As the first Fire Emblem game released outside of Japan, Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade (originally simply titled FireEmblem in the west) was many players' first experience with the franchise.
Often described as one of the most well-rounded entries in the Fire Emblem franchise, The Blazing Blade is an excellent game for both veterans and newcomers to the series alike. As with every entry in the series, there are numerous characters who tend to be significantly more useful than others. So today we're going to look at the ten most competent and useful units one wouldn't want to miss out on using when playing through Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade.
10 Raven
While in most cases, a unit lacking both a mount and flexible range would be viewed as lackluster in Fire Emblem, Raven is a strong exception. A mercenary recruited relatively early into Eliwood and Hector's stories, Raven joins the player's party with high strength and speed, allowing him to immediately contribute to combat in a meaningful way.
Upon promoting into a hero, Raven becomes all the more useful, as his newfound access to axes allows him to fight from a distance when needed with hand axes.
9 Canas
One of the more powerful magic-users players have access to in The Blazing Blade, Canas has the distinction of being the only recruitable dark-magic wielder in the entire game, save for Athos who is recruited in the penultimate chapter. This means that any and all dark magic tomes a player obtains can be viewed as personal weapons just for Canas. Recruited as a level eight shaman, Canas possesses solid stats across the board with notably high magic, allowing him to best enemies with high defense.
While not directly impacting gameplay, Canas also gets bonus points for the stellar sound effect that his flux tome makes in combat.
8 Hawkeye
While many axe users in Fire Emblem tend to get a bad rap due to low speed and accuracy, Hawkeye is an extremely capable Berserker who can assist even the most seasoned veterans.
Recruited with a massive eighteen strength and base stats that one would be hard-pressed to find fault with, Hawkeye comes equipped with a killer axe. When paired with his high damage output and Berserker's plus fifteen percent bonus to landing critical hits, Hawkeye can reliably make troublesome units disappear.
7 Hector
One of the three protagonists of The Blazing Blade, players will have access to Hector for the majority of the game. This is phenomenal, as Hector is essentially a powerful hybrid of the knight and fighter classes, boasting high survivability, strength, and access to axes. In addition to impressive growth rates and availability, Hector comes with a useful personal weapon, the Wolf Beil.
While already possessing high offense, this axe is effective against both armored units and cavalry, allowing Hector to easily deal with numerous enemy types singlehandedly.
6 Kent And Sain
The "Cain and Abel" of The Blazing Blade, Kent and Sain are two cavaliers who are recruited very early into Lyn's story. While these units will be at their strongest for players who play through these Lyn-focused chapters, they are still incredibly useful for players who chose to jump straight into Eliwood or Hector's stories.
Possessing excellent mobility and access to numerous weapon types, Kent and Sain are often the bread and butter of a player's army due to their combination of well-rounded stats and reliable movement.
5 Priscilla
Recruited early on within Eliwood and Hector's stories respectively, Priscilla is easily the most capable healer within The Blazing Blade. The sister of Raven, Priscilla comes toting the ever-useful mend staff, and a mount, providing her with numerous advantages over the cleric, Serra.
As a troubadour, Pricilla can rush across maps to heal injured units on the fly, and can also reliably rescue units when a player is in a pinch.
4 Lowen
While cavaliers are often toted as one of the most useful classes in the series, Lowen is by and large the most useful cavaliers in Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade. Available from the very first chapter of Eliwood's story and the second chapter of Hector's, Lowen possesses a notably high defense growth rate.
This allows him to be used in a similar fashion to great knights found within later entries of the series, despite the class not being within the game. Lowen can be deployed and easily maneuvered to choke points and rescue allies, all with unparalleled availability that can allow him to gain a great deal of experience before any other cavaliers are even recruited.
3 Pent
It isn't hard to see why Pent is a fan-favorite character from The Blazing Blade. Though Pent joins late into the game, he is immediately one of the most potent units a player has access to. Possessing an A rank in both anima magic and staves, Pent can be simultaneously used as an offensive Sage in the front lines and a secondary healer with his Physic staff. This A rank in staves is especially notable as Pent is immediately capable of wielding the most useful staff in the game, the Warp Staff.
Toting high magic, speed, and skill, as soon as he is recruited, Pent can reliably put an end to nearly any enemy unit within a single round of combat.
2 Ninian And Nils
The Blazing Blade's dancer and bard respectively, Ninian and Nils are both excellent units that provide phenomenal utility that no player would want to be without.
While these units cannot directly contribute to combat, each can allow other units to take an extra action, effectively doubling that unit's movement and damage output for a single turn. As if this weren't enough, Ninian and Nils also have access to numerous rings that can be used to temporarily provide buffs to other members of a player's army.
1 Marcus
"Jagen" characters in Fire Emblem are traditionally units that start off strong, but inevitably lose their usefulness as a game progresses due to their low growth rates. A paladin that players are given from the word go in Eliwood's story, Marcus may appear to be a Jagen at first glance but he is far better than many would expect.
This is due to the fact that rather than having terrible growth's like one may anticipate, Marcus still is capable of receiving solid level-ups. This means that rather than falling off as a game progresses, Marcus is essentially a unit comparable to Sain, Kent, and Lowen who received a significant head start.