The inspiration for The Also-Rans came from my experience playing classic SNES and Playstation 1 RPGs. Chrono Trigger is an amazing game, and should be on everybody’s “play before you die” list, but that isn’t the game that inspired me to create a story with the unlovable side characters, because there really aren’t any in that game. Final Fantasy 7 was my first entry into series, and while it has, like Chrono Trigger, been lovingly remastered, it also has probably one of the crappiest “why would you use this guy?’ characters that you most definitely won’t use in combat: Cait Sith.

If you aren’t familiar with him, he can kill your entire party on accident. That’s basically what he’s best known for; he’s a luck based attacker which is something people tolerated better back then, but now its basically the video game equivalent of bashing your head into a wall and hoping you miss. He also kinda messes up the vibe, as the character is a puppet cat robot thing riding a giant carnival prize, next to.. people. And a dog lion thing, but the dog lion thing has attitude, so he gets a pass. Nobody is supposed to like Cait Sith because there are much better options to play with that aren’t him, so he ends up rotting on your airship the entire time as you simply walk by without making eye contact with him. Or his doll mount.

The thing is.. I always liked him. Not because he was good in combat, because he absolutely was not, nor was his character story particularly interesting. It was more that he looked like he never should have made it past the design stage, let alone be an important enough character that there was a story arc involving him. He wasn’t even an optional character like Vincent or Yuffie, but I didn’t even notice that Yuffie was optional since she has an entire area with a plot problem to solve once you meet her. So the plot essential character who looks like a freak and is an albatross to your party, was designed to be one of the team in every playthrough.

I know other Final Fantasy games have hosts of characters you wouldn’t use. There’s even a feral boy and a yeti who you don’t even get to control in combat. That’s basically turning one of your precious party slots into an Idle RPG, for crying out loud. But this was my first experience with a totally useless character, by design. Cait Sith is a lovingly crafted dandelion. A whole ton of effort went in to making him a load that players absolutely did not enjoy. He routinely makes top slots in “crappy party members you should never use” lists. Any smart player, controlling the hero of destiny, should absolutely cast this weed into the compost and spend their hard earned gil on relevant heroes with cool powers.

Which brings me back to Chrono Trigger. Every character you don’t have in your party has to sit at the End of Time. The music is pleasant enough but works better as elevator or hold music than it does to keep your friends entertained. If you talk to them as they wait around, they ask hopefully if you’re ready to take them into your party. Should you say no, they make a depressed animation and end the conversation. They will rot there, unneeded, listening to that same harp and piano ditty until the universe collapses on itself. Or you beat the game, whichever comes first.

So what are the lives like of these unwanted characters who have no hope of being added to the party? How long are they expected to sit there before giving up hope and returning to their lives? Surely they had something they were doing before the hero bumped into them and invited them to join in his quest. Why wouldn’t they go back to it once it was clear they were no longer of value?