In a similar vein to the list I did several months ago about my favorite selectable characters in gaming, this list will take a look at my favorite party members. “Party” being, of course, a common RPG term that refers to the active band of heroes you bring into each enemy battle. Whether they fall under your control or that of the AI, this list will go over what characters I just can’t play through an RPG without! Here we go!
10) Peach ~ Super Mario RPG
Super Mario RPG has a slew of good party members to choose from, but in my eyes the honor has to go to the good princess, Peach. This game marks one of the first times she’s ever been playable, and it’s a doozy.
On the surface, Peach is your classic white mage archetype. She can heal the entire party, resurrect defeated party members, cure status ailments, and debuff the enemy. However, what makes her borderline essential is that she can wear the Lazy Shell armor, an armor so obscenely good it makes her effectively invincible. What that means is that she can just sit back and constantly heal and revive without worrying about being knocked out herself, thus ensuring it’s impossible for your team to lose!
9) Goombella ~ Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
Similar to the above entry, The Thousand Year Door has an entire assortment of standout party members to choose from. However, for as much as I love Vivian and Bobbery, my pick has to go to the plucky, sassy goomba, Goombella.
Goombella is the first party member to join your team, and yet she remains the most consistently effective through the whole game, and certainly the most reliable boss killer. Her standard bonking attack is simple but very strong, and extremely easy to further increase its damage, especially once she unlocks her multibonk ability. Add in the power to restore Mario’s health and reveal enemy health bars and weaknesses, and she’s an incredible addition to the team.
8) T-elos ~ Xenoblade Chronicles 2
There are a crazy amount of BLADES in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, and so, so many of them are exceptionally good. Basically any BLADE that isn’t named Boreas or Electra could fit on this list. For my choice, I’m going to go with T-elos, a BLADE you can only unlock after your first playthrough of the game. For repeat runs, she’s awesome!
For starters, T-elos packs a wallop. Each swing of her hefty dark hammer shatters enemy health bars, and her powerful skills and specials are even more devastating. She’s got some great passive effects, and her field skills are also quite useful (leaping, salvaging mastery, and dark mastery; all of which can hit level five). On top of this, she has entertaining and witty banter with the cast, and some very eye-catching explosions and animations tied to her abilities. In a game packed with valuable party members, she still stands out.
7) Azura ~ Fire Emblem Fates
All Fire Emblem games gift you with three times as many units as you’ll ever need (assuming you keep everyone alive, of course), so basically anyone who plays the game will come away with their own unique team and their own favorite units. Fates is no different, and even from my first playthrough, my favorite unit was undoubtedly Azura.
Azura is a dancer (or singer, technically), and how those units work is that they can perform for another unit who has already acted, giving them a second chance to act that turn. Being a singer alone makes Azura a mandatory part of your team, but that’s not all. Azura also has the second highest strength in the entire game, extremely high speed, and a respectably fearsome dodge rate. She’ll be hitting enemies like crazy and dodging all counterattacks with ease. Can someone say “invincible singer”?
6) Mia ~ Code Vein
Code Vein, unlike the Soulsborne franchise it takes very heavy influence from, actively encourages you to explore the dank and dreary dystopian world with a friend by your side. Thankfully, for those without stable internet, a bevy of computer-controlled friends are available. Of those friends, my love for Mia knows no bounds.
Mia is a master of the rifle class of weapons, meaning that she can rain down a relentless barrage of magical blasts from afar, and never be in danger of being attacked back. Many enemies are weak to magic, so Mia’s damage is substantial. She can stop ambushes before they start by picking off distant enemies with her rifle. Then, because she’s never in harm’s way, she has plenty of health available to revive you if you get taken down. She’s the perfect partner.
5) Mae ~ Shining Force
Shining Force is the first RPG that I ever played back when I was a wee little lad, and I was terrible at it. I still loved it, though, but it wasn’t until a recent playthrough a few years back that I was old enough to truly dig into the game and experience it to the fullest. On that playthrough, I discovered the unmatched might of my uncontested favorite unit: Mae.
