More RPG tiers, for Legend of Dragoon and Shining the Holy Ark.
Legend of Dragoon. Somewhat difficult to tier since most characters do not stay consistantly strong; their abilities rise and fall throughout the game. The only sure thing is that Kongol sucks.
S: Haschel, Meru
A: Albert, Rose
B: Dart, Miranda
C: Broken PS controller
D: My comma splicing
F: Kongol
HASCHEL - He kicks ass, to put it plainly. He’s got the best damage output in the game due to high strength, speed, and excellent additions. He doesn’t have anything going for him in Dragoon form, but it doesn’t matter. Since he’s Thunder-aligned, he has no elemental weakness, something that cannot be said for the rest of the cast.
MERU - She quickly becomes awesome once you get to Disc 3. She is uber-fast, has very high magic defense (which tends to make up for her low HP most of the time), and has a wonderful Dragoon spell set in the game; Freezing Ring is the best low-budget spell attack in the game, and Rainbow Breath is a wonderful healing spell. She’s also a good item tosser, too, if you need to hit non-water magic weaknesses. Near the end of the game, her final addition, Perky Step, allows her to do decent damage out of dragoon form. Her only real problem is that she tends to NEED a Dragon Helm for bosses that use physical attacks.
ALBERT - He learns his additions very quickly; His last learned one is Gust of Wind Dance at level 11, which means it’s entirely possible to get his final, Blossom Storm, before Disc 2. His damage will get outclassed towards the end of the game, but he’s also got a good Dragoon magic set; Rose Storm is three turns of damage resistance and Gaspless is a surprisingly strong magic attack, despite Albert’s poor magic rating. His main weaknesses are his slow speed and his very weak Magic Defense, at least early on.
ROSE - She’s godly early on, but tapers off mid-game. She learns additions quickly, with her final Demon’s Dance being tied with Haschel’s final for the second highest-damage modifier (Perky Step has the highest, though Meru’s attack sucks). Astral Drain is powerful and useful early on, but it’s her only good spell. Her biggest problem, besides her low HP, is that she has to fight over the end-game spot with Meru and Miranda, who are both better characters than her at that point (you only want one female in your party due to their low HP and having only one set of Dancer equipment). Still, her overall offense is probably second in the game, which is good enough reason to use her.
DART - His problem is offense. He’s very durable, with only Water attacks being a threat to his survival, but his damage output is rather weak: His additions are average in power, his speed is slightly below average, and his strongest weapon, the Soul Eater, requires a Therapy Ring in order to avoid losing HP in battle. His dragoon spells are pretty straight-forward, though they’re not bad at all.
MIRANDA - She takes some work before she gets good, and that’s mainly because she has no additions. She gains SP slowly because of that (until she hits her higher Dragoon levels) and has no offense (not even a budget spell like Freezing Ring) without items. She IS strong end-game, though, possibly a bit better than Meru; she’s a great healer and item-tosser, and she’s not as frail as Meru. However, it takes too much work to get her to that point whereas Meru gets good shortly past the first half of the game.
KONGOL - Pretty much complete crap. Crappy speed, crappy additions, crappy spells, crappy magic defense. The worst part about him is that his strengths are directly countered by his weaknesses – His tremendous HP means nothing when he’s taking massive damage from spell attacks, and his high attack rating is meaningless with the worst additions in the game and the slowest speed by far – which basically means he has no advantages. At all.
Shining the Holy Ark. Much like Legend of Dragoon, characters tend to rise and fall in usefulness throughout the game. For grins and giggles, here’s my first tier list that I made years ago:
- Arthur
- Melody
- Rodi
- Akane
- Lisa
- Basso
- Forte
- Doyle
…And here’s what my tier list looks like now:
S: Melody, Rodi
A: Arthur, Lisa
B: Akane, Doyle
C: Basso
D: Forte
Main thing is that while Forte is the worst, he’s not absolute crap like Kongol in LoD; he’s simply outclassed.
MELODY - She’s got several things going for her. She’s with you from start to end, she is a competent offensive caster (most importantly, she has the attack spells when you need them; more on that later), and she has THREE spells that are either unique to her or she gets way faster than other characters: Support, Raise, Restore. These basically guarantee her a spot in every boss battle. She also learns Aura for the late game. Her only weakness is that she’s the worst character for regular battles once you reach the Tower of Illusion.
