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Stupidest reason for a RPG/JRPG character joining your party?

bomblord1

Banned
While playing through RPG/JRPG's I've seen quite a few absolutely ridiculous reasons for characters becoming a permanent asset in your party.

The one that made me think of this topic was Beryl in tales of hearts R (just recently beat it)
She just literally decides to stick with your party after you briefly meet her in the city and after that she sticks with you through absolutely ridiculous things and is never given any clear motivation as to why she sticks around
latest


Anyway, what is your stupidest reason for a character joining your party?
 

Dad

Member
I'm playing through Suikoden for the first time, and I have people tripping over themselves trying to join my party with maybe 1 or 2 lines of dialogue for justification. I guess that's just what happens when there are 108 recruitable characters.
 

Falk

that puzzling face
Disgaea Franchise: The Thread.

edit: Award going to someone joining up because she's the main character

...

......
 
Cait Sith's initial reason is pretty bogus, what with telling your fortune wrong and joining you because he wanted to see if what he said was true.

His real reason of course is much better.
 

Zukkoyaki

Member
I always thought the Wookie joining you in the original Knights of the Old Republic was a bit ridiculous. You help him out and all of the sudden he commits his entire life to you.

Note: This might actually have to do with Star Wars lore which would help it make sense. But I don't know for sure.
 

Markitron

Is currently staging a hunger strike outside Gearbox HQ while trying to hate them to death
I always thought the Wookie joining you in the original Knights of the Old Republic was a bit ridiculous. You help him out and all of the sudden he commits his entire life to you.

Note: This might actually have to do with Star Wars lore which would help it make sense. But I don't know for sure.

Yes it's a large part of Star Wars lore, it was paying homage to what had happened to Han and Chewie (when Han saved Chewie from slavery) and it was awesome.

There were some weird ones in Dragon Age 2 IIRC.
 

Corgi

Banned
i have no clue why most of my party is around in tales of graces.

Or why we keep accepting han solo back in Xillia even though he betrays you every other hour.

Tales games
 

Sifl

Member
I'm pretty sure Yuffie from FF7 has basically no impact on the story, which is why you can miss her. She just attacks you in a random area of the map and if you beat her you can either recruit her or tell her to go away, so no reason what so ever.
 

eternalb

Member
May not be the stupidest, but I met Sera in Dragon Age Inquisition last night and two minutes later she was on the team.

Have no reason to care about her...
 

Sophia

Member
Hi.


You, the protagonist,
blew up my alternative universe 1960s esque Earth that I'm not even really from
by handing the power supply of your ship off to the resident minor antagonist. Who had me kidnapped anyhow. So now I have no choice but to go with you.

I wouldn't be surprised if Star Ocean: The Last Hope outdoes anything else in this thread. If Meracle's joining wasn't stupid enough, then there's always Sarah....
 

JNA

Banned
I always thought the Wookie joining you in the original Knights of the Old Republic was a bit ridiculous. You help him out and all of the sudden he commits his entire life to you.

Note: This might actually have to do with Star Wars lore which would help it make sense. But I don't know for sure.

Your note is correct. Wookies owing life debts is kinda a big deal in the lore.

Also I wouldn't really say it's ridiculous because if it wasn't for you, Zaalbar would have been tortured to death by the Gamorreans. I'd say his life debt towards you was pretty well justified.
 

ExVicis

Member
I'm pretty sure Yuffie from FF7 has basically no impact on the story, which is why you can miss her. She just attacks you in a random area of the map and if you beat her you can either recruit her or tell her to go away, so no reason what so ever.
She sticks around honestly just so she can steal your materia. That's basically it.
 

Ishida

Banned
Came here to post this.

Almost 99% of the PNJ with a portrait will join your party. Stupid.

Fire Emblem has some cool ones too but that's more funny than ridiculous

Yep. And this is coming from a hardcore, HARDCORE Chrono Cross fan.

But yeah, 99% of the party members join you for the most stupid reasons.

model1.jpg


"You know, young man who I just met a few minutes ago, I'm very worried about you. I will leave my home and children behind and fight alongside you against Dragons, a powerful army, mythical beings and space-time continuum destroyers. Because reasons,"
 
Yep. And this is coming from a hardcore, HARDCORE Chrono Cross fan.

But yeah, 99% of the party members join you for the most stupid reasons.

model1.jpg


"You know, young man who I just met a few minutes ago, I'm very worried about you. I will leave my home and children behind and fight alongside you against Dragons, a powerful army, mythical beings and space-time continuum destroyers. Because reasons,"

To be fair, her children seem pretty resourceful.
 

Ralemont

not me
I wiki'd Quina to see if she had no reason to join as I remember or not.

