Lyn mode promoted Sain makes my lizard brain happy. He has the unga bunga damage, 1-2 range and brrrr horse. If I ever played without Lyn mode I'd probably agree, but I'm addicted to Lyn's legion being good.
I always play Lyn mode because it just makes more sense to go into Eliwood/Hector's story with Lyn's group actually having some levels under their belt. Plus, if one of them gets stat blessed I have something to look forward to when they rejoin eventually.
Yeah I live Lyn's Cadre as well and even in randomized playthroughs it is really fun to raise interesting units and have them change dramatically when getting them back in the main story modes
i just wanna point out that as bopper is pointing out that forde is 2HKOing with a steel sword, forde warps the footage itself and makes it so he's 1 point short of 2HKOing with that steel sword. you write a script and forde says FUCK you, your script is incorrect i'm actually even worse than you say i am
5:23 I'm going to have to stop you right there cuz Isadora is definitely sexy emblem. Also, I know I'm probably the odd one out, but I really like her character and there is something comical about her complete lack of a Con stat. More bonus points because her support conversation with Renault is the best in the entire fire emblem franchise (tis a shame you will never actually see it in game). Anyway, smoll peen brain use sexy knight. Brain happy. Good vid. 10/10.
I wish she was a Valkyrie then she’ed have a identity and probably be a much better unit . Also joining as the second unit in a class would make her FE much less redundant than joining as the 5 member of a class
Can't say I agree. Christmas Cavs are always in my top 5 favorite units. Cavalier duos are mega fun to me. Seeing them grow together until they're both godlike Paladins is a happiness I cannot describe.
Oh yeah. The examples in this video aren’t one size fits all. It’s moreso explaining why we attach ourselves to certain units, and you have a pretty cool reason to dig the Cavs! It’s not the same thing I’m looking for, but definitely fits with how we love to tell our own stories
I also love using both Christmas Cavaliers together. The feel of having two paladins riding into battle, side by side, their support bonuses in full effect so that the world may never overtake them is something I greatly enjoy.
I like horses and I like knights and I like theming my armies so lots of horses makes everyone match and we all go brrrrrr. The fact that this is the optimal way to play is accidental.
love this more emotional look as to how people play fire emblem cause at the end of the day we don't play FE to feel like strategic gods (well that is one point but not the main point) it's to have fun. I remember playing PoR for the first time and seeing Astrid and just thinking "huh cute girl with bad bases wonder what she could become" and after 4 chapters and BEXP chugging she quickly went from busted sudan to a Ferrari and she has become one of my favourites to use whenever I play because of that emotional and gameplay journey. And ultimately when it comes to what units you wanna use stats shouldn't be the biggest issue it's whether or not you'll have fun using them wish more people talked about this aspect of FE more, but it is harder to get across as it's not as easy as to reasonably quantify. Keep up the work Bopper and keeping killing those cavs if it means more great vids.
I actually ended up taking Alva to endgame, in his intro chapter he leveled up movement twice, which convinced me that I need to use him for that particular run.
I've seen videos by people who know the games Really well, who provide statistics as to why the 3 trainees in Sacred Stones kinda suck... they take so much effort to train, and you could focus on someone Good instead... And I don't Care, because Ross goes from a small, aspiring kid to a Badass looking, buff as hell, Crit machine, Amelia goes from a timid girl who barely carries a lance to a mounted General who rushes around the battlefield, and Ewan goes from an apprentice mage who stumbles with each attack to a guy who points at someone, and the fabric of space and time rips apart around them. The animations of their trainee forms are what Really makes me love their journey to uber-badass.
I always make Amelia a General because this tiny girl in a giant suit of armour is the fastest General in the game and she _doubles everything_ and being faster than everyone while wearing armour 8 times your size and wielding a sword twice your size is just cool! Also she has a tendency to end up with absolutely disgusting critical rate from supports. She doubles everything, crits everything, and also her portrait constantly reminds you that inside that giant armour and making it go nyoom is a tiny adorable girl who likes talking about fashion and boys. Also my Ross barely ever got Skill and his entire hit rate came from his completely batshit Luck. He also capped Str at like level 16 Pirate.
For that matter, i hear a lot of talk about optimizing your team and stuff, but games like FE8 arent even hard enough to warrant not indulging the trainees. Like, i legit always cut seth relatively early and use the trainees, and its still not brutally hard or anything. Harder for sure since I'm neutering my team, but not brutal. So the idea that some people get annoyed that I'm just doing it wrong is bizzarre to me. I want a strategy game where i need to think through my moves. Not a number mashing game where i just take seth and sweep through maps. It does nothing to satisy the itch these games scratch.
@@jojodelacroix"All units in FE8 are bad except Seth because Seth solos the game" Which is why I never use Seth. If using Seth to solo makes the game boring then I won't use him. Problem solved!
I usually use the christmas cavs for a few chapters until one of them stands out more than the other, or neither of them do. Either way one of them is going to hold off the enemies in FE6 Chapter 8 at the treasure room until they die while everyone goes to fight Legance. Don't make me flip a coin, Alan.
Really loved this video, I always felt like there's a big disconnect because the more casual and elitist sides of FE communities in terms of approach and units used and it's great hearing the difference between unit effectiveness and unit feel articulated so clearly
I've been playing FE for the last 13 years or so and I could never pinpoint why I just dont really vibe with the early game cavs and its nuts you were able to articulate such a abstract argument and make it make sense this way in a community that prides itself on data and results driven discourse. Kudos man, earned my sub with this one.
Sully is memorable because I accidentally got her married to Chrom. I say accidentally because I spent the whole time up to that chapter using her purely for her horse and not recognizing her character. Still the most memorable part of Awakening for me.
Ha I actually had a save-the-day moment with her and Virion in a defence chapter early on and she turned out to be pretty good as a Luna-wielding Armored Cav
My christmas cavs always get RNG screwed, which has turned into unfortunate disdain for them. I think RNG also plays a big part in unit feel. If a bad unit gets good level-ups I think it turns into good unit feel because of the novelty of a normally terrible unit being able to put in work.
This. My Mia on Path of Radiance (first Fire Emblem I seriously picked up) ended up 4 points shy of capping STR and capped SPD before promotion, only to find online that she is believed to be universally bad. She dodge tanks and one-hits everything! Even if I do have to clean up archers afterwards.
Yeah RNG affects unit feel a lot. Apparently PoR Soren is supposed to double things or something. I wouldn't know because I've never seen him level speed more than twice in a playthrough, even when I used him the whole way through. Meanwhile my first FE6 run had a stupidly blessed Alen so I always prefer him even though Lance is usually better.
@@hulberto8106 Alan and Lance are pretty balanced to each other because of how hard it is to double in FE6 paired with how bulky enemies are. Unlike in other games, the couple points of speed Lance has on Alan can actually mean something, and having the higher sword rank is actually a good thing for once. However, if both or neither double, then Alan is almost certainly the better pick.
Mareeta. Closing turns in Chapter 14, almost got slaughtered by ambush spawns, but she not only killed them all, she gained two movement consecutively, on top of another one in the previous Chapter. I never knew a better indoor fighter since(except Asbel)
There is one pair of Christmas Cavalier that avoided this fate. Berwick Saga, Leon and Adel are both spear cavaliers but are completely different in terms of skills. Leon, for example, has Deathmatch which allows him to fight five full rounds of combat against an enemy while Adel has Vantage. This completely changes their playstyle heck both of them have supporter skill which gives them a massive bonus if they are near each other.
your videos are some of the greatest Fire Emblem UA-cam content on the site. I love the term "Unit Feel", and it's making me think twice about why everyone doesn't overlevel their Lords like I do to get into the Linus version of Four Fanged Offense to get the best boy Geitz
Technically, they have two weaknesses: bad Resistance, and bow weakness. In some games, they also tend to have below-average Speed, though that's variable.
@@silverthespamsweeper7138 Yeah, in RD wyverns are weak to thunder instead of wind magic and the arrow weakness has been removed entirely with no downsides. Its as balanced as it sounds.
@@ProfessorBopper From what I understand it’s literally just that she comes in with ok bases and with no investment, she’s probably the worst of the Cavs when trained, honestly I seem to use her a lot like Louise, kills a unit each turn but lacks the Enemy Phase with Hand Axes like the others. Still a Cav though and therefore decent
@@shadedhydra6674 Oh no, I'm not questioning that she's a good unit. She is good! Everyone's been pulling jumpers on me for saying that she isn't Sexy Emblem
@@ProfessorBopper Oh, wait rated on how attractive she is? Ha, oh yeah people waifu these characters don’t they? She’s ok, I dunno, she’s Midia with long hair, if you like that, cool.
