Gameplay-wise, who is your favorite Early Game prepromote in the franchise?

[Benice]

Throughout the franchise, almost every game has an early game prepromoted unit with (Generally) High bases and low growths. From a gameplay perspetive, which of these early-game heroes is your favorite?

P.S, If my brain died and I'm missing any, please let me know so I can add 'em!

Edited June 16, 2020 by Benice

[Hanes]

I really like Seth, he has a cool palette and is just awesome to use from the start all the way to the end.
Titania is also fun.

Also, I don't think FE3 or 12 have Jagen, instead they have Arran.

[ping]

FE6!Marcus, easily. Most well-balanced Jeigan in the series - crucial, but not immortal in the earlygame, slowly fading in usefulness during the midgame. On HM, he's even exactly strong (or weak) enough to set up kills on any ch.1 enemy for any of your other units.

[eclipse]

FE11 Jagen can be useful for the entire game on lower difficulties, assuming that you're willing to get creative with the reclass system.

[Benice]

19 minutes ago, This boi uses Nino said:

Also, I don't think FE3 or 12 have Jagen, instead they have Arran.

Woopsie! Thanks for pointing that out!

And I'm gonna have to agree with Ping here for all of the reasons he stated.

[Emerson]

I'm really torn between FE12 Arran and Seth. Arran is just super fun with reclassing options, but Seth is... Seth.

Buuuut I think Arran edges out the win, since Flier Jagen kinda just speaks for itself.

(i know FE11 Jagen also does this, i just havent finished it lmao
frederick can too but it's not quite as immediately available or useful comparatively to wyvern!arran)

Edited June 16, 2020 by Emerson

[Popers1328]

You forgot FE4 Quan by the way. (And technically Gunter from Fates but I feel like he doesn't really count because he leaves after 2 maps)

[null]

I'd say Titania is my favorite early-game pre-promote. She's a straight-up force of destruction in the early game, and the fact that she almost always doubles makes her a force to be reckoned with even in the mid-to-late game. She's also different from most Jagens in that she is actually viable through endgame, so you definitely want to feed her kills every once in a while to keep her levels in line with everyone else.

And even though you spoke of gameplay when you asked the question, her character (in addition to her being a great unit) makes me like her that much more.

[Saint Rubenio]

FE12!Arran is very well designed. He's one of the few Jeigans that actually fits the description (god early on, falls off later on). In normal he's probably not all that, but in higher difficulties he's invaluable, as nobody else has the versatility that he brings to the table. His best options, I feel, are dracoknight for unparalelled movement (best strategy to catch the lady sword thief, for example), and general (only after merged reclass sets are unlocked) for the best bulk in the team (rescuing him is my go-to strat to save Yumina and Yubello, at least up to maniac mode). By hopping between these two classes, he'll be an excellent asset up to chapter 12... and then dragonland begins and he gets killed by everything, but that's all right. He's done his job.

I've seen people argue that Sirius's existence renders him redundant, but I don't think that's right. I mean, why have one early prepromote when you can have two early prepromotes? They make an excellent team in the earlygame.

I feel that a few too many of the Jeigans in the series are far too powerful for their own good. I mean, yeah, I like Seth and Titania as much as the next guy, but you know they make for terrible Jeigans when it's more or less impossible to keep them from killing things. At that point, they don't serve to help the rest of the army out of a bind, they just outclass the rest of the army. Why use anyone else when you could just throw the prepromote at the enemy and be done with it?

Arran, Jagen and FE6!Marcus are the best Jeigans, I believe, because they're versatile but don't break the game in two by themselves. They can soften up enemies or kill them if they wish, but they cannot singlehandedly finish maps. Marcus is less versatile than Arran, and Jagen is just Arran but worse, thus Arran gets my vote.

...Also, he's probably my favorite character in the series, so there's that. The gameplay-story integration with him is beautiful, and his support with Kris is all he needs to make for a very complete character. He's also one of the very few characters for whom dying in the battlefield is a legitimate end to his character arc.

Edited June 16, 2020 by Saint Rubenio

[Fabulously Olivier]

I like Sothe the best. He's really unique from a gameplay perspective. An early game dodge tank with access to 1-2 range, chest unlocks, and stealing. Also, his ability to draw aggro away from Micaiah is crucial.

[Interdimensional Observer]

Hard to say, from a gameplay perspective, a bunch do defy their original intention of "good early, bad later", but I do like viability throughout the game too. 

Character-wise, Titania is nice, the best I suppose, though Seth the mild Silver Knight is quite intelligent and thats good. Eyvel and Dagdar, if he deserves to count, are good people too.

 

I wish Raquel from TearRing Saga could sorta count- except she's an optional recruit in Chapter 4, thats no Jagen. Amazing bases, not bad growths, Paragon and other skills. All is balanced around an oath against killing fellow humans- any fatal hits she deals leaves them with 1 HP or misses. Thus, Raquel is great for training weaklings. Alas, she is too strong for what a Jagen in principle should be, she lasts marvelously to the endgame, and she has no objections to the slaughter of monsters, which she does all too well.

