EXP to make her better but her party members who have much more potential are in desperate need of EXP. The game just goes against her in every way. The only thing she can kinda be useful for is rescuing someone and dropping them off
@@justinmorrell3446 Indeed, although Fiona and Meg are in their own tier of Dawn Brigade "craptitude". Leonardo is pretty close behind, but at least he does chip damage in one or two chapters.
@@justinmorrell3446 The only good Dawn Brigade characters are the two leads, and Nolan....Edward is at least decent! But as Davned pointed out, the rest are garbage! Characters who are not "official Dawn Brigade" don't count other then Fiona and Meg (I kind of treat the Priestess and her Childhood friend the Soldier who is NOT my Valkyrie Goddess "Nephenee" as members by default despite joining later!) as the Wolf Queen is OP and returning PoR character's in Part 1 get their bonuses if you transferred maxed stats for them....and even then they end up good with the stats RD give them by default (except the kid mage & his pet Tiger man......their late game return is inexcusable! especially since they still have their stats from Part 1 where you left it! What were the developers "thinking!")
Fiona is a heavy flip of the coin unit, where most of her growth rates are between 40% and 60% (only magic is below this being at 15%). Her best benefit is her affinity (earth) as it has the highest avoid bonus. She isn't typically worth the effort, but honestly I don't think putting most tactics rpgs on here really works to begin with.
Why bother adding in al eleventh hour party member? Unless they have game breaking strength players are just going to stick with the characters they already have a bond with anyway.
Maybe all of the mages from Shining Force 1. They themself aren't that bad, but magic dosen't really scale. So when the enemies HP Increases, their damage becomes less and less valuable. Plus whenever their limited MP pools are depleted they are dead weight.
In Shining Force 1, any level 4 spell hits harder than any single physical attack on enemies with high defense, and even late game there are still enemies that Blaze level 4 can one-shot. Alef's the only one who doesn't have enough MP to last through most battles. (And Domingo is a flying, TANKY mage.) Kazin as a Wizard in Shining Force 2, and all mages in Shining Force CD, are the ones with the "enemy HP increases faster than magic damage does" problem.
Most bosses are weak to light as well. While Meru is good her additions are like playing DDR on the highest difficulty.Meru getting her Dragoon stone last doesn't help matters.
THIS AIN'T A SCENE IT'S A GAH DAH ARH RAH Meru also weakens Dart’s special and Dart weakens Meru’s special. Though, Meru is the best character hands down. Though Shana is still one of the best characters in the game for boss battles, but for random battles she’s dead weight.
@@wschippr1 Keep in mind that the items you use are affected by your Magic stat. So Kongol using an item that casts a spell will deal significantly less damage than Shana doing the same thing.
I recommend Dr Eggman from Sonic Chronicles. He can only move once per round, only has two POW moves in battle (one of which is a OHKO that can only be done alongside Tails, while both of these caveats aren’t an issue in Chapter 5 since you’re forced to use them, Missing an input will make his sole turn useless). Additionally, he has no field skills, giving him very limited use outside of battle and he just takes space in the party.
And compared to the other 1 turn characters he really falls flat. Big can go through poison on the map and is a tank that can take a lot of punishment, Cream is the best support in the game and Omega is a powerhouse that can take a lot of abuse and then tear enemies apart in return. Battles would be over in seconds if he got two turns.
I don’t know why Ken is quite bad like yes he’s pretty much weaker than the other characters but in The Answer, he is quite decent since some of the enemies weak to Hama. Not to mention, he have Dia and Recarm skills which act as my party healer beside Yukari, HOWEVER, I wouldn’t bring Ken to the boss fight because he’s pretty much squishy and tend to get killed. Mitsuru in the other hand FOR GOD SAKE, although she’s good because Mind Charge and Bufu skills but her AI 🤡 is quite bad. I still remembered how I assigned her to target the ONLY enemy (I referred to The Answer as the bosses pretty much stronger and have dodge/evade skills) but instead she used MABUFU SKILL and of course, some of the enemy DRAIN it and other pretty much got knocked down. That’s why I don’t bring Mitsuru to the party and prefer more to Metis since she have slash, strike, ice and wind skills.
I ditched Yukari after I got Ken. her dmg output falls super far behind, and she has the lowest base HP of all party members. Though she has tons of SP, she really doesn't have much in the ways of... anything other than healing. At least Ken can deal some damage before having to heal up. Also, Homunculus grinding fixes the whole darkness thing, even if he get's knocked down. Koromaru on the other hand... kinda meh. Agility is his main stat, and this skills don't do much to make him appealing. AGI Buff? Use Aigis. Fire DMG? Junpei has weak fire, but even if that dmg is low, he has physical skills to back those up and as long as the fire connects, the enemy is knocked down anyways. Dark moves and Highest base HP? The only real thing he has are those two things, but alas, Darkness can be easily acsessed via persona switch, and Aigis has the highest base endurance stat and a above average HP pool, so she can cover tankiness. One more thing, Despite having a HUGE HP pool, he learns 0 Physical skills. Even though his STR stat is near identical to his MAG stat, meaning he could spam them while dodging futher attacks, AND still have plenty of HP left over. ok that was a total text block, sorry bout that. thx for readin i guess :/
Yukari doesn't even get the dyne versions of Wind, while Ken has pretty good Electrical and Physical attack, while also having Hama and Healing spells as a bonus
@@Masato_Kusaka Actually, I don't know if you made it that far into the game but Yukari does actually learn Garu/Magarudyne via via Persona Evolution. The main thing is, even though Yukari has the highest base Magic stat of all characters (92 compared to Mitsuru's 84-82 I forgot which), she does not learn Wind Boost/Amp so her offenses are almost entirely worthless besides knockdown in the endgame.
@@viggy1637 oh wow, you are right, i actually don't remember where that came from, but, i didn't use Yukari in my final team, mostly because i don't like her as a character
I wounder if you'll count job classes from the bravely games since the party members are practically blank slates you can freely customize. Like the Summoner in Default is especially bad, it's almost unusable due to how underpowered it is as soon as you get it due to it's best spell being Susano-o, and all of it's summons costing so much MP to actually use. To add insult to injury the only way to get the Max and Amp skills to increase the awful power of the summons is through the Conjurer, the final class in the game that you can't get until chapter 6, and even then it just drains your MP even faster that way anyways so what's even the point. It's only good for Friend Summoning Amp, until Second came around and made magic broken thanks to Spellcrafting alongside giving it Conjuring after getting the Yokai class.
Noel is an off-healer, use him to save Rena’s MP. About Leon and Celine, did you know you can field them together with motormouth off, have Celine cast thunderstorm and immediately have Leon cast Gremlin Lair. Enjoy 4-30 hits of 4,500+ damage each hit. =)
Or put Claude, Dias Ashton Chisato or Oprah in your party and achieve better results witha third of the effort. And Noels best spell doesn't work on flying and Juggled enemies. As much as I love Celine and Leon as characters, Magic users are kinda left in the dust by fighters at endgame in Star Ocean 2. Second Evolution removed the Spell mixing from the original version too.
@@AkaiAzul Noel can equip armor that Rena can't so he does have some utility and as said above about star ocean 2 Opera > Fighters with quick midrange multi-hit attacks > Fighters > Healers > Mages
It’s sad when they treat the dogs as almost mascots rather than a proper teammate. I like having beast/non human party members. I do have to agree with late game party members being a tad pointless aside from novelty.
@@ArcCaravan Sad, but true. They were good along with the dog in dragon age 1. He had a pounce ability where he'd go for their throat and pin them for a short period. @BYERE Haven't tried Shadow hearts 2. Ill have to try to find it and give it a look!
Morgana in Persona 5 is a great example of an Animal Mascoot who is also a great Partymember. Now it comes down to ones playstayle but, Joker aside, he and Ann are my best most useful partymembers. From the second battle in the game all the way to the twins. Morgana is my favorite Persona 5 Character in Persona 5. One of the reasons is that he is so dam useful in both story and gameplay. Small things like telling Joker to wear different clothes to not stand out, big things like helping the team to cross a dessert. Healing, exploting wind weaknesses, becoming a crit god latter, his incredible useful Infiltration tools, he turns the Super boss against the Twins in to a cake walk. Okay that is not a particular dificult super boss in the first place but I still apriciate his contributions. In Persona Q and Q2 Koromaru was a pretty cool animal teamate aswell and Morgana was pretty good in PQ2 aswell. I have not played Persona 5 the Royal yet.
I seem to remember though that Emma has one useful skill that let's you totally break the game? I think it was what you showed in the video: Jane's Follow me - > Emma's Great Booster - > have Rudy shoot 18 bullets for crazy amounts of damage.
I also just remembered that Mariel was playable and pathetically weak. The game practically punished you by putting her in your party . Fortunately, you only have to put up with her for only a short time.
@@true-omegaid8467 Hey! Don't diss Zed! How could you possible call him the worst party member, I mean it's ZED! How cool was it that you could play as him. 😍
Himi? Huh, and here I was happy we finally got a Light-Warrior for the Venus element unlike every single other Heavy-Warrior that we've had before, don't get me wrong, I love Isaac, Felix and Mathew for being able to dish out some of the best physical damage, but hey, at least Himi has access to the Ninja class so she can SUPLEX just about anything in the game, right?
Here's the problem with Himi though - she joins when the game is 90% over. If she joined sooner (like Mia or Piers) she probably wouldn't be on the list since you have had time to use her. By the point Himi and Eoleo join, you already have an endgame party ready to go. Sure, you can argue the same for the OG 4 in Golden Sun the Lost age, except they had their own game all to themselves.
@@Terestrasz I guess the main issue regarding Himi and Eoleo would be just how late the Sea Navigation gets introduced, having them joining early would be weird, it could've been much better if there were a few more dungeons so they could get a chance to catch up to the rest of the party before jumping at the final dungeon, I mean, the super-bosses are still there, but I doubt they may be able to help there
Noel is really useful as a backup members you never use in battle but always use his healing spells to heal up your party between battles. For that reason he can never be useless because Rena will always have full mp from never having to heal through dungeons.
