Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon- beated. Madeus took 52 damage then died to being pinged by a peg knight. Lesson Learned: 60 HP does not work in a fire emblem game when you have a weakness. No, 25 Defense is not enough.
Not a lot to say really. I was in a strange way impressed by the animations, even though they were incredibly scaled down from every other NA released FE game. I dunno if it's that subtlety itself or just the animation quality. Seriously, that's what stood out the most, the changes in tactics due to some stylistic differences weren't really that noticable after a point, although I can't help thinking that more than any other FE game I've played this game encourages you to treat your units as, if not disposable, then at least expendable.
Oh. Gotoh was disappointing. His Res isn't even that great! No longer 700 times average ;_;
DL notes. Just for characters I used, I didn't exactly memorize hinode's notes on averages so going more by my own builds. And yes, I used a small party the entire game >.>
Marth- He's... like a Pally without a horse. Does okay but doesn't really stand out... which is bad when you lack the movement and weapon options of a mounted unit. The game floods Cavs/Paladins/Horsemen (ie nomads) on you though, so Rapier keeps him afloat, and to a lesser extent his ability to OHKO dragons with Falchion does the same in the endgame. Stock Middle, above average without doing anything well enough to merit anything better, but also held back by his .5 average res.
Cain/Abel- The differences between the two are pretty academic past about level 7. Godly, probably the best Red/Green cavs I've seen. Double pretty much anything but the endgame dragons, excellent strength, defense isn't awesome but clearly above anything a non-Knight is gonna get. Heavies, they both end up doubling average with aforementioned good all around stats. Promotion even gives them average Res!
Caeda- Weird. Completely owned early; I got some freaky strength growth out of her, and she is going to double. Just don't question it. Archers, sure, but even then not a big deal. After promotion (where she had her 20/15 strength already for me...) she levelled out, she promoted first so held back for a few chapters, by the time the rest of the team had promoted she was fairly average all around. Wing Spear is still a nice option due to the flood of mounted units of course. Also scored the kill on Madeus, but that's because the legendary spear is actually 1-2 range. Lowish Heavy, less tanky than Cain/Abel, less evasive than FE7/8 Peg knights, but still packs no shortage of offense.
Ogma- Filler. Just... decent, doubles reliably but strength could be better, HP but not so hot defense, mobility meant he tended to fall behind Cain/Abel. The last to promote, but still not bad really. Another Low Heavy type I think.
Merric- First mage. Mages > FESD bosses. None of them have any Res. Over half of them are range 1 only. So yeah, Merric had this stretch of about 8 chapters (until Linde joined) where he was the only mage and consequently waltzed around owning things. High Middle, Excalibur is cool but isn't enough to compensate defensive shortcomings.
Lena- Healer. Probably cost me the most resets? But still, looked better than the other early healing options and by the time Maria joined I didn't care to raise another. Highish Light, laughs off magic (20 Res in this game? Yeah.) but has little else going for her, I suspect that wielding a tome heavier than Fire would get her doubled in fact.
Linde- Other mage. ended up pretty even with Merric, but a few levels lower because she promoted late instead of early and thus didn't get to spam healing for 6 chapters. Still quite good, although I admit I invested into a lot of forged tomes for the two of them. Borderliner, I suspect she does 2HKO with Aura, but I'm not certain, and while both are above average for Res due to being FESD shes' several points higher than Merric there too.
Tiki- Novelty. But completely fun if you feel like saving her Firestones and possibly spending a few Hammermene charges on her (you have 12 so hey why not). After sucking it up for about 8 levels, she held her own for a few more then suddenly was the best character in the game by a wide margin around level 14. Her growths are made of crack. Probably deserves a level penalty, since she levels more akin to Marth's weird psuedo-promoted status than anything, but kneejerking as Heavy/Godlike anyway? She can pack a punch, double, and tank too well. Y'know, assuming she's got anything to attack with in a duel.
Gotoh- really disappointing for an Athos type. Stats are really quite bland, Merric and Linde both beat him for totals and in key stats (speed and Mag, though only by a couple points). I suppose he did have like +10 defense on them or osmething. On the other hand, joins with a goddamned Fortify, which owns. I tend to assume heavy, but who knows.
Mighty Jagen- Better than advertised.
I tried using af ew other people (Darros, who I let die, that first (... only?) Myrmidon, some archer) but wasn't impressed, so I just trimmed down to the above and went with it.
Pretty cleanly a 7/10. Well paced, kept to what makes Fire Emblem engaging to play, probably a smidge easy but hey, I'm not going to complain about having not that many resets and the ones I had being clearly my own negligence. I do miss characterization though.
