Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn:
Completed. Final time, around 70 hours(I left the game on too much. And take way the fuck too much time at intermissions.).
General thoughts;
The only real bad point on FE9 is the one I commented on before; There are a few really irritating, very hard stages. However, they are entirely frontended, leading to hard but much more controllable and fun maps. 2-F is really awesome, despite being very hard.
Sadly, I couldn't keep my resolve not to save abuse much. Oh well, save abusing in this case tended to be saving every couple of turns in case I made a really stupid, really obvious mistake, which I constantly made. I don't do checking enemies well. sigh.
The good points are all still across the board good. It's a prettier game, it's a better game, the balance of characters is generally great, the scenario system encourages using the entire cast(In an FE game! With a few exceptions.). So many good ideas. It's not perfect, but it's great, high 8/10 game probably to FE9's 7/10. Which in turn both rank higher than any other FE for me. Good stuff.
Plotwise the game is better than any other FE I've played, but this says rather little. I'd have appreciated 3-F more if it wasn't a ripoff of a SRW@3 stage(No, really. Ideon bad ending does very close to the same kind of foreshadowing, in a very similar way, for very similar reasons. It is just as creepy/awesome there too.), but it's still stylish as hell. Some of the plot points are decent enough twists so that I actually care instead of snoring through the plot. It's too bad that some of the more interesting plot points are marred and the game goes "lol play it again". No screw you I'll just find spoilers thanks(Actually to be honest, for all BoF5's flaws, it did not have a horrible idea no-win choice that could be avoided on NG+. You guys screwed it up worse than BoF5. Have a cookie.). But otherwise, relatively good stuff, humorous at points, decently stylish at points, tried at least, in other words.
Incidentally I started writing this part(that is, the non-character stuff) during the ending's character info roll, glancing back occasionally to see people's text boxes, and *finished the whole thing*. And the credits are still rolling now. The ENDING DOES NOT SAY ANYTHING SPECIAL. IT IS JUST EVERYONE LIVES HAPPILY EVER AFTER FLUFF. This is the most unecessarily slow ending ever created. What the hell?
CHARACTER ROLL:
All stats are taken as of either Final-5 before dealing the final hit or from the pre-F-1 save depending on if they were final team or not. Skill sets aren't going to be available for anyone but the final team since I stole every single skill off everyone else(of course).
Final team stats, in order of the character's appearances:
Micaiah: L20/20/18. 50(Cap)/19/40(cap)/30/31/40(cap)/21/40(cap). I don't think she actually got any stat boosters, oddly, BEXP just shored up her bad stats very, very well. Shade/Paragon for added skills. Physic and Fortify Rexaura for final weapon(dur). SS on both weapons, used Arms Scrolls to boost Light to SS because I had five from the 4 stages. (Every 4 stage but 4-5 and the 4-Fs has an Arms Scroll hidden on it. Go figure.)
MAGE LOOOOOOOOORD okay more of a priest in the end. Micaiah's kinda awesome and kinda disappointing at the same time. There's no point in the game where she's not at least somewhat useful, and depending on her unstable speed growth(as you can see I got that working pretty well) is iffy but if you get good speed you are in business for her early game damage, as she cracks people like eggs when she doubles. After Part 1, she...no longer is impressive on damage but has staves. And for Part 4 she has staves harder! Because you see Physic storeboughts for 4-F. Yaaaay.
Downside is that she really is not impressive on damage late(although, due to Res being sooooo important for 4-F later stages-White Dragons and Spirits namely-she can take hits pretty well for a bit there.). Oh, her raw stats support the damage okay, but her speed just isn't high enough. Even capped, it's 33, I believe? Awww. Still, she's really neat.
Meg: L20/19/18(tee hee~). 60/36/11/33/32/30/35/32. All stats were capped but Magic. SS Swords/B Lances/D Axes. Don't believe she got stat boosters. Chosen weapon of Alondite, Celerity/Parity for skills.
Meg's...very interesting. I recall a quote from the Serenes forums often when I see her: She sucks when she starts and is not special lategame.
Granted, my Meg here is misleading-she doesn't gain that kind of crazy stats without a lot of BEXP(10k I put into her in the Tier 2 range before promoting her at L19. I needed another Sword user and she was the most practical person that wasn't Stefan. Stefan is awesome but kinda boring to have alongside Mia.). However...her stats pretty much crush this notion entirely. She compares decently at L3 to an L10 Edward. Having a much higher level Edward than that when you get to 1-5 is...unlikely? Edward is often hyped. Edward...has a ton more Swordmaster competition, whereas Meg's caps are simply completely different. I just can't feel it.
And in the end, you get someone that on average hits 32 Res. 32 Res is awesome and completely fucks with 4-F-3 when added to her defense(My vote for hardest stage in the lategame overall, although the nature of the next two punish certain kinds of teams brutally. I love 4-F as an overall series of stages, by the by.). 40 Defense(her defense while equipped with Alondite, if it caps, which admittedly is not a guarantee) is gamebest non-Laguz I believe, but this is crushingly academic.
So...yeah that statement is full of shit. Ahem.
Jill: 20/20/18. 55/35/10/37/35/35/35/22. All stats but Defense and Skill were capped. SS Axes, never touched her lances. Don't think she got stat boosters-I had a hard time keeping track of these, for the record, as I just tossed a bunch around during 4-F and never used them beforehand. Yes, this is stupid, shush. Anyways. Skills were Parity and Adept. Urvan for weapon, naturally.
Kill leader at 117 kills. Second best overall character in Part 1. Had a ridiculous four stat carryover. And why yes her caps are batshit so she's still nuts in Part 4. And she's great in Part 3. And what the hell it's almost like she dominates everything! Well, with the carryover I got. Maybe not so much without.
