Raguna

There may be more but Hinata and Oboro got their update at the same time. I don't think Niles and Odin did but Odin was probably a special case. As for Kaze, due to having Gen 2 BST, he was probably left out for a different refine once they move on to those Year 2 units. Kaze's refine could still mirror Saizo's in a different sort of way or he may just have something unique to what he did in Fates but I don't think they'd magically pop in Kaze just because Saizo was there. I'd argue Matthew or Jakob suck more than Gaius does since if we want to speak purely on offense terms, Gaius beats them out of the water. Defensively Matthew may be more bulky but Saizo has been doing his job far better while Jakob is a bit of a jack of all trades master of none that despite disliking him, I'd rather Jakob get a refine sooner rather than later.

I'd say just stay with the main bosses and maybe some of the ones in the Practical Exams. I don't think the Monster Quests should be part of the "main" series of boss fights if you understand. You could just save the recording for those battles and keep them in a subcategory.

Nice going, I'm pretty sure you won't really have an issue but be careful with certain more spoilerific bosses if they ever come up. Good luck with the long hour treks you're going through.

Wow, thanks a bunch. I appreciate it.

Two questions for you guys. I recently got a +def -HP Leon and wasn't sure if a standard Brave Build or something incorporating his inherent Slayer Weapon and Ignis is better. I'm leaning more on the former but I'm curious to see if his native set has any nice tricks up it's sleeve I'm not aware of. Secondly, I'm trying to build up a bit of a meme team with Narcian and Wrys. Wrys is already decked out, but I don't know what exactly Narcian wants out of his skillset. I'm guessing I should basically keep his entire kit since he's anti-blue forever but does a standard Fury help him out or does some other option work better? After that I'll come back here once Arden and Ronan show up.

Up next we got some boys who've got some skin to show off. The boys from the middle of the continent, buff Atlas and the flirt Jesse. Atlas the Barbarian, chopping up trees as a lumberjack, he strangely doesn't join with said weapon on him. Atlas is the last villager to be reviewed and the only one recruited when not considering Faye or Kliff for Celica's route. If there's one thing you really need to know about Atlas it's that he packs one hell of a punch. Joining as a level 10 villager with 14 strength and 30 Hp its pretty neat all things considered. Unfortunately, I can't say the same thing for the rest of his stats as even his growth rates are heavily skewed to just HP and strength. In all honesty, he's the closest to a Berserker we've got if only he had a higher spd base. There's really only two classes I can suggest you put Atlas in and thats archer or merc. Being a knight is just cruel in this route as Valbar can attest, a horseman will have to deal with far less forgiving terrain and Sage Atlas only really brings Rescue to the table which is pretty good but he doesn't bring anything special and that 4 mov will just hinder him forever. For most, archer is the way to go as after you get out of the cemetery and promote him, he can immediately contribute against the archer hell map where everyone but Leon struggles to fight and survive or just reach the place. His raw strength comes in handy when Killer Bow comes into play, where anything he engages will die once he activates. The other option being a merc puts him in competition with the rest of his pals but due to how ridiculously good the bases for skill and spd are in that class, he'd turn out the strongest in terms of attack and pretty good since he's in a good class although he will struggle Overall a unit with a surprising amount of use despite the time he joins. I can't say he's without his faults, as his start can be a bit rough and his durability outside his HP is rather low but he's a worthwhile investment in his two designated classes. The merc named Jesse, saved Silque one time but couldn't do the same for Est. Jesse joins as the final merc of Celica's route with some pretty nice base stats and decent growths. However decent they may be however, he specializes in luck and speed while his strength is high enough it isn't his forte but that doesn't matter due to promo bases patching things up for him. His base res of 7 is the best of mercs and training him like all mercs will pay great dividends. Compared to his fellow mates excluding a merc Atlas, Jesse is in all likelihood the worst among them in a normal no-grind run since he'll have the least amount of time to get there especially due to the time he joins and the maps that follow suit. Saber and Kamui had chapter 1 to get them going and Deen is already a Myrmidon halfway there to Dread Fighter..By the end, he'd be up to par with the rest, it just takes longer for him to get there compared to the other three lads. A good unit barred more by his join time and the maps ahead than any particular failing of his own. If trained up, he'll be good since as stated previously Dread Fighters are good. There's really not much to add to him. What your evaluation?

