C'mon mangs. This was released 15 years ago. Nowadays people are killing their dancers within 2 chapters. I mean, why field one when you could just use another unit?
That's so nice. Despite knowing that you can make pretty bad mistakes, there are still those willing to watch your playthroughs regardless if they know that you would fail or not.
''looks at thumbnail'' to be fair merlinus deserves a 9.0 ,the ability to actually store stuff during a chapter instead of throwing away items on a full inventory is god-tier.
It'd be more helpful if they mentioned the kind of cool tricks you can do with this like sending an item you got to convoy so that a character on the other side of the map can use it. But no Merlinus has high speed and luck 9/10
I'd put Merlinus at 5 stars because there really isn't any drawback for what he brings to the table. He doesn't take up a unit slot, doesn't steal EXP, and gives you access to your supplies. There's no reason not to use Merlinus.
Funny how the "Eliwood is terrible" entry still gave him a score that most would still consider above average. Also 6/10 was the lowest that any unit got
Eliwood is terrible for many people because of his starting class, but they can't deny after his promotion he gets a massive buff because of javelins and a mount
@@CrickettoSantalune Elwood himself doesn't consider himself a fighter, so I find this a strong reason why he's not the greatest in his footman stats until he gets onto his horse.
Well unironically it *can* matter. Back then through supports Matthew was the only assassin that could reach a str stat high enough to kill the fire dragon. In awakening and fates a child unit could radically change based on there parentage. In Fates shipping determines what classes a character can have access to etc.
@@Dakotaidk they're useless in the new games if you're playing fast too. Except maybe 3 houses because you got to do stuff at tje monastery anyways and it might make a few chapters easier if you remove named units from battle by recruiting them.
Matthew Coyle not really. In the Tellius games as well as the 3ds games you gain support points automatically just from being fielded in the same chapter, so in Tellius you will gradually get support levels no matter what as long as you deploy units. Most speed runs go down the Oscar Ike support in por for example. Supports on awakening are super easy to unlock and have a huge impact on pair up bonuses. Never played fstse so cant comment.
@@geenobe9941 Yeah but you wouldn't really factor it into unit viability in a LTC for example. I mean mostly I was joking to begin with but your ships can have some impact on stats overall.
Careful Mekkah, if you recommend this guide they may recommend that one Binding Blade guide from that unknown_1 fellow who said Generals were the best class.
@@adriananinoartigas5880 Nah Swordmasters/Myrmidons are. Their high crit rates make them the best class. I mean, around a 50/50 chance to do triple damage? How could they not be good?
Having low move is actually really good, it ensures that you take your time around each map. Since going fast is always the wrong move and never helpful.
if you bully dark koji like this mekkah, he's never gonna come back and finish his ratings for wallace harken and louise he even said "no flaming, btw" btw, very inconsiderate
Well, the guide was last updated in 2004, and the game came out in April 2003. Given that the players here had multiple playthroughs under their belt and access to bases and growths, I think they could've done a bit better...but yes, it's important to realize that it is a really, really old guide!
Mekkkah These guys definitely could’ve done better, but it’s easy to see why they fell into this trap from the beginning. Keep in mind that Fire Emblem has always been a game of infinite possibilities, and first impressions mean a lot. Players who have a certain unit that performs well in their first playthrough are gonna use them again and again, which will only strengthen their bias to that character. Adding on to that, since these guys were among the first to create a FE guide, there was no one around to argue against their choices.
@@Mekkkah back then no one played fe games, they were rating them as they rate a normal JRPG. In those game exp is a free resource, so people usually compare units when they are at a similar level. This does not work in fe, but it took a lot of time for the comunity to figure that out. There are still some huge problems, such as the blatant four point scale or not using S rank HHM as the standard, but most of the silliness comes from JRPG player logic.
@@noukan42 I mean, not everyone is going to play HHM, so that shouldn't be the standard to look at a unit by any means. If that's what you're looking at, then sure Marcus is a good unit since he'll be useful agaisnt the harder enemies. Otherwise, he's an exp sink in a game where you can't max out every character and where the same kills you feed Marcus to get him to level 5 can beef up a Sain, Kent, or Lowen to similar if not better stats while also still being able to gain more exp.