I don't really know what to say, she doesn't stand out in any given stat hugely. She just dominates as far above average(But not extremely high) across the board and is good at the start and...yeah. Flying but the only weakness is Thunder...yeah. Canto...yeah... Were it not for Nolan existing and being in the hardest chapters of the game, and ditto Sothe, she might get hype for being the best character in the game. Then again if they didn't exist I wouldn't have played the game to the end. Or past 1-3. So that's academic.
Elincia: */*/20. 50(cap)/30(cap)/29/34/35(cap)/40(cap)/22/35. I think she got a Dragonshield, and I know she got two Magic Dusts or whatever the Magic booster is. No Angelic Robes though. Amiti/B on Swords/S on Staves/Imbue and Disarm(Look I was running low on 10 cost skills) for equipped skills.
Elincia's interesting. She's dominate in a very weird way throughout the game. Initially, her stats are quite crap for Tier 3...but she's...Tier 3...at Part 2...she is in fact probably the first Tier 3 you will see...well, maybe you can get Geoffrey to it, but otherwise it's Part 3 and at least three or four stages into it. She's 2-P. She's around for multiple decently hard stages. She's a flying healer with Canto. She has a 15 Might Brave Sword that is unbreakable...oddly the last isn't that special, defenses simply get too high to really abuse this later, and early she just vacuums EXP if you try to abuse it. Considering she can heal and usually there's someone that wants a heal, there's just not enough reason to. Her growth is great(385 total). She got some carryover in Skill/Magic for me and still didn't cap either, go figure.
Nothing really negative to say about her in general-she's clearly awesome. But the way she's awesome vastly changes throughout the game. Early on her stats suck relative to her level, but she still can beat the hell out of things thanks to her stats being awesome for the time, giving you a solid get out of death free card. Later, when they're good, she's better off healing. Pretty interesting.
Marcia: L20/20/18(huh, lots of people ended on 18.). 50/32/18/36/36/35/28/34. All stats but Magic capped. SS Lances/C Swords/Wishblade. Nullify/Miracle for skills. Retrospectively Nullify isn't good for 4-F in general. Oh well, was killer until then. Don't think she got stat boosters but I'm not certain as usual.
Marcia's...well, she got a very good carryover, which helped her out hugely during 2. Standard badass pegknight build, really? More concrete durability than usual but FE10 requires that to keep a good Pegknight afloat. Otherwise, dodgy, doesn't hit very hard but does it twice period and has huge mobility. Huge help on 2-F, ended up doing a lot of the work during 3-9 so she got a lot of EXP there, and in the end she just did very well with BEXP levels for Strength, so she made it on the final team. That and the Res. That Res is great for 4-F. Strength doesn't matter as much when you have the second best weapon in the game to sling around. Not a huge amount to say, she's very traditional, very well placed(I have very little good to say about people out of 2 that aren't named Marcia, Elincia or Haar.) and just does very well.
Ike: L*/20/20. 65/37/12/40/37/30/32/19. All stats but Magic and Res capped. SS Swords/whatever Axes who the fuck uses his axes?/Ragnell/Nihil/Miracle. I forget if he got any stat boosters, don't think so though.
Ike got a six stat carryover. Ike on Tier 2 is almost(not quite) good enough to be used at endgame. Ike is fucking nuts. Look at those stats. LUCK AND RES ARE THE ONLY ONES THAT REALLY STAND OUT AS CRUSHINGLY HIGH. Well, speed's highish too...but...who cares really. I mean seriously what the hell. He has his downsides(Aether, suckass Res) but these serve to make him feel...only okay during the last few stages of the game. That's...all. And with the competition that late that says so little.
Ike kicks ass. Nothing new. The most you can say is that BEXPing and transferring stats for him is unfair. And that's kinda a duh. Oh and seriously game, you had no fucking reason for him to use Ragnell all game and you give it to him with two stages left in FE9.
In 10 you have a great reason for him not to have it and you give it to him like two stages before he really meets up with Sanaki at a logical time. You give it to him earlier than you needed to. What the fuck?
Mia: L*/20/19. 50/31/13/40/40/35/25/21. All stats but Res and Magic capped. SS Swords/Vague Katti/Pavise. (I just realized I never equipped the other Pavise. Oh well.) Can't recall if she got any stat boosters, don't think so.
Mia's insane. She may well be much more insane early on-where she has, what, 28 speed *starting*?-than later, where her Res and support type don't make her stand out as much as Zihark, but who gives a damn? She crushes things with ridiculous speed at overkill levels at all times, and that's good! And she's a Swordmaster after Steel Blades have shown up, that's better! And what the hell am I supposed to say bad about her? I mean really, not much exists. She's a very standard girl Swordmaster build on industrial strength crack. That's all there is to it, she does what she does insanely well. #3 on total kills. Yeah.
Shinon: L*/20/20. 60/36/15/40/34/27/32/24. All stats but Luck and Res capped(but MAGIC WAS CAPPED YAY~). SS Bows/Double Bow/Adept/Daunt. No stat boosters.
#4 on kills. Shinon is...damn. So insanely good at everything. Tanking? Yeah he does that. It's not necessary for an archer. He does anyways. Huge damage, yeah he does that once bows start really rolling(Silver), but he's never bad at it at all. Fast, yeah. Res...sucks but that is a theme with some of the more dominate characters oddly. Luck hurts his evade but his concrete is so good that it doesn't matter.
Then he gets the best weapon in the game. I mean...that wasn't necessary, was it? Oh and Marksman gets 3 range on bows. That's not necessary either! Cripes. So damn good.
