I love Final Fantasy. I've played each of the main installments from 1 to 10, 10-2, 12, 13, 13-2, Mystic Quest, Tactics, Tactics Advance, and Record Keeper. That said, it's definitely a series where there's a scale between heroes and classes; some are objectively better than others. This is a list of the five worst Classes and Characters in the entire series.
- Characters are measured by keeping in mind their strengths in game ONLY. They are not to be compared to characters outside their game. For example, we can't compare Firion to Squall from a gameplay perspective. But we CAN compare Selphie to Squall.
- Regarding more than single game appearances, the rule is: sequels same, spin offs different. For example, this list would consider Cloud from Final Fantasy 7 and Cloud from Final Fantasy Tactics to be different people. but Yuna from FFX and FFX-2 are the same person.
- Originals and Remakes are considered different games if there are enough substantial changes to warrant a division. Eg: Final Fantasy 3 for the DS vs for the NES will be considered different games, while FF6 for the SNES and PS1 are considered the same game.
- This list is based 100% on gameplay, NOT story.
- For the Generic Classes, starter classes are off limits.
Onward with the list! Starting with Classes.
5- Priest/White Mage, Final Fantasy Tactics.
The main problem with the Priest is that everything it can do, an Alchemist can do better. The Priest can heal, revive, and enchant your characters with Barrier (decreases physical damage) and Shell (decreases magical damage), but these abilities take time to charge, have small areas of effect, and worst of all, have relatively short range. That relative short range can (and often does) mean the difference between the Priest living or dying in battle. But that's not the worst of it; the worst is that the Priest is not guaranteed to hit the Revive spells! Imagine you've been charging a Revive spell for five turns, only to have it MISS. You spent all that MP, for what? Nothing! Meanwhile, all an Alchemist needs to do is toss a Phoenix Down and boom, your character is back to life. And the cherry on top? The Alchemist is a starter class.
4- Trainer, Final Fantasy X-2
Final Fantasy X-2 has a wide variety of fantastic character classes, such as the Gun Mage, the Samurai, and the Dark Knight. The Trainer, however, is the worst of the lot. The Trainer is completely incapable of attacking more than one enemy at a time. That wouldn't be so bad if the Trainer's abilities were any good, but they're not! The Trainer's abilities all deal moderate damage and either use Elementals (Yuna) or inflict status effects (Rikku and Paine). On bosses that are vulnerable to these status effects, that's not too bad at all, but on everything else? The Trainer is much too situational to be considered consistently useful.
3- Morpher, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
For this class to be USEFUL you need a human unit to be a Hunter. That Hunter needs to capture weakened monsters (25% success rate TOPS) so the Morpher can have transform into said monster. If you need a second unit to be able to do your job, you've got a HUGE disadvantage on your hands. And as if that were not enough, the Morpher's skills aren't even that good! I've always said the Nu Mou got the shaft in Tactics Advance; this just proves it!
2- Scholar, Final Fantasy 3 NES
The ability to check your enemy's weakness and HP sounds good on paper, but this is a case of "what am I bringing to the table, and what am I sacrificing in exchange?" In this case, you're bringing in a character that can check the enemy's remaining HP and whatever elemental weakness it might have instead of literally ANYTHING ELSE. The Scholar is physically weak, to the point it can die in two or three hits. Its weapons get outclasses pretty quickly; there's a point in the game where no new weapons appear for this class. It's true that there's one boss where you NEED the scholar, but it's just ONE boss! The Scholar, like it or not, is next to useless.
Before we get to number 1, here are some (dis)honorable mentions in no particular order:
- Viking, Final Fantasy 3 NES
- Bishop, Final Fantasy Tactics Advance
- Dancer, Final Fantasy 5
- Red Mage, Final Fantasy 1
- Mediator, Final Fantasy Tactics
1- Oracle/Mystic, Final Fantasy Tactics
This class has the WORST SKILLS in the entire game. They take time to charge, they cost a lot of MP, and what do they do? Inflict status effects on the enemy! And wait, they can MISS! Did you spend five turns charging up a Blind spell, so as to lower an enemy's hit rate? Well, if it hits, BIG WOOP! The time it took you to make that enemy blind was time that could have been spent making sure that enemy DIED! And the spot that this character is taking, which needs to be chosen before you even know what you're up against, is a spot that could have gone to something that could be good at KILLING! This is the absolute WORST character class in ALL Final Fantasy!
And now, we look at the five worst heroes. Again, this is 100% gameplay, NOT story!
5- Cid, Final Fantasy 4 SNES
Cid is...a fighter who can't do much of anything but hit stuff. He has no useful skills to speak of. He can't use magic, his only skill is of little use, and in all honesty, his weapons are not great either. He's certainly the worst party member in FF4 SNES version. His SOLE advantage is being able to wield a wooden hammer in the Magnetic Cave, allowing him to do some decent damage while being immune to said cave's paralyzing effect.
4- Cyan, Final Fantasy 6
How do you screw over a character that has so much impact on the player? Simply put, make his skill mechanic SUCK. Cyan's Bushido ability takes time to charge. And boy, does he take his sweet time charging it! Worse is that his first ability is actually pretty good; it hits hard, it hits fast, and doesn't take much time to charge it. So why do ALL HIS OTHER ABILITIES TAKE SO LONG AND SUCK SO HARD??? And the WORST part is that you can't do a damn thing while he's charging! The enemy's pummeling you, and what are you doing? Charging your skill? Nah, take that garbage elsewhere!
3- Edward, Final Fantasy 4 SNES
I almost didn't want to include this character specifically because his weakness was designed on purpose to reflect his character. But, this list is 100% gameplay, and in this field, Edward sucks. Hard. His skills are nigh useless, his stats are bottom-of-the-barrel low, his weapons are crap, and overall, the ONLY thing going for him is that he can attack from the back row!
2- Cait Sith, Final Fantasy 7
Cait Sith is here for a simple reason: his limit breaks are the absolute worst garbage I have ever seen in a Final Fantasy game. His first Limit Break, Dice, inflicts a random amount of damage, from a minimum of 200 to a maximum of 9999. This sounds great on paper, but in practice? It's pure garbage, especially considering that ANY OTHER CHARACTER come late game can inflict that damage; hell, Tifa and Cloud can potentially deal MUCH MORE than that. Cait Sith's second (OF TWO, when every other character gets 8) Limit Break is Slots, which can have any result. At best, it's an automatic victory if you score all 7's. But this is one Limit Break that can KILL YOU! Sure the odds of it landing are low, but fact is, it's still a chance it can land there! And this is a Limit Break, you need to absorb a lot of damage just to be able to use it ONCE! Add to this the lowest stats of the all FF7 playable characters, and you have a pile of pure garbage.
Before we get to number 1, here are some (dis)honorable mentions in no particular order:
- Setzer, Final Fantasy 6
- Quistis, Final Fantasy 8
- Amarant, Final Fantasy 9
- Sazh, Final Fantasy 13
- Meliadoul, Final Fantasy Tactics
1- Malak, Final Fantasy Tactics
It's no secret; Final Fantasy Tactics has the absolute WORST magic system I have ever seen in an SRPG. Small and fixed areas of effect combined with medium ranges? Now add to that a random number of hits, landing in a random number of tiles in the area of effect, and you've got the absolute bottom of the barrel pile of shit that is Malak. And the cherry on top? Malak's skills aren't even that strong! You can charge Malak's skills for five turns, and you have a 1 in 5 chance of it hitting the enemy, and if it hits it'll barely do damage! This is no exaggeration; not only is Malak the worst character in Final Fantasy, he's one of the worst I've ever seen in any SRPG!
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