@@NovusIgnis S Rank HHM is the hardest "normal"(as in, not self imposed) challenge in the game. Characters guides that are good for the Dante must die difficulty would almost always work also for the normal difficulty, but the oppossite is not necessarily too. Some builds are "overkill" for normal, but this does not make those builda bad.
this is back when people valued growth potential over viability because people for some reason measured how good characters are by how usable they are in a link arena team.
Even in competitive link arena teams, the endgame "growth monster" units weren't as good as people thought and units like Hawkeye, Pent, Hector and Athos were much better than you might suppose. Even in link arena, Athos was a beast and so was Pent. Because overpowered characters are overpowered even in Link. Matthew usually gets strength screwed, Erk gets magic screwed, Nino isn't all that amazing at endgame (compared to Athos and Pent), Rebecca and Will both were underwhelming even in endgame. Canas with Luna was the best endgame link unit.
While this is true for most other old guides, this particular guide is SO OLD it came out just an year after FE7 released here in the west. I dont even think people knew what in the fuck was an "growth rate"
The average rating in this guide is 7.97, which means you should interpret it based on that number as well: 8 is average, higher is above average, lower is below average. ... This guide puts Sain, Kent, Lowen, and Erk all below average
Erk I can honestly see, most of the time in my runs he can't even fight other mages, but the mounted units should be WAYY higher on this, GBA mounts are busted.
I mean, Erk is pretty average by most accounts; he's very much the "mage who joins at level 1 a little past the beginning and spends four chapters chipping enemies at range before they can double or kill anything." Not terrible or anything, but not the best mage or even the best unpromoted one, in a game where mages aren't too crazy anyway. Of course, him being "below average" is still underrating him somewhat. He's perfectly fine.
I was playing Fire Emblem over at a friend's house and I wasn't planning on using Rebecca since I generally don't like archers much (that minimum range weakness). However, Rebecca managed to get several level ups in one of the early missions, each giving her a +1 to every stat. After that, I thought 'Eh, what the hell' and decided to keep her around. After all, having someone who can triple flyers could be neat. Then she kept getting +1 to most stats with every level up. And it never stopped. And that's how Rebecca became my dodge tank and breaker of all things. A similar think also happened to Eliwood during that playthrough. Sometimes, you just get wierdly lucky.
100% faces Matthew is the best assassin. Marcus is not worth using (just look at Seth if you don’t believe me). cavaliers and fliers steal alll the exp by being the best class in the games. They are movement and map objective hogs. archers are bad and need to be fed exp constantly. Erk is the only Athos bench warmer you get. Healers are bad. If you heal to much you can’t use vulnararies. Theirs won’t get a use otherwise. Plus they will take up inventory slots. Lastly Eliwood gets a horse and that’s unfair. They nerfed hector in the patch. Also Lyns people get horses and she doesn’t get a horse? Are you kidding? Eliwood stole Lyns horse. 0/10 Play fates. That game is a good a good game This has been a 100% factual guide
Digging out those time capsules of ancient guides and discussions is pretty entertaining. Good content. :) (putting a smiley face there so you know I mean business)
The last time I trusted a guide like this was when I switched from my streak of Berserker Ross' for a Warrior Ross. Poor fuck had no speed, lost the juicy crit bonus, and ate shit... But hey he got bows! (Bugger me backwards)
My favorite Cavalier is Lowen. Lowen has a 40% defense growth, an 90% hp growth, good bases, and the highest Constitution of the Cavaliers. I always take him into battle and I think he's underrated.
"Lucius: He comes with high level and awesome staff, but late in the game!" what else did you want in that stage of the game?? a low level with bad stats? oh wait you did want that? ok
???? That’s a valid criticism you donkey, how can you lurk on an fe channel and not understand character availability? Lol, beaten by a 2004 guide when you have 17 years worth of hindsight over the guide makers. This easily takes second place, it’s not as funny as Voltaire embarrassing himself against Leibniz when he had a whole century of difference over him.
@Ferbujosbe I have an offer for you, a character with above 100 growth rates on every stat in, is a swordmaster in a game where they have 30 crit, he does have one problem which you will know once you see him.