Reyson: L25. 48/8/18/16/22/38/12/34(Transformed. May as well use those stats.). Ended up getting Paragon, because no one else needs it and what do you give a Heron? Provoke?
Reyson's very good. Kinda boring but very good. Really gets huge milage out of the Laguz Stones/Olivi Grass(I did not abuse these enough throughout the game on anyone. I admit this. Laguz were still good. This is because they are a massive mass of prepromos that don't entirely suck on levelup, by and large.), then has Canto/good move/four person Galdr when he's transformed. Not special if you don't abuse those. At all. But hey, that's dumb and you should do it! Ignore me being dumb.
Also he has HP, HP are cool. Just um don't let anyone get a swing at him untransformed. HP won't help then. (At least, unlike the other Herons, he can indeed sorta kinda sorta take a hit then sometimes. That's better than nothing.)
Naesala: L34. 69/40/14/44/50/30/32/38. All stats but HP, Magic and Defense capped. Angelic Robes was used. SS Strike. Adept/Cancel for skills.
Naesala is awesome. Hey look guys it's someone that shows up at Tier 3 L7 equivalent and can completely curbstomp everything in early 4 chapters. While gaining EXP and Strike levels! It's no guilt smash! It's like cookies that don't make you fat! It's not fair!
Well, then someone hits him with a crossbow and you come back to reality. But hey, he probably lived. Exceptionally good character, the "effort" it takes to make him good(and indeed you really do want that SS Strike, his damage was clearly waning during 4-F-1 which is where he finally got it.) is not effort at all but instead just having a very good character smash people up during a stage that is badly suited to many other characters. Well and having him smash up 4-P but that has suck-ass EXP for a 4 stage and he still gets 5~ a kill so whatever. Feels dumb not to use...except that Giffca exists, so there is that as an option to swap him out for. But he's more fun. The evade is hilarious, it's too bad it's not rewarded more, but his concrete is still fine enough.
Sanaki: L*/*/19. 45/14/40(cap)/33(cap)/31/40(cap)/16/39. Rexflame/does anyone really care, she could swing Rexflame/Paragon/Shade. Got two Strength boosters and an Angelic Robes. Hi Tal.
Kinda funny. If you bother to boost her up, she's useful for...4-F-4. Otherwise she never really stands out much except as behind the lines sniping, not that she's horrid at that. Cymbeline makes her stand out a bit more than she would otherwise during the earlier 4 chapters, but unfortunately her strength cripples her ability to use Rexflame(notice the two Strength boosters that barely make it no slowdown to swing), and her Speed isn't likely to cap either. They needed to look a little more closely at her good/bad stats. Or just not try to make a character that was oriented towards project that late, when the ultimate gains would have been useless if the character hadn't been forced...
Oh and that stone of her's is so useless. :( *Hypes it in the DL anyways, IT ALMOST MAKES HER...um...below average instead of horrible at taking hits.*
Nailah: L39. 70/40/12/48/40/40/40/28. Got a Talisman. All stats are capped besides Res and Magic. She may have had other stat boosters, but I can't recall. Pass/Nihil for skills.
Okay, Part 1 Nailah is not really Nailah. It is this huge force of nature, much like the other temp you get of similar power during that time, that sweeps the area of enemies and gives you a difficulty slider for the last few Part 1 stages at the cost of boosting later Part 3 DB stages. This makes her no less awesome during that time, but it's important not to overuse her.
When she finally permanently joins? She's...interesting. Balanced at everything with hugeass...Skill. I really should have given her the other Pavise. Oh well, no use worrying about that now. There's nothing she really stands out as bad at at any point during 4, she hurts, she, interestingly, has an EXP gaining option even if you're worried about her vacuuming up EXP(one that makes it easy for low level people to pick up kills, which is the more important part of it. Too bad it sucks for anything but EXP purposes and should be forgotten if you're playing for time efficiency and not EXP efficiency.). It's hard to really speak strongly on her because she's so damn good at being so damn high end balanced. She has the might of Ike(and a weapon that is as good if you ignore the 1 vs 1-2 Range thing), the speed of Mia and better defense than most people. What do you want?
Tibarn: L37. 72/44(Cap)/4/48/42/34/36/26. Nihil and Renewal for skills. Oddly stopped a bit short of a lot of stat caps I think.
Tibarn...well, he's the best one of the set out of the box, I believe. Which is pretty good, as it's a set that is very much defined by it's out of the box potential. He also has the potential to get insane amounts of EXP on 4-5, also good. And in the end...he...smashes things to bits anyways just as well as any of the less stable or more tweaky Royals do, with the worst thing I can say about him being that his Res is meh(and he evades enough so okay.). Oh and I can't recall him having to deal with crossbows. That's good. (If there were any it was on 4-2 and I still can't recall it. 4-5 surely had none.)
He smashes things. It's just that he tends to stand out less than Nailah(who had the earlygame), Naesala(who takes a little time to get rolling) and Caineghis(more on him in a second), for me. Now does that make him worse than those? Helllll no. I just got very comfortable with his utterly nasty stats and as such thought less about him. He's cool though.
Caineghis: L40. 80/48/8/46/40/35/46/20. All stats but Res and Magic were capped. Nullify/Nihil for skills. (Goes well with Fortune. >_>) I think he got two Speedwings.
Okay Caineghis with the kind of speed I gave him is fucked up. Caineghis with one Speedwings is fucked up. Actually Caineghis without help is fucked up, you just need to abuse White Pool. 75 frigging Attack. 75! (I think he starts out in the high 60s? Or was it low 70s?) Huge durability to physicals! Magical durability tends to get balanced out by the huge HP! Good out of the box or with speed boosting! HE DID 80 DAMAGE TOTAL TO THE FINAL BOSS. I mean, I'm impressed here is what I'm trying to get across. Sure, you don't have him early, but he stands out late if you can get him speed. And if not, he still probably stands out late. I just don't know because I got him speed.
