The RPG Duelling League
Social Forums => Discussion => Topic started by: Reiska on November 05, 2015, 07:12:42 PM
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TL;DR this is kind of like Meeple's topic, except that I'm going to focus entirely on games which have low playership in the DL and thus would never go in Meeple's topic. Because of this, unlike Meeple's topic, I'll generally post my own ratings from the get-go since it's entirely possible a game I cover might not get any attention from anyone else.
Really this is more for discussion than generating rankings over time like in Meeple's topic since the sample sizes won't really be large enough anyway.
So, I will start with... a big cast, actually.
Super Robot Wars Judgment! But since the cast is so big, I'm going to do something different: rather than rate each unit or pilot individually, I'm going to give a single collective rating for all the robots/pilots in a given series, in the context of "how good is this series as a favored pick." Given that SRW J makes you pick three series as "favorites," this is perhaps actually a bit relevant.
However, for the sake of clarity: I am not rating the battleships with their series, because they're always forced.
Banpresto Originals: 6/10. Not counting the secret, unlockable 4th playthrough and beyond only original mecha, but all of the initial three are still quite good. It's difficult to say which of the three is best or worst, as all of them have unique advantages and disadvantages relative to each other. In any case, the OC is a forced deployment on a fair number of stages, and I can't think of any reason you wouldn't want to deploy them when given the option. All three of the subpilots are good, too, for different reasons; I generally think Melua is the best one due to the +1 movement and the fantastic pool of support seishins, but Katia is probably better than her overall if you're running Bellzelute, and Festenia is situationally useful for stages where you face FMP or Tekkaman bosses due to Strike. So why the low score? Because at the end of the day, you're using up one of your three favored series picks on a single mech that is really still very good without the extra upgrades and doesn't need the help.
Martian Successor Nadesico: 7/10. The battleship is really amazing, of course, but it's not included in this rating. Outside of the battleship, all you get from Nadesico is a whole bunch of Aestivalis units. Aestivalis units basically owe all of their usability long-term to their combination attacks. Akatsuki has no combination attacks, and a really poor seishin pool to boot, so he's generally just trash and never worth using when not forced. Akito has a good endgame if you unlock Gai (especially if Gai benefits from the bug which benefits him if unlocked on a first playthrough), but if you don't, he's only barely better than Akatsuki. For most of the game, the Ryoko/Izumi/Hikaru trio are the stars of the cast as such, and they're very usable - the Gravity Wave Antenna eliminates most of the drawbacks of heavy combination attack spamming due to the EN refill. So overall, this is not a bad favored series pick. In short, you get three consistently fairly good units (though they have to be used together), two inconsistently fairly good units (one of whom is secret-dependent), and one unambiguously bad unit. And the battleship of course, which doesn't need the help and is not included in this rating (if I did, it would push it up a point, so hey).
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED: 5/10. Kira and later Cagalli are really the only vaguely usable units from Gundam SEED for 3/4 of the game, honestly. And both of them are generally among your poorer units overall for most of that 3/4. In the last 3/4 you do get to pick up Athrun, Dearka, and the Eternal; Eternal is probably the best endgame supply/repair unit, due to its battleship stats (I don't count it as a battleship, though, given that it does consume a deployment slot). Kira and Athrun are excellent units endgame with the Meteor packs, but they only get six stages with them and they don't really need the help of extra upgrades with mechs like that. Overall I think this is probably one of the worse favored series picks as such; it'd be better if midgame Kira/the Strike Gundam weren't so relatively weak and the Skygraspers weren't worse than Blue Earth (although I guess Skygrasper with Sword pack is an interesting niche). Ultimately, you have two great endgame combat units (one of whom is lackluster for most of the game before the end and one of whom doesn't exist for most of the game), one of the best endgame support units (who doesn't exist for most of the game), two mediocre combat units (who don't exist for most of the game), one fairly lackluster combat unit, and one more unit who plot-dies before endgame and is generally the worst unit in the cast when he's around. Meh.
Mobile Fighter G Gundam: 7/10. In a lot of ways, this pick is "Nadesico plus," as the units share Nadesico's trait of being all somewhat lackluster when taken alone but heavily improved by combination attacks. The Gundam Fighters are, individually, probably slightly better than the Aestivalis pilots despite having some significant durability issues. They suffer from having 5 move, though. Like Aestivalises, they live and die by their combination attacks. The G Gundam cast are overall improved notably more by their combinations than Nadesico's pilots are, but they also have to wait until 2/3 of the way through the game for them. I feel this is really kind of a binary pick; more than likely, you're either going to be filling half your deployment slots with the entire G Gundam cast to abuse all the combination attacks, or you won't be using any of them at all save for maybe Domon. If you ARE going to use the whole cast, then this is an excellent favored series pick. If you're not, I probably wouldn't bother.
Brain Powered: 8/10. See G Gundam/Nadesico, except that all the units are individually quite decent on their own. You get a whopping ten units out of this pick and all of them are at least halfway decent (Yuu and Hime are probably worth using even without being a favored pick). The units themselves are all basically identical to one another, they all have combination attacks with other Brain Powered pilots in pairs, they all have damage shields and afterimage, and they have relatively high damage for SRW J reals. Probably one of the best favored series picks, objectively speaking, even if the units are all really samey.
Blue Comet SPT Layzner: 5/10. As a favored series pick, Layzner has most of the same problems as Gundam SEED, but magnified. It has fewer units in general, and only one is really a good combat unit individually. Layzner does get a combination attack with Baybull and Buldy if you use all three, but Layzner is a good (not great) unit without the combination, and the two of them are lackluster without it and have a hard time keeping up with Layzner's movement rate. This pick is basically giving you one decent combat unit and two or three mediocre support units. There are worse picks, probably?
Full Metal Panic: 6/10. Most of what I said about Layzner applies here, except that Kurz and Mao are better than Baybull and Buldy. So you get one amazing combat unit (Sosuke) and two okay ones (Kurz and Mao). This pick does go a long way in making Bonta-kun more usable...
Super Electromagnetic Machine Voltes V: 4/10. Single-robot pick that isn't as good as Banpresto Original (and it still doesn't really need the help).
Mazinkaiser: 8/10. A pick that's good despite the relatively small unit count. Favored series takes Mazinkaiser and Great Mazinger from "really good" to "broken" (as their armor upgrades are normally capped at 5, not the usual 10), and Boss Borot (which is pretty good in this game if given a Flight Unit) also benefits greatly. If you're going to favor a small unit count series, this one is a much better choice than Gundam SEED or Layzner or FMP.
Super Beast Machine God Dancougar: 3.5/10. Single-robot pick that isn't as good as Banpresto Original (and it still doesn't really need the help). Slightly worse than Voltes overall due to the high Will requirements for everything.
Space Knight Tekkaman Blade: 5/10. Effectively a single-robot pick, since the only other worthwhile unit is deep lategame, the Sol Tekkamen are so bad, and Blue Earth is a support unit that probably won't see much combat. Blue Earth is a really good support unit though, so you could do worse.
Super Electromagnetic Robot Combattler V: 4/10. Single-robot pick that isn't as good as Banpresto Original (and it still doesn't really need the help. Very slightly worse than Voltes.
Hades Project Zeorymer: 5/10. Single-robot pick that isn't as good as Banpresto Original (and it still doesn't really need the help). Although if you unlock Great Zeorymer, then it's better than Banpresto Original for the last 1/4 of the game, so....
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I had some time to kill yesterday, so I went ahead and wrote up my thoughts on another obscure game. Below, I discuss the original Labyrinth of Touhou.
A few notes should be made about how I'm evaluating in-game use here, given the variations in how LoT1 can be played. The game has a cast of 40 playable PCs overall. Of the 40 playable PCs, 14 are required recruits that cannot be missed in a normal playthrough of the game without glitches (glitches do allow you to skip one of them, not that you'd want to). 18 are optional PCs of varying recruitment difficulty. The remaining 8 PCs join in the aftergame.
On an initial runthrough of the game, these characters are all unlocked over time. However, on replays, you can choose to carry over some or all of the following from a clear file: your unlocked characters, your levels, your equipment, and your character upgrades. In practice, many LoT1 players carry over only the unlocked characters and nothing else for replays, allowing full party customization from the word go.
For the 14 required PCs, I will simply be rating them on their in-game use in a regular New Game run. This means that availability will be a factor in the rating.
For the 18 optional PCs, I will likewise simply rate them on their in-game use in a regular New Game run. This means that particularly annoying to unlock characters may lose points from their in-game use rating because of the annoyingness of the unlock.
For the 8 aftergame PCs, I will rate them on their in-game use in a regular New Game run in the aftergame only.
Most PCs will have comments attached about things that differ in NG+ all-characters-unlocked runs. Without further ado...
The Required PCs
Reimu Hakurei: 9.5/10. She's available for the entire game from start to finish, and you would never want to remove her from the party; she's the only source of strong MT healing in the game, the only source of MT defensive buffing for 90% of the game, and she does decent (if not spectacular) damage for random clearing. She'd be a 10/10 if her damage was better. It's possible to beat the game without her, but she makes the game far easier by existing. Even in NG+, she remains clearly in the top 12 PCs in the game and should probably stay in the party from start to finish.
Marisa Kirisame: 5/10. Okay earlygame filler, but she should be one of the first characters to leave the party once you start getting extra PCs. She's good at random clearing, but her boss damage gets worse and worse over time, thanks to the fact that she's mono-element and her element, Mystic, is the most resisted element in the game by bosses and randoms alike. Master Spark also really does not do quite enough damage for its SP cost. She does get one last hurrah though as probably being your best source of Mystic damage against Rinnosuke. In NG+, you can probably just field one of her various replacements from the beginning rather than ever bothering with her. She might still see use there against Rinnosuke, but you might well just handle the Mystic phase with a non-elemental nuke like Nitori's too.
Remilia Scarlet: 8/10. She's your earlygame tank, and can hold her own in the role for the entire game if desired or if you miss the optional PCs. Her defense is still "good enough" for the most part when she's built offensively, and she probably should be built offensively so that her usefulness holds up better once the optional tanks are in play. Even if you build her defensively and ultimately replace her, though, she's one of the strongest earlygame PCs; lategame relative weakness doesn't severely detract from her use. Her main drawback is that her powerful self-buff requires either loading her equipment slots with status protection or carrying a status healer PC alongside her, and the best status healer PC is the one that's also a better tank than her. In NG+, she's not useful as a tank, and should always be built offensively if used; her overall offensive output isn't spectacular, but it is cheap, and thus she's still a great earlygame PC, so her use doesn't change a whole lot.
Sakuya Izayoi: 6/10. Cheap MT damage is great earlygame, but that doesn't stay hugely useful for long and her offense falls off hard as the game goes on and starts running into defense. She's good earlygame filler, and probably better than Marisa in the long run. MT Speed buffing is great but can be difficult to strategize around because it can do weird things to turn order; plus, the SP cost is prohibitively high before deep lategame to get much use out of it. Her NG+ use isn't too much different, since cheap MT is no less valuable there.
Patchouli Knowledge: 7/10. Earlygame filler that is still usable lategame, although she does fall off due to the combination of gameworst HP, gameworst defense, and gameworst speed. She's saved from complete irrelevance by having gamebest magic defense; even lategame she'll completely soak many magical attacks. She would be a good random sweeper if she had speed, but she doesn't, so she's really just best at nuking bosses, and since her boss nuke is non-elemental, she does this well. Probably best used with speed buffs from someone like Sakuya or Aya. NG+ probably makes her a little better since Aya is in play slightly earlier, though on the flip side she has to compete with Suwako sooner than usual.
Chen: 7/10. Cheap MT damage is great earlygame, and unlike Sakuya, her offense gets better and better as the game goes on and her speed growth starts running away from the pack. She's very one-note overall: use Kimontonkou, spam Flight of Idaten, then switch herself out before the boss gets a turn, because she'll probably die as soon as anything hits her. NG+ has no meaningful effect on her since she's fairly self-contained and was always an early recruit.
Cirno: 7/10. Cheap MT damage, earlygame, etc. Like Sakuya, her raw offense is okay at best and falls off over time, but she's decently fast and has a high success rate MT Paralyze (and powerful Speed debuffs) that keep her relevant long after her damage has gone down the toilet. Her damage may as well be nonexistent by deep lategame, but she's almost worth the party slot on the basis of the MT paralysis alone, since it can inflict the status regardless of whether she breaks defense or not, and it's resisted much less often than you might expect. She probably is not final boss material. She suffers quite a bit in NG+; Mystia is better at paralyzing randoms than she is, leaving her only the speed debuffs and lower SP costs to stand out on. As such, she could see earlygame use, but should probably give way to Mystia as soon as 80 SP attacks stop being prohibitively expensive and only come out when the Speed debuffs specifically are needed.
Youmu Konpaku: 6/10. Her SP costs are pretty much prohibitive in the early/midgame for the most part, although she makes a decent offensive tank against randoms. She gets better and better as the game progresses, and is probably the best source of Wind damage against Rinnosuke. Ultimately, she's a pretty good endgame PC but she blooms very, very late. Luckily, LoT1 is a game where you can let her sit on the bench until then and she'll still do reasonably okay. In NG+, she now has to compete with Kanako and Maribel for anti-Rinnosuke Wind damage, but is probably still the best of the three to field in that fight. She doesn't benefit from earlier availability by any means.
Alice Margatroid: 8/10. Modest attacker that can hit both defenses fairly well (she's better at hitting defense), has surprisingly decent durability for a damage-dealer (comparable to Reimu), and piles debuffs on her enemies. Her best boss-killing attack is fire element, which is a fairly good element to have, and she can fall back on Little Legion if needed for non-elemental offense. All-around solid PC that is pretty consistently useful throughout. Her SP costs are a little high for the part of the game before her normal join time, but overall NG+ doesn't change much for her.
Ran Yakumo: 9.5/10. Great random sweeping, great boss offense, and great endgame MT buffing that even buffs your back line (an ability completely unique to her). And she has decent durability on top of this package, at least on par with the likes of Wriggle. One of the best all-around PCs in the game and she's handed to you on a silver platter. Her SP costs are fairly high for the part of the game before her normal join time, but not enough to seriously hold her back more than most PCs; she performs reasonably okay in earlygame in NG+ as such.
Reisen Udongein Inaba: 5.5/10. A definite late-bloomer like Youmu, but she doesn't bloom as strongly as Youmu, either. Until you reach the endgame levels where she can spam Grand Patriot's Elixir several times and still have SP left to nuke with, she's basically only useful for the all-stat debuff on Discarder. Discarder is a pretty good trick against things vulnerable to debuffs though, so even before Elixir spam is viable, she's never truly bad. In NG+, you might think she has to compete with Maribel much earlier, but Maribel's SP costs are prohibitive for quite a while, so she can still see some use in the midgame.
Eirin Yagokoro: 3/10. She's a notably worse Alice that comes later. She'd be better if Hourai Elixir's unique effect actually worked properly, but unfortunately for her, it does not. Her biggest attack costs way too much SP for the damage it does. The only time she's likely to see play is a run in which the optional PCs are all intentionally skipped, and even then, only as filler until Yukari comes along. In NG+, she should sit on the bench the entire game unless you're doing some kind of bizarre draft run where you got badly screwed by the other participants, in which you could probably, with enough grinding, make her into a barely usable tank.
Yukari Yakumo: 10/10. Reimu variant who trades MT healing for MT Quick. It's as dumb as it sounds and I don't really need to say anything else. It's only practical in endgame and her personal offense is poor (worse than Reimu's), so she's not quite as dominating in NG+ before this trick becomes practical. In normal play, it's practical as soon as she's recruited. She's a deep lategame PC, but is usable and good immediately. The attack that depends on Ran and Chen in the front lines is strong, but too impractical to really ever use due to Chen's fragility. In NG+, she's probably best left benched until midgame, when the SP costs of her spells stop being prohibitive. Basically, she's pretty poor for the parts of the game before her usual join time due to lack of SP.
Rinnosuke Morichika: 7/10. The final PC recruited in the main game. He has overall very high stats, but his skillset is a bit subpar, and ultimately he's probably best played as a backup tank. World-Shaking Military Rule makes for a pretty decent panic button in endgame boss fights, but it's once-per-dungeon-trip. Like Yukari, he's mostly useless in NG+ before his usual join time due to lack of SP.
The Optional PCs
Hong Meiling: 9/10. She's an optional PC, though very difficult to miss. Probably the gamebest tank overall; she has extremely good HP and defense, and while her magic defense is subpar, her raw HP largely makes up for the deficiency, as does her ability to self-heal. She also provides good party utility by being able to cure status ailments, and she can do passable ST damage in randoms in a pinch. Like Reimu, the reason she doesn't get a 10 is because she doesn't do everything. She's incredibly easy to pick up, so skipping her is either foolish or a self-imposed challenge. In NG+, she can (and should) be in your party from start to finish.
Minoriko Aki: 8/10. Easily recruited optional PC. She's basically a worse Reimu - her offense is roughly similar (though of a different element), and her support and healing, while equally strong, are ST instead of MT. However, her support and healing are also far more SP-efficient and faster-acting than Reimu's. If you only NEED ST healing or buffing, it's much better to have Minoriko do it than Reimu, so using both of them is not redundant. That said, she also has survivability issues Reimu does not, which keep her from being higher rated. Worth noting that her offense is pretty close to ITD, although still not great even with that due to low bases. NG+ changes her little, as she was already available very early.
Rumia: 5/10. Easily recruited optional PC. She's basically Marisa that trades Master Spark and MT damage for some weak ITD and a very weak MT heal that removes debuffs. The latter can be an important niche in a couple boss fights. Her ST nuke is surprisingly powerful for its low SP cost. She has all of the same problems as Marisa, being mono-element Mystic, and Marisa is better than her against Rinnosuke. In aftergame, the MT heal starts to accelerate in power faster than your HP grows, and it ultimately becomes a pretty decent heal by the end of aftergame, possibly justifying using her over Reimu if you get the defensive buffing from Yukari instead. She has a little extra value in NG+ as a cheap ST nuker for the earlygame before her usual join, but otherwise doesn't change much.
Wriggle Nightbug: 7/10. Easily recruited optional PC. She's one of the best slot 2 offtanks for boss fights. Her raw offense is mostly bad, but her poison is very strong in the maingame and doesn't depend on her offensive stats, so pump her defenses. Building her offenses DOES make her a better random sweeper, but makes her much less safe to keep in against bosses as a slot 2 offtank. Sadly, in the aftergame, she very quickly falls off into complete uselessness. :( NG+ doesn't change her much, either; she's viable from the start.
Yuugi Hoshiguma: 7.5/10. Optional PC, fairly hard to miss but somewhat tedious to recruit. Ultimately, though, you can't miss the requirement (it's 400 battles won, and you will easily get that well before endgame), so I didn't penalize her for it.. Anyway, she's a sidegrade to Remilia in randoms, and a physical powerhouse against bosses, if a fire element one. She's one of the better sources of Fire damage against Rinnosuke, possibly the best. Her lack of strong MT holds her usefulness back somewhat, since she doesn't sweep randoms very well. Obviously, NG+ benefits her by cutting out the recruitment, and she has low-cost options for earlygame.
Aya Shameimaru: 7/10. Easily recruited optional PC. She's basically a Sakuya variant who trades the MT speed buffing for much more efficient ST speed buffing (which tends to be just as useful) and notably better offense. She makes a great random sweeper for most of the maingame, but against bosses is largely relegated to buffing as her damage is fairly subpar in raw power. She's perfectly viable in earlygame in NG+.
Iku Nagae: 9.5/10. Easily recruited optional PC. She's a fairly decent random sweeper, but this isn't what gives her the high rating; the high rating comes from her having the single best offensive buff in the game while also having decent physical durability and gamebest magical durability. Built offensively, she's nowhere near as good of a magic tank and does merely "okay" damage, so she should probably go with the defensive build. The buff's one drawback (paralyze infliction) can be obviated with status resistance equips, and her attacks debuff enemy defense, so when combined with a party of strong physical attackers, she is an absurdly effective force multiplier. Should pretty much always be glued to your party once you get her, if playing optimally. She's perfectly viable in earlygame in NG+ for the most part, although the buff should probably be avoided before paralysis resistance is available unless you can use Meiling's turn to cure paralysis off.
Komachi Onozuka: 7/10. Relatively easily recruited optional PC. All of her attacks inflict ID at various success rates (the best being 75%) and she can also do MT debuffing and poison/paralyze as well. Her paralysis isn't as good as Cirno's, her poison isn't as good as Wriggle's, and her debuffs aren't as good as the specialists, but she's a pretty good all-in-one "Make the enemies suck" PC. Game-best HP, but game-worst defenses; she is probably best built as an attacker, not as an HP tank, as the latter role is only effective in a couple specific fights and Meiling can usually suffice. One of the better sources of Spirit damage against Rinnosuke; though not necessarily the best, she is the easiest of the good ones to get. In NG+, she can ID a fair number of earlygame bosses, since the developer didn't give any of the bosses recruited before she joins ID protection, and her ID isn't horribly expensive either, so even if you don't use her long-term, she trivializes basically every boss fight before 7F.
Suwako Moriya: 8/10. Easily recruited optional PC. She's basically Patchouli who trades away the magic durability to not have game-worst speed. She should be specced for physical attack, not magic, as her boss nuke is physical. Very fragile PC to everything, but so long as you switch her out before she can get smacked by anything, she does some of the highest damage ST nuking in the game. Best source of both Cold and Nature damage against Rinnosuke. Her MT is a little expensive for early game, but she can still ST earlygame fine, for NG+ usage.
Sanae Kochiya: 7/10. Fairly easily recruited optional PC. Overall, she's a Minoriko variant. Her attacks hit harder than Minoriko's at base, but lack the ITD component. Her heal is less powerful, slower and more expensive, but also removes status ailments and debuffs. Her buff is less powerful, slower and more expensive, but buffs all stats instead of just defense and magic defense. I consider it to be a losing trade on the whole, and she comes notably later than Minoriko, but she's still a good support PC. Her deficiencies relative to Minoriko do shrink as the game goes on, particularly in aftergame. She performs fairly well in earlygame in NG+, though SP economy on her healing can be a problem.
Nitori Kawashiro: 8/10. Annoying to recruit optional PC; it depends on running into specific random formations on certain floors. The recruit annoyance is worth about a full point loss to me. Anyway, she's the game's best damage dealer; PDLC99MW is the strongest attack in the game and is a lot cheaper than most of the things which come close to it, and it's even non-elemental, which is usually a net positive in this game. She backs it up with pretty good random sweeping, too. She's the one PC affected by the game version; in versions prior to 2.06, she loses around three to four points or so, as her big nuke does a little over a third less damage (which brings it down to being pretty mediocre), and she's probably not really worth using there. She performs perfectly well in NG+ from start to finish.
Tenshi Hinanawi: 7.5/10. Optional PC; loses a point for a mildly annoying recruitment process that involves the switch puzzles on 10-12F. Alongside Meiling, she's the other contender for gamebest tank; she sports notably higher defenses than Meiling but, oddly enough, combines them with a mildly below average HP pool. The net effect of this is that while she tends to just completely soak damage an awful lot of the time, she gets quickly shredded by things she doesn't soak and ITD in particular completely murders her when Meiling might survive on her HP pool. Instead of a self-heal, she can cap her defenses, and instead of curing ally status ailments, she can (attempt to) cancel enemy buffs. She's better than Meiling in some fights and overall probably worth getting despite the hassle. NG+ cuts out the recruitment, and her primary function doesn't depend on SP, so it obviously improves her use.
Fujiwara no Mokou: 3/10. Optional PC, mildly easy to recruit. That said... she's also a worse Alice that comes later. Honestly, she's probably worse than Eirin; the only thing she has better than Eirin is speed, and only barely. There's not much else to say about her. She would be a fairly skippable benchwarmer, if not for the fact that recruiting her is required for Kaguya (in fact, that's pretty much the entirety of her real in-game use). Which means that in NG+, she's a permanent benchwarmer.
Flandre Scarlet: 5/10. Optional PC, loses two points for being extremely annoying to recruit - it involves the switch puzzles and having high battle counts on the initial party members, many of whom have probably been dropped from the party by the time you get close to her. Also, you get no hints, so she's FAQ bait. If you DO recruit her, she's still not especially great in the main game due to her self-damaging property. Her primary utility is in the aftergame, where she drastically speeds up the process of grinding for the final superboss. NG+ doesn't change anything but the recruitment being gone, obviously.
Suika Ibuki: 6.5/10. Optional PC, fairly easy to recruit. She's a Yuugi variant, trading physical durability for magical durability (she still has better PDur than Yuugi has MDur) and with a wind element nuke instead of fire element. She's a good source of Wind damage against Rinnosuke, but may not be better than Youmu. Her self-buff is fantastic if you give her debuff resistance equips, and she can cure status ailments and the debuffs (however, she cannot do so without also removing buffs, so it's a mild double-edged sword). Like Yuugi, she's poor at random sweeping. She loses half a point compared to Yuugi for having a slightly slower leveling rate (and thus worse stats).
Yuyuko Saigyouji: 4/10. Optional PC, loses three points for her recruitment - it involves the switch puzzles and having high battle counts on a number of party members who are fairly unlikely to reach those counts, and you're given no hints so it's FAQ bait. If you recruit her, she's the best Spirit element attacker in the game, if horribly SP-inefficient, is equally good at ST ID as Komachi, and has the best MT ID in the game. She also delays enemy turns with some of her attacks, though this effect doesn't work as well against bosses, unfortunately. She's a very good PC if recruited (and her worth goes up in NG+ for this reason), but even so, is likely not worth the grind necessary to get. Obviously, NG+ removes the unlock requirement... but her SP costs are prohibitive until lategame anyway, so her worth only goes up so much.
Rin Kaenbyou: 3/10. Optional PC, loses four points for her recruitment. She's actually pretty good, with a very strong ST defense debuff, reasonably good MT damage and relatively high speed, plus Cat's Walk can be used for turn order manipulation. However, recruiting her requires recruiting Yuyuko. Thus, like Yuyuko, her worth goes up in NG+. Her SP costs are fairly high for earlygame, but become viable by midgame; as such, she improves significantly in NG+.
Kaguya Houraisan: 4.5/10. Optional PC, loses four points for her requirement - she requires Mokou, who sucks, and is also FAQ bait, requiring high battle counts on four PCs who are all fairly subpar. If you do get her, she's a very good PC, in large part because almost all of her attacks are completely ITD (and high power for ITD to boot), plus she has ST targetable Quick. She's held back by poor speed somewhat. NG+ improves her strongly, but her SP costs are prohibitive until midgame.
The Aftergame PCs
Renko Usami: DNR. Her usefulness is binary - if the enemies are vulnerable to debuffs or paralysis, she's amazing, and if they're not, she's utterly useless, because she does literally nothing else (including damage). Her buff, while strong, has drawbacks that are largely worse than its benefits. She's better in maingame via NG+ than she is in aftergame, for all that she's mostly only useful against bosses vulnerable to debuff.
Maribel Hearn: 6.5/10. She's basically a better Reisen in all respects; if you fielded Reisen in your endgame party then Maribel makes a good replacement/upgrade for aftergame if you still want a similar PC. In NG+, her SP costs make her prohibitive to use until near the normal endgame anyway.
Utsuho Reiuji: 0/10. Probably gameworst PC, even if she weren't aftergame. Kaguya does everything she does better and comes earlier. Eternal benchwarmer. Equally irrelevant in NG+.
Kanako Yasaka: 8/10. She's basically a slightly better Alice, trading fire element for cold. She's less SP efficient, but by this stage of the game, SP efficiency is largely irrelevant anymore. If you're still using Alice, replacing her with Kanako is probably a good bet. Considerably worse in NG+ due to severe SP economy issues until lategame, but she does become the best source of cold damage against Rinnosuke.
Yuuka Kazami: 6.5/10. She's basically Marisa without most of Marisa's flaws. Notably, she has very high durability for a damage dealer, and one of her nukes also weakly heals the party, giving her a little utility. MT Master Spark is interesting but not that useful. In NG+, she has major SP issues until the lategame.
Mystia Lorelei: 7/10. Effectively replaces Cirno in the aftergame, doing basically all the same things but still having solid damage on the side. She's not as much of a buzzsaw as Chen but she contributes more to the randoms before the big Flandre grind. She shines in maingame from about the midgame on in NG+, and has some utility even in early game since her ST is cheap and strong.
Keine Kamishirasawa: 2.5/10. She's an okay random sweeper, and you might have cared about this if she were recruited 50 hours earlier or so. She would be a pretty great PC if she were an earlygame recruit, and the sequel - where she is - proves this. Here, though, she's just not really worth using. She's basically a notably worse Ran. The fairly cheap MT gives her a little early midgame utility in NG+, but other characters can do that just fine too.
Eiki Shiki Yamaxanadu: 8/10. She's basically a better Kaguya in general, but lacks the Quick. She's also horribly SP inefficient for random sweeping, but again, this late in the aftergame you don't really care (by the point you get Eiki, Flandre is probably your only random sweeper). SP issues make her essentially useless before endgame on NG+ (but she can function in pre-aftergame endgame).
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Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky FC
Since I'm going through SC right now, which is nicely reminding me of various character's builds (they all start with the same abilities they ended FC with)... my recollections of FC normal balance. Note from messing around a bit with difficulty on SC, if it works a similar way in FC, upping the difficulty does -not- affect each character equally; most notably, physical builds get screwed over even harder.
Anyway, Trails is one of those games where magic > physicals usually, so by default the character balance is something like mages > balanced builds > fighters. Crafts that aren't S-Crafts are more useful for utility than raw damage; healing, status attacks, MT damage, buffs, Impede/Cancel effects, etc.
Estelle: 7/10. Balanced & flexible, can grab whatever spells you need thanks to no locked Orbment slots. Also has the best single-target damage S-Break out there in the lategame in Barrage. Hurricane has occasional use. If for some mad reason you're making a heavy physical party, Morale (the group Str buff) would be pretty useful.
Joshua: 7/10. Estelle but with slightly better stats but less flexibiilty. Another balanced build. Locked Time slots are fine, Action & Cast are both good. Very late, gets Black Fang which is the 2nd best S-Break and really useful for clearing the entire screen full of trap monsters or whatever.
Schera: 5/10. Yet another balanced build, leaning toward mage, which is even better. And has an Impede craft. Still... Sadist Whip is possibly the worst S-Break in the game, and she has locked Wind orbment slots. Now, Aerial is quite good for random-clearing, but it's hard to get that many Wind slots in C1, and she's gone in C2, and it's not as impressive in the endgame. And the actual stat bonuses from Wind are the worst: stuff like physical evasion. I mean, she's fine, but she could be better.
Olivier: 6/10? I'll freely admit this is a bit of a guess, his availability isn't great, the guys don't fight anyone interesting in the Grancel sewers, and I didn't take him to the Sealed Area. Stat-wise off Dhyer's no-stat-boosts-from-orbments topic, he has the raw highest ATS in the game slightly edging Kloe, and both of them have the best Orbment shapes for learning lots of magic in a single, long line. Unfortunately, his crafts aren't particularly inspiring, with Happy Trigger having some niche use for instant healing, and he has a locked Mirage Orbment. Even a single slot is unfortunate because Mirage orbments suck. Granted, this is not a *big* deal, and he's a powerful mage when magic is awesome, so I may be being unfair and he really does deserve the 7 here.
Kloe: 8/10. Well she's basically tied with Olivier for best magic stat, except she has 3 locked Water Orbments, except that Water Orbments are actually *good*. More importantly, her crafts are great; she's got Str/Def busting (if temporary), she's got Impede, and she has the most unique S-Break in Lichtkreis / Radiant Plash. Everybody else has damage; only Kloe can save you from some kind of surprise disaster happening by healing the whole party up after some kind of MT doom attack -> whoa he's gonna get his turn again too soon. The princess swordgirl schoolgirl being good, clearly CK was on the balancing team at Falcom.
Agate: 3/10. Our first pure fighter. Uh. This is where I say that I did in fact use Agate in the Sealed Area: you kinda want 2 guys / 2 girls due to armor drops being gender-specific, and there *do* exist Arts-resistant enemies, notably one of the final boss parts. And physicals are faster than magic! Just ugh, the damage drop is too much, and it somehow gets worse vs. high-Def bosses. If you really want a sometimes-fighter for the resistant, you're probably better off just throwing an Attack orbment at Estelle or Joshua. Sigh.
Tita: 2/10. The good: Smoke Canister. This is probably the best normal Craft in the game. MT Blind that always seems to hit completely screws over some randoms, and is still helpful against many other enemies, and it even has MT damage attached! (Also Vital Cannon is useful in SC, but checking the notes, looks like it's comparatively nerfed in FC at 500 healing. It's 1500 healing in SC.) The bad: EVERYTHING ELSE. She's a fighter who doesn't really deal damage, requires an accessory in the Long Barrel to get some range, and still isn't really "safe" at her comparatively short range considering her extreme frailty. Obviously if she was much better or there was a good way to twink physical damage, the fact she has MT physical damage would completely obsolete Agate/Zane vs. random hordes, but there isn't. Throw in locked Space orbments for fun and we have our cast-worst dueler.
Zane: 4/10. The best pure fighter... for whatever that's worth. His self-buff Craft is weirdly good and he has cast-best HP. On the downside, he's even worse than Agate if he's forced to do spell-spamming for some reason (positioning, it not being safe to move around?) with that cast-worst ATS. And I certainly used Agate to sling the occasional spell (balance!). His S-Craft is pretty cool too, like a chibi-Black Fang.
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Oh hey something I've played.
I did use Olivier in the final dungeon (along with Kloe). I feel like you're underrating him a touch (I'd have kneejerked him slightly above Estelle/Joshua rather than slightly below, I don't remember locked Mirage hurting him that much), but it's not really a big deal, and I'm not confident enough in the game's balance to say he might not be worse.
Pretty much agree with everything else.
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So agree on how solid Olivier is (on normal). Mirage slots are at worst able to be filled with utility stuff. He is present early game which is probably where being a good mage vs balanced is biggest with lost EP reverb availability. Also my memory of early game being a bit more where the game tries. End game he is a pretty solid filler pick.
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Oh hey something I've played.
I did use Olivier in the final dungeon (along with Kloe). I feel like you're underrating him a touch (I'd have kneejerked him slightly above Estelle/Joshua rather than slightly below, I don't remember locked Mirage hurting him that much), but it's not really a big deal, and I'm not confident enough in the game's balance to say he might not be worse.
Pretty much agree with everything else.
Speaking as someone who just finished the game and did this yeah, it's just one slot locked to Mirage and at worst that just means hey free EP quartz which he comes back with by default or he holds Haze during the final dungeon or whatever.
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For whatever it's worth, had you asked me after I finished the game, I'd have kneejerked Olivier as like a 4/10 or something. Dunno if I just didn't notice his good magic stat, but he didn't really impress. After hearing the hype in chat & checking Dhyer's stat topic, he sounded more like a 7/10. I figured I'd compromise and give 'em a 6 with a big question mark afterward. But okay okay, he's good.
I do agree that Elf's final party sounds like the "best" one, since it's 1 male / 1 female with the 2 pure mages, and just throw a physical build Estelle's way.
Interestingly (to me), Olivier is somehow considerably better in SC, at least the early chapters. Stat build at base is roughly the same, *except* you get Boots & Armor that are both male-only that pump Arte Strength by like +40 over base. So you have Olivier having ~300 ATS while the rest of the party has ~230, and this is *quite* noticeable in the resulting magic damage to enemies. We'll see if MVP Olivier keeps up or not.
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This Trails discussion will be most helpful when I get around to actually playing that game (good to know that magic rules the game, for instance! I hadn't noticed in the little bit I'd played so much).
I've decided I'd like to look at Super Robot Wars J some more. Now that I've almost completed two playthroughs, I've used most of the units at one point or another, so in this post rather than looking at the in-game usability of series as favorites picks, I'm now going to be rating the individual units.
I'll proceed in the same order, roughly, as I listed the series before. When mechs have multiple potential pilots, I will comment on the differences and if any significantly alter ratings, but it's the mechs I'm rating overall, not the pilots. Mid-season upgrades are generally rated with their initial mech unless one of the following applies: you have a choice of upgrades, or the original mech is retained after the upgrade.
Banpresto Originals
Bellzelute: 8/10. It's more or less equivalent to the Freedom Gundam in both stats and overall power, though of course you have it 38 stages earlier. The raw power is just slightly worse than Coustwell's, but it has a MAP attack. It's dependent on Hit & Away, but both Toya and Calvina have the skill, so this isn't relevant. Which of the two pilots is better for Bellzelute depends a lot on your play style; Calvina's defense deficit is not going to be relevant for Bellzelute most of the time, since it's a long-ranged mech, and the seishin difference (Toya has Assault, Calvina has Snipe) isn't too striking either; both are about equally useful. Calvina's Leadership won't see much use, though, so I would lean towards Toya very slightly, since he can still get Snipe from Katia, and Bellzelute probably prefers Katia as the sub-pilot of choice for the extra evasion and range anyway, though Festenia is situationally useful because of her Strike seishin. Melua doesn't really help the Bellzelute at all.
Coustwell: 8/10. It's more or less a slightly better God Gundam, again much earlier. It trades Bellzelute's range for slightly more raw power and a notably better armor stat, without sacrificing much in the way of mobility. The finisher having a fixed 1 range is unfortunate, however. Coustwell is probably best piloted by Calvina, in spite of her 15 point deficit in the Defense stat, because it can make excellent use of her Snipe seishin, wheras Toya's Assault seishin is completely useless in Coustwell as it does not have any attacks that aren't post-movement to begin with. The rest of your team will like Calvina's Leadership bonuses, too. All three sub-pilots have a niche in Coustwell, but I feel that Melua makes the best choice; the movement bonus is slightly better than Katia's range bonus (since the latter doesn't affect the finisher), and Melua's armor bonus gives it durability equivalent to Mazinger Z. Festenia is useful for Strike, as always.
Granteed: 9/10. It's more or less a slightly better Mazinger Z, though not earlier. Granteed benefits a lot from Hit & Away also, and neither pilot will have it in this configuration, thus eating one of their module slots. I lean towards Toya being slightly better for piloting Granteed in any event because of seishin and stat differences; his 15 defense advantage will matter here, and he has Accel rather than Calvina's Guard, and when he still wants Guard he can get it from Katia. Outside of that, Melua is again probably the best sub-pilot to field in Granteed; both main pilots have Strike in this configuration, so Festenia's main use is instead providing self-healing. A Melua sub-piloted Granteed is as tanky as Mazinkaiser (tankier, once Granteed Dracodeus enters play).
Vorlent: 9.5/10. Having Orgone Cloud from the beginning of the game is just dumb. Otherwise pretty much everything I said about Granteed still applies. Granteed Dracodeus is probably better than Raftclans, but Vorlent is far and away the best of the four initials so whatever. Raftclans might be the only one who prefers running Festenia, since its raw power is a bit low? Might be better for Calvina than Toya, since Guard is abusable with an early damage shield and it doesn't need Accel as much. Maybe.
Martian Successor Nadesico
Nadesico: 9.5/10. It's force-deployed on every map in the game it's present, just about, and you won't ever really regret it; it's got five seishin pools full of good seishins, Distortion Field is one of the best barriers in the game, and its offense can even keep up with the regular mechs. This isn't your grandpa's SRW battleship that you want to keep away from enemies out of fear of it being shot down; this thing should be right up in the enemies' faces with all your other units kicking ass with them. Really the only bad thing I can say about the Nadesico is that if you somehow get it shot down, it's a gameover. Ruri should always be used as the main pilot due to her IFS skill.
Aestivalises
I'm going to talk about these in general, before assigning a rating for each of the pilots of them, since they have some subtle differences. The 0G frames should always be used on space stages. Outside of that, the Ground frames are probably best if on a water-heavy stage; outside of that, Ground vs. Artillery is a toss-up. I personally consider the Artillery Frame's lack of mobility and the pilots' lack of Hit & Away to be a severe liability, but Ground Frames have no meaningful offense against flying enemies and Air Frames have significantly worse offense against ground enemies, and this matters frequently. The Lunar Frames alleviate some of these concerns, but I'm not sure they actually get the combination attacks, which is a significant drawback; even if they do, they would have severe EN management issues since they lack the Gravity Wave Antenna; however, they do improve the Aestivalis' individual performance somewhat.
With all that said, by pilot:
Akito Tenkawa: 5/10 individually, 8/10 with Gai. Despite the pretty good seishin list, for most of the game, he's an Aestivalis without combos, and he may remain such if you don't take the routes to get Gai back. He lacks Strike, so Real bosses will give him problems.
Nagare Akatsuki: 3/10. A worse Akito in every way - worse availability, no combos at all, and he doesn't get Focus until level 33. Flush.
Gai Daigoji: 7/10 individually, 9/10 with Akito. Wall makes up for the lack of Focus and he has a better Prevail level, so he's basically Akito Plus, but he's missing for 3/4 of the game. Honorable mention for the bug related to him on the first cycle: if you get him for the first time on the first cycle, he receives EXP credit for 8 route splits instead of the 4 he should, and the extra pilot points will persist through later cycles.
Ryoko Subaru: 5.5/10 individually, 7.5/10 with Izumi and Hikaru. Slightly worse Akito by herself, though her Leadership skill will make other units happy, hence the higher score. Strangely, although she has the highest melee stat of the three, she's the only one to not get level 3 Combo. She lacks Strike too.
Izumi Maki: 6/10 individually, 8/10 with Ryoko and Hikaru. She lacks Prevail, but she has Strike, which makes her the best at hitting Real bosses, and Guard + Distortion Field is still silly.
Hikaru Amano: 4.5/10 individually, 7.5/10 with Ryoko and Izumi. Worst seishin pool of the trio.
X-Aestivalis: 5.5/10. It's pretty bad, and its pilot will need a Hit & Away module. It probably is technically an upgrade for a Gai-less Akito or for Akatsuki, though.
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
Archangel: 6/10. You can't not deploy it, and it's not a complete liability, but it might be the only unit in SRW history that I'm aware of to actually get steadily worse over the course of the game as the plot continues robbing it of its subpilots and giving nothing in return. It has neither the raw power nor the durability of the Nadesico even before the Y-Unit comes into play; later in the game, as such, it's a little bit sad. Murrue should remain the main pilot even when you have the choice. The subpilot losses hit it pretty hard, taking with them Assault and Guard most notably. (Tolle would get Enable at level 51, but the odds of him ever reaching that level are minuscule.)
Eternal: 8/10. If you want a support unit for the endgame, it's hard to do better than the Eternal. The important support seishins are there on Lacus, and it can both repair and resupply while having battleship stats. Lacus is a better main pilot if you ever use the Eternal for attacking, but her 24 point deficit in Defense can't be ignored and is not made up for by SEED.
Skygraspers: 5/10. Only really useful if you really, really like Mu La Flaga, and since you can't save him from his plot death in this game, there's little point. If you're going to field a Skygrasper, the Sword pack is the most useful. Don't bother with Aile or Launcher here, as you need the mobility of post-movement attacks if you're going to use a Skygrasper at all. #1 resupplies and #2 repairs. That's about it; I'm not going to rate the packs individually here since only one of them is really worth considering.
Moebius Zero: 2/10. Might be marginally better than the Aile Strike. You still don't want to ever use it, really, when you're not forced to. Plot makes you lose it eventually IIRC.
Strike Gundam and Strike Rouge
These units are mostly identical, except that the Rouge has 50 more armor with the Aile pack, 100 more armor with the Sword pack and 150 more armor with the Launcher pack. IWSP forms are identical. I'm only giving ratings for the regular Strike; the Strike Rouge is probably half a point better with Sword or Launcher packs. The base form of the Rouge has an extra attack which the Strike does not before stage 38, but it's still not worth using.
The Strike Rouge can be piloted by either Kira, Cagalli, or Mu. The Strike is locked to Kira until after stage 38, after which it can likewise be used by any of the three. After stage 38, Cagalli brings the Astray Formation attack to any mech she pilots; this attack itself may enhance some of the ratings, but I'm not going to consider it in the numerical ratings since the enhancement isn't uniform. For packs other than Sword, it's a better post-movement attack, essentially.
Strike Gundam (no pack): 1/10. Don't ever use this. There's no good reason to. The Strike Rouge is identical(ly bad).
Aile Strike Gundam: 2/10. This is pretty much the second worst mech in the entire game. Do yourself a favor and don't use it ever; if you need Kira to fly, stick a flight unit on the Sword Strike or Launcher Strike instead.
Sword Strike Gundam: 4/10. It's at least passable, though unable to hit flying enemies without a flight unit. Melee is not Kira's good stat either.
Launcher Strike Gundam: 5/10. Probably the best pack to use on the Strike without the secret. He'll need a Hit & Away module.
IWSP Strike Gundam: 7/10. Actually a decent endgame unit, on par with the Freedom Gundam without the Meteor upgrade.
M1 Astray: 1/10. This would be the worst mech. It's Aile Strike with 100 less attack power. *flush*
Freedom Gundam: 9/10. This is where Kira starts getting good. The Meteor upgrade in the late game makes it hilariously broken. Combos with Athrun.
Justice Gundam: 8.5/10. Just slightly worse than the Freedom at base; with the Meteor upgrade, it's identical(ly broken) to the Freedom. Combos with Kira.
Buster Gundam: 6/10. Basically a little bit better Launcher Strike, and Dearka has innate Hit & Away.
Duel Gundam: 3/10. Basically a little bit better Sword Strike, but it also has two lifebars, which might come in handy if it had more than 2 stages of availability. It comes so late that there's no reason to care if you don't really like Yzak for some reason.
Mobile Fighter G Gundam
Shining Gundam/God Gundam: 7/10. Domon is pretty good even by himself, though he's fairly will-dependent - before 120 will, he's actually only barely better than Aile Strike >_>. The midseason upgrade alleviates this, and all the Super Mode/Clarity attacks are very good, though. He gets better still in the lategame when paired with Rain or Allenby or the entire Shuffle Alliance. Only real weakness is his slow movement.
Gundam Maxter: 4.5/10. The lack of movement is annoying. Gets better when paired with Gundam Rose.
Gundam Rose: 6/10. The Rose Bits MAP weapon is one of the best available in the early game, and can justify using him even if you ignore the rest of his cast. Lack of movement is annoying and he wants a Hit & Away module. Gets better when paired with Gundam Maxter.
Bolt Gundam: 4.5/10. The lack of movement is annoying. Gets better when paired with Dragon Gundam.
Dragon Gundam: 9/10. Basically a flying Sword Strike Gundam, and decent enough on its own, if one-note. Gets better when paired with Bolt Gundam. EDIT: Holy crap, I did not realize until this playthrough how good his attack debuff is. Score edited accordingly, it singlehandedly makes him one of the best units in the entire game since it is, as far as I know, entirely unique to him. (It HALVES ENEMY BASE ATTACK. As in, before subtractive defense.)
Rising Gundam: 5/10. Basically Shining Gundam with a repair command. Gets better when paired with Domon, of course. Shouldn't bother without him. Really late.
Nobel Gundam: 6.5/10. Basically a better Dragon Gundam, and gets better when paired with Domon. Really late though.
Brain Powerd
The Brain Powerd units are all substantially similar, with the chief differences being the pilots rather than the units themselves. So they get rated as such. All of them are, for example, better than any non-IWSP Strike Gundam
Yuu Isami: 8/10. Cast-best; Nelly Brain is a strong unit even by itself, let alone in combination with Hime. He gets Strike and Soul, too. Combos with Hime, Jonathan, or Iiko.
Hime Utsumiya: 7/10. Lags a little offensively by herself and the seishins aren't as good as Yuu's. You'd be dumb to use Yuu and not use her, really. Combos with Yuu.
Nanga Silverly: 7/10. If you're specifically only going to use one Brain, this is probably the one to use; Eland Assault is good and Nanga has a great seishin list. Combos with Lasse.
Lasse Lundberg: 7/10. Basically a slightly worse Hime for part of the game, then he gets a stealth upgrade that makes him a slightly better Hime. Combos with Nanga.
Nakki Guys: 7/10. See Lasse, he's basically identical to Lasse post-stealth upgrade. Combos with Kant.
Kant Kestner: 7/10. Basically a slightly worse Yuu. Combos with Nakki.
Higgins Saz: 7/10. A marginally better Lasse. Combos with Kanan.
Kanan Gimms: 6/10. A moderately worse Nanga, and probably the worst of the cast by herself. Combos with Higgins.
Jonathan Glenn: 5/10. Endgame filler, but not terrible, at least. Combos with Yuu and Iiko.
Quincy Issa/Iiko Isami: 6/10. Endgame filler with better seishins than Jonathan. Combos with Yuu and Jonathan.
Blue Comet SPT Layzner
Layzner: 7.5/10. The Layzner is fairly mediocre at first, roughly on par with a flight unit-equipped Launcher Strike Gundam. It gets multiple mid-season upgrades, though, and the first comes as early as stage 22. The first upgrade on its own already makes it on par with the base Freedom Gundam. There is no reason to ever pick the Enhanced Layzner over the Layzner Mk2 if you take the route which allows you to pick the latter. This rating does not include the Layzner Mk2, only the Enhanced Layzner; the Layzner Mk2 if earned is worth a full-point upgrade due to its higher power and transformation for additional movement. With Eiji's Accel seishin, the Layzner Mk2 is the most mobile mech in the game.
Baybull: 5/10. Basically an alternative to Skygrasper #1 that leaves the Sword pack available for Strike Rouge's use. If you use both it and Buldy, you also get a very strong combination attack that becomes available with Eiji's first midseason upgrade, which is worth noting. David is the superior pilot if you're using it to attack at all; if you're using it as a pure support unit, which one is better depends on what you want - David has Faith and Prevail while Simone has Enable and higher defense.
Buldy: 5/10. See Baybull. Its pilot will want a Hit & Away module if they don't have the skill natively (the default pilot, Roanne, does). Roanne is clearly the best pilot for it as such.
Greimkaiser: 2/10. It's pretty much just a slightly stronger Baybull without the resupply function. The only thing saving it from complete worthlessness is that if you get it on the first playthrough of the game, it comes with 5 upgrades in all stats and weapons for free (if achieved for the first time on later playthroughs, it doesn't get these because of a bug), and the fact that you get Gale with it, whom you could consider sticking in Baybull and using in the Layzner Formation combo attack.
Bloodykaiser: 4/10. A slightly stronger Baybull that has Repair instead of Resupply. It has a worse score because of low availability, but Julia is basically a slightly better Simone. It also does not have the bug Greimkaiser does re: free upgrades.
Full Metal Panic!
Tuatha de Danann: DNR, it's only usable in a few maps.
ARX-7 Arbalest: 8.5/10. Lambda Driver is really, really good. Probably wants a flight unit for maneuvering though. He has a combo with Kurz and Mao, but he's also very good without utilizing it.
M9 Gernsback: 6/10. There are some minor differences between Mao and Kurz, but none of them amount to a rating difference especially.
Bonta-kun: 2/10. It's cute? That's it though; the finisher clashes with Sosuke's stat profile. It would be better if Mao could pilot it.
Super Electromagnetic Machine Voltes V
Voltes V: 7.5/10. It's certainly not bad, what with 5 pilots of seishins (two of whom have Valor) and decent attacks, but it's a bit will-dependent and also a bit squishy for a super. I'm not sure I'd bother using it if I wasn't using Combattler alongside it for the combination attack.
Mazinkaiser
Mazinger Z/Mazinkaiser/Mazinkaiser KS: 9.5/10. The only drawback it has is lack of flight before the Kaiser Scrander upgrade. In a run of the game where you don't get Great Zeorymer, this is the best mech you will get, period, and you have it from stage 15 on. And it gets even better if you field Great Mazinger alongside it. I *guess* it's a little weak when it's still Mazinger Z, but that period is so short that who cares? The only reason not to use this at every opportunity is a challenge run. Combos with Great Mazinger.
Great Mazinger: 9/10. Mazinger Z with more power and flight, and it gets a midgame upgrade that makes it just slightly worse than Mazinkaiser KS. Like Mazinkaiser, the only reason not to use this at every opportunity is a challenge run; it's that good. HOWEVER, it may be worth considering using Boss as the pilot over Tetsuya, as his seishin selection isn't that great in comparison. Combos with Mazinger and Mazinkaiser.
Aphrodite A/Venus A: 5/10. I would generally say that Buldy or Skygrasper #2 or Blue Earth are all better repair units, but Sayaka has a better support seishin pool than the pilots of any of those units. So if you're going for pure support, this is a credible option. Sayaka is a better pure support pilot than Jun.
Million Alpha: 6.5/10. Basically a better Blue Earth for the second half of the game until Eternal shows up. Sayaka is probably still an overall better support pilot than Lori and Loru, if only because the really good support seishins are on Loru and you can't equip modules on her to lower their cost or boost her SP because she's a statless subpilot.
Boss Borot: 5.5/10. A Blue Earth alternative. It needs a flight unit and a mega booster to perform adequately, but the seishin pool is pretty good and it good offense relative to the other "support" mechs in the game.
Super Beast Machine God Dancougar
Dancougar/Final Dancougar: 7.5/10. See Voltes. It has three Valor pilots instead of two once it gets the midseason upgrade. It can sometimes be worth decombining the Black Wing from Final Dancougar to give you an extra support unit which doesn't count against your deployment limits in the late game (and the Black Wing shares Dancougar's upgrades).
Black Wing: 6/10. Pretty much a Boss Borot alternative with less gimmicky offense. It has to switch forms to choose which of resupply or repair it has access to, and the land form (which has repair) needs a flight unit to hit flyers, but since it can just transform again, this is less of an issue. Boss Borot's offense is stronger, but has more limitations. Black Wing's biggest strength is that it doesn't count against your deployment unit limit, and Dancougar doesn't majorly suffer from being separated from it.
Space Knight Tekkaman Blade
Tekkaman Blade: 9/10. He wants a Hit & Away module. WIth that out of the way, he has an incredible seishin pool and incredible power for a real. His only drawback really is how fragile he is if he DOES get hit, but he does have two health bars. Bonus combination attack with Rapier if you unlock her.
Tekkaman Rapier: 7.5/10. Basically Blade without most of his midseason upgrades. But Blade is already good at base, and she has a great seishin pool too. And she combos with him. She's gotten extremely late, but if you're fielding Blade, bringing her alongside him isn't a bad choice.
Blue Earth: 7/10. The best support unit in the game until at least Million Alpha, and arguably until Eternal. If you want to deploy two supports, this should likely be one of them even at endgame. The offense isn't awful in the early game but quickly falls off into irrelevance.
Sol Tekkamen: 3/10. They're essentially similar, and share the same rating. Both lack Strike, are extremely fragile, and the unit itself is crappy. They at least have a combination attack, but Balzac is late and missable.
Super Electromagnetic Robot Combattler V
Combattler V: 7.5/10. See Voltes; the two robots are nearly identical in overall function. Combattler's seishins are slightly worse for offense though (its second Valor is placed poorly); Chizuru is a bit better support than Hiyoshi though, so it balances out.
Hades Project Zeorymer
Zeorymer: 8/10. By itself, Zeorymer is merely good. The seishin pool is good, though not excellent with only 2 pilots, and statistically it's quite similar to Combattler and Voltes, though it has a defensive edge over them thanks to a (conditional on Will) bunshin.
Great Zeorymer: DNR. It's serious FAQ bait for one, as the most obscure secret in the game. If you DO get it, it is the most powerful unit in the game, but getting it is onerous enough that if I did rank it the process would cost it several points.
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Here's in-game use for another Touhou RPG: The Genius of Sappheiros. I'm basing this analysis on the final version of the game, the "Weekend" version, in "easy" mode (which is not actually easy, wholistically speaking). I'm also mostly ignoring the final boss, because the final boss fight is all but a puzzle boss, fought with two parties, where nearly every PC's abilities are essential for victory.
Reimu Hakurei: 8/10. In this game, she's a hybrid character, split between holy elemental magic damage and healing. She can also do passable physical damage in randoms to conserve MP, although she should pretty much never be doing that against bosses. Her healing is stronger than Sanae's on raw numbers, but also more expensive and less spammable due to cooldowns, and she tends to be less effective at MT healing in most formations. She's essential for a number of boss fights throughout the game due to her various Circle abilities, which allow her to nullify her choice of status ailments, elemental damage (though it doesn't catch holy or dark elements), physical damage or magical damage. Basically, the only parts of the game she lags noticeably in are the parts where holy resistance is out in force, and even then you might want her healing/defensive abilities. As a bonus, many of her attack spells are ITE too.
Marisa Kirisame: 7/10. She's actually good in this game! She's always a magic nuker, but she can be built for either elemental or non-elemental damage. Which one is more effective varies over the course of the game, but you can switch freely, but elemental tends to be better in most boss fights whereas nonelemental tends to be better in randoms. She's fairly helpless against magic-resistant/immune enemies, of course, which is her main weakness.
Sanae Kochiya: 9/10. Healer/buffer with a few mediocre damage skills she can throw around in randoms. Her offense is decidedly inferior to Reimu's; most of the time she's better off buffing than attacking, even in randoms. Buffs in this game are fantastic and Sanae is, for the most part, the only source of MT buffs (Byakuren has a single MT buff, but it isn't nearly as potent). She's also the only source of reliable revival, the only source of reliable MT healing, and the best source of status removal (Reimu can do it, but has to deal with cooldowns while Sanae does not). Basically, the only reason she's not a 10 is because her personal offense is legitimately bad.
Aya Shameimaru: 5/10. She's a contender for game-worst PC. Even so, she's essential to a few boss fights. Aya's a hybrid between melee offense and defensive support, and her biggest problem is that almost all of the defensive support comes extremely late in the game; she doesn't get her most important buff until level 57, which she'll probably hit in the penultimate dungeon. So she spends the majority of the game being just a pure melee damage dealer, and she's notably worse at it than Sakuya or Mokou or even Patchouli. She tends to be better off being used as a party commander than an actual combatant, especially in mage-heavy teams.
Patchouli Knowledge: 7.5/10. Pure offense PC; interestingly, she can be specced for either magical or physical offense. Her magical offense is mostly MT, though her low speed hampers her somewhat at random sweeping. She generally prefers the magical setup, but there are a few parts of the game where the physical setup can shine, and it means that magic-resistant enemies don't shut her down like they do Marisa.
Sakuya Izayoi: 9/10. Bulky melee attacker that does ridiculous damage to everything. Remember how good * Killer abilities were in FF9? Yeah, that's Sakuya. Learn the enemy types, equip the right weapon, and watch her do more damage than the rest of your party combined most of the time. Her main weakness is her small MP pool. Private Square can be used to really mess up enemy AI in some boss fights, too, although even at endgame it will burn off a huge chunk of her MP pool to use.
Nitori Kawashiro: 6/10. Gimmicky offense PC. She tends to have accuracy problems, and like Aya, often makes a better party commander than a combatant. More than anyone else, Nitori really needs a party designed around her; she basically plays a lot like an Etrian Odyssey Landsknecht, in that her core offense is based around "chasing" attacks of a specific element. If you can set your party up to spam that element, she can start putting out fairly impressive amounts of damage. Most of the time, though, it's not worth the trouble unless you're fighting a boss weak to that element.
Alice Margatroid: 10/10. The game's tank PC, in the literal sense. Highest HP, highest defense, and generally plays like an Etrian Odyssey Protector. Her skills in general vastly reduce the damage your entire party is taking, which is a big deal in a game where revival is nonexistent for over half the game and scarce for the rest. She can do okay damage in a pinch if defense isn't necessary, too. There really isn't a single point of the game I can think of where your party isn't made better by having her around unless you're grossly overleveled; you tend to feel this when the game forces you to use multiple parties, because there's only one of her. :V
Satori Komeiji: 4/10 if you don't FAQ blue magic. Without her blue magic gimmick, she's basically a poor man's Etrian Odyssey Hexer; lots of MT debuffing and status with mediocre success rates, and not much else. She needs the blue magic to output any real damage. With the blue magic, she goes up to a 6 or a 7; it's great, but the really good spells tend to be obnoxious to get, which hurts her rating. She's lousy as a commander PC too.
Youmu Konpaku: 8/10. The second of the game's three melee offense PCs. Youmu's skillset is obviously based on Etrian Odyssey's Ronin class, complete with the stances. Because she has to take a turn to set up, she's somewhat lackluster against randoms compared to Sakuya, but her offense in boss fights is usually at least on par with, and often surpasses, Sakuya's. She's not totally bad in randoms, since her basic physicals can carry a chance of ID in certain builds.
Byakuren Hijiri: 7/10. Hybrid mage; she has both holy and dark element offense, with a side of ST buffing (stronger than Sanae's, but obviously not MT) and some gimmicky healing. She also has some ST status. She's overall a fairly good PC but doesn't really excel at anything; her offense, while passable for the most part, is generally worse than Patchy or Marisa, or even Reimu. Largely, her niche is being the only source of cheap Dark element damage and the ST buffing, which is helpful when you're basically leaning on a single PC for offense (as is typical of many boss fights).
Fujiwara no Mokou: 7/10. The third of the game's three melee offense PCs, and something of an Alice variant, in that she's the bulkiest of the three. She lacks Alice's battlefield control and proactive tanking, instead bringing better offense to the table; in this game, that's generally a losing trade. She definitely makes an acceptable substitute for Alice in multiple party situations, and her offense is pretty good when enemies are fire-weak. She's also a great commander PC. Her physicals tend to inflict disabling statuses, which is a nice niche; certainly, she can replace Alice when you're not actively in need of proactive defense, but this becomes less and less frequent the further you go in the game.
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This doesn't really count as obscura, but whatever. Think enough people have finished it that it might be worth a go.
Fire Emblem Fates
I'm listing each character only once, but this isn't strictly accurate as some characters' relative worth fluctuates between routes due to competition / weapon availability, and Corrin & Gunter end up authentically different no matter what. So feel free to give multiple scores, or average scores, or whatever strikes your fancy. This is also stupidly long, so might be worth doing it in parts.
Corrin
Felicia
Jakob
Gunter
Azura
Silas
Kaze
Mozu
Shura
Izana
Rinkah
Sakura
Hana
Subaki
Orochi
Saizo
Hinoka
Azama
Setsuna
Hayato
Oboro
Hinata
Takumi
Kagero
Reina
Kaden
Ryoma
Scarlet
Yukimura
Elise
Arthur
Effie
Odin
Niles
Nyx
Camilla
Beruka
Selena
Laslow
Peri
Benny
Charlotte
Leo
Keaton
Xander
Flora
Fuga
Anna
Captured & recruited enemies (Niles / Orochi passive)
Kana
Shigure
Dwyer
Sophie
Midori
Shiro
Kiragi
Asugi
Selkie
Hisame
Mitama
Caeldori
Rhajat
Siegbert
Forrest
Ignatius
Velouria
Percy
Ophelia
Soleil
Nina
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I'm assuming either Casual or a perfectionist Classic runthrough where deaths either don't happen or are rare. So not much credit for "hey they're a backup if someone dies."
Corrin - 9/10. Just awesome. Hypothetically customizable, but keeping them in Nohr Prince(ess) & the upgrades is just *fine* too. Mixed damage is always good; they're your best tank early thanks to Dragonstones being great, and transitions into being a great attacker - CQ + RV having access to the mighty Levin Sword, and BR having higher str for plain ol' physical beatdown and easier access to Dual Katanas. Passive is really great, and several characters have passives that make Corrin pair-ups better anyway, so. All this might still be an 8, but I'll lean towards a 9 due to Revelation, where Corrin gets to power-level on the first few maps due to tiny deploy counts and hard-carry the early game while also maxing out weapon levels for free. If you care about fighting StreetPass / Internet people, then Corrin also has the easiest time farming weird skills from other people, too, saving the trouble of class-switching back and forth. And while I don't *really* give credit for this, since Corrin is guaranteed to be in your party at all times, they're among the safest to give stat-boosters to - especially Boots, to help cover for H/N Noble's one weak stat. Yeah, Corrin is the high 9 compared to some of the low 9s in this topic.
Felicia - 7/10. Frailty is a problem, but is a solid Corrin support, a good staffbot, and a terror with a Flame Shuriken. Gets a bit of a boost on RV for the same reason as Corrin, having like 3 maps to massively farm up levels & weapon ranks. Having magic damage that is blue-typed and gets around Tomebreaker is also ocasionally helpful for WTA purposes, plus a lot of Fates actual-mages are slowpokes, and she's comparatively speedy resistance-hitting. Can do a temporary switch to Strategist and get Inspiration way, way sooner than anyone else, which is also kinda handy.
Jakob - 6/10. Passive is arguably a bit better than Felicia's, but… the offense falls off harder in the 2nd half of the game, and he makes a slightly worse Strategist for the 2 levels he needs to spend there if you care. He can take hits better, though, which is a non-trivial advantage.
Gunter - Uhhh DNR? For required deploy maps, he's actually pretty solid, like 7/10 territory, good crutch and XP-leeching isn't a big deal in Fates. For optional maps, which includes like all of Revelation, oh god no, 1/10. Elf said he might be an okay Shelter bot with high move + promoted stats, but this implies you're in a really desperate situation.
Azura - 7/10. Yon average FE dancer, except actually has passable offense & can pair-up. Less dodgy than some other FE dancers, though. I guess the passive can be helpful too. Is probably 8/10 on Revelation thanks to early game grinding + Foreign Princess being useful vs. Vallite enemies.
Silas - 4/10. A mobile tank, I guess? Stats just aren't that amazing other than Def, though. Using him does get Sophie though who is better, and he deserves some credit for setting that up. Probably mildly better on BR where tanks are relatively rarer.
Kaze - 7/10. Fast, damageless ninja who counters mages but has trash physical defense & luck. Still pretty useful. Somewhat more useful on CQ where both Locktouch is fairly rare (Kaze + Niles + maybe Shura, kids) and speedsters are rarer (more Niles!).
Mozu - 7/10. Okay, Mozu does take some work to setup, but honestly not THAT much. Reminds me of FE9/10 Nepheene if you keep her in Master of Arms, just good stats across the board, for all that she probably wants an Arms Scroll. Caps are annoying low, especially the B-rank Spears cap, but so it goes. Sniper Mozu is also apparently very handy in CQ, but haven't tried that myself yet.
Shura - 4/10. Filler staff-bot. Basically no point in using him in BR where he's surely outclassed and joins late, but has some merit in CQ (e.g. useful for the cave ninjas in Mokushou) where his level edge is handier.
Izana - 3/10? Filler staff-bot which has a counterproductive passive. Maybe more useful in BR if you hate Hayato / Orochi / Saizo / Felicia and went for Priestess Sakura, in which case you're likely desperate for some sort of magic damage, which is not entirely crazy but still niche.
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Rinkah - 5/10. One of BR's rare physical tanks, with the downside of cripplingly horrible HP & Res, so she can't be used if there's any sort of mixed damage threat. She'd probably still only be a 4/10, but she's also one of BR's only two natural Axe/Club wielders (w/ Scarlet), so you're mildly incentivized to use at least one of them (especially if you go shop for some Axes to go with your Dual Club) for WTA coverage.
Sakura - 7/10 (6/10 BR, 8/10 RV?). BR characters are so squishy that I found Sakura's passive (along with Jakob/Felicia's Gentelhomme / Demoiselle) actually pretty helpful in staving off OHKOs from enemy phase action in the first half of the game. She's a handy Onmyoji if you didn't build up a Hayato / Rhajat, or you just want two later. Revelation sees a major upgrade as Shining Bow makes Priestess Sakura one of the best magical threats in the game, and regen + dodginess + speed makes her actually better than, say, Leo at surviving.
Hana - 5/10. Cool build, but ludicrously squishy, especially on enemy phase when her evasion boost on attacking doesn't apply. Risks OHKOs left & right. Definitely has use, but not the safest pick out there; Kaze gives up killing power to be considerably safer & dodgier, for example. Probably even more aggravating on Classic.
Subaki - 4/10. Genuinely useful early, where he generally won't be doubled and has +5 Speed on attacks, and is also tanky, and also hits everything while Perfectionist is up, even with WTD. Just… does not scale into the 2nd half of the game, where he's hard out-offensed by Hinoka, and Scarlet makes a better mobile tank.
Orochi - 4/10. All the magic, none of the speed, and kinda squishy even if she isn't doubled. Yet another "use with extreme care" unit, but she is a solid nuke if you can keep her safe, and can be a staff-bot if it isn't safe. Desperately needs a Horse Spirit, of course.
Saizo - 7/10. The magic / skill / defense / luck ninja. Mixed damage is cool, but doesn't double everything quite as reliably as Kaze does. Another solid Flame Shuriken user too which is part of why you don't need Orochi/Hayato quite as desperately as you might think.
Hinoka - 8/10. Her stats are just really good, barring some frailty. She's definitely eaten surprise OHKOs from Berserkers with axes which is annoying, but great otherwise.
Azama - 7/10. BR's resident surprise tank. Even regens, too. Send Azama forth into the enemies with a Bolt Naginata and watch as they mostly bounce off him while he deals okay damage back. Not as amazing in RV, though, where he joins quite late and is competing with better tanks.
Setsuna - 3/10. Outclassed by Takumi in nearly everything… except Speed, which is the godstat. Usable enough I guess, but definitely requires forging an Iron Yumi +2/3 or the like to get killing potential, and probably questionable compared to Sniper Mozu as well. Is complete garbage in RV (2/10?) where she starts underlevel, and if you're willing to catch her up, faces much stiffer competition for slots.
Hayato - 5/10. Takes a little work to catch up, but early BR is pretty nice about this, so not a big deal. Pretty vanilla stat build, if frail, like half the BR cast. He works, although should probably be replaced by Rhajat when the time comes.
Oboro - 6/10. Another BR character who can take a hit, especially if you throw a Guard Naginata at her. Boring stat build but it works. Seal Speed & Lancefaire are pretty cool at least.
Hinata - 3/10. See Oboro if she can't take a hit. Desperately needs a Practice Katana, but I guess they are available. Mildly better at taking hits than Hana but not by enough, he gets 2HKO'd rather than 1HKO'd, oh boy.
Takumi - 7/10. Sadly enough, jerkface is pretty good, sporting lots of damage and a high crit rate and a cool side-benefit in ignoring terrain movement cost. Arguably gets even better in RV where he joins earlier and has access to 1-range bows.
Kagero - 6/10. The strength ninja. Like Kaze, a bit of a mage-killer, but with less speed. Probably my least favorite of the 3, but really, she's fine.
Reina - 4/10. BR's Gunter? If I must deploy a Corrinsexual, I'll take Scarlet, thx. Objectively okay but doesn't really scale and is frailer than I'd like for such a character, and not really a fan of Kinshi Knight (despite the AWESOME ANIMATIONS). I think I did deploy her in the occasional map on Rev at least, e.g. Camilla's ship attack map. I may be biased due to NPC Reina getting herself killed and forcing a reset the first time I did that map, and that's when she has the huge level edge which doesn't last.
Kaden - 7/10. Pretty solid! More of a dodge-tank than a tank-tank, but dang if that dodging isn't really good. Selkie's also pretty solid.
Ryoma - 9/10. Famously Ryoma can solo a lot of BR maps if you really want him too. He's a bit more mortal in RV which does things like throw high-level Generals with spears at him, but he's still pretty busted.
Scarlet - 7/10 ? Hard to rank, since Scarlet is a Corrinsexual and thus bad to deploy if you care about building up your support conversation library. But… can hard-carry early in BR, and is *just fine* even if you haven't built her up later. Like Rinkah, a rare authentic BR tank, and also pretty handy on Leo's map (Nohrian + flys in a swamp). And is actually pretty good for the one map she's force-deployed in on RV.
Yukimura - 7/10?? Extremely hard to rank, because even if all his stats were 1, "give up a deploy slot for +5 Hit" is not a bad trade to make. And it's not like he's bad or anything, another ninja variant with his own weird tricks, except he's a Corrinsexual so hence not really getting much use from me due to no supports. Dunno.
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Elise - 7/10. Staffbot early, is actually pretty good at killing stuff late with the problem of also being very killable by physical damage. Solid. Joins annoyingly underlevel in RV but pays off if you catch her up at least.
Arthur - 2/10. The good: not a complete liability when he's forced + summons Percy. The bad: Every other axe-girl he's competing with in CQ is better at it. Throw in "is underleveled in RV" for bonus fail. Depressingly enough, building up Villager Mozu is arguably better than him *even if* you don't plan to use her long-term, at least if you don't care about Percy.
Effie - 6/10. Tank! Who kills stuff! And gets rolled horribly by mages! Enemy offense is legit enough that a really good tank definitely pays off, so solid.
Odin - 3/10. He's, uh, usable enough, and having a bit of a tank build makes him okay with Nosferatu (if he isn't getting doubled). Just… pretty dire magic score for a mage means he's worse at killing stuff than every other mage. You can make him a Levin Sword Samurai for Awakening flashback giggles, but that's a lot of cash. Easier just to bench him when his boss Leo shows up, and give a Flame Shuriken to Felicia or Jakob if you need mixed damage.
