Crutch Character / Fire Emblem

The Fire Emblem franchise has numerous examples of a Crutch Character.

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Main Series

• This is a very common Recurring Element in the series known as the "Jagen Archetype" (after the example character in the first game and was, in fact, the former trope namer). It is typically a prepromoted unit (meaning they've already undergone their class change and are treated as high-level) who has a strong weapon, base stats that are high for that point in the game but low next to another promoted unit, and stat growths that range from awful to mediocre. Character-wise, they tend to be older (ranging from "mid-30s" to "should probably retire") and serve as loyal retainers or mentors. Their job is more or less to escort the player through Early Game Hell, being a reliable fallback if things go poorly, and often they're benched once the rest of the party catches up to their performance. That said, they tend to place very highly on Character Tiers due to just how much they contribute early on, especially if they have good enough stat growths to stay good in the mid-to-late game.
• Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon & the Blade of Light:
  • Jagen, a purple Paladin who is charged with protecting Marth and the basis for the series' "archetype". He has above-average starting stats for a character in the first chapter, but very low stat growths (as in, most characters gain 2-3 stats per level, Jagen is lucky if he gets 1). He is practically designed for this, with just enough strength and speed with his Iron Sword to severely damage (but not kill) the early bandits, letting other characters get the XP, along with a powerful Silver Lance to deal heavy damage in hairier moments. While the rest of the party doesn't take long to outclass him, he can stay competent for a while, especially if given a Speed Ring. In the DS remake, he loses some of his early-game prowess due to enemies being much stronger, but also ends up being your first character who can access promoted classlines, giving him a lot of extra utility.
  • Wendell is a downplayed example in the DS remake. Early on, he's one of your best party members since he's one of only two early units who can use Excalibur at base (the other being Merric), is only a little bit of training and a Bishop reclass away from being able to use the Warp staff, and has an excellent 12 base Speed which prevents him from being doubled by anything short of enemy Thieves. His combat abilities will remain functional until Chapter 15 or 16, at which point his poor growths will finally do him in and he'll be relegated to healing duty and chip damage for the rest of the game due to other units surpassing him. That said, he's never truly useless at any point and can function as a healer since the Recover and Warp staves don't scale off his poor Magic stat.
• Arran in Book 2 of Fire Emblem: Mystery of the Emblem is essentially the same as Jagen statwise — though unlike Jagen, who is an Old Soldier, Arran's poor long-term performance owes to him suffering from a terminal illness. He was a significantly stronger warrior in Book 1, making the toll very evident.
• Fire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy War:
  • The Paladin Oifey fills this role in the second generation (the first generation has the Purposefully Overpowered Sigurd, who needs no crutch), joining in the first chapter with very good stats. However, Oifey sticks out from his predecessors due to his growths being fairly good (though outclassed by second-generation kids who have been set up properly), which, when coupled with Paladin being a decent class, makes him viable throughout the campaign — he mostly just declines from "best unit" to "good unit." This, along with him being a lot younger than Jagen, has led to some fans coining "Oifey" to refer to Crutch Character units with youthful designs and strong lategame performances.
  • Finn, the only character who maintains his stats between the first and second generation, fills this role as well — like Oifey, his stats are always mediocre at best next to raised kids, but the fact that you've had four chapters to raise him in the prior campaign as opposed to zero makes him one of your strongest fighters early on.
• Fire Emblem: Thracia 776 has three characters that tend to be labeled as such. Dagdar is the most traditional, barring his status as a Warrior instead of a Paladin or other mounted unit, who tends to stay good for a while due to his remarkable bulk and capturing ability despite his growths being atrocious. Finn (the same Finn, in fact) is an unpromoted Lance Knight, but still rather high-level for that point, who joins with a powerful Brave Lance that enables easy captures, but lacks proficiency in the mostly-indoors lategame chapters that force him off his horse. And Eyvel, a Swordmaster with Plot Armor and capped Speed, is by far the strongest fighter early on, but due to plot reasons, becomes completely unavailable after the fifth chapter and doesn't return unless the player does some specific things in the very late game.
• Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade has Marcus, who is easily the most direct takeoff on Jagen in the series, down to sharing Jagen's purple armor and old age. He's considered one of the most balanced Jagens in the franchise, due to the fact that the enemies in his game are incredibly strong and ways to solve his stat problems are limited, making him truly valuable in the early portions and truly mediocre-to-bad in the later bits. The game also features Zelot, who is essentially a noticeably better version of Marcus and joins at about the point when Marcus's stats are starting to look shaky.
• Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade:
  • Being a prequel, it features a younger version of Marcus who ends up much closer to the Game-Breaker end of the spectrum, with massively increased stats, higher weapon ranks, and notably better (if still mediocre) growth rates. Combine that with a significantly weaker enemy roster, and Marcus can stay good practically until the endgame, even if he loses somewhat next to fully-raised Paladins.
  • Oswin joins as a level 9 Armor Knight, a Mighty Glacier class, which makes him essentially invincible during the early game and one of your hardest-hitting units. However, being a Mighty Glacier, Oswin is also extremely slow, meaning that once the player's units can take care of themselves without needing to move at his pace, he tends to have trouble catching up unless it's a Defend chapter. Also not helping him is that he competes for the extremely rare and valuable Knight Crest with the game's cavaliers. Still, the fact that he's very idiot-proof makes him vital for anyone struggling to beat Hard Mode.
  • Hector, one of the game's Lords, is one of the hardest-hitting units early on due to his Wolf Beil axe and his high Strength, and with his good growths and weapon type, he can snowball fairly effectively. However, on Hector Hard Mode, he's stuck unable to promote until very late, making him relatively mediocre as a fighter, and his Mighty Glacier statline becomes lesser once the rest of the cast can double-attack reliably. Said promotion also does not boost his Movement, giving him similar issues to Oswin of lagging behind.
• Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones:
  • Seth, who resembles the prior incarnation of Marcus but even stronger, with his growths being among the best in the game. Consequently, he's seen as one of the finest examples in the franchise of how a Crutch Character can turn into a Game-Breaker, being a One-Man Party who can solo the game relatively easily.
  • Chapter 5x has Ephraim and his two fellow knights fighting through a large castle by themselves — for insurance, they're accompanied by Orson, who has similar stats to Seth. After that chapter, he's no longer playable due to being The Mole.
• Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance:
  • Titania more or less follows the same trends as Seth, with a similar statline and a similar habit of crushing the entire game — not harmed at all by Paladin being significantly buffed.
  • Shinon (a Sniper) and Gatrie (a Knight), like Eyvel, join very early and are overleveled, but leave the group at a certain point in the story and only return later on. Shinon fills this particularly hard due to his Provoke skill, which allows him to draw enemy fire very effectively at a point in the game where most characters are fragile. Once he's rejoined, his terrible class and now-awful statline makes him almost useless, even though his stat growths are fairly high.
• Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn:
  • The first part has the Dawn Brigade going through a rotating selection of Crutch Character units, with overpowered fighters joining for one or two chapters to help them out and then leaving (including Tauroneo, Tormod, Muarim, Nailah, and the Black Knight). However, its most typical Crutch Character is Sothe, who sticks around the longest. Unusually for one of these, he's not limited by his stat growths, but rather his class. Sothe is a Rogue, a thief class, which has a very low Strength cap and is restricted to the worst weapon type in Knives. This places a very harsh cap on Sothe's offense, making him mostly useless by the endgame.
  • In part two, Geoffrey and Lucia play this role. At the time, they are the strongest units you have - unfortunately, poor availability in the long-run means that they will be unable to get themselves up to par with everyone else you have been using for much longer.
  • Elincia zigzags this trope. For the times you do have her in part two, she will have reduced exeprience gain compared to other characters. This is because Elincia is actually a tier three class, thus a player would be incentivized to not use her except as a cherry tapper or a healer. Fortunately, Elincia being a support/utility unit is able to hold her own.
