Welcome to Gaia! ::

This weeks topic is: Best/Worst NPC (They have to be on the map as a unit and be non-recruitable to count)

I will admit this is hard to figure out. sweatdrop Of course, I am curious about your description of NPC. Like what happen if the character is an NPC for one map, but becomes a recruitable character in the next chapter or game (aka: Pent or Sephiran.) I mean, does that count too as NPC?

Anyway, onto the topic:

Best: Ostia soldiers in Chapter 29/30 of Blazing Sword. I will admit I find this hard to figure out since I don't play as many Fire Emblem games as well as not trying to include characters that are NPCs but also being Enemy/Recruitable Units (aka: Fargus, Pent, Sephiran.) So I'm going with the Ostia soldiers. Even though they are not as strong to battle against the enemies as well as getting 50/50 chance of dying from poison, I find them useful to take out few enemies as well staying in character to defend their castles. To be honest, I would comment about Rath's mercenary group from Chapter 21/22, but I usually kept rescuing them so I can level my characters up. sweatdrop

Worst: Gotta agree with everyone about the Villagers from Awakening. It makes you wish you have the rescue system back (and I'm not talking about the Rescue Staff) just so they won't be stupid about what they're doing. And even if it looks like you can block their path, they manage to walk PASS you without the skill Pass. >.<

EDIT: Changed my worst vote. Gotta agree with Rath about the villagers in FE10 since I barely finished Part 1 of RD. sweatdrop

Best: Would Sety from Thracia 776 count? Because if so I’d pick him.(I may be the only minority here) I mean yeah, I know you can get him later on depending on what you do but still… He makes an appearance as an green Npc unit in chapter 4x: Hero of the winds. And he is just plain cool in that chapter. I just think it’s a interesting idea that he’s there to protect you against possible enemies that pop up with Holsety. Plus the chapter itself is an escape chapter so in a way it kind of makes it dramatic that way doesn’t it? I’m sure the 3-13 archers are cool too, and it may be just me but I was never really fond of the npc archers from FE6. I’d also give honorable mentions to the FE4 villagers, the FE5 civilians in chapter 14x, and I kind of like the Crimea Paladins on the Great Bridge chapter from FE9.

I'm considering a change of thought actually. Sety is great and all that... But he does have some share of problems. And I don't think he's nearly as great as I made him out to be. Pent is another one I have seem to forgotten and he's great on the Living Legend chapter. But he also does have his share of problems. At least until there's the harder difficulties that he literally has trouble defending himself. But I never did consider the Holy Pegasus knights of Begnion that Tanith could call out with her Reinforce skill. They have lots of uses being an NPC that you actually have control over. With Sety at times it's fine and he usually stays out of my way. And like I said before, he's very useful in getting enemies out of the picture while you need to book it out of there. But I've actually had an instance where he would actually kill off enemies I needed to capture. But I don't think I've ever had such problems with Tanith's squad. They could be used for baiting enemies and you could order them with Ike to tell them what they should do. Reinforce is a very unique and personal skill that only Tanith knows. And I quite honestly wish there was more npcs like that. >.>





Worst: I'll be changing my vote to FE10's chapter 1-8 civilians npcs. I've been taking alot things into consideration. Now that I think about it Eve, Eva, and Alva actually won't take action if Lachesis isn't nearby battles. So in that sense maybe it's not nearly as bad. It's just frustrating to deal with these three knights stuck to Lachesis wherever she goes like glue. But then again it's only one chapter after all. And I guess it is kind of cool that they give a free knight ring which Lachesis could have. Or could be passed onto anyone without being blessed with a mount. (Even though I still do think that they are really dumb npcs.) But I actually do agree with Rath here. Saving the villagers isn't as hard that everyone is making it out to be.
The objective or goal is to protect them until they reach that apot so they can escape out of there, and yeah as I've said before I personally don't find it that much of an issue. There's an actual reward in saving them, and I like what it's trying to do.

But hoo boy, there's a big difference in civilians standing still like idiots in the swamp getting their a** killed, or villagers just plain trying to get to a certain area to the map and flee with their lives. With the pairing system, I'd argue that with Awakening actually gives you ways to work around helping them. Or yeah rescue staves also really help out. It's not like you have to play that paralogue chapter right away. And if you wait till later you should be able to have at least one rescue staff by then. And it's not really that hard, it's a challenge for sure but at least there is a reward for helping them. But with FE10 it's way worse here. There's not much you can do about the villagers getting killed. Only flier you have is Vika who is literally not much help at that point. And she can't do much except to see them get killed off like flies. Saving all of them isn't possible. Even saving one of them is a big pain in the rear already. I just don't feel it's worth saving the npcs in that chapter in FE10.

Oh my gosh I'm actually posting in this thread, it's a New Year's Miracle.

Best- If they count, I'd have to give my vote to Tanith's Peg Knight reinforcements. It's definitely useful to have some more fliers on the field, especially when they can be used for fodder or bait to draw enemies, or recruitable units, into your movement range. Need them to bunker down and hold the line? They've got you covered with that hold command.

Worst- I'm going to have to go with the majority here and vote for the villagers of FE 13. I'm not exactly sure what their purpose in life is, if only to be massive disappointments and lemmings heading to their deaths.

You know what, I'm going to agree with Rath on this one. That sounds absolutely horrid.

Yeah, I remember those guys. Not changing my vote, though. That chapter in FE10 was awful all around... not having any flying units except for Vika, forced units appearing at three points across the map, the enemy units being fliers... That chapter sucked. But it never felt like the NPC's themselves were the reason. The setup itself sucked.

I honestly don't know which is worse in terms of NPC units, so I'm sticking with the guys in Awakening. They keep running towards enemies and I've seen them move into enemy attack ranges. Those guys can't take a hit either, especially from the pegasus knights on that mountain range, who always double villagers. It's really frustrating, and although the chapter's completely beatable if you ignore them, you get a Seraph Robe if all three survive. In FE10, you just had to get Nailah or Muarim to rescue one villager and you could win. Preferably Nailah, since she's so overpowered at that point in the game. I forgot what you get if more villagers survive that chapter, but I always resigned myself to losing at least two of them before completing the map.

I think I'm rambling. Anyway, I can't decide if the swamp chapter in FE10 was just horrible or if the NPC's were, so that's why I'm sticking with my original vote.

Villagers in general suck in the stats department, so I'll agree that the context for them matters.

I just don't know what it is about the FE13 villagers that annoys me to a degree the FE10 villagers don't. (shrug)

I guess that, by the time I got to that chapter in FE10, I'd just given up on saving more than one of them (which I always sent Nailah to do). Nihilism (or whatever's a better word for "I just don't care anymore") is alive and well for me when it comes to that chapter.