Jackson (Queen’s Sword)
On one hand, effort is scary. On the other, I should know a thing or two about rambling about one thing and one thing only for hours on end. So you know what, sure, I have thoughts. Warning, most of this is about the process of discovering and recruiting him, but I think the story’s interesting enough on its own even if the unit himself doesn’t have much depth as a character. Specifically, it’s about Queen’s Sword’s very own Jackson.
EDIT: Remembered you can hide details. Enjoy your chapter select now.
What is Queen's Sword's Deal?
Fire Emblem: Queen’s Sword is a weird, gimmicky, silly hack full of equally silly units. Balance is a suggestion, and stats scale so high it often leads to you creating stupid overpowered units to deal with the enemy’s stupid overpowered units. Everything taking place in Elibe is another thing.
I could talk about any number of units here that I like. I could talk about Ashley, the archer who gives all of your units +1 Mov at the start of the map if he holds a certain item. I could talk about Alex, the kinda meh axe fighter whose saving grace is his leadership star and Rightful King in a game with proc skills. I could even talk about his frail, trainee son Max, the kid with 10 HP and 0 HP growth but insane defensive growths that make him a midgame tank. But I have something much, much sillier in mind.
It’s the end of Chapter 16. You’re in the midst of a campaign against the Djute because you picked the A route and that’s the only one that was ever finished. You kill the boss, you move onto the next chapter and… things seem fine. Nothing is amiss, the early game Mongolian nomads (yes, again, still weird) are here and brainwashed and sparing them nets you a short Gaiden chapter. Everything seems normal, and you proceed through the game and eventually beat it as if nothing happened.
Until you dig into Builder. Checking the unit list, you see something: A few units you never got. Sure, some of them are from the unfinished B-route such as a dancer or Najaran from the Culdcept manga. There’s a Hero with unfinished unit data, sure, but we’re not talking about him. This is about someone further up, buried in with the A-route roster.
Who is Jackson?
His name is Jackson. He’s a Ghost (a flying class) with great bases, high growths, the Pass skill and A-ranks in all offensive magic. His class promotes to Lich, which only amplifies the broken nature of this unit by giving him A staves and Renewal. Builder lists him as Level 1, but even if he were higher he would still likely be far and away the best magic user of the second half. He’s not a unit I’d use super regularly, I tend not to use units who are insanely broken, but Queen’s Sword just has an energy to it, a “fuck it, we ball” kind of vibe that makes you just go with the crazy, take the unit that lets you trade in your early game thief for Leif from Thracia and roll with the punches.
I remember discussing him in a server that shall not be named and I have since left; I and a few others were really curious, just how are you supposed to recruit this man? How do we break this game even more than it already has been. I cracked it open in Builder, checking chapter after chapter. Eventually, I figured out he joins at the beginning of Chapter 17 (at level 15 instead of level 1, but still perfectly good for that level) under very specific circumstances. Huh, I remembered playing that and nothing happened. Guess I had to figure out what those circumstances were.
Finding Jackson
After learning that everything is 16 bit (0x0 to 0x0F, 0x10 to 0x1F and so on), I was eventually able to figure out that the game was actually checking for the level of the lord, Arus. Specifically, it was looking for a level of 18 or higher. Well that was curious, I always made sure Arus was a high level at this point, what happened to get us to this point?
And then I stopped to think of what Arus’s situation at this point in the game was. He was usually promoted in the single digits. Ah, there we go. It seemed that promoting Arus reset the level counter when it came to checking for his level, meaning anyone who promoted and didn’t invest insane levels of favoritism into him to get him to level 18 promoted by that point couldn’t get him. Meaning the best way forward was to simply not promote him, despite the fact that you got his promotion item back in Chapter 11.
So now we know what to do. Leave Arus unpromoted but high level, and just leave him that way for six maps. Dragging an unpromoted Lord around, this really is an Elibe game now. But yeah, do this and at the start of Chapter 17, you get a brand new cutscene. Jackson’s ghost arrives and declares “Even though I’m a ghost, I’ll do everything in my power to help you.” And behold, Jackson is yours.
More on Jackson as a Unit and Character
I could go into a bit more detail on his character, sure. His description mentions that he’s the ghost of a deceased Sacaean lord, and it’s heavily implied that the chapter takes place in his old abandoned mansion. He’s choosing to help you because the bad guys are desecrating his home by being evil and such, and sticks around because he’s just that swell. There are no supports, so that’s all we have to go off of.
But honestly, his writing isn’t the point. Really, what made him fun was the journey to figure out how to get him, and then the process of using him. And sure enough, using him was great too, he was the strongest mage in my party even with stuff like Tactician!Michael with his leadership stars or Marsh with his +10 promo bonuses if you bench him and leave him unpromoted for a while. A-ranks in every magic type, including Staves, just made him insanely versatile, and flight with no bow weakness was just the icing on the cake.
Would I use him in any other hack? Probably on occasion, having an extra staffer never hurts, but I’m not a certified Rutger enjoyer so it’d be occasonal at best. But this is Queen’s Sword, a hack with no holds barred, where everything is permitted including infinite level grinding if you really want. It took digging in and trying to understand the insanity instead of rejecting it to even find him, and recruiting him felt like a reward for being willing to go along with the antics. And then after you get him you’re finally free again to make Arus the Master Knight, Baron or even flying sword unit with wings that you desire. And what greater reward is there than broken nonsense, really?