Marth, then Eliwood with Lyndis not far behind, and finally Roy. These are my favorite lords based on their unique fighting styles.
Though I was a little bit let down when Eliwood changed class, 'cause horses aren't very sexy (to me anyway).

http://www.zeldainformer.com/2012/02/fi ... rview.html

another cool thing is that they'll have classic mode (same as old fire emblems) and casual mode (where after several chapters you can revive lost teammates)

Well, I know what's on my birthday list. *sigh* I long for the day I can read Japanese, so that I may better understand what they were saying in the old ones... Playing those games and not knowing what's going on or how to navigate the menu was horrifying.

That just made my day.
I didn't like when one of your teammates died, and you couldn't revive them.
I gotta get this game now.

You guys who want to play without perma death are pansies.

FE has made the series based off the ideal, forcing you to be both safe and efficient, ruining that takes something away from the series

Agreed. It's nice that they're making an easy mode for new players, but I'll definitely play on Classic mode.

Speaking of new players, which Fire Emblem game would be best for a newbie? (The only game I have at the moment is Fire Emblem for GBA, and I haven't actually played it.)

play sacred stones (it is also for GBA)

You have one of the best ones to start with.

Get playing *****

Oh! That game just so happens to have Matthew in it, right? Yeah... play that one first. Or maybe play FE 6 if you want to play the gba games in order. The easiest one for me was the one you have because I would just use Lyndis to take out everything in sight, as she (in my opinion) is the best lord and has the best critical hit percentage next to Jaffar.
P.S. Does anyone actually like Jaffar?

Lyn sucks, her poor defense and attack hurt her badly and Guy is better with HHM bonuses (she doesn't catch up to his STR for a while). I really hate her personality (or lack therof) but that's another topic all together. Her mode is better used to raise the cavaliers. Granted, I use her, but only to get Geitz.

The best lord in the series is Sigurd, unarguably, kills everything forever and has super movement.

Also Jaffar is filler, but Harken comes a chapter earlier and is way better.

So yeah

Please, in a one-on-one fight, RD Ike would wreck Sigurd.

Lyn sucks? Next you're gonna say Matthew is useless, use Legault instead... Oh wait

Lyn is a beast if you level her, but yeah she has the normal Lord bad defence issue, but her dodge makes up for it.
Ross is also a beast if you go Pirate then Berserker, he can tank better than Seth and Dozla if you fix his CON problem.
Amelia is useless only if you make her a cavalier, She's best as a knight and General, because her speedwing alone gives her a big speed edge over Gilliam. But Franz is the best SS cavalier character IMO out of all the options, especially as a paladin, and Kyle is the best great knight. Artur is pretty invaluable though in the game, Sacred Stones really needed more class options though, most of the classes were horse-men, and they had 1 mage and 1 possible mage, 1 monk, 1 shaman, 1 possible shaman, 1 thief, 2 archers, 1 mercernary (but that's normal), at least they gave us 2 differently statted Myrmidons.

Matthew exists to get the Silver card, Legault doesn't. Outside of that however, Legault has great bases and doesn't need to be babied.

So one-on-one? Are you stupid? Like really stupid? Because when one game has third tiers and stuff, while the other doesn't, you must judge based off the idea "how much does that unit do in their respective game" in this, Sigurd is the best unit in the entire series, only competition being Seth.

Also Lyn sucks, have fun using her on HHM. She's a worse version of Guy. Guy has more STR until 20/1 and even then, he will promote earlier. That's not even counting HM bonuses, which means Lyn will never have higher STR. Guy also has more availability for the main game. Note that Guy is mediocre and there are far better units, like Raven, or Kent, or Sain, or Marcus, or heck, maybe even Eliwood. I could argue that if Lyn had more then 2 def at base, I'd tolerate her more, but she doesn't. Her only use is Mani Kaat and Geitz, once those two things go, she's off the team.

Sources:
http://serenesforest.net/fe7/average/guy.html
http://serenesforest.net/fe7/average/lyn.html
http://serenesforest.net/fe7/char_base.htm

My bad, I misinterpreted what you were saying about Sigurd. If there was a third tier in his game then he'd whip Ike's butt. He really stood out in his game because he was a good character from start to finish, unlike most lords.

Lyn's defense is low like most of the lords in the series, but her problem is that it doesn't get much better when she promotes, and the only stat I've maxed with her was speed. I have to admit Lyn is a filler lord. Defense aside, I've rarely ever been hit using Lyn so her defense doesn't matter unless she's fighting an opponent that's faster or stronger than her that actually has a good chance of hitting her. She was good at killing the bosses in the first 10 or so stages but after that, she's only really useful against people with a low hit percentage otherwise keep her protected before she causes a game over.

Note that I was up late at night typing that post so I was half asleep when I read your post. Also, I've only played 1, 6, 7, 8, and a little bit of 10.