Character Spotlight: Joseph
Congratulations to Joseph who has placed first in the character popularity poll and narrowly defeated Myles.
Background:
Joseph is second in line to the throne of Celyste behind his brother, Caden. He is shown to value his family and Celyste above all else. His pride for Celyste causes him to openly criticize other nations – particularly Ametona – on their disappointing military and nonsense decision making.
During the Celyste-Ametona War, Joseph is very calculating in his plan to take down Devante by leveraging Ametona. After the war, Joseph is shown to have a lot more confident in his strength and is determined to restore his father and his country. He relies less on calculated tactics and tends to favor headstrong, aggressive measures.
Joseph has a difficult time making friends with his companions due to his reserved and intense nature, and most believe him to be intimidating. Additionally, he has a difficult time trusting people and is the first to question Queenie’s intention for joining the group. Despite his image, Joseph shows great compassion and understanding to those he lets in.
Joseph gradually begins to open up to Boone over the course of the journey and while he occasionally disagrees with Boone’s decisions, he respects Boone’s will to do the right thing.
Joseph immediately respects Myles’ for standing alongside him to save Municro and considers Myles his real first friend. Joseph also sees through Wise’s outward persona and understands and relates to the pressure he must feel to live in his brother’s shadow.
Appearance:
Joseph’s color scheme is mint green and purple. After the time skip, he wears a beard like most men from Celyste as a coming-of-age tradition.
Growth Rates:
| HP | Pow | Skl | Spe | Lck | Def | Res |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 55% | 45% | 40% | 55% | 55% | 30% | 40% |
Unit Analysis:
Thanks to solid stat growth in Speed and Luck, Joseph will be double attacking often and able to deal good damage with his decent power growth. He is also able to exploit super effective damage from wind tomes to easily deal with thunder mages and Pegasus units. Joseph is a solid candidate for the Energy Ring found on Ch10 to boost his offensive capability further. While Joseph’s Skill growth is below average, his accuracy is not usually a problem due to the reliable hit rate on wind tomes.
Even though Joseph’s class options are relatively squishy, and the dark griffin class must strategically play around the super effective bows and fire magic, the combination of Speed and Luck gives Joseph high avoid, which can allow him to escape harm during enemy phase. Joseph also possesses solid growths in Res and a surprisingly decent Defense growth for a mage to allow him to tank most magic users and survive a hit from physical weapons. Even still, Joseph possesses low HP and a low HP growth and therefore should be placed carefully.
Overall, Joseph is the only wind magic user in the game (not counting specific promotion options), has great availability, and fantastic promotion options to work great on any team. With proper investment, you can expect him to be a dependable magic unit on any chapter he is available. Having access to Forseti and a flying class gives him a reliable offensive range greater than any character in the game.
Support Options:
Joseph’s affinity is Wind; hence his ability to excel with wind magic and has the following support options:
- Caden - Thunder
- Myles - Fire
- Wise - Fire
- Queenie - Dark
- Shiloh - Light
- Faith - Light
- Tanya - Thunder
Joseph really appreciates supports that provide extra damage output to offset the chance of not leveling in Power. Fire and Light support bonuses work best with Joseph’s growth and role on team.
Wise appreciates the wind affinity bonuses and is able to keep up with Joseph if he is promoted to dark griffin. Myles is a great support option if Joseph promotes to a wind sage to provide both offense and healing.
Faith or Shiloh can also be good support options for Joseph to focus on defense rather than avoid. Like Wise, Faith will have the ability to keep up with Joseph if he promotes to dark griffon.
Popularity Poll:
I intend to continue doing character spotlights for a while on a monthly cadence depending on the character’s popularity. Can Myles even be beat right now? Vote for your favorites and tell me why you like them.