The most useless skills in games

[TechnologicalMF]

Basically, what are some of the most useless skills you have ever gotten/seen in a video game?
I'll start: panic caster from SMT IV.

Just so you get how absolutely useless this skill is, what it does is it increases the effects of magic of the caster (+25%) while self-inflicting the "Panic" status ailment on them.
Now what makes it so shit is that it is basically completely and utterly useless when you compare it to the spell "Tarukaja" which not only buffs your magic, it also doesn't make you panic while on top of all of this buffing your physical attack too.

 

[LaserMoose]

 

[Stookymalarkey]

It's Shin Megami Tensei related, it's Marin Karin from the original Persona 3. Not only did Mitsuru constantly use it, but it never worked unless she charmed herself.

 

[Bakuma1997]

If your RPG's Name is not SMT, don't bother with debuffs or status, enemies are too weak to capitalize and Bosses are inmune anyway and too OP to make the debuff worthy

 

[TechnologicalMF]

View attachment 45565

LMAO so I never got into Pokemon myself but I love how ingrained in pop culture this is that I instantly knew what it was

 

[Elwiwi]

View attachment 45562

Basically, what are some of the most useless skills you have ever gotten/seen in a video game?
I'll start: panic caster from SMT IV.

Just so you get how absolutely useless this skill is, what it does is it increases the effects of magic of the caster (+25%) while self-inflicting the "Panic" status ailment on them.
Now what makes it so shit is that it is basically completely and utterly useless when you compare it to the spell "Tarukaja" which not only buffs your magic, it also doesn't make you panic while on top of all of this buffing your physical attack too.

Walter noooooo don't use agi walteeeeer

 

[LaserMoose]

LMAO so I never got into Pokemon myself but I love how ingrained in pop culture this is that I instantly knew what it was

Absolutely - Splash is the poster child (poster move?) of useless skills!

 

[Glimbo]

In Shining Armor in Fallout New Vegas
The skill is supposed to increase resistance against energy weapons when wearing metal armor but because of a typo, it actually does nothing.

 

[Azazelivae]

Counter-Skill in Persona 4.

For context it gives you a chance to "Counter" a physical attack.

The Problem?

Persona 3 has 3 different type of Physical Attack.
Persona 5 has 2.

Persona 4 has 1.

Just get yourself Repel Physical at that point.

I seriously don't get what Atlus trying to do with Counter Skill in Persona 4.

 

[ciro64]

(Loud audio at the end)

Not 100% useless but that's the only moment in the game it has any use I think

 

[Azazelivae]

Also in the spirit of Atlus seemingly wants to do something with Persona 4, if they want to keep the basic of Persona 4 as is and build up from it i wish they implement "Pierce" instead.

Ooooo Enemy that can bypass resistance, i wonder how i can deal with their barrage of attacks.

"Counter in the Corner"

 

[Yousef]

I hate ray’s ability in sonic mania, but then again I hate mania in general.

 

[TheWanderer]

Marin Karin of course that shit never works
Edit :Oh it's already been answered then maybe Stone from Tactics ?

 

[TechnologicalMF]

It's Shin Megami Tensei related, it's Marin Karin from the original Persona 3. Not only did Mitsuru constantly use it, but it never worked unless she charmed herself.

I love how basically almost everyone is bringing up MegaTen and then there was Pokemon as well.
Any form of monster collection game I guess is just cursed with wielding some of the most useless skills seen in gaming lmao

 

[LiberoVulpesLiberoVulpes's icon]

The only reason i would bother to Rakukaja, is if i literally have nothing else, cause Sukukaja is far more useful, but this is more of a personal preference.

And yes, Marin Karin hate bandwagon.

 

[UnDubious]

If your RPG's Name is not SMT, don't bother with debuffs or status, enemies are too weak to capitalize and Bosses are inmune anyway and too OP to make the debuff worthy

Nah debuffs are good in Dragon Quest. I don't know why a lot of the games that copied it didn't get that part right. Status ailments can be useful against regular monsters too.

 

[LaserMoose]

For a non-JRPG answer, the stance change button in recent Mortal Kombat titles usually doesn't do much. I believe it affects some combos in specific situations, but is generally not a useful button to press.

It's fun to have the characters do a little dance pressing it multiple times, though.

 

[TechnologicalMF]

For a non-JRPG answer, the stance change button in recent Mortal Kombat titles usually doesn't do much. I believe it affects some combos in specific situations, but is generally not a useful button to press.

View attachment 45571

It's fun to have the characters do a little dance pressing it multiple times, though.

I don't know jackshit about MK beyond a casual standpoint but it doesn't stop me from calling it the most mid ass clunky FG series lmao

But jokes aside, I have never really gotten into them proper so I can't really comment on it from afar. In Tekken for example stances are really important and useful for comboing and some what I would consider sister mechanics of taunting in Third Strike are pretty important as they can straight up buff attacks for characters.

Even a mechanic for the final boss is heavily dependent on this

 

[pauringu]

It's Shin Megami Tensei related, it's Marin Karin from the original Persona 3. Not only did Mitsuru constantly use it, but it never worked unless she charmed herself.

yes, but it works almost every time on the super buff looking enemies, allowing your party an extra turn to take them out before they counter

 

[TechnologicalMF]

The only reason i would bother to Rakukaja, is if i literally have nothing else, cause Sukukaja is far more useful, but this is more of a personal preference.

And yes, Marin Karin hate bandwagon.

I recently beat DDS and for some reason Rakukaja felt a lot more useful a bigger portion of the game for me

Post automatically merged: Mar 20, 2025

Nah debuffs are good in Dragon Quest. I don't know why a lot of the games that copied it didn't get that part right. Status ailments can be useful against regular monsters too.

Not just DQ but I feel a lot of just genres/subgenres of things born from something seem to at times superficially copy and kind of abandon the important elements.

Recently I've been watching JoJo and despite being so old the powers feel so fucking unique and well thought up, same thing for HxH. And so much shounen seems to just fuck it up for me and resort to a dick measuring competition

 

[pauringu]

yes, but it works almost every time on the super buff looking enemies, allowing your party an extra turn to take them out before they counter. admittedly, more useful in versions like p3p and reload, when you have party command tactics

 

[LaserMoose]

I don't know jackshit about MK beyond a casual standpoint but it doesn't stop me from calling it the most mid ass clunky FG series lmao

But jokes aside, I have never really gotten into them proper so I can't really comment on it from afar. In Tekken for example stances are really important and useful for comboing and some what I would consider sister mechanics of taunting in Third Strike are pretty important as they can straight up buff attacks for characters.

Even a mechanic for the final boss is heavily dependent on this

Believe me, I am far from an MK player myself, I understand lol

I could never get into the series for a multitude of reasons. But the stance switching appears to be nowhere near as beneficial as something like Q's taunt in third strike buffing his health, or Tekken's many stances on Lei. It's a universal mechanic in MK, but it's very useless as far as I'm aware.

 

[Elwiwi]

I hate ray’s ability in sonic mania, but then again I hate mania in general.

You are the first person that I see that hates mania , why do you hate it ?

 

[TechnologicalMF]

(Loud audio at the end)

Not 100% useless but that's the only moment in the game it has any use I think

I really need to play through Crash Bandicoot and Spyro at some point

 

[DanCalibur]

Thermonuclear Blast from Quest for Glory 4. When cast, the Hero will cause a gigantic nuclear explosion that will destroy everything in a ten-mile radius and make the area uninhabitable for several centuries thereafter. This will also destroy the Hero.