10 Final Fantasy Characters Nobody EVER Used

Final Fantasy IX is the only title in the main series from the Playstation 1 onwards that largely restricted what each playable character can and cannot do. As part of the game’s wider homage to the series’ history, the eight heroes were archetypes of the traditional thief (Zidane), knight (Steiner), black mage (Vivi), white mage/summoner (Garnet/Eiko), dragoon (Freya), blue mage (Quina) and monk (Amarant) classes. This breaks down into an equal split of four physical and four magical characters.

Any combination of the eight has its own advantages and disadvantages, but Amarant’s drawbacks are much more noticeable than those of his companions. The fact that he doesn’t join the party until the end of the second disc means that everybody else (bar Eiko, acquired at a similar point) gets a sizable head start when it comes to development, whilst his lack of redeeming character features make it difficult to build any attachment to him.

Most notably, however, in the end game he lacks a maximum damage attack – Zidane’s Thievery can be boosted up to a guaranteed 9999 with successful steals, Freya’s Dragon Crest can hit for the same amount after farming Grand Dragon kills and Steiner’s Shock can usually hit that limit based on his power alone. Amarant’s best option is to use his Throw command, but this uses up items and the deadliest are finite in quantity.

His second command (Flair) has some excellent abilities (Aura in particular), but none that elevate him anywhere close to his colleagues.