Interdimensional Observer

Renault's problem isn't Light Magic, it's having 12 Magic at --/16! That magic is so bad, with Divine he only deals 5 damage to the lowest Res boss morph in Final. Bad even without considering the 30 damage 37 critical monster of Luna!Athos. Given his origins as described in his supports, it isn't surprising his Magic is so bad. Though if they had upped his Con to 12, thrown him an Aura tome, and bolstered all his non-Magic stats a couple more points, he could have been a fairly interesting (low power but very high durability mage) last minute recruit. I mean he gets 3 chapters at most to strut his stuff (one of which has Kishuna), it's impossible for him to be broken. If reclass were around, he'd probably would have made a solid Hero.

Refa did what I was about to, but opted not to. And don't forget that at base Kent and Sain will both be inferior to the purple haired god. I'd say in theory Sain makes the better Lyn Pally due to capping Str even when early crested, and 18 Spd should be enough for doubling most things. Of course this all depends on whether Kent's couple extra Spd have any meaningful impact in the short- and mid-terms.

Oh yeah, forgot to mention that when I edited the OP earlier I upped my personal Titania rating from a 4 to a 4.5, my bad. @Extrasolar You can still give your ratings on the first round of characters- I'll just recalculate everything later. I like having more opinions and voices involved.

Tacticians are important, but they too can be subject to too much worship. See Suikoden 2- Shu never slips up, never. He is Mr. Perfect who even escapes what you think is going to be his death sequence. Only Luca Blight challenges his talents and even that he overcomes with a little help from the other side. Mathieu in Suikoden 1 was much the same, and I've heard S3's strategist might be the same way as well. Musou does it well. Yes you get things like the Motonari Mori-Jia Xu vs. Dong Zhuo and Yuan Shao battle in WO3 where tacticians own, but then you get other battles where the brutes rule the day.

This I think is just going to turn into a hate topic. I think we get enough Fates bashing already. No need to increase the negative energies on SF- if you want some, GFAQs has all your needs fulfilled already. "Unbalanced mechanics" what do you mean by that? Skill buying? That is wholly optional. Beyond that, only the Hexing Rod, Poison Strike/Savage Blow/Grisly Wound and Inevitable End can be considered really cheap I think.

Results for Round 1 have been calculated. Next up are Boyd, Rhys, and Shinon. My opinions:

Ah Golden Sun, I loved the original. My memories of the sequel aren't as good and I only played through it once. I played through DD twice, and yeah it wasn't great. Salvaging the plot of DD will require a metric ton of work, it'd need a miracle to make GS4's plot and writing succeed. Gameplay wise, we need difficulty settings right off the bat, nerfs to summon rushing and unleashes, an Intelligence stat to boost all the pathetically weak offensive psynergy not Ragnarok and the like, and ingame encouragement to mix up your characters' classes. I can't find it now, but on Youtube they had a video of one of the battle themes with a still image of Issac, Felix, Ivan and Piers arranged in a post-battle victory scene like they were in a Tales game. I loved it and actually wouldn't mind a Tales-styled combo remake of 1&2. Plus, it'd allow for the flat characters of GS to get a little more development. Keep the psynergy puzzles though- they're a strong suit of the series and I can't get enough of them.

According to our very site, the first HM Speedwings is 25/27. Marcus is gonna go a longgg time without them. On NM, they come as early as 17/18, but NM is cake. 20/20 Lugh: HP 39 Mag 23.2 Skl 26 Spd 25 Lck 18.3 Def 10.7 Res 18.4 10k 20/20 Hugh: HP 48 Mag 24.2 Skl 20.2 Spd 23.8 Lck 16 Def 15.8 Res 14.6

