Harder than Birthright but not really better. Story-wise it's not exactly bad but it's not exactly good either. I think the biggest mistake Fates made was splitting the story in 3. It's admittedly a clusterfuck and unless you play all 3 games you won't really understand what's happening. But having to buy 3 separate games just to understand literally the same plot, when technically only one of them is actually canon just means you're in for an incoherent mess that would only be surpassed by the Kingdom Hearts series.

Still, the gameplay itself is great and I enjoyed it immensely for that alone and I play games for gameplay first.