[BrightBow]

It's gotta be Ward. Guy's got fantastic accuracy thanks to his great weapon ranks and just enough power to reliable set up kills for folks who can actually get EXP from enemies below level 20. It helps that as a Spear user, he has a little bit of control over his damage output. Guard also comes in handy if someone ends up in a tight spot.
Over the course of the game he becomes more defensive minded. Because while Ward has great stats, he lacks any real tools to deal significant damage to later enemies with their powerful shields. But on the defense, his stats get the job done just fine. And thanks to Robust, he doesn't have to worry about any ill-timed injuries ruining his day.
So he has this really nice evolution from carrying the team at the start towards more of a supportive role later on, as he focuses more om protecting allies who lack his raw stats but have better offensive options.

Edited June 16, 2020 by BrightBow

[Samven]

Honestly, I'd say that Titania was my overall favourite.  She's a lot of fun to use, axes do decent chunks of damage, and I just like her personality and supports.  Freddy Bear's memes still make me chuckle, though; so he gets an honourable mention from me.

[DarthR0xas]

Well not to seem biased or anything but I'm gonna throw my lot in with Felicia.

She serves as more of a mini-Jagen, admittedly, but early game she still serves as a way to weaken other units to kill, just that she weakens them via indirect means. Having her use daggers is pretty smart design on IS's part, since while they do minimal damage, they actively debuff enemies, making it easier for other units to survive combat with them. It isn't even that hard to find her kills, in my experience. She sorta becomes less relevant in the mid-game, although extra healer utility is always good, which somewhat follows the Jagen trend. Despite the fact that her attacking utility picks up hard when she gets the Flame Shiruken, I feel that needing an item to stay consistently good is consistent with the Jagen archetypes of old interpreted in a modern idea. Obviously if a player invests in a unit, most of them are going to want to keep using them even if they've fallen off, which is why the Flame Shiruken is a smart item placed at the right time.

[Fabulously Olivier]

I mean, Felicia/Jakob are more Jeigans than the utterly worthless Gunther (whose only real use is buffing Corrin's stats as a pair up support).

 

Seriously, when I played Revelations, I managed to kill Gunther in a single turn on the fog of war map he joins early game. His bases are woefully inadequate for a Jeigan.

[JAZ_2002]

I voted Sigurd for the reason of him carrying my under leveled team on my first Genealogy playthrough. Felicia is a very close second however because Felicia + Flame Shuriken = Fun.

[DragonFlames]

It's a tie between Freddie-bear and Titania. Both can be used the way I want the earlygame prepromote to be used: for weakening enemies for your other units to safely get rid of and as emergency delete buttons should the situation call for it.
And they're strong enough that I can use them throughout the entire game should I so desire without needing to fear them falling off at any point.
Being that those two are among the very few Jagen characters I actually like (Felicia is the third one), I do want to do that.

[Silent Mercenary]

I like a lot of these, but I'm going to rep Sothe here. I like how he has utility beyond fighting and is a free/forced deploy, specially with FE10-stealing and treasure finding, since he has multiple things to get each chapter, even if it's just an Arms Scroll and some coins. I like coins for forging him stronger knives. Joining with a Bronze Dagger is one of his best aspects since he can weaken without accidentally doing a critical hit. It's unfortunate Bane is forced on him by chapter 4, it would have been great as an early, weaker command skill like Flourish or SoV/3H Subdue. I want more early pre-promotes in the future to come with self-restraining arts/skills/weapons in the future, to help train others in the player phase and be competent in the enemy phase.

Felicia would also be my second vote. I had low expectations, and she surprised me a bit as a character and as an unit. She's fun even in physical/hybrid classes thanks to the variety of magic weapons, and armories starting to sell them before ch14 (although there's random chance and visitor rank to get some earlier). Felicia's Plate is my favorite dagger for her, but props to the Fruit Knife and Stale Bread so she can slay foes with her food, and heal herself later.

[Hello72207]

I feel like FE1 Jeigan, gameplay-wise, falls off really early, but while he can fight he can actually almost one round enemies with an iron sword, leaving a kill, or one round with a silver lance. He is your best shopper for a while, and if it weren't for Sheeda being able to use his silver lance better then him, would be fairly solid.

I put FE6 Marcus because gameplay wise he functions like FE1 Jeigan, but he falls off later, the game is harder, and no one else can steal his silver lance.

[Caliburn Absolute]

I'm torn between Jakob and Frederick, almost entirely because of who they are as characters rather than units. I suppose Titania, Sigurd, or Seth would be my answer going mainly off of their usefulness in combat if we ignore Lunatic Awakening where Frederick is 100% mandatory to survive, since they're more spectacular than Freddy and Jakob and it's been a while since I did a fresh run of Awakening or Fates, but... I just love the butlers too much.

[NinjaMonkey]

Where is the "None of them"  option?

[eclipse]

8 minutes ago, NinjaMonkey said:

Where is the "None of them"  option?

No one's forcing you to answer this.

[god_ewan]

I like Frederick. He’s useful throughout the entire game with how broken reclassing is in awakening. He’s also a lovable guy character wise too. Pick a god and pray. 

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Sigurd, although I kinda feel like that's a cheap answer, ha.

[Anacybele]

30 minutes ago, halvey said:

I like Frederick. He’s useful throughout the entire game with how broken reclassing is in awakening. He’s also a lovable guy character wise too. Pick a god and pray. 

I'm not the only one here who loves Freddy! And also, isn't he actually REQUIRED in lunatic difficulty and higher? So he's really valuable as a unit indeed when you count that.

As biased as I am for Tellius and appreciate Titania, Freddy still gets my vote. But Titania is still second place for me.

Edited June 17, 2020 by Anacybele