[ITT: Soul ranks FE10 characters]

1 hour ago, DLuna said:

He's far better in NM due to dodging axe users, being able to utilize BEXP, and generally just enemies being in kill-range more often. And higher EXP amounts for him to reach his potential faster.

I don't really think NM/HM makes much difference for Edward, honestly. It's not like he dodges axes with any reliability in Part 1, either. I almost always play NM due to my dislike of HM's mechanics and I find Edward pretty consistently mediocre since he's often 2HKOed even on NM, and if anything his "payoff" in part 3 is even worse since the enemies are easier to double in NM (thus removing what small advantage he has over Jill, for instance).

[ITT: Soul ranks FE10 characters]

7 hours ago, Slumber said:

I thought it was implied that I meant without the use of weakness exploiting weapons like the Wyrmslayer. That kind of ignores my "general rule of thumb for enemy defense scaling in the late game by using Dheginsea as a measuring stick" point entirely. That's why I said "practically impossible", and not just "impossible". Yes, Dheginsea has the highest defense in the game, but most enemies in the mid-late game have ridiculously high defense, even on Normal.

But not nearly as high as Dheginsea. After him, the next highest are:

Sephiran, 45 def (Parity can lower this)
Corner auras, 40 def (Parity can lower this)
Levail, 39 def (Parity can lower this, and his res is super-low anyway)
Red Dragons, ~36 def
Generals, 30-32 def
Side auras, 30 def

That's it. Everything else has over 20 less def than Dheginsea. Using him as your sole benchmark is ridiculous.

Swordmasters have pretty good offence by endgame standards, because they double, without Nasir's help even. They're likely you're best units except certain laguz royals against the side auras, for instance. They double and ORKO most spirits. They have wyrmslayer access for E-3. They double the speedy enemies like snipers and warriors in E-2. Only in E-1 are they unimpressive offensively.

 

That said I think Edward is way too high, but I've said as much in the other thread so I don't really want to go into it here.

[FE10 Tierlist 2017]

10 hours ago, Soul~! said:

Sanaki's actually pretty good when she exists. Yes, this includes 80% of the Tower.

To re-iterate my earlier comments, Bastian is better than her in almost every way for the Tower. (And obviously is better in 4-5 than she is in 4-P or 4-3.)

I don't really feel that being a worse version of Bastian qualifies as "pretty good" myself, but your definitions may vary.

[Western RPG / Tabletop Thread]

WRPGs:

I played a few random WRPGs back in the 90's but I'm not really a big fan of the genre. (I was pretty surprised when I discovered Baldur's Gate was well-loved, for instance.) I've never actually finished one, though I got close with Exile III. I did watch my fiancee play the entire Mass Effect series and I have a fairly high respect level for those even though the gameplay looked unappealing to me.

Tabletop:

I'm a pretty big D&D fan; I've played every edition except the 2nd, and currently DM a 5e campaign. As a gameplay engine I think D&D has some warts (there's a reason D&D's near-coinflip accuracy and heavilly random damage has been abandoned by the system's video game successors) but there's nonetheless a lot to like; the system has a LOT of material, is flexible, and the fantasy setting is a good one which I am personally a big fan of, as are many of my friends. (When I say setting I'm referring to fantasy in general, not the specifically made first-party settings like Forgotten Realms; I don't care about those and my games are set in original settings.)

Mechanics-wise 4e is my favourite; I love the roles, the well-defined mechanics, the fact that physical characters get more interesting options than "attack", etc. But I like 5e quite a lot too; it eschews a few of those advantages but is faster, which is nice for some groups. I'm more lukewarm on earlier editions for sure, and couldn't go back to them now.

[FE10 Tierlist 2017]

1 hour ago, Ema Skye said:

Yes, Meg might double stuff. But her damage output makes her THE WEAKEST of the DB units when it comes to damage output, as she has the LOWEST attack growth and uses the WEAKEST weapons.

But her base attack for her level is very high, offsetting the growth. To illustrate: Meg has more Str than Edward until Level ~17 (then catches up again for a bit with a superior promo bonus), and more Str than Leonardo forever. She's also generally comparable to Jill even spotting Jill an effective +2 for axes. If Meg is doubling, and that's admittedly a significant "if", then her offence is fine.