Mae is one of many (far too many) centaur paladins you receive over the course of the game, but as she joins right near the beginning, it’s very easy for her to slot herself into your team and start building up her power. Before long, she becomes a veritable force of nature, with staggeringly high health, defense, and attack. Her cavalry movement allows her to cross great distances with ease, she can attack from either one or two spaces away, and she can equip the dark ring and cursed lance, giving her the ability to one-shot any enemy in the game, even in the final levels!
4) Marina ~ Valkyria Chronicles
For the first few levels of Valkyria Chronicles, sniper-class units are easily the worst in the game. Their hit rate is atrocious, and they can die in a single lucky shot from an enemy thanks to their non-existent health and defense. However, level up the sniper-class gang a few times, and they easily become your most devastating force. Marina is the cream of the crop among them.
Units in this game have good and bad potentials, and it is these potentials that make or break a character. Marina’s are off-the-charts exceptional. Most of her potentials buff her stats if she’s isolated from your team, which is exactly where a sniper should be! She also has the chance to reload extra shots into her rifle free of charge. Most of all, when she hits max level, her accuracy with a rifle becomes perfect. Literally. She can’t ever miss again, nailing headshots from miles away with ease. Marina is the stuff of legends.
3) Dorothea ~ Fire Emblem Three Houses
When I first started playing Fire Emblem Three Houses, I thought for sure that my favorite unites would be either Edelgard or Petra. I don’t have anything against magic users, but they usually aren’t my overall favorite. After finishing my first run, however, things changed. For sure, I love Edelgard and Petra, but I love Dorothea so, so much more!
In fact, I now make sure to recruit Dorothea onto my team as fast as possible in all subsequent playthroughs of Three Houses. She’s just that good. Her magic stat is insanely high, as is her resistance, so she excels at taking down tanky armored units and enemy mages. She also buffs nearby allies with her passive. What makes her borderline cheating, however? Meteor. Dorothea is the master of a spell that can hit THIRTEEN spaces away WITHOUT additional range bonuses! That’s crazy, and the damage of meteor is even crazier! You can kill entire bosses in a single hit on turn one from across the map! It’s madness!
2) Shulk ~ Xenoblade Chronicles
Every time I start a new playthrough of Xenoblade Chronicles, I tell myself that “this time, I’ll actually play as someone other than Shulk”. Then, invariably, I end up playing almost exclusively as Shulk. I can’t help it, alright? He’s amazing, extremely versatile, and he never gets old to me. Sorry, Melia. Maybe next time.
Shulk’s moveset just feels like it was made for me. He’s position based, so his moves deal more damage or have bonus effects depending on where you stand, rewarding active gameplay. He also constantly lowers his aggro, keeping the heat off of him and maintaining his high damage glass-cannon style. He also has the Monado, which brings an entirely new set of skills to mess around with as the situation demands it. He can inflict break and daze, lower the defense of enemies, shield allies, buff allies, heal allies, and so much more. Also…BACKSLASH! That is all.
1) Rean ~ Trails of Cold Steel
The other awesome party members on this list are all some combination of fun, engaging, effective, and exciting. Well, what happens if you wrap all of those qualities up into a single character, who also happens to be the most game-breaking and combat-trivializing party member of all time? You get the good ol’ Mean Rean Machine!
See, Rean (in all four games of this series) has an ability that attacks all enemies in a big circle for massive damage. This move costs a lot of CP (craft points), but thankfully Rean’s passive refunds lost CP for every enemy he kills. So, the strategy is to equip Rean with a plethora of gems that buff the strength of his opening move each battle. Because Rean’s speed and dodge rate are so high, he’ll always go first. For 90% of the combat encounters in this game, all you have to do is use Rean’s spin move, and the massive damage will destroy all enemies, refill Rean’s spent CP for using the move, and thus allow you to do it again free of charge on the next encounter! Rinse and repeat!
Repetitive? A little bit. Boring? I could see how some would say that. Efficient, effortless, and infinitely satisfying? Absolutely!
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
The Contrarian Corner 