The Last Promise is a weird hack. Infamous for both its gameplay and writing, many aren’t particularly fond of it, and considering the problems it has, I think that is completely fair.
Unfortunately, I like this strange little game way too much. So I’ll give my thoughts on two units, starting with Althares.
Althares’s join stats are actually kind of workable, even if he’s very much outclassed as a swordie by Shuuda, not to mention the lords. He has innate +15 crit, for some reason, which only really matters if you invest in his combat longterm. Unfortunately, being a swordlocked infantry only works in The Last Promise if you have the crazy stats and myriad of PRFs Kelik has access to, and Althares, while fast, has poor growths in both defensive stats, especially for TLP standards.
If that were all there was to him, he’d be a fine unit, but unremarkable. However, to make things even worse for him, chests and doors are a non-issue in this game with just how many keys you get access to, making his primary job as a thief generally redundant. Sure, there’s a good amount of stealables in Anakin mode, but there’s only really one that actually matters. So what can Althares do to stand out at all?
The Last Promise, being an old FE7 hack, suffers from the limitations of both the game it’s working with as well as the lack of advanced hacking tools at the time. Generally, this ends up causing unnecessary frustration with things such as inventory management (no convoy til Liuke). And yet, this inventory management makes the role of stealing elixirs to sell for Seraph Robes all the more fun to optimize. With no convoy access during Siegfried Mode, and the amount of items you end up receiving, units will end up discarding items all the time if you don’t plan ahead. These items will range from half-dead iron weapons to actual valuables. Althares floods your inventory even more mid-chapter with an absurd amount of stolen elixirs that you won’t be selling til you’re at the next preps screen. The reward for this inventory management, and properly managing funds through Althares’s thief utility, is buyable Seraph Robes in the final map of Siegfried Mode.
This is how it all comes together. Althares rewards the player for proper inventory management with the ability to make their investment projects even more capable for the rest of the game. There are units whose viability beyond a certain point hinges on these Seraph Robes, such as Cia, and Althares lets you invest in a notable amount more, should you only utilize him properly.
Althares wouldn’t be as exciting of a unit if he wasn’t limited by the lack of a convoy. Thanks to this clunky limitation, though, he ends up as one of the premier stars of Siegfried mode without being a combat standout. And thanks to him, you can help Shon, one of the game’s lords, scale better into the midgame, his worst section. Speaking of…
Shon, at base, is a complete wimp, fitting with his character. He doubles very little, hits like a wet noodle, and can barely take any hits with his atrocious 17 HP. His growths are also nothing standout for TLP, and his bulk in particular can often end up a major weakpoint. In the lategame, he gets an uber-powerful PRF that turns him into a playerphase monster, but that’s not a terribly interesting unit to use either.
Shon doesn’t exist in a vacuum, though. The earlygame of TLP is extremely axe-heavy, and the low-defense, low avoid enemies make for perfect candidates for Shon to mop up once they’re weakened. His availability is amazing, so training him seems appealing. Your reward for doing so isn’t an unkillable wall, nor a particularly impressive nuke until he gets Silvans (which isn’t around for long). The reward for training Shon is having a reliable, but not oppressive, secondary tank for Siegfried mode, despite his poor start.
Shon doesn’t have the growths or bases to outpace the competition on paper. What he does have, however, is the opportunity to outlevel them. For the first map, he has to solo else his sidequest is unattainable. The second map, if the sidequest is started, is also a Shon solo, though a short one. For the next few maps, he is one of if not the only good combat training project barring Siegfried, as Corben is the definition of mediocre. Because of this, him and Siegfried will be taking pretty much every kill, with Corben just there to weaken enemies for the duo. It’s not uncommon for Shon to close in on his level cap during Siegfried Mode. And while Shon’s father will be objectively better throughout the entire earlygame, and Kevin is also much bulkier, when I needed a third tank to cover chokepoints in Siegfried mode’s hardest maps, he’s the only one who could do the job. His poor midgame performance is offset by being a great secondary candidate for Seraph Robes, assuming the primary one is Inanna, so he can at least sponge a bit of damage on rejoin.
On a semi-related note, Shon’s availability is…strange. As I said at the start, Shon is a complete wimp when he joins, and this hardly changes throughout the game. At any moment where he has the chance to grow, to mature and stand up for himself and his allies in a way that matters, he doesn’t. Even in the final battle, the idea of confronting his father is too much for him, and he cannot be deployed at all. This isn’t the only map where his emotions get the better of him and stop him from deploying, too. Many criticize this as a failure of the game’s writing, ruining his chance at an actual arc. Personally, though, I really enjoyed that despite every opportunity to stand up and fight, Shon wasn’t up to the task in the end. His arc may not be satisfying, but I think it was an interesting (and likely unintended) subversion.
Neither Shon nor Althares are particularly well-designed units, necessarily. But, intentionally or no, they both enhance the experience in ways I greatly appreciate.
Also here’s Zach. I was going to make a joke about how neither of the above two hold a candle to him but honestly the idea that he might warrant his own post in the future despite being the definition of a mid archer terrifies me and completely destroyed any ideas I had for the bit.