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Normal

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,296
At one point the game will split into two paths, I suggest you go with the first route. And unlike the previous game when you promote this time you'll get two choices. Oh and make sure you recruit Joshua, haha he's my favorite SwordMaster in the series.
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Around a certain point you'll unlock a tower and I consider that the best place to grind if you want to. The boss of the first floor pretty much gives a 100% exp to who ever kills it.
 

Apollo's Sun

Member
Apr 25, 2018
145
Ok so back in March/April I played Blazing Sword, my first FE game, and posted my thoughts as I went though it in this here thread

I had a blast and found all your comments insightful and instructive, and despite botching large parts of the game (leveling too early, not using any healers or magic uses) I managed to smash that dragons face in and beat the game

Well, I'm ready to do it all over again with Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones

I'm going in pretty much blind, the same as before, however I know a little about the series now so hopefully this shouldn't be as difficult. This time I'm going to level up a healer and I know archers probably still suck.

This is what I know about the game so far. Seth is apparently a beast, but I'm going to try not to rely on him too much as I did that with Sain in the last game and that became problematic at stages. I also know you can grind in this game, so I'll probably try and not lose any units if possible and I'll try to level everyone up as late as possible to get the best possible stats

I'm going to start the game later tonight or tomorrow, so if there is anything else I should know, or if you have any advice, let me know, and I'll post some impressions soon

You don't really need to grind to complete Sacred Stones since it's pretty easy, You don't really need to go for 20 / 20 since the promo bonuses, promoting around level 15 then to be better than waiting to 20 and since you will never hit 20 / 20.
 

oni-link

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Member
Oct 25, 2017
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UK
So I started it tonight, and I'm just about to undertake chapter 4 (The first chapter with the monsters)

I've enjoyed your posting a lot, and I'm looking forward reading about your experience with The Sacred Stones.

You can grind alright. Careful about your money and equipment, though it shouldn't become an issue unless you overdo it. Seth is an excellent unit, careful to not overuse him.

Thanks, I'll remember that. I've already lost a red gem thanks to a pesky thief during chapter 3, so that's annoying

At one point the game will split into two paths, I suggest you go with the first route. And unlike the previous game when you promote this time you'll get two choices. Oh and make sure you recruit Joshua, haha he's my favorite SwordMaster in the series. Around a certain point you'll unlock a tower and I consider that the best place to grind if you want to. The boss of the first floor pretty much gives a 100% exp to who ever kills it.

I'm trying to recruit everyone I meet and so far I think I've done that. I'm making sure to go to all the villages and I'm also making sure I speak to all the green units to turn them blue.

How important are the promotion choices? Do they make a huge difference to how the characters play?

You don't really need to grind to complete Sacred Stones since it's pretty easy, You don't really need to go for 20 / 20 since the promo bonuses, promoting around level 15 then to be better than waiting to 20 and since you will never hit 20 / 20.

Thanks, I'll bear that in mind. I ended up promoting most of my units at level 10-14 during the previous game (including Lyn and Eliwood) and that just about worked out in the end. However I was pretty worried about making my file unwinnable too, whereas because I know I can grind if I mess things up badly, I'll probably be more relaxed about it in this game

Have fun! Sacred Stones is a guilty pleasure of mine. I think I've finished that game four times at least, twice on hard (with grinding I must admit) and each time with a different strategy. Looking forward to your impressions.

Thanks, so some initial impressions:

I like how quickly the story takes off. I understand the previous game needed a long intro to teach players the game (was this in the JP version too?) and that did really help me learn the systems, but this game throws you right into things.

