Best Foot Unit in the Game

[Espinosa]

Not including pure utility units, though I added Lee anyway because he can fight pretty well with the basic tomes and then Sylpheed, and fighting is what he's good at for a large portion of the game. Not many will vote for him anyway.

My vote has to go to Vega. Early availability, barely ever dies and his unique weapon is too cool. Just the right stats and skills.

Second best would be Rishel, though I guess a full LTC run would skip him entirely (Narcus needn't be talked to after the 1st split, but it takes a while to get Bud to Rishel). Just immense power and durability.

[Icon of Sin]

Going for Lionel on this one. Pilum spears make great, somewhat cheap and accurate 1-2 range that he can spam throughout his entire career. Life or Death can solve his shortcomings against armored opponents/shield users/bosses and Awareness has some situationnal uses later on. City Fighter is also among the best Fighter skills since it's used very often and because of Life or Death he doesn't mind not having Frontier Fighter since he gets some free critical from lava.

As for the otherss :

Runan doesn't really have enough scrrentime to grow into a powerhouse, especially if you let him have a few mounted units tag around with him. Even grown up he remains a bit subpar as a fighter.

Lee reminds me a bit of good old Wendel : great staff utility throughout the game, great magic output at first but it becomes of a somewhat lower importance later on. Not having skills or good growths don't help much.

Barts is pretty solid but his low luck might bite him in the ass later when enemies might get some existing critical on him. You really don't want to face Dark Mages using Death with him. Mountain Fighter is useless for the last half of the game too.

I like Vega for his durability, but Lionel's is more concrete rather than being skill/weapon based. He's great in a pinch against monsters and just about any kind of situation where you think Heaven Saint could help. Magic only 2 range hurts him a bit too.

Holmes is a bit like Runan but instead of being forced to seize, he's usually forced to steal chests and open doors. He's arguably a better fighter than Runan though, and of course he can always benefit from training unlike him.

Shigen's a slightly more offensive Vega but less durable. Yes he has Dullahan, but I never really liked the weapon. He wouldn't need the revive so much if the thing wasn't so heavy and inaccurate.

Samson is a more accurate and durable Barts with a better Fighter skill. Sadly, he loses Charge, but since he still hits pretty hard and he won't miss as much, it's not that bad. Gale is great with Hatchets too.

Rishel is great for his power, range and durability, but he does appear pretty late so he has a bit less of an impact.

Sierra's able to get some one turn completions on a few maps with a bit of luck, but much like Rishel, she joins pretty late, and she usually requires a bunch of stat boosters to do that.

Renee's also noteworthy for making the last quarter a cakewalk.

[grandjackal]

Considering that Sierra lets you skip a good portion of maps (that are espeially obnoxious), and that Rishel is basically a magic general with a potent 1-3 range nuke and a sniper spell, is there any mystery that they're the most powerful? Renee is an odd one cause she's...Technically not a soldier. Like she doesn't ever actually fight herself. She just has a staff...Fuck ranking staffers, but she and Sierra should be considered the same unit.

If over the course of the game though, I'd go with Samson. Doesn't have fancy skills, but he has access to weapons that only Lothar can ever really have access to: Dolharken for hulksmashing, and Master Axe which combines beautifully with Gale so even if he doesn't have that key 5 agility, he can still bypass it with greater AS and Gale combined with Brave effect, which also in turn partially negates his luck issue (they can't crit you if they're dead). Considering his great physical durability, lategame he is absurdly hard to kill while still dishing out pretty great offense.

Earlygame, he's basically Barts (who I do like, thank you Espi), but without the weaknesses and a lategame, and Scissor Axe for the eyeball chapter since that weapon has almost perfect acc for them. Has Frontier Fighter which is probably the best fighter skill. In my eyes, he's the full package.

As for the others..Holmes is great but not perfect on the basis of bowlock until promo. Lee as stated is Wendell, but it's downplayed since actual healing isn't really all that important since the game basically forces healers on you and gives you a lot of Longheal.

Vega has the benefit of his sword guaranteeing him showtime in any monster map so that is potent on it's own, and Shigen's sword means he never needs healing and can run headfirst into clearly stupid situations which let you manipulate otherwise impossible situations, but they both just don't really have the offense until they promote. They do have unique performance though, so they're still cool (though I still don't think Vega's is that big a deal).

As for Lionel...Yeah, he's super solid but that's the best I can call him. I just don't see him as ridiculous overpowered, or having some absurdly good niche. If there's anything awesome about him, it's that he's a Knight Crest unit that's actually worth a damn long term.

So while I don't count Rishel or Sierra cause...They're ridiculous and calling them Footsoldiers is an insult to them, I would say among the mortal men? Samson shines most to me.

...

But I voted Barts anyways. You put the work into it, I figure I won't let it go to waste. But Samson's the serious answer from me.

Edited March 1, 2013 by grandjackal

[Swordsalmon]

I voted Barts, though I haven't finished the game yet. Xeno and Shigen are both pretty cool, too. ^_^