The truth is far far worse:

"Quina first appears at the beginning of the game in Alexandria Castle, overseeing the chefs' every move and tasting most of their dishes. Quina also participates in the Festival of the Hunt in Lindblum under the name "Strange Gourmand". S/he is next seen in Qu's Marsh, and may be optionally recruited immediately after leaving Lindblum.

S/he has a fondness for frogs, and is distressed that s/he cannot catch one. Zidane catches one for Quina, leading the head Qu, Quale, to scold Quina for being too lazy to feed him/herself. Quale asks the party to take Quina around the world so that s/he may visit the other marshes of the world to taste different types of frogs, as frogs are the Qu's delicacy, and attain a higher rank of gourmand."
 

JNA

Banned
To answer the question, I thought Zaeed from Mass Effect 2 was pretty stupid.

Me2dlc_16_zaeed.jpg


The guy is a very well known and feared Bounty Hunter that makes good money for what he does. He can go and be anywhere he wants, but suddenly, he joins you in a huge potentially suicidal mission.

Plus as a party member, the guy hardly talked or did much of anything noteworthy during his time with you. I felt like he was just thrown in.
 

Trace

Banned
To answer the question, I thought Zaeed from Mass Effect 2 was pretty stupid.

Me2dlc_16_zaeed.jpg


The guy is a very well known and feared Bounty Hunter that makes good money for what he does. He can go and be anywhere he wants, but suddenly, he joins you in a huge potentially suicidal mission.

Plus as a party member, the guy hardly talked or did much of anything noteworthy during his time with you. I felt like he was just thrown in.

Wasn't Zaeed DLC? Pretty sure that guarantees "thrown in".
 
Hi.



You, the protagonist,
blew up my alternative universe 1960s esque Earth that I'm not even really from
by handing the power supply of your ship off to the resident minor antagonist. Who had me kidnapped anyhow. So now I have no choice but to go with you.

I wouldn't be surprised if Star Ocean: The Last Hope outdoes anything else in this thread. If Meracle's joining wasn't stupid enough, then there's always Sarah....

Pretty much this right here. Half the cast has no reason for joining up with the party.

They certainly had no reason for STAYING after Edge has his extended emo bitch moment either.

My god, Star Ocean 4. =(
 
I wiki'd Quina to see if she had no reason to join as I remember or not.

The truth is far far worse:

"Quina first appears at the beginning of the game in Alexandria Castle, overseeing the chefs' every move and tasting most of their dishes. Quina also participates in the Festival of the Hunt in Lindblum under the name "Strange Gourmand". S/he is next seen in Qu's Marsh, and may be optionally recruited immediately after leaving Lindblum.

S/he has a fondness for frogs, and is distressed that s/he cannot catch one. Zidane catches one for Quina, leading the head Qu, Quale, to scold Quina for being too lazy to feed him/herself. Quale asks the party to take Quina around the world so that s/he may visit the other marshes of the world to taste different types of frogs, as frogs are the Qu's delicacy, and attain a higher rank of gourmand."

In short:

Because the wonders of food.
 

XenoRaven

Member
I'm pretty sure Yuffie from FF7 has basically no impact on the story, which is why you can miss her. She just attacks you in a random area of the map and if you beat her you can either recruit her or tell her to go away, so no reason what so ever.
Yuffie's reason for joining was that she wanted to steal the party's materia. She feels that Wutai lost the war against Shin-Ra because they didn't have materia, so she's trying to amass as much as she can in order to help restore Wutai to its former glory.
 

Sou Da

Member
He was but so was Kasumi and Kasumi turned out to be one of the best party members in the game. She was certainly no throw in unlike Zaeed.

Zaeed was pre order DLC, Kasumi was part of a mission released 3 months after the game.

When pre-order dlc characters you either make a character like Zaeed so that no one really feels too bad about not getting him, you don't make a character at all (DA:I), or you fuck up hard and pull a Javik.
 

Sifl

Member
She sticks around honestly just so she can steal your materia. That's basically it.

Yuffie's reason for joining was that she wanted to steal the party's materia. She feels that Wutai lost the war against Shin-Ra because they didn't have materia, so she's trying to amass as much as she can in order to help restore Wutai to its former glory.
My bad, I guess there is a reason for her joining you. I still think it's kind of stupid though, not the reasoning, but how it's really abrupt and random, and how there's really no build up to it :p.
 

JNA

Banned
What was Kasumi's reason for sticking around?

She basically made a deal with Shepard to help her acquire an important item from her dead boyfriend basically.

Zaeed was pre order DLC, Kasumi was part of a mission released 3 months after the game.

When pre-order dlc characters you either make a character like Zaeed so that no one really feels too bad about not getting him, you don't make a character at all (DA:I), or you fuck up hard and pull a Javik.

So was Javik. XD (which you mention later)

Too be fair, Javik was a pretty cool character (although he also should have never been DLC but that's a whole different argument for another thread).
 
My bad, I guess there is a reason for her joining you. I still think it's kind of stupid though, not the reasoning, but how it's really abrupt and random, and how there's really no build up to it :p.