Yess!!! I’ve been waiting for you to review this guide. I actually used it for my first run in 2016!! I didn’t know any better so I took most of it as pretty accurate, although I started getting suspicious when they ranked the cavaliers low-ish when they were amazing for me, and the Rebecca/Nino as amazing when I could barely use them. Anyway thanks for the video!
Its always great because these old gamefaqs guides are written by people in middle school haha. I know me and my friend were posting twilight princess guides back then.
Heh, I remember that guide. The "sort by 20/20 stats" is strong in those Gamefaqs guides and it's not like it's completely gone now. Not to yell at clouds here, but kids (including Young Me - I member going through the Elite Four a million times just to get all, and I mean ALL, of my mons to level 50) have so much more tolerance for grinding that us old folks. :D 24:35 "leveling up diligently" - To be fair, XP influx is a problem for your average earlygame archer. It's more apparent for Wolt and Dorothy because (the whole Being Outclassed thing aside) it makes them rather tedious to use despite FE6 being much kinder to bow users in general - and I'd say that even Shin and Sue don't mind a bit of preferential treatment because of it. Certainly phrased a bit weirdly though, and maybe they did mean "diligently savestate RNG abuse all of their level-ups to include Str/Spd". [fake-edit: OK, since they used a similar phrase about Guy and because of how they start about Matthew, I'm leaning towards RNG abuse. Hey, Mekkah, did you know that Amelia has an extra 9 level-ups to rig, which makes her the best Paladin in the series? That is, if you're willing to forego the higher promotion gains of the General class, of course.] 39:45 Could be German as well, Pluspunkt is a pretty common expression over here, too. And literal, word-by-word translations of German Phrases into English (There fry me yet someone a stork!) is the pinnacle of German humour and wit.
It's so funny that their endgame Isadoras and Lowens were straight up worse than endgame Marcus and they're still trying to peddle Marcus being somehow worse.
@Bad Sneakers Nahhh, it's way cooler to see Matthew just ninja crouch out of the way of an attack, Eliwood contemptuously sidestepping a blow, or Raven just arrogantly tilt his head to the side. I think that was Raven's animation. It's been a while so I can't remember.
drinking game: take a drink whenever the guide mentions maxing out a stat. For maximum kidney damage take a drink for each stat mentioned in a particular sentence. (take 2 drinks if it mentions maxing skill and speed, etc.)
This was really entertaining and all, but you almost never elaborate when you criticize their ratings. It leaves someone like me, who is a FE fan, but doesn't follow the meta, wanting for information. :c I used this guide when playing through FE7 back when it first came out, and am interested in how the meta has evolved since then.
I'd love to see you react to the character guide for FE3 on Serenes Forest. I know the information is heavily outdated since they rate the archers worse than the hunters when we now understand that having 7 move indoors and not being slowed down by terrain is actually a huge deal in FE3 book 2. Still I think they more or less knew who the best units were (Palla, Catria, Sirius) and it was a great starting point for me when I was tackling FE3 earlier this year.
These GameFAQ articles helped so much in middle school. No RU-vid and no idea what to do. These articles formed my playstyle a whole lot, and yes, RNG growth rates was NOT something I knew anything about
>"...FAQ, which is a frequently asked question, for those of you who were born after 2014, or whatever" I didn't realize Mekkah had fans under age 5. I suppose it's possible, though
24:51 Are you talking about the Band items you get on (effectively) New Game+? I think the guaranteed +3 stats/level for Bexp levels in FE10 is a much more significant way of influencing how a character levels.
Nah, I'm takling about how using certain weapons and fighting certain enemies slightly changed your growth points. Bottom section here: serenesforest.net/path-of-radiance/general/fixed-mode/
Apparently in my first playthrough I had the Meta somewhat in mind as I abused the heck out of Marcus but my friends kept telling me to not use him because he steals exp, so I tried their style and the game went from fun to miserable.