Honestly he in the end impresses me the most of the Royals. Downside, he doesn't show up as much, no earlier time around. Oh well.
Kurthnaga: L35. 69/46(cap)/16/30/32(cap)/29/44/38(cap). S Strike. Ire/Resolve/Provoke. He got three Secret Books. No really. Also a Speedwings.
Innnnteresting character, very interesting. On base he doesn't seem that valuable, except for a part that gets underrated easily and reasonably.
You see, he is a character that you get forced on you with a 1-2 weapon with infinite charges, 30 in both defenses and 55 HP.
Now, Meg up there is better than that at everything, but that's not at L20 Tier 2. There's a lot of room for growth here is what I'm saying. And it grows up to 40ish defenses. Which...nothing else in the game matches. Now granted he's an unstable little bastard(HE GAINED ONE SKILL NATURALLY), but that's kinda cool. And he swings for...well, Attack there is 69. On a 1-2 weapon.
How do you make that practical though? Simple, give him Resolve, Provoke and Paragon, and have him walk up to the front line on 4-F-1 and use a Laguz Gem. Why, yes, everyone on the stage *is* attacking him no matter who else you had assault the line, and...he lives through it as it turns out, thanks to Resolve(won't otherwise), and gains huge WEXP/EXP.
He gained nine and a half levels doing that. This is how you make Kurthnaga useful enough so that you can ditch Sothe instead! (Notice the lack of Sothe for final team.) He gained the S Strike on 4-F-3, and I completed the first three stages in 10/7/9 turns. Kinda slow, but not ridiculously.
Downside is that he's only so-so for 4-F-4(He won't double spirits ever. They won't deal damage to him though. So, it's not that bad. And he does do a pretty decent chunk, he just can never one-shot them.) and the only way to make him deal good damage on 4-F-5 is to get him hurt enough to kick on Resolve. And of course it takes three skills that you may value enough to have on other people. Personally...I don't. But, milage variance.
He's pretty cool even if you don't level him, as support, but I respect ditching him. He's just so easy to make very solid, if not spectacular. And to be honest just having him draw that much fire was good on 4-F-1. >_>
Ena: L30. 64/28/40(cap)/30(cap)/26(cap, sigh)/22/26/40(cap). A Strike. Resolve/Imbue/Ire(ripped off Miracle and Renewal to fit it all). Got the last strength booster. Just for laughs.
Sigh. Good support, Blood Tide is great, with Imbue she's mindless and dies only in extreme circumstances so just toss her wherever for the most part.
Sigh. Terrible power.
Sigh, why the fuck doesn't she get a high Speed cap, her growth there is fine and with high speed she could have been at least genuinely good at poking at White Dragons and stuff. I guess.
I dunno, she works as she is, I just wonder why they went to such effort to make her offense unsalvagable. She makes endgame Soren look good.
Nasir: Was at his base stats/level. Never got a kill. L34/74/14/48/26/16/19/24/42/S Strike for the record. I did give him Ire! I also stole his Nihil~
Um if Nasir kills something in the last two stages it's because Ire kicked in on a Spirit.
On the other hand he dies the first day of never and has the best of the support abilities, both in theory and in practice, thanks to a bunch of speedy bastard enemies late.
So I respect him! He's awesome! He just doesn't hurt things. Situational awesome too, if he'd been available from the start of 4-F he might be relatively overall *worse*. ...but probably not, White Pool is too awesome.
Incidentally. 10 Speed Cap? Really? You're going with that game? ._.
NON-FINAL TEAM:
Sothe: L20/20/8. 47/28(cap)/14/35/33/34/19/22. Cancel/Vantage for skills, SS on Knives and Baselard for his final weapon.
Got ditched for Nasir. I regret nothing. Sothe's 4-F performance neither gives him the durability, the evasion, nor the damage to really deal with it, thanks to his late promotion, stupid issues on 4-3 about actually doing damage(and you probably end up making him find items anyways) and his MAXIMUM 46 ATTACK. When Micaiah's outdamaging and outtanking you...there's...quite likely something wrong there, and that's exactly what can happen if you stick with him after Nasir shows up! ow.
Now, before that? Oh, man, Sothe's 4 showing is ENTIRELY NON-REPRESENTITIVE. He's awesome during Part 1. In fact he is a godsend and if he gained actual EXP he would be the best character in the game thanks to how frigging hard Part 1 is. Part 3? Oh he still does fine, just make sure you keep him in Beast Killers(his may as well be Prf weapon of doooooooom. I figure it's not Prf just so Heather is better than she would be otherwise. That and so they can sell you a bunch of them without it looking odd.).
Sothe is bloody awesome. Just, not for 4. Before that he's great, he holds his own fine during 3 and is so, so, so much of a lifesaver during 1.
Gareth: Never used. For the record: 82/44/10/20/14/20/42/18/S Strike.
Who is this person and why is he the worst character in the game in practice while potentially having been good if he'd shown up earlier?
...
*shrugs, moves on.*
Edward: L9 unpromoted. 24/9/0/15/14/9/6/3.
Sacrifice of the DB #1. You need to ditch a few DBers. Edward pissed me off and got the axe.
You see, Edward is an evade tank. He can't dodge ever during Part 1. And...while he dodges well late enough so do people named Mia, Zihark, and Stefan. Stefan takes no effort, Zihark is during the DB chapters and is prepromoted and great and Mia is...see above.
