Welcome to Gaia! ::

Best: Volke (FE9)
You guys have no idea how much I want to put Volke here. He is the first thief in the game, has great stats (including a starting Strength on par with Gatrie's starting strength), promotes to assassin (thereby gaining Lethality), and he's overall just a cool character. I usually max out his levels before he promotes, and then just keep him on my team for the rest of the game. In short, I love Volke.
However... I end up using him as a front-line fighter, so Anna is really the better character to use as a thief. I usually end up using Gaius in the game, but I can't deny her high growths and immediate usefulness when you recruit her. Despite every fiber of my being wanting to put Volke as the best thief, I'm giving my vote to Anna.

Never mind, I forgot that thieves in FE9 can steal staves, which makes Volke more useful as a thief because he can rush in and get those staves before the enemy decides to start using them... without needing to be constantly protected.

Worst: Cath
3 chapters... 3 freaking chapters!!! Just to recruit her! And to top it off, her stats suck, she's at a low level, and she takes off with some useful items if you don't get Chad or Astohl to snatch them first or otherwise prevent her from getting to those chests. I was so tempted to just kill her off just so I wouldn't have to worry about her.
At least you get Sothe early in FE9, enough to make use of his Blossom skill if you put your mind to it.

Well, I haven't played any of the DS games or Awakening, so...

Best thief: FE9!Volke. Despite being stuck with weaksauce weapons, Volke can hold his own as a combat unit, especially after promotion, and thief utility is a great thing to have in FE9 (all those free Physic staves! mrgreen ) Plus, he has a really cool character design and plot basis overall (although, if we're talking best thief character designs, I have to give my props to Legault). Shame he doesn't show up until one chapter from the endgame in FE10...

Worst thief: Cath, for the same reasons others have said. I was torn between her, FE9!Sothe and Dew (FE4). Thing is, though, Sothe is a useful backup for Volke in the chapters where you need extra thief utility, and Dew, despite being in a game where you hardly need thieves and having absolute crap for base stats, can at least serve as a good source of extra funds. Cath's growths are good, but not enough to make up for her underleveled-ness, she's a pain in the a** to recruit, and if you need two thieves, well, you have Chad and Astol already. There's no reason to use her.

Best: My vote goes to Anna as others have said. Staff usability, Trickster class, and on top of that being awesome.

Worst: Cath. Just yeah.

Best: I suppose I'm gonna be cursed by the RNG goddess for not voting Anna. My vote will actually go to Lifis. I find Lara to be a better dancer imo. Though, she can still pick locks and steal items.( But she won't be stealing much) She just requires way too much effort to use. Personally while I do think Anna is a great unit by all means. Hard mode bonuses and Lunatic bonuses and her starting bases are just great. B ranks in swords and C in staves and all that nice stuff. I do like the trickster class quite a bit. FE9 Volke and Pahn are also honorable mentions. What I feel like Awakening missed was the ability to steal. FE1-3 only had thieves that could open doors and chests. In FE4 thieves could only steal gold from enemies and you could give them to your army for some exp to the thief. FE5 introduced it all the way till FE10. But for me personally, I really like stealing in FE5. You can actually steal weapons that enemy is carrying depending if their build is higher than the enemy. Capturing might be much more efficient. But there's some cases where stealing actually can come in handy in a game like FE5. And Lifis can seriously get lots of build with the Neir scroll. And his availability is pretty good.

Worst: I've been in between both Rickard and Cath here. I'm sorry to say but Cath is the worst thief for me. I've never played it on hard mode before so maybe she could be better due to the bonuses? I wouldn't know. To Rickard's credit he at least comes with a member's card in FE3/12. Recruiting him in FE3 is a bit tedious because you can't select your formation for your units in the game. FE12 is probably much easier on that. I have to admit that conversation is pretty hilarious too. In FE11 he is mediocre compared to Julian. But he probably could be usable. I just don't see much of a reason to use Cath. You already have Chad and Astohl who come in fairly early in FE6. By the time you get her she'll need lots of babying to even defend herself.

Best: Uhh...

I still adore Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, but I've known for a while that it isn't the story itself that I like, so much as what the characters turn it into. I'm here for the characters and how they interact, and how they play in the story instead of how the story plays them. It feels very down-to-earth and personal to me for a few reasons. I like how characters in your army continue to be relevant to the plot and get dialogue even after they join you. I like how they get development within the main story instead of just supports or little side conversations. However, FE9's writing can be a bit on the nose at times, and the story is a lot less risky than something like FE4. But it is so stuffed with those little character interactions in the main story in addition to supports and base conversations, I really want to vote it best even if the events on paper aren't as impressive.

On the other end, Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War is enormous, dramatic, and willing to take more risks. I love its scale and how all the elements come together to create something larger than the sum of its parts. It also leaves enough open to keep the brain going even after the game is done. It really sticks with me, but I don't think it's perfect by any means. While there are some wonderful characters in it, I am put into a weird situation where I like the story that they affect more than the story affects them, if that makes sense. Thracia 776 makes up for that in a lot of ways, but in FE4 itself I'm not here for the characters as they interact so much as what they are and what they do in the grand scheme (with some exceptions). That's not bad, though. It's just different, and creates a different feeling. There are moments when the story does show its seams or I don't like how a certain character or situation is handled, but I sort of like its roughness, since it lingers more on the imperfections and mistakes that the characters make. Also, I'm a sucker for multi-generational stories.

Before anyone says anything, I am aware that FE5 and FE9 have a lot of similar story elements. Some of which are really obvious. Honestly, I really like them both so I don't mind, and the more direct parallels lead to different places, at least as I see them now. In addition, both games have elements that I wish were in every FE.

I think I will go with FE4 as best, since this is a matter of story itself, as opposed to overall cast or personal favorites. Yeah that's right. I voted for Holy War. It might not be my favorite, but it's among my favorites, and I haven't played anything else quite like it.

Worst: I'm going with FE10, mostly because I find the writing very inconsistent within itself and compared to FE9. That's the big thing, really. I probably wouldn't mind it as much if I didn't like FE9 as much as I do, but there you go.

Best: FE4

I really don't want to go into it. My reasoning for considering it is in the previous Best/Worst thread if anyone really wanted to pursue it that badly. I DID ultimately pick FE7 but went into extensive detail over it and FE4. I now find the grandiose-level material of FE4 and how it's presented to be worthy of best.

Worst: FE13.

There.

I said it.

Not that surprising.

FE13 is a great game. Love love LOVE the gameplay. Love lots of the mechanics (in spite of a lack of balance, often). Love lots of things about it.

The story is not on that list, however.


Meanwhile, FE10's story does experiment. And I think that's a laudable effort. I like that it gives you multiple perspectives, has you play multiple perspectives, and play perspectives competing with each other. Yes, it ******** some things up royally and has major plot dumb moments. But so does FE13.

And I'd much sooner take FE10's message of rebelling against an unjust deity and all of the implications of that over FE13's "bonds of friendship" mishigas.