HeoandReo

According to the webpage cited and going through it with a translator, there does appear to be personal boosts, though they aren't as crazy as they were back in Awakening. An S support gives a 5 stat increase, but those are distributed around other stats. (Ex. Power +2, Skill +2, Speed +1) The highest speed boost, for instance, is 3 points, and those only come from Azura/Setsuna/Ryoma S Support. They don't have 2nd generation listed, but there are probably too many variables to put them in at this time. I don't understand much Japanese though, so someone else could take a look and see if this is true.

I'm pretty sure that Aptitude can be inherited. That can help patch up some of the lower growths compared to Azura!Matoi. Mozume could also A+ with Oboro to pick up a Lance Fighter skill, which can work nicely. Because there is an exact number of first gen mothers to first gen fathers, I'm approaching optimization (assuming all kids) from the standpoint that I can't make every kid awesome this time around. In Awakening, I could pair up kids to useful fathers and end up with something that would reach my satisfaction. (except for Noire, but she is notoriously hard to optimize compared to the other kids) Someone is going to have to stomach being really slow this time arond, so they are going to need the tools to survive with it. For Matoi, I did make Mozume her mother in an earlier iteration, but I moved Mozume to Velour to take fuller advantage of Flannel's stat spread and class selection. Luna was one of the leftovers who didn't hurt Matoi's stats too much. (I think when I was trying to determine Matoi, it was between either her or Rinkah, and Luna is less harmful statwise) Most of the high speed mothers tended to go to high speed kids with good skill selections (Azura to Kaze, Setsuna to Kinu) and for the most part high speed mothers are from Hoshido. Since Hoshido fathers can only marry a limited number of parents from Nohr, you have to make sure they can actually get married to someone if you're going for all the kids. My current plan so far is this, for reference. My last plan I attempted to optimize Swallow Strike and attempt to get good stats/classes on top of that. This time I'm attempting to optimize Copycat in addition. I'm also trying to make certain first gens viable as well for their purposes. (Azura, Mozume, Sakura, Arthur, Zero, Pieri among others) AvatarxSetsuna!Kinu (+Spe/-Lck, Oni Savage) (Kinu A+ Midoriko or Velour. If Extravagance is obtained from Logbook, pick Velour) Kaze!ShigurexOrochi!Ophelia (Shigure A+ Hisame, Ophelia A+ Midoriko) Hana!DeerexOboro!Eponine (Deere A+ Gurei, Eponine A+ Velour) Camilla!ShinonomexAzura!Midoriko (Shinonome A+ Gurei, Midoriko A+ Kanna) Rinkah!KisaragixHinoka!Sophie (Kisaragi A+ Hisame, Sophie A+ Velour) Sakura!GureixKinu!Kanna (Gurei A+ Deere or Shinonome, Kanna A+ Midoriko or Velour, similar case to Kinu) Pieri!HisamexEffie!Mitama (Hisame A+ Gurei, Mitama A+ Shara) Charlotte!SiegbertxLuna!Matoi (Siegbert A+ Shinonome, Matoi A+ Shara) Felicia!FoleoxNyx!Shara (Foleo A+ Shigure, Shara A+ Matoi) Kagerou!LutzxElise!Soleil (Lutz A+ Deere, Soleil A+ Mitama, Elise's high magic growth gives Soleil a growth of 21 following the formula, which isn't bad by any means) Belka!IgnisxMozume!Velour (Ignis A+ Gurei, Velour A+ Kanna)

I'm actually considering Luna!Matoi for my no-fun optimalish pairings file, mostly because it's where they happened to fall after I sorted out other kids. Thinking of having her marry Siegbert and A+ with Shara, so she gets Spellcaster and Cavalier. Luna could actually pull off a solid offensive set taking advantage of Competitive with an A+ with Setsuna. Setsuna is the only support she gets that can give her a faire(Bowfaire) and she also gets some good classes to use them with such as Holy Bowman. I'm probably going to use the Logbook to pick up some other things, but it's a niche that she can fit in. The only thing is that Luna will want a partner who can crit a lot to take fuller advantage of her skill. (if only she could support with Charlotte... or maybe she doesn't even need to if a high enough crit rate is reached.) I did mention Mozume!Matoi a little earlier in this topic. Her growths are solid, mods are pretty good, and she can pick up Extravagance. In Invisible Kingdom she can also A+ with Effie, meaning that she can pass Defensive Formation to Matoi if you're in a low speed class. Setsuna!Matoi has slightly better mods than Aqua (better defenses overall) but worse growths. Matoi will get to pick up Bowman though.