2:42 If you are going to add a dog into an RPG, please, make sure that they're actually useful. I learned that. I'm making an RPG called Sweets World. The dog character is Grim. He's a thief. One of his special moves is Steal. His spells are Ice at Level 5, Dark at Level 4, and Escape at Level 2. Everyone you get starts at level one, so it would be needed to grind. You need to start grinding from Snakes and Bees, though.
Ken gets a powerful weapon very early that lets him do wind damage with a melee attack, letting him deal light, wind, and electric. Great for hunting enemy weaknesses and saving MP. Yukari doesn't get an equivalent bow. But yeah, no bosses for Ken.
I know you touched on Jogert from Shining force in an earlier video, but, have you considered other party members from the game? Like Adam, the robot who joins two fights before the end of the game at level 10 unpromoted and cannot equip any weapons. Or Arthur the knight. He joins in chapter 2 but is significantly weaker than every other character in the game at that point. His gimmick is that he learns magic, but, it takes tons of grinding for him to learn spells, and when he does, he only learns level 1 versions of these spells.
Adam does have low starting viability, but the game lets you freely level up characters and he's actually got good stats with some work in him. Arthur is kinda the same way too, but he actually ends up with the best stats among your centaurs during late game, you just have to really put in work before it starts paying off
@@shikadude95 If you want to talk terrible characters from Shining Force 1, it's hard to beat Hans. He's extremely fragile as a character and never really makes much difference in battle, aside from against flying enemies perhaps. Once you recruit a second archer then there's no real reason to keep him in the party.
@@Gurasola agreed. Honestly most of the archers in the game are terrible, they just have the advantage of attacking from afar while other units are in front. But it's a poor payoff for their lack of damage. Hans is definitely the worst of them, though 😒
@@shikadude95 Lyle has great attack power, but that centaur movement kills him sometimes. Especially since his first battle after he joins, is the fight to Mishaela's castle.
Off topic, but I would love a remaster of Golden Sun 1 and 2 as one big game with updated graphics and voice acting (because there is SO much talking lol). As far Dark Dawn. I honestly didn't play it, at least not much of it. I just couldn't get into it. :/
I totally forgot about Tolten from lost odyssey. I played that game when it came out and loved it. One of my favorite rpgs. But I completely forgot about tolten because he is so worthless. Learn his abilities and then never use him again.
Thank you for addressing Secret of the Stars here. When I first played it, I was stupid enough to try investing time on ALL the Kusteras equally. I sure learned the hard way what a mistake that was. Eventually, they just became dead weight more often than not since you're always using the kids like you said and they are better anyways. Never again.
He has some uses, and is completely in line with the other classes for every remake of FF1, so it wouldn't be an impactful entry on a list and many people might disagree.
Kustera party? I mean I know it's been a long time since I've played Secret of the Stars but I'm actually forgetting there was anyone other than the 5 party members.
Emma is thr BEST most useful character in the game Her skills are the best She is THE character to tackle the optional bosses with And it does not take 10 hours to get her skills Maybe like 2-3
Seeing this list made me think...top ten animal party memebers in JRPGs? It is admittedly cool to have an animal part memeber in a jrpg in concept and some of them are pretty worth while
Noel does serve one singular purpose. To give you a healer to use in a party with Claude to avoid raising Claude and Rena's affection level if you want a different ending.
I never played Persona 3 but funny thing is in Persona Q Ken is with the right set up rediclious overpowert and in Persona Q2 he is pretty good as well. In the first game with his ridiclious high luck he is great fore inflicting status effects in this game. Those are really overpowert since there are liitle to no enemys that are immun to those. Not even the Velvet Siblings. Thanks to him I can in the second dungeon start to slaughter most FOEs I come across. That gives good exp and makes my party overlevelt simply by fighting the enemies I meet a long the way. I also can skip "avoid the FOE" puzzles by simply killing the FOE. Really helpful with the reaper in the clock tower and the old doll in the hunted house. In Persona Q2 its pretty much the same just with binds instead. Ken joins pretty late in that game but he is still awsome.
I’m genuinely surprised you haven’t ripped Ests a new one yet. Basically take Jagens and flip the entire concept around (being that they have awful base stats but great growths but join so late that they have no purpose). The only three ests that are actually alright are Binding Blade’s Zeiss (because of his HM bases), Path of Radiance’s Elincia (cause flying staff access), and Thracia’s Sara (because she has Paragon and Staves are incredibly broken) otherwise they’re completely outclassed by other options you get earlier in the game.
@@damthatssick Honestly my friend. "All game's are optional to play or not!" (I know what you're trying to say in that you can play the Answer at anytime you wish! But again this is Ken being analysis's as he is in the main story. Answer plays slightly different then the main story with it's functions meaning some character's end up more useful because of circumstances! It's kind of like How in the DLC side story in Three Houses, some character's from the main game have to be seen and reviewed differently because you don't have the option to freely pick any class to put said character in. And with the side story functioning like Fire Emblem's BEFORE SACRED STONES/ NOT GAIDEN! but like the Radiant Games when it comes to inbetwen chapter functions. You have to play it different then the main game! Same with The Answer to Persona 3's main story!)
He was meh in the Answer imo. There was this one boss (forgot the name) that threw around Mudoons/Hamaons with insane hit rate whenever a member was weak to death/light. I had to switch Ken out and grind out Akihiko for that reason.
The Prince of Cannock is not mandatory in Dragon Warrior 2; you don't have to recruit either him or Princess to progress the story. Beating the game with just the Prince of Middenhall, or Middenhall + the Princess, is difficult but not impossible. Nothing stops you from just grinding Middenhall up to an extremely high level, ignoring Cannock and the Princess, grabbing the Wind Cape to reach the town where you get the boat, and continuing on without them. As for Cannock himself, technically his best weapon is the Falcon Sword which lets him attack twice. It doesn't make much difference for most of the game, but if you level him up past level 32 he starts getting really big increases to his strength, eventually ending up with only 20 less Strength than Middenhall.
I've enjoyed these lists a lot, great nostalgia! May I submit Barlow from Vanguard Bandits...essentially useless beyond absorbing a couple hits and healing
1. Emma doesn't sound that bad, other than there's no need for getting her in the main story and her physical stats. However, the support spells she can nab are pretty essential for making it to the game's bonus dungeon, even making most of them a cakewalk. I find it easier than WA2 to steal technique from other monsters. Plus she's totally optional. Adray from Star Ocean 3 has similar flaws but is far worse for it. He's completely mandatory taking place of other notable characters, serves little to the plot and outclassed by other members rather easily. Anyway hope your do a top 10 best JRPG party members list for a change.
Agreed on Shana/Miranda. For the majority of the game, they're best as a potion dispenser which never lasts forever due to limited item capacity, and their frailty leads to a lot of that healing going to them and not other, bulkier characters who are contributing more. While she doesn't have additions to work on, she will get more dragoon levels through attacking, but the amount never matches other party members, so she's destined to fall behind even if you use her full time. Also agreed on Ken. In P3 FES, I expect my party members to deal damage or provide support. If you're not good at one of the two jobs, you're not coming into any fights besides the usual Tartarus progression where he can be a healing battery. Being good at a lot of things means very little in a game where you can't control party members directly, or switch their AI script for an emergency.
Ken is a great party member if you're not using him as a dedicated healer, he can do a lot of damage and can heal in clutch if you take more damage than you expected that turn
Ay, the legend continues. Also next list should have Virion from Fire Emblem: Awakening. At least that game's token weak guy Donnel turns into a crazy powerful badass after you level him past a certain point, but Virion lags behind other characters' stats no matter how far you progress him.
chocobros1 So many Fire Emblem archers should be on this list, but as he says, he likes archers, which.... stinks. Gordin, Wolt, Wil, and Rebecca are even worse than the likes of Virion in my eyes.
@@cashcloakburmy Say, I've also seen H'aanit from Octopath Traveler suggested for these lists. Seems like you could make a worst party members list of archers alone.
@@chocobros1 Haanit? Why? I don't think any character from Octopath is outright bad. All of the base classes have their use, and every base class can be put on another character if you want access to it. The only reason certain characters might be considered better is if their base class combines particularly well with one of the end game classes, but the only superb combinations I can think of are combining Tressa or Olberic with the Rune Knight class.
For Persona 3, I actually train up my characters evenly (taking me an absurd amount of time, though). Since floor guardians sometimes make certain characters' presence shine.
I'm never sure about games with unchangeable party members. You're stuck with them, so you might as well find some utility, even if it's taking hits, buffing/healing (if applicable), or dishing out items. For me, the most terrible RPG characters are the ones you can bench for someone 1,000x better, especially if they join after said party member.
For the next one, put Teddy from persona Q. All he can do is mediocre ice spells with a revive and he has the lowest stats of everyone. His nieche (i don't know how to spell it) is his 20 luck when joining, but Naoto has the same luck with better stats than that dirty bear
There are basically 2 ways to build PQ Teddy: Give him a Magic-Endurance swap accessory to make him a passable wall (with his MASSIVE HP), or Magic-Agility for some surprisingly good status spell spammage.
His massive hp doesn't do much with his paper thin defense. and besides Naoto is just a better character all around. I'm aware that teddy can be at least meh with the proper setup. but at base, he's the worst character in the game.
Kiwi is situational, he is a physical tank but he has a small HP pool making him weak to magic. I think I remember him getting some good attack and HP stat boosters can make him much more durable by affect of him taking one HP from most everything. Also "He is shivering, will you name him?"