Moving from these lasses, we move on to the flying gals. Hailing from Archanea, they're back to kick some varying amount of butt as they aid Celica in her quest to help the land of Valentia as long as they rescue Est. Not really sure why they stick around for so long but hey better to have some fliers that just Clair. The eldest and first of the White Wings, she comes in with an unrequited crush from the first game, a flying horse and a javelin by her side. Palla joins with Catria and creates a contrast with her in that very minute. Palla comes in at a higher level with lower bases but decently higher growths in HP, strength, skill and def compared to Catria. When you gain them, they're guaranteed a slight rough start considering the archer box map in the desert is the first real map you get to deploy them on. However pass that and it's easier sailing as these units come into their own. They become far more useful in monster filled maps due to their Slayer ability but aside from that Dread Fighters tend to outperform overall. For the most part Palla's only real competition in her niche is the very sister she comes in with and to be fair they end up pretty similar in terms of contributions. Every map Palla contributes, Catria does about the same to the point you could say they're slightly interchangeable. If we're speaking strictly on what they do better than each other its that Palla is the sturdier harder hitting sister compared to Catria's speedier more magic resistant playstyle. With an honorable mention to Est, she could potentially eclipse them but Est needs more dedicated training and feeding in order to reach the same potential. The middle sister of the White Wings, she also comes with an unrequited crush, a flying horse but this time an Angel Ring. In comparison to her sister, she has excellent bases especially in luck and fairly balanced growths with a slight emphasis on spd. She's also slightly easier to get up to task and play with than Palla at first but like Palla the archer box map isn't going to make things easy at first but pass that again and she's free to contribute along the way. I can't really say much without repeating myself again from what I said of Palla. The sisters as a whole work at their best when all three take the field especially due to their Triangle Attack unison attack. I wouldn't say it's terribly consistent or overall that useful unless the sisters all defeated enemies within close range of each other which gets likelier in dungeons or in certain maps in Chapter 4. Not something I'd overall recommend but definitely an option for harder enemies. One last thing I could say is that Catria gaining more speed, she's likelier to double the Mogalls that come near the end of the game.

Only Aran as far as I can remember. He's in my favorite class so there's definitely bias since I wouldn't completely recommend him otherwise. I think Laura joined once but Edward, Meg, Fiona and Leo definitely never got to the inside of the Tower.

Same as the guy above. Most of my favorite units tend to be decent and at worst are just overshadowed rather than unusable.

http://www.siliconera.com/2017/07/04/dynasty-warriors-9-reveals-handsome-man-chong-latest-playable-general/ If it means much our newest character to join the roster hails from the land of Wei. Here's Man Chong to the left, people.

If anything needs more evaluation these days it's very likely my schedule. Apologies again for the wait and to continue we have yet another pair of units to give our cursory glance to Mathilda and Delthea. (Also excuse the image size difference here being pretty big) Clive's one and only love, creator of the Deliverance and captured because of it. Mathilda is the second horse unit in the game and with a common theme with Delthea having some of the strongest bases in the entire game. Complemented by her decently high growth rates, she's far less likely to lag behind due to bad level ups. Being of the cavalier line also gives her the usual perks of mobility but the real catch is her whopping 10 res which is frankly ridiculously good considering even some mages can't reach to that resistance. She's excellent against magic based enemies and her defense isn't too shabby so she can deal with physical units pretty well too. Out of her competition excluding the villagers who went cavalier she is easily the best. Clive joins earlier but he's average at best compared to this lady who comes in with base stats that are all higher than his except in HP. Zeke joins a whole lot later not much better than her and Mycen is there more as a crutch character if you lost some units rather than to complement your existing party. They can all do their jobs except Mycen but by the end it's just the fact that Mathilda is more versatile that gives her the edge. I can't say I like Mathilda due to how fortunate she is in all areas of gameplay, but thoughts like those don't matter in this evaluation. She's great, she comes in and helps from the get go with no investment and her one issue of HP gets remedied the minute she becomes a Gold Knight. Here's our little loon who think she's all cool, here's Delthea ready to help out. She is the exact definition of a glass cannon outside of her mad res. High attack, luck, spd and pretty decent skill, she's about to destroy anyone she engages in a round of combat. Her growth in magic is also at a ridiculous 70% so that will keep increasing alongside her spd. Compared to her brother at the very least, she's capable of outdoing his contributions but at the end of the day she doesn't out do any villager you turned into a mage by that point outside again for the possibility of mage Gray. However out of the two mages you get naturally in that route, she ends up on top. That said she isn't as great as many would say. She's a pinnacle of offense yes, but she's one hit away from dying. Her frailty is her biggest weakness which gets added by her lack of a 3 range magic skill. She has no safe approach from afar and her low HP will also be cause of worry even if you use her to soak up magic damage. Her promotion helps out those endurance flaws but at the cost of losing her 1-2 range counter during the enemy phase. You could give her the Mage Ring to correct it but I'd say her competition makes better use of it than she does to gain even more coverage. She's an offensive powerhouse but she's slightly high risk especially whenever an enemy archer is around. Use her at your own risk and she will usually pay dividends as she's ready when you get her, just be careful for when it comes to healing her after she strikes.