Here's what I do have so far, though it's still a work in progress. I'm trying to pair up characters who come close together so that I can get their kids (and more EXP) quickly. Also, good stats and hair colors. There will probably be some runs strictly for Logbook characters, but I'm not going to list those since that's kind of boring. Nohr, because of its brisker pace, will not include all but be some combination of: Avatar/Nyx or Pieri or Charlotte or Ophelia or Velour (I'll figure that out soon - leaning towards Nyx since the timing is more convenient than the others and I like her supports) Arthur/Effie (I will make Arthur good or die trying) Zero/Azura Odin/Elise (mostly for hair color and stats. Gonna marry him to Luna and Nyx in other runs for the same reasons. Or for Luna's case, lore and a cool hair color) Kaze/Belka (I'm not actually going to use Midoriko though. This is just an excuse to pick up Draj and make sure Midori gets a hair color I like) Flannel/Camilla Leo/Felicia (Pink haired magical Foleo) Lazward/Luna Xander/Mozume (Because I'm a fan of stories of the silly village girl getting the big stronk handsome prince) The Joker/Harley Quinn Jakob/Pieri (riddle me this batman This is assuming that I don't marry Pieri myself) Hoshido has less pressure than Nohr, but it is: Avatar/Crimson (Lance Fighter) Silas/Mozume (These two with Avatar/Crimson will be my power quad) Kaze/Rinkah (Moneymaker Midoriko) Tsubaki/Hinoka (The best hair color. But seriously, all of Matoi's hair colors are good except Rinkah's imo) Nishiki/Azura Ryoma/Setsuna (Mostly for stats but I may change this around later) Takumi/Oboro (The Catria archetypes that actually can realize their love and aren't overly contrived about it are always the best ones) Hinata/Orochi (I don't care about Hinata - I just want Extravagance/Line of Death on Orochi for easier captures) Still working on the rest. For other runs I'll do a few other pairings. Gonna try one with Avatar/Mozume and Takumi/Azura though. Invisible Kingdom I'm going to do three separate files - though I am going the whole Avatar/Azura and royal siblings marrying each other that everyone else is presumably going to do. One will be a no-fun PvP make all the kids good kind of thing, and the last will just have some fun pairings that I probably wasn't able to do in other files.

Mitama would actually be better as a physical beater. Her base strength growth is higher than her magic growth, and her father's base strength mod(2) is 5 points higher than his base magic.(-3. Yes, the healer has a -3 magic mod. No, I don't know why, either.) Orochi!Mitama will only have a magic mod of 1, so you might want to emphasize the stats that she is good at. Fortunately, giving her good stats is not a problem. The hard part is to give her a good class to take advantage of them. Effie is actually a really good mom for Mitama. Effie!Mitama gets 6 strength, 3 speed, alright defenses (1 def, 0 res) and -2 magic. Asama can A+ with Arthur and pick up Axefaire as a possible inheritance, turning Mitama into a very solid General or Great Knight. Hinoka is not a bad option either. She has 4 strength, 3 speed, and better defenses (1 defense and 3 res) so while she's not quite as strong as Effie!Mitama, she is still very respectable. She can pick up Swallow Strike on her own, allowing for Hinoka and Asama to pass down some really good skills. (Asama can pass Breaking Sky from Tsukuyomi/Nishiki, freeing Hinoka to pass Lancefaire or something else) Failing that, Mitama has a bunch of really good marriage candidates. Shinonome and Hisame give her some good options like Basara and Trueblade. It may be worth having her A+ with Kanna so that she can get access to something like Berserker though, should you opt to use that class as your secondary.

