They can’t all be winners. We’re swerving in the complete opposite direction from our last list, where we counted down the best, most OP party members you’ll absolutely want to bring with you. This time around, we’re talking about the stinkers — the guys and gals you’ll skip over any day of the week. They’re not all bad, but there are always better characters to pick from.
You’ll know a character belongs on this list if you immediately put them away in the party select screen and never see them again. Sometimes you’ll be forced to use these characters briefly, and then you’ll swap back to the real heroes in your team. Many of these characters are actually pretty good, but there’s something just wrong about them — maybe they’re redundant, weaker than the rest, or just so utterly bland that you’ve got not interest in using them.
This is the list were we celebrate the losers in some of our favorite games. Here’s the most overlooked, lonely benchwarmers in gaming.
#1: James Vega (Mass Effect 3)
Really, I could put all the boring starter humans on this list — but James Vegas is the most boring, and most starter of all the boring starter humans in the entire Mass Effect series. Admit it, you probably don’t even remember who this character is. At least Ashley and Kaiden were mildly memorable as your first partners in an epic journey.
James Vega just feels like nothing. He’s a musclebound soldier, voiced with enthusiasm by celebrity guest Freddie Prinze Jr., and yet he’s still the most forgettable thing about ME3. Why take him when you can bring lady robot EDI, returning favorite Garrus, returning favorite Tali, or Javik the last surviving Prothean. Vega isn’t even that bad of a character! He kills just as good as anyone else! He’s just so painfully nothing to nobody.
#2: Kimahri (Final Fantasy 10)
Talk to Final Fantasy fans in the modern era, and everyone has a favorite character. There are no characters that don’t have fans — even the weirdest, wackiest, strangest creatures have die-hard fans to defend them. Nobody is going to defend Kimahri, the giant blue cat-thing defender of Yuna in Final Fantasy 10. The problem isn’t even Kimahri’s lion-like design! He’s just completely worthless — he’s outclassed by every other character in your party.
The only thing Kimahri can do that’s totally unique is his Blue Mage skills. He can learn enemy abilities by using his Lancet skill, which is both time-consuming and completely worthless. There are very few useful enemy skills to learn in FF10. Otherwise, Kimahri lags behind the rest of your characters and will never catch up. Sorry, big blue, you belong in reserve forever.
Discover more overlooked characters on the next page.
