Giving Characters a Second Chance?

[Ilyena]

So I started replaying Final Fantasy IV the other day and while I've played through it at least three times, I usually just speed through the part where Edward is in your party. This time, I decided to level him up a bit and give his character a chance. I found him surprisingly useful in battle this time around.

On previous playthroughs, he was usually low-leveled with shit HP so one hit and he'd run and hide. I got his HP to a decent level and he actually helped quite a bit in the antlion cave. I was pleasantly surprised.

Did anyone else have a similar experience with characters they thought were crap the first time around?

 

[HighwindPilot]

Not really... Most of the time I think a character is bad, I tend to stick by that conviction.

Did you really find Edward to be good? I've always considered him a very weak character; the Bard class was just so bad. Then again, I never put the additional time in with him because of how he is when you first have him. Exactly what made him useful?

From the same game, Tellah kind of pissed me off. Although, in his situation, it was kind of the opposite thing. I initially thought he'd be a very powerful and useful character based off of his ability to use some of the most damaging magics. His biggest setback (incredibly low MP), I thought, would surely grow. That never happened, and his max MP turned out to be a dud.
--

In other games:

I found CaitSith to be terribly useless, so much so that I didn't even really need extensive time with him to realize how duddy his character was as anything other than a wall with sub par magic.

In X, it was a bit different. I remember thinking that Kimahri might have been alright at first, because the concept of his character build would seem good in theory. But it didn't take long for me to determine what a disposable sack he was by excelling in no particular area like the rest. He's fundamentally built as a lesser character, I think.

Those're just examples, but there are a few more. There were a few in VI that I thought to be crappy and I certainly never had a change of mind about them. I guess that's kind of natural with a massive cast.

 

[Ilyena]

After leveling him up a bit so that he wasn't one-hit killed by everything, I found his sing ability to be pretty useful (especially against those tiny mages >_>). In the antlion cave, he gets the Charmer harp which confuses enemies.

He does more damage than the mages to enemies that aren't particularly weak against magic as well. The harp he has now actually does a decent amount of damage. I was able to confuse quite a few of the bombs during the Mombomb boss battle just by attacking them.

I'm not saying the Bard class is awesome or anything and he's nowhere near the best character in the game. But he's just not as bad in battle as I thought he was really.

And I'm with you on Tellah. He had decent magic and all but the lack of MP made it impossible to really use him well without having to give him an ether after every spell. I understand why they did it (storywise) but it made using him in battle kind of annoying.

 

[King Sean]

I found Wakka was actually quite good once I admitted him into my main party in the omega ruins. He had some good skills and his sphere grid granted him some more good skills. I had thought that he was weak before.

Also, Aerith was a good healer when I actually used her in FFVII. My party was alive longer when she was in my party. But when it came to the need to deal damage to my enemies, she was useless.

Despite his reputation, Vaan can be a very good all rounder in FFXII. Although anyone in the game can be good after a while, I thought that he got good and stayed good really fast. He was very useful in battle and was my main fighter along with Basch.

 

[Valvalis]

From the same game, Tellah kind of pissed me off. Although, in his situation, it was kind of the opposite thing. I initially thought he'd be a very powerful and useful character based off of his ability to use some of the most damaging magics. His biggest setback (incredibly low MP), I thought, would surely grow. That never happened, and his max MP turned out to be a dud.

I think that may have just been a plot device to keep him from using Meteo before it was appropriate. I'm not sure how well "Oh Tellah, you're too weak to use Meteo!" would have worked if you could just use it in random battles

I never used to use Amarant that much until I discovered his No Mercy and Revive abilities--No Mercy dealt quite considerable damage most of the time, where I had usually just done regular attacks with him that did a lot less. And I don't usually like having Dagger or Eiko in the party and I don't always have Auto-Life, so Revive was incredibly convenient. Really, if he were to fight a battle on his own he'd be pretty self-sufficient, since he's able to cure himself as well, and I like characters who are like that.

 

[Rydia]

On my first play through I barely used Aerith as an attacker. (I try to use all characters equally). On my second playthrough I was told to either put her in the front row or equip long reach materia. When she got her final weapon, she was doing more physical damage than all the other characters, except for Cloud who she was pretty much on par with D:.

I'll have to give Edward a second chance on my next play through of IV

I kind of excuse Tellah for not having much MP or using Meteo (lol) because that wouldn't have worked well for the plot.

Also in VI, I didn't use Gau at all on my first play through. Then on my second I got stray cat and he never left my party. (Well that's a bit of an exaggeration I did swap in come characters for him)

 

[Harlequin]

Did anyone else have a similar experience with characters they thought were crap the first time around?

During my first few playthroughs of VII my party was made up of Cloud, Barret and Cid. It was only a few years ago that I looked at the change of dynamic a tiny detail can do, like putting Yuffie or Vincent in the back row to take less damage but deal just as much.

An oversight would probably be the only reason I would keep out a character, seeing as I level all my characters anyway.

Pokemon too come to think of it. When I was little I would always have the three starting pokemon, mewtwo, pidgeot and zapdos/articuno. (or the generation's equivalent)

It's only been three or four years since I've began incorporating pokemon like tentacruel, magneton or dragonite into my teams so they don't feel like a carbon copy of my last playthrough.

Right now I'm using Cloud, Yuffie and Barret in my latest VII runthrough.

 

[Six]

I always rush through the part with Aerith ... I never wanna use her because she's so useless in battle besides for healing. I never really died 'cause the party was well equipped, so it wasn't like I was struggling, or in need of a good healer. Having two main fighters, and one 'occasional' healer has done it fine for me.

Though I'll have to give it that, her magic stats are good, but I'm more of a physical attacker than a magic user, even with FF.