Not sure who you married Nishiki to, since he and Kaze can't marry each other. (They'd make a hell of a good kid if they could though. +6 speed with Ninja and Spellcaster access? Sign me up.) Hana, Rinkah, Felicia and Orochi are left in addition to Aqua. I would give Aqua either to Kaze or Tsukuyomi though. Both of their kids benefit a lot from Aqua's speed boost and Pegasus access. Sophie would also do really well with Hana as her mother. Samurai access is great and if she's so inclined, Hana can A+ with Setsuna to pass Prescient Victory or Bowfaire, depending on what ending class Sophie will be in.

Nishiki/Setsuna would work pretty well. Kinu gets access to Prescient Strike which helps her offense, and Setsuna can pass down one of Swallow Strike(A+ Hinoka) or Copycat. Also gets +6 speed, which helps her a ton in PvP. Tsukuyomi/Setsuna is a good choice too, as is Kaze/Setsuna. All of those options take advantage of Setsuna's strengths as a mother. (high speed, good inheritances) Really, Setsuna is probably one of the best moms in the game in my opinion - you'd be hard pressed to find a particularly bad use of her. Belka is one of the worst imo in comparison. Her A+s are kind of eh outside of Oboro and -1 str/-2 speed is really bad in a game where most kids lean physical. I wouldn't put her with Kaze or Joker, though Lazward could work. Pass Breaking Sky and it might be useful. Charlotte/Joker is good. Kaze works too but Joker takes fuller advantage of her strength mod. Maybe pick up Breaking Sky from the Logbook. Felicia should go with Tsukuyomi. She buffs his best stats and doesn't hurt skill or his defenses that much. The main thing Shara is concerned about skillwise is an A+ with Matoi, so she'll be fine. Rinkah... is very tough to place in my experience. She's like Belka in that her stats are problematic in a strength/speed based setting. She has great inheritances though. She can pass Breaking Sky or Copycat to whoever is left from Tsubaki/Midoriko. She does give +6 defense to Matoi, which is kinda noteworthy.

Hinoka/Setsuna and Tsubaki/Saizou is really no contest imo. A Priest A+ would be more useful if Hinoka and Tsubaki had major inclination towards magic, which they don't really have. If you do want to make Matoi a Dark Mage Tomefaire would be worth picking up though. I would get it through Hinoka/Sakura, since Copycat is a really useful skill to pass. Both Arthur pairings, Hana!Velour, Hana!Soleil, Charlotte!Kinu and Pieri!Hisame are all notable. Lutz gets good stats from either of the suggested moms, but would prefer Kagerou in order to have Ninja inheritance for Snake Venom and Copycat, and Kagerou can pass Breaking Sky from her Spellcaster option. He also gets 5 strength and 3 skill from the pair, so it would be worth exploring. Setsuna can also pass Copycat, but Bowman is less useful to Lutz than Ninja imo. Hana benefits both Velour and Soleil, mostly from her modifiers but neither mind the skills that she passes down either from Samurai. Hana is kind of a mods mother at her core. She doesn't have the utility of a mother like Oboro, but her stat spread is exceptional. Some kids use Hana better, particularly her speed, but neither kid is a horrible option for her to mother. Charlotte!Kinu is also similar in that sense to Hana. Better uses of Charlotte exist but Kinu is by no means a bad use. (especially with 5 strength, 6 speed and Breaking Sky access as a Berserker) Pieri/Hinata is really more for Pieri's sake since she wants a good class to take advantage of Killer Instinct but Hisame gets a few things from her. Pieri can A+ Kagerou and pass Copycat or something to free Hisame to A+ Shigure for Pegasus line. Luna also isn't bad if Hinata isn't able to pass Breaking Sky from A+ Nishiki.

I would go for Breaking Sky, personally. Luna isn't bad, but Deere wouldn't say no to a more reliable proc. Flamboyant may be useful if he is specifically A+ing with Gurei for Lethality abuse.

