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If you had to remove characters from FE6...


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Hello you wonderful people.

Considering the game has a cast of 50+ playable character, many of which has almost no real plot importance to the game, also zero spoken dialogue within the game's story, and also not having the most 'engaging' supports dialogues or any end pairings, I was wondering: What if you were asked to remove at least 10 playable characters from FE6, who would choose to remove from the game?  (Let's say the reason of these removal is so resources can than be spent on improving/expanding on most of the other characters & classes)

Let's also not make the actual usefulness these character in the original game as a large reason in why the character should be removed, as in, you think these characters should be remove because they were so underpowered (unless you can't think of another reason). Let's pretend that issue has been rectified. I would also love to hear the reason for some or all of your choices, if you wanted to provide any. 

So, I'm curious, which playable characters would you choose to remove from FE6 if you were forced to remove some of them from the game?

Note: 😇 This is just a perfectly innocent question/survey with zero ulterior motives. 😇

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My first choice would be Wendy. I don’t think that requires all too much explanation. Basically irrelevant, easily outclassed, and basically the only reason to ever deploy her is if you want to use a unit who sucks or you like her design or you’re doing some weird challenge run. After that is Garret. Whomst? He just shows up and gets recruited (by a unit with no relation to him that isn’t Roy) because... Gonzales might have died? They could have done better with him, though. It’s not like Gonzales would be worth using. Next would be Merlinus. His deployment slot is literally dead space and every scene with him is just so boring, and that’s a lot of scenes. The gameplay would be literally unaffected with his removal and the story would probably improve. THEN it would be Douglas, because he’s also a who? character. Next would be Hugh for the same reason as Garret: whomst? He’s 5th because I like Canas. He probably didn’t exist at this point though. But now is where things are kinda tricky. This next pick is begrudgingly Astolfo, because he just sorta shows up like “I’m with you” but multiple thieves for his join chapter is really appreciated. After him I would go with Klein because I also don’t remember him mattering at all, but he is Clarine’s brother. Igrene is another pointless one, which sucks because I hate to get rid of so many bow users. Two left! The first of them would be Geese, unfortunately, because as great as it is to actually have a brave axe pirate, his story presence is non existent and the gameplay affect isn’t too huge. Rounding off the list would very unfortunately be Ogier. This leaves Deke as potentially the only mercenary/hero depending on the route, and means that Ostia would send a whole one knight, but looking through the whole cast I found him to be the least costly removal left. So in summary that would be:

1. Wendy

2. Garret

3. Merlinus

4. Douglas

5. Hugh

6. Astolfo

7. Klein

8. Igrene

9. Geese

10. Ogier

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1. Merlinus. He's perfectly fine as an NPC.

2. Cath. Thieves ain't the greatest and she's the least interesting of the three. At least Astolfo has an interesting backstory/supports, and at least Chad has connections to Lugh and Raigh.

3. Saul. FE has no shortage of flirts, but this one rubs me the wrong way.

4. Barthe. Who is he, again?

5. Gwendolyn. Who is she, again?

6. Garret. Gonzalez fulfills his kind of role much better.

7. Ogier. Yeah, the last of the Barthe/Gwnedolyn/Ogier trio, but ya know what all three are definitely most certainly not all that great. Big ol' meh.

8. Dorothy. Between her, Wolt, Klein, and Igrene, she's easily my least favorite. By far. Wolt, Klein, and Igrene are just better-integrated.

9. and 10. Wade and Lot. I ran out of characters to pick from so these two drew the short straws.

3 hours ago, Sooks said:

THEN it would be Douglas, because he’s also a who? character. Next would be Hugh for the same reason as Garret: whomst? He’s 5th because I like Canas. He probably didn’t exist at this point though. But now is where things are kinda tricky. This next pick is begrudgingly Astolfo, because he just sorta shows up like “I’m with you” but multiple thieves for his join chapter is really appreciated. After him I would go with Klein because I also don’t remember him mattering at all, but he is Clarine’s brother. Igrene is another pointless one, which sucks because I hate to get rid of so many bow users. Two left! The first of them would be Geese, unfortunately, because as great as it is to actually have a brave axe pirate, his story presence is non existent and the gameplay affect isn’t too huge.

Douglas and Klein are in my Top 10 Binding Blade characters. Hugh, Astolfo, Igrene, and Geese are some other favorites, but not quite Top 10.

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13 minutes ago, Fire Emblem Fan said:

Douglas and Klein are in my Top 10 Binding Blade characters. Hugh, Astolfo, Igrene, and Geese are some other favorites, but not quite Top 10.