I think the fact that prepromotes get less xp is pretty misleading visually because you think "hey it might be good now but later those units that gain more xp will have better stats" which make sense in theory but that's because people don't realize that by the time the unit reaches marcus stats they'll be gaining as much xp as him so marcus doesn't steal xp he just comes with free xp already on him. That's probably a byproduct of all units needing 100xp to level up and instead of increasing their xp needs they reduce their xp gain which makes it feel like the xp is lost somehow. But if you look at a game like pokemon nobody is going to go "I should use this level 5 pokemon because this level 50 pokemon needs so much more kills to level up" despite it being exactly the same situation. I'm not sure if it's a game design problem, because the "100 xp for all level up" is elegant in a way, but it does seem to mislead quite a lot.
I think it was a guide like this that drove some of my FE7 habits that I still have to this day. Though, I doubt it was this guide, specifically, as they didn't mention giving the Boots to Oswin.
"Eliwood has anima so it would give him evade" HOLD THE FUCK UP IS THAT WHAT THOSE DO. I have been playing this game for 16 years. I didn't know. Hoooooooly crap. I'm a baddie.
I will say on hawkeye though, that guy got screwed over on his levels with hawkeye especially on the 2nd round. Probably what led to him not having a great opinion of him.
Honestly, this is why 10 point scales are usually pointless. 5 points is usually all you need (Great, Above Average, Average, Below Average, Bad). The only time a bigger scale is warranted is when objective criteria are used (And thus can be measured with precision) or if it's a combined score of multiple values (X/5 for General Power, Y/3 for Availability, Z/2 for Frontloaded Power, as an example).
There's this guy on gamefaqs who constantly longs for the "golden age" of FE unit analysis back around 15 years ago, when people didn't "bend the knee to the ltc". In reality, he's just mad that units he thinks are excellent like Aran have been recognized as overrated.
Honestly, I feel like there should probably be separate ratings for LTC and standard/"moderate efficiency" play (that is to say, minimal or no grinding but not necessarily playing the game as fast as possible.) They'd come out looking similar in certain ways, sure, but I feel like the difference between the two playstyles is significant enough to warrant it. Not everyone is literally speedrunning the game, after all.
@@astracrits4633 I think there's some merit to that idea. Low movement would still hurt, but it would hurt less when you're not trying to rush your Cavaliers from enemy to enemy.
@@Sines314 Whether each game needs 2 scales would probably depend on the game, I think. My general predictions would be something like this: For games like FE8, Awakening, and Birthright, where enemies generally get crushed by basically anything even without grinding, the ratings would probably be pretty similar in LTC and casual since the strategy is pretty much unanimously considered to be "haha Seth go brrr," so the casual ratings would pretty much still be "Seth go brrr" but with an asterisk saying that most units can still trash the game anyways. However, in games with tougher enemies and more player-phasr emphasis like FE6 I could actually see the ratings tipping: in FE6's case, it'd probably be tipped much more heavily in favor of sword units owing to the fact that hitrates actually matter in FE6. Cavs would still be very strong, but units like Rutger, Fir, etc. would have their day in the limelight too. (Roy still probably garbo tho lol) Pegasi might drop a peg due to how lethal FE6 enemies can be, too. The Tellius games could be another interesting case study because of their rather unique mechanics compared to other games, which (arguably) benefit growth units more than they do high-base units. FE9 100% runs (all secondary objectives, no deaths, all chests, etc.) could potentially even deserve their own subcategory, as you'd see a lot of unusual units in play more often (notably Promoted!Mist with a for better consistency in the BK fight, and also as a potential Sonic Sword user for nuking generals later on in Hard/Maniac Mode.) There's also the bit where growths and stat caps *actually matter* in FE10 due to its sheer length and how powerful enemies can get. FE3 and earlier games would probably be interesting to take a look at, but I sadly haven't played those games enough to comment on them. TLDR: Easy games would have similar ratings, harder/more player phase-heavy games would be more different, and Tellius is wack.
I know aspects of this guide are bad, but they really did do a great job considering how limited information was back then (especially information in english).
the biggest problem for me with ratings like this, is that their explanations and actual ratings are completely off. They flame Marcus for a whole paragraph and give him a... 6,5 was it? That's a pretty good rating for the character they critizised the most. I don't mind people having opinions that are objectivly wrong, but this bothers me a lot. Dude... they are SO inconsistent
Please do a waifu on Rath. He's the only unit for a while that's able to outrange and longbow chip Luna druids for a good chunk of the game and is the best user of the brave bow which he can use at base. Plus he can carry Hawkeye and promoted Hector
38:45 Tbf the S rank light magic Luce is literally the strongest spell in the game besides luna, and outclasses it if they don't have very high res. The obvious failure is there are literally like 4 enemies you could use it on once you get it and my nearly maxed level Serra still didn't have S rank light magic so only Athos could use it.
