ITT: We list pointless spells/items

Just occurred to me, the spells stop and petrify kind of serve no purpose, since pretty much every enemy and their pallette swap is immune to both. Or, if they aren't, the enemies are so weak it isn't worth the MP to kill them.

What else?

petrify - you can petrify your characters instead of KOing them for wrexsoul

stop - one of the statue is vulnerable to stop

I did find stop pretty useful. It stops those enemies, forget what they are called now, but same type as the zone eaters... Dangerous and great for "stopping."

You will find quite a few of them if you are grinding for GP in the WOR desert.
There are others, just can't think of notable ones...but they exist. :)

Sleep is less useful, but I didn't realize until recently that it's good against the Tyranosaurs.

Petrify...yeah, that one is hit or miss...

Debilitator is probably a useless move.
I've only found it helpful against maybe a few enemies, notably Intangir...
But even that one has little to offer for actually defeating it.
It has good magic points to offer, but there are easier ways.

It might be useful against one or more glutturns maybe? I never played that far to know for sure.

Useless things? Note I'm looking at this from the perspective of "What would a new player figure out on their own?" so things that are worthless based on having too much knowledge of the game doesn't count.

Hairband: Obsolete in the first town it appears to the Plumed Hat (forget it's name in this game, so going with SNES name, too lazy look it up), and use-able by Terra only initially contrast to Plumed Hat's universal nature. Celes has it equipped by default but unless you somehow got a Main Gauche from every single Merchant you fought (1/8 chance), you'll most definitely have a spare Plumed hat for Celes when she rejoins.

Rising Sun: So here we have this weapon that's a step up in power from the Hawkeye...gotten only in the Colosseum, which is VASTLY inferior to the store-bought Sniper (both much weaker and lacks Sniper's Hawkeye effect), and usable by Locke only. Insult to injury? The dungeon you get Locke gives him the Wing Edge, his strongest Boomerang in raw power (though useless on undead, but defer to my Sniper point.)
...and no, I don't care that it leads to getting a Red Jacket, it's just an extra step that's completely unnecessary seeing as the earliest access you have is starting with a Fuma Shuriken, and chain betting anyway.

Light Robe: Hey look! A store-bought Robe in Thamasa that boosts Magic! Sounds great for Relm and Strago! Oh wait, the Magus Robe is store-bought AT THE EXACT SAME TIME and is better in every single way, let alone in a town you're likely to visit first.
-As a side note, I question if this was suppose to be usable by Terra and Celes as well, while keeping them restricted from Magus Robe. That would explain a few things since it'd be a valid option for Terra/Celes mage builds for people who didn't know where the Minerva Bustier is, which most new players won't (it's essentially an upgrade from the Silk Robe...a very belated one granted.) No, this isn't me going "Terra/Celes got shafted" since that'd be stupid, they're the last characters who need better gear. This is more questioning the logic of the equip and pondering original intent, since it's very strange that an item appears later in a store but is straight up worse than something people are likely to see earlier...

Crystal Sword: SPEAKING OF WHICH, here's a weapon straight up worse than the Falchion, which is also found in Maranda, AND it's usable by less characters too (Locke can use Falcihon but not use Crystal Sword.) To make matters worse? Unlike Magus Robe, when you first see access to Falchion, you'll have Celes and Edgar in your team likely and thus likely equip it on them, such that when you come across Crystal Sword in Jidoor, it's just worse.

Masamune: If you did Cyan's Soul before Phoenix Cave, I GUESS it'd be useful as Cyan's strongest weapon...thing is, I'm under the impression most people do Phoenix cave first, thus fight Red Dragon, thus get the clearly superior Murakumo.
And if someone brings up a knowledge-able player, I'll just spin around and say Cyan shouldn't be using either weapon, as Murasame is better than both since Cyan's still relying on Fang, and Murasame at least boosts evade. Plus there's Kazekiri which gives Cyan a reason to care about his physical.

Regal Gown: By the time you get Relm, you'll probably have already beaten King Behemoth meaning you have 2 Behemoth Suits...meaning you Relm's best armor, and this is worthless (hence why it's often suggested it becomes a Minerva Bustier.)