Awakening has non-HP and Move (HP and Move are always the exceptions) stat caps which go up to 45 barring personal adjustments and temporary boosts. Fates drops this value to 35. FE10 puts it at 40 for 3rd tier classes, but some Laguz royals have stat caps of up to 50. For FEs 4, 6-9, and 11-12, stat caps go up to 30 (well Luck can hit 40 in FE9, but nobody can get there). In FEs 1, 3, and 5, 20 is the universal stat cap. Gaiden sets the max to 40 for all stats, but with incredibly low growths, you need massive grinding to get to even 30. All stats matter, to wholly lack in any is bad, and to have a gigaton of any is good, though some matter more than others. Archers tend to have high Skill as a class characteristic, but given Skill doesn't actually increase their damage, it's probably their third most important stat, after Strength and Speed. As long as they have enough HP and Defense to survive one or two enemy hits, fragile units like Mages and Archers shouldn't be worrying about those stats too much. A good player should try to keep them from getting hit in the first place, though in practice they might once in a while. You should mostly be concerned about their Strength (Magic for mages) and Speed. If you are concerned about fragile units dying, give them your Angelic/Seraph Robes, that +7 HP is much more likely to save them than an extra 2 Defense. Give your Dragon/Dracoshields to units with average defense or better. Speed is a key stat in most games for most classes. It increases your offense significantly via double attacking, and by helping you avoid getting doubled and dodging, Speed is powerful defensively too. Good Speed + good Strength/Magic + high HP + average Defense + Skill that isn't awful works well in most games. Luck is fine at around 10 for FEs 6-9, though dodgy units like more. I say 10 because barring Killer weapons or classes with innate critical bonuses, 10 Luck can mitigate the critical provided by 20 enemy Skill.

What constitutes a good growth depends on the game- Awakening's definition of good is an ocean of difference from what's good in Gaiden. You also have to consider base stats. Feena has an amazing 60% Strength growth, but a base of 1~2. Things are complicated, that I shall confess. The easiest thing to do is look at one stat growth for everyone in a given game, and see what numbers pop up a lot to eyeball an average. Once you know what average looks like, you can figure out what good and bad are. Factor in bases (average speed growth + low base = bad, average speed growth + high base = good), and then you can see who is going to excel in what stats and whatnot.

Seliph's bases as listed on SF assume level 30 parents with their averages, Deidre probably isn't going to get there, and thus Seliph's Speed would be slightly lower. His Speed growth is 35%, it is his most problematic stat, now you can see why. Otherwise, his Strength and Defense are only 1~2 points below par in your case. Well, there is always a Speed Ring to fix it.

From a purely gameplay perspective, pick the Strawberry-Flavored Lollipop. Dwyer has pretty bad growths, while Asugi has the highest in total of any aptitudeless character. Though I guess with a reclass Dwyer could be a tad more unique than Asugi as a Pally or GK.

Well don't be surprised if they're among the most dangerous enemies. Being incredibly accurate and furious, they whittle away your Life to nothing in no time if you don't keep moving in DW7 (and DW4 or 5 might be even worse). Heck, in DW7 the majority of character deaths were depicted as caused by arrows (see Dian Wei and Sun Ce), though that might be because it's cheap to depict (gashing wounds would require more effort to display) and not that gruesome. Player-wise, don't expect them to be mega fragile or anything. Isn't the Bow and Rods one of the most powerful weapons in DW8? Though the DW7 Bow does favor putting some distance between the player and the enemy, seeing how it doesn't have much flinch power (still more than those crappy daggers though).

Depends. Spellcasters get armor first given they're generally fragile- unless their weapons actually increase their spell damage significantly. But for physical units, yeah weapons take priority. Of course if the weapon upgrade boost is slight and the armor upgrade boost is larger, I'll save my money and only buy the armor (and vice versa).

