let me clear any misunderstanding about pirates: They don't carry an entire boat with them everywhere they go, that would be too cumbersome. Nor do they walk on water, as they are not the Messiah. And for swimming, don't even humor the thought. Instead, they wear a pair of boat shoes, this is very efficient for the lone pirate. Both for maintenance and maneuverability.

@MythrilZenith

24 күн бұрын

@@IgnoramusWithoutNumbers Boat shoes! When becoming sail just isn't enough.

Fe9 Boyd after he gets a bunch of lucky speed levels "We making it out of the early game with this one"

@MythrilZenith

24 күн бұрын

@@jeffthejeffebruh3356 FE9 Boyd after getting a +spd +str level up on chapter 2 hard mode - "Oops I 1-round now!" [Dead]

@shytendeakatamanoir9740

24 күн бұрын

FE7!Bartre getting a bunch of Speed level up after being surrounded by manly men

Axe Fighters are a fascinating class to try and balance, as they inherently become better or worse based on the kind of major enemies. In a game where enemies are slower and bulkier, Axe Fighters shine, as their lower accuracy doesn't matter as much and their higher damage can help them stand out, great examples of this are Fe8, Fe9, and some parts of Fates. This aspect of them is exemplified by their effective weapons, the ever common Hammer and Halberd, allowing them to take advantage of the bulkier enemy classes to break through them in ways nothing else can. I think something any Rom Hack creator needs to understand though is a rephrasing of something from the video, that Axe Fighters inherently benefit from the Early Game, Hammers, Halberds, and Hand Axes being available early in a game where the enemies aren't particularly fast can allow them to be extremely reliable early on. Where Fighters struggle is when those tools are all they are given for the entirety of the game, so my advice to any Hackers in the comments: Give Axes more options as the game goes on, but keep them simple. Short Axes and Battle Axes come to mind as great options, things to let them bridge the gap between the heavy and inaccurate power of the Steel Axe, and the greater reliability of the Killer and Silver axes.

@MythrilZenith

24 күн бұрын

@@MajinMattPlays yeah, the variety of axes will only get you so far if you don't keep providing more options as the game goes on.

@something1558

24 күн бұрын

Meanwhile axes in fe6:

@GMOPsyche

24 күн бұрын

@@something1558 They suck ass but are quite valuable to have because Wyverns and generals are literally everywhere.

@robertobrosful

23 күн бұрын

​@@something1558 fun you mention FE6, since Project Ember (FE6 but "improved" overhauled Axes to honestly make them really fucking broken). It's really Hard to balance Axes, either they are too strong or too weak.

5:40 I think what makes Garret's official art look so good is his heavily defined jaw, brow, and cranium. You can see the skull under his skin, which fits well with the executioner motif of berserkers. Meanwhile his in-game portrait is lumpy and his neck is stretching up, long at an odd angle.

We love a good Barbarianism.

@MythrilZenith

24 күн бұрын

@@magicsword49 this beat lives rent free in my head and sneaks in every chance it gets. I've been waiting for axe fighters to throw it in bc of a vague attempt at musical theming.

In game portrait Garret - You Official Art Garret - The Berserker she tells you not to worry about

@17Master

24 күн бұрын

Now that I got the meme post out of the way. "Temporary units" is something I feel is really underappreciated when it comes to unit discussion, especially when it comes to getting early units online without the risk of eating dirt.

@MythrilZenith

24 күн бұрын

@@17Master If there's one thing that making this series has taught me, it's the fact that units that are built to be useful for a short time and then naturally fall off are actually fantastic and get WAY more hate than they deserve.

You forgot Option 4: Marty shame on you

I’ve honestly come around and think fighters are my favorite units, primarily because there is so much stacked against them. Low hit, speed, bulk, growths (at least in earlier games) and movement leaves them as prime replacement fodder when you recruit more units to your army. That said, there’s a sense of thrill and exhilaration when you have a fighter complete a major objective, like killing the boss or fending off a wave of reinforcements from your main pack. And then they level up and get a good level? One of the best feelings I’ve ever experienced in FE. (In fact, among my friend group I’ve taken to hype up fighters, ESPECIALLY if they level resistance). I think fighters slot in nicely with FE. You want reliability? Use cavs. Want speed/flashy crits? Myrmidons. Do you want to say “never tell me the odds” and do big hammer damage with 20% hit? Go with fighters. Another great video!