Now over I have to do a slight adjustment. The next guy on the list is Leon but in order to keep with the ruling of reviewing two units at a time, I'll be adding in Luthier next. These dudes with outrageously stylish or just striking hairstyles Here's Leon, Valbar's closest buddy and longtime admirer. Leon is your first archer in your group and a unit while not completely outstanding, will be seeing some great use in your army. When he joins Leon has decent base stats but due to his average growth rates, they won't be increasing too much outside his emphasis on Skill. That said he also has one of the lowest res bases at 1 making him susceptible to magic damage. This gets remedied the more you play the game and he promotes gaining more range in order to destroy them without incurring damage himself. Not to fret however, what you really need to make to get this guy going is the Killer Bow. His high skill coupled with the Killer Bow's innate ability makes Leon into a potent and deadly force. Although hampered by Celica's terrain issues, he gains both movement with a horse and range in order to make up for any obstacle along the way. For some you could see him as a character that'd rely on crits more than anything if his spd doesn't come up to par which will be something of a theme for these two units in particular. He has his flaws but he's pretty useful. You only get one archer in this route unless you promote Atlas into one and considering Leon can contribute nicely or decently in all maps, he's someone you could consider to keep around for the long haul. The dude who befriended a cat, it's amazing he's the only guy who left the continent unless Kliff ending is any other indication. Luthier joins as your first mage if you were crazy or just felt like you didn't need any mage prior to chapter 3. He joins right before you fight Desaix and probably with good reason as he seemed hard geared to help you out in that chapter in particular. His base stats are high for the growths that he lacks in and he has an impressive 75% skill growth which is perhaps the highest unbuffed growth in the game. Let's not mince words, Luthier's whole job is to crit. Crit like there is no tomorrow until the enemy has turned to dust... but unfortunately he's probably the weakest overall mage unless you did mage Gray. Kliff and Tobin have earlier join times and abilities while Delthea just has comically outrageous base stats with an overkill in her magic and res base. Most of Luthier contributions are primarily just in the chapter he joins in and while he can keep helping out, he isn't as effective as everyone else would be in the long term. He's good for when you get him, but outside of critting, he serves no role he performs absolutely better than anyone else in his group. He is a magic user however and a nice one at that. Think of him as the most unimpressive one overall but still an able combatant. What do you guys believe?

