10 Terrible Video Game Party Members Always Left Warming The Bench

The Final Fantasy franchise is such a vast enterprise that everyone has their passionate personal faves and sworn-off deplorables, but can't we all agree that Final Fantasy XIII's Hope is about as useful as a chocolate teapot?

Before we even get to his combat readiness, Hope is a prototypically irritating child RPG character, and despite having a sympathy-generating backstory involving his dead mother Nora, he's rendered unbearable due to his relentless, petulant whining.

Even if you can forgive this due to his traumatic childhood, he's extremely weak in the battle stakes, especially in the earlier stages of the game.

Ultimately he's a consistent enough liability that many players may simply decide against investing in him and instead ditch him at the first errant opportunity.