SRC

Gotta go with Priest Riff here. He's kind of awkward in any other class. Oh, fftf, not riff. Eh.

I would stick with Lugh here. His stats are a bit better mostly because of his much higher speed and his higher level means he can promote earlier. You could use Lilina too, but you don't get a third guiding ring until chapter 18 and she would not be too great by then. Don't fret too much about the support with Roy. It's a nice bonus but not exactly a saving grace.

Yeah, this guy is pretty difficult to forget. He was still a topic of conversation on FESS even after being banned for ages. Fanatical hatred/love for random game characters and crazy views on life in general does it. I hate to see Juigi be put in the same category as him, but his reputation is kind of deserved. About seven years ago, I chatted with him in a Advance Wars community and recognized him for some of the FAQs he wrote. He knew so much about the older Wars games (particularly for Gameboy Wars 3, which he was infamous for being so obsessed with. BATTLECARS!) and also along with FE3Player(or whatever he goes by on Serenes nowadays) kind of opened the doors to the Fire Emblem series for me. It was cool talking to him and learning about older and obscure games and stuff, but he just got into so many arguments that were at least half his fault and just could not see from other people's points of view. He definitely made a lot of people mad, but it was still kind of sad to see what became of him.

Yeah, then one of them brought an extra one to save you the trouble. Book 2 Katua and Paola are just insane compared to the others. It's not even a contest.

Okay, chapter 15. Since I'm kind of bored and raw stats are probably more helpful than vague reviews, I'll give a more in depth update. Marth Level 20 HP 36 Str 18 Skl 12 Wlv 9 Spd 14 Luk 20 Def 10 He's pretty much the only character I can seriously call powerful. Doga Level 16 HP 26 Str 10 Skl 10 Wlv 6 Spd 9 Luk 4 Def 13 He has had an excellent career in walling enemies I don't feel like dealing with and helping level up some...questionable characters. With maps getting larger and enemies becoming faster he will be on the decline. Riff Level 1 HP 16 Str 1 Skl 5 Wlv 3 Spd 7 Luk 1 Def 3 I haven't really bothered leveling Riff since Maric should take care of healing needs after Maric promotes. Still, you don't really need stats to be a decent healer. Oguma Level 20/1 HP 36 Str 10 Skl 14 Wlv 19 Spd 14 Luk 9 Def 8 He started out good then after a while refused to gain anything except HP and wlv and now is just Astoria with more HP. Mattise Level 12 HP 22 Str 9 Skl 4 Wlv 15 Spd 8 Luk 5 Def Not much to say really. He's mediocre, even more Mattise. At least he can already use the Gradius... Marich Level 10 HP 28 Str 1 Skl 6 Wlv 11 Spd 10 Luk 7 Def 4 He's about as good as he needs to be. Just about everything gets fried by Excalibur and a promotion to Sage will fix his defense problem. Roshe Level 20/1 HP 31 Str 11 Skl 14 Wlv 13 Spd 11 Luk 6 Def 9 I wanted to get him to 20 fast so he could gain some good strength, then get the auto-11 speed after promotion. Unfortunately, my plan failed when he stopped gaining strength and became speed blessed... Zaggaro Level 11 HP 24 Str 10 Skl 5 Wlv 5 Spd 8 Luk 4 Def 5 He's pretty much what I expected. He rapes flying units and is kind of pitiful against everything else. At least he has GODLY 10 strength. Wendell Level 6 HP 26 Str 3 Skl 3 Wlv 14 Spd 15 Luk 1 Def 8 Wendell is one of my favorite characters since he serves double duty as primary healer, weakener with thunder, or even all out killer with Thorron. I just wish he came with a little more luck (enemy characters join with a random luck base). Ricardo Level 1 HP 16 Str 3 Skl 1 Wlv 2 Spd 9 Luk 5 Def 2 I was thinking of using him but the 2 defense made me reconsider. It's hard to ruin thief utility, so I'll still grateful of having him. Tomth Level 4 HP 20 Str 8 Skl 6 Wlv 7 Spd 5 Luk 3 Def 12 He's pretty much worse in every situation where Doga would be useful, and he hasn't really been making much progress. I guess he could use a bit of love. :( Beck Level 1 HP 20 Str 6 Skl 4 Wlv 8 Spd 3 Luk 5 Def 14 He killed OHKO'd two shooters the chapter he joined, but his movement has been too low to do much else. It doesn't help I accidentally brought Jake on a chapter where he would've been useful. >_> Astoria Level 4 HP 26 Str 10 Skl 15 Wlv 10 Spd 14 Luk 4 Def 8 He's Astoria. Katua Level 5 HP 20 Str 6 Skl 7 Wlv 10 Spd 14 Luk 6 Def 8 Katua hasn't been around too long yet, but she's looking like she'll be the star of the team. Oguma has FAILED me on that role.