Played through the game once, didn't tackle Ultima, Omega, or the infamous Triple Triad. I did use a guide for all GFs and kept my characters' levels low though. My favorite PCs are Zell and Irvine- the former is smarter and more helpful than you'd think he'd be, and the latter is cool enough. Quistis is third, and Squall is only fourth. My problem with Selphie is not so much her personality as her dress, it is totally unprofessional being too short and casual. If I could choose her formal outfit, I wouldn't have such a problem. Rinoa is just plain bad. Seifer is also bad, but in a different way. That said, I will admit Man with the Machine Gun is a good battle track. Laguna is interesting and I like

Do recall that Nintendo once said they'd support GameBoy and the DS as separate entities. Of course, the DS brought an end to the GameBoy line. Though seeing how the 3DS is a pure portable and the Switch is a hybrid made to replace the Wii U home console, the 3DS might get a successor. Does Atlus skip E3? I thought they did. I was incredibly WTF when I first saw the Super Mario Odyssey trailer- who knew Nintendo still had acid laying around? Looks beautiful though. I'm afraid from that little clip that XBC2 will have a horrific romance-centered plot, but they could have just selected the worst possible set of quips for the trailer. Also, I'm interested in seeing how Ever Oasis turns out, but please don't make it painfully easy or rudimentary. I'll be fine with a smidgen of FE Switch details. I'm just hoping to see a major paradigm shift with the game. Excite me. I doubly want a paradigm shift with Kirby. The KSS gameplay style, though excellent, has exhausted itself after Squeak Squad, KSSU, RtDL, TD and PR. Plus, the latter two have burnt the series out regarding nostalgia blasts. Open world is a major fad nowadays, but if that's the only way of bringing innovation to Kirby, I'll take it over another KSS (which I have very fond memories of from playing it at my grandparents' house as a child).

This was first game to attempt reclass, and it did work to an extent. Plus, unlike 13 or 14, all promoted classes have a minimum of D or C weapon ranks, skipping the hell of E. It also offered a new take on forging, one which wasn't too bad, if a little overpowered with effective weapons. And this was the first game to add weapon rank bonuses, making the triangle more relevant if you care about that. The save points was idea was fairly balanced, only two per map, but available regardless of difficulty. It also gave us the now normal addition of super difficulties (and I think Merciless sounds better than Lunatic). Gaiden chapters are always cool, but the blood price was bad, and it's not like Ymir or Horace or Etzel are uber strong or interesting. Only Athena (who has second Peg Knight shenanigans) was really worth it from a gameplay perspective. Dynamic growths, for what little they matter, would not be a bad way of keeping characters at least a little closer to their averages. The issue was not enough got changed for the better. The enemy composition remained the same, which was lopsidedly armor and cavalry. Most characters remained silent, and often weak like Tomas or Bord. That no efforts were made to rebalance most characters to the new world is most visible in the prepromotes like Arran and Midia, they are usable only insofar as they can use that powerful effective weaponry. They attempted multiplayer, but didn't realize all the problems it has in FE. That said, I do acknowledge the effort they put into SD. They did make serious updates in battle formulae and mechanics to modern standards, while trying to preserve the original game's experience at the same time. Yet, what would have been lost if they added Swordmasters, Sages, and Warriors to old maps? Or if they increased the bases and growths of most characters? I can understand skipping out on supports though- that'd be a lot of dialogue for little reward.

People picking good characters in Heroes popularity polls is not from guaranteed. How many of them have as much as touched half the games they can vote for? It's on appearances only pretty much. Don't mean to be elitist, there is nothing wrong with loving a simple character.

I'm curious, for anyone who has read a ton of supports in 13 & 14- how do the same sex ones hold up? Does the greatly reduced quantity mean significantly higher quality? I want to bring up Jill given the discussion on Supports and Base Conversations. She gets her introduction, three base conversations, a boss convo with her dad, and her Mist and Lethe supports, all of which trace her development from “bleed the half-breeds!” to ultimately defying her father. The unusual move of making it possible for Jill to betray shows how difficult the decision to fight her father is for her. And even after Shiharam dies, Jill gets yet another base conversation, plus her Lethe A, an alternate Mist A if you didn’t get it pre-Shiharam, and the entirety of Haar for denouement after her arc’s climax at Defending Talrega. (She even gets an Ashnard boss convo.) In short, adequate marshaling of all available character-developing resources, including Base Conversations and Supports, can accomplish amazing things. Yeah, you can't actually see every support of Jill's in a single playthrough, but nonetheless you can get a fair bit.