Niles - 7/10. See Kaze, you need some Locktouch speedsters in CQ, and your options are limited. For that matter, your bow options are limited too. He's a bit of a money grubber (really, really wants an Iron Bow +3 or the likes) due to his damage being pretty suspect, but he's kinda needed. Dives to like 4/10 in RV, where he joins later, underlevel, and has to compete with ninjas & snipers.
Nyx - 2/10. Oh Tharja, what have they done to your build. Nyx's stats are just too trashy. Poor skill and poor defense means that you're rolling the dice where a miss has unfortunate consequences, and her durability is so horrible that there's not much point in Nosferatu. At least Orochi can hit stuff reliably & hard and staffbot.
Camilla - 9/10. Camilla Emblem indeed. Joins on one of the toughest maps in the game where she is crazy crucial, can hard-carry some of the midgame, and is perfectly respectable lategame with Hinoka-esque "these stats are just better" for a Malig Knight. Makes a really solid Bolt Axe user for mixed damage, too. Joins at a reasonable time in RV as well.
Beruka - 5/10. Flat worse than her boss, Beruka is still usable enough as flyer #2. She's a bit of a tank, and going Wyvern Knight gets Rally Defense which is actually pretty darn handy. Strength & Speed are not the greatest weaknesses to pick, but forging a good axe helps here.
Selena - 6/10. Yon vanilla average infantry, with slightly suspect Str & Lck, but good Speed. And hey speed is the godstat. So pretty handy! Gets Axes or Bows if you don't give her the Dual Katana for some coverage, although Merc skills are largely trashy until Axebreaker.
Laslow - 2/10. Yon vanilla average infantry, with slightly suspect Def & Res, but good Strength. Oh, and wait… bad Speed. Bad speed?! At least Beruka has good mobility to offset the bad speed. Ends up a worse Hinata. Similar to Hinata, if you use him anyway, he direly needs the Practice Katana. I'll err 1 point worse than Hinata since he also joins hilariously late & underlevel in RV vs. Hinata. I *guess* Laslow also makes one of the hypothetically best Rallybots thanks to Fancy Footwork, but setting this up comes insanely late and requires DLC and/or careful relationship management. And isn't even THAT much better than someone else being a Rallybot. No.
Peri - 5/10. Silas with worse def & skill, but better Res & Speed. This is mostly a winning trade.
Benny - 5/10. Effie with less killing power, but somehow even more defense. This can actually be relevant for the likes of C25 where poison strike effects reduce you to 1 HP and you need to entirely null attacks. Bit of a slow start though, harder to feed him XP than Effie.
Charlotte - 6/10? Super-offense, if it hits. I hate the character so haven't really used her, but seems solid.
Leo - 7/10. Probably the weakest combat royal! His speed could be better as getting doubled can be horrible, but whatever, he's great. Like the other bro royals, using him saves money, too, which makes all your non-royal units better. His CQ mage competition being a bit suspect helps too; Felicia is probably the best competition, and sometimes you need her healing.
Keaton - 6/10. Can be a tank with suspect speed or be merely durable infantry with okay speed. Also another money-saving unit. Solid, might even be underrating him a tad.
Xander - 9/10. Okay, take Effie / Bennie, except give them great mobility and a 1-2 range sword and better speed (but no Wary Fighter). Awesome. Fears fast mages, but pretty invaluable for single-handedly holding chokes or leading all-physical enemy packs on a wild goose chase.
Flora - 2/10. Hahaha no. Worse than both Felicia & Jakob at everything relevant, Shura & Izana are both better staffbots. Only vaguely useful if you're on Classic *and* accepting deaths. Only has 2 supports for bonus fail.
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Fuga - 3/10? Didn't use. His bases look *okay*, but his growths are Gunter-level atrocious, and he's only on the path with the best possible competition. And limited support options. I'll take "overlevel but doesn't scale" over "underlevel and doesn't impress even when caught up" though.
Anna - 6/10? Maybe 5/10 on BR/RV, though. Anna seems a legit alternative to Niles if you want magic bows and aren't interested in Nina (and don't mind dodging Ciato's wrath). Unfortunately, she isn't as solid a speedster as Niles even if she does more damage, and Shining Bow nukes her evade, too. Her passive is trash, it gives you money straight-up and not gold bars, and not very much money. She's still usable with some class-changing on BR, where she can go use a Bolt Naginata, but then we're talking weapon rank catch-up and spending an Arms Scroll, which is a bit of effort. RV, she can take the Shining Bow, but so can Sakura / (Mitama?), who is better at it while sporting supports & a useful passive.
Captured & recruited enemies (Niles / Orochi passive) - 1/10. Hahaha no. Most of their skill loadouts suck + no supports. Allegedly there's an excellent Rallybot in CQ Lunatic C23 with all the Rallies, but I haven't seen him. Additionally cool enemy-only skills get removed on capture (e.g. Staff Savant) so.
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Kana - 6?? / 10. Depends entirely on Corrin's build. If Corrin is +Str, -Mag, then Kana is pretty rockin'! But lots of other combinations lead to suboptimal Kanas, e.g. -Skl Corrin means *skill twinked Kana*, aw yeah, give him/her a Killing Edge and let the passive go to waste. Could be anywhere from a 5/10 to a 7/10.
Shigure - 6/10. Perfectly respectable Sky Knight. Slightly better on CQ because Rally Speed is hard to get there.
Dwyer - 5/10 with a magically-inclined mom, go be a strategist in the backlines, sure. 3/10 otherwise as then you have someone who doesn't really do damage ever.
Sophie - 7/10. Weirdly awesome. Basically better than Silas in every way except maybe defense, but most notably her speed is okay, so she can double stuff.
Midori - ?. Seems good if you can twink her passive. For me, she came out weirdly slow despite having two speedster parents and unimpressive and wasn't really compelling.
Shiro ? Didn't look impressive.
Kiragi ? Looked even less impressive, no super-bow like dad.
Asugi - 6/10. Passable, ended up even more magic-ninjay than his dad, although that was partially due to having Orochi as mom (higher Mag score than Str score!).
Selkie - 7/10. See Kaden, with slightly better non-Str, but notably worse Str. About an even trade.
Hisame - ? Haven't got.
Mitama - 7/10. Unlike Sakura, actually has the Strength score to hurt people with bows. I had Setsuna as mom, so she could even go grab Bowfaire in Sniper before going back to Priestess.
Caeldori - 5/10. A huge disappointment compared to Awakening. Hinoka with worse stats across the board. This is still usable, actually, but still.
Rhajat - 7/10. Hayato+. Possibly best straight-up mage in BR? At least competes with Sakura for the title.
Siegbert ? Haven't got.
Forrest 5/10. Usable, but frailer than dad, and not as fast as his aunt, so worse at killing stuff. Still, Strategist for the backlines is respectable anyway, like Dwyer.
Ignatius ? Haven't got.
Velouria ? Haven't got.
Percy ? His passive is pretty awesome given Fates loves having single-digit crit rates creeping everywhere, at least, but haven't used despite getting him. Child labor laws & all.
Ophelia - 4/10? Desparately needs a mage mom (Elise/Nyx/Orochi), but okay if you do…? Orochi with slightly worse magic but slightly better speed is a good trade. Still has some Nyx-esque fraility problems.
Soleil ? Haven't got.
Nina - 6/10. See Ophelia, but has better utility and magic resistance? I had Elise as mom so she was quite frail, but murdered the hell out of stuff with a Shining Bow.
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I'm ignoring DLC, aftergame, grinding, path bonuses, etc. Also, all scores are for Conquest/Birthright, though I'll note units who do notably better on Revelation (Shura and Hayato, mainly). Several characters do notably worse on Revelation and I largely won't be mentioning them.
Fates balance is pretty good by FE standards, at least on the lower end; no units are truly terrible the way the likes of Sophia or Astrid10 were. Less so on the high end where yeah a few top-tier units do kinda run away with things. One on each route in particular...
Corrin: 8.5/10. Certainly very good. Extremely versatile both by the standards of conservative builds (can tank with dragonstones or go offensive with swords, gets 1-2 range magic on CQ or staves on BR) or aggressie ones (can get any class/skill combination you like). She'll be excellent in her boon stat though other stats will only be okay, so you'll notice that e.g. non-speed boon Corrin isn't as fast as you'd like, and non-str/mag boon Corrins won't have super-awesome raw offence. But the stats are still overall good and the versatility rules. The only thing which places other units above her is that they have stronger starts and/or unique perks (read: Raijinto).
Felicia: 7/10. Earlygame staff user who can take hits, and gets super-early access to L15 skills like Inspiration. Her long-term stats don't really impress me much (too fragile and kinda lacking in power for Flame Shuriken hype to really hold) but really good early to mid.
Jakob: 7.5/10. See Felicia, takes hits better and thus has slightly better combat during the point in their combat is meaningful. He also has better reclass options, for all that honestly I wouldn't reclass either to a non-staff user making it moot.
Gunter: 4/10. Gunter has a really good pairup bonus for Corrin (one of the few ways to boost Hit that much, useful if you go Skill-bane), and an excellent skill monkey with Shelter and access to several great classes along with nearly Jakob/Felicia-like access to L15 skills. He's either pairup or utility though, since his growths are so bad that his combat quickly drops from passable to terrible.
Azura: 8/10. Compared to some dancers that durability does hold her back, although Inspiring Song (+3 speed to a dance target) helps make up for it. A great unit though not the best.
Silas: 6/10. Nice bulk and solid power, especially if you can get some milage out of his passive (+3 str/def/res when Corrin is below half HP, wherever Corrin may be). I rarely find him anything invaluable but he's a solid earlygame contributor.
Kaze: 6/10. Amazing speed is nice although the low str/def do hurt his combat quite a bit. He has locktouch utility though less than Niles I find because the latter has Move+1. Reasonably solid.
Mozu: 3.5/10? I'm not sure how I feel about Mozu (currently using her on my Conquest replay so I'll get back to you). She's a growth character, less extreme than Donnel, but at base those aren't too great in my eyes. The villager line just underwhelms in terms of classes, archer is interesting but archers are also inherently not wonderful either and anyway she's pretty much just "Setsuna who needs a Heart Seal in exchange for slightly better overall stats" at that point which isn't too great?
Shura: 5/10. Filler utility character, like FE13 Anna without Levin Sword awesome and joining later... so much worse than Anna of course. He's fine though. Significantly better in Revelation where he's much more like FE13 Anna, being one of your very best combat units upon join.
Izana: 3.5/10. Filler staff user with a bad passive, doesn't have Shura's locktouch or combat. I've gotten something out of him, but he's not great.
Rinkah: 4/10. Axes don't really have a unique spot on the weapon triangle since bows exist, and you don't really get any good unique clubs/axes until Scarlet joins anyway. She's serviceable as an earlygame tank and gives good pairup bonuses (str/def are weirdly hard to come by in Birthright), so she's not terrible despite her memetically bad HP/Str. But not very good either.
Sakura: 5.5/10. Filler staff user/DV user with a nice passive. Combat's a bit better in Revelation at least.
Hana: 5.5/10. Weird PC. Essentially an archer since she's all about murdering things dead then being walled in. Still, very few murder things harder than her, and Duelist's Blow goes a long way to letting her avoid counters, along with the Dual Katana option. I'd like her better if her start were a bit stronger.
Subaki: 5/10. Great at base with solid player-phase AS, solid durability, and flight. Falls off hard since his offensive growths are just putrid, and you get better mobile tanks. But there's really only so bad an earlygame flier can be, especially since a few early BR maps really, really reward flight.
Orochi: 3/10. Oh look a unit who is fragile but has good player phase offence... except not that good because of her speed. BR is already awash with units who have her build only better (Hana, archers).
Saizo: 6.5/10. Solid overall stat build. Not the best at doubling but can do it often enough, can hit Res, Str/Def are adequate. And ninja's just a good class to go with that decent if unexceptional stat build. On reflection I do think I like him better than Kaze gameplay-wise, much as I like Kaze better otherwise.
Hinoka: 8.5/10. If you want, Hinoka is one quick reclass away from secretly being one of the very, very best tanks in Birthright, with skyhigh Res, Guard Naginata access, adequate HP/Def. Oh, and decent str/great speed, too! Or you can keep her as a flier who won't be quite as tanky or hit quite as hard, but still possessess great overall stats, a great passive, is one of the best users of the Bolt Naginata, etc. It's just hard to go wrong with her.
Azama: 6.5/10. Weird unit. Doesn't have Sakura's useful passive, but does tank very well... once you promote him. Probably one of the best candidates for early promotion in Fates, although this will limit his longterm potential some.
Setsuna: 5/10. Similar to Hana, power unit who starts a little weak and needs to be walled in a lot. I think Snowfire is underrating her power some; high yumi mt and Quick Draw make up for her on-paper so-so Strength; even on Rev (where she's worse) she could almost one-round enemies at base on her join map. I think Hana's somewhat better because she sometimes can counter one hit, though.
Hayato: 3.5/10. Project mage. Terrible at base but ends up okay. Obviously this isn't really worth it to me, but hey, he's a better investment than Orochi if you insist on using a mage. Much better in Revelation where his start is fine.
Oboro: 6/10. Oboro is pretty much Hinoka with a worse passive and no DV, locked into the Spear Fighter path, with generally slightly worse stats (mostly Res). This is still decent enough, she's an extremely effective low-investment tank with the Guard Naginata and if you use Sky Knight Hinoka, Oboro will likely be the clear best at this role until Scarlet joins, with only Silas really able to compete.
Hinata: 2.5/10. His overall stats aren't terrible but for the life of me I can't figure out what he's trying to do. As a samurai he has poor offence and I don't see average-to-above bulk making up for that. Or, you can reclass him to be tanky but really slow, but with E rank lances, so he's a long way from picking up a Guard Naginata and doing what the likes of Oboro can do at base.
Takumi: 6.5/10. Another "point him at things to make them die on the player phase, then wall him in" unit. He can take hits slightly better than Setsuna/Mozu but this is largely irrelevant. He can gain melee counters (along with mobility) with Kinshi Knight but they aren't very good. Still, the main thing which keeps him a bit above Hana/Setsuna to me is, despite the fact that his speed and hence offence is a bit weaker, he's better out of the gate, and also has pretty strong dual strikes.
Kagero: 6.5/10. Ninja with rather devastating offence; honestly it's pretty close to Setsuna's or Hana's, but 1-2 range. So better than them. Better overall than Kaze since Str over Res is a winning trade (Kagero's still fine at fighting mages), her vs. Saizo is a matter of a taste (offence vs. durability). I'd say her passive sucks, but... so do the other ninjas'.
Reina: 8/10. Yeah I dunno where Snowfire is coming from on this one, Reina is ridiculously good out of the gate and never gets bad; nothing like Gunter. Horribly outclasses the other archers until they promote, has high str/spd forever. Her long-term potential is that of a glass cannon, but for much of the earlygame her durability is decent to good and she flies so she's just all-around great. She also has the earliest access to Replicate due to her fast level gain, if you're willing to give up flight for four levels.
Kaden: 4/10. He's (dodge-)tanky but has a crappy class (5-6 move, lack of 1-2 range) and poor offence. I have... little to say about him.
Ryoma: 9/10. Ryoma is a killing machine. His durability is "only" about as good as Kaden's (worse against magic), which is to say tanky via avoid but you need to be a little careful. But his offence is so stupid. Fast enough to double most, good power, and best of all it's 1-2 range. Doubling and counering all the time makes him gain dual guard really fast so yeah he can usually take a decent-sized group of enemies down. Point him at trouble spots, he deals with them. Oh yeah and he's overlevelled to start. I guess he could be more mobile?
Scarlet: 8/10. Flies. Joins at a high level. Fills niches that Birthright enjoys being filled (axe user, concrete durability, str/def pairup bonuses). She has weaknesses like speed/res that could really be better but she's very solid.
Yukimura: 5/10. He's... a lot like Saizo honestly, with better Res and worse Speed (but not far apart in either case). Also a bow rank in case you need some fliers killed. And an actually GOOD passive, unlike all the ninjas! But he doesn't have locktouch utility and joins when you already have lots of good units (Ryoma, Scarlet, potentially some kids) so he's probably less useful than any of the ninjas overall.
Elise: 7/10. 7 move healer. Good passive. Can kill things after promotion, if fragile then. Jakob/Felicia are a lot better early, though, so it's hard for me to get super-hyped for her even if she's adorable.
Arthur: 4/10. There's worse. With bronze and/or Percy to fix up his luck problem, he's actually quite tanky... but not the best, and badly needing those is limiting. His offence is... okay, good power but not so good speed.
Effie: 6/10. Effie's not too different from Arthur offensively (a bit slower, but better power for most of the game) but way better on durability; doesn't have the luck problem and is significantly tankier at base. Very solid for a while early as she can often snag OHKOs, but this gets harder as the game goes along, and better tanks show up too.
Odin: 3.5/10. Odin's a bit better than I used to give him credit for. Forget about trying to use him for raw offence and run screaming from suggestions of turning him into a Samurai; Nosferatu is his trick. With a pairup support and his decent mixed durability and accuracy he can often tank his way through a few enemies somewhat, weakening them a little for other units to kill. Much less directly useful as a tank than Effie, though, and significantly worse offensively.
Niles: 7/10. Only natural bow-user on Conquest for a long time, fast + good source of more speed. He's mostly about gobs of utility: Locktouch, mobility, pairup bonuses, maybe even some staff use later. But his combat is adequate too.
Nyx: 3/10. Pretty good offensively, but the hit is low enough that there are limits to how much I can hype this. She's like Hana/Setsuna but not as good at their game.
Camilla: 9.5/10. She has so many things going for her. Stupidly high stats at join. Possibly the best growths in the game. Emphasises the most important stats (str, spd, def). Gains levels with a +5 advantage, giving her quick access to Trample, Axefaire, -breaker skills, etc. Lots of fast supports. Can do 1-2 range well against either defence. Great passive which makes her the single best dual striker in the game. Crazy good for her first five maps and then settles in to merely have game-best offence and good durability. The only knocks on her are her arrow weakness and poor speed cap which she rams, and if that really bothers you, she's a quick A+ support with her retainers away from Hero/Berserker instead.
Beruka: 6/10. Since I didn't get a chance to fit it in above, the Wyvern line is really good! Flight is good, literally all six skills are useful (special shout-out for the tactical possibilities of Lunge and how early you get it). So innate access to that + an axe rank ensures a decent unit. Beruka's also a good tank and has good base str, though the str/spd growths let her down.
Selena: 5/10. Speed's a nice stat, but she's in a weak class; there's just not much place for a mono sword-user in Conquest (only one Kodachi and she has to wait 3 maps to even get that). She's passable enough.
Laslow: 2.5/10. "Above average strength" as your best stat isn't cutting it in general, let alone in Conquest where you have a number of strength titans with better stats than Laslow in other areas. And again, merc not great.
Peri: 6/10. Selena with a bit less speed but significantly more Str/Res, and a much better class (horse, second weapon, elbow room/shelter). Neither her offence nor her durability is perfect, but both are solid enough; she's a good all-rounder in that cavalier way, and her personal skill is neat (especially with Azura handy).
Benny: 4/10? I'm really not sure, I'll get back to you. Project character with ultimately game-best durability, but the speed is really problematic until he gets Wary Fighter (mages wreck him) and he's just not too hot offensively.
Charlotte: 4.5/10? Project character with ultimately game-best offence? (Although she doesn't catch Camilla until 20/15.) It's funny how she's the mirror of Benny in that regard, the game did know what it was doing with these project PCs at least. She joins lower-levelled than Benny but has an easier time catching up anyway. Half-point bonus over Benny because she has really awesome pairup bonuses (especially for Xander) so you might want to use her even if you don't plan to make use of her combat.
Leo: 7/10. There are a lot of ways to play him and most of them are good. He can go Sorcerer for Nosferatu shenanigans, or stick in Dark Knight with its decent enough durability (often survives two hits!) or he can go Strategist for more speed, staves, and Inspiration access but at the cost of becoming more fragile. Certainly the best dedicated mage in Fates, but the speed/durability are low enough to keep him in check. Also he's just about the only royal with a shit personal skill, damage bonus against injured enemies oh man.
Keaton: 5/10. Mm. Better than Kaden since he can output more damage, but has some of the same problems. Tank but lack of 1-2 range allows him to be exploited by some enemies, and there's just not much he brings to the table utility-wise.
Xander: 8.5/10. I don't think he's as good as Camilla or Ryoma but he's certainly outstanding. A great tank who has 1-2 range, so he'll punish anything that tries to hurt him allowing other units to mop up easily. If you push his speed he can even snag some ORKOs which is obviously great, or you can push his res/durability in general to make him a better overall tank. Also he's mobile and joins strong out of the gate. Low res is enough of a hole in his gameplan to be noteworthy but he's still excellent.
Flora: 2/10. No thanks, second servant/Shura/Izana all join around the same time or slightly earlier and can play your role while not being as fragile. Possibly Dwyer/Forrest as well. She has a staff rank over most of them but I have a hard time hyping this since it really only matters if Elise and the first servant are both dead or weren't used.
Fuga: 6/10. Pretty capable combat unit with decent weapon ranks, in fact his combat will probably surpass all but a few people on your team. He reminds me of the physical version of Caill9 or something.
Anna: Abstain, not used.
Captured & recruited enemies (Niles / Orochi passive): Ehhh, Haitaka (Conquest 9 boss) is supposed to be useful if you stall until you are able to recruit him, but meh.
No rankings on the kids, I'd need to look at them more closely. Gut feelings instead!
Kana: Mine has always kinda underwhelmed, I dunno. Corrin without a lot of the things which make Corrin cool.
Shigure: Minus points for it being annoying to build supports for dancers as per Inigo. When I did get him his stat build seemed rather bland. Snowfire raises a good point that Rally Speed is nice on Conquest though, especially if you pass Rally Str via Arthur or something.
Dwyer: Filler staff user, zzz.
Sophie: Doesn't really stand out from Silas/Peri to me?
Midori: Yukumira with less durability and a worse passive. How did someone related to Kaze end up with such unimpressive speed?
Shiro: No clue. "Didn't look impressive" sounds right.
Kiragi: Never even looked at him.
Asugi: As above.
Selkie: Has potential to exceed her dad and thus make up for his flaws with the right mom I guess, but I dunno, mine had Kagero and still had some trouble dealing damage...
Hisame: See Kiragi/Asgui.
Mitama: Staff rank and had some passable combat.
Caeldori: Like Shigure, a sky knight with okay enough stats. At least she's easy to get because Subaki is so early.
Rhajat: Solid, a better version of Hayato who is already fine once caught up. Surprised she wasn't a Dark Mage, but I don't mind the staff use upon promotion.
Siegbert: Xander with slightly better stats and no Siegfried. So... another cavalier? That's fine, elbow room/shelter/whatever he got from mom is a good skill set.
Forrest: Filler staff user, can probably get some magical offence going if you need.
Ignatius: Tank, more balanced than his dad. If you use his dad as pure pairup fodder then Ignatius may be able to slide into the party in a tank role.
Velouria: She's fine, mine had Camilla as mom so she was a better version of her dad overall. Usual range-1 downsides but did have quite good offence anyway.
Percy: Best child character in the game IMO, owing entirely to that personal skill which freaking rules. Fates has several ways to reduce enemy crit, but most come at a cost to your offence (bronze, pairing up instead of using attack stance). Percy passively reduces it just by existing, giving you a greater array of options to safely tangle with crit-rate enemies. Oh yeah and he's a great rallybot (str from dad, def from his own class), any decent combat he does have is just gravy.
Ophelia: On paper with a magical mom she should be one of the best magic users in Fates, though the durability does need some work. A significantly improved Nyx, or a Leo with more offence and less durability. Haven't used her myself though.
Soleil: I dunno, merc line still not too impressive, might be able to set up some neat skill stuff with the right mom.
Nina: Utility and some great offence with the Shining Bow, but very fragile. A fun build though I'm not certain how good it is.
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Conquest-only ratings go
Corrin - So I hear having two weapon types when unpromoted is pretty good, more so when you can hit both defenses. Since doubling is actually kind of hard if you didn't take +Spd the downside to using Dragonstones doesn't do that much to make itself felt. She doesn't get to do that "can do everything while being the best" thing that Robin did so I guess she's only like a 8/10 or something, oh no.
Felicia - Hey it's a prepromote who isn't actually a prepromote, that's sort of cool, too bad she pretty much has no offense outside of reclassing or the C12 Flame Shuriken but hey at least she has that earlygame staff user who isn't made of damp tissue paper thing going on. 7/10
Jakob - Basically similar to Felicia except for the fact that he can kind of hurt things physically instead of being able to kind of hurt things magically. 7/10
Gunter - Well he helps for a few maps and Forceful Partner/Shelter are something at least, but he's still kind of a utility character without actual true utility. 3/10.
Azura - What score did I give Ninian way back when, 7? Ninian -1 feels right so 6/10.
Silas - Solid durability attached to no real statistical failure, he's not impressive but you do want people who can take more than one hit comfortably. 6/10
Kaze - Really fast! Lots of RES! Wait what is that STR stat ew ew ew. At least daggers have utility but man, he risks failing his main combat niche. At least Locktouch is something. 5/10.
Mozu - Conquest doesn't really have good bow users and being one is at least a better niche than it used to be so you really could do a lot worse and as far as projects go she's one of the lower-investment ones. If I were factoring Birthright into this she'd be lower but I'm not so 5.5 works.
Shura - Staff filler, is okay with a bow. 5/10.
Izana - Staff filler, bad personal skill. 3.5/10.
Elise - Mounted healer, offensive stats are kind of nuts so she can wreck things post-promotion. Has the durability of wet tissue paper against physicals but no one gets everything. 7/10.
Arthur - Durable right up until the point where his passive bites him in the ass, fixing this hurts his offense or requires Percy (though in his defense you probably want Percy), and then you get faster axe users anyways. I guess this is less harmful on Casual but even considering that rarely do I deploy people for their ability to get themselves killed. 3.5/10.
Effie - Tank, the speed is problematic at base but the growth is fine and she can at least hit fairly hard, but later on people come along who can do these things while not having the associated armor knight problems. Still one of the best in the series though, for what little that says. 6/10.
Odin - Fates really doesn't want you to employ Nosferatu tanking strategies. I guess Odin is the closest you get to making it work without the extra investment of reclassing someone but maaaaaaaaaan he's vaguely bad at everything. 3/10.
Niles - In his defense your options for bow user in Conquest are him, reclassing Mozu, or waiting until Shura (or getting Nina I GUESS). Less in his defense his STR is about as bad as Kaze's and his magebusting has the added problem of having WTD unless you make a Bow Knight out of him. At least his utility is better but some of that is tied up in Adventurer. 5.5/10.
Nyx - Not really fast enough or hard-hitting enough to make up for the fact that she's bad at pretty much everything else. 3/10.
Camilla - Glorious elder sister carries team. 9.5/10.
Beruka - I'm not really sure how I feel about this overall package but being able to fly and be at least semi-durable make you okay in this game. 5/10.
Selena - Mercenary isn't a particularly good class to be in, no, and she has the STR problems as seen with Kaze/Niles/Beruka without any of the utility that they bring. 55% DEF growth at least?! I guess you can reclass her to pegknight so she can rallybot without having to get Shigure though but there's got to be better uses for that. 4/10.
Laslow - Bad at things that aren't STR, also rare footage of a character who manages to more or less be completely obsoleted by his offspring. 2/10.
Peri - Heeeeeeey it's someone with a STR/SPD combo. Kind of glassy but actual offense is cool. 6/10.
Benny - Uh. He's tanky! Wait holy shit he's the slowest character ever and basically requires Wary Fighter and I dunno, even with early promotion that's asking a bit much for someone that inept at offense, particularly when you're not that far off from getting Xander anyways. 3/10.
Charlotte - Well she has HP, unlike Nyx. However she's also kind of underleveled and has those accuracy issues. Package is probably better than Nyx anyways though. 4/10?
Leo - Well he's certainly pretty good if he gains SPD, but exists in that zone where his base is low enough that he's going to be weeping lilies if he doesn't (hi) and his personal skill isn't very good so he may well rate as the worst Nohr royal, but at the same time as noted he has a lot of ways to develop and they're decent places to be. 6.5/10.
Keaton - He's kind of like Arthur except instead of being critbait he has no range 2 option, this isn't -as- damning in Fates as it is in some other FE games but he's pretty much not going to be much more than okay. 5/10.
Xander - Awww yeah, tank with a range 1-2 sword that makes him even more tanky. SPD is rather suspect and the RES is somewhat trashy but he's pretty close to not dying from physical mooks, easily #3 unit at worst. 8/10.
Flora - Staff filler, basically bad at everything but at least she has staves which is more than you can say for Laslow. [2.1..2.4]/10
I'm not really sure how to rate kids so this is mostly in comparison to what you already have by that time.
Kana - Resoundingly meh compared to Corrin, though at least having another source of Draconic Hex could be cool? I dunno. 5/10.
Shigure - Acceptable filler who can Rallybot, not terribly impressive otherwise, but Rally Speed without reclassing is cool. 6/10.
Dwyer - Lazy staff filler, may as well not have a passive. 4/10.
Sophie - Filler cavalier, not really much point in using over Peri and doesn't really have the defense to sub for Silas. 4/10.
Midori - Uh. I'm sure someone will bring up some Midori tweak build but that's probably going to involve too much work for me to care about. 2/10.
Siegbert - Oh look it's Silas 2.0 gained far later. 3/10.
Forrest - Well he's better at taking hits than Elise? Slower though. At least he's acceptable staff filler at worst. 4/10.
Ignatius - Oh goody, another knight who still kind of sucks at the things other tanks succeed at. 3/10.
Velouria - Probably workable enough to merit the same score as Keaton. 5/10.
Percy - Wonderful passive, good rallybot, good class options... kind of wants better offense but no one gets everything, still cleanly the best kid. 7/10.
Ophelia - Basically mandates Elise as a mom (but who else are you paring her with on Conquest), but is certainly good enough at her job to consider slotting in once you've overcome that hurdle, just don't try to Nosferatu tank with that durability, but a stray javelin isn't the end of the world. 5.5/10.
Soleil - Actually has STR without Laslow's SPD failure, but kind of glassy and as noted Mercenary not really a good class, though the passive does help with the former issue a bit, though she's probably going to always suffer a bit from the fact that her gameplan is basically Peri without a horse. 5/10.
Nina - Niles with better offense I guess though I'm not sure how much I actually care about having a third Outlaw. 5/10.
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Trails extravaganza ratings, because I'm a dumb crazy person who does things I probably shouldn't do, like play games like these in moonrunes. Will probably play host to other games in the series if/when I play and finish them.
Sky FC: mostly going to be the same as Snowfire's ratings with some minor adjustments since his reasoning is p. much spot on, admissions of underrating Olivier aside.
Estelle: 6.5/10
Joshua: 7/10
Schera: 6/10
Olivier: 7/10
Kloe: 8/10
Agate: 3/10
Tita: 2/10
Zane: 4/10
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Sky SC: As with FC, the order goes mages > balanced > fighters for the most part.
Estelle: Flexibility is still good since she can cover most of what you actually need, but "hard-hitting ST S-Craft" kind of not a great niche since late they won't hit -that- much harder compared to fighters since their STR will be that much higher (that and well, TitS SC believes in quantity over quality for the most part so having all your S-Crafts be ST sort of blows in its own way), so due to that and how female-only equips skew for most of the game she's more sort of magey than fightery, only instead of mage line length she doesn't have to put up with locks instead. 6.5/10.
Schera: Well unlike in FC, she has no availability issues! (if you picked her as your partner at the start of C1 anyways) On the other hand, holy shit, they made wind quartz worse somehow as Shield reduces ATS in exchange for somewhat non-meaningful ADF gains, which is of course unacceptable, and Evade/Impede are still lol tier. She at least has the most passable physical out of the mages IIRC and GT quick is something, but like FC's final dungeon SC sort of wants you to run a 2/2 male/female party for armor reasons and considering that Estelle is forced and how early Kloe joins up there's just not that much reason to be excited. Still, only so bad a mage can be in this game. 6/10.
Agate: Well he's still more or less a pure fighter, and we all know how well that went over in FC and spoilers it ain't much better here. On the other hand, like Schera he has no availability issues this time (again provided you picked him at the start of C1) and Wild Rage is kind of hilarious early since provided you can get around the fact that it eats 70% mHP, getting 150 CP on the spot is pretty good. The other problem is that uh there are three kinds of fire quartz in the game, and one is for a status effect (which is, of course, not great) and the other is one-of-a-kind and better placed on a mage. IDK, I think I like him better in the early game than Schera but past that magepremacy applies in full so he's ultimately worse. 4/10.
Kloe: Hello, yes, it's "gamebest ATS in practice for much of the game." Also Lichtkreis still owns as a panic button and bird is still very powerful. Has the most elemental locks out of anyone so she's less versatile than Olivier but she's around for almost the entire game, water still perfectly fine as a lock (oh no you have to put up with ADF reduction with Mind quartz now, how horrible) thanks to Yin-Yang being the new Haze and you have no real reason not to be using her. 9/10.
Olivier: Oh no, a single mirage slot, what shall we do. Actually stronger than Kloe early thanks to that C1 male gear previously mentioned, but unlike her he misses C7 (as well as 8 but so does Kloe and C8 is pretty much inconsequential anyways) and comes back during the final chapter in need of some catching up but w/e, still #2 PC. 8/10.
Tita: Uh. Has the dubious distinction of being the only PC to actually get OHKO'd by something at proper levels. Three-line orbment still sucks, space locks still suck, and she still doesn't have the things the other pure fighters get to make up for these failings. 1.5/10.
Zane: Self-buff status: still kind of nuts. Doesn't like that Defense quartz lowers STR now but can deal thanks to that. Still very durable and being able to draw enemy fire is an okay boon when it works. Likely still the best of the pure fighters but the gap between him and Agate is lower now. 4/10.
Kevin: His availability isn't great, but hey, mage with time locks and a craft that gives people CP, that's cool. Grail Sphere is also cool in theory but not much really justifies it on normal. Doesn't get a single line orbment and is of course using the inferior for ATS-boosting male specific gear but that's pretty much all he does wrong when he's around. 6/10.
Joshua: Hello, yes, it's "full MT S-Craft." Offensive stats still good in both directions, orbment not as good since it's a 4-2 as opposed to Schera's/Kevin's 5-1 but again time locks are perfectly acceptable. Availability blows since C7/final are the only places that really matter when he's around, but still beats the "but why" tier that's to follow. 7/10.
Josette: Oh hey it's an Estelle variant... with Kloe-level HP (i.e. not tragic but still kind of bad)... and earth locks... and bad damage... and is only around for the final chapter... please go away. 1/10.
Julia: Oh hey it's the 4-2 orbment type Joshua has so she must be--SPACE LOCKS, also worse ATS than Estelle so why bother during the final chapter, a slightly longer first line isn't worth space locks, and nothing she brings to the table is worth using her over people not named Tita/Josette. At least she's not incompetent for the C3 boss fight. 2.5/10.
Mueller: Shares the dubious distinction of being the only other character with a 4-line orbment, though at least his locks are water and his ATS isn't completely wretched, though still not great. Probably the best of the three final chapter only goobers but doesn't have Julia's being a competent warm body for the C3 boss. 2.5/10.
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Zero: to be perfectly honest I'm not exactly sure why I decided to play the Zero/Azure duology but it's been far from the worst impulse play decisions I've made. Again mage > balanced > fighter applies as usual but at least the distance between mage and balanced is honestly closer early than it was in Sky FC. Mild spoilers for a game not in English and probably won't be for some time if at all I guess? IDK, I should probably throw up some actual obscura as opposed to things that simply haven't caught on.
Lloyd: Fairly similar setup to Estelle, but instead of that "hard-hitting ST S-Craft" thing he's somewhat above average at durability. I don't think this is a winning trade since his other schtick (hard-hitting combo crafts) is endgame only and is gated behind vaguely FAQ bait things. On the flipside, at least he gets an AoE S-Craft and being able to inflict paralysis is okay when it's actually an option. 6/10.
Elie: Gets a Lichtkreis clone in the form of Aura Rain so you can probably guess that she's good. Marginally higher ATS than the other mage at base and wind locks are less pathetic than they were in Sky, but her claim to be the new Kloe is kind of marred by her 5-1 orbment and not having bird, but really not having a single line is the only thing she actually does wrong. 8/10.
Randy: And just as Lloyd is fairly similar to Estelle and Elie is fairly similar to Kloe, Randy is fairly similar to Agate, only better than how he was in Sky FC, though instead of getting impede he gets status options and an AoE S-Craft right off the bat. And hey if you get his combo craft with Lloyd upgraded (I didn't) it should hit things really damn hard. Still he's more or less a pure fighter and when the going gets tough those just aren't that good. 4/10.
Tio: The other mage and owner of the game's sole single line orbment, though since Mind got moved to Mirage and Shield got moved to Water, water locks aren't as good as they were in Sky. However this is where I mention that EP is actually rather restrictive early compared to Sky (though about as plentiful late) and while hitting ADF with virtually everything is a neat quirk, it's not all that meaningful early on outside of certain enemies. On the other hand, has a debuff (for both defenses even, for what that's worth) that also scans enemies, I hear some people overvalue scan. Good hard-hitting S-Craft though, and later on picks up a Grail Sphere clone in the form of Zero Field, for all that like SC there's not a lot of call for it on normal. Worse than Lloyd early (probably) but better late than she is worse early. 6.5/10.
Noel: Outside of the main CPD four, the other PCs more or less exist for the sake of being warm bodies or their support crafts. Noel... is probably the worst of the bunch, pure fighter with a four-line orbment and earth locks, but unlike the last time we saw this, her durability is non-special but her physical is at least a mid-sized AoE. Unfortunately there's not a -whole lot- that can be done with this as the randoms in the dungeons she's around for are largely status-immune so... she's Randy that is less durable and does less damage, but can at least spread pain without blowing CP. Oh well, at least her support craft debuffs SPD heavily and she's not Tita-level inept. 3/10.
Wazy/Lazy with that Polish dark L/Mr. Hemisphere: Pretty good guest character all things considered, seeing as how he's both a mage (albeit one with space locks, but that's not as bad as it was in Sky) and his main guest stint is when you have only two other PCs and have to escort an NPC. S-Craft is jank but no one gets everything. 6/10.
"Yin": Another fighter... with mirage locks (this is Mind/EP here, so uh) and bizarrely less EP than Noel despite a three-line orbment as opposed to four. Good self buff at least but otherwise plainly worse than Randy as her other stuff isn't worth mentioning at the point she's around (90% ID! Against vaguely worthless and undurable randoms. Woopie.) 3/10.
Dudley: Another fighter, though one with a real orbment (time locks are still fine, 4-2 also still fine) and he provides things like debuffing (though only for defense) and healing/CP recovery (though only for a single target). His support craft is pretty good when it kicks in too, a STR/SPD buff to all allies. Not as useful as Mr. Hemisphere or the two people below, acceptable enought. 5/10.
Estelle: So this is why I didn't credit Lloyd's other schtick that much, Estelle and Joshua provide it for free during the rather lengthy final dungeon. Oh and she has an AoE S-Craft now if you need to S-Break with her for some reason, not that she cares because her combo craft with Joshua is that dumb. 6/10.
Joshua: Has less HP than Estelle now. Oh no? Still good at providing whichever kind of beats you need and still has that full MT S-Craft thing if you need to S-Break with him for some reason. 6/10.
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Azure: Well master quartz means stat spreads aren't terribly relevent outside of some exceptions and the non-Lloyd PCs only have one lock this time around so being balanced isn't inherently good.
Lloyd: Well, at least having a 3-3 orbment is something... but all the other fighters also have at least 3 on their primary line so the only thing he really has on them is a better EP pool, and having 2nd worst STR out of the game's five fighters and sketchy mults outside of upgraded combo crafts (of which you can get one) means he's pretty much going to be whatever on the damage front. And, you know, has neither range nor move at base. Normal crafts are occasionally useful, but you don't get the good version of the self-buff until the final dungeon and everything else is sort of take or leave. 4/10.
Noel: So this is something of an odd case. Noel sports the worst base STR out of the fighters, sketchier mults than Lloyd, and worst ATS out of the cast (and again, 4-line orbment), but has that AoE physical and hey this time things can actually be done with it. Also picked up a -50% STR debuff between games, that's cool when it works. That... probably outweighs the not-good stats and again, hey, it's not like she's Tita-level inept, but she kind of does have an expiration date here. 4.5/10.
Elie: Aura Rain! Still really great. Doesn't have cast-best ATS due to some stat shuffling between games but whatever. Apparently you can pull off some potentially infinite loop using her GT quick craft? 8/10.
Mr. Hemisphere: Has the most passable physical game of the mages, in part due to his weapon giving him a crit rate making up for his poor strength (though still better than Elie/Tio's... Tio doesn't care though), and is the most durable of the three, but for a lot of the game he's... just not terribly exciting unless you really like AoE Impede crafts, as everything else he brings to the table is either doable by others (SPD/MOV debuffing) or just sucks (Deadly Heaven is the worst S-Craft in the game)... until the final chapter where he gets the hardest-hitting S-Craft in the game, running off his good ATS, hitting a wide area, oh yeah it can crit too thanks to his weapons. Still, that's a long time off. 6.5/10.
Randy: Hey he gets Agate's +150 CP for 70% mHP schtick... at Lv101 (i.e. the final dungeon). Castbest STR and non-sketchy mults though! And hey he can be kind of salvaged as a caster somewhat, though he'll never have much variety. 5.5/10.
Tio: Castbest ATS! Good thing too because everything she does except for calling her wolf buddy runs off of it. Zero Field also comes up more than once too, though some of that was for winning-is-optional fights against bosses with 2x PCHP overkill S-Crafts. I guess she cries when arts reflection comes up but that's not very common. HP sucks enough that she might get oneshotted by some endgame S-Crafts if you don't give her a HP quartz but why would you do that. 7/10.
Rixia: 2nd best STR of the cast and averagish ATS, also 4-1-1 orbment which... is gimped for EP for some arbitrary reason. Seeing as how the EP cost inflation in this game is real, this is kind of bad! Good self buff at least, but past that she's kiiind of all about the instant death and her S-Craft is no Phantom Raid. Also, y'know, final chapter only. 4/10.
Dudley: And this guy can pull of the instant death too, as well as, y'know, buff the party. Also having a real orbment outweighs his Randy-level ATS here. Pretty good except for the fact that he uh joins at the second-to-last dungeon but at least he's actually competent unlike SC's "but why" tier. 4/10.
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FEF
Corrin: 7.5/10. She’s decent but her speed can often be a bit of a problem. She’s definitely not as versatile as Robin.
Felicia: 6.5/10.
Jakob: 7/10. These two are pretty similar, but Jakob is better early on, which I feel like is more important for the Jeigan-ey characters.
Gunter: 2/10. nope
Azura: 8/10. +3 speed rules but holy shit the durability of doom
Silas: 6/10. Horse and multiple weapons makes a solid unit, but he’s a little too slow to be great.
Kaze: 6/10. Locktouch and speed are both good things.
Mozu: 3.5/10. I dunno
Shura: 7/10. A little surprised at the low rankings for this guy. He’s pretty much always slipped into a pretty good niche for me, and in Revelation he’s outright good.
Izana: 3.5/10. Not as much of a niche.
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Rinkah: 4/10. Just not a very complete package, but she does give good pairup bonuses.
Sakura: 6/10. Great on Rev where she gets the Shining Bow and she has a great passive.
Hana: 5/10. A glass cannon with a bit of a slow start.
Subaki: 6/10. He starts out pretty good and falls off, but I appreciate that early stuff.
Orochi: 2.5/10. Ew that speed with that durability. Duel strikes are cool, at least.
Saizo: 7/10. Tanky and Flame Shuriken can shore up some magical prowess that might be lacking in a BR playthrough.
Hinoka: 9/10. Flies, is great, although a slightly slow start?
Azama: 7.5/10. Wtf is up with his growths? So tanky
Setsuna: 5/10. See Hana
Hayato: 4.5/10. Mostly points for Rev
Oboro: 6/10. Seals are cool, her offense and defense are fine.
Hinata: 2.5/10. Nope
Takumi: 7/10. Kinda like Orochi, but doesn’t die as easily and is a bit more likely to double stuff, but those two things are a big deal.
Kagero: 7/10. See Hana and Setsuna without the slow start.
Reina: 8/10. Very solid PC with few weaknesses, although she falls off a bit later?
Kaden: 4/10. 1 range is too limiting
Ryoma: 9.5/10. He has low move!!!!!!!! And is amazing otherwise
Scarlet: 8/10. Flying tanks are pretty cool.
Yukimura: 5/10. Only really useful for filling holes in the roster late
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Elise: 7/10. Ends up pretty solid at offense and is 7 move, but that defense is sad
Arthur: 2.5/10. Gets crit too often and his magical durability makes me cry.
Effie: 7.5/10. Really solid earlygame unit, but she falls off after a while.
Odin: 2.5/10. ew
Niles: 8/10. Locktouch and later game healing and great speed is pretty great
Nyx: 4/10. Works well enough as a niles pairup but otherwise not so good
Camilla: 10/10. Makes the world die. Trample is great and she gets it pretty early, and her speed and durability are both great. And her str ain’t half bad either.
Beruka: 6/10. Camilla-lite but that’s not the worst place to be
Selena: 4/10. Not enough power
Laslow: 4/10. Not enough durability
Peri: 6.5/10. Horse and offense and res are all benefits, but you have to be careful not to put her against too many enemies
Benny: 4/10. tank
Charlotte: 6/10. A slow starter, but she’s very worth it, ultimately. Even her bad res is partially mitigated by her insane HP, and her offense ends up being just dumb
Leo: 7/10. I find him a bit temperamental but he is on average pretty solid. You can turn him into a Strategist, a Sorc, or kepe him a Dark Knight and all three of those options are interesting. When he doubles things he can be scary.
Keaton: 5/10. See kaden I guess
Xander: 8.5/10. Tank who hits hard at 1-2 range, although he has his problems with offense and some magical durability issues
Flora: 2/10. Too many other people fill this niche.
Kana: 4/10
Midori: 4/10
Asugi: 4/10
Caeldori: 5/10
Rhajat: 7/10
Siegbert: 6/10
Forrest: 5/10
Ignatius: 4/10
Percy: 7.5/10
Ophelia: 6.5/10
Soleil: 4/10
Nina: 5/10
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Baldur's Gate: Expanded Edition NPCs
Because I've played BG too much, I may as well do a rating topic for them.
Imoen: 7/10. Despite what a lot of guides say, she's not the only thief you can use. She's still solid, and is readily dual-classable to mage if you would rather that than a thief. More importantly, however, is that she joins with no requirements, has no loyalty conditions, and comes with a very useful Wand of Magic Missiles that makes Tarnesh a lot easier to fight.
Montaron: 6.5/10. Speaking of thieves, Montaron's a lot better than I expected. Reasonably durable, and a nice shot with a sling--which has been buffed as of EE to allow for STR to damage. Strong early pick, and effective later as well. Docking half a point, however, since he's tethered to...
Xzar: 5/10. Not going to lie, Xzar's in the running the worst mage in the game. Larloch's Minor Drain is nice early on, but he quickly loses his value as he gets squishier and squishier due to lack of access to Illusion spells, which denies the main mage defense in this game, Mirror Image. He, however, is still a usable mage, and he still has full access to crowd control options. Just that he's...going to need to be babied or else he will die. Fast. It is possible to increase his utility by dualclassing him to Cleric in theory, but you'd need to give him one of the two usable wisdom books first. Not sure I'm going to give that much respect as a result. (Yeah, there's three, but the Marek and Lothander quest is a thing).
Jaheira:6/10. She's got a weird midgame lag. Early, she benefits from being a jeigan of sorts as she is barely away from her second level. Then she starts lagging behind between her proficiencies (her best weapons are clubs and staves. While improved from original, still not the best options there) and her multiclassing levels. ...then in lategame she becomes quite useful again between her fourth level spell options. That is some nasty midgame lag, though.
Khalid: 7.5/10. He's a straight-class Fighter available with straightforward proficiencies. This means a LOT, and you can easily give him High Mastery in longswords by endgame. Furthermore, he's the most well-rounded of a tank among the fighters you have available, so if you must you can use the Gloves of the Brawler on someone else. His morale's an issue, but overall he's a very solid frontliner.
Ajantis: Ajantis is a jeigan, simply put. Starts at level 2, and is easily recruited if you find him--however, considering it is easy enough to wander in the wrong area in the place you recruit him and get murdered by Ankhegs, it may not be that easy to find him for a new player. this aside, aside from starting at level 2 he has...issues. His stats aren't terrible, but his proficiencies could use work; Bastard Swords are not a good weapon class by any means in BG as a whole, and as a Paladin he's only able to reach specialization. Worse, he's a Detect-and-Smite paladin at heart, and will drop the party to attack you if you let an evil character join while he's in. But really, the level advantage is all you can actually get. He's got proficiency in longbows at least, so he's not entirely useless? I'd give him a 5/10.
Kagain: Twenty. Constitution. Kagain has HP like nobody's business, and has a trait that you can only get if you had the same score--only attainable with a natural 19 CON and a manual (so basically, dwarf or half-orc without exporting and re-importing): Regeneration. Moreso, straight-class fighter with access to axes, easy recruitment and the loyalty is a bloody joke. Axes are a worse weapon than longswords for magic weapons, but this is slightly balanced by the fact that you get throwing axes as a built-in ranged option. His one main downside? His Dexterity's nothing special, making him a competitor for the Gloves of the Brawler. I'd put him somewhere between 7.5 and 8.
Garrick: Bard NPCs are bad in BG1, let's get that out of the way. Garrick is the less bad of the two, though, I would like to say? His recruitment is a bit of a pain in the ass, and when you get him he may not even be high enough level to use magic--oh, and unless you get a certain other NPC's questline complete, you won't get the one armor in BG1:EE that bards can cast in. He's still not Eldoth, though. [EDIT] For all his failings, though, he is a good wandmonkey. Give him wands of Fire and Fear (not hard, you start seeing them a lot once you hit midgame), and he'll be a useful party member. Not necessarily on his own direct merits, but BG1 is a game that rewards use of wands. 4/10.
Neera: In her favor, Neera is the one full-fledged generalist mage you can get without making CHARNAME one or dualclassing someone into one. Like specialists, she gets a bonus spell slot per level as well, and arguably the strongest spell in the game, Nahal's Reckless Dweomer. At the cost of triggering a Wild Surge, this spell will replicate the effects of any spell in her spellbook. Note that I did not say memorized--she can cast Fireball at level 2 with a first-level slot this way. it is equally likely to murder the party with one of many, many results, however. Want a demon summoned to eat your entire party? Yeah, that'll be an amusing time. Simply put, Wild Surges are a thing you're going to just have to live with. Furthermore, her quest reward is...nothing special. Pretty much third-best mage in the game by my count, and earns a solid 7.5/10
Kivan: 8/10. Kivan is a very strong pick, all said and done. 18/12 strength, 17 dexterity, and the combination of specialization in longbows with elven accuracy bonuses. Longbows are already a really good weapon class, and he has Halberds as a melee option. Furthermore, he joins at level 2, which can be a fairly big advantage this early on. Really, this is partly a testament to just how good bows are in BG1, but he's a powerful addition. Just be sure to actually work towards his quest.
Shar-Teel: 6.5/10. Shar-Teel is a bit out of the way and has the same sorts of dangers to her area that Ajantis does--just with Basilisks rather than Ankhegs. Also, her recruitment is...annoying. Is she worth it? Well...it's hard to say. Her gimmick is that she's got two dots in Dual-Wielding, and so you'd be tempted to put the third dot in it to minimize the off-hand bonus. It's more effective overall to boost one of her weapons to Mastery. More notably, she's...going to be squishy if you play her all-in on dual-wielding, so don't use her as a tank unless that is still the least squishy you have. 18/56 strength and dual-wielding make her an effective scrapper, though. [EDIT] Throwing Daggers exist, and they're custom-built for her statline, alongside having a base 2 APR and being damage-modified by strength. Her ability to make the best use of them out of any available character here outside of CHARNAME gives her a solid ranged option and bumps her up half a point. Longswords are a trap with her, simply put.
Viconia: 7/10. I'm admittedly a bit lost on where to place her. Viconia's a pure caster cleric with solid AC if you can get past her rather...anemic strength. Give her the ankheg plate, please. Aside from having the nice Cleric spellset, she's also in possession of 50% Magic Resistance, which can prove to be far more useful than expected. Just don't rely on it too much. She starts to fall off around BG2, but for now she's definitely earning a high rank.
Safana: 3/10. Ughhhhh. Safana's a pain in the ass to be honest. Imoen-level thief, sure, but then she has a disproportionately hard recruitment quest that involves taking out six Sirines and then at least two Flesh Golems. Not exactly easy fighting, and she's well out of the way anyway. Lots of experience involved, but you're better off just heading off to go through the cave yourself with a party of six. She's not terrible, but I am docking her a lot of points just for her quest for someone who's equivalent to a starting party member.
Rasaad: 4.5/10. Rasaad's recruitment is easy enough, just talk to him. As for his usefulness as a party member...that gets questionable. Blame the fact that he's a Monk in BG1. The worst of the new characters, though his quest gets you a really nice item in the Big-Fisted Belt, for when you feel a second party member needs 19 Strength.
Minsc: 6.5/10. Minsc is pretty much the best scrapper you're getting as far as the Good-aligned types go. Unfortunately, he's still classed Ranger, which hurts him to a notable degree in what he's good at insofar that it keeps him from mastery. Fortunately, he's still got 18/97 strength, which is the best you can find (second-best as of EE), and meshes well with the greatswords he prefers to use. Rage is probably more dangerous than Neera's Wild Surges, since he runs a risk of turning that sword on you. The Dynaheir rescue quest isn't...really that hard either, truthfully speaking.
Edwin: 8/10. Let's be straightforward here. Edwin is the best mage NPC you can get in the original BG1. This isn't up for debate. Extra spells per level in exchange for his amulet slot? Done. That being said, he's not quite at his apex here, since BG2 lacks the myriad bullshit defense and augmentation spells that mages can get, so he's remaining quite squishy for the duration, and you'll want a separate source of Identify. Still a good bit better than...
Dynaheir: Xzar's competitor for worst mage, to be honest. She loses a few of the better crowd control spells of enchantment and doesn't gain much in return, and barring some manipulation, she's mutually exclusive with Edwin, who, well...see above. [EDIT] The sheer lethality of poison in BG bumps her up to a 6/10.
Branwen: Less squishy cleric than Viconia, and has the better wisdom of the two recruitable clerics. Easy enough recruitment, too, either have 500 gold, a good enough Pick Pockets score, or another source of a Stone to Flesh scroll, and you'll have her in your party. Hammer proficiency's also nice, which means Ashideena gets use if you get it before getting her. At this point, though, I'm more willing to say that Viconia has the better package with her Magic Resistance, so she gets a 6/10.
Dorn: I really don't like Dorn. He is useful as hell, however. His illegal race/class combo (You can only make a human blackguard in BG:EE) gives him some notable advantages. Probably the best frontline scrapper, as he has 19 STR naturally, Blackguard immunities (Level Drain's not a factor in BG1, but Fear will slaughter parties), Poison Weapon, and Aura of Despair work together well. Just keep in mind he has no ranged option, since his proficiencies are solely focused into optimizing his ability with greatswords. Adding the lack of need to actually find magic weapons for him, and I can't really give him less than a 8/10. [EDIT] Dorn's quests bring you some curious, albeit not too useful items, most notable of which are free scrolls, Elven Chainmail, and Albruin+1, a Bastard Sword that hits as hard as a +3 weapon and gives some nice benefits. ...pity only one encounter in BG1 actually uses invis and the main sources of poison damage, which it grants immunity to, are past the point that you get this weapon. Worth noting, may increase his score by a half-point if you use bastard swords (WHY WOULD YOU DO THAT) or a full point if you're playing a bard, thief-mage, or fighter-mage.
Xan: And here we have the last of the reasonably early-joiners. He can't do too much damage, but he's got everything else, and his constitution is just short of active HP penalties. And let's not kid ourselves, that moonblade is just for show. I feel safe putting him at a 6.5/10.
Coran: Coran doesn't join until chapter 4, but he's legitimately good. Illegal proficiency combos and impossible stats without manuals make him hands-down the best archer in the game. He's a natural fit for the Dead Shot, which will, late into the game, put his THAC0 in the low single-digits. Personal point of view may be skewed but I'll have to give him a 9/10. Bows are king in BG1, and he's the best at them.
Faldorn: 7/10. Faldorn's a late-joiner, and unlike Coran comes after one of the big hurdles in Chapter 4--the goddamned spider-infested portion of Cloakwood. This is a pity because she does fill an actual role in-game despite what one'd think of her sharing a class with Jaheira, obtainable in Chapter 1. Faldorn, as a straight-class druid, scales up to just below seventh level at the maximum possible. Druids, as opposed to clerics, are a bit more caster-y and trade in some durability and crowd control spells for more summoning options and direct offense in the form of Call Lightning and the insect spells. This is noticeable with the level 4 spell, Summon Woodland Beings, which summons a nymph who in turn...can cast a variety of cleric spells. Also considering Faldorn can still use Ankheg Plate without issues, and she remains a strong option, if late-joining. Just don't treat her as a frontliner ever.
Eldoth: ...2.5/10. Imagine Garrick, but joining three chapters later, and a stat build focusing on STR and CON. That is Eldoth, and he is bad. At the very least, he starts out with Horror, but he can't cleanly switch between his jobs, and his special ability works well against his stat build. I suppose you could make him okayish if you saved the Gloves of the Brawler for him /and/ got the Elven Chain from Dorn's questline, but good god, it's not worth it. [EDIT] Grudgingly, he makes a decent wand user still. Bumped up half a point in part because of how late he joins, and because I still think he's otherwise less than useless.
Yeslick: Finally got to use him and...I'm mildly underwhelmed? He's not necessarily /bad/ per se, but unless you rush the main plot (and god help you through Cloakwood 2 and the mine entrance encounter if you do), he's eating the experience scaling cap and will be well behind on EXP. Nevertheless, his class combo is good, and hammer spec lets you give him Ashideena unless you sold it way back in chapter 1. Or have someone else using it. He's not terrible, just...probably the worst-placed of the good recruitables, and falls into the same sort of weird position Jaheira does on not being able to decide between frontlining and support. Plus side, if you weren't carrying a spare suit of armor, the encounter at the mine entrance does give you a free Plate +1 to throw on him. Overall I'd have to give him a 5/10; he's just not as distinctly good as Coran or Faldorn here.
Baeloth: Broken. Baeloth's a sorcerer with way more spells, and spells per day, than his class should allow him, and it shows--and he has pretty much every spell you'd expect for him. Barring some crowd control--and he can generally make that up in the next couple of levels. I don't think I can give him anything less than a 10/10.
Quayle: Doesn't join until chapter 5, and Illusionist/Cleric is...a thing? He doesn't get Horror, mainly. 4/10 on the basis that he's not really going to find a place in any party that's made it that far, barring a permadeath run that's exhausted that many characters. also lol cleric with 10 wis.
Alora: Late-joining thief who is honestly really hard to find. 19 DEX and in EE, her fixed item boosts her a lot; +2 AC, saves, and +10% to all thief skills is...quite effective I'd like to say. She joins at the point, though, that there's only two (three if you actually go through Durlag's Tower) places where she'd be useful. 3.5/10 due to how late she joins, and how in order to have gotten to the point you can get her, you probably needed a thief to get through the Cloakwood Mines to begin with.
Tiax: Tiax will never point and click. The day will never come. 3/10 feels like a good place to put him considering his class division.
Skie: Late-joining thief who...requires and is chained to Eldoth. I'm going to have to say that she has the same value as him. 2/10.
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Did Kivan get nerfed? I remember looking at his status page in OG Baldur's Gate and he had like 60% of all kills while Khalid had... 10? Bows were ridiculous
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Kivan's still good. Truthfully, I was half-asleep when I pitched the numbers and can probably see half-point variations either way for a lot of them.
Except Eldoth. He sucks.
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Kivan didn't get nerfed but I would agree with an 8 or so. Archers are killer in BG1, and yeah he is still going to put out like 25% of your damage in a party of 6, but kill count isn't really reflective of value. That is killing lots of 4hp Kobolds that weren't going to do more than crit your tank for 1-6 damage.
Khalid is the best tank in the game, available right near the start of the game and his character quest is just the main quest. The downside to him be he is packaged with an acceptable off tank/utility caster. I can live with that.
Kivan kills shit. Khalid makes it so you don't have to kite everything while he does it.
Also the level advantage Ajantis has is just based around your XP when you recruit him (it does trend to go up for NPCs compared to your main).
Dynaheir I think is a bit better than you rate, though yeah mutually exclusive from Edwin bites. Honestly the reason I don't use her is Minsc.... But that might just be because of the reasons above pointing out that my front line is full. Her Slow Poison free skill is just kinda nice. I think I have used it about as much as Yeslick's Dispel Magic (which is to say not much but hey it saves a spell slot).
Also you definitely were tired. Swapping from scores at the end of analysis to the start and then ultimately giving up on formatting was kinda amusing.
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Belated, but Random's Trails SC rankings look good to me. I think the game designers wanted to do some kind of Melfice-esque THIS IS WHY YOU ARE NO GOOD with Josette by letting her join the party then be far outclassed by her anime rival Estelle. Theoretically better status than Tita, except that Tita's is easier to apply from range and isn't immuned by EVERYTHING at endgame, just most things. And worse damage than Tita. And a joke of an S-Craft that isn't even available in the section you're most likely to use her in. Sheesh.
The only asterisks might be... and all pretty minor +1 point level deals...
* Tita: I might be generous enough to give her a 2/10 due to her not being a complete trainwreck in C2, where her MT healing & MT blind are handy during the brief periods where she is actually alive. Maybe even 2.5 since I felt like I could get more offense out of her than FC, too! Let's not get too crazy though.
* Agate: I dunno, Wild Rage stratz can backfire horribly and are sometimes more fun than effective, but they genuinely can do some things that nobody else can, like clear out hordes of magic-resistant enemies. Most badass random-clearing if for some reason Aerial isn't hacking it, too. Still has classic fighter problems otherwise of course, needs Str-buffing to have physicals worth caring about vs. bosses, etc. And the fighters all get a boost in C8 of course where you'll want to run more fighting setups than usual by the end if you care about sidequests at all. He might make it to 6/10? Or at least 5/10.
* Joshua: Well, he's also ludicrously overlevel for C7 where he can hard-carry for a bit, I might be willing to throw him a point for that and call it 8/10? Dunno. 7/10 by the end or if you penalize for taking awhile to show up though, sure.
And yeah, Julia is seriously in a "but why" tier with totally worthless crafts. Mueller at least has an excellent HP score so I can see using him for that... maybe... if you don't want Zane & Agate's better offensive tricks and want a sub-part mage who's tanky or something. So probably not, but it would be a nice thought.
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As a thought that has nothing to do with in-game rankings, WTF at the trails FC & SC Evo soundtracks. I mean it isn't *bad* but it's usually worse than the original which was great. There are only like 2-3 remixes I think are better, most are equal or worse. Ugh.
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* Tita: I might be generous enough to give her a 2/10 due to her not being a complete trainwreck in C2, where her MT healing & MT blind are handy during the brief periods where she is actually alive. Maybe even 2.5 since I felt like I could get more offense out of her than FC, too! Let's not get too crazy though.
I may be a bit biased since she also randomly forces herself into the party a few times when literally any other party member would be a better choice but she manages the feat of having appalling durability in a game where, certain freaks aside, damage numbers are not particularly high.
* Agate: I dunno, Wild Rage stratz can backfire horribly and are sometimes more fun than effective, but they genuinely can do some things that nobody else can, like clear out hordes of magic-resistant enemies. Most badass random-clearing if for some reason Aerial isn't hacking it, too. Still has classic fighter problems otherwise of course, needs Str-buffing to have physicals worth caring about vs. bosses, etc. And the fighters all get a boost in C8 of course where you'll want to run more fighting setups than usual by the end if you care about sidequests at all. He might make it to 6/10? Or at least 5/10.
Well magic-resistant enemies aren't terribly common, and of course later on you have Joshua who is forced and deals with them well enough, limited party space man. Also idk, C8 even with the sidequests is pretty small pickings in the grand scheme of things and if I were bumping fighters for that I'd probably sooner bump Zane because lol True Distend. This is the rating I'm least happy with and I can see maybe bumping him up to 5 but 6 is a huge stretch.
* Joshua: Well, he's also ludicrously overlevel for C7 where he can hard-carry for a bit, I might be willing to throw him a point for that and call it 8/10? Dunno. 7/10 by the end or if you penalize for taking awhile to show up though, sure.
I dunno, Trails EXP scaling strikes here, his level edge at least exists throughout the chapter but the part where it's at its highest is also the point where C7 is at its least threatening, so I can't really put much stock in the hard-carrying.
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Since I just finished it, and saw Jo'ou's DL ranking thread... Persona 5! P5 has pretty good non-Joker balance. And if you're gonna make it so MC death is game over, I suppose I won't complain too much about Joker being good. (For all that for friendship being a one-way street where you die for me but I don't shield you rubs me the wrong way.)
Short version:
9.5 - Joker
8 - Makoto
7 - Ann
6 - Ryuji, Haru
4- Yusuke, Morgana, Crow
Longer thoughts:
In general, I don't see a need to go into decimal rankings, but 9.5 might be my one exception, for characters who have enough weaknesses and exploitable flaws to not qualify as a 10, but break the game too hard to be a 9. Joker's elemental defenses won't always be perfect (not so many Persona that resist/null a ton), and his death is game over. Unsure how much to hold this against him personally, but it does mean he sometimes needs to play a little more defensive with him than you'd like. He doesn't get Endure for "free" either, and Guard doesn't seem to trigger against MT, so he's sometimes kinda killable. He also tends to SP-slurp harder than any other cast member, which means sometimes having to again hold back a bit when his variety isn't needed. (Oh no, his spells are so good you're tempted to use them all the time.) Basically I'm saying there's enough flaws here to not be a 10, something I reserve for "changes a hard game into an easy one, is nearly unstoppable." The merits are too many to point out, so I'll just hit the two most important ones: he is utterly, utterly invaluable vs. Kamoshida & Madarame, possibly the two hardest bosses in the game. And he's fantastic vs. Okumura, where the ability to hit a lot of weaknesses in succession is extremely important - you can't afford to go defensive or be put on the back foot in that fight. Always going to earn you a high score for that.
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Ryuji & Yusuke are kind of a pair. They both emit a ton of physical damage of both ST & MT varieties. This is super-great against Madarame as well as Palace 3, where you only have 1 SP Adhesive III at most (if you hard-charged Death confidant), and want to preserve resources. And it's still useful to have a solid phys beater the whole game, because "hit a single weakness or get a lucky crit, Baton Pass into physical death" is pretty solid when an AOA isn't possible or the like, as phys resistance / nulling is shockingly rare for an SMT. Ryuji is a little tankier, Yusuke is a little more accurate. Both their spells are actually respectable enough if you have some elemental weaknesses to hit (reminder, Amps & Boosts for the cast only come at like Palace 7, so their spells aren't quite as horrible as the stat topic would have you think for most of the game) So… why is Ryuji 2 points better? (Alternatively, why is he only 2 points better Yusuke sux!?)
It basically comes down to power spikes at the wrong part of the game. Yusuke, on paper, might actually be a little better than Ryuji for Palaces 5 / 6 / most of 7 IMO, at least if you notice that you can itemize a +5 Strength sword for him which is kinda cool. But… that's the easy part of the game, and it's not really true in reality, because Confidant bonuses are so potent. Specifically, Ryuji has an argument to be a 7/10 for one reason: he is the quickest Confidant you get access to, he builds quickly, and he's usually available (unlike Ann who is busy doing modelling or something). You can have Endure on him for Madarame, which is a cool safety net, and he should be L10'd for Palace 3 and beyond (alas for cool Mr. Pirate). In a game with randoms with as badass offense as P5, making sure that you always have *someone* in your party who has the Guard + Endure combo to save Joker is the equivalent of putting your pants on before walking outside. (Also part of why Palace 1 & 2 can be so brutal.) That person is likely Ryuji, for Palaces 3-4 at least. And even for the later Palaces… Yusuke Confindant L6 requires a Proficiency 4 stat check when Proficiency is actually one of the trickier stats to build. If you really hard-charge it you might L10 him for Palace 6, although Palace 7 was when I max'd him. With these characters so similar, what's the point in using the character who doesn't have some extra free resistances and an auto-life and also can help stop a reset due to unlucky ID on Joker or the like? Anyway, when endgame rolls around, Matarukaja (for all that Ryuji gets this CRAZY LATE) is generally better than Masukukaja (but masuku at least is available earlier!), so Yusuke is back to being a little worse. He's still fine, and has some nice synergy with Haru, just a bit suboptimal.
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Ann, well. She's your best damage mage, and Tarunda is a game-breaking spell. That is one amazing damage debuff. Dormina is situationally great too, and the only reason it didn't see more play for me was because MagicFanatic gave me the tip on which early Persona had Pulipna + Confuse Boost for Joker, and Confuse is kinda like Sleep if you had to use Psi for tech damage, but more importantly, it didn't wear off on getting thwacked. (And also made you mad cash.) While I generally prefer MT healing, strong ST healing certainly has a place too. While Ann is basically always a solid addition to a team, she does have questionable durability, and Madarame makes her look foolish. Joker is also a backup source of Tarunda. She's good, but not invaluable, basically.
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Makoto… yeah, non-Joker MVP. There is almost no reason not to have her in your party the entire rest of the game upon join. She's a fast, tanky healer with decent damage and lots of SP. Why wouldn't you have her in your party at all times? Morgana can spam MT healing too, but is way more likely to die. Sign me up. By Palace 6, gets Marakukaja as well for making boss's lives suck even more. Even her status healing is decent; good ways to lose include "mass unlucky Brainwash" off a Mind Slice or the like, and hey, MT healing of the ailments you most don't want to have stick. If she didn't have any damage, merely the tanky healing would earn her slot; the fact that she's just fine at going aggro makes her even better. (Also, if you grind enough money, she gets to be totally stupid in the final dungeon with Sabzios & Judge of the Dead. That's just a bonus, though.).
Slightly longer version: In general, I'm pretty suspicious of Agility hype. It doesn't really matter vs. bosses. And for randoms, per above, either you're ambushing the enemy and all going first (and want raw offense / element variety), or you're getting ambushed and all going last (and want raw HP / Endurance + Armor / Endure / an upgraded confidant Persona with more resistances & an Evade Weakness skill). There is one exception, though: I want to have a fast *healer* who is also moderately tanky. Ways you can lose include "a fast enemy you ambush but don't kill survives your round of attacks, deals MT 2HKO damage, then he goes again quickly in round 2 and MT 2HKOs again, or kills Joker somehow." So you want someone who gets that turn in quickly on round 2 to undo the damage, and didn't die, say, because of Defense Master. Hmm… yeah that's Makoto innit.
She doesn't really have any weaknesses and has very notable strengths.
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Haru is an oddball. She's like a reverse Yusuke; she has some parts of the game where she's bad (Palace 6), but they're the parts that don't matter, and she blooms to be a very solid teammate for Palace 7 & the final dungeon. Anyway, she has the same problem as Yusuke as being inherently slow to get her Confidant level off to the races with. Palace 5 is rigged to be a bit friendly to her (lots of Psi-weak enemies), though, and you can max it by Palace 7, though, so it's actually not that big a deal. Anyway, I'm not in general a fan of Haru's utility; Tetra/Makara-Karns, aside from not being very fun, can be replicated off the reasonably available Physical & Magic Ointments as items. Amrita Shower is good, but less good than it "should" be because Haru goes last in boss fights regardless of her AGL. Fast Heal is also amusing.
Anyway, Haru is, deceptively, actually an equal-or-better slugger than the bros. thanks to her Gun damage up passives. Triple Down is a hell of a skill, some of the best DPS in the game, and she -starts- with it, and she likes working with Morgana or Yusuke to help deal with the accuracy issues. Huge damage that's MT? Yes please. One-Shot Kill is also perfectly legit, and her magic game is more respectable than the bros lategame if you want to conserve HP. Also, perversely enough because of her lack of utility - she's largely gonna be throwing damage the whole time - she's a great candidate for the mighty Roland Medal in the final 2 dungeons, since she can make use of all of its stats (she wants strength, magic, accuracy, AND durability) and won't be spending half her turns healing or buffing like, say, Makoto would.
Also, I dunno how much hype Confidant abilities should get, but Haru surely has the most potent one of the PCs in her strangely uber gardening. Carrotpremacy, gooood luck doing the Palace 7 boss without some!
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Morgana… Morgana, Morgana. What is that HP score. In a vacuum, Morgana compares poorly with his competition. Less durable than Makoto, less damaging & gets spell upgrades & Boosts later than Ann, and I don't care about the decent speed. And healing is useful, great even! Just having it on the frailest member means that when things go wrong, they go south fast. So yeah. Randoms LVP, doesn't bring the offense for you-ambush-them nor the defense for they-ambush-you. Go sit in the backlines and be a heal battery from the menu.