No Jedor, I genuinely like this game. It's when you're using Zaggaro and co as a genuine member of your team you start hating yourself. The playthrough is still going fairly well up to chapter 11. Marth is turning out all around solid, Doga can still take on enemies pretty well, and Oguma still can own anything in sight despite being RNG screwed. Marich, Wendel, Riff, and Ricardo do their jobs as expected. Zaggaro is getting strength blessed and can actually do a little damage to enemies, and he also OHKO's Pegasus Knights and one round Dragon Knights if he hits. Roshe and Mattise, finally, get raped against decent sword enemies but do pretty good against anything else. This is especially a problem because both of them will get one rounded by a Steel Sword mercenaries if they manage to get a critical (Roshe just learned from experience).

Chapters 1-3 were pretty easy since Doga is basically a one man army in this game and Marth+Oguma hold on their own very well. So Far Marth is level 8, Doga is level 7 (He actually gained defense once!!!!), and Oguma is level 5. Riff is level 1 because I don't feel like abusing him to level 10. Chapter 4 is giving me problems, though. The first run Mattise died, because Marth critical'd him with an iron sword when rushing to the left village. Then, when I managed to save the village to the left, I forgot that Maric was in the destroyed upper village. Thanks a lot, FEDS.

At least he actually shows up to the battle, unlike Beck. Zaggaro can't do much more than harass flying units though. He doesn't even have the weapon level to use Partia. :/

1. Marth 2. Roshe 3. Oguma 4. Ricardo 5. Astoria 6. Tomth 7. Zaggaro 8. Katua 9. Doga 10. Wendel 11. Riff 12. Beck 13. Mattise 14. Marich Well, that's all 14 and.... they're actually better than I expected. Now I'll actually get the game going, and start giving updates every few chapters on my progress and pitiful attempts to try to use Zaggaro.

I finally stopped being lazy and finished the game today. But now I'd like to it again...with a twist. I'll let you guys pick for me. You can pick almost anyone you want, but there are a few guidelines: 1. Marth is auto-included, because he's Marth. 2. No more than 2 characters of each class. Social Knights/Paladins plus etc count as the same class and I'll say the same for Pirate/Fighter and Archer/Arch Knight/Hunter/Sniper. Magic is also confusing, so you may pick one cleric then two Mages/Sages. 3. You may only pick one person for me to use. If there isn't much actively, I'll let everyone pick again. This will keep going until I have a roster of 14. 4. Don't flood me with late-game characters. I don't want the first 4 chapters to be a Marth solo. Other than that, have fun. And TRY to be merciful. Current Roster: 1. Marth 2. Roshe 3. Oguma 4. Ricardo 5. Astoria 6. Tomth 7. Zaggaro 8. Katua 9. Doga 10. Wendel 11. Riff 12. Beck 13. Mattise 14. Marich