So his main selling point was "Does not die in one hit." during the early chapters. Good stuff for that part of the game, frighteningly enough, but...he didn't double stuff anywhere near enough and his damage took forever to kill anything. blech. Meg got used instead of him because her starting concrete durability had a notable edge on his L9 durability you see there, and her speed on Tier 1 is just as good as his, and she was six levels lower and hence leveled faster. I regret nothing, again.
Leonardo: L5 unpromoted. 18/8/0/13/10/7/5/4.
Hahahaha Skill/Luck/Res oriented Archer in a game with two unbelievably good Archer options. He runs off that damn bow and guess what that still does nothing for him in the end because Double Bow. OH BUT BUT HE'S AVAILABLE EARLY yeah 18 HP and 5 defense and they don't gain reliably enough in those few levels for me to feel secure using him? Screw that. If Marksman had really killer Luck/Res/Skill caps he might be worth considering...well one out of three isn't bad but Marksman doesn't do much with it's Skill anyways. And Shinon can hit the cap anyways. So screw it. Sacrifice #2(and last, not counting the person no one sane uses.).
Nolan: L20/20/1. 53/28/9/28/29/26/20/14.
Oh god, Nolan. Nolan might very well be the best character in the game overall, despite not making it to endgame. This is because he is a godsend during a majority of the hardest stages in the game during Part 1, and Part 3 he's excellent in as well. There's nothing wrong with him long term, even, he could have easily made it to the finale. He just didn't. Starts out being able to take multiple hits and doing solid damage and still gains EXP, and in Part 3 gets a nice unique axe that makes him tankier and has the power of forged Silver(and more hit than even forged Silver can reach, which is an interesting advantage and actually sorta notable.).
He or Sothe one is basically a requirement for Part 1, in my books. In that sense he just kicks ass, period.
Laura: L16 unpromoted. 24/5/19/13/15(cap)/18/8/14.
Is a walking Heal Staff for the DB Part 1 chapters(and can be used for this in Part 3, I fielded her still even then). Don't let it get hit~ oh you did it broke. :(
You could probably get by without her, but why?
Incidentally I should have saved a Master Seal for her. Would have helped. Cleric's Speed cap is something.
Ilyana: L13 unpromoted. 23/7/13/13/14/7/3/9.
Barely used her. Might be her starting stats in fact, I dunno.
She's bad. She is however really available. Load her with stat boosters! Watch her be average! But ON EVERY STAGE. THAT IS..........not worth it?
She's kinda useful when you first get her in the DB, but stages are starting to slack off enough so that ditching someone for their lack of potential is pretty readily doable within a couple of stages, so that's what happened to her.
Aran: L20/17. 45/26(cap)/6/26(cap)/19/13/25(cap)/10.
You see those stats? He had those for like ten levels. He just had like five less HP and one less speed or something.
He's pretty funny. Traditional Armor Knight but in...Soldier/Halberdier progression. Why? Well they do tank pretty well, so why not I guess. Or something?
He's damn useful during the DB stuff, and...stunningly good filler during Part 3 and 4, where his durability holds up even as late as 4-5(he doesn't take hits well on 4-5 but he does in fact take them.). He amuses me greatly due to this. Using him during 4-F makes you ridiculous though. I'm just saying. He's cool for what he is.
Volug: L18. 52/24/6/26/30/15/20/10. S Strike.
Interesting guy. Halfshifted he is a L20/15 prepromo with lousy stats for that. So he's FE7 Marcus. On chapters that desperately need this. And who gains a better weapon for using him a lot. why no I have no problem with this WHATSOEVER. God damn, he's not as standout as Sothe or Nolan but he sure as hell helps, and is a decent part of why the later parts of Part 1 are just not as hard as the early. He's your bailout until 1-9 or so. (Where you get better bailouts anyhow.)
During Part 3-and even 4-he does fine as long as you take off Wildheart. TAKE THAT DAMN SKILL OFF. Ahem. He really needs S Strike to be much there, but that's not too hard to get(I got it boss abusing, though, so I'm not certain how hard it is to get. You know that one prison escape map where you only get the good BEXP by the soldiers slowly puttering off the map? Yeah he ate all the Vulneraries off the boss while they puttered out.).
Tauroneo: L*/20/3. 47/30/16/29/27/18/27/25.
Part 1? Well you de-equip his weapon and watch him draw so much fire that he glows red. He is so damn good at doing this it's hilarious.
Later? Oh well later he's clearly outclassed by Gat-*Looks at Res.*-er well his other stats are...actually...um....hey wait he's pretty good isn't he?
I mean, there's too many badass spear users, but I guess if you somehow didn't have one he could be a considerable option. He's funny like that. I expected him to not be useful during Part 4 and was very pleasantly surprised. Nifty.
Zihark: L*/11. 34/23/6/28/27/15/17/12.
I really respect Zihark. I just somehow never got EXP on him. Him starting prepromoted(and hence not getting EXP very well in Part 1 in general) is part of it but I don't understand how he never got kills during Part 3. Oh well. He's clearly damn good, clearly the main reason why you should not bother long term with Edward(as you get a higher Res lower Luck version of him that's prepromoted during the same chapter set) and clearly has an awesome support(Earth~). What can I say? I kinda regret that level there. :|
Fiona: L9. Never used. 25/8/6/8/10/7/8/6.
See those stats?
You get those stats when people are promoting if you are ditching people.
I...what the hell.
I respect her more than the other people I violently avoid using. That's something?
Tormod: L*/6. 34/13/18/17/21/15/12/14.
You know if he stuck around he'd be pretty cool.
He instead shows up for a bit as a prepromo that won't gain EXP. He's useful there, ish.
Then he shows up in the middle of a huge firefight 4 stage as L6 Tier 2 Mage.
um. Tormod that's not how you do it. yeah no not much respect for him. He could have been good. As it is he gives me Celerity. YAY!