Wow.... This is crazy. This video was super amazing, and for the Christmas Cavs, I literally had the total opposite reaction. My sister and I played the GBA FE together, and we absolutely loved the Chrismas Cavs, we loved the GBA Chrismas Cavs design, character, and usually had funny experiences with them. I think it is amazing that everyone has different experiences with them, that's the best part about Fire Emblem to me. They served quite well in our playthroughs! They're one of the reasons why I have such a GBA bias, but also, it's the most nostalgic for me and funnest when I played them with my sister, so I suppose it makes sense I love them so much, haha.
I think Sain has excellent unit feel though. Obviously the game heavily endears you to him on a first playthrough since he has a ton of amusing dialogue in Lyn Mode and is one your best units throughout it all, but even ignoring that, Sain has quite possibly the most lucrative thing possible to monkey brain: Big numbers. The guy has a ton of strength. Way too much. Quickly spirals into overkill, which is the best kind of kill. Lowen, despite being an excellent unit, is always slept on and ignored by casual players because while he has nice bases and a good class he has absolutely no personality to speak of and terribad offensive growths which, while *sufficient* from a practical perspective, just don't appeal as much as oneshotting dudes. I agree with the video overall, just thought that pick was odd.
That may just be me though--I'm an absolute sucker for dealing as much damage as possible in one hit. Why else would I immediately drop everything and feed all my kills to Tiltyu and her 60 damage Thorons?
@@lucydoodles2020 Stahl is like barely functional but I use him anyway sometimes just because his bit of being Aggressively Normal actually manages to be funny. Also, "Oh I _love_ this part!" is a good critical hit quote.
I like Forde for the simple fact that I managed to come up with the surname: "Forde Motor Company" and then I kept using him. He kept getting strength growths and was pretty much took the place that Franz is logically supposed to have.
I think this is why I like the flexible promotions of the newer games so much. I can make my own story arcs for better unit feel - like making Bernie into a general, and Raphael into a Priest. And it can be different each time I play, too.
I attest to this, I managed to make Amelia into an incredible character despite going down the less optimized route, meanwhile Franz was dead trying to escape Renais.
This puts words on a feeling it is hard to grasp while reading discussions on why some people disagree so much over units. I hope you expand on the concept of unit feel in later videos!
This is kind of why I've been doing a harem run with a lot of Fire Emblem games as of late. Basically with the exception of the main lord, I only use female units. (Sometimes only use female units if the Lord is a female ie Sacred Stones and Three Houses) I just find it hilariously amusing that I'm overthrowing these medieval empires with an army of cute anime girls.
I've always had a lot of fun with high movement rescue drop characters. It feels so good to just feel like you have the whole battlefield at the tips of your fingers
I have nothing to say but to praise this video for hitting bullseye why I love Fire Emblem, and I love it way more than most of the other SRPG franchises.
It makes me physically ill to imagine just using one Christmas cav. It's always extra heartbreaking when one snowballs and the other gets screwed. I WANT THEM TOGETHER DAMN IT. It's honestly so bad that I dont even promote unless I have 2 of the required item so they can use it at the same time. I have a symmetry problem.
Inventing new terms I see. I gotta say though i feel this so hard. When having unit viability discussions, whenever I have to explain why a unit like Zihark from PoR isn't great I initially get stuck with my explanation. It's easy to explain why when you give it enough thought - sword locked, not mounted, etc. But my initial thought is genuinely "he doesn't feel great to use" and I feel like most mediocre units can fall under this umbrella. Also Marisa is the worst unit in SS? I mean, bottom 3 for sure, but Amelia and Ewan... Happy holidays Bopper!
Zihark is a great example of a guy you use for his personality. I’ve come to really like Zihark as a character. Funnily I hate using him in RD. Even though he’s a big improvement from most of your cast when he joins, I’ve got such an emotional attachment with the Scrub Brigade that I can’t let any of them go. I will stand by Marisa being the worst! But worst unit in SS is so hard because the bottom is so littered with trash lol
@@ProfessorBopper as a follow up I think a good way to also describe this phenomenon is "unit intuition" based on the definition of intuition. I understand that they doesn't have the same ring to it as "unit feel" Also as a character, Zihark is super badass, really all of the PoR characters are excellent. It's also a shame that RD couldn't reciprocate in this aspect
Amelia's arguable, but I think Ewan pretty easily beats Marisa, thanks to the luxury of using magic, IE he doesn't need to risk losing all of his health to counterattacks and will usually at least deal a *little* bit of damage by virtue of enemies having no res.
Zihark is honestly one of my favorite characters from the series but he does kind of get an odd place in RD, where you really need to get levels on your team and he doesn't gain them as fast for awhile
About unit feel. How many times do you hear someone in the comments or on the FE subreddit say things like "I made Amelia into an general because Giliam is my only other general and I already have 2 paladins"? I also find it interesting how bottom tier units like Amelia, Mozu, Sophia and Rolf get more attention because they stand out in their badness unlike someone whose just mediocre like Trec.
@Morph Ball Path of Radiance is actually pretty good at making its Cavs feel distinct though, since they have different weapon types and fun personalities. I guess Geoffrey's pretty forgettable, but that's about it.
@Morph Ball It's not just you, Paladin is easily the best class in FE9. That being said there's still all of their time being unpromoted to be distinct, not to mention Kieran's Gamble and Astrid's Paragon to set them apart. And, well, Oscar has his huge availability on his side, and Makalov is......Makalov.
Kane and Alva were given so little effort they’re names are effectively just Cain and Abels spelled different and with the letters rearranged respectively.
"How come people don't load up on horses and fliers" Me: Tugs collar I really enjoy flying around the map at the speed of sound and tend to rely on Paladins to do most of my damage eating while the Pegas go ham on the other side of the map. If I can class someone into a horse then I will always do so and when the main characters have gender options I will always play female so I can get that pegasus and one turn maps. Might just be a me thing, but I love turning Fire Emblem into a cav strat game.
I'm glad for the variety of reasons you pointed out for liking a unit, I feel like it justifies me feeding levels and using all my stat boosting items on Dorcas because of the commercial memes
Maybe I am just weird, but I love Noish in Fire Emblem 4. He does not have pursuit, but he has really good growths and bases comparatively, and with swords and lances there are things he can do. Because he has the critical skill if you are willing to try forever in the arena, with wrath, weapon triangle, and patience you can almost always have him clear the arena. And when you can do this in the first arena, which normally only Sigurd and maybe Quan can do, you can get Noish lots of extra levels and gold. Which Noish can use to abuse his weapon ranks and have tons of options, or buy things like the paragon ring, pursuit ring, or brave sword to help shore up his weaknesses. His ability to go through the arena with lucky crits alongside his high enough base level comparatively and access to swords to gain xp during chapters let him promote and get another power boost. It is like how it is fun using Amelia because of the zero to hero, but for me Noish is never bad, I am just allowing him to keep up with the best units by letting him do what only he can do. It can also just be fun to gamble withcharge/accost and critical proc to see if he can get his kill, like the devil axe. Alec has a whole other optimalish meme strategy using the paladin's broken +5 magic on promo and the magic ring to make Alec the wielder of the light brand and go around magically 2 ranging people if you don't want your light brand on someone like Sigurd or Azel. Though by chapter 3/4 you should have at least 2 magic swords. Alec has a weird turban thing which I never understood, but it makes his design stick out in my mind. I feel like the skills and dialogue also do a lot to help every unit, not just the Christmas calvs stand out. Even if Noish only talks at the beginning and Alec only has one extra conversation with Sylvia, (Arden mentions he gets a lot of chicks once,) the gameplay helps fill in the gaps as these poor, loyal, but holy blood lacking knights do their best to do their duty to their honourable liege. Additionally if you marry them off (Noish+Ferry gang) you can gain more insight into their characters. Thanks for making this vid man. I am much more into the tactics of Fire Emblem, but unit feel is something important for everyone and the lizard brain has more control than we would like. Even if I don't always agree with you, I appreciate the interesting discussions your videos and streams start. Also they are fun. Merry Christmas, Booper.
Thank you so much for making this video! I always had this vibe about playing the games that I could never explain... and you're just explaining it right here!
I've had similar experiences with the Cavs where I almost always just use a handful of them because they happen to support with more interesting footlocked units that need to get ferried around to stay in the action; it's almost an afterthought what their personalities are compared to getting bonuses to people I'm actually interested in investing time in. And I think Path of Radiance did it best when they differentiated the cav's starting weapons and gave the player the choice of what kind of weapon triangle control they would have when they did eventually promote (super canto might have been a step too far though). Cav's should have versatility in this similar manner to stand out and feel good to use. Give them more move than they already have compared to footlocked units and even give them weapon ranks that progress them to the point they can use weapons others can't when they become available. But in return make it so that their stats are 9/10 going to remain average (and actually provide challenging enemies where the average amount of stats isn't already enough to one round any opponent without assistance). This would highlight the many more useful aspects new players gloss over like rescuing, terrain access, trade chains etc. without turning it into FE4 where horse riding is the meta.