The opening levels are really easy (I'm playing on normal btw) but that is to be expected, and as the last game is so fresh in my mind I've been able to plow though them at a rapid pace. I've played for an hour and I think about 60% of that time has been story/cutscenes

I like Eirika as a character but a lot of the others don't seem too defined yet, and as I'm picking up 2/3 characters a chapter the game doesn't have much time to flesh them out. This was something the last game was able to do as it had a dedicated 3 hour long tutorial campaign

I'm not sure how I feel about the monsters yet, but more enemy types is a good thing, and I can already see/tell they have reused a lot of assets and animations from the FE6 (which isn't something I have a problem with as I enjoy the look and feel of the game)

I also like that the game gives you a way of storing excess items really early on, as it was a pain having to throw so much away in FE6 if you didn't bring the tent to missions, so I glad that seems like it's been removed

I will post more updates when I get a chance to play some more
 

Normal

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,296
Joshua is a red unit, you don't want to kill him by mistake lol. You need your female healer to speak to him.
The promotion choices are just a matter of preference. For instance the pirate can promote into a Berserker or a warrior. Berserker gives a critical bonus while the warrior gives you access to bows. I prefer the critics bonus. There is no wrong promotion, the game is easy enough and you get the ability to grind.
 
Oct 25, 2017
4,553
FE stands for Franz Emblem

I too started FE8 yesterday and pretty much no lifed it all day today. Finished Chapter 9. I did get Ross to 10 before the chapter with the arena so I got to cheat some exp onto him and some money too.

Having Seth constantly deployed and telling myself 'not yet' as an oh shit button is way more fun than just not deploying him.
 

Rutger

Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,224
I started a FE8 playthrough a few weeks back as well.

Confession time, it's actually the first FE game I played, and I also never finished it. I enjoyed how the series worked that I rushed to more games, and I ended up liking them more and kind of just forgot about it, haha.

It's a pretty funny change, going from games like FE5 and FE6 recently to Seth's world.
 

HockeyBird

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,584
So a question for the FE community but what do you expect the Switch FE to look like? The 3DS entries have been using a mix of 2D for the maps and 3D in battle screens. Of course most of the series has been strictly 2D and Heroes is 2D only. The 2D maps enable the games to give the feeling of a large battlefield.And the 2D map sprites are very much of FE's legacy and overall look. Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn are 3D for both the maps and battles and in those, the battlefield are smaller in scope so everything remains in scale. However the move to 3D added some interesting elements such as changes in elevation. What do you all expect and hope for Fire Emblem Switch?

-2D only
-Combination of 2D/3D
-3D only

Me personally I would love for it be all 3D but have an art style that makes the battles appear 2D, kinda like Arc Systems fighters. However I don't expect that. I expect combination of 2D/3D like it has been with the 3DS games.
 

Disclaimer

Member
Oct 25, 2017
11,443
I'm expecting an evolution of the 3DS games' 2D isometric fields that are fully realized in 3D for combat, exploration, towns, dungeons, etc.

It's possible we'll get a 3D isometric field, like the Tellius games, but personally I found several aspects of their 3D isometric models awkward, and I'm not sure how they'd solve that. For instance, with 2D fields/sprites, our perspective of units is fixed, whereas with 3D, we see them facing specific directions that looks unnatural. Using units' 3D models rather than 2D sprites also makes it slightly harder to differentiate teams by color.
 

Apollo's Sun

Member
Apr 25, 2018
145
So a question for the FE community but what do you expect the Switch FE to look like? The 3DS entries have been using a mix of 2D for the maps and 3D in battle screens. Of course most of the series has been strictly 2D and Heroes is 2D only. The 2D maps enable the games to give the feeling of a large battlefield.And the 2D map sprites are very much of FE's legacy and overall look. Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn are 3D for both the maps and battles and in those, the battlefield are smaller in scope so everything remains in scale. However the move to 3D added some interesting elements such as changes in elevation. What do you all expect and hope for Fire Emblem Switch?

-2D only
-Combination of 2D/3D
-3D only

Me personally I would love for it be all 3D but have an art style that makes the battles appear 2D, kinda like Arc Systems fighters. However I don't expect that. I expect combination of 2D/3D like it has been with the 3DS games.

I guess I expect a combination of 2D / 3D. 2D for the map sprites and 3D for the battles.
 