I want to nominate Hagar from the game Saga Scarlet Grace. Techincally it's the best all round character with the highest total base stat of the game.. But.. Big but.. She only has 1 Life point (LP). Given the mechanics of the game and bosses, this makes her extremely bad to build up for several reasons. 1. when she does die in the middle of the fight you can't revive her. 2. Most boss battles are in waves and most enemies can 2-3 shot you if ur on good level, so if she happend to die in the first wave you have to replace her with someone else, which is just tedious to do. 3. Being a side character, she is actually pretty hard to unlock as with some protagonists you need to follow a spefick route in the story to unlock her, making you miss a few really good units too. Great video and thanks for reading my post :)
Prince of Cannock? Did you even play the same Dragon Warrior 2 that I did? Probably not, I started with the Game Boy version that had numerous balance tweaks, and slight boosts to the good prince's offense (Loto's Sword, Light Sword) and defense (HP or base unarmored DEF might be a little higher?) could easily be in play here. His offense was definitely boosted whether or not his defense was. However, even in the original game, the Falcon Sword might have less raw ATK power than the iron spear (and vastly less than Loto's Sword, the Light Sword, and even Wizard Wands and the Bolt Staff) it attacks twice per turn. And like you said in part 4, a character who gets two turns to other characters' one turn basically outclasses them by default.
I really feel that the Jane/Emma/Zed recruits for Alter code F are first and foremost fan service. Jane being the most useful of the three. If you only recruit one of the 3, make it her. But there are a couple of tricks to Emma. Don't even waste the time on all her skills. Download Great Booster and a handful of others and that's it (I think she has a heal skill that is pretty dang powerful and a water attack that can do massive damage to an optional boss, if I remember correctly). Then you can use her, Jane, and Rudy to farm the hell out of the level apples around Adlehyde. Jane: follow me, Emma: Great Booster on Rudy, Rudy: full powered gatling.
I think the point with Emma being considered worst is unless you know ahead of time, you're gonna be lost trying to raise a Blue Mage at the very end. Not helping is being remake exclusive, meaning it's reasonable to just use original party.
The disappointing thing about the three optional recruits for me was that it had no story consequences at all. You would have thought that the villains would have a reaction to seeing freaking Zed in Rudy's party but no. No additional dialogue at all.
@@ArcCaravan I completely agree. Just saying Emma has *some* use. But you can just as easily do the whole game without her. Well... Ok having her does give you access to some optional treasures if you're big on completion. But aside from that.
yeeeeeeaaaah...toltens existence is pretty much just to gear kaim and seth up with amazing weaponry..but the good part is the royal weapons really are worth it.
Correction: Leon is not required to STAY in the party in Star Ocean 2. You can ditch him at the refugee camp right after your ship is sunk. Also, the last person able to be recruited is Chisato, an optional party member who can only be recruited after Noel offers to join.
How bout' Vann from FF 12. He may be the leading character, but man.. he's not the leading man. Heck, even the other characters in the game don't think so either in my opinion. Love the game, but not the protagonist.
Vaan may suck as a character, but as a party member he's pretty much the BEST character, dude literally has like no weaknesses, and is great at pretty much any role.
In a sense, he is not the protagonist of the story, but the character from whose perspective we experience the events unfold. It was an interesting idea, even if Vaan is a little too whiny.
Heeey, I liked Emma and she made grinding to max lvl much easier, her blue magic, err "download" is actually pretty useful as far as buffs and has really good heals. Not bad to look at either.
for Golden Sun Dark Dawn i would've said Rief was the worst. though the problem might've just been my Djinn setup. with 18 Djinn in each elements there's enough for everyone if you keep them in their base classes. but if you mix up your Djinn setup to get certain characters into certain classes it's not unlikely for 1 character to get the short end of the stick. i ended up gimping Rief to make the other characters into the classes i wanted. also, about the Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter thing of Golden Sun, i never thought they were references to planets. i mean as far as i know these games never mention planets. if anything i always thought it was just references to the Roman gods. not that the Roman gods are in the game just that their names are being used.
I've said this on previous videos, but I don't really think anyone from Golden Sun should be on this list. The games are relatively easy and the djinn customization means any character can fill whatever roll you need them to. Sure, there's not much reason to use Himi over anyone else, but it's not like she's useless, and she's pretty interchangeable with Rief or Karis as a mage. Similarly, there's basically no reason to use Tyrell over Eoleo or vice versa, since they're basically the same character, with similar stats and the same class. Pick who you think is cool, and you'll be fine.
The Prince of Cannock was always my backup healer regardless of version I played. he was also the one that always had the World Leaf to revive when one of those jerk monsters cast beat or similar and yeah his equipment choices stink. but he's not intended to be doing the attacking. I relegated him to support duties in my playthroughs.
You're 100% wrong about Shana/Miranda. Their strength comes from the fact their dragoon spirit is insanely powerful. Their level 5 dragoon power deals a ton of light damage, which nothing has resistance to except other light enemies, and it completely heals your party members. This attack is so powerful it can 1 shot some bosses in the game. Not only that you can give her accessories that boosts her MP to 250 and you can cast this multiple times without needing to give a sun raphsody. Shana/Miranda are characters that take work to make viable but once you do they are the most powerful.
Absolutely wrong about Shana/Miranda. They're easily one of the best characters in the game. Their high speed alone makes them amazing but they have so much more to offer than just speed. They have the best magic stat in the game and the best Dragoon Magic in the game. All of their Dragoon Magic is good, and their final spell is not only the best in the game but the only final spell worth using. They also level up their Dragoon Level super fast since they themselves are super fast and every time their dragoon level increases the amount of SP they get per attack increases as well, meaning Dragoon Level increases even faster. They don't even require much effort to be good, their only real weakness is the low HP. The Therapy Ring obtained on the second Hellena visit will recover 10% HP every turn which is a ton of free healing since she's so fast, combine that with a Defend and that's 20% HP recovered per turn with the added bonus of 50% damage reduction. The Dragon Helm obtained on Disk 3 will increase their HP by 50% which removes their low HP problem. Soon after you get the Mage Ring which recovers 10% MP every turn and is a good replacement for the Therapy Ring. This will make sure she always has a ton of MP due to how fast she is so spell casting will never be a problem. Honestly whenever I see people try to say Shana/Miranda are not only bad characters but the worst in the game I can't help but think they never used them beyond the required moments and they have no idea what they're talking about. Kongol, Haschel, and Rose are all far worse than Shana/Miranda.
Ken is very good as long as you equip him with the right things. I'd have to boot up my old save to see which equipment it was I had on him, but he was doing critical hits almost every single time and they hit really hard.
Here's a tip for making the Prince of Cannock more useful in fights: get the Falcon Blade and equip him with it. Yes, the attack power is low, but it allows the Prince to attack twice per turn, actually doing more damage in the higher levels than with the Iron Spear when both attacks hit.
David, been following you for a while now. I must say, you look nothing what I imagined you'd look like. Any-hoo, really digging your material. With that said, have you not played Y's VIII yet? I can't seem to find it on your channel. Keep up the awesome work. 👁️
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in defense of Ken, he is not actually a healer but more like a all around character, he is quite unnecessary in general but he can complement anything you need in a party.
Yosuke in P4 did the all around character way better, so good in fact that the original 4 were one of the best team compositions in the game. Need physical damage? Yosuke uses Brave Blade! Need magical damage? Yosuke uses Garudyne! Need buffing? Yosuke uses Masukukaja (Not even getting into his special buff in P4G) Need healing? He uses Mediarama. Ken is goddamn useless in P3 when you look into other characters stats and abilities. The only thing he has going for him is that he hits slightly harder than Mitsuru. HP SP etc are all inferior
Just try a party Yu, Yosuke, Kanji and Either Ted or Yukiko or Naoto and enjoy slaughtering everything.
Akihiko is a better all around character tho. Good damage output, can take hits, can heal in emergencies, and has access to debuffs. He's basically just a worse Akihiko, only saving grace is Mediarahan and a somewhat less exploitable weakness
@@ephemeralbro Also, akihiko has better magic and strength stats than ken, ken has only single target attack and mudo skills are useless against boss. He being weak to mudo skill is instant kill.
Ken isn't really all around. He's a healer that doesn't die as easily as Yukari. He does other things, but the main reason why he would ever make your party is that one. Healers don't heal well if they dead and then it can pretty much be a death spiral. And that major issue is why MC often gets relegated to it for safety.
I HATE HATE HATE Ken. I usually love spear users. But, I hate hate hate Ken.
Nevertheless, he gets playtime from me.
I dunno exactly when, but there's a point where Yukari gets gibbed super easily, and I often find myself switching to Ken for the safety and I tend to not go back.
Yosuke in P4 is pretty OP as a hard-hitting fast mage. So I dunno about using him as a measuring stick. I think he hits too hard considering his turn priority. I found the random battles devolved into the main and Yosuke wide-area nuking everything before they could act.
Best healer in Persona 3 is the protagonist.
Character's who "can switch their stats and abilities" don't count! But seeing how he's the only one you can directly control in Persona 3....you have a good point there! (Especially if the A.I. which was alright in that game fucks you over! Best Healer is the one YOU can control and decide when to heal or not....especially in a game where you don't want to expand "MP" too much!)
@@paulman34340 p3p is like the same exact game but you can control everyone...lol
No kidding. When I tell Yukari to heal, I didn't mean for her to waste her SP on a big healing spell when someone has taken only 8 damage.
@@ln8496 Yeah, but it nerfs a lot of other stuff, like the fusion spells, and more importantly, the ability to use any weapon you want. I like that you can control everyone in later Persona games, but Persona 3's battle system had some strong points that I wasn't happy were changed for P3P. I would have preferred if it added in the best additions from Persona 4 without having to take other stuff away.
I would personally rather use the protag to attack for bosses, Yukari healing too much was always useful, and Ken never was bad for me (I have only played P3F on hard mode).
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[0:28] - 10) The Prince of Cannock - Dragon Warrior 2
[1:34] - 9)
Shana and Miranda - Legend of Dragoon
[2:39] - 8)
Tony - Wild Arms XF
[3:37] - 7)
Noel - Star Ocean 2
[4:30] - 6)
Ken - Persona 3
[5:35] - 5)
Johnny/ Karyl - Tales of Destiny
[6:36] - 4)
Tolten - Lost Odyssey
[7:30] - 3)
The Kustera Party - Secret of the Stars
[8:31] - 2)
Himi - Golden Sun: Dark Dawn
[9:34] - 1) Emma - Wild Arms: Alter Code F
Sophia from Fire Emblem 6. Literally designed to be dead weight. You get her in the worst chapter in the game, she's so weak even at the start of the game she'd still suck, Raigh/Ray exists, Niime comes later and is a powerful prepromote with great staff untility, her growths aren't good enough to be considered an Est and you can't even let her die immediately unless you want the bad ending while you're already trying to protect Roy's worthless ass.
