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Hello, fellow residents of the Forest. I've been in a very Magvellian mood lately, replaying Sacred Stones (Ephraim route, Sethless) while @Jotari has been running a "Fun Rankings" thread on the game. With that thread wrapping up, I figure it's the perfect time to bring attention to a conspicuous archetypal absence from Sacred Stones - namely, the Gotoh. The "Gotoh" is one of the most widely-recognized Fire Emblem unit archetypes, appearing in nearly every title. The original Gotoh joined as a level 18 Bishop, with several capped stats, in the final chapter of the game. This was followed by a number of other latecomers, such as Athos in FE7, the Laguz Royals in Path of Radiance, and Spoilerman in Radiant Dawn. In some games, there may be a dispute over who exactly is the Gotoh. For instance, Nomah is the splitting image of the original Gotoh, but he joins before Mycen (although he's the final joiner on Celica's side). Likewise, Yodel fulfills a similar role to the original Gotoh, and is the final joiner in FE6... unless the player gets the true ending, in which case, Karel comes later. While it can be disputed which of these units is the Gotoh, in either case, it's pretty clear that each game has a Gotoh (possibly two?). Now, let's turn our gaze to Sacred Stones. At 23 chapters (20 numbered chapters, a Prologue, an Endgame, and 5x), it's one of the shortest titles in the series. And with 34 playable characters, it also has one of the smallest casts, surpassing only Gaiden (and, arguably, Three Houses). The last unit to join is Syrene, who joins in chapter 17 (that is, the 19th out of 23 chapters). She shows up as a level 1 Falcoknight, with rather middling stats. Joining substantially before the final chapter, and substantially weaker than your invested team members, it's hard to say she fits the Gotoh archetype. So, who else could be the Gotoh? There's Myrrh, who joins a chapter earlier, as... a level 1 Manakete with incredibly low base stats. Although, she gets Dragonstone bonuses, so maybe some of her bases are actually incredibly high? Regardless, she has 19 levels to grow, which again is highly atypical of a Gotoh - on top of being a little girl. Duessel looks more like a Gotoh, while Saleh has the class of one, but both join far too early to fit within the role. I guess we're going to settle for the fact that none of Sacred Stone's 43 playable characters are the Gotoh. Wait... 43? Didn't I say 34 earlier? Have I been struck by a sudden bout of dyscalculia? Not likely - rather, I've been caught in a fib. See, there are more playable characters in Sacred Stones... outside the main campaign. In the Creature Campaign, 9 additional characters can be unlocked to control. These include various characters who died during the main story, both enemy (Caellach, Riev, Valter, Selena) and ally (Fado, Ismaire, Glen) alike. While there's no strict order in which they join, the likely last joiner is Lyon, as he requires three completions of the Lagdou Ruins, an extra-hard postgame challenge. Showing up as a level 14 Necromancer, with excellent Magic and Res, but lackluster Myrmidon stats and Luck, he has the unique ability to reach S-rank in two weapon types (Dark and Staves). Our final joining unit, a magical man with story relevance... is Lyon our Gotoh? Truthfully, it doesn't seem that likely to me. There have been other titles with postgame characters, such as FE6 and Path of Radiance. In those games, you can acquire additional units to use in the Trial Maps. And yet, nobody seriously argues that Guinevere is FE6's Gotoh, nor that Ashnard is Path of Radiance's Gotoh. Notwithstanding any arguments about the differences between Trial Maps and the Creature Campaign, it seems fairly evident that the Gotoh must join before, or during, the Endgame. So, let's take it for granted that Sacred Stones does not have a Gotoh. From here, I am left to wonder - who could have been the game's Gotoh? An old man, proficient in magic, with some story relevance... who could fit this role better than Mansel, the Pontifex of Rausten? He even gives the player Ivaldi and Latona, so he would make perfect sense as a Bishop. It's true that he appears in the non-combatant Pontifex class in chapter 19, with rather pitiful stats. But we could speak similarly of Ismaire, who shows up as a green unit Queen, before coming back as a playable Swordmaster. It wouldn't be out of pocket at all for Mansel to join in chapter 20, right before the Endgame, as a Bishop. Surely, having an anti-monster unit would be a big help in those two maps, especially for novice players who may not have trained up a Bishop. Alas, for whatever reason, it seems the developers didn't intend for a playable Mansel. What if, instead, we were to look among those characters the developers did intend to be playable? See, among the Creature Campaign characters, there exists a notable anachronism - Hayden. As the King of Frelia, he's the only postgame joiner who did not die during the main story. While he has his own country to defend, it's not so out of line to think that he might show up in the eleventh hour, providing extra help to his children in their final battle. He arrives in the relatively uncommon Ranger class, has a short trip to two legendary weapons (including Frelia's own Nidhogg), and can combine combat prowess with Rescue-carry support. What else could you ask for? ...Maybe a beard. Ah, but moving Hayden to the main game would reduce the number of Creature Campaign characters by one! Truly, this is an injustice that will not stand. In this case, there seems a rather obvious substitute - Vigarde. He's one of the most important characters within the narrative, yet is conspicuously absent from the Creature Campaign list. Perhaps this is because his General class overlaps with Fado's own. But if this is a problem, simply change one of their classes. Perhaps Vigarde could be a Great Knight instead? Or Fado, a Great Lord who uses Swords and Lances alike? Anyway, let me know what you think. Am I simply oblivious to an obvious Gotoh candidate in Sacred Stones? Was not including a Gotoh the right call by the developers, or a mistake? Who would you have liked to see fulfilling the Gotoh role in this game, or in a potential remake? I would love to hear any constructive feedback you might have! Thank you for reading, and have a great day.

What is your thoughts on them

Untap unit class are very useful for some game but what your idea for buffed and increase them very well ?

Hi, Today I'm thinking of why should I ever use Kaze when Jakob has way more utility, damage, skill access, pair up bonuses for Corrin, doesn't need Rinkah's support just to have a decent strength, has natural access to a mirror healing skill, tomebreaker to completely shit on tome users, base 6 movement, no movement restriction on desert tiles, better stat distribution including caps (dat -2 str mod really destroys Kaze forever in my book)...and he has 2 more levels to grow out of his bases (with better base strength and def than Kaze and a royal lead in luck at any point in the game), his major problem, speed, being solved by fixing a shuriken instead of a dagger on him and alternating between healing and debuffing/Killing to level up, while Kaze has only access to combat exp. What are your arguments in favor of Jakob or Kaze? Outside from Poison strike, which I already know of, is good, but better used by other units who can actually damage all the ennemy types, not only mages. This is an all routes contest, even if Jakob is the clear winner in revelations due to being overlevelled thanks to several more chapters of utility duty before Kaze joins/rejoins. I should add that in Rev I just put base Jakob with +hp/-res Corrin as his C-support backpack and he solo'd ch7 at base with an iron shuriken>steel shuriken, going the Northern path first to grab Gunter for the Western path, used Gunter instead of MU as Jakob's backpack (my Jakob has15 str and 18 spd instead of 12-13/14-15 at level 12 after this, but got -1 def and -2 HP), without any tonic other than the free HP tonic given in the opening maps. all this while keeping him as a butler, AKA one of the weakest physical classes in the game, both offensively and defensively (25 HP 9 def at level 12 ain't anything special, even the supposed 26.5/10 ain't very good). PEMN, but being able to do this from level 1 should mean something still, especially when you fight ninjas on about every portion of the map on top of cavaliers/archers/fighters/lance fighters/Knights and a few samurais who are totally not a problem.