Let’s give it up to my two favorite GBA cavs of all time!
Shaun and Bradley from 4kings!
Joining in chapter 1, a player might look at Shaun’s bases/growths and go:
“what the fuck am I looking at”
For Shaun he starts with two 50 use mini brave sword prfs with the same might as an iron sword… and an iron sword. Ultimately very unassuming.
However for his first round of combat just after joining is able to ORKO an archer with his prf over said iron sword.
Bradley is likewise not too stand out being incredibly slow with not much bulk to make up for it makes him seem like an active liability.
However, Bradley immediately clarifies one of the greatest skills in 4kings. Making sure you avoid taking damage.
Despite being so conceptually simple this is strictly one of the best weapons in the game for being an accurate and lightweight (read costs no speed) ranged option that turns this 0 res seeming chump into one of the cleanest mage killers in the entire game. People have been known to refer to him as Chadley.
In general, Bradley with his Saunion manages to pull surprising one shots or orkos against weighed-down enemies with his prf but can face a real chance of death not being able to fight back at one range. Bradley in general lets you rush ahead and pick off/heavily chip key threats and can end up being effectively a strong front liner despite his underwhelming stats.
But wait, I haven’t explained why Shaun is good yet.
That of course lies in the power of FRIENDSHIP and MAGIC SWORDS
Their support is by far the fastest in the game and quickly gives both +3 damage and +15 hit at A rank. They’re a great introduction to why you should care about 4kings supports because they help immensely with reliability and damage thresholds.
Additionally, magic swords in 4kings are a very key low feature in regards to discussion of the game but justifies the magic and strength split. Light brands help give so many interactions/inventory management different per unit giving enemy encounters unique match ups all game long. The game clearly wants this to be an important mechanic because it ends up giving you one in ch2 from a nearby village. You could argue that it ends up being the most generally effective (non prf) 1-2 range tool in the game and can be later upgraded as more premium/expensive runeswords.
Shaun has the best magic for it in ch2 (even if he doesn’t have the best skill) but it still has a somewhat shakey hit rate at this point in the game at 70 hit (although still better than 65 hit jav and 60 hit hand axe) so it will need to be used with WTA or against very weighed down targets. He is still competing for it vs the swordlord and rogue jagen of the game for it. And what’s great is that they all have their arguments for it but I’ll focus on Shaun for now.
Shaun doesn’t just rely on growths to deal his damage though. His base, promotion gains and Bradley’s support helps turn Shaun into the damage dealer and debatably the best combat mage in the game outside of trained Yufin who needs significantly more hit rate supplementing. The game has a lot of force-deployed maps so it’s realistically not hard to get their A support by like ch10 due to them growing in 3 tiles. Probably even earlier with deliberate effort.
The mages with 1-2 in ch3 suffer in far worse bulk or have some accuracy issues than Shaun, even ignoring the movement difference.
Shaun and Bradley ultimately play unlike any other cav or really unit in general for GBA to me where they both have to tiptoe the line of where they both very much fear and respect enemies but at the same time can be some of the most aggressive units in the game when it comes to facing them. They reward paying attention to your surroundings and positioning but can both pop off in the right context. They both sum up a lot of why I love 4kings as a hack being technically close to vanilla in several ways but then absolutely running and being in love with it’s own unique ideas and what to further explore.
I definitely like Shaun and Bradley as a fun duo too in their writing but I am running out of steam. They get a sweet paired ending together which is nice.
bonus points:
some friends and I talked Krash into giving Shaun an extra prf in ch21 for flavor and it fits the lore well enough.