How in the world are the 2nd and 3rd greatest units on the PoR tier list underrated? Plus Jill is the growth unit goddess of RD. And outside of gameplay, Marcia is a better Mia personality-wise and people love her "Crackers!" swearing. Jill, unlike Marcia or so many others, actually gets character development in PoR too! Sure they're not being brought up a lot, but consider that a sign that it is silently accepted that they're dominant/well-loved.

I picked wyvern, but the choice wasn't easy. On a game by game basis, starting with FE4, gameplay wise in practice (and not in theory), its been:

Welcome to Rate the Supports: Relationships of Radiance Edition! I've decided to do a new tier list of sorts. Rather than quantify pure gameplay goodness, we'll be rating support conversations character by character to figure out exactly how good the overall quality of supports is in Path of Radiance. Every ~two days, I'll put 3 new characters up for ranking on a 1-10 scale. After that, I'll average the numbers given and list the averaged value in this post. I will consider ratings given to a given character if they are made after their two days are up, and at the end will recalculate all relevant ratings. Tell me if you'd prefer I add 3 new characters every day, but keep the 2 day window on voting for a given trio- to speed up the pace a little. So, how are we supposed to rank everyone? I'm not going to tell you the proper logic, but here are some guidelines: Your rating should be primarily based on a character's support conversations. You can however include into your rating any exposition the character gets in their introduction, base conversations (all but C8&9 are listed on SF), boss convos, or in the plot as whole. Please try to restrict points given based on a character's appearance in RD to no more than 1, as unlike FE6-FE7, RD was not out before PoR- we had no idea at the time of PoR's release about anything that would come later. As for support conversations themselves, again, I will provide no hard logic on how to rate them. You should consider all of a character's support conversations. But I'll leave it to you whether to weigh them strictly equally, or decide that one very good/bad support outweighs everything else. You don't need to rate the character's role in their supports alone, you can say "this is a good support, but in spite of character x (x being the rated character)" or "world-building saves this support". One thing I do not want to see, is stuff like "69/10 for Mia b/c she hawt!", keep those fantasies out of your ratings! Results so far: With all this initial criteria outlined let us start this effort to quantify support quality with the GMs, and to be precise: Ike, Titania, and Oscar. My Opinions on the first trio (note: you do not need to mimic me in the depth of written analysis! One or two sentences is fine!):

I know I've still got a whole night and morning before my deadline for the first round expires, but it's pretty clear this topic is dead. Nobody even bothers looking... Guess I'll Fimbulvetr this topic if nobody else responds by tomorrow afternoon. (You'll have to deduct like ~15 from the view count for the number of times I hopped in and out.) I was looking forward to some good and critical character discussion. I thought people liked tiering/rating things. Maybe this game is just a little too old/people don't care, or maybe it's topic creation bad timing/naming on my part. Perhaps I'll have more luck with Path of Radiance- can't hurt to try. If that fails, I'll just bench this idea. Can't get hung up whenever a topic you create online fails to take off. @phineas81707 Thank you at least for participating and even attempting to spread word of this thing. I'll start the Support Survey (which will be renamed Rate the Supports) for PoR tomorrow.

Erk might have his introductory NPC battle with an archer recorded. Said battle is interesting because on Hard, it is actually possible for Erk to crit the archer and kill it, leaving a zombie on the map. Attacking it will kill it (though any hits will say "no damage"), don't know what happens if you leave the archer alone.

I believe Berwick Saga actually does have optional collection quests. Either you steal from/capture/receive as a drop rare items from enemies, or you have step on a certain space to acquire a special resource. There are even a few quests that have other requirements. Gold is the most common reward, but you also get a slew of nice items too.