One cool thing about the OG axe bros in DS Shadow Dragon is that while Barst is very blatantly the best due to having just better stats everywhere, Bord's higher base axe rank gives him a niche of being able to use the hammer to kill armor knights while Barst can't for most likely a few chapter, as such giving him an actual early game purpose. That's something I find cool in the games that just give you a truckload of unit, to give them niches to demark themselves in spite of how similar they can look.

I think you didn't go into what Berserkers represent. They are late game units that can get places most others can't, and generally bring a weapon type most flyers don't use. They also tend to have more killing power and endurance than said flyers, making them able to complete certain objectives more slowly but more reliably than the fliers can. It makes for an interesting strategic question. Do you try the risky flier who can do it fast and return to support your main army, or do you send the berserker who can do it, but will be too far from the rest of the fight to contribute for a while?

@MythrilZenith

24 күн бұрын

@@tesnacloud yeah, a good Berserker can definitely dominate a quad of the map in ways very few other units can, especially if they have a good peak to stand on, but GETTING them there can be the issue.

@robertobrosful

23 күн бұрын

Tbh the Berserker/Pirate movement options are nothing but a small Niche they have, but they really can't take advantage of. The Time to take a Berserker Into a peak Is just lost, and most enemies that can get to them (Fliers) already lose in the Weapon Triangle since most use lances.

I love axe fighters. It may be because of their introduction to me with Sacred Stones and those great animations (especially crits), but I still appreciate them now for their inconsistency. Sometimes you get a run where the early axe fighter gets some crucial stats (usually speed) and they pop off for the rest of the game. It's not a strong reason to use them every time, but they do provide some pretty interesting dynamics in that way. Embracing a little luck with those hit chances can make things more fun or interesting, and for others it can lead to them being benched for their lack of consistency.

I am not sure if this is a common understanding, but I think a pitfall in Fire Emblem is thinking all units are eternal and not temporary, or worse, half temporary. I personally have a habit of reluctant to ditch a unit I have been training for several chapters, like if I have trained a unit for 1/3 of the game, I am reluctant to ditch it over a generally better unit. Thus the second option in the video never applied to me: it is either ditched right away, or used until the end, seldom the middle ground. Which was one reason why awakening was such a weird game to me when I first played it, and fates is even worse cuz the more complex matching making system and child unit not even necessarily better.

@MythrilZenith

24 күн бұрын

@@lsrrr3857 it's a weird problem with Pokemon as well. I grow such an attachment to my early team that it takes a lot to get me to replace more than one or two of them.

Shoutout to Osian for being the first real good axe unit(I didn't say Lex because of Sigurd worship)

@CoqueiroLendario

24 күн бұрын

Lex so good that literally overshadows my boy Arden in the one thing he's supposed to be (strong and tough)

@marcoasturias8520

24 күн бұрын

Barst has extremely competent growths and can reach caps on STR and SPD. Sure, axes are bad, so are enemies in FE1 and 3, iron and steels are good on him

Barst is one of my favorite units to use in the FE 1 and 3 remakes. Axe bros forever!

I still think Gonzalez is the single most fun unit to use in Fire Emblem. His stats are all wacky in the beginning, but then his accuracy slowly starts improving to terrifying effect. By the end of the game, he doubles and one-rounds any enemy on the map. And concidering it's FE6 that's REALLY much more of a big deal than it sounds like.

My biggest issue with Axe Fighters is just that inconsistent hit rates just feel BAD. One miss every once in a while is fine, but if my unit's accuracy is teetering the 50% mark then it's just not gonna be fun using them. I'm not sure how IntSys or other devs could fix a problem like this though, since obviously you don't just want to give everyone good accuracy, that would make SKL/DEX redundant

@marcoasturias8520

24 күн бұрын

Welp, there's the weapon rank bonuses from DS 3DS games. All weapon classes gain might or hit rate depending on their weaknesses and lose them all only if they fight enemies that should beat them. This way a "good unit" hits hard and accurately, while their"weapon weakness" is unique ei: axes miss, swords deal 0 damage, etc

Due to local customs Axe use is strictly forbidden in the continent of Valentia. Instead they are exchanged as a valid form of fiat currency. Or used simply to chop wood by those in Valentina's backwater villages.

