Wanted to replay this before I finally ventured out with this franchise beyond the GBA. Still easily my favorite of the 3 on this system, the story and characters are leagues ahead of the other two. Both Eirika and Ephraim are solid lords but I nearly always pick the Ephraim route cause he's more fun to use and I like the way his story handles the Lyon dynamic better. Rest of the cast is aces too, they all get some great supports (most of which you will probably have to look up online but it's worth it) and the branching promotion paths with the reintroduction of skills let them all stand out among your army to fill whatever niche you're lacking. This was my first time playing on Hard mode with no grinding and most of the added difficulty comes from the latter. Sacred Stones has way less main story chapters (relative to 6 and 7) to make room for the grinding maps it presumes you will take advantage of, which meant I had to be a lot more economic in terms of EXP distrubution and weapon rank to go around. Feeling underpowered in this game was so alien at first but having to actually rely on the myraid of tools made available to you instead of just being a toybox to rift through for funsies gave me a new appreciation for maps that were no longer just pure slaughterfests and certain units whose usefulness I never fully considered until now. I couldn't have done it without you, Moulder.