NeonZ

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 28, 2017
9,371
I'd expect full 3d maps with map sprites, basically the current system. The battlefield itself has been fully 3d since Awakening though, but making the map sprites models again like in PoR/RD doesn't seem like a good choice because they'd need to be fairly low poly due to the number of units at once while also having exaggerated designs to make them distinctive from afar. Sprites just seem like a better choice that avoids all those issues.

Well, unless they do something very drastic, like completely dumping the "square" system and giving characters area of movements. If they went for something like that I guess they'd likely also make everything 3d again.
 

oni-link

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Oct 25, 2017
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Oh and make sure you recruit Joshua, haha he's my favorite SwordMaster in the series

Done, and his mission was actually pretty hard. I had to restart it twice due to losing units

I've played the first chapter as Ephraim now (I think 5x) and I've gained a few more characters too

I'm still trying to keep Seth on the sidelines unless he's 100% needed as I want to level everyone else up first

The next mission I'll be doing is in the fog and it looks like it's a hostage recuse mission
 

HockeyBird

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,584
Picked up FE Echoes at Toys R Us for $20. They only had two copies of Echoes, one copy of FE Warriors for 3DS, and 3 copies of Project Steam left in the 3DS cabinet. Guess the kids don't like tactical RPGs involving fantasy knights and historic US presidents. Although based on the few trips I have to this TRU in the past, they weren't doing too great even before liquidation. I think Dragon Quest Builders 2 was the most recent Switch game they stocked.
 

Normal

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,296
Project Steam, that game sold really poorly... It was the first time I saw a Nintendo game at GameStop for around $5-$10 within a year of its release.
oni-link
Iirc If you rescue all the hostages you get a promotion item as a bonus.
 
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Caz

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Oct 25, 2017
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Done, and his mission was actually pretty hard. I had to restart it twice due to losing units

I've played the first chapter as Ephraim now (I think 5x) and I've gained a few more characters too

I'm still trying to keep Seth on the sidelines unless he's 100% needed as I want to level everyone else up first

The next mission I'll be doing is in the fog and it looks like it's a hostage recuse mission
Pro-tip: You can either have Seth wipe out the spider or have Vanessa put the hostages out of said spider's way while you take out the boss (unless you decided to grind her via the arena last chapter since she's unlikely to be strong enough to take it out on her own). I prefer the latter since Seth is hilariously overpowered with even iron weapons and while you can grind, you don't want him hogging all the chapter experience points on his way over to the spider.
We live in a world where Trump is president so I'm skeptical we'll ever get a game that's entirely sprites again.
I'm now even more upset at America than ever. Thanks Trump.
 

Lunar15

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,647
I'm 60/40 on it being sprites. They convey a lot of distinct info easily. It might not be pixelated sprites, though.

If it's not sprites, then I expect something drastically different, like making the whole map 1:1 scale, in a far more detailed and accurate way than PoR.
 

WolfeTone

Member
Oct 25, 2017
611
My big fear is that they'll move to 3D models for the character art. I hope it stays 2D. Echoes style character art in HD would be amazing.
 

Golnei

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,823
My big fear is that they'll move to 3D models for the character art. I hope it stays 2D. Echoes style character art in HD would be amazing.

I highly doubt they'd move to using Warriors-like renders instead of 2D portraits, and fully animated 3D busts would likely be too much of an investment that would still end up looking worse.

What's more interesting to consider is if they'd bring in any animated elements back to the portraits, whether traditionally or through something similar to the Live2D they were experimenting with in Fates. I could see them just retaining the current method until the second Switch game - this first HD title might be fairly conservative in a lot of aspects compared to Fates and Echoes throwing things at a wall from a solid established base.
 

NeonZ

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 28, 2017
9,371
I think the only way they'd dump 2d art is exactly if they won't bother with "busts" anymore. They'd just have full 3d cutscenes, alongside some scenes with more limited animation, like the Xenoblade series.
 

