The Fire Emblem franchise is known for the vast amount of characters in the series, with the series currently sporting nearly six-hundred characters across sixteen entries. While each of these characters may be unique in their own right, not all of these characters are created equally, with some being substantially overpowered while the viability of others border on useless.
Though there are many integral characters to the series who are as powerful as their role in the story may suggest, there are others who are deceptively weak. Similarly, with the vast scope of characters present in the series, there have been many characters who appear excellent at first glance, but end up not being quite what players were expecting. So today, we’re going to examine ten characters of Fire Emblem that are weaker than one would probably expect!
10 Rath – The Blazing Blade
Appearing in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, Rath is first encountered in Lyn’s route as a level 8 Nomad. When he’s first recruited, he has notably high base stats comparatively to other units at a player’s disposal, and he has access to all of the benefits that come with being mounted. This often gives players a very favorable first impression of Rath.
However, after Lyn’s route ends and a player begins Eliwood or Hector’s routes, Rath isn’t seen again for another eleven chapters. By the time he is available again, he will be significantly under-leveled, and players will have numerous superior mounted units with more flexible weapon access.
9 Seteth – Three Houses
Seteth is a member of the Church of Seiros who is recruitable in each route of Three Houses save for “Crimson Flower.” A wyvern rider with solid base stats who automatically joins a player in Chapter 12, Seteth’s blend of class, crest, and base stats may make him appear to be an ideal unit.
However, as he has an unavoidably late join time, Seteth loses out on a massive amount of potential training and teaching that other units received. By the time that Seteth becomes accessible, he’d be outshined by any other wyvern rider a player has trained.
8 Ike – Path Of Radiance
Ike is a notoriously powerful unit in Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, possessing an excellent personal weapon, phenomenal base stats, and great growth rates. While Ike isn’t a terrible unit in Path of Radiance, he is far from the monster players may expect him to be.
Only capable of wielding swords, Ike is relegated to fighting foes whom he’s adjacent to, hindering his flexibility. One of Ike’s most notable drawbacks comes in the form of his promotion restriction. While most other units can promote upon reaching level 20, Ike can only promote once a player completes Chapter Seventeen. As Ike is the Path of Radiance unit with the most availability, he can reach level 20 many chapters prior to Chapter Seventeen, causing him to lose out on a great deal of experience.
7 Sothe – Radiant Dawn
In Part One of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn, Sothe is leagues better than other units available for the first few chapters, and is one of the most integral units at a player’s disposal. However, Sothe is a unit who scales horrendously as the game progresses, failing to contend with the stronger enemies of the later chapters of the game. Even if a player were to invest in Sothe, like Ike in Path of Radiance, his promotion is locked behind a chapter completion requirement, meaning Sothe can’t be promoted until a player completes the Part Four Prologue, a staggering twenty-nine chapters after he’s first usable.
6 Marth – Shadow Dragon
While Marth may be a fan favorite to fans of the Super Smash Bros. series, he’s far less useful in his own franchise. The lord of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, Marth is only capable of wielding swords, preventing him from easily accessing ranged weaponry. Additionally, Marth is one of the few protagonists in the series who is incapable of promoting, meaning he misses out on beneficial promotion gains that all other units receive. While he gains access to the “Fire Emblem,” an item that allows him to freely open chests, this leads to players utilizing the game’s protagonist as little more than a glorified thief.
5 Forde – The Sacred Stone
Cavaliers are often regarded as some of the most universally stellar units in the entire Fire Emblem series due to their blend of mobility, weapon access, and solid stats. Some of the most celebrated of these cavaliers are those of the “Cain and Abel” archetype, that consists of a green and red cavalier within a game.
However, Forde of The Sacred Stones is a notably lackluster unit who is hindered by unfortunate base stats and growth rates that greatly hinder his usability. While his class is still able to prevent him from being an unviable unit, he’s far from what one would expect from a traditional cavalier.
4 Lyn – The Blazing Blade
The earliest chapters of The Blazing Blade do everything in their power to depict Lyn as a powerful unit, showing her land a critical hit, giving her a solid personal weapon, and throwing hoards of brigands at the player that Lyn can easily dispatch. However, once a player reaches Eliwood or Hector’s routes, they will soon realize that Lyn is not all she was built up to be. Hampered by sub par growth rates that don’t do her low base stats any favors, Lyn will struggle to contend with enemies as the game progresses, and her fragility will become increasingly apparent when she fails to dodge attacks.
3 Roy – The Binding Blade
Like Marth, the Smash franchise has painted a very flattering picture of Roy in recent years. However, within the context of The Binding Blade, he is one of the weakest units in the entire game. While at first he may appear to be comparable to the likes of Ike and Marth, the biggest detriments that Roy faces are his inability to wield weapons other than swords, and his promotion. While Ike promotes roughly halfway through Path of Radiance and Marth receives a higher level cap to account for his lack of promotion, Roy doesn’t promote until after completing Chapter 21: one of the final chapters in the game.
2 Fae – The Binding Blade and Myrrh – The Sacred Stones
Manaketes, Fae of The Binding Blade and Myrrh of The Sacred Stones are quite the unique units. However, they are each impeded by a flaw found within many characters of their class: their weapon durability. Manaketes can only wield dragon stones in battle. These weapons have a finite amount of times they may be used, and only one stone may be obtained in the games in which these characters appear. This essentially means that after these characters run out of uses of their dragon stones, they are completely useless and are incapable of fighting.
1 Lysithea – Three Houses (Maddening Mode)
Lysithea is often regarded as one of the most powerful units in all of Fire Emblem: Three Houses due to her incredible magical damage output. Over the past year, she’s garnered quite the reputation as the Death Knight’s kryptonite.
However, when it comes to the game’s hardest difficulty, Maddening Mode, Lysithea is not quite as powerful as players may expect. While her magical offense is indeed strong, she is the definition of a one trick pony, having very little utility outside of raw damage. While other units such as Annette can contribute to one’s magic offense while providing support through her Rally abilities, Lysithea can’t do much but cast her deadly spells.
Additionally, Lysithea’s pitiful defense growth is at its most exploitable in maddening mode, as a great deal of enemies come with the Pass ability, allowing them to easily approach her. While Lysithea is still quite a powerful offensive magic unit, she is far from the unstoppable force players may perceive her as.
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