Here's what I think of the series: FE1 Pros: Good design and gameplay for its time. Interesting weapons Cons: Lots of lousy weapons and weak, generic characters. FE2 Pros: Unique, long, and gives you a lot of freedom. Cons: Balance is probably worse than FE1, and the terrain bonuses are ridiculous. FE3 Pros: Gameplay is much faster, and the weapons are starting to be a bit more balanced. FE1 remake is a great bonus. Cons: Shares weak character problem with FE1. FE4 Pros: Cluster of new features, great soundtrack and characters. Cons: Balance went even deeper down the gutter. Maps can have too much walking without enough action at times. FE5 Pros: Pretty solid in all categories, good challenge. Cons: Can be too hard for its own good, and for annoying reasons. (Status staves, leadership stars, dependence on luck for high ranks.) FE6 Pros: Refreshingly basic and easy compared to FE5. Introduced the support system. Cons: Took away a lot of features added from the past two games. FE7 Pros: Brought Fire Emblem across the world. Cons: Really similar to FE6, even though that's expected. FE8 Pros: Trainees, world map, branched promotion. Cons: Easy, creature campaign is simply tedious. FE10 Pros: Nice and long, third tier promotions fun to play around with. Cons: Parts of the game feel tacked on, gets pretty old after one or two playthroughs. FE11 Pros: Weapons and classes balanced much better than the last remake, and it added some neat Wi-Fi features, class swap, and forging. Cons: Pre-promotes handled very poorly, STILL too many weak, generic characters.

Est. WAIT HOW DID I KNOW?!

Ralph. Right?

:( Thanks for the tip, Vincent. *goes to mess around with the menus some more.* While we're at it, did anybody figure out the third menu icon? Even post game completion when I select it nothing happens. Edit: Nevermind. Its just resume chapter.

I just completed the game. The game actually takes a long time; it's around 18 chapters and the latter chapters can take an hour or so to complete depending on how many characters you used. To add onto Chainey's observations: -Characters come back the next chapter even if they die -In addition to weapons, you may equip a shield. Most characters start with a default one that grants 1 def and 1 m def. The later ones grant 5-10 of each and give an evade bonus -Aside from HP and SP (No function?) the core stats from top to bottom are power (str/mag), defense, resistance, skill, and speed -Doubling doesn't seem to exist. Instead, speed is only a factor in avoid -Skill and speed give around 3 accuracy/avoid each -Defense and resistance can becomes very high as the game progresses, but because there's a one damage minimum like Gaiden HP is a very viable stat -Weapons not only have mt and accuracy, but may also have avoid and defense bonuses. -Weapons are either long range or close range. Magic can't counter close range, making magic using bosses very easy. -You may equip weapons that you can't even yield, but you won't be able to attack with them. -Items may only be bought between chapters. Weapons and armors only change every few chapters. -Stat ups appear in the item shop in the item shop for 8000G partway through the game. They change in a set pattern every chapter, ranging from +3 power to +5 SP. -You usually earn about 8000G automatically every chapter in addition to villages -The enemies becomes painfully overpowered over time if your characters are not very powerful. In order to stand a chance you're going to need an extremely powerful character or a VERY well built team. -The exp formula is very poor. If you're 3 levels higher than the defeated enemy, you'll gain almost no exp at all. Unfortunately, this counts for promoted enemies too. :( -Your characters auto-promote at level 20, gaining some solid bonuses but are stuck with the same weapons -There doesn't seem to be a level cap -Stats cap at about 100. Attack power and other battle stats can go over 100, but they will not be displayed over 100/99. Also, here are some random screenshots (Spoilers, but they're just boss battle screens anyway. I guess I should have taken better ones...) It's worth noting Leaf is the only one allowed in the battle against Cuan, so make sure you've raised him well.

He's the second best healer you have when he joins, so Boa is actually quite nice if you don't plan on promoting Rena. Plus, unlike the healers you can use him to set up kills. He isn't exactly great and his growths are completely awful, but I think he gets less credit than he deserves. I think Daros is way worse. It takes 10 levels for him to double with even a hammer against 0 speed enemies, and he'll never have a hit rate over 80. He's totally unusable.

Harken. Just plain everything is awesome about him. Brave Sword, con to use stuff, great overall stats, good affinity, favorite class, useful, axes, looks cool, overall stronger than Karel...what's there not to love?