Lunar15

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,647
I'm trying not to expect too much. If the Pokemon stuff is anything to go off of, developers aren't afraid to basically make nicer looking 3DS games for the system. As long as it looks clean in HD, I'll be fine.

If I'm wrong, hey, we got something cooler than I expected.
 

NeonZ

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 28, 2017
9,371
I really hope IS doesn't suddenly decide to take after Gamefreak. Gamefreak always lagged behind other developers in the same system as far as presentation goes (after the Gameboy), but they get away with it due to Pokemon's brand name and the franchise's overall premise leaving it without real competition, but Fire Emblem really isn't strong enough to do that.
 

Lunar15

Member
Oct 25, 2017
4,647
I really hope IS doesn't suddenly decide to take after Gamefreak. Gamefreak always lagged behind other developers in the same system as far as presentation goes (after the Gameboy), but they get away with it due to Pokemon's brand name and the franchise's overall premise leaving it without real competition, but Fire Emblem really isn't strong enough to do that.

I thought the 3DS FE games looked nice, but I also wouldn't say they were pushing the system. SoV finally gave us some interesting 3D battle animations, but there's not a whole lot to go on when it comes to the models. For Awakening they didn't even give them feet!

It could go either way, but I don't see IS as a cutting edge team. Paper Mario: Color Splash looked nice, though.
 
Oct 25, 2017
4,553
So FE8

I already fed Ross enough kills so he could Arena abuse a little in that one chapter. He's rock solid and is my main axe user.

Just got the second noob unit. I feel like I already have much much better options available to me in regards to their class. It didn't take her long to get to 10 but I already have Franz who I plan to stick with and Seth who is already promoted that I may end up using to not have to train someone else 1-20. Not currently using any other cavalier. Safe to just ditch her? Everyone always raves about these units but with this one I'm a little meh on her.

Also using Vanessa and she's okay and then I get Tana and she outclasses her almost immediately. I think my Vanessa got a little STR and HP screwed. I was going to give her the +5 HP item but I saved it to see how Tana was and Tana is already on par or better in most stats and she is like 3-4 levels lower. Think I may just make the switch.
 

Apollo's Sun

Member
Apr 25, 2018
145
So FE8

I already fed Ross enough kills so he could Arena abuse a little in that one chapter. He's rock solid and is my main axe user.

Just got the second noob unit. I feel like I already have much much better options available to me in regards to their class. It didn't take her long to get to 10 but I already have Franz who I plan to stick with and Seth who is already promoted that I may end up using to not have to train someone else 1-20. Not currently using any other cavalier. Safe to just ditch her? Everyone always raves about these units but with this one I'm a little meh on her.

Also using Vanessa and she's okay and then I get Tana and she outclasses her almost immediately. I think my Vanessa got a little STR and HP screwed. I was going to give her the +5 HP item but I saved it to see how Tana was and Tana is already on par or better in most stats and she is like 3-4 levels lower. Think I may just make the switch.

Are you talking about Amelia? If so it's not worth using her if you already have Franz and Seth.
 

Caz

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Oct 25, 2017
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So I guess we're all just replaying FE8, myself included (Hard mode).
Also using Vanessa and she's okay and then I get Tana and she outclasses her almost immediately. I think my Vanessa got a little STR and HP screwed. I was going to give her the +5 HP item but I saved it to see how Tana was and Tana is already on par or better in most stats and she is like 3-4 levels lower. Think I may just make the switch.
The Seraph Robe actually gives you +7; it only became +5 in Awakening.
Are you talking about Amelia? If so it's not worth using her if you already have Franz and Seth.
Her Recruit promotion route (once you unlock it) gives her a unique niche thanks to the 15% critical hit bonus she gains but it fails to resolve her biggest problem: Her con stat is terrible for a lance user and there's no shortage of lancer users in Sacred Stones.
 
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oni-link

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Oct 25, 2017
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Pro-tip: You can either have Seth wipe out the spider or have Vanessa put the hostages out of said spider's way while you take out the boss (unless you decided to grind her via the arena last chapter since she's unlikely to be strong enough to take it out on her own). I prefer the latter since Seth is hilariously overpowered with even iron weapons and while you can grind, you don't want him hogging all the chapter experience points on his way over to the spider.

