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Finn or Oifey? Who is the better character?


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The Fire Emblem saga has blessed us with many memorable characters who have always stood by the sides of our favorite lords throughout the years. My first being Sacred Stone's Seth, the Silver Paladin. However, while Seth is definitely a cool guy (and a completely broken unit). My all-time favorite Jagen-esque characters can be found in the same duo of games: Genealogy of the Holy War and Thracia 776. Oifey and Finn are interesting cases in how they are loyal servants of two different lords; that being Seliph and Leif respectively. While they may not be as powerful as Seth, they both certainly possess their own special skills and talents.

Oifey is pre-promoted when he shows up to support Seliph in Chapter 6 along with (assuming you had Lachesis and Edain marry) Deirmuid and Lester. He stats were a welcome sight for me considering all of the weakish sword-wielding units you start with in the second generation. Along with his EXTREMELY helpful Armorslayer, Oifey also provides diversity with his ability to wield lances as well. Unfortunately, I ended up not using him very much after that first chapter considering the fact that the other starting horseback-units you get early can grow well and also how you get one of the best units in the second generation in the following chapter: Ares.

In terms of story, I absolutely LOVE what Intelligent Systems did with Oifey. From the very beginning, the young Oifey served as the adviser and tactician for Sigurd's Army. While his purpose in the story may not have been much more than that, everything changed when he received special orders from Sigurd in Chapter 5. He and Shannan were to take Sigurd's newly born son, Seliph, and escape the fighting. When I first saw this, I felt very sad because I felt like Oifey knew that it might be the last time he saw his master. Though this may false considering Sigurd was caught off guard himself by what transpired at the Battle of Belhalla and by Arvis' attacks. Regardless, I loved how Oifey's loyalty and service stemmed from his long time loyalty to Sigurd and his promise to keep Seliph safe.

Finn is a bit different in terms of availability and stats. I am going to use his Thracia 776 data considering he is available in almost all of the game's chapters. Gameplay wise, my experience with the loyal knight of Leonster can be summarized as hit and miss. Like Leif's Light Brand, Finn's personal weapon, the Brave Lance, gives him a solid +10 boost in Luck, giving him a very nice evasion to criticals; something I loved about Leif. Not only that, the 60 uses is very solid in my opinion. It's hit rate may have lowered from 80% to 70% from FE4, but the Brave Lance ended up always making Finn incredible for capturing. Like all stereotypical Jagens however, Finn ended up falling off for me a little more than halfway through the game. With great horseback units such as Brighton, Fergus, and Olwen, I simply did not give him as much experience as I would have liked. I continued to use him due to his reliable double, but I never did promote him to Duke Knight. I definitely got more use out of him than Oifey, but he certainly was not my best unit.

Finn in terms of story is one of the greatest displays of loyalty I have ever seen in Fire Emblem. His accolades are present in both FE4 as a loyal knight who serves Quan and Ethlyn as they fight in Sigurd's Army, but I think his role truly shines in FE5. Before Quan and Ethlyn departed for the Yied Desert, Quan entrusted Finn with the life of his infant son, Leif. Unfortunately, Finn never again saw his masters again due to the massacre brought about by King Travant. Everything changed then. For 17 long years, Finn looked after Leif as they were forced to constantly live on the run from the Granvallian Empire. During this time, I was so shocked when I first heard how much Finn suffered for Leif's sake. He often went hungry so that Leif would always have food. He always made sure they avoided conflict with the enemy. So many things I never knew about Finn were being revealed to me. I was amazed!

Because of his amazing character development, place in the story, as well as my experience with him gameplay wise, I personally like Finn a bit better than Oifey. Both are amazing characters, but I find myself leaning towards Finn. While I am unsure about whether or not I like Leif more than Seliph, I can safely say that Finn is one of my favorite characters from the Jugdral Saga, and he even competes for one of my all-time favorite FE characters. But who do you think is the better character??? Oifey or Finn? Please let me know what your thoughts are!

 

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I like Oifey more but I think Finn is the better character. Kaga clearly really liked Finn but I don't think he ever found Oifey particularly important and it shows. Despite being Seliph's father figure Oifey stops appearing much by the time of book 2. Levin took over his role as strategist which causes Oifey to stop appearing in cutscenes. He does have the occasional optional conversation but not much. With Finn you see him grow from a boy to a man and he has two games giving him a fair degree of attention. While Oifey does transform from a kid into an adult you don't really spot much personal growth due to his adult self not being very important. Kid Oifey wasn't terribly interesting either.

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47 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

I like Oifey more but I think Finn is the better character. Kaga clearly really liked Finn but I don't think he ever found Oifey particularly important and it shows. Despite being Seliph's father figure Oifey stops appearing much by the time of book 2

Yeah, I did snapshot a line from my Project Naga run of FE4 where Seliph explicitly called Oifey like a father. Shannan by comparison I snapshotted a different line where he was referred to by Seliph as being like a brother. This makes some sense, given Shannan is like ~6 in Gen 1 and Oifey is stated to be 14 (and yet Finn is put at ~15, and yet he is allowed to fight).

