Furetchen's Highly Opinionated and Probably Inaccurate Ratings

[Blasied]

I nominate Gilliam.

[Junkhead]

Yes to Gilliam.

[BBM]

Ross, a 3? What? I might be biased, but even then, he's 4 at the least. Hatchet allows him to train, and he also comes early game, where there are few 2-range users who can attack back. Even if he's promoted at Chapter 7, that's 5 chapters before Amelia if you baby her a lot, according to you. And at lategame, he's still better than Amelia. And this is only 1 point's difference?

[Junkhead]

Indeed. I didn't pay attention to that, he could perhaps reach to a five at most, it's not like he's like the other trainees, he comes at CHAPTER 2.

[Parrhesia]

Ross will probably get a 3, due to Hatchet and availability. Ewan a 1 or 2.

That...yeah. Well, I'll do his review at some other point, taking intae account that he's better than Syrene easily. I'll probably give him a 3.5, 4. Should Amelia go down?

GILLIAM

Giiillliaaammm issss sloooow.

No, I won't speak (type. Whatever) in that ... vein for the whole thing (it'ssss fuuun thoough). But it's true. Gilliam might double...like, zombies, maybe. Let's check the stats.

Actually, Gilliam's faster than Garcia by 10% growth, albeit with a worse start. And he has the same growth as...as fuggen GERIK. And Duessel.

But back to business. Gilliam's 3 speed start is still pretty deplorable, and he'll never be doublin' the important stuff. Fortunately, he's an Armour Knight, and they don't care about this kinda thing much. He comes in Chapter One with 9 Str and 9 Def, making him almost invincible at the start. His growths are 45 and 55 respectively, so he'll keep getting stronger and tougher.

And...that's it for the positives. Pretty good positives, but...arright. Let's start with 4 move. This is heartbreaking. I was whining about Amelia being weak and slow before, but Gilliam's equally slow. And he'll take a while to promote. And you might end up going General anyway. Also, while Franz and Eirika are merrily leaping about with swords killing bandits in Chapters 2 and 3, and even Ross can reasonably expect to chip a few...well. Gilliam will prob'ly never hit, and his durability drops to Sword!Franz's. Except he won't dodge.

So you get Gilliam through all this drama and finally promote him...how? He's competing against Forde, Franz, Kyle and ... Amelia, I guess. There are I think 2 Knight Crests, unless you save all of Duessel's cavaliers, in which case three. The cavaliers are all great units. Amelia has the potential to be a great unit, but won't. But even if Franz dies and Kyle has like 10 Strength? What do you get then?

You get the same slow, reliable character who takes ages to die (barring mages) will hit frequently (barring WTD) and either STILL can't keep up or has double the vulnerability to slayers. Gilliam gets a

6/10.

[Anouleth]

Well, Ross is very much a growth unit. It's basically spending your time babying him in earlygame to get a h4x boss-killer in lategame. But taking an extra turn killing Lyon vs taking an extra turn in C4 to get him an extra level? I'm not sure if that's being a net positive.

[Parrhesia]

Anyway, I need someone to talk about next. Suggestions...?

[Scarlet]

Anyway, I need someone to talk about next. Suggestions...?

Do Tana, please. ^^

[Parrhesia]

TANA

I'll admit, I've never used Tana. But I can give her a mark outta ten, at least, I hope, perhaps, if we're lucky, maybe.

Tana doesn't have a great joining situation. On Eph mode her join chapter is immediately followed by Chapter 10 (enjoy the ballistae) and 11 (enjoy being slaughtered by gargoyles). I don't believe Eirika mode has the same death traps, and you can train her in her join chapter, to some extent. So she's not looking so hot Eph mode, but if not her join situation isn't that bad, per se. She may be underlevelled, but she at least levels quickly with great growths.

So apart from that, Tana...flies. And when you do train her, she's good. But when you can have Cormag, even on Eir route, coming at a better level in (IMO) a better class? When you already have Vanessa, who has worse offense but can still fight and fly? When...no, I'm not gonna mention Syrene.