Muarim: L19. 58/36/6/28/22/12/30/18.
Hey. He's like Tormod! Except he shows up later and has 30 defense and 36 Strength instead of nothing whatsoever! Cool!
You're still not using him after the stage he pops up on, but at least he scratches paint while he's there instead of being a horrible liability.
Vika: L13. 38/18/10/26/30/14/14/14.
Hey, it's Muarim! Except speed oriented! And with a bad weapon! So...still can't scratch paint!
Waste of 400 total stat growth I tells ya. I respect her more than Lyre, at least if you somehow got her rolling she'd be notable.
Also notable for being a non-Heron Laguz that starts below L15! I think she's the only one.
Rafiel: L16. 34/2/16/2/12/33/6/28.
Hey it's a Heron that can't fly, doesn't get Canto, has bad movement no matter what, and can...always Galdr four people, even without transforming.
...
Nope, that's still not worth it.
To boot, his availability is the worst and his durability is special. And I don't recall any stage where I felt like he was necessary, or even that useful, thanks to stage designs. Woo~
BK:
Don't have his stats handy. They don't matter. He is a badass temp and will be missed.
Godspeed, you magnificent bastard, you ate everything that annoyed me on 1-F. EVERYTHING.
Nealuchi: L23. 54/22/8/18/36/25/22/20.
Nealuchi is the best character no one ever thinks about. He's there at times he's useful. He has Canto and flies. He almost got S Strike for me. But he doesn't do a lot of damage or take hits that get through well, and a lot of enemies while he's around in the earlier parts punish him pretty well. So he doesn't stand out.
He's a cool bird though.
Leanne: L12. 30/0/12/4/18/34/6/24.
Best Heron in the game.
Okay, not on base. On base she's better than Rafiel, thanks to the better move, Canto and ability to chant up two people no matter what, transformed or not.
However...I really find 2-P a stage that would be far harder to deal with without people dying(Nealuchi or Marcia) from back luck without the ability to Canto two people constantly(and if you fuck up they tend to just swipe Leanne. You then chase them around. Yakety Sax, sadly, does not play.). And 2-F is my candidate for hardest overall stage that gives you a wide range of options to work with and some actual EXP. (As opposed to 1-3 which does none of the latter.).
I...just never had Reyson for anything that felt that hard. So, I respect Leanne a ton due to positioning. She's cool.
Haar: L*/20/8. 55/35/6/31/28/20/34/14.
Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar.
Haar is the best character in the game during 2-F. 2-F is hard. He is the best despite EVERY SINGLE MAGE HAVING THUNDER(and there are a lot of mages!). He then shows up a lot more than you'd figure and pulps things with huge raw Attack and huge mobility.
Downside, well, he's not as fast as Jill, and the Res is awful. So ultimately Jill won out over him. But without carryover that may well have been him in the final team. He's awesome. Linear, but that line tends to go through everyone in his way.
Brom: L*/8. 40/21/4/18/21/19/26/9.
Hey it's Aran. Except he has axes. And has more speed. But less power and skill.
Why didn't I use him as lategame filler again? Is mystery to me now. Oh well.
He's pretty good during the C2 chapters he's around for, nice wall. Using him late is a sign of mental illness, much like Aran.
Nephenee: L*/20/12. 55/29/14/35(cap)/34(cap)/30(cap)/31/27.
Well she kicks ass. Start's merely okay but she has the same thing going for her as FE9-Swordmaster type with lances-and while Lancer(I forget the name in the US version. PAL version actually changed a few class names. Don't ask me why. Tier 3 Halberdier is what I mean.) caps don't reward this as much, they do reward her tanky defenses.
Allllmost made it on the final team, but Marcia's higher speed and mobility made her more appealing. Neph is awesome though, during 2-F she held off the bottom left contingent by herself, with the aid of a batch of Vulneraries. Towards the end she started doubling and ate her way down the stairs. So much fun.
Heather: L*/12. 33/16/9/24/28/21/13/14.
Hey, she steals things when you have no one else that can! And she finds items easily when you have no one else that can! And she opens chests when you have no one else that can! Well, except late, when you have someone else that can.
Oh, combat? meh.
Actually she's pretty good in a fight during Part 2(hard to hit and damage isn't hideously horrible), which explains the fact that she's actually gained levels. She's pretty decent, but why anyone would use her long term for more than item gaining is beyond me.
Lucia: L*/20/2. 45/25/16/33/32/20/18/21.
Awesome during Part 2!
Um. Then she shows up in Part 4 and is forced and a liability until you can get her promoted.
And then she's bland.
I gave her a dratted Silver Blade and she...could kill things but not unless they were damaged first. Oh well, unlike Tauroneo she's pure prepromo and cleanly the worst Swordmaster type overall at endgame.
But no, really, awesome during Part 2.
She got those 50 kills she had somehow and it wasn't mostly in Part 4, I know that.
Lethe: L21. 51/18/12/26/24/18/18/20.
Tier 3 L1 equivalent. With those stats?
meh. All things said and done I do not respect Lethe as anything but filler in this game, despite her having solid growths. However, she is around for some decent Part 2 stages.
At least she's decent filler, in other words, at a decent time. See the Brom/Aran comments about using her long term as much else besides backup placefiller.
Mordecai: L17. 58/28/2/18/18/16/34/8.
Much more unbalanced filler than Lethe, but...32 base defense(he gained some for me)?
Sure okay. Honestly he works better during Part 2 than Lethe does. Nothing really doubles him, the mages don't hit weakness on him by and large and 32 defense. Also, not a Cat. Worse long term, but I'm not using either long term, so who cares?