I’m not too familiar with the binding blade supports, if you can’t tell. I was also sort of trying to focus on balance around unit variety though, which is why I didn’t immediately get rid of all three ostian knights. But if I did, your only armors would be Bors and Douglas way later. Even getting rid of Ogier was rough.

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interesting take, rather than add like many people want, you instead want to remove them. so heres my list:

  1. Merlinus; seriously stop wasting space and hogging the spotlight.
  2. bors; a knight so dumb he leave Lilina who he should protect in middle of ongoing war just because she ask him one time. talk about wrong priorities. (Eliwood already order a mercenary group, a lone slow knight wont do much since roy group objective are not going to war yet)
  3. wade; dieck group are like those adventurer party, and usually dont have duplicate role, so either wade or lot is redundant
  4. saul; flirting priest, enough said. if thats not enough, we got clarine later as healer, so no thank you saul.
  5. noah/treck; horse emblem legacy that need to be stopped
  6. Geese; too many axe user, with meh background
  7. Lalum; dont need two dancer type. every FE can do just fine with one. and this one rubs me the wrong way (inserted as an NPC maybe, but not as unit)
  8. Cath; a thief that magically appear in every corner of the continent, two is enough since theres no real need for them aside from stealing. (keys are abundant/cheap)
  9. Hugh; attacks you, demand to join you, and put a hefty price tag despite not promoted. talk about entitled person
  10. Karel; you do want to retire, no?

another candidate: dorothy, shin and garret. i really want to remove one of the Ostia reinforcement but somehow they really fit the situation. i mean there should be plenty Lycia loyalist that wants to support Roy while rescuing Lilina in Ostia since its the capital of Lycia (and they not competent what leads to lilina captured)

im choosing it mostly by class balancing. (a class tree dont need to have more than two unpromoted with only one promoted if needed),and maybe some story relevancy.

Edited by joevar
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One of FE6's defining traits within the series is its immense cast, so I wouldn't actually want to cut any characters. Considering Guinivere and Galle, the game could even use a few more without it feeling unnatural. I also feel like the game's support conversations get unfairly labeled as boring--there are actually some really great characters that shine through in their support conversations! I guess the boring ones like Alen and Lance's are easiest to get, however, so that's what most people see.

In terms of impact on story and gameplay I'd go with the following.

  • Ogier - Superfluous mercenary generally outclassed by Dieck who is just tagging along with the Ostian knights, only there for players who somehow lost Dieck, still want a mercenary/hero, and don't want Echidna.
  • Barthe - Gwendolyn sucks, but her suckage is legendary, elevating her to national treasure status. Plus she is the sister of Bors, making her a rare female armor knight. Barthe is just sort of there and is terrible.
  • Garret - I actually like Garret (very useful in chapter 21 and enjoyable personality) but rules are rules. We already have a bandit character in Gonzalez.
  • Trec - There are a total of seven cavalier/paladins in the game, so in terms of gameplay it would have the least impact to cut some of them. Trec is an amusing character but isn't really connected to anyone very deeply but the other Ilian knights.
  • Zelot - A replacement for Marcus who is only slightly better in combat but has similar stats overall... Perceval doesn't come THAT late so Zelot might not be that necessary.
  • Larum - Really either her or Elffin, but Elffin has more relevance to the story, being the prince of Etruria.
  • Wolt or Dorothy - Neither is very good or particularly important to the story. I would want one of them at least though. I guess Wolt would be the one to keep if given the option.
  • Karel - A decent character who comes right at the end, recruitable by only Fir or Bartre... If he had a unique class and/or dragon-slaying weapon and could be recruited by Roy then he could be this game's Athos, but he does not and is not.
  • Cath - Now this is a character I enjoy the personality of, but there is not much room for thieves to grow in FE6 making them kind of unpractical in the real final chapter, and Chad and Astolfo may be enough as is.
  • Merlinus - Fine as an NPC, and he has no supports anyway.
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Hmm. Interesting. A decent amount of these is what I expected, but so far, there's a few I personally would remove that hasn't been mentioned.

On a completely different note, hah, I completely forgot about Merlinus. For some reason, I just never considered him a playable unit even though he is.

On 12/29/2020 at 5:32 PM, Sooks said:

My first choice would be Wendy. I don’t think that requires all too much explanation.

Wendy for life!! No girl is better than Wendy girl!!

19 hours ago, gringe said:

One of FE6's defining traits within the series is its immense cast, so I wouldn't actually want to cut any characters. Considering Guinivere and Galle, the game could even use a few more without it feeling unnatural. I also feel like the game's support conversations get unfairly labeled as boring--there are actually some really great characters that shine through in their support conversations! I guess the boring ones like Alen and Lance's are easiest to get, however, so that's what most people see.