Moogle Suit: ...see Regal Gown, basically, only add Strago into the mix. Also inferior to the Magus Robe, a storebought armor.

Mithril Helm: 1 Defense vs. 12.5% HP and 10% Evasion from Green Beret, it's a joke really. Also storebought at the same time, so limited quantity argument falls apart.


I'm sure there are others, but that's a good list of items that really serve no purpose, be it from a newbee or expert standpoint.

Moogle Suit has Poison immunity, which is nice against Hidon.

His only Poison moves are Bio, which is reflectable, and Venomist, which is his weakest attack and inaccurate.

A new player isn't going to know to use Moogle Suit on Hidon to stop 2 attacks (that aren't even that threatening), since it's stats are significantly worse than everything else, and an experienced player is going to find more efficient ways around it, and probably is not worried about those attacks anyway since there are more pressing matters. I'm not really buying that it's "useful" because it blocks two moves, neither of which is particularly threatening.

On top of that, the Erebus don't use any Poison Elemental attacks; one does use a move causing Poison status, granted, so moderate use there, but everything else they do is physical damage. As a result, while you're nulling 2 attacks from Hidon, you're also taking more damage from every other attack used in that fight save Grand Delta, which cannot be mitigated.

So no really convinced that sacrificing a fair amount defenses, as well as stats in other areas, just to immune two attacks that aren't even that threatening.

Hidon also uses the Poison spell as a 33% counter.

I'm not saying the Moogle Suit is necessarily the best option in that fight, or that it's very likely players will use the Moogle Suit for that fight (or any fight), even though the many posts about Moogle sprite glitches indicate at least a good few players will equip it through Optimum.

But the topic was items that are strictly pointless, for which you listed some fine examples. I don't think the Moogle Suit fits because of its Poison immunity, which sets it apart from other options, and the fact that it's possible the Moogle Suit is the best armor for Relm/Strago if you haven't explored the Cave of the Veldt yet and are unwilling to fork over 13000G for a Tao Robe (or favor Mdef over Def and Mblock to a ridiculous degree).

Generally speaking, most players will do Veldt before Owzer's House. Either because they're first time players and thus probably didn't save Shadow, so have to do Veldt Cave to get Relm first anyway, or simply because Veldt Cave offers better rewards than Owzer's House, as well as being a shorter, simpler dungeon (If nothing else, Chadarnook is probably a tougher fight than anything in Veldt Cave.)

Likewise, I'm not willing to give credit to an armor for being useful if someone can't buy a superior armor, especially that late. If it was simply an order thing in the WoR, I'd agree, but when storeboughts are on the table, and said storebought is in Maranda, a place the game points you right in the direction of early, I'm not willing to throw the armor a bone.

So it ends up being a pointless armor in the grand scheme of things. The frame of reference for use is so specific that I can't give it much credit.

I'll grant the Moogle Suit optimum thing is something that occurs, but less so in this version where the game hands you 2 Behemoth Suits; my understanding is the Moogle Suit scenario came from putting Relm and Strago in the team together, and likely Relm got the Behemoth Suit (if Strago did, chances are Relm got the Czarina/Regal Gown which I believe is superior; thinking on it, most of the topics are "Why does Strago look like a Moogle?" Rarely Relm.) So while that does have merit in the SNES version, this version less so because you get 2 right out of the gate.

To be clear, I am only looking at things from the GBA perspective, so weapons like Epee (or whatever it's called) and Swordbreaker have technical uses thanks to evasion, but are generally worthless on the SNES version (well, ok, Epee is the strongest weapon Celes has for a brief instance, so I guess if you're giving him Genji Glove there's that.)

Not a whole lot nulls poison though....we have that and then Paladin Shield...
Though I can't think of any fights where poison or poison elemental spells are thrown out frequently. I would think it comes up at some time or another.

Nutkin Suit isn't too much better, and I am guessing one extra speed point is not a big enough significance. I begin to wonder what happened with how the equipment was spread out. Behemoth Suits are just better in every way, except that i do switch it out for armor that has evade/magic evade or nulls/absorbs elements.

If each animal suit had unique properties, it would have made better sense.