Also, why would you use Lethe long term with Ranulf existing, anyways?
Geoffrey: L*/18. 40/25(cap)/8/24(cap)/24(cap)/21/20/16(cap).
Carryover of Speed/Defense helped him out mucho. He was really useful during Part 2 thanks to that.
...
What, you want me to comment on him after Part 2? Hahahaha I didn't even use him once.
Also, "Lance Pal" sounds kinda wrong as a class name. I'm just saying.
Kieran: L*/12. 42/22/6/20/20/17/18/12.
Fillerfillerfiller. Good filler! Required filler!
Still filler! Why would use use him late?
He sure as hell owns a lot of the Crimean Knights at least.
Astrid: L*/2. 33/15/8/18/17/17/10/14.
WAY TO GO ASTRID.
YOU GOT CARRYOVER ON STRENGTH, SKILL AND SPEED AND YOU COULDN'T DOUBLE THINGS, BREAK DEFENSE OR HIT ANYONE AFTER 2-3.
Which you're better off not killing people on for the BEXP that you get for not killing people.
Makalov: L*/7. Starting stats, so...37/18/5/17/18/20/17/9.
Elfboy's probably right about him being not as bad as Astrid.
I'm still not sure he's much better than Carryover!Astrid though. Five levels on her gave him...negligably more offense and comparable hit rate and speed, and while the durability is better(Good!) he does not attack from range.
Oh well, who cares. Both suck. Someone give me two more Kierans.
Danved: L*/10. 40/17/9/23/21/19/16/13.
Oh, they gave me another one. Except he uses spears and isn't mounted.
...well not quite as good, but close enough. Useful filler, out of the box. I do not care about much else with him. Sure didn't use him long term and it's hard to figure why you would. Male Halberdiers in this game are all temporary for usefulness. Pretty good for that temporary though?
Calill: L*/7. 33/9/20/18/18/17/11/17.
Best fire mage? Yeah probably. Enough better than Sanaki for me to care?...not really? I have enough healers for Endgame 4 already, and one Strength booster is probably worth 13 levels of EXP.
Although you can reasonably prepromote her.
The point is she's fighting with the person that is the second worst forced person in 4-F. Sigh.
Titania: L*/20/12. 51/34(cap)/14/34/31/24/28(cap)/26(cap).
Why do Gold Knights have such bad defense caps.
Well, never mind that.
Anyways, as you can see, Titania is a badass still. Just because her caps suck and she didn't make it to endgame in large part because of them(and because Jill's are sickening and wrong) does not change this. She kicks ass during...a lot of stages you don't really need more kickass in, but what's some more kickass more or less?
And of course she's absurdly useful during the 4 pathsplit. Yeah, nothing wrong here. Well, a lot wrong here, but in the good way!
Soren: L*/10(yes!)/7. 38/17/34/29/25/13/13/27.
Interesting choice here. Initially I was going to ignore him. Then I noticed that he could be promoted without much damage if I BEXPed him up four levels and capped off his speed. Then I decided that was a waste and just promoted him. On net...he actually was pretty useful. He got Discipline, so he could swing Rexwind(not that I ever had him do so), got C in Staves, and did quite well at picking off people, softening up people, and healing.
In short, by this game's standards he's a glowing mage success story. In that he was useful for more than a stage or two.
Mist: L*/20/4. 39/17/27/25/28/35(cap)/17/29.
Best healer for a subset of people!
Useful during pathsplit as an extra healer!
Only a lunatic would use her during 4-F! Well or someone that likes three healers.
The total lack of offense is pretty offensive, honestly. 17 Strength is depressing, and there's no way to do anything with her Magic stat at all. (Well maybe cards. I never checked.) Why? The same reason they made Ena's offense suck. Because they could. ._. She even had carryover and it couldn't salvage the offense, nor could her silly Prf sword. Even at cap she has under 40 Attack I think(Although she can use Alondite, for...still sub-Sothe damage. She slightly breaks his damage with Vague Katti~). Oh well.
Rolf: L*/4. 35/19/3/23/19/15/14/11.
Well he's better than Leonardo. If you wanted two Snipers, either for short term reasons or because you're weird and don't mind one of them lacking Double Bow, he'd be fine enough. I just can't really say he outclasses Shinon, the level gap alone(considering Shinon's stats are excellent) is enough to make me frown at that.
But no, he's quite good in his own right, I just was not interested. Nothing personal.
Boyd: L*/20/7. 60/37/7/31/25/20/29/15.
GOOD JOB BOYD I CARRY OVER SPEED ON YOU AND YOU GET SPEED RAPED.
Yeah not a character that can afford that. He still made good filler, though, for the 4 pathsplit(Note 29 defense.), but no *way* was I using him for 4-F. Ever. Even if his speed hadn't gotten raped though...he's really meh and in a team full of people who are good. Oh well.
Oscar: L*/20/8. 50/27/15/30/30/30(cap)/22/19.
Wow he's boring.
He's not bad, he stabs things fine.
He's so boring.
Good filler for the 4 pathsplit. Kinda outclassed during Ike chapters though.
...man he's boring.
Gatrie: L*/20/7. 52/34/11/31/27/18/35/23.
Initially I was mostly going to ignore Gatrie.
Then I realized that was stupid and I was being stupid and used him to huge effect as 4 filler. He's definitely fine. He kinda bores me, but he's fine. I don't even know why he bores me. Oh well.
Rhys: L5. 27/8/24/16/14/22/7/25.
BISHOP/SAINT CAPS VS RHYS GROWTH PLOT.