Tink from Disgaea 2
davidvinc PLEASE make a discord server you amazing man
Finally... Shana/Miranda is on a fricken list... *No additions = sucky archer...* Even Rakion's Chaos Archer does multi-hit... aside her basic archer form only shoots 1 arrow at a time...
@@Superluigi881Let's talk about Roy too while we're at it. A lord who can't double attack or deal significant damage throughout 80% of the game until his EXTREMELY late promotion. His sub-par growth rates will make you think he only has growths in HP and luck, and pretty much relies on his 20-use binding blade. Sure, he makes quick work of Zephiel and Idoun, but so do a lot of other units frankly.
Speaking of GBA lords, Lyn's strength, HP, defense, and resistance bases are so bad her good growths can't fix them. She's sword-locked in a game that's enemy phase oriented with so many enemies who can attack her from 2 range, and her unique late game weapon, the Sol Katti, is so heavy she can't even double attack with it. And of course she still deals no damage to Nergal and the Dragon.
Eirika has essentially the same problems as Lyn, except you have the option of completely ditching her and use Ephraim instead.
Ken a healer? I thought he was more of a “jack of all trades”
This confused me as well. Ken is definitely not a healer, and when you get him he's got access to some of the more important spells you'll need.
I am currently replaying Persona 3 on the PSP. He knows Diarahan, Mediarahan, and Samarecarm, but not Me Patra like Yukari.
Akihiko is more of a Jack of All Trades than Ken.
And a master of none. He has low attacking and magic power, his Hama spell is situational af, he’s forced to learn Spear Master, which doesn’t even really do much to fix his damage output, and lastly, Akihiko, Yukari, and even Aeigis have better utility in the last half of the game than Ken.
Ken has skills in a lot of things, but yeah not great at any of them while other characters are way better. And that mudo weakness is a huge liability. Oddly enough, Koro is weak to light, but it doesn't seem to snuff him out nearly as much as darkness does to Ken.
Ken's got his utility. He's my go to healer on hard mode actually. His extra durability alone is a godsend. The zio line is also a lot more useful than Garu but it does mean that you need to pick up the elemental flack since he shares magic with the best character Aki.
Because of the way weapons work in P3, Ken is actually a decent physical attacker too solely based upon spears as a weapon type. His moves that do extra damage to downed enemies are very relevant, as well, and not really having a weakness is a huge deal, too. But I agree that sharing zio with Akihiko is a big drawback, even if shock is one of the best status ailments in the game.
I just like him since unlike Yukari, he doesn't share a weakness with Aigis.
I prefer Ken much more than Yukari. His extra bulkiness is awesome. Also, unlike Yukari, if the enemy nullifies the character's element, Ken doesn't stay like a sitting duck since he has better physical attacks. His weakness is also much rarer than Yukari's so he does his job as a healer. I don't see sharing Zio with Aki as a problem since I made sure protag-kun could cover all bases. So basically for the final fight I had protag with personas very good with agi, bufu and garu, Aki for debuffs, Ken for healing and Aigis for physical attacks and party buffs
Finally someone who said it! Ken is even better than Junpei & probably koromaru too.
Shinji* Ahem.
Ken's actually quite good, to be honest. Main reason being that he's tankier then Yukari. Yukari has low hp but Ken has pretty good hp. I'd prefer using Ken in lategame, tbh. And his zio spells can also shock and shock is amazing in persona 3
On top of that, his weakness is harder to get hit with in the Full Moon boss fights because Mudo skills are rarely used for them. He is essential for the Hermit battle because Yukari is weak to lightning and Hermit is all electricity all the time.
Yep i hated yukari she had good healing spells but since u couldn't control them she was always a wild card especially with her weakness in trh answer she smuch better but i like the different team build ups and my main always had a banging healing persona or 2
I have not played Persona 3 yet but in Persona Q and Q2 Ken is with the right build pretty overpowert. Who would think that an absurd high luck staat would lead to an broken build.
@@sofaris576 I don't know if it's the same in Q2, but in the first Persona Q, the hit rate of status effects was greatly influenced by the users Luck stat...which Instant Death is grouped into. As such, Ken and Naoto are excellent for dealing with generic Shadows, ESPECIALLY if you get the Impure Reach skill on them (Koromaru's luck is kinda middling, so he's tends to have issues hitting reliably with Mudo, at least for me anyway).
@@SSBBPOKEFAN Yes I knew that but since Bosses and FOEs are not immun to status effects it makes those 2 amazing not just against generic shadows. Even the Velvet Siblings are succeptable to status effects. In Persona Q2 you get instant kill spells much latter. I actully dont know if Aliements arts effects those. Either way status effects and binds are still really good.
Ken is very versatile. That is why he isnt the best in any role. Just because a lot people dont know how to use him doesnt mean he is bad
And because the characters get tired he can be a good substitute
Yeah exactly I even brought him with me into the reaper and nyx fights, totally had no problems with him
Akihiko is very versatile too and he is much better than Ken.
@@eriochromeblackt3021 except ken is the better caster in a series where casting often outshines physical damage. P5 fixed this however.
Ken Gets Some Really Good healing Skills In The Middle Of The Game, If You Don't Like Yukari You're Probably Going To Use Him
I remember playing with ken for a bit. I remember he got instantly murderized by a mudo spell. I put yukari back in and never looked back. I never used koro either because that hama weakness was too much for me. I liked it when they combined curse and bless in p4 with Naoto and made her immune to both.
Poor Tony. He is a just a cute sweet dog. Does his job admirably, despite having no Job classes. He is not pretending to be some type of hidden dragon.
David, how about a Best party members list? I’d love to see that
How about both? Arumat from Star Ocean 4. He's an absolute beast in combat, but he's also an annoying edgelord.
Sebastian Abele FFtactics Calculator. So powerful, but a long investment, and so damn slow
Great idea. We are up to 50 worst characters now, why be always focused on the negative?
Wouldn't that be really subjective? Some characters are garbage unless they're used in a specific way, then they're great.
Louis DellaLucca it would be just as subjective as Worst Party Members. Besides this is David’s channel, and he can have an opinion on something that’s just for amusement.
Well for the record Ken is a All around type and how I see it he obviously is less stronger that Akihiko and Yukari but that’s the trade off for being able to do TWO characters jobs (besides he also learns up to Ziodyne and Diarahan, also for anyone complaining about Ken, use him as a personal supporter/sidekick to you, then he really shines more)
It helps that, unlike the specialists (Yukari, Aigis), you can bring Ken into a battle and be sure that he'll at least do /something/ to the enemy. There's bosses in Tartarus that Aigis and Yukari can't even touch because they resist all their damaging elements, not to mention just regular enemies. P3's got enough options to cover weaknesses as is, even if it's just burning through Homunculi, so having a weakness isn't as big an issue as it is in a game like SMT: Nocturne.
I love Ken's character, but I never used him much. I prefer the 'pure class' types rather than the jack of all trades types. I tended to bring Ken for mobs or particular mini bosses, then switch him out for the proper boss fights. Even then it was only some of the time. It's not like the game's all that hard or punishing, so it isn't as though it matters one way or the other anyway. Definitely one of those characters I wanted to love but just couldn't get there. Same with Naoto in P4, Kimahri in FFX, Shana in LoD, Vincent in FFVII etc. Looking forward to playing Vincent in FF7R at least.
Yeah but if you just use the ideal party (which is argue are the best characters plot wise in persona 3 as well) being Yukari,Akihiko,And Aigis you’ll steamroll everything as they provide buffs and great damage as well as making it so the protag doesn’t have to specialize in every element. But I can see where you’re coming from and I respect your opinion!
@@Grey-i2o likewise
When it comes to Ken VS Yukari, I'd say it depends on the party you wanna fight with, and what the enemies/boss has. For instance, if you wanna use Aigis for your tank, I'd say Ken is the better choice for healer, as Yukari shares Aigis' weakness to Lightning magic. Same for if the upcoming boss/area has a lot of Hama using Shadows.
Then there's Persona Q, but that's not Persona 3 so it's not all to relevant here.
fun fact, Karyl is a god of destruction in the Tales of Destiny Remake (Ps2)
6:39 There's two types of Princes in RPGs. The main protagonists (who are probably silent) and the wimps.
The thing about Himi being mage-like is...well...she's a girl.
Let me clarify, Golden Sun's character stats and abilities are defined by one major difference.
Their gender.
Male Adepts tend to have more HP and Attack than their female counterparts. While Females tend to have more PP and Agility.
Males tend to.have more DPS abilities while females tend to have more healing and support abilities.
The only exception seems to be Sveta who is a more warrior type.
Himi's issue is how absurdly late she comes into the game. She's the final party member, and you get her at the tail end of the game...right before the final dungeon. She's fine as is (Golden Sun party members don't tend to be bad because of how the Class system works), but her late availability kills any chance she'd have of being good in the main game.
If I were to give a worst character for the entire series, it'd probably be the non-password squad in The Lost Age. They come with 3 Djinn each, bad equipment for when you get them, and the real kicker, Level 28. When your party is ~Level 40. That's way worse than Himi could ever hope to be.
Dark Dawn fans tend to put Amiti as the worst character though. He comes right after you get Rief, and Rief is a better spellcaster than Amiti is, and you already have two physical beaters in the party in Matthew and Tyrell. Best character's Sveta by a country mile though, her werewolf form is bonkers strong.
Thanks for the content David hope you're doing great during the lockdown!
Don't talk to me or my son, Ken, ever again.
