What's the point?

[luigi bros]

What do you think the idea when putting certain units into the game? I mean units like Renault, Yodel, FE3B2 Roshe, and Hannibal. They serve practically no purpose so why do you think they were put in?

[-Cynthia-]

You mean plotwise or gameplay wise? Plotwise they usually do have pretty signficant relevance.

Gameplay wise, someone with S staves is decent filler IMO. FE games throw in prepromoted units in case your other units died, so that you don't fail in later chapters so much.

[Zath of the Sword]

I think its in case you screwed up and need strong units...basic there there to help you out if you need them, and they come with nice items:)

[Krad]

They are there as replacements in case you have bad units or everyone died or something like that. Units like the Laguz Royals in RD are in the same boat. They weren't added to overkill the game (Ok, maybe they were), they were added to help complete the part 4 chapters if you messed up on the team making (Every strong character to one team, leaving the rest with weak ones).

Also, they usually have some importance on the story. The ones you have in the first post: Renult has this backstory with Kishuna and Nergal, Yodel is the one who tells Roy about dragons, Roshe knows that Hardin is doing bad stuff and decides to leave him, and Hannibal's one of the main generals of Thracia, and he makes appearances on both Jugdral games.

Of course, there are characters like Oliver that make you wonder what was IS smoking when they added him. lol20ASforEndgame.

[-Cynthia-]

I think the problems with the Laguz Royals is that there are so many of them. Caineghis, Giffca, Nailah, Tibarn, and Naesala are half an Endgame team all by themelves. They also tended to be better than various trained units, whereas most late joiners tend to be equal or worse.

[Krad]

That was the main problem with them. IS had a good idea with them: one per route, just in case the player screwed up in the team selection. But then they got to Endgame and decided not to bother anymore. The game even rewards you for bringing all the royals to the tower (You get to see some extra dialogue, the same happens if you bring Mist).

They should have done what they did with the herons for Endgame. Choose one out of Tibarn, Naesala, Caineghis and Nailah, the rest becoming unavailable. Giffca could be on the same list, but he needs an item to transform, so whatever.

The Royals were a good experiment, but it ended up making the last few chapters a joke instead of a challenge.

Edited March 4, 2010 by Krad

[Scarlet]

Well, as others already said, gameplay-wise units like Renault or Yodel are mainly fillers or replacements I guess, in case most of your team died and/or you only have weak characters remaining. It happens to newer FE players. Heck, I actually call myself a pretty decent FE player and ended up completing FE5 with only 21 units left the first time I played it, with a large bunch of those remaining units being prepromotes that I never even used. Their purpose is to ensure that you're at least able to complete the game if you actually came far enough to get them (see Athos. He can't solo the final chapter for nothing).

Also, particularly units like Yodel and Renault may even be useful to a somewhat more experienced FE player, simply due to their high staff rank. Taking FE6 as an example, chapter 22 and 23 sure are a major pain if you don't bring Restore staves, or have nobody who's able to use them. You might even want two Restore users, but chances are that you only trained one of the staff users. And having more healers is always a good thing anyway.

[Progenitus]

It's either...

1) really bad balancing.

2) IS is just lazy.

[Mekkah]

When they add units to the game, their main goal doesn't seem to be balance. They also don't seem to have a very good idea (or at least not the same as we do) of what makes a unit good or bad.

[Hero]

When they add units to the game, their main goal doesn't seem to be balance. They also don't seem to have a very good idea (or at least not the same as we do) of what makes a unit good or bad.

This.

I think that (with a couple exceptions) IS has always had casual and first-time Fire Emblem players in mind before the more hardcore players that come to this site. Fire Emblem has a very devoted fandom considering its size, but they're always looking to draw in new people. Mid- and late-game prepromotes are mostly there to replace characters that have fallen (Yes, some people do have characters die outside of Shadow Dragon) and also to replace improperly trained characters. A character like Karel might be practically useless to a player that's trained Guy, but a first-timer might not have known enough to do that. It's not "balanced", but it works.

Fire Emblem wasn't designed with power-gamers in mind. It's easy to forget how much of the information on this site, information that we use and exploit in every playthrough and debate, is completely hidden in the game.

Edited March 4, 2010 by Hero

[Mousefire]

Hannibal was just put in for a general. Frankly, he's not terrible

[luigi bros]

I mean gameplay wise. I agree with most people. When I first played FE, which was FE7, I look back at it like it was a joke playthrough. I had non-promoted units in the Final Chapter and spent an hour retrying, having to solo with Athos. If it wasn't for him, I'd never have beaten the game.

[Anouleth]

I think it's more that they simply don't care about balance. They probably realised how unusable Sophia is, but they put her in anyway. The only reason is that it doesn't matter to them - and why should it? This isn't a multiplayer game, there's no 'metagame'.

And the wide variety of units serves a purpose as well. You can make the game more or less challenging for yourself by picking different units.