Unpopular Play Choices/Styles in Fire Emblem

[Freezerburn]

I tend to use unorthodox class combinations whenever possible. In one of my Fates runs, I currently have Xander as a Dark Flier, maid Midori and Odin as a strategist among a few others. I just find having the same characters be in the same class every run to be boring, so I change it up.

[MadJak91]

I tend to use thieves for thieving only. Even if someone of them promote to respectable assassins or such.

[Tolvir]

Speed isnt a huge focus for me with characters. I do focus on it, and do think its important to have most characters double, but when a Armor Knight or something like that isnt doubling it isnt a deal breaker for me.

I dont care about turn counts. Only time I did was in Radiant Dawn and Path of Radiance, where there are rewards. And even then if I didnt make the turn count it wasnt a deal breaker for me, just an extra bonus if I could make it. I would much rather take my time and go about difficult maps slowly than rush through.

I dont care to use the absolutel best characters to make it through. I use who I want, regardless if their stats suck or not. There is a breaking point, for example Meg and Fiona just suck, but I will use others. For example, even though Nyx is regarded as terrible I use her quite a bit in Fates.

[Topaz Light]

• Except in the Tellius games, and in Awakening/Fates where I can make them someone's backpack for the early chapters, I always bench Jagens. Immediately. I have nothing against them as characters and I acknowledge that they're, like, objectively very useful and all that, I just find them to be subjectively very boring as units. Plus, unless you're going for low turn counts and/or playing Lunatic mode or something, you honestly do not actually need to use Jagens at any point in any of the Fire Emblem games I've played in order to clear a given chapter within a reasonable amount of time and effort. All this also applies to pseudo-Jagens/secondary Jagens like Wendell and Zelot.
• One sort-of exception to the above is I'll sometimes use Frederick in Awakening, because everybody has access to indefinite level-ups in that game so I'm less picky with who I do and don't use or give EXP to.
• I know this is absolutely the opposite of how a lot of "pro" FE players play the game, but I honestly tend to really enjoy growth units and find them much more fun and satisfying to use compared to units primarily focused on having good bases.
• Like other people have mentioned, I only care about getting low turn counts when there's a meaningful in-game reward for achieving them, and even simply falling within the parameters to qualify for the reward is good enough for me.
• Dunno how popular or unpopular this is, but even in games like the original Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, I play 100% recruitment + 100% survival runs exclusively, the only exception being in vanilla Shadow Dragon when I wanna play the sidequests. Thank goodness for the patch that removes those stupid requirements. This also applies to my first run through any given FE game. You'd better believe I'm gonna look up how to get everyone to make sure I don't miss anybody.
• I don't really care that much about picking good stat builds for my MUs. My first FE12 MU was literally entirely randomly-generated, for example, and I gave my Awakening MU, Turks, +Res/-HP for no other reason than that that stat spread fit the design I'd come up with for him.
• I tend to choose variable parents for child characters based on criteria that's usually more arbitrary than effective, gameplay-wise:
  • In Genealogy of the Holy War, I make a point to have Luna, Sol, Forseti, and the Valkyrie staff all be passed down, no matter what.
  • In Awakening, I make sure that every child character gets max reclass set size—the exception being Lucina and Inigo who are usually siblings and thus each only have five class options—and that I pass down all the unique or Wacky Anime Hair Colors™ to child characters who aren't Yarne, since he only gets the one patch of it. This means Virion, Stahl, Donnel, Gaius, and Henry all my characters other than Panne, and Chrom is never left to marry the Maiden. I'm a bit inconsistent about whether or not my MU adheres to this, though.
  • I haven't actually played Fates enough to really have a pattern for it yet, but from what little I have done I either pair characters based on just how much I like them as a couple, or with the intention of making some fun weird build for their kid, like pairing Silas and Orochi to make a mixed physical/magical Sophie who I planned to use as a Basara. I do also try to avoid having the kid end up with just two class options, but since that's rarely an issue it's not that big a concern for me. As in Awakening, hair color inheritance is kind of a concern here, but it's mainly just making sure the kids don't end up with horrible ugly hair colors that clash with the rest of their design, since pairings are laid out such that no more than one variable parent—and thus inheritable hair color—can be left out if all children are to be recruited.
• I try to use a variety of classes in most Fire Emblem games and don't really like loading up on a bunch of the same class too much, no matter how good that class may be.
• I don't really like using the Awakening and Fates MUs in their base classes and always make a point to have some other class as their "main" class. In Fates, though, I do usually try to pick a main class that still has access to Swords, so my MU can still wield Yato.

Edited July 26, 2017 by Topaz Light

[Cute Chao]

Not sure how common or popular this is, but I choose my units fully by looks. I only use females or ones I don't find attractive to get supports/child units or if they're necessary on a map. Sometimes I use them if they're my only healer/refresher, too ^.^

Only problem is when there becomes more pretty male units than there are spaces on the map xD

[Loki Laufeyson]

Most of you are basically playing the games the same way as each other. Not using prepromotes, hoarding stat boosters, benching the Jeigan, training the Est, etc is extremely common. So im gonna detail my styles that i know are uncommon  

 

I use the Jeigan. All. Game. Unless its Sothe. He sucks. 

The only games i actively put Swordmasters on my team, are FE8 (cuz Joshua is life), FE10, and FE13. 

I never train the cavs in FE7 anymore. Marcus and Isadora are just better.

I rarely recruit Geitz in FE7 cuz that requires putting Dart on my team, a character im never using  so Geitz ends up as exp for someone.

I actually use Triangle Attack in FE7. It makes short work of Lloyd in CoD, Sonja, and the Morph bosses in the final chapter.

With the Tellius games, i do some weird shit. Thats the rare duo in which i actually play for story, so i do shit and use people who are story relevant a lot of the time. The only thing i dont do, is bother fighting the BK in PoR due to the aggravating, luck based nature of it. So i just escape and pretend Ike smushed him anyway. But this leads me to support Ike with Soren, transfer that over to RD, get that special epilogue scene involving Soren, which requires STUPID amounts of hoop jumping to get. The amount of favortism Soren recieves in RD on my runs, is also something i consider abnormal. He is fed so many kills with Shove chains, plus given the following skills:

Daunt, Celerity, Discipline (temporarily), his native Adept, and Flare. Plus maxing out his staff rank. 

I give Henry Axefaire because i do DF Henry.

If im using Tharja, she goes thwomp route.

Odin gets used in every Fates run thats not Birthright. So does Peri.

Ophelia cannot have any other hair color than a shade of blue. This is due to her face resembling an irl friend of mine, and that friend has blue hair. Luckily for Ophelia, this leads to some great builds. Like Corn!Ophelia or Azura!Ophelia which isnt bad. 

I always use Rath in FE7. A L W A Y S.

I favor mounts, so when reclassing happens, anyone who can get a mount, does.

The above includes FE8 exploits. Examples: Gilliam, Lute, Gerik, etc, these guys all get horsies.

Im not a huge wyvern fan unless its Tellius.

I staunchly refuse to ever made Vanessa and Tana Wyvern Knights in FE8. I hate the lance lock and the way the sprites look. 

Bartre. That is all.

I never pair my feMUs with Chrom. 

 

 

Edited July 26, 2017 by Loki Laufeyson