Your son is my persona god
Shana is one of the best characters for boss battles in LoD. She straight up has the best magic in the game as well, like no ands ifs or but’s, hers is the best.
"Shana can't use additions so she must be super weak in the game!" *Is the strongest CASTER in the game*
Azure Neko
Ya, Rose is good too. Honestly the only bad character is Kongol. I like the game, but the story is mediocre at best. It starts off great but drags real bad at the end, which is too bad as it has potential.
@@wschippr1 Kongol is the heaviest hitter and has the best physical def, his additions have the least hits to them. And if you use the infinite use speed up item his speed is decent. The only enemy whose magic is a threat to his massive hp is the optional boss Faust. So I'd have to respectfully disagree.
Scott Rauch
And you’d be wrong. Kongol doesn’t actually hit that hard (because the multiplier on his additions are so low) and physical defence isn’t that important, magical defence is. He’s too slow (that infinite magical item only lasts for three turns and is better used in someone else) so even if he did hit the hardest (which he doesn’t) other characters would still out damage him due to getting more turns.
Scott Rauch
Oh, he also needs constant healing because his Magic Defence is so low (even with the casque) that magic attacks do major damage. So more wasted turns and he needs all the speed equipment (because he’s stupid slow) so no equipment to reduce magical damage or heal every turn. Plus, you’re denying the use of those items for a better character (like Albert or Haschel).
You should make a top 10 worst class in jrpg who have classe like FF5, bravely default.
Top 10 worst Jobs sounds like a good topic
Don't forget the FF Tactics games. Some of the Dragon Quest games have classes.
The jester from DQ3 should be on this list. And before I hear, "but you can turn it into a sage," you can do that with every other class.
I think a top 10 worst secret/optional rpg partymembers. Could be better
@@alexninten8818 These lists cover those.
Good series man. I know you already covered Chrono Cross, but you should mention Pip in particular, who is miles worse than all of the other 40+ characters. It's kind of sad though, he was supposed to be good, but poor programming sabotaged him. He's supposed to evolve like a Pokemon, but for some reason even after evolving, he retains his baby form's low stats and limited elemental grid.
They dont give a Pip about him :(
While it's true Himi just joins near the end of Dark Dawn she still has access to some of the most powerful Venus psynergies in the game which are pretty useful against the game's Superbosses.
And honestly, who wants to keep playing as the third Isaac in a row?
I didn't think anybody else knew what Secret of the Stars was.
Same here. 😆
Yo David, I love your channel fam. Keep up the good work and never give up
I appreciate that!
I wouldn't discount Shana and Miranda's magic skills like that. They are actually the best healers in the game. Their first spell, Moonlight, can not only heal an ally for 100% of their HP but can also REVIVE a fallen ally with 50% of their HP restored. Star Children is a multi-target Light-aspected spell that can do massive damage to Dark-aspected enemies and is especially useful in the boss battle on the Ghost Ship, where it one-shots the four Ghost Knights so you only have to deal with the Ghost Commander. Gates of Heaven can heal all party members for 100% of their HP, and White Silver Dragon can do that while also doing MASSIVE damage to all enemies! Comparatively, Meru only has a single healing spell, Rainbow Breath, which only heals your party by 50% while curing status ailments, so she's a much more situational healer who does better as a fighter.
The thing about Shana/Miranda is that you almost have to revolve your entire team and strategies around her, you can basically wreck havok using her with attack items but that means that your other characters won´t have any addition progression at all since enemies will die quicker... however, Shana can perform semi-well with the right party members, and recently it was discovered that she and Miranda had planned additions but were unfortunately scrapped
In the upside, the White Silver Dragon summon is the single most powerful D-Magic in the game AND it heals your entire party, it cost a ton of MP but you can bypass this with proper equipment that boost your MP reserves
Love how you acknowledged Phantasy Star's existence. One of my favorite games, and it's so damn underrated.
That's a no from me on Shana/Miranda. I used them double-duty as mages and healers to great effect.
Yeah, I gave them the MP regeneration ring and BAM! Infinite healing and MP to spare for attack spells that pack a punch. Plus, the dragon summon takes the second position in damage, but it also HEALS the party. What more do you want? When hunting for cash for the best equipment in the game, I also found out out that she's the second fastest character in the game and the most accurate. And they also have the second highest magic defense stat in the game, which is vital.
The worst character is Kongol. It doesn't matter that he has the most HP of all the caracters, his abysmal magic defense will have him die to every big magic spells from the bosses (they're not shy about using those). It also doesn't matter that he has the highest strength stat in the game, his last Addition has the lowest strength multiplyer of all the ultimate Additions in the game. And his 30 speed, the lowest in the game, is just horrible in a battle system where speed matters. It's never his turn. And his dragoon spells are all attacks and no support, so they suck because he has the lowest magic stat in the game.
@@claude-alexandretrudeau1830 Kongol's really good if you can compensate his issues. I ground enough Gold for the Legend Casque and Dancer's Shoes, now his speed's on par with Dart and is practically magic-immune.
Conversely, I snagged the Armor of Legend for Shana/Miranda and Meru. Now they're mages who are pretty much immune to physical damage
Legend armor and casques are for everyone and truly overpowered. Grinding for those means you essentially won the game.
As for the speed items, Kongol's speed will only reach Dart's, which is average. In other words, it takes investment to keep his head above the water, while the same effort will net much better results in another character. Now, if only his awesome strength had proper multipliers from Additions, he'd really feel like a giant muscle guy and have something the other characters don't.
From his total of 3 Additions, to his 4 Addition Dragoon attacks instead of 5 and unimaginative spell selection (all attacks that use the lowest magic stat of the game), Kongol feels awfully nerfed.
I want to love the big guy. I really do. But everything is stacked against him and the only solution to make him viable is to use the game breaking items.
@@claude-alexandretrudeau1830 I don't grind enough for both on all toons. That's just plain madness.. I just grind what's needed to set those toons up right.
Actually, Ken was one of my mains when I played Persona 3!
Shana/Miranda:
• Second best Speed stat in the game(pretty much the most important stat in the game)
• Best Magic stat in the game
• High speed mostly offsets the low damage by getting 2-4 hits in vs the other characters, able to spam magic items for huge damage
• High speed also means she will gain Dragoon Levels faster than anyone else
• Gains 150 SP per attack at Dragoon Level 5. She will always have Dragoon available for emergency healing
• Every Dragoon spell is top tier. Final spell is amazing while everyone else have garbage finals
• Therapy Ring lessens early game low HP by healing every turn, Dragon Helm practically negates it by increasing max HP by 50%
• Mage Ring will ensure she never runs out of MP when it's needed
• Fighting against Darkness enemies isn't that bad since she has the highest Magic Defense stat
Kongol:
• Worst Speed stat in the game. Everyone, enemy included, will get 2-3 turns for every one of his
• Worst Magic stat in the game
• Absolutely horrible magic defense. Having the highest HP means nothing when he dies in 1-2 hits from spells
• Highest Attack stat doesn't offset his extreme slowness
• Has terrible Additions
• Worst Dragoon Magic by a wide margin
• The only character to have a 0% chance to evade attacks
• Fighting against Wind enemies is a death sentence
But sure, Shana/Miranda is the worst party member
Gj exposing him wtf is he talking about 😅
@@willamdafoe9300 Some people only look at the initial low hp, low physical damage, and lack of additions and write her off. She's easily the best/second best character in the game. It's stupid since no one whines that the white mage/black mage has low hp and does low physical damage in other games.
She is definitely one of the best in the game. I use to think she was bad, until I played the game again. In the Japanese edition, she is a must have in bosses. In American, just having meru is fine, but I still use shana or miranda for heals
@@eddiemeddie2018 Meru is pretty good even though she only has a Healing Breeze spell instead of Healing Rain like Shana/Miranda. In certain situations Meru's healing spell can be better since it restores status effects as well. I usually always have either Shana/Miranda or Meru in my party depending on how I'm feeling for that particular playthrough. Maybe Rose if I want a little more challenge.
@@ZeredHeizien What I remember is that Shana's white dragon spell also restores stats effects. I remember I was facing an enemy that poisoned dart and I used her spell and removed that effect.
How about Fiona from Fire Emblem Radiant Dawn?
She joins at level 9 with horrible base stats near the end of Part 1, then you can only use her for two chapters. You can use her again in Part 3 but she’s super outclassed by everyone and the map terrain doesn’t favor her horse movement type. You could use bonus EXP to make her better but her party members who have much more potential are in desperate need of EXP. The game just goes against her in every way. The only thing she can kinda be useful for is rescuing someone and dropping them off
Dragonite Gaymer you could make an argument for most of the Dawn Brigade.
@@justinmorrell3446 Indeed, although Fiona and Meg are in their own tier of Dawn Brigade "craptitude". Leonardo is pretty close behind, but at least he does chip damage in one or two chapters.
@@justinmorrell3446 The only good Dawn Brigade characters are the two leads, and Nolan....Edward is at least decent! But as Davned pointed out, the rest are garbage! Characters who are not "official Dawn Brigade" don't count other then Fiona and Meg (I kind of treat the Priestess and her Childhood friend the Soldier who is NOT my Valkyrie Goddess "Nephenee" as members by default despite joining later!) as the Wolf Queen is OP and returning PoR character's in Part 1 get their bonuses if you transferred maxed stats for them....and even then they end up good with the stats RD give them by default (except the kid mage & his pet Tiger man......their late game return is inexcusable! especially since they still have their stats from Part 1 where you left it! What were the developers "thinking!")
Fiona is a heavy flip of the coin unit, where most of her growth rates are between 40% and 60% (only magic is below this being at 15%). Her best benefit is her affinity (earth) as it has the highest avoid bonus. She isn't typically worth the effort, but honestly I don't think putting most tactics rpgs on here really works to begin with.
Fire Emblem is more of an SRPG than a traditional JRPG, and you could make a whole bloody top 50 worst Fire Emblem characters pretty easily.
Why bother adding in al eleventh hour party member? Unless they have game breaking strength players are just going to stick with the characters they already have a bond with anyway.
