"MISS!"
When Miyazaki saw the bandit's axe barely graze past his cavalier Lance, only for Lance to nimbly dodge it, he couldn't help clenching his fist and pumping it in excitement.
"That's it! Lance, defeat them!"
After one turn, Miyazaki had more or less figured out the performance differences between the various unit classes. The armored knight named Bors could only move a very short distance each turn, but wearing his heavy armor, he only lost 1 HP even after taking a direct axe strike from an enemy.
What a tank!
"Wolt the archer has an attack range of two tiles, but he can't counterattack enemies standing in the four adjacent spaces. I should use Bors or Lance to protect him."
In all those fantasy stories, archers were always the symbol of overwhelming offensive power. And having read countless fantasy novels, Miyazaki naturally understood this very well.
He immediately moved Wolt behind Lance. The terrain happened to form a one tile wide choke point because of the cliffs, now as long as Wolt stood there, the enemy would have no way of reaching him with melee attacks. At the same time, Wolt could support Lance from behind, firing over him to attack the bandits.
The feeling of commanding the battlefield and planning everything out made Miyazaki shiver with excitement. The only problem was that the protagonist, Roy, actually seemed rather weak compared to the rest of the party.
Although he wielded a unique rapier, his combat performance was nothing like the unstoppable hero Miyazaki had imagined. Instead, during the enemy phase, he was beaten down to only 4 HP by two bandits, leaving him in critical condition.
Honestly, he was kind of pathetic.
"I wonder if it's just my imagination, but it seems the older someone is, the stronger they are?"
Miyazaki looked at Marcus, the party's only Paladin. Just from his portrait, it was obvious he was a middle-aged man, standing in stark contrast to the rest of the young cast. Yet Marcus's stats were also by far the most absurd among all the units on the battlefield, a whopping 32 HP.
For comparison, Bors, the heavily armored knight, only had 20 HP, not to mention Marcus's outrageous mobility.
"Marcus feels more like the protagonist. He's practically a one-man army."
Miyazaki controlled Marcus, charging straight through the enemy formation before circling behind an enemy archer.
"I told you he's the real protagonist. What the heck is this Silver Lance?"
Marcus's weapon loadout was completely different from everyone else's.
Although the Silver Lance only had 20 uses remaining, half as many as most other weapons, its incredible 20 Might and the flashing ×2 effectiveness indicator gave Miyazaki absolutely no reason not to use it.
Slash.
An archer with only 18 HP stood no chance against that attack. The lance pierced straight through him, killing him instantly and turning him into a bundle of experience points.
"So, defeating enemies grants experience and lets characters level up... In that case, I should let Marcus get as many kills as possible and raise the strongest unit I can."
…
"Hey, Ethan, why did you design Marcus like this? Doesn't he seem way too overpowered?"
Sam stared at the television. A bandit charged directly at Marcus with an iron axe.
Axes were supposed to have the weapon triangle advantage over lances, yet even in that situation, Marcus effortlessly dodged the ferocious attack. Then he immediately counterattacked with his lance, and with just a single retaliatory thrust, he reduced the fully healed bandit to a mere 1 HP.
Sam's mouth twitched. Whose turn was this supposed to be?
"Weren't we making a strategy game? If Marcus is this strong, doesn't that actually reduce the importance of strategy?"
...
Looking at the current situation, what strategy was even necessary? As long as you kept the protagonist alive and let Marcus kill everything, wouldn't that solve every problem?
"Ooooh..."
Sam suddenly drew out the word, wearing an expression of sudden realization. "I get it! This is beginner protection. It's so that inexperienced players can still enjoy the game, right?"
"What are you even babbling about?"
Ethan finally stopped typing, ever since Sam had started playing earlier, he hadn't stopped talking.
Ethan had finally found a rare day without other work so he could actually focus on programming something, and now Sam's nonstop chatter was making his head feel like it was about to explode.
"Marcus? Oh, he's actually a trap. I'd advise you not to rely on him too much."
"A trap? You mean he'll betray us?"
"Not that."
Ethan shook his head and pulled a character data sheet out from a pile of documents.
"It's because of his growth rates."
Character development was another major gameplay system entirely separate from combat, but unlike the battle mechanics, it wasn't designed to be immediately obvious. Many of a character's stats weren't displayed on the interface at all, instead, they were hidden away, only becoming apparent through careful observation and calculation.
Ethan glanced at the bandit Marcus had reduced to just 1 HP. That was already a subtle hint he had deliberately adjusted.
"You're such a goof. That last point of HP is there so your other characters can finish him off and earn the experience."
He handed the character sheet to Sam.
Character: Marcus
Growth Rates
HP: 60%
Strength: 25%
Skill: 20%
Speed: 25%
Luck: 20%
Defense: 15%
Resistance: 20%
"See? Even though he's much stronger than everyone else when he first joins, his growth potential is basically already capped."
Sam looked at the chart, then looked at Marcus, who had just leveled up and gained nothing except +1 maximum HP. His expression instantly collapsed.
"You're seriously evil..."
Ethan chuckled.
"Give the younger generation a chance. It's called delayed gratification. Investing in the future versus serving your immediate needs, don't you think that's one of the most interesting aspects of strategy?"
The overpowered Paladin who escorts the player at the beginning of the game was one of the most iconic trademarks of the Fire Emblem series. As far back as the very first Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, this kind of design already existed.
Even all the way into the Nintendo Switch era with Fire Emblem Engage, the series still retained an opening Paladin archetype like Vander. Likewise, they always came with exceptionally high starting stats while having some of the worst growth rates in the game.
They were babysitters, basically training wheels, and the tutorial. But they were also a trap disguised as kindness.
Back in the era when storage capacity was worth its weight in gold, a truly outstanding game couldn't afford to waste even a single design element.
Their existence served as a buffer to lower the barrier of entry for newcomers, while simultaneously teaching players how to distribute experience and allocate resources as part of the game's tutorial.
With character levels being capped, growth rates directly determined a unit's long-term potential. Judging solely from this chart, Marcus's growth rates were unquestionably among the worst in the entire roster.
Sam silently pulled Marcus back and instead sent the two young cavaliers, Lance and Alan, charging into battle.
How could something this important not be pointed out? Wasn't that practically setting players up to fail?
If someone actually fell into the trap and invested all their resources into raising this old man with terrible growth rates into their main combat unit, they'd definitely have a miserable time once the later chapters became increasingly difficult.