I think the actual build up that was supposed to occur is that you're not supposed to know what to do when you finally get the chance to recruit her (most people just look at a guide for the proper answers to the dialogue selections). You were supposed to be confused and not really understand what was going on with this character.
 

Laconic

Banned
Pretty much this right here. Half the cast has no reason for joining up with the party.

They certainly had no reason for STAYING after Edge has his extended emo bitch moment either.

My god, Star Ocean 4. =(

God ain't got nothing to do with Star Ocean 4, my friend.


On topic:

Crono Cross: The Thread.
 

WindButterfly

Neo Member
The party member i just got in star ocean 1 just joined me because we made a single delivery together. I didn't know much about him, i asked him to join me and he said okay.

Star ocean 1,2 and 3 have only taught me if i don't help people they die or mysteriously disappear, sorry roger.
 

Desi

Member
I'm playing through Suikoden for the first time, and I have people tripping over themselves trying to join my party with maybe 1 or 2 lines of dialogue for justification. I guess that's just what happens when there are 108 recruitable characters.

Like this guy? Pesmerga aka "You fought Yuber, I want to kill Yuber!" then you never run into Yuber again...oh and that is all his dialogue in 1

Pesmerga_SII.gif
 

Parfait

Member
Hi.



You, the protagonist,
blew up my alternative universe 1960s esque Earth that I'm not even really from
by handing the power supply of your ship off to the resident minor antagonist. Who had me kidnapped anyhow. So now I have no choice but to go with you.

I wouldn't be surprised if Star Ocean: The Last Hope outdoes anything else in this thread. If Meracle's joining wasn't stupid enough, then there's always Sarah....

???? The other dude asked the party to find her home planet (Roak) and take her there. She didn't join the party because of the entirely and completely unexpected event of the planet blowing up. It turns out she's from future Roak and also went back in time/alternate dimension like the party, so she sticks with them instead of staying at ye olde Roak until the end, where she then holes up with that whatserface seer who has a really unsavory look on her face.
.

Sarah though? Lmao

Pretty much this right here. Half the cast has no reason for joining up with the party.

They certainly had no reason for STAYING after Edge has his extended emo bitch moment either.

My god, Star Ocean 4. =(

'half the cast' is a bit much. Lymle and Sarah are the loosest ties, but Sarah joins after the so called 'emo moment', and Lymle literally had no one else left after what happened on her planet. Everyone else joins for rather good reasons.
 

Saladinoo

Member
Guys, don't hate on Quina. Wanting tasty frogs = well justified.

Damn I love quina,
it and vivi getting married is the best thing.
 

Mudo

Member
Recently - in Dragon Age: Inquisition, Iron Bull joins you cause uhhh errrr...he's ummm just on a beach fighting and oh you're the Inquisition? Ok I'll join you. I thought it was super abrupt and was confused like I had missed something important or done things out of order.
 

CISphil

Neo Member
To answer the question, I thought Zaeed from Mass Effect 2 was pretty stupid.

Me2dlc_16_zaeed.jpg


The guy is a very well known and feared Bounty Hunter that makes good money for what he does. He can go and be anywhere he wants, but suddenly, he joins you in a huge potentially suicidal mission.

Plus as a party member, the guy hardly talked or did much of anything noteworthy during his time with you. I felt like he was just thrown in.

Pretty sure he was promised from Cerberus A) a crap ton of money and B)
The location of the other head of the Blue Suns.
. Not worth a suicide mission, but I guess he'd have heard it all before and didn't really believe it, least that's my guess.
 
Recently - in Dragon Age: Inquisition, Iron Bull joins you cause uhhh errrr...he's ummm just on a beach fighting and oh you're the Inquisition? Ok I'll join you. I thought it was super abrupt and was confused like I had missed something important or done things out of order.

His merc group extends the offer to join your forces for a price. They actually approach the player first and ask you to meet with Bull, their leader.
 
I wiki'd Quina to see if she had no reason to join as I remember or not.

The truth is far far worse:

"Quina first appears at the beginning of the game in Alexandria Castle, overseeing the chefs' every move and tasting most of their dishes. Quina also participates in the Festival of the Hunt in Lindblum under the name "Strange Gourmand". S/he is next seen in Qu's Marsh, and may be optionally recruited immediately after leaving Lindblum.

S/he has a fondness for frogs, and is distressed that s/he cannot catch one. Zidane catches one for Quina, leading the head Qu, Quale, to scold Quina for being too lazy to feed him/herself. Quale asks the party to take Quina around the world so that s/he may visit the other marshes of the world to taste different types of frogs, as frogs are the Qu's delicacy, and attain a higher rank of gourmand."

A food pilgrimage isn't all that odd. And who better to escort you through the dangerous world than people tasked with protecting a princess.
 
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