1 hour ago, Ema Skye said:

Any increased EXP she gets is honestly not noticeable, and we don't have a calculation to show just how much of an EXP gain she actually has. Not to mention all it does is make it more difficult to promote her, because she has so much EXP to gain. I still haven't seen anyone refute this argument

As a Level 3 unit, she gains over 2x what your other units do from bonus exp, which is absolutely noticeable. Moreso on NM, I'll grant, when you have more to work with. I generally think that the differences between NM and HM are significantly overblown (outside of HM's awful design decisions) but Meg is actually more affected than most, both due to this factor and due to 1-4's tigers hitting a bad speed benchmark for her on HM. (To be clear 1-4 is easy so you can certainly still train her on HM, but it does require more effort/less efficiency.)

[#cdnpoli]

I'm certainly more of a Liberal supporter than a Conservative one these days but I was a pretty big fan of the PCs pre-merger under Charest and Clark, so I'd love to see the CPC go with someone relatively centrist, preferably a moderate fiscal conservative who puts evidence before ideology. And most importantly I hope Canada continues to resist the ugly trend towards populism that we're seeing in much of the world.

Bernier seems pretty cool; I would be okay with him winning. He's more right-wing than someone I would personally support but he seems decent and his libertarianism is grounded in reality. Incidentally, I don't think the comparison to Rand Paul is apt. Rand Paul isn't libertarian at all, being pro-drug war, pro-military intervention, and pro-life.

Michael Chong is in favour of a revenue-neutral carbon tax which is A+ in my books. He seems like a decent individual otherwise; he talks of being inclusive, resists populism and immigrant phobia, and had a pretty good turn as Minister of Sport, minor post though that is. He'd be my choice at this point.

Kellie Leitch is awful. I don't think I need to explain why; she's everything I don't want as per my first paragraph. Trost isn't as extreme but still far too socially conservative and blathers about radical Islam and thinks sewage is a bigger environmental issue than fossil fuels, lol. (This is how you know I'm not commenting on this as a Liberal supporter, because either of these two winning would guarantee another Liberal majority in 2019, if we're still using FPTP. Speaking of which, it will be interesting to see what happens on the promised electoral reform issue...)

Both Lisa Raitt and Andrew Scheer feel like rather status quo, Harper 2.0 candidates. Like most Canadians I ended up with a rather sour opinion of Harper by the last election but it's hard to say how much of his negative aspects (anti-science stuff, authoritarian tendencies) they would repeat since it's not like Harper campaigned on those fronts. I find these two acceptable but not really exciting.

Kevin O'Leary comes off as a less populist/hard-authoritarian version of Trump. In other words he's a joke candidate but I'd be lying if I said he wasn't slightly worrying, especially in a large field.

I don't know much about the others. I was kinda hoping Jean Charest would make a political comeback to run for this (he isn't that old) but it was not to be, alas.

 

On 2017-01-19 at 7:58 AM, Hylian Air Force said:

Trudeau getting the No Confidence

I'm not sure if this is a joke that I'm failing to get but Canadian majority governments are not vulnerable to No Confidence motions under normal circumstances.

[PKL's Conquest Tier List v1.1]

Myrmidon Odin hype is bizarre; I imagine it only exists because of Awakening. Myrm!Odin is basically Selena who starts with an E in swords, a worse overall stat build (less speed mostly), and puts you down a valuable Heart Seal. And Selena's not that great.

Nosferatu Odin is... okay (I wouldn't write the 4000 GP cost off so fast myself, money isn't so plentiful in Conquest that we can't find other uses for it, especially early), though even then he's Low Tier at best.

[FE10 Tierlist 2017]

16 minutes ago, Eleanor Hume said:

You deny that 40% strength and 30% defense as good growths for a tiny mage?

That's Ilyana-likish who only beats Sanaki in strength by 5%.

On paper they're decent, but they don't even come close to making up for the bases. Sanaki's def is so bad that Tormod, Soren, Calill, and Ilyana can all literally gain 0 points of Def from levels and will still beat her by 1-6 points in Tier 3 with promotion bonuses alone. Laura and Micaiah will be equal.