• Fire Emblem: Awakening has Frederick, a Great Knight who is mostly designed around the Seth/Titania mold of "beefy mounted unit with good growths". On the other hand, he's not considered nearly as strong as them due to the game's higher difficulties being much more dangerous (particularly Lunatic+, where some enemies can straight-up one-shot him if they get lucky). Conversely, this also makes Frederick absolutely essential for getting Robin off the ground, which has led to the higher difficulties of Awakening being termed "Frederick Emblem."
• Fire Emblem Fates:
  • Gunter, a prepromote Great Knight with decent bases and atrocious growths who leaves the party at the end of Chapter 3 when Hans throws him into a chasm to his apparent death. He survives and returns in the Conquest route, where he manages to become this twice; the chapter he returns in is just you, him, and Quirky Bard Azura, and he will likely have to do a lot of the heavy lifting for that chapter (fortunately, his stats have improved in the interim). He also survives and returns on the Revelation route with the stats he had when he left, but he manages to still be this because your party right then consists of your Lord character, a healer, and Azura, and it's extremely unlikely that either of those three will match his base stats when he does return, so Gunter (alongside maybe your Lord) will be your heavy lifter for the early part of Revelation.
  • Both games give you two others: Jakob or Felicia (depending on your Lord's sex), who are a bit odd for this archetype in that they're support units rather than the usual "beef tank with a silver weapon". They have a very average stat line for their class, but they're versatile healers with Hidden Weapons (rare for Nohrian units) that can apply debuffs crucial to deal with the higher difficulty. They also get early access to powerful endgame-level skills, thanks to joining promoted and leveling up much more quickly than pre-promoted units usually do in this series.
  • We have another unusual case with the main Lord, Corrin, or more specifically their Dragonstone and eventually the Dragonstone+. With a massive Mt of 14 and 25, respectively, and the bonus of the early game enemies having low Resistance, they will OHKO most things you come across in the chapters where you get them, and the defense buffs will make Corrin invulnerable to many attacks for a while, but, in the long run, the inability to double opponents will relegate them as purely defensive weapons and will get outclassed in almost any other case by the upgraded Yato.
  • Conquest also has Camilla, a textbook Oifey who arrives right when you notice how finite experience really is. It's downplayed however, as datamining revealed she's assigned -5 internal levels for the purpose of experience calculation — still ahead of the curve, but it's not ruinous if she takes some early kills. Less so in Revelation, where she joins later and grinding is possible.
  • Another unusual example from Conquest is Niles. He is the only Nohrian class to use bows pre-promotion, but his class is actually this game's version of the thief, rather than an archer. As a result, a lot of players mistakenly assumed he was more of an archer, rather than a thief who really isn't suited for combat, and later on in the game, is probably best relegated to staff duty and using his resistance to pick off mages.
• Fire Emblem: Three Houses provides several unusual examples.
  • On Maddening, if playing as a female avatar that chose to lead the Black Eagles or Golden Deer, Sylvain can be recruited in Chapter 2 at Level 3, likely higher than most of the other characters due to the experience cut, and he gains access to the Lance of Ruin after clearing Chapter 5. While Sylvain has the growths to remain strong throughout the game, his lower dexterity and bad scaling on his personal skill can lead to other characters outclassing him later on, such as Ferdinand. In particular, if the player does not take advantage of his budding talent in Reason, Sylvain's bow weakness can lead to him having no reliable 1-2 range and being at the mercy of -breaker skills lategame.
  • Felix's personal skill, Lone Wolf, gives him an additional 5 damage per attack if he does not have a battalion deployed. While Felix himself remains strong throughout the game barring bad luck with level-ups, later on it becomes more effective to work against his authority weakness, as a good battalion can match or exceed Lone Wolf's damage output, in addition to other statistical bonuses and the ability to use gambits.
  • If the player chose the Blue Lions, Dedue. His base stats are high and allow him to easily weaken or kill enemies in the earlygame, but his low Speed growth can limit his long-term potential. He can also be Killed Offscreen during the timeskip, and even if the conditions for his return are met, Dedue will likely be underleveled upon his return to the party.