But wait, it's worse than the vacuum. Morgana's Confidant level is plot-tied, which means "slower than hard-charging it." He's not getting Endure for awhile, and only gets Mercurius for the final dungeon. And the person/cat who MOST needs Endure is the frailest member! Ugh.
Somehow, Morgana recovers from a 2/10 or 3/10 with a few key uses. He's very, very good against Madarame, where he'll spam Media every turn, and Makoto doesn't exist yet. If you're having trouble with Kamoshida, you can potentially even get Morg to L11 for Media in that fight, which will make it much more winnable. He is weirdly very good against the Palace 4 boss as well, which throws resisted-Wind, MT Dizzy infliction, and MT attacks, all of which Morgana is good against. And finally, sometimes you might just want THREE sources of MT healing, and Morgana's there for that. Solid luck means he's okay against certain status-slingers as well (e.g. the final dungeon 2x Kali formations that spam Tentarafoo at you off great durability). So yeah. The cat occasionally has his day, at least.
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Crow, uh. He's in Palace 6, which despite its totally awesome music, is indisputably the easiest dungeon in the game - the minibosses all die in 2-3 turns, and some of them even in a single turn, and the Palace boss only has a single action and single part. That said, he's okay I guess? Nothing WRONG with him, just no real tricks other than damage & more damage. Attack Master is competing with the fact you likely just got Auto-Matarukaja on Joker if you were doing the Strength quests, and even without Auto-Mataru, Joker simply hitting randoms' elemental weaknesses and using an All-Out Attack generally works fine this dungeon. So kinda difficult to care too much one way or the other. Curse is a rarely hit weakness, I guess?! It's something.
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Nihon Falcom Presents Persona 4Trails of Cold Steel 1:
Fighters > Mages! In a Trails game! What a time to be. (Balanced uh is not very good for the most part.)
Rean: Well he's always around, has the right stats for this game (even has a useable ATS stat if he has to care), plays the delay game well enough (which chumps most bosses), and the orbment locks don't offend either. He's not -that- heavy a hitter and S in one physical type is probably worse for unbalancing than two As (maybe an A and a B as well) but no one gets everything. 8/10.
Gaius: Tanky, but there's not really a lot of point in a char who specializes in non-proactive durability, especially in a Trails game, which is basically where he's at until he hits a Lv4 link with someone (and even then it's kind of limited). The crafts don't offend and the speed is at least ok, but uh he has the worst field study availability of anyone not named Crow or Millium, which doesn't really help his case so he's probably the second-worst of the pure fighters. 5.5/10.
Elliot: Pure mage... in a game where crafts actually do respectable enough damage to random enemies and run off a friendlier resource to maintain (and power vs. versatility is actually a choice you have to make with mage orbment setups too). This isn't really great, especially considering ATS-based crafts/s-crafts run (apparently) off similar mults to physical ones, yet check a notably lower stat. Oops. He can do an okay job of keeping the party on its feet with his crafts but he doesn't get the noted good and cool Lichtkries-esque bailout option Kloe/Elie did. Still, there are times where pure mages do have their moments, and if nothing else he has scan. 5/10.
Machias: Uh. Those aren't really good stats for anything, really, especially running off one of the lowest speed stats in the game. Craft focus is a bit confused too, but at least he gets petrify eventually?! Burst Drive is dumb like every other GT Quick Trails games keep handing to people but that's ganed at like Lv57 which is preeeetty close to the end of the game. 3/10.
ALISA R, AGENT OF MYSTERY: Tries to do that mage with a passable physical thing Schera tried to do... in what is probably the worst game to attempt it. Offensive crafts are... to put it bluntly, shit (two bad physical crafts and an ATS-based S-Craft), but at least Heavenly Gift or whatever is kind of cool, and she at least has one offensive stat to use, unlike Machias. 4/10.
Laura: Probably the best non-Rean PC. Slow but hits like a train, starts with an S-Craft at a point where no one else has one, still hits harder than Rean's once he gets his, oh and it actually upgrades before the final dungeon too (so does Alisa's but uh Alisa's is bad). Has very little outside of hitting things but for a one-dimensional PC she occupies a fine dimension. 7/10.
Jusis: Well he plays the red mage well enough and Noble Command is cool once he gets it. Not really an offensive powerhouse but making everyone hit harder (and faster) is worth a buck fifty. 6.5/10.
Fie: Speed! Decent strength! Kind of unfortunate durability and really unimpressive normal crafts before Scud Ripper comes along, and while she's not -quite- as one-dimensional as Laura she's pretty close, though at least like Laura she starts with her S-Craft. 6/10.
Emma: Pure mage #2. Better EP/ATS than Elliot but worse crafts (and is the last person to get an S-Craft as well... for all that it kind of sucks) and slightly worse speed too. As is I think I'd consider Elliot the better one in this game, though Emma probably has the superior orbment locks. 4.5/10.
Millium: Well that's a full MT S-Craft running off of Laura-level STR alright. Past that uh high-defense character with game-worst HP doesn't really work and she's not really doing much that Laura hasn't been doing since C1. 3.5/10.
Crow: Has like all the stats, we should've seen it coming, basically a better Jusis except for the part where he lacks Noble Command and has the worst availability by far. 5.5/10.
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Pro Social Commentary Simulator 2017 aka Persona 5:
Akira/Joker: Him vs. Yu is kind of hard to assess fairly, on the one hand he doesn't have the same growing pains as Yu does early and being able to hit elements you don't get access otherwise for basically forever (and even then you only have someone else who can hit Bless/Curse for one dungeon) is a big deal (as is being your sole source of Rakunda forever), but on the other hand he doesn't quite rise to the same level of bullshit Yu does (sup lolshitsune being last dungeon only, also the walling isn't nearly as comprehensive) even with the ability to screw the rules by having money and also doesn't really have any absurd midgame power spikes (hey remember Black Frost in P4 and how you could fuse it at like Lv32? Good times.) What score did I give Yu, 9/10? *checks* Yeah 9/10 works for Joker.
Morgana/Mona: You'd think being a dedicated healing battery in a game like this would net you at least an average score, but man is Mona willing to prove you wrong. The Yukari mold of sporting the worst durability in the game by a notable margin was suspect enough in P3 which didn't really punish that, and P5 has fewer qualms about throwing nasty shit at you. Me Patra is cute but what it cures is either not common enough or not severe enough to bother keeping it around. I pretty much replaced him with some emergency MT healing items from the clinic for the Palace 2 boss and didn't really care (don't kid yourself, the real danger there is eating focus fire and multiple knockdowns, Media doesn't help much with that, especially in a fight where everyone except Joker has a weakness for the boss to hit) and only really took him off the bench for a brief stint towards the end of infiltrating Palace 3 where you want wind damage. Add Makoto doing his job better and a plot-tied social link confidant that doesn't get maxed until -the day before the last dungeon- and we have our clear LVP (not counting the temp). 3/10.
Ryuji/Skull: Rather similar to Chie except for the part where he takes Kanji's stat spread. P5 is a kinder game to this sort of character than P3/4 were, both in the sense of SP being more of an issue (lower SP pools in general, no sweet fox selling magic leefs for the price of all yo yens and having to make do with SP Adhesives in their stead which isn't nearly as good) so the in-a-vacuum cost efficiency of physical skills is an actual consideration (instead of a lie people tell themselves to make them feel better about the fact that they're using Junpei or Kanji) and the game not really punishing party switching like P3/4 did. And hey, it actually does pay off somewhat in places like, y'know, the Palace 2 boss where MT physical damage is something you really want and he gets it before Yusuke does. Then he kind of slumps for a while, partly due to being kind of a whiff machine, partly due to not really having much else -aside- from MT physical damage which Makoto and Yusuke -also- have while having fewer issues at that point. Then he picks up Power Charge/Matarukaja and starts being worth using again, and while I never did get God's Hand, Megaton Raid is still pretty acceptable. 5.5/10.
Ann/Panther: Oh hey it's Mitsuru 2.0. Fire here is sketchier than I recall Ice being in P3, but hey, Tarunda is never bad (and just because you can have Joker do something instead doesn't mean you necessarily -want to-, the flipside to him being versatile as fuck means his own turns are that much more valueable after all), reasonably accurate turn denial status in a game like this is welcome (although again, Joker can do this better if you want), and hey some spot healing doesn't go amiss either. Getting better offensive spells faster than any other non-Joker PC is worth points too, and once Mind Charge Concentrate comes along the numbers are simply glorious (and unlike with Ryuji, I did manage to get Blazing Hell before the end). Of course on the flipside as with Mitsuru going more or less all in on a single element as Ann does tends to leave her in a position of not doing much when she gets walled (and let's face it, while I ragged on Mona some for Goldmember, that fight is honestly Ann's worst performance in all likelyhood), but them's the breaks. 7/10.
Yusuke/Fox/Inari: The other dedicated physical dude, takes the lead from Ryuji once he hits Lv18 and gets MT physical damage (which might not happen for Goldmember, but if it does, ^_^) but he has a sketchier weakness and Sukukaja and Counter are not particularly great addons either. Mind Slice is pretty cool for randombusting though, and he does have better strength than Ryuji. Just... he never really improves and while this isn't particularly noticeable when Ryuji is in his slump, he does eventually pull out of it which leaves Inari with uh not much. So yeah. 4.5/10.
Makoto/Queen: Obvious non-Joker MVP, gets pretty much everything you'd want. Energy Shower is the status cure you want for much of the game since the statuses they remove are so bad, MT healing eventually, Marakukaja eventually, Nuclear is a decent element and Flash Bomb is at least relevent in the midgame, good stats all around save for luck (and even then she's still better than Inari there by like a point, good job there), Psychic isn't a terribly relevent weakness for the most part. Even comes in overleveled, at least if you put off doing Mementos things until July like I did. Just... does pretty much everything right. 8/10.
Haru/Noir: Oddly competent despite the vague statistical suck, at least so far as randombusting is concerned. Psychic is a pretty good element to have and -competent gun damage- as backup means there's close to nothing that actually walls her (like... IIRC it's just Kaiwans in Palace 5 which get nuked by Makoto anyways, who cares) and One-Shot Kill in particular is brutal, since midbosses can be crit and even lategame randoms sometimes have enough HP (and no weaknesses) where gambling on its crit rate is meaningful. Her other stuff is cute but you kind of don't really care about it -that much-, since it's either really expensive or someone else does it just as well (I mean, how often are you going to need to cure multiple kinds of status in this game, which of course begs the question of why I ditched Triple Down instead of Amrita Drop/Shower). Weakness doesn't come up a lot either, which is nice especially on someone vaguely undurable. On the flipside she's not really good against bosses and her confident is uh probably the last thing you'll max out on your own, although the former issue doesn't matter too much in this game. 6/10.
Crow: Well he's really versatile on offense, which is rare for a non-wildcard PC in these games... granted it's all ST except for Megidola, which kind of bites, and he has no boosts, which also bites. Auto-Tarukaja Attack Master is a decent perk at least. Looking at his skillset he wouldn't really be much good if he stayed, but he's not totally incompetent when he's around and if nothing else the game avoids the whole EXP thief in a game that punishes you for switching party members as is that Shinjiro had in P3. 3/10.
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Since Random finished it up recently... I made a post on Serenes around the time I first finished SoV, and I'm mostly finished my replay now, so FE Echoes: Shadows of Valentia rankings.
As a random comment, in most FEs, favoritism can largely be ignored in the rankings, since it effects characters mostly equally, barring problems like really low stat caps that can't be fixed with stat-boosters or levels. That's a lot less true in Echoes. There are some characters that you generally fast promote with it being really pointless to hard-grind them, and that additionally stat-boosters don't really help much due to having said stat boost erased by the next class-up anyway. Then there are other characters with comparatively low stat caps for their promotions (compared to their growths, at least), and they absolutely love any favortism shown their way, and will benefit from it. Boey is a classic example; Sage minimums are absolute garbage, which perversely means you can stat fountain him without fear. To a lesser extent, this applies to the Lords as well. (I certainly showered Celica & Alm with money for fancy weapons and stat boosts.)
Also, per Elf commentary, mages are really good in Echoes! Even mages with "bad" builds (e.g. Luthier, Boey to some extent) are pretty awesome.
Celica's team:
9/10: Genny, Celica
8/10: Mae
7/10: Boey, Sonya, Catria, Palla, Est
6/10: Saber, Deen, Leon
5/10: Kamui, Jesse, Sage/Bow Knight Atlas, Conrad
3/10: Valbar, Nomah, GK/DF Atlas (?)
2/10: Baron Atlas (?)
Alm's team:
9/10: Alm
8/10: Delthea
7/10: Saint Faye, Tatiana
6/10: Silque, Most Kliffs, Luthier, Clair
5/10: Lukas, Forsythe, Mathilda, Zeke, Most Grays, Most Tobins, Most Fayes
4/10: Python, Mycen
3/10: Clive
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Genny gets Invoke sooner than Alm's Saints and hers is the best, and it can cheese the entire game if you want, up to and including the final boss & the aftergame labryinth. (Her summons sucking is good, they draw the AI better and won't steal your kills.) She does have a weakness in that she's killable by archers & gargoyles and the like so requires caution, but Invoke & Physic are amazing, and Expel is good. Celica is a great mage, and if you want to invest a bunch of gold, can be a great fighter too, although she is more killable than Alm. Definitely more of an 8.5, but most players will probably sanely throw some stat boosters at her anyway to make her more of a 9 anyway.
Mae is a great mage but is very frail and dies to surprise Gargoyle strike or mispositioning.
Boey & Sonya are worse mages than Mae (slower vs. joins later with a bad start) but "meh mage" is still pretty good when mages are amazing. There's a speed fountain right at the start for Boey too if you really care. The Pegasus trio are solid what with all the terrors they get to kill in C4. Palla has occasional speed woes, Est is much better with a small bit of catch-up grind time, and Catria could use a little more Attack, but it's all good.
Saber & Deen have the best stats / build of the Mercs/DFs, I feel. Kamui has a mere 2 Res and Jesse has some Est-esque catch-up issues without that much to show for it. Leon is not very good on paper, but holy crap does Celica's route design favor archers - lots of mages & cantors you want to safely ping from a distance, lots of Gargoyles, and some very deadly enemy DFs in C4 you want to hit with ranged physicals.
Conrad is good if caught up (tanky, resistant GK!) but joins really late and is a bit behind in levels even on my Blitzkrieg LTC attempt that featured very little grinding (it'll be worse otherwise!). He's fine, but it's a bit of a "but why" problem. Archery Atlas deals with his low speed by steering far clear of the front line and using murderously powerful Curved Shots / Heavy Draws off his great Str. Magic Atlas deals with his low skill by using spells which don't care about it and even getting +10 Hit for his Sagittae by the time he hits Sage, for all that you have a lot of mage options Celica route, especially if you recruited Sonya.
Valbar tanks Grieth and sometimes holds the line against random terrors, but is basically dead weight in C4. Nomah is a backline healer, which is useful, but shouldn't really be in combat ever. Maybe the occasional long-range Sagittae. GK / DF Atlas needs to go to the front line without good speed (GK) or Def (DF), so seems a large chance of getting horribly stabbed. Baron Atlas is another Valbar, why would you want that.
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Alm is just a tanky all-arounder who can front-line reasonably safely. Then you get the Royal Sword and learn Double Lion, and all hell breaks loose.
Delthea has a bit of a shaky start if you don't go grind her from L3; you'd have to play very carefully with her in the first three maps and kill-feed her a bit if not (but grinding her even a little is very, very fast - I did it to L5/6 even in my current Blitzkrieg run). She also theoretically has a weakness of being very 2-range focused, missing out on the 3-range spells. Then you get the Mage Ring from Nuibaba and it's all over. Fixes her "problem" perfectly, and she's now a speedy, deadly artillery piece that blows up everything.
Saint Faye has Rescue which allows for some really cheaty strats, and has an actual Def stat if you want to do some Nos tanking stratz (unlike every other Saint). Also has Physic. Tatiana has Physic and has an actual Spd stat if you want to kill some stuff (unlike other Saints). Also has Fortify which is totally a fair spell yes.
Silque's Warp is pretty conditional, but is occasionally super-useful at infiltrating the likes of Nuibaba's Palace or the Parapets in Rudolf's map. Luthier is a bad mage but a mage, and hey, Support bonus for Delthea. Clair is bad at killing stuff (so wouldn't want to run Javelin even if it was available on Alm path), but there's enough Terrors and weird distraction plays she can pull on summoned units that makes her still good. Kliff is the fast villager so he usually turns out the best no matter where you stick him.
Lukas & Forsythe are helped by Alm's map design featuring a lot of "here come a bunch of cavalry / armors" with the sole mage off to the side. Mathilda eventually gets very good, but she's a melee glass cannon while a Paladin - charges in and murders someone horribly then dies due to picking HP & Def as her weakness as an L1 Paladin. GK promotion will eventually fix this if you tough it out though. Zeke is a late-joiner but is basically ready to go. The other villagers in random classes are all serviceable. Notably, your villagers are your only source of Mercs in Alm route, and you get a Lightning Sword dropped in your lap early, so pick a volunteer to wield the darn thing.
Python's fine because sometimes you just need an archer dang it due to only being able to cram so many people in the chokepoint, but I'd probably rather have Archer Tobin or Archer Grey than him. Mycen is uh there if you got Mathilda / Zeke killed? Never used him, since he joins so late.
Clive is sort of okay on join, and can run a Ridersbane to deal with all the enemy cavalry, but falls off hard. Inaccurate with bad Spd & Res is asking for trouble; the okay Def only goes so far if you get doubled.
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Sure why not, I can post Snowfire bait ratings that are also Elfboy bait for once.
Fire Emblem Echoes: OrangesShadows of Valentia
Expect a lot of ballpark 5s.
Alm: Starts off on shakier ground than I'd like to allow top marks (6 SPD/5 DEF to start isn't particularly ideal on a frontliner with no large promotion gains in his immediate future, even if the growths are fine) and the bad RES does come up from time to time but those are his only real problems. Fantastic growths by the game's standards, Royal Sword is great even when unupgraded, even gets unconditional range 1-2 on promotion, for all that standard bows without a range boost isn't that big a benefit. 7.5/10.
Lukas: Armor Knight/10, except he needs a bit of initial work to get there (not a big deal to pull off though). This... somewhat works, for the reasons mentioned but he really wants to run a shield in case of enemies that have weapons and thus something resembing actual offense which doesn't really do wonders for his own, so his ultimate fate is to fall behind, but he's useful bait when he's relevent. Also lives in fear of witches teleporting on top of him, they all double him and he has awful RES which is just gross. 5/10.
Gray: Well all male villagers have merc access which grants them good speed/ok strength so they do have a means to get by maingame even if their growths are shit. Gray's growths... probably aren't shit by the game's standards but he is glassier than I'd like going down this route and doesn't really excel at anything, however his other options aside from maybe, MAYBE archer look a lot bleaker, and Alm route does at least benefit from someone getting Apotrope eventually. 5/10.
Tobin: Tobin leveled up *+1 SKL*! 30% ATK/25% SPD growth is a pretty wretched combo at base, not gonna lie, he pretty much relies on promotions to salvage him, but the promotions that give him the mad stats he wants also want a ATK/SPD/DEF growth combo that isn't shit, lest you end up like Clive. So Archer for saftey or Mage for early Excalibur/eventual Physic and then dump a bunch of stat bonuses on him I guess. Neither of these seem particularly enticing, though I suppose he can critfish at least. 4/10.
Kliff: Oh hey, an actual speed growth that is actually actual. That helps a lot for mages, and his spell selection is pretty great, my only complaint about it that I'd prefer Seraphim to Aura, but no one gets everything I suppose. Other options seem... not unworkable but not really worth what you give up in exchange. 7/10.
Faye: So my rating here is going to be a bit of a guess, admittedly, I went Mage route for Faye banking on early Seraphim/gimmicking hard with Alm support/thinking it'd be the best solution to her initial speed problems since going Peg Knight seemed particularly tragic with Gray-like growths (sorry Elfboy), though Cleric might have been the better option due to Physic/Rescue despite the prospect of leveling a second Cleric in this game being a thing that fills me with existential dread (though gimmicking hard with Alm support does make Nosferatu use a bit more bearable). Past that... she's basically Gray with better LUK/DEF but worse HP and no merc access. 6.5/10.
Silque: Well Warp is a nice trick to pull out, a pity she doesn't offer much else for support, and while unlike other clerics in the series Clerics in Echoes do have offense relying on Nosferatu to actually deal with anything is a problem. Still going without a healer in this game seems incredibly poor life decisions and she's potentially the only one you get on Alm's route for a long time. 6/10.
Clair: I'm not especially fond of Pegasus Knights in this game past their role in the Anti-Terror patrol after promotion, low offense even by the game's standards plus being generally undurable isn't a great combo for a frontline class, and not being able to benefit from terrain evade is particularly not great in this game (a pity, since Clair is pretty much The Best). At least their bow weakness is pretty irrelevent in a vacuum and flight does have some perks at least, and if you have to be a niche PC being in the Anti-Terror patrol is a legitimate one to fill. 5/10.
Clive: Dude you kind of suck at everything that isn't HP. Well no, ATK is okay at least but come on man, you have to have something other than that. 3/10.
Forsyth: Lukas with more SPD/RES but worse HP/DEF. Though since Lukas pretty much rides on class bases for HP/DEF this isn't as bad as it could be! He uh still starts off in Soldier though which is not ideal however and while his SPD/RES are better they're not that much better so yeah ultimately still a bit worse. 4/10.
Python: Unlike Tobin, he actually gains ATK/SPD and while he does have a very not hot start, I'm a bit confused as to why you'd prefer Tobin on average since Python will at least be able to double something that isn't an arcanist or knight eventually. I guess his SKL is trash so going Steel Bow for Heavy Draw sucks but if you're relying on Heavy Draw in the first place I have some bad news for you, friend. 5/10.
Luthier: Well Excalibur off the bat is something... as is those growths, holy shit man you're a mage, you don't need 75% SKL growth especially at the expense of things you do need. Really doesn't do anything better than Mage Kliff and while mages in Echoes can only get so low a score, well. 5/10.
Mathilda: Bringing offense is cool, 7 DEF to start on Paladin is less cool but at least that's fixable and she actually has a decent RES value (on a frontliner! in Alm's route! le gasp), probably the best Cav. 7/10.
Delthea: Awesome ATK/SPD growth combo, I'd say something about being Lv3 to start but she's pretty overstatted for that level and more importantly not -especially- understatted compared to your other dudes and since EXP scaling in Echoes is pretty harsh, this isn't as bad as it could be, especially since mages aren't too hard to level. I don't really like the lack of any range 1-3 options however and Lv11 is a bit late to be picking up an intermediate spell for my tastes, and of course like all mages she's stuck at 4 move and while solutions exist there's also competition for said options so I think an 8 is a bit overblown here, considering she effectively joins on Act 4. 7/10.
Tatiana: So hey Physic AND Fortify are actually pretty good to have, turns out, and I kind of regret not going through the effort of getting her the three levels needed to get the latter. The offense I wouldn't hype so much since while she's probably faster than the other clerics she's not that much faster nor is her ATK that much better, but hey, Physic/Fortify alone are good enough, and if by some miracle you can get Warp in a timely fashion that's just icing. 7/10.
Zeke: Mathilda trading speed for durability, kind of in an awkward spot though since Mycen makes the same trade but probably does it better and isn't that much later. Probably great in postgame, for all that I don't really care for him in the maingame. 4/10.
Mycen: Growths are a raging trash fire but who cares, 44 HP/18 DEF/8 RES is all I want you for, the SPD doesn't completely fail, and he can at least deliver solid hits in the endgame if given a weapon, which makes you worth consideration for a slot in Duma's Temple. 5/10.
Celica: In case it hasn't been said enough, when mages are good they are really really good! Good offense to start with (and picking up Seraphim at Lv5 is mildly absurd) backed by acceptable speed that eventually becomes good, hits both defenses right out of the starting gate. Main downsides are being stuck at 4 move and she's a touch glassy (though not nearly as bad as she could be, especially compared to people on her own route, and she does at least have range). Oh yeah she can even do secondary healer duty before anyone else on her route if you care (you probably don't care that much) I guess Beloved Zofia is a bit worse than Alm's fancy Royal Sword due to no Double Lion but eh. Probably wouldn't put her at Eph/Ike10/Robin level but still one of the best lords in the series. 8.5/10.
Mae: A glassier Celica with a worse spell list who has to wait to promote to hit both defenses. This is still really good, mind you. 7.5/10
Boey: I think I'd like Boey better if it didn't take him forever to get a spell that wasn't Fire or Thunder, pretty much every other mage does what he does better except for maybe being OK at getting stabbed, which is questionable considering he's a mage and not a cleric and thus doesn't have Nosferatu. I know, I know, mage and all that but I wouldn't use him unless I had to. 4.5/10.
Ginny: Physic as mentioned is good, Invoke isn't the sort of thing I'd like to put my trust in but when it works it works, otherwise, cleric/10. 7/10.
Saber: Bit odd to see a defense-focused (to the extent that he can be called such considering his princely start of 4 DEF) merc in the series but it's workable. Stuff outside of HP/DEF aren't hypeable but class bases to the rescue there. 5.5/10.
Valbar: Well at least he doesn't have to suffer through soldier. He just has to suffer through Celica route map design instead. Well that's a little unfair, Celica route does like a high DEF unit for Acts 2/3... and then Act 4 rears its ugly head and he hides under the bedsheets so yeah clear loser of the route. 3.5/10.
Leon: Tobin but slightly faster and a bit more ATK to start, but archer is still a niche that Celica route likes being filled so a bit of score inflation is at work here. 5/10.
Kamui: Saber, trading durability for offense, except he's a bit understatted to start and his offense isn't that much better so clearly worse. 4.5/10.
Palla: Well a peg knight with an attack stat is nice and the HP/DEF combo could be worse! Giving up speed to get it is not the best decision but that's Palla for you. 6/10.
Catria: Slightly better Clair I guess? At least supports with her sisters helps. 5.5/10.
Atlas: Clive if Clive could be an archer instead, so better than Clive, really. I guess mage is a funny enough alternative to be at least better than his non-archer options though. Not a huge fan but I think I still like this better than Tobin. 4.5/10.
Jesse: Well... he's faster than the other mercs eventually? Not really the best time to be getting someone who starts off in Mercenary though, even if he is only a level off from promotion and he doesn't seem like he has much to recommend him otherwise on average, for all that mine decided to defy this expectation. 4.5/10.
Sonya: Does more or less the same things as Boey but is better in every area worth caring about on a mage. I guess she's underleveled to start but I'm not going to argue with 13 ATK/12 SPD at Lv5 Mage, especially considering she has Excalibur on join instead of having to wait a stupidly long time. 7/10.
Deen: Also a bit of a guess here since I didn't grab him, but seems like he has the best potential out of all the Dread Fighter candidates and doesn't really have any underleveled/understatted issues dragging him down. 6/10.
Est: Noooot really the best point to have Clair-level bases (well okay, 12 RES is good, everything else though...) to start with. I guess she isn't -as- painful to catch up as she is in other games but the part before promotion is still far from ideal. 4.5/10.
Nomah: Casts Recover so better mages don't have to. I guess he can Sagittae something for kind of okay damage but eh. 3.5/10.
Conrad: Not quite as tanky as I'd like to start and he's a bit underleveled. I guess he does fine for himself if you can catch him up but that's a bit of an if, but Celica route will take what it can get in that regard. 5/10.
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The one thing I'll throw in Luthier's favor - and it varies by playstyle, I'll admit - is that you get a Speed Ring on Alm's route, and Luthier's a good candidate for it to make that Speed of his less of a liability. Delthea doesn't really need it (although likes the +1 Move) and would rather have the +2 Range, and Sage Kliff should be fast enough to not need it much either (although it helps him kill Gargoyles / Rudolf better, I guess?!)
Sage/Priestess Grey/Tobin/Faye all want it too if you promote that way, as would a battle-Saint Tatiana / Faye, but I did different promotions and was fine with my Saints being more pure supports, so Luthier got it. I figure even pricing it in with half credit or the like is worth something.
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Alright, I've got another one here.
Super Robot Wars OG: The Moon Dwellers
Finished this about two months ago, and feel reasonably comfortable with my thoughts on it now. I got all SR Points (aka battle masteries) on my playthrough, which considerably increases the game's (already unusually high by SRW standards) difficulty.
Being an OG title, this is one of those games where most of the cast can be reassigned freely. So all the scores are based on people using their default units, but I will sometimes comment on switches that make sense or improve things.
I've organized the character list by the SRW game they originated from before OG. Newcomers are at the top.
Note: The translations for this game can be kind of questionable sometimes. Nonetheless, I'm using the names displayed in game, even when they don't match Atlus' translations of OG1/2.
Newcomers
Super Robot Wars Judgment
Calvina Coulange (Bellzelute/Bellzelute Brigandy): 10/10. The only thing that keeps her from being the clear best unit in the game is that she has to compete with the Neo Granzon for the last ~20% or so of the game. And she still has a massive availability advantage over him. There's really just nothing at all bad to say about her - she has a great spirit pool, she gets a subpilot (which can and probably should be Festenia for extra shots of Valor), she gets +10% damage against the overall most dangerous enemy faction in the game from her ace bonus, and she has a ridiculously broken MAP attack. She's also basically unhittable. If you don't care about SR points she can probably effectively solo large parts of the game I suspect (probably not bosses due to various gimmicks).
Touya Shiun (Granteed/Granteed Dracodeus): 8/10? Dracodeus is really strong and basically unkillable, but unfortunately, you have to suffer through 29 stages of the original Granteed first. And the original Granteed is hot garbage in OGMD, with the lovely combination of 5 move and not having any post-movement attacks above range 1 until it reaches like 130 will or something similarly dumb. This means most of the time it will be lagging behind your army and everything will be dead by the time it gets there. It also suffers from getting its finisher way, way too late (in the third to last map of the game). Still, a basically unkillable super with 3 pilots has a pretty high floor for usability. I wouldn't question you benching Touya for every stage he's not forced until you get Dracodeus though. It's forced for the final boss map.
Al-Van Ranks (Raftclans Aurum): DNR. Comes too late to really rank. I did use him in my final team, so he's at least perfectly fine filler.
Super Robot Wars GC/XO
Akimi Akatsuki (Soulsaber FF/Super Soulsaber FF): Didn't use him enough this playthrough to really judge. On paper, he looks pretty good, and like Touya, a super with 3 pilots has a pretty high usability floor. Soulsaber is not quite as durable at base though. Note that you can only use one of the Soulsabers at a time; if you use Akimi then Akemi is shunted into being a subpilot, and vice versa.
Akemi Akatsuki (Soulsaber GG/Super Soulsaber GG): 8/10. Very solid ranged super. I personally liked it better than the time or two I was forced to use Akimi by plot, but they're both good. Akemi has to wait longer for her finisher than Akimi does, but still gets it early enough that you get to use it heavily. Both Soulsabers are pretty much indestructible if you give them a barrier option part like G-Territory, since the pilots have Potential or Prevail or whatever they're calling it now. Soulsaber is often forced in one form or another, so best to develop it.
Sieg Altolied (Leonisis Hagar): 5/10 or so? Sieg is actually pretty decent but his default unit is a severe mismatch to his seishin pool. If you want to use him, he's going to play much better in one of the extra Grungusts or Giganscudo or the like. Even then, he's held back a bit by having no Iron Wall (though you can patch this with a subpilot in Grungust Type-3) and a relatively expensive Strike (20 instead of the typical 15). As for his default unit, it's also quite good - probably the second best non-locked melee real in the game that doesn't depend on a telekinetic pilot - despite its lack of an ALL weapon. It's a pretty solid candidate for a filler melee unit you're using who doesn't have Telekinesis and doesn't get the Gespenst Haken. It's just not a good machine for Sieg.
Sally Emil (Leonisis Virga): 9/10. Basically the optimal twin unit partner for Calvina, as one of the only reals that has a post-movement ALL weapon besides Bellzelute and also has compatible movement types. Sally herself is fairly average but comes with everything she needs to and has an acceptable seishin pool. If you don't want to use her, of course, any good ranged pilot can fill the seat and will appreciate the unit, which is probably the best non-locked ranged real in the game for a pilot without telekinesis. Whoever you put in the thing, they should be glued to Calvina at the hip, and you should be using Calvina, so.
Super Robot Wars OG Saga: Endless Frontier
Haken Browning (Gespenst Haken): 9/10. Truth be told, I didn't actually use *him* much, but I used his mech extensively with pilots that are worse than him. He's very good, and if Leonisis Hagar is the second best non-locked melee real in the game for non-telekinesis pilots, Gespenst Haken is the first best. Very respectable power, and has some of the greatest battle dialogue in the game to boot regardless of who you put in it. Speaking of which, it always gets Aschen Broedel as a subpilot, even if you put someone else in the mech instead of Haken, and she has Accel and one of only two sources of the enemy will debuff seishin in the game, so that's pretty invaluable too.
The Great Battle II: Last Fighter Twin
Skull Knight: DNR, final stage bonus.
Returning Characters
Super Robot Wars: Original Generation Exclusive
Ginto Kitaumi (Hagwane): DNR. You're always forced to bring it when the plot dictates, so DNR. It's an OG battleship, which is not all that great. And yes, they did call it Hagwane. From my understanding Banpresto has actually fairly consistently used this romanization when referring to the ship in first party promotional materials, which doesn't make it any less dumb. (It apparently derives from the fact that the ship's name uses archaic Japanese characters that aren't normally really used in modern Japanese anymore.)
Lefina Enfield (Hiryu Kai): DNR, see Ginto. Worse than Hagane in this game, mostly because Hagane has Accel and Hiryu Kai doesn't.
Kurt Bittner (Kurogwane): DNR, see Ginto. The worst of the battleships because it only has one pilot.
Ing Wish (EX Exbein): 9/10. Unlike 2nd OG, you can now kick him out of this mech and give it to any of your pilots with telekinesis. It's the best ranged telekinesis mech in the game, flat out, and even if you don't have Ing piloting it you should have SOMEONE piloting it because it's seriously good. Two really strong ALL weapons which run off ammo and a really strong post-movement melee attack for good measure. Really the only things that make it worse than Bellzelute are that the ALL weapons aren't post-movement, the finisher's EN cost is atrocious, and it doesn't have a MAP attack. Whatever? It's good.
Kohta Azuma (G Compatible Kaiser): 9/10. Solid super with a damage shield and a pilot with prevail. It's basically unkillable and it does good damage, not much else to be said. It's technically a combiner with 2 pilots, and you can separate them but there's never a good reason too that I can see. Mechanically speaking it's kind of the Mazinger of this game really, but not quite as dominant as a Mazinger often is. Still good, cheap valor helps a lot. Also, he's forced for endgame, so ignore him at your peril.
Michiru Hanaten (G Bankaran): 7.5/10. Basically the Boss Borot of this game, except instead of having really shitty durability it has really absurd durability (I think highest raw armor stat in the game?) so it's actually pretty good. There are games where I'd rate a unit like this higher, but it has stiff competition in this game. Biggest problem is Michiru's seishin pool is kind of junk.
Katina Tarask (Gespenst mk-II Mass Production Model Kai): 7/10. As usual for her, pretty decent in spite of the Gespenst, is best moved to a stronger red unit such as the Grungust Type-3 or even an Exbein Boxer/Gunner in spite of her lack of telekinesis. The color IS important due to her ace bonus.
Russel Bergman (Gespenst mk-II Mass Production Model Kai): 1/10. There's simply no reason to bring him in his own mech ever. He is one of the two best choices for a subpilot in Grungust Type-3 though, since his support seishin pool is still awesome. But you want him not actually taking up a deployment slot ideally.
Kai Kitamura (Gespenst mk-II Mass Production Model Kai): 7/10. Actually pretty decent in spite of the Gespenst, since he's one of the few pilots to get Maximum Break activation access by default and he has Attacker, which you can't hand out to everyone in this game. That said, if you're going to use Kai you should strongly consider giving him the Gespenst Haken as his bonus still applies to it and it's a much better machine.
Latooni Subota (Wildraubtier Schnabel): 6.5/10. ... I hate to say it, but Moon Dwellers is a poor showing for her. She's usable, but she noticeably lags behind all the pilots with telekinesis now, and she also noticeably lags behind all the newer characters with shiny custom units. And the Schnabel frankly sucks, IMO. Since her offensive stats are balanced, she's a prime candidate for one of the Leonisis mechs, or Gespenst Haken, provided you don't go meme it up with Royal Heartbreaker, which might honestly be her best use. That's certainly what I ended up doing with her in the end.
Shine Hausen (Fairlion Type-Something): DNR. Deploy her with Latooni in the Fairlion or not at all, there really is no middle ground. By herself she's awful.
Radha Byraban (Gespenst mk-II Mass Production Model Kai): See Russel, everything I said about him applies to her. Russel is better at supporting the Grungust Type-3 itself while Radha is better at supporting the rest of your team.
Rishu Togoh (Grungust Type-0): 8.5/10. I mean, he's basically just OG1 Sanger. Which still holds up in this game just fine. Shame you can't reassign the Type-0 except to him or Sanger.
Amala Burton (Galilnagant): 8/10. Basically the ideal twin unit to partner with Rim or Glacies, as her ranges and weapons sync up extremely well with either (good post-movement attack with ALL-typed finisher). Low availability is kind of a drag.
Yon Gebana (Pfeil III): 6/10. The Pfeil is kind of not good and she honestly might be better off in a Gespenst. Maybe. She has a secret connected to getting her 70 kills that will earn her a significantly better unit on NG+. As a pilot I felt she was merely okay.
Super Robot Wars EX
Masaki Andoh (Cybaster): 7/10. Not that impressive in this game to be honest. He lacks ALL attacks and he has accuracy problems with only Focus to help patch them. Plus he has low availability. Of the four lategame units coming out of the Masoukishin games he's probably the worst this time around. He just comes too late for Cyflash to really shine too.
Ryune Zoldark (Valsione R): 7.5/10. Pretty good overall, if not amazing. She's basically a worse Granteed Dracodeus - slightly worse offense, significantly less durable (though she can dodge sometimes). She does have a post-move MAP though, albeit a very weak one. Better than Masaki this time. As usual Valsione R can equip option weapons, and while few of them are relevant to it, this does diversify Ryune's options a bit.
Shu Shirakawa (Granzon/Neo Granzon): 10/10. I don't think I actually have to explain this, do I? He's every bit as terrifying as he ever was in his appearances as a boss. Except he's yours now. Yeah. He's hideously broken, enjoy - he takes half damage from everything for free, can initiate Maximum Breaks, has the most powerful weapon of any mech in the game, has an absurdly strong post-move MAP, etc. etc. etc. Him and Calvina together tend to leave very little for any of your other characters to do.
Super Robot Wars 4
Irmgult Kazahara (Grungust Kai): Probably 8.5/10? Honestly I never used him. But he's good on paper; he has a good seishin set, prevail, can initiate maximum breaks, and the Grungust Kai is as good as the other Grungusts still. I just don't like him as a character much, plus I was biased against the dumb romanization of his nickname ("Irum").
Shin Super Robot Wars
Ryusei Date (R-1/SRX): 9/10. SRX is still great. R-1 is still shit. You can actually form SRX as soon as he joins pretty much, though you can't do anything with it till he reaches level 18 due to telekinesis level requirements. Only flaw of SRX really is that it takes 3 deployment slots still.
Raidiese F. Branstein (R-2 Powered/SRX subpilot): 6/10 (based on use outside of SRX). Probably not really worth fielding outside of SRX honestly, but the R-2 is at least passable. His seishin pool isn't great as a standalone, but he's one of only two pilots with Smite that can pilot a mech with option weapon access so he can be used as your debuffer.
Aya Kobayashi (R-3 Powered/SRX subpilot): 1/10 (based on use outside of SRX). R-3 is one of the worst units in the game. If you want to use her as a pilot outside of SRX, which isn't completely invalid since she can initiate Maximum Breaks, give her a unit that isn't terrible like EX Exbein.
Super Hero Sakusen
Viletta Vadim (R-GUN Powered): 7/10. She can initiate Maximum Breaks, but you'll probably want to put her in a better unit if you use her for that. Her main use is enabling the SRX's combination attack, but said combination attack is better if you take her mech and give it to Mai instead. Still, Mai can't initiate Maximum Break and Viletta can, so that's something in her favor. Anyway, she's plenty usable and she has cool music.
Compati-Hero
Guiliam Jeager (Gespenst Type RV): 8/10. Pretty much an ideal partner for Alfimi, since SP Regen is a nice thing to combine with confusion as a twin seishin. As a combat unit, he's decent, but only so. Pretty much most of his worth is that Confusion spam.
Super Robot Wars Compact 2
Kyosuke Nanbu (Alteisen Riese): 7.5/10. Could be worse, but Kyosuke is really feeling the fact that he hasn't gotten a midseason upgrade since OG2. I wouldn't deploy him without Excellen, but Rampage Ghost is still worthwhile.
Excellen Browning (Rein Weissritter): 7.5/10. See Kyosuke, all the same points apply.
Alfimi (Person-Lichkeit): 9.5/10. To be clear: The mech itself is really mediocre, Alfimi's worth is 100% being an Inspire bot to give all your characters who lack Strike guaranteed hits forever since she's also got SP Regen (which you can't give to anyone who doesn't have it innately). Pretty much a must-deploy, but it's legitimate to never put her near the front lines.
Super Robot Wars Alpha
Kusuha Mizuha/Brooklyn Luckfield (Grungust Type-3/Ryuko-o/Koryu-o): 8.5/10 overall (taking all the units into account). The Chokijin are picked up pretty early in this game. I've rated them together since there's really no reason to use them separately ever. I guess if you ever consider it, Kusuha is better alone than Bullet is, as usual. Anyway, all three units are solid workhorse Supers. Koryu-o is better than Ryuko-o early in maps but Ryuko-o is superior at 120+ will.
Ryoto Hikawa (Exbein Boxer/Exbein Gunner): 8/10. Ryoto's a great pilot but Exbein Boxer is kind of merely okay since it doesn't have an ALL attack. Exbein Gunner is probably better.
Rio Meilong (Exbein Gunner/Exbein Boxer): 7/10. Ryoto but worse. Her Exbein is red and might be a good option for Katina. The Exbeins' damage shields require telekinesis, but all of the attacks are usable without.
Tasuku Shinguji (Giganscudo Duro): 8/10. Workhorse super etc. etc. I didn't use it much because it looks stupid but it definitely gets the job done.
Leona Garschtein (Siegerlion): 8.5/10. Let me be clear about this rating: Siegerlion is kind of junk. However, besides Rai, she's the other pilot with Smite that can pilot units capable of equipping option weapons, making her the other choice for a debuffer, and probably the better one over Rai because you should probably be using him to form SRX. You really don't want to fight the lategame bosses in this without debuffs, *especially* if you got into Hard difficulty from SR Point acquisition. There are other options, but she's the best one as she's the only one who can use Armor Down L3, which is an extra -250 armor over the Armor Down L2 you'll get from using SRX's finisher or Shu's Gran Worm Sword (not to mention you'll be giving up their actual peak offense). She's a good TK pilot, so the usual unit choices apply; she makes another good choice for EX Exbein if you don't want to use Ing.
Yuuki Jegnan (Razangriff Raven): 6/10. Razangriff is kind of junk and wastes Yuuki's telekinesis. If you're going to use him he should probably get an Exbein Gunner.
Rilkara Borgnine (Randgriz Raven): 4/10. Basically Yuuki but worse. Carla's actually about even with him as a pilot (slightly worse stats, slightly better seishins), but the Randgriz is really bad. If you're going to use her, Exbein Gunner, etc. She's basically Katina with telekinesis honestly.
Mai Kobayashi (ART-1): 7/10. Better in the R-GUN Powered. This mech is only really worthwhile if you intend to make serious use of Ryusei/Rai/Aya outside of SRX, which you probably shouldn't. It's not awful though.
Super Robot Wars Alpha Gaiden
Sanger Zonvolt (Dygenguar): 9.5/10. Would be 10/10 in a game that didn't have Calvina and Shu, probably. Stellar unit, but he can't quite solo maps the way they can.
Super Robot Wars Alpha 2
Arado Balanga (Wildwurger): 7/10. Essentially Kyosuke but slightly worse. Not really worth using outside of the combination attack, which is about equal to Rampage Ghost.
Seolla Schweitzer (Wildfalken): 7.5/10. Essentially Excellen but slightly worse but with a better personal seishin pool. Not really worth using without exploiting the combination, at least in this unit.
Ibis Douglas/Srey Presty (Hyperlion): 8/10. Solid unit with a rough start on account of shitty ammo counts. What a shitty romanization though. Three pilots is pretty grand. Biggest flaw is that it's hard to find a good twin unit for because of the eccentric as hell ranges on her attacks, and her post-movement options are awful. She also needs Hit & Away, so she's a project.
Ratsel Feinschmecker (Aussenseiter): Trombe/10. Okay, seriously, 9.5/10. He's basically a slightly worse Calvina who happens to have an amazing combo attack with Sanger so.
Super Robot Wars Alpha 3
Touma Kanou (Rai-o): 8/10. Good workhorse super with a post-move ALL attack and a very cheap finisher, making him the other obvious partner for Calvina. He barely has any plot in this game, so I didn't actually use him much. Unfortunately, his seishin pool is absolutely awful and he has accuracy problems.
Serena Recital: DNR, one-stage cameo (in a route split to boot).
Super Robot Wars Advance
Axel Almer (Soulgain): 9/10. Really good as always. Can't really go wrong with him.
Lamia Loveless (Angelg): 8/10. Basically Axel but worse. Vaisaga is better than Angelg in this game in general, IMO, but both are decent. You lose nothing by giving her Vaisaga since it doesn't have a default pilot.
Super Robot Wars Reversal
Raul Greden/Fiona Greden/Despinis Greden (Excellence Rescue): 7.5/10. Your only dedicated repair + resupply bot for this game. Has middling offense, not completely fail. Later in the game, Despinis becomes the main pilot, Raul and Fiona get their own combat units, and she gets two new subpilots. This is generally an improvement as they have better support seishin pools than Raul/Fiona did.
Raul Greden (Excellence Gunstriker): 7.5/10. Reasonably good hybrid melee/ranged real mech. He's forced into this by plot midgame, and you can't take him out of it after that point.
Fiona Greden (Excellence Gunstriker): 7.75/10. Basically Raul with a slightly better seishin pool. The units themselves are identical. You can deploy both together.
Super Robot Wars Destiny
Joshua Radcliffe (Geant Chevalier): 4/10. Holy balls this thing is awful - it's actually better to ditch his midseason upgrade from 2nd OG and use his earlygame unit because the "upgrade" has no post-move weapons until 120 will. Or use Fortegigas. Fortegigas is actually very good. If you ditch the midseason upgrade and use Aile Chevalier it's like a 6 or 6.5 or something.
Joshua Radcliffe (Fortegigas): 9/10. Now, see, this is more like it. Using Fortegigas effectively removes one of Rim or Glacies from your roster though as they have to take up the role of subpilot to Josh. It's worth it. IMO, Rim has a slightly better seishin pool, but you're losing a bit more by giving up Dea Blancheneige than you are giving up Fabularis. I mostly used Glacies as the subpilot.
Cliana Rimskaya (Dea Blancheneige): 7.5/10. Quite a bit better than Geant Chevalier. The finisher is ALL, which can make it awkward for twinning, and by using this you give up the ability to have Rim as a subpilot in Fortegigas, where she's a slightly better choice than Glacies. Base form Blancheneige is a downgrade from this, unlike with Josh and the Aile Chevalier.
Glacies (Fabularis): 7.5/10. Basically a weaker but more evasive Rim. She has Smite, but you can't equip debuffing weapons on the Fabularis, unfortunately. Finisher is ALL, so she has the same twinning issues.
Super Robot Wars MX
Hugo Medio/Aqua Centrum (Cerberus Ignite/Garmraid Blaze): 8.5/10. There's actually 4 units involved here, since it transforms like Ryuko-o/Koryu-o. Garmraid is a super, Cerberus is a real, Hugo's units are melee focused, Aqua's are range focused. Hugo's are generally stronger, but Aqua's Cerberus Ignite has an ALL finisher. Aqua is much more of a project as she needs Hit & Away added.
Real Robot Regiment
Arriere Ogre (Flickerei Geist): 7.5/10. Basically a slightly better Kyosuke that also has a combination attack with him. At worst she's a cheap Accel-bot for a twin unit, so she actually is worth deploying even if you don't use Kyosuke, though her performance is merely middling by herself.
Devant Ogre (Endlich Geist): DNR, final stage secret bonus.
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You know, it occurs to me that I never got around to rating Fishsodia despite spending way too long trying to figure out what idiots that aren't Kika/archers/mages were worth.
Suikoden Tactics:
Kyril: Pretty middling for most of the game in that "wouldn't use unless forced" sort of way, STR/SKL don't really start picking up until late and Swallow Rune isn't particularly good for much outside of its L3. 4/10.
Seneca: Fishsodia archer! Range is good for a variety of reasons. Being stuck at FFM is less good (and she can't ride cute birds for whatever reason) but range means she doesn't really suffer from it that much. 7.5/10.
Andarc: Fishsodia mage! Basic physical is weirdly competent if you wanted to use it for some reason and lightning magic is pretty cool, oh no he gets locked out of earth, the horror. Is a mage so he has the FFM problem, but mage range means it's not really damning. 7.5/10.
Rita: Exists to be a warm body for a couple maps. She's not bad at it but her relevent stats are pretty middling and her skills are pretty expensive for what she does. 3/10.
Kika: So Falcon Rune is kiiiiiiind of good at enabling the murdering of dudes. Natural 6 move kind of good too (pity about the lack of Godspeed) on top of cast-best SKL. STR could be a bit better but with what you're given, why ask for more? 8/10.
Mizuki: You exist, I guess? Claw users aren't awful but I don't recall her being one of the better ones. 5/10.
Akaghi: Mizuki with better HP/STR/DEF but worse SKL/SPD/EVA. I value one of these a bit more than the other on claw users and it's not Akaghi's stat spread. 4.5/10.
Flare: Fishsodia archer! Lacks Extra Move but escapes the FFM hellhole. 7.5/10.
Trishtan: Shit son you bad. 1H swordsmen are a dime-a-dozen in Fishsodia and even the best of them aren't that great, and Trishtan's bizzare stat spread and frankly awful skill selection (no Extra Move? no Parry? Absurdly expensive Battle Lust? Locked Guard?) pretty much consigns him to the garbage heap. 1/10.
Eugene: Not really the sort of game where I like people pretending to be a FE knight. He's not entirely shameful but he's still rather projecty and stuck with FFM. 3/10.
Dario: Less shameful than in S4, but still a bit too slow for my liking, also heavy weapon user, so you know, really expensive Battle Lust ahoy. Unite with Nalleo is alright though and saves him from being the worst of Kika's underlings though. 4/10.
Hervey: Good stats, but kind of bad skill selection, not stuck at FFM but lacks Extra Move and Bull's Eye and is a 1H swordsman, so yeah. 2/10.
Nalleo: Also a bit projecty but hey look, a fighter with natural 6 move who can boost it to 7 and doesn't entirely suck at other things too. Low STR early on hurts and he does kind of want you to get that Rusty Cog to help him out there. Again, axe user, but honestly he's pretty okay outside that. 6/10.
Sigurd: Well he has range, sort of. He's also stuck in the FFM hellhole and isn't really doing anything that archers aren't already doing (and probably doing better at that) so. 4/10.
Maxine: Fishsodia mage! With... 2 JMP? Kind of random but whatever. Worst gimmick out of the three gimmick mages but since the gimmick mages are probably the best mages anyways this says little. 7.5/10.
Pablo: I could say many things about Pablo and what's wrong with him, but then I might as well just quote the ST LP. That said he is still a mage and thus better than shit like Trishtan, even if there's no reason to use him ever. 3/10.
Jeremy: 1H swordsman, okay stat spread, skill selection is pretty good, natural 6 move and can learn Godspeed to get that to 7. Okay enough if you insist on using a 1H swordsman but the non-Gretchen female ones are better. 4/10.
Millay: Speaking of! Has a better stat spread than Jeremy, along with a skill selection that is about as good and also natural 6 move. Oh, also can use the Rusty Cog like Nalleo (and Dario, but Dario) can for +10 STR. Still a 1H swordsman so you shouldn't expect too much from her but she's pretty much the best one. 6/10.
Axel: Vaguely bad at everything that isn't HP. Heavy weapon user so you know what that means. LOCKED HIDDEN POWER WHY DO YOU DO THIS FISHSODIA. At least he has Godspeed/Extra Move so he's less shit than Trishtan due to escaping the FFM hellhole, but still. 1.5/10.
Ameria: Millay with a worse stat spread and no Bull's Eye. 5/10.
Wendel: Better than Mizuki in pretty much every way, I think? Could be I got lucky, but. 6.5/10.
Gretchen: Female Hervey. 2/10.
Lazlo: I'd DNR if this were an actual thing instead of something I'm doing for fun, but anyways pretty much the best? His only "problems" (outside of getting all 108 SoDs in S4 if you don't want to steal someone else's save file off of GFAQs or whereever) are that he has three locked skills and a natural move of 5 but those are irrelevent. Pretty much meets my architypical definition of a 9/10, I don't hand him higher because really, what is he doing to the game that Kika/archers/mage combo wasn't already doing in a game where you have slots for all of those?
Snowe: Projecty, joins at Lv1, decent skill set that's hurt by the lack of Extra Move, is a 1H swordsman. Strictly speaking he's actually okay when caught up but not really worth the effort required to do so. 2/10.
Rachel: Exists I guess? Natural 6 move + Godspeed is alright but no Extra Move and the stat spread doesn't really speak to me. 4/10.
Keneth: Really mediocre stat spread, stuck in the FFM hellhole, 1H swordsman. I guess he can use the Rusty Cog too but he's the third-best choice of four for that -at best-. 3.5/10.
Katarina: Pablo if Pablo didn't entirely fail at the sort of thing he was supposed to do. 6/10.
Tal: Why. Why are you stuck in the FFM hellhole. Why does leveling Battle Lust for you cost as much as it does to level it for axe/hammer/2H sword people. Why do you have two locked skills that aren't very good. Why are you all this and a 1H swordsman. Why are earth innate characters such shit. Why. 1.5/10.
Corselia: Fishsodia gimmick mage #3. Not having lightning magic as a skill isn't great but still good past that. Also that evasion is kind of silly. 7.5/10.
Coop: A less shameful Axel. Workable but I'm not a huge fan since by the time he joins you're pretty close to getting a better 2H swordsman anyways. 3/10.
Nalkul: Wendel with slightly better STR in exchange for being worthless at Magic Swording. But since you need L3 charges to do that, well. 6.5/10.
Champo: Better Akaghi wait he's earth innate why is he not awful. 6/10.
Mitsuba: Hi cast-best STR stat. Also hi heavy weapon person who doesn't have an absurdly expensive Battle Lust skill. I'd say something about the locked Chameleon Rune but Mitsuba wasn't unlocking the head slot anyways. Her starting skill layout could be better though. 5.5/10.
Reinhold: Uh you have a STR stat I guess? You also have FFM and don't really do anything for me that I couldn't get from other people with a STR stat, also join with the need for less SP investment please. 3/10.
Reinbach: I think I'd like you better if rapiers didn't suck. 3/10.
Charlemange: Back to the shitty earth innates I guess. 2/10.
Karl: I don't care about the stats, no range, no Extra Move, AND FFM?! Good lord get out. 1/10.
Simeon: Corselia with better MAG but worse at most other things. Fair enough, really. 7/10.
Frederica: Fishsodia archer! Squishier than the other archers but who cares. Half a point lower than the others since she joins so late. 7/10.
Jewel: How long have you had Millay for by this point? I mean Jewel isn't bad by 1H swordsman standards but still. 5/10.
Paula: See Jewel. 5/10.
Selma: Honestly if you're not already using a 2H swordsman by now Selma isn't getting you to do otherwise really. 3/10.
Jeane: Unlike Karl at least she's a mage and has range. Lack of Extra Move hurts my soul as always though. 5/10.
Kate: I mean technically she's better than Sigurd? You have three archers by now though. 5/10.
Lino: A little too late there, buddy. 3/10.
Ornela: Nice stats, where was a spear user like this half a game ago, though? 4/10.
Busk: I'm running out of things to say about these latejointers. 3.5/10.
Roget: Fastest mage for whatever that's worth, a bit too late to be much help but still, mage. 6/10.
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Man I wish I remembered this game better.
What's FFM? Four freaking move?
I found immunity to permadeath a significant upside, not like archers need the help but it's a pretty compelling reason to use Akaghi and Mizuki over some of the other randos for instance. I used most of the latejoining plot folks, too; I missed a lot of optional recruits so this probably colours my view but I found 'em pretty serviceable. Lino is certainly better in this game than S4 (granted, a 3/10 doesn't necessarily preclude that...). On the other hand I remember Rita joining badly underlevelled and dying (permanently) on her first map so 3/10 feels pretty generous if I wasn't missing something there.
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Five Freaking Move in this case but yeah (okay mages have 4 base but they all can get Godspeed so basically the same thing).
I don't really count permadeath much since it's pretty random as to whether or not it kicks in (I've anectodally heard that luck stat plays a role but who knows) and generally speaking the goal is to not die in the first place (although most of the best PCs are already permadeath immune, so), and the problem (such as it is) with the latejoiners is that they often don't join with many skills or even necessarily the ones you'd prefer them to come with. This doesn't apply to the likes of, say, Frederica or Lino (and yes to be fair he is probably better than in S4, not that this is hard) IIRC but a few do have it.
I think what you're missing about Rita is that you can get her like almost immediately after the prologue timeskip where everyone else is Lv3 at best.
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Random, you might find this Reddit discussion interesting:
https://www.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/aus8pb/fe10_radiant_dawn_nutier_list_redux_round_2e5/
I totally ripped off your comments here:
http://www.rpgdl.com/forums/index.php?topic=4634.msg140966#msg140966
Basically the context was that RD Edward got ranked as "D" originally (in their Tier List-ese, "kinda bad but usable I guess"), but the Edward fan crew got a re-ranking round for him, where he was sadly re-ranked upward. I attempted to rag on Edward some (despite using him myself) and got massively downvoted. Alas.
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Anyway, VSM / Saika / Sierra going through Dragon Quest 11 reminded me to maybe write one of these up for that cast...
Luminary: 7/10. Very typical DQ lead who can do a little of everything, gets some late game absurdly MP-expensive panic button MT healing, and has Lightning magic to himself which is rather good at several times. I tended to use him as the main physical damage cannon with greatswords; with the way subtractive defense works, especially on Stronger Enemies, strategies that are "1 Oomph'd person beats down, 3 people support and heal" is actually rather viable. That said, he doesn't quite reach the upper tiers of broken, since you have several damage cannon options, and his buff/debuff support is bad-to-nonexistent. (Side note: Good on DQ11 to make Zoom spells cost 0 MP, can't screw yourself over for getting out of the dungeon that way.)
Erik: 3/10. Probably my LVP? He's not bad, exactly, just a bit one-dimensional: he does damage, usually single-target damage, unless he goes with his boomerangs build which takes a damage hit. That's nice, but I'd rather have at least some sort of utility stapled on. He's a bit on the frail side as well, at least among physical fighters. He gets better in the lategame, where he gets Dually Deadly swords and substantially better damage than anyone else, as well as his high speed enabling him to reliably get some smiting on nasty-but-frail randoms. (He's also obviously very essential super-early when you have little party choice, but unsure how much hype that gets.)
Veronica: 8/10. Probably the MVP? Magic is great vs. randoms, is extremely great early, and she gets the Oomphle / Sap combo early for going physical beatdown vs. bosses (where physical damage shines). Has some key rare buffs like Magic Barrier as well. She's got some solid status, she resists elements for free. Very late game, Magic Burst is incredibly good for some of the postgame bosses. On the downside, her healing is awful and her durability is awful, and her damage vs. bosses isn't special after she's finished setting up buffs, but whatever. Her availability has issues as well. Still, overall, she's fantastic.
Serena: 4/10. Tough to rank. Her early game is unbelievably horrible, where she exists to be a healing battery in the backrow. She's not even great as a front-line healer in boss fights; Kabuff isn't the most important buff to have, the Hymns are very situational, her MT healing comes later and is more MP-gated than Rab. That said, after a 2/10 Part I, she has massive power leap in Part II & III. She steals all of Veronica's stuff, she gets MT instant death, she's by far the best user of the one Meteorite Armband you'll get which fixes her speed issues, she gets some great equips, her MP issues are no longer as bad. The bosses at the end of Part II are no joke, so this is the right time to blossom! Still, while she's great in Part II, she's merely pretty good in Part III, so inclined to still give an overall meh score.
Sylvando: 7/10. The other potential candidate for MVP. His early game is nothing special, and he falls off hard in the very late postgame, but he is the absolute MVP for a huge, huge swathe of the game in the middle off the mighty Hustle Dance, which is great MT healing that runs off Charm and doesn't cost that much MP. Sobering Slap is incredibly important, too; status'd PCs is incredibly horrible, and the Slap is the only cure you have for some really awful stuff like Beguile, which can't usually be healed by items, and usually can't be resisted by accessories much either for a long time (uh, Gemma's Charm I guess for the Hero for a mighty 30% resist?). Finally, he eventually becomes a backup Veronica in having Oomphle. He never really deals much damage himself, but he doesn't need to the way DQ11 works, where having somebody spam Hustle dance 2/3 of their turns is A-OK, and toss down the occasional buff otherwise.
Jade: 5/10. One of your other physical damage cannon options. I generally preferred Jade to Erik: she's a bit tankier and has better MT options. Despite being theoretically harshly MP limited, you get her MP-regen accessory quite early, which greatly helps with that issue. In Part II, she gets the ability to set up buffs herself without need for help, which is also nice for getting things rolling, and also helps hose status a bit. That said, like Erik, she's one-dimensional, so certainly replaceable.
Rab: 5/10. Well he's slow and frail, but he also packs MT healing, MT magic damage, Sap, and some weird buffs like Insulatle which are occasionally quite useful. Certainly makes his build work, he's especially good early when Serena's MT healing isn't online yet. He's crazy skill point hungry though - it felt like he simultaneously get less and needed more to hack through his grid for the good stuff.
Eighth character: 6/10. Your final physical damage cannon option, and probably my 2nd favorite (Hero > 8 > Jade > Erik). He's really slow, but gets immense tankiness, Kabuff, Magic Barrier, and equips shields. This is actually a decent trade; somebody who can just flat survive enemies and help the rest of the team survive has a lot of use. His damage is also just fine; perhaps the worst of the 4, but not really by much, and he gets access to his best damage move really fast, which is also pretty reasonable in its MP cost. Basically, when you're getting wrecked, he can go on full support mode, and if you have some breathing space to Oomphle him or a Sap'd enemy, he can do respectable beatdown.
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Just finished Zero myself. So detailed PC thoughts. Kind of different than Random's but also kinda not?
Lloyd: 3/10. Wow, Lloyd is so underwhelming. He's basically the jack-of-all-trades and these are *very* rarely if ever good unless they offer some kind of advantage. Unfortunately Lloyd doesn't. Early on he has nothing. The girls can hit harder with magic and he just flat out loses to Randy on physical damage and even higher Defense isn't that useful due to Trails Defense and lower HP. Later on, he is just flat out outclassed by either random guests that join (Chief Inspector Dudley/Estelle) or he's just not great for the job. Getting a GT S-Craft doesn't mean much when everyone else in cast has gotten theirs earlier. The only way I was able to make him useful was to jack up his Evade and send him in as bait when I didn't feel like casting Dark Matter.
Elie: 8/10. Cast MVP. Elie is just extremely versatile. A couple of things contribute to this. First is her Orbment grid. 5-1 is pretty good and gives Elie access to lots of spells, meaning she can do damage/buff/heal, etc. She also has game best ATS (not by much, but worth pointing out) so she's an amazing cannon. Loses EP and 1 Orbment link to Tio so its not a clear advantage. However, this is where her second advantage comes in - her crafts are just amazing. The damage ones kind of suck but the utility ones are great. Holy Bullet costs 40 CP but restores a fair chunk of HP (40% HP maybe?) and recover 20 CP to all in range. The catch? It can SELF TARGET. So instant GT healing that also restores CP is really damn good. She also has GT Turn Shift cause why not. Then finally, she has the "Lichtkreis" clone or whatever it is in Skies in Aura Rain. This thing is also instant Resurrects any dead PCs and at 200 CP is full healing so it's kind of borke. Oh yeah, since it's S-craft you can just deploy it any time. Her main fault is her HP is a tad under average so she can feel a little more fragile, but you can boost Evade or something if you want to mitigate the most common damage type + she's a long range ordinance specialist anyway.
Randy: 6.5/10. Randy's actually pretty good for someone who's focused primarily on physicals. Like Elie, a couple of factors at play here. First: He starts with an AoE S-craft. This is a huge deal when both Elie and Lloyd do not and Tio's mainly wide line fire. Randy's S-craft is just able to catch more people on average. Second: His crafts are all great and have a variety of use. Flash bomb and Power Smash wreck randoms pretty badly. Power Smash in particular can just end some bosses as they aren't immune to Delay. The caveat to this is that Randy's not very fast on base, and CP Recovery without cooking is not terribly quick so he can't pull Delay loops like Rean can. Then if you're using him as burster, her has Wild Rage. This single crafts basically lets him dominate the physical side of things since no other PC can drop to 0 and then quickly jump back up to 100 like he can. Oh and just for shits and giggles, all of the great cooking items are created primarily by him (the +90 CP Burger and the +50% Strength steak are just *chef kiss* when you're going for fast kills). His faults are lowish speed and bad magic, which are notable, but can't win 'em all.
Tio: 7.5/10. The girls > the boys pretty handidly. Single line orbment so she gets a list of amazing spells and her ATS is still really good. The main advantage she has over Elie is her huge EP pool around mid-game. Early on, this hurts Tio because early game EP is very restrictive so she can't put the single line to use. Late game though, she has like...880 EP, meaning she can cast a bunch of stuff before running dry. The scan craft is nice, but often having Lloyd just drop a Battle scope is a better use since what else is he doing? Her crafts exists but you won't really use it since the spell casting options just dominate. Zero Field is situational but is amazing when it is called for. Mocks the final boss something fierce. Bonus for having the second best set of cooking items (complicated pots that restore lots of CP and +50% ATS Juice are the shining stars).
Noel: Noel wins the distinction of being one of two guest PCs who end up being not better than Lloyd. HOWEVER, this only applies to her when she rejoins for the 2nd time. The first time around she's basically just a better version of Lloyd. Even during her second stint, it is arguable as Noel has range and her physical is GT. Her main selling point is her Electromagnetic Net craft. It heavily nukes Speed and Move so it cripples enemies really badly on mobility. If you've built the girls to be caster, you can then basically lob spells at your leisure and mock afterwards. Less good on bosses since this craft doesn't work that well, but ah wells. 4/10
Wazy/Lazy: Eh, not sure? Both time Wazy is available is when you are undermanned and having an extra PC would always be a plus then. He is built for speed + magic, and having access to Dark Matter is great, especially during the 2nd time. None of his crafts are really worth writing home about but being a more durable caster is something. 5/10.
"Yin": The other guest PC who is basically worse than Lloyd. Jesus. Is worse as a caster due to less EP, loses to Randy on physicals and has no crafts really worth pointing out. Even her support craft is bad since as Random noted, instant death against undurable and randoms = lawlz. 2/10.
Chief Inspector Dudley: He's around for a pretty short stint, but when you do get from him he does deliver. Wider AoE Delay craft + Command as a support craft would already justify him either in the active line up or in the back row. However, he has a 4-2 grid, meaning he's actually okay at magic too if needed. Can't be a battery since his CP recovery tech is ST only, but he's pretty strong for when he is around. 5/10.
Estelle: Estelle is basically a straight up better version of Lloyd. Higher ATS means she works better as a caster and she already starts with a combo craft with Joshua so you don't even need to achieve a final bonding event to start cracking heads. Basically, Lloyd needed her stat spread to not suck. He wins HP and EP tho!!!1 6/10.
Joshua: The fastest character in the game and works great with Estelle. Can basically substitute for Randy, but in some cases, you are better off running both as he also has a Delay craft. Not too shabby without Estelle either since his S-craft is true MT and has a badass mult behind it. His raw physical strength is lower than Lloyd and he has less HP than Estelle but if you're using him as back up support + physical crafts, that's all he needs. 6/10
The best part is that Estelle and Joshua are around for only 1 dungeon but probably has a longer stint than all the guests sans Noel.
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Three Houses is not as polarizing as some of the older Fire Emblems; most of the units are useful and can play a valuable role. There’s a couple of exceptions, but mostly this is true.
For the students, I ranked them based on their strongest form. Most students are better in their own house, but Ingrid might be an exception.
Byleth: 8.5/10. Generically good unit who can vary from “your best unit” especially early to “decent” depending on RNG luck. Female Byleth is a bit better due to access to early Peg Knight.
Black Eagle house:
Edelgard: 9.75???/10. Strength in axe means that she is a natural born Wyvern Rider/Lord. When I did her route I actually made her a Mortal Savant, which she also excels at! She has actually has pretty good Magic growth along with that monstrous Strength (although minus Faith is a bummer for a mage build). Her defences are decent as well. Generally a dominant unit with very few weaknesses, and Raging Storm, her unique combat art, is broken as fuck. Galeforce except without any requirement to kill or even hit? YIKES. Also, her Charm is so, so dumb. Gambit life.
Hubert: 5.5/10. Not one of the better mages, but he is a very solid player-phase unit as a Paladin with Frozen Lance and Fiendish Blow. That build is quite pathetic on the enemy phase, though, and you don’t get his magic back until Level 30. Also, his Faith list is garbage and he is minus in Faith. Arrow of Indra helps some mid-late game before you open up Dark Knight.
Ferdinand: 7/10. He’s a bit on the weak end of the ‘generically decent fighter builds’. His start is quite bad but he has pretty good growths and his personal ability gives him +15 hit and +15 evade when he’s at full HP. Alert Stance+ and his personal can work together to make quite an effective evade-based build. He also has strength in axes, which can make him an ideal candidate for Wyvern Rider/Lord. The game kinda shoehorns him into a role as a Paladin but most physical units prefer the Wyvern Rider line, especially those with Strength in axes. Alternatively, he is a good candidate for Dancer due to Dancer’s evade build.
Linhardt: 5.5/10. He is slow and fragile and overshadowed throughly by Marianne, Mercedes, and Dorothea, but he gets the job done as a Physic user if you want to use him. Warp is nice and he’s the only person who gets both Physic and Warp.
Caspar: 3/10. Caspar is one of the worst units of the students; his stat build is awkward, with neither enough speed to double anything (or survive doubles) nor enough defence to be a true defence tank. He doesn’t really end up having much of a niche, but nor is he unusable. At least he has Strength in axes so he can obtain Wyvern Rider relatively easily. His Charm is also ass.
Bernadetta: 4.5/10. A serviceable unit with so-so growths in both strength and speed AND very frail. Props for easy access to Pegasus Knight and Persecution Complex, which gives her +5 damage when she is damaged. She also has Encloser, which is a Don’t Move archer move that only her and Claude get.
Dorothea: 8.5/10. Fantastic unit with high magic growth, decent speed growth, and the trinity of money moves for a magic-user: Thoron (three range magic), Physic (stupid range healing), and Meteor. Meteor serves two niches in this game; the first is, of course, the ability to hit your enemies at long range, which it in and of itself is good. But that’s not what makes it truly broken. What makes it truly broken is its ability to offer both support boosts and Gambit boosts while equipped, giving another attacker bonuses (with an A support, it provides 10 hit and 10 evade for regular attacks and +20 hit for Gambit boost, and it scales down every support level less) while they attack, just because Dorothea has Meteor equipped, even if she doesn’t use it. So Dorothea offers passive bonuses to everyone around her just by virtue of existing and having Meteor equipped. So basically you equip it at the beginning of the turn, which does not use your turn, and then attack with everyone else, and then attack with Dorothea. Rinse and repeat. Her only downside is that she doesn’t have a Crest, which means you probably don’t want to give her Thyrsus, and she is rather fragile.
Petra: 8.5/10. She is in the classic swordmaster ‘fast and dodgy’ and you can build her as a good Wyvern Rider (strong at Axes) or a good Assassin build. Solid character, a little one-dimensional but she is great at that dimension.
Blue Lion house:
Dimitri: 9.5/10. I feel like Dimitri’s Part 1 isn’t quite as good as Edelgard’s, but he has better growths and ends up as such a good unit. Because he is a Lance-based male character, he gets a little hosed by the fact that men can’t class change into Peg Knights, but the Paladin build ends up working for him just fine. He is tied for the highest combination of speed and strength growth in the game, and his monster strength really shows up later. He also gets Evade +20 at full HP post-timeskip. I think he is an excellent unit, best unit in the Lions, but he falls a little short of Edelgard in terms of character worth. But they never compete so it doesn’t really matter. Atrocity is worse than Raging Storm because everything is worse than Raging Storm, but if you want a boss who isn’t the final boss to die, it will die dammit.