Finally I don't feel like I've been condescended on by an FE video telling me my love for Myrmidons and Lords is wrong. This was a really good video. 14:10 to 14:40 in particular is my favourite part. FE is not my favourite tactics game, by far it's SMT Devil Survivor and the greatest part about that game is how easy it is to make fun for yourself through demon customisation, skill loadouts, etc.. I know magic is OP and I'll always have my best bro to cover physical in all routes but I'll still do it from time to time.
This video hits a very important point, with all the discussion about what is optimal and who are the best units, we often forget most people choose based on what is fun to play/use and unit feel is very important in this choice
I guess the reason I like using both Christmas Cavs, or neither Christmas Cavs (depends on the game) must be because I like the archetype. I like watching them both fight together for the entirety of the game, especially considering they're usually best friends and/or rivals.
Unit feel is an interesting concept to explore for any game that has the option to choose whom you use for gameplay. Fire Emblem has that ability to have multiple units with the same class, like playing d&d or PF with the same class, but you can make two rogues in completely different builds But fire Emblem almost fosters the lack of uniqueness in stats and combat ability so we must look to other things to diversify their "characters" versus them as "units" in the game. Personality, as you aptly shown us how forgettable they are as characters. Yeah we had our "horse" units, we didn't have Sain (the charmer), Kent (the straight man), Marcus (the champ), Lowen (the no-eyes), or Isadora (forgettable) as FE7 is concerned Looking forward to more content, more analysis, more streams, everything. Love it man thank you & happy holidays
Kyle's one spot in my mind is when he beat the final boss to avenge his wife LUTE (my favorite SS character) who died the enemy phase before in a blaze of glory. It still brings a tear to my eye.
For me, it was always "haha Alen is red and red is my favorite color, wooooo" but I like this perspective on the game. Fire Emblem is a game about characters, not necessarily units - creation of a story using those characters gives more depth to the game.
Personally i found Forde so endearing as a character i suffered with him despite him always ending uo rng screwed in my runs just goes to show what a great first impression can do
Its probs because it was my first game, but sain and kent were units i really loved, as well as lowen. The first two because they were, i think, the first units you get to play with, and the later, bc he filled the void they left when the game moved on to Eliwood/Hector's story. Also i just think lowen is cute lol. Canas is also one of my favorites, as you said, I really liked that he was a dark mage and also he's a really good unit + his dialogue about wanting to learn was really cute to me.
Kellam is my favorite Armor unit just because his Armor has a very endearing story behind it (His B-Support with Maribelle btw), which is exactly what you mentioned at like 12:40 to be crucial for finding a unit fun to use.
I feel that one of the best examples of “unit-feel” is the Jerrot squad. Allen and Lance are boring and dumb. They don’t seem as special as anyone else in the army. Treck and Noah stand out. Treck feels like an armor knight on a horse and it makes him interesting to use. Noah has a cool portrait, can use the killing edge at base, and is pretty okay despite his obnoxiously bad level ups, making for a memorable experience. Jerrot has the opposite problem; he’s got a super muted color palette and feels far more generic than the superhero Marcus who’s been carrying your team for six chapters. I can remember having really fun experiences with Treck, Noah, and Marcus in ways that I can’t with Allen, Lance, and Jerrot.
I think what you've mentioned here and previous videos about the 'meta-narrative' really hits home the way a most of people play FE the majority of their playthroughs, regardless of the game. As far Christmas cavs go, the only one I've had what felt like a compelling meta-narrative for was FE9 Oscar. He became immensely tanky and was able to solo Naesala and his squad in CH19. However that's the only particularly memorable moment he had in the game for me despite being an all around solid unit.
i think t his is super true - one interesting thing which came up with this was my partner first started playing fire emblem and i encouraged her to use the units she enjoyed, while also being honest about how viable they were. she ended up taking neimi to end game and even though she got stoned and did literally nothing the entire fight, just the novelty of bringing this crappy early game villager girl to endgame was enough to make it worth it. it's especially funny because i was excited all game to get knoll because i never really messed around with him as a kid, and the idea of summoner as a class is just so novel to me. i think that's the two different ways a unit can have good feel - both through having an interesting gameplay function or by having a great story behind them
we're onto 6 now and she decided to do a soft ironman, if a unit who isnt that important or interesting dies we let it happen. alan and lance were both dead by like chapter 5 and i couldnt even be bothered to argue for keeping them alive lol.
Glad i found your channel, love this. I must say though, I LOVE the Santa and Shrek cav’s attack animation. Its so satisfying to be in synch with the horse to lean as far as you can to STAB them, usually twice because speeeeeed. I most fondly remember Franz and he is really good? But i also refuse to use Seth on hard mode so i kinda needed him. :P
Bopper... I love you, you amazing beautiful man. A fun fe guy, a demon's souls guy... ty for the quality content. It always gets me excited to watch a new video of yours. Ty.
Thanks for explaining why I always pick General Amelia. Little girl in big armor plus boots go zoom. There's only two reasons I ever play Lyn mode nowadays; to level Florina a bit, and to yoink Wallace's knight crest and promote Sain early.
The only christmas Cavaliers with good unit feel imo are Kent and Sain because they're like important characters for the first 10 chapters of their game (nevermind those chapters are optional after beating the game once). They have a funny dynamic with each other, get featured in multiple CG, and they talk a lot in the cut scenes. Since FE7 was my first game, you can see how I was majorly disappointed by how boring all the other christmas cavs were everywhere else...
sometimes in awakening and fates I plan out my promotions to get the most efficient stats and skills for my units (and their kids for the latter). other times I just pick whichever promotion's outfit looks nicer. lizard brain brain says the pixel people won't be able to focus on fighting if their bare legs are chafing in the saddle :(
I find that I often project myself onto the Christmas cavs more often than I do the actual avatars in most FE games. Which is why for me I find that they have an ok unit feel.
I feel like one of the biggest demonstrations of the influence of unit feel would have to be promotion in FE8. There's a bunch of units who have the choice of a grounded promotion with unique strengths or 'obtain a horse'; Mage Knight, Valkyrie, Great Knight (from Armour Knight) and (to a lesser extent) Ranger. Ostensibly, it's most efficient to promote most of them into their 'mounted' class, but I feel like the only unit who a lay person elects for the mounted promote with is Neimi.
Forde was literally my favorite unit in sacred stones and I'm shocked to find people hate him but at the same time I kinda fucked with my first playthrough bc I was bored and wanted to see what it was like to hack on a Mauthe Doog as a player unit, used him as the guinea pig, then when I turned the cheats off for some reason he didn't turn back and he switched classes with Vanessa, so now Vanessa was permanently a Mauthe Doog and Forde was a Pegasus Knight. I made him a wyvern knight lol he was pretty cool XD But even besides that madness in my subsequent playthroughs I love using him so :b
Would Oscar and Kieran be the exception to this rule? They’re two of the best units in Path of Radiance. Most Christmas cavs get introduced at the same time early in the game, which makes them feel a bit samey, but Oscar and Kieran get introduced at different times and have different roles within the cast. Oscar is one of the Greil Mercenaries from Chapter 1, who has two other brothers in the group. He’s essentially the kind older brother to Ike and crew. Kieran is introduced in Chapter 10 as a Crimean knight that’s been captured in prison, and he has tons of personality to immediately make him stand out (like his one-sided rivalry with Oscar).
yeah good point! Oscar and Kieran really stood out for me since PoR does a great job with establishing their characters and allowing personalities to shine through. My Oscars tend to turn out lame, so for me he gets benched purely because as much as I love him, he's not doing what I need him to do. But Kieran... *Kieran.* I dragged Kieran through the Tower in RD. That man is a legend. I would die for him.
When I got into Three Houses, my first FE, I got really into the subreddit, developing my gameplay, etc. and I saw a few posts talking about the best Snipers. I remember thinking, "oh, man, I think Bernadetta is awesome!" but apparently she wasn't actually that good compared to units like Ashe. This video perfectly explains why I loved her in spite of all that, and it's definitely unit feel. It didn't matter if she was the "best," but the greater narrative as a teacher with students made the characters feel extra personal to me, and I wanted Bernadetta to break out of her shell and be the best. So I made her fight in every battle, even though narratively speaking she'd rather sit out, and that made her into a great unit that satisfied that desire to see her grow. Great video, man. I have been getting into these after finding them by chance, and I really enjoy them as a newcomer to the series.