Again apologies for the delay and here we have yet another pair ready for action. Across the sea we've journeyed not really that far and on land we see The gallant Valbar and the sellsword Kamui. (Plus Leon, but he isn't important for these two days) The sturdy Valbar out to get revenge for the death of his entire family from Barth and Grieth's pirates as a whole. I have a particular soft spot for this guy so it pains me to get to his evaluation from solely a gameplay perspective. Valbar's bases are good for when you get him since his primary occupation is to tank the physical blows coming your way and give Saber some support. The bad news is, most if not all his contributions are solely in the early game as he falls off harder than any of the other units in Celica's army. His strength and HP stats are below the knight base of 16 and 34 respectively, his other stats are super low and his growths while decent enough will not be able to carry them up consistently and out of all the units in SoV, this man was the unluckiest to join with 0 res in an army that will be predominantly fighting the magic wielding Duma faithful. For comparison despite them being on opposite armies, Lukas joins with better overall base stats than Valbar from the minute he joins, only losing out by 2 points in strength and 1 in skill. The biggest lead Valbar has being in the ones in HP and Defense and since Lukas is likely to promote by the time you reach the Deliverance shrine, he will have outshined him completely. Taking into consideration his low movement of 4 coupled by the incredibly unforgiving terrain that Celica's maps often foster it hurts not having a Warp user to get him going places. The last piece in this is that after a while Saber and the Dread Fighters can easily do the tanking necessary. On the final word, Valbar is a crutch character. His early game contributions can help you out in the boat maps and while fighting your first Necrodragons in the Sea Shrine. He falls off by the point you reach the desert where Grieth lives and will only contribute inside Shrines if you like him enough to keep around. Bryce Papenbrook as an squinty eyed mercenary, you end up hearing his voice almost everywhere these days. Enough about that though, Kamui is your second mercenary pal to join your crew and probably also the second best Dread Fighter on your team. Kamui enter with some pretty nice base stats despite his spd being lower than his class base but 8 spd for the time he joins isn't an issue and one that gets swiftly corrected during normal gameplay. He is however decently tanky for the first few maps and his growth spread is generally good with balanced growths all around with no specific specialization outside a higher chance to increase strength and speed. As a rule, anyone who can get to Dread Fighter is a good unit, only Jesse struggles due to how difficult it is for him to get there relative to the other three/four options. The one main drawback that Kamui has comparative to his DF buddies is his low res of 2 being the lowest among them. Villagers and anyone who starts within the mercenary line do not have a res growth and even then it's so low activating one shouldn't be counted on or relied on in any playtrhough. You could give the early res shrine to him if you feel it necessary but that just means he'll be equal to Deen's. I'm relatively unsure on who's better between Deen and Kamui when both are in the army as I'd rank them in about the same place but since again Deen is a choice between another character Kamui does edge out in that regard and early conrtibution. Great unit, great class. Use him and see where he takes you, you won't find many issues and he'll service your army until the end with great achievements. Up to you now guys. What's your take?

Actually let me ask a hypothetical question since I'm curious as to how this unit would be evaluated. Let's take Lukas as an example since he hasn't been categorized yet. I'm not exactly a master in this area so correct me if he has a better build out there or I missed something. On the offensive side Lukas can have Brave Lance + with Deathblow 3 to simulate Effie with better movement. With an attack boon or hone attack he is capable of finishing off even Xander in one round and hold his own against most physical units even a good chunk of green axes. While not currently considered. On a defensive build, he can keep his inherent Killer lance + and Fortress while acquiring Quick Riposte 3 and Ignis where he could kill almost physical unit that outspeeds him (that isn't difficult) on the Ignis proc. He can even survive Cherche in her most aggressive builds which says something. That said, he gets defeated by every mage except possibly Sophia and a Sanaki running TA in any build. Where exactly would he be categorized? I know this might be a pretty bad or barebones request for an explanation but I'm curious as to how it would work out or how he'd be evaluated. My bets would on Handy but I may be missing something.

Plus, Masked Lucina has no skills of her own. She costs more to make better.