That came from her marriage to Lutz in my example - she would get Wyvern from the deal. I figured that since she got Rod Knight from Elise, Lutz would be a more useful husband for her than Deere for the sake of class diversity. (And also for Snake Venom + Deadly Breath to do more damage after battles)

I'm theorycrafting a bit with Elise!Soleil at the moment. Elise can pass Swallow Strike from an A+ with Azura, so she is pretty valuable as a mother in that regard. Lazward's A+ options aren't great, but Luna isn't bad from Xander. Modifiers aren't terrible. (1/4/1/1/3/-3/1) -3 defense is pretty bad, but what can you do. Soleil can also pick up Tomefaire from an A+ with Mitama. Just for some ideas for builds: (I'm currently thinking A+ with Mitama and marriage to Lutz) Offense: Girl Lover, Swallow Strike, Copycat, Luna, faire, filler Support: Girl Lover, Servant's Joy, Battle Command, Demoiselle/Copycat, Tomefaire, Deadly Breath Mixed: Girl Lover, Copycat, Snake Venom, Deadly Breath, Swallow Strike, faire For good uses of Orochi, Gurei and Ophelia both stand out. Gurei has good support/magic builds depending on who he A+s with, while Ophelia gets some more critical hit skills and a higher skill mod to take advantage of it with. Orochi's stat spread means that her kid is going to be really specialized whereever she goes, and Gurei/Ophelia both have great niches with her. --- I'm also considering that in a situation where Sakura isn't around for Foleo (Nohr route, hanging around Saizou/Tsukuyomi), Felicia would be a good alternative. Modifiers are similar, but Felicia actually has a few small wins, namely in Skill and Res at the cost of cutting his strength down even more. (-3/5/1/0/1/0/4) Sakura gives Tomefaire and Swallow Strike,(by inheritance) but Foleo can get those by himself in third route. He can A+ with Shigure and marry Shara and also pick up Breaking Sky and Sun God from the deal. He misses out on Defensive Formation since he's not free to A+ with Ignis, but that could be picked up from the Logbook. There's hardly any competition for Shara's hand either - Lutz is the only one who stands out. Most Hoshido males can get Breaking Sky by themselves or from their mother. Shinonome/Kisaragi get it by default, Hisame can get it from Hinata A+ Nishiki, and Gurei can get it by A+ Shinonome, if they can't get it from one of their mothers or their mothers' A+ options. (every Hoshidan first gen and their grandmother has access to Breaking Sky one way or another, so it shouldn't be a difficult affair to sort it out)

Midoriko married to Shinonome could run a set of Swallow Strike(Logbook or from mother), Breaking Sky, Extravagance, a faire, and maybe Line of Death to help her offensive ability or Lethality to troll. (Flamboyant + Hoshido + Lethality could work nicely) Extravagance gives 10 damage if she uses a Gold Coin, and Line of Death is another flat 10 damage, though it's not so good defensively. Extravagance might cancel LoD's negative effects out though, since it has the unit take 10 less damage. Personally, I think she works best as a high speed support unit giving debuffs from shurikens. Speed is her biggest asset, so instead of trying to patch up her weaknesses, I would play on her strengths and give her a role that suits her abilities. She'll either cut the enemies' stats to size, or she'll have really good offense regardless thanks to her doubling ability. 42 speed as an Elite Ninja (if she is mothered by Azura or Setsuna. It'll be higher if she's mothered by +Spe Avatar) can double lots of things, and avoid getting doubled from other high speed builds. 42 as a benchmark protects her from 46 speed and below, which is mostly just reached by certain Kinus and Kannas. Giving her a Quick Draw Katana for enemy phase brings it up to 47, which means that practically nothing is going to double her. Not even Azura/Setsuna!Kinu with Swallow Strike. The only thing that I think is able to do so would be a +Spe Azura/Setsuna!Kinu!Kanna as Nine-Tailed Fox with Beaststone+ and Swallow Strike. Shinonome gives her Defense and Speed Seals, Kaze can opt to pass Strength Seal, and an A+ with Ophelia can also give Magic Seal. She could run a set with multiple seals to make her an even stronger debuffer.

Mitama and Sophie/Deere are good options for Hinoka to mother. She helps their offensive stats since those kids lean to physical and gives them Breaking Sky + Swallow Strike.

Yeah, I mostly focused on the caps when I was taking a look at the stats. Didn't consider the classes as much, so my bad. Trueblade could work. He'd need an A+ with Hisame to get it, (or be mothered by Hana) but the speed cap is even higher. (33 -> 37 with -2 speed) It is kind of tough to work with him though. A smart player seeing an enemy Kisaragi on the field would ignore him mostly so that he can't take advantage of his personal skill, if they can't double him outright. I do think that his skill would work better ingame, but in other settings I don't know.