@MythrilZenith

24 күн бұрын

@@TheProfessorFunk Following suit from Archanean custom following the initial victory of Marth, before revisionist history declared that actually the axe fighters under Ogma's employ did in fact answer the call of Marth instead of remaining as woodcutters.

To me, Lot is the quintessential transitory unit, and maybe the only consistent one in my FE playthroughs. He has just enough force deployed maps to show his stuff (and to completely overshadow Wade) that he usually earns a place into the Western Isles and rarely ends up lower than level 10 by the route split. At the same time, he's at best the 3rd contender for a Hero Crest after Rutger and Dieck, and lower if you value Berserkers, but he *really* needs those timely promotion bonuses to keep up with the likely freshly promoted Paladin's axe utility. And his new bow utility is easy to overlook when you get Klein and maybe Bartre and fliers are getting rarer anyway. Elibe was kinda goofy for giving Paladins 3 weapon types, that alone nearly wrecks any use axe fighters have outside of cheesing Debias and Leygance with the Hammer. (Also, Marcus is a sneaky transitory axe fighter if you want him to be.) And with Echidna or Bartre showing up to provide good infantry axe skills regardless of your investment, if you don't promote Lot early it's super easy to overlook him.

I think that axe fighters may be my second favorite class after the armor knights, they are bulky, they are big, their weapons are cheap (game dependant) and they hit HARD. Even if cavaliers are waaaaay more consistent and useful, i can't stop going "haha big damage goes brrrrrrr" every time i use a well trained axe fighter, like ross and his dad garcia, or a blessed wade and lot.

@SHlNRlKlARU

24 күн бұрын

I'm a simple man, I see a berserker or a unit that can promote to one, I must have em in my squad. Also, having them in a link arena team always cracks me the hell up as they'll often miss eachother lmao *Gonzales with a brave axe against himself with a brave axe especially

One thing about GBA axe fighters is that they're really hurt by the way constitution works. They are given heavy weapons meaning they need higher constitutions but that makes them hard to rescue and also because they have constitution for the heaviest weapons they can't really decide to trade off more damage for lower speed like you could do with a sword unit equipping an iron blade for exemple, that's not necessarily a major drawback but the point is they tend to really lack flexibility because of that. They also don't really have the mobility to make use of that high constitution to rescue other units (with the exceptions of pirates). Also I don't think I ever used the devil axe, I have had it in my inventory before but using it always feels like the wrong choice. I'm very risk averse so that's a thing, but also like, the fact it doesn't just self harm but also voids the attack if it procs really sucks. If the attack still triggered I think it'd be a lot more appealing and interesting to use since you'd have to create scenarios where you can use it safely but still have branching paths in your plans for if it procs. The way it skips the attack it's kinda, if you need to use it and it procs you're screwed, if you can deal with the proc then you didn't need to use it (assuming it's not like, a speedrun or LTC).

Axe fighters have generally gotten better over time, mostly because of the buffs to axes. Kaga's games apart from FE5 did not like axe units at all, if you even got any (FE2 and FE3 Book 2 RIP axe fighter). FE5 was weird. It gave us Osian with a busted Prf axe. Then we get Marty who had abysmal stats/growths in everything but build, so he became an early game-capture bot unless you want to try the Marty party. I usually separate fighters and brigands/pirates/whatever because they have clear late game differences. Early on its just some stat differences and terrain movement bonuses. Fighters are more common and usually promote to Warriors that have high physical strength/bulk with a reliable 2-range option in bows. They are fairly consistent but not particularly exciting. I only tend to use one if any. Radiant Dawn is the exception, I used both Boyd and Nolan as reavers. Bord and Cord archetype was a thing early on, but it seems to have disappeared. Maybe it can make a comeback by having a fighter and brigand pair? Brigands and pirates are rarer in the player's hand. Excluding re-classing, you typically only get 2, with one being a pre-promote berserker (FE6 is unique in having 3 units of this type). I like them more than fighters. They are way more high-risk with lower defenses but more speed, strength, and high crit bonus. They also get terrain mastery over mountains and water. In FE6 you can park Gonzalez in mountain terrain so he can destroy wyvern knights. FE7 Hawkeye is one of the better pre-promoted berserkers. FE8 Ross makes a good pirate/berserker, patching up his speed. Awakening didn't have any unless you reclassed and had no crit bonus. Fates said F it and just made fighters the option promote to berserkers to let Arthur and Charlotte go ham in high crit builds.