Actually like said previously both units do well enough since in Echoes you don't really have a crap unit and they all contribute in a certain way. Mae and Boey just heavily suffer from movement when everyone on your team besides the mages and Valbar will be flying/galloping or moving at ninja speed which leaves them heavily lagging behind since unlike the slower units in Alm's route, they can't abuse Silque's warp to get them places. That said here's our next set who will contribute from start to finish. Here's Genny the shy girl who for a second made me think they put Lana from FE 4 in here instead. Genny is the only cleric and the most effective healer that you will ever have in Celica's group. She carries with her nice bases and generally average to great growths growth rates except in two stats that I will mention later. Her magic growth is absolutely ridiculous starting at 60% with the likelihood of it increasing helping her range out more and more as she increases it. Her ability to gain Invoke, Expel and the ever useful Seraphim as a Saint shouldn't be ignored either. For a quick comparison, you could say Silque is the bulky one compared to Genny's traditional healer role. She suffers from an incredibly low health pool and incredibly low defense at 1 which will not likely improve outside of a shrine or promotion. Her speed is also rather shaky and out of the starting four units in Celica's group. Genny is actually the best choice to dump the spd shrines for in the long run. She gains 5 move as a Saint so she'll keep up the pace better than Boey or Mae and lastly if you feel that she needs some protection, just set her with a leather/steel shield since she's built more as a possible crit nuke especially against Terrors once her offensive capabilities stack up. Saints are honestly some of the best classes in this game and Genny will likely see the most use of out your starting four-man squad even if it's just as a ranged heal bot. Now the other best class. The merc Saber, he just kind of tags along on the ride for the hell of it. Saber joins as your first merc and physical unit built to tank the blows coming your way until you reach Valbar's group and he will pull his weight well. For the most part, he will exceed many expectations as his early join time, great base stats and emphasis on defense gives him a decisive edge over his competition in the long run. Considering how crazy good the Dread Fighters's promotion gains are in str, skill, spd and move, Saber focusing on Defense gives him more durability in the long run and his nice 6 res will make him stand out more when compared to Kamui. Jesse while potentially coming out the strongest if trained, is hampered by the fact that he joins right when terrain is becoming harder to maneuver in. Deen actually makes the strongest case for competition against Saber but seeing as he won't be available for use if one picks Sonya over him and his later join time, Saber edges out. I'd say he's best unit on Celica's route as he keeps improving without one having to really have to go incredibly far for it. A unit that will be in your active party in dungeons from start to finish by his strengths alone.

Hahah same. I'll say this though, while I don't feel hopeful for the inclusion of a chunk in variety of characters, we've still got a few more characters to go and Robin's chances are higher than most compared also with how F Corrin was chosen, we'll probably have Robin M to contrast. I'd say it's better to relax. The most we can do right now is wait. By the time the game's out this conversation will just be in the archive of worries and doubts. Best we should hope for now is watching some lancer or axe guy join so the "too many swords" can actually be validated as some sort of excuse. That said, I have to worry about the female characters that are going to be introduced by now. So far we've got 2 but I know pretty damn well this isn't going to be a sausage fest. Once they get shown a good number of character vs waifu comments will surely spring up.

I don't think IS needs to intervene at all. Not to sound rude but this is one roster pick that you shouldn't feel paranoid over.

Umm you do know that Dande Leone's comment you responded to was also blatant sarcasm right? Just a heads up.

While I understand the points being made, this is just a pill that we have to swallow. I think we can all agree that we wanted characters from all over and not just the ones with the most presence right now. I spoke to some friends of mine who play FE but not enough to be called fans and they weren't aware that only the dudes from Awakening/Fates and Marth's games would be the primary ones. They aren't that invested but want to play it, and I think this allows for things like what Nintendo's pulling slide under the banner of indifference. The inclusion of FE 1 and 3 is something that feels necessary outside of complementing Marth. Them being included gives a chance to actually develop what little character they were afforded anywhere else they've appeared. I don't believe they'll do anything incredibly astounding due to my low expectations.but the Archanea dudes have room to grow in places where the Awakening/Fates can't and those dudes had a whole slew of opportunities to develop their characters in supports. Honestly Nintendo missed a big opportunity, to try to expand the lesser known of the series into a more public consciousness but I may be speaking out of line since we've only got six members on the roster. In this age of remakes, ports and remasters, don't you want to hype up past characters in some way for when they're introduced? It gives something to look forward to and avoiding the same drivel of always.

