Who best to recruit for a verdent wind playthrough?
It’s my first time playing Verdant Wind after loving Azure Moon, and I’m looking for recruitment advice.
In my Blue Lions run, I was pretty sparing with recruitment. I mostly recruited the Church characters so they didn’t disappear from the plot, plus Marianne, because I was told her bond with Dimitri was good and because she felt too important to just vanish. I also recruited Caspar because of Mercedes, and Dorothea to add some inter-house connection, since I was advised that her values made sense on a Blue Lions route.
I’m glad I played it that way because Gronder Field hit hard. Having to fight and kill students I hadn’t recruited made the war feel much more tragic. That said, there were some characters, like Lysithea and Leonie, who I later wished I’d recruited because they felt too interesting to just die offscreen or disappear from the story.
So now I’m starting Verdant Wind, and I’m trying to apply similar logic.
Who would you recommend recruiting, based on any of the following criteria?
- Characters who otherwise disappear from the plot in a way that feels unsatisfying
- Characters who are essential or especially interesting for supports/paralogues
- Characters who add something meaningful to the wider story of Verdant Wind after recruitment
- Characters who feel too narratively interesting to just die with one line in battle
- Characters whose recruitment makes sense thematically for Claude’s route
I’m not trying to recruit everyone, because I still want the war phase to have weight. Any help would be appreciated 🙏