Shadow Mir

Pointing out Barthe doesn't really disprove my point - he's also a crappy armor knight; admittedly, Bors sucks too. All of them suffer from being low move units in a game that has really big maps. Wendy has it the worst by far because she comes underleveled with crappy bases right before an axe-dominated portion of the game (as if bad bases and being underleveled weren't enough of a kick in the teeth). If I have to go completely out of my way to raise someone who has the entire deck stacked against them, the payoff very damn well better be worth it. And it ain't when they only turn out interchangeable with another crappy unit who joined far earlier than them. And she's not the only example of this, either; Cath and Sophia have the same thing going on. It's pretty telling that some people tend to kill the former when she first shows up. So I ask again; what the hell is the point??? Also, I would say that the unit balance pretty much comes close to lunatic Awakening tier - most of the good units either join early or have mounts, or both. Niime is about the only exception to this. That being said, it manages to not be the worst unit balance wise only because Genealogy of the Holy War somehow manages to be worse. That doesn't excuse overdoing it, which this game does. Especially when the game is essentially one giant escort mission. Hell, for how much it gets bashed in the map design department, even Gaiden/SoV has better maps than this. They're not the only ones; there's the aforementioned Cath, who starts at level 5 about the halfway point of the game, and even with hard mode bonuses, she's still far inferior to Astolfo. And Zeiss, who comes at level 7 right before a route split where both sides suck for him. Not to mention he needs his sister, who's guaranteed to be running rings around him by that point (not to mention being one of the best units in the game and needing to stay alive for a side chapter), to recruit. Also, Shin's a mounted unit in a game that favours mounted units to an obscene degree (and in the event you go to Sacae, both he and Sue, in addition to Dayan, must be alive to access a side chapter), so mentioning him doesn't help your case. RE: Noah, by that point, Alan and Lance have gotten going, and they probably have supports with each other. Noah's gonna have a hard time competing for a slot. At any rate, sure, some units are gonna be better than others, but even compared to the games with bigger casts than it, Binding Blade has a lot of throwaway units.

Speaking of, my first run in Awakening was with a female. ...And Awakening is literally the only game out of it, Fates and Three Houses where there is actually a chance I would run a female avatar, as it manages to have some guys I actually care about enough to consider marrying. Technically, if you have the DLC, there's War Cleric, but the class is kinda lackluster.

Ouch. I'd say starting him out with a steel axe that kills his AS is just stupid. Also, this means no Geitz if you end up getting Linus's FFO.

So that's two deaths, right? Also, was Kent in the forest when he died?

They do. However, I don't remember how much they get. Except for Bernie and Flayn, who get no level ups.

I disagree with a lot of this. I find it hard to appreciate the replay value when a lot of the cast is such that using them is more akin to shooting yourself in the foot. Also, I find it hard to settle for replacement units when the replacements are likely too poor to last very long themselves (See: Wendy, Sophia, etc.). Also, I'd say that more units tends to mean worse unit balance, and this game is the poster child for that, even compared to Radiant Dawn, Revelation, and New Mystery, all of which have more units than this game. I would say the map design only goes downhill from there - it's like Genealogy all over again. This game loves its long, winding maps too much, and the map design suffers for it. See my first point. If the replacements suck so much that getting them going is a struggle, what's the fucking point? That worked in the Archanea games, not so much when certain units must be alive for the sake of getting the true ending.

No. Relics can be used by anyone, with one caveat: crestless units will take damage after combat, as happened with Miklan in chapter 5.

Um, is this still alive? Because I think there's still some subjects worth discussing here.

Problem is, we're talking about a spell with a range of Mag/4. That means I can't expect her to have much range with it. Also, this means giving up Encloser, which I would honestly consider a hard sell (especially since if i'm making someone put in a lot of Faith training, they need a lot of Reason training as well, because having your only attack spell be the 8 weight/1 might Nosferatu is not a fun time). Or have the DLC, as Constance and Anna both have Rescue in their spell lists. Also, they only need B Faith, as opposed to Bernie needing A, and will have more range than she does.

Eh, I get the feeling that they shouldn't (and likely wouldn't) have known unless some outside source tipped them off.

I know I'm going way back with this question, but... did Gaiden ever explain how the Rigelian army knew about Delthea?

One of the biggest problems I have with this game is that there's little to no reason to use most of the units you get because you likely already have better units by that point. I mean, why the hell would I want to torture myself trying to raise Zeiss when any other fliers I bothered to train all run rings around him by the time he joins, especially his sister??? And don't get me started on Cath, Sophia, or Wendy. Long story short, there's a good reason why I think it's one of the most unbalanced games. I assume you meant Treck and Noah, who join in that chapter, instead of Lance and Alan (the latter two are often considered among the better units in the game). Also, Zealot is needed to be alive to access the side chapter if you go to Ilia.

Will know that I don't think that's a slammer...

Speaking of which, I'm not a fan of early promotion myself. As I see it... It's only really viable in the early FE games (by which I mean before Binding Blade) and SoV, which happens to be a remake of an early game.

Far as I know, short of rewards, you only get one AFTER Azama's dealt with (chapter 25). Gee, thanks a bunch, game.