This is discussion archived from a time before the current discussion method was installed.
Seth: Isnt this already With This Herring?
Tanto: No. With This Herring deals with the fact that even though you're designated world-savers, no one in any position of authority seems inclined to give you any financial assistance or anything to help you on your way. At its core, it deals with the fact that you start out with nothing in most games and have to build yourself up for whatever reason. This deals with specific characters who are promoted as being super-powerful, but aren't (in order to preserve gameplay balance).
Random passer-by: I would add Karel, Karla, Athos and Vaida to the FE7 examples, while removing Marcus and Isadora. Neither is supposed to be a legendary warrior, and Marcus joins the crew at the beginning of the "real" campaign". Also, Jaffar is a semi-subversion - amongst the most hyped killers in the game, he's really only decent, for his level. However, you are unlikely to have any characters of a similar level in his class when you meet him, so he's pretty good.
Tanto: Karel, Athos, and Vaida are actually pretty good, though. Not great or anything, but not unplayable. Marcus and Isadora may not be legendary, per se, but they do have reputations as the toughest knights in the realm, which they wholly fail to live up to.
As for Jaffar, it's not his stats which are the problem so much as his class — the Assassin caps are kind of a joke, and he starts out nearly maxed. (I've never been able to figure out how he got up to 19 Strength with a 15% Strength growth, though...Nergal must have the luckiest RNG ever.) He still probably ends up better than Matthew or Legault, he just comes late.
Random - Well, most people are disappointed in Vaida once she loses her Uber Spear. Raven and/or Guy will CERTAINLY have better stats than Karel once they get to his level (and it's kinda hilarious to have Guy begging a fellow who is far worse a fighter than he is to teach him to fight. Maybe that should be included as a subtrope). I have the support conversations and game script in front of me:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/portable/gbadvance/game/468480.html
I see nothing regarding Marcus' or Isadora's reputations, besides being veteran knights in Hectors/ his brothers service. Same for Harken and Oswin, but they're not mentioned here.
Anyways, the trope doesn't go "Unplayable". That's a radical interpretation. It says, that a thousand year old sage really shouldn't have stats that are inferior to Nino's (a teen girl that's only been fighting for less than a month). Ditto Karel, the scariest fighter ever, ditto whomever.
Tanto: Marcus is the commander of the knights of Pherae. Presumably you don't fall ass-backwards into that job. Eliwood, Lowen, Roy, Alan, and Lance idolize the guy, for chrissakes.
I can see your point, but there's a limit to how tough you can make these guys. Athos is pretty much maxed out in almost every category, and he's one of only a handful of units that breaks the S-rank rule for weapon proficiency, the others being the toughest bad guys. That's good enough for me. Karel may not be as good as he is in FE6, but he's still got good stats — he's a solid unit. (Guy gets strength-screwed too frequently for my tastes. Karel's support options are also better than Guy's — Dart and Lucius, compared to Rath and Priscilla.) Besides, the fact that Karel becomes the Gato of FE6 clears his name with regards to FE7, I think. I'm not going to hold these guys to impossible standards. You can't make these guys as good as their reputations without making them game-breaking in the kind of game Fire Emblem is.
But sure, I'll support the removal of Isadora and the addition of Vaida...
Random Hmm. Well, I'll have to wait until I have the game at hand before I argue stats (though characters guides in the link I provided rate them poorly) but the compromise is acceptable, for now.
Axel: Same subject; since when is Innes a member of this trope? Sure, he's not as good as Neimi, but his starting stats are remarkably good for a pre-promote and his support options are much firmer - specifically, A-Support with Eirika makes them both insane; in my experience much better than Neimi and Colm at A-Support (namely because Eirika and Innes both squish things wonderfully, while Neimi and Colm have arguably different mission objectives depending on how you promoted them). His support also helps Eirika, almost nulling any problems with the RNG you may have had (unlikely, but possible).
Cassius335: Taken out:
- In Pokemon, for example, a mon caught at level 5 and trained to level 50 will have higher stats than the same speies mon caught at level 50.
because the key word in that sentence is "trained".
Redkun: Taken out:
- If you've been leveling up at about the same rate throughout Final Fantasy Tactics A 2, Adelle will be still be the same level she was when she left (despite having been level 41 in the previous quest), which will probably be at least three or four levels below the rest of the party. And since clan members all gain experience at the same rate, there's next to no way to get her caught up again. Unfortunately, she can soon become a powerful Heritor, who can use any weapon in the game and has very powerful magick... but won't be useful at her level at all.
I haven't even reached that point in the game, and I know that clan members gain AP at the same rate, not EXP. Only clan members who participate in battle gain EXP, and thanks to the bell curve she is able to catch up incredibly quickly.