Alen never doubles while Lance takes off due to his speed advantage? I get that you're mostly using this for a silly example, but the difference between Alen and Lances speed is very small and Alen will do more damage against enemies that neither can double which is a lot of enemies. They will also both usually double most enemies post promotion where Alen will do more damage than Lance
Earlygame Lance starts doubling faster, though, and you usually only have the Knight Crests and the personal want to use one of them. So in my experience Allen is usually the one left by the wayside unless Lance gets screwed.
Lance's early speed advantage is huge in earlygame. 2 base speed is a pretty big deal, and in FE6's absolutely brutal Hard Mode Lance doubling earlier and getting more kills gives him a definite advantage in simply "feeling good." Carrying earlygame alongside Marcus while still being good the whole way through>being alright earlygame and being good the whole way through. Since their lategame performance differences are so negligible Lance's stronger start just makes him more memorable.
@@wannabecinnabon How does Lance carry earlygame? He can barely double anything Alan can’t double, and Alan’s better strength make him overall a better combatant when neither double. While he may have some small points where he doubles and Alan doesn’t, he’s not carrying the earlygame unless you give him like all the exp, and Alan will be similarly good with the type of treatment you need to give Lance.
@@carpediem6841 Carry is an exaggeration, but 2 points of speed is huge at the start of the game;Alen needs to gain 4 levels before he matches base Lance's speed. 10 speed is the first important speed tier in FE6 hard mode, as most earlygame enemies, namely Fighters, Archers, and Cavaliers, have around 6 AS. Lance will hit 10 speed by level 5, while Alen needs to be level *9* to do that.
@@wannabecinnabon Fighters aren’t common for a while past ch. 2, which is too early for Lance to have gotten enough speed unless you pumped him full of nearly all exp in Ch. 1. Archers aren’t particularly common either. Cavs only counts for Ch. 3, Ch. 4 ones usually have 8 speed. Lance doesn’t have nearly the advantage you’re suggesting he has
It really like these videos about unit feeling, to me depending on game, the Christmas cavaliers can be very forgettable( like fire emblem 3, 4,6,8)to somewhat interesting( fire emblem 13) to actually memorable(fire emblem 3 book 1,7 and 14) but with fates it because there ninja and the class are a really good class(seriously debuffs and poison strike are really good). I do like you give the feeling of using units. While mekkah gives the technical side of fire emblem(which is interesting and fun to talk about), you give the feeling of playing a unit which is rentable by all fire emblem fans.
That actually explains why I prefer Lowen to Kent (or even Saint). Kent has solid bases and growths. If you played Lyn Mode first, he will be probably really strong by that point too. He consistently has been my best Paladin. ...And he has as much personality as a brick wall. Sain at least as a fun personality. Lowen as a weird, funny design, and is mostly a comic relief. He also has a golden armour. And his growth will vary wildly, even if he's sure to be tanky. There's a far better story than with any other Cav here. You are taking a wild gamble that can transform this Bad Haircut Duckling into a Golden Swan!
Hooray for Bonus Points! Jesus Christ Thracia units have some longass boots. You usually only see those on the ladies but Kain and Alba are dipping into that territory too, the mad lads
you really did that Kein and Alva like that huh :P I'd argue a large part of unit feel (other than your Amelias and Ninos) is raw ability to kill things. When it matches with other utility, people are happy about Seth and Marcus, even if they're bleh old guys. When it's Tiltyu and Ayra people lose their shit if they're told no horse bad because they can't get to fights. But there are lots of good characters like Harken and Rutger that are more similar to the latter than the former except the enemies they face have beefier stats I guess too! No one really gets really excited about a sick trade chain or rescue strat since we don't really do them unless one's name is dondon. I like your argument about actually considering same class units, since I actually decided to do runs of FE7 and FE9 with only lord and horses/fliers and it was kinda fun...for a while but it got kinda miserable. At least...the FE7 one did. But the FE9 one was great, because I started doing whacky stuff and giving people weird promo weapons that I would never otherwise do.
5x in sacred stones is meant for you to train one of your units personally by soloing the whole map. I always managed to get forde to a respectable level 14 before finishing the chapter, making him a perfect candidate to join forces in chapter 8 and take care of the left side of the map.
This video reminds me a lot of that video Brian David Gilbert did about Fire Emblem where he more or less made the argument that each character in the series is purposefully very archetypal, which I suppose links up with criticism that Fire Emblem has fundamentally archetypal stories in and of themselves. I can think of two very conflicting types of experiences that can come about by purposefully being so archetypal, one being the idea that it creates units like the Christmas cavaliers that are bland, and the other that blank-slate characters allow for us to project meta narratives through the gameplay for each of our characters. Even with that latter benefit, it makes me wonder why such an archetype exists.
I love the bit about unit feel and why Isadora stands out to me is that she's a late game promoted physical unit. I feel like woman in Fire Emblem in general aren't written to be badasses and when they are they're written to be in a more magical/wisdom roll. Then came Isadora as a late game pre promote riding a horse like all those cool men Paladins. Anyways that's why Isadora gives me good unit feel.
It's also interesting how a player and their opinions change over the years. When I was a kid and FE7 was a shiny new cart in my GBA, I basically refused to use Serra, because I didn't like her. Also I never made it past Bern. When I played the game again a few years ago, I was like, "Yeah yeah whatever. Annoying Healer Girl, you are duct-taped to Hector, because Eliwood is a disappointment". What I didn't know was that Hector and Serra have a support. And that I'd ship it. Good girl Serra.
Sorry Boopie, but you said you didn't like Joshua's hat, and that makes everything you say wrong.
He said his hat was stupid, but he also said that the stupid hat made Joshua better, therefore, he's saying the hat is good
that's definitely part of the numerous FE's war crimes
True dat
"Joshua has a hat." Is the most brutally honest statement I've ever heard because that does explain why I liked him so much as soon as I saw him.
Respect the hat.
Tbh, I was interested by him during booty’s stream because he looked cool
Why does he need to call me out like that D:
He has a hat *and* is a prince
I like Joshua because Myrmidon.
For some reason my Lizard Brain goes: “Is this a Myrmidon?” and if yes then “Auto include”
@@dragonknight4231 I feel this on a spiritual level. I like me them speedy crit bois
Higher move meaning more ways to die is some of the best logic ever.
joshua has *hat*
yesss
finally, someone gets it
It is a pretty sweet hat
Bad hat
@@ProfessorBopper agree to disagree on that one
Lyn mode promoted Sain makes my lizard brain happy. He has the unga bunga damage, 1-2 range and brrrr horse.
If I ever played without Lyn mode I'd probably agree, but I'm addicted to Lyn's legion being good.
I always play Lyn mode because it just makes more sense to go into Eliwood/Hector's story with Lyn's group actually having some levels under their belt. Plus, if one of them gets stat blessed I have something to look forward to when they rejoin eventually.
Yeah I live Lyn's Cadre as well and even in randomized playthroughs it is really fun to raise interesting units and have them change dramatically when getting them back in the main story modes
It doesn't "feel" right not to do Lyn Mode first
Skipping Lyn mode is like skipping the first third of a trilogy. It just feels wrong.
Except Wallace, but he's a one of the best meme character in the game so it's OK.
i just wanna point out that as bopper is pointing out that forde is 2HKOing with a steel sword, forde warps the footage itself and makes it so he's 1 point short of 2HKOing with that steel sword.
you write a script and forde says FUCK you, your script is incorrect i'm actually even worse than you say i am
I was looking for your comment to see what you were going to say about Forde, and you didn't disappoint.
Hahahaha yes, that's the perfect response to Forde from him! 😂
Mekkah, you talking about Forde reminds me of me talking about my ex wife. Fuck those slags.
Fuck Forde. Kyle is bae
Forde would have one rounded if he voted for Joe Biden (in the 2022 midterms)
5:23 I'm going to have to stop you right there cuz Isadora is definitely sexy emblem. Also, I know I'm probably the odd one out, but I really like her character and there is something comical about her complete lack of a Con stat. More bonus points because her support conversation with Renault is the best in the entire fire emblem franchise (tis a shame you will never actually see it in game).
Anyway, smoll peen brain use sexy knight. Brain happy. Good vid. 10/10.
I wish she was a Valkyrie then she’ed have a identity and probably be a much better unit . Also joining as the second unit in a class would make her FE much less redundant than joining as the 5 member of a class
5:28 Alec has toilet paper on his head.
Unit feel/10
Pfp checks out.
He is used to recruit Arya too.
Was gonna say the exact same thing
I agree so much with that it's insane !
I love Alec turban so much XD
Can't say I agree. Christmas Cavs are always in my top 5 favorite units. Cavalier duos are mega fun to me. Seeing them grow together until they're both godlike Paladins is a happiness I cannot describe.