great video! I didn't think of the fact that haveing them be high hp 50-50 units in the earlygame was a way to get players to be ok with permadeath. Thats a neat tie in. My thing is that thematically, some fighters are recent conscripts or militia who were woodcutters. certainly is the case with FE 1-6, despite the fighters in thracia being clearly coded as military oriented. The fact that the fighters in GBA look so wacky also goes with my, realistic woodcutter to fantasy brawler idea

Dean is a top 2 unit in Berwick Saga if you're looking for a good axe fighter. Being able to one-round enemies is a rare and coveted attribute in Berwick Saga. Half the cast can never do it. Another 40% can get there with their prf weapon or under specific circumstances. Dean can one-round enemies with his Adept skill. Or his Desperation skill. Or his Vengeful skill. Or his prf weapon. This guy is taking out an enemy every turn. Sometimes two. This guy’s bases oml. While researching I had to do a double take like is this the Jagen? 10 strength, 11 speed, 35 hp, 17 weapon skill. He’s competitive with the guy who’s level 22. Dean is level four. His growth rates also make the clerics blush. He gives you about a point per level up which is average. But that 80% weapon skill growth he’ll be hitting everything in no time. Which is great, because otherwise Axes are the most inaccurate weapon type, but they suit Dean perfectly. And with only 3.5 Axe users he doesn’t have to compete too hard for them. Desperation is complicated but its basically the perfect berserker skill. Guaranteed doubling with +20 hit and in return the enemy always counterattacks after the first hit (if they survive). If that wasn’t enough Dean is the only player character with the Vengeful skill. It’s like counter from pokemon when you get hit, there’s a chance that you will immediately counterattack the enemy; and you will basically always hit, and you will deal extra damage to that enemy equal to the damage you just took, ON TOP OF the damage you normally deal. Let me restate that. Dean gets hit. He takes 15 damage. Now the enemy is taking like 40 I mean this is totally out of control. You can kill bosses. You can kill dragons. You can kill the final boss IN CHAPTER 3. That scripted fight you’re supposed to be guaranteed to lose to the guy with 156 health nah don’t sweat it Dean is here with a vengeance. Okay it’s not guaranteed to proc so it doesn’t trivialize the game or anything and it does require some thinking to walk the tightrope you don’t want to get hit too hard. But jeez. He has the single best availability, spawning in his own corner of the map with the healer and a group of enemies in Ch1. But wait there’s more. When, not if, Dean gets 60 kills he gets the mercy skill. If you click Mercy you’re guaranteed to leave the enemy with 1 HP. So now if you were sething through the game on Dean’s back you can use him to feed kills to whoever you want. I guess the Devs thought they really had to twist your arm to get you to use this guy, so right in time for the late game Assassin-class enemies to show up with their 80% crit knives, Dean gets the Fortune skill. So now you click desperation and trivialize them too. Just, why? He also gets his own prf weapon, the Brave Axe. Not much to say it’s yet another one-rounding tool. Again for context half the cast can never one-round and then another third can’t do it reliably. Terrain-wise he’s a light-infantry, so 2 move through forests and cliffs, full move on sand, only four move total. To wrap up, Dean is not only an amazing unit on his own, he also makes your other units better, and he’s fun to use. As a character guide I highly recommend recruiting this animal, and as a ranking guide he's S-tier. Dean’s story is B-tier. "Guy loses humanity from watching too many gore videos and then finds it again" could be a compelling story, but it’s rushed. It is one of the few with attached gameplay implications, which is worth a point.