Dedue: 4.5/10. A better version of Caspar due to his “+4 def while waiting” skill (not to mention +3 str, +2 def, and +1 spd base stats), at least early. He is a decent unit until he leaves for four chapters and then comes back and is generally bad. Oh well, still higher than the other characters in his stat build mold.
Felix: 8.5/10. Probably the best physical non-lord unit in the game. He is tied with Dimitri for the highest strength/speed combination, and unlike Catherine, who has a similar stat build, he can start building toward the holy grail of Wyvern early. Unfortunately his talent list doesn’t really line up that well with Wyvern, and minus Authority means he has to scrape from the bottom of the barrel for Battalions, but his earlygame passive (+5 damage without a Battalion) makes that more palatable. He is quite frail both physically and magically, but he can be built for evade. He can be built as a Bow Knight as well, which is also quite a good class.
Ashe: 4/10. A worse version of Bernadetta with some utility with Lockpick, but doesn’t have the passive +5 damage when damaged. Also can’t be a Peg Knight.
Sylvain: 7.5/10. An interesting mixed unit who can be built both as a decent fighter, with his Riding and Axe and Lance talents for your Paladin and Wyvern needs, or can be built as an evade-tank mage with Physic. Neither build will blow you away, but both are valid and decent. Ruined Sky is a nice option and has saved my ass at a few random intervals. Also very easy to recruit as female Byleth, which is incidentally the objectively correct decision. (:
Mercedes: 8.5/10. Mercie brings a lot to the table; mage tanking, Physic, high magic, and she is the only healer in the game who gets both Fortify and Physic. Another nice thing about Mercie is that she always trains both Reason and Faith when you recruit her because she is strong at both. She can also use Thyrsus, and quite well might I add.
Annette: 4/10. She is a serviceable mage who can fulfil that role, but she is overshadowed by pretty much every other student mage in the game. Hubert/Marianne/Dorothea/Hanneman gets 3 range, many of the other mages get a variety of Physic and Warp and Rescue, and Annette just gets a pretty crappy list of both Reason and Faith. And she is slow and more fragile to magic than Mercedes. Still, she is okay and can be a decent magic user in your army, so she isn’t that low.
Ingrid: 7.5/10. She is a classic peg build of ‘fast and dodgy’ with high RES. She gets docked some points for a bad start, but she gets points for being very good to recruit on other routes due to high growths in Peg Knight during that time (and a free D in flying, yay!), which no other character gets. She is a great mage killer and a generally solid unit. Burning Quake is also a nice option, especially because it has crit evade.
Golden Deer house:
Claude: 9.5/10. Much like the other two lords, a very solid unit with few weaknesses. He is a little more fragile than the other two, but his strength and speed are so so dumb. Again, much like Dimitri, I feel that his Part 1 isn’t quite as good as Edelgard’s, which is why I gave him a slightly lower score. Failnaught is very good and very interesting and allows you to let Claude bait one dangerous enemy without getting hit, which is generally cool but was HELLA VALUABLE on the Chapter after the timeskip where I kept getting wrecked. His unique class is so so good, although it doesn’t have as much range as Bow Knight. Oh well!
Lorenz: 3/10. His magic and strength are both pretty mediocre, and his speed leaves something to be desired. I’m not really sure what role he plays that others don’t play better. Bad Charm does not help. He’s like Sylvain minus minus.
Raphael: 3/10. Raphael is a variant Dedue with less bases and a crappy passive ability, but he’s not weak in flying and doesn’t leave for four chapters. Overall I think neither character is great long term, but Dedue fills a gap during the earlygame that Raphael does not.
Ignatz: 4/10. Hit +20 is cool, otherwise has a pretty similar stat build to Ashe. That’s not a great place to be.
Lysithea: 7/10. A magic user with only 2 range, doesn’t have Physic, and is super fragile. But she does have very high power and can kill Paladins well with Dark Spikes. Decent unit, but does seem to get a lot of hype for a mage without Physic.
Marianne: 8/10. Kinda like Lysithea except has Thoron and Physic, but with a bit lower magic and speed. I think that’s a winning trade, personally. She also has plus in both Lance and Riding, which makes her an ideal candidate for Dark Knight.
Hilda: 7.5/10. Similar to Sylvain, she makes a good Wyvern Rider with her axe talent, and she has very good overall stats, with higher Cha than Sylvain. She also has own unique weapon Freikugel which is quite solid. She doesn’t have the interesting magic build that Sylvain does, but she does get Bolting if you want to make her the Dancer and let her buff people’s accuracy like Dorothea does. :p
Leonie: 7.5/10. See Petra, pretty much, trading some strength and talent list for defence and charm. A bit worse overall, but not bad.
Church of Seiros:
Just gonna mention that most of the characters in this section are a bit overall worse because it is harder to give them skills like Speed+2, Str+2, Reposition, Draw Back, and in some cases, even things like Death Blow, Darting Blow, and Fiendish Blow depending on how late the unit joins.
Seteth: 6.5/10. He has a similar stat build to Hilda, but because he doesn’t join until Chapter 12, he has a couple of disadvantages. 1. He doesn’t acquire all of the cool earlygame skills like Darting Blow (okay, he can never get that), Death Blow, Reposition, all of that good stuff. and 2. wyvern does not benefit him as much as Hilda because of Freikugal. Still, he’s one of the better staff members because his talent list is good and his stats are at least decent.
Flayn: 4/10. She has Rescue and Fortify, but other than that, she’s pretty trashy. And those can only be used a certain amount of times per battle. I’ve never tried a physical build on her… no clue if that is viable at all.
Hanneman: 3/10. He has Meteor and Thoron, 2/3 of the holy grail, but his stats are so disastrous that he is still a pretty bad unit. He is doubled by almost everything.
Manuela: 4/10. Weird unit. Fast but weak physical unit or bad healer??? I ended up building her as a Swordmaster -> Mortal Savant, which gave her a decent Levin Sword attack and eventually Warp when she turns into an MS. She’s alright, but not great.
Gilbert: 1/10. Slow as fuck and explodes to magic. Joining post-timeskip is not really acceptable for a unit with his stat build.
Alois: 2/10. Uh, he seems pretty bad but not as bad as Gilbert? I dunno. Joins quite late as well, and doesn’t start with a great set of talents.
Catherine: 7.5/10. Similar to Felix except joins later so a bit less customizable. Still a pretty good unit though. She joins at level 15 as a Swordmaster, which is sweet for Swordfaire. Thunderbrand is cool but the art isn’t wonderful, so you can just swipe it and give it to someone else. Her passive is worse than Felix’s because she joins later.
Shamir: 5/10. Decent placeholder unit who gets the job done. Her stats aren’t great, but she joins as a Sniper at level 15, which is cool for Bowfaire.
Cyril: 3/10. He is a crappy version of that growth character, but Flying and Axe talent makes him passable. Pretty uninspiring, though, especially because Aptitude only really catches him up in growths to other units.
EDIT: moved Dorothea down to 8.5/10 and Marianne up to 8. They really shouldn't be shouldn't be 1.5 points apart.
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Ciato's ratings look good to me, with the usual proviso that sometimes you slot a character into a less effective role in a vacuum because you need somebody to be that role-player, and being able to do that is good. Lots of the archers aren't amazing at base (Ignatz/Bernie/Ashe/Shamir) but having some sort of archer at all is highly useful. OTOH, you can just toss a bow on a none-archer class and have some access to Curved Shot chipping if you want easily enough.
I'd probably ding most units a point just due to being a harsher scorer, but the more notable ones - Edelgard doesn't quite get to Wyvern Lord super-free, and Raging Storm is busted but you have to parcel out those uses very very carefully. Annette is just - ack, I'd maybe be tempted by Hanneman more than her, awful Faith list, Excalibur is really weak, slow, etc. She'll get better with DLC wave 4 though since she can maybe be a Dark Flier then at least. Leonie has super-growths as a late recruit when not on Golden Deer, but I think her Strength is a little too questionable to get a super-high score. (She's still good, I've used her in both playthroughs.)
Re what Lorenz's role is supposed to be: yeah, Lorenz is stuck in jack-of-all-trades hell, but I think he's supposed to be a mixed tank for his niche. He's your only (GD+CoS) option with both good Def & Res growth - Marianne & Flayn are exclusively magic tanks, Raphael/Hilda/Leonie/Alois are exclusively physical tanks. This is sorta interesting on Normal/Hard, but is much less so vs. the insane enemy offensive stats of Maddening.
Cyril is weird. Since Wyvern Lord is so damn good, in a "DL legal" playthrough he's pretty amazing since he has easy access to it. But yeah, you'd think he'd have super-stats by endgame, but IntSys kinda cheated by having his base growths be awful. Makes his passive pretty misleading, he might as well not even have a passive. I can easily see a score anywhere from 3 to 7 depending on how willing you are to move characters into Wyvern Lord despite not having a perfect set of skill growth strengths. (And the bow talent in Bowpremacy the game is obviously non-trivial, too.)
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Anyway. Class rankings! With the usual proviso above that you want a somewhat mixed force anyway so that you can bait enemy archers. Focusing on just Advanced + Master classes here, although I'll throw in Intermediate Pegasus Knight as well since you will legitimately stick in that during L20-30 for characters going for Falcon Knight, and it's still probably better than a lot of Advanced classes. I'm mostly with the Serenes consensus that flying & mounted units > most everything else - immense mobility & Canto make almost any strategy better.
Busted: (Barbarossa), Wyvern Lord
Excellent: Falcon Knight, Bow Knight, Dancer
V. Good: Paladin, Dark Knight, Assassin, Wyvern Rider, Pegasus Knight
Decent: Holy Knight, Sniper, (Enlightened One), (Great Lord?), Infantry Mages (Gremory / Mortal Savant / Warlock / Bishop / Dark Bishop, which one is best varies by character)
Okay: War Master, Grappler
Situational: Swordmaster, Warrior, Fortress Knight
Outclassed: Hero, (Emperor)
WTF: Great Knight
Flying & mounted units are good for the reasons above. Dancer is Dancer/10. Assassin, Sniper, Enlightened One, and presumably Great Lord (no BL for me yet) are the "good" infantry physical classes - Assassin has the best version of Stealth in the series & amazing speed & 6 Move, Sniper has Hunter's Volley which kills things dead even for slower archers and is one of the best skills in the game, Enlightened One combines Swordfaire w/ Magic and a great passive skill in Sacred Power (extra good in a game with Braves!), GL has generally above-the-board stats.
War Master & Grappler are some of the best units at killing stuff thanks to Fistfaire, e.g. low defense or high-HP units like mages or monsters. They can both pop a mage before they get to counter or quad a monster for massive damage, and both pack 6 Move. Swordmaster & Warrior are okay but they're 5-move infantry so they're "fair". Fortress Knight has 4 move so really wants a March Ring, but the massive Def boost does give them some role in walling physical enemy units.
Hero is outclassed. Just go either Swordmaster or Warrior instead, both of them pack better growths and more useful skills. Hero really shoulda been a Master Class, gotten 6 Move, required A Swords & A Axes, and gotten better stat boosts / growths. Same deal with Emperor, it's either a worse Warrior or a worse Fortress Knight, depending on if you want offense or tanking.
Great Knight - oh, what have you done. It is by far the hardest class to access in the game; it really should have been B+ (Axes or Lances) rather than B+ Axes only, but even if so, both Heavy Armor A and Riding B+? Holy wow. You'd have to be training in either Paladin (which uses Lances, not Axes...) and Weed Picking / Rubble Removal, or Fortress Knight + Stables duty to get there (and FK is only a situational class). I would estimate that the only characters with a chance in hell of doing this reasonably are Edelgard, Ferdinand, Sylvain, Hilda, Cyril, and Gilbert. For Edelgard, Hilda, & Cyril - why not just go Wyvern Lord instead? It's no more difficult for them to train flying than it is horsies. For Ferdie & Sylvain - well, maybe, but they both learn Swift Strikes meaning they really want to learn Lances, so you're having to off-road and grab a lot of Axe training that doesn't really matter. But okay, fine, you did all that for them. GK is still a sidegrade from Paladin! They both pack Lancefaire for deadly Swift Strikes, but you get some more Def & HP at a Str & Spd & Res cost. So much work for something so fair. That leaves us with one option: Gilbert. And GK is a genuinely solid option for Gilbert - his resistance & speed is beyond saving anyway as an FK, so GK is basically "mobile Fortress Knight" for him. Great, an option for one trashy character to be moderately more mobile in time for the last few maps of the game. IntSys really needed to either make GK's requirements less onerous or make this class substantially more broken, or both.
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Ciato's ratings look good to me, with the usual proviso that sometimes you slot a character into a less effective role in a vacuum because you need somebody to be that role-player, and being able to do that is good. Lots of the archers aren't amazing at base (Ignatz/Bernie/Ashe/Shamir) but having some sort of archer at all is highly useful. OTOH, you can just toss a bow on a none-archer class and have some access to Curved Shot chipping if you want easily enough.
I'd probably ding most units a point just due to being a harsher scorer, but the more notable ones - Edelgard doesn't quite get to Wyvern Lord super-free, and Raging Storm is busted but you have to parcel out those uses very very carefully. Annette is just - ack, I'd maybe be tempted by Hanneman more than her, awful Faith list, Excalibur is really weak, slow, etc. She'll get better with DLC wave 4 though since she can maybe be a Dark Flier then at least. Leonie has super-growths as a late recruit when not on Golden Deer, but I think her Strength is a little too questionable to get a super-high score. (She's still good, I've used her in both playthroughs.)
Re what Lorenz's role is supposed to be: yeah, Lorenz is stuck in jack-of-all-trades hell, but I think he's supposed to be a mixed tank for his niche. He's your only (GD+CoS) option with both good Def & Res growth - Marianne & Flayn are exclusively magic tanks, Raphael/Hilda/Leonie/Alois are exclusively physical tanks. This is sorta interesting on Normal/Hard, but is much less so vs. the insane enemy offensive stats of Maddening.
Cyril is weird. Since Wyvern Lord is so damn good, in a "DL legal" playthrough he's pretty amazing since he has easy access to it. But yeah, you'd think he'd have super-stats by endgame, but IntSys kinda cheated by having his base growths be awful. Makes his passive pretty misleading, he might as well not even have a passive. I can easily see a score anywhere from 3 to 7 depending on how willing you are to move characters into Wyvern Lord despite not having a perfect set of skill growth strengths. (And the bow talent in Bowpremacy the game is obviously non-trivial, too.)
I am going to say that a general observation about your comments is that you seem to want to stick with what you feel is a balanced party with characters who play different roles. I feel that some of those roles are not very important. On my Golden Deer run I had three Falcon Knights and two Wyvern Lords, as well as Barbarossa, and it was a very effective team that didn’t encounter much difficulty from not being versatile, especially considering that you can Dismount. On non-Claude routes you probably want a Bow Knight, which is a role that a variety of people can slot into. Both Felix and Leonie are plus in Bows so they can fulfill the role of archer better than the group of units you mentioned. Felix in particular has quite an optimum stat build for Bows with both high STR and SPD, although on non-BL routes he doesn't train it, which is a bummer.
Re:Edelgard: Raging Storm is the tool where you say “I am dying, please save me” and you are saved. Hell, I used Raging Storm with Mortal Savant, and it’s not nearly as broken as with Wyvern Lord because you are allowed to Canto the full extent of your move after using it and then get another turn after that move (as well as offering, what, +6 damage compared to MS?). It is so so silly. I feel like it’s a tool that the other lords don’t match, and since all three of them have great stats, Edelgard having the best tool means she gets the highest score of the three.
I also feel like you might be overrating the difficulty required to access Wyvern Rider; you only need a C in Flying and a B in Axe, which seems quite easy for her to achieve. And Wyvern Lord is level 30, which gives you lots of time to develop skills. Hell, I got to Wyvern Lord at level 30 with Felix, who has zero of the talents required. I’m not certain why you wouldn’t unless you’ve decided to use her bad unique class for some reason (like that you are a masochist who enjoys making the game harder).
Yeah, Cyril isn't getting any credit in in-game use for a niche he is clearly outclassed by in-game thanks to joining a few maps in (believe it's Chapter 5) where you have already done some building of your units. There’s no particularly compelling reason to build him except that you like him, which to be fair is something that applies to most of the characters in question.
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Character stuff, just commenting on a few ratings plus comments.
Edelgard: She gets to Wyvern Lord as easily as anyone who doesn't literally just start there (comparable to Petra IMO, better than anyone else save Seteth); yeah, she's "only" axe boon/flying neutral, but she's also strong in both authority and armour, both skills your wyvern lords badly want. She certainly has an easier time getting there than Cyril, who can't start training flying until recruited and can't go to Pegasus Knight to speed this up.
Dorothea: She's a great PC for sure but I dunno about 9, mages have some definite statistical downsides in this game (move, durability, AS, no braves) and it's not as if she's perfect statwise for a mage (killing power is decent but could be better with only 40% mag growth). Obviously mage utility is killer and why you'll always use some. I have a very hard time comparing mages and fighters though. Easier to compare fighters against each other and mages against each other.
Annette: I want to try out magical combat art Annette before giving her a rating, as some people speak reasonably highly of that. Basically a flying version of Paladin Hubert. I don't think she'll deserve an amazing score anyway (like Paladin Hubert she's a one-dimensional, and while flying > horse, Hubert does have advantages like transitioning into Dark Knight and the lack of flying mage batallion) but it should get her above trash.
Archers: Snowfire raises a point about "hey, you want an archer for their utility, right?" and my initial kneejerk response was "yeah but Felix craps on them, also has bow talent and has 55/55 growths and better bases". But it's a fair point that Felix is a dope and doesn't train bows until recruited (sword/brawling whyyyyy). But this isn't a problem on BL; Ashe probably suffers a bit because of the direct Felix competition. Ignatz faces competition from Claude and I suppose Leonie as well. Bernadetta does the best here, although I still don't consider her amazing.
Lorenz: One issue Lorenz has is that def/res (and HP, which he's decent in) aren't the only tanking stats: charm and speed are as well, and he's bad in both. It's not like his def/res are that exceptional, anyway: checking their Level 21 stats in the same classes, Mercedes is -2 Def but +4 Res for instance (I know she's not GD, but she's an easy recruit if you get Byleth Curved Shot). (And obviously she has many advantages he doesn't.) He actually has okay power despite his poor listed magic due to early Ragnarok + his personal but as a power mage he's outclassed, and in general I'm using mages not for raw killing power but for utility.
Shamir (and Catherine): I'm very conflicted on Shamir. If you get her ASAP (which definitely does require some effort), she has quite good stats (due to always having at least Sniper bases even if she joins at Level 11), and gets Hunter's Volley early enough to be well ahead of the Brave Bow. Overall I think I like her more than Bernadetta for these reasons, for instance, but the latter does have advantages (can pick up Reposition/etc., Encloser). I guess I might push her higher but not much. Some of these comments apply to Catherine too but I'd probably roughly agree with the score she's been given.
Class stuff:
I'd move Dancer up to the highest tier: their ability to use magic and/or dodge-tank, while having the best non-infantry move, are all advantages that Dancers don't normally have in Fire Emblem. Special Dance is great too, though shared with Fates. Dancer is a really good class in almost any FE, so one where it's extra good deserves the highest tier IMO.
Emperor, while obviously deserving the label "outlassed", is better than Fortress Knight. Yeah, it has -2 Def... but +3 HP, +2 Spd, +1 Luck, +2 Charm, and most importantly +1 Move. You mentioned Fortress Knight with March Ring; well, Emperor with a +2 def Shield is better in every way, and frees up the March Ring for someone else since basically everyone would like it (but in particular, your dancer and infantry mages). Whether that means Emperor should go up or Fortress Knight should go down I have no strong opinion on, I don't think very highly of either (but Hero and Great Knight have no reason to be used as you note).
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Azure: Unlike Random, while MQs definitely help curb some stat holes, for the most part, I think this is still a game where the stats help determine which MQ goes on who and which in turn determines how good a PC is at certain things. Think of it as kind of like WA3. So base stats matter, but you can augment them. Being good at a particular stat helps out in the long run.
Lloyd: I have really mixed feelings about Lloyd. For the most part, he's better than in Zero, but its due to a few very select niche cases. As Random already pointed out 3-3 Orbment with bad strength means offensively, Lloyd is pretty underwhelming. However, he does have 2 advantages that other fights don't. 1) Some of his weapons have Weapon Evade. This is very notable as Evade tanking works pretty well in-game. It doesn't dodge the crazy MT OHKO stuff but it dodges a lot of other stuff and lets you use him as pretty effective bait. 2) Once he gets the Accel Rush upgrade to Raging Spin, he can start pulling susceptible enemies away to him. This let's him draw them in and encourages the AI to attack him. This along with his good HP and defense means he actually does the tanking thing better than other bulky chars (Randy/Dudley). It's funny because even though Strong Heart is the same busted version as it is in CS2, you still probably won't use it that often because again, offensively, Lloyd just isn't very good. His one caveat to that is he gets good combo crafts and has the most out of every char, but the cases for using those tend to be quite limited. 5/10.
Noel: Noel is basically a Jeigan. When the game first starts, her GT physical, and passable weapon strength are enough to make her shine pretty well. Then she gets the upgrade to Sleep grenade pretty early and that smokes things up to the end of Chapter 2 easy. However, by the time mid-Chapter 3 hits, her weaknesses are very pronounced. Bad EP and an awful orbment grid sink her from doing any offensive spell casting, and the bad strength starts showing. Then all the late game relevant randoms and enemies are all status immune and boy is she bad when her crafts don't matter. 4/10.
Elie: Cast MVP AGAIN. Certain crafts such as Holy Bullet have taken a nerf, but she's basically kept all her other good points (high Magic attack, GT Turn Shift, Aura Rain). EP inflation means she has some early game issues but this is then made up by being absolutely game breaking at end game since she can do an infinite turn loop set up, ensuring every boss until the last phase of the final boss becomes a total joke. In short, it's like if Machias didn't have the entire early game suckage and was just great all throughout. 9/10. Would be a 10/10 PC if she didn't have a few weaknesses and the final boss was actually cheesable.
Wazy: Wazy has a really odd stat mix. Statistically, he's the most durable of the casters but is made up but having the lowest magic of the three. His weapons also give him weapon evade and he's fairly speedy to begin with so this all encourages him to be some kind of front line caster who has a usable physical game if you so choose. To make up for this, he has a really bad S-craft (ST with a bad mult - just why) and his locked Space node is worse than Elie's locked Wind or Tio's locked Water. For a good portion of the game, he's probably a little worse than the girls since they just offer better things than him. Then Chapter 4 happens and holy shit. Chapter 4 marks an entire change in the game because 1) The three higher elements are prominent almost every where and Wazy's locked Space node is no longer a liability 2) He gains a GT high-mult Magic S-craft. 3) He gains all of his techs on rejoin and some of them get upgraded to become really good. Of note is Trinity Card, which goes from this tiny AoE effect to like near whole screen effect cancelling. He's not really a reverse Jeigan, but he definitely becomes very good at the end and well worth a party slot if you so choose. Can be more versatile than Tio too in some ways. 7.5/10.
Randy: Er...so Randy basically has similar issues to Wazy. Early on, Noel is probably better because her crafts are more decisive and Randy's extra bulk doesn't really matter. Then at the end of the game he gains Berserker, War Cry becomes +150 CP (so instant S-craft spamming! Heyo!) and the extra bulk actually matters since it lets him soak a hit or two without batting an eye. Gets an extra point for being the most effective person under infinite turn works because of War Cry. All other PCs basically need Impassion or the Tomato Pizza to really do much, whereas Randy just needs to be healed...which you can do in numerous ways. 6.5/10.
Tio: Finally gained cast best magic. Keeps single orbment line so is the definitive caster. In case that wasn't clear enough, everything she has except for call Doggo is magic based too. So yeah, Tio rules for the most part, although when she gets hosed, she gets hosed really hard. Zero Field is still amazing and is mandatory for like all the serious optional boss fights. In fact, its so good, the final basically has a move to cancel it instantly. Her bad points (other than being hosed by magic immunity) is absolutely terrible HP (like she has 10000 less than Randy) and her crafts other than Analyzer are pretty non-existent. But those are minor hiccups and she's great for a majority of the game. Bonus 0.5 point for being the best infinite turn battery as she has the highest EP pool by far. 8/10.
Rixia: Uh...the instant death is okay this time around in select cases, but Rixia still has all the same problems as in Zero. Bad Orbment line (lol 4-1-1 why) means she's bad at casting and the low EP means you pretty much have to build her as a fighter. She does have a notable niche in that like Lloyd, she can draw enemies to her but since she's not as built defensively as he is, she's obviously worse at this job. 4/10.
Chief Inspector Dudley: For the few times you get to use him, along with his final stint, Dudley is actually...pretty damn good. Like he's a hybrid character that can swing both attack types and do well with both. Good HP + good crafts + actual orbment line. Has instant death too, meaning he totally encroaches on Rixia's territory too. His faults are limited availability and lowish EP. 6/10.
Doggo: You'd think not having a S-craft wouldn't be a huge deal, but it actually matters quite significantly since it limits your ability to burst out your offense. On the whole, he's servicable when you get him and at worst is a good enough healer so Lloyd and Wazy and can attack offensively. 3/10.
Mafia-man: I imagine you can probably take out all the goons in his chapter with just Lloyd, albeit it would be a bit tougher so his assistance is appreciated. Still, never felt like he was mandatory even though he's around when you only have 2 PCs. 3/10.
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You can't say you didn't see this coming.
Fire Emblem Legend of Continental Wyvern Lords Three Houses/PCs:
Byleth: Great start but fairly average growths. Breaking into the better Advanced classes is a bit annoying for them but Enlightened One is an okay consolation prize I guess? 7/10.
Edelgard: Good freaking lord. Byleth-level start but with one of the highest strength growths and obscene amounts of charm, peg knight access in Intermediate for the Death/Darting Blow combo, strength in axes so that's the harder part of the wyvern puzzle out of the way, what in the actual fuck is Raging Storm on okay I see why weapon durability made its return because what the hell. I guess you need Agarthium to repair Aymr so there's an actual kind of downside to it... prior to the end of C16 anyways. I guess her durability isn't that amazing and her unique class blows but uh I'm not sure how you'd justify less than 9.5/10 here and I think I'm one of the harsher scorers for FE character performance here.
Hubert: Alas, poor Hubie, you deserved better. I'm not sure what the dev team was on with regards to the black/dark magic split in this game but it's clear that he drew the short straw here considering the bad Faith list and medium value attack/utility spells. At least he gets range 3? Frozen Lance and Arrow of Indra are also a couple points in his favor so he's not... completely wretched. Just, well. 5/10.
Dorothea: I too am a big fan of the Thoron/Meteor/Physic combo. She definitely has some downsides compared to the other good mages (less magic growth, no Thyrsus for all that Caduceus works well enough for her, Faith list is whatever outside of Physic, generally undurable) but it's not like she's a hard poach target and even if she doesn't turn out offensively there's always Dancer. 8/10.
Ferdinand: Respectable enough at any physical need you might want to cover though not amazing in any particular area without some work (although he does lend himself agreeably well to dodgetanking roles). Not really a great start with the middling stats and starting off on lances (early game lance cost performance aaaaaaaaa) however. 6/10.
Bernadetta: She has enough perks in her favor that I'm willing to give her the best score out of the default archers (none of whom probably want to actually -go- archer thanks to dat strength growth) but getting a better level of performance than adequate out of her requires some hoop-jumping and she rather notably has one of the worst starts out of any of the students. 5/10.
Caspar: And here's the actual worst start! 9 strength/6 speed isn't good for much of... anything, really, let alone an axe/gauntlet start and the Black Eagles have don't have the early Rally Strength or Speed pickup to make that marginally less awful. And it's not like his growths are amazing either, so shittier Edward he be (granted this is an easier earlygame than Radiant Dawn's, I would have harsher words and an even lower score were this not the case). Weakness in authority is just rubbing salt in the wound, for all that I don't actually consider it to be a huge deal (easy enough to get to C by the time it's relevent, and you're not using Caspar for gambit damage anyways. I guess it's a problem if there's a particular B rank battalion you want. It sure don't help his case but I'm far more affronted by that garbage charm stat.) I guess since he can actually break past Advanced class speed floors it's not a waste to throw speedwings at him early but that's such a poor selling point compared to almost literally anything else I think 2/10 is justified here.
Petra: Hello wyvern ez mode. Can also do the classic dodgetank build but you probably wanted wyvern. Also 9 strength/10 speed for one of the best starts out of the non-lord students. Did I mention she has a free D in flying and can do the Death/Darting Blow thing? 8/10.
Linhardt: Slow as fuck to start with, but man, starting one Faith rank off from Physic? I care. Warp's a cool trick too. Not wonderful offensively and his charm is trash garbage, and he's stuck with Bishop for doubled Faith magic uses so he's outclassed by Mercie and Marianne but I still like this better than Hubie. 5.5/10.
Dimitri: Dimitri is a very strong boy and I am a big fan of the eventual strength/speed combo of silliness but his start's not as good as Byleth or Edelgard and I feel Areadbhar is the worst relic of the three in the boiling of eggs (although if something's gotta die at all costs it's good at accomplishing that at least), and being bad at axe is a bit of a downer compared to the other two lords since that's the harder part of the wyvern puzzle. However he also has the potential to dodgetank very well thanks to the post-timeskip version of his passive. Really the biggest strike against him though is the fact that he's unavailable for training for a good chunk of the post-timeskip part of the game, so while I agree that he's still better than the other non-lords I think he's the worst of the three. 8.5/10.
Dedue: Well having Dimitri's bases is a good way to start your career and the passive does make him a fairly good tank if you choose to work at it. His speed/resistance are awful though and he has the same problem Dimitri does post-timeskip, can be salvaged by wyvern but that's because wyvern is stupid and can salvage just about anything oh noes he's weak in flying except wyvern only needs C in flying and it's also trainable via group activity for an added push, I don't see how that's a problem unless you hate the Cichol statue bonuses or something. Anyways he's not really good or anything but at least the earlygame is strong enough to get him above the dregs. 4/10.
Felix: Speaking of strong earlygames, there's this guy. I think I agree with him being the best non-lord physical PC on Azure Moon and even though I'm less sure of it on other routes (sword/brawling whyyyyyyyyyy) there's no question that he's up there (and he's such an easy pickup for anyone doing a sword build). Authority weakness is a strike against him, technically speaking, and technically speaking he does require more work to get into wyvern than some others but who cares in the face of all he has going for him? 8/10.
Mercedes: Hello other pick for best mage! Doesn't get range 3 options normally but man, it's hard to argue against having Physic and Fortify. I guess she's slightly worse than Dorothea if you don't get Thyrsus? Certainly not by enough to care. Also one of the easiest pickups since you probably want Curved Shot regardless. 8/10.
Ashe: Well. His start is better than Bernie and he -does- have strength in axes. Having locktouch on a wyvern is technically something but my feelings on thief utility in this game are about the same as they are in most other FE games (in other words, something of a bad meme). And not having Encloser/Peg Knight/Persecution Complex/a crest isn't worth having a speedwing's worth of starting speed on her in the end. Also has bad charm life. 4/10.
Annette: Finally, after 10,000 years, someone who can use the Bolt Axe (okay so can Edie shut up). Rather mediocre as a mage but at least she has options to do magic axe things and fly around on a wyvern? That has to be a better plan than mimicing Ilyana. Also free Rally Strength is nice early, as is the earlyish Rally Speed pickup, but Three Houses is not Awakening or Fates and the single target lock is a rather notable downer. 5/10 is a bit of a guess here since I haven't tried that build but magic axe a thing on a wyvern (now options for range 3 and OHKOs!) then canto back to somewhere safer has to be worth a fair score.
Sylvain: Is bad at bow, but has a better start than Ferdie and does have an interesting dodge tank mage build that also nets you a Physic user. Is also the easiest poach ever potentially. 7/10.
Ingrid: Start's about as mediocre as Ferdie's (although Minor Daphnel > Minor Cichol I guess) but hey it's hard to argue against ez mode flyer access. Also probably the easiest poach that isn't Sylvain (and since IntSys was drunk her autolevel growths are disgusting) and while she is neutral in axes she does have a workable if unexciting mage build with Thoron/Physic if her strength goes sour (although with Luin it'd have to go more sour than what I've seen). 7.5/10.
Claude: The concrete durability leaves something to be desired and he does have the worst strength out of the three lords... but being good at bow and being good at wyvern is a pretty good way to win at the game and while Falling Star is worse than Raging Storm because everything is worse than Raging Storm it is still very good and interesting and the auto-dodge does appeal to me more than Atrocity's MOAR DAMAGE approach and being handed Barbarossa for free means you can do things like pick up Movement +1 which is cool. Also has Encloser in case it's more practical to inflict Don't Move than it is to inflict Dead. Which can happen. 9/10.
Lorenz: Uh. Sub-Ferdie start with those growths isn't exactly starting off on the right foot there, Hell Man. He can do an almost...? passable impersonation of a power mage with that Reason list and passive? This still requires you to overlook the fact that he's 1) doing it with Dorothea's magic growth and a lower base and 2) doing an impersonation of a power mage in a game where toolkit is the bigger consideration and Hell Man has no toolkit. And yet this is still probably better than Caspar since he at least has a level of earlygame performance. 3/10.
Hilda: Oh hey it's someone with strength in axes and lances and can do the Death/Darting Blow combo, that's cool, as is 10 strength to start. Weakness in authority is of course less cool but it's so irrelevent on Verdant Wind (and Azure Moon should you poach her and not make her a flyer for whatever reason) it's funny. Growths being basically Ferdie But With More Charm is a bit less cool but had to give up something. 7.5/10.
Raphael: Dedue with less everything that matters. Considering that what Dedue has to start with is pretty much the only reason I consider him to be anything resembling decent this is a very bad thing! Gauntlets are not an earlygame weapon for the most part and axe AS is particularly gross early so his enemy phase is especially wretched early! Yes his start is better than Caspar statistically (because all of the studens have better starts than Caspar statistically) but if the practical difference doesn't actually amount to much then what does it matter? Not like his defense is that amazing anyways compared to other picks for the defense tank role, considering his only tanking stats are HP/defense. I guess plan wyvern does work out better for him than Caspar since he would at least have -that- much going for him but since babying him to get there is about as bad I can't say I care enough to give him a meaningfully better score since it's not like I have any respect for a slightly more salvageable Gilliam. 2/10.
Lysithea: Well Mastermind is nice, as is Warp at B Faith, and hey it's that min-maxed power mage growth spread that everyone loves! Oh, what's that? Ah. Right. The black/dark magic split that exists for some reason. This does work out better for her than Hubie in the end despite the lack of range 3 since apart from Dark Spikes and its wonderful meme value, Luna and Seraphim aren't exactly to be sneezed at either (also she is the only mage who gets it and is also strong in Faith), it does however mean that for a supposed power mage she doesn't perform as relatively well in standard situations as one would hope and Warp is the only real departure she has from the power mage front, and in the end I just can't bring myself to think -that- highly of the build. 6/10.
Ignatz: Well free Hit+20 is something since that means he doesn't have to go to Archer for it. As is early Rally Speed so people can pretend Raphael is good for something. Otherwise he doesn't really lend himself to much since he has all of Ashe's problems. 4/10.
Marianne: Easily the worst of the good mage trio in terms of overall toolkit (but she has Thoron/Physic and that's what matters) but at least she is good at horse and having a solution to the mobility problem that plagues most mages is nice and makes up for some of the lost goodwill. 7.5/10.
Leonie: A more defensive version of Petra. Not as good as going wyvern as her (so not a winning trade) but hey Bow Knight is legit at least and her charm is even fairly decent. 7.5/10.
Seteth: Oh hey free wyvern with B in Authority, that's cool. Less cool is the fact that he's working up from a base lv1 speed of -5- and can't learn Darting Blow (or Death Blow without regressing to Intermediate for a bit) and that yeah strictly speaking wyvern is a bit at cross purpose with the fact that Swift Strikes is cool and good and something you probably want him to have. Still, he's good filler with those stats and skill ranks. 6/10.
Flayn: Uh. She learns Fortify, at least? Rescue has such bad range though, she doesn't have Physic, and she's slower than -Linhardt-. Even more insultingly even if you wanted to do a magical combat art build with her she doesn't get Frozen Lance until A in Lances which is aaaaaaaaaaa. At least she can magic tank? 3/10.
Hanneman: Uh. He learns Thoron and Meteor, at least? Has to be kept away from like everything due to that horribad speed though and like most other power mages his Faith list is ass. Although at least Thoron and Meteor are actually good power mage spells to have so he can actually be okay. If you hand him Thyrsus so of course I'm not going to respect this in an actual rating. At least he can reasonably pick up Fiendish Blow? 3/10.
Manuela: Uh. I don't have many good things to say about her Faith list other than yay Warp. I guess she learns Bolting if you're willing to work against her weakness in Reason? Mortal Savant is at least an out that she can work with with her speed and probably gets her above Hanneman since it's not -literally hogging a relic-. 3.5/10.
Gilbert: Autolevels in Fortress Knight and joins post-timeskip to boot. Yes this gets colored text it beats text shouting. 1/10.
Alois: Oh look it's someone who's secretly working up from the same lv1 bases as Caspar. At least he actually has strength and defense this way? The skill ranks ain't that great and 15 speed at Lv21 isn't really something I'm willing to accept on a frontliner however. 2/10.
Catherine: Oh look it's a mildly worse Felix. 7/10.
Shamir: Exists. At least you can get her early enough that the start in Sniper actually means something. This does work for Jeganing purposes but the speed's not great (technically same as Alois, at least you can recruit her far earlier) and she doesn't have -that- much to recommend her unless you're riding the crazy train and get her ASAP. 4.5/10.
Cyril: Functionally similar to the likes of Petra and Leonie except his bases are trash, can't be recruited until like chapter 5, always autolevels in Commoner, and can't go peg knight. At least early Point-Blank Volley is nice! 3.5/10.
Jeritza: Whoops almost forgot someone. Anyways, Seteth but better outside of not flying? Actually can learn Darting Blow to boot that's nice. I do agree with Elfboy that Counterstrike probably isn't OP in the player's hands, you'd really want that for siege assholes and the siege assholes have Bolting which have A Crit Rate against him which is a good way to have a bad time. Also bad charm. 7/10 I think?
And now, Class Families ish. Because I'm crazy.
Obviously I'm excluding Commoner/Noble and the Basic tier classes.
Armored Lord/Emperor: Ok supposing you were desperate enough to use an armored class and its speed penalties for direct tanking purposes, -why would you use Edelgard, who is not really all that physically durable to start with and who really benefits from being mobile thanks to the stupidity that is Raging Storm, for it?- Spoilers this is technically better than Fortress Knight since this has 5 move and that doesn't but since we are talking about a unique class here the opportunity cost and not-wonderful suitability makes this ultimately irrelevent. 2/10.
High Lord/Great Lord: Behold, the high water mark of infantry, I guess. 6 move base is alright enough and Dimitri is certainly fast with it. To be honest I like the speed better than I do Paladin's 8 move/canto. Obviously worse than flying. 6.5/10.
Wyvern Master/Barbarossa: Oh look it's a free wyvern and all you need to do to get it is start chapter 13. Stat boots are worse than Wyvern Lord but who cares, this class is basically as dumb and busted. 9.5/10.
Dancer: Certainly the strongest iteration of the class that doesn't fly but I wouldn't put it at wyvern tier because at the end of the day it doesn't fly and only refreshes a single target and you're going to have an easier time convincing me of intelligent life on Mars than you are of convincing me this is better than Reyson. 8/10.
Mercenary/Swordmaster: Standard as infantry goes. The speed's nice, at least, 5 move less nice. RIP Astra. 5/10.
Hero: Literally no point outside of being easier to access than the standard infantry Advanced classes, except you need Sword and Axe to access it which there's literally no reason to do! Furthermore the only character who trains in swords and axes as a poach is Petra, who can't even access it due to it being males only oh intsys go home, you're drunk. 1/10.
Thief/Assassin: I like 6 move and not caring about terrain. I also like the easy entry requirements. I don't like the lack of any sort of strength bonus and I've made it clear enough to anyone who cares that I don't think much of thief utility. 5/10.
Armored Knight/Fortress Knight: Well I guess the defense bonus is sizeable enough to maybe care. It's still FFM which is hell world and is saddled with unacceptable speed penalties because heaven forbid IntSys can actually make weight mitigation a meaningful mechanic without finding a dozen ways to shoot themselves in the foot first. I guess Armored Blow isn't literally nothing? 2/10.
Cavalier/Paladin: 8 move and Canto! Ok look IntSys I know there had to be some downside here to make infantry classes more appealing but you kind of screwed up in this particular instance if you ask me. Those speed penalties aren't entirely nothing and there's certainly little compelling reason to stick around here compared to other mounted classes. Never mind some of the map design choices this game has. 8 move and Canto though... 5/10? I guess.
Great Knight: what the fuck. it's in bold this time. 0/10.
Wyvern Rider/Wyvern Lord: See, this exists. This also has 8 move and Canto. This also happens to fly. There also happens to be no actual downside for flying due to free dismounting other than being restricted to flying battalions but since all that means is that you don't make literally everyone wyverns if you care about such things this is irrelevent. This also happens to have easier entry requirements in Advanced. This also happens to have dumb stat bonuses despite the fact that this also has 8 move, Canto, and the ability to fly. IntSys, go home, you're drunk. 9.5/10.
Pegasus Knight/Falcon Knight: This is not a wyvern but it is still something with 8 movement, canto, flight, and better stats than Paladin. IntSys, go home, you're drunk. 8.5/10.
Brigand/Warrior: Death Blow/10. Warrior is for people who like axes and hate wyverns but since wyvern is the easier class to enter and better by far this is beyond irrelevent. 3/10.
Archer/Sniper: Added range on bows is quite nice and relevent to the state of bowpremacy and kind of makes the class's traditional lack of stats... actually worth it?! Weird thought, for all that the default archers kiiiind of don't want to actually be here. And of course Hunter's Volley is quite nice as well. Still only 5 move though and it really isn't good on stats. Still like this better than most infantry. 5.5/10.
Bow Knight: Even more bow range! Does have stat bonuses but the growth bonuses sort of don't exist. This is the sort of tradeoff I'd be more happy with even without Bowrange +2, but with? Hello best ground class that isn't dancer. 7.5/10.
Brawler/Grappler: Fistfaire! Congratulations on leveling your Magikarp to Lv20! You may now punch out all the blood of any magic using nerd* you see and enjoy 6 move! *Certain restrictions may apply, void where prohibited. Overreliance on gauntlets may lead to poor enemy phase performance and range dysfunction. Also we're not sure what Dubstep Molemen are made of so try not to get any of that on you. Please consult your professor to find out if punching out all of a mage's blood is right for you. 4.5/10.
War Master: Well okay when you need to berserker you just need to berserker. You're still training up two melee weapon types to A rank for this for what essentially amounts to a bit more strength and +20 crit and more notably training up axes for a class that isn't wyvern so while this is not, strictly speaking, as bad as the score I'm about to give it (objectively it's quite good for infantry), it represents the fact that you're not actually getting the best deal here. 3/10.
Mage/Warlock: For all that I rag on power mages this is probably still the better route for straight maging unless you care desperately about white magic use count because you probably still need to blow up a fool more often than you're going to use Physic and hey Fiendish Blow and Black Tomefaire (unless your name is Hubert or Lysithea) help with that. Obviously this is only as good as a mage's spell list and it has the FFM problem because this is the result of the wish we made upon the monkey's paw or something so any score for this (and any other magic using class for that matter) is going to be more tummyfeels than anything but this is basically the standard level of performance here. 5/10.
Dark Knight: The mobility is quite nice, but lances/reason/riding can be a bit of a bear (though at least Master classes are... shockingly lenient if you know what's up) and you do only get standard amount of uses. Still seems like a fine place to be for the most part. 6.5/10.
Mortal Savant: Infantry mage, now with 6 move! Speed bonus but speed growth penalty. Really the annoying thing is having someone who can actually make decent enough use of it but it's... actually functional? I guess some people are really just weird about speed growth penalties. 6/10.
Priest/Bishop: Not a waste of time but unless your name is Linhardt you probably aren't all that excited about this. 4/10.
Holy Knight: Why are you using faith for offense stop that put that down. Strictly speaking this is not actually a bad chassis since it is a cavalry mage and thus has Canto but why did you not just go Dark Knight instead? 2/10.
Gremory: Mage with 5 move! Yay! Also has a dumb magic bonus which can make up for the lack of any kind of Tomefaire but really, you're here for the 5 move and doubled uses on everything. 6.5/10.
Dark Mage/Dark Bishop: ok but why. Even putting aside that you need two Dark Seals (which are not trivial to get in a timely manner in the first place unless you have Lysithea) for this to be even remotely worthwhile since Dark Mage is worth nothing by itself, this is strictly a power mage vehicle. And moreover, it's a power mage vehicle that is male-locked, and the males typically do not make for good power mages in the first place! Even past that, it's not even that amazing of a power mage vehicle until you hit S+ Reason for a Tomefaire! This does not happen unless you grind a bunch! What is the point of this?! 1/10.
Death Knight: It's like Dark Knight, but with slightly better stats and worse unmounted movement. Oh and lancefaire instead of tomefaire. Oh and you don't really care about the magic use all that much outside of Heal. Still better than Paladin despite the lessened movement. 6/10.
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Since I'm on Trails binge...Cold Steel 3 rankings since I'm fresh off a playthrough. Standard difficulty:
Rean: Unlike Lloyd, Rean's pretty much always been solid in the 3 games he's been in. Rean3 feels worse than Rean2 but stronger than Rean1. One of his best selling points here are low cost Brave Orders (basically field wide buffs that effect all allies). This lets you put up either 50% damage reduction, 20% damage boost or instant cast (which is a much bigger deal here than CS1 or 2) in almost every fight. You won't cause there are better ones, but that goes to show the extent of power you have on the table - although instant cast is a big deal if you're running mages. He also has a lot of usable set ups - going for big damage, Crit set ups and being a Breaker are all viable. The only role he isn't really great at is being a mage, but that's okay because mages aren't that strong in this game compared to Azure (or even CS2). 8/10
Juna: In actual combat, Juna's kind of mediocre. She doesn't do anyone thing particularly well, but she's still probably tied with Rean due to one primary thing: Her Brave Order, Sledgehammer, is ridiculously powerful. It lets you stun any boss in like 2-3 hits and instant stuns any random if you're using a Breaker and a solid craft with good Break damage. You can then use the stun to set up huge damage hits, infinite turns, and generally kill enemies before they recover. It's so good in fact that despite not having her in the front line, she's always in the support slots whenever I had a team choice. Oh, then to top off the silliness, she also gets to do the Machias infinite turn loop ensuring that the bosses in the last stretch sans that final never get a turn once you get going. Probably would be a 9/10 PC if her actual combat abilities were better, but as is, she doesn't really need them to be great. 8/10.
Kurt: Kurt's pretty great as well. His main weakness is being locked to 1 range - which given how he's set up doesn't make great strides at him being very effective with Sirius. You could make him an evade attacker but he needs to be point blank range, which isn't super common. He does have 2 Wind nodes to support evade tanking so he's definitely New Class 7's person in that department. Being pretty quick is his other selling point and having access to a cheap cost effective Delay + Breaking tech are good things to have. His Brave Order promotes super speed since it cuts recovery time by 70%, allowing you to chain multiple turns together (excellent on stunned targets) but offers no other bonuses. It's situational compared to other Speed type Brave Orders, but I got pretty good mileage out of it. Not as strong as Juna or Rean, but he's still a solid choice on teams. 7/10.
Altina: Okay, out of all the new class 7 characters, Altina is the one who ends up being a dud. There are a variety of factors working against her here: Awkward range for a caster, probable game worst speed, mediocre orbment line (2 Mirage, 1 Time is very belch - made worse by the fact that the 3 higher tier elements are slower to unlock) and she starts as a caster at a time when spellcasting is even more underwhelming. The one saving grace Altina does have her is her Brave Order. Ebon Crest granting full party protection for 4 turns helps early when enemy attacks will likely get through. Later on, it's not very useful since you have other heavy defense options and Ebon Crest is still 3 BP, but it's a nice "Get out of Jail" card to play that can buy you sometime. 4/10.
Ash: On the other hand, here's someone who I thought would be generally terrible but actually ended up being solid. Unlike Juna and Kurt who have passable magic scores, Ash is basically all physicals. He has a bunch of good crafts too with Unbound Rage and Void Breaker as notable standouts as one gives him CP without sacrificing HP (AND it gives him Str Up) and the other has massive stun damage. The other two are excellent for random sweeping. The main drawback on Ash aside from his bad magic score and mediocre speed is actually his Movement. He's probably one of the very few PCs who actually wants to optimize Move. Great for setting up powerful heavy hits. He actually reminds me a bit of Zero Randy in terms of overall effectiveness. His Brave Order is okay. It's a good offensive one, but there are better ones on the table most of the time, so it doesn't tend to see use. 6/10.
Musse: The other dedicated caster on N7 and feels better than Altina overall but still not terribly great. 2 Water, 1 Space is better for a caster here, especially since early on, your Master Quartz choices are so limited, that this actually helps gives Musse variety that Altina will be lacking. She has a range magic typed physical, which is pretty neat although she has party worst HP because of her long range specialties. Good at what she does, but doesn't tend to shine compared to Juna/Kurt/Ash. Oh, and her Brave Order is pretty terrible. 0 EP Cost would be a thing maybe in Azure, but CS3's spell costs aren't terrible and you have a EP absorbing MQ pretty early + EP Cuts that really make this Brave Order not worth using. 5/10.
Laura: I was speaking with Soppy and VSM and the overall trend of Old Class 7 is that they feel nerfed compared to CS1 and 2. I like to think of it more that O7 basically function like guests in CS2. They are around in one chapter for usually the penultimate quest and then Rean's orders. In short, the chances to use them aren't huge and they have a lot of things scaled back because of it. Laura overall, however, doesn't really feel all that different. She comes at a time when Ash isn't around so being a pure brute strength attacker is notable. Even after Ash is there, Laura probably is still better at straight up smashing enemies. There is a CP inflation cost in CS3, but giving her Brigid usually fixes this problem and makes Laura great for sweeping/mopping things up. Lion Rush is also great, like Void Breaker, at stunning enemies. Still slow and very one dimensional, but that's typically how it's always been for Laura. 6/10.
Elliot: Elliot on the other hand feels like he gained some and lost some. He no longer has a damaging S-craft but he doesn't need it since he kept the Aura Rain/full MT revive one. And boy is it better here than CS1 or 2. In the other two games, OHKO hits weren't too common. Here - boss/monsters getting their Enraged status usually means you're going to see one and if you're in the line of fire, those PCs are usually dead. If you can keep Elliot alive, he basically goes, "lol no" and reverses it. Gets more ridiculous later when you can give him Alisa's 2PB max CP on death MQ, requiring the enemies to full party kill you basically 3 times over. While all of this good, his damage hasn't improved and the overall nerfage to mages is notable for him. Still being a good healer and the full res S-craft are great things to have in an emergency. 6/10.
Fie: Overall, feels like she loses compared to Laura and Elliot who are more neutral trades. Loses 10% innate evade and now can't spell cast while evade tanking due to change in mechanics. Her crafts also cost more overall sans Concealing Wind. In return, she's still probably the best evade tank due to counters now actually meaning something and having a counter range of 6 is a big deal. Unlike Elliot and Laura, Fie's Brave Order also deserves a mention since it's a speed boost but it also gives you Insight for a couple of turns so there's a slight defensive element there, although the delay reduction here is only 50%. Like Kurt, has situational use. We're about to get to the speed type Brave Orders that completely wreck the game. 5/10.
Alisa: She maintains a unique role in that she’s the entire game’s only battery. Heavenly Gift is still amazing and it hasn’t changed outside of the CP Regen being stronger. Lost Blessed Arrow, but her Brave Order sort of makes up for that. Radical Design restores 20% HP/EP on activation but only gives you 150% Break Damage. It’s serviceable, but requires more hits to get the stun usually. On the plus side, it lasts for 12 turns so you can take all the time you want and still press the offense if you need to be defensive for a little. Alisa’s other strength of having a long ranged physical helps here as well and she can serve to add that last little bit of Break or spell cancelling thanks to it. A very solid PC overall. 7/10
Machias: Probably the most improved of the O7 PCs? Like Alisa, lost Energy Shell but he picked up the amazing Sigma Operation for a Brave Order. This Order is like the ultimate blitz style, giving you a massive strength and defense boost for a couple of turns while cutting delay down by 50%. His MQ is also better essentially getting the damage reduction in CS2’s Emblem while still having strong offense properties. Then of course, late game, has the broken infinite turn loop. Really, he’s basically CS1/2 Machias but now with actual early game presence. 6/10
Emma: Overall weakening effect on mages probably hurts Emma the most of O7. She’s still serviceable, but she doesn’t have any real standout strengths and feels rather underwhelming on join compared to the other members of O7 or even N7. Her S-Craft is now basically Tio’s Zero Field, so it has a lot of chances to save your bacon against humanoid enemies…except she’s the first to leave in the final dungeon. SIGH. 4.5/10
Sara: Sara’s always been good and in CS3, she is still good. Possibly better because other members got nerfs but Sara is overall unaffected and probably gains more than she loses. Yes, the magic nerf hurts her hybrid build a bit, but look at everything else. Her crafts are super useful for Breaking and she can actually pull enemies together – one of the only few who can. Her 6 range counter, like Fie, is a notable strength here now compared to just being a side note in 1 and 2. Thor’s very low draining got replaced with something more relevant. Then, there’s her Brave Order, which allows you to start an infinite turn train once you Break an enemy. It’s more restrictive than Machias/Juna’s turn loop but in return, it’s easier to set up and you can keep it going as long as you can keep paying the BP cost and 1 casting of Chrono Burst. A really strong PC – possibly better than Rean at that. 9/10
Jusis: Like the inverse of Machias ironically. Probably the most nerfed of the O7 members. Jusis suffers like Sara in that the mage portion of him is weaker, but the problem here is, he doesn’t gain much to make up for this loss. He’s lost Rapid Thrusts and Treasure Sword is now also magical, meaning he has no physical techs. His big selling point of Noble Command spam has been replaced with a Brave Order – one that is essentially Noble Command but it’s a really effect here when compared to the others. It really should’ve been kept as a craft. He has all the issues of a close range melee character such as range and move but doesn’t have that type of stat build (mainly HP) to capitalize on that side. As a result, he’s just kind of…there. The one thing that did improve of his is Platinum Shield. It’s now Absolute Guard instead of Craft Guard, so that’s pretty good although it doesn’t really cover his issues. 4/10.
Millium: She also doesn’t really feel like she’s changed much compared to CS2. Still has stat weaknesses but her crafts are all solid and her Brave Order is a massive 90% damage reduction or something. So while not as good as Altina’s perfect reflect, she’ll also nuke damage something fierce and it lasts longer too. Actually feels improved overall, though I didn’t get much use out of her, so hard to tell. 5/10
Gaius: Speaking of people who are just there – hi, Gaius. Gaius has his CS1 issues here (lack of availability) and on top of that he has no S-craft for like the entire game until the last dungeon. Given this is the PC that ALSO has Wild Rage – what the actual fuck. His other two crafts are serviceable and do pretty well for Breaking, which Gaius is poised to do – but other than that set up, he doesn’t have much else. His Brave Order is also kind of meh. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with it, but 4 BP cost is very high and it’s only 200% Break Power instead of 300% like Juna’s. You do get 80% recovery and 4 more turns out of it, but I’ve never found much use for these so it’s basically a super overpriced Brave Order. Bleh. 3/10.
Significant Guests:
A note about all guests in general - they come with locked orbment slots as well as locked equipment sans Accessories. So their skills matter a little more here as you can customize them to fill in holes that you might find in the active party. Also, I have a split here between Significant and Non-Significant in that Significant guests basically stick around for a long dungeon area or in Sharon's case, becomes playable multiple times and is in some of the game's more memorable scenes.
Agate - End C1 guest. Agate's kind of overshadowed here by Laura in that they offer the same type of mold but Laura's more customizable and a little faster. To make up for this, he gets a CP generation skill, which lets him spam crafts easier. Notable due to CS3's CP inflation costs. His Brave Order is also devastating since it's an offense Boost PLUS a break boost, meaning you don't have to change orders. Regardless, he probably more significant in the All-Guests dungeon because then he's not competing with Laura, even if he has a couple of perks. 4.5/10
Sharon - Joins for a short stint in C2, then takes part in the big mid C2 boss with only Rean. She's lost Tea Time so she can't battery, but everything else is pretty much the same. Evade game is weaker due to locked orbments though and of course, she's not the greatest boss fighter. Wrecks randoms something fierce as always. 5/10.
Olivier - End C2 guest. Gets the shaft on the guest stick mainly due to element variety. Comes at a time when the number of elemental master quartz is limited for magic, so Olivier is kind of stuck casting Mirage spells for the most part. Made worse by the fact that his orbments are locked here, so he's mostly mono-mage. He feels worse than Emma as at least she can access spells that aren't locked to MQs. 3.5/10.
Angelica - Mid C3 guest that joins all the way to the end. Overall, feels weaker. Her delay ability is a little more notable this time due to almost everyone elses being stuck behind huge CP costs, but other than that, doesn't feel like she does much compared to N7. Competes with Ash/Kurt and Juna to a certain extent. Probably like a 3.5/10.
Aurelia - End C3 guest. So Aurelia replaces Sharon/Claire for being the "Broken Guest award" in the game. Still if you agree with Random in that the power craft is flatter, it means she's only so much better. The main thing she can't do here is infinite turn loop everything. Past that though, has her own unique MQ and her stats are all really strong. Great damage, S-craft, etc. 7/10. Would probably get up to an 8 if she was perm, but she's great for the time when available.
Not really Significant Guests (very short dungeon stints)
Claire - Mid C1 guest. Claire is weird. She's stuck with the bad MQ (y'know, the one Towa got stuck with in CS2?) but her Brave Order is truly broke. Once you stun someone, if you have 3 CP and Claire is on the team, it's over. It's MT Turn Shift that costs ONLY 3 CP. Meaning it's even more self sustaining than Sara's and Sara's already pretty broke! The main argument here is that she's available for an extremely limited period of time and unlike other guests who are fighting bosses/end of chapter big bads, Claire never really has a good chance to exercise this. I guess she has the ALL GUESTS dungeon bosses to show off, but really. 4/10.
Tio - Mid C2 guest and not a great one. Has all the problem of being a mage AND a guest (see Olivier), made up for by the fact what made her so good in Zero and Azure was her long orbment line that meant something. Here, Tio is basically Altina except worse. Yuck. All guest dungeon is somewhat unique in that she's the only true mage other than Olivier, but like Claire, who cares at that point? 3/10
Tita - Early C3 guest, and FTR, is a DNR for me as I never used Tita at that point. N7 at this point is pretty much up and running so Tita never really has a spot. She does have HUGE HPs (18000 compared to when the average is about maybe 8000) but no S-craft. Probably not terrible in theory, but may be stuck with Claire syndrome in this case.
Lechter - Only available in the ALL GUEST dungeon and he's the worst person there. He has a physical MQ but is built a mage and one of his crafts is basically lottery. So he's hugely hampered by options, lots of other good PCs and his skill set is terrible. Truly cast LVP and would be a 2/10 but he's around for so short, DNR is the right call IMO.
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Trails of Cold Steel 3: Extremely Cold Steel
As I said in WGAYP the tl;dr of this is going to be that I sort of agree with Tide and sort of don't, the big things here are pretty unique toolset and to a lesser extent speed since it's pretty hard to be unsalvageably bad in either attack stat (though you should still try to actually specialize one way or the other) and enemy offense is either irrelevent in the sense that it's too low to matter or that it's high enough that you pull out the busted defensive options the game gives you anyways.
I do want to talk a bit about power being nerfed across the board before I get into the ratings proper, however. It's more noticeable with arts since, well, look at their qualified power ratings in CS1/2 and look at them in 3, they seem to be tuned around the idea that you use them to 1) hit weaknesses that don't always exist and 2) have offense while being able to stay at 200 CP. I point out the second thing because the damage boost for firing off an S-Craft at 200 CP seems to be rather larger than it normally has been, to the point where I'd call them a lot more situational than they ever were (it doesn't help that S-Crafts are -horrible- at dealing break damage, which is actually a big deal.) But in-combat CP maintenance is a bigger deal than it's usually been, since it's harder to restore it through items and costs are higher in general (and much higher in specific cases.) I think multiplier stacking might have gotten hit with a nerf too but unlike CS1/2 I don't know the damage formulas and I didn't actually mess with things too much so this is pretty much anectodal.
Anyways.
Rean: So apart from all that Rean got hit with another (deserved) nerf; his delay game is much weaker now for a couple of reasons, namely that 1) Impede quartz are not only weaker in general but they're also space element instead of time now and 2) his delay inflicting craft is now Gale, which has a whopping 80 CP cost (90 in ogre form) and only adds 10 delay. That said he's still a speedy and strong physical beater with a non-hopeless ATS stat if you want to do a caster build that's honestly wasted on him but I want to call special attention to Divine Song, which does one thing and one thing only; for 2 BP this entirely elimates charge times for arts. See, the thing with offensive arts is that their charge time is longer than their recovery time, and their recovery time can be drastically reduced through certain MQ as well as Bell quartz which can be obtained fairly early; it's an extremely specific benefit that you have to build a team around to get maximum benefit (and you have to account for the EP and BP costs somehow) but this isn't a hard game and even if you half-ass it like I did you realize that it's really fucking absurd, the only actual strike against it is that proper caster use is really unwieldy compared to the more plug-and-play style fighters have. Oh, something about his other Brave Orders? Eh, the first two are cheap filler but you really should have better options for their role 99% of the time and the last one is 5 BP so it's automatically lol-tier. 7.5/10? I dunno, the loss of the extremely braindead infinite delay loop feels like it outweighs a fair few considerations and CS3's overall power curve is flatter than 1/2's in general.
Juna: I have considerably less to say about Junie. Yeah she gets the dumb GT Accelerate craft that Machias also gets that but really, she's there for Sledgehammer because having free reign to clown on stuff is that big a deal. Her stats are pretty much universal mediocrity save for her ATS, which is actually wretched (sub-Ash! I actually bothered to compare this!) but since you're never actually going to build her as an offensive caster and the STR spread in this game doesn't amount to much you don't really care about that. Having an Earth lock is also less bad since Break quartz exists and is something you probably want to use. 7.5/10.
Kurt: Good speed and can function for any sort of reasonable offensive build. The orbment locks say evade build but capitalizing on that pidgeonholes you pretty damn badly and the range thing means he's worse at it than say Fie or Sara are. You'd probably be tempted to run a more specialized beater over him if you have the chance and his Brave Order ranges from situational to really underwhelming depending on the time of day but you can't really go wrong with using him. 6/10.
Altina: So calling Altina a dud is going a bit too far in my opinion but uh. There's no dancing around the fact that she has issues (although really what do you expect from someone related to noted problem child Millium), casters don't really get going until Chapter 2 and she compounds the issue by having garbage speed (it's not castworst, Emma and Millium are slower still, but it's worst out of the New Class 7 people so the distinction is pretty irrelevent) and her craft loadout is all over the place. Two Mirage locks don't really help matters much either as noted. On the plus side Ebon Crest is actually busted since because it's a Brave Order and not a buff attacks that have a dispel effect won't pierce it but ON THE OTHER HAND she gets shanghai'd by the plot and misses the final dungeon so lol. 4.5/10.
Ash: -Also- gets shanghai'd by the plot and misses the final dungeon so lol. Putting that aside he's a physical beater with okay orbment locks for the job but the thing here is that unlike a lot of other physical beaters he -actually has to move- a lot of the time, and while building him for movement solves one problem he still needs a spot to stand in while he does his thing which can actually be something of a problem against certain formations so I'd call his randobusting actually somewhat low-end despite how good it looks on paper. Unbound Rage is cute, but the CP gain is very delayed and it has notably more delay than Wild Rage and its ilk so there's a limit to how much I'm willing to hype it (Ash is also not what one would call fast). Crazy Hunt is certainly a Brave Order that exists. I guess he doesn't have Altina's borderline awful early game so he comes out ahead technically but regardless he doesn't impress me. It doesn't help that the New Class 7 students have relatively bad S-Crafts so I can't even say he's better than Rean at the thing he does well. 4.5/10.
Musse: Well at least she has the decency to stick around. She's serviceable enough at her role but like Ash her speed isn't what you'd call good and she's a caster which as I've stated before has performance value but isn't exactly you can just run plug-and-play. Arts Celebration is... certainly a Brave Order that exists except for the fact that it may as well not so you'd almost certainly want to have another one in her place if you at all can. 5.5/10.
Laura: To be honest Old Class 7 doesn't feel all that nerfed, a couple exceptions aside, the power curve was just changed to be flatter and it stands out because CS2 was an extremely broken mess of a game where Laura hit the S-Craft button and everything died. As has been said Laura is more or less the same, CP inflation aside, and kind of makes Ash look like a chump at the whole physical beater thing due to being mostly The Same, But Better. Less happily she's among the first to leave in the final dungeon but so it goes. 5.5/10.
Elliot: Hello, yes, it's "Remedy Oratorio," the thing you hope you never have to use but are really happy to have when you do. Still has pure caster speed issues but he's pretty much the best pure caster like everyone with Lichtkreis and its ilk were? Also sticks around for the nearly the entire final dungeon. 6.5/10.
Fie: Okay here's a clear loser relative to before, not really because of any evade nerf but because she can't pull her delay game shenanigans off as well thanks to that nonsense getting hit with a much needed nerf bat. She still has speed but her STR is pretty mediocre which isn't the best look for someone with near-unsalvageable ATS. Insight buff on her Brave Order probably makes it a little better than Kurt's but uh it's still not one of the better speed Brave Orders. 5/10.
Alisa: So Alisa comes out pretty much unscathed here. Radical Design may not be Sledgehammer (because pretty much nothing is Sledgehammer) but it is still a thing that says +Break Damage% and it going for 12 actions makes it worth the price of entry. Heavenly Gift still owns, has fairly good speed and Flamberge is actually good this time, and high ATS lets her fill the caster role should you want (and arguably better than the actual pure casters thanks to having a speed stat that doesn't suck), so she fits in pretty much any party you could arrange. 7/10.
Machias: Still has pretty junk stats and unimpressive offensive crafts to go with it but Sigma Operation is good enough that, like Junie, you'd probably want him around in a support slot anyways. It's very much a physical team Brave Order, but it's really good at being a physical team Brave Order. 6/10.
Emma: So as I've said earlier, Emma's speed is trash and as Tide said, casters don't have the same level of raw power as they did in CS2 (though still better than CS1 here because it's hard not to be). I'd hype her S-Craft but uh here's the thing, dispel is a thing that exists in this game, and the thing with dispel in Trails is that when it's attached to damage (and it's always attached to damage) the dispel happens before the damage. And I know that at minimum a certain pyromaniac has dispel attached to his S-Craft and that a certain zombie saint has it somewhere in her skillset as well. This is, as you might imagine, a problem should you try to rely on this. (Of course, this game being what it is, you don't actually care about this fact if you set things up so that Emma fires off infinite Albion Wolves at 2 delay thanks to the absurdity that is Divine Song.) Emma's other issue is that her pre-lategame guest appearance is uh Chapter 2. Alongside Alisa and noted beautiful genius hunted by hell world Olivier Lenheim, both of whom have this thing called a speed stat and can do the caster thing and follow it up with a damaging S-Craft. SIGH is right. 4/10.
Sara: Sara is pretty ridiculous but I don't think I'd go so far as 9 because Trails is that absurd of a series now. But no seriously why is that Brave Order just 4 BP it's pretty much self-sustaining once enemies get broken and you get the ball rolling. I guess she doesn't hybrid as well as she used to but why care. 8/10.
Jusis: I mean Jusis was never really all that great outside of Noble Command since he did the hybrid thing and wasn't -that- amazing at it. Though Treasure Sword is still physical? I know I'm not crazy here, I used it against the arts reflecting mirrors and it didn't bounce off, and arts reflect certainly hasn't become any less comprehensive. But yeah, losing Noble Command kind of sucks bad and Noble Rise isn't really an amazing replacement or anything. 4/10.
Millium: Millium is still bad except for White Decoration aka what is this thing you call taking damage. So naturally PLOT means she's not playable for the final dungeon. And you still eat the status anyways so loud shrug, I'm running out of things to say. 4/10.
Gaius: I'd say he's better than Ash when they're both around except he doesn't have an S-Craft until the final chapter. And like Laura and Emma he's amongst the first to leave during the final dungeon. I think his ATS may have actually gotten buffed but why care. I can't think that poorly of his Brave Order since it's a thing that says +Break Damage% but it costs 4 BP and neither gives as much as Sledgehammer or lasts as long as Radical Design. I guess there's the recovery aspect but typically you want to fire off the +Break Damage% Brave Orders before the bombs start dropping, not after. So. Uh. Yeah. 3/10.
I guess there's the special guest characters (one of whom I already mentioned) but I messed with less than half of them and I can't be bothered to care to rate them.
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Cold Steel 3: I wish I had played on Nightmare for a better assessment.
Rean: 8/10? C1/C2 is "The best and has an S-Craft". His brave orders are always decent. The damage halving for 1 BP is so crucial when you need it, more flexible than other defensive Orders because 1BP, and +20% damage is what you use before a finishing blitz. C3-endgame he makes a great physical fighter with his transformation and the various CP+ stuff. He's the best at it, so the physical teinks should go on him (Brigand/Minotauros). This is insane. Unlike other physical fighters accessories that restore lots of CP don't leave him with status holes because his super-form is status immune! That's a really good thing. 2Time/1Fire is decent although I suppose Fire isn't optimal.
Juna: C1 isn't too impressive, as she doesn't get an S craft.. C2 onwards...SLEDGEHAMMER. It's an amazing thing from the moment you get it and is the default unless something else is specifically called for or it succeeds in breaking enemies. Her first Craft has a high break mult so serves it's purpose for the earlygame. Later, her selling point is the Accelerate skill, which is always awesome. Other than that she never really fits a niche. Space/Earth isn't really amazing for fighting reasons, and she doesn't have mage stats. Her fighting stats are 'okay' but with nothing to stand out can't compete with the high end stuff. Ironically her crafts are probably the worst at breaking out of the cast come endgame. Still. SLEDGEHAMMER.
Kurt: He comes default set up as a evade tanker and he can kinda work for that if you position him manually but his short range negates the counters that are the whole point of that build. Otherwise he just generally had "OK" written all over him. His Insta-buff 30 CP craft makes him stand out some, but his selling point would have to be the 2BP -70% recharge for 4 turns Order. It might be too expensive but it's basically free against a broken enemy, racking lots of follow-ups (switching partner to a character with the Scorpion MQ for ridiculousness). You could also use it defensively to restore people, or to get a buff in place before smashing. It's versatile and amazing.
Altina: C1 her durability and speed make her less useful but... she gets her S-Craft early, and her Brave Order is valuable for surviving some otherwise brutal early fights (especially on Nightmare). Her Mirage locks make her the ideal for Saintly Force. C2 she gets a really good Break craft (Fragarach) and that's hard to argue with. She is good to give any decent Arts you have, which start to pick up a little steam. Then C3 hits and a bunch of things swing in her favor. Titania MQ means EP is no longer much of an issue, Cast 3 and Tier 2 bells show up and make magic hyperfast. A bunch of spd+ equips show up and flatten the natural speed curve. She gets her Stealth skill soon thereafter, which solves durability woes and grants auto crits. C4 it gets even better with the Pandora/Titania combo from hell.
Ash: Atk buff and CP regen skill is relatively strong, especially if he has any kind of other CP-regaining skills. It actually makes sense to give him a Move+ quartz because of how restricted he is in that regard. His Brave Order is in theory cool because crits lead to more BP which leads to more usage of the crit order but in practice there are generally better options for offensive smashing. If he gets a hold of Chrono Burst he can maximize his advantage with his CP Regen and self-buff, laying down lots of S-Crafts as long as he has EP.
Musse: Another decent caster. 2Water/1Space is good as an HP up or Water Bell is always nice, and space for EP cut quartz. She joins pretty much right when magic picks up, and is suited for an Ocean Bell/EP Cut Quartz giving her good stuff in C3. Her charm status is surprisingly not blocked by some annoying enemies, so there's that. She makes a good mage with water/ocean bells and EP Cutting and Cast/Action. She isn't really built for Titania/Pandora, but her magic artes are so powerful she can function without it.
Elliot: Emergency "Revive everyone" button is good, although having no damaging S-Craft is unfortunate. But he's in a party with 4 others so you can sub him out for blitzing. His Brave Order, at 2 BP, a little healing, and -70% damage for 12 turns, is likely the best raw defensive brave order (Except for status) and is a must-have for the C1 boss battle.