In Sanaki's defence there's a chance that none of them will be tier 3 by the start of Part 4 (especially Tormod/Micaiah/Laura) but that's still embarrassing.

 

Volug: Agreed on the stat booster. I don't consider it favoritism to give Volug the Energy Drop if you're using them. I don't understand the favoritism argument. You're obviously going to give things to people if you're using them. It's asinine to even bring up favoritism like this. Same way I don't consider it favoritism to give a speed wing to Skrimir if you're using him. My issue is how disgustingly close their endgame performance is here, and we're just ignoring it because...? Volug was good for a few chapters.

Speed is an extremely valuable stat and almost every unit is significantly improved by boosting it (except maybe a lucky few like Mia and Ulki who start fast enough to double and near certain to stay that way). Even units with above average speed, like Ike and Titania, benefit significantly. Any unit who takes a Speedwing, especially one joining as late as Part 4, is preventing 30+ other units from using it. That's a significant negative. If the comparison is "Skrimir with Speedwing vs. Volug", then the team with Volug is stronger because it can give that Speedwing to someone else.

Aside from that I don't see your complaint? If someone like Sothe or Volug is good early, they deserve credit for that, and should absolutely score above units who have similar performances to them at endgame. This doesn't even require giving them credit for "availability"; Volug's average usefulness in his chapters is significantly higher than Skrimir's because of his performance in Part 1 and Part 3.

[[FE Switch Discussion] The Avatar]

I don't really love avatar characters in general and find them rarely good for an overall plot. At worst I get embarrassed at the way writing tends to gush over and pander to these characters.

If they're gonna come back, though, I'll echo others: make them more of an observer instead of a main character. I'm not a big fan of Robin but I think the game did a pretty good job of not having him/her overshadow the other major characters, whereas Corrin obviously is the Most Important.

I also think that FE badly lacks customisation options for the main. Corrin was kinda locked into a certain age, sadly, but yeah generally there should be more body shapes, face types, hairstyles, etc., than they have.

Also please please please don't let the avatar be able to hook up with anyone (or anyone the opposite gender). That is not how relationships work. Some people don't want to be with you that way, and designing a game otherwise sends a bad message, and ties into the pandering I mentioned above.

 

3 hours ago, Sentinel07 said:

Honestly, in regards to the Avatar, my personal feeling is that they should go the Atlus route and make the character silent with dialogue choices.

To me, that's really the only way to make the character more accessible and give the player at least some level of control. If Intelligent Systems really wants us to think we are these characters, then they need to look at how other companies have already done a far better job at it.

 

Ugh please no silent mains, they almost invariably feel terribly awkward and bring down all the characters around them since they're pretty much talking to a wall. They can work in games which are light on dialog, or when the main isn't very important, but that doesn't sound like it would fit FE (unless the main has Mark-level relevance). For companies actually doing a better job with this style of character, I'd point more at something like Mass Effect (though I still think there's room for improvement with that model); you get choices, but your character still has a voice (either literally or figuratively, depending on if the game has voice acting) which other characters can bounce off of, and interactions feel much more natural.

[FE10 Tierlist 2017]

- No. Depends on how many Laguz you bring to the end. There's 1 with the heron that'll probably want it. Ena might want one. Kurth doesn't start with formshift. So that's 3 uses right there for 1. And IIRC you get only 2. So it's hardly an issue to shrug off so quickly.

Why on earth would Kurth or Ena need Laguz Gems? We're barely using them for combat and their gauges go down real slow when we do. Storebought Laguz Stones will serve them fine. Laguz Stones are also fine for the heron (and a lot of people here argue Rafiel is the best anyway, and he won't even need those). Finally, you get 15 uses of Laguz Gem in total: one set from the desert, one from Giffca, and one from Nasir. Any combat laguz you bring to endgame is likely to have access to Laguz Gems at little cost to the rest of your team, unless you're already bringing Giffca AND at least one other combat laguz (Janaff or Ulki most likely)... at which point we presumably both agree that you're not likely to bring either Skrimir or Volug unless you're doing a laguz-only run.