Maybe all of the mages from Shining Force 1.
They themself aren't that bad, but magic dosen't really scale.
So when the enemies HP Increases, their damage becomes less and less valuable. Plus whenever their limited MP pools are depleted they are dead weight.
Apparently this is worthy of a heart.
The mages have range. And magic isn't effected by defense. And it tends to hit more times than melee characters
In Shining Force 1, any level 4 spell hits harder than any single physical attack on enemies with high defense, and even late game there are still enemies that Blaze level 4 can one-shot. Alef's the only one who doesn't have enough MP to last through most battles. (And Domingo is a flying, TANKY mage.)
Kazin as a Wizard in Shining Force 2, and all mages in Shining Force CD, are the ones with the "enemy HP increases faster than magic damage does" problem.
Shana/Miranda are great! The white Dragon spell simultaneously is a full heal to the party and deals great damage. Straight up OP.
Most bosses are weak to light as well. While Meru is good her additions are like playing DDR on the highest difficulty.Meru getting her Dragoon stone last doesn't help matters.
It also helps that OOPARTS can easily skyrocket her Dragoon Leveling.
THIS AIN'T A SCENE IT'S A GAH DAH ARH RAH
Meru also weakens Dart’s special and Dart weakens Meru’s special. Though, Meru is the best character hands down. Though Shana is still one of the best characters in the game for boss battles, but for random battles she’s dead weight.
@@wschippr1 Keep in mind that the items you use are affected by your Magic stat. So Kongol using an item that casts a spell will deal significantly less damage than Shana doing the same thing.
They made the White Dragoon magic completely amazing. Too bad about no additions though. I was always disappointed about that.
I recommend Dr Eggman from Sonic Chronicles. He can only move once per round, only has two POW moves in battle (one of which is a OHKO that can only be done alongside Tails, while both of these caveats aren’t an issue in Chapter 5 since you’re forced to use them, Missing an input will make his sole turn useless). Additionally, he has no field skills, giving him very limited use outside of battle and he just takes space in the party.
And compared to the other 1 turn characters he really falls flat. Big can go through poison on the map and is a tank that can take a lot of punishment, Cream is the best support in the game and Omega is a powerhouse that can take a lot of abuse and then tear enemies apart in return. Battles would be over in seconds if he got two turns.
I don’t know why Ken is quite bad like yes he’s pretty much weaker than the other characters but in The Answer, he is quite decent since some of the enemies weak to Hama. Not to mention, he have Dia and Recarm skills which act as my party healer beside Yukari, HOWEVER, I wouldn’t bring Ken to the boss fight because he’s pretty much squishy and tend to get killed. Mitsuru in the other hand FOR GOD SAKE, although she’s good because Mind Charge and Bufu skills but her AI 🤡 is quite bad. I still remembered how I assigned her to target the ONLY enemy (I referred to The Answer as the bosses pretty much stronger and have dodge/evade skills) but instead she used MABUFU SKILL and of course, some of the enemy DRAIN it and other pretty much got knocked down. That’s why I don’t bring Mitsuru to the party and prefer more to Metis since she have slash, strike, ice and wind skills.
I ditched Yukari after I got Ken. her dmg output falls super far behind, and she has the lowest base HP of all party members. Though she has tons of SP, she really doesn't have much in the ways of... anything other than healing. At least Ken can deal some damage before having to heal up. Also, Homunculus grinding fixes the whole darkness thing, even if he get's knocked down. Koromaru on the other hand... kinda meh. Agility is his main stat, and this skills don't do much to make him appealing. AGI Buff? Use Aigis. Fire DMG? Junpei has weak fire, but even if that dmg is low, he has physical skills to back those up and as long as the fire connects, the enemy is knocked down anyways. Dark moves and Highest base HP? The only real thing he has are those two things, but alas, Darkness can be easily acsessed via persona switch, and Aigis has the highest base endurance stat and a above average HP pool, so she can cover tankiness. One more thing, Despite having a HUGE HP pool, he learns 0 Physical skills. Even though his STR stat is near identical to his MAG stat, meaning he could spam them while dodging futher attacks, AND still have plenty of HP left over. ok that was a total text block, sorry bout that. thx for readin i guess :/
Yukari doesn't even get the dyne versions of Wind, while Ken has pretty good Electrical and Physical attack, while also having Hama and Healing spells as a bonus
@@Masato_Kusaka Actually, I don't know if you made it that far into the game but Yukari does actually learn Garu/Magarudyne via via Persona Evolution. The main thing is, even though Yukari has the highest base Magic stat of all characters (92 compared to Mitsuru's 84-82 I forgot which), she does not learn Wind Boost/Amp so her offenses are almost entirely worthless besides knockdown in the endgame.
@@viggy1637 oh wow, you are right, i actually don't remember where that came from, but, i didn't use Yukari in my final team, mostly because i don't like her as a character
Im so thankful for you putting Himi on this list. She is the first thing I thought of when I found this video in my recommended
I wounder if you'll count job classes from the bravely games since the party members are practically blank slates you can freely customize. Like the Summoner in Default is especially bad, it's almost unusable due to how underpowered it is as soon as you get it due to it's best spell being Susano-o, and all of it's summons costing so much MP to actually use. To add insult to injury the only way to get the Max and Amp skills to increase the awful power of the summons is through the Conjurer, the final class in the game that you can't get until chapter 6, and even then it just drains your MP even faster that way anyways so what's even the point. It's only good for Friend Summoning Amp, until Second came around and made magic broken thanks to Spellcrafting alongside giving it Conjuring after getting the Yokai class.
Noel is an off-healer, use him to save Rena’s MP. About Leon and Celine, did you know you can field them together with motormouth off, have Celine cast thunderstorm and immediately have Leon cast Gremlin Lair. Enjoy 4-30 hits of 4,500+ damage each hit. =)
Or put Claude, Dias Ashton Chisato or Oprah in your party and achieve better results witha third of the effort. And Noels best spell doesn't work on flying and Juggled enemies. As much as I love Celine and Leon as characters, Magic users are kinda left in the dust by fighters at endgame in Star Ocean 2. Second Evolution removed the Spell mixing from the original version too.
@@Fighter600 They did? Son of a...well, at least Noel remains the worse.
@@AkaiAzul Noel can equip armor that Rena can't so he does have some utility and as said above about star ocean 2 Opera > Fighters with quick midrange multi-hit attacks > Fighters > Healers > Mages
It's funny the only dog character I can think of as useful is repede in vesperia
It’s sad when they treat the dogs as almost mascots rather than a proper teammate. I like having beast/non human party members.
I do have to agree with late game party members being a tad pointless aside from novelty.
Admittedly hard to give a party viable moveset to an animal. At least we have the likes of Red XIII and Repede.
@@ArcCaravan Don't forget Blanca from Shadow Hearts 2! He was pretty awesome, and worked just as well as any other character you could play as.
@@ArcCaravan Sad, but true. They were good along with the dog in dragon age 1. He had a pounce ability where he'd go for their throat and pin them for a short period.
@BYERE Haven't tried Shadow hearts 2. Ill have to try to find it and give it a look!
@@BYERE Can't forget a game I never heard of.
Nothing against the game, I just never heard of it.
Morgana in Persona 5 is a great example of an Animal Mascoot who is also a great Partymember. Now it comes down to ones playstayle but, Joker aside, he and Ann are my best most useful partymembers. From the second battle in the game all the way to the twins. Morgana is my favorite Persona 5 Character in Persona 5. One of the reasons is that he is so dam useful in both story and gameplay. Small things like telling Joker to wear different clothes to not stand out, big things like helping the team to cross a dessert. Healing, exploting wind weaknesses, becoming a crit god latter, his incredible useful Infiltration tools, he turns the Super boss against the Twins in to a cake walk. Okay that is not a particular dificult super boss in the first place but I still apriciate his contributions. In Persona Q and Q2 Koromaru was a pretty cool animal teamate aswell and Morgana was pretty good in PQ2 aswell.
I have not played Persona 5 the Royal yet.
I seem to remember though that Emma has one useful skill that let's you totally break the game? I think it was what you showed in the video: Jane's Follow me - > Emma's Great Booster - > have Rudy shoot 18 bullets for crazy amounts of damage.
Saw one TH-camr steamroll through bonus bosses by spamming this technique. Can't remember who though.
Zed worst party member.
I also just remembered that Mariel was playable and pathetically weak. The game practically punished you by putting her in your party . Fortunately, you only have to put up with her for only a short time.
@@true-omegaid8467 Hey! Don't diss Zed! How could you possible call him the worst party member, I mean it's ZED! How cool was it that you could play as him. 😍
@@SomeRPGFan
he's just cool.
This "worst character" series is so entertaining, although I would always be bummed if my favourite character in the story happened to be useless.
Himi? Huh, and here I was happy we finally got a Light-Warrior for the Venus element unlike every single other Heavy-Warrior that we've had before, don't get me wrong, I love Isaac, Felix and Mathew for being able to dish out some of the best physical damage, but hey, at least Himi has access to the Ninja class so she can SUPLEX just about anything in the game, right?
Here's the problem with Himi though - she joins when the game is 90% over. If she joined sooner (like Mia or Piers) she probably wouldn't be on the list since you have had time to use her. By the point Himi and Eoleo join, you already have an endgame party ready to go. Sure, you can argue the same for the OG 4 in Golden Sun the Lost age, except they had their own game all to themselves.
@@Terestrasz I guess the main issue regarding Himi and Eoleo would be just how late the Sea Navigation gets introduced, having them joining early would be weird, it could've been much better if there were a few more dungeons so they could get a chance to catch up to the rest of the party before jumping at the final dungeon, I mean, the super-bosses are still there, but I doubt they may be able to help there
@@Kelm_Kisaragi Yep, that's really the problem - they join too late.
Keep the series going David! Love your sense of humor and candid commentaries.
LOL, the prince of Cannock is actually my favorite member in DQ 2.
Didn't expect a Golden Sun entry, my favourite series!
