Lufia & the Fortress of Doom: All Characters RANKED!

I know, I know. It's been months since something was last posted on here. It's hard to keep motivation. Besides that, the Lufia series is most famous for its second outing, Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals. Despite its status as a prequel, I decided I would play the first game first. "Put First Things First" as stated in the 7 Habits, you know. I thought that Lufia & the Fortress of Doom was great, especially for an RPG created midway through the SNES's lifespan. Although the game only contains four playable characters (technically eight if you count the prologue), each provides an important role in the party. I had much trouble deciding between where the characters should rank (except for #4, that was pretty obvious from the start). Anyway, let's get into the ranking.

#4 - Lufia

Yes, the character sharing the name with the game earns the lowest spot. Lufia's magical abilities are really good for the early part of the game, but her horrendous defense and equipment just makes her kind of weak. Her lightning spells are the best single-target attack she can use, yet for almost the entire game, the Hero and Aguro's physical attacks can deal much more damage. The Explosion spells that hit every enemy can also be useful, but many enemies in the latter half of the game have so much Magic Resistance that the best one, Sunder, can't even do over 125 damage where Jerin can deal more damage with a regular attack. While she excels in the early portions of the game, her sub-par damage output with her magic spells and worse healing capabilities than Maxim's descendant or Jerin, Lufia cannot rank above any of the other characters.

#3 - Aguro

The legendary green-haired soldier man and commander of the Lorbenian Army himself. Throughout the early hours after you recruit him, Aguro deals far more damage that the other characters in your party with his powerful swords and exceptional Strength and HP stats. The problem is, by the time you near the end of the game, Aguro's single-targeting attacks are very similar in damage output compared to Maxim's descendant, except Aguro cannot cast supporting magic to complement his powerful attacks. Magic is vital in JRPGs, and by the end of them, the characters without magic often fall far behind those who can cast it. His slow speed doesn't help his cause, either. Overall, Aguro is a good addition to your party, but his lack of magic spells and slow speed have him sitting in third place on this list.

#2 - Maxim's descendant

The unnamed, well-rounded, light-hearted descendant of Maxim earns the second spot on this list due to his high stats, powerful attacks, and effective healing magic. He has the second highest HP and Strength stats, second only to Aguro. He can also use a very similar selection of equipment as Aguro, except he can also wield the legendary Dual Blade. Maxim's descendant for the majority of the game deals a very similar amount of damage as Aguro, maybe falling behind of couple of points of damage, but unlike said character, Maxim's descendant can also cast the best healing magic spells in the game: Champion and Valor. The former heals a party member to full HP, while the latter does the same to all party members. He is the only character capable of casting Valor, while Champion can be cast by both him and the next character on this list. While these spells aren't unlocked until the late-game, Maxim's descendant is still able to cast the weaker healing spells such as Strong and Stronger. The margin between Aguro's more powerful attacks and Maxim's descendant's supportive healing spells is slim, but I give the edge to Maxim's descendant because for the majority of the game, neither is the best physical attacker.

#1 - Jerin

While Jerin's stats may not seem impressive at first, the true reason she appears on the top of this list is her ability to target an entire group of enemies. Let's say you encounter a battle with four Land Worms. Maxim's descendant or Aguro may not be able to kill one in a single hit, but Jerin can weaken the entire opposition so the other characters are able to finish the battle much easier. Jerin has high stats in Agility, Intellect, and Magic Resistance, but her HP, Defense, and Strength are still respectable. Jerin may not be able to one-hit-kill enemies very often (except when running through past dungeons, she's a real time-saver then), but she doesn't need to, as her role is to support the other characters. Jerin also has a wide array of healing spells available to her and she can cast reviving spells much earlier than Maxim's descendant can. She is such a well-rounded character and her utility and supportive capabilities earn Jerin the number one spot on this list.

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