Mount Dominance Ranking Part 2

A Tier: All of the games in this post are more mount dominant than the games listed in the previous post. These games provide enough useful infantry units that they're still not super mount dominant.  

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Fire Emblem 1



Fire Emblem 1 is a game that I originally believed to be mount dominant. I thought it over, and decided that based on the evidence I've seen it actually isn't super mount dominant.

 The best units in the game are your warpbots, Lena and Wendell, followed by Marth. Pantsless Marth is a legend. He's a juggernaut who will most likely be your designated boss killer. The Rapier in this game is comparable to Caeda's Wing Spear in Shadow Dragon. In other words, it's OP. There are other useful infantry units too like Merric, Boah, Julian, Navarre, Ogma, Maria and Jeorge. I've even seen Samson ranked highly. I used this tier list as a frame of reference.



I'm also currently replaying Fire Emblem 1 right now. My team is balanced between high movement units and infantry so I have no problems believing that Fire Emblem 1 is actually not very mount dominant.

Fire Emblem 3: Mystery of the Emblem



Fire Emblem 3 is a game where there aren't tons of powerful mounts, but the few that you do get are REALLY strong. Palla, Catria and Sirius really are in a class of their own. (Caeda and Minerva are also great in this game too) Most of them join early, start out powerful, and remain that way throughout the entire game.

To this game's credit though, you do have a bunch of worthwhile infantry units. Ogma, Navarre, Marth, Phina, Linde, Wendell, and your archers are all considered worth using in this game. There's plenty of enough infantry units that the game ultimately comes across as not very mount dominant, it's just that the few you do get are really good.

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Shadow Dragon


Shadow Dragon is kind of a hard game to rank when it comes to talking about mount dominance. It doesn't stand out in the same way as Fire Emblem 12, but I also don't hear very many complaints about this game being very mount dominant either. On the one hand, Caeda's very broken and she's a Pegasus Knight. On the other hand, Warpskip is a dominant strategy in this game, and your warpbots aren't mounted. Feel free to add anything about Shadow Dragon, since I'm less knowledgeable about this game. Everyone I've talked to who is more knowledgeable about this game didn't think it was all that mount dominant either. Feel free to add to this if I'm missing out on something.

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# 6: Radiant Dawn




Fun fact: Even tvtropes.org has a small section mentioning how mounted units got a nerf in this game in comparison to Path of Radiance: 

"Though several examples are still good, mounted units Astrid and Makalov have fallen a long way from their usefulness last game, defying the typical domination of mounted units in other games. Fiona is also noted to be one of the worst units of the game. Astrid and Makalov both have speed, but not enough power behind their attacks nor durability to survive many, and Fiona simply has incredibly low base stats that make her a liability unless mass amounts of effort are put in to correct this."

Source: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VideoGame/FireEmblemRadiantDawn

The big problem with Radiant Dawn is that Jill and Haar are super busted. Titania is also pretty amazing, though not as gamebreaking as she was in Path of Radiance. 

Even taking Jill and Haar into account, Radiant Dawn has plenty of infantry units that are actually good.

• Ike: Ike got a massive upgrade from Path of Radiance, and he curbstomps anything that gets in his way in this game. He's powerful from start to finish.

• Your Trueblades: Trueblades (aka 3rd tier myrmidons) got a major buff in this game. Mia, Zihark and Lucia are all great. Radiant Dawn is one of the few games in the series where myrmidons are actually worth using.

• Sothe: So here's a crazy idea: Let's have the Jagen / Oifey of this game be a thief. We've never seen that before or after. This is the only game where a freaking thief carries your team as a combat unit for what's considered to be the hardest part of this game. That's a really big deal since most thieves are only valued for their utility, and not their combat.

• Boyd and Nolan: Boyd and Nolan are the best fighters in the series since Dagda and Orsin. Axes are considered to be the best weapon in the game, and both of these guys can actually hit things. Nolan has the Earth affinity helping him out, and Boyd has transfer bonuses to fall back on. 

I've seen people arguing that Nephenee is actually decent in this game. That's a refreshing contrast to her Path of Radiance counterpart. Plus, this game also gets points for having cavaliers that are actually not worth using like Astrid or Makalov. Even Kieran got nerfed in comparison to his Path of Radiance counterpart.

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# 7: Binding Blade

The last game in the A tier is Binding Blade. The reason why this game is ranked so high is because it gives almost as many high - top tier infantry units as flying / mounted ones. 

I decided to count up all the mounted / flying units that are B tier or higher and then contrast them with all the infantry units that are B tier or higher. I counted 14 flying and mounted units that are "B tier" or higher while counting 11 "B tier" or higher infantry units:

• Marcus, Allen, Lance, Thany, Clarine, Sue, Zealot, Noah, Shin, Tate, Miledy, Percival, Cecilia, Zeis,

• Dieck, Rutger, Saul, Asthol, Klein, Lalum, Elphin, Echidna, Igrene, Niime, Yodel

This game almost gives you almost as many great infantry units as mounted units. Almost. It still skews more favorably toward higher movement characters, but not as much as one would think. This game is far more favorable to infantry units than the 10 other games in the series that are ranked as being more mount dominant than this one. 

This game also has plenty of useful characters that would traditionally be considered low tier in other games. Rutger, your early joining myrmidon, carries your team and is the designated boss killer for a huge chunk of the game. That's practically unheard of for a myrmidon to do that. Both of your mercenaries are great. Oh, and is that two Snipers being considered useful? How many games do you see where prepromoted, unmounted bow users are considered actually good? Yodel, your late joining staff user, is also considered worthwhile. Late joining staffbots aren't generally considered useful in many of the modern games where they appear. so that's another positive for the game. 

I've even listed FE 6 Bartre as being underrated, and you could consider him fairly useful here too. The fact that an axe user is considered at least halfway good is another point in favor of this game. 

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The next "tier" that will be appearing will have this description:

"These games definitively favor mounted units and fliers. There's only a relative handful of infantry units that hold these games back from being absolute bottom tier."