I had her save one of them and one died, I killed the boss to end the stage before anything else could happen

General update for my FE8 game

I've just got to the part where I need to pick one of the siblings to follow. My gut would be to go with Eirika but I don't know. I've managed to get her to level 12 I think, so she's pretty strong, so maybe it's better to go with Ephraim as he's a lower level and I could grind him?

Does it matter much which I choose?

Also is the cleric better than the priest as a healer? I started leveling the priest but switched to the cleric and now I'm wondering if that's a mistake.

Also so far no one had died
 

Crayolan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,752
The choice between Eirika and Ephraim matters, depending on who you choose the story and maps are completely different for the next several chapters. The sibling you choose also becomes more of the main character for the rest of the game, with slight story and dialogue changes even when the two reunite. Ephraim's path is generally considered the more difficult one.

I don't think it matters which healer you choose.
 

Caz

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Oct 25, 2017
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I had her save one of them and one died, I killed the boss to end the stage before anything else could happen

General update for my FE8 game

I've just got to the part where I need to pick one of the siblings to follow. My gut would be to go with Eirika but I don't know. I've managed to get her to level 12 I think, so she's pretty strong, so maybe it's better to go with Ephraim as he's a lower level and I could grind him?

Does it matter much which I choose?

Also is the cleric better than the priest as a healer? I started leveling the priest but switched to the cleric and now I'm wondering if that's a mistake.

Also so far no one had died
Natasha has supports with Joshua, one of the best units in the game and a higher magic growth rate so she'll be in better shape than Moulder will be once they promote.
 

oni-link

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Went with Eirika

Do the monsters on the map appear indefinitely?

I'm doing a skirmish now and getting loads of exp
 

Caz

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Why? Just so I can play the other levels?
That and to experience the other side of the story; while you do end up getting the same characters come Chapter 15, you'll get them at different times during your campaign and, in some cases, with different bases and levels, which makes for a different experience.

That and it gives you a reason to try out the different class paths since the enemies you fight on each route differ significantly; you'll end up fighting more monsters on Eirika's route so you may want to consider promoting a cleric to a priest instead of a valkyrie.
 

Normal

Member
Oct 26, 2017
6,296
Erika is the correct choice for a first time playthrough imo, Oh and Joshua gets a bit back of backstory on the route.

Oh and the main game is easy enough so for Natasha I choose valkarie. Give me the mount over the slayer skill for the main game.
 

oni-link

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Erika is the correct choice for a first time playthrough imo, Oh and Joshua gets a bit back of backstory on the route.

Oh and the main game is easy enough so for Natasha I choose valkarie. Give me the mount over the slayer skill for the main game.

I'm on chapter 12 now and I leveled up Joshua into a sword-master, Kyle into a heavy knight and Artur inro a bishop (Joshua is a fucking beast who shits out crits more often than regular attacks)

I'm really enjoying the game and have so far only done one tower level and 3 skirmishes in terms of grinding, but I'm starting to think I'm a little over powered

Innes is the best (as in, only) good archer I've come across, he one hit kills almost everything, also I have so many good tank units that Seth is pretty much being left behind for most missions as I'm trying to level everyone up, but the game just threw Dozia at me a chapter after giving me Gerik so it's starting to get silly now, plus I assume I have Ephraim to rejoin me at some point. In fact, I think Amelia is the only character I've gained in the last 3 or 4 chapters who seems pretty useless, and that's because she's too slow to get any kills and too weak to take a hit

I've gained Saleh as well in this chapter so I now have two beastly magic users

I've not lost any units so far and I've recruited everyone I've been able to except for Marisa who sadly died before I could talk to her
 

HockeyBird

Member
Oct 27, 2017
12,584
Think we'll see Fire Emblem at E3 and do we think it's still a 2018 title? I'm starting to think it may be slotted into early 2019. I doubt it will be shown at E3 and then released within a few months at the end of summer, although there was only 4 months between Echoes announcement and release. There's of course the end of the year but with Smash and like Pokemon, just doesn't seem like there would be space for Fire Emblem. Maybe December but I think they may want to make it their March game.
 