I like think of this of more of a thought experiment, to basically try to see what people consider is the more excessive characters in the game. 

I'm not here trying to make the case that the cast needs to be reduced, but 40+ characters is still pretty large and I don't see the required need of 60ish playable characters (if you are willing to make the case that some units should be added). In 3 houses, I think there's only 40 playable units and that includes DLC units and this assumes you manage to recruit the 14 characters from the other houses.

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2 hours ago, Clear World said:

In 3 houses, I think there's only 40 playable units and that includes DLC units and this assumes you manage to recruit the 14 characters from the other houses.

3 houses imo the worst in terms of playable unit. so i dont want that as any benchmark at all

9 teenager for each route, with around 7 from each other route for possible recruit but needs grinding (yes the requirement are all different, but it all comes down to stats req. not specific task, event, place, etc). and a meager 5 or so additional. i dont count 4 dlc char. it is dlc, no matter canon or not they are not there for the count.

 

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12 minutes ago, joevar said:

3 houses imo the worst in terms of playable unit. so i dont want that as any benchmark at all

9 teenager for each route, with around 7 from each other route for possible recruit but needs grinding (yes the requirement are all different, but it all comes down to stats req. not specific task, event, place, etc). and a meager 5 or so additional. i dont count 4 dlc char. it is dlc, no matter canon or not they are not there for the count.

 

To be fair, 3 Houses is clearly design from the ground up for casual mode instead of the classic permadeath. With so much focus on training and customizing your units, there isn't really a strong case for that game to require a huge cast.

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i love this game and wouldn't remove anyone because what is the negative of more characters? but i'd say the most superfluous ones are

- merlinus. gameplay wise it's a dated and pointless chore, story wise he is a pointless bad copy of malledus. he can disappear entirely.

- lot or wade. i know this is not the only game who does two early axe fighters but dear god did we not need even one this time.

- saul and dorothy. a third staffbot and a second bow user (who joins in the same chapter as the third bow user anyway)? over a plot point yoder could have
carried by himself?

- trec. most other games gave us at least three cavaliers, so one of noah and trec isn't that superfluous, and noah recruits fir, so he stays. i am almost saying zelot is superfluous too, but i think a second prepromote this early might be fine. maybe marcus should have lost usefulness earlier though.

- barthe. gwendolyn at least is a woman at a time where they didn't do many female characters, but barthe adds nothing. also he is just one letter away from bartre, and that's whack.

- ogier. between deke, rutger and fir, all of whom i think are more relevant, not sure why he'd get to stay.

- playable elffin. i feel like larum always being the playable dancer would have been fine since elffin shows up regardless? and larum isn't that irrelevant that we could have just cut her instead.

- gonzales OR garret. we didn't truly need lilina showing off her inner caeda twice, i'd rather give her story relevance. i like gonzales more, but with geese joining around the same time it might make more gameplay sense to keep garret.

- cass. i mean, great character, but also lol.

that's already 10, without counting zelot, and there is a case for more if we wanted to be really mean and cut sin, because there isn't reeeeeally much relevance to him (way less than igrene, who some people want to cut), or go ahead and cut larum AND echidna instead of playable elffin. i love big rosters though, it adds to replayability.

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I do like binding blade as a game but even I can admit that some character's I may like have no purpose what's so ever so here's my list:

-Saul

-Dorothy

-Trec

-Wendy

-Ogier

-Sin

-Cath

-Sophia

The character's I listed either serve no real purpose in the story/ have no relations with other character's. Or they suck gameplay wise and no one would bother using them 

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I personally believe that every character has genuine purpose in FE6. Most of these lists I've seen end up resulting in serious consequences as to how some events unfold. Saul isn't as interesting without Dorothy, and both made Yoder more relevant. Barth is probably the most important in his starting trio, but that doesn't mean that you can expect everything to be okay if he's the only guy there. Wade and Lot have relatives on the Western Isle, Hugh is Canas's son and Niime's grandson, everyone has a place in the world of FE6. The gameplay consequences of a roster cut would also be important to consider. Saul is the strongest of the three early healers. Dorothy joins with a Steel Bow to shoot down C7 Wyverns. Even the armor knight triangle attack, a largely irrelevant feature, is absolutely hilarious and a blast to use.

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Well, yeah. Every characters has some form of relevance to the game. It's not hard to write a reason why they are loosely connected to the story. That part is sort of obvious, and I just assume most people who gave out their list knows that already. 

It's why I say, "pretend you were forced to remove certain amount of characters" and "Let's say the reason of these removal is so resources can than be spent on improving/expanding on most of the other characters & classes".

