Really appreciate the updated video, and I mostly agree with all your points in this one (especially the one about playing without him being a better learning experience). Though I will make one more _tiny_ correction: as far as I am aware, experience is not "split" between squad members, it is calculated on a unit-by-unit basis based on their level vs. the enemies', whether the unit was alive at the end of combat (I think it's something like half experience if they're down), and whether the enemy squad was routed or not. So as far as experience gains go, packing your squads as much as you can is the way to go and Joseph being in a squad doesn't really steal a fraction of the experience from the other units in the squad. What I meant in my previous comment was that he's a slot that is *always* going to hit the overlevel penalty early game and by putting him in a squad, he's taking up a slot that could be filled with someone that wouldn't be suffering that penalty and thus getting more total experience from a fight overall. However, also because of this, he can allow units that normally don't fight and/or need a chance to catch up to participate and possibly win fights for more experience than they would be struggling to do by themselves or just sitting on the bench. Like Lex... or Hodrick... or anyone else who will probably be helpful later, but isn't just amazing out of the box.
Josef strengths : 2 AP 2 PP at the start of the game is so powerful, allows him to clean fights you shouldn't clean otherwise. If you want to go a bit fast if not speedrunning he's great. He has really good skills like you said in the video. He also has poor stats but his decent magic attack makes him a deadly force with the Runic Sworld. He also trivializes certain maps where there are many wizards try to kill you with magic assists, like Auch chapter, Yahna and Tatiana maps as well. Basically, Josef is a glorified Radiant Knight that's super good early on as a killer/support/healer because he can do anything. Promoted Radiant Knights will be better than him and yes his stats are bad but he will still be a decent good and a good support for no cost because he joins for free. Even your Fire Emblem vision is kinda wrong. The early game paladin does not "steal xp", he's here to do things your other units cannot do yet. And that's the same for Josef.
"Prepromotes are not bad." Say it with me everyone. In games like Triangle Strategy there's people like Flanagan, Benedict and Archibald. In Fire Emblem there's Jeigan, Marcus and Nimeh. The only downside to them is you have to play differently than you normally would be to give them XP. You have to consider their skills and benefits. Josef being able to attack twice or heal twice per combat round in a squad based game is extremely important. If he was by himself in a one on one fight he might've been rebalanced to be a trap like a few people from other series I mentioned. But he's fine as is because he doesn't need to be specifically on high ground like Archibald to be effective, he doesn't have issues with movement like Benedict or Flanagan either. They can either only move and act or act for the sake of others in a given turn. Josef seems to ignore this issue as he can usually do it all in one turn if you don't overextend his current squad. Finally, unlike Fire Emblem paladins mages and a bunch of other units don't get to ignore or abuse type effects as much because suddenly your paladin who should stop a given rain of fireballs suddenly has zero magic defense vs. a particular unit or squad.
I agree you shouldn’t only use the early promoted character since your other will struggle to grow, similar to FE. However by using Josef on a squad you will clear maps faster therefore getting better rewards, he can easily heavily chunk bosses to give the kill exp to whoever you want, often with Alain’s exp boost. Also any unit you pair with him will have extremely easy access to exp as well. In Fire emblem using that early promoted character isn’t a trap either, Titania, Seth, and Marcus make the game far easier by using them the entire game than not using them at all. In Engage you get so many units joining you mid game it’s extremely easy to use Vander the 1st 10 chapters then replace them with someone who joins more capable. You of course will make the game harder if you give them everything, but giving them the same share you give other characters just makes the game easier.
you'll notice when he'll start falling off offensively if you speed run the game and play the northern end of Cornia. Statistically speaking, level 15 characters that you trained are all stronger than him, but his class skills are super good, he'll more than likely continue to be a good support character throughout the game depending on your unit makeups.
honestly Josef is a tool that give exp to specific units. Whoever you pair josef with in the early game will win combats really easily which will give them so much exp
well hey, cheers for being reactive and responsible with your coverage on the game. the metrics play would have been leaving the old one up and linking to the updated one in the comments (i.e. the lazy way lol) so appreciate the commitment on not leaving incomplete info laying around
Using Josef doesn't cost you exp, you are treating this as a FE game. Exp can be grinded with the skirmish (the lv 13 one is very abusable because of the catapult) and using Josef early means you will beat stages much faster (which nets you much more exp), less item and time spent in the early stages means you can unlock the units that you want to use faster. If exp was limited you would be right. Btw I agree that he isn't needed and that he falls off a lot, how useful he will be as a damage dealer/support will depend based on what kind of unique equipment he will get access to but calling him a trap when he allows you to gain the most exp per hour early on is plain wrong.