NeonZ

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 28, 2017
9,371
It was just reconfirmed to be a 2018 game last month. I don't see them doing that and then delaying it. They are probably going for an E3 reveal and then a couple of months of hype online before going for the actual commercials and launch.
 

jnWake

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,108
I'm on chapter 12 now and I leveled up Joshua into a sword-master, Kyle into a heavy knight and Artur inro a bishop (Joshua is a fucking beast who shits out crits more often than regular attacks)

I'm really enjoying the game and have so far only done one tower level and 3 skirmishes in terms of grinding, but I'm starting to think I'm a little over powered

Innes is the best (as in, only) good archer I've come across, he one hit kills almost everything, also I have so many good tank units that Seth is pretty much being left behind for most missions as I'm trying to level everyone up, but the game just threw Dozia at me a chapter after giving me Gerik so it's starting to get silly now, plus I assume I have Ephraim to rejoin me at some point. In fact, I think Amelia is the only character I've gained in the last 3 or 4 chapters who seems pretty useless, and that's because she's too slow to get any kills and too weak to take a hit

I've gained Saleh as well in this chapter so I now have two beastly magic users

I've not lost any units so far and I've recruited everyone I've been able to except for Marisa who sadly died before I could talk to her
Marisa isn't very useful since Joshua exists, so not a big loss.
 
Oct 27, 2017
915
It's crazy how I can replay the GBA entries every year and never be bored by them, but try going back to Awakening and was immediately turned off. Quality never dies, I presume.

In any who, what's a cool themed run I can do for Sacred Stones? Looking for a light romp and to just enjoy the game.
 

Caz

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Oct 25, 2017
13,055
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I'm on chapter 12 now and I leveled up Joshua into a sword-master, Kyle into a heavy knight and Artur inro a bishop (Joshua is a fucking beast who shits out crits more often than regular attacks)

I'm really enjoying the game and have so far only done one tower level and 3 skirmishes in terms of grinding, but I'm starting to think I'm a little over powered

Innes is the best (as in, only) good archer I've come across, he one hit kills almost everything, also I have so many good tank units that Seth is pretty much being left behind for most missions as I'm trying to level everyone up, but the game just threw Dozia at me a chapter after giving me Gerik so it's starting to get silly now, plus I assume I have Ephraim to rejoin me at some point. In fact, I think Amelia is the only character I've gained in the last 3 or 4 chapters who seems pretty useless, and that's because she's too slow to get any kills and too weak to take a hit

I've gained Saleh as well in this chapter so I now have two beastly magic users

I've not lost any units so far and I've recruited everyone I've been able to except for Marisa who sadly died before I could talk to her
I wouldn't recommend using Amelia on your first or second playthrough; there's no shortage of good unpromoted lance users in the game (Cormag, Tana, Franz) and her one niche as a lance-wielding Swordmaster/Berserker via the Recruit promotion path is locked behind beating the game twice. While she's a good character and her supports work well with the other trainee units, in my experience, she always ends up being fast and able to do decent damage but extremely frail, especially as a cavalier. I'm currently playing on Hard Mode (Eirika Chapter 11, i'll go through Ephraim after I finish her campaign) and this is what she has at level 8 (technically 18 but the trainee units first 10 levels are essentially "hit 10 units and don't die" which is easy to accomplish even on Hard mode, save for Ross since you have relatively few units to prevent him from taking a hit due to his fragility):
HP 27
STR 10
SKILL 9
SPEED 16
LUCK 17
DEFENSE 8
RESISTANCE 5

She isn't a bad unit as others have suggested so much as she is outclassed by the plethora of lance-wielders the game throws at you.