Kisaragi's personal skill gives him +4 speed and +8 luck when he Waits, so that can cover him for enemy phase. Anyway, I wouldn't be terribly concerned about doubling/not being doubled - the fastest builds can run Swallow Strike to double even clones of themselves, assuming that the amount of speed needed is still 5. Speed-focused builds can reach frankly ridiculous thresholds. (+Spe/-Def Azura!Kinu!Kanna as Nine Tailed Fox with Beaststone+ hits 50 iirc and 55 with Swallow Strike, without taking tonics, etc. into account) Obviously the high speed kids are going to have significant advantages. There's no way around that. It's a little too soon to determine what speed would be ideal, but for now I probably would put the threshold to about 33/34 to be safe. That will protect you from enemies who have 38/39 speed, which can be reached through moderate modifiers + fast class (ex. Trueblade Camilla!Shinonome) or high modifiers + slower class (ex. Azura!Kinu Basara). Thankfully, even with the lower speed mod, Kisaragi does have a few classes that would put him in this 'safe' zone. Even if his -2 mod is maintained, Holy Bowman gets to 35 if Positive Thinking is used, Holy Lancer gets to 34. Mozume has loads of potential. She may even be viable on her own in PVP. She can run Extravagance, Line of Death, Prescient Victory and a faire for what may be a +29 offensive boost, assuming that all of them stack. An A+ with Oboro completes her perfectly, since she'll get Breaking Sky from the deal too. Her mods are also pretty decent. She doesn't hurt strength or magic, she's one of the few moms who boosts skill and speed, and her only downside is -2 res. I can see her working best either with a somewhat slow child with good offensive potential (Matoi, Gurei, Siegbert) or a child with very high offensive modifiers from their father. (Deere, Velour) Or a child with otherwise balanced offensive mods. (Sophie, Lutz) Her personal skill also heals 20% on most areas with terrain bonuses, so even in a PVP she could last a while. --- Speaking about first gen builds, at the moment I'm trying to figure out what to do for Pieri. I do have some builds drafted up for Arthur and Charlotte,(crit support and crit offense respectively) but Pieri's Killer Instinct is actually a really good skill to take advantage of. If she defeats the enemy, she gets Str/Mag/Skl/Spe + 4. Just putting down her classes, I'm thinking of a few options to try to take advantage of this -Cavalier - gets standard Cav stuff (Open Assault, Luna, Diamond Strike) -Dark Mage - not sure. Maybe Vengeance or Lifetaker? -Samurai (Hinata marriage) - Access to Trueblade for speed, Vantage, Astra, Swordfaire, Line of Death -Ninja (Kagerou A+ or Kaze marriage) - Copycat, Elite Ninja is also a possible option for a class -Fighter (Charlotte A+ or Arthur/Flannel marriage) - Berserker, Axefaire -Spellcaster (Nishiki marriage) - Entirely for Breaking Sky Galeforce from Dark Falcon is also necessary for her to take full advantage of her skill. Of course that will depend on whether or not you only get the class once like I've heard. Then she'd have stiff competition for it. Azura's singing could work too in that case. Maximum speed that she can reach with her mods is 36 from Trueblade/Elite Ninja. Ninja has a bunch of good skills but Elite Ninja has low caps. Copycat could be obtained from the Logbook, so that's covered if she wants to use it. As a Trueblade, her stats look like this: Mods: 31/28/31/36/33/25/33 When she gets a kill, Str/Skl become 35, and Speed becomes 40. Berserker is good too. Mods: 41/25/31/34/25/25/27 Str becomes 45, Skill becomes 35, and Speed becomes 38. As a physical attacker, maybe she might run something like Luna, faire, Copycat, maybe Line of Death, and something else (Astra, Breaking Sky, etc.) If Killer Instinct lasts on enemy phase, she could be a good Witch or Basara with Vantage/Vengeance. It's dicey but it could work, especially with that 65 HP on Basara. Depending on her husband, she could nab either Vantage or Tomefaire from the Logbook, and maybe Line of Death too. Witch would give her more speed and magic to hit harder at base. Basara's higher HP could be better as a safety net or to do more Vengeance damage, though. She does have to marry Nishiki to end as a Basara though, which may hurt Kinu's options.

