00:00Welcome to MojoPlays, and today we're taking a look at the 10 hardest playable characters
00:14and party members to unlock in RPGs.
00:23Before we begin, we publish new content all week long, so be sure to subscribe and ring
00:28the bell to get notified about our latest videos.
00:32Buckets, Lisa the Painful.
00:34Indie darling Lisa the Painful has its share of cult followers, and for those who know,
00:40unlocking buckets is one of the game's toughest challenges.
00:43To recruit this little weirdo, you first have to make it to Area 2 and defeat all of the
00:48rouletters.
00:49Sounds easy, right?
00:50Wrong.
00:51In order to beat a roulette, you have to pay 50 mags and choose someone else in your party
00:55to play Russian Roulette.
00:57So, with RNG in the mix, we wouldn't entirely fault you for save scumming to finish the
01:02challenge.
01:03Once you're all through the whole bloody affair, buckets is yours.
01:07Reiji Kiddo, Revelations Persona.
01:16Even in its early days, the Persona series features incredibly colorful and diverse cast
01:21of characters.
01:22The 1996 original is no different, and even offers an optional party member in Reggie Kiddo.
01:34Unlocking him involves one of the most convoluted and intricate methods in any RPG.
01:39And we would highly recommend following a guide, since explaining in full detail here would
01:45need its own video, as you'll see more later on down this list.
01:48Pretty soon after the start of the game, you'll have to start a series of conversations and
01:53give specific responses to later recruit him.
01:56And once you do, he's an incredibly handy asset in battle.
01:59The Fire Emblem series is synonymous with its amount of recruitable units, whether hard
02:16to find or not.
02:18Dawn from the GameCube classic, Path of Radiance, is one of the franchise's best examples.
02:28While his unlock criteria is not technically difficult to pull off, knowing how, when, and
02:33what to do with no prior knowledge can be near impossible.
02:36You simply have to have either Leith or Mordecai in your party during Chapter 15, then from the
02:42top right corner of the map, move three spaces to the left and one down to trigger the cutscene,
02:47where he joins you for good.
03:02The Final Fantasy series is no stranger to hidden, optional party members, as you'll see
03:07further down this list.
03:08If you've only played the recent remakes of Final Fantasy 7, you may not even know that
03:13the bubbly ninja who joins you in 2024's Rebirth, is one of two optional party members in the
03:191997 classic, and the hardest one to recruit.
03:29In order to do so, you have to get into a random battle in forested areas after completing
03:34the Mithril Mines early in the game.
03:36Answer her questions correctly, and voila, she's yours to use.
03:40Unlike in the remakes, she has no real weight on the story, but is a vital asset to the party.
03:46Magus, Chrono Trigger.
03:58We all know Chrono Trigger is one of the greatest JRPGs ever made, full stop.
04:03Its characters, story, and combat are absolute masterclasses of the genre, with Magus being a complicated and dynamic antagonist.
04:11He's also an unlockable party member, and we wouldn't blame you if you missed him on your first playthrough.
04:23He's easy to miss, and you can't recruit him until close to the end of the game after, spoiler alert, Chrono dies.
04:30You can find Magus at North Cape in 12,000 BC, where he'll challenge Frog to a fight.
04:35If you do so, you can unlock one of the many endings.
04:38But refuse, and try to leave, and the powerful sorcerer will join your party for the remainder of the game.
04:44It isn't a hard process, but knowing where and when to go at the time was nearly impossible.
04:53General Avalora, Triangle Strategy.
04:56Prepare to die!
04:57Empty threats from a pampered prince.
05:02You will see what true might is.
05:05Triangle Strategy is an incredible love letter to Final Fantasy Tactics style games, with numerous branching paths and endings.
05:12You can also recruit a colorful cast of powerful units to use in battle.
05:17There are a handful that are secret.
05:19The hardest to unlock is one of the game's primary antagonists, General Avalora.
05:22Retreat!
05:23All companies withdraw at once!
05:27She's a badass claymore-wielding powerhouse who can only be recruited if you've unlocked the true ending of the game, which itself is quite the chore.
05:35It'll require multiple playthroughs and likely the use of a guide, but if you do all the steps correctly, after Chapter 17, she'll join your team for good.
05:44And believe us when we say she's absolutely worth the trouble.
05:48Shadow Final Fantasy VI
05:53In 1994, if we had told you that in order to get one of the coolest party members in the game, you'd have to purposely come real close to a game over, would you believe it?
06:10We wouldn't either.
06:11But that's exactly what to do in order to keep Shadow as a permanent party member.
06:15Shadow is a badass, mysterious ninja who spends the first half of the game coming and going as he pleases.
06:26But he's a force to be reckoned with whenever he does decide to join you.
06:30At the end of the floating continent part of the game, a timer starts counting down for you to escape.
06:35Your first instinct might be to board the airship immediately, but wait until just the last second and Shadow will narrowly avoid certain demise and join you for good.
06:46NORDUM
06:51NORDUM
06:53I think, therefore, I am.
06:55I think...
06:57OOF OOF OOF OOF OOF
06:59Like many of the other entries on this list, unlocking NORDUM in Planescape Torment is another fairly intricate process.
07:04fairly intricate process. You'll have to start by purchasing the Modron Cube from the Curiosity Shop,
07:09then make your way through the dreaded Modron Maze, easily the game's toughest optional challenge.
07:19It sounds straightforward when we explain it here, but trust us, the Modron Maze is a dungeon
07:24quite unlike others in that it's famously mainly longtime fans' least favorite section of the game
07:30for a reason. But it's all worth it once you've finally recruited Nordum.
07:39Skelly, Chrono Cross.
07:48Like its predecessor, Chrono Cross features secrets that fans really had to scramble to find when it
07:53first came out. The optional party member Skelly is one of these, and unlocking him to use in battle
07:59is a process that will take almost the whole game to see come to fruition.
08:09The side quest can be started when you get to another world, where you find Skelly's skull.
08:14From there, the undead clown requests that you track down the rest of his dismembered body scattered
08:18around the world. Once you do, he'll join up. It's straightforward if you have prior knowledge
08:23of the location of each piece, but in 2000, when the internet guides were but a twinkle in gamers' eyes,
08:30tracking these down was a massive headache.
08:40Cloud Strife. Final Fantasy Tactics.
08:42Timeless video game sad boy icon Cloud Strife has seen his fair share of cameos and guest appearances,
08:55but he shines brightest in the 1997 PlayStation classic, Final Fantasy Tactics. As you can expect
09:01from his placement in this list, Cloud isn't the easiest unit to recruit in this game.
09:05We won't go into full detail here, as that would require its own video, but trust us when we say
09:17it's a long and arduous process. Essentially, after Chapter 4, you must have Mustadio in your party,
09:24then follow a laundry list of very specific steps leading to some fun backstory and lore moments.
09:29Once you've fulfilled all the right requirements, Cloud joins you with his super powerful limit break
09:34ability that's a staple in every playthrough.
09:45What do you think of our picks? Did we miss any hard-to-find party members? Let us know in the comments.
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