- Of which if I were using Skrimir I'd slap him with a Speedwing and keep resolve on him. There's not much you can do for Volug's attack outside of support someone that grants him atk

Or... Energy Drops, if we're handing out stat boosters. Energy Drops are both less in-demand in general and Volug can benefit from one for way longer (the one in Part 1, specifically), so this is a better use of your resources, for all that in both cases I'd rather not give either a stat booster and will continue this discussion assuming that neither gets such favouritism.

Volug probably isn't close to speed as that requires like... 13 levels. And I think that's kinda pushing it for him to honestly have for endgame if we're going off of hard mode without some serious help.

I think getting Volug 12-13 levels by endgame is reasonable (and regardless, he only needs ~32 speed for E-1 and ~34 thereafter; he'll be fine). This may reflect the fact that I lean on him quite heavilly in Part 3? But do remember that he can go to 4-5 which is an exp goldmine; enemy laguz are one of the few good sources of exp for your own laguz. And I often send him that way because as a dodge-based unit he is most effective in the path with the most authority stars.

32 defense is capped Ike defense for reference. That's pretty good. Especially when he has some room for growth.

Below half HP, Skrimir will rarely be more than 2 hits away from death against res-targetting units and red dragons, which is a lot of what you fight late. You might squeeze out an extra hit if you can get him on the correct terrain, but that's a major limiter, especially on a unit without canto. By comparison, Volug isn't going to worry about much of anything defensively, and can happily sit on whatever terrain he wants (though he will want to stay near his support partner). That's a big advantage he has, and probably the single biggest reason I would argue he's a better endgame unit than Skrimir.

Which requires you to bring not one, but two DBers into endgame which means that you're no longer playing as efficiently as possible.

Let's not pretend for a moment we're playing as efficiently as possible if we bring Skrimir to endgame. He is completely outclassed by the four royals and Giffca, so he's competing for one of the five other slots which are better used on Elincia and beorc using SS weapons. I already acknowledged that most likely neither is going to be on the endgame squad. However, Jill often will be even in quite efficient play, and Zihark/Nolan aren't crazy choices either, and if one of them has Volug as a support partner, that's a point in favour of bringing him, something which Skrimir will never have.

Of which, I'm kinda partial to resolve for free so I can put Nihil on the person so they can actually fight the boss instead of needing Parity.

I'm not terribly interested in putting one of my valuable boss-killing Nihil scrolls on a unit with less than 34 speed.

Volug can actually use both skills at once if you pass on Savage, if this is important to you. (I don't personally feel that it is since better units will get Nihil.)

My point was that Skrimir and Volug are suspiciously similar by endgame and Volug is nearly 2 points higher. Hence my "we put too much weight on early game" and it's also random because of examples that I'll point out below like... Mist and Sanaki.

Volug has a lot of maps being good earlier even if we accept that they're similar late, so if anything a 2-point gap seems to undersell the difference in worth between them to me.

You won't see any argument from me regarding Mist vs Snaaki, but then I think Sanaki is one of the most overrated units on this tier list. She's worse than Bastian rather clearly (unless you give her points for being forced, which I definitely don't think we should) and is 2 points higher than him.

Your other comparisons are ones that I personally find difficult. Like I personally rated Stefan above Geoffrey, sure, but Stefan is a difficult unit to rate and I have no issue with people who disagree. For many people, Stefan will see almost no playtime while Geoffrey will be useful in 2-3 and 3-9.

[FE10 Tierlist 2017]

Well it does for some and not others. That's my issue. Again, Leonardo is one of the more useful units in the DB and he has a wretched endgame, and guess what? He has a low score. Volug has a great early game and a so-so end game. Better score than Caineghis. Like... What?

I think it's safe to say that Leonardo's low scores come from people like me who don't consider him to be one of the more useful DB units. In fact I find him one of the worst.

Also Volug > Skrimir in endgame by quite a bit, should you decide to use either.

-You'll be using Laguz Gems so Skrimir's gauge isn't an advantage.

-Volug will have SS strike if used consistently pre-endgame maps, so while he loses atk it isn't by a crazy amount or anything. It does mean he misses some 2HKOs that Skrimir will snag, I'll grant, but...

-Volug will likely have capped speed or close to it; he doubles everything (needs Nasir for auras nautrally). Skrimir needs a 25% speed proc to even double endgame Generals on NM (two on HM, if memory serves?) and likely isn't doubling anything faster than them.