Whether or not you think they should be remove is not the debate here. You can talk about it as much you like on this thread, but I personally have no interesting in weighting the pros & cons of that debate. If you think certain characters have more value compare to others, now that would be interesting to discuss here. I view this thread as a thought experiment, who is considered excessive for whatever given reason. From that, I'm also actually interested in how and what factors people determine what makes them 'excessive' for the game.

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The experiement in that form kinda relies on there being 10 characters a person would remove. Like, I have little reason to actually explain why I would remove my two picks because only chosing 2 would get me kicked out of the conversation in the hypothetical scenario. Other people would possibily have the opposite issue of wanting to delete more than 10. 

I just want to say it as critisism because while the "Here is a hard limit so people have to engage with the concept" sounds like a good idea, it just leaves open gaps. 

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On 1/7/2021 at 6:21 PM, German FE Nino said:

The experiement in that form kinda relies on there being 10 characters a person would remove. Like, I have little reason to actually explain why I would remove my two picks because only chosing 2 would get me kicked out of the conversation in the hypothetical scenario. Other people would possibily have the opposite issue of wanting to delete more than 10. 

I just want to say it as critisism because while the "Here is a hard limit so people have to engage with the concept" sounds like a good idea, it just leaves open gaps. 

Well, i guess all i can say is, if a person doesn't have 10, that's fine. I sort of just picked ten as an arbitrary number.

On 1/7/2021 at 8:18 PM, xigbar7 said:

I'd remove Sophia. I'm always too tempted to play her because she's the only female Shaman in the GBA series and I love the color palette. But training her is a painful and debilitating experience.

But her temptation is what makes her so special ;3.

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On 1/8/2021 at 9:18 AM, xigbar7 said:

I'd remove Sophia. I'm always too tempted to play her because she's the only female Shaman in the GBA series and I love the color palette. But training her is a painful and debilitating experience.

8 hours ago, Clear World said:

Well, i guess all i can say is, if a person doesn't have 10, that's fine. I sort of just picked ten as an arbitrary number.

But her temptation is what makes her so special ;3.

hey, im one of those people who actually tried to spent absurd amount of time in arena to train her to become apocalypse tome wielder.. in my first platythru even

but now i dont want to repeat that again no matter what

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On 1/10/2021 at 2:43 AM, joevar said:

hey, im one of those people who actually tried to spent absurd amount of time in arena to train her to become apocalypse tome wielder.. in my first platythru even

but now i dont want to repeat that again no matter what

I’ve done it. It’s just....very...slow...The only thing saving her is how light tomes are in this game compared to other games.

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7 hours ago, xigbar7 said:

I’ve done it. It’s just....very...slow...The only thing saving her is how light tomes are in this game compared to other games.

slow doesnt even describe it. just look at training a shaman in arena video  on youtube. one battle can take minutes due to flux animation..

feeding her normal enemy is even harder due to lvl differences

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14 hours ago, joevar said:

slow doesnt even describe it. just look at training a shaman in arena video  on youtube. one battle can take minutes due to flux animation..

feeding her normal enemy is even harder due to lvl differences

It hurts a lot that there are no Afas  drops in this game. She’s a perfect candidate. I can’t imagine it on hard mode where everything has +3 ish to stats across the board.

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5 hours ago, Marienburg said:

I wouldn't remove any of them. I like FE6 as an ironman game and the recruits are important to that end.

That's ballsy. It's almost certainly the hardest one to ironman, even on just normal mode. I'm playing HHM fe7 for the first time and I still find it about the same difficulty as FE6 normal.

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Oh interesting topic. Like many said before, I also wouldn't cut anyone, but let's see.

(Chronological order, in a spoiler tag because I plan to go all out.)

Spoiler

In chapter one we get quite the team Roy as our swordsman main unit can obviously not be dropped. Wolt is framed as his best friend, and while underused in the story, I think deserves his spot. I'm not a fan of Jeigans myself, but Marcus also has a big enough role not to drop. That leaves Bors, Lance and Alen who all seem expendable to me. But having Roy have no knights with him also leaves something missing, and at least one cavalier would be nice to have. I'll write down Lance and Bors as possible sacrifices, since Alen seems to add more personality to me.

In chapter 2 we have our first healer leading us to plot. Ellen can't be scrapped completely in my eyes, and I really like her, but if she were a green unit that left after chapter 3, that'd be understandable, since Clarine joins there. (her AI would need to be written well though) As others have said just having one of Wade or Lott is plenty for early axes, and they both kind of add the same to the story. Dieck and Thany can't be scrapped imo. Let's say Wade and Ellen are possible sacrifices. (and I actually like the Merlinus idea, though it could be improved upon.)