Noel is really useful as a backup members you never use in battle but always use his healing spells to heal up your party between battles. For that reason he can never be useless because Rena will always have full mp from never having to heal through dungeons.
2:42 If you are going to add a dog into an RPG, please, make sure that they're actually useful.
I learned that. I'm making an RPG called Sweets World. The dog character is Grim. He's a thief. One of his special moves is Steal. His spells are Ice at Level 5, Dark at Level 4, and Escape at Level 2. Everyone you get starts at level one, so it would be needed to grind.
You need to start grinding from Snakes and Bees, though.
loving archer/range attacks is just a sign of a true gay™
Ken gets a powerful weapon very early that lets him do wind damage with a melee attack, letting him deal light, wind, and electric. Great for hunting enemy weaknesses and saving MP. Yukari doesn't get an equivalent bow. But yeah, no bosses for Ken.
I know you touched on Jogert from Shining force in an earlier video, but, have you considered other party members from the game?
Like Adam, the robot who joins two fights before the end of the game at level 10 unpromoted and cannot equip any weapons.
Or Arthur the knight. He joins in chapter 2 but is significantly weaker than every other character in the game at that point. His gimmick is that he learns magic, but, it takes tons of grinding for him to learn spells, and when he does, he only learns level 1 versions of these spells.
I agree about Adam, but I think Arthur's other gimmick is that his stats also get higher than the other knights after his promotion.
Adam does have low starting viability, but the game lets you freely level up characters and he's actually got good stats with some work in him.
Arthur is kinda the same way too, but he actually ends up with the best stats among your centaurs during late game, you just have to really put in work before it starts paying off
@@shikadude95 If you want to talk terrible characters from Shining Force 1, it's hard to beat Hans. He's extremely fragile as a character and never really makes much difference in battle, aside from against flying enemies perhaps. Once you recruit a second archer then there's no real reason to keep him in the party.
@@Gurasola agreed. Honestly most of the archers in the game are terrible, they just have the advantage of attacking from afar while other units are in front. But it's a poor payoff for their lack of damage. Hans is definitely the worst of them, though 😒
@@shikadude95 Lyle has great attack power, but that centaur movement kills him sometimes. Especially since his first battle after he joins, is the fight to Mishaela's castle.
Off topic, but I would love a remaster of Golden Sun 1 and 2 as one big game with updated graphics and voice acting (because there is SO much talking lol). As far Dark Dawn. I honestly didn't play it, at least not much of it. I just couldn't get into it. :/
I totally forgot about Tolten from lost odyssey. I played that game when it came out and loved it. One of my favorite rpgs. But I completely forgot about tolten because he is so worthless. Learn his abilities and then never use him again.
He's only really useful in battles where melee is required, otherwise I totally agree with you.
Even then you have much better Immortal characters who can hit just as or even harder then he can.
He's terrible on his own for sure, but it's great for Kaim and Seth to finally be able to learn some good melee abilities from someone.
Thank you for addressing Secret of the Stars here. When I first played it, I was stupid enough to try investing time on ALL the Kusteras equally. I sure learned the hard way what a mistake that was. Eventually, they just became dead weight more often than not since you're always using the kids like you said and they are better anyways. Never again.
Would the “thief” from the original final fantasy count? God forbid anyone who picks the thief...
At least Thief becomes Ninja with the job rank up.
I only go for the Thief so I can have a Ninja later on.
Wasn't the Thief somehow really good at running from battle if placed correctly in the party?
@@g40rc378 could also work as an item specialist due to being fast and when becoming a Ninja oh man I heard it gets fun
He has some uses, and is completely in line with the other classes for every remake of FF1, so it wouldn't be an impactful entry on a list and many people might disagree.
Kustera party? I mean I know it's been a long time since I've played Secret of the Stars but I'm actually forgetting there was anyone other than the 5 party members.
Emma is thr BEST most useful character in the game
Her skills are the best
She is THE character to tackle the optional bosses with
And it does not take 10 hours to get her skills
Maybe like 2-3
Zed worst party member.
Seeing this list made me think...top ten animal party memebers in JRPGs? It is admittedly cool to have an animal part memeber in a jrpg in concept and some of them are pretty worth while
It's 4am and was about to sleep, but then I just that you uploaded a video right now and I must watch it.
Love your videos!!! 👍🏿
Noel does serve one singular purpose. To give you a healer to use in a party with Claude to avoid raising Claude and Rena's affection level if you want a different ending.
I never played Persona 3 but funny thing is in Persona Q Ken is with the right set up rediclious overpowert and in Persona Q2 he is pretty good as well. In the first game with his ridiclious high luck he is great fore inflicting status effects in this game. Those are really overpowert since there are liitle to no enemys that are immun to those. Not even the Velvet Siblings. Thanks to him I can in the second dungeon start to slaughter most FOEs I come across. That gives good exp and makes my party overlevelt simply by fighting the enemies I meet a long the way. I also can skip "avoid the FOE" puzzles by simply killing the FOE. Really helpful with the reaper in the clock tower and the old doll in the hunted house.
In Persona Q2 its pretty much the same just with binds instead. Ken joins pretty late in that game but he is still awsome.
I’m genuinely surprised you haven’t ripped Ests a new one yet. Basically take Jagens and flip the entire concept around (being that they have awful base stats but great growths but join so late that they have no purpose). The only three ests that are actually alright are Binding Blade’s Zeiss (because of his HM bases), Path of Radiance’s Elincia (cause flying staff access), and Thracia’s Sara (because she has Paragon and Staves are incredibly broken) otherwise they’re completely outclassed by other options you get earlier in the game.
Ken is actually good especially if you are playing The Answer in Persona 3 FES.
Answer is an Optional Epilogue mode! I believe he's talking about Ken "main story Presentation!"
@@paulman34340 Y'know, the main game is also optional.
@@damthatssick Honestly my friend. "All game's are optional to play or not!" (I know what you're trying to say in that you can play the Answer at anytime you wish! But again this is Ken being analysis's as he is in the main story. Answer plays slightly different then the main story with it's functions meaning some character's end up more useful because of circumstances! It's kind of like How in the DLC side story in Three Houses, some character's from the main game have to be seen and reviewed differently because you don't have the option to freely pick any class to put said character in. And with the side story functioning like Fire Emblem's BEFORE SACRED STONES/ NOT GAIDEN! but like the Radiant Games when it comes to inbetwen chapter functions. You have to play it different then the main game! Same with The Answer to Persona 3's main story!)
He was meh in the Answer imo. There was this one boss (forgot the name) that threw around Mudoons/Hamaons with insane hit rate whenever a member was weak to death/light. I had to switch Ken out and grind out Akihiko for that reason.
are you an HCBailly fan? You give off the same sweet and informative vibe. really enjoying your videos, gotten me into a bunch of new jrpgs
Whoa I did not know this haha, I've replaced Yukari with Ken immediately XD
I've grinded him all the way when I got him
I think I can come up with a very infamous one. Llewelyn of Valkyrie Profile.
I can come up with more infamous one. Icicle Disaster
He stinks. I see no reason why the Valkyrie would recruit him.
The Prince of Cannock is not mandatory in Dragon Warrior 2; you don't have to recruit either him or Princess to progress the story. Beating the game with just the Prince of Middenhall, or Middenhall + the Princess, is difficult but not impossible. Nothing stops you from just grinding Middenhall up to an extremely high level, ignoring Cannock and the Princess, grabbing the Wind Cape to reach the town where you get the boat, and continuing on without them.
As for Cannock himself, technically his best weapon is the Falcon Sword which lets him attack twice. It doesn't make much difference for most of the game, but if you level him up past level 32 he starts getting really big increases to his strength, eventually ending up with only 20 less Strength than Middenhall.
I've enjoyed these lists a lot, great nostalgia! May I submit Barlow from Vanguard Bandits...essentially useless beyond absorbing a couple hits and healing
True.
1. Emma doesn't sound that bad, other than there's no need for getting her in the main story and her physical stats. However, the support spells she can nab are pretty essential for making it to the game's bonus dungeon, even making most of them a cakewalk. I find it easier than WA2 to steal technique from other monsters. Plus she's totally optional.
Adray from Star Ocean 3 has similar flaws but is far worse for it. He's completely mandatory taking place of other notable characters, serves little to the plot and outclassed by other members rather easily.
Anyway hope your do a top 10 best JRPG party members list for a change.
Agreed on Shana/Miranda. For the majority of the game, they're best as a potion dispenser which never lasts forever due to limited item capacity, and their frailty leads to a lot of that healing going to them and not other, bulkier characters who are contributing more. While she doesn't have additions to work on, she will get more dragoon levels through attacking, but the amount never matches other party members, so she's destined to fall behind even if you use her full time. Also agreed on Ken. In P3 FES, I expect my party members to deal damage or provide support. If you're not good at one of the two jobs, you're not coming into any fights besides the usual Tartarus progression where he can be a healing battery. Being good at a lot of things means very little in a game where you can't control party members directly, or switch their AI script for an emergency.
I remember in ff5 using the confusion song that the bard had made combat too easy until the enemies start becoming immune to it...
Ken is a great party member if you're not using him as a dedicated healer, he can do a lot of damage and can heal in clutch if you take more damage than you expected that turn
Ay, the legend continues. Also next list should have Virion from Fire Emblem: Awakening. At least that game's token weak guy Donnel turns into a crazy powerful badass after you level him past a certain point, but Virion lags behind other characters' stats no matter how far you progress him.
chocobros1 So many Fire Emblem archers should be on this list, but as he says, he likes archers, which.... stinks. Gordin, Wolt, Wil, and Rebecca are even worse than the likes of Virion in my eyes.
@@cashcloakburmy Say, I've also seen H'aanit from Octopath Traveler suggested for these lists. Seems like you could make a worst party members list of archers alone.
@@cashcloakburmy Considering this vid, David seems able too look past personal preferences if a character is legitimately bad.
