[Rhapsodia] Support Characters

[Parallax]

Alright..."Support" characters have really been around since Suikoden I, if you take into consideration the people who just sit around your castle and provide some (maybe) useful service. But really what I'm referring to are the folks who started in Suikoden III, didn't change much in Suikoden IV, and then were an element of Suikoden Tactics. In Suikoden III and IV, there was no reason not to use a support character all the time, they cost you nothing, and always provided something that was at least marginally useful. If nothing else, you could always just use a Heal support and be gratified by the results between battles.

In Suikoden Tactics though, the Support Characters play a bigger role in actual gameplay. You can put them into your party, run them around, and use their special skills. I experimented a bit with them, and found that I preferred in almost all situations to use a fighting character instead of a Support. I really can't stand Rene in either Suikoden IV or Tactics, although I did use her a bit to gather items in the Obel Ruins and other quests, Happiness Stones and such, as one might expect. Still, I never found anything with Treasure Hunting that I was particularly impressed with. I preferred to simply gather my S-Rank tokens and load up with those and store-bought items. Every time I did discover something marginally cool with Treasure Hunting, it would end up being something I could just buy anyway.

Some of the other Support I found even more useless. I heard a couple interesting theories on how to use Gary effectively due to his high defense and ability to equip heavy armor, and I can (maybe) see the appeal of the Heal support...but as essentially a rule, I found the Support to be completely not worth the hassle. I would have preferred for them to be relegated to a character portrait and a slot on my party screen, which is a shame...because that's awfully boring too. I assume others feel differently though, so...I wanted to hear some impressions.

[Scarlet Assassin]

I loved using rene for the most part. Sure some of the items were a pain to find and if you didn't bring up her treasure hunt skill you can pretty much forget about finding anything by accident, but she's a fun addittion to bring out more gameplay. The same goes for Noah. Stealing elemental spirit frags is much easier than getting them through battle anyway.
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Chief of Beat-em-up Honeys Division, Devoted Protector of Lady Tifa Lockhart

[Parallax]

Well, I levelled Rene's Treasure Hunt up to S so that I could use her for the Obel Ruins and to procure other Quest treasures. I didn't mind Treasure Hunting so much in Tactics as I did in IV...I really hated the whole 'treasure map' concept... At the same time, though, having to use one of my fighting slots for Rene got old, fast. By the time I got anywhere near Jeane I had at least three of each elemental spirit fragment, so I didn't experience any problems there...although historially, stealing is always good in Tactical RPGs. I remember well the lesson of Final Fantasy Tactics (mmm, Genji equipment).

Sometimes I feel like one of the healer supports could have been helpful, but I most relied on items and favourable terrain for the whole game, and it never really let me down.
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He's a victim - not a perp - and I'm choosing to let him go.

[KoRnholio]

I agree, the support healing characters never really made themselves very useful. Healing mages' MP never seem to run out before they level up, so Carrie and co. don't have anything on them.

[Yontory]

Supports character are pretty useless except Rene (searching 'quest items' and rare runes) , Noah (stealing certain items), and Cedric (rushing through enemy line). Water or Wind mages such as Corselia, Simeon, and Roget could easily replace Yu and Carrie. And they're better because they can attack.

Ema is useless. why do i need to get anything from caravan?

I dont need Gary's Backup because I have four character who use berserker belt, and it helps a lot. So basically i have four character who would often do an instant kill.
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[kelvingarinkz]

i find Ema is a very useful character. i use her whenever i train at Obel Ruins and trust me, she's really good ... especially when fighting the Golem ... she can change the terrain into whichever you want and it will weaken the Golem by a lot ...

Yu also a very useful character. he can full heal like for lotsa steps away. i use him in Obel Ruins too especially after someone being hit by Golems' arms

for Gary, Carrie, Cedric ... i dont really use them ... except for fun

Noah and Rene ... well, they are essential to make the game perfect ^^

[Kikito]

Well, I've always found Yu's heal ability to be the best support ability in the game(for battle purposes). The appeal to me isn't so much the fact that he can heal, but there's also the curing of status ailments. And what's more, his range is ungodly. I don't think any of the water mages could instantly cast a healing spell as far away as Yu can.

