genuinely nothing good to say about it.
bad gameplay
bad characters
bad story
you can tell they were struggling without kaga

Considering this is the first FE game post-Kaga, this sort of feels like IS tried to soft-reboot the series. As such, the game's story and gameplay feel way too similar to FE1, albeit some major changes. New continent, new characters, etc. but overall I can see how the whole "Roy is just a Marth clone" meme can be applied here because that's basically what happens. Roy is a copy-and-paste in terms of personality, but ironically enough he is a terrible combat unit (even when he finally upgrades near the end of the game). Interesting move by IS to make the Lord protagonist unit shitty by default, forcing you to instead invest in the plethora of side characters. Story is all right, for the most part. Doesn't really pick up until the second half, right when you leave the isles.
I want to say that this game is not particularly difficult, if you're well-versed in how FE games play anyways. However, there is one big caveat and that is Chapter 21's map. Arguably the hardest chapter in the game and a crossroad between the bad ending and the true ending. I was able to beat the chapter in less than 30 turns in order to unlock the final three chapters, but to be honest, I am not sure I could have done this had I not relied on a map outline online. I think on a blind play through, I would have met with the bad ending. To be honest, out of all the chapters, I do think this one should have at least been balanced better just by a tiny bit. Overall, all right game.

Roy's my favorite lord in the series, so there can be some bias to this.

FE Binding Blade is an... enjoyable game at best if you don't care about reaching true endings.

The requirements for Gaiden stages is NOT known to you before hand, nor does the game tell you what to do, so without a friend or wiki, you'll be helpless.

Gameplay is what'd you'd expect from the FE series, there isn't anything too unique from the other GBA FE titles, but oh boy...

THE ANIMATIONS. The sprite animations for fights are the top contenders for being the best in the series. Swordmaster crits, Generals twirling weapons, Roy being extra and doing a backflip for his promoted crit, are all enjoyable.

The game is somewhat slow, so please play this on an emulator, but the story is confusing if you don't play FE7.

I wouldn't suggest this for a introduction to the series, but it's enjoyable if you have an experienced friend.

Also Roy isn't a bad unit, you guys are just bad at rng.

For "narrative reasons," Roy (the lord) sucks big fat chunks. That's cool and all, and if he rolls his stats ok, he's bad in a way that impacts, but doesn't outright ruin, the game.

If he rolls bad tho...

IF HE ROLLS BAD THO

I don't even know where to start with this one. My roy was actually really decent until he kinda fell off mid-late game then blasted through everything once he got his promotion at the last fucking map. Once the maps start featuring the siege tome mages you know that someone at IntSys wanted little the little kids playing for fun to cut that shit out and start busting out the calculators.

I didn't even play on hard mode but this game is brutal. Thankfully Lilina, Fir, Sue, Perceval and Milady carried my army of fodder freaks through the continent of elibe. It's aged like milk but I still enjoyed it haha. Would play again