Soleil works very well marrying Kisaragi in Invisible Kingdom. Marrying Gurei gives overlap, but she would appreciate the offensive boosts given from Prescient Strike and Bowfaire if she's ending as a Bow Knight or Holy Bowman. Hero and Bow Knight are certainly not bad class options for Kisaragi either. Golden Kite skills lead a bit more towards support, but they could still work nicely. I think that Sakura!Gurei may actually work out better than Orochi!Gurei for healing purposes. Most of the main skills are intact (copycat, healing abilities and auras) and the modifiers are used a bit better in my view. Also frees up Orochi for any other kid who might want her. (Which would be Ophelia and um... that's about all that comes to mind. But Orochi!Ophelia is notable.) Orochi is a little better for offensive potential due to higher skill and Breaking Sky, but Sakura is probably better for defensive ability thanks to the higher speed. Incidentally, while the healing Gurei is dependent on an A+ with Deere, Sakura herself can actually pull of a competent healing/support set in Gurei's place if he decides to A+ with Shinonome. Sakura/Saizou gives a class set of Priestess/Pegasus/Ninja, and Sakura can A+ with Elise to get Rod Knight line. She can run a set of Copycat, Sun God, Servant's Joy, Battle Command and Tomefaire. Little Cheer is a very good aura, and synergizes well with the other auras from Rod Knight. There are a lot of first gens who are viable this time compared to Awakening thanks to really good personal skills, so they would be worth exploring in an optimization setting as well. (Ryoma, Hinoka, Arthur, Pieri, Charlotte and Mozume all come to mind based on personal skills alone. Setsuna and Nishiki are also worth mentioning if they gets the right classes.)

My impression for Buddy Seals is that if the buddier has access to the base class of the buddy... ee, then it's functionally the same as a Parallel Seal. Shigure wouldn't benefit from A+ Foleo at all since Buddy Seal would give Rod Knight. A similar principle would apply to Kinu A+ Shara. They may be a bit different depending on what tier of promotion they are in though. My best guess is that if Butler Shigure uses a Buddy Seal with Foleo, it would give him the option of going Strategist rather than any Dark Mage class. For a tier 1 promotion, I have no idea whatsoever because presumably it would only give the one option for the base class so there needs to be more research done on this with the game. I'm not sure if Fox Spirit is passed down to Shigure. I know it can be passed to Kanna, but it's one of those finicky special classes that maybe only certain units can get. Nishiki would probably pass Spellcaster in that situation, but I haven't heard any reports confirming what the beastmen would pass down to Shigure. Def and Res look like your best bets imo. +Mag/-Def was one of the better combos in Awakening and it gives good modifiers. Defense is pretty much the catch-all flaw in that it hurts neither offense nor does it hurt speed, making it ideal for the mixed offense combo you are suggesting. Dark Knight would work really well, since it has the defense mod to stomach the flaw in question. Basara is a good choice too, although you can't use Yato with it so I might still lean Dark Knight. (And just briefly checking the bases, Dark Knight has a good base defense of 8, so I don't think you should be hurting too much with it) IMO it'd be a choice between Dark Mage, Lance Fighter and Spellcaster. The latter two are better in terms of inheritance, so I would lean to those. Avatar can get Dark Knight in Nohr from an A with Leo/Odin/Nyx depending on gender. Res could work too, since the stats it hurts are bolstered by the magic asset. I'm personally leery of flaws that hurt speed significantly, but it's your best chance of having a fairly balanced Avatar stat-wise and growth-wise.

Fox Spirits are pretty easily better than Taguels. Beaststone bonuses aren't as great, but their caps are much better relative to other classes. Strength is a little low, but their speed/skill are on the upper echelons. Lack of braves does hurt as was mentioned earlier, but I do think they have potential on a high speed based team. They also have a 10 avoid bonus, so they could make solid dodgetanks, since Beaststone+ increases their speed even more. Azura/Nishiki is definitely considerable though. Both kids get access to Swallow Strike + Breaking Sky naturally from their parents, which can help out their offensive potential. I'm not sure if Shigure gets Fox Spirit from that exchange though.

