Fire Emblem Path of Radiance: Finished my fifth playthrough, as mentioned. Fixed Mode since I was trying out new dudes, Hard Mode because the game has no other difficulty mode; I still hardly reset ever (3-4 times total?). Unit rundown...
Ike: Kill leader, which isn't shocking since the earliest PC besides him I used every chapter after joining was Rolf. Anyway, he had crappier supports than normal so I actually had to watch out for his durability at times. By endgame he had A Oscar B Lethe so all was good, though. Other than that, the usual, great speed, averagish attack, and Aether is helpful in the last few maps, as is Ragnell of course.
Rhys: He uh heals. And hits Level 20 fairly easily! Too bad Nosferatu weighs him the hell down. I forged him a Light tome with like +3 might light enough for him to use and it was easily the most expensive thing I forged. Still, when he did double things (which wasn't often, but the level lead makes it less rare than you'd think) he was actually kinda competent. Just wish he had more move.
Soren: With my dropping Oscar/Boyd/Titania, Soren was the first promoted beorc in my main party (well, around the same time I got Stefan, but anyway). Pretty cool. His move and durability really hold him back from being a high-end PC but he was quite capable at killing single enemies on the player phase. Unfortunately he died late in Chapter 21 before he could really start paying off (Sages get better lategame due to laguz and wyverns). Not especially fun to get to promotion though not terrible. Also, said it once and I'll say it again: I find Soren's staves nearly useless, you get them around the time you need less and less healing outside Restore (which he can't use) and the bad move + no Physic really sucks compared to what Rhys/Mist can do.
Rolf: Well, we roughly know the story here. He basically sucks until he promotes, although he's not -that- painful to get there, you just aren't using someone better. After that he has okay offence though struggles with strength some. Having to wall him in is annoying; yes his durability doesn't fail so much that he can't take a hit or two, but no counters = worse enemy phase = harder battle next round, so bleh to that. Just isn't worth it. #2 in kills though!
Lethe: What the hell, I underrated it a lot. Transforming early is so much better than late because usually the hardest turns of a battle come early as you get it under control. Statwise she crushes things for much of the game with the combination of offence, defence, and mobility... she falls off but doesn't get -that- bad, though by the very end her offence is fairly bleh indeed. Still one of the best new PCs this playthrough. #3 in kills.
Mordecai: He on the other hand kinda sucks outside Smite. Transforming late is terrible, and Demi Banding him costs him his already problematic speed. Just needs too much work to be good, lost a fair bit of respect for him here. He still has jeigan uses but is behind Titania and Lethe in that regard.
Zihark: Fast, problematic attack (crits + Adept compensate some, but still nowhere near as good as even Ike's superior strength, which is like 2-3 points), kinda fragile until late when the Muarim supports kicks in. Late he has durability and such which is fairly handy, rounds him out nicely. If you use Muarim anyway.
Muarim: I was certainly unimpressed at first, even though I favoured him with the Demi Band. Growths actually prevent him from falling off despite being overlevelled. He has the right build to utilise Wrath well; he tends to have problems one-rounding (especially later on) but has huge HP and adjustable durability with his evade supports (mostly Zihark) so that combo works better on him than most. Still, had to favour him, definitely don't feel he's really threatening to be in the best party like some lists peg him as.
Stefan: Finally used him fully, and confirmed what I suspected - best Swordmaster in the game fairly easily. Luck's the only problem stat but nobody else really needs those two Ashera Icons so whatever. Playing him side by side with Zihark, the latter just can't keep up for most of the game - Stefan's S in swords while Zihark struggles to just get A makes it no contest for a while, and Stefan wins offence forever. I think Zihark surpasses Stefan around Chapter 26 or so which is way too late to consider him better. Hilariously that's when my Stefan died (lololol 1% crit) so I didn't see his last few chapters but they're easy to extrapolate.
Tauroneo: Graaah. I mean okay Rolf is probably the worst PC I used but Tauroneo puts up a better fight than I expected. He's a wall but you have other walls by then, including three who join shortly after he does, all of whom have 3 extra move (Haar, Ranulf, Geoffrey). His speed is basically unsalvageable even with a Speedwing, and he's difficult to get into Resolve range. I gave him Boots and a Speedwing and he was still pretty bad (and very much needed both, without the Speedwing he can't double average enemies even in Resolve!).
Ranulf: As I've alluded to, laguz get worse as time goes on since they never get better weapons. Ranulf joins as this "getting worse" process is well underway so he never really gets to benefit from the other beast laguz' earlier prowess. He lacks that, he lacks Muarim's supports, he lacks Lethe's fast transformation... what does he get to make up for this? Uh... he's very tanky!
Largo: Largo kills EVERYTHING. Seriously. Easily, easily party-best offence out of those I used this playthrough. Strength second only to Boyd, speed in the Ike/Nephenee/Paladin tier (i.e. fast), and even a crit rate for measure... and axes! Even without relying on luck he could take out well over half of a dragon's HP in one attack, something nobody else was even close to. Of course to compensate for this he's totally made of glass. Gave him two Dracoshields and he was still well below par in this regard. HP softens the blow, as do evade supports (too bad they're not with great PCs), but ouch. So not a wonderful PC overall but better than the previous two.
Oscar: Aside from occasional pure filler use I basically did not use Oscar between Chapter 13 and Chapter 22, subbing him in when Soren died. I did admittedly give him 3 levels of BExp to catch up, but it's worth noting that after that he was pretty much the MVP, due to being my only PC with move-again, 9 move, and the generally Ike-like stats. No real fight over the Knight Ward helped as he built the supports but oh well. It's Oscar, he rules, what else is new. Fourth in kills.
Reyson: Had the Knight Ring, though I benched him whenever I didn't have enough space for all of the aforementioned units because I "wasn't using him" this playthrough. Sadly he's still pretty much the best filler unit there is.
Ena: Gave her Resolve so she would counter Ashnard. Also, surrounded Ashnard this playthrough. This makes him MUCH easier. He'll go for Ena since he thinks he can one-round her (moron) ignoring the two who can't counter him, then Ike beats on him, Ike gets refreshed and beats on him again, heal and repeat. Giffca didn't even make it to the battle in time. Poor FE9 laguz royals.
Wizard of Oz rant is next! Whenever I get around to it.
