For my first playthrough I only did the main story on Normal. I'll watch supports, and do all paralogues on my 2nd pt on Hard.

My first impressions on the gameplay after a first playthrough are that the micro-combat is some of the best in the series owing to the Emblem mechanic, and the creative scenarios in some boss encounters (like look at Ch.19 Mauvier). The macro map design and creativity, however, is mostly average. The maps are like, GBA-PoR tier except maybe more polished, is how I see it. There wasn't nearly as much creative maps as I would have hoped so all things considered I can't say this is one of my favourites for the gameplay when Thracia, Conquest and Radiant Dawn (still my top 3 games in the series) provided me more interesting situations more often (even at the cost of some bad maps).

I think my favourite map is the one where Timerra joins actually? Reminds me of some of my favourite Thracia, Conquest and GBA maps.

I'll see if harder difficulties and paralogues change my mind, when I tackle them on my 2nd playthrough.

Don't care to comment on writing and presentation at this time