-Volug wil have a support which, combined with capped speed and 25+ luck can give him 155-160 avo (with Nolan/Zihark) or 140-145 (with Jill/Micaiah/Sothe), making him almost invincible. Resolve can make him completely invincible, if you want.

-Speaking of Resolve, Skrimir CAN double things with Resolve but every map except E-2 features a significant number of enemy magic users who can kill half-HP Skrimir very easily, so no thanks.

-Finally, Volug brings his support, which helps make Zihark/Nolan/Jill (endgame-caliber units) better. Skrimir has no such reason to be used. This is important because as 1-range units who miss turn 1, neither really screams "must use" at base, as the four royals + Giffca outclass them at the same role.

[Other Franchises in Mario Kart - Should they keep adding more in the future or not?]

The majority of gamers know who Link is.

This is not true for any Mario character that has yet to be in Mario Kart.

Counterexample: goomba.

Not that I really care about a playable goomba, and you can argue whether or not it counts as a "character" (though Koopa Troopa was on the original roster), so I'm mostly just having fun.

Anyway I'd be quite happy with the game becoming Nintendo Kart, it's not a big deal for me either way. It's still going to be a fanservice racer with some unique and rather good mechanics and a staple multiplayer experience.

On the note of Nintendo racers I really hope we get another F-Zero soon.

[should FE go Mainstream or stay Niche?]

To play the Devil's Advocate, being mainstream has its downsides, such as:

-causing the series to be more formulaic and less risky mechanically (Kaga's games may have had some weird choices, but at least he tried many new things).

-insistence on keeping fanservicey features like marriage and children simply because they were popular, even if they are shoehorned in.

-more melodramatic storylines focused on a few characters rather than proper political conflict because mainstream audiences dislike political stuff.

-more features along the lines of face-rubbing (i.e. more things appealing to otaku).

-even tropier (is that a word?) characters.

-more frequent releases leading to less development time.

I could probably list more, but that is all that comes to mind as of now.

Edit: I believe eccentric means more niche with crazy ideas.

These things are pretty much all independent of how niche a game is.

-Fates, the first game in the series developed with the expectation of being a million seller, nevertheless took more mechanical risks than any other FE released in the 21st century with only the possible exception of Awakening itself. Revamped weapon triangle, scrapped weapon durability, significant new mechanics like debuffs, etc. By comparison FE7-12 were all relatively safe refinements of the FE6 model, with only Radiant Dawn being particularly daring out of the bunch due to the perspective switching and third tier.

-Fanservice and otaku-pandering is NOT the exclusive purview of mainstream games at all. If anything it's the opposite; the most egregious games in this regard tend to be quite niche (since they're fanservicy to the point of being offputting to many players). It just so happens that FE becoming more mainstream has happened simultaneously to fanservice becoming more common from Japanese games.

-Release time/development time, again, isn't really a property of how mainstream a series is. Almost nothing is bigger than Mario Kart, for instance, and yet those have been limited to one release per console since the series' inception. Meanwhile the relatively niche Tales series has almost annual releases.

About the only thing I might agree with is that you're less likely to get political stuff in a mainstream game, but even then I have my doubts; Game of Thrones is mainstream, after all. If IntSys actually WANTED to do a serious political plot, I have no doubt they could.

[FE10 Tierlist 2017]

I don't want to rate Lehran. The sheer hoops you need to jump through to get him to exist make me not care, and then he's less relevant than your usual Athos-type anyway. In fact if it's possible I'd like to throw an official vote towards no rating, in hopes that if he gets more of these than he gets actual votes, that you won't include him in the list.

You should count Ana's votes for the herons. She gave a reason for it and it's a valid one. The herons DO have weaknesses which aren't always acknowledged, namely that if you make a mistake and expose them they die to a sneeze. The Ike comparison is made in bad faith since he doesn't have this problem. Unlike Ike, the herons can be forced into the role they are bad at (combat) where they will die.

[FE10 Tierlist 2017]

If you want to change your vote, just click "Delete My Vote" and re-vote.

Many thanks!

[FE10 Tierlist 2017]

On reflection I think my numeric score was too hard on Renning compared to my comments, so I'd like to bump him up from 2.5 to 3.5. (I'd also forgotten that his SS is in swords and there are two of those flying around, which helps.) I can't see how to change my vote, though.