For chapter 3 and 4, Chad and Lugh introduce necessary new gameplay mechanics, and the Rutger and Clarine story is too much fun to scrap, they're keepers.

Chapter 6, the role of the church comes in with Saul, which makes him a keeper. He can't be traveling without a bodyguard now can he? Dorothy stays (maybe I'm biased because I like her too much). However, 2 archers in 1 chapter? Better make Dorothy a soldier class or something, because we can't scrap Sue, she has too much potential importance to the story.

Then Zealot, Treck and Noah come in with chapter 7. Do we really need this many cavaliers? It pains my heart to say this, because I recently read his supports and noticed what a great character he was, but yes, Treck can easily be scrapped here.

Chapter 8, oh boy. I never really got the point of Astohl, except that they suddenly hit you in the face with massive amounts of chests. If they chapters weren't designed around having 2 thieves here, you really wouldn't need a second thief. Let's sacrifice him. Then the knight squad rolls in, and yes, Wendy is terrible as a unit, but I just love her being a female knight. scrapping Oujay would mean we possibly only have 1 mercenary, which would be sad. Plus having Wendy come in alone seems like a bad idea.... Oh right, Barthe was there, yeah no, he can be scrapped. (and make Douglas part of the knight triangle attack if we want to keep that) Also, Lilina is Lilina, give her more story importance while we're at it.

So what's the point of Shin? Fir can carry the plot this chapter, no need for Shin, I'll gladly sacrifice him.

Not going to give many words to this, I believe Gonzales, Geese, Klein and Tate add enough to stay.

As for the Lalum vs Ellfin debate, I personally prefer Lalum as a playable character, and Ellfin just as a plot device where needed, but it really doesn't matter much, one can go to the npc corner.

Bartre/Echidna are fine, keep them, no big opinion on them.

Cath! Yes keep her! Except make thieves gain exp from opening chests and make them promote and stuff, make her a bit of an Est archetype too, I just like her okay.

Raigh is cool, keeper.

Milady, Percival, Cecilia, all keepers, no question about that.

Sophia, I just like the challenge she gives, I'm just going to say keeper (even though, objectively, yeah she could be cut).

Igrene and Garret, sure cut them, I don't think either will be missed, they don't add enough to not make this list.

Don't even want to mention Fae, I mean, come on.

Hugh, I guess we could use another mage at this point, but his story really doesn't add anything to the game. drop. Zeiss adds a little, and more wyverns is good. If they were to make Gale recruitable though, dropping Zeiss would be a small price to pay.

Douglas, Niime, Yodel, Juno, they all add plenty, keepers.

Dayan and Karel, not so sure about these guys, let's see how far we get to 10 without them.

Okay, now let's see who that leaves

1) Lance
2) Bors
3) Wade
4) Ellen
5) Treck
6) Astohl
7) Barthe
8 ) Shin
9) Elffin
10) Igrene
11) Garret
12) Hugh

Oh that's 12, okay sure Bors and Hugh can stay since they fill the biggest gameplay roles.

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I mostly judge characters as units, so apologies if some unit viability stuff leaks into my reasoning, I'm trying to not just axe the 10 worst units in the game though

 

I'd say I'd probably remove like

 

1. Garret (generic Berserker guy)

2. Douglas (generic General, at least the other Knights have meme status)

3. Geese (despite the fact that I've used him he's kinda forgettable)

4. Dayan (who even goes to Sacae lol, besides that he's just another bow user when you already have up to 4 Snipers, 2 Nomad Troopers and 3 Warriors using bows)

5. Juno (just another flying unit when you already have 4, Zeiss has some meme status and is kinda sorta an Est so he gets a pass)

6. Fae (sorry Fae fans, but I always forget I even have her until like Dragon Temple, and even then I just tend to use her as a mini-convoy)

7. Treck (he just dies way too easily in Chapter 7, plus he's easily the worst potential Paladin in the game, Marcus, Allen and Lance all have perfect availability, with Marcus being dang near essential early on in Hard Mode, Jerrot and Noah both start at a higher level and Noah has an extra point of Con iirc, and well Perceval is Perceval)

8. Cath (just a third Thief, is honestly a bit of a pain to deal with and it is arguable that it is better to kill her in Chapter 6 than to bother recruiting her)

9. Fir (kinda generic Myrmidon, especially considering the other two in this game have meme status and Rutger is legitimately one of the best units in this game)

10. Ogier (just a worse Deke, and he doesn't really have much meme status as far as I can tell)

 

Honestly a lot of these choices were hard for me, though I've definitely succeeded at not just axing the 10 worst units in the game 😄

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