He's one point from capping Magic there, I think. I don't know what they were thinking with that whole line's caps, but "Useful attacker" was not part of it, I'm sure, despite getting big Magic growth. "Person who can take hits" wasn't it either. I initially didn't think he looked too bad, but the more I've examined him...
Ranulf: L30. 59/30/12/36/32/27/30/20. S Strike. Got a Satori Sign.
Participated in my "Hey Laguz with Blossom is a neat combo also hey they can really abuse Flourish!" experiement.
If Cat transformations didn't SUCK ASS he'd have been a real force! As it was he was good filler and really nasty when you know he only had to fight a few things. Oh well.
Kysha(this is what my copy of the game calls him and I go with it~): Never used. L18/55/20/6/20/22/14/20/10.
er.
okay then what was his point supposed to be?
someone help me out here. In some ways, as a design decision, I respect him far less than the next, much worse, character, just because he has no real conceivable point. He is, however, less offensively bad.
Lyre: Never used. I still had to put up with her as a temp though! 47/14/12/22/22/16/14/16.
Okay, she:
A: Has 22 Attack. Mist outdamages this on base thanks to Florete.
B: Below average defenses.
C: OKAY HP.
D: Is a cat, having gameworst transformations as such and usually running out of meter within a few battles.
E: Is project. Now assume you kill some things with her, her 3.85 or so growth kicks in!...and it's mostly on speed and skill!...so she still does no damage!
F: Ignore her and move on.
G: Give her a rating equal to the letter above this one.
Janaff: L30. 57/32/4/38/34/31/26/16. Got a Satori Sign.
Ulki: L30. 60/32/8/34/36/25/22/22. Got a Satori Sign.
The two best characters to be largely irrelevant.
Seriously, let's review. You have, during the part of Part 3 they're around for:
A huge amount of badass Tier 2 people who desperately need EXP for the Part 3 split.
And then you have two people who are Tier 3 L10. Yeah they crush everything in the way in 3-7, 3-8, 3-10, and 3-11.
For those that forget, these are the stages where
A: They're neutrals(IIRC, in 3-7) and you are curbstomping the DB.
B: There are lava rocks pelting stupid enemies constantly for 10 in one of the easiest stages ever, albiet a hard one to do fast.
C: The threat is bows killing Elincia. Well, they can save her there. By being bow targets. Um. This is also the only threat in the entire stage and Elincia has a small army, so it's mostly academic as long as you move at a moderate pace.
D: RETARDED BRIDGE PLOT. Well, they are useful for this just to get the stupid map over with.
So...one stage in practice that they're good on.
Now they're badass on the split and are the best filler ever, but so is Skrimir and this doesn't keep me from calling *him* badass but pointless. So eh.
Sigrun: L*/20/1. 38/21/17/25/26/28/23/26.
Good filler for the split, good for the bridge chapter, nothing more.
:| I wanted her to be good, she's cute.
...what?
Tanith: L*/19. 36/22/10/23/24/23/19/21.
Meh. Better than Sigrun but does not come in as close to promotion so in practice a bit worse.
They're both split filler. Fine at that but not much more.
Man she crashed almost as extremely as Shinon blasted upwards.
Skrimir: Did not gain a level(somehow, I used him a fair deal, he just never got kills.). For reference: 66/38/6/28/26/24/32/18.
Yeah he's like the hawks except he has one less useful notable level and can't get a Satori Sign without extensive use(or wasteful amounts of BEXP).
On the upside he is better if you were to actually use him. But why? Even if you wanted to there's a good argument against it later.
Stefan: L*/*/8. 53/27/7/37/36/20/21/16 for reference, as he never gained any EXP.
Really solid(albiet boring) if you need a second sword user for 4-F.
If you don't just swipe his sword. He's not as good as a build up swordmaster but he's not supposed to be, he's supposed to be dirt easy instead. He's cool.
Oliver: L*/*/8. Never used. 48/22/31/22/20/28/18/32.
TERTIARY HEALER OPTION IF ALL THE OTHERS DIE.
Otherwise um.
Also is it just me or is having him be alive the most random thing *ever*? Let alone his recruitment?
Bastian: L*/*/10. Never used. 45/21/35/27/24/21/20/32.
Uh...he's...not bad...not bad, for a mage.
It's a much worse insult than not bad for a girl. I mean, look at Mia.
Also he came in with SS Wind(dunno if this is due to carryover WEXP or if it's normal, but.). That's neat!
Otherwise...not much to say here.
Volke: L*/*/15. 53/31/5/38/36/19/27/22.
Er okay I guess you could use him.
Objectively he's fine, but the issue is that Sothe gets forced on you and he competes for the(singular) SS Knife.
So one of them gets offense hosed. Now, Sothe sucks in 4-F anyways, but Volke isn't much better at it either...
I dunno, he's kinda pointless considering people like Stefan and Giffca exist? *shrug* Too bad.
Giffca: Never used. L36, 73/46/8/44/36/28/40/22. Got Strength carryover from FE9.
You know....after seeing how much hell Caineghis raised I can't help but regret not using Giffca a little. He is seriously badass, with the only downside being that you can't just gemspam mindlessly on your Dragons/Heron but instead have to...make Ena use Olivi Grass, oh no LOSS OF ENA OFFENSE no.
I kinda wonder why they gave you two Caineghis and one doesn't get Formshift and that's the only big difference though. I mean, I'm not complaining, it's just kinda silly.
Renning: Never used. L*/*/16. 56/31/18/32/29/14/27/23.
Almost as random as Oliver!
Much better than Oliver!
Still not really notable. Swordsman...meh use Stefan. Now if he'd been a lategame Axe/Lance user we'd have been in buisiness for useful lategame pinch-hitters. As it is no.
Annnnnnnnnd that's it. This took me three hours to write. I blame Meeple.