Oh yeah. The examples in this video aren’t one size fits all. It’s moreso explaining why we attach ourselves to certain units, and you have a pretty cool reason to dig the Cavs! It’s not the same thing I’m looking for, but definitely fits with how we love to tell our own stories
I also love using both Christmas Cavaliers together. The feel of having two paladins riding into battle, side by side, their support bonuses in full effect so that the world may never overtake them is something I greatly enjoy.
@@ericamborsky3230 This exactly!
I like horses and I like knights and I like theming my armies so lots of horses makes everyone match and we all go brrrrrr.
The fact that this is the optimal way to play is accidental.
@@louc.6735 I also love theming my army around cavalry. My latest playthrough of fe6 can only be described as "Oops! All paladins!"
love this more emotional look as to how people play fire emblem cause at the end of the day we don't play FE to feel like strategic gods (well that is one point but not the main point) it's to have fun. I remember playing PoR for the first time and seeing Astrid and just thinking "huh cute girl with bad bases wonder what she could become" and after 4 chapters and BEXP chugging she quickly went from busted sudan to a Ferrari and she has become one of my favourites to use whenever I play because of that emotional and gameplay journey. And ultimately when it comes to what units you wanna use stats shouldn't be the biggest issue it's whether or not you'll have fun using them wish more people talked about this aspect of FE more, but it is harder to get across as it's not as easy as to reasonably quantify. Keep up the work Bopper and keeping killing those cavs if it means more great vids.
I wish my Astrid could have more than base strength at level 17 😭
We're playing to have... Fun? That's how you recognise Fire Emblem casual, who didn't even master Thracia 776
I hate to be that guy, but you misspelled Sedan
I don't play FE at the end of the day because it's too stressful for me lol
@@Ray-tf5wu Feel free to play Fire Emblem, with casual mode included there's no reason to stress about anything :)
I actually ended up taking Alva to endgame, in his intro chapter he leveled up movement twice, which convinced me that I need to use him for that particular run.
That Is one of the best things on tharcia
Wait, Thracia has a growth rate attached to MOVEMENT of all stats?! …what madness is this?
@@rokr0001 Yup! My Nanna had 13 movement by endgame I believe? It was absolutely ridiculous.
@@rokr0001 And constitution.
see, I always kept sain because he was a huge simp and i thought it was funny
Ha yeah his supports were hilarious & Sylvain gets shut down almost as hilariously
Yeah. Top 3 in the game
That phat 60% strength growth
I've seen videos by people who know the games Really well, who provide statistics as to why the 3 trainees in Sacred Stones kinda suck... they take so much effort to train, and you could focus on someone Good instead... And I don't Care, because Ross goes from a small, aspiring kid to a Badass looking, buff as hell, Crit machine, Amelia goes from a timid girl who barely carries a lance to a mounted General who rushes around the battlefield, and Ewan goes from an apprentice mage who stumbles with each attack to a guy who points at someone, and the fabric of space and time rips apart around them.
The animations of their trainee forms are what Really makes me love their journey to uber-badass.
Yup, nobody uses them because they are good, quite the contrary in fact.
I always make Amelia a General because this tiny girl in a giant suit of armour is the fastest General in the game and she _doubles everything_ and being faster than everyone while wearing armour 8 times your size and wielding a sword twice your size is just cool! Also she has a tendency to end up with absolutely disgusting critical rate from supports. She doubles everything, crits everything, and also her portrait constantly reminds you that inside that giant armour and making it go nyoom is a tiny adorable girl who likes talking about fashion and boys.
Also my Ross barely ever got Skill and his entire hit rate came from his completely batshit Luck. He also capped Str at like level 16 Pirate.
@@FlameUser64 I just can't stand making Amelia a cavalier when you already get so goddamn many. Plus, like you said, it's hilarious
For that matter, i hear a lot of talk about optimizing your team and stuff, but games like FE8 arent even hard enough to warrant not indulging the trainees. Like, i legit always cut seth relatively early and use the trainees, and its still not brutally hard or anything. Harder for sure since I'm neutering my team, but not brutal. So the idea that some people get annoyed that I'm just doing it wrong is bizzarre to me. I want a strategy game where i need to think through my moves. Not a number mashing game where i just take seth and sweep through maps. It does nothing to satisy the itch these games scratch.
@@jojodelacroix"All units in FE8 are bad except Seth because Seth solos the game"
Which is why I never use Seth. If using Seth to solo makes the game boring then I won't use him. Problem solved!
I usually use the christmas cavs for a few chapters until one of them stands out more than the other, or neither of them do. Either way one of them is going to hold off the enemies in FE6 Chapter 8 at the treasure room until they die while everyone goes to fight Legance. Don't make me flip a coin, Alan.
Rip Alan he did it to himself
Really loved this video, I always felt like there's a big disconnect because the more casual and elitist sides of FE communities in terms of approach and units used and it's great hearing the difference between unit effectiveness and unit feel articulated so clearly
I've been playing FE for the last 13 years or so and I could never pinpoint why I just dont really vibe with the early game cavs and its nuts you were able to articulate such a abstract argument and make it make sense this way in a community that prides itself on data and results driven discourse. Kudos man, earned my sub with this one.
Sully is memorable because I accidentally got her married to Chrom. I say accidentally because I spent the whole time up to that chapter using her purely for her horse and not recognizing her character. Still the most memorable part of Awakening for me.
Ha I actually had a save-the-day moment with her and Virion in a defence chapter early on and she turned out to be pretty good as a Luna-wielding Armored Cav
SAME HAHAHA the scene at the end of chapter 11 started and I was like wait what is happening 😂😂
This just happened to me like a month ago lol I don't even know what I did
Maximum Himbo Gilliam is the answer. Always.
My christmas cavs always get RNG screwed, which has turned into unfortunate disdain for them. I think RNG also plays a big part in unit feel. If a bad unit gets good level-ups I think it turns into good unit feel because of the novelty of a normally terrible unit being able to put in work.
This. My Mia on Path of Radiance (first Fire Emblem I seriously picked up) ended up 4 points shy of capping STR and capped SPD before promotion, only to find online that she is believed to be universally bad. She dodge tanks and one-hits everything! Even if I do have to clean up archers afterwards.
Yeah RNG affects unit feel a lot. Apparently PoR Soren is supposed to double things or something. I wouldn't know because I've never seen him level speed more than twice in a playthrough, even when I used him the whole way through. Meanwhile my first FE6 run had a stupidly blessed Alen so I always prefer him even though Lance is usually better.
@@hulberto8106 Alan and Lance are pretty balanced to each other because of how hard it is to double in FE6 paired with how bulky enemies are. Unlike in other games, the couple points of speed Lance has on Alan can actually mean something, and having the higher sword rank is actually a good thing for once. However, if both or neither double, then Alan is almost certainly the better pick.
Mareeta. Closing turns in Chapter 14, almost got slaughtered by ambush spawns, but she not only killed them all, she gained two movement consecutively, on top of another one in the previous Chapter.
I never knew a better indoor fighter since(except Asbel)
There is one pair of Christmas Cavalier that avoided this fate. Berwick Saga, Leon and Adel are both spear cavaliers but are completely different in terms of skills. Leon, for example, has Deathmatch which allows him to fight five full rounds of combat against an enemy while Adel has Vantage. This completely changes their playstyle heck both of them have supporter skill which gives them a massive bonus if they are near each other.
your videos are some of the greatest Fire Emblem UA-cam content on the site. I love the term "Unit Feel", and it's making me think twice about why everyone doesn't overlevel their Lords like I do to get into the Linus version of Four Fanged Offense to get the best boy Geitz
I love that cavaliers have a weakness while wyvern riders are literal armored knights on wings
Good on RD for removing the arrow weakness for literally no discernible reason.
Haar liked that haha
Technically, they have two weaknesses: bad Resistance, and bow weakness. In some games, they also tend to have below-average Speed, though that's variable.
@@ZastralordDid they actually?
@@silverthespamsweeper7138 Yeah, in RD wyverns are weak to thunder instead of wind magic and the arrow weakness has been removed entirely with no downsides. Its as balanced as it sounds.
I think that isadora is hot so I used her and think she's pretty good
I feel like I’ve gone crazy with how everyone’s been telling me I’m wrong on Isadora
@@ProfessorBopper From what I understand it’s literally just that she comes in with ok bases and with no investment, she’s probably the worst of the Cavs when trained, honestly I seem to use her a lot like Louise, kills a unit each turn but lacks the Enemy Phase with Hand Axes like the others. Still a Cav though and therefore decent
@@shadedhydra6674 Oh no, I'm not questioning that she's a good unit. She is good! Everyone's been pulling jumpers on me for saying that she isn't Sexy Emblem
@@ProfessorBopper Oh, wait rated on how attractive she is? Ha, oh yeah people waifu these characters don’t they? She’s ok, I dunno, she’s Midia with long hair, if you like that, cool.