Laura: +60% Damage Brave Order for when you want to S-Craft blitz things into oblivion! That is the best there is for that. Otherwise she has a strong S-Craft and a self-buff move that gives it some more oomph, so Buff -> Brave Order -> S Craft Blitz is feasible. She makes a good case for the Physical twink builds come endgame, with her emphasis on blowing things up to kingdom come.
Fie: Good evade setup by default and *40CP* Stealth-> crit S-Craft out of the gate is nice (and it's a stronger S-Craft than most). Her Order isn't really worth it. Change her to Sirius or sub it and she is one of, if not the, best at evade/counter tricks with her base evade and ranged counters, which is one of the best tricks in the game. Stealth is notable in that even the "Dispel+OHKO damage" nonsense can't get through it, and auto-crits lead to more BP which lead to more Orders, or crit S-Crafting. Lategame makes the most logical choice for the Crit damage boost MQ because of that Stealth.
Agate: Wild Rage->Dragon Dive is the name of the game and nothing has changed. It's a good game! His Order is pretty good for breaking or Blitzing or both.
Emma: She is a decent magic user, and makes a logical choice for the awesome magic setups. I don't recall having issues with enemy magic users but her Brave Order is theoretically really really good for that. Her S-Craft being dispellable makes it less useful than you'd like but still can eat up to 8 enemy turns at 200CP and that's amazing (was pretty clutch for the murder crab in C2).
Alisa: Her default setup has the traditional auto-rez shenanigans (nerfed a bit because no EP restoration), her stats are pretty good, and her Brave Order compares to Sledgehammer but is 2.5x instead of 4x Break and costs 2 BP... but lasts for 12 turns and heals HP/EP. Still... comparing okay with Sledgehammer is great!
Machias: Accelerate and decent physical skills. Accelerate is still your god. His default kit is good for tanking hits and if you give him some healing he works pretty well. His Brave Order is like a weaker (only 2x spd instead of 3.33x) Wind Blade that lasts 8 turns and gives a few 2-turn Strength/Def buffs. His basic Craft (Mail breaker) is quite good.
Jusis: His Brave Order is a good damage buff to lay down if you have a Zero Order turn. His most unique selling point is giving everyone some free invincibility for one attack using his Platinum Shield Craft. But it's dispellable so that's unfortunate. Not much stood out with him otherwise.
Sara: Her Brave Order Gives everyone a turn. Against a broken enemy, they can basically beat them up forever and ever and just... win. No questions asked. So there's that! Other than that her Self-buff move is a good setup for S-Crafting things into oblivion, and her stats are generally good so lots of setups can work for her.
Gaius: Outside like one endgame part he's rather lacking? He has a CP Generation move but can't S-Craft out of it till really late so that's depressing. At endgame his S-Craft is pretty amazing (best damage and a good side-effect). His Brave Order healing as much as it did was a nice feature, but otherwise he didn't stand out. Given the availability he didn't leave an impression.
Millium: Millium's Brave Order is a better (but beware status!) alternative to Altina's if you need defense. Her S-craft is one of the stronger ones amongst the PCs, and she has a skill that's pretty good for breaking things. She's made for Breaking things with her Crafts, and her defenses are good. Not much stands out when you have her however.
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Troubleshooter - I'm about 70% of the way done I think? The game keeps releasing extra story + bonus missions so hard to tell, but I have like all the PCs and got a pretty idea of what they do. Worse comes to worse, I'll edit this over time.
A note about this game are the durability stats. So I have no idea how effective armor is, but Evade and Block rates are pretty much raw evade block chance, so they matter a lot for PC durability. Also, the sub stats here for things like Move/Sight/etc. are all meaningful as well given how big the maps are in the game.
Albus - Pretty damn good! He's a frontline fighter with some weak magic available, although the magic is useful you need it. Albus is set up to be an evade-attacker with a good blend of durability from evade/block and high move and good speed to get into position. His main drawback is that he's mostly stuck to ST as he doesn't have any group target physicals unless he hits 100 SP (basically gives you a super move and your abilities don't cost any stamina). So unless you feel confident and stick him out in the middle of the field, he's picking things off one at a time. Would probably be amazing at DL duels if I ever get around to figuring out how to stat topic this game. 7/10.
Sion - The game's pure mage and also really good. Unlike Albus, Sion has more durability issues (notably, he has much lower block rate) but in return, he gets lots of group target abilities and he hits like a freight train. A true glass cannon type albeit his speed is not as fast as more traditional cannons. 7/10.
Irene - Like Albus, she's a frontliner but she's basically more of a tank while he's more of an attacker. One thing I've noticed is that her Hit rate always feels really low, which kind of sucks. However, because she's bulkier, she can step more into enemy range and take a hit or two. Fighter masteries give her an access to huge block rate so she does this better than anyone. Also, she's very melee oriented, so for awhile, she was my LVP as she could never get into range to do much. I've recently respec'd her, so it will be interesting to see if she gets better. 5/10.
Anne - Until you get Anne, the game doesn't really pick up. Good thing too because otherwise you're stuck using Potions to heal and those tend to drop off rather quick and have limited charges. She's the game's main healer but she can also battery effectively as she has skills that let's her restore vigor on heal, as well as remove status and adds regen. Her main drawback is very bad offense and being rather frail. Why you are getting into combat situations with Anne is a mystery, but it does mean she can't do everything. Another issue she has is starting speed. Double turn speed is less of an issue as there are lots of skills that improve her recovery rate, meaning once she gets going, she'll heal pretty frequently. 8.5/10
Heixing - While Sion is the magic cannon, Heixing is the physical cannon. Has huge range, which is notable due to the game's large maps and decent sub stats in Move/Sight to make use of them. Also actually has decent HP too! It means he can actually take a hit, but because his Block and Evade are quite low, he can't take much more than that. Still, he's a good candidate for One-Shot One Kill mastery and chaining multiple turns together. Operates best at mid-range like Sion due to his ability limitations. One thing he has over Sion is that his base attack also has an innate +50% accuracy so he almost never misses. And generally faster too. 8/10.
Ray - Support character with a modicum of offense, although not great at it. Ray's unique spray abilities though are her real selling points here. Full HP, instant Overcharge, full stamina recovery are all really powerful. She lobs items at people so she also doesn't need direct line of sight and can be spec'd to have respectable enough offense. Her main issue is primarily speed - and unlike Anne, she doesn't get faster as the battle progresses, so it's really noticeable overtime. 6/10
Giselle - Quite similar to Heixing on paper, but they are definitely different in practice. She has notably less HP, meaning unlike Heixing who operates best at mid-range, Giselle operates best at long range. Makes sense since she's wielding a sniper rifle. Same defensive problems as him, but she's better able to use the range due to her abilities all operating with her amazing attack range. Also a good candidate for One-shot One kill due to having high offensive power and the ability to refresh her cooldowns. Her other class is "Hunter" which lets her summon beasts to fight on your side. More on this when I have experimented more. In theory though, it means that she's bringing +1 body to the field at least, so even if it weakens her long range abilities, it can only be so bad. 8/10
Kylie - Ray minus? She's a support character as well, but requires line of sight and has less power than the 2 gunmen on the team. So kind of not good on offense. Made worse by the fact that she has a unique weapon type which I'm not sure how to upgrade yet. Yikes. On the plus side, her primary class, like Giselle lets her summon an additional ally in the form of robots. Better on paper because robots have a ton of HP and are largely status immune. Like Giselle, I will have more to say once I experiment more. For now though, she operates best as a scout - still valuable, but her combat abilities are pretty meh. 5/10
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Fire Emblem: Three Houses
tl;dr version:
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Detailed ratings:
Mostly rating on a "1 is the worst, 10 is the best" scale rather than worrying what a 10 is compared to other games.
In general, the optimum path for physical characters is (any beginner class) -> Brigand/Pegasus Knight -> Wyvern. Everyone can take it, and while talent list matters it's never a deal-breaker. I'll mention other roles sometimes but that's generally the baseline for a character's performance, even though in practice you will probably send some people to other classes just for weapon/battalion variety reasons. Magic users have an assumed default path of Monk -> Mage -> Warlock, with an optional finish in Dark Knight or Gremory.
I'm not factoring in paid DLC for this, outside the characters who only exist with it.
Byleth: 8.5/10. Has the same stupid base stats and accelerate exp as Edelgard, but lower str growth, worse talent list, and no Raging Storm. The (bad) wildcard is his/her training method; assuming 2/3 instruct rate everyone else gets +70 skill exp per weak if training neutral things on Maddening, while Byleth needs 3.5 explore actions to keep up, which is rough. Later on it's not a big deal though, so the great stats do shine through.
Edelgard: 10/10. The only real concern here is the speed is merely "decent" but a lot of things prop it up in practice (str, Weight-3, her exp bonus, Darting Blow). The overall stats (str/cha in particular) and talent list are outstanding, and Raging Storm is kinda insane. 15 uses of "take an extra turn" pretty much cement her as the best character in the game on her own route, and... probably overall too.
Hubert: 5/10. He's okay. He has solid stats, gets 3 range spells, and his Frozen Lance hits pretty hard once he closes to melee. A trash faith list combined with the fact that there's no way for him to have both good move and his spells until Level 30 hurts, though.
Dorothea: 8/10. Thoron, Physic, Meteor is quite a combo. The magic stat is less good, but since it's all in the growth instead of the base it's not as bad as it could be.
Ferdinand: 6/10. A bit of a slow start with his bases (and truthfully his stats never stand out), but his personal makes him one of the best dodge-tanks. Swift Strikes is kinda cool too, though brave weapons are available soon enough after reaching A ranks that I don't care that much.
Bernadetta: 4.5/10. Bernie has bad stats (bases, growths, you name it) and a bad talent list, but is saved by a neat personal skill which props up her damage and some cool combat arts like Vengeance and Encloser. It's enough you probably do want to train her in bows/lances whatever class you send her (some combination of pegasus and archer classes is probably best).
Caspar: 3/10. Probably the worst of the 24 students, he doesn't have much going for him. His personal's decent, but his stats are poor (even his strength doesn't really stand out, it's Petra with +5% growth or Ferdie with +1 base) and he did not need an authority bane on top of that.
Petra: 7.5/10. There's a lot to like here: axe/flying talent, great speed (combos with flying talent to make her a great dodge-tank candidate) and adequate str. Doesn't really go the extra mile by having better charm/durability and her personal skill is kinda worthless, but she's obviously good.
Linhardt: 6/10. He has Physic and Warp, and the magic stat to use them. He also has the worst combat stats of the mages, though Wind makes his speed less terrible than it first appears (still bad). So he's behind the likes of Dorothea and Marianne, but still a solid choice.
Dimitri: 9.5/10. Well Edelgard is the obvious comparison: he's slightly ahead on stats overall though has a worse start, has no pegasus, won't train for four chapters, and no Raging Storm. That said most of the good stuff otherwise applies to him, and he has Battalion Vantage/Wrath which is a mean combo that lets him pull off unique things.
Dedue: 5.5/10. Probably shouldn't be used in the second half of the game (though you can, and if you're gonna set up anyone for raw def in the second half it's gonna be him) but he's very solid in the first half, with enough def (thanks to his personal) that even I take notice, and good str/Vengeance to output some strong part 1 offence.
Felix: 7.5/10. In that conversation for "best non-lord physical student". Out of the people in the running for that, he has the best stats (10 str/9 spd and 55% growth in both) but the worst talent list (authority bane in particular). Great start on his own route thanks to his personal, which is nice.
Mercedes: 8/10. Would be basically perfect if she had 3 range. Her stats are a cut above most mages (actually has 8 base spd, solid def/res/charm), and Physic + Fortify is great. Her personal and statline both encourage you to frontline her then heal herself as she heals others which is neat for action economy.
Ashe: 4/10. He's somewhat speedy and having both axe+bow talents is nice whichever route you end up going with him. His personal is more convenient than objectively useful, but it's there. The rest of the stat build doesn't really do him favours but it's workable. Deadeye has some niche use. Probably a little worse than Bernie.
Annette: 4/10. Her spell list is just depressing, and it's not like her stats make up for it or anything (in fact, they're pretty subpar too tbh). She does have a solid Rally (Str from her personal, gets Spd pretty fast) and an authority boon, and can do some decent stuff with magical axes (Bolt Axe, Lightning Axe, her relic) later in the game, but this isn't really an optimum plan for a 3H mage.
Sylvain: 7/10. Just quietly solid. See Ferdinand if his personal helped more early (extra str/def in some situations) and less late (due to not scaling), but he also gets Ruined Sky (35 might!) in Chapter 6 so that's a thing. Also has a very legit mage build if that's your thing.
Ingrid: 7/10. I've generally been convinced that Sylvain is slightly better, but they're close. A shaky start but she grows into "slightly worse Petra" nicely, and you can even quibble if she's worse midgame due to Burning Quake.
Claude: 9/10. He's perhaps easiest to compare with Felix: after factoring in his level boost he has basically the same speed and falls off in str late, but has way more charm and his skill/talent situation is amazing instead of bad: +authority, +axe, +flying, +riding (Move+1), gets handed great Advanced/Master tier jobs for free. It'd be nice if his str were a bit higher or he had pegasus but otherwise you can scarcely ask for more.
Lorenz: 3.5/10. Lorenz has the stat build to be an interesting if not overwhelming mage (solid bulk), but unfortunately his spell list is trash (outside getting Ragnarok a bit early) which means he's not really very good as one anyway. He's a vaguely okay Paladin with Frozen Lance but you can do better.
Hilda: 7/10. She's a lot like Sylvain. She gets access to pegasus/Darting Blow (and has marginally better stats), but has an authority bane and gets her delete-button relic six chapters later. It roughly balances.
Raphael: 3.5/10. In his favour: pretty good str and that's a very important stat in this game. Not in his favour: 6+15% speed is game-worst among students. That's a big weakness and I feel like his str needed to be better than Felix-level in order to justify it on someone who doesn't have much else to recommend him.
Lysithea: 7/10. She's possibly a bit better if you factor DLC since one of her problems is tier 3 kneecapping her magic advantage. Otherwise, she's the best mage at nuking things (both the stat and the spell list, particularly Luna) and Mastermind helps get her get some skills faster, but is light on utility (Warp's nice, I prefer Physic though) for the stronger mages in the game.
Ignatz: 3.5/10. Having 8+35% / 8+50% offence with no personal to boost it is pretty bad. His talent list makes him an awful wyvern (relatively) and as an archer I'm not impressed by his list of combat arts (at least Ashe has Deadeye).
Marianne: 7/10. Compared to other mages, her biggest problem is being only neutral Reason, which makes certifying for Warlock on time rough. Like Lys she's a bit better with DLC because she certifies for the DLC mage classes more easily. Otherwise, has Thoron and Physic, so is Dorothea with a bit more magic but worse talents and no Meteor, which is a losing trade but still leaves her a great unit.
Leonie: 7.5/10. Petra remix. She doesn't get Alert Stance as easily (+lance not as good as +axe/flying for the game both want to play) but in exchange she's got better def/charm (i.e. just an outstanding overall stat build) and a non-trash personal. This probably roughly balances.
From here on we hit the staff members. To avoid repeating myself: joining late in this game means missing out on a bunch of skills or needing to backtrack to get them, and that kinda sucks.
Seteth: 6/10. Is Sylvain with no Ruined Sky but generally better stats... except speed which is rough. This might be a winning trade except that he joins in Chapter 12, which means he either sucks for a few maps or loses Atk to Sylvain as well. So obviously worse than Sylvain, but still a respectable unit, the best of the later-joining (post-Chapter 6) PCs.
Flayn: 3/10. Her thing is Rescue, and later Fortify, but joining with E reason means her offence is wretched and her utility is too situational. Really needed to either auto-train Reason or have Physic.
Hanneman: 4/10. His reason kit could hardly be better with Meteor (at A+, admittedly) and Thoron, and hey there are other mages who can't double and have durability woes so his wretched speed is maybe... not as bad as it could be? Still bad though. Needing to wait until chapter 8 to start building faith and needing to wait on Warlock a bit while getting Fiendish Blow are both negatives he didn't need. Probably ends up around Annette level.
Manuela: 3.5/10. Honestly mage Manuela is problematic, though yes there's Warp (off bad magic) and Bolting (have fun training for it). As a fighter she's basically Ingrid (dat speed) except she joins in chapter 8 with questionable training. She can play a variety of roles but struggles to find much to excel in.
Gilbert: 1/10. You will notice that I haven't handed out any 2's, this is because Gilbert really is that much worse than the next worst unit in Three Houses. Seteth, if Seteth had way less speed/charm and had done way less training before he joined (E flying, D+ authority), oh and joins even later of course. Even his def isn't anything incredible. It'd be trivial to build an armour who is completely superior to base Gilbert by chapter 13, and you wouldn't because that character would be bad too.
Alois: 4/10. Joins a chapter earlier than Seteth (which probably also means 2 extra paralogues), so does have a bit more time to backtrack to Brigand and badly wants to because otherwise he's just a bulkier Caspar who hasn't trained flying yet. Once you do that his atk/def are solid at least (thanks to NPC Warrior growths), and his speed can be patched some by wyvern + the growth being okay instead of bad. Has a decent rally too, which is something. Still, needing catching up to be "decent" isn't a great place to be.
Catherine: 8/10. You want to recruit her ASAP, chapter 4 is possible but tricky; chapter 5 is easy if you know what you're doing though. I'm rating her based off that. Compared to Felix she misses out on early correction to her skill priorities, but her str/speed are even better (and she actually has good def), she gets pegasus, she doesn't have an authority bane, and if you do need her to earlygame nuke as a swordmaster she can. It adds up to the best non-lord physical character in the game, I think.
Shamir: 6/10. If you get her in Chapter 6 she has Felix-level str and average speed, and can nuke as a sniper if needed. She also gets Hunter's Volley early enough to have it for a notable length of time before everyone gets their hands on brave weapons. Unfortunately her good midgame is at odds with building her for later, and she's going to fall off in part 2. So similar to Dedue but she's more impressive at her best.
Cyril: 4.5/10. What if Petra/Leonie had trash bases and no pegasus knight access. He is saved somewhat by having Point-Blank Volley (and/or Vengeance) giving him some decent offence in part 1, and by part 2 his growths kick in so he's fine then, although always forever short of the characters I rate at 7 or higher who can do the same build better.
Jeritza: 7/10. Retribution means that the Death Knight mastery isn't as good as it sounds. But he has great stats (comparable to Catherine except he actually has res), gets Darting Blow in Chapter 14, and having a super version of the Paladin class gives you another canto badass without eating a flying battalion. Not really dominant because he does suffer from some usual latejoiner problems and is competing with Raging Storm, but he should slide into the team easily.
Yuri: 7/10. Great stats (Petra/Leonie trading HP for Res/Charm), authority boon, a decent personal (especially for a wyvern)... there's a lot to like here. Unfortunately his talent list is a bit of a mess and his stat build really does want Darting Blow to seal the deal.
Balthus: 5.5/10. Raphael with a few more points of speed (still sub-Caspar though), a relic (with an admittedly shaky combat art), and the big one, a rather potent personal. It doesn't add up to a great PC because speed's important (and flying bane doesn't help) but it's a respectable one.
Constance: 6/10. Her spell list is interesting with Rescue and Bolting, but no Physic or Thoron are downers. She invites comparison with Lysithea: same great magic and holes in her kit. She does get Bolting, which is definitely a big plus (lessened some by her short support list), but otherwise loses the comparison (Warp > Rescue, is only neutral faith, no Luna or Mastermind).
Hapi: 7/10. Nice spell list, with Physic, Warp (although faith neutral means she takes the longest to get it), and a range 3 spell (though at B). That said, just as Constance invites comparison to Lys, Hapi invites comparison to Dorothea, who has better stats (similar, but actually has charm), and an even better spell list (Meteor, Thoron is both better and earlier than Death).
Anna: unsure-but-bad/10. Manuela if she could start building relevant skills earlier but had worse stats and most importantly NO SUPPORTS which defeats part of the point of having Meteor, the most interesting thing about her. I've never used her and I can only guess at how much the "no supports" thing hurt. If she had a full support list she'd probably be around 4/10 though, which is not promising.
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Here I go with another Super Robot Wars! This time it's SRW A Portable's turn.
The mechs are organized by series alphabetical order. Mech ratings assume canon pilots. Pilots who don’t have a default unit will also be discussed in their own section for each series.
For the purposes of this list, in some instances, I have grouped together multiple series under a single header as follows:
Universal Century Gundam: Mobile Suit Gundam (1979); Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team, Mobile Suit Gundam 0083: Stardust Memory; Mobile Suit Zeta Gundam; Mobile Suit Gundam ZZ; Mobile Suit Gundam: Char’s Counterattack.
Mazinger Series: Mazinger, Great Mazinger, UFO Robo Grendizer.
Getter Robo Series: Getter Robo, Getter Robo G, Shin Getter Robo.
This is done because these series involve mechs that can be reassigned to other pilots within other shows from the same category.
The two battleships will be in their own section, rather than listed with their respective series. You can never choose to not deploy them, so they’re DNR, but I did talk about them a bit regardless.
Last but not least, these ratings assume you don’t habitually gameover on purpose to farm additional money or kills.
Banpresto Originals
Soulgain is exclusive to Axel and Angelg is exclusive to Lamia. The other three OG robots can be selected by either protagonist. Both Axel and Lamia get Accel, Valor, Spirit, and Soul. Axel’s unique spirits are Strike and Fortitude, while Lamia’s are Focus and Alert. Axel is the better protagonist as such in this game.
All five OG units have to wait till the pilot reaches level 20 to unlock their finishers. This will generally be about halfway through the game, and it holds them back significantly until they reach that point. It hurts Soulgain and Angelg much worse than it does the other OG units, because it essentially leaves them to have all the disadvantages of a super while still only having the power of a real unless you heavily focus investment in them early.
I played with Aschenretter, the other originals are rated on an “on-paper” basis and by comparing them to the units to which they are most similar.
Soulgain (Axel Almer): 6.5/10. Basically Daimos with HP regen and without the broken defensive ace bonus, which means it’ll have survival problems. Losing trade IMO, but not a dramatic one.
Angelg (Lamia Loveless): 6.5/10. Basically Great Mazinger with worse post-movement capability and no combos but with Double Image. Double Image is super good so I’d call it a winning trade.
Vysaga: 8.5/10. Basically God Gundam with slightly better range and slightly less power (and 2 more part slots) that has to wait till the protagonist reaches level 20 to use God Finger. Probably the best original.
Aschenretter: 7.5/10. Basically Nu Gundam without the availability problem and if the funnels were post-movement. It’s really good. Mostly ammo-based.
Razangriff: 6/10. Basically Gundam Heavyarms without the availability problem, but with significantly worse post-movement options (range-1 locked) and no MAP weapon. You’ll have to commit one of the game’s two Hit & Away parts to the protagonist. Entirely ammo-based. IMO the worst original for a first playthrough; it improves on NG+ because skill parts carry over.
Brave Leader Daimos
Daimos (Kazuya Ryuzaki): 7/10. Glass cannon super with incredible power. There are other units that have incredible power and aren’t as glassy, but not enough to fill a deployment. Pretty much demands a Support Defense tank or Kazuya’s overpowered ace bonus to survive. Getting Reppu Seikenzuki Kai probably bumps him to 8/10 and, unlike the secret finishers for Combattler or Voltes, you don’t lose Master Asia doing it.
Galva FX II (Kyoshiro Yuzuki/Nana Izumi): 6/10. Generic resupply support unit. Can become a second large EWAC for a huge money investment. Good spirit set overall.
Combattler V
Combattler V (Hyoma Aoi/Juzo Naniwa/Daisaku Nishikawa/Chizuru Nanbara/Kosuke Kita): 8/10. Standard 5-pilot super. Not as much raw power as Daimos, but spirits for days is unquestionably good and you can squeeze like 4 Valor hits out of it in a map. Also an okay support defender. It’s like an 8.5 with Grandasher but that costs you Master Asia.
Kerot (Kinta Ichinoki/Chie Ichinoki): 1/10. Only unit in the game with both Repair and Resupply on the same unit, but it’s weak and its support pool is built like a combat unit rather than a support one. Dragonar-3 is the gold standard of repair mechs and Kerot doesn’t measure up. Costs you Master Asia too.
Daitarn 3
Daitarn 3 (Banjo Haran): 5.5/10. Tanky support defender. Bad offense for a super relatively, and even worse accuracy that is further hampered by his Strike costing 20 SP. So he doesn’t offer that much more than that and I’d rather just use Combattler or a battleship as a support defender, the battleship has more HP and Combattler has spirits for days.
Mobile Fighter G Gundam
Shining Gundam/God Gundam (Domon Kasshu): 8.5/10. All the power of Daimos in a unit that can dodge well and has a double image proc. Notable flaws, however, are having Focus over Strike, so his accuracy might be suspect against Gundam bosses, and having only one part slot (which is almost locked to a Flight Module because none of his good attacks hit flying otherwise).
Gundam Maxter (Chibodee Crocket): 8/10. Domon but a little worse, still very good. Not flight module dependent.
Gundam Rose (George de Sand): 6/10. Essentially no post-movement offense and doesn’t have Hit & Away. Good if you give him that, but there are probably better candidates.
Dragon Gundam (Sai Saici): 8/10. Domon but a little worse, still very good. Not flight module dependent.
Bolt Gundam (Argo Gulskii): 7.5/10. Domon but a little worse, still very good. Flight module dependent.
Rising Gundam (Rain Mikamura): 6/10. Miserably poor will gains make her combo attack with Domon essentially unusable, but she’s an okay unit in her own right. But only okay.
Nobel Gundam (Allenby Beardsley): 6.5/10. Brings a better and more usable combo for Domon than Rain, but is worse on her own merits. Still isn’t bad on her own merits, so probably better than Rain overall.
Master Gundam (Master Asia): 8.5/10. Domon but slightly worse, still great. Flight module dependent. Gives Domon more combos to exploit too.
Fuunsaiki (Fuunsaiki): 6.5/10. Can be combined with Domon or Master Asia to give them more movement, flying, and a second spirit pool at the cost of being able to use combination attacks. Worth it if not using Rain or Allenby because he lets you use something other than a flight unit on Domon.
Getter Robo Series
Getter 1/2/3, Getter Dragon/Liger/Poseidon, Shin Getter 1/2/3 (Ryoma Nagare/Hayato Jin/Musashi Tomoe or Benkei Kuruma): 7.5/10. Very strong glass cannon super late game, but has an extremely slow start (which you still have to deal with if you want to keep its level up). It is less glassy in the late game.
Texas Mack (Jack King/Mary King): 5/10. Okay filler super. Not much more than that.
Getter Q (Michiru Saotome): 4/10. Original Getter 1 but worse that has Repair. Meh.
Single Pilot Getter 1: 2/10. Original Getter 1 without any of the things that make it redeemable. Yuck.
Single Pilot Getter Dragon: 3/10. Original Getter Dragon but worse and without any of the things that make it worth using. Yuck.
Mecha Tekkoki (Tekkoki): 5/10. Better unit than Texas Mack, but a worse spirit pool thanks to only one pilot. Shrug? Filler super.
Mecha Kochoki (Kochoki): 3/10? Secret unit I didn’t get. Doesn’t look great on paper and it costs you Master Asia.
As for the pilots without default units, all of whom can use either Single Pilot Getter 1, Single Pilot Getter Dragon, or Getter Q:
Musashi Tomoe: Keeping him alive past the midgame is a secret; he can’t pilot Getter 3 anymore if you do. He’s not actually worth getting but it doesn’t cost you anything to do so.
Miyuki Saotome: She’s a secret and getting her costs you one of three Dual Sensors (+10 accuracy) in the game. There’s a decent argument the part is better than her.
Risa: She’s also a secret, and you can only get her if you picked Soulgain, Vysaga, or Angelg. Not really worth it but doesn’t cost you anything.
Gundam Wing: Endless Waltz
Wing Gundam Zero (Heero Yuy): 4.5/10. Bad accuracy, bad power, bad availability. I like Heero but he isn’t good in this game.
Gundam Deathscythe (Duo Maxwell): 5.5/10. Filler Gundam that needs a flight module to perform well against flying enemies. Bad availability.
Gundam Heavyarms Kai (Trowa Barton): 7.5/10. High power, cheap Strike, lots of range, a strong MAP and support attack. Only drawback is availability.
Gundam Sandrock Kai (Quatre Raberba Winner): 5/10. Duo but worse.
Altron Gundam (Wufei Chang): 6/10. Basically a second Duo without issues against flying enemies.
Tallgeese III (Zechs Merquise): 6/10. Decent filler unit but with bad availability. Probably sees action in the last route split though.
Taurus (Lucrezia Noin): 2/10. Methuss but worse. Just no. Shame because Noin is good but you can’t reassign Wing pilots in this game.
Martian Successor Nadesico
Here we have a bunch of superficially similar units that differ only in their potential for combo attacks, so I’m going to list them in those combo attack groupings. Absent the combos, they’re all passable filler, but only that.
Aestivalis (Akito Tenkawa/Gai Daigoji): 6/10. Stronger combo than Ryoko’s trio, but it has a much higher level requirement (which makes it unlikely you’ll have the combo available when it’s most useful in the midgame) and it’s range-1 locked. Also, you can’t get both Gai and Master Asia, and without Gai, Akito is merely decent filler.
Aestivalis (Ryoko Subaru/Hikaru Amano/Izumi Maki): 7/10. Basically the best filler units in the game. Their combo attack is respectable, barrier piercing, and ignores support defense like all combos, they can spam it forever thanks to the Nadesico, and it has a low level requirement so you’ll have it in time to fight Shadow Mirror’s annoying support defense Gespensts. If you screw up and lose the combo they’re still decent filler.
Aestivalis (Nagare Akatsuki): 5.5/10. The one with no combos. However, he has a good ace bonus and he’s still on par with the midrange UC units. So, he’s the worst of the Aestivalises, but he’s still okay filler.
Daitetsujin (Tsukumo Shiratori): 0/10. Secret unit, minimal availability, and getting it makes you fight what is effectively a superboss. Using him also actively makes replays harder because of a NG+ quirk involving enemies that are later recruitable.
Mazinger Series
Mazinger Z (Koji Kabuto): 5/10. Mediocre filler super robot. Koji deserves better., he’s good but this isn’t.
Diana A (Sayaka Yumi): 2/10. Meh, it’s a really shitty Getter Q. Next.
Boss Borot (Boss): 1/10. Waste of a deployment slot.
Minerva X: 5.5/10. It’s Mazinger Z, minus finisher and flying, but with better weapon upgrade progression. Honestly I think this is a winning trade.
Great Mazinger (Tetsuya Tsurugi): 6.5/10. Strong offense on par with Daimos and lots of good combos that rely on you fielding worse units. Still, combo fodder is a useful niche throughout the game when facing Shadow Mirror.
Venus A (Jun Hono): 2.5/10. Meh, it’s a slightly better Diana A. Next. Jun is a pretty good pilot but there’s no reason to field enough Mazingers to make her a serious consideration.
Mass Produced Great Mazinger: 5.5/10. It’s Great Mazinger with worse stats, no finisher and no flying. Still slightly better than Mazinger Z and it has better combo attack options than Minerva X, but less availability.
Grendizer (Duke Fleed): 6/10. Decent filler super robot; if you’re fielding Great Mazinger for combos, this is the one to pair up with it. Duke takes too long to learn Soul and it’s his only damage boost.
Double Spazer (Rubina): 4/10. If you’re running Grendizer by itself, you might as well field this to combine it and improve Duke’s spirit pool. It’s not worth much else and the availability is tragic though.
Marine Spazer (Hikaru Makiba): 1/10. There’s like one water stage after Grendizer joins.
Drill Spazer (Maria Grace Fleed): 2/10. The unit is basically useless but Maria is a pretty decent pilot like Jun.
There’s one pilot without a default unit:
Kirika: She’s a secret. Getting her costs you the only Giga Generator in the game (max EN +200). The part is likely worth more.
Metal Armor Dragonar
Dragonar-1 (Kaine Wakaba): 7/10. Basically a Gundam with better movement, better post-movement offense, and flight, but worse peak offense.
Dragonar-2 (Tapp Oceano): 6.5/10. Worst of the Dragonar units, still decent filler. Enables ranged combo attacks for Kaine. It’s inaccurate but Tapp has Strike.
Dragonar-3 (Light Newman): 9.5/10. He gives every unit in the 8 squares around him +30% hit chance and evasion just by being on the map, for free. And it stacks with Focus. All other EWAC units only give +15%. He’s better off using his turns on Repair rather than trying to attack things, since his own offense is hot garbage.
Falguen MAFFU (Meio Plato): 6.5/10. Secret unit, but you don’t lose anything going for him, so why not? He’s the weakest of the units from this series by himself, but he has the relative advantage of coming with 5 upgrades to everything for free (so he can be slotted into a squad with little investment) and enabling a combo move that plays more to Kaine’s strengths than the standard Dragonar combination attack. All in all, this makes him respectable enough filler.
Universal Century Gundam
Gundam (Amuro Ray): 7.5/10. Surprisingly good, you’d think later units would obsolete it but nope. Has the most limited range of the main UC units without option parts though. In space, can combine with the G-Fighter for more movement, flight, and a second pilot. Alternatively, Full Armor Gundam patches the range hole. The two are mutually exclusive on a first playthrough.
G-Fighter: 6/10. Easy to get secret unit, mutually exclusive with the Full Armor Gundam. Basically an alternative Galva FX II that trades the EWAC bonus for being able to combine with Gundam, which is its primary useful function.
Gelgoog Char Custom: 5/10. Filler mobile suit. There are better ones, but it has chunky base stats at least.
Elmeth (Lalah Sune): 5/10. Plays like a dodgy super robot. You can’t get Master Asia with this. Also, it’s space-only without option parts. Lalah is actually one of the better UC pilots in this game, too, presuming you put her in Not This.
Zakrello (Roux Louka): 1/10. Filler mobile suit. It’d actually be pretty good if it wasn’t the last unit you get in the entire game, but you should have your UC bases covered by then. Roux is mediocre.
Gundam Ez-8 (Shiro Amada): 5.5/10. A (significantly) worse Heavyarms. Shiro has a great spirit pool and is a prime contender for GP03 or the G-Fighter..
Zaku II Prototype (Aina Sahalin): 4/10. Filler mobile suit; fittingly, Gelgoog but worse. Aina has good support spirits and is better suited for a support unit, not this.
Apsalus II (Aina Sahalin): 2/10. Secret unit; Elmeth but worse (but it doesn’t lock out Master Asia). The lack of post-movement offense is dire and getting it costs you the earliest of the four EWAC Modules in the game, which I would consider more valuable.
Gouf Custom (Norris Packard): 6/10. Secret filler mobile suit. Comes with 5 upgrades across the board, making it cheap to slot in as ready-to-use filler. Norris is okay.
Gundam GP01Fb (Kou Uraki): 6.5/10. Pretty good and has a strong upgrade track. Unlikely to see heavy use unless you’re running a very UC-heavy team, but that doesn’t make it bad or anything. Kou is similar to Shiro, with a cheaper Strike but a more expensive Valor.
Gundam GP03 (Kou Uraki): 7.5/10. An excellent unit, and pretty much the strongest UC unit in this game, but if you use it you’re pretty much committing the game’s only Dustproof to it forever. It turns into the Gundam Stamen if it’s somehow shot down, which is basically just another GP01.
GM Custom (South Burning): 7/10. Filler mobile suit with the best full upgrade bonus in the game, allowing it to inflict a 10 will penalty on anything it hits. This applies to support attacks too, so you can dunk a boss’ will by 50 a turn with an appropriate pilot. It’s an expensive investment but good planning leaves plenty of room for it.
Super Gundam (Kamille Bidan): 6.5/10. Basically GP01 that trades a little power for a second lifebar. I’d tend toward this being a slightly losing trade, since
Methuss (Fa Yuiry): 4/10. Probably Methuss’ best showing in all of SRW. I still wouldn’t use it unless you want two repair units though. Fa sucks bad.
Hyaku Shiki (Quattro Bajeena): 4/10. Filler mobile suit. Quattro is spectacular, one of the best UC pilots in this game, but he really wants a better machine than this.
Z Gundam (Kamille Bidan): 7.5/10. An excellent mobile suit. Its full potential requires a Newtype and ideally you have one of the good melee pilots in it (Kamille is one). Can be the best UC unit in the game with its full upgrade bonus, but that’s a huge investment. Even without that, it’s still great, though.
ZZ Gundam (Judau Ashta): 8/10. Judau’s availability is garbage but his ace bonus is absolutely bonkers and worth feeding him for. That’s basically his role: flying around and dumping MAPs on grunts in the endgame, and he does it better than anyone else.
Qubeley Mk-II (Elpeo Puru/Puru Two): 5.5/10. You get two of these, and they’re Sazabi but worse. Given the late arrival, investing in them is questionable, but they’re good units if invested. Puru and Puru Two are good pilots that complement each other, but you give up one of the only two Hero’s Marks in the game to recruit them.
Nu Gundam (Amuro Ray): 4/10. It’s a great unit but it just comes too late to really bother investing in, since unlike ZZ it doesn’t really do anything terribly special you couldn’t do with the other UC units with much better availability. As such, its only real use is if you want to field huge numbers of UC characters.
Sazabi (Quattro Bajeena): 5/10. It really just comes too late. Having three S terrain ranks does give it something resembling a small niche though. Like the Nu, its only real use is if you want to field huge numbers of UC characters.
Re-GZ (BWS) (Kayra Su): 5.5/10. Super Gundam but worse.
That leaves the unassigned pilots:
Four Murasame: She’s a secret, and is mutually exclusive with Rosamia. There’s no reason not to recruit one of the two. Four’s spirit set is more support-oriented, with Attune and Enable. Four makes a better G-Fighter pilot than Rosamia, but a worse main pilot IMO.
Rosamia Badam: She’s a secret, and is mutually exclusive with Four. There’s no reason not to recruit one of the two. Rosamia’s spirit set is more of an offensive support set than Four’s; she gets Confuse and Exhaust instead (and replaces Four’s Detonate with Assail). Rosamia makes a better main pilot than Four, but a worse G-Fighter pilot IMO.
Sayla Mass: Not secret, but she’s a temp. Using her is necessary to unlock the G-Fighter on a first playthrough (she has to have more kills than Amuro at an early checkpoint). She’s very good while she’s around, but there’s no way to keep her past her plot departure.
Voltes V
Voltes V (Kenichi Go/Ippei Mine/Daijiro Go/Hiyoshi Go/Megumi Oka): 7.5/10. Standard 5-pilot super. Not as much raw power as Daimos, but spirits for days is unquestionably good and you can squeeze like 4 Valor hits out of it in a map. It has better spirits but worse attacks compared to Combattler.. Super EM Ball costs you Master Asia and sucks, I wouldn’t bother.
Zambot 3
Zambot 3 (Kappei Jin/Uchuta Kamie/Keiko Kamikita): 6/10. It’s basically just an Attune bank; its combat isn’t really worth much. It’s pretty much the best Attune bank though.
Battleships
You can’t not bring these, so they don’t get a score.
Argama/Nahel Argama/Ra Cailum (Bright Noa): The better of the game’s two battleships. Bright has a sick ace bonus if you can manage to get it, and his Strike is reasonably priced so he can actually be okay at offense. Ra Cailum’s HP is absurd.
Nadesico/Nadesico (Y-Unit) (Yurika Misumaru): 25 SP Strike? Really? And Yurika can’t hit the broad side of a space colony. So mostly it’s just a support defense tank.
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Three Houses classes ratings
Hero [M]- 2/10. Move is too low. Assassin is just better.
Swordmaster - 2.5/10. Move is too low. Assassin is just better.
Assassin - 6.5/10. more move + terrain shit + stealth = why would you use the other tier 3 sword bitches
Fortress Knight- 2/10. Move and speed are too low. Just use Wyvern Rider Dedue, bitch.
Paladin - 7/10. Slow but stronk, especially for the bois with the strong lance arts
Wyvern Rider - 9.5/10. Chibi wyvern lord
Warrior- 5/10. Decent but doesn’t compare well at all to Wyvern.
Sniper - 7/10. Low move but Bowfaire class is very cool, as is Hunter’s Volley
Grappler [M] - 6/10. Fierce Iron Fist and terrain shenanigans
Warlock - 7/10. Generically solid mid-game magic class.
Dark Bishop [M] - 3/10. free fiendish blow just in case you didn’t grab it on your mages??? i guess??
Bishop - 7/10 every team needs a good healbot
Falcon Knight [F] - 9/10. Almost as OP as wyvern lord
Wyvern Lord- 10/10. Overpowered as fuck
Mortal Savant - 6/10. Neat alternate option for some characters like Dorothea/Manuela if you decide to do the sword build for them, but kinda niche
Great Knight - 2.5/10. Slow as piss like Fortress Knight and a pain in the ass to unlock. ok boomer
Bow Knight - 8.5/10. Best non-flying class i think
Dark Knight - 7/10. Decent lategame magic class with high move
Holy Knight - 3/10. White Magic sucks at offensive use due to high weight and the existence of Black Magic, and not getting either Usesx2 nor heal buffing makes it a hard sell for your dedicated healer. Pass.
War Master [M] - 4.5/10. Just use grappler or war monk?
Gremory [F] - 6/10. Interesting mixed magic user, although I find I prefer one of the other magic classes on average
Trickster - 4/10. Interestingly, a good class on CS, but Foul Play is about the only thing they really have going for them since they don’t have any -faires.
War Monk/Cleric - 6/10. brawl avoid +20 is pretty legit as fuck
Dark Flier [F] - 8/10. Flying magic bitch, although held back by lack of flying mage battalions
Valkyrie [F] - 8/10. Riding magic bitch, lowish power but uncanny blow is fucking lit and the range is great.
Enlightened One - 5/10, is fine
Emperor - 2/10. Fuck the police, bringing us down
Great Lord - 5/10. Is fine.
Barbarossa - 9/10. a flying bowfaire class? don’t mind if i do
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Cold Steel 4 Rankings - Standard difficulty. Before we start, there are a few a couple of things to note here. The first is that there are tons of infinite turn loop set ups where you just stop enemies from acting. As such, late game dominance is less important because by then, there are tons of tools to basically never see an enemy take a turn. The second is that, because infinite turn loops exist, how well you can utilize an infinite turn loop is important. A character can have other fringe benefits or defensive options, but unless these are like Aura Rain/Remedy Oratorio, I tend to view it as not very important. You shouldn't be getting hit like at all after the mid-point in the game. Also because of this, handling randoms probably carries more weight since randoms have a greater chance of getting a turn and messing you up with status. That being said, SPOILER ALERT:
Juna: 7/10. CS4 reigns in Break in a few ways. The first is that instead of losing a full turn, you only lose a half turn. Second is that human boss enemies will auto-recover from Break after losing 1/2 their HP. This doesn't get into the fact that Sledgehammer itself has been nerfed (+1 BP cost and -50% Break), so Juna actually loses pretty notably. Her stats haven't really improved (still kind of meh for combat) but she still gets a 7 because she is easily the best user of the Musse-infinite turn loop. How this loop works is simple. Activate Musse's Brave Order (2 BP) to cut the casting cost of spells by 80%, then you just keep casting Chrono Burst for as long as your mana can hold out. When the Brave Order is initially activated, you recover 20% of your EP, so if your EP is high enough, at a certain point, the casts essentially become free. They key here is generating BP so you can re-activate the Brave Order. Usually this requires Breaking enemies, but Juna gets past this completely because she has a craft that adds +1 BP automatically. The kicker to this, is that this craft only costs 30 CP, which is just enough for 1 full cycle of Musse's Brave Order. Chrono Burst -> Attack gives you 10 CP and you can repeat this action set 6 times in one Brave Order, letting you generate the 2 BP without need for any unbalancing. In short, Juna makes this loop self sustaining on her own once you give her enough EP so she recovers all the mana spent while Musse's Order is active. It only stops when everything is dead. If this is as dumb as it sounds, that's because it is. She can even go to 5 range and void the possibility of eating counters - gross.
Kurt: 4/10. Kurt on the other hand, doesn't have a whole lot of reasons that you'll use him in the part this time around. His Brave Order also took a huge nerf (lol 4 BP cost for an already niche effect + universal Break nerf), and as discussed above, shoe horning him into pure evade hamstrings yourself a bit and he's not even the best person for it. Worse even now because Fie and Sara can join you as early as Act 1.2. He does however, have a couple of other viable builds that work - in particular, the delay build works great for him because his delay craft only costs 30 CP. Still delay's effectiveness is more limited here than in CS2 so Kurt ends up pretty meh.
Altina: 5.5/10. Altina on the other hand is subtly better. Part of this is mages being great and Altina is like your only mage for a while. The second though is that she's also one of the best characters using the Musse turn loop. 2 Silvers + 1 Time fixed means Altina gets a leg up on others without sacrificing free nodes. Plus, she's range 3, so missing here doesn't result in a counter. Some of her crafts have also improved as well - most notably - Argem Heal. It now heals not only HP, but also 30 CP and can self target, making it cost only a net 10 CP, which lets her work as a pseudo battery. She still has similar short comings as in 3 (bad speed + low HP) but definite improvement.
Randy: 5/10. It's hard to peg down where Randy is but I feel pretty safe in saying he's worse here than in Azure and Zero. Losing Power Smash, Salamander and Flash Bomb all weaken his utility and War Cry going down to 80 CP instead of 150 is a big deal too. However, he does get access to a solid Brave Order in Proud Warrior and at the time when he first joins, is the only person with a 4S+ S-craft. These things combined with his always solid HP means he'll be pretty solid hurting things. Regulus isn't a great Master Quartz to be locked to though and it shows when he rejoins since it hampers his effectiveness compared to other physical builds. I'll still use him over Kurt though.
Ash: 6.5/10. No real big changes. Ash is still good at what he does and he still wants you to twink for Move. The good news now is that there are more ways to that while keeping his attack high, so despite having the same sort of problems as in 3, they matter less here. Finding a position to hit multiple enemies isn't a big issue when you have like 19 Move without trying. He's also surprisingly a good candidate in the Musse infinite loop set up because he hits hard and can effectively self generate CP faster with Unbound Rage. With 2 Fire and 1 Silver, you can spec him such that his EP will be high enough for the loop, without sacrificing too much power. His Brave Order is better now, with the nerf to Sledgehammer and Breaking so I find that he's actually better than Laura most of time. Loses some steam at end game, but as I noted, it doesn't hurt that much.
Fie: 5/10. She's kind of average all things considered. Does primarily one build really well and the rest all kind of mehish. However, she's definitely the premier evade tanking PC, even with Sara in the mix due to her natural base of 25% Evade. It's invaluable early due to the numerous amounts of physicals but loses something in the end when you don't even want to see enemy turns at all. Sure, she can counter for massive damage, but that requires letting enemies try to hit you in the first place.
Elliot: 5.5/10. Elliot's a little weaker mainly due to a really weak late game (you'll basically never even touch his S-craft) and he loses in pure damage casting to Emma, but early on, he has all that goodness that came in the previous Trails. A full CP Elliot gives you a once per battle get-out-of-jail free card in the event you screwed up and eat a S-craft. That's great early on and you can make it even more ridiculous ala CS3 late, but like Fie, to see it, enemies have to actually get turns for that to happen.
Sara: 7/10. Like Juna, Sara loses her infinite turn loop due to the universal Break nerf but she's still one of the strongest PC due to good mixed offense stats, decent defensive stats, good crafts and good nodes. Does a variety of builds pretty well, although usually isn't the best at a particular one. However, since there are several times where the game makes you use all the PCs, Sara's ability to do any build makes her easy to work around. And she's great too in free time periods to use one of your PC slots for. Her major disadvantage is she doesn't do any of the turn loops well, although she can pseudo loop with her Brave Order. Is that worth more than a 2 point drop from CS3? Probably not given the strong early game performance I suspect.
Alisa: 7/10. Doesn't lose anything from 3 to 4. She's still the game's best battery and is a great caster thanks to having more speed than the others. Doesn't work that well with Musse's infinite loop (free space node at least means a free EP Cut), but if you're doing fast cast spamming, Gaius' turn loop or the OG turn loop, she works great in all those. Physical is once again terrible, but that rarely matters. Generally has a very solid early game, weakish mid-game but really strong end-game.
Jusis: 4/10. Got better...relatively kinda? On one hand, Jusis himself didn't get that much better. He's still a magic fencer but doesn't have the HP and needs the Move as well to get up close making him awkward to build around. On the other hand, his Brave Order, this time is well worth using. It's cheap relatively to a lot of others and last 12 turns is a large amount of time. It's excellent for random sweeping as a result and does decently on certain boss encounters too - although of course, has nothing on the turn loop set ups. Jusis doesn't do well with any of those sadly. Even though he has 2 Space for EP Cuts, the 1 range and lack of mobility and means there's usually better choices.
Machias: 6/10. Machias is still probably the king of cheap. Has his own infinite turn loop since CS1 (which now he shares with Juna), but even if you don't plan on doing that, swapping to him turn 1 and using Burst Drive to give everyone an instant turn is huge. His main attack craft - Dread Breaker is really good. At a low 30 CP cost, it has a ton of break damage on it and has infinite horizontal range, meaning he can poke enemies from anywhere. Other than creating his own loop, Machias also rules at using other people's loops. With Musse's loop, he has a Silver node for added max EP. With Gaius', he can boost everyone up the cue, getting you extra actions so Gaius can get to that 100 CP benchmark. If you look past the cheap set ups, Machias doesn't seem great since he lacks Laura and Ash's raw power or have the casting stats of Emma. However, he's an amazing cog piece for any type of engine you want to end up running. Also has Auto Charge 2 on his support list, which leads to some hilarity (more on this later).
Laura: 3/10. The clear cast loser IMO. Laura just has nothing really going for her. They scaled back her S-craft to only SSS in power originally which makes her only marginally better than Ash. Otherwise, he can both do loops better, hits just as hard and has a better Brave Order for everything else in-between. Lacks a serious reason to be used at all points of the game as a result since the one thing she had beforehand (great physical power) just gets taken over by another PC. She can be set up for pure HP tanking due to the 2 locked Water nodes but even then, she gets outshadowed.
Emma: 5/10. Dominant caster, but basically has no S-craft at all. The Absolute Guard looks nice but isn't useful at all against things you'd want it to (see CS3) and late game shouldn't ever see play at all. This leaves her at just spell slinging, which she at least does well! But it's about all she has and she still has speed issues compared to Alisa. Gains +1 over her CS3 form because her Brave Order lets you completely cheese out certain fights while it's deployed.
Gaius: 5/10. Early on, Gaius doesn't have much going for him. The biggest difference now is that he's actually around for the entire game, and unlike 3, he has his S-craft from the get go. He's probably the best S-craft spammer thanks to the Absolute Delay attached to it. Thanks to that, anything that is hit and survives loses that many clockticks - starting at 8 and goes to 12 by end game. When end game kicks around, there's enough equips that you can functionally get Gaius to use his S-craft like every 3 turns without Wild Rage, resulting in enemies being delayed to death ala CS2. If you average out the performance, it probably ends up around average. An absolutely dominating end-game performance, but pretty unremarkable early. He does create his own infinite turn loop, although he doesn't use Musse's loop well at all. I'm feeling generous for him since he speeds up all the HP Sponge battles at end game, so I'll give him an average score.
Musse: 8.5/10. Most PCs have changed a little but nobody sees as big of a change as Musse IMO. This is owing due to 2 things. The first is the reduction of Chrono Burst's casting cost. It's actually the same as in CS3. However, because CS4 starts you at like level 50, they made everyone's stats start at what level 50 bases would be - including EP; a stat that normally isn't supposed to scale up other than from orbment improvements. As a result, the relative cost of Chrono Burst has actually reduced, meaning it's much easier to set up an infinite loop cast, despite her Brave Order losing 20% of its effectiveness. The second big change is just how much earlier she joins. Ash joins after 1.1, Musse joins at 1.2 - meaning you'll have access to her super early. As a result, you also have access to her infinite turn loop basically by about maybe 15% of the game. Needless to say, bosses DO NOT like this at all and it makes all the fights a complete joke and gives you a practically free bail out option. I haven't even gotten to the rest of the stuff on Musse yet, which are all varying degrees of good to great (2 Water means she can be set up to be a Magic dodge tank - something that is pretty unique to her, good healing craft which becomes excellent for those annoying Divine Knight battles, gains a craft that pulls all the enemies together...). It's pretty telling because the battles where she is absent due to plot are probably the hardest boss fights in the game. I basically had her on the team almost all the time when given a choice.
Rean: 7/10. Our main hero is still pretty solid, but he's definitively not cast MVP. Surprisingly a bad candidate for the Musse turn loop because Rean offers nothing to the table. About the best thing he does have for that set up is Speed. To start the loop, you still need to get a turn, so a PC with a fast speed is important to capture turn 1 and prevent enemies from moving at all. Rean's 2 Time nodes ensures he will be one of the fastest on the team, so there is that. Past that, he still has the Insta-cast Brave Order, which is amazing for random sweeping. Late game, Rean becomes extremely versatile due to the 9 unique powerful accessories that he can equip - letting you slot him into almost any role except being a battery. He also removes BP from being an issue at all when he's paired together with Gaius thanks to the extremely cheap Crimson Lotus Order that costs a measly 1 BP if you're using the Gaius infinite loop set up. 7 is probably right. Early on, I didn't have any real positive feelings with Rean in the positive. Mid to Late game, I never wanted to remove him.
Crow: 4.5/10. Actually has a use this time unlike in CS1! Like Rean, doesn't do the turn loop thing that well but two Time nodes means he'll be one of the fastest guys on the team, so that's cool. His crafts are weird. They all do damage, but like Juna's at varying ranges but unlike Juna's, he doesn't have a ton of variety between them. Still, they can be useful in different situations, build pending. His biggest thing is probably his Brave Order. It's the same as Rean's Crimson Lotus, but has doubled the duration and instead heals HP/EP instead of CP with a reasonable 2 BP price tag. So it's not as useful late game but sure is handy earlier.
Duvalie: 4.5/10. I have very mixed feelings regarding Duvalie. Swift Slash is great. Like Kurt, it's a low CP craft, but hers has infinite horizontal tolerance and it cancels charged actions. However, it's about all she has. Most of her other crafts are meh (the 3 elemental slashes) or too costly. Plus she's stuck with a really bad Main MQ (Dunamis is basically CS2 Thor) that you don't really have the ability to really work with at the time when she's available. She manages to stay at a 4.5 though because her stats are pretty solid in general (decent durability + natural 15% evade + good speed) and she has good locked nodes (2 Time, 1 Space) that lets her do the Musse turn loop decently.
Angelica: 6.5/10. Okay, Angelica is very glad CS4 exists because she's one of the best users of the Musse-turn loop. 2 Space + 1 Time is really great for it, meaning then you can load up on other stuff on her free nodes such as more EP or better yet, higher break damage. Why is this important? Because Angie has affixed Emblem as her Main Master Quartz. One of the benefits of Emblem as the main master quartz is that if you break an opponent with it, you can get a second copy of whatever drop the enemy gives you. This means that, not only is she efficient for farming, but she can get you a second copy of all the cool super rare quartz that would normally take a ton of resources to get. This lets you build even stronger party combinations and leads to part of why the end game is such a complete joke.
Tita: 6.5/10 - Has basically 3x the HP as everyone else at the cost of having a much larger hit box (so anything with a small AoE will also probably hit her) and slow speed. She is basically nigh unkillable and can be built as either a support battery or as a tank. Also not terrible for combat either - she basically would end up being a 7 if you either had more time with her OR she was available for the final dungeon. But the game's pretty broke either way, so...
Sharon: 4.5/10 - Pretty much what you'd expect. Same build as previous 2 games, only Sharon joins much later this time around. She's still good at what she does but nerfing the evade boosts on quartz kills her durability game a little (since she always relied on evade) and just as in CS3, she can't really battery like she can in 2. Still smashes up randoms pretty bad but that's likely what you're using her for. If you're still using the Musse loop by the time you get her, Sharon is also one of the best users of it due to 2 Time, 1 Mirage lock. Lower score than in 3 because of limited availability, but in practice, she's basically the same.
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So while I never did get around to finishing DQ11 postgame and my time is being occupied by other stuff (like Octopath Traveller) I might as well throw this up since I don't think there's anything left to see that would change my assessment of the cast significantly.
This is all assessed with Super Strong Enemies enabled, since that's what I played.
Luminary - Honestly mediocre during Act 1, since none of his stats are particularly great (and there's a non-trivial stretch where he's less durable than Erik) and the greatsword plan and being the sole source of lightning damage (outside of specific weapons), while ensuring that he'll never be actually bad, only goes so far to make up with that. Picks up a fair bit of steam in the second half, at which point he picks up Quadra Slash, which is fantastic (if expensive), along with actually having an actual amount of skill points to play with. Still, pretty rough Act 1 performance counts for a fair amount and I have a hard time justifying higher than a 6/10 because of it.
Erik - OF COURSE considering that he's stuck with this shameful idiot for entirely too long I could be blaming the wrong thing here. About the only thing Erik brings to the table early are an assortment of Pep Powers and a knife plan that relies on being able to status things since boomerangs are too low on attack to be good for much against randoms (and the accuracy and damage falloff are just injury to insult). Gains a lot in Act 2 but he's the second-to-last PC to rejoin so loud shrug. 2/10.
Veronica - Pretty great against randoms and noted important spells Sap and Oomphle make her pretty great to bring bosses (although the latter doesn't exist much for her in Act 1 and she spends Act 2 kind of dead) despite the tragic durability. 7/10.
Serena - Probably has more shelf life in the active party than I'd ever respect Erik for during Act 1 since she at least has some shaky GT status to use but not much more since her competition for healer duty has much more reason to be used than her. Pretty much fantastic once she rejoins in Act 2 but she's the last person to do so and the main game doesn't go on much longer than that. It evens out to a roughly below-average score, I think. 4/10.
Sylvando - Contributes basically nothing on offense, but Hustle Dance/Sobering Slap/Oomph are great enough perks that you'd autoslot him in until Serena rejoins in Act 2 at minimum, and are probably enough to vault him into the MVP spot. 8/10.
Jade - Hello, one-dimensional beatstick. Honestly not really that amazing at it, outside of Multithrust being a better boss tool and being somewhat less prone to being critted out of existance than the Luminary during Act 1. The self-buffing in Act 2 is cute but that's pretty much all she gains and even then there's the bosses that pack dispel so I can't really care that much. 5.5/10.
Rab - Far more upside to having him along than Serena in Act 1 due to him having Sap/Zing Stick/non-fail offense in randoms (though dark spells are a bad meme) and being the first to rejoin in Act 2 matters quite a bit. Pretty much benched once Serena rejoins, but by then he's done his job. 6.5/10.
Hendrick - Does the Sylvando thing of being a durable support except he offers more offense/durability than he does support. This is uh not a winning trade in the slightest and he'd be a fair bit better if he actually had his postgame tools but he's at not hopeless on the latter since he does at least bring his (less-reliable) version of defense debuffing along with his try-to-keep-the-party-from-dying-to-noncrit-damage spells. 5.5/10.
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I don't really get Sylvando > Rab. Multiheal is roughly as good as Hustle Dance (you might have Hustle for one extra boss fight?), Sap is certainly better than Oomph and comparable to Oomphle (thanks to not going away when the PC dies or is dispelled), and the rest of his skillset (Zing Stick / Kazing, Blunt, Insulatle) has some nice perks too - Sylvando can definitely have turns with nothing useful to do if he laps a boss at an inopportune time, this doesn't happen to Rab. I mean don't get me wrong I used both in most boss fights, but Rab does feel better (also more useful in randoms once he gets Pearly Gates; agreed about Zam spells being garbage).
Definitely higher on Luminary than you. He's consistently one of the very best in randoms (like, usually behind only Act 1 Veronica and lategame Serena, and is the clear outright best during the substantial stretch midgame where neither exists), has your best damage in Act 1 bosses, and Omniheal when Erik (or Jade?) beats him out at this role late.
Erik and Jade are both fine IMO but quite replaceable. I got a bit more milage out of Act 1 boomerangs than you (Twomerang and Starburst Throw really are quite strong when you get each and your randomclearing options are pretty limited in Act 1, so boomerang Erik had an easy time making the party there over Rab or Sylvando or Serena).
I think I'd rank them Luminary ~= Act 2 Serena > Veronica > Rab > Sylvando > Erik ~= Jade > Hendrik > Act 1 Serena. No clue what Serena averages out to.
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If I was doing a ranking that stopped at the end of Act II, Sylvando would definitely climb from 7/10 to 8/10 for me. While Multiheal is certainly good, it also eats MP like crazy until late Act 2. Granted, free party rotation so an MP-sapped character can just go hide in the back, it's not the end of the world, but still. Sylvando can spam the cheaper Hustle Dances dang near forever. Also, Beguile is just such a horrible you-lose status if ignored. Did Panaceas cure it? I definitely recall slotting Sylvando in vs. all the bosses that used Beguile, most infamously PC/PS4 Dora-in-Grey, but also Jinxed Jade and the like.
Also, Sap is certainly very good (I really like Veronica for having the Oomphle / Sap combo straight-up), but I wouldn't exactly call it strictly better than Oomph / Oomphle. A lot of bosses like to take double or triple turns which causes Sap to wear off unnaturally fast, and Sap can also fail. I think of Sap as something to use on turn 3 or 4 if everybody got buffed up and the situation is good, so time to go in for major damage. Oomphle'ing is something that is done turns 1-2 as part of the setup that's always safe to do and never a wasted turn. (It doesn't come up too much, but pretty sure you keep buffs in the backline, so you can even Oomphle a fighter then hide them in the backline with a party switch if you're under heavy pressure and can't afford to go on offense yet.) That said, especially in most of Act 2 where Veronica/Serena isn't in play, running at least 2/3 of Rab / 8th / Sylvando is pretty dang useful to keep the buff & healz train up.
Finally, looking back at my old ranking, looks like I forgot to mention Quadraslash for Luminary. Yeah, that's a totally rad ability for random-clearing, and is still useful vs. bosses if you want to do damage but you're debuffed or otherwise not buffed, or there's adds that require multitarget abilities.
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Hustle Dance is something you have the skill points for at Lv22-23 at earliest, that's definitely more than one extra boss fight considering Rab doesn't pick up Multiheal until Lv30! This was spider, squid, and Dora-in-Gray for me (which are some of the hardest Act 1 bosses and the latter of the three is easily the hardest Act 1 boss in my experience thanks to tripleacting and having a plethora of stuff you really don't want to be hit by), and it's a bit better than "roughly as good" at that point since it's easier to buff Sylvando's Charm than Rab's MMe (later on it does become that though). And you generally want to be using both Sap and Oomph in boss fights anyways and bosses do at least tend resist the former a somewhat unfortunate bit in my experience (and as Snowfire notes, multiacting causes it to wear off faster anyways). Sobering Slap also gets a bunch of more annoying statuses (although Rab does at least get confusion curing) and while I'm generally not going to hype non-proactive durability too much, the extra HP does mean he's less likely to be critted out of existance by things, which comes up annoyingly frequently. And DQ11's randoms can be quite nasty even with good sweeping so having all that is a pretty good security measure regardless despite the lack of revival. (Sylvando also makes Erik's knife plan a bit easier due to being able to help set it up himself if you insist on that but I'm not giving this much credit myself, as I tended to find him too busy for that.)
Also disagree on Luminary having the best Act 1 offense on bosses, greatswords look that way on paper due to beating out pretty much everything else by a not-especially close margin but Multithrust worked out a bit better for me in practice (the attack gap doesn't really make up for Multithrust's superior multiplier even before potential crit hype until Unbridled Blade/Sword Dance, the former being a bit of an ask that early considering it demands laser focus that doesn't leave you with room for much else (and also costs 16 MP which is definitely a non-trivial expenditure whereas Multithrust only ends up eating 6-9 in practice unless you don't have that ribbon equipped for whatever reason) and the latter is strictly Act 2) and Act 1 is when he's most prone to spending quality time on the floor relative to Jade. Once he can afford the skill points for Sword Dance he takes the lead and never lets go outside of Erik setups, but that's still a non-trivial investment.
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Re Hustle Dance vs Multiheal: I definitely don't think Multiheal really costs much more in practice. Yeah, it's 2.67x the MP cost on paper, but Rab has somewhere around 2-2.5x the MP, so it almost balances, and entirely balances when you consider that Oomphle is costing just as much as Hustle Dance while everything else Rab does costs a fraction of Multiheal. When I used both throughout boss fights (definitely a thing I did, so to emphasize I'm not really attacking Sylv's boss performance here!), Rab was consistently the last person I needed to worry about the MP of. In the interest of full disclosure I definitely used Hustle Dance more than Multiheal, but that's less about the relative merits of each, and more that Rab has more things he can do if I'm choosing one of them to heal and the other to do something else.
As far as availability, well, I definitely had Multiheal for Dora, who I also found quite easy... though based on Snowfire's comments, she was nerfed for the Switch version? I dunno. All I know is she had serious trouble doing damage to me, even her desperate only managed like 140. Though I definitely agree with squid hype and that is one place where Sylvando is better.
Re Sap: Yeah, I think Sap vs. Oomphle have their tradeoffs as you note, and you'll note I didn't call it strictly better than Oomphle. Oomph, though? Yeah it's more or less strictly better than that. Oomph just doesn't add nearly as much damage.
Re Act 1 boss-killer damage: I'm not sure how quickly you can get Multithrust (especially assuming you also want Vacuum Smash for randoms), but there was a decent chunk of Act 1 before Jade got Multithrust for me, so Luminary's way ahead when he's only competing with Hip Drop / Thunder Thrust. Agreed that Multithrust does tend to do more once you get it. Of course she then promptly decides to leave for a while so Luminary gets another set of early Act 2 bosses where he's the boss-killer again.
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Re: Hustle Dance vs. Multiheal, it's not just cost (which I agree is roughly relatively equal when one considers their MP pools before the Supplicant accessory shows up, and you might want to stick that on someone else anyways for all that I think Sylv wants it the most, it's a fair point that his biggest concern is MP), it's that there's a window where it's actually the stronger healing move due to scaling. Also Oomphle is 8 MP to Hustle Dance's 12 so I'd probably dispute that it entirely balances anyways? Although I don't know why I'm going off on this, you use both anyways because having them frees up the other person do to what (Oomphle/Sap/Zing Stick/Sobering Slap) is needed more anyways and in this scenario I do tend to favor the one who's less likely to be dead when things go wrong.
Dora's desperate attack was doing a bit over 180 to me! Maybe it's version differences or maybe it's difficulty settings or both, I didn't play the Switch version. In any event being able to survive that particular bit of attention + followup is a big deal.
Oomph doesn't add nearly as much damage, but it also doesn't miss or wear off as quickly, which is kind of a big deal considering that Sap only seems to stick on some bosses about 50-60% of the time early on, so I'm pretty unconvinced that Sap is strictly better since at least Oomph is doing something before it gets up to two stacks and actually has some application in randoms anyways.
Getting Multithrust is a 47 skill point investment which I think Jade even has on join? It's pretty low-hanging, cheaper to get than Unbridled Blade, and she does start with slightly more SP than other PCs. It's not like Jade's ever a great PC for randosmashing so it does make more sense to prioritize that over grabbing Vacuum Smash.
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Time to go old-school.
Fire Emblem 4: gen 1
Not considering anyone's value as a potential parent in these scores. Also not giving too much value for starting inventory since it's not THAT hard to move around, sorry Ayra/Finn. I am assuming a knowledgeable player (even though FE4 has some rather bullshit secrets if you're not using a guide, hello brave axe / Followup Ring).
Sigurd: 10/10. Top five character in the series, probably, and the best protagonist without much question IMO. Joins super strong: best mobility, best speed, great power and durability. Gets a Silver Sword in the Prologue! Can use javelins. Eventually other people start almost catching up and then he gets a legendary weapon, making him one of the only people can tangle well with certain threats of the final chapter.
Noish: 3/10. With as broken as horses are in this game, it's surprising that it has possibly the weakest Christmas Cavs in the series (it's them or Kyle/Forde). Noish can't double and none of his stats are great so he has bad offence and struggles to find a niche. Being stuck at B means there's a good chance he gets nothing better than a steel sword. He's pretty solid if you give him the Followup Ring but that's a hard sell.
Alec: 5/10. Noish with slightly worse stats, but he can double. Doubling matters! That said his attack is a bit of a problem. Cav utility is nice. Again the B rank is unfortunate, and the Brave Sword (best B rank weapon by far) is a far too contested item to be worth much hype here.
Arden: 1/10. 5 move in this game is brutal. He's not even especially impressive even ignoring that because B in swords as your only weapon when you can't double means crappy power and no speed, great.
Quan: 7.5/10. The closest thing gen 1 has to a jeigan. He's still way worse than Sigurd (can't double!), but compared to everyone else, he has 9 move and great stats. Doesn't double but he hits so hard that he'll leave people easily killed by others, and hey sometimes he procs Adept and kills anyway. Also the tankiest PC (along with Sigurd) until Lex gets rolling.
Ethlyn: 8/10. By far the best healer until you get Physic (so half of part 1) since she can actually reach people to heal them promptly. That alone merits a good score. Offensively she doesn't kill people but she can take a hit or two, not that she needs to often with Canto.
Finn: 6/10. Cavalier with better stats than Alec generally, though the speed is a bit shaky due to lance weight. Getting him the Slim Lance (or keeping Brave on him) helps.
Lex: 7.5/10. Compared to Quan, he's a bit worse out of the gate, but then he gets the Brave Axe (which nobody else can use until Lachesis promotes), so he has better offence, and then Paragon rushes him to promotion and he just becomes your cool mobile tank dude. No doubling does limit his offence some even though high str brave goes a long way.
Azelle: 3.5/10. If you can stick with him he should become pretty good, since he gets a horse on promotion. But that's kinda tough to do: he's so fragile and so slow-moving, and lacks Canto, so it's hard to position him safely and get him the levels he needs. Fire's also very heavy, sadly, cutting into his doubling niche.
Midir: 5.5/10. Really wants to steal Jamke's Killer Bow. Like Alec and Finn he's a doubling cavalier with iffy stats. Compared to them, bow lock is bad, but does have better range and there's less competition for bows than swords or lances.
Aideen: 6/10. Mediocre but having a second healer is okay... then she gets Physic and Warp (due to being the only B rank staff user) and Sylvia exists to speed her up and she's pretty cool thereafter.
Dew: Thief/10. He serves a valuable niche but it feels closer to FE7 Merlinus than a normal Fire Emblem unit: he exists to get money and give it to people who need it, and since he doesn't cost a deployment slot you might as well use him. I'd sooner entirely go without anyone I rated 6 or below than him, so I guess you could use that as a score, but it feels weird.
Ayra: 6/10. Between good offensive stats and Astra and at least a brief stint with the Brave Sword she's gonna erase most things, and she dodges well, but she's infantry.
Jamke: 5.5/10. Clearly better stats than Midir and Adept help him delete things, but doesn't have the move. This is about how you need to balance horse vs. not.
Deirdre: 1.5/10. Uhhhh she can silence the Chapter 1 boss who is a jerk with his high-power siege tome and otherwise she is Azelle who can't double for one map. Great.
Holyn: 5/10. Ayra with a bit more bulk but worse offensive stats + Luna is worse than Astra + no brave sword for what that's worth. Midir vs. Jamke feels balanced, so does Alec vs. Holyn.
Lachesis: 8/10. In Chapter 2 she is Aideen with +1 move and Charm (+10 hit/avo within 3 tiles), but then she can't get the better staves. Then she promotes and holy hell she's Sigurd trading a divine weapon for staves. Benefits a fair bit from Paragon. Anyway, averaging Aideen and Sigurd's scores works.
Beowulf: 7/10. Wish I'd used him more. On paper his stats are better than those of Alec/Finn (he's basically Alec with +3 str and +1 def). But what distinguishes him further is that unlike the other cavs he actually gets an A in swords on promotion, and there are a lot of good A-rank swords (silver, the blades), so he should do significantly better on offence than them. That makes him pretty clearly the best cav after Lex.
Lewyn: 7/10. Oddball. On join he's the best mage but a bit shaky: good evade and pretty good offence with his stats / Adept / Critical but no Followup makes him unreliable. That said, he's a great candidate for the Followup Ring and that just makes his offence good, period, though still shaky durability and low move. But for 1.3 chapters he has Forseti, which lets him be an invincible murder machine, and Sylvia makes sure he'll reach things to do said murder.
Sylvia: 9/10. Dancing for four people is ridiculous action economy, and Canto ensures she'll be able to do so. Makes crazy good use of the Leg Ring, yes 9 move dancer please thanks. Enables so much flexibility and makes low-move characters much more usable. She's only very useful at the start, but an MVP candidate once she gets the Leg Ring.
Erinys: 7.5/10. Tough character to rate. Not super-awesome at base due to no A ranks until promotion (but at least she gets them then) and iffy str/def, but because she flies she benefits uniquely well from a lot of resources (stat boosts, brave weapons) since she'll make much more flexible use of them. But even if you don't favour her she's got pretty comparable stats to someone like Alec soooo...