As for the others, well I don't like them too much. Sure, I had to use Rene to get the treasures and runes and whatnot, but I only used her after the real fighting was over because she can't last a minute in battle. Noah was kinda equally as worthless for me, except for stealing from the elemental dragons in the Obel Ruins. As for Gary and Ema, I can say that Gary could be a good choice, but I don't need the extra attack power, and I've never even used Ema so I can't say anything about her.

Cedric I used once or twice, when I wanted some variety.

[Shrew]

I liked Noah a lot, because she was fast and agile. I could run her into enemies, and her evade rate would keep her alive, and it was real nice when monsters attacked her instead of more important attack characters.

My only real beef with support characters is that while they help out a lot, you lose a valuable attacker. I could keep Noah and Rene alive during a battle, but the rest of my characters were overwhelmed.

Healers help keep your offense alive, but I feel it doesn't make up for the loss of a beat stick. I prefer to use Carrie early on while I can, because she keeps the whole party in good shape. If the attack is focused on a single character, then I'll switch in Yu.
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Fear our Vagueness.

[mumbay]

I found a use for all of them during training Especally Yu and Carre cause Carrie can heal more people then even kindness Rain

[Buff]

i actually didn't use any support characters,unless you count rene and noah as one.i just didn't find a use for them even though they are useful.
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Devoted protector of Ferid and Arshtat

[Elzamine]

I used Rene just to pick up a couple items, but I didn't find any joy in treasure hunting. i kind of liked Noah though, again I only used her when I felt I needed to find something. The support I used the most was Cedric, I'd race throgh the upper Obel ruins floors as fast as I could with him. He was also good for starting out with, moving him far and then switching him out for a slower moving tank. That's about all I did with support characters. I usually used one in each battle though, so I suppose I found them rather useful. I think I moreso like the concept of being able to use them should I feel like it at the time. Better than having them run around a castle doing basically nothing.
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-My DeviantArt-

[Parallax]

I suppose that's a fair point. It does seem rather silly to have a bunch of characters who stand around the castle and contribute literally nothing of value to your efforts. At the same time, though, I suspect that if you were really trying to build an army out of random people you ran into on the street, you'd find a few lollygaggers, slacker types. ;)

Elza, your comment about Cedric in particular is something that, while you and I discussed before, is definitely a good point. Using him to get position, then switching him for a new character...I guess I didn't really abuse the 'switch' system that much, but I did use Giant Owls for much the same reason, using their superior movement and then dismounting immediately so that I could fight on the ground.

I still can't find a use for the Healer supports. It's not that healing is bad or something, but I just take serious issue with devoting a slot to somebody who can't find. Also, I just don't need that much HP recovery. Anything that I needed, even in the 'elemental rooms' in the Ruins of Obel or agains the final boss could be handled by either Mega Medicines or by simply standing on the proper elemental terrain tiles. I didn't even use any of the Mage-type characters other than Lazlo, who hardly counts, since he also attacks five times or so a round and does good damage with his weapons if you get his Battle Lust up to S rank.
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He's a victim - not a perp - and I'm choosing to let him go.

[Obel Soldier]

There were many times when support characters saved my behind. The one I'm talking about, mainly, is Yu. I had many instances where I had a character down to very, very little HP, and every other person is too far away for me to reach that dying character. That, or they're too busy trying to fight off their own monsters. Perhaps I am not as skilled of a player as you, and I'm known to make a few bonehead moves, which leads me to these dire situations. That's why I have Yu in my parties, and it just seems like whenever I make a mistake, he totally bails me out.

I'm sorry that I cannot agree with you on this matter. If I did, Yu would kick me in the balls.
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^ Shout out to John Layfield. Thanks for the sig, homes.

[Buff]

you should at least travel in groups. makes it a lot easier, plus if you have to heal some one like you said makes in a whole lot easier.
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Devoted protector of Ferid and Arshtat

[Obel Soldier]

I try to travel in groups, but sometimes, I get too greedy. And yup, I get into trouble. Just like today, actually. I thought I had one of the bosses on the ropes, so I left my safe fire zone, and charged ahead with Kyril for the kill, but I missed with the attack. You can say it seriously backfired on me. I had to bring in Kika for assistance, and then realized I used up her Falcon Rune skiils. My overzealousness almost cost me both Kyril and Kika. Good thing I had Dr. Yu with me, though.

If I lost those two in that battle, I would have been in deep doo-doo.
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^ Shout out to John Layfield. Thanks for the sig, homes.