@@shadedhydra6674 Yeah, people waifu, but it's mostly memes (I think--at least for me it's memes)
Wow.... This is crazy. This video was super amazing, and for the Christmas Cavs, I literally had the total opposite reaction. My sister and I played the GBA FE together, and we absolutely loved the Chrismas Cavs, we loved the GBA Chrismas Cavs design, character, and usually had funny experiences with them.
I think it is amazing that everyone has different experiences with them, that's the best part about Fire Emblem to me. They served quite well in our playthroughs! They're one of the reasons why I have such a GBA bias, but also, it's the most nostalgic for me and funnest when I played them with my sister, so I suppose it makes sense I love them so much, haha.
I think Sain has excellent unit feel though. Obviously the game heavily endears you to him on a first playthrough since he has a ton of amusing dialogue in Lyn Mode and is one your best units throughout it all, but even ignoring that, Sain has quite possibly the most lucrative thing possible to monkey brain: Big numbers. The guy has a ton of strength. Way too much. Quickly spirals into overkill, which is the best kind of kill. Lowen, despite being an excellent unit, is always slept on and ignored by casual players because while he has nice bases and a good class he has absolutely no personality to speak of and terribad offensive growths which, while *sufficient* from a practical perspective, just don't appeal as much as oneshotting dudes. I agree with the video overall, just thought that pick was odd.
That may just be me though--I'm an absolute sucker for dealing as much damage as possible in one hit. Why else would I immediately drop everything and feed all my kills to Tiltyu and her 60 damage Thorons?
I had a Sain cap strength by level 13 once
this man simply could not be stopped from onehit killing every enemy with iron weapons
I agree (yes tht all i have to say)
Me who gets overly attached to the christmas cavs and consideres Isadora their second favorite fe7 character: 😳
loool me too stahl is one of my favorite awakening characters
@@lucydoodles2020 I see you want a golden retriever for a pet
@@Sh1ranu1 yaknow what? sure
@@lucydoodles2020 Stahl is like barely functional but I use him anyway sometimes just because his bit of being Aggressively Normal actually manages to be funny. Also, "Oh I _love_ this part!" is a good critical hit quote.
@@FlameUser64 yesss exactly
I like Forde for the simple fact that I managed to come up with the surname: "Forde Motor Company" and then I kept using him. He kept getting strength growths and was pretty much took the place that Franz is logically supposed to have.
2:38 Why must you torture us with this gleeful vision of what could've been??
😭
I think this is why I like the flexible promotions of the newer games so much. I can make my own story arcs for better unit feel - like making Bernie into a general, and Raphael into a Priest. And it can be different each time I play, too.
tl;dr: average Franz fan < average Amelia Enjoyer
REEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE F R A N Z B E S T B O I
Franz is best boi
Amelia sucks
Love both xD
I attest to this, I managed to make Amelia into an incredible character despite going down the less optimized route, meanwhile Franz was dead trying to escape Renais.
Nino is just doing her best and that's why i love her :(
Sain was special because he has a memorable 1 note personality. I remember him because I laughed at him as a kid.
This puts words on a feeling it is hard to grasp while reading discussions on why some people disagree so much over units. I hope you expand on the concept of unit feel in later videos!
You're really underrating Noish there my man.
This is kind of why I've been doing a harem run with a lot of Fire Emblem games as of late. Basically with the exception of the main lord, I only use female units. (Sometimes only use female units if the Lord is a female ie Sacred Stones and Three Houses)
I just find it hilariously amusing that I'm overthrowing these medieval empires with an army of cute anime girls.
Damn, this sounds awesome, I really need to try this one day
I've always had a lot of fun with high movement rescue drop characters. It feels so good to just feel like you have the whole battlefield at the tips of your fingers
I have nothing to say but to praise this video for hitting bullseye why I love Fire Emblem, and I love it way more than most of the other SRPG franchises.
I don’t know why, but I rarely think of the Christmas cavs individually, almost always as pairs.
I think of Kieran and Oscar individually because they come in different times and i like their personalities
@@emmanuelthome9509 Maybe that’s the reason why. Most join at the same time and use the same weapons.
It makes me physically ill to imagine just using one Christmas cav. It's always extra heartbreaking when one snowballs and the other gets screwed. I WANT THEM TOGETHER DAMN IT. It's honestly so bad that I dont even promote unless I have 2 of the required item so they can use it at the same time. I have a symmetry problem.
Inventing new terms I see. I gotta say though i feel this so hard. When having unit viability discussions, whenever I have to explain why a unit like Zihark from PoR isn't great I initially get stuck with my explanation. It's easy to explain why when you give it enough thought - sword locked, not mounted, etc. But my initial thought is genuinely "he doesn't feel great to use" and I feel like most mediocre units can fall under this umbrella.
Also Marisa is the worst unit in SS? I mean, bottom 3 for sure, but Amelia and Ewan...
Happy holidays Bopper!
Zihark is a great example of a guy you use for his personality. I’ve come to really like Zihark as a character. Funnily I hate using him in RD. Even though he’s a big improvement from most of your cast when he joins, I’ve got such an emotional attachment with the Scrub Brigade that I can’t let any of them go.
I will stand by Marisa being the worst! But worst unit in SS is so hard because the bottom is so littered with trash lol
@@ProfessorBopper as a follow up I think a good way to also describe this phenomenon is "unit intuition" based on the definition of intuition. I understand that they doesn't have the same ring to it as "unit feel"
Also as a character, Zihark is super badass, really all of the PoR characters are excellent. It's also a shame that RD couldn't reciprocate in this aspect
Amelia's arguable, but I think Ewan pretty easily beats Marisa, thanks to the luxury of using magic, IE he doesn't need to risk losing all of his health to counterattacks and will usually at least deal a *little* bit of damage by virtue of enemies having no res.
Zihark is honestly one of my favorite characters from the series but he does kind of get an odd place in RD, where you really need to get levels on your team and he doesn't gain them as fast for awhile
About unit feel. How many times do you hear someone in the comments or on the FE subreddit say things like "I made Amelia into an general because Giliam is my only other general and I already have 2 paladins"?
I also find it interesting how bottom tier units like Amelia, Mozu, Sophia and Rolf get more attention because they stand out in their badness unlike someone whose just mediocre like Trec.
@Morph Ball Path of Radiance is actually pretty good at making its Cavs feel distinct though, since they have different weapon types and fun personalities. I guess Geoffrey's pretty forgettable, but that's about it.
@Morph Ball It's not just you, Paladin is easily the best class in FE9. That being said there's still all of their time being unpromoted to be distinct, not to mention Kieran's Gamble and Astrid's Paragon to set them apart. And, well, Oscar has his huge availability on his side, and Makalov is......Makalov.
wait, Mozu's bad?
Had to take a step back when i saw juggermelon's art in this vid. Bara himbo rep
Kane and Alva were given so little effort they’re names are effectively just Cain and Abels spelled different and with the letters rearranged respectively.
The hat is why we love Joshua. I can't imagine him without that hat.
"How come people don't load up on horses and fliers"
Me: Tugs collar
I really enjoy flying around the map at the speed of sound and tend to rely on Paladins to do most of my damage eating while the Pegas go ham on the other side of the map. If I can class someone into a horse then I will always do so and when the main characters have gender options I will always play female so I can get that pegasus and one turn maps. Might just be a me thing, but I love turning Fire Emblem into a cav strat game.
I'm glad for the variety of reasons you pointed out for liking a unit, I feel like it justifies me feeding levels and using all my stat boosting items on Dorcas because of the commercial memes
Don't insult me :
Never thought I'd hear Fire Emblem youtuber would talk about Aristotle.
Great video!
I didn't know I needed a video like this but i did, thank you for validating my lizard brain you king of himbos you
Ah yes, when one is designing a unit one must never forget the *mouthfeel*
Maybe I am just weird, but I love Noish in Fire Emblem 4. He does not have pursuit, but he has really good growths and bases comparatively, and with swords and lances there are things he can do. Because he has the critical skill if you are willing to try forever in the arena, with wrath, weapon triangle, and patience you can almost always have him clear the arena. And when you can do this in the first arena, which normally only Sigurd and maybe Quan can do, you can get Noish lots of extra levels and gold. Which Noish can use to abuse his weapon ranks and have tons of options, or buy things like the paragon ring, pursuit ring, or brave sword to help shore up his weaknesses. His ability to go through the arena with lucky crits alongside his high enough base level comparatively and access to swords to gain xp during chapters let him promote and get another power boost. It is like how it is fun using Amelia because of the zero to hero, but for me Noish is never bad, I am just allowing him to keep up with the best units by letting him do what only he can do. It can also just be fun to gamble withcharge/accost and critical proc to see if he can get his kill, like the devil axe.