Hinata has a few decent A+s and wife choices. Swallow Strike from Tsubaki helps a bit, as does access to Breaking Sky from Nishiki. Realistically, the problem I see for him in optimality is that the women who are most useful to him would be in higher demand elsewhere. And his mods are frankly godawful. Takumi and Saizou, while sharing the same -2 speed mod, have much better distributed stats across the board. (Extends to their kids too a bit. Gurei has some good niches but Kisaragi has problems. Kisaragi does have the skill that increases his speed if he waits though, so that makes up for it.) He could pull an alright Counter/Magic Counter set from marrying Sakura. Hisame also turns out OK and can run the same set, since Sakura doesn't hurt strength and cancels out his bad speed. (Sak's just so much better for Foleo on 3rd route though, so there's some competition) Hisame is kind of like Kisaragi in that both of them have really bad speed, but while Kisaragi lacks meaningful A+ options (Deere/Foleo aren't super useful unless he's full support, Shinonome has overlap, leaving Hisame himself) Hisame has some awesome ones. Shigure gives Swallow Strike if his father didn't pass it down, Gurei gives Ninja/Puppeteer, Lutz has Deadly Breath and Overbearing, and Kisaragi has a few good things from the Bowman class. I dare say that Hisame has probably the best A+ options out of all of the male children aside from Shinonome, who is so awesome himself that he arguably doesn't need them. Wife selection is pretty standard. Matoi for Swallow Strike, Mitama for Magic Counter if you're not doing Sakura!Hisame, Shara/Kinu for Breaking Sky, Midoriko for Extravagance, Sophie for Cav, Velour for Berserker and Hero. Ophelia is someone to consider if you want to try VV, but realistically since its proc rate is nerfed it's quite a bit more dangerous than it was in Awakening.

Assuming that certain damage-boosting abilities stack like they did in Awakening, any child of Mozume is going to be monstrous offensively. I already said that she was good, but taking a closer look shows that she's much better than I believed. She's looking more to me like a top tier mom every day. From her class set, she's able to nab Line of Death(10 both for attack and being attacked), Extravagance(10 and -10 for enemy attacks), Prescient Victory(4) and Bowfaire(5 if the class uses bows). From an A+ with Oboro, she can also opt to pass Defense Seal, Breaking Sky or Lancefaire if she really wants to. Now, the first two of those come from Villager - which means that the child is able to get both of those, also assuming Villager is passed down. (I don't see any reason why not) Just for a quick experiment, I tried Mozume!Velour and she does look pretty good. Mods don't look super crazy, but the offensive skillset makes up for it a ton. Mozume!Velour: 4/1/0/1/2/3/-2 (Garou, Fighter, Villager) Managarmr mods: 40/26/29/32/28/35/24 Berserker mods: 44/26/32/34/27/30/23 *Odd Fang,(4) Extravagance(10), Line of Death(10), Prescient Victory(4, inheritance) (+28) Berserker with Axefaire over Odd Fang and Breaking Sky, also Aggressor over Prescient Victory(since it's a stronger version) *Scavenge, Axefaire, Extravagance, Line of Death, Aggressor, Breaking Sky (Flannel A+ Nishiki or Velour A+ Kinu) Aulgelmir (22) 44 + 22 + 5 + 10 + 10 + 7 = 98 Breaking Sky proc rate: 48% (For the sake of this experiment I'll assume it will add 17 - 34/35 is a fairly common offensive stat from what I've seen) = 115 avg. damage: 98(.52) + 115(.48) = 50.96 + 55.2 = 106.16 per hit Against a target with 40 defense, that would round to about 66 damage. Not quite enough to kill a General, but if she doubles, she will. Mozume's mods are solid for this game, (Boosts both skill and speed without hurting either offense - a true rarity) she can marry anybody, and even without a faire Line of Death/Extravagance/Prescient Offense boosts damage by like 24 points for each gold coin used. Even on her own she could probably do good stuff in a PVP setting.

I was considering Orochi!Gurei as an attacker, but this is probably a much better way to use him, given his skills and that class set. Only thing is that I would consider picking up Defensive Formation from the Logbook. (Gurei gets it from an A+ with Ignis or being mothered by Avatar) Strategist is a very squishy class, and with neutral defenses and -3 speed he does run the risk of getting severely damaged or one-rounded by particularly strong units. If he's not being used in an offensive manner, Defensive Formation to prevent death by doubling does seem like a good idea to me.

