Late Character Syndrome: Difference between revisions

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* In the original ''[[Breath of Fire]]'', your last party member is Mogu a mole-like creature you have to save from being trapped within his own nightmare. The only reason you need Mogu is to make use of dig command to find treasure and transformations (for Karn) on the world map and once to perform a vital plot function. Dig doesn't need to be leveled in battle.

* Party members in ''[[Neverwinter Nights 2]]'' level up automatically to match you when they join your party. There's still a problem; their automatic leveling doesn't allow you to select skills, feats, and spells known for them. They'll always take the same bad feats or useless spells known. {{spoiler|Ammon Jerro}} suffers the worst, as he joins very late in the game and automatically chooses some truly terrible invocations. He's a [[Required Party Member]] for much of the final act, but you get almost no chances to customize him and fix his invocation choices. Fortunately, this can all be corrected with a player-made mod.

* To some extent in ''[[Valkyrie Profile Silmeria]]''. Although the characters who join in the last chapter are all more plot-important and have better stats and equipment, they all start knowing very few skills, if any. And because they're at a fairly high level, it's harder to teach them skills (skills get learned faster when fighting monsters at a higher level than you).

* To some extent in ''[[Valkyrie Profile: Silmeria]]''. Although the characters who join in the last chapter are all more plot-important and have better stats and equipment, they all start knowing very few skills, if any. And because they're at a fairly high level, it's harder to teach them skills (skills get learned faster when fighting monsters at a higher level than you).

** Reversed in the first game's hard mode. Every character you pick up starts at level 1, but if you have the right items, you can level them up carefully to be ''ridiculously'' strong. Even better, some of the most advantageous Skills are only available in late game, meaning you can get started on those right away with the new characters and only give them the best skills, rather than use up skill points on lesser abilities that your other characters have.

* {{spoiler|Legion}} in ''[[Mass Effect 2]]''. Whereas all of the other characters are recruited in the first half of the game, {{spoiler|Legion}} is a surprise recruitment made ''almost immediately before the final mission'' for most players. The only power he has which Tali doesn't is {{spoiler|Geth Shield Boost}} (temporarily boosts his shields), and she has a more useful equivalent (Energy Drain, which drains enemies' shields and boosts her own). He's a talented sniper... but so are Garrus and Thane. He's a good choice for the tech specialist...but so are Tali and Kasumi. He's good at taking down synthetic enemies... but there aren't any synthetic enemies in the final mission. You can recruit him earlier in the game if you choose... but that locks you out of the [[Golden Ending]]. (None of this stopped him from becoming one of the more popular party members.)

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* One of the factors that mitigated the potential awesomeness of {{spoiler|[[Final Fantasy VII|Cloud Strife]]}} appearing in ''[[Final Fantasy Tactics]]'' was the fact that he joins the party at Level 1 in the fourth and final chapter of the game. On top of this, his unique abilities '''require''' him to use a pretty weak sword, and the more powerful ones have insane charge times, meaning the player will have to grind Time Mage (because of its Short Charge ability) to make him viable.

* ''[[Golden Sun|Golden Sun: The Lost Age]]'' has this for the last quarter of the game with {{spoiler|Isaac and his party when they join your party}} after you complete the Jupiter Lighthouse. By the time you get them, you're already on your way to the [[Final Dungeon|Mars Lighthouse.]] Your new party members aren't very different from your main party anility-wise, so you will have little reason to swap out characters unless they start getting knocked out in battle or you grinded the hell out of Isaac's team in the original.

** ''[[Golden Sun Dark Dawn]]'' Also has the same problem with your last three party members, who join in after three quarters of the game is finished. By the time you get the final party member, you're already on your way to obtaining items you need to tackle the [[Final Dungeon]]. This is lampshaded when the [[Big Bad]] shows up before the [[Final Battle]] and the party reacts angrily to him while lately acquired party member has no idea who he is since she wasn't with your group from the start.

** ''[[Golden Sun: Dark Dawn]]'' Also has the same problem with your last three party members, who join in after three quarters of the game is finished. By the time you get the final party member, you're already on your way to obtaining items you need to tackle the [[Final Dungeon]]. This is lampshaded when the [[Big Bad]] shows up before the [[Final Battle]] and the party reacts angrily to him while lately acquired party member has no idea who he is since she wasn't with your group from the start.

* Terry joins the party pretty late in ''[[Dragon Quest VI]]''. It's good that he mastered Warrior and Martial Arts jobs and wearing strong equipment. After Terry joins, you can recruit Lizzy, the Dragon Hacksaurus who is very useful in the party.

** In the original, Terry didn't have anything mastered and he was 5 levels lower to boot. Thankfully, the remake gave him a few buffs as described above.