The Final Fantasy series has established a name for itself as one of the most popular JRPG series of all time. Almost every game in the series has influenced the genre in some form or the other, even though the franchise might be far from its glory days at this point. Kitting out characters with the best equipment around and watching them tank hits or make use of their armor's benefits never ceases to be entertaining.
However, there are times when the armor found in the Final Fantasy series is simply not up to the mark. This is especially grating when players find pieces of armor late into the game...only for this gear to be absolutely useless and impractical. The most notorious examples of the same are mentioned below.
10 Cursed Shield
The Cursed Shield appears in Final Fantasy 6 and is easily one of the worst pieces of armor on this list. It reduces stats, negatively impacts a character's Defense, and inflicts random status ailments on the wearer at the start of every battle too.
The only reason anyone would equip this shield is that it turns into the Paladin Shield over time, which is one of the best pieces of equipment in the game. However, the player needs to get through 256 battles with this shield, which is easier said than done.
9 Bone Mail
The idea of wearing a piece of armor made solely of bone sounds like a pretty horrible idea from the get-go. After all, bone is nowhere near as strong as some of the other materials that armor can be made with and would ideally break in a few hits.
In the Final Fantasy series, the Bone Mail actually provides decent defenses, which is hard to believe. However, this comes at the cost of the user becoming undead and being unable to be cured with healing magic, which is a huge problem since this also prevents users from being revived as well!
8 Clothes/Vest/Cloth/Travel Clothing
Generally, starting characters in Final Fantasy will have the worst piece of equipment that provides absolutely no defense whatsoever. The name of this equipment differs in every game but is equally useless throughout.
The only function of this clothing is to be replaced and sold off once players get access to better armor. As a result, this armor is purely cosmetic and serves no purpose whatsoever.
7 Chocobo Suit
The idea of wearing a Chocobo Suit into battle is easily one of the dumbest ideas anyone can have, especially against monsters that are actively out for a person's life! So, it's rather odd that the Chocobo Suit is somehow one of the better pieces of armor than anyone can have in Final Fantasy.
The only games where the uselessness of this armor is highlighted are in the MMO entries. These suits exist only for the purpose of novelty there, serving no real purpose in a combat situation.
6 Aloha T-Shirt
Final Fantasy 9 took the concept of joke armor to a whole new level. There's a set of armor that players can get in the game to simulate a tropical attire...which is completely useless.
The Aloha T-shirt is one such piece of armor that gives no bonuses whatsoever. Since the look of the characters doesn't change based on the armor they wear, it's easy to see why this armor is so hopelessly impractical.
5 Straw Hat
The Straw Hat is the headgear found in Final Fantasy 9 for this tropical attire. Suffice to say, this piece of armor is useless too...but it somehow makes the Aloha T-shirt look like the best piece of armor in the game!
This is because the Straw Hat, on top of providing no status bonuses whatsoever, is also weak to all the elements! It's hard to believe that any player would make a conscious decision to wear this armor at all.
4 Pearl Armlet
The Pearl Armlet is the third piece of armor for the tropical set. It goes without saying that this piece of armor is also completely ineffective in battle.
It's slightly surprising since the Pearl Armlet sounds like a powerful piece of equipment that would ideally augment a person's magical abilities and defense. Instead, it does absolutely nothing and is just a joke piece of equipment instead.
3 Sandals
Rounding off the final pair of tropical attire are the Sandals, which are about as effective as one would assume. Wearing Sandals and walking into battle is pretty much asking for trouble.
Players are better off just using other more effective pieces of equipment instead. The only reason why players would make their characters wear this tropical attire is probably for a challenge run...or just for the heck of it!
2 Silk Shirt
The Silk Shirt is a pretty common piece of armor that players can find throughout most Final Fantasy games. This piece of armor is either the starting equipment for certain characters or the first piece of so-called 'armor' they can buy to increase their defense by a minuscule amount.
Suffice to say, the Silk Shirt is one of the worst and most impractical pieces of armor anyone can get in the game. Players are better off waiting for the classic Leather Armor to make an appearance instead.
1 Thornlet
The Thornlet seems like a pretty tough piece of headwear in the Final Fantasy series. It provides a ton of Defense...but this comes at the cost of the wearer constantly having his health drained.
Unless the wearer also enjoys the benefits of Auto-Regen, there's no reason to wear this headgear. After all, other pieces of armor provide the same level of defense without sapping the character's health in the process.