Oddly enough, axes in dungeons and dragons have inconsistent damage instead of accuracy. They use one large die instead of adding two small ones, so I wonder if a future axe fighter could be interesting by developers actively not using 2RN accuracy.

@MythrilZenith

24 күн бұрын

@@thekoifishcoyote8762 would definitely be interesting to see that dial played around with, weapons that use inherently different calculation behind the scenes.

gonzales is my favorite fe6 unit

They're screwed over by the weapon weight system - it provides penalties to units lacking con, but no bonuses to units exceeding said con, which leads to fast units being favored as they will eventually catch up and mitigate weapon weight while fighters will be terminally slow and not getting anything out of their high con. Simply put - make con really matter and have it be affected by other factors such as strength or hp. If a unit is using a weapon equal to their con, they get no bonuses and no penalties, for 1 con less, they get -1 spd and -5 hit, with 2 less they get -2 spd, -10 hit and -1 dmg etc. and the same goes for the bonuses. You can make powerful heavy axes without worrying about them being overpowered, because only some units will be able to use them effectively. That way they can be turned into powerful heavy hitters that can fight bulky enemies, which your faster units will barely put a dent to, so being unable to double isn't that big of a detriment anymore.

Honestly gonzalez is one of my favorite units to use in the series he starts unique with doing big damage killing or softening enemies or absolutely nothing ass he misses and if used long term becomes a really powerful doing a large chunk of damage or just one rounding with only weakness I'd call personal is he still can't hit sword units and avoid boosting terrain can still be a notable problem for him.

@marinerb

24 күн бұрын

I love sending Gonzales out onto peaks or into the water with a brave axe and watching him miss three times in a row only to oneshot enemies with a crit on the 4th attack

Big hit makes enemy deader!

No I start to think why there is no promoted axe infantry Jagen…

Fates dev 1: ok, what if this time we gave actual stats to the axe fighters? Fates dev 2: sure, but for the one on other route let's give it dogshit stats, terrible abilities and both promos should be terrible, except for the one that's a bulky mage! Fates dev 1: I'm scared

@MythrilZenith

24 күн бұрын

@@marcoasturias8520 yeah idk what they were thinking with most of the Hoshidan classes. They break all the normal class trends and don't really feel like they establish their own identity well. Are onis supposed to be the Armor stand-in? Are sky knights supposed to double as cavaliers AND wyverns? At least samurai and onmiyoji make sense as glass cannons

@Venomdrad

24 күн бұрын

@@MythrilZenith I think IS tried to not make all the Hoshidan classes complete copies of the Nohrian classes that are typical of most FE games. They still have some clear function and a unique gameplay style. Oni Savages basically have armor knight def with fighter mov and axe usage. Grand Masters are physically oriented healers like war clerics (Priestess has more magic). Basara and Oni chieftains are physical/magic hybrid attackers. Master of Arms has the Great knight's weapon mastery without a horse or armor weakness. Kitsunes are high speed/res Wolfskin. Spear fighters are lancers/soldiers. Sky knights are just Pegasus knights. Apothecaries are bulky archers with gimmicky item skills. Ninjas are the most unique class: mage-killers/enemy debuffers with thief utility and reliable 1-2 range no matter what. Ninjas are awesome. Quite a few Hoshidan units have atypical personal growths than expected from their starting class. Examples include Azama's low magic/res but high strength/defense stats, Saizo's lower speed but high mag, Subaki's low res but higher def, and Hinata's low speed but high def. It does grant some variety and leads to weird scenarios like wanting Hinata and Azama to frontline and tank a few hits. Rinkah is meant to be a tank but her low hp and strength doesn't help her in that role. I made it work with a Blacksmith promo, the super high crit Great club, and speed pair-up partner like Kaden.

@armorbearer9702

24 күн бұрын

This could be a great idea for a new video.