Lazward can't get Swordfaire from an A+ with Odin. Buddy Seals only allow reclassing into the partner's base class. Soleil I feel is one of the tougher kids to work with, mostly because both her and Lazward's A+ options are middling at best. Lazward's A+ options are Saizou(Ninja overlap), Xander(Cav), Odin(Dark Mage) and Flannel(Fighter). Since Belka can get Fighter on her own and pass down a skill from that tree, I wouldn't recommend going there unless you want to make Lazward a good unit on his own. Xander is really the only choice out of those imo - I might pass Luna unless she can get it another way. In that case maybe pass Lifetaker from Odin. Belka's A+ support options are Oboro(Lance Fighter), Camilla(Wyvern, maybe Dark Mage?), Luna(Merc) and Charlotte(Fighter overlap). All of them barring Oboro are pretty much useless to her, so if you're not on third route you might have a hard time. Soleil's A+ options are Sophie(Cav), Mitama(Priestess), Ophelia(Dark Mage) and Eponine(Thief). Sophie and Mitama are probably the best of them, tbh. With Nosferatu nerfed Dark Mage doesn't work as well with Merc now. Thief has some class overlap and the skills are situational. Soleil's husbands are probably going to be the most beneficial sources of class skills to her. Shigure can give Swallow Strike, Siegbert is good but redundant if she A+ with Sophie. Ignis is also pretty decent - he's another source of Luna and if you're going with Belka you might want Defensive Formation to deal with her low speed. In third route Gurei overlaps leaving Kisaragi, who honestly isn't too bad for her - Bowfaire and Prescient Strike could make her work as a Bow Knight. If you're going to make her an Elite Ninja, I would just go Kunaifaire for the filler skill. 1-2 range attack + debuff looks like a pretty powerful niche - might as well try to capitalize on it as much as you can.

For Luna!Matoi, Luna has better A+ options than Hinoka at the cost of Matoi having less freedom for A+ supports herself. She's mostly forced to A+ Shara if she wants Breaking Sky, since Tsubaki can't pass it himself. It's not a big deal, though, since Sophie and Shara suit her needs much better than Mitama and Eponine. Luna can A+ with Setsuna(same as Hinoka), Pieri(Cav), Camilla and Belka. (both Wyvern) I'm leaning a little bit towards Pieri if you don't care for Breaking Sky so that she can at least get Luna, but Camilla/Belka could work too. Maybe pass Deadly Breath in that case. For the asset/flaw combo, Luck is a viable flaw as well. I would have gone with it myself but I didn't want to reduce her offenses too much. Wouldn't recommend a luck flaw for Luna!Matoi since she doesn't hit as hard by default, but you might be able to get away with it on Hinoka!Matoi.

I think the base part of the story does its job, (it, uh, carries the direction of the game) but it's much better in the first half than the second. The Valm arc could have been handled much better. I did not care at all about any of the characters I allied with or had to fight in the second half, compared to what they did in the first half. There was no development or nothing memorable about characters who appeared for a short time. (Compare Mustapha to Pheros, for instance) All the time spent on Valm as a result made the final parts of the game feel extremely rushed. Supports were generally not good with notable exceptions based on characters. It almost felt that they were written completely separate from everything else in the game, and there are loads of stinkers in there.(Nah/Inigo, Chrom/Sumia, the entirety of Kjelle's character, Cordelia's supports not even touching her role in the story. Pretty sure all of those were there even in the original Japanese) Anything good that I have to say about the supports come entirely from the localization and how they changed things. (and if what I've heard of Fates' supports is true, then my greatest fears for the game have been realized and they kept the support writers from last time)

I vote for Lurch Incidentally, if you're concerned about the somewhat low strength of Butlers, it might be worth picking up Kunaifaire as a possible inheritance. Ryoma and Xander can pick it up through an A+ with Saizou/Kaze respectively. Children who can A+ with Gurei (Deere/Shinonome/Hisame/Ignis) can pick it up too. Felicia x Hinata is also the only option left for a Hoshido male butler child, since you seem to be doing Elise x Ryoma and the other two can get it through Buddy Seal. Also, I don't think that Kaze and Jakob can A+. I think that it's Gunter who gets it.