[How does the story of FE Fates compare to A Song of Ice and Fire?]

I think Fates story is somewhat overhated here (well, Conquest anyway; I generally agree with the complaints about Revelation), and while I like ASoIaF overall I do have some serious issues with it which keep it from being top-tier fantasy literature to me (Martin is a genius at creating a political setting but only so-so at other aspects of a story, and stuff involving the north and the frost zombies put me to sleep), and yet evil I feel that if we're going to compare them on story obviously ASoIaF wins very easily.

[Which Final Fantasy Tactics game should I start with?]

I'm a huge fan of original FFT; it has an amazing class system and a very solid battle system, is very transparent with most of its mechanics (did the game not tell you faith governed magic effectiveness both of spells you cast and spells cast on you? I thought it did). It doesn't have the best plot in the world but there are some pretty good aspects of it. Be warned that War of the Lions does make FFT worse in a few ways, in that there's slowdown on a lot of moves (apparently iOS/Steam fixes this), and the JP costs of some abilities and class unlocks reverted to their out-of-wack balance of the JP version (Fly costing 5000 JP, wtf).

Tactics Ogre is basically a worse-balanced version of FFT with a worse class system, and its plot is largely pretty bad, against outside one or two shining moments. I still found it quite fun! The remake of it does add some major polish improvements FFT needed, like being able to see damage projections before you move.

I thought FFTA1 was wretched and couldn't get into it at all. Never tried FFTA2.

[FE10 Tierlist 2017]

Renning: 2.5/10. He's honestly not in a bad class, since he has canto, wyrmslayers, and hammer access... about as good as a non-34 speed class can be. Unfortunately his stats are only decent, not good like Stefan/Volke, and he doesn't have a map or part of a map like them/Bastian, and obviously is outclassed by the lions for pure endgame units.

Kurthnaga:: 4/10. Night Tide definitely has its cool uses and he can act as a wall/free damage in E-3 which is nice. Kinda declines in the last two maps which is funny because he gets Formshift for them!

Ena: 6/10. Kinda feel like she's being undersold here, she's one of the most valuable units against Dheginsea, and Blood Tide has plenty of uses as well. Also status healing on E-1 and wall use on E-3. Nothing amazing but she always figures into endgame strategies, certainly more than Kurth does.

Gareth: 2/10. Another Blood Tide user, but without Ena's use in the first three maps and then more fragile in the last two, so he's a decent choice to leave on the bench (then again, so are Sothe, Sanaki, and Kurth, so I dunno).

Nasir: 6/10. The other good dragon. Nasir isn't around as long as Ena and doesn't have her use in E1 to E3, but he's even better when he is around due to more valuable tide + hey he actually has some combat if you need it! And the only way he's dying is to Ashera's ST physical which you may well not see (it's turn 4 IIRC), and you can keep him on +def terrain if you know it's coming.

[E/E10+ Rated Games That Are Too Hard For Most Kids to Beat]

MMX3 (generally harder than the previous two games),

Whoooa, really? I thought that was the easiest of the SNES X games by quite a lot! Maybe I'm biased because I played X1 when I was younger it was first, but when I played them years later I thought X2 was brutal (basically every Sigma stage boss is a nightmare) and X3 was easy mode by comparison, to the point where I promptly replayed it with no upgrades and still didn't have much trouble.

On topic, I dunno, I don't think there are many games I'd consider too hard for a child. I think kids are a lot more willing to die 50 times time to one level/boss than adults are, honestly.

[Is this game worth $0?]

If Awakening felt too weebish for you, this one will too. But I recommend checking it out anyway if you're a fan of Fire Emblem gameplay, since a lot of people (including me) consider this the absolute best game in the series for that; well, Conquest at least. Great mechanics and map design. Skip all the scenes if you must!

Since it costs you nothing it's easy enough to give it a try; if the gameplay isn't grabbing you by the first few hours you can always drop it then.

[Favorite Pokémon of each type?]

Like most others I'm listing pokemon only by what I think of as their "primary" type so I don't list anyone twice. I also tend to list pokemon by their final stage out of force of habit, though in some cases if you pushed me I'd probably prefer earlier stages for design reasons.

