Depending on a game the type of Jagen and the way you’re introduced to Jagens variys greatly. Some games don’t even have a Jagen. But in general there is some kind of evolution every FE Player seems to have when they decide to venture through the entire series at some points.
First you probably don’t care or you’re told by the game or people online that the unit is trash because it eats up Exp. Or you get to that perception by yourself since it doesn’t grow as much as the others. And your other cavaliers have much better stats… So why bother to continue using Jagen despite him still being your 3rd or 4th best unit? The second time you play this game you might as well not train him at all. And in the other games you continue this attitutde. Until at some day you realize that using a good unit might not be a bad idea. And then you either get more chill about Exp, get an indifferent feeling about Jagens or defend their superiority with passion.
In the end, I feel like many many players in the past began to develop this bad perception of Jagens because others told them so. Just like many players where told that you have to reset when your units die, etc. Nowadays, the classic Jagen isn’t really present anymore. We just had a Jagen with Vander! (Who is, obviously, perfect in every single way. I like him a lot.) Jokes aside though, he is difficult to use for a newbie and leaves a bad impression even for veterans I’d say, because his Exp Curve is like… so bad. And then we have Gunther who literally falls of in his 2nd chapter. But then again, Felicia and Jacob might be the true Jagens in Fates?
That is the other thing. Not wanna delve into the Oifey-Archetype Discussion here. But sometimes it is hard to tell who or if a game even has a Jagen…
To make the topic clear, I’d like to know if my idea of the whole reason why the debates of Jagens being Exp-Stealers comes from the internet is true or not, I’d really like to know how you first reacted to your Jagens and if you used them or not and why.
For me, I played FE7 first. And I definitly used Marcus a lot. Not exclusively but every now and then. I got a feeling that there must be a catch since he was obviously a better version of Kent and Sain. And I did learn about Promotions in Lyn Mode before. But that didn’t really stopped me. I know that I was really happy when Kent hit Level 20 and I finally promoted him to have a second, now even stronger Marcus! Buuuut then I just stopped playing entierly and began to play Fates. There I learned that (except Ryoma who is a beast) it might be better to just use unpromoted units, level them up to 20 and don’t bother with prepromotes. Though I do think I did use Reina a bit. But I have absolutely no idea about my original Birthright Team and how that playthrough went. Since Fates is a really different game than the classic ones and gives you more options to try out stuff and false hope of training everyone. I chatted with people online and came to the conclusion to replay FE7 after finishing Fates and, you guessed it, this time I wouldn’t really use Marcus at all. I dunno when I changed my mind. But I do think Sigurd in FE4 greatly changed my view on things and Seth in FE8 (which I played much sooner) was a no brainer in my army. So I really don’t know.
What about you? Again, if you started with a different game, that difference alone might have a great impact on your first impression.
Hi, I had to actually improve my reading comprehension with your nice post. Very detail explanation with some big words, very nice.
Now let me proceed to reply in a crono order.
Old school started with FE1, then FE4, FE5. No internet on the house, yea oldschool, I did not know nothing about the Jager prototype. Many years later Play Sacred stones, LOVE the game, SETH is SETH. At the beginning like a noob relaying heavily on Seth, then almost not using Seth to now using him when needed. But always deploy to get the supports, heck even giving him some stat boost LOL.
Continue with FE7 and guess what. I try not using Marcus because for some odd reason I had the idea in my first play that he will betray me like Orson did in FE8. O man this is hilarious looking back at it. New Mystery I just use as need it or minimun the Jaergan of that game that would be Arran. FE6 As need it then bench him. FE9 Titania has to be SETH ancestor in another universe, ok ok, lets stay on topic. FE10 its a mess with all the jaergans.
I hope I was able to convey properly my thoughts here and did not gave a hard time in understanding me.
TLDR
Started from heavily realying on them, to not using at all, to use as need it with exception of marcus FE6,FE7 and Arras that I most of the time use as need it and then bench him.
Seth and Titania almost always get deploy with use as need it.
My first encounter was not a usually Jagens(as I always went easy and did the prologs to kill him for the better calv) But instead Fredrick from awakening I didnt use him much only when I needed a unit to clog a path while Mr.Nobody can see me was clogging another(btw make the man a thief he is amazing with its growths then going back to great knight)
My first experience with a jagen (if you can even call him one) is CQ gunter. Kid me really liked the extra bulk because I was too stupid for strategies other than sheer stats, so I made him a corrin backpack for the rest of the game. If we’re counting felicia/jacob as the jagen, I have no idea, I forgor
My first-ever Fire Emblem playthrough was in FE7, so basically FE7 Marcus carried most of my run. He then died somewhere before the final chapter (I’m guessing he died in Victory of Death but before I could fight Limstella). That was a weird playthrough because I didn’t train Eliwood at all, out of fear of getting a Game Over. So basically I had an untrained promoted Eliwood by Endgame. I also killed Limstella after using the Silence staff on her, because somehow I was having a hard time killing her.
Started with FE7, was impressed by Wallace but quickly realized from RPG experience that he was supposed to be the guy that starts strong but sucks ass when he comes back later to show you how far you’ve come. Assumed Marcus would be the same thing and braced myself for when the time came, until it wasn’t and he just kept being good for the whole game, especially since it was Eliwood Normal
My first Jagen was also Marcus. I believe I used him more than necessary but I dumped him as soon as Kent rejoined. For several playthroughs, I used him either to soften enemies for my weaker units to one shot them, village visitor, or the rescue drop strat early. I also sometimes used him as a bait. Like put him in front without weapons.
Overall, I just use him for attacking if there’s a problem like one unit is about to die, there’s a strong enemy for my prepromotes, and rushing chapters.
My first Jagen was Frederick in awakening. Funnily enough I had heard that it was bad to feed exp to your jagen so I instantly benched Frederick only to end up deploying him a bit in the Valm arc where he was underleveled and couldn’t do that much which led to me thinking that he was bad for a while.
Do we count Jeralt? … No? Frederick then.
I mostly kept him in Great Knight. I think I at first benched him as soon as I had enough units that benching him was An Option- after using him as a blunt instrument to remove anything anyone else couldn’t one-round- but then started using him as a pair-up statstick for Nowi, and you can guess the outcome of that one. (Nah. The outcome is Nah. And that plus some training is how I ended up with a Nah that has both Aegis and Pavise, though I have her as a Dark Knight b/c why the mcfuck wouldn’t I, it’s a mounted caster w/ a sword, why the mcfuck would I not take The Thing with the Coolest Number Of Things.)
I think it’s pretty common to go through the arc of:
Uses jaigen in first fe game playthrough
Gets told/realizes they’re bad and never uses them
Realizes they’re good and uses them whenever it feels appropriate.
I’ve made jokes regarding this development at different times in this forum.
Personally my first fe was 9. I used Titania a lot, realized she was gaining exp slowly, stopped using her. Finished the playthrough without her. Then many many years later (like 10) I realized jaigens are goated and should be used pretty much whenever they can be.