Well, I'm not certain what scores to give her. I'm open for arguments either side, but for now at least Tana gets

6.5/10 Eir

5.5/10 Eph

[BK-201]

That...yeah. Well, I'll do his review at some other point, taking intae account that he's better than Syrene easily. I'll probably give him a 3.5, 4. Should Amelia go down?

So you get Gilliam through all this drama and finally promote him...how? He's competing against Forde, Franz, Kyle and ... Amelia, I guess. There are I think 2 Knight Crests, unless you save all of Duessel's cavaliers, in which case three. The cavaliers are all great units. Amelia has the potential to be a great unit, but won't. But even if Franz dies and Kyle has like 10 Strength? What do you get then?

Yes, she should go down.

If you are going for efficiency, Amelia really won't be much for competition. Consider that she gets a free auto promo at 10/-/- and will have to level 9 more times.

Edited April 18, 2010 by BK-201

[Parrhesia]

Done. She's now...half a point higher than Orson. Heh.

I know Amelia WON'T really be competition for Gilliam in the Knight Crest department, but was just throwing on another trivial obstacle (like the reference to Ewan in Moulder's thing)

Who should I review next?

[Integrity]

Who's even left?

Neimi.

[Thor Odinson]

You should review God himself Seth and his godliness.

[Integrity]

Seth reviews aren't interesting. Seth raeps all, Seth solos the early and middle and most of the endgame, Seth is the greatest unit in FE8 and in fact Fire Emblem history, 10.5/10, et cetera, et cetera.

It's all true, yes, but it's not interesting.

[Thor Odinson]

Someone could always write it in a way that makes it interesting.

You know, I make this a challenge. An interesting Seth review.

(also, review Natasha.)

[Integrity]

I planned to give Seth a 9.5 below somebody else (it's not marisa.), but I've not gotten even close to there so I can probably spoil the surprise.

[Parrhesia]

Okay, I'll do Neimi now, then Seth, then Natasha. I'll see if I can fit them into one.

Oh, by the way, I won't be rating Tethys. She's a dancer. I'm unqualified to argue Dancers.

NEIMI

Neimi's shite.

Okay, that was maybe going too far. Neimi is a bitter disappointment to her awesome grandfather. For one, she has purple hair and cries a lot and was the basis for Rolf and pisses me off. For two, she comes as a level one archer in chapter three, beating only the level -10 guy in offence. Neimi has 4 strength. This wouldn't be as bad if she didn't start with 6 speed and 5 skill, which is just ... strange.

You'll struggle to level her up, and training her is fairly inefficient. She can hop in a ballista on an easy chapter, I guess. That's prob'ly her most profitable method of certain suicide.

But lessay you get her to level 10-20. Not out of the question, but it'll take a while. Here, Neimi isn't bad. She is either a good Sniper or a better Ranger, although at least in my experience (your mileage may vary) Neimi's skills with a blade take a little too long to blossom to be that useful.

Neimi; not really worth it, overall. She can at least chip things to a fair standard, and gets good supports (superfast with Colm, not too bad FireXFire with Garcia), but is inescapably the Leonardo of a game with no real Shinon. Neimi garners a meagre

3.5/10

SETH

Seth is power. Seth is speed. Seth is not dying. Seth is auto-As. Seth is coming for YOU with a Silver Lance, O'Neil. You better be ready.

Don't mess with Seth.

10 out of- oh, wait, I gotta make this one interesting.

So Seth has rockin' supports with Anima affinity, and is one of the best classes in the game, with auto-As and fairly good bases and good growths. He saves a lot of time even if you just meatwall and can demolish flanks with a Slim Sword. There is no better candidate for stopping the enemy in it's tracks. Then in midgame, Seth is probably still your best unit alongside Duessel, although he's probably almost being caught up to by, like, Franz. Then endgame. Well, Chapter 19 is the last great challenge in the game and Seth will, by then, be fairly fragile in HP but fairly strong everywhere else. He's probably not your best unit any more, but still stands up solidly to everyone else. And with Vidofnir he will doublekill anything. He's one of your best candidates for the damn thing, guaranteed to hit S Lances or Swords.

Well, that's Seth. He gets, for obvious reasons, a

10/10.