Normal: Persian was the first thing that came to mind. I don't have many favourites here overall.
Fire: Delphox. This used to be Ninetales, so I just like foxes I guess.
Water: Starmie. Favourite pokemon; it's a total badass and I like sea stars.
Grass: I like a lot of these... I'll say Sceptile today.
Electric: Gonna be generic as heck and say Pikachu(/Raichu); there's a reason it became as big as it did.
Ice: Articuno. I just wish they'd expand his movepool so he wouldn't be so bad in competitive, but yeesh, he was god in-game in RBY.
Psychic: Mewtwo; I have a soft spot for the original uber.
Dragon: Garchomp, the mighty land shark.
Dark: Houndoom. Could argue this one as fire, but hey, it's got some neat design el
Fairy: I didn't say Gardevoir as psychic and it's a close second, so hey let's use it here although I wouldn't really call it fairy primary.
Fighting: Hawlucha; bird with a unique and neat attack.
Ground: Hippowdon; hippo fan here.
Rock: Golem probably, Geodudes are an effective iconic design to me.
Bug: Scizor, great in so many ways and I've always liked its buffing abilities in particular.
Ghost: Haunter (specifically Haunter, not the line). This is the only pokemon I've ever deliberately kept unevolved purely for design reasons. (At least Eviolite makes this not a completely terrible plan.)
Poison: Crobat. An annoyer who's also actually a good fighter and is randomly faster than almost anything, what's not to love?
Flying: Dodrio; I dig the wicked three-headed bird look and it destroyed things with Hyper Beam back in gen 1 before they decided that move needed to be useless.
Steel: Bronzong. The ultimate little annoyer with its only one (variable!) weakness (prior to gen 6) and a bunch of status moves.

[Odd, Most Likely Cut, Support]

I doubt a raven and heron can breed in real life...

Herons and ravens are about as closely related as humans are to dogs, so yeah, definitely not!

Agree with others that it seems like beast tribe can only breed with other beast tribe, etc., same for bird and dragon. Since wolves are much more different from Gallians as the Gallians are from each other, I'd say that one's up in the air too.

[FE10 Tierlist 2017]

If I'm playing on normal mode he's much better but that speed cap, well he just doesn't cut it for endgame. Sanaki has more potential than him, similar bases, but more room and levels to grow.

Sanaki's HP/Def bases aren't even remotely similar (Bastian wins by 10 Def and 17 HP); no amount of growth lets her catch Bastian there. And she badly needs growth to catch Bastian in areas like effective speed; she doesn't match his base AS with Cymbeline until Level 7, and Bastian's gonna have a level lead on her forever so she's never really getting an advantage there. She also never matches his B rank in staves.

[FE10 Tierlist 2017]

Oliver: 1.5/10. With 20 speed, Oliver is just bad at combat. Unfortunately for him everything he could offer (such as the ability to use Fortify or Purge), Micaiah already covers. If you need more endgame staff users, he's losing to Elincia (guaranteed to be alive), Bastian (has only had one opportunity to die), and of course various others you may have.

Bastian: 4.5/10. On the other hand, he's okay! In particular he's better than Sanaki in like every way imaginable. He's amazing against laguz in his join chapter, and has high mag + B in staves which is nice. You can send him to endgame and unlike Oliver he'll only be doubled by the fast enemies, while being able to double and hit weakness on dragons. The gap between him and Soren is honestly smaller than many seem to believe, but he does lose (24 speed still not great).

Volke: 6/10. Take what I said about Stefan, apply it Volke. It's basically the same; good stats and build for endgame, so you'll do well enough by him, but you probably won't take him either. He's better in 4-5 than Stefan is in 4-3 (due to being around for more of it) but there are fewer good knives available than good swords, and he can't use the Wyrmslayer (though he does have very high crit with which to scare dragons anyway). It balances.

Giffca: 8/10. Cain who gives up a turn. This is significant, but Giffca is still an effective, if boring endgame choice. There's not much to say about him.

Caineghis: 9/10. Is Cain. No Canto, no 2 range, only 5 maps. Basically perfect otherwise. I guess his res could be better. Is on every endgame team which is chosen for power, ever.