For a casual player who is first playing the game exp per hour is not a relevant point imo. Until they unlock infinite exp grind it will cause them to lose exp on a unit that could be getting it.
@@purplatypus7405 A casual player will benefit vastly more from Josef since it makes the first 10 levels faster/easier. The first skirmish is lv6, the second is lv 13 so very early. Exp per hour is the only relevant point since casual or veteran you will lv up faster by clearing more fights faster. Your argument makes zero sense, Josef allows you to powerlevel weaker units super fast, on top on giving you tons of money through the golden egg. If time doesn't matter than what does? Josef isn't burning any permanent resourse for you. Josef is the character that allows you to make 200k in the demo while finishing everything in it in less than 4 hours.
that was the thing I exactly thought, that he would die within the first hours for defending the main character, would be such a classic, the reason he gets no exp is not a joseph thing tho, when you are too high to get exp depending on the fight your character level turns red and you get close to no exp and since there is no encounter you can do in the demo that is close to that level he can't earn exp. I think the highest was on the top with level 14, the level 40 quests are locked in the demo unfortunately I would have loved to try them in easy difficulty with some cheese
Totally agree he makes the early game too easy and that he brute forces stuff he shouldnt but hey, this is a niche of a niche genre. If people want the help while learning mechanics, go ham. I think they lined up his power curve perfectly. I found him to slot in at a fair power level around the level 12-15 area which you can only get to in the demo if you go real fast or itll be just after the demo. Thats a good amount of time to learn the game.
the game does tell you though, dont keep using the same unit over and over fighting, and the stamina is one way to prevent that, the game kind of warns you about it.
He doesnt get better later, on the contrary, once you get to lvl 11-14 he starts falling of really fast. You dont need to manage xp gain in this game, they are sigils on the map that you can use to train units. If you want to get the most out of the demo you absolutely should use him.
Speaking of FE brain I'm looking forward to the month after the game's release where video creators like you are going to make videos saying not using Josef is a newbie trap. FE community is pretty solidly on the old man on horse good train. Will Marcus be as strong as a 20/20 Kent, no, is Kent going to be 20/20 though, also no, and Marcus is at most times good enough which is all that matters. Thats even ignoring units like Seth where they are without question the best unit available.
for me its 50/50 I tend not to use him, but at same time as a person into fantasy lore/immersion, one of the finest knights and protector of the young prince is refusing to fight the early rebellion with him? It doesnt work for me, so I have him as an unit with travis and handle some fights here and there, then he will be swapped for Clive, around where the Demo ends, and you are off to seek the aid of the elves.
i can agree he is an exp trap, or a better term exp void. Im not sure if this is already implemented, but the exp should be shared across the unit, to avoid that type of situation. and ofc it should be distributed based off level, the lower lever gets a higher percentage of the total and vice versa . that way you arent punished for using him but idk i haven't tested it. it could already be in the game lol
Exp is not limited becuase of exp farm stages that they added. At best he soaks a little exp that could go to someone else meaning you have a farm a little more, and in reality he helps lower powered squads be effective.
I'm using Josef on expert mode and I have to say Josef is pretty much a tool given to us to use. To not use him in a game where there's little detrimental effect to picking someone else compared to him is wrong. Most of my units are level 5-8 at least save the mercenary units you can hire. I didn't complete the demo yet, but with the game nearly here we'll see if it changes. I've put Josef with Alain and Chloe and they hardly ever face trouble.
You mind explaining that? Because I'd say anyone not using him on expert to throttle the experience of other units is pointlessly adding more grind for personal validation.