NATASHA

Natasha comes at Chapter...Five, if I recall. The one with Saar, the Bandit with a (sickeningly ugly) face and also Joshua. Anyway, she comes somewhat early, despite being level two...she won't level that quickly, either, as Moulder should prob'ly be doing most of the healing for starting higher level. But she's still very useful for not costing you Vulneraries or wasting potential attacks.

Anyways, Natasha is pretty good at the beginning, but probably won't be promoted, as everything that applies to Moulder also applies to her, slightly worse. However, if she is promoted, she still won't disappoint. She has high magic despite her pathetic base, and will needless to say one-shot a lot of zombies as a Bishop and one-round a lot of humans and zombies as a Sage.

But really, again, Natasha doesn't bring anything new to the table. Pretty much just think of a slightly more Est-ish Moulder, and you're away. Natasha also has slightly worse supports (if you actually put Moulder and Vanessa near each other (WHY?) then Moulder has a good-sized advantage, but even without her he has good supports), so Natasha gets a

7.5/10.

Edited April 19, 2010 by Furetchen

[Integrity]

Natasha can't promote to Sage. She's Bishop/Valkyrie.

Seth wasn't interesting. :P

Neimi deserved higher. Or, at least, I wish she did. :(

[Anouleth]

Okay, I'll do Neimi now, then Seth, then Natasha. I'll see if I can fit them into one.

Oh, by the way, I won't be rating Tethys. She's a dancer. I'm unqualified to argue Dancers.

NEIMI

Neimi's shite.

Okay, that was maybe going too far. Neimi is a bitter disappointment to her awesome grandfather. For one, she has purple hair and cries a lot and was the basis for Rolf and pisses me off. For two, she comes as a level one archer in chapter three, with a worse offense than the level -10 guy from last chapter. That's right, Neimi plucks her Iron Bow with a mighty 4 base Strength.

Actually, claiming that Neimi's offense is worse than Ross' is just plain incorrect. Let's see...

Base level Neimi C Colm w/Iron Bow

11mt 6AS 104HIT 7CRT

Base level Ross w/Hatchet

9mt 3AS 97HIT 1CRT

w/Hand Axe

13mt 0AS 72HIT 1CRT

It's obvious that Neimi is curbstomping poor Ross.

Also, arriving at level 1 in chapter three isn't that bad. Lute arrives halfway through Chapter 4 at level one and nobody cares, for example. Low level doesn't matter this early in the game.

You'll struggle to level her up, and training her is really inefficient. She can hop in a ballista on an easy chapter, I guess. That's prob'ly her most profitable method of certain suicide.

Why? Nobody except Seth and Garcia are 1-rounding at this point in the game, and Garcia won't 1-round stuff he doesn't double. She has plenty of opportunities to do chip damage, and she's also improving Colm's offense.

But lessay you get her to level 10-20. What then? You either get an inferior Sniper to Innes (or one that isn't your while) or an inferior Ranger to Gerik (although Gerik's better as a Hero, at least IMO.)

?

15/1 Sniper Neimi

29HP 13STR 13SKL 15SPD 11LUK 7DEF 9RES

Base Innes

31HP 14STR 13SKL 15SPD 14LUK 10DEF 9RES

Before supports - Neimi can easily have B Colm or whatever by this point, so Innes' strength lead is worthless. Plus, Neimi would rather go Ranger so she out moves Innes and can use Swords, and her growths are better so she will become better. And OH NO she's inferior to Gerik, as if he's not one of the best characters in the entire game.

NATASHA

Natasha comes at Chapter...Five, if I recall. The one with Saar, the Bandit with a (sickeningly ugly) face and also Joshua. Anyway, she comes somewhat early, despite being level two...she won't level that quickly, either, as Moulder should prob'ly be doing most of the healing for starting higher level. But she's still very useful for not costing you Vulneraries or wasting potential attacks.

I never really got why Moulder's existence invalidates Natasha's usefulness. Natasha is only slightly outperformed by Moulder earlygame and slightly outperforms him lategame, and it's not like Moulder is forced or something. It would be like saying that we won't use Franz because Seth is better.