Brigid: 6.5/10. As good as an infantry archer can be (assuming games without Close Counter). Deletes anything, reasonably durable, starts promoted so doesn't need much investment.
Tailtiu: 3/10. OHKO most things once she's taken a hit, at which point she's OHKO-bait to everything herself. But she only has 5 move and she's tough to protect and honestly this just isn't that special a niche.
Claude: 5/10. Once per game (maybe more if you get him a bunch of money) he can revive someone from the dead, that's cool. Otherwise he is Aideen but you already gave Aideen Warp/Physic and you're probably not going to move them over to him. Fortify's neat though.
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So while I never did get around to finishing DQ11 postgame and my time is being occupied by other stuff (like Octopath Traveller) I might as well throw this up since I don't think there's anything left to see that would change my assessment of the cast significantly.
This is all assessed with Super Strong Enemies enabled, since that's what I played.
Luminary - Honestly mediocre during Act 1, since none of his stats are particularly great (and there's a non-trivial stretch where he's less durable than Erik) and the greatsword plan and being the sole source of lightning damage (outside of specific weapons), while ensuring that he'll never be actually bad, only goes so far to make up with that. Picks up a fair bit of steam in the second half, at which point he picks up Quadra Slash, which is fantastic (if expensive), along with actually having an actual amount of skill points to play with. Still, pretty rough Act 1 performance counts for a fair amount and I have a hard time justifying higher than a 6/10 because of it.
Erik - OF COURSE considering that he's stuck with this shameful idiot for entirely too long I could be blaming the wrong thing here. About the only thing Erik brings to the table early are an assortment of Pep Powers and a knife plan that relies on being able to status things since boomerangs are too low on attack to be good for much against randoms (and the accuracy and damage falloff are just injury to insult). Gains a lot in Act 2 but he's the second-to-last PC to rejoin so loud shrug. 2/10.
Veronica - Pretty great against randoms and noted important spells Sap and Oomphle make her pretty great to bring bosses (although the latter doesn't exist much for her in Act 1 and she spends Act 2 kind of dead) despite the tragic durability. 7/10.
Serena - Probably has more shelf life in the active party than I'd ever respect Erik for during Act 1 since she at least has some shaky GT status to use but not much more since her competition for healer duty has much more reason to be used than her. Pretty much fantastic once she rejoins in Act 2 but she's the last person to do so and the main game doesn't go on much longer than that. It evens out to a roughly below-average score, I think. 4/10.
Sylvando - Contributes basically nothing on offense, but Hustle Dance/Sobering Slap/Oomph are great enough perks that you'd autoslot him in until Serena rejoins in Act 2 at minimum, and are probably enough to vault him into the MVP spot. 8/10.
Jade - Hello, one-dimensional beatstick. Honestly not really that amazing at it, outside of Multithrust being a better boss tool and being somewhat less prone to being critted out of existance than the Luminary during Act 1. The self-buffing in Act 2 is cute but that's pretty much all she gains and even then there's the bosses that pack dispel so I can't really care that much. 5.5/10.
Rab - Far more upside to having him along than Serena in Act 1 due to him having Sap/Zing Stick/non-fail offense in randoms (though dark spells are a bad meme) and being the first to rejoin in Act 2 matters quite a bit. Pretty much benched once Serena rejoins, but by then he's done his job. 6.5/10.
Hendrick - Does the Sylvando thing of being a durable support except he offers more offense/durability than he does support. This is uh not a winning trade in the slightest and he'd be a fair bit better if he actually had his postgame tools but he's at not hopeless on the latter since he does at least bring his (less-reliable) version of defense debuffing along with his try-to-keep-the-party-from-dying-to-noncrit-damage spells. 5.5/10.
Just throwing my hat in to say that I agree with most of this but wanted to debate a couple scores from my own experience on both PS4 (full) and Switch (partial).
First off, I disagree pretty strongly with Erik at 2/10 - it takes some beelining but it's absolutely possible to deploy Erik's damage-king combo for the last stretch of act 1 and have him completely trash a couple bosses there with it - 57 skill points is enough to pick up Half-Inch, Dodge Chance +2%, Agility +10, Agility +30, Deftness +10, Divide, Flame Slash, Attack Power While Wielding Swords +10, and Falcon Slash, and this can be achieved at level 25. (This technically takes 67 skill points, which would be level 28, but Agility +30 is a lucky panel and permanently gives you 10 free skill points.) Divide-Falcon Slash does absolutely gross damage and isn't nearly as RNG-dependent as trying to stick statuses and then land Victimiser or Persecutter, although I suspect the knife build can peak higher with the combination of good RNG and Sylvando applying the status.
All that said, he doesn't really do anything but damage, and the nature of his combo is still a bit unreliable - he's kind of like a DQ8 tension-nuke PC in that regard - so with that in mind plus his poor act 2 availability, I wouldn't give him more than around a 5.5/10 either.
My second personal point of contention is Serena/Rab - for me I always found Serena to be the more useful of the two healers, although they aren't really that far apart. Serena only has fail offense if you build her with wands, and IMO the wand build is a trap for act 1/2 because MMe scales so weakly - I feel like she's better off in the spear tree for act 1, and the inherited whip tree for act 2, as both solve what I feel is her biggest weakness (damage output in randoms).
FWIW Rab was my LVP for acts 1 and 3 - in act 1 I was already very comfortable with using Serena and Sylvando for healing and didn't switch, and in act 3 I feel Serena's gains are just better than his, plus her MMe advantage starts to actually matter. Can't dispute Rab's utility in act 2 just on the basis of availability though + Pearly Gates being pretty respectable offense. And I say he was LVP but every PC in the cast saw use in the A3 final boss for me, so on the whole over the course of the whole game I think DQ11's PC balance is quite sublime.
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Fire Emblem 4: gen 2
Mostly rating all the child characters assuming a optimum parenting (with some leeway because I'm not sure exactly what that is). The main exceptions being Lester/Lana who want different parents and I'm not sure how to score them as such. Tinni has some problems on this front too.
Seliph: 6.5/10. Definitely someone who gets better as the game goes on. At join he's a worse Ulster/Larcei. But once he promotes he gets a horse and is a cavalry dude with competent all-around stats. And then he gets Tyrfing which vaults him into having good damage and being a great magic tank. At all points he has an aura which grants him and nearby allies hit and avoid (Sigurd had this too, I forgot to mention it, god Sigurd is dumb) which is pretty neat.
Larcei: 6/10. Sword infantry with all its limitations but tends to have a great start anyway, since she can inherit any non-legendary sword and since she doesn't need Followup from dad she can get Paragon instead (the twins probably make the best use of Lex), or at worst something like Adept/Accost. Nice stats.
Ulster: 5.5/10. Larcei version "probably needs to buy a good sword" with a worse promotion (less speed/no Adept) but otherwise basically the same.
Lana: 7/10 with Claude as a father, 5/10 otherwise. Hello, 5 move staffbot. Getting Rescue/Fortify from day 1 would certainly help her, but otherwise she's Aideen, except facing a lot more competition from staff users with 6+ move.
Lester: Anywhere from 2.5/10 to 6.5/10? Can't really optimize him and his sister at the same time. Claude!Lester is awful, but Midir!Lester shows up rocking decent speed growth and a Brave Bow. (I personally got one somewhere in the middle for worth.)
Diarmud: 6/10. Assuming a Followup dad of course. Has a horse, Charm, and good strength. Certainly no shortage of people who can use A-rank swords in early gen 2, unlike gen 1! Speaking of which...
Oifey: 7.5/10. Basically established a subtrope synonymous with "good PC", for all that he's certainly less good than a few other people sometimes compared to him. Still, 9 move, A rank swords out of the bat, great stats for the time. Obvious MVP out of the gate. By the end of the game he's probably marginally below average, but who cares.
Julia: 5.5/10. So Nosferatu's actually pretty bangin', she can chew through swathes of enemies. Y'know if her 5 move ass can get there. She can also staffbot, basically as well as non-Claude Lana. Then she tears the final boss in half, that's pretty funny not gonna lie.
Fee: 7.5/10. See Erinys, she benefits a lot from flight. Unlike Erinys she'll likely have some extra natural advantages from dad (Paragon from Lex, or A swords from Chulainn, or skillz from Jamke/Lewyn, or super staff use from Claude). But of course gen 2 standards are also higher.
Arthur: 9.5/10. He's a lot worse with any dad besides Lewyn but good lord it's hard to argue that he makes the best use of that parentage. Joining in the first chapter with a 30-might +20 speed +40 evade tome is bonkers. Faces almost no competition for the Followup Ring too (outside unpromoted Leif maybe, blech). And then he gets a horse, probably around the time the second potential Forseti user joins the team period, so please enjoy your 9-move murdermachine dodgetank clowning everything until the last section of endgame. Being stuck at 5 move early is the only thing holding him back from 10/10 mateiral.
Johalvier: 3/10. What if Lex kinda sucked due to not having a horse, not having Paragon, and facing the much stiffer gen 2 competition? Oh yeah he'd be this guy. At least he almost no competition for a brave weapon and kinda has some bulk early.
Johan: Pass. I'm sure he's technically better than his brother due to horse but he also deprives you of Nosferatu unless you do some silly shenanigans so fuck that.
Shannan: 6/10. Prepromo Larcei with less good stats for his level (still solid enough), no cool inheritance possibilities... but has Balmung with its evade nonsense. It balances.
Patty: Thief/10. See Dew, no reason anything has changed. She can inherit some skills you won't care about.
Leif: 4/10. Uhhhh he turns out pretty good when he finally promotes, though due to no holy weapon he's still gonna be outclassed by the likes of Ares even then. Can also pick up decent staves too at that point, only reason I'm not convinced to just rate him super-low. Trash early, albeit usable trash (compared to someone like FE6 Sophia), but still trash.
Nanna: 7.5/10. Horse healer good. It's funny, her stats aren't much worse than Leif's after he promotes, and way better before. And y'know she also has a horse, Followup, and staves before she promotes, too. Oh and Charm. Yeah she's pretty solid.
Finn: 3/10. He's got a horse but otherwise is just... kinda bad now? Single digit speed with anything except a Slim Lance is no bueno, not like his other stats are great.
Ares: 8/10. Ares has solid all-around stats (speed is slightly shaky, but he can usually find a weapon that doubles), a horse, and Mystletainn, which makes him a great damage-dealer and even better magic tank. Unlike Seliph he has all these things from the moment he joins. And Adept/Critical with his best damage.
Lene: 9.5/10. FE4 dancer, now with possible access to the Leg Ring for her entire existence. Crazy useful.
Tinni: 3/10. "What if Tailtiu didn't have Thoron until promotion?" You'd have this mediocre unit. She can gain extra skills from her dad but bleh, think that only balances at best.
Faval: 4.5/10. I dunno, as far as infantry goes he's clearly worse than the swordies? Still a pretty good delete button but only player phase, and he's quite fragile until he promotes unlike the gen 1 archers, and obviously he competes with more holy weapons than them.
Ced: 6.5/10. Nice, competent staff user. 6 move, B rank, good stats generally. Can also combat somewhat but not stellar at it unless he has Lewyn as a dad which I'm not inclined to consider.
Coirpre: 3/10. uhhh did someone call for an extra staff user with 5 move and bad stats late in the game? I mean you might as well deploy him I guess...
Hannibal: 1.5/10. Unlike this guy. Better than Arden since at least he can use good weapons at base if you end up doing anything with him.
Altena: 6/10. Oh yay another flier. Gae Bolg hurts, as does a brave weapon off her stats. Mediocre speed (and needing promotion to get Followup, granted that's just 3 levels) is a negative, though.
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Bravely Default 2 Jobs
Not much rhyme or reason here, just going off memory here.
Freelancer: 6.5/10. The statline ain't too hot and the weapon ranks are um not great either (C across the board isn't as bad as it'd be in BD1, but still kinda bad). THIS SAID, you can actually bypass this during the earlygame with one of Monk's low-leve passives (more about this on their entry) and the utility on the skillset, both on passives and actual skills, has niche uses (mainly related to farming, so not sure how much it really weighs on me, since I hardly did any farming, though it also plays into status builds pre-Phantom, and THAT is actually big, since status hard-breaks BD2). Body Slam as a first capstone skill is also a good carry, but I'm not sure if it's running a subjob just for it good. Post C4, the class gets a kick in the nuts, where Late Bloomer actually ramps up its stats something fierce and Freelancer becomes the first class to have its level caps lifted (also the only one given to you for free) and Mimic easily works its way into a billionfold of broken setups (it's a lot more wieldy than BD1 Mimic, which was made very awkward due to classic turn-based mechanics). The weapon affinities remain a problem forever, though, and rule of thumb you're not getting the skills to fix this without delving into asterisk portal fights. Does this mess work out to above average? I suppose, and I frankly may be underselling this job anyway. This is going to be a recurring theme, by the way: there are MANY ways to snap BD2 in half and many of them require similar amounts of effort while achieving satisfying, impressive-looking results in a wide variety of ways.
Black Mage: 3/10. Magic has issues in BD2, and Black Mage honestly has the absolute least to offer for magical setups. S in Staves is nice early and black magic is decent damage in the prologue, but even mid-C1 it starts showing its issues (very expensive and multitargetting it dampens its power -real- hard, so brave-bombing gets PROBLEMATIC). The MP regen passives in the early game do help with this a lot, but the biggest problem is that they're still not really that great at damage -anyway-, and the class is otherwise a dead zone for mage builds. You'll probably master this before other mage classes show up (mainly because BD2 really BLITZES your job growth in practice), but man, this class really has nothing to offer outside its low-end jagen mage stopgap. Not quite the worst class in the game, but it certainly makes a case.
White Mage: 8/10. The class got hit with a nerf bat from BD1 and it's still really, really good. Having a healer, while not as borderline mandatory as it was in BD1, is still obscenely good and Angelic Ward is a great class passive as usual. The defensive buffs are less potent and it has no offense at all (they yanked Aero and Holy from it), but it honestly doesn't hurt the class in practice much. Healing items being more accessible and more affordable lowers its value a bit, but it's still the best class for action economy in healing and, as a subjob, it now gets much more flexible synergies with tanking classes and whatnot. Simple, but very effective.
Vanguard: 7/10. The first dedicated physical class, it tries to dabble in a bunch of things between damage, utility and tanking, doing all of them competently enough but not being standout in any of them. Neo Cross Slash is very functional and actually pretty impressive for a while, though it being a capstone skill means you're spending most of your time in the class using its weaker counterpart. Debuffs being nerfed from BD1 also hurts it a bit, but it's still fine. Reaching job level 12 is a big benchmark, though, since its second specialty is -really- powerful, especially later in the game, and it can work as a substitute for setups like dualwielding or two-hands to save slots. Specializing in Axes is kind of a bummer, though the job's okay enough at spears and swords to work with anyway.
Monk: 4.5/10. It's very much a Jagen job: pretty good physical stats and early damage skills at a glance, Bare-handed Brawler is a great passive in the earlygame (since it lets you ignore the weapon slot and still deal competent damage, at times even better than armed fighters, while not having to worry nearly as much about equipment weight on the armor slots. It's a nice setup for flexibility until early C2!), there's some extra damage synergy and utility running in those skills... but they don't last nearly as long as a carry. Unarmed combat starts having pretty serious issues in the midgame (with both weapon power and accuracy becoming more of a factor) and the skills themselves don't keep up with their mults either. Monk's weapon affinities also have some problems (Only A being STAVES kinda hurts, since most rods have poor physical stats, emphasizing, obviously, magic or restoration). Good enough to carry into mastery when you get it, but unlikely to see any use later outside some very specific setups (most of which are frankly pretty whatever, I feel the magic threshold for offensive stats in the lategame hovers around the 490s-500s and there are many, MANY ways to achieve this with less caveats than Monk needs).
Bard: 8/10. Statline and affinities ain't too hot (sketchy offensive, best weapon being bows at a B, somewhat fragile... at least they're fast), but Singing is a great skillset whose utility changes considerably as the game goes on. Early on, singing has a mostly defensive bent, since the damage buffs take a while to show up and raw damage reduction matters more at the earlier parts of the game. Late, when those offensive buffs stack multiplicatively with stat buffs and can be piled up up to over triple damage from base, um yeah, they become staples of many blitzing setups, even working well with lower-level/speedrunning strats. Some status and even crowd control damage utility complete the package, and the turn parcelling skill is also a nice capstone. There's some worth in running the job as a main even though it's not a great carrier too, since its specialty passives are quite solid for its buffs and the class' special move is pretty good.
Beastmaster: 9/10. Frankly has a very legit argument for best class in the game. Until C5, Beastmaster just does everything you want before any class you get before it and often even better than classes you get after as long as you don't neglect capturing monsters (you don't even need to care much about WHICH monster as long as they're at roughly your power level because the monster abilities are scaled off higher than PC abilities as a rule of thumb). Oh, and the class has a passive that gives you a chance of automatically capturing enemies you kill. And it has one of the best passives in the game (Spearhead, which gives you initiative as long as you have a spear equipped and aren't ambushed by enemies. Oh, this also works on bosses and you have pretty much absolute control over whether you get ambushed or not). And it also has great passives for bursting power. And it has a decent statline. As for weaponry... A in Spears and Bows is not quite the dream, but an A on the best weapon type in the game (partly because of Spearhead!) and one of the best weapon types in the early-midgame certainly doesn't hurt. Its specialty 2 is also bananas, giving you stat bonuses based on how many monsters you have captured. Even if you stop capturing monsters period by the end of C4, if you were running the auto-capture skill, your Beastmaster will have bonkers stats. And when you think the class starts falling off (monsters don't get to cap break damage and their side utility falls off), you get the L13-15 skills, which have a fantastic DPS skill in Muzzling Maelstrom and Nature's Blessing - oh, and they still have all the stats. The only problem I can say the class has is that it initially looks a bit unfriendly and it doesn't start off game-breaking. Still, really damned good class that leads you into many possible ways to power for your physical builds to boot.
Thief: Godspeed Strike/10 7/10. Thief's in a weirdass place: the class isn't super enticing to stay in outside of speed (best weapon affinity is an A in Daggers, which is pretty whatever, durability is shoddy, attack isn't all that great) and its skillset isn't very good besides one skill. HOWEVER, that ONE skill just happens to be pretty much the strongest single-target physical move for about 80% of the game. Godspeed Strike is bananas, having a super high mult that scales ridiculously off speed (it may be affected by ATK as well, certainly seems to not scale off too poorly off bad speed) and repeating itself after a short delay. And Thief, along with Phantom, also happens to be the game's fastest job. Godspeed Strike is so good it actually merits running Thievery just for that - or even running the class just for that. It has some use for farming setups as well, but I frankly don't care much about that (and hell, stealing sucks -ass- without dedicated twinking)? This is just mainly a check of how good you see Godspeed Strike being, and I think this is fair enough as a balance.
Berserker: 7/10. On the one hand, Savagery is the best randomslaying skillset in the game (Crescent Moon and Level Slash control crowds like nothing else can in terms of resource economy for your physical fighters) with a few decent tools for bosses as well (defense debuffs, both Double Damage and Amped Strike). On the other hand, the class is not super fun to stay in (very slow, specializing in axes kinda sucks because the weapon is both very heavy and kinda inaccurate) and its passives, outside of Bloody-Minded (which I do -not- like because boosting Aim feels more effective and less costly than having all of your physical damage cost you 25% mHP a pop), do not work well without Savagery itself. This said, I kept both my fighters running Savagery all the way to the very endgame when dealing with grunts, that efficiency is just unparalled. Guess somewhere around the area of Godspeed Strike works.
Gambler: 2/10. eeeeeeew spending money to do stuff go away. While BD2's in-game economy is kinda wild, it's not so wild as to warrant a class that can make you drop money down the drain like Gambler does. To make matters worse, its first passive is complete bullshit, randomly yanking out money, XP or JP from the person in the job. The skillset itself has potential on paper, but everything being tied to either money spending or prohibitive BP costs just makes me toss the class away. It even has shoddy stats and affinities to boot! Raise it solely for its money-boosting and drop-boosting passives and run away otherwise. I actually thought as whether this was worse than Black Mage and listing all the ways I don't like it just made me go "... yeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaah, fuck off".
Red Mage: 6.5/10. Offensive magic has issues in BD, but honestly Red Mage goes a loooooooooooong way to make it viable, though it's not the only venue to power mages have. The main problem with Red Mage is having awkward weapon affinities (A in Swords for your best is kinda awkward for a mage, though the game does have quite a few high-magic attack swords... at least B in staves means they're not actually TANKING magic stats by running them) and not actually very good at that magic stat itself, but they have considerably better weight allowance than most mages (it actually lets them run bows somewhat well, and bows have really high offensive stats in general to compensate being two-handed and super heavy) and decent speed, which helps make up for it. The skillset mixing up status options attached to damage (which can be emphasized further by mix-matching other elements from different mage classes and leans naturally into status builds - Red Mage even has no-strings attached access to some of the most powerful status procs in Sleep and Stop) and single-target healing isn't bad either and both its equippable passives are really good - in fact, Magic Critical is pretty key for your magic damage builds, since crit rate can be tweaked in so many ways. Revenge, on the other hand, just makes a great filler slot at worst and can create inane deathtanking bravebuilders at best. Then, it also hands you the first L4 spell you'll likely get in the game two full chapters you'll even dream of getting the second one and its second specialty doubles all the damage and magic-based buffing or healing your mage does for free. Pretty neat class and works well as the starting point for any advanced mage build. I'd rate Red Mage higher if I actually thought BD2 magic was better than it is (though it can actually be where the ultimate damage comes from, but it's pretty shenanigansy).
Ranger: 6.5/10. Iunno, this class feels like it should be so much worse to stay in than it is. Outside speed (which is good) and accuracy (which is -insane-), its statline is pure trash. Shoddy STR, bad durability, those really don't make for a compelling base carrier. THIS SAID, Ranger has some really powerful equippable passives (Counter-Savvy is nearly indispensable to have at least on your fighters, hard-neuters so many enemy counters so hard it ain't even funny. It's actually worth delving into the class with your MAGE CLASSES to pick it up if you're so inclined), good specialties and having an S in bows is hilarious in the early to midgame, since bows have such stacked base stats on both ends to the point you could actually make a RANGER a credible mage for a while. Thanks to all these piling up, along with good base crit, suddenly Ranger actually deals way more damage than you'd think it should and really clocks things up before the endgame. The accuracy also helps a lot, because enemies in BD2 have actual evade and missing moves in a brave-chain HURTS. Once you reach lategame, though, I feel like you just get a lot more options to do huge damage and Ranger stops standing out. I may be mistaken, though, bows still have insane bases by endgame and Ranger is the only class that gets S rank to put them to max potential... but the skillset being very one-dimensional and scaling kinda poorly into the endgame/aftergame hurts that... though they're one of the only classes to have straight access to paralysis, so they can have uses for status builds (albeit kinda edge case in practice, their stats do not lend well to status procs at base). On the other hand, dominating chapters 2 to 4 is really worth an accolade, that feels like the time where the game has the most bite to it (and some of the hardest maingame bosses are there!). Also, half a point for possibly underselling its lategame potential.
Shieldmaster: 5/10? This one's difficult to rate. On the one hand, Shieldmaster is obscenely, -obscenely- tanky and has quite a few proactive tanking tools at their disposal. On the other hand, it has absolutely miserable offense and also has problems turning enemy offense into straight damage as well. The speed is also a huge problem until late, especially when a huge part of the durability comes from equipping crazy heavy armor. Once Shieldmaster reaches mastery and can dedicate some of its passives to fix those speed problems to a degree, it actually comes together and can pair with other classes for some hilarious anti-damage and anti-BP combos, but the offense and non-tanking utility will always be a problem (also, offense is usually easier to twink for and really goes completely ballistic by the time you'd feel comfortable using mastered classes without worrying about some degree of JP spillover). Can pair somewhat with White Magic for a near-immortal healer, but I feel another class does the carrier tank job better.
Pictomancer: 7/10? I like this class. Decent magic stats, acceptable physical stats, fast, more potent debuffs than its Vanguard/Berserker counterparts and has them all stacked together, alongside having Daub and a special that applies it at perfect accuracy to all enemies along with an omnidebuff. Not very good for randoms, but it's quite a neat package for bosses and Pictomancer also pairs well with a bunch of other mixed setups. Sub-Job BP Saver is also a great ability that should be learned by anyone running Savagery or other BP-hungry setups (and those are pretty common!) in the midgame. The game-worst durability and shoddy weapon ranks are rather problematic, but their BIS being spears and rods works as a silver lining. Also pairs really well with Bard and their passives.
Salve-Maker: 8.5/10? I wanted to give it a 9/10 at first for Compounding being easily the easiest carrier for BD2's status hard-breaking builds, but that probably overrates the class. This said... well, the class statline doesn't have much offensive punch and its stats overall are pretty middling. Compounding is the very first skill on the skillset and it's probably the best thing by far in its set, so, outside of running Phantom/Salve-Maker, you actually don't get much out of it in terms of varied builds. THIS SAID, however, Compounding is just bonkers good, giving you really insane sustainability options for dirt cheap. Everything you'd actually want from the class in terms of healing and status is storebought and the fundamentals are very cheap to maintain as well. And, of course, the synergy between this and Phantom is just degenerate in more ways than one (like infinite MT Elixir spamming for the cost of 40 MP a pop. Like, seriously, what the freaking hell). On the other hand, Compounding isn't as potentially versatile as it was in BD1: you use it for resource control, healing and status. Granted, this is... probably enough.
Dragoon: 7/10? Iunno, the skillset itself kinda unimpressive, though somewhat versatile (has crowd control, Jump for its dedicated DPS, some element damage, MP draining... it just they don't have much -punch- off a cursory glance), but the class got stats (fast, high strength, decent durability - though that mdef base is oof, the HP and defense aren't bad). Good passives for crowd control as well, stuff like Full Force pairs well with both mages and skillsets like Savagery. Upon mastery, getting a free Dual Wield as long as you're equipping spears/swords (AKA the best physical weapon types in the game) and having respective S and A on those proficiencies also kinda slaps - and that is likely to be your earliest access to Dual Wield-like passives ever, along with always, always being an option if you're looking to save passive slots running off a capable statline. I also may be underselling Draconics to boot, you can do some SHENANIGANS with Jump parties from what I've seen on Youtube. Granted, there are just so, so many ways to power in BD2...
Spiritmaster: 8/10. The classic Spiritmaster/White Magic combo from BD1 doesn't function quite the same here, though it's still very good. Spiritmaster, though, just functions very unlike BD1's counterpart to begin with. Mainly, its idea is passively keeping your party up with wisps that can heal or revive or heal status or restore MP or, post-mastery, actually all of those at once just hovering around passively. The healing itself isn't SUPER potent, which means you probably want White Magic paired with it before mastery. This said, post-mastery and particularly post-JL cap breaks, the class becomes hilariously broken with wisps that passively restore BP and cast reraise. Oh, and Spiritmaster's passive also has a partial status immunity+guts-like effect that keeps you alive as long as your HP is 20% or above while wisps are around. So, you can play with many, many party-wide immortality setups with this class, though the dispel wisps can be a problem with a lot of offense-geared setups. Not one of my preferred anchors, but people like Snowfire will certainly sing praises to heaven regarding this class, since it enables low-offense, high-sustainability builds in a hilarious manner.
Swordmaster: 7/10? Comparing this and Dragoon, there are some pretty striking similarities: the skillset bases aren't great - Swordmaster in particular has bad options for the first six levels or so and, until getting built up, the basic physical builds are just not any good. On the other hand, Fluid Stance pairs very well with Shieldmaster's tanking game, allowing for ridiculous BP-draining combos, and Swordmaster gains some pretty good single-targetting builds. And there are always the stats: Swordmaster has very high attack and good speed, along with that S in Swords and Two Hands is one of the big equipment passives you will look for when weighing lategame offense builds. Mastery, though, really brings the class together - in particular, it's the only class that can access sub-jobs' specialty passives for no skill slot cost, and the only way to get the SECOND specialties without Bravebearer, which makes it quite a potent carrier, especially with Phantom's Dual Wield. It does feel less flexible than Dragoon until mastery, though, but then Two Hands is a really good passive to pass around. Same overall score works.
Oracle: 6.5/10. So, Oracle. This class is -painful- to stay in before mastery: awful stats, crap weapon affinities, the full monty. However, Divination is a great skillset that synergizes amazingly with its excellent first specialty passive (especially once you land Triple and Triplara) and can outright delete a surprising amount of fights with its elemental manipulation gimmick. Said gimmick also factors into a lot of offensive setups you can do and obviously gels amazingly with other mage setups. Once you master the class, its second passive turns Oracle into quite an interesting carrier, since it gives the stats and weapon affinities of your subclass to the main job, effectively erasing Oracle's big downfall and actually making it possibly an omnicarrier as well while lugging around Divination's kickass skillset, viable for both physical and magical builds. This said, the pre-mastery drudge is just too hard to ignore, so I figure it can't really go above the 6.5 mark, especially considering you're dealing with a bad mage class in C3 - AKA the worst time in the game to be a mage.
Phantom: 9/10. Oh boy, remember how Dark Knight in BD1 completely warped game balance by itself because it was just so BUSTED? Yeah, Phantom does something similar to BD2, but in a more layered manner. The class itself is kind of a double-edged sword - great offensive stats (Thief-level speed, has an S rank in daggers at a point where daggers start actually having power, actually good ATK), junky durability, trashy skillset outside the self-buff (which, in fairness, is actually good and works well for all kinds of offensive builds, but gets outshone soon after you get it!)... but then, you look at Phantom's passives. For starters, all three of Phantom's equippable passives are excellent: Critical Amp is amazing in a game where crit rate can be tweaked as high as BD2's, and it can be worked in both physical and magical setups (also working well with Phantom's kickass specialty 1, which raises crit rate of any attack hitting weakness by 50%). Rewarding Results is kinda niche in the sense it needs a status build to work, but in a game where status SMASHES its battles to hell, it's certainly kickass to get another turn every time you land a status! Then, there's Dual Wield: this or Two Hands is how you bust open BD2's ATK/MAG scores to play into the insanity that is its lategame/aftergame, and Dual Wield offers you a lot more flexibility in equipment tweaking than Two Hands does. Any offensive build worth its salt in BD2 should have a way to access Dual Wield or Two Hands, and obviously this is super big. However, it doesn't stop there: Oracle's mastery specialty, Results Guaranteed, completely breaks the game open, making any chance-based passive or attack have a guaranteed chance to work at an extra cost of 40 MP per proc. Landing debilitating status on the final boss? Sure, fam. Always proccing Revenge for ten billion BP surplus? Why not. Having Salve-Maker's passive where sometimes it doesn't spend the item ALWAYS WORK so you can spam items forever and ever? Of course! All you need to worry about is the MP upkeep, and in a game where MP flows in as freely as BD2 past the C2 mark, that's quite frankly trivial. Oracle makes pretty much one of the most dominating carrier jobs in the game for that alone and also gives incredible passives that work their way in most of the game's advanced builds. Only real problem with the class is having such a trashy base skillset and not doing much in-job for non-status mage builds (though those still want Critical Amp and Dual Wield anyway), but that hardly keeps it from being obscenely broken. It's obviously not as exciting before mastery, but frankly the stats and buffing do keep the bases afloat very well until its overwhelming power sets in.
Arcanist: 4.5/10. Oof. So, Arcanist has cast-best MAG, S in staves and high-powered elemental spells of many varieties, along with an equippable passive that regens MP and another one that raises magic damage by 20% (at the caveat of higher MP cost). Sounds good, right? Weeeeeeell... it has some PROBLEMS. First, its first passive makes multitarget damage not suffer unfocusing penalties, but also makes the user a target of the spells. Second, its multitarget spells also target the party. Third, its mastery passive improves magical damage once again, but gives all spells a chance to target your party in addition to enemies. Oof. I get the design with this class' high risk-high reward tenets, but it's frankly quite annoying to set up for. You need to either have party members dedicated to mitigating the self-damage (like an elementally immune Shieldmaster or an Oracle to manipulate elements) or to equip your entire party, including your Arcanist, to immune/absorb the damage you're going to use. This is -workable-, but it's a lot of work and you have much, much easier ways to deal huge damage even with magic to make the class worth it. The statline outside its magic is also shit, that durability speed/combo is uguu. The passives are valuable, at least, and if you find the drawbacks worth the trouble, you can actually make some surprisingly fun things with this, like a party that gets healed by Arcanist's AoE damage. In spite of how awkward the class is, I'm actually willing to experiment further with its stuff in another playthrough, which does say something about BD2's overall job design.
Bastion: 5.5/10? The skillset doesn't impress me, tbh: Rampart/Vallation (immunes the next physical or magical attack for the entire party) and, depending on builds, Sanctuary feel like the only actually potent abilities in that set. This said, the passives aren't bad at all and, most importantly, I -really- like Bastion as a carrier: good durability stats across the board, high weight allowance and excellent weapon affinities (S in Spears! A in Swords and Staves!) and even acceptable offensive stats on that statline make for a really good base to house a supporter or healer who can build BP pretty well. Only problem is Bastion speed is pretty dang bad, but can't win 'em all. Not a whole lot besides that, but that's frankly good enough sometimes.
Hellblade: 7/10. They nerfed the Dark Knight equivalent to hell and back from BD1 and it was actually warranted, of course... but I think that, skillset-wise, they went a bit too far? The attack skills on Hellblade have elemental variety, but are otherwise not worth using (the base mults are just too low even after factoring in the delayed add-ons (though there are actual upsides to using those moves with their second specialty passive, it's interesting). The speed being bad is also a problem. The class has it real good on passives and carrier perks, though: Deal With The Devil's downside is pretty hefty, but the HP -and- MP regen are actually pretty good, especially on caster classes. To boot, Hellblade has great ATK AND MAG bases and runs off S in Swords, A in Staves and -also- A in shields, so they can equip well for offensive builds no matter what (I frankly was shocked at how good staff-wielding Hellblade was at casting magic, even). And, to that respect, Death Throes is actually a great skill for offensive builds across the board and is worth putting up with the rest of the skillset as a main carrier, since it gives you an easily accessible, easy to use omni-stat boost for setting up huge damage burst. Finally, Surpassing Power is one of the most important passives for post-C4 damage builds for pretty self-explanatory reasons: you WANT to break the damage cap on most offensive builds worth their salt (not all, though: Swordmaster damage builds, for instance, rely a lot more on huge amount of hits that struggle to break cap). So, yeah, there's a lot to work with here, even though the bases need some work. It's actually a nice class to stay in if you run it as a build carrier, regardless - heck, there's a non-negligible argument for Hellblade to be the best carrier class for straight offensive mage builds, even, that MAG and A in Staves+Death Throes off actual weight allowance cap and defensive stats are quite a sell.
Bravebearer: 8/10. So, this job is absolutely bonkers. Has all the stats (and I mean ALL the stats), a good, interesting skillset based on advanced BP manipulation, absolutely incredible passives (only job to get a S Rank passive pre-cap unlocks! Allows picking subjob second specialties!) and even the B rank on all weapons across the board isn't much of a big deal. There's only one problem, though: eeew, super late game class. This said, this thing unlocks so much power while being so desirable to stay in that I have to grade it very highly. Ultimately the best carrier in the game, Bravebearer is everything BD1 Conjurer wishes it was.
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Random thoughts on Jo'ou's BD2 comments...
* Black Mage feels like the undisputed worst class long-term, but the "Poisoning bosses" gimmick puts in some real solid work, especially if you're underlevel or in some sort of challenge run. It's especially worth hype vs. Bernard, who's tough and has parasitic healing, but Poison will keep the pressure on. The better your offensive setups get, the less relevant Poison hype is, but hell, even in Chapter 2 Poisoning some of those tanky bosses is good, and mastered BM can break all of those annoying immunities the support demons have. Halving / immunity is definitely frequent enough that the BM Passive2 is not just for show. The fact I can write all this about a class that is Mostly Bad just goes to show how good the balance is.
* For Monk, my recollection is that if you go in unarmed, you get a huge natural Aim boost, so they're pretty good at the "actually hit enemies" part? But I didn't use 'em much.
* I'm a bit skeptical of hyping up Beastmaster TOO much, as it is a "greedy" class slightly in that it wants you to leave the Pokemon collector passive equipped the entire game, and ideally requires some trial & error to learn what the good summons are. That said, if you do so, you get some amazing raw stats on demand, and if you don't then you just collect Spearhead and move on with your life.
* As one of those "did you read a FAQ" bits of obscura, while Thief utility is pretty awful casually what with the terrible steal rate, if you know what you're doing it can be solid. Notably, you can charge up an ultimate, equip +HP accessories on everyone, go challenge an OP miniboss monster way before you're supposed to take one on, use the Thief ultimate for a guaranteed steal (reset if you don't get the rare steal), and get OP late-game weapons stupidly early (granted, at a weight cost that means you might be running around naked). Then run away screaming before the boss wipes the party (you keep the steal). You can also apparently steal Aim booster buns from Vesps in the C2 overworld map if you want to boost your Aim the hard way.
* For Red Mage I'm convinced that Swords is just a trap for them, just go for staves, especially if you have access to the Earth or Wind boosting stave (or some other elemental boost staff and the right passive). Their problem is that their base M Atk is weirdly trashy (WORSE than Freelancer? Equal to Vanguard? WTF?) so they need to stack that as much as they can, or else they're chainspelling two spells that each do lol damage, but it's usually fixable, and the healing is workable. Agree it makes a solid package overall.
* I'm a bit harsher on Ranger than you? I think it may require a replay, but I'm just down on Bows early because they're both heavy and they mean no Shields, and Shields can be pretty darn helpful for stuff like elemental resists or just a pile of HP. Counter-Savvy is obviously aces though.
* In the same way, I didn't seriously use Salve-Maker, but I'd question ranking them that high, their status mixes didn't seem to have THAT high a hit rate from my occasional use of them. Obviously bonkers in combination with Phantom 12 but I feel that's Phantom being broken less Salve-Maker. That said, Thrust & Parry is great, even if you're wielding just one weapon, and I respect that Widen Area + Healing Amp X-Potions is a very solid alternative to White Magic if you want a healer that doesn't need to care about magic (which can become Widen Area Elixirs very very late).
* I think I'm a bit more down on Hellblade than you. BD2 fights can go long, and it's not uncommon to have "Whoops, boss wiped 3 party members but whatever, time to Brave out 3x Phoenix Downs then recover." You can't unequip the aptly named Deal with the Devil, so... meh. It's not a big deal if you run just 1 Hellblade I suppose or set up for overwhelming offense that ends the fight fast, but if your fights are so fast then what's the point of a sustain passive like Deal? Surpassing Power isn't THAT necessary either, but Jo'ou already notes that as far as using classes that have multi-hit combos for their big damage - Vanguard's Neo Cross Slash for one easy example.
* Agree that Bravebearer is hard to rank, very Fire Emblem Athos-esque. It is absolutely busted in stats that almost devalues some other classes from a strict efficiency perspective (Oracle stealing stats of the sub-job = Oracle / BB is solid, BB / Freelancer with Sub-Job Passive 2 = INSANE STATS if you master a bunch of classes on the unit that does this, like totally immortal stats, or pick just Any Other Class + BB secondary + Sub-Job 2 Passive for whoops, all the BP off True Grit), but it is around for just the final challenges pretty much. Very much a "use this if you're having trouble with the final boss" class I guess since the final boss isn't that scary, but will ruin your BP, and hey this class provides free BP like candy.
Good times, though. I suspect will require a replay some day to say more, there's definitely classes I just mastered and immediately moved on from, but sticking with 'em could have uncovered new possibilities.
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* Black Mage feels like the undisputed worst class long-term, but the "Poisoning bosses" gimmick puts in some real solid work, especially if you're underlevel or in some sort of challenge run. It's especially worth hype vs. Bernard, who's tough and has parasitic healing, but Poison will keep the pressure on. The better your offensive setups get, the less relevant Poison hype is, but hell, even in Chapter 2 Poisoning some of those tanky bosses is good, and mastered BM can break all of those annoying immunities the support demons have. Halving / immunity is definitely frequent enough that the BM Passive2 is not just for show. The fact I can write all this about a class that is Mostly Bad just goes to show how good the balance is.
Poison being solid is good, but I feel its main use dwindles right around the time you get... Red Mage, who actually gets more status options if you're going that route. I wouldn't have beaten Anihal without poizn, of course, but Prologue and C1 are the only points where Black Mage really makes its mark.
* For Monk, my recollection is that if you go in unarmed, you get a huge natural Aim boost, so they're pretty good at the "actually hit enemies" part? But I didn't use 'em much.
I'm not sure if that's the case, I felt Monk needed to run Bare-knuckled Brawler for their Aim to keep up.
* I'm a bit skeptical of hyping up Beastmaster TOO much, as it is a "greedy" class slightly in that it wants you to leave the Pokemon collector passive equipped the entire game, and ideally requires some trial & error to learn what the good summons are. That said, if you do so, you get some amazing raw stats on demand, and if you don't then you just collect Spearhead and move on with your life.
I know you're always super harsh on Gau archetypes, but just messing with the job randomly shows that... you really don't need knowledge at all to realize Beastmaster is -that- busted. The game's scaling on the monsters is completely, completely bonkers: from the dungeon you first get to use Beastmaster in, all the offensive monsters you get at worst match what is likely your best damage off capstone skills like Pressure Point (which you might not even have by that dungeon if you're running a bit underlevelled!), and at best beating it by a magnitude of anywhere from 2x to 4x. This pattern repeats itself all over - I paid very little attention to the specific monsters I captured, just looked at the name of the skill, the element and tossed shit at the wall to see what stuck - and this had Beastmaster being consistently my best boss slayer by a significant margin. When Off The Chain kicks in, this just becomes utterly -gross-, you're nearly ramming the damage cap at late C2 at worst because almost every monster that deals damage just chunks off things. The finesse you describe becomes a factor mostly on challenge runs, but in a casual run, you mostly just press butans and one-round asterisks with whatever junk you just randomly got from that passive (which is the easiest slot in ever for the entirety of C2-4, why yes I want to equip this passive that fuels the unit that kills C2-3 bosses in a single chain). To give you an idea, I was ramming the four-digit damage cap on a portal asterisk fight with a random C2-C3 border monster casting Banishra with Off The Chain. The scaling is -THAT- batty.
(Small caveat: in C3 and C4, you will probably prefer to use magic attacks on your monsters than physicals, since their AIM actually scales kinda poorly, but monster magic damage scaling is just as bananas as monster physical damage, so it's not a big deal)
To make things even dumber, the monster pool is shared by -all- people running Taming (not even Beastmasters per se!) and multiple people equipping the beast capture passive also multiplies your monster roster (and the stat boosts given to your Beastmasters) even further. The job's personal perks just snowball the package into complete insanity. I think the theoretical effort in capturing monsters is the only thing keeping Beastmaster from a straight 10/10.
* For Red Mage I'm convinced that Swords is just a trap for them, just go for staves, especially if you have access to the Earth or Wind boosting stave (or some other elemental boost staff and the right passive). Their problem is that their base M Atk is weirdly trashy (WORSE than Freelancer? Equal to Vanguard? WTF?) so they need to stack that as much as they can, or else they're chainspelling two spells that each do lol damage, but it's usually fixable, and the healing is workable. Agree it makes a solid package overall.
Swords are -mostly- a trap, but there are a couple weapons (Flametongue in C2, Icebrand in the C2-C3 transition if you find the Mudkip lookalike parked near Halcyonia) that give Red Mage more magic than any of the rods you can get at that point - C2-C3 kinda starves you for good staves! The ones that boost their favored elements are also consigned to later points in the game. But by C4, once your staff roster starts getting real robust, yeah, you transition back to rods, both for the elemental boosting and better magic. Which, of course, is important for the reason you pointed: Red Mages have the worst base MAG of all mage classes.
* I'm a bit harsher on Ranger than you? I think it may require a replay, but I'm just down on Bows early because they're both heavy and they mean no Shields, and Shields can be pretty darn helpful for stuff like elemental resists or just a pile of HP. Counter-Savvy is obviously aces though.
I mean, Rangers can't equip shields with bows, yeah, which is a point in theory... but the reality is they shouldn't be touching shields ANYWAY, that E means shields give very diminishing returns. They lose so very little from ditching shields and dual-wielding without the Phantom passive is complete junk. It's a valid comparison to other classes, in that Rangers are obviously frailer than other fighter builds, but they compensate by just having higher offense (I was dealing damage that wouldn't be out of place in a Berserker build with them in C2-C3, running bows at S rank is just that stacked at that point). Not to mention... not a whole lot of classes at that point can even make good use of shields, I ran a lot of C1 and C2 shieldless because any shield other than stuff found in the -prologue- often encumbered non-Vanguard/Berserker classes way too much until I gained a few levels! And, at that point, the sacrifice offered by bows just becomes more enticing, especially with A/S ranks on that weapon. They benefit somewhat disproportionately from a good rank on them because of their bases.
* In the same way, I didn't seriously use Salve-Maker, but I'd question ranking them that high, their status mixes didn't seem to have THAT high a hit rate from my occasional use of them. Obviously bonkers in combination with Phantom 12 but I feel that's Phantom being broken less Salve-Maker. That said, Thrust & Parry is great, even if you're wielding just one weapon, and I respect that Widen Area + Healing Amp X-Potions is a very solid alternative to White Magic if you want a healer that doesn't need to care about magic (which can become Widen Area Elixirs very very late).
I never hyped their status rates, though - I pointed way up in Freelancer that you need luck manipulation with Miscellany to make status builds viable before Phantom. This said, I just think the combo is -that- broken, and you can't access that level of status manipulation without Compounding. It's the only skillset that has all of the boss fight-breaking statuses crammed together -at all- - and in full AoE manner to boot! Sure, Phantom being broken is the bigger deal, but no job enables that hard-as-nails game breaking the way Salve-Maker does. And there are of course the perks of being the other big-name healer class.
* I think I'm a bit more down on Hellblade than you. BD2 fights can go long, and it's not uncommon to have "Whoops, boss wiped 3 party members but whatever, time to Brave out 3x Phoenix Downs then recover." You can't unequip the aptly named Deal with the Devil, so... meh. It's not a big deal if you run just 1 Hellblade I suppose or set up for overwhelming offense that ends the fight fast, but if your fights are so fast then what's the point of a sustain passive like Deal? Surpassing Power isn't THAT necessary either, but Jo'ou already notes that as far as using classes that have multi-hit combos for their big damage - Vanguard's Neo Cross Slash for one easy example.
Deal With The Devil mainly felt like it made me go a lot less times on the menu to recover MP for my mage, it's just a neat convenience that doesn't cost slots (unlike MP Regen or Solar/Lunar-Powered, which all cost slots while being less powerful MP regens). As for the downside... I dunno, it didn't feel as bad as it does sound even when it DID kick in? If your strategy does rely on reviving a lot, I agree it's a bitch, but by then, you also have a lot of ways to keep people from just dying anyway? I wouldn't run more than a single Hellblade in a party, though (they may be the best carrier for pure mage damage builds - mainly they don't die to a sneeze and can actually have some weight flexibility -, but pure damage also isn't the only way to go for mages either. The thing is they also have the stats for being quite capable physical carriers, and that flexibility has some value too).
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Weighing in on some things as of early Chapter 2:
I generally second Snowfire where Black Mage is concerned. It's... not a bad earlygame class at all, regardless of what it does from here. Poison is aces against bosses, and magic damage is sometimes just nice to have, since some enemies specifically have terrifying physical counters. I don't really think their MP costs are a major issue; the beautiful thing about spending MP in Bravely Default 2 is you only do it as much as you need. Easy formation? Yeah, take it apart using almost no MP at all. Tough one? Break out the MP. Ethers are super cheap anyway, even the second-tier ones cost less than one attack item (though attack items are also pretty good in a pinch incidentally!).
On the other hand I definitely second Jo'ou that Beastmaster is really good! Like, seriously, everything about them is good so far:
-Mow Down rules. See earlier comments about MP not being a big deal, 4x Mow Down carves formations in half if they don't have a physical counter. (And it only costs about as much as two -aras, anyway.)
-Good passives everywhere! Spearhead has been noted (held back a bit by bows outclassing spears pretty badly at my point, but you can equip-change cheese it at worst). Raw Power is a big damage boost to brave blitzes. MP Saver is cool.
-And yeah, finally, the releases themselves just deal great damage (even the regular version, I don't have the upgraded one yet). I've done exactly what Snow did, just throw the right element and/or "big beefy physical" and the damage potential is clearly better than anything else I can do right now. No random formation survives a good MT release followed by Mow Down spam. And they have the best damage against bosses. The brave system makes capturing so much easier than in FF5: Mercy Strike/Smash x2, Capture x2 is gonna net you two enemies per encounter unless it's so dangerous that you're using your Beastmaster for offensive blitzing as per above.
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Yeah, just to be clear, I was assuming that if you were going bare-handed on Monk, you would run Bare-Knuckle Brawler passive as well, the 30% AIM boost is pretty huge with how sensitive the AIM stat seems to be to minor changes.
I'll have to do another playthrough that hard-commits to the Beastmaster strat some day, I do know that the stats from the second passive get insane if you do so. I was just skeptical it gets all the way to 9.5, which is pretty damn high! If the releases are good enough though, sure, that'll help.
I do agree with Jo'ou that a single Hellblade as a damage carrier is pretty interesting and solid, since their stats & weapon proficiencies are certainly legit. It's just that given multiple good options, if I'm going for the option that adds in an additional Horrible Failure condition, it better damn well be *great* to make up for the risk considering all the safer options you have. I'll take the supermarket cookies over fancy bakery cookies that also have a 10% chance of containing dead cockroaches.
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Yakuza: Like a Dragon -
For the most part, PC balance is fair, although there is some odd stuff. 7 PCs, 1 of them is optional, but you're likely to get her because she's part of the business management mini-game which you'll definitely want to do anyway because money is the primary resource constraint in this game. Finishing the business management mini-game gets you 3 million yen in like 3-4 minutes and is the most efficient way of racking up fast cash. So for all intents and purposes, I consider her part of the normal cast. If you don't, then Saeko gets significantly better because all the female jobs become exclusive to her. Primarily ranking based on main game performance - I know an optional super dungeon exists but not really planning on doing it myself.
Kasuga: 8/10. I waffle between a 7.5 or an 8, but I figure Kasuga's utility means he can rock it with Han more often than not. Kasuga has a lot of good stuff going for him - access to some powerful unique skills, the only person who can call summons, has access to MT Healing and buffing along with some solid damage and good durability. He also gains a lot of status immunities overtime as his social parameters improve. His main drawback is that he lacks attack type variety - he's largely locked to Blunt attack types and his magic isn't great so if the enemies block his main damage, he's not going to do so great as an attacker. Thankfully, he can always fallback to defensive support. Ironically, going Musician isn't a terrible idea here.
Adachi: 6/10. On paper, Adachi isn't that great. He's slow and he's a tank in a game where he can't actively draw enemies attention towards him. Sure, he does have Rage status and can get Transfer Shield as an Enforcer, but those things don't necessary force enemies to hit him and Rage is mostly ST. In practice however, he usually ends up better than Nanba and Zhao. For one, he joins super early, which gives you a lot of time to work on what jobs you want through faster Drink Link progress. Second, his high durability and quick access to Enforcer means that Transfer Shield comes into play quick and its very good at giving an extra layer of defense to either your healer or Nanba, both of which appreciate it. His own damage isn't terrible either thanks to Paralysis Prongs - another Enforcer skill that he will end up getting. However, many of his skills are grapples, which don't work on certain enemies, so that kind of sucks.
Nanba: 4/10. Probably cast worse PC though Zhao comes close. Nanba's primary strength is in magic which means all those mage classes are almost made for him. Problem: His Drink Link is capped at 2 until a little past mid-game, which means that his job progression speed is also slowed and that creates big problems for a mage as you need to spend quite a bit of time in each job to pick up the proper elemental skill. To make matters worse, he's sluggish and not very durable. Still, there are some fights where he clearly excels in hitting much harder than the others since he can hit a defense they can't. But the lack of durability then rears its ugly head - usually meaning he almost always needs some one to cover him.
Saeko: 6.5/10. Having access to the only healing class in the game due to being female is huge since otherwise, using ST healing items is incredibly inefficient and costly. Past that though, Saeko doesn't do much else that can be done by Eri. She has a different series of buffs but those tend to get overshadowed by Kasuga's MT version - and the ST debuffs aren't great here. She also has a better magic score, but getting to develop those skills takes a while so she tends to be the worse of the two women who join the team.
Eri: 7.5/10. See Saeko. Getting access to the primary healing class is wonderful. However, Eri also has good attack skills in her native Clerk class and can pick up some supporting physical skills rather quickly in Night Queen. She's also faster too, which is good for healers! Less durable than Saeko, but running both women at the same time is not that unusual given their strengths.
Han: 8/10. Is probably the best PC in the game, although Kasuga gives him a run for his money. Han has a lot going for him: Access to all 3 Physical types in his default class, the best damage to MP ratio move in the game, game best speed, has one of the best defensive buffs that jack up his evade. All this means he is the best physical damage dealer, while being a good evade tank and is fast enough to fill in utility gaps as needed. Unlike other PCs who typically would want to dip into one or two other classes to pick up some quick skills, Han literally needs nothing else other than his base class. His weaknesses are rather minor - joining mid-game means his job progression is slower than the others and his skills are lacking outside of damage and self-buffs. Damn good at what he does though.
Zhao: 5/10. I like Zhao's but it's hard to recommend him for main game use. He joins the latest, which means his job progression is the worse of the cast. Then, he doesn't do anything that Han can't. Oh sure, his skills have more debuffs and status attached to them but they don't tend to make up for Han's better raw damage and notably better speed. About the one thing Zhao does have going for him is a decent enough magic score, which means he can dip into the magic classes and get some magic attacks to round out his offensive. His better defenses matter too in some cases since he can usually take 1 more hit than Nanba, which lets him survive some of the hardier attacks.
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Trails of Cold Steel 4: We Really Didn't Think This Chrono Burst Thing All The Way Through Did We
The usual tl;dr is that I kind of agree with Tide but at the same time I kind of don't. The slightly longer version is that I'll try to judge between infinite turn cheese loops and a theorhetical world where Chrono Burst doesn't exist and things actually get turns.
Juna: Well on the one hand Junie still has some pretty junk offensive stats (which really don't matter all that much in the grand scheme of things.) On the same hand, breaking isn't quite as effective as noted and Sledgehammer ate a net nerf besides. On the other hand 30 CP self buff that provides 1 BP for using it with no downsides whatsoever hello yes there's absolutely no way this could be exploited oh wait hi Chrono Burst. Being able get literally infinite turns thanks to the combination of those two things in addition to Musse's Brave Order is some ridiculously stupid bullshit and it's a testament to what a broken mess of a game and I'm not even sure this is even the dumbest thing you can do. Oh even better, having two Space locks means she gives up basically nothing to run EP Cut and Hit quartz which in turn mitigates whatever harm having mediocre stats could do lol. Without cheesing it out like this... eh she still has GT Accelerate (though hers is more expensive than Machias's) and Brave Orders are still the new broken so no-questions-asked BP generation is nice to have anyways so she comes out looking pretty good regardless. 7.5/10.
Kurt: Kurt on the other hand... yeah no, having to compete with the Old Class 7 pretty much all the time does him no favors and his Brave Order having its cost upped to 4 BP pretty much kills it regardless of what you're doing. Range 1 is again suboptimal for evade strats and Evade quartz are even weaker than they were in CS3 to boot, and while he does have a cheap delay craft, those got nerfed AGAIN and he has to give up free slots for Impede quartz anyways so loud shrug. There's just no reason to use apart from being forced to. 3/10.
Altina: Okay, the bad out of the way first; Ebon Crest got nerfed to 5 BP and counterplay to it seems to exist now. Also bad, her craft list is still all over the place, she still has a terrible HP/speed combo, and she's a primary caster who doesn't get ATS from her weapon. Now for the good, Time/Space/Mirage are active for pretty much the entire game so having Mirage/Space locks is considerably less of an issue, plus having a potential mountain of EP is a good way to Make Stuff Happen. Her healing/CP recovery craft self-targets now so there's that. She's one of four people to get Auto-Charge 2 which makes infinite Chrono Burst (and other things besides) even easier to pull off. Finally, casters are just pretty much better for longer than they were in CS3, so even the one with the lowest (non-cheese) cieling comes off looking pretty fine here. 6/10.
Randy: He's an acceptable standin for a physical bruiser in the first part of Chapter 1 at least, having a 4S+ S-Craft and a solid filler Brave Order will do that. 2 Fire/1 Time doesn't offend as far as orbment locks are concerned either. You just... can't really do MORE with him since his main MQ is fixed and Regulus isn't really great outside of randobusting. Still, he's at least good at something. 5/10.
Ash: Once again I can't bring myself to be as impressed by Ash as Tide, but he's hardly bad. His strength isn't -that- amazing overall and while he does get a 4S+ S-Craft... it's single target only and while that's not quite as embarrasing as it sounds in this particular Trails game, we've long since passed the days of TitS and so I can't think that highly of it, especially since Gaius and Crow also get S-Crafts that strong. Meanwhile the base version of Reaper Whirlwind (y'know, the thing that made up a lot of his randobusting worth) had its status odds slashed to 30% and it costs 80 CP now, which is a pretty big oof early. Plus I can't really say I'm a fan of Crit+% Brave Orders when they have such a paltry buff effect attached to them. On the plus side it's at least easier for him to pull off his game now for a variety of reasons. 5.5/10.
Fie: Once again, Fie doesn't do much except for the thing she's really good at doing. I guess Concealing Wind is a cute way to ensure BP gain but it has similar problems as Unbound Rage while being less Chrono Burst friendly. Plus the thing she's really good at doing involves letting enemies get turns and doesn't help against enemy S-Crafts anyways. At least the early game is good though. 5/10.
Elliot: Someone who looks a lot better if you're not cheesing the fuck out of the game for pretty much the same reasons why Elliot was always solid. About the only complaints I have about him are that he can't unbalance with anything but his basic physical and that like most primary casters he's a bit on the slow side. 6/10.
Sara: Always a solid choice, but never the best, plus having her Brave Order nerfed to 5 BP plus the nerfing of break strats with regards to human bosses pretty much means her own brand of cheap isn't coming into play much in a field as crowded as this, although it still does exist. Is that enough to justify a 7? Yeah probably. 7/10.
Musse: Okay. It's pretty much impossible to talk about Musse in CS4 without talking about her Brave Order. In CS3, there wasn't a whole lot of point to it since even if you cared enough about casters to build a party that way, Titania MQ meant you basically had infinite EP to work with anyways and Divine Song had the same BP cost as Arts Celebration so who cared if the former didn't come with an ATS buff or restore EP? In CS4? Not only is Rean not around until Chapter 2 while Musse joins about two thirds of the way through Chapter 1, Divine Song had its BP cost upped to 3 whereas Arts Celebration basically wasn't touched at all, plus fast cast spamming with Divine Song isn't quite as strong against bosses this time around. And sure, you can sub Titania for anyone you want now, but that doesn't help if you use something that does no damage, like Chrono Burst. And while Chrono Burst went from 240 EP to 280, that's pretty much irrelevent in the face of CS4 EP pools. In other words, somebody didn't think their cunning plan all the way through and Arts Celebration is the best tool at taking advantage of that. If that's not enough, in terms of raw power she's probably the strongest offensive caster despite losing to Emma on ATS by virtue of actually having an offensive S-Craft and just has a bunch of neat stuff in theory that doesn't come up normally because the game ain't hard and she also has this One Weird Trick that overshadows everything. 8.5/10 is probably right since I'm not sure that even with all that she has the sheer level of statistical/skillset dominance for a 9 but damned if she doesn't try.
Alisa: Pretty much unchanged from CS3, about the only strike against her is not being able to infinite with Chrono Burst quite as well as some but whatever. Sightly better than Sara IMO but not enough so that she gets higher than a 7/10.
Jusis: Jusis pretty much only got buffs, but they're slight incidental buffs like his S-Craft being 3S+/4S now and Treasure Sword now impedes. More crucially, however, his Brave Order didn't get touched at all, which means it's now solid filler. Having 2 Space/1 Wind is probably better for the infinite Chrono Burst loop than Tide credits him for (and he's got more EP than Juna at base to boot) but no Burning Heart means he's worse at it than Junie regardless, and he doesn't offer all that much to non-cheese setups other than maybe Arts Support 2. 5.5/10.
Machias: While Machias may not have Burning Heart, he does have a bunch of other nonsense going for him that applies to almost any team, cheese or non-cheese you could think of except maybe, MAYBE fast cast spamming (and even then he gets Auto-Charge 2). His own offense isn't anything to write home about as usual, but someone's gotta keep the engines of broken running and Machias does that job nicely. 6/10.
Laura: Oof, big f here. So when you're occupying one dimension as Laura does you want to be the best at it, and unfortunately for Laura in CS4 she now has Actual Competition when it comes to her role and said competition just have more to offer in general. This, much like how it is with Kurt, does not lend itself well to the idea of Laura actually having gameplay prescence, and while a part of me says that since she at least is good at something relevent she should get a higher score than him she uh doesn't even have the decency to have an impede craft and Kurt's deals magic damage which is better anyways so uh I don't think I actually can. 3/10.
Emma: Castbest ATS as per usual but again her S-Craft might as well not exist. And the castbest ATS isn't even that significant (though the Mirage locks help I guess). She does get Auto-Charge 2 at least but she doesn't get it until Link Lv6 so she's losing to Altina/Machias/Crow at that too. At least she doesn't have it nearly as bad as Laura though. 5/10.
Gaius: Okay here's where I most strongly disagree with Tide because everything you need to make Gaius busted is basically handed to you and getting around the initial downsides to pulling off loop nonsense with him is pretty much trivial in terms of expenditure, and even that expenditure basically goes away completely once your options expand. So to start things off, Gaius has the best S-Craft in the game at 4S/All that upgrades to 4S+, however that's not what makes it stupid. No, what makes it completely stupid is that it also applies completely irresistable AT Delay and that it's attached to someone who can trade HP for CP. "But Random!" you say "It only adds 8 clockticks and S-Crafts have huge delay, it can't be that good!" Sure, pulling off a loop with it in the beginning isn't the most elegant thing in the world since you do need to maintain Gaius's HP and don't have stupid amounts of passive CP gain, but the fact that you *just got access* to a Chrono Burst quartz to go along with Musse's Brave Order solves a whole lot of problems there, doesn't it? The dirty secret, of course, is that you don't need this loop to go on infinitely (and indeed, S-Crafts can't generate BP on their own so this can't), just long enough to build back the BP needed to start the loop again, plus it's stronger than Juna's basic physicals so you probably don't need to early anyways. And of course once your options expand, the less work you need to do to make it work. Now sure, since this involves piggybacking off of others and he's merely solid outside of this I'm definitely not gonna give him a better score than Juna, let alone Musse, but this does work with literally zero sepith investment, and that does deserve some Jeigan points. 7/10.
Rean: Rean, by comparison, offers little outside of his good selection of Brave Orders and his speed, and while I like self buffs I also uh like having control of my PCs. He does get a solid powerspike on the last day thanks to those bonding accessories and an upgrade to his S-Craft but that's mostly a conventional play sort of thing. 6.5/10.
Crow: Like Sara, Crow is just a pile of good stats without anything that makes him cheap, Azure Destiny is one heck of a self buff but at 100 CP it had better be and while Chaos Raven is probably better than Rean's two cheap filler Brave Orders it's not better than those AND Divine Song. On the plus side, he also gets Auto-Charge 2 so that counts for something at least. 5.5/10.
Duvalie: Uh. Yeah unless you're cheaping out with infinite Chrono Burst I really don't have much good to say here. Locked Dunamis MQ is only really good for randobusting and her craft list/ATS combo isn't amazing for it anyways, and range 1+no Wind locks is pretty much the worst combo for an evade build and that's not great anyways. I'm not sure how much I like only one Space lock for infinite Chrono Burst anyways but this is at least something she has on the worst of the cast, so. 4/10.
Angelica: Well she has two Space locks, and locked Emblem MQ is pretty far from the worst thing. Of course, if you're cheesing the game it's pretty much long since died before you can exploit how stupid having multiple top-end quartz is but a more conventional approach would appreciate the extra power. That said, I do wish she had better AoE that wasn't tied to her S-Craft, or better ATS failing that. 5.5/10.
Tita: Pretty much unkillable by straight HP damage and that is hilarious considering that it's freakin' *Tita*. Her only downsides are having kind of bad ATS and garbage speed but she hits hard. Pretty easily a 7 if she stuck around for the final dungeon as Tide said but as it stands a 6.5/10 will have to do.
Sharon: Yeah can't say I'm a fan of locked Gloom MQ, it's not even that great for randobusting because high status resistance abounds when she's around and "when she's around" is basically just the pre-final dungeon part of the last day so uh loud shrug. This is still probably more presence than Kurt and Laura have though. 3.5/10.
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Bravely Default 2.
With just one playthrough I don't feel remotely authoritative about this game, the job system is incredibly deep in terms of the ways you can fit stuff together even compared to other Bravely games, and I definitely didn't have time to truly dive into each job.
So I'm just gonna take Jo'ou's ratings and propose how, if at all, I would be inclined to change them. Few jobs are gonna move by more than 2 points, Jo'ou's ratings and justifications are fundamentally solid.
I don't care about anything past JL12 (except Freelancer I suppose, and only barely for them) - by both my observations and Snowfire's, they're gated behind fights that are comparable to the final boss, so any merits they unlock at the last second would be weighted at virtually nothing if the fight guarding them is judged as easier than the final boss, and absolutely nothing if judged as harder.
Anyway, Jo'ou's ratings for reference!
Freelancer: 6.5/10
Black Mage: 3/10
White Mage: 8/10
Vanguard: 7/10
Monk: 4.5/10
Bard: 8/10
Beastmaster: 9/10
Thief: 7/10
Berserker: 7/10
Gambler: 2/10
Red Mage: 6.5/10
Ranger: 6.5/10
Shieldmaster: 5/10
Pictomancer: 7/10
Salve-Maker: 8.5/10
Dragoon: 7/10
Spiritmaster: 8/10
Swordmaster: 7/10
Oracle: 6.5/10
Phantom: 9/10
Arcanist: 4.5/10
Bastion: 5.5/10
Hellblade: 7/10
Bravebearer: 8/10
Freelancer: Lower? I think this ranking only makes sense if Body Slam is very good. I didn't get it, so I'm not sure how good it is, though it looks solid on paper... but not Godspeed Strike good (for starters, it needs Sub-Job BP Saver to really compete). The class itself is extremely unpleasant to be in with its C ranks everywhere which makes me eye it much more harshly; my own inclination was to get out especially since BD1 starts showing teeth pretty quickly.
Black Mage: Higher. I think you underrate its utility in Prologue-C1 mostly; before you get Beastmaster it's your best random sweeper and boss fighter both (Poison!). Obviously bad later, but having a clear niche before everything else starts getting rolling is a lot better in my eyes than a lategame job which has some on-paper niche but is competing with 20 other broken things.
White Mage: Probably about right. It's less good than BD1 because Salve-Maker offers better competition, but still really goddamned great in Chapter 1-2; good luck keeping up with boss offence with just items. I will say that if you're not going for hyper optimum Spearhead ORKO strats in randoms, that its ability to efficiently heal you with one button is pretty darn convenient (the game won't use items for this), but I'm not inclined to boost its score for that.
Vanguard: About right. A bit of everything, mostly competent. The Cross Slash series is just good damage for what it is, and Gift of Courage, while no One More For You, is still a nice tool, and attack debuffing has some use in early boss fights.
Monk: About right? Maybe a bit lower? As I said earlier I am strongly inclined to rate it below Black Mage, but that might be just a "rate Black Mage higher" vote. It doesn't really stand out and then you get better physical jobs and forget about it.
Bard: About right, basically agree with everything you said. It might be sliiightly lower in my books because at a certain point some bosses do start having some pretty nasty anti-buff counters, but very good for a long time; the survival it enables in tough boss fights early is great.
Beastmaster: This job is ridiculous. I think if anything I'm even higher on it than you. First off: the accuracy! In a game where enemy evade is significant, Beastmaster being game-best at this (tied with Ranger but then you get their stupid mastery) is a major boon which had me going back to the job any time the going got tough. And the skillset; Mercy Smash is a cost-effective damage option, and Mow Down is one of the premier MT moves, a slightly weaker Crescent Moon that doesn't need Sub-Job BP Saver (though goodness knows the skillset benefits from SJBPS in other ways...). And obviously releases are just ridiculous in Chapter 2-3. You say its utility falls off, I say its utility won me the game. MVP without much question to me.
Thief: Godspeed Strike/10 is a perfect summary. I basically agree.
Berserker: Lower? Maybe. I like different things about this job than you! I definitely think you overrate Savagery; its MT options are just Mow Down variants but requiring more support, Amped Strike is very expensive compared to Neo Cross Slash and Godspeed Strike (both of which do more damage), and its debuffs are garbage. That said, I like its passives: Indiscriminate Rage has a neat synergy for randommashing later, though, Bloody-Minded has some use because enemy evade gets kinda bananas at point, and Unshakeable Will is very neat especially if you run a tank. Pierce Default is cool for randomsweeping too, but how Spearhead's better.
Gambler: Pass, I got it right before the final boss. Looks bad though.
Red Mage: Lower definitely. A deeply unpleasant job to actually be in before mastery, being a mage with garbage offence (both the stat and the proficiecies play a role here) and a straight-up worse primary than black mage until Level 12 (one less element, and Poison > ST healing). Gets one good passive, and another good one if you actually run magical offence (plus its mastery skill for the latter), but meh.
Ranger: About right. Counter-Savvy's great, and they've got a bunch of nice perks as you note: the speed, the accuracy, the S in bows. I was having good results running my MT physical offence off of them, two of my fighters did this for a while.
Shieldmaster: Higher! I liked this job. Most bosses from Chapter 3 on rely on powerful ST attacks off high speed to be scary, guess what Shieldmaster spoils? Even better, their passive can intercept MT attacks. And then the second passive means they start gaining crazy amout of BP just from spamming Defender of the People, which can power lots of utiltiy for free. Dual Shields, Fast Hands, their high weight tolerance/durability all add up to a deathtank who isn't nearly as slow as they "should" be who can keep you alive in most fights. Not quite as good against the final final boss whose basic physicals are comparatively rare but even then, Protect Ally absorbing MT attacks saved my bacon at points. And in the meantime they can be a tanky carrier of another support skillset of your choice.
Pictomancer: A bit lower? I dunno. Sub-Job BP Saver/10, that obviously benefits a whole bunch of other skillsets, but nothing else about them really wowed me. Their debuffs are an upgrade on Vanguard's but it felt like debuff countering started getting more common shortly after and I ended up using them less than I was expecting to.
Salve-Maker: About right. This job's good! A better healer than White Mage except for the part where it does bleed the bank some; Widen X-Potion's 3750 MT is more than I ever got MT Curaga doing, for less MP, and the skillset has superior MP and status healing options too. I didn't even use its status much but that only makes it better! At least if Results Guaranteed can do something about the awful base hit rate of the status bombs, and not just their status infliction rate.
Dragoon: About right. Not too standout but a good statstick with a bit of everything; its skillset is kinda like Beastmaster's without the most broken part but Angon > Mercy Smash against a defaulting target (though similar to Neo Cross Slash).
Spiritmaster: About right to slightly lower, as far as defensive carry classes it's not as impressive as the healers, and certainly not as impressive as BD1 Spiritmaster with its anti-element nonsense. The MP healing spirit is definitely nice late though, as is Reraise.
Swordmaster: About right. I'll add that Solid Stance + Indiscriminate Rage is basically the ultimate randommunching, especially due to BD2 basic physicals having better accuracy than skills in practice.
Oracle: Lower just because of how unpleasant it is at first, and the later we get into the game the higher % of the class's existence that represents. I wasn't as high on the skillset as you either, though yeah it'd be better as support to an offensive mage I guess.
Phantom: Probably right, although somewhat based on the effectiveness of Results Guaranteed status cheese which I didn't toy with myself. That said, plenty of other good stuff as you note. I don't think it's as good as Beastmaster but it's very good, easily the best of the lategame jobs. I'm a bit less high on dual weilding than you since double the weapons means double the weight, which can be difficult to work around - obviously has potential, but it's not a free lunch.
Arcanist: Lower. Late, awkward. You can probably build a funny team around them but there are surely simpler, more flexible ways to get more effective results this late.
Bastion: Lower? I feel like this job compares poorly to Shieldmaster in a variety of ways: later, worse stats for its role (better offence, but worse speed/durability), and without the kickin' proactive tanking passives. I'm sure you can make it work though.
Hellblade: Lower. I dunno, I tried to use this and decided I was just messing with a good thing and went back to ignoring it. I basically agree with Snowfire that, while Deal with the Devil's downside isn't the end of the world, that it's still more bad than good, and could bite you in a tough fight. I'd have a higher opinion of it if Reraise could save you from the downside, but it doesn't.
