a fun time for sure, I recognise that this game isn't incredibly written or has amazing map design or anything like that, but nevertheless I found myself growing attached to these characters and having fun playing through the whole campaign, I wasn't taking it super seriously so whenever the game hit me with actually good stuff it was always a treat, and I felt like the game was trying to be a silly goofy romp anyway so I basically immediately vibed with it and had a great time as a result
playing the game normally did lead to it being a little too easy for my tastes because I was locked into Eliwood normal mode but I definitely want to go back for Hector hard mode and see how the game feels when it's more demanding of me, which I can see making my appreciation for it grow substantially
I'll admit it's a bit of a guilty pleasure game for me, although I should maybe do away with such a concept altogether

as far as these games go this is probably the most dry fire emblem experience you're gonna get without it getting boring, I found the maps to be consistently challening and it really felt like the game was rewarding me for trying to play a lot more aggressively and employ a lot more player phase-focused strategies, the game telegraphs everything pretty well to the point where I didn't even mind something like ambush reinforcements
the story bits were decent and had a good amount of stuff to work with, the arc with Lang and the separate story with the assassins were good but after you pass a certain point in the game it felt like the well of cool ideas has kinda run dry, with the only notable highlight left being the final showdown with Hardin
but despite its dryness and maybe a somewhat undercooked story it's a game that knows how to have fun, why else would it have Jagen scold you for letting too many units die or having a shit speed stat, why else would it have a healthy amount of funny support conversations that it didn't have to make, why else would it have stupid hats you could put on your avatar character (whom I didn't mind at all btw and found to be more likeable and unintrusive than any other avatar character in the series) scattered all throuhgout the game, and I could go on really
this is a tough game to rank because I can see how I could have absolutely loved this had it had more story content and generally more developed characters but I was still surprised by how solid an experience it was overall