Kicking off the “Top 15 Most Underrated Units” list is Jill’s Radiant Dawn version. Most people already recognize Jill as a worthwhile top tier unit. Why is she on here? Because Jill isn’t just top tier. She’s the best unit in the game.
A lot of people (until recently I was one of those people too) believe that Haar is the best unit in the game, and for good reason. Haar is a total beast. He’s bulky, he flies, his availability is top notch, he's got all the makings of a top tier unit. It makes sense why we all used to think it was him. So what makes Jill better? Simple. Haar is a god among demigods, Jill is a goddess among scrubs.
Jill's contributions to the Dawn Brigade stand out more than Haar's. There's a bigger gap in usefulness between Jill and even the second best Dawn Brigade member (who would that be btw?) than there is between Haar and say...Titania, Transfers!Boyd and Transfers!Ike. Jill stands out more than Haar does, which is why she barely snipes the "Best Unit in RD" spot from Haar. The difference between Jill and Haar isn't great, but it does exist.
"Well if Jill is so great, why is she only # 15 on your list?" Simple. Out of all the characters on this list, Jill is the character that people think the most highly of. There isn't a huge discrepancy between how good people think she is versus how good she actually is. What determines a unit's placement on this list is the gap between how good they really are versus people's common perceptions of their usefulness. From here on out that gap is going to get bigger.
# 14 - Lowen (Blazing Sword)
For those of you who don't know, I asked people for suggestions on who should be in this list. Of the 15 candidates, 13 of them came from your suggestions (I'll point out who the 3 I chose are when we get to them). Lowen was by the far the most popular candidate. So let's talk about Lowen's merits.
He's a cavalier, which is an amazing class to be in, and his base stats are pretty good for his join time. He also has good availability so you can use him for a significant portion of the game. So why's he underrated? Well Lowen gets ignored, or gets low unit rankings from fans, because he's a cavalier who isn't as good as Sain and Kent. While this is true, it's also true that the same can be said for the majority of the cast. It also doesn't change the fact that Lowen can do things like rescuing other units, getting to places quicker and having an actual Enemy Phase.
"But Lowen's growths aren't the best"
This is true but Bases > Growths. Now you might be wondering why Lowen is so low on this list. Well, here's the thing, the fact that Lowen was the most popular candidate for this list means that a lot of people are already aware that this guy is a good unit. I wouldn't be surprised if he stopped being underrated in a few years time.
# 13 - Alec, Noish & Midir (Genealogy of the Holy War)
So I'm going to be lazy here and simply post Mekkah's video on why Alec, Noish and Midir are underrated units:
I completely agree with everything Mekkah said in his video so go check it out. That being said, the fact that a respected Fire Emblem veteran made a whole video about these guys means that they've gotten recognition for how good they are, which makes them less underrated since they've already gotten more recognition for their merits than the majority of the characters on this list. Still, it's worth putting them on here, because Mekkah's right.
# 12 - Azelle (Genealogy of the Holy War)
Azel was a little trickier to rate for this list because he deserves at least some of the criticism that's lobbied at him. I mean, his start is legitimately awful. He joins you with 5 movement in a game chock full of gargantuan maps with a Fire Tome (which is a terrible weapon type) and his starting durability of 2 Defense and 30 HP isn't going to do him any favors either.
So why is he here? Well here's the thing: After Azel promotes he gets a horse. After he gets a horse (and promotion bonuses) he's... useful. Nowhere near as good as Sigurd or Cuan, but he has his uses. I've seen Ronaldo and Tavari bring up how Azelle can defeat Lombard (Langobalt aka Lex's Dad) rather quickly so his combat can be made good.
So while I'm not trying to suggest that "Azelle's actually amazing" I will say that he's far from being the worst unit in Holy War. He has his merits that deserve to be acknowledged by the community as a whole.
# 11 - Chrom (Awakening)
Earlier in this post I brought up how there were 3 characters that I chose to put on this list that didn't come from people's suggestions. Chrom is one of those three characters.
Why Chrom? Well, let's start with a question: Have you ever heard of the term "Chrom Syndrome"? If you haven't, the reason why is because I made it up a few years ago. "Chrom Syndrome" refers to a character that's perfectly good and worthwhile as a unit in their own right, but tends to get overshadowed because the top tier units in the game are absolutely ridiculous. I first noticed this trend with Chrom, but it can apply to other Fire Emblem games.