Bravebearer: I have no clue, but I think you're probably right? The job barely exists; by the time you get it, you're about 30 minutes of gameplay from the final boss tops... but it's still good enough that you'll very possibly make use of it despite this, and the more you're willing to spend a little more time doing optional stuff, the more potential it has.
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The Last Spell:
Characters themselves are randomly generated toons with a punch command. All the skillsets are tied to weapons, so effectively weapons are the characters.
All characters can carry 2 weapons.
Melee:
1H sword: 2/10. Tiny AoEs, weak damage. Momentum is its only trick and other melee weapons do it better.
1H hammer: 7/10. Hit 8 medium damage for 2 AP 1 mana, good the entire game. Any kind of slow spam from traps or other heroes makes the 1 AP opportunistic attack good.
1H axe: 3/10. Much worse accuracy than any other weapon, so bad it misses earlygame enemies regularly. Dreadful starter. Your melee needs to roll +acc on levelup a bunch of times to salvage it mid/late, but if you get those levelups then it brings decent AoE spam.
Dagger: 9/10. Backstab is amazing ST when you can proc it, which is pretty often. Poison daggers is a medium range skill that damages like a good melee one. Stupid high ceiling if you get good levelups/gear drops (multihit, skill range)
2H sword: 6/10. Strong small AoE, can make enormous ST hits with momentum, and a good mobility skill. Crushes the final boss. Can't clear big waves, -1 for no shield.
2H hammer: 4/10. Thoroughly meh. Decent damage, high mana and AP costs, -1 for no shield.
2H axe: 4/10. Above average at chunking big tightly packed balls, doesn't bring much else. -1 for no shield.
Spear: 5/10. Lategame weapon. Its niche is 1per turn big damage hit 7-9, nice for when monsters with actual durability show up in numbers which is last quarter of game. Okay ST momentum hit, high mana and AP costs, -1 for no shield. Bad starter.
Ranged:
Shortbow: 8/10. Rain of arrows is clunky but really hard hitting AoE, hit 4 or 5 usually. Good 1 AP ST attacks, plenty of range.
Longbow: 8/10. Massive range and a 1 AP attack with isolate, for crushing runners and flyers as they try to make a run for your wall gaps. For standard ball killing duties it brings average ST and AoE damage and great range.
1H crossbow: 7/10. In an average playthrough this gives you one decent hit on a ball with blaze then a bunch of mediocre ST ping. Short range. This weapon has the highest ceiling for characters that get lucky with levels and drops, as blaze and the basic attack both scale like crazy with multihit bonuses, blaze with propagation bonuses as well. You get this kind of character maybe 20% of runs.
2H crossbow: 3/10. High tier starter, strong reliable damage when it's just 1 wave and nothing has dodge. Below average accuracy. As attacks start splitting up and enemies get dodge, this thing becomes trash, not below average but unplayable dog shit. All the good attacks are straight line only targeting and medium range so positioning to attack gets very awkward even with high move, and the few attacks you do get off can be a miss on 75 miss on 80 kind of experience.
Pistol: 5/10. Decent 1pt AoE and very strong 1pt ST momentum hit with a movement skill to help out. If you're not proccing that momentum then its damage per AP is really bad. Better late than early.
Rifle: 4/10. Isolate weapon. Goodish late because it can annihilate the strongest monster in a group after other attacks have isolated it. Awful starter and rather slow to find its legs though, because its AoE option is 1pt and pretty weak.
Magic:
Wand: 5/10. Magic missile's pretty good, spam your AoEs first then surgically pick off stragglers. 1AP attack below average but serviceable.
Tome: 7/10. Great range. Chain lightning is a very strong 1pt AoE attack, mana intensive though. 1AP attack average damage. I almost never use fireball.
Scepter: 2/10. Weak damage, horribly short ranges, mediocre sized AoEs. Doesn't bring any kind of niche or time specific power spike.
Staff of power: 3/10. Shortish ranges but not as bad as scepter, mediocre damage and a decent AoE stun. Needs high move to be decent. Bad starter.
Druidic staff: 9/10. AoE slow hit 9 is crushing against early waves of weak slow dudes, they can't push forward at all. Chain poison damage starts decent and scales great into lategame simply because it ignores all 4 forms of defense (block, armor, dodge, res) and those stats scale up a lot on the enemy end. Good range, cheap mana costs but high AP costs.
Orb: 8/10. AoE poison a bit weaker than druidic staff, good for the same reasons. Ranged isolate with average range, you get lots of opportunities to land it.
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Banner of the Maid: ok but what if napoleon's sister fought the duke of wellington's sister(?) nearly two decades before waterloo
The nice thing about the game is that class balance is, while pretty far from perfect, a fair bit tighter than it typically is in FE and FE-adjacent games. Like, there's one or two classes that I'd straight up call bad but even then they're probably still better than shit like armor knights or archers (one class certainly tries but at least it actually has mobility.) Cast balance, on the other hand does leave a bit to be desired, especially considering how small it is. But anyways.
Pauline: Fairly good lord-type character although not all that amazing compared to some. The stats are only generally nice (until C25 where they become generally good, especially with the more offensive promotion option) and Grenadier leaves a bit to be desired as a class line (FFM that's only alleviated through situational move boosts that you have to pay to grab, if there's a player-accessable range 2 musket other than the one she starts with I missed it completely, gets countered by light infantry which the game uses quite heavily, like I don't think they're actually the worst class but they're definitely bottom half.) On the other hand, she's generally durable (and being able to restore 20% of her HP on defeating enemies is nice, potentially 70% if it happens with a Heroic Attack), good at producing morale, her personal ability lets her give everyone +3 attack for a turn for the cost of 50 morale (and doesn't even fully use up her turn lol) which is pretty great, the buff to adjacent infantry is occasionally useful (especially the +2 speed version you get from the unlockable promotion), and her stats are actually good enough to one-round line infantry with some finessing, which helps considerably. 7/10.
Lannes: On the other hand you have Lannes who certainly tries to make a case for Grenadier being the worst class since he fails at the things Pauline succeeds at and all he's got to show for it is better HP (although at least in his case it's gamebest) and Armor, and that doesn't make up for how much worse he is against infantry. At least his personal is kind of okay I suppose? And if you want to actually use another Fusilier with Pauline (you probably do at times) he's your only option until C20. 3/10.
Murat: So Murat is probably the most hyperspecialized PC in the game. Hussars use the weakest weapon type (although sabres do at least buff evasion, which helps his dodgetanking game) and Murat himself has one of the lowest base Attack stats but on the other hand his speed is nuts (ties for cast-best post promotion) and his class counters light infantry (which as mentioned are quite common) incredibly hard so he'll succeed at his main combat role unless you let him get underleveled (mostly a problem early as his speed isn't actually wonderful to start off with). And then his personal skill is basically a free +20 hit as well as +10 evade provided the enemy doesn't have range 3+ oh it also buffs other cavalry too, it's pretty great. Mobility is great as well of course. Granted his offense against things that aren't light infantry is quite pathetic (like, struggles to take out enemy artillery pathetic) and his durability when his evade fails him is pretty meh, but I have to think the pros outweigh the cons in his case. 6/10.
D'Eon: Crutch character without being an actual crutch, and one of the few such characters who actually deserves to be called an EXP thief. Well okay I guess the crutch part is being in one of the two candidates for best class in the game (spoilers the other one is also light infantry) but even then D'Eon manages to fuck it up completely. Literally Fire Emblem memes circa 2004, but being light infantry is probably good enough to dodge a zero. 1/10.
Paulette: Artillery! Awful movement but range 4 and the ability to double move (which she gets for free) make up for a lot of lost goodwill. Speed's castworst though so she'll never be that amazing at offense (and tends to weep against line infantry that specifically spoil artillery), but on the other hand she is great at producing morale and artillery gets probably the second best Heroic Attack booster in an AoE stun. Granted, the stun's only 50% so it's no Ashes and Dust but still handy (alternatively she could just oneshot light infantry/cavalry with them, that's fine too I guess). Helps that her base Attack is really high. 6/10.
Aimee: First of the game's two healers, and since you really don't want to be relying on consumeables or campfires if you can help it you're definitely going to be using at least one. Granted, "healer" here also extends to things like turn refreshing and morale generation so. Still, suffers from inventory space problems and is stuck at FFM (although you can at least get Movement +1 for her, which makes the difference between her and the other healer somewhat less stark) but can't have everything I guess. 6.5/10.
Oscar: Elf summed heavy cavalry in this game up pretty well, they're basically armor knights on a horse. Of course, this being game being set during the French Revolution, the defensive stat heavy cavalry are good at is the lesser used of the two and the class they directly counter isn't exactly common or especially threatening (unless you happen to be a Carabiner I guess). Granted, Oscar does pretty well for herself anyways despite the class tree fighting with Grenadier for third-worst. Helps that she's actually good at tanking things that check Armor and that her single hit offense is just nuts, tied for castbest at base if you take the unlockable promotion and that branch gets a skill that lets her randomly perform speed-independent doubles at Lv20 which helps with her worst problem in that regard. 6/10.
Desaix: Well uh. I'd say that they're more useful than Lannes if they weren't absent for a decent chunk of the midgame. And using two heavy cavs is a very map dependent kind of thing to begin with so yeah. X but with less everything doesn't tend to work unless you're in a great class to start with and even then there are limits. At least they get Replace for free? 2.5/10.
Cosette: So, Carabiniers are basically what FE archers want to be. Carabiniers do this thing where instead of dodge tanking they add +1 range to their attacks (although at a Fates-style attack speed penalty before they promote) and have high accuracy, and while they're not the fastest their speed is typically good enough for the things you'd actually use them against (i.e. not light cavalry) and instead of meh Attack like the other light infantry class they get pretty good Attack, and in Cosette's case she tacks on an additional 3 damage to targets on open terrain (so, most things) plus her Speed is best among people in her class so she can actually deal with some other light infantry types pretty well. But wait, it gets better, because the class also gets a skill that basically gives them Galeforce on Heroic Attacks (2BP, but you can buy a better version if you wanted I guess) and one that basically negates the speed penalties that the higher tier rifles come with in return for their increased range lol. On the downside the class is stuck at FFM (but at least they can potentially ignore terrain) and she's quite squishy against cavalry/artillery but probably gamebest PC? I guess the morale generation also leaves a bit to be desired but in Cosette's case the sheer level of offense goes a fair way towards helping me forgive that. Having both a great offensive spread and range takes you a long way. 8/10.
Adelaide: Hello castbest dodgetank. It's not completely foolproof since some enemy types are specifically set up to spoil that kind of strategy but having so many ways to not get hit while having acceptable offense (the base Attack isn't great though the personal and class abilities help with that, but the speed's tied with Murat) while also having range 2 post promotion is good enough for at least second best PC, I think. Helps that the mobility is also good, 6 move/terrain ignoring/canto is about the best you can ask for when having a ranged option (also the class can also buy Heroic Reload+ too lol.) 7.5/10.
Charlotte: Murat with a bit less speed and a worse personal (though not quite as useless as it first appears) but generally better offense. Significantly so on occasion, even, like she can actually one-round enemy artillery sometimes (and for all that it's not relevent in this assessment at all, I certainly wouldn't want to try to win the optional C26 duel with Murat if the game forced it on me.) About as balanced as a female PC in this game gets when compared to their male counterpart and while I think Charlotte probably loses the comparison I don't think it's enough for a different score. 6/10.
Eugenie: Mounted healer. Only has +1 move on Aimee for the most part (technically 2 but let's be realistic, you're paying for Movement +1 on Aimee if you're using her at all) and an occasionally useful command skill (pity it's only for a single attack), but that's still some power creep. 7.5/10.
Ernestine: Adelaide with a bad personal skill instead of a great one, comes in slightly underleveled, and has a slightly worse stat spread. Still doesn't fail enough at her class nearly to be bad though. 6.5/10.
Dutheil: Sappers are weird and mostly bad, they're line infantry but more of a support class than anything, except making use of their support is annoying and hampered by their having gameworst mobility (and they need an extra four levels to promote, just to rub salt in the wound) and their other gimmick of being able to partially ignore Defense doesn't really make up for how utterly garbage their offense is. Like, being able to get more uses of Triumph Music (the game's dance equivalent) is great and all? But you probably have enough as is even without using one. And of course he also wastes his good defensive stats by having heavy cavalry-level speed. Still, what support there is is probably good enough to save his class from being the -actual- worst one, but still. And I think on reflection I'd rather have him around than Lannes if I had to choose so. 3.5/10.
Lafite: Paulette who trades some Attack for a better splash damage skill and has to pay for being able to double move. Not a winning trade in the slightest but hey, artillery is artillery. 5/10.
Laure: Carabinier, this time with castbest Attack and a personal that buffs range for a turn. Gives up speed for it (still above average, good lord Carabiniers are dumb) and joining at Lv14 on C18 isn't the best but hey, Carabinier is Carabinier. 6.5/10.
Therese: Same problems as Laure, but with the worst statspread (still above average at Attack/Speed) of her class and her personal sucks. Still, she's a Carabinier and doesn't fuck it up completely so she's not the -actual- worst female PC (spoilers it's the one Elf missed) but still some Robespierre-approved anti-royal propaganda here. 5.5/10.
Philipp: So. Philipp's light cavalry class uses rifles instead of sabres, great, everyone loves rifles right?! Unfortunately Horse Chasseurs just suck completely, having the same base Attack problems as Hussars while having significantly less speed, and instead of a passive that helps them not fail at their most fundamental combat niche, especially since they use rifles and have to run into Defense, which light infantry are good at they get added range on counters and the ability to not be doubled on enemy phase. In fact I'm not sure what it is they're actually supposed to do other than take away the enemy's ability to perform Heroic Attacks and maybe counter enemy artillery after promotion, and those aren't really things that are good enough to justify a deployment slot. Oh they also promote at Lv19 so they have to wait later to use the good shit. Yeah, no amount of mobility can save it from being the worst class in the game IMO, even scrubs like Lannes and Dutheil can do something remotely worthile with their classes. Fuck, even D'Eon can at least pretend to dodgetank, for all that I think he's still probably worse. 1.5/10.
Nicolette: Joins at Lv13 on C20 and promotes at Lv19 and starts off in a line infantry class OH BOY. +4 Attack/Speed against higher level targets is the sort of passive the likes of Donnel and Mozu seethe with envy at however and that and being able to learn Replace (in fact I think she's the only non-cavalry who can?) makes up for some of that lost goodwill. Plus, like Pauline, her stats are just generally solid across the board Also, somewhat excitingly, she has the option to promote to Carabinier if you don't want more Grenadiers. I think I do agree with her being better than Therese but not enough for a higher score, so. 5.5/10.
Julie: The other Sapper and, as you can probably guess from that, the actual worst female PC. I guess her personal ability makes her better than Dutheil despite joining unpromoted at C23 but good luck actually using it outside of C28 seeing as how it requires 100 morale to use (this is a little unfair, it's a great effect, but it also either requires musician time you could use for other things or throwing someone who gets doubled by everything and has mediocre offense into combat.) On the other hand you could have concieveably promoted Dutheil by that point and I struggle to think of a compelling reason to use two Sappers so it's not like I can consider her to be all that meaninfully better. 4/10.
Leclerc: Joins unpromoted at C24 are you kidding me also he's another Horse Chasseur because of course he is. 1/10.
Rose: Only around for the last two maps, but hey, artillery with a free +1 movement and she hands out +2 speed to everyone on open terrain just for existing and she actually joins properly leveled. 6/10.
Napoleon: Last map only, but the personal ability rules and the stats are Pauline-level so I don't really have any complains other than him being in the worse Grenadier class. 5.5/10.
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Yep I braodly agree with all of that.
I have a slightly higher opinion of Phillip than you, just because BotM frequently uses "enemies that don't move until they can rush you together" and Phillipp's ability to strike at range 3 then get 3 more squares away to wake them up is something I found useful a few times. But it's fair to note that Actually Good PCs only have 1 less range at this and your criticisms are all correct so.
I missed Move+1 for Aimee, sad times. Not sure how. I didn't get Feuillants to the highest tier if that's what it's tied to.
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Movement +1 for Aimee is at Feuillant 2 which I'm pretty sure is completely unmissable, so you missing that is extremely strange indeed.
The main issue I have with Philipp's poke and run strat is, while what you say about enemy formations is correct and I did fail to mention that fact, is that I can't think of very many situations where it's meaningfully better than either setting up in a better flanking position or taking the effort to fire off Julie's ability and charge in anyways (granted the latter isn't exactly an option if you missed recruiting her and I can see having a better opinion of him being able to do that in that case, plus she does come four chapters later at earliest). I think C22 (the second snow map) is the only one where I might have cared, but that map gives you all the time in the world to go treasure hunting so, eh.
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Yep I'm apparently just an idiot for missing it.
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Bravely Default 2 (Hard Mode)
At the point where I'm pretty sure my feelings on the game's jobs are more or less set for the playthrough. Probably could use some more adjustment in the event I take the game for a replay (which in fairness does seem to be at least somewhat likely) and get a better feel for how stuff fits together a bit more. Also scores because I definitely disagree with some of the rationales here.
I'll mention stuff above JL12 but I won't really be factoring them in, there's some stuff you can do with them but they do feel kind of superbossy (why do you do this game) if you're not cheaping out with Phantom/Salve Maker and if you're doing -that- you've basically won the game as-is.
Freelancer: See Elf's comments, replace "if Body Slam is good" with "if Luck actually does impact status accuracy" because I'm mashing X to doubt hard from what I've seen. I guess there's a case for staying in for the JP passives since JP gains... don't really scale much but it's not a job you want to be in any longer than you have to. 3/10.
Black Mage: The job itself is junk (staves suck for too long for the S there to be that notable, the M. Atk is merely good in return for basically being a statistical wasteland) but the skillset isn't -that- bad, three elements to work with and poison for the early game bosses (and is even kind of relevent in C2, thanks Galahad), plus -aras are pretty okay for randombusting actually? Costlier than Mow Down sure but w/e, ethers are peanuts in this game and not being able to miss is nice. Sure you get better skillsets for singletarget magic damage eventually if that's what you're after and the fact that you can't uncap the job until you've unlocked Bravebringer is mildly insulting but I'm pretty much with Elf on this one, it's not good by any stretch of the imagination but it's not even in the running for worst job. 4.5/10.
White Mage: Healing! You want it because god damn do potions not cut it until you get Salve Maker. Obviously worse than BD1's WM (nerfed Angelic Ward that you can't pass around like candy, bad M. Def, harsher on MT healing) but still great. Like the fact that you don't need to uncap or even master the job for Arise too. 8/10.
Vanguard: Heroics is a pretty cool skillset and the stats do lend themselves to having a solid prescence... until enemies start spiking evasion and the job's bad accuracy bites them (and being spec'd for axes doesn't really help much) which kind of wastes the potentially absurd second speciality a bit, but really, you could do a lot worse that skillset. High weight tolerance is pretty welcome in the world before Wind Talismans become storebought as well. 7/10.
Monk: okay but why. I guess you can run BKB early but given how wild the durability curve is I'm rather skeptical of that being worth it, Besides the job doesn't... really... offer anything else unless you really want to help the BM spam fire. Also BM-level speed and those weapon ranks are more than a bit of a turnoff. 3.5/10.
Bard: Eh... I'd like the job better if the first two boss outings you had with it didn't counter Singing in extremely annoying ways and if it had synergy with any support skillset outside of Artistry. And honestly it's higher maintenance than BD1 Performer with an overall worse skillset (although in fairness you'd probably want those defense buffs bad if you're LLGing the game which IN FAIRNESS is entirely possible to do by accident) so yeah. I guess it's better in the Switch version where Singing buffs apparently didn't cap properly but that's not the version I played. 6/10.
Beastmaster: Oh look it's the degenerate broken class for degenerates and you get it in C1 lol. I didn't even set it as a main after mastering it but jfc the only way the job doesn't break itself is if you make a point to ignore what it offers you. 9.5/10.
Thief: Godspeed Strike/10 is indeed a perfect summary and I do think pretty highly of it... just outside of the speed the class is pretty unpleasant to be in thanks to the frankly awful durability (bottom-tier in both defensive stats, mediocre AND E in shields?!) and mediocre offense so hope you got some orbs handy. 6/10.
Gambler: lolno. This isn't even a level because More Money like BD1 Merchant was because money isn't even that much of an issue until you hit Mag Mell and want to splurge on Elf Capes or something and the passive doesn't even really give you that much anyways. 1/10.
Berserker: So on the one hand I basically agree with Elf here in that Savagery is kind of a junk skillset and the passives are the real draw here. Just uh... terrible speed, terrible aim, more durable than Thief by virtue of HP but same terrible defenses... idk I found it to be more unpleasant to be in than RM and Thief and my inclination was to say fuck it and live with chugging Ethers. Still deserves better than Monk of course (spoilers it's also going to be rated higher than the other two speed failures). Probably Black Mage as well but I struggle to justify higher. 5/10.
Red Mage: So this job is about Thief-level unpleasant to be in (slower but more durable and with something resembling an actual skillset) and Revenge is pretty cool, plus hey both Chainspell and Disaster are some solid mastery perks. Just, y'know. GETTING THERE. Also Nuisance has some fantastically junk odds on its own so it's not like it even has much of a niche until you do. Also, you know. Having to stay in RM for Chainspell until Bravebearer comes along and gives you SJS2. I want to rate it above Berserker but I can't actually justify that beyond "I cared enough to be bothered to get Revenge for everyone, which is more than I cared about Berserker" but honestly that's probably difference enough. 5.5/10.
Ranger: So bows are pretty cool before you get actual dual-wielding and of course this is far more pleasant to be in when you get it than Berserker OR RM and you only need to care until JL6 for Counter-Savvy, isn't that wonderful? Of course you drop it like a hot potato once you get dual-wielding setups worth a damn but honestly those facts alone put it above Godspeed Strike/10 in my opinion. 6.5/10.
Shieldmaster: Something of a slow burner since the job doesn't really come together until mastery but yeah I'm with Elf here, don't sleep on having a tanky healer/support to pull out of your back pocket when the going gets tough, there's nothing really dominating about it but generating BP via proactive durability is still worth a lot and it's not like the job is even that slow to begin with. If Defender of the People didn't have an activation limit I might even be half-inclined to rate it at WM but it's still pretty good as is. 7/10.
Pictomancer: Well it's a speedy mage carrier but the weapon ranks and the bad weight tolerance kind of speaks against it, as does the atrocious durability. It does at least have better debuffs than Vanguard as noted but that's still not exactly wonderful. You want to be in it anyways because SJBPS is cool but otherwise it exists. 6/10.
Dragoon: The skillset is only okay (Sonic Thrust is a better Mow Down that still doesn't need SJBPS, Angon is Mercy Smash that can kill things and pierce default, Full Force is cool for randosweeping at least) but oh boy what a carrier! Above average P.Atk and Aim! S in spears at a point where spears start getting really good (and A in swords if you're not into that for some reason)! Thief-level speed! Free dual-wielding upon mastery haha are you -kidding me- sure you marry yourself to the fact that Wind Talismans are basically mandatory but you were doing that anyways so who cares, if anything I'm slightly higher on this one. 7.5/10.
Swordmaster: And this one I'm somewhat less impressed by, although maybe if twohanding buffed Aim like dual wielding did I'd be higher on it. The counter gimmick has the same issue as Defender of the People does in that MT spoils it and apart from the higher P. Atk I like it less as a carrier than Dragoon since it needs mastery to really come together (and even then it's competing with Dragoon's lol I actually have 6 SP). There is something to be said for Solid Stance/Indiscriminate Rage/Multitask for randosweeping but eh that's a lot of effort even if BD2's randoms are overall more relevent than 1's. 6.5/10.
Spiritmaster: Clearly worse than BD1 Spiritmaster but still pretty cool, even if the weight tolerance is utterly dismal and Purebringer makes it kind of annoying as a carrier once you master the job. And then SJS1 helps break the game. 8/10.
Oracle: So on the one hand In One's Element is actually a kind of cool specialty and you can get up to some shenanigans with Elemental Supplement. That's... about all the nice things I have to say about the job though. Appallingly bad to be in until mastery (sub-Berserker! this should not be said lightly!) and I do not at all think highly of a skillset that revolves around low-duration single target buffing when the buffs aren't even that strong to begin with, and unless you're planning on shenanigans there's just so little reason to care. 3/10.
Salve Maker: On its own it's basically a better WM that has more overhead, which is fair. If you cared to use one as a mage carrier (you probably don't, but if) it's not shameful at it once daggers start getting legit. Then you master Phantom and suddenly LOOK AT ALL THIS STATUS IMMUNITY THE GAME DOESN'T HAVE holy shit, like it's obviously not effortless but jeez they didn't think this one all the way through and then SJS1 erases the skillset's overhead as long as you have the 40 MP to pop Results Guaranteed what in the actual goddamned fuck were they thinking. 8.5/10.
Arcanist: It's a job designed around randomsweeping with terrible speed and punishes you for using it to sweep randoms unless you embrace the Mandatory Double Wind Talisman lifestyle, at which point you just cry when wind gets spoiled instead. Maybe if Magic Amp was available before uncapping the job I'd put it above Freelancer but as is this job can fuck the hell off. 2/10.
Bastion: It's like you fused Vanguard and Shieldmaster together and ended up with something less than either of them. It's far from shameful but there's not much reason to actually care unless you love the prevention skills. 4/10.
Phantom: Hell yes I would like to have unpenalized dual wielding in this game please accept my blood sacrifice Mandatory Double Wind Talisman God. Worse carrier than Dragoon until you master the class but holy shit who thought up Results Guaranteed, it's not at the same level of Beastmaster because C1 vs. C4 but god this is disgusting enough for a 9/10 anyways.
Hellblade: Mage carrier because you have more attractive physical ones. Deal with the Devil is pretty clearly a losing trade even if it isn't catastrophic and the only reason to care about staying in the class is Surpassing Power but in all honesty if you're not doing portal asterisk fights you're probably okay with living with the normal damage cap. More attractive to use than Bastion I guess but you're still probably just messing up a good thing by the time you get it so eh. 5.5/10.
Bravebearer: Hell if I know how to rate it, that's a lot of power the game's handing to you but it's Athos clause stuff as Snowfire said.
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EO:Nexus ranking. Just a quick off-the-cuff rating, for something more in-depth I'd have to do a dungeon-by-dungeon/boss-by-boss analysis of each class ala the FF5 breakdown.
Hero: The sole new class to Nexus, Hero definitely makes a strong showing. Durable, not too slow, bonus passive healing per action, and lots and lots of damage potential. Hero's skillset covers five out of six elements, and most of them find use in some capacity. Afterimages, however, are what make this class really shine. Double damage for free (more than double with Force Boost), plus doubling the regen. They only have two big drabacks; crap LUC making them statusbait, and that they don't play well with anyone competing for that sixth slot. 8/10.
Protector: Exists for the sole purpose to make your party hard to kill, and they do their job admirably at that. They're a bit slow to start (Novice only gives them the basic guards and taunt), but once they get past L20, their utility shoots way up. Walls are one of the two ways to reliably deal with postgame bosses, for better or worse, and the combination of party-wide coverage and Shield Flare can lead to utter absurdity. 8/10.
Survivalist: The game is really not clear in what Survivalist is good for, but I've been able to gleam a good idea from a playthrough. Survivalist is best described as a combination exploration support and evasion-tanking facilitator. Their damage is good enough for randoms, but in a bossfight, they're going to be making sure the other guy *isn't* hitting you, reinforced by their Force Boost and Force Break. Perhaps their best use, though, is simply in helping with exploration; Risk Perception can throw a wrench in anything relying on a surprise attack, and Resuscitate is the single best heal in the game as long as you can use it (which is out-of-combat). All of these add up to a far better package than you would expect from the numbers and abilities, though still honestly a 6/10 overall.
Medic: Medic, I feel, is at its strongest in the earlygame, for one particular reason: they are the only class with native novice-tier combat revival (and one of a few with actually *reliable* revival). The heals are also remarkably strong and fast, and they can debuff defenses as well. Once Master tier unlocks, however, they get perhaps their greatest survivability additions: Overheal and Deja Vu, enabling their healing to change from reactive damage-fixing to proactive semi-passive survival that doesn't even need much attention paid while they then tend to staffwhacks. Fairly strong option overall, I'd give them a 7/10.
Ronin: Ronin damage is absolute bullshit. Highest STR in the game, using the highest ATK weapon class in the game, and they even have multiple viable builds-go all-in on damage via Upper Stance for utterly *absurd* degrees of pain, or add infliction and a deceptive amount of tankiness via Clear Stance. Whichever way it goes, they are absolute monsters, and Issen is perhaps the best of the encounter deletion Force Breaks. Katanas even benefit them just by giving some crowd control options with their many powerful itemcasts. 8.5/10, and that's about as high a rating as I'd be able to give.
War Magus: Oof. Much as it was my favorite of the healers in EO2 Untold, these guys got hit with the nerf bat pretty hard. Their stats are nothing special, they struggle to beat an Imperial in a footrace, and their damage and healing alike ultimately average out to unimpressive. The main saving grace they have is that their bindcuts have the highest base rates in the game (85% is no joke, even off of averageish stats), and the debuff slashes carry the single strongest ATK and DEF debuffs. Fairy Robe's a solid emergency button and all of its offense ignores cut resist. 6/10 feels about right.
Highlander: Highlanders are largely a one-trick pony. Thankfully, that trick is a really good one; huge amounts of stab damage, in both multitarget and single-target flavors. Legion Thrust is one of those abilities that will carry a party through the entire game, and their damage takes a massive spike once they hit level 40. Hero Battle and Turning Tide let them heal the party, often for full or near full, and mean you do not need to directly heal while they are going ham. Add to that the strongest multitarget ATK buff in the game in Bloody Offense, and boom. 8/10, easy.
Gunner: Gunner gets the best general backrow damage in the game. Double Action bindshots give them some strong disable utility as well, plus elemental coverage if they desire to go in on charge shots over Ricochet...and they can and will at times get three attacks in a turn under the right conditions (possibly four with the right subclass!). The problem, however, is that they're slow, frail, and inaccurate; they die to a strong sneeze in the backrow, and that's when they're not prepping a charge shot. 6.5/10.
Sovereign: Arguably the best class in the game. Sovereigns are *extremely* hard to do badly in general. Arms buffs stack multiplicatively with attack buffs alongside providing elemental coverage to the party, and they have a myriad of defensive and healing options for your party. Durability's not even a big issue for them, since they can sit in the back row with heavy armor and a shield. Almost the quintessential support unit, the big drawbacks for Sovereigns are that they don't have much in the way of crisis management, and they really, really want to have full reign of your party's buff slots. 9/10.
Zodiac: Zodiac, for an extremely large portion of the game, exists to do one thing: blow things up with elemental damage. And to its credit, that does work quite well starting out. Its options don't really diversify much throughout the game, though, with one exception: Prophecies are the other big way to nullify elemental attacks, and the only way if you don't wish to use a Protector main. They are, however, a lot like many of the backline damage-dealers, frail and slow. The Prophecies edge it out for me to bump them up to a 6/10, for what it's worth.
Ninja: Ninja are a very, very bizarre class, possessing a variety of utility skills and a brutal status kit, having the earliest and least restrictive means of applying Petrify in the game. Most notable is that while ostensibly a melee class, their special Proficiency skill allows them to treat *any* weapon as long range, and they can clone themselves. This last one brings them in conflict with Hero, since both want the sixth slot. Even without that, though, they get access to two of the strongest ailments in the game; Petrify and Panic. The former needs to be built around, while the latter is an instant lose to anything that gets hit with it. 7/10.
Farmer: Only ranking these guys with regards to what they can do for a proper exploration team, not a gathering party. Frankly, while I dislike them, they do have a few options. Strange Seeds is a reasonably strong bind chance off of their gamebest LUC, and Lullaby is reasonably strong random encounter control. For the most part, though, Farmers suffer from a lack of options. Their best options in bossfights are both tied to their Force gauge; Item Echo status gases and Final Secret to refresh everyone else's Force Gauge, either giving three more turns of Boost or refreshing it after a Break. Wide picks for their weapon options do mean they enjoy a variety of itemcasts, but the efficacy of these depends on where you are in the game (and they miss out on the strong Katana options). 5/10; the Force shenanigans make them pretty effective in the right team, but I really think Item Echo should've been rolled into Survivalist somewhere and these guys be given up for a different class anyway.
Shogun: Great Warrior, Front Command, Unified Effort. These three together compose two of the scariest things in Shogun's skillset, and those are available from the word go. From there on out, their katana skills also are all imbuable, a rarity among weaponskills. They're deadly additions to any team either as support or as attackers, even with being really squishy. Decoy Party is a good emergency Force Break in a bossfight to boot. 7/10, I'd say.
Landsknecht: Landsknecht is, to its detriment, a late-bloomer. Get it past the slog of the first few labyrinths, however, and they open up to be an absolute monster of an attacker. Extra points going to the Shield skill line of their tree, where Full Break off of Full Charge (their Force Break) will do utterly *absurd* quantities of damage. Links are usable but not great, the real money's in the sword and shield lines. They've got debuffs as well, but frankly, the big deal is the damage. 7/10.
Nightseeker: In competition with Ninja for the best status-slinger. Nightseeker trades the gimmicks and evasion for extra speed and power, and whereas Ninja takes less to focus in on randoms, Nightseeker can do far more damage to bosses. Unlike their ninja brethren, however, they cannot sit in the back lines if they want to use their weapon skills. The real edge they get over Ninja is in Proficiency and Follow Trace, a pair of damage boosters that amount to a 2.25x damage boost to any target that is inflicted with an ailment. Feels like an 8/10 to me.
Arcanist: Arcanist wants to be many things. It wants to be a status-slinger, a debuffer, a healer, and a damage-dealer. It is good at the first, passable at the next two, and laughable at the last - though this is admittedly less due to any fault of its own and more due to the fact that Almighty abilities have very few things that can buff them, due to classifying as neither physical nor elemental damage. Its ability to inflict status is better than it would appear on the surface, considering Circles run off of its very solid LUC and will apply over multiple turns, and they have several solid picks for status (most notably, Poison Circle and Sleep Circle). They are, however, *very* slow in a way no speed alteration can fix and need to be babysat. 6/10.
Imperial: My usual disclaimer here, I love Imperial. It's why I feel that as a class, it's...lacking something. Drives are impressive-looking from a damage standpoint (the average drive at max level will hit on par with some Force Breaks) but have long cooldowns without force boost, eat TP like no tomorrow, and put them at risk of getting oneshot before it goes off without some serious speed manipulation or protection. Additionally, while Accel Drive does max out at 1200% non-elemental damage, well, see Arcanist for the difficulty with Almighty attacks. 6/10, and I feel like I'm still overrating them a bit.
Pugilist: Pugilist in Nexus is...uniquely flawed. As a class, it is generally strong in the very earlygame and viable in the lategame- fast earlygame bind access for the former, and then actually having the SP to fill out its set in the lategame. The problem with them is that in essence, for most of what they do, Nightseeker, Gunner, and War Magus can do as well or better with less buy-in.(outside of perhaps Final Blow, and that's a Force Break). 5/10 feels right.
Harbinger:Harbinger is, in some ways, the offensive counterpart to Sovereign. Debuffs rather than buffs, attacks with status attached instead of healing...Harbinger's honest claim to fame here lies in the debuffs, particularly Wilting Miasma and Binding Miasma, which can make it easier for status to land, and harder for it to drop off. The reaps exist, but are always going to be incidental or supplemental damage and status at best. They're also comparably SP-hungry (guess it's a thing with EO5 classes), but have some utility, as much as that largely shows up in lategame or postgame. 6.5/10. [EDIT]: If paired with a Sovereign or similar, Harby jumps up to 7.5 at least.
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X-Com Chimera Squad:
So a note about this game: you only get 8/11 PCs on a single playthrough. I've only played this game once so far, so I'm missing 3 characters right now. I plan on correcting this once I do get that 2nd playthrough and play with the remaining 3 agents.
Godmother: Basically plays like a X-Com Assault Soldier. Run in, do lots of damage, then retreat somewhere safe when you need to reload. Godmother packs a heavy punch and she scales well into the end game due to her effectiveness being tied mostly to your research into weaponry. Some of her abilities are kind of eh but Ventilate is just so good. It has a guaranteed 100% accuracy with the damage range being the max of the weapon +4. Since shotguns were already the most powerful of weaponry, this ability just lets her vaporize like anything anywhere. Her durability is okay too, since she can get 15 base dodge, allowing you to get just below coinflip evade with the Mach Weave. This is good since she'll be front lining most of the time. She loses primarily in long range accuracy (because shotguns) and action economy compared to other offense cannons. Further compounding that problem are that her abilities chew through ammo really fast. So she almost always needs a magazine expansion as a weapon mod. 7/10
Terminal: Possibly game best PC? It's tough to say. Being the game's only medic is kind of a big deal since Terminal brings a spammable 4 HP a turn heal that only costs 1 Action Point. This lets you keep everyone topped off early, which like other X-Com titles, is the hardest part of the game. Later on, she gets some great support options such as Cooperate - allowing her to pass 1 AP to another ally of choice. The heal does weaken later since late game, enemies do about 6-8 damage so her 4HP a turn heal doesn't quite keep up. But early on, she's invaluable. And it's not like she's terrible late since her support options are still good. Just not as amazing as she is when starting out. 8.5/10
Cherub: Cherub is pretty representative of the game's difficulty curve. The early game and later on, when enemies can deal 2HKO damage, he is immensely valuable since his Kinetic Shield helps to give your guys an extra hit, which mitigates any healing you might need. He also builds charges when those shields break, which translates to a max 6 damage ITD AoE melee strike. This is enough to knock out most enemies and severely damage tankier ones. Later on, he also gains powerful support options with Supercharge and epic pistols that help bolster his action economy. In the middle though, he sucks. His main issue is his low damage and using Kinetic shield drains him of action points so he often can't actually attack - especially if he has to move. Overall, an above average unit with some faults but performs quite well when he's called. 7/10
Verge: Verge relies on longer engagements where he can mind link to many enemies to give him huge Hit and Crit bonuses. The problem is that those mind-link abilities aren't very good because they tend to wear off on the same round that they are inflicted. This makes him a weak crowd controller for the playstyle and without a lot of people linked together, he just ends up being an attacker with weak status effects. There are some gimmick set ups you can do here where you link Verge to 3 enemies+ then use the epic AR abilities to one round boss/tank enemies but in the amount of time and set up for that, you can just get one of the other attackers to bring it down in like a turn. Better early before everyone starts getting better but worse late once their skillsets all flourish. 6/10
Patchwork: If Terminal was the defensive support, then Patchwork is her offensive equivalent. There are a couple of different ways to build her but she brings a lot to the table. Mainly, she is absolutely critical if you decide to do the campaign with all the machines early because she is very effective them. Between hitting weakness and being able to hack them to bring them into your control (and she can do this at a distance), Patchwork does amazing crowd control. Her special is also a guaranteed 4 HP damage from range, meaning she is useful at picking off weakened enemies, or those under high cover. She also gains Stasis, which effectively knocks out a target for a turn or two before they return play. Just very very good. And unlike the risk with Terminal where the heals can get obsolete, Patchwork's control never does. She loses something in other campaigns, where there are less mechs, but yeah. 7/10
Torque: A utility player, bringing adequate offense, defense and miscellaneous options to the table. Torque has innate poison immunity, innate mesh weaving giving you the extra breach options and lots of base evade - 50% when she finishes her training. This can be stacked with her level ups and equipment to reach 100% evade, effectively making her an incredibly durable ranged tank. Sadly, melee attacks still have 100% to hit, so she isn't invulnerable. But unless she is stunned, she will either dodge or turned all ranged shots into grazing shots, doing minimal damage. On offense, Torque's training also gives her +20 Hit, making her accurate and SMGs are decent on damage. Poison is also incredibly nasty and she has a couple of abilities to land it. It does 2 points of damage at the start of the turn and it lowers mobility and Hit, which is great. Her other tools include her tongue pull and Binding an opponent. Both are useful for positioning/crowd control. Does everything decently but not the best at it - 8/10.
Blueblood: A somewhat late bloomer, but Blueblood is absolutely ridiculous. His personal passive lets him attack without consuming his turn if it is the first action he makes, meaning every round if you remain stationary, you can attack twice. He also has a personal command called Deadeye that increases the damage he deal by 50% with -15% Hit penalty. Early on, this hit reduction is balanced by the fact that there isn't a lot of good equipment to boost hit and Blueblood's base hit is still low since he is at base level. However, at end game, you can neutralize the penalty and with his high growth to Hit, he will basically be able to pump out a ridiculous amount of damage on his own. His other abilities, notably Cascade Lance, lets him shoot through a straight line without regard to obstructions ala Sharpshooters in Tactics Ogre. He is capable of taking out like 3+ dudes on his own turn and burns down bosses and tough targets in one action. An absolute offensive monster who's main hindrance is his slow start. 8/10
Axiom: The obvious tank/bruiser of the group. Like Blueblood, he starts off weaker but once he manages to get going, Axiom is pretty solid. He's less good on the human campaign as their damage seems to ignore defense. However, in the other 2 campaigns and against weaponry, Muton-man is a punching bag. Game highest HP, backed by high armor (defense), a chance to reduce any damage to 1 (tied to his Rage) and can regenerate health. His Rage mechanic is a bit of a gimmick, but it can be useful for positioning and the occasional bonus action. Once he's decked, you can effectively set him up in the middle of the map and let enemies wail on him since their guns will barely make a dent. Really benefits from having the Prodginy campaign completed so you can slot him with a Mindshield to prevent him from every losing Rage. I feel he's a better pick than Verge since Axiom has ways of getting his rage up quickly, but both are probably weaker than others on the roster. 7/10
Zephyr: I have a really hard time seeing what makes Zephyr even worthwhile to use. Having used her for only a few missions, I can already see some huge glaring problems. For starters, since she doesn't have a gun, she can't perform Overwatch meaning she can't cover you when you're retreating. Sure, her Parry skill nulls an attack, but its for only one attack, it is self-target and since you have to be in melee range to even do any damage, you'll often be left out in the open. Contrast this to Cherub's Kinetic Shield who can protect whoever you want, has way more range and buffs him when it gets broken. Pure melee has other issues such as no weapon upgrades, meaning as the game goes on, she'll get weaker because she can't get any bonus damage. In practice, this problem is way more of an issue because all gun users can equip ammo for added status and at least +1 base damage. Zephyr doesn't get this. Her skill tree does give her a +1 damage boost and can make her attacks ITD, but that bumps it up merely from 3-4 damage to 4-5 damage. It's a 100% but if that's the draw, just use Patchwork's GREMLIN Shock. It does Status, but since its from a pool of 4 and you can't choose it, its incredibly random. I was under the impression she'd at least be good in beginning like a Jeigan, but no. Even her start is awful because her base stats aren't anything special. She basically needed Torque's evade and Axiom's HP - then MAYBE. Otherwise, she definitely feels cast LVP - like I literally cannot think of a reason where she would actually be useful. 4/10
Claymore: Claymore has 2 main issues: His extremely low move of 9, which makes getting to new spots a challenge for him since he often can't move and attack without being out of cover. The second is that his AoE abilities cannot be made to ignore friendly fire. This becomes an issue since sometimes, there is just that one Civilian nearby and you have to weight whether its worth it or not to nuke them as well. Each civilian killed raises the chance of increasing unrest by 20%, so while killing one or two isn't detrimental perse, you can't complete ignore it. City unrest is what causes Anarchy to rise and how you lose the game, so this becomes a bit of an irritating bone of contention to Claymore. However, outside of those 2 things, he's basically unmatched in killing power except outside of Blueblood. They key to this is that Grenades in this game are a free action and Claymore has passives that a) grant him 2 of them b) let him regenerate 1 at the end of every skirmish. So every battle, he will have a free ability to toss a grenade out for AoE damage, which he can use alongside his normal bombs to create massive collateral/splash damage. The Shrapnel bomb only costs 1 action and when he is at max level, can be used more than once a round. This effectively lets him toss a Shrapnel, detonate it with a regular grenade, then throw a second nade or shoot with his gun. This combo will often down 2, sometimes 3 enemies. On occasion, he might even clear a room on his own. Shrapnel bomb can also be upgraded to cause Rupture (take more damage from every hit), which combos very nicely with Patch, Shelter and Verge's unevadable attacks. He's similar to Blueblood in that he's amazing late, but needs to get there. Worse than Blueblood though since you always have to consider potential friendly fire. 8/10
Shelter: Shelter gets a lot of flak for being the worst agent. I personally think this is unwarranted and that honor goes to Zephyr instead. Shelter's main issue is that his damage isn't very good and his promotions are pretty meh outside of his 2nd one. He's not easy to use mind, but he does create interesting gimmicks and set ups, which when done have a whole lot more impact than Zephyr. Relocating an enemy into one of Claymore's bombs, Blueblood / Godmother's overwatch or Patch's close range Voltaic Shock is pretty amusing. However, this Relocation effect can also turn delay an opponent, so with proper management, you can outkite certain enemies really effectively. He's also amazing for this reason on Escort or Escape type missions because he can easily shuffle allies closer to the EVAC point. Soulfire is a bit disappointing since it doesn't work on mechanical enemies and its damage isn't guaranteed at 4. This is on top of its 2 turn recharge, which means that you can't spam it like Patchwork's. However, it is unevadable, doesn't need any build up like Verge's and can still delay targets if you took that upgrade from his earlier promotion. Then there's Fracture, effectively granting you +1 PC when you use it. Sure, it's for one skirmish only. But of all the max level promotions, it's probably the most powerful one. He really needs a team built around him, which is his main weakness. Unlike the other top tier PCs who can be used regardless of the composition. 6/10
A more clear version of the ranking...
S - Good on any squad, any time, any campaign
A - Good overall, but have moments where they feel weaker
B - Good but shine mostly on one campaign or need some specific equipment to reach full potential. Average without those otherwise
C - Average. Decent or shine at certain points but other squad mates tend to be better choices, most of the time.
D - Okay, but clearly has issues and outshone in multiple areas.
S: Terminal
A: Blueblood, Torque, Claymore
B: Patchwork, Godmother, Cherub, Axiom
C: Verge, Shelter
D: Zephyr
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Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark.
Okay, so to be fair I'm only going to be rating the Story PCs here, no generics. I'll go into generics in the future but for now I'm only feeling good about them, so...take this with a grain of salt.
Kyrie: As the main character, and a fixed presence in every plot battle, you would hope she's good. And...she is, honestly. She's present throughout and thus has a long, long time to build up whatever classes she has - she personally could work with anything but her unique class is keyed to work on a hybrid ATK/MND build (you do not want to beeline for this class, it's very AP intensive). Which incidentally includes some of the better classes in the game for sheer damage potential (Fellblade, War Mage). The fact that she can't suffer Injuries (though you lose a 20% AP bonus if she falls in plot fights) is probably the biggest help here, though. Honestly, she'd be a solid 7/10 but I think the "No Injuries" bumps her up to 8/10.
Reiner: Reiner...I'm a bit split on. He was solid early on, but I can attribute that in part to him getting a quick start in Scoundrel, and high-level Scoundrel (and Trickster) is really good in the early parts of Fell Seal. He's also an initial-joiner, and thus will benefit heavily just from being there a lot. However, Spymaster is frankly built for someone who has in-depth knowledge of the game, and can take advantage of the toolkit it offers. It is not a bad class per se; the first ability is unreliable, but self-target haste, skillset duplication (even of unique ally classes!) and the ability to repeat the last move used at a discount are all really good. As is the teleport and Equip All (though I think the teleport animation is a bit long). They also require you to build your party and playstyle around it, and thus is more designed for a second run of the game; without that, he's basically a generic with better equip options and no access to Badge Classes. I'm going to give him a 6/10.
Anadine: If Kyrie's the ATK/MND powerhouse, Anadine's the Pure ATK monster. She does leave for half a chapter but frankly her unique class is monstrous enough that I'm not going to fault her. Demon Knight is capable of some of the heaviest hits in the game, alongside Templar and Ranger, and she can give herself ATK Up+Haste+Regen as well. Seriously, no joke. The backlash damage isn't even that bad. What is bad is a couple of things here that seem minor at first. First off, she's stuck at heavy armor for her unique class. Following FFT's grand tradition, heavy armor honestly blows, and you want anything else. Secondly, her unique class' best damage is locked to Dark, which is bad when that is the most frequently and heavily resisted element in the back third of the game. Something something demons, this is more justification to get her diversification. Still, I gave her Duelist and it led to absolutely hideous results once she got all the flourishes, and the insane ATK growth she gets access to is very nice. Solid 7/10.
Yates: See my above point on Darkness? Yates already starts in a bit of an uphill battle because, frankly, generics make better mages. This is because Princess is by far the single best caster class in the game (Dualcast II, among other things), and that's a Badge class. Yates' unique class is...bizarre, starting with Darkness and some insane healing boosts. Oh, and Reanimate. Probably the best thing he has access to is Reanimate, doubly so if there's enemies with revival (or you have items turned on for enemies). The zombie it creates is nothing more than a giant sack of HP, but animating the dead target makes it unsuitable for revival, and I have zero problems with being able to sabotage enemy sandbagging. Beyond that, though, he's only a good healer and an okayish mage. I'll give him a 5.5/10, 6.5 if enemies have access to items or you're on a healer-heavy map.
[EDIT]: learned the DLC gives him Penumbral Mastery for some ungodly reason. This is so good he jumps straight to 6.5/7 on conditionals respectively.
Bzaro: Hoooo boy. So, let's dissect this a bit. Bzaro is a very unique PC here, and probably either the most unique Blue Mage or the most transparent version of Gau I've seen. His classes are basically varied monsters, and he unlocks them from being deployed when fighting them (or other Bzil who use those same classes). More notably, he has no real growths, simply the stats of the monster "class" he uses, plus any mastery bonuses. This sounds like it would be a lot, but considering that each monster class has roughly half the depth of a humanoid class, it means he'll get a solid set of options by the end, and together with the "no growths" bit means he is perfect to fill in gaps in your party. He does join mid-C3 at the earliest, but due to how he worked, I had no real issues with integrating him whenever there were monsters to be fought. Hell, due to the arrangement of some of these classes, it's possible to get skill combinations that you would need to take the entire game to build towards on a regular character. Only issue you may have with him is that he needs to do some patrols for some unlocks (Zotzit aside, there's also Ercinee and Rakkerjak in particular. Possibly also Blardger and maybe Bulldrake). Honest 8/10, could even hit 8.5/10, but either way I nominate him for best character.
Katja: People making job system games? Take notes, this is what a late-joiner is supposed to look like. Katja doesn't join until mid-C4, but she makes it worth her while with high starting ranks in several classes, most notably Assassin - and I am pretty sure she starts with enough AP to immediately get Dual Wield. Bounty Hunter synergizes perfectly with it as well, and it's not too hard to make her into an absolute crit monster. Keep her skills for utility, double lances/heavy lances will do a lot for sheer damage on attacks. Solid 7/10
Kairu: This, on the other hand, is how you don't make a late-joiner. He joins later than Katja, has very little to offer outside of passive Slow on their unique skills (to be fair, Slow is one of the better statuses to have a 75% chance to just tack on), his unique class barely has any AP in it, and the only other classes I saw him start with any notable marks in were Fellblade and Mender, and I'm pretty sure that could have been off of retroactive leaked AP. Frankly, he's not really worth fielding, especially considering the effort involved in trying to get his skills up to speed. Oh and he's another sort who wants an ATK/MND build, but without the whole-ass game to build for it. 3/10, worst story PC. Really, he's just straight up FFT Cloud except that you need him to get the Good Ending at all.
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Marvel Midnight Suns -
PC join times matter a lot in this game because some characters just join super late. This will be reflected in my post. Does consider DLC to help them some, but don't expect massive swing scores.
Hunter: The best character in the game, no question. Hunter has a ton of strengths, being the game's best healer, damage dealer, AoE damage dealer and so on. He/She is basically like SH Yuri. Does everything well although there are some builds that are much more favored than others. I found Hunter to be best played with a balance of Light and Dark cards so he can do both heavy damage and healing roles if need be. The balanced cards on the other hand are all a little too niche or cumbersome to be of much use. Good thing too, cause he's largely forced into every level aside from side missions. Very easily either a 9.5 or 10/10.
Iron Man: Ironing Man is a card hog. That is to say, all his abilities are very much focused around himself. This would be a bad thing if his abilities sucked. The good news for Tony is that they don't. Ironing Man has some of best damage dealing or cards that set up damage dealing in the game. This means, you WANT Iron Man cards most of the time. An excellent DPS PC that is only outmatched by Hunter. 8.5/10
Doctor Strange: Fittingly on the opposite side of the Spectrum is Dr. Strange. While Tony was all about damage dealing and getting his cards, Dr. Strange is a battery or support character and an excellent one at that. Most of his cards influence other cards in your hand or deck and Strange really doesn't use any Heroism points to do what he needs to. This means that he works in a lot of parties just to simply enhance their combat abilities to the next level. He wants to be working alongside some other good damage dealers to be at his best and hey, guess who the first two characters on this list I already covered can do? To make things EVEN better, all 3 of them join from the start so you can start working on their abilities and decks from the get-go. 8.5/10
Captain Marvel: On the other hand, of your starting characters, Captain Marvel ends up pretty mediocre. Like her whole thing is she powers up and gains a big offensive boost once you play 3 of her cards...but when she hasn't powered up yet, her cards kind of suck. This means that to use her effectively, you have to sacrifice 3 actions to do it and that's just not something you really want. Also, once she is powered up, she needs someone to tank and draw attention away because she loses this status if she runs out of Block. So yeah - not super impressed. If she can hit binary in some other fashion, she probably be more notable. About the one thing that Carol does have though is she's available from the beginning. 5/10
Blade: Game worst PC by a notable margin and I don't think this is up for debate. Blade suffers from similar issues as Captain Marvel in that you have to sacrifice actions but he's actually even worse than that. Because at least Carol will power up and then be able to do something. Blade on the other hand, focuses too much on the Bleed mechanic. Basically, in order for him to do anything resembling damage or anything at all really, he needs to first inflict Bleed on an opponent...and he can't even do that naturally without relying on risky low proc chances or sacrificing an action to do it. And once you do hit enemies with Bleed, your reward is...slightly better damage but not even up to the levels of Hunter and Ironing Man...when either of those characters could have just killed the enemy in the first place? Yeah, hard pass. His 2 Saving graces are: Early join time and DLC chars at least synergize somewhat with him, but god, what a mess. 2/10
Ghost Rider: Robbie is pretty decent but he is pretty much a late bloomer. You need to wait for him to get the good stuff before he starts carrying his own weight. Once he does, he still doesn't quite reach the levels of Hunter or Iron Man, but he makes up for this compared to them by having basically more AoE until SWitch shows up. This happens quite late as well, so there is a stretch where Robbie has a fairly unique niche. Unfortunately, a key part of his play style is sacrificing HP for benefits meaning he really needs a healer in the team to function. 6/10.
Nico Minoru: Nico is like the opposite of Robbie. Early on before everyone has developed abilities, Nico's much better because her randomized card rolls can do much better than your undeveloped cards...especially on damage. Later on, she shifts more to a support role versus damage because then people start getting better at it while hers still fluctuate, meaning she's a little less reliable. She is one of the game's only effective healers for a while, so that + good start gives her early game presence. And it's not like she's terrible late - just definitely doesn't keep up as well. Probably a solid 7/10 PC.
Magik: Speaking of 7/10 PCs, hi Magik. Magik follows the same path as Robbie in that her early game is very unimpressive. She's largely about positioning until you start getting Epic abilities...then she gets Limbo's Grasp and uh...lol. What a game changer. This single ability STACKS damage every time she uses it meaning that her damage basically grows as a level progresses. And since most story missions have at least 2 phases, this means Magik basically snowballs to start OHKOing everything after 2 to 3 uses. To add insult to injury, you can modify this ability to be FREE so it doesn't even cost an action. Absolutely dominant late game performance at the cost of early game slog.
Spiderman: Spidey's focus is largely on his environment, meaning a lot of skills and abilities in his deck deal with environmental damage. The good news is that this means Spidey gets more mileage out of each one and these actions don't use up your Card Play actions but rather your Heroism. So if you build a lot of Heroism, you can make Spidey multiple times in a round. The bad news is, environmental damage is largely fixed, meaning that late in the game, their damage is much less impressive and on higher difficulties, probably not even worth consider. Feels like a pretty average PC all things considered. 5/10.
Captain America: Oh boy. I think they took too much inspiration from the comics because Cap is all about inspiring his allies. He focuses on Taunting, drawing enemies away to him and grabbing other people's cards, which on the surface, you'd think would be decent. Unfortunately, because of this focus, a lot of his abilities have low damage and since the card draws are still random, you never know if just end up drawing more Captain America cards, which of course, don't do much on their own. The worst part is, the game's engine makes it such that cards that draw other cards cannot become a free action. So once you factor in card modding into it, Cap ends up significantly worse than Strange. He ends up basically a tank but isn't even great at that because his durability isn't that impressive and he lacks some key abilities that other tanks have. 4/10.
Wolverine: If you want a tank for the main game, Wolverine is it. Unlike Cap who doesn't stand out on durability, Wolverine is all about staying alive. His passive focuses on healing, he has a free self-healing card and he even has a "Revive once per mission" card that you can play at any time that doesn't use a Card play and doesn't count towards your Revival Count per mission. What this means is that Logan is really good at absorbing punishment compared to everyone else. The downsides are that, as a tank, Wolverine doesn't have much damage and it's not like enemies cannot be threatening in other ways. Notably, Wolverine is still open to status so you really want to buff his secondary Willpower Stat if you can. Tanks also lose their value late because then it becomes a game of who can kill things more efficiently and Logan sadly doesn't do well there. 5/10.
Scarlet Witch: SWitch joins in like the last Act without only 2 levels to go. This means unless you do side missions or saved the DLC for late, Wanda has very little development time. She's the best AoE damage dealer, which is probably why they saved her joining so late. But as a result, Wanda just feels largely underpowered compared to the rest of the team by then. Once you do power her up, she does do better and is fairly decent, but why bother with the investment unless you like her or she is a forced deploy? 4/10.
Hulk: And you thought SWitch was bad. Hulk has even more availability issues because he's only available before the final mission. If you are going pure efficiency, he basically has no improved abilities and is not very good. Still better than Blade but also doesn't cover his role well, which is being a bruiser tank. However, like Wanda, if you are willing to put time into developing him, Hulk is actually good. He basically takes over Wolverine's spot as a tank because Hulk actually has a good HP score and more importantly, HE ALSO HAS DAMAGE. Gonna go with the same score as SWitch here because their join times are pretty much identical. 4/10.
Deadpool: I have real trouble trying to figure out what Deadpool is supposed to be good at. On paper, En Fuego can be pretty devastating because it turns Deadpool into a growing snowball as he racks up more and more kills. In practice, it is basically a "win more" mechanic that doesn't do much. If you are just starting a level, where things are usually their toughest, En Fuego is zero and ergo, Deadpool's abilities are bad. If you are late in the level where Deadpool has racked up a solid number of kills, then you are just winning and there is very little point. Most of the time he's going to sit at 2 En Fuego and that's just not good enough for much. He does have a flexible join time - that helps. But yeah, just not very good overall. 4/10.
Venom: Probably the best DLC character. Venim has the advantage like SWitch of having good AoEs without her problem of super late join time since his join time is flexible. His mechanic is that he gets weaker the more you use his abilities in a turn, but that strength is restored at the start of every round. In practice, you're likely not using more than 1 or 2 of Venim's abilities a round, so the downside is barely a downside. And his abilities are pretty good. 7/10.
THE MORB: Unfortunately, Morbius doesn't have a meter where he goes, "IT'S MORBIN TIME" and then Morbs all over the dudes. Instead he has a hunger meter and when it fills up, he gains enhanced abilities. Sound familiar? Oh but because he's a vampire, he also gets a lot of Bleed benefits too. So he's a mixture of Captain Marvel and Blade - 2 pretty bad characters. THE MORB unfortunately doesn't fair much better than them in my experience. 4/10.
Storm: No character is worse than Blade, but Storm comes pretty close. The big issue for Storm is that her abilities need you to wait for a round before they power up. When the best strategies in the game are often to make sure enemies don't get turns to start, that's a pretty big failing. To Storm's credit, she does have a card that overrides this restriction and once upgraded, many of her abilities either remove it altogether or give you significantly more payoff from waiting. Still, that means she has a rough start compared to the other DLC chars and even once she improves, isn't THAT much better than everyone else. 3.5/10.
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Trails to Reverie Rankings - Standard Difficulty as always. If they wanted to make things harder, should have done that and slapped Normal / Standard on that instead. Anyway, some notes here as well because this game is massive (also surprised no one else has made a post about it).
First, there are a total of 51 playable characters. No, that is not a typo. The playable cast basically is the size of Chrono Cross. As such, you can expect some overlap between characters, their strengths, weaknesses, etc. However, where Reverie separates itself is that there is a main game portion, where characters are usable usually only for 1 Chapter in a route and the Dungeon/Gacha/RNG exploration portion where everyone is usable. Being restricted to the latter (or RC portion as I will hereby dub it) makes you worse because you can't use that character for the main story. Another thing - the RC characters have somewhat "fixed" locks in that their availability at being unlocked and playable is randomized based on how far along the game you are. For example - Angelica and Alfin are available as early as Act 1. On the other hand, Toval and George are only available from Act 4. Why does this matter? Because the random join times of the RC characters also means that their MQs maybe unavailable for longer. This means if you really need a particular MQ to function and you are locked away from it for a good portion of the main game, that's going to hurt quite a bit.
Second, because we have overlap and the cast size is so big, this ranking will be slightly different in that characters will be sorted by tiers. I'm not writing 51 short paragraphs to cover the entire cast. In general though, no character is bad enough that using them actively hurts you. However, some characters are just heads and shoulders better either in stats, crafts, Brave Orders (BO), have unique builds and roles or are just otherwise more flexible to fit a party composition. I'll basically make note of the PCs that do stand out if they are notably good or notably bad. So a definition of the tiers and the traits that make up each one:
S: Can do something uniquely powerful that no other PC can replicate. Very Flexible, Always availability.
A: Does a particular role very well or has a niche that makes them very good under specific circumstances. Flexible. Good availability.
B: A good all around PC. Doesn't have particular notable strengths but also no notable weaknesses. Above average for flexibility. Solid availability.
C: Can do a particular role, but is generally outclassed. However, they typically have a saving grace or too that makes them better on occasion. Average availability.
D: Can either do a role where they are outclassed thoroughly or have a unique role but that unique role is generally not very strong. Low availability.
F: Outclassed in all manners with no saving graces. To top it off, is inflexible. Limited availability + RC Only.
If you want numerical values, think of it as a scale between 8 to 3. The few standouts probably have a .5 or -.5 added as in the other Cold Steel Rankings that I've done.
Finally, early game performance is more important than late game performance on the simple account of late game has a lot of options available and hence you have more tools to solve problems. Early game is more restrictive so being able to get you out of bind early means more when the number of solutions you might have are more limited.
With all that said, here's the Ranking Tier List. Other than the tier itself, ranks inside each tier is not ordered (I may do so at some point) SPOILERS AHEAD. Should go without saying:
EDIT - Now with some Random approved CHANGES
S Tier: Crow, Machias, C, Alisa, Rixia
A Tier: Rean, Lloyd, Wazy, Juna, Arios, Sara, Renne, Gaius
B Tier: Elie, Elliot, Nadia, Tita, Laura, Fie, Agate, Randy, Noel, Towa, Altina, Joshua
C Tier: Tio, Ash, Emma, Estelle, Musse, Jusis, Sharon, Aurelia, Angelica, Lapis, Duvalie
D Tier: Alfin, Millium, Elise, Lechter, Claire, Roselia, Toval, Olivert, Vita, McBurn
F Tier: Kurt, Celine, Swin, George, Victor
Notables -
Crow - Crow combines a few things together that makes him probably the game's best PC. The two key things are that a) he's flexible in a variety of builds. You can either make him use crafts or cast spells and he's actually really good at both. This is owing a key part to his Self Buff. Azure Destiny has a big price tag on it, but it lasts for a whopping 7 Turns. This is particular powerful if Crow is a mage because he can equip one of those "Spells generate CP" quartz that a lot of PCs have trouble using and have no issue paying the 100 CP to keep it going. Even better, it's instant and has 0 delay. You throw this in with a Speed Casting Brave Order, and Crow can basically spam power tier 3 spells on his own in like 1 Clocktick and recover super quick. B) He's basically available from the get-go. He guests at the end of Chapter 1, and has a longer relevant Chapter 4 portion, but in between that time, he's wholly available in RC. This means Crow pretty much joins super early in the game and is basically always a relevant choice. By far and away his best appearance in the Cold Steel/Erebonian arc games.
Machias - Machias hasn't changed much...if any at all. The main thing now is - he doesn't have his early game suck because he only joins late into the game. That might seem like an issue at first once you consider availability. The issue is that once Machias joins, he brings with him his uber cheesy time infinite turn loop. It still exists in Reverie, but requires more effort to keep going. However, the existence of this thing means that you win when you get a turn. And that's crazy powerful no matter how you spin it. Even better, since you get him later, you will most likely have all the tools you need to play with the loop if you need an absolute bail out. LIke sure, Juna joins earlier, but the +20 CP cost on her GT Turn Shift is extremely notable and she lacks his Silver nodes for added EP boosting, so Machias is still better at it. And given it's more difficult to use, this is notable. Juna has her own strengths though, so you'd note she's still like a A tier PC.
C - Cheap Brave Orders are great because they are more flexible and more spammable. Of the different resource pools in the game, BP is probably the hardest one to maintain until late. What makes C so good is that he has one of the few Speed Casting BOs and it's only 2BP. That is extremely notable because spells are how you get the big damage out as combined with bells, you can cut their actual Clockticks down to like just 1 or 2 ticks. That alone would be pretty great, but the he has a 2nd BO that adds +30% Crit. Late game physical set ups are largely about Crit because S-Crafts just have way too much delay and their 100 CP Price tag means it's not super easy to always have one up. As a result, boosting crit and using lower CP crafts is what keeps physical attackers in the game and C has an extremely cheap one that works super well with the big crit monsters (Rean, Arios, et al). Oh, and his stats are well balanced so like Crow, he can fit into a wide variety of parties and he joins pretty early (like Act 2 or something). So yeah he's good.
Alisa - Heavenly Gift is really stupid. It's a huge AoE move that adds: CP Regen, HP Regen and Insight. So it's great on offense and defense and since it's a craft - instant. This is great for any party and makes Alisa like the best battery for virtually any team, but especially those that are physical heavy. You'd think after 4 games, they'd reign this thing in, but when you have so many infinite loops in CS4, I guess fixing that was their focus first. Funnily enough, physical attack Alisa might also be a thing if you want her to be a BP Battery as well. Alisa's 2 Fire, 1 Space locked notes means she has extra slots for Crit, so she can get a pretty high crit rate going, Cast Chrono Burst and generate 2 BP a turn if needs be. Not her best build IMO and she's primarily caster focused, but damn is Heavenly Gift ridiculous.
Rixia - Both Llyod and Rixia got upgrades once I considered more about late game performance. Rixia got the bigger boost though because she's truly a terror in terms of what she can do. As Random noted, True DragonCraws is a 2-hit craft that also adds Delay on it. This coupled with the fact that it only costs 40 CP means it's an extremely effective way of neutralizing randoms early on. Late game, it falls off a bit due to damage and set ups, but because of Rixia's self-buff, it still manages to sort of keep up, which is a testament to how good it is. Her self buff is also real silly. Stealth is something I didn't explore much for the main game, but if post-game is any indication, it does stupid things. Aside from granting you one turn immunity, the Auto-crit means that Rixia can pump out damage like no other...hers even gives +Strength on use. The real stupid thing is that if you equp a +CP Quartz and a +CP Accessory, it is possible for Rixia to stay in Perma-stealth. And sure, Fie can do this too - but she can't pump out the same level of damage when compared to Rixia given her self buff doesn't boost strength and lacks the CP efficiency that Rixia has on crafts.
Rean - Rean's gone through a lot of changes across the Erebonia arc but he's been solid to game best PC range in every game. Reverie is a similar story. Rean's main selling point here are his cheap and efficient BO's. They work for both mobs and bosses and just give you a nice straight damage boost or damage reduction for anything you end up eating. The low BP costs of gives your party a lot of ways to switch gears mid-fight if need be without needing to hard commit. His craft selection is also very strong in general - with the ability to slowly ease into his heavy costing ones as the game progresses. Enlightened Spirit Unification is the physical equivalent of Crow's Azure Destiny. The downsides are that because Rean is mostly a fighter, he can't really maintain it without a battery (HINT: Use Alisa) and it only lasts for 4 turns max. Like all fighters, he wants to go in on Crit late in the game. This isn't too much trouble since Rean is tied for the 2nd best Crit in the game so you may gravitate to it naturally. It's only a few minor percentage points, but that + his one fixed fire node make a difference in how effective he is at this role. Helix have an extra Crit boost helps too.
Llyod - Two things I forgot about Llyod initially. One was his Burning Heart Craft, which maxes out a bunch of buffs on use, grants +1 CP and is instant. This would already make him pretty good as a B tier sub, but the other thing I forgot was that his upgraded S-craft has an A in Break rating. All of a sudden, he can random sweep really effectively too. In fact, if you can spare the CP, Burning Heart into S-craft melts pretty much everything. So while his primary and best role is to do some tanking, Lloyd's secondary roles are pretty strong too and he can do them well enough that even if Tita takes his main role, he still comes out okay (whereas Tita is kinda of hardlocked into being a tank due to her sluggish nature).
Arios - Uh yeah, so take Rean's Arcane Gale, give it *even more* range, then cut the CP cost by 1/2. That's Arios' bread and butter move in a nutshell. That would already make him pretty good, but then he backs that up with some innate evade and the highest crit rate in the game. And while crit differences are most minor, the little extra bit does help. When coupled with his multi-hitting, cheap as heck Twin Arcane Gale craft, Arios deals solid damage and can be a BP generator against mooks. His other 2 crafts aid for boss fighting so he's got that angle covered too if need be. Like Rean, pretty much physical focused but he's really good at it.
Estelle - Estelle has a lot of issues on the surface. 2 crafts only on a physical attacker means she's limited on options and she doesn't have good caster stats to turn into a straight up mage. This would be quite bad but then she's also very ST focused - in fact, her S-craft is also ST. In a world where most people have MT S-Crafts, this is a pretty big additional strike. HOWEVER, one really cool thing is that Reverie has a series of quartz that give really good stat and damage boosts at the cost of turning the range of all your crafts to pretty much ST only. These quartz are hard to use for most characters because no one wants to sacrifice that much range like Arios. HOWEVER, Estelle doesn't really care about the drawbacks because her key crafts are both single target. They have a ton of power and break potential but the real kicker is it only costs 40 CP. So you can leverage her weakness and give those trade-off quartzes to her, meaning she actually has way better power and speed then what you would expect. She's still stuck with those major downsides of being very ST focused and one-dimensional but now she packs a significant punch. You would expect her to be much worse being that hamstrung but a combo of Barrage -> Barrage -> S-craft pretty much breaks anything in-game. So, she still manages to be C tier at worst IMO, despite 2 crafts only. What a world.
Randy - All the best physical attackers all have something unique going about them, whether it's Rean cheap but effective BOs, Arios' crazy bread and butter craft or Estelle's focused single target punishment. Randy is no exception and he has a couple of real strong points that propel him above the other physical attackers. The first is his AoE attack Craft. Crimson Gale costs 60 CP, has good power behind it and covers a wide area. This makes Randy an excellent sweeper for mooks and better than Laura, Agate and Ash for example because the CP maintenance is 20 cheaper. Later in the game, Randy also receives an upgrade to War Cry - letting it give him 100 CP instead of 80 like Agate and Gaius. This singlehandedly turns him into the best S-craft spammer. When combined with Emblem and a CP gain on kill Subquartz, Randy also becomes excellent at farming items, which then translates to long term party power boost. His BO is also more flexible because it only costs 2. Sure, Laura's gives you more power but that's usually not relevant on junk mobs and a properly set up Randy can wipe most random formations with just either his or Rean's BO. So there's no reason to use a more expensive one unless for bosses - and then there are better tools.
Renne - Most of the arts casters in the game can be easily interchanged with one another because they largely don't touch their crafts. Renne is part of the group that is an exception to the rule because she also has a self-buff craft ala Crow that increases magic and speed at the same time. Downsides that make her worse are that 1) It's a cheaper craft at 50 CP but it also only lasts 4 turns instead of 7, has no defensive boost other than Magic Def and the boost is weaker 2) Hers is not an instant turn. She's also more wedged into being a mage, so she's relegated to a lower overall rank. Her BO is the same as Rufus, but costs 2 BP more because it also has a GT Turn Shift effect. This is often not worth paying for but can come in handy in a pinch of course.
