LogFAQs > #941787289

Marth CH 8
Caeda CH 6
Innes CH 7
Ricken CH 3
Panne CH 5
Marth UN 5
Caeda UN 10
Innes UN 5
Ricken UN 4
Panne UN 7

Marth is stuck with swords, never promotes, and can't reclass, which are all bummers in Shadow Dragon. His high growths can eventually make him into a strong fighter even on higher difficulties, but with his wimpy bases it takes a long time, and it's more efficient to leave combat to other characters. His rapier can also be a little bit underwhelming. It is possible to forge it up to 1HKO range on a lot of enemies, but that is very expensive due to the low starting might. Unfortunately he only gets the Falchion for two chapters which are easy to skip. Shadow Dragon really does have good dialog writing, which serves to make him one of the best normal lords. He's also very pretty, apart from his Shadow Dragon portrait.

Caeda is the best unit in Shadow Dragon. Her exclusive Wing Spear and its higher might compared to rapier make an efficient option for killing the numerous cavaliers and armors in Shadow Dragon, which includes a lot of bosses. She cap-rams her speed super hard, which makes her effective damage boss killing a lot more effective than Marth's. Promotion to Dracoknight gives her huge boosts to strength and defense, her primary weak points. She can also make use of the Paladin class if there are too many bows around or she needs +2 speed. A higher-level Caeda can even reclass to Swordmaster to double and one round a fire dragon with a forged wyrmslayer. It's true that she's not nearly as ridiculous as Marcus, but I think she still justifies the perfect score, and I would say her relative lack of dominance is a testament to Shadow Dragon's above average balance and satisfying difficulty. She's a likable character and her recruitment dialogs really are funny.

Innes is a sniper. Everything else about him is good, but he's held back in a big way by his class. He might be a little less useful than FE7 Louise due to the lack of some of her unique niches, but he still makes an acceptable filler unit. His arrogant personality and relationships with other major characters do him favors as a character.

Since everyone has high growths and power-leveling options in Awakening, one of the biggest things that defines a bad unit is taking a long time to get going. A low speed base is especially bad, which makes Ricken one of the worst early-game units along with Virion. He can at least contribute with Elwind against fliers on his join chapter, even without investment. He's another Awakening character who mostly speaks in a single gimmick.

Panne has even higher growths than most other units, and can grow into a mighty Wyvern Lord with the investment of a second seal - she may be the second best candidate for an early one, behind Robin. Lack of access to Galeforce drags her down compared to Sumia or Cordelia, as do the doldrums of her starting class an E axes upon reclass. I'd say I like her better than a lot of others in Awakening, but she can still be a bit dull.

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