RODI - He’s like Melody in that he’s with you for the entire game and packs a strong supply of attack magic when you need it. He’s also got loads of status magic (Sleep and Slow mainly) which is not only useful towards the latter half of the game, but they’re absolutely necessary if you plan to take on Hattoris before they run away (Hattoris give the best experience in the game). Negate and Attack round out his spell-list for the end game, making him useful for the entire game. His physical prowess is average, dropping somewhat at East Shrine, but it’s possible to get a lucky Kusanagi drop from Turtle Dragons in Desire Mine, which erase this weakness (and give him a 50% chance of instant-kill, too).
ARTHUR - The game’s main character doesn’t really shine until about half-way through the game. He’s got the most varied spell list in the game, though he doesn’t have quite as much MP as you’d like. He has lots of HP and attack, though, and he scores power attacks often. His weakness is that he can’t be switched out in battle, which means he’s deadweight if he’s, well, dead.
LISA - Miss Preggerz is the last to join you, but she’s guaranteed a permanent spot once you reach the Tower of Illusion (reason: Force Blade). She’s got loads of support magic, and I do mean loads: Heal, Antidote, Aura, Support, Shield, Barrier. Support spells rule late in the game, and with the Force Blade, she deals tremendous damage. Very good.
AKANE - Starts out underleveled but she does learn Aura and Barrier before anyone else. The former makes her almost mandatory for two boss fights (one of these, the Evil Spirit/Rilix battle, is the hardest fight in the game). She learns Soul Steal and can use the Kusanagi, which gives some reason to use her for regular battles. However, most other characters can handle regular enemies more consistantly than she can, and once Lisa and Melody get Aura, there’s really no need to use her.
DOYLE - Honestly, I used to think he was absolute crap. All of his stats besides HP and Attack were either low or crap (especially Magic Defense and Breath Defense). His stats ARE crappy, true, but there is one very good reason to use him: Mithril Claw. This is his best weapon, and he can get it right after you get him to join you. His damage with it is phenominal, tearing up the squid arms in West Shrine and ripping through the enemies in East Shrine. He kind of loses his shine once Lisa and Basso get their best weapons, but his damage output is still among the best in the game even in the end. He also is the only character who doesn’t joined underleveled.
BASSO - He joins you earlier than all the other characters (save the main three) but he feels like deadweight for most of the game. He’s slow, he has no magic, he starts a few levels less than the rest of your party (Level 10 vs. level 14 or so), and his attack isn’t all that great. He’s also the first character who doesn’t auto-revive if dead at the end of a battle (Melody doesn’t get Raise until later, so you have to watch his HP carefully). Once he gets the Dragon Axe, however, he has the highest damage output in the game, making him useful for going through the last two dungeons. His HP, Defense, and Breath Defense are all very high, too. It’s just too bad that his usefulness is rather limited until near the end.
FORTE - Pretty much almost completely outclassed. He has a ton of attack magic, yes, and his Blaze 4 and Spark 4 spells have special “summon” criticals that do higher damage than Rodi’s Blaze and Spark spells. However, he’s probably the most underleveled character in the game and he joins right as attack magic reaches its peak. He does get Soul Steal, Attack, and Sleep, which means he does have some use, but Akane gets Soul Steal sooner and Rodi learns Sleep way, way earlier and has a better non-spell offense. Besides, once one of the ninjas gets the Kusanagi, Forte becomes permanently sidelined.
-Edit-
One thing I forgot to mention is why attack magic sucks late in the game. Up until (and including) the West Shrine, you usually face large groups of low HP monsters which can be wiped out with a turn of Elemental/Brutal Fire/Spark casting. Once you hit East Shrine, you start facing smaller groups of high endurance monsters. All attack spells (save for Blaze/Blast/Freeze Level 1, which suck) hit all enemies for a roughly set amount of damage; there’s no focused high-damage attack spell in the game and there’s no elemental weakness or magic booster to improve your spell damage. Thus, physical attacks become the focus on the last third of the game, especially when taking into account characters’ final weapons – These weapons unleash a super-strong critical attack roughly 50% of the time. Plus, three characters can raise allies’ attack strength, giving even more incentive to physical attacks.