Angelica - Angie is a RC only locked character so you know that already means there are availability and investment issues. The caveat to this is that on Angie has a few things that make her pretty good, especially if she's the first one unlocked from a Sealstone. The big one though is the Emblem MQ. While other PCs can use it as well, you need to recruit Angie before you can take advantage of it as I noted earlier, this is a case where if a PC joins you early, you get to use their stuff earlier and Emblem kind of snaps random encounters on their back because of the consistent regen to HP/EP/CP pools. This thing lets you random sweep very effectively while also letting you farm items with a decent amount of efficiency. So that's already kind of great. Angelica is also a solid PC overall, with good locked nodes, decent crafts, and a decent BO. These things combined means she's a great addition to your roster - albeit one that doesn't go past C tier due to the restriction and gacha nature of the RC, but can't win them all.
Aurelia - She deserves a special mention as well, because while she's only available starting Chapter 4 and on, Aurelia has the added benefit of also Guesting in Chapter 3 for a decent period of time. This helps diminish her RC only status a bit because she ends up having more availability than a RC only PC. And while she's on the team, she's great. In Chapter 3, she's decked out with end-game stuff so she has a significant leg up on performance and it also means that on join, she's good to go out of the box. Her MQ is also one of the few consistent boosters for physical attackers and her skill set is very powerful. Excellent Self buff + great random sweeping tool + great S-craft is about everything you want from a physical attacker.
Vita/McBurn - Both characters have the same issues. Both are kind of the best at their respective jobs (Mage for Vita and Fighter for McBurn) but they are hamstrung by the fact that they join just so late. This is further compounded by the RNG scale where you might not unlock either until the last two Gold Sealstones and that means you won't get either onto post-game. So whatever contribution they could have becomes extremely limited which tanks their rating pretty hard. This late join hurts in other ways as well. For example - one of Vita's main selling points is that at Support Link level 6, she gains Arts Support IV, which increases the magic damage of the spell being cast by her partner by 2x. No other PC in the entire game can do this, which makes Vita obviously the ideal mage support. However, if she joins as your last PC? You're unlikely to ever see it because at that point, how much of the post game is even left? The one piece of good news is that both characters come spec'd out with a full set of quartz (and in McBurn's case, his equip is fully upgraded) so there's no investment needed. Just that they contribute for such a small period and being completely RC locked hurts.
Celine - I bumped Celine down on this revision because I think post-game stuff really does her no favors and she's already in a pretty bad place. Lack of a S-craft hurts. I already mentioned this in Azure when you got Doggo for a bit and he didn't have a S-craft because it locks you out from an option which is to burst damage for a final stretch of a fight. Made further worse in-game due to the event wheel. Her crafts aren't anything notable either other than the 3 BP generation one for 100 CP. It makes her an interest BP battery since on paper, it's more efficient than Llyod and even Juna. But it doesn't boost anything else and Celine just ends up being an easily replaceable caster. She doesn't have any real selling points here compared to others (Random and I already talked a bit about Nadia, Tio and Towa to some extent) so bottom of the ladder she goes.
Kurt - Kurt deserves a special mention because he is a super early joiner but is just so bad on so many levels. He's a physical attacker, so that already makes him not great on damage. As an evade tank, he doesn't have Fie/Sharon/Rixia level base evade and he lacks the range compared to Sara/Fie/Sharon if you're trying to make use of Sirius. Then his BO is still really bad - 3 BP for a niche effect doesn't fix it because for 3 BP, I can also use Fie's Zephyr Tempest and that lasts for 10 turns instead of a paltry 4. To add insult to injury, the times when he is available other than Chapter 1, he has to actively compete with better evade tanks or Delay spammers so he basically lacks a real reason to be used. Just oof. Kurt really went through the ringer from CS3 to Rev.
Swin - See Page 4 where Random and I break it down. But to summarize - Swin's big gimmick is "Marking" a target, which then on a follow up turn allows him to auto-crit when attacking physically. This means he has a 2 turn set up for a guaranteed 1 BP return and some extra damage. This is often not worth justifying using him because it is just too slow. Compare that to Lloyd's Burning Heart, which is instant and gives you 1 BP on use, and you can see why this is problematic. The main issue here is that Swin and ONLY Swin can trigger the marking...otherwise he would still be kind of clunky but can at least work as a BP battery. As is, he's just a delayed physical attacker with not much payoff. And the rest of his stats have issues too. Notably, he's supposed to frontline but he has bad HP and only 5% innate evade. This makes him very difficult to use as a dodge tank for the main story and not enough durability to actually eat more than a few hits. The only reason he might be better than Kurt is because Kurt joins in a group with lots of other good party members. On C's route? You're often running with only 4-5 characters tops until Chapter 4. So being a warm body there matters more, but is that worth a tier difference? Probably not.
George - So being a Reverie only character that joins in Chapter 3 at the earliest hurts your availability - Strike 1. Then he adds onto the fact that his crafts are really all over the place. I literally cannot tell you what he's good at just by looking at the descriptors in game. I guess he's supposed to be an attacker of some kind but he has a random magic craft, a scan craft and his actual attacking craft only has medium area coverage - Strike 2. As for the final nail in the coffin, his Brave Order is super overpriced. With Perfect Guard already, there's no reason to be paying extra for Magic Absorption. If you wanted that, Emma's much cheaper at 2 BP. Oh, but it lasts 10 turns! Unfortunately, defensive brave orders such as this one are probably better at low BP costs because you want to be able to switch BO's once the coast is clear. So what exactly are you paying 5 BP for? Strike 3
Victor - Victor's big problem is that he's basically a copy of Laura except he's worse because he is RC locked and joins randomly from Chapter 3 onward. This means that his nodes are not fully unlocked and he lacks good equipment that some of the late joiners like McBurn or Aurelia have. That pretty much sucks already since you basically have to invest a bunch of resources just to bring him up to speed. But even once you do, you're not really getting anything new out of it because he has the same craft list as Laura more or less. As a result, there is very little reason not to just *use* Laura one chapter later. Sure, some of his crafts are cheaper on CP cost but then he doesn't Laura's Lion Rush - a key craft for her since it has reduced delay - and it's not like his stats or locked nodes are that much better otherwise. Like Kurt, he just falls into the realm of "but why bother". To add insult, his BO is useless too.
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Trails to Reverie Rankings - Standard Difficulty as always. If they wanted to make things harder, should have done that and slapped Normal / Standard on that instead. Anyway, some notes here as well because this game is massive (also surprised no one else has made a post about it).
Well 51 characters is a lot to cover and a lot of them just run together in the mind a lot, especially since for a number of them there isn't really anything you could say about them that you couldn't for the past 4 games. Also I've been very lazy about this lately.
I think I broadly agree with the overall rationale so I don't have much to say about the cast other than quibbling with placement. Not going to comment on the characters gained through ORBS.
Lloyd: Higher, though by how much depends on whether or not you can break the Chrono Burst restriction with Burning Heart. Still, having suction is good, defense... isn't actually completely shameful to have for once for all that I still wouldn't call his stat build brilliant, his BOs are fine since bosses get turns again, and Burning Heart is still pretty dumb.
Elie: About right, I think. Panic button and the ability to inflict weak is great, but she still has the general caster woes and Strike Bell getting demoted to a BO doesn't help. Her main game availablity is a bit spotty but that's true for pretty much everyone on Lloyd's route except for the man himself.
Randy: Lower. He's basically Agate except War Cry doesn't self buff and he has a +damage% BO instead of a +break% BO, that's not really enough for a tier's worth of difference, let alone being above Gaius and his lol I inflict absolute delay S-Craft of stupid.
Tio: Higher, though this is mostly Absolute Reflect BO still being completely broken since the counterplay to them is rare and hers gives CP. Secondary time lock is nice since you're not sacrificing a free slot for Action or Cast.
Noel: About right. Her spread ailments around like an absolute lunatic MO actually works this time but that's pretty replaceable.
Wazy: About right, fast cast BOs are nuts and his gives you an ATS buff in the bargain. Akashic Arm isn't as disgusting relatively speaking as it was in Azure but it's still pretty great.
Rixia: Higher. So her suction move is actually pretty bangin', big area doubletap for 40 CP? I'm in. Honestly seems better than Fie outside of dodgetanking on the strength of that alone.
Lechter: About right. He's usefuly in Lloyd's second chapter where you don't have warm bodies but that's about it. Generalists tend to need something special going for them and he really kind of doesn't.
Tita: Lower. While the durability, while nerfed from CS4 is still kind of hilarious, she's just so slow. Castworst speed IIRC and she has the dubious distinction of being the only PC to have normal crafts with 3500 delay. +60% damage for 6 turns is a cool BO effect but for 4 BP it had better be.
Agate: About right. Wild Rage sure exists and is a thing that says +STR (L) on it and nothing else particularly offends.
Alisa: Lower, I think. Heavenly Gift is good but the base version isn't S tier good and you're waiting until Trial Door 8 for the upgrade... and I'm not convinced that's S tier good either.
Sharon: About right. Pretty clearly worse than Rixia due to stats/no self buff and the fact that they priced her 100% evade BO the same as the Absolute Reflect ones is a bit of a bad joke.
Machias: Yeah this is probably his best showing I think. All the PCs running together in the mind just makes the big thing he brings to the table stand out more.
Towa: Maybe higher? Weak's a pretty cool thing to be able to inflict but it's hard to argue that she isn't the worst out of the PCs that can do that. Unlike the others though she does get Arts Boost...
Estelle: Lower. Iffy stat spread, fairly mid BO. Ratings on Barrage/Wheel of Time are good but single target lock on them's a strike against.
Joshua: About right. Saved from mediocrity by Black Fang.
Rean: About right. I initially considered kneejerking him as lower due to losing the stupidity that was Divine Song but I think the speed's too good for that.
Juna: About right. Her CS4 niches kind of got eroded for various reasons and she has to wait a bit to get Accelerate... but really, with so many cast members running together in the mind the fact that she gets an Accelerate craft and can exist alongside Machias at all is still good enough for this tier.
Kurt: ...About right. There isn't actually much redeemable about him, but he's not Swin, which is the only thing that gives me pause here.
Altina: Higher. Again, like Tio this is mostly Absolute Reflect BOs being broken.
Ash: Higher. He's still pretty mid but the craft list is good enough to dodge a D.
Musse: About right. The demise of spammable Chrono Burst and the nerf to her BO means there's little she does to stand out.
Claire: ...About right. Generalist stat build with nothing except an Accelerate BO going for her.
Elise: Lower. Pretty much everything I said about Lechter applies to her as well, except she brings healing to a fight that shuts orbments off. I guess that's more notable but not enough for a tier's worth of difference.
Millium: About right. The eternal problem child strikes out again.
Jusis: Lower. Generalist stat build problems. Elvars helps a bit but the individual buffs are too paltry and Platinum Shield is competing with a bunch of other broken defensive options. Those and Boost Arts are good enough to dodge a D but he's still very mid.
Elliot: About right. There's really nothing you can say about him that hasn't been said in every CS game ever.
Crow: ...Yeah this is about right. His base ATS isn't amazing but he benefits from fast cast setups so much it isn't funny, and even if you don't want to do that for whatever reason he still has a lot of the things that Rean also has going for him. I'd probably be inclined to argue that Low Rent C is better but that's it.
Emma: About right. She can CP battery, she can do the caster thing, but neither of these things are especially standout.
Sara: About right. Lacks what Crow and We Have C At Home bring to the table but she certainly tries.
Gaius: Higher. Howling Heavens is still a thing that says Absolute Delay and the demise of Chrono Burst loops just means this is very stupid instead of utterly gobsmackingly stupid, Golden Howl is still a thing that trades HP for CP says +STR, and like Rean he actually has passable casting ability. I guess his BO is still bad?
Fie: Lower. Dodgetanking is great and all but that's mostly all she brings to the table.
Laura: About right, maybe higher. Lion Rush is a heck of a drug considering it has 2000 delay with those ratings and even if it's just for three actions, +80% damage on the BO for 3 BP is solid. I'm not certain this is enough on the Wild Rage havers though to warrant moving up.
Celine: About right. You could use literally any other caster instead and lose basically nothing worth having.
The C Stands For Casval, Actually: Well I already said I'd arguably consider him better than Crow. Impressive stats, for one. Dark Requiem may not be Divine Song but it's still ridiculous. Zevarl is silly since it's an attack that also gives +SPD (L), Noblesse Rune is silly since it gives +STR/ATS (M/L) AND 1 BP for 1000 delay... I guess he shows up in the TRC later than Crow does? Regardless he's absurd. but what do you expect considering it's Rufus who's been hyped to hell in the story?
Swin: ...Lower. I find Swin to the be the worst PC in the game and I don't think it's particularly close. Problematic stat spread, junk craft list, bad BO, generally no real perks outside of his really convoluted Marking gimmick which doesn't really work since it doesn't offer enough to be worth it. I guess he has Arts Boost for C-louche's party in the timeframe where Renne isn't around but ugh.
Nadia: Higher. She actually has a fair amount going for her so I'm actually the most surprised by this one. First, she gets a unique accessory that's basically a free Cast 3 quartz, that's pretty great. Secondly, she gets Threddy Bear, which is a thing that says inflicts Weak and inflicting Weak is pretty good. I guess Fire's not the most amazing primary lock for a caster to optimize around but she's pretty good outside that.
Lapis: About right. Pretty much Edel Heart/10 since she has the generalist issues on top of being rather undurable.
Renne: Probably higher. Has Arts Boost, has an accelerate BO that also gives fastcasting, has a self buff that gives +ATS/SPD (M) and 1 BP, agreeable stats for what she wants to be doing.
Duvalie: About right. Apparently she went to the Alan Richard school of fast craft spam between games but forgot that she was dealing with CS3 onwards CP costs so somewhat comically she's almost TOO fast to really function. Still a damn sight better than whatever her CS4 showing was trying to do.
Arios: About right, his Gale has All Cancel attached to it, nothing else is even relevent. (He's still good outside of this.)
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Fire Emblem Engage: The other reason for my laziness in this topic because I'm supposed to be obligated to think about this pile of meh or something.
Anyways I wouldn't describe character balance as being particularly good outside of there being an overall lack of slam dunk characters. The lower end of things... is better than some but there's too much that I'd consider irredeemable. Anyways.
Alear: Weird and hard to rate fairly. Bizarrely the closest comparison I have is Micaiah where getting good use out of them requires some lateral thinking around their perks of Rose Thorn 2.0, convoy access, and the only dragon typing you'll see until C22 because their combat is pretty mid otherwise. I think it works overall, even if I didn't make the arguable best use of it. 7/10.
Vander: So 40 HP to start with is actually a lot, turns out, and lets you get away with more than you should with those stats. Has a clear point of obsolencese and paladin is a very weak class in this game but it's hard to argue with the early game performance when you have so much incompetence going around. 5/10.
Clanne: So tomes are actually good in this game. Clanne... is less good. Middling bases, shaky offensive growths (and mixed offensive builds aren't really wonderful in general), bad personal but 75% of the cast has bad personals so whatever... I really don't see what he has to recommend him over literally any other tome user in the game. 3/10.
Framme: Early staff filler. You use her because staves are good and then you bench her once you get better options. Same score as Vander works. 5/10.
Alfred: What the fuck. I guess he's durable when he's not getting doubled by things but cavalry is a weak class tag and stat spread is pretty uninspiring. 2/10.
Etie: Early bow user. You use her because the game uses fliers early but above average strength as your only good stat doesn't really work out long term. 3.5/10.
Boucheron: You know I wouldn't be averse to the whole axe myrm thing he tries to do if his bases were more agreeable. As is... he's durable via HP but not to the extent that Vander is early (and not really more durable than Alfred when he's not being doubled either) and the poor luck stat is a flight risk unless you give him an engrave or a compact axe which nah. 2.5/10.
Céline: Better start than Clanne but still has a lot of the same issues. Her luck does make her a good candidate for some Divine Pulse staff nonsense but that doesn't come until Hortensia joins and, well. 4/10.
Chloé: One of the few glimpses of true earlygame competence. Offense can be a bit of an issue but she has a personal which can help with her issues there (gasp! An actually useful personal skill in Engage!) but being a flier is nice and the speed is screaming. Others can outdo her with class swapping but the ones that can join later and miss out on early Canter so I don't think I'd call them better. 7.5/10.
Louis: One of the other glimpses of true earlygame competence. Amazing defense and immunity to break are some pretty great boons early. Falls off once promotions start happening because he gets doubled by mages and explodes to them and enemy backups foil the concrete tanking thing (unless you give him Corrin. Don't give him Corrin.) but it's really hard to argue with that earlygame. 6/10.
Jean: Early staff filler except he joints like four and a half chapters later with nothing to show for it. Trying to leverage his personal is a pretty bad trap if you ask me, Engage not really the sort of game where it's worth messing around with that kind of project, the game shows a lot of teeth and it shows them very early. 2/10.
Yunaka: So daggers are actually pretty good in this game and thieves are the only ones that get to use them before promoting... too bad thief isn't a great class long term and Yunaka's stats aren't the greatest. Still probably better than whatever the hell Clanne is doing with his life. 5/10.
Anna: Oh look it's Boucheron with a worse start and a more convoluted gimmick. Either you suffer through 5 levels of axefighter with her and make her a radiant bow user, or you switch her to mage and have her do very little that Citrinne isn't already doing for you. No. 1/10. BUT SHE IS ONE OF THE TWO CHARACTERS WHO CAN MAKE SS DISHES IN THE SOMNIEL
Alcryst: Somewhat better than Etie and has a more useful personal. Still not really that great. 4.5/10.
Lapis: Lapis is better than what I intially kneejerked but she still suffers from being in a very weak class and needs two seals to really function as a PC, and that's not something I look kindly on unless you're bringing something truly useful to the table. Alear can do this, Lapis... doesn't really do anything that Chloé isn't already doing. 4/10.
Citrinne: Citrinne is also better than what I initially kneejerked and in her case it's somewhat significant? Mage Knight is pretty good for her, turns out, +3 speed on promotion plus +3 more against physicals once Chaos Style shows up is pretty nice. Too bad Ivy exists though but otherwise she's fine? 6/10.
Diamant: Aggressively mid. Basically Alear with some stat shuffling and without the stuff that makes Alear cool. 5/10.
Amber: Very strong but as mentioned before cavalry is a weak class tag and he'd be better off as anything else so he has the same problems as Lapis and as such, gets the same score. 4/10.
Jade: Louis who is worse at everything that matters and sports low luck at a time when enemies start packing steel weapons. Which is actually a concern instead of a complete joke since IntSys finally learned to not make them ridicuously heavy and also gave them +5 crit because ???. Anyways Jade bad. 2/10.
Ivy: Tomes good. Staves good. Flying good. Ivy is the only one of two characters who gets all three. She joins at the point where people start missing out on early Canter and the stat spread is merely good (outside of DEX/LCK but who cares after C14, Ivy probably makes the best use of an Academy engrave) but those are the only real problems. Anyways Engage isn't the sort of game that lends itself to a high score cieling but I think Ivy does hit that cieling. 8/10.
Kagetsu: Hello, yes, it's Stat God Kagestu, here to wait patiently until he can reclass into something that isn't swordmaster and then kill everything. Fortunately he doesn't have to wait that long. 7/10.
Zelkov: Generally better stats than Yunaka, but joins at a point where thief dagger use is less attractive. Probably worth the same score. 5/10.
Fogado: Generally the best radiant bow user unless you want to baby Anna (you don't want to baby Anna) but since the radiant bow has 19 mt this is actually a pretty good niche. Not terribly impressive outside of this as he sports the same offensive issues seen on Chloé but hey. 5.5/10.
Pandreo: Then you get this guy who's basically just Bishop Pent except you can reclass him into something with a better tome rank if you want. 7.5/10.
Bunet: Um. At least you don't have to baby him so he's maybe better than Anna? Maybe? There really isn't anything good to say about him, the clear loser among the Solm retainers. 1.5/10.
Timerra: Well crit debuffing is nice and she's fine on her join map... just so many issues longterm. I haven't really seen a way to get milage out of her outside of Sandstorm procs and the problem with that is that you're relying on *proc skills* which is not a wonderful place for a character to be in. But that's still nicer than what I said about Alfred so. 4/10.
Panette: Panette is a character where I saw the glass jaw before the ridicious strength stat and reclassing/emblem potential and wound up making an unfair initial assessment because she's actually pretty good once you work around those issues. 7/10.
Merrin: Kagetsu with worse stats but starts off in an actually good class. It roughly balances. 7/10.
Hortensia: See Ivy, except swap the staff/tome ranks and give her a speedy but physically frail and low damage stat build. You're here for the staff cheese though. 7.5/10.
Seadall: So I said there was only so high the rating cieling can go for Engage characters and Ivy hit that cieling.
I lied.
So normally the problems that plague single-refresh dancers is that 1) they tend to be low move, 2) they tend to be liabilities when caught by enemies, and 3) you're simply optimizing your existing action economy instead of actually improving it, so if you mess up and the worst cast scenario under 2 happens, well, maybe you should've fielded someone else in that slot instead. Seadall's... not as good at avoiding 2 as 3H dancers can be but makes up for that by virtue of the fact that you just got a pair of boots lying in one of Solm Castle's doodad drawers, the fact that you can buy Canter for everyone and it may as well be a free skill for him, and the fact that an engaged character's actions tend to be more valueable than an unengaged character's actions so the action economy optimization is better than "give your best character another action" is in other games. It's ridiculous and even if you, like me, didn't actually use him it should be painfully obvious to see why he's great. 9/10.
Rosado: I vaguely recall doing the math and found that his bases were disappointingly close to a level 20/1 Chloé, which isn't helped by his decision to be an axe/spear person to start off with. I also distinctly recall him being unable to oneshot the corrupted wyrm that exists to be an Eirika engage attack tutorial on Hard mode. Needless to say these were not great impressions. 4/10.
Goldmary: Okay physical filler and hero is a perfectly fine class to exist in, so better than Rosado, for all that I like him far better. 5/10.
Lindon: Solid magic filler with some crit build potential. Far worse life choices to make, certainly. 6/10.
Saphir: Okay physical filler character with an iffy personal skill. 4.5/10.
Mauvier: Pile of solid stats, wants a better class to be in than Royal Knight because good grief that thing. 5/10.
Veyle: Oh look, it's dragon typing and it's just in time for Alear to get peak magical vtuber powers so someone else can use Byleth for the rainbow instruct/dance, that's nice. 6/10.
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Trails Stuff
Oh hey, Random responded. Awesome. I love having actual discussions and stuff. Responses and thoughts:
Lloyd
I keep forgetting Burning Heart exists because the rest of Lloyd's build is just pretty unimpressive. His locked nodes suck and his crafts outside of Zero Breaker and Burning hearts are eeeeeeeeh. Like seriously, ST damage for 80 CP is not exactly great shakes. He's the worst of the 3 Protags - I just waffle on how good he is. His BOs are worse than both of Rean's and C's and I find him in some very stiff competition when you start comparing the As. But between B or C tier... sure I have no qualms of him being a B Tier PC. The biggest issue he has is that his best role (if you want to call it that) is tanking and he gets overtaken in that department largely by Tita, so he's usually doing a secondary role or something.
Randy/Agate/Gaius
So of the 3, Randy was the one I used the most primarily due to Crimson Gale's easy CP maintenance early on. Later when everyone gets there stuff, I feel like Agate is the weakest of 3 and Gaius becomes the strongest because as you note Absolute Delay is pretty funky - especially if you start stacking Delays on him. So...moving Randy down to B tier with his other compatriots is probably fine with me as well. He probably has the best BO of the 3, but yeah, that's a relatively minor boon since in the grand scheme of things, Raging Fire is only a 5% damage difference outside of the buff and I don't find the buff on BO from Agate to be that meaningful (at least for sweeping...Emblem starts with All Stats Up L, which is enough for what you're going for).
Renne
Also waffled between a B or an A! Completely forgot Zodiac Code gave 1 BP. So lol, that's probably enough of a boost, though most likely she's on the back end of that tier if we're concerned about ordering.
Tio/Altina
Yeah agreed. Absolute Guard is a really good back door escape option and both girls work in this role. The issue is, I don't think either is quite a B Tier PC because other than that, they are pretty inter-changeable with other casters. And yeah, eating a S-craft is generally not something you want to do, but even in the event you don't an Absolute Guard BO ready, stuff like Elliot's Sapphirl Symphony exists and that cuts off 70% damage and gives Regen. That's enough of a save most of the time if needed. I think Tio is slightly better because her craft set is a bit more focused whereas Altina always has the weird flurry that she always has, but that's largely preference at this point.
Alisa
So this is just me liking the bell curve to be symmetrical. Ie: Top of S tier should match the bottom of the lowest tier. So if I have 4 on top, then 4 should be on the bottom with the majority of the cast lumped somewhere in the middle. And the issue then is, if Alisa isn't S tier, who replaces her in that? And it's pretty hard to think of something else who does. Because yeah, Heavenly Gift alone isn't S tier...but the rest of Alisa's stat mix is pretty solid and she's a good caster, which is better of the two default roles if you had to choose. Again, while I didn't order the tiers when initially grouping them, she's probably on the tail end for sure.
Elise
I got a lot of use out of her BO during Chapter 2. It's the combo of slight heal + 50% Evade boost for a notable duration. Needing only 50% Evade to reach 100% helps a lot. Like Elise gets outclassed pretty bad late - but compared to say Lechter, she definitely feels better than him! Maybe I'll use them more to get a better feel. Lechter is definitely more mage oriented though because his crafts in general are pretty sketchy.
Fie
Yep - no problem with this either. Another case of not sure if she's in the higher or lower one. In the end I went with B because I'm pretty sure you can do some neat things with Concealing Wind. Just people think of her as Evade tank and call it shut. Again, will likely experiment a bit.
Nadia
Weak is cool! Just 60 CP isn't exactly cheap like Towa's 20 CP Weakener. The other issue is that since it's a craft, it means you can't use Bells to soften the recovery and turns spent where you are using it are turns Nadia isn't casting...which runs contrary to her unique accessory. Which speaking of, maybe it's just me, but I also didn't find it super valuable. Like I kept it cause it was unique, but if you had the choice between raising Speed or improving Cast speed, the former is usually better because it helps with the recovery of various moves and skills. On top of that, she's paired with C and if you are using Fast Cast strats, the value of that accessory diminishes because you can't get lower than 1 Clocktick for any casting. Maybe this changes on higher difficulties, but I certainly didn't feel like either things was super advantageous for her.
Swin vs Kurt
We definitely agree that both are probably bottom feeders - especially if you discount STONE characters. I think my preference for Swin is that C's route lacks any true front line character. Lapis tries but her HP is pretty low so she can't really tank. So Swin being an extra warm body while C and Nadia light things up *does* help even if he goes down after like 2 hits because let's face it - he's not much more durable than her. Comparatively, what reason is there ever really to put Kurt into the team that the other characters available cannot cover? I have a real tough time answering that. Don't get me wrong - Marked is a pretty underwehlming mechanic. If other characters were allowed to trigger it when attacking with a physical for example, that'd greatly improve him since he would at least kind of work as a BP battery. But even then, he'd be a slow one because of the one turn delay required. So as is, yeah he's pretty lame! But lamer than Kurt? I dunno about that.
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Oh hey, Random responded. Awesome. I love having actual discussions and stuff. Responses and thoughts:
It's nice being able to talk about things about the game that aren't HELL MODE G.
I keep forgetting Burning Heart exists because the rest of Lloyd's build is just pretty unimpressive. His locked nodes suck and his crafts outside of Zero Breaker and Burning hearts are eeeeeeeeh. Like seriously, ST damage for 80 CP is not exactly great shakes. He's the worst of the 3 Protags - I just waffle on how good he is. His BOs are worse than both of Rean's and C's and I find him in some very stiff competition when you start comparing the As. But between B or C tier... sure I have no qualms of him being a B Tier PC. The biggest issue he has is that his best role (if you want to call it that) is tanking and he gets overtaken in that department largely by Tita, so he's usually doing a secondary role or something.
I think this is reasonable enough for the most part, if he has an argument for A tier it's very much based on One Weird Trick that he's not even all that well set up to exploit. I don't really think 2 Earth/1 Fire is *that* bad
So of the 3, Randy was the one I used the most primarily due to Crimson Gale's easy CP maintenance early on. Later when everyone gets there stuff, I feel like Agate is the weakest of 3 and Gaius becomes the strongest because as you note Absolute Delay is pretty funky - especially if you start stacking Delays on him. So...moving Randy down to B tier with his other compatriots is probably fine with me as well. He probably has the best BO of the 3, but yeah, that's a relatively minor boon since in the grand scheme of things, Raging Fire is only a 5% damage difference outside of the buff and I don't find the buff on BO from Agate to be that meaningful (at least for sweeping...Emblem starts with All Stats Up L, which is enough for what you're going for).
Reasonable, Randy does do a pretty good job at randosweeping and I'd agree that's he'smore attractive than Agate in that regard.
Yeah agreed. Absolute Guard is a really good back door escape option and both girls work in this role. The issue is, I don't think either is quite a B Tier PC because other than that, they are pretty inter-changeable with other casters. And yeah, eating a S-craft is generally not something you want to do, but even in the event you don't an Absolute Guard BO ready, stuff like Elliot's Sapphirl Symphony exists and that cuts off 70% damage and gives Regen. That's enough of a save most of the time if needed. I think Tio is slightly better because her craft set is a bit more focused whereas Altina always has the weird flurry that she always has, but that's largely preference at this point.
Yeah don't get me wrong, I don't think this is better than Elliot the one-man panic button in the grand scheme of things but I also don't think the difference is that great.
So this is just me liking the bell curve to be symmetrical. Ie: Top of S tier should match the bottom of the lowest tier. So if I have 4 on top, then 4 should be on the bottom with the majority of the cast lumped somewhere in the middle. And the issue then is, if Alisa isn't S tier, who replaces her in that? And it's pretty hard to think of something else who does. Because yeah, Heavenly Gift alone isn't S tier...but the rest of Alisa's stat mix is pretty solid and she's a good caster, which is better of the two default roles if you had to choose. Again, while I didn't order the tiers when initially grouping them, she's probably on the tail end for sure.
Fair! I'd probably agree with Alisa in S if I were rating on a curve myself.
I got a lot of use out of her BO during Chapter 2. It's the combo of slight heal + 50% Evade boost for a notable duration. Needing only 50% Evade to reach 100% helps a lot. Like Elise gets outclassed pretty bad late - but compared to say Lechter, she definitely feels better than him! Maybe I'll use them more to get a better feel. Lechter is definitely more mage oriented though because his crafts in general are pretty sketchy.
I think this is mostly just a question of offense vs. defense, since Lechter's BO is +40% damage with 2-turn Insight and Elise is 50% evade with some HP/CP healing. Rean C2 probably just makes you care more because of that fight that throws a Gospel at you and doesn't let you use Elliot or Altina.
Yep - no problem with this either. Another case of not sure if she's in the higher or lower one. In the end I went with B because I'm pretty sure you can do some neat things with Concealing Wind. Just people think of her as Evade tank and call it shut. Again, will likely experiment a bit.
Well this is mostly me autopiloting on a Fie vs Rixia comparison and well, Rixia has her own stealth thing too!
Weak is cool! Just 60 CP isn't exactly cheap like Towa's 20 CP Weakener. The other issue is that since it's a craft, it means you can't use Bells to soften the recovery and turns spent where you are using it are turns Nadia isn't casting...which runs contrary to her unique accessory. Which speaking of, maybe it's just me, but I also didn't find it super valuable. Like I kept it cause it was unique, but if you had the choice between raising Speed or improving Cast speed, the former is usually better because it helps with the recovery of various moves and skills. On top of that, she's paired with C and if you are using Fast Cast strats, the value of that accessory diminishes because you can't get lower than 1 Clocktick for any casting. Maybe this changes on higher difficulties, but I certainly didn't feel like either things was super advantageous for her.
Well Towa's Weakner is also single target only, which can be fine, but there's enough fights where being able to hit multiple enemies with it at once is still valueable, and it's not like you have a shortage of casters on C's route to exploit it. And sure, eventually the accessory becomes pointless because of the cast time floor but you don't actually hit that for a while even with fast cast BOs, and maybe this is just me feeling sepith/u-material starved but I didn't feel like there was enough going around in the +spd accessory department to compete with it for a while.
We definitely agree that both are probably bottom feeders - especially if you discount STONE characters. I think my preference for Swin is that C's route lacks any true front line character. Lapis tries but her HP is pretty low so she can't really tank. So Swin being an extra warm body while C and Nadia light things up *does* help even if he goes down after like 2 hits because let's face it - he's not much more durable than her. Comparatively, what reason is there ever really to put Kurt into the team that the other characters available cannot cover? I have a real tough time answering that.
My general approach to C's route was to forgo pretty much any idea of direct tanking because... yeah. But since we agree that the only reason to bother with either is the result of a forced hand, my general though process is that Kurt has a better toolkit to work with (access to impede, slightly better AoE access, self buff that doesn't take until Lv200 to be worthwhile) and feels less bad to be forced into using as a result, so the only way Swin above Kurt would make sense to me is to curve performance on individual routes and discount the TRC entirely.
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HELL MODE G
You mean that mode where it jacks up the difficulty and forces you to start without NG+? I imagine it reeks of elitism. Maybe one of these days if I had more time, I'd go back into it, but for now, yeah no.
I think this is reasonable enough for the most part, if he has an argument for A tier it's very much based on One Weird Trick that he's not even all that well set up to exploit. I don't really think 2 Earth/1 Fire is *that* bad
I guess Earth nodes can focus on bumping up Break damage but even then, you only have one set of quartz that really do that. The bonus on many other Earth quartz is simply either a DEF or HP boost. So having 2 locked Earth nodes puts you in this weird position where you are very likely going to end up boosting HP. In the grand scheme of things, killing things faster so they don't get turns is often the best crowd control / strategy. Again, maybe on HELL MODE this isn't possible because enemies just have too much bulk and the extra HP matters...but if its anything like VP/VP2, you'd often prefer the extra offense anyway. One thing that I did forget and is funny about Llyod is that Burning Heart also lets him neutralize enemy BOs much better because he can mix Burning Heart and Chrono Burst together - then using items inbetween to restore his resources as needed. This is an extremely narrow niche but has its uses, so yeah, probably a solid B tier.
Yeah don't get me wrong, I don't think this is better than Elliot the one-man panic button in the grand scheme of things but I also don't think the difference is that great.
Probably a case where numerical rankings are better because it would be like 0.5 point separation versus what looks like a tier separation. Or start trying to order the tiers, but then you get into some very nitty gritty details. Like Elie vs. Elliot is slightly more offensive versus pure defensive and which one you think is more valuable. The problem is going numerical means sitting down and doing that 50 characters. Maybe when I feel unlazy.
Well Towa's Weakner is also single target only, which can be fine, but there's enough fights where being able to hit multiple enemies with it at once is still valueable, and it's not like you have a shortage of casters on C's route to exploit it. And sure, eventually the accessory becomes pointless because of the cast time floor but you don't actually hit that for a while even with fast cast BOs, and maybe this is just me feeling sepith/u-material starved but I didn't feel like there was enough going around in the +spd accessory department to compete with it for a while.
The gacha nature of RC's item loot makes things hard to evaluate because if you luck out and get more Black Emblems or something, getting an it's upgrade to +16 Speed is an investment but a worthwhile one. It really comes down to what loot you get and where you can pool back and what you can invest in. The problem with the +Cast Speed boosts is that they are diminishing returns so you save a quartz slot for Nadia in exchange for an accessory slot. To me, it definitely seems like it comes out to a wash. For what it's worth though as I noted, I often had her unique accessory equipped, although that's also like looking at the 3 teams and trying to outfit the entire party so I'm not de-equipping and re-equipping every time I switch.
I find that a lot of the major game fights are all single enemy targets. Like if you look at C's chapter, Chapter 2 bosses have the most targets in a fight (4 of them!) but then in Chapter 3, the big bad is single target...so is Chapter 4. In fact the last boss that had more than one target was in the Liberation of Crossbell part from memory. So the GT nature of Nadia's craft is nice but doesn't feel like there are many cases where it comes up. Maybe in the early RC Stratums that I'm forgetting?
The other thing about Towa's Weakener is that it also has less delay. I don't have the numbers but it has the same natural delay as an Item use...so like 1500 or something, which means she also recovers faster. This is important since the Weak turns expire based on the enemy's turn count so recovering quickly lets you take better advantage of it. I think Alfin's also has a faster recovery, but hers cost 30 CP and is tied to a RC only PC so she's definitely worse than both.
But since we agree that the only reason to bother with either is the result of a forced hand, my general though process is that Kurt has a better toolkit to work with (access to impede, slightly better AoE access, self buff that doesn't take until Lv200 to be worthwhile) and feels less bad to be forced into using as a result, so the only way Swin above Kurt would make sense to me is to curve performance on individual routes and discount the TRC entirely.
So looking into the two of them a bit more, Kurt is probably better late. Kurt does have a better craft set, but a lot of that guzzles CP like mad. And unlike Randy/Gaius/Agate, he lacks a way to quicky regain that, so he really needs late accessories or a battery to make good use out of it. On the other hand, Swin wins on better S-craft (larger targetting area) and arguably better Brave Order (debatable; Kurt's has a bigger effect but less duration, while Swin's has a small stat boost (useful for layering and reapplying buffs), is cheaper, lasts 2 extra turns but also has a reduced effect). Those are very minor advantages. For nodes, its 2 Wind + 1 Water versus, 2 Time + 1 Earth. I think Kurt has an advantage here despite Swin being arguably faster once you start stacking quartz. Overall, it probably comes out to be a wash. They feel comparable enough that I think putting them together on the lowest tier probably makes the most sense. Like, I actually don't know if any other PC in the cast is as bad as the two of them other than real late joiners from RC gacha stones.
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Labyrinth of Touhou 2. Disclaimer that I've only been as far up as Floor 17, so it's only covering most of the maingame, things may change at 19-20.
Reimu Hakurei: Reimu very much fills the role she did in LoT1. That is to say, while she can contribute damage early on (and the ability to hit both defenses helps), her main role later into the game is to make sure the party does not god damned die to the next oncoming full-party nuke the boss is inevitably leveling their way. She can also help protect you from Spirit damage in particular, reducing it for the whole party by up to 30%. Between the best multitarget healing in the game and the partywide defense buff, I'm giving her a solid 8/10. It's overkill at times, but god damn is it nice to be handed the good full-party heal.
Marisa Kirisame: Marisa, on the other hand, is very much the definition of an earlygame unit who falls off later. It's not just that she's a mono-Mystic character, since she gets some ways to work around that like Sheer Force, but that she also has no access to defense-piercing, something that is very necessary in the later game with the flood of enemies who have significantly high Mind. Master Spark is big and impressive, but it falls off somewhere around Floor 9, due to that comparably lacking defense penetration. She's fast, at least, but not much else, and she falls off a damn cliff. I give her a solid 5/10.
Rinnosuke Morichika: It's not really fair to judge Rinnosuke by the metric of other characters; on his own, he has a rainbow buff and a small heal. His real benefit once you start getting party members is to hang in the back and give you increased money and item drop rates, and he is...convenient. He also gets better stat boosts than anyone else, natively, and this can lead to some optimization with subclasses, possibly, but it's going to be a hell of a time getting there. He pulls double duty on money and items, and the former absolutely helps as you build characters up. Using one of the eight reserve slots on him during exploration isn't that much of a hassle, but kick his ass out the second a bossfight comes up. 6/10.
Keine Kamishirasawa: Keine...is serviceable starting out, being able to hit both defenses of an enemy group. In a bossfight, though, she is almost always guaranteed to be in the role of buffer, since she lacks anything in her skillset with any real punch. Lowish delays help, though, and she's got the best party-wide attack buffing in the entire game, so I don't have problems there. Plus Disk tries to give her more offensive functionality when she gets done buffing with History Accumulation, but you need absolutely stupid amounts of SP to actually max it out, and it's not as much of a fix on its own. Still feels like a good 6.5/10.
Momiji Inubashiri: Momiji is your first tank, with a bent on speed and offensive support. She's got solid attack stats for a tank, and the best raw defense in the game. The key here being raw; she needs help to buff it, and...the farther in you get, the more her set of passives wears on her. She gets a strong passive accuracy buff, species advantage versus flyers, and the ability to ignore buffs, alongside being able to act immediately upon being swapped in. However, Floor 12 is roughly the last place she's useful, and she falls off sharply after that, between a flood of magic-focused bosses and no real way to keep up. A pity because I really do like her design. 5/10
Youmu Konpaku: Youmu is...a bit confused in her build. She doesn't know whether she wants to be a bulky attacker or a hit-and-run specialist, and her kit seems to fight itself. Dexterity, Desperation, and Regen read as her wanting to stay in, while Meikyo and Sword Spirit support a hit-and-run style. Her costs relative to her MP do not help one bit, though she does have reasonable physical coverage. 5/10, I honestly didn't touch her after I got Yuugi.
Kogasa Tatara: Surprise! Probably your first status specialist, and likely one of the better ones in lategame. Kogasa's whole kit largely is built around Terror; inflicting it and abusing enemies who've been hit with it. Sheer Force helps a lot for that, and she gets sustain between Troubled Forgotten Item and the Umbrella skills from Plus Disk. She has to pick one, but it's solid. Sheer Force also means she is an extremely solid pick for the Toxicologist subclass, since cutting enemy resists by a third can lead to some magic, and the extra skills she gets there all add statuses she doesn't get. 6/10 normally, I can see her jumping up to 7/10 with Toxicologist.
Rumia: I'm going to be brutally honest. Rumia feels like she absolutely stomps Marisa's ass in single-target nuking, and this is in spite of having generally worse stats across the board. Moonlight Ray is way too good of a spell for its cost and delay, to the point that Rumia easily keeps pace with one of our main heroines despite being so much farther behind. Her other two spells are situational, but they're situations that come up more and more as the game goes on; Dark Side of the Moon is one of a rare few true ITD spells - for the same cost as Moonlight Ray, even - and Demarcation is a multitarget heal that trades potency for clearing debuffs. Though frankly, it being a multitarget heal at all is impressive in its own right. Youkai's Knowledge and Piercing Attack only seal the deal for her, especially in the first half. 6.5/10, if she had better stats she'd easily be hitting an 8/10.
Cirno: Cirno only really has one job. She has always only had one job. It is, however, a very good job: speed debuffing. As anybody here knows, speed manipulation is king, and Cirno is extremely good at kneecapping an enemy's speed. She...also does cold damage but off of ho-hum stats and largely unremarkable formulas. She's honestly not even expected to do anything after she's done her job; it shows, too. She even has a trait that lets her just place an unresistable speed debuff on everyone when she gets killed. And she will get killed. I don't even think the flood of cold-weak enemies in floors 13-15 really help her case for damage, you have better options for cold damage at that point, but her speed debuffing is second to none. 6/10.
Minoriko Aki: Minoriko is best described as Reimu-Lite. She's got offensive spells of two varieties, a heal, and a defense buff. Just that the former are Nature-element rather than Spirit, and her buffs and healing are single-target. That's not a bad thing, though; she's way more efficient as long as she's not using Warm Colour Harvest, which will bottom her MP out in two uses. Offensively, she's amazing against Komachi, and on floors 4-6, where the vast majority of enemies are weak to Nature element. Offensively, she's better than Reimu in fights where the boss is going to spend most of their time hammering on one person, and she's guaranteed to be your first source of regular Nature damage. And like Reimu, the damage falls off later, but the support doesn't. 7/10
Komachi Onozuka: Komachi has an extremely poor track record in her playable incarnations across, and as someone who unironically mained her in Hisouten, I honestly feel bad for the girl. Thankfully, this may be her best incarnation yet. She retains her sponge tank archetype from LoT1, but the important thing here is that she gets a lot more going for her than a massive bloated HP score. The Shinigami's Work cranks her death rates up to where they're reliable in the vast majority of random encounters (handy for the second half of the game where you start running into enemies that you need piercing or ID to dispose of), Regeneration Ability gives her some more durability in long fights, and Edokko God of Death lets her get some solid hits in in return. Especially if the other guy killed someone else or used an attack with an ID rider. She's never really pivotal to a fight, but she has very seldom been dead weight. I'm giving her a 7/10, easy.
Chen: Chen reprises her role from the original almost perfectly. High speed, near-nonexistent cooldowns, frail as hell, but now taken to further extremes. Chen gets the same Accelerate skill that Momiji possesses, and can leverage it better courtesy of Kimon only having 500 delay and Flight of Idaten having 1200. Yakumo Clan means that when Ran and Yukari join in, she gets up to a 32% bonus. And lastly, Instant Attack lets her instantly act when she is brought out of the backline, allowing the assault to continue faster and longer. She still is largely dependent on Kimontonkou for defense penetration given her poor attack stat, which means she struggles more and more as she gets later in. You generally need to know which fights to bring her in for. 6/10.
Nitori Kawashiro: Nitori on the surface is terrible outside of Super Scope 3D having some of the highest stat mods in the game, even after being nerfed in Plus Disk. This also doesn't matter because Maintenance is the single best passive skill in the game. Double stat bonuses from all equipment means she is able to punch well above her weight class, and she only gets stronger the further in you get. I honestly have nothing else I feel I need to say. Easy 8/10.
Parsee Mizuhashi: Parsee's effectiveness is practically binary in nature. If she's unable to land Terror, she's only going to be mediocre at best. If, and if she can, however, Jealousy of Kind and Lovely does absolutely preposterous damage output, and if you can land it on multiple targets, you can see a screen full of 4-5 digit numbers. Parsee also has a large number of damage buffs; Final Blow lets her hit targets afflicted with Terror even harder, Jealousy Manipulation lets her hard-counter enemy debuffers or follow up your own debuffing even harder, and Flames of Jealousy is a strong Dark damage boost. I think the dev realized this, too, because everything worth landing Terror on becomes an absolute nightmare to land Terror on, to the point that you may as well not try unless you're running both Reisen and Kogasa to dedicate your entire party to landing Terror. And if that doesn't happen, then she instead runs into massive walls of Dark resist. I absolutely enjoy her, she has been good, but with how she falls off, unless she catches back up in the very endgame I can't in good faith give her more than a 5/10.
Wriggle Nightbug: Wriggle is a lot like Cirno, a one-trick pony. That trick, in this case, being poison. And to be fair, that poison is accurate and long-lasting. Comet on Earth, her main infliction skill, inflicts 40,000 ticks of poison. This is a lot. Unfortunately, this is about all she can do, and I see poison come up as an option less and less as the game goes on. Poison can't kill and Wriggle's own attack stats are terrible. She gets poison and paralysis counters as well, and you could make a case for her tricks letting her synergize with Remilia, but that's stretching. I have to give her a 4/10.
Kaguya Houraisan: Hooo boy. Kaguya is tough to place because you have two places where you could get her, as with the next entry, and it is a rather sadistic choice. Kaguya has one major trick up her sleeve compared to any other mages, and only one: Royal People of the Moon. In exchange for a 75% chance to lose 1 MP a turn, she gets the ability to ignore 90% of her targets' defenses in her spells. This is more notable the later in you get, where more and more magically hard targets pop up, especially in fights. The drawbacks to her are not minor, though. She's slow, she's frail (even with good elemental affinities all around), and her MP recovery is some of the worst in the game, meaning that if someone pops her with Destroy Magic (or god forbid, the spell formerly known as Djinn Storm), she is useless for the rest of the fight. Her magic comes in three varieties but her biggest spell is Spirit element, though 316.84% MAG vs. 8.9% MND is a pretty big nuke. There's only a couple of targets this is relevant for before F10, however. I'm going to give her a 6.5/10.
Fujiwara no Mokou: Probably the better choice of the two feuding girls from IN, Mokou is at first glance a nondescript but competent attacker. This is an easy mistake to make, as Resurrection lets her have durability that is completely disconnected from her HP score. It has, at max rank, a 90% chance to proc every time her HP hits 0 and only costs 5 TP. And that TP score can go well over 30, giving her something along the lines of seven lives. Keep her from getting knocked back down when she gets up, and she can regen 20% max HP a turn. She's as good at fire damage as Utsuho down to having Blazing, so no need to run the two at the same time. The guts-tanking is still so good that it can absolutely trivialize a hilarious number of finishers and boss gimmicks, and the majority of things on floors 7-9 are weak to Fire or Wind. 8/10, easy.
Aya Shameimaru: oh holy fucking shit what. No, really. Aya is unfairly good here for an obvious reason. Gensokyo's Fastest Lessons gives her a guaranteed free turn at the start of the fight. She's already one of the fastest in the game, so the majority of fights start with her just triple-turning because she popped anything other than Divine Grandson's Advent and so has her delay anywhere from 5400 to 7500 rather than the 5000 that all the plebs have to contend with. Speaking of, Sarutahiko's Guidance is a haste spell on an extremely short cooldown, and Divine Grandson's Advent is Quick. She could do no damage and still be stupidly good off of this, but no, she actually can do okay damage as well, while being faster than Chen. 9/10, easily the most useful character in the game. Only reason I can't give her higher is because she can't entirely carry the party throughout the game, but I am finding very, very few reasons to not let her have one of your slots.
Mystia Lorelei: So...I've honestly never tried using her. You'll likely get her late in the second stratum unless you're good at taking down FOEs as they come in the earlygame, and by then her numbers come off as...okay. Her passives largely revolve around Silence, but her one Silence inflictor has 9500 delay, even with a not terrible MP cost. She comes off as a generalized status-slinger, which can be useful in and of itself at least, and Paralysis is always nice to have around in Poison Moth's Dark Dance. She does okayish damage, but being able to throw around three ailments at respectable rates is her real boon. Also she gets Instant Attack for the shenanigans related to that. 6/10, one of these should be able to stick most of the time.
Kasen Ibaraki: It takes twelve wipes to recruit her, so you are likely getting her probably somewhere within the second stratum. Saying that, it's honestly worth pancaking yourself on the Floor 2 FOE or something twelve times just to recruit her faster. She's jacked in general. Solid stats all around, good attacks that hit reasonably hard and have good infliction rates across three elements and two statuses, and a self-buff that is a slightly worse Grand Patriot's Elixir make her an absolute monster to bring along, and she even scales reasonably well, albeit at the cost of having less than great MP recovery compared to how quickly she burns through it. Also her passives are kind of awkward and scattershot outside of Fighting Spirit, I guess that's an issue. If I have to nitpick her active set, it'd be that Echo of the Nine Forest Gods is saddled with compensation for multitarget when Kasen's a bossfighter like the rest of the oni. Still worth a 7.5/10.
Nazrin: I won't hold the event reqs involving her against her (that's for someone else). I can, however, say that I really don't like her setup. Nazrin is designed for a very specific type of farming where instead of sitting in the backline like Rinnosuke, she is meant to be out in front. But she's geared with nothing but single target spells that I have found often struggled to kill what they hit. Even if they do, she's burning through a lot of MP in short order if you get Extra Steps because the spells are all single-target, and she doesn't really have much outside of that. 4/10 and I feel like I'm being nice. At least Wriggle had a hypothetical use in bossfights.
Hina Kagiyama: Hina is extremely gimmicky. But god damn, that gimmick can pay off against the right targets or with the right party. Whatever you do, don't get her any debuff resist. She wants to get all of that misfortune for herself, after she spreads it herself with Misfortune God's Biorhythm. So she can then turn around and either ride the high of treating them as buffs of double magnitude, or use them to fuel Pain Flow for more utterly preposterous damage. Get party members who either are resistant to debuffs, or don't care about them in one way or another, and she can pull some absolute bullshit - and debuffs are far less often resisted than other status. I have trouble fitting her into parties but I absolutely respect the strats she can pull off in the best way. 7/10.
Rin Kaenbyou: I've tried to use her. I really have. And to my frustration, Rin has only really felt "okay" in practice. Semi-composite attacker with good speed and the ability to leverage Extra Attack (which is notable; EA can proc multiple times on the same action since it checks not only for the initiating attack, but for every extra attack procced by it), but she basically needs Extra Attack for any of the rider effects on her skills to reliably proc against neutral, nevermind actual resists. She's very much an auxiliary attacker in practice, meant to focus down enemies who've been statused or otherwise handle formation juggling. You could probably get more out of her with her cast synergy skill, since those delays running at a 32% stat bonus can lead to some good stuff, but her specific synergy gets...awkward. More on that later. 5/10, though i may be rating her low. May need a second run to really get a good viewpoint on her.
Utsuho Reiuji: Okuu here is, in short, the mage for people who don't want to actually care about elements. Utsuho gets Sheer Force alongside some Kaguya-level near-ITD in Giga Flare, which means she is always getting something out of that spell. And compared to Kaguya, she packs better bulk and speed. Definitely a winning trade. And if you didn't take Mokou, she's going to be your first major fire-using character, which means she performs amazingly in stratum 3. Fire damage comes and goes with the stratum, but Giga Flare is evergreen. Intense Nuclear Reaction and Hell's Tokamak have their sub-uses (self-buffing with the former, MND debuffing with the latter), but in general she is there to nuke, and there's enough resistant bosses going forward that I can appreciate this. 7/10
Satori Komeiji: Satori will take a bit to wrap one's head around. Her gimmick is unique, as she's got almost a mime-style build going on. Spellcard Recollection is the core of her kit, and it lets her use any other native spell (read: not subclass) that any of her allies possesses. The trap here is to look at that, look at the ATK/MAG split, and try to build her at being able to do anything. Don't do that. Instead, you want to build her based on the party you're running, in two regards. First of all, Trauma Recollection is a straight up boost to hitting weaknesses that stacks with the element boosters. If you're on a second attempt at a boss or otherwise know what you're up against, bring her in and optimize her the best you can do what your desired attacker is doing, she'll behave as a force multiplier. The second is to look at all those high-powered spells running off of poor stats, or by individuals who won't have the offenses to back it up due to role. Moonlight Ray, Mountain Breaker, and World Creation Press are all easy routes to high damage with her, as are the likes of Chen's skillset. Or grabbing high-power MAG attacks off of physical attackers who aren't expected to build MAG. Or Jealousy of Kind and Lovely running off of better ATK. The point is, Satori is a remarkable force multiplier for your party. Don't try to make her do everything, just make her do one thing well. 7/10.
Yuugi Hoshiguma: I'll spare the gushing, since Yuugi is probably one of my favorite Touhou characters to begin with. Really, there's not much that needs to be said though. Second highest ATK in the entire cast. Enough bulk to take hits. Knockout in Three Steps has one of the best ATK to DEF ratios even with the problems it has. Between its bases, Yuugi's own raw stats, and her passive skills. Adamant Helix gives her a scaling damage bonus up to 66% based on her lost HP (have fun with punishing any HP-to-1 attacks), Ruinous Super Strength is a flat-out 30% physical damage boost, and Last Fortress is amazing as long as you keep her alive through a bossfight where everyone else is dropping. Hell, Supernatural Phenomenon hitting weakness will crush just about as hard as Ki3S under the right circumstances. One of the best attackers in the game if you ask me, the sheer damage she puts out is disgusting, even if she starts having some more survivability problems later on because of the flood of magic-oriented bosses. 8/10, easily.
Hong Meiling: People who are familiar with LoT1 are probably expecting her to be a tank. And to an extent some of her traits do play into that; between Natural and Gatekeeper's Duty. But then you look into things like Brilliant Light Gem being some Chen-level bullshit, or how Mountain Breaker is basically Knockout in Three Steps with only 5200 delay instead of 10000, an accuracy bonus rather than a penalty, and less than half the cost. An offensively-built Meiling is a thing of absolute nightmares. And even if you don't, Satori can just yank those spells for herself because they have similar ATK values and only one of the two is going to be expected to tank in any capacity. I can't really give her any less than an 8/10.
Alice Margatroid: I'm docking her a point for how god damned infuriating her recruitment bossfight is. Alice isn't the greatest when it comes to raw magical power, but she's very much a finesse pick. This is the first character since Reimu we've had who can reliably hit both defenses with the same offensive stat, which means that there is very little she can't do. Hell, Enhanced Doll Mobility and Doll Guard give her even more bullshit all around. 6.5/10.
Patchouli Knowledge: Patch is a study of extremes. Best magic stat in the game, a whole array of wide-area nukes running off of that magic stat. Oh, and Silent Selene. Grand Incantation is something she shares with Reimu that lets those nukes hit even harder, and she can gain extremely high elemental resistance from whichever spell she deigns to cast. Girl of Knowledge and Shade is an improved version of Sheer Force at that. Her downsides? Slow, frail, and can't really do much about high defenses herself if she can't overpower them with a big enough MAG score. Not to my taste, but I imagine there's some people who would enjoy her. Not sure I'd give her more than a 6.5/10 though.
Eirin Yagokoro: Eirin is...what do I even say about her. People of the Moon lets her get some defense penetration at least, but her actual noteworthy skill is Healing Limit Break. Which basically means she is going to be locked to the Healer subclass because her only native heal is a fixed 50% mHP restore. Hourai Elixir at least does also cure all ailments and debuffs, but she needs subclasses to take advantage of her overhealing trait on people not named Komachi, and that's...all that stands out. And Healer's class skill is single-target anyway. I guess she gets debuffs as well, but she's going to be compared to the next entry on that, and she's...not great. Okay, I'll give her that Astronomical Entombing gives the best Heavy status in the game and she's got a competent MAG score, there. Kneejerking 4.5/10, probably 5.5/10 with Healer. I've never really found myself wanting to use her, though.
Reisen Udongein Inaba: Mokou keeps winning. If you pick Mokou on floor 5, you get her on Floor 7 instead of Eirin, and she's honestly better than Eirin in most ways that matter. Higher speed, better costs and delays, and perhaps most important here: Intense Vertigo. This just passively cuts all enemy resistances by 20%, and enables other ailment-users to do their work. Discarder is also a solid debuff infliction option: enemies have split debuff resistances by type, so having the rainbow debuff makes sure something sticks. Intense Vertigo's the real winner here, though, since ailment and debuff resistance come up more often the later in you get. Don't expect too much else out of her, but it's an amazing feature that nobody else gets. Oh yeah, and when she gets the MP to afford it, Grand Patriot's Elixir is still one of the best stat buffs in the game. 6.5/10
Sanae Kochiya: Sanae's probably best seen as a counterpoint to Reimu. Reimu focuses on offensive flexibility across defenses and partywide defensive support, whereas Sanae has slightly better elemental diversity and more powerful single-target support. Honestly, advantage Reimu; while Sanae has Power of the Living God to boost Spirit damage, she's not the main one to be able to take advantage of it; Spirit is not an element generally known for particularly high-power attacks, and by lategame, you generally want to ensure everyone's survivability, rather than go full FGO and crank up one person to the heavens. Still, the rainbow buff is real solid if you can throw it down on someone. 7/10.
Iku Nagae: Holy shit, Iku has a rather comprehensive package going on here. Good speed, Elekiter Dragon Palace hits disgustingly hard, and between Flexibility and her own affinities, she can self-buff without suffering the drawbacks. Those aren't the main draw here, though. Hagoromo Like Sky, one of her passives, is the real draw, and changes her from a Wind-element offensive buffer/defensive debuffer specialist to a Mystic-element blender. Changing her basic attacks from essentially 100% MAG-50% MND to 140% MAG-10% MND is almost unfair, especially with Sorcerer giving the option of jumping that up even further for the paltry cost of 1 MP per attack. Considering basic attacks run off of 3000 delay instead of 5000, Iku will generally proceed to shred everything. Oh, and Magic Counter exists too. Magic damage becomes more common as the game goes on, so you will in fact see this come up a lot. 8/10.
Suika Ibuki: I think it's just a hard and fast rule in LoT that you'll be damn good if you're an oni, and Suika is no exception. She'll drain your money for the first nine floors to get her recruitment items, but she's in fact worth it, particularly in the lategame where she can start tanking through magic attacks reasonably well. Gathering and Dissipating is a lost cause, but Throwing Mt. Togakushi is another strong Nature attack off of deceptively low delay, and Throwing Atlas is one of the strongest Wind attacks in the entire game. Art of Segaki Binding...exists, but it's got a rather vicious status cocktail to delay an enemy while you do setup or recuperate. Free-Spirited Oni is an inverted Adamant Helix based on the target's health than the attacker's, but the two bigger strengths in Suika's kit are Fog Labyrinth and Art of Oni Binding. The latter gives a free chance of Paralysis every time Suika gets a turn, and while the strength is low, the added delays add up. The former is a 20% accuracy and evasion buff for the entire party, and evasion is an extremely valid tactic for lategame survival. Suika's never quite going to hit Yuugi levels of damage, but she doesn't need to. 7.5/10.
Ran Yakumo: Ran here is a general all-rounder, and in a vacuum, presumably a straight upgrade to Keine. Trades defense for speed, better MP economy, three elements available, and Soaring En no Ozuno is a solid option to hit physical defenses with. The buffs are comparable, but while Keine gets a secondary self-buff as of Plus Disk, Ran can instead buff the backline. This is deceptively good, as buffs do *not* decay on backline party members. Even at double cost for the spells and half efficacy for the backliners, this is solid if you can afford the patience to do so. The only thing I can say against her in this is that bosses may not be willing to give her the time to juice everyone up, so you'll probably be running Reimu alongside her to keep the buffing line alive while you prep everyone else to drop nukes. 7/10.
Remilia Scarlet: Remilia is the embodiment of...solving your problems by throwing a giant pile of stats at them. She has precisely one offensive spellcard to her name. Fortunately, Spear the Gungnir is serviceable enough between its speed, power, and accuracy bonus. The real draw to her is that she has extremely high marks in every stat that is not Magic and MP. The latter of which she is fairly efficient on anyway, and the former of which she doesn't use unless you force her to via subclasses. High speed, high defenses in both categories, good ATK, and these all compound with Majesty and its automatic 6% buff to all stats every turn she gets. However, her simplicity is also her problem, as she only has the one spellcard, and is thus mono-physical. Curse of Vlad Tepes is a self-buff that is, unless you bring the likes of Eirin, Sanae, or Meiling along, more of a problem than it's worth. 7/10, you could definitely do much worse.
Sakuya Izayoi: And here...is much worse. Sakuya ate some hell with the Plus Disc's nerfing of Extra Attack, but frankly a lot of her skills are...unimpressive, and the only real use I've largely gotten out of her was clearing out random enemies while exploring. She's not even great at that. Aya outdoes her speed buffing despite only being single-target, and Jack the Ludo Bile is both way overpriced and inefficient for what it is. Don't bother bringing her for bosses. 4.5/10, and that .5 is out of pity because Sakuya doesn't deserve to be put on the same exact rung as Nazrin.
Kanako Yasaka: Floor 10 brings you round two of the Kaguya vs. Mokou choice, albeit without another linked pair, this time between Sanae's two goddesses. And to be quite honest, Kanako is by far the better of the two picks. She's not just tanky for a mage, she is tanky, period. Majesty adds on top of that. Sky Creation means she does monopolize your fourth slot over someone who could probably use the targeting reduction, but it's a 32% damage boost. Like Alice, Kanako targets both defenses with one stat, and has all-around solid spell options; Beautiful Spring like Suiga is one of the stronger Cold spells in the game and it has a fairly short cooldown at that. 7.5/10, definitely one of the best general-use mages out there.
Suwako Moriya: Suwako is a super-frail double-stat attacker. And if this were a different game, she'd be really good within that niche. Unfortunately, Labyrinth of Touhou is a game that rewards hyperspecialization as far as stats go, so Suwako has the option of doing everything terribly, or locking herself out of one half of her skillset (or making Satori use it). She's going to be constrained to a hit-and-run style if she wants to get the most out of her setup considering she gets a 24% damage bonus from being in Slot 1, and I suppose for what it is worth, Froggy Power lets her get extra Nature damage. In practice, though, I'd rather just load up on oni. Moriya's Iron Ring is probably the actual best thing she brings to the table; faster than average delay, and one of the better Paralyzes in the entire game, but paralyze-locking bosses is typically not a common strat. I guess you could use her magic options for trash clearing, but...eh, she hasn't impressed me for the most part. 6/10.
Tenshi Hinanawi: Tenshi is the last proper tank you get, and she takes it to an extreme. Unlike Momiji and Meiling with their more balanced approaches, Mokou throwing extra lives at the problem, and Komachi going all in on HP, Tenshi goes to the extreme and goes high on both DEF and MND, doing her best to re-enact every "No Damage" hit from GBA Fire Emblem. Anything that does punch through will put her down in short order. Fortunately, she does her best to make that difficult; Free from Worldly Thoughts just cuts physical attacks by another 30%, and Enduring Celestial gives her a free 33% DEF and MND buff at the start of battle, no matter where she is in the formation. Contrary to her defensive focus, she has some notable use in her spells, most notably Sword of Hisou, which has a dispel effect boosted to 80% by Sword of Hisou's Owner - the single best counter to when bosses stack buffs, and this happens enough in the following floors to be worth it. World Creation Press, on the other hand, is likely better off grabbed by Satori unless you're building her offensively and working her support with Iku. 7/10 overall.
Flandre Scarlet: Loses two points for recruitment alone: you need 300 BP with all the other SDM characters, 30 FOEs down (which means deliberate backtracking), and 60 achievements to even get to her recruitment fight. Which...is honestly not too bad compared to a couple of the ones who come up. Flandre herself is...a bit of a mean joke in NG if you ask me. Her damage is monstrous, especially running off of her high stats, but it all comes with notable drawbacks; Forbidden Fruit and Laevateinn both eat MP from your other party members as well as reducing their ATB, while Starbow Break instead deletes 40% of Flandre's maximum HP. Smoldering Madness is the one upside she gives the party, giving them an 8% ATK buff whenever she gets a turn, and good luck making Vampiric Wrath work, ever, without her getting reduced into a fine paste. Probably the worst part is just that her elements of choice are of questionable use once you enter the first stratum after she joins. 4/10, though if the final stratum is better about any of these, she may recover comparably.
Yuyuko Saigyouji: Yuyuko takes Komachi's instant death specialization and takes it up to eleven. Reasonably strong magic in Spirit and Dark aside, her real boon is just that her instant death rates start at 33% and go all the way up to 108% base. However, and this is probably a controversial opinion here: I don't think her trades are good for this. Komachi's death is good enough, while she is remarkably bulky and fast. Yuyuko, on the other hand, has to deal with the usual mage problems of being slow and frail. Still, anything without Death immunity will more likely fall than not, and Gelatinous Cubes and the like crumple fairly quickly to ID. Not sure I'd bring her to bossfights unless I really needed strong Spirit magic, 6/10.
Yuuka Kazami: Yuuka is getting two points docked off for her recruitment being obnoxiously byzantine; needing BP from four characters, two of whom are only the most tenuously connected is already nasty enough. Yuuka herself has an impressive statline herself, with high marks in just about every stat except Mind and Speed. While she has three spells, all three of them have their uses (and Flower Shot is perhaps one of the single most economical spells in the game), and the combination of Extra Attack, Majesty, and Encounter with a Strong Foe (which will proc on every instance of Extra Attack as well) means she will punch way higher than her skill bases suggest. However, not only is she slow, but she has the unfortunate luck of being in the part of the game where major bosses either resist magic or nature, leading to her just giving a lackluster performance overall, and she just leaves a feeling of disappointment overall 3.5/10.
Yukari Yakumo: Yukari is...frankly quite difficult to talk about because she is the master of edgecase bullshit and weird shenanigans. Running a Kanako-lite setup statwise, Yukari is bulky and reasonably strong on magic, but slow. She can offer defensive party support if Reimu is busy healing (or just double up on DEF/MND buffs with her, it's literally the same damn spell in practice). She helps mono-focused tanks, well, tank better with Border of Power and Magic if you're willing to sink in the twenty-four skillpoints to use it. She also has a panic button in the form of Yukari's Spiriting Away that instantly gives the rest of the party a turn; strong, but say goodbye to any of her MP. Shikigami Ran Yakumo+ is possibly one of the single strongest spells in the game (576% MAG - 120% DEF), but if you want to actually leverage it you may as well go in on the Yakumo Clan synergy skill; it requires both Ran and Chen up front with her. She's got good elements for where she joins and a defense-piercing option, though, so I think I'll give her a 6.5. She's good, but you have to play to those edgecases.
Byakuren Hijiri: So I know Byakuren's got her fans here but I'm going to have to start out docking her two points for recruitment. One of the four items is based on a random drop (though I did get sufficiently lost in F14 that it dropped anyway) and the other three require a shitload of BP with Nazrin. You know how I feel about Nazrin. Onto Byakuren herself...she's good, but feels geared towards postgame in particular. Her passives are all regen/auto-buffing options that cost 18 SP apiece to juice that stat (or restore HP) by 12% a turn. Majesty on steroids, really. She can build for magic, but frankly it's better to pretend Magic Milky Way is just a debuff spell and focus on ATK with her. And to her credit, Skanda's Legs and Master of the Trichiliocosm are lightning-fast, especially with the speed buff the former gives. Star Sword Apologetics comes with its own debuffs and is a composite. Duplicating Chant...got nerfed in Plus Disk alongside the rest of her kit. She used to be broken, but now is simply good. 5/10
Eiki Shiki, Yamaxanadu: Two points off for recruitment. Komachi is good enough and comes early enough that it's not that hard to get 400 BP with her, but requiring seventy two achievements is a god damned war crime. Shiki's statline plays at wanting to be a hybrid, but as anyone knows at that point in this game, you don't do that. Either build her for crowd-clearing with Trial of the Ten Kings, or Spirit-element single-target ITD with Last Judgment. Wandering Sin is there for the disgusting status cocktail it gives. Cleansed Crystal Mirror does shore up her defenses a bit more than they appear, but Eiki still has mediocre durability and the combination of poor speed and some of the worst spread of delays possible. True ITD off of an actually good attack stat is good at least, but she will need a lot of babysitting. Can't give her more than 4/10 here, sadly.
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This Way Madness Lies: Why yes I just befriended Not!Cthulhu (he punched himself to death soon afterwards)
Fairly nice cast balance overall? Even the characters I was most eh aren't really dire or anything. Availablilty for characters not named Imogen/Miranda/Beatrice on the other hand...
Imogen: Well, she's forced but you'd probably want to field her anyways since both the stats and the skillset are pretty good, nice selection of damage (including light, which no one else really gets), some healing skills (one of which can be made full MT while in hyper), stun (with ailment hp bypassing vulnerability inflictions), charm (with damage boost if inflicted while hyper) and offense buffing's there too if you want it. I guess her early traits aren't all that exciting? 7/10.
Paulina: Well she heals a lot and can be durable... eventually. The former's nice early when you don't really have better options, but overall she doesn't really have damage and her ability to inflict ailments is entirely reliant on items and also basically nonexistant. Probably looks a bit better towards the end since you can probably do things with Long Winter but that's final dungeon level late. 4/10.
Viola: Viola hits things. Repeatedly. She doesn't do much but hit things (and be somewhat durable) and isn't *especially* exciting about it outside her ability to get extra turns (thereby cheating her hyper gauge) while doing so but hey. She is pretty frontloaded, so that's nice, at least. 5.5/10.
Rosalind: Unlike the previous two, Rosalind's more of a generalist who's good at stats that aren't HP or speed. The skillset, on the other hand... it's pretty iffy early, especially when not hyper but then you get a bunch of good stuff MT healing, strong vulnerable infliction, a charge effect (hi vulnerable)... stuff like that. Also gets a trait which lets her do +50% more damage to vulnerable enemies which can get into 5-digit damage territory levels of hilarious. Viola's better early, but not by enough to make up for how much better I found Rosalind late. 6/10.
Miranda: Um. Miranda is *weird*. Her power's pretty junky, she's kind of frail, her skillset is sort of all over the place and unlike every other character, going hyper shifts her functionality from offensive status slinger to defensive... something, I'm not sure what. Also she's forced a lot, and while I can safely say I eventually felt comfortable with the offensive part of the skillset (some of which is actually quite nice) I can't say I was galaxy brain enough to comfortable enough with her entire gimmick. LVP? I'm not entirely certain, she does at least have a good enough ailment stat to the point where you're okay with an odd dead turn where you Cat Ears/Shield Breaker something if you have to but janky support character is pretty down there on the Zeboyd games comptence hierarchy. 4/10.
Beatrice: Hey everyone it's time for BIG POIZN. BIG POIZN is actually pretty good apart from the fact that it can't be lethal turns out (especially since it doesn't get rid of vulnerable). Not to be content with that she also has all the ailments, all of them, in multitarget form so that's also nice (too bad the upgrade to Woo seems to be bugged to not use the listed values), as well as a charge skill for ailments (that can even be targetted on others while hyper, which is crazy). Direct damage is pretty lacking overall (it's all dark unless you set an early trait to make it pierce, and there's not that much of it) and the durability is kinda bad again but oh well, probably clears MVP anyways because charm and BIG POIZN. 7.5/10.
Kate: TANK. Kind of proactive about it but not in an especially reliable way? Having another source of targettable unstoppable is nice, of course, and the skillset otherwise... could be worse for what she's supposed to be doing. Honestly the main reason I used her because of her unite with Imogen which lets each party member null an attack. Probably enough for a 5/10.