As a unit, Chrom has a lot going for him. Now that I think about it, Chrom shares similar gameplay positives to Seliph from Holy War:
There are multiple reasons why, but arguably the biggest one is that Robin exists in Awakening and completely overshadows Chrom. Depending on who you talk to, Robin is either the most broken, or one of the most broken, units in the entire series. Veteran, infinite reclassing (or the closest thing to it), and customizable growths make Robin obscenely OP. It also doesn't help that Awakening's mechanics make it so that you really don't NEED your lord for anything. Awakening's objectives are either "Rout Enemy" or "Kill Boss". Neither of those objectives make your lord necessary as opposed to games that predominantly have the Seize objective.
Awakening also heavily emphasizes stats over strats so a sufficiently powered up Robin paired up with any unit of your choice is all you need to break the game. To be fair here, Robin isn't the only unit who overshadows Chrom, but that proves my point even more, because all the other units that are better than Chrom are ridiculous too. If Chrom were in a different Fire Emblem game, but he still had a non-story based promotion accompanied by a horse and lance, he would shine far more than he does. But Awakening is a game where your stats can skyrocket thanks to Pair Up, you don't need to be a lord to accomplish anything meaningful, Nosferatu tomes are practically limitless, and Dark Fliers exist. So as a result Chrom gets forgotten about even though he's still a worthwhile unit.
P.S. One more thing I forgot to mention about Chrom is that his skill set is also pretty solid in his game. He gets access to Aether, Luna, Rightful King, Aegis, Dual Guard + and starts out with Dual Strike +. That is not a bad skill set to have in Awakening.
So why is he here? Well here's the thing: After Azel promotes he gets a horse. After he gets a horse (and promotion bonuses) he's... useful. Nowhere near as good as Sigurd or Cuan, but he has his uses. I've seen Ronaldo and Tavari bring up how Azelle can defeat Lombard (Langobalt aka Lex's Dad) rather quickly so his combat can be made good.
So while I'm not trying to suggest that "Azelle's actually amazing" I will say that he's far from being the worst unit in Holy War. He has his merits that deserve to be acknowledged by the community as a whole.
# 11 - Chrom (Awakening)
Earlier in this post I brought up how there were 3 characters that I chose to put on this list that didn't come from people's suggestions. Chrom is one of those three characters.
Why Chrom? Well, let's start with a question: Have you ever heard of the term "Chrom Syndrome"? If you haven't, the reason why is because I made it up a few years ago. "Chrom Syndrome" refers to a character that's perfectly good and worthwhile as a unit in their own right, but tends to get overshadowed because the top tier units in the game are absolutely ridiculous. I first noticed this trend with Chrom, but it can apply to other Fire Emblem games.
As a unit, Chrom has a lot going for him. Now that I think about it, Chrom shares similar gameplay positives to Seliph from Holy War:
- Neither lords have story-based promotions.
- Both units get access to higher movement after they promote.
- Neither of them have to worry about a lack of 1 -2 range.
So why is Seliph the best unit in his game while Chrom mostly gets forgotten about in his?
There are multiple reasons why, but arguably the biggest one is that Robin exists in Awakening and completely overshadows Chrom. Depending on who you talk to, Robin is either the most broken, or one of the most broken, units in the entire series. Veteran, infinite reclassing (or the closest thing to it), and customizable growths make Robin obscenely OP. It also doesn't help that Awakening's mechanics make it so that you really don't NEED your lord for anything. Awakening's objectives are either "Rout Enemy" or "Kill Boss". Neither of those objectives make your lord necessary as opposed to games that predominantly have the Seize objective.
Awakening also heavily emphasizes stats over strats so a sufficiently powered up Robin paired up with any unit of your choice is all you need to break the game. To be fair here, Robin isn't the only unit who overshadows Chrom, but that proves my point even more, because all the other units that are better than Chrom are ridiculous too. If Chrom were in a different Fire Emblem game, but he still had a non-story based promotion accompanied by a horse and lance, he would shine far more than he does. But Awakening is a game where your stats can skyrocket thanks to Pair Up, you don't need to be a lord to accomplish anything meaningful, Nosferatu tomes are practically limitless, and Dark Fliers exist. So as a result Chrom gets forgotten about even though he's still a worthwhile unit.
P.S. One more thing I forgot to mention about Chrom is that his skill set is also pretty solid in his game. He gets access to Aether, Luna, Rightful King, Aegis, Dual Guard + and starts out with Dual Strike +. That is not a bad skill set to have in Awakening.
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