 

No denying Finn being playable in the 1st Gen and having a lot more attention in the 2nd and also T776 makes him much better developed. Hopefully the inevitable Genealogy remake provides everyone including Oifey with more character development. A Base Conversation or two with Sigurd, another with Shannan in the 1st Gen would be one way to help, and supports or some other forms of interaction with the 2nd Gen cast would help as well. Oifey is a fixed character, if forced to interact with some of the variable kids in Gen 2, writing material to expand him should not be difficult. 

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As much as I love them both, I would say Finn is a better character. Compared to Oifey, who's was a supporting character in Gen 1 and a playable unit in Gen 2 across a single game, Finn has better representation, being a playable unit in FE5 and both generations of FE4. Not only that, but Finn has had more characterization than Oifey (although Oifey grows a mustache, so I would say their characterization is about equal in that regard). There really isn't much else to say besides Finn is a better represented character than Oifey, and Finn has more potential as a unit due to appearing in Gen 1 of FE4 and having time to grow as a unit before leaving Sigurd's army in Chapter 4 and appearing again in Chapter 7.

Oifey wins in the facial hair department, though.

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Finn has more screen time for development, but I wouldn't say one is better than the other in terms of characters, since they both have pretty similar stories.  Finn has better potential, if you really grind him in Gen 1, though.

5 minutes ago, indigocean said:

 

Oifey wins in the facial hair department, though.

Can't argue with that, though.

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7 hours ago, Interdimensional Observer said:

This makes some sense, given Shannan is like ~6 in Gen 1 and Oifey is stated to be 14 (and yet Finn is put at ~15, and yet he is allowed to fight).

Yes though ages aren't really as static in Genealogy as they usually are. The narration mentions time passing quite often so Shanan could technically grow up to the typical FE shota age and Oifey could start showing a growth spurt to indicate time passing and him turning from a early teen into a late one. A remake could even toy with the idea of making them trainee units. 

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Well, while Oifey is cool and all, Finn's my 2nd favourite unit in the series.

Finn's place in Genealogy and Thracia is a place that I think is unique in regards to time scale: He's just a regular squire in the beginning of the story and has risen in relevance as a trusted knight before long left to defend Leif and after a time Nanna from a more hostile world and had less of a safe place to go to as Manster falls. He then has to stand by Leif as he leads the liberation of Thracia and all the events that spiral from there and beyond. Sure, Bartre and Karel have as long a timeskip but neither are dealt with in the same depth as Finn, even with the development they get. Everyone's gone into it in more detail, but I just wanted to try to put it simply.

On 3/31/2019 at 5:20 PM, indigocean said:

Oifey wins in the facial hair department, though.

True.

Finn probably would have lost. But you can't lose if you choose to sit it out.

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On 3/31/2019 at 8:50 AM, Interdimensional Observer said:

Hopefully the inevitable Genealogy remake provides everyone including Oifey with more character development. A Base Conversation or two with Sigurd, another with Shannan in the 1st Gen would be one way to help, and supports or some other forms of interaction with the 2nd Gen cast would help as well. Oifey is a fixed character, if forced to interact with some of the variable kids in Gen 2, writing material to expand him should not be difficult. 

Considering the fact that Genealogy of Holy War is like 23 years old, and Thracia 776 is celebrating its 20th Anniversary (I care enough to keep track), I agree that the Jugdral saga should be getting a remake soon. I completely agree with everyone's sentiment that Oifey and Finn act as father figures of sorts for their respective lords. If I loved their interactions back in the original, I can only imagine how much better their stories could be in a remake! Along with support conversations, Intelligent Systems could include full voice acting similar to what they did in Echoes! Throw in a cut-scene of Finn escaping Leonster with Leif in the arms, or one with young Shannan and Oifey taking baby Seliph away from harm, and it could be amazing! Aside from gameplay, a remake could improve upon character relations like never before; just like what Echoes did.

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3 minutes ago, FE_McFly said:

or one with young Shannan and Oifey taking baby Seliph away from harm

That reminds me, the one time Shannan appears on the battlefield in Gen 1, he is shown with a one-of-kind sprite holding a baby:

Spoiler

5ca2e2b0e1d7d_Genealogy12019-03-1312_09_24.thumb.png.8c989855d1bab9e92c722a16579c8b79.png

A little extra effort they put in here for just two seconds, and they certainly didn't need to do it. Oifey just uses a generic Boy Civilian sprite.

And here is hoping they do well with the Jugdral remakes, whenever they come. Fix the issues in gameplay, improve the presentation to fulfill more of Kaga's narrative ambition, give more development to all, whilst maintaining consistency with the spirits of old.

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Oifey is one of the bigger victim of Kaga's Lenster Boner, while Finn is the second biggest benefactor of Kaga's Lenster Boner, just a

 

The only bigger victim being Shanan

 

So this is less which is the better character and more "one is a fully realized character while the other is barely a character"

Edited by JSND Alter Dragon Boner
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  • 4 weeks later...

Oifey has a better design and always turned a better unit in my playthroughs, he is very useful in first chapters. Also he can marry the young girls  in very wtf situations like  stealing Nanna from Leif I mean if you stop to think  is extremely bizarre and... comical

 

Finn is more developed through the story appearing in two games though, so  a objective answer, Finn is a better character, I just find him extremely bland 

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I personally think Finn is the best-written character in the franchise, I love him so much. He would take the number one spot for my favorite character if Hicks didn't exist. The guy displays so much character and amazing writing, I can't even begin to praise Finn enough.

 

Hicks still #1 though

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