  • Downplayed with Leonie if the player chooses the Golden Deer to lead. Her base stats are amongst the highest in the game, and her personal skill gives her more bulk and power. (In fact, it has perfect synergy with the aforementioned Sylvain.) While her growths are adequate to let her remain on the team throughout the game, her relative level of power goes down.
  • Catherine can be made to join in Blue Lions or Golden Deer, simply by getting Byleth to a decent level (which can become a very low level if Byleth forms a good support with her). Not only is she incredibly powerful due to starting out in Swordmaster and having very good stats, but her signature ability gives her a hefty defensive boost if she doesn't have a Battalion assigned to her (which she likely won't in the early game). She even has a really strong sword in her inventory, which can be used by her or passed on to someone else. Unfortunately, in the later parts of the game, she lacks a strong final class and doesn't have much to let her stand out, meaning she tends to fall into the background.
  • If you're a Black Eagle, Edelgard is one of the most powerful units in your party, with strong bases, strong growths, and accelerated experience intake. Then she turns out to be the Flame Emperor and betrays you, and if you don't meet the requirements to join her or decide not to, she permanently abandons you.
• In Fire Emblem Engage, Vander, the first character in your party besides Alear, is an experienced knight. He's also a prepromote unit whom you'll rely on for the early missions, but will quickly fall behind the others due to gaining levels slowly, so you'll have to replace him sooner or later. Interestingly, his high internal level doesn't count against your army's average for the purposes of skirmish level scaling, until at least 3 other characters are also promoted.

Fan Games

• Many fan-made Fire Emblem ROM hacks follow the trend. Notable examples include:
  • The Last Promise has Siegfried, available from the beginning of the game. Unusually for the archetype, his stat growths are very impressive, and his personal sword is not only strong, but has doubled Might against mages. However, your other units will easily outclass him by the time the difficulty starts ramping up later in the game which is also around the time Lahar shows up and kills him.
  • Midnight Sun has Hellios, whose personal weapon, the Warp Sword, can attack from a range. And then you find out he's actually the Demon King.
  • Road to Ruin's Eva, a Swordmaster with a 0% Strength growth. She starts with both a powerful Pian Dao... and the Training Sword, which never breaks, is weak, and can't critically hit, making it an excellent weapon for weakening enemies so your other characters can pick them off.
  • Members of Something Awful made their own hack, Awful Emblem; its crutch character, Niccolo, is a Bishop who's useful for healing in the early game regardless of any stat growths.
  • Fire Emblem: Code of the Black Knights has multiple of them:
    • Artemisa is a prepromoted Halberdier whose innate critical bonus allows her to hold on her own against anyone that isn't an axe user or magic user. However, her growths are below average, though thankfully not terrible enough to the point where she can at least become still viable around the mid-game. Unlike Cecil, however, there is no way to prevent her death, thus the player will have to juggle between her leadership star and her base stats while keeping her exp absorption to a minimum, and make sure that she's unequipped before the end of Chapter 16.
    • Lewis is another prepromote, though he is much more mobile than Artemisa and doesn't suffer a Plotline Death, but his mediocre growths will catch up to him. By the endgame, Subaru performs his status as a rallybot much better than him, and Zero alongside other bow users and mounted units will likely surpass him.
    • On Route D, certain lords become this. For example, going down the Holy Knights path will result in Noir dying in Route D, while going down the Black Knights path will mean that Schwarze will die as a result. To compensate, Schwarze's or Noir's Infinity +1 Sword will get a massive upgrade.
  • Justice and Pride has Donovan, who is the game's only playable Grand Paladin. He has somewhat unstable growths, but his bases and weapon ranks in Swords, Bows, and Lances are great enough to last him throughout the endgame. Starting off with a bow also helps him in Reverse Mode, since enemies always attack first, and starting off both mounted and able to wield bows allows him to indirectly attack enemies with ease, and his somewhat mediocre growths are mitigated with the Relics and the Magus Scroll can be used on him to boost his growths to a more stable rate.

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