Anyways, Natasha is pretty good at the beginning, but probably won't be promoted, as everything that applies to Moulder also applies to her, slightly worse. However, if she is promoted, she still won't disappoint. She has high magic despite her pathetic base, and will needless to say one-shot a lot of zombies as a Bishop and one-round a lot of humans and zombies as a Sage.

Her promotion options are Bishop and Valkyrie, I prefer Valkyrie for the pony and increased EXP.

But really, again, Natasha doesn't bring anything new to the table. Pretty much just think of a slightly more Est-ish Moulder, and you're away. Natasha also has slightly worse supports (if you actually put Moulder and Vanessa near each other (WHY?) then Moulder has a good-sized advantage, but even without her he has good supports), so Natasha gets a

7/10.

She might drop down to a 6.5, depending on other people's opinion.

I think she's a little bit underrated. She's pretty useful as a backup staff user when so many staves are useful. But by the time you need a backup healer (around C13 Eph Route and C14 Eir Route), you already have L'arachel and Saleh who are likely better at the job. However, she has lategame advantages and is certainly never useless.

[Rewjeo]

Really? Neimi's getting 14 levels in 8 chapters? Do we even assume FRANZ gets that, let alone miss "I only have player phase, and it still sucks!"? More like 10/1, at best. He has 3 STR, 2.5 SKL, and 2.6 SPD on her. Maybe only the SKL and SPD thanks to Colm.

[Anouleth]

Really? Neimi's getting 14 levels in 8 chapters? Do we even assume FRANZ gets that, let alone miss "I only have player phase, and it still sucks!"? More like 10/1, at best. He has 3 STR, 2.5 SKL, and 2.6 SPD on her. Maybe only the SKL and SPD thanks to Colm.

Colm support gives hit and crit too, so make that just speed. And Neimi has a higher growth and a pony and swords access. And this is horribly sandbagging Neimi by promoting her super early.

And while I don't assume 14 levels for Franz in 8 chapters per se, I fully expect my characters to be gaining more than a level per chapter, or he gets to walk into Last Hope still unpromoted. Typically, my best characters can get to about 20/10 by the end of the game, with 20/5 for the failures and 10/8 to 15/8 for the healers, depending on which one is on Warp duty. So maybe 10 levels in 8 chapters? Still, Innes won't have joined until halfway through C11, so Neimi has 9 chapters really, and is generally going to be underlevelled and gaining good exp.

[Rewjeo]

But she STILL only has player phase, and hers isn't good. Her EXP gain isn't anything to rave about, even while horribly underleveled.

[Anouleth]

Lute only has Player Phase as well, since her Enemy Phase sucks forever. Same for Artur. Are Lute and Artur going to be levels 9 and 10 in Chapter 11? Unless you want to glue Moulder to them and throw them into groups of enemies, their enemy phase doesn't exist either. Lute's player pase isn't knocking anyone down either until Lute/Artur gets going.

[Narga_Rocks]

Lute only has Player Phase as well, since her Enemy Phase sucks forever. Same for Artur. Are Lute and Artur going to be levels 9 and 10 in Chapter 11? Unless you want to glue Moulder to them and throw them into groups of enemies, their enemy phase doesn't exist either. Lute's player pase isn't knocking anyone down either until Lute/Artur gets going.

Yeah, as much as no enemy phase absolutely prevents units from reaching the highest tiers, we aren't talking wanting a 9 or anything instead of an 8. There is an upper bound on where player phase only units can end up from game to game (shinon probably reaches the maximum on that scale) but really snipers aren't all that different from most squishy mages. I mean, we generally aren't talking promoted Asvel on a mountain or sety/arthur with Holsety or anything. Most mages are almost exclusively player phase only for the first half of their existence. Or more. And depending on the game there are times where having decent durability and among the best 2 range offence on the team is a boon. Particularly in fe6, but there are times in other games as well.

[Parrhesia]

Consensus seems to be that I need to bump up Moulder and Natasha by half a point each. So, uh, I'm gonna do that.

Might end up rewriting Neimi's review completely, as it's apparently by far the most controversial. For now, I'm editing it a bit.

Edited April 19, 2010 by Furetchen