Killer seemingly too far gone has a change of heart after having to foster a young girl. It’s a common trope. We see it in the Last of Us with Joel and Ellie and with Lee and Clementine in Telltale’s the Walking Dead. The only difference is Jaffar looks like a straight up villain. Working for the main antagonist Nergal, he even kills Matthew’s (who is available as a starting unit in Heroes) girlfriend, Leila.
However, upon switching sides, Jaffar is already a promoted Assassin class. His high speed allows him to dodge rather well and his Killing Edge almost guaranteed critical hits. Assassins are ranged in Heroes, so his playstyle will be different, but seeing him reunited with Nino will be nice, nevertheless.
Starting as a troubadour, a mounted healer L’Arachel later has the option to be promoted into a Valkyrie or Mage Knight. Cavalry mages and healers are absent from Heroes so whichever route Heroes takes her, a caster with increased movement speed would definitely be welcome.
Two characters make frequent appearances in Fire Emblem games: Anna and Jake. Though appearing as NPCs half of the time, Anna is a playable character in both Awakening and Fates and in Heroes is introduced as the commander of the Order of Heroes. Jake, her other half was a playable character in Shadow Dragon and Mystery of the Emblem (and its various remakes). Introduced as a Ballistician, the only class able to use the long range ballista, Jake later returns in the sequel as a Warrior, capable of using both bows and the Axe. Seeing as Jake and Anna have been reinterpreted multiple times, it’ll be fun to see what Heroes does with him if he is ever brought in.
Path of Radiance was the third Fire Emblem to be released outside of Japan, and the first not to be on a handheld. Kicking off the Tellius series, the GameCube title brought players 3D graphics, voice acting, and the incredible Laguz. Beorc is the name given to the race that is human, like Ike. The Laguz however, while humanoid has the powerful ability to transform into animals.
Leanne, a Heron has the power of flight, giving her great movement speed. Leanne does not any combat capabilities and is instead comparable to a dancer, with the ability to grant allies an extra turn. It’ll be interesting to see how Heroes incorporates the Laguz.
While Cain and Abel or the original Duo of red and green armored cavaliers, Sain and Kent were the first that players outside of Japan were introduced to through the Blazing Blade. As opposed to Kent, who filled a very vanilla, duty-bound knight, Sain prefers to chase women in his free time. More accurately, Sain declares that he’s attracted to all women and hits on the majority of female characters he has support conversations with.
On the field, however, Sain is a very capable fighter. The addition of Sain could be the start of bringing in more red and green cavaliers from other Fire Emblem titles.
A royal mage of Grado, Knoll serves under prince Lyon, the successor of the Grado Empire. After the death of his father, Lyon with the help of Knoll resurrects the late emperor. Knoll is then imprisoned to keep word from spreading. Before this can happen, Grado is invaded by Ephraim and Knoll is released and recruited as a result.
Possessing very high damage, but very low defense even for a caster, Knoll is still a solid unit, normally killing enemies from range before he can even be touched. Both of Knoll’s possible class promotions also allows him to heal. To prevent Knoll from being too overpowered with a powerful offense and high healing capabilities, Heroes could probably contain him by keeping his lower than average defense and health making his placement crucial so he’s not picked off.
Resembling Yu-Gi-Oh’s Seto Kaiba, in both looks and demeanor, the prince of Frelia harbors a fierce rivalry with Ephraim. Though deprived of much charisma, Innes does have a soft side that he rarely shows. He is renowned both for his skills with a bow and as a tactician.
While it might be hard for him to compete with Takumi, who probably needs a slight nerf, there is no doubt that fans of the underappreciated Sacred Stones would enjoy his arrival.
A bit on the quiet side, Rath is pretty mysterious. Banished from the small village he lived in, Rath slowly grows emotionless over time and is pretty quiet even in his support conversations. However, as a member of the Nomad class, a mounted archer, Rath is very efficient at keeping up with and picking off flying units. This could translate to a pretty decent counter to Camille in Heroes.