Wonder where these people are now, honestly. Is Koji still trying to train Wallace? No but really if anyone knows, I'd love to hear what happened to these people
17:02 funny considering how fe7 normalmode gives units more exp depending on how much they are over the enemylevel(probably also the reason they always managed to get an amazing hector)
Just saying Rath and Heath are my favorites to add to my runs due to the average deploy of 6 or so units in early HHM. By the time they arrive the deployment opens up a bit.
Can you review Rick52's character guide next? His guide was pretty much gospel for me since it had the star next to it, as one of the recommended guides from GameFAQS!
I remember finding this guide and thinking just like these guys did. I agreed 10000% Swordmasters and Assassins were among my favorite units and I thought they were godly I thought Lyn was amazing. I loved dodge tanking. I thought Axes sucked I hated all Pegasus knights (although they still piss me off due to low Constitution, they obv are amazing) I hated Paladins because I though their stat caps sucked
Honestly, I still do love Sword users. They're cool, they crit and double a lot, they dodge like crazy... they're just awesome. But I won't go pretending they're actually good next to more boring but effective options. The series seriously needs to either add Throwing Daggers, or ditch Javelins and Hand Axes (or maybe just ditch Javelins, Hand Axes could stay because Axe-using classes tend to be weaker, since they aren't mounted nearly as often as Lance classes are) Although, if you like Dodge Tanking, a trip to Three Houses will perk you right up. It's pretty much one of the number one strategies for getting through Maddening that doesn't involve crazy stuff like Wrath/Vantage combos that can solo the map.
I think you might overestimate how competent native English speakers are with their ability to write guides like this haha. Or even in general - especially when I'm pretty sure these guides come from teenagers most of the time
17:00 those Marcus notes is yikes! how i see Marcus, is as a crutch character. if the game is too easy then yea dont use Marcus. if the game is too hard, or the enemies are too strong, then always use Marcus; no reason not to. he is there to pick off enemies that would become an annoyance to your other units. if it means surviving, then yea let Marcus steal some exp; dead units dont get exp. 22:06 also Isadora doesnt compete for knight crest. 25:34 ~ 27:55 i still like having 1 archer when i play FE (mainly rebecca). i dont agree with the scores they gave, shes more of a 7.5 to me. 26:52 rofl these notes... 31:44 i agree rofl. 32:45 to this day i still dont like Farina (and Mang's ironman attempt didnt help mend it). 35:53 rofl. 36:10 dam only 1 commented on Pent, but ALL [but 1] of them commented on Nino! XD 52:02 rofl. 52:48 after seeing negative growth LP, i disagree so hard on those notes. plus, dont need ocean seal (which sells alot of money i think). 53:50 rofl. you're not suppose to use thieves for offense... you cant even steal anymore as an assassin; i just sell the contract. speed and staying alive is all you need...
Old GameFAQs GBA FE faqs make my brain hurt. It's like if my 14 year old self wrote a character FAQ after beating FE7 for the first time. And let me tell you, I'd say 14 year old me was pretty freaking dumb and ignorant >_>
Lowen, Marcus, and Isadora are bad, because you ALREADY have Sain and Kent coming, and even using both is a stretch. This isn't like Sacred Stones, where you could at least promote one to Great Knight and the other to Paladin.
honestly speaking marcus is great, but I'd still put him at a 9/10 because he one rounds in the beginning. You're best off benching him until 15 or 16 when he stops one rounding making him better suited for feeding kills (this is normal mode btw)
I would prefer to use Marcus to kill all the early game bosses, since he gets far more value out of the boss exp bonus than everyone else in your team at that point. Also he's the only character that easily destroys them without much trouble.
@@ddshocktrooper5604 exactly. that's what he's for. Even you don't plan on using many of your starting units you should still feed kills to the small guys to keep the exp rank up.
