Gamasutra - Fire Emblem's "Support" System

Zack Wood has a guest post on Gamasutra with an article from his game blog about Fire Emblem's "Support" System. Yes I know it's a console series, but I don't care.

Fire Emblem is a series of grid-based, turn-based SRPGs, spanning more than 10 titles from NES to Nintendo 3DS. Each has a lot of playable characters, and, as in many games with large casts like Chrono Cross and Romancing Saga, some characters cease to have any involvement in the story after their initial recruitment and end up just being stand-ins during battle. This can be a sad waste of good characters if the player develops an attachment to one that doesn’t get much screen time.