Jill isn’t the first character with a parent or a family member as a boss, and she definitely wasn’t the last. Indoctrinated to believe that the Laguz are below humans, Jill slowly begins to form her own opinions as she is exposed to more and more members of the race.
Bringing in Jill would add her to a number of axe-wielding Wyvern Riders such as Camilla, Cherche, and Minerva.
Despite a gruff appearance and a fairly high rank in the Grado army, Cormag is genuinely kind. Cormag’s skill with as a wyvern rider and as a spearman is so well known that other empire’s soldiers tell stories of him as a pastime. A fighter by necessity, Cormag often shows a much softer, like saving a kitten during a support conversation with Natasha or encouraging Artur to spend time with his Wyvern. Coming from a humble farming background, Cormag was recruited young. His sense of justice is so strong that he defects from Grado because he knows that they are in the wrong, with intentions to help re-build the empire after he has helped defeat it.
While Heroes has kept Wyvern Riders restricted to axes, and Pegasus Riders to lances, it would seem out of place to see Cormag holding anything other than his trusty spear.
A tiger Laguz, Kyza is surprisingly tame. Though he is vigilant in his practices, Kyza prefers to keep the peace, especially within the army. Starting off rather weak, don’t be fooled into thinking him useless. He has phenomenal growth rates and in tiger form is an even bigger threat.
The leader of a band of mercenaries, Gerik proves that your line of work doesn’t have to define your personality. Tough, but kind, Gerik has some strong fighters that pledged their allegience to him.
While Gerik has two promotion options, the Hero route is normally the standard. This gives his new access to the axe as a weapon, similar to Raven. Though starting off with a sword, Heroes opted to give Raven an axe. If Heroes allows characters to swap weapon types through SP earned, characters like Gerik and Raven’s versatility would translate over.
Who to be the final Laguz on the list than the king himself? Much more bestial and bulkier than any other Laguz, even when in his untransformed state, Caineghis is an advocate of peace. Despite this, Caineghis is a very strong unit, and is only playable very late into this game. With high health, strength, and defense, he should easily kill most non-boss enemies with one hit. If brought into Heroes, there’s no doubt Caineghis would top tier. with maybe a 4-star variant at the lowest.
The Dumbledore of Fire Emblem, Athos makes his apperance very late into the game.Impossibly old, Athos is one of the Eight Legends of Elibe, and the only surviving member. He was on the front lines with the other legends prior to the start of The Blazing Blade, helping drive the dragons out of his home.
With his divine tome, Forblaze, Athos is recruited late in his game and brings other divine weapons from the Legends for the main group to use. Like Caineghis, he is usable at the end of the game. Athos does considerable damage, but is still vulnerable due to his low defenses. He is however, also an excellent healer. Unfortunately Athos passes away after the final battle. Heroes could bring in Athos and the other members of the Eight Legends, reintroducing characters that were previously mentioned or seen, but unplayable.
Coming in at number one is everyone’s favorite gamling addict. A fierce swordsman, Joshua has a pirate-like look, due to his hat. Carefree and a cheat when it comes to gambling, Joshua surprised everyone when it is revealed he is actually the crown prince of Jehanna, putting him on equal grounds as Eirika and Ephraim.
A big believer in luck, this translates in his stat growth. Joshua is fast enough to almost always attack twice in a turn, and with a Killing Edge crits fairly often. Unfortunately, features like dodging absent from Heroes, but Joshua would make a fantastic addition to an already abundant amount of sword users.
There Is Some Great Potential in the Fire Emblem Universe
Jaffar (The Blazing Blade)
L'Arachel (The Sacred Stones)
Jake (Various)
Leanne (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn)
Sain (The Blazing Blade)
Knoll (The Sacred Stones)
Innes (The Sacred Stones)
Jill (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn)
Rath (The Blazing Blade)
Cormag (The Sacred Stones)
Kyza (Radiant Dawn)
Gerik (The Sacred Stones)
Caineghis (Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn)
Athos (The Blazing Blade)
Joshua (Sacred Stones)
About the author
Walter Mack
Holds a B.A. in English. Enjoys movies and Marvel comics. Currently owns a PS4. He can often be found cracking jokes that results in polite chuckles.