@Xcross15

23 күн бұрын

@@MythrilZenith I remember my first Birthright playthrough (Hard difficulty). Rinka was the first new class that had my attention, went blacksmith thinking about Hero Weapon Triangle Coverage. Playthrough was going great, married Hana (SWORDMASTER MY BELOVED), did minimal grinding (Supports for all child characters). Then I got to chapter 24 and got softlocked, I always try to play 0 deaths and reset on death. So when I found out that every single unit in my army did not A: Have Enough health or defense to survive more then one round of combat with most of the enemies on the map. (Player Phase + Enemy Phase or 2 Enemy Phase Combats) I kid you not, aside from my Corrin with 51HP not a single of my other units had broke 40 hp by chapter 24. B: Have enough damage to kill enough enemies on player phase to survive enemy phase. (This one was sudden, Camilla's chapter was easier) C: Keep up with the waves of reinforcements (Dragon Vein just meant you would see twice as many wyvern riders at once) Heavy Player Phase moves were out of the question, because it would take 2 or 3 units to kill some of the Wyverns and Generals and Effective Weaponry was too stretched to go around. Turtling was out of the question because fire orbs. Pair up just compounded all of the issues by there not being enough bodies to go around. It ended up coloring my entire opinion of Birthright, which up until that point I had been enjoying the more chill gameplay, certainly wasnt no Awakening Lunatic (Never again). I ended up turning the game down to normal and stomped the hell out of that playthrough. But Hoshido really doesn't have any good defensive utility in it's units. A problem I noticed on repeated runs of Birthright. Team at the time for those curious: Corrin (+spd -res), Hana, Hinoka, Takumi, Sakura, Azura, Felicia, Kaze, Hayato, Orochi, Rinkah, Subaki, Hana! Kana, Aptitude! Mozu! Shiro and Kaden. (Others were viable from support grinding, but far below the 14 units I had invested into)

Atrast Vala, my friends, this is the optimal Design for Axe fighters: DWARF! "BARUK KHAZÂD! KHAZÂD AI-MÊNU!" "KHAZUKAN KAZAKIT-HA!"

Is it common for people to dump their ax units, personally I always like to keep at least one of them around. Even in games where they're not that great just because I like having the additional coverage

@MythrilZenith

24 күн бұрын

@@ctchimchar5258 It depends. I think most people try to keep at least one, but meta-heads love to hate on axe units in certain games.

Ooh I hope he explains how holding an axe let you walk on water

I love ALL MythrilZenith videos!!!! ❤

I like axe fighters, FE does not. The struggle is real... struggling.

They always feel like an exp waste, even early in the game. On hard difficulties, even the extra health becomes basically meaningless. I never end up using them and it feels bad

It’s fascinating to see such potential usage in axe fighters… I could REAAAAALLY use a good early level up on these units though! No boyd please, stop levelling magic instead of strength or speed, it’s not useful for you- Nolan, please, can you get just one strength level up? That’s unfortunately usually how it goes for me and axe fighters, the stats they need in the early game to grow well, strength and speed, just doesn’t grow. And when it does, they never level their defensive stats.

@Xcross15

23 күн бұрын

I once had a 10 def boyd at 20-10, lol the solution is always resolve. We go big or go home. Though Axe! swordmaster Largo was an awesome pick after I had a Boyd that was just a total failure. (Only had him leveled for triangle attack naesala shenanigans)

Axes are yet another victim of the benchmark system. Using an axe is kinda like taking Power Attack/GWM in D&D. Much like you never need the extra speed of swordmasters, you never need the extra strenghts of warriors. FE need an enemy design that actually reward minmaxed stats over the average statline of paladins and WL and that would solve half of the balance problems on it's own.

Couldn't Axe Fighters be useful for baiting the enemy units in the late game? I know knights are the usual bait, but axe fighters are not weak to mages. They could survive a hit without dying if the axe fighter has decent speed.

@MythrilZenith

24 күн бұрын

I mean, "weak to mages" is a relative thing. There's not exactly type counters in FE like there are in other SRPGs. Sure, if you have an axe fighter with better HP and SPD than your general then they'll have better net bulk to tank a mage, but that also depends on the specific units you happen to have. There are certainly a lot of viable use cases for all types of units both early and late in the game. I could only cover a couple of the most common trends.

@Venomdrad

24 күн бұрын

Fighters usually have high hp but meh defense and bad res. They are meant to hit hard but not take that many hits. Generals are the physical walls and bishops the magic walls. You could make a high res axe fighter though, kinda like dread fighters.