Ranking the Lord of the Rings Vol. 1 (SNES) Fellowship From Best To Worst

 

Today on this most auspicious of days, it's time to rank the characters of LOTR Vol. 1, one of the top classics from Mandingo Interactive.

#1 - Aragorn: The main character you control for the last 70% or so of the game, and as a result he's gonna have the highest levels. His sword swings have good range. He's probably the only character who wouldn't immediately die if he were transplanted into a different game.

#2 - Frodo Baggins: By virtue of having the second-highest overall levels due to being the one you control for the first 30% of so of the game. He's actually pretty strong endgame if you get him equipped with Sting. In a pinch you can do the Mines of Moria with just Frodo and Aragorn, since everyone else will be dead by then anyway.

#3 - Gimli Son of Gloin: Swings faster than any other character and can absolutely pummel foes with his axe. The problem is that his levels are likely subpar due to how late he joins the group. Still, he actually contributes respectably. Would definitely be the best character if you controlled him as the main and could get his levels up. Keeping him alive is actually helpful later on.

#4 - Samwise: A very middle-of-the-road character. He's your second party member and the only ally you have for a while, so his levels tend to be pretty decent. He's actually defensively tougher than Frodo if all things were equal, but he falls behind in level as the game progresses and doesn't do much in the second half. He also eats all your lembas without asking and is a terrible roommate.

#5 - Gandalf: The character with the most bad-ass character portrait, and should be the most powerful, but he joins incredibly late in the game. Basically you get him for the final battle, and sometimes he doesn't even show up at all. He can hit enemies anywhere onscreen with his magic sparks, but I'm not sure how much damage they do and sometimes they barely seem to do any damage. Probably better than Samwise in a direct comparison, but Samwise is there for the whole game while this chump is too busy off talking to birds and shit.

#6 - Pippin: Basically a weaker Sam. Joins underleveled but he's early enough that he can contribute a little bit with some work and attention. However he's more likely to either die after a while or just hover around in the back of the group awkwardly. Looks too much like Frodo in the ingame sprites. Would stare into a Palantir if he thought he could catch a glimpse of Nude Eowyn. Probably going to grow up to be a serial killer.

#7 - Merry: Identical character to Pippin, literally a palette swap. The devs didn't even give him a unique character portrait, he's just Pippin backwards. If he was a Pokémon his name would be Nippip. Most people don't even realize this dude is in the game because he joins you at level 1 midway through and probably just dies immediately to a rat or something. At least he attacks or does anything at all, which is more than I can say for...

#8 - Legolas:

#9 - Boromir: This guy doesn't even exist in the game. Where is he? Being nonexistent is enough to edge out Legolas for worst character, just barely.

What, I have to talk about Legolas? Alright. Legend says you can find a bow that'll make him actually attack things. Well I found it and he still didn't attack or do anything besides prance to and fro until something killed him. Good luck storming the mines!