@@chocobros1 Haanit? Why? I don't think any character from Octopath is outright bad. All of the base classes have their use, and every base class can be put on another character if you want access to it. The only reason certain characters might be considered better is if their base class combines particularly well with one of the end game classes, but the only superb combinations I can think of are combining Tressa or Olberic with the Rune Knight class.
@@seanfisher6904 That's just what I've seen in the comments so idk, I dropped that game after a dozen hours or so
Really enjoying these keep them coming
For Persona 3, I actually train up my characters evenly (taking me an absurd amount of time, though). Since floor guardians sometimes make certain characters' presence shine.
I'm never sure about games with unchangeable party members. You're stuck with them, so you might as well find some utility, even if it's taking hits, buffing/healing (if applicable), or dishing out items. For me, the most terrible RPG characters are the ones you can bench for someone 1,000x better, especially if they join after said party member.
For the next one, put Teddy from persona Q. All he can do is mediocre ice spells with a revive and he has the lowest stats of everyone. His nieche (i don't know how to spell it) is his 20 luck when joining, but Naoto has the same luck with better stats than that dirty bear
There are basically 2 ways to build PQ Teddy: Give him a Magic-Endurance swap accessory to make him a passable wall (with his MASSIVE HP), or Magic-Agility for some surprisingly good status spell spammage.
His massive hp doesn't do much with his paper thin defense. and besides Naoto is just a better character all around. I'm aware that teddy can be at least meh with the proper setup. but at base, he's the worst character in the game.
I'd like to throw my vote in for Kiwi, the turtle monster, from Shining Force 2
Kiwi is situational, he is a physical tank but he has a small HP pool making him weak to magic. I think I remember him getting some good attack and HP stat boosters can make him much more durable by affect of him taking one HP from most everything.
Also "He is shivering, will you name him?"
He's a pretty worthless character. "Fighting tires me. Talking tires me. I'm tired."
I want to nominate Hagar from the game Saga Scarlet Grace.
Techincally it's the best all round character with the highest total base stat of the game.. But.. Big but.. She only has 1 Life point (LP). Given the mechanics of the game and bosses, this makes her extremely bad to build up for several reasons. 1. when she does die in the middle of the fight you can't revive her. 2. Most boss battles are in waves and most enemies can 2-3 shot you if ur on good level, so if she happend to die in the first wave you have to replace her with someone else, which is just tedious to do. 3. Being a side character, she is actually pretty hard to unlock as with some protagonists you need to follow a spefick route in the story to unlock her, making you miss a few really good units too.
Great video and thanks for reading my post :)
#1. Everyone From Dragon Warrior 2
Eff you. The Princess was at least remotely useful.
Prince of Cannock? Did you even play the same Dragon Warrior 2 that I did?
Probably not, I started with the Game Boy version that had numerous balance tweaks, and slight boosts to the good prince's offense (Loto's Sword, Light Sword) and defense (HP or base unarmored DEF might be a little higher?) could easily be in play here. His offense was definitely boosted whether or not his defense was.
However, even in the original game, the Falcon Sword might have less raw ATK power than the iron spear (and vastly less than Loto's Sword, the Light Sword, and even Wizard Wands and the Bolt Staff) it attacks twice per turn. And like you said in part 4, a character who gets two turns to other characters' one turn basically outclasses them by default.
I really feel that the Jane/Emma/Zed recruits for Alter code F are first and foremost fan service. Jane being the most useful of the three. If you only recruit one of the 3, make it her. But there are a couple of tricks to Emma. Don't even waste the time on all her skills. Download Great Booster and a handful of others and that's it (I think she has a heal skill that is pretty dang powerful and a water attack that can do massive damage to an optional boss, if I remember correctly). Then you can use her, Jane, and Rudy to farm the hell out of the level apples around Adlehyde. Jane: follow me, Emma: Great Booster on Rudy, Rudy: full powered gatling.
I think the point with Emma being considered worst is unless you know ahead of time, you're gonna be lost trying to raise a Blue Mage at the very end. Not helping is being remake exclusive, meaning it's reasonable to just use original party.
The disappointing thing about the three optional recruits for me was that it had no story consequences at all. You would have thought that the villains would have a reaction to seeing freaking Zed in Rudy's party but no. No additional dialogue at all.
@@ArcCaravan I completely agree. Just saying Emma has *some* use. But you can just as easily do the whole game without her.
Well... Ok having her does give you access to some optional treasures if you're big on completion. But aside from that.
@@SomeRPGFan I know, that could have made some interesting twists to the story.
Love your videos bro. They helpin me get through this B.S.
yeeeeeeaaaah...toltens existence is pretty much just to gear kaim and seth up with amazing weaponry..but the good part is the royal weapons really are worth it.
Correction: Leon is not required to STAY in the party in Star Ocean 2. You can ditch him at the refugee camp right after your ship is sunk. Also, the last person able to be recruited is Chisato, an optional party member who can only be recruited after Noel offers to join.
"Why is it that prince's in jrpgs are wussy winey wimps"
The luminary: I'm I a joke to you?
He's a player avatar character so... He doesn't count as a Prince tbf
Ephraim and Chrom:
What about Olivert from Trails in the sky?
Yes you are, Princess Trunks.
@@arachineatzeer7478 regardless he's still prince even if its a fallen kingdom
How bout' Vann from FF 12. He may be the leading character, but man.. he's not the leading man. Heck, even the other characters in the game don't think so either in my opinion. Love the game, but not the protagonist.
You might want to check out my "most annoying characters video" for my take on Vaan.
Vaan may suck as a character, but as a party member he's pretty much the BEST character, dude literally has like no weaknesses, and is great at pretty much any role.
In a sense, he is not the protagonist of the story, but the character from whose perspective we experience the events unfold. It was an interesting idea, even if Vaan is a little too whiny.
Heeey, I liked Emma and she made grinding to max lvl much easier, her blue magic, err "download" is actually pretty useful as far as buffs and has really good heals. Not bad to look at either.
What game is the one at 3:25? With the bad doggo with no jobs, got heavy ffta vibe
for Golden Sun Dark Dawn i would've said Rief was the worst. though the problem might've just been my Djinn setup. with 18 Djinn in each elements there's enough for everyone if you keep them in their base classes. but if you mix up your Djinn setup to get certain characters into certain classes it's not unlikely for 1 character to get the short end of the stick. i ended up gimping Rief to make the other characters into the classes i wanted.
also, about the Mercury, Venus, Mars and Jupiter thing of Golden Sun, i never thought they were references to planets. i mean as far as i know these games never mention planets. if anything i always thought it was just references to the Roman gods. not that the Roman gods are in the game just that their names are being used.
I've said this on previous videos, but I don't really think anyone from Golden Sun should be on this list. The games are relatively easy and the djinn customization means any character can fill whatever roll you need them to. Sure, there's not much reason to use Himi over anyone else, but it's not like she's useless, and she's pretty interchangeable with Rief or Karis as a mage. Similarly, there's basically no reason to use Tyrell over Eoleo or vice versa, since they're basically the same character, with similar stats and the same class. Pick who you think is cool, and you'll be fine.
In Dark Dawn they mention planets a lot before the eclipse, also the elements associated to these planets are related to Eastern cosmology
Miranda + Psyche Bomb X is a nice and easy way to tear thru late game random encounters in LoD for me
The Prince of Cannock was always my backup healer regardless of version I played. he was also the one that always had the World Leaf to revive when one of those jerk monsters cast beat or similar and yeah his equipment choices stink. but he's not intended to be doing the attacking. I relegated him to support duties in my playthroughs.
You're 100% wrong about Shana/Miranda. Their strength comes from the fact their dragoon spirit is insanely powerful. Their level 5 dragoon power deals a ton of light damage, which nothing has resistance to except other light enemies, and it completely heals your party members. This attack is so powerful it can 1 shot some bosses in the game. Not only that you can give her accessories that boosts her MP to 250 and you can cast this multiple times without needing to give a sun raphsody. Shana/Miranda are characters that take work to make viable but once you do they are the most powerful.
Absolutely wrong about Shana/Miranda. They're easily one of the best characters in the game. Their high speed alone makes them amazing but they have so much more to offer than just speed. They have the best magic stat in the game and the best Dragoon Magic in the game. All of their Dragoon Magic is good, and their final spell is not only the best in the game but the only final spell worth using. They also level up their Dragoon Level super fast since they themselves are super fast and every time their dragoon level increases the amount of SP they get per attack increases as well, meaning Dragoon Level increases even faster.
They don't even require much effort to be good, their only real weakness is the low HP. The Therapy Ring obtained on the second Hellena visit will recover 10% HP every turn which is a ton of free healing since she's so fast, combine that with a Defend and that's 20% HP recovered per turn with the added bonus of 50% damage reduction. The Dragon Helm obtained on Disk 3 will increase their HP by 50% which removes their low HP problem. Soon after you get the Mage Ring which recovers 10% MP every turn and is a good replacement for the Therapy Ring. This will make sure she always has a ton of MP due to how fast she is so spell casting will never be a problem.
Honestly whenever I see people try to say Shana/Miranda are not only bad characters but the worst in the game I can't help but think they never used them beyond the required moments and they have no idea what they're talking about. Kongol, Haschel, and Rose are all far worse than Shana/Miranda.
Oh my, I miss Lost Odyssey and Golden Sun. When Golden Sun 4 on the Switch. ;)
I hate Legend of Dragoon. It should be cast into the Lake of Fire.
Ken is very good as long as you equip him with the right things. I'd have to boot up my old save to see which equipment it was I had on him, but he was doing critical hits almost every single time and they hit really hard.
Here's a tip for making the Prince of Cannock more useful in fights: get the Falcon Blade and equip him with it. Yes, the attack power is low, but it allows the Prince to attack twice per turn, actually doing more damage in the higher levels than with the Iron Spear when both attacks hit.
David, been following you for a while now. I must say, you look nothing what I imagined you'd look like. Any-hoo, really digging your material.
With that said, have you not played Y's VIII yet? I can't seem to find it on your channel. Keep up the awesome work. 👁️
I've played Ys Origins, 1, 2, 3, 4 (all 3 versions), and 7 so far.