Alec has a whole other optimalish meme strategy using the paladin's broken +5 magic on promo and the magic ring to make Alec the wielder of the light brand and go around magically 2 ranging people if you don't want your light brand on someone like Sigurd or Azel. Though by chapter 3/4 you should have at least 2 magic swords. Alec has a weird turban thing which I never understood, but it makes his design stick out in my mind.
I feel like the skills and dialogue also do a lot to help every unit, not just the Christmas calvs stand out. Even if Noish only talks at the beginning and Alec only has one extra conversation with Sylvia, (Arden mentions he gets a lot of chicks once,) the gameplay helps fill in the gaps as these poor, loyal, but holy blood lacking knights do their best to do their duty to their honourable liege. Additionally if you marry them off (Noish+Ferry gang) you can gain more insight into their characters.
Thanks for making this vid man. I am much more into the tactics of Fire Emblem, but unit feel is something important for everyone and the lizard brain has more control than we would like. Even if I don't always agree with you, I appreciate the interesting discussions your videos and streams start. Also they are fun. Merry Christmas, Booper.
Sully actually has amazing unit feel, just like how it feels amazing when she steps on me
Thank you so much for making this video! I always had this vibe about playing the games that I could never explain... and you're just explaining it right here!
"Kyle, a literal green unit." - OUCH!!!
I've had similar experiences with the Cavs where I almost always just use a handful of them because they happen to support with more interesting footlocked units that need to get ferried around to stay in the action; it's almost an afterthought what their personalities are compared to getting bonuses to people I'm actually interested in investing time in. And I think Path of Radiance did it best when they differentiated the cav's starting weapons and gave the player the choice of what kind of weapon triangle control they would have when they did eventually promote (super canto might have been a step too far though). Cav's should have versatility in this similar manner to stand out and feel good to use. Give them more move than they already have compared to footlocked units and even give them weapon ranks that progress them to the point they can use weapons others can't when they become available. But in return make it so that their stats are 9/10 going to remain average (and actually provide challenging enemies where the average amount of stats isn't already enough to one round any opponent without assistance). This would highlight the many more useful aspects new players gloss over like rescuing, terrain access, trade chains etc. without turning it into FE4 where horse riding is the meta.
Finally I don't feel like I've been condescended on by an FE video telling me my love for Myrmidons and Lords is wrong. This was a really good video.
14:10 to 14:40 in particular is my favourite part. FE is not my favourite tactics game, by far it's SMT Devil Survivor and the greatest part about that game is how easy it is to make fun for yourself through demon customisation, skill loadouts, etc.. I know magic is OP and I'll always have my best bro to cover physical in all routes but I'll still do it from time to time.
This video hits a very important point, with all the discussion about what is optimal and who are the best units, we often forget most people choose based on what is fun to play/use and unit feel is very important in this choice
This may be the best video about Fire Emblem I've ever watched.
I guess the reason I like using both Christmas Cavs, or neither Christmas Cavs (depends on the game) must be because I like the archetype. I like watching them both fight together for the entirety of the game, especially considering they're usually best friends and/or rivals.
Unit feel is an interesting concept to explore for any game that has the option to choose whom you use for gameplay. Fire Emblem has that ability to have multiple units with the same class, like playing d&d or PF with the same class, but you can make two rogues in completely different builds
But fire Emblem almost fosters the lack of uniqueness in stats and combat ability so we must look to other things to diversify their "characters" versus them as "units" in the game. Personality, as you aptly shown us how forgettable they are as characters. Yeah we had our "horse" units, we didn't have Sain (the charmer), Kent (the straight man), Marcus (the champ), Lowen (the no-eyes), or Isadora (forgettable) as FE7 is concerned
Looking forward to more content, more analysis, more streams, everything. Love it man thank you & happy holidays
@2:48 actually the horse goes neigh, I went to preschool I know these things
(fr great video! & happy holidays!)
This was a super good video!! I feel like I understand what I like about Fire Emblem so much more now
Isadora is very sexy emblem you're mad, MAD!
K n o c k o f f S i g r u n (even though Sigrun comes later-no hating)
@@ProfessorBopper Why not both?
Sigrun is better but I really like Isadora's supports/relationship with Harken too
Kyle's one spot in my mind is when he beat the final boss to avenge his wife LUTE (my favorite SS character) who died the enemy phase before in a blaze of glory. It still brings a tear to my eye.
Meanwhile Echoes has a Forsyth to be reckoned with and hurty lightning.
For me, it was always "haha Alen is red and red is my favorite color, wooooo" but I like this perspective on the game. Fire Emblem is a game about characters, not necessarily units - creation of a story using those characters gives more depth to the game.
Personally i found Forde so endearing as a character i suffered with him despite him always ending uo rng screwed in my runs just goes to show what a great first impression can do
Its probs because it was my first game, but sain and kent were units i really loved, as well as lowen. The first two because they were, i think, the first units you get to play with, and the later, bc he filled the void they left when the game moved on to Eliwood/Hector's story. Also i just think lowen is cute lol.
Canas is also one of my favorites, as you said, I really liked that he was a dark mage and also he's a really good unit + his dialogue about wanting to learn was really cute to me.
Kellam is my favorite Armor unit just because his Armor has a very endearing story behind it (His B-Support with Maribelle btw), which is exactly what you mentioned at like 12:40 to be crucial for finding a unit fun to use.
I feel that one of the best examples of “unit-feel” is the Jerrot squad. Allen and Lance are boring and dumb. They don’t seem as special as anyone else in the army. Treck and Noah stand out. Treck feels like an armor knight on a horse and it makes him interesting to use. Noah has a cool portrait, can use the killing edge at base, and is pretty okay despite his obnoxiously bad level ups, making for a memorable experience. Jerrot has the opposite problem; he’s got a super muted color palette and feels far more generic than the superhero Marcus who’s been carrying your team for six chapters. I can remember having really fun experiences with Treck, Noah, and Marcus in ways that I can’t with Allen, Lance, and Jerrot.
I think what you've mentioned here and previous videos about the 'meta-narrative' really hits home the way a most of people play FE the majority of their playthroughs, regardless of the game. As far Christmas cavs go, the only one I've had what felt like a compelling meta-narrative for was FE9 Oscar. He became immensely tanky and was able to solo Naesala and his squad in CH19. However that's the only particularly memorable moment he had in the game for me despite being an all around solid unit.
THAT NINO "LEVEL DOWN" MADE ME LAUGH SO HARD WHEN YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT LEVELING HER I WASN'T EXPECTING THAT AT ALL 😭😭😭😭😭
i think t his is super true - one interesting thing which came up with this was my partner first started playing fire emblem and i encouraged her to use the units she enjoyed, while also being honest about how viable they were. she ended up taking neimi to end game and even though she got stoned and did literally nothing the entire fight, just the novelty of bringing this crappy early game villager girl to endgame was enough to make it worth it.
it's especially funny because i was excited all game to get knoll because i never really messed around with him as a kid, and the idea of summoner as a class is just so novel to me. i think that's the two different ways a unit can have good feel - both through having an interesting gameplay function or by having a great story behind them
we're onto 6 now and she decided to do a soft ironman, if a unit who isnt that important or interesting dies we let it happen. alan and lance were both dead by like chapter 5 and i couldnt even be bothered to argue for keeping them alive lol.
Glad i found your channel, love this.
I must say though, I LOVE the Santa and Shrek cav’s attack animation. Its so satisfying to be in synch with the horse to lean as far as you can to STAB them, usually twice because speeeeeed. I most fondly remember Franz and he is really good? But i also refuse to use Seth on hard mode so i kinda needed him. :P
Bopper... I love you, you amazing beautiful man. A fun fe guy, a demon's souls guy... ty for the quality content. It always gets me excited to watch a new video of yours. Ty.
duessel does in fact smoke the phantom ship.
Thanks for explaining why I always pick General Amelia. Little girl in big armor plus boots go zoom.
There's only two reasons I ever play Lyn mode nowadays; to level Florina a bit, and to yoink Wallace's knight crest and promote Sain early.
Gotta say, I LOVE these fun analytical videos, Keep up the good work!
The only christmas Cavaliers with good unit feel imo are Kent and Sain because they're like important characters for the first 10 chapters of their game (nevermind those chapters are optional after beating the game once). They have a funny dynamic with each other, get featured in multiple CG, and they talk a lot in the cut scenes. Since FE7 was my first game, you can see how I was majorly disappointed by how boring all the other christmas cavs were everywhere else...
sometimes in awakening and fates I plan out my promotions to get the most efficient stats and skills for my units (and their kids for the latter). other times I just pick whichever promotion's outfit looks nicer.
lizard brain brain says the pixel people won't be able to focus on fighting if their bare legs are chafing in the saddle :(
I find that I often project myself onto the Christmas cavs more often than I do the actual avatars in most FE games. Which is why for me I find that they have an ok unit feel.