Whelp that clears up the characters of the first act. Time to move over some mountains and cross the ocean to where the next pair will find their place. The bickering couple of Mae and Boey are now at your discretion. Here's Mae, our hyper lady that most of us probably knew in middle school. Mae is essentially a glass cannon sporting stats and growths that you might expect of someone of her class. Her base kit and stats pretty much tell you where she excels and where she doesn't adding weight to my previous assumption. Her lowest stat tends to be skill and due to the way magic in this game has fixed hitrates, she's the least impided by it, just don't expect her to crit too often which isn't something she really misses. In terms of her competition, she vastly outperforms Boey from the get go and contributes slightly more than Celica in the opening chapters. Her having thunder available from the start is a huge boon and her high res means she'll be perfect for the maps focused on magic enemies. She struggles however in maps where a decent number of units are archers with the first map while you head over to Grieth Fortress being a particular thorn on her side. Her low move of 4 will also never be fixed even by promotion and the promotion itself takes away Mae's asset of being able to hit from two spaces away on the enemy phase although it does increase her durability and the use of the ever powerful Seraphim. Quick synopsis: She hits fast and strong but can't take an axe to the face. She's built to go in first and get protected by her allies as dodge-tanking like in Fates is at best unreliable. Our boy Boey who from what I remember is the only male student present in Novis. If Mae's the glass cannon, this guy is the cannon and like a cannon, he isn't really going to be doubling his shots in one round of combat. Boey arrives with a heavy emphasis on defense and HP but having to compete with the spell weight of even fire causes him to mostly do either chip damage or a final blow on enemies that survived some other hit. You could in theory also give him the spd shrine boosts from Novis but Genny and Celica make far better use of it than he does, but it's an option. Think of him as the magic version of a knight. He can get in, deal and take some damage and then get out, but this in itself is a gamble as while his HP is high, it will obviously keep going down. His potency will increase even further when he gains Sagittae for true chances of one-shots against certain enemies and if he's still in use by that point, his growth in skill should have grown big enough to reap the efforts of Excalibur. Overall he does okay, probably the weakest of the Novis bunch, but being a mage in a game riddled with low res enemies gives him use if nothing else.

For anyone hoping to get a more in-depth look, I'm happy to provide a more detailed showcase of what's in store for us. All in all, it's making itself out to be pretty solid. Then again, I doubt we need to worry to much on this front, please enjoy.

Since our pal Jedi is at work, here's the gameplay footage shown slightly earlier at E3. Enjoy the work of Arc System Works and DBZ my friends.

Apologies for the delay, some things sprung up on me yesterday. Nothing much else to add in this area for now, let's keep going to a duo based on opposites. Here comes Forsyth and his bickering buddy Python. Our gallant man of the hour, the hotheaded Clive fanboy rushes in with gusto. Forsyth here is the second soldier you gain after Lukas and for the most part fills in the same role as him. Most of the pros and con's that trouble him are around the same specified back when reviewing Lukas but to reiterate to a certain degree, if focused on he will usually turn with higher stats than his competition with a decent lead in spd and resistance due to his higher growths. But that's probably where the issue for him comes in since despite having slightly higher stats, he doesn't do anything spectacularly better. Forsyth joins at a later time where Lukas has more than likely turned to a knight by the time you recruit him. Forsyth also joins with around the same base stats Lukas had aside from his 5 res. For the most part, he really only needs to get to promotion to get a decent help to his str and def and from then on keep fighting until Baron. His mov will never be too detrimental due to Silque helping out and if he gains the Hexlock Shield his prowess in magic based maps will improve. I can't really add anymore that I didn't say before. He does the same as Lukas but slightly later and has a slightly better endgame. The biggest difference is join time. Our rather unmotivated archer, he came to get away from work just get embroiled in a continent wide war. Unless you make one of your villagers into a bowman, he will be the only one to fulfill this role. In this role, Python will do decently in his line of work but it's unlikely that he'll become your best unit and out of all possible archers he will also be the most inaccurate. His skill has a low base and his growth in the area is not going to help either. Adding to the fact, his base speed is pretty pathetic which sets him up for a rough start. He is however not that hard to fix especially if he's your only archer. The Iron Bow has the skill Curved Shot that helps him aim and adds to his decently high str. After a while, his spd will improve but promo gains won't really increase his skill. After you keep going, forging a Killer Bow is recommend in order to activate Hunter's Volley which will carry him for the rest of the game. A decent unit with a rough start. This duo alongside Clive is probably among the weaker units you gain in Alm's route, but again none are atrocious but won't be getting any gold medals.

Thanks, I knew I was forgetting something.