What do supports do and do they matter?

[Azz]

So this is my first time playing a gba fire emblem game and I heard there were supports but they do not work like in later instalments.I know they change some endings but what else do they do?

[Kirie]

In addition to support text and changed endings for A support characters, supports can also affect combat ability. Depending on the affinity of the characters in question, supports will give bonuses to various stats including Attack, Defense, Avoid, Accuracy, Critical, and Critical Evade, with a stronger bonus the higher the support level is.

Specific information on the FE8 supports can be found here and here.

[Azz]

Thanks.:)

[Robert Stewart]

Another important thing to note is that you can only have a total of 5 supports per character. Meaning you can, say, have a character with one A support and one B support, not 5 A supports. That's something you should watch out for.

[Elieson]

For what it's worth, you can pretty easily beat the game with 0 supports (in regards to the stat bonuses), even on the highest difficulty. In the game boy games, it's pretty much just an extra story feature that gives little bits of boosts if you take your time while playing.