I feel like one of the biggest demonstrations of the influence of unit feel would have to be promotion in FE8. There's a bunch of units who have the choice of a grounded promotion with unique strengths or 'obtain a horse'; Mage Knight, Valkyrie, Great Knight (from Armour Knight) and (to a lesser extent) Ranger. Ostensibly, it's most efficient to promote most of them into their 'mounted' class, but I feel like the only unit who a lay person elects for the mounted promote with is Neimi.
Forde was literally my favorite unit in sacred stones and I'm shocked to find people hate him but at the same time I kinda fucked with my first playthrough bc I was bored and wanted to see what it was like to hack on a Mauthe Doog as a player unit, used him as the guinea pig, then when I turned the cheats off for some reason he didn't turn back and he switched classes with Vanessa, so now Vanessa was permanently a Mauthe Doog and Forde was a Pegasus Knight. I made him a wyvern knight lol he was pretty cool XD
But even besides that madness in my subsequent playthroughs I love using him so :b
Saizo: time for some murder
*Saizo proceeds to kill himself
Would Oscar and Kieran be the exception to this rule? They’re two of the best units in Path of Radiance. Most Christmas cavs get introduced at the same time early in the game, which makes them feel a bit samey, but Oscar and Kieran get introduced at different times and have different roles within the cast.
Oscar is one of the Greil Mercenaries from Chapter 1, who has two other brothers in the group. He’s essentially the kind older brother to Ike and crew. Kieran is introduced in Chapter 10 as a Crimean knight that’s been captured in prison, and he has tons of personality to immediately make him stand out (like his one-sided rivalry with Oscar).
yeah good point! Oscar and Kieran really stood out for me since PoR does a great job with establishing their characters and allowing personalities to shine through. My Oscars tend to turn out lame, so for me he gets benched purely because as much as I love him, he's not doing what I need him to do. But Kieran... *Kieran.* I dragged Kieran through the Tower in RD. That man is a legend. I would die for him.
When I got into Three Houses, my first FE, I got really into the subreddit, developing my gameplay, etc. and I saw a few posts talking about the best Snipers. I remember thinking, "oh, man, I think Bernadetta is awesome!" but apparently she wasn't actually that good compared to units like Ashe. This video perfectly explains why I loved her in spite of all that, and it's definitely unit feel. It didn't matter if she was the "best," but the greater narrative as a teacher with students made the characters feel extra personal to me, and I wanted Bernadetta to break out of her shell and be the best. So I made her fight in every battle, even though narratively speaking she'd rather sit out, and that made her into a great unit that satisfied that desire to see her grow.
Great video, man. I have been getting into these after finding them by chance, and I really enjoy them as a newcomer to the series.
Alen never doubles while Lance takes off due to his speed advantage? I get that you're mostly using this for a silly example, but the difference between Alen and Lances speed is very small and Alen will do more damage against enemies that neither can double which is a lot of enemies. They will also both usually double most enemies post promotion where Alen will do more damage than Lance
Earlygame Lance starts doubling faster, though, and you usually only have the Knight Crests and the personal want to use one of them. So in my experience Allen is usually the one left by the wayside unless Lance gets screwed.
Lance's early speed advantage is huge in earlygame. 2 base speed is a pretty big deal, and in FE6's absolutely brutal Hard Mode Lance doubling earlier and getting more kills gives him a definite advantage in simply "feeling good." Carrying earlygame alongside Marcus while still being good the whole way through>being alright earlygame and being good the whole way through. Since their lategame performance differences are so negligible Lance's stronger start just makes him more memorable.
@@wannabecinnabon How does Lance carry earlygame? He can barely double anything Alan can’t double, and Alan’s better strength make him overall a better combatant when neither double. While he may have some small points where he doubles and Alan doesn’t, he’s not carrying the earlygame unless you give him like all the exp, and Alan will be similarly good with the type of treatment you need to give Lance.
@@carpediem6841 Carry is an exaggeration, but 2 points of speed is huge at the start of the game;Alen needs to gain 4 levels before he matches base Lance's speed. 10 speed is the first important speed tier in FE6 hard mode, as most earlygame enemies, namely Fighters, Archers, and Cavaliers, have around 6 AS. Lance will hit 10 speed by level 5, while Alen needs to be level *9* to do that.
@@wannabecinnabon Fighters aren’t common for a while past ch. 2, which is too early for Lance to have gotten enough speed unless you pumped him full of nearly all exp in Ch. 1. Archers aren’t particularly common either. Cavs only counts for Ch. 3, Ch. 4 ones usually have 8 speed. Lance doesn’t have nearly the advantage you’re suggesting he has
It really like these videos about unit feeling, to me depending on game, the Christmas cavaliers can be very forgettable( like fire emblem 3, 4,6,8)to somewhat interesting( fire emblem 13) to actually memorable(fire emblem 3 book 1,7 and 14) but with fates it because there ninja and the class are a really good class(seriously debuffs and poison strike are really good).
I do like you give the feeling of using units. While mekkah gives the technical side of fire emblem(which is interesting and fun to talk about), you give the feeling of playing a unit which is rentable by all fire emblem fans.
1:42 I can't believe you did my boys Kane and Alva like that
Edit: I TAKE IT ALL BACK
That actually explains why I prefer Lowen to Kent (or even Saint).
Kent has solid bases and growths. If you played Lyn Mode first, he will be probably really strong by that point too. He consistently has been my best Paladin.
...And he has as much personality as a brick wall. Sain at least as a fun personality.
Lowen as a weird, funny design, and is mostly a comic relief. He also has a golden armour. And his growth will vary wildly, even if he's sure to be tanky. There's a far better story than with any other Cav here. You are taking a wild gamble that can transform this Bad Haircut Duckling into a Golden Swan!
Hooray for Bonus Points! Jesus Christ Thracia units have some longass boots. You usually only see those on the ladies but Kain and Alba are dipping into that territory too, the mad lads
I don't have a quirky comment so I'm just gonna say, this video was a lot of fun to watch man! hope to see even more interesting content like this!
you really did that Kein and Alva like that huh :P I'd argue a large part of unit feel (other than your Amelias and Ninos) is raw ability to kill things. When it matches with other utility, people are happy about Seth and Marcus, even if they're bleh old guys. When it's Tiltyu and Ayra people lose their shit if they're told no horse bad because they can't get to fights. But there are lots of good characters like Harken and Rutger that are more similar to the latter than the former except the enemies they face have beefier stats I guess too! No one really gets really excited about a sick trade chain or rescue strat since we don't really do them unless one's name is dondon.
I like your argument about actually considering same class units, since I actually decided to do runs of FE7 and FE9 with only lord and horses/fliers and it was kinda fun...for a while but it got kinda miserable. At least...the FE7 one did. But the FE9 one was great, because I started doing whacky stuff and giving people weird promo weapons that I would never otherwise do.
5x in sacred stones is meant for you to train one of your units personally by soloing the whole map. I always managed to get forde to a respectable level 14 before finishing the chapter, making him a perfect candidate to join forces in chapter 8 and take care of the left side of the map.
Yo we got a new video essay on Christmas lets goooo.
This video reminds me a lot of that video Brian David Gilbert did about Fire Emblem where he more or less made the argument that each character in the series is purposefully very archetypal, which I suppose links up with criticism that Fire Emblem has fundamentally archetypal stories in and of themselves. I can think of two very conflicting types of experiences that can come about by purposefully being so archetypal, one being the idea that it creates units like the Christmas cavaliers that are bland, and the other that blank-slate characters allow for us to project meta narratives through the gameplay for each of our characters. Even with that latter benefit, it makes me wonder why such an archetype exists.
I love the bit about unit feel and why Isadora stands out to me is that she's a late game promoted physical unit. I feel like woman in Fire Emblem in general aren't written to be badasses and when they are they're written to be in a more magical/wisdom roll. Then came Isadora as a late game pre promote riding a horse like all those cool men Paladins. Anyways that's why Isadora gives me good unit feel.
I started with Awakening and this was basically my experience with Frederick, Sully and Stahl.
It'd be helpful if character portraits popped up on screen when you mention them, because a lot of these names run together lmao
It's also interesting how a player and their opinions change over the years.
When I was a kid and FE7 was a shiny new cart in my GBA, I basically refused to use Serra, because I didn't like her. Also I never made it past Bern.
When I played the game again a few years ago, I was like, "Yeah yeah whatever. Annoying Healer Girl, you are duct-taped to Hector, because Eliwood is a disappointment".
What I didn't know was that Hector and Serra have a support. And that I'd ship it. Good girl Serra.
I like Isadora a lot actually but everything you said about her makes a lot of sense and I never really thought about it that way