I don't really have that much interesting to say about this one to be honest so I'll just dump my thoughts lol. It's not really surprising to me that the gameplay wasn't as interesting to me as it was in Thracia though it's perfectly fine still. I probably enjoyed all of the unit variety the most, though it was a real shame that there weren't that many early units that were fun to build up over time. A lot of my army ended up being the endgame pre-promotes they hand you which is fine but not super interesting. I actually think this game is a bit more difficult than people give it credit for but I think the way it does gamefeel makes it not really matter. Handing you OP pre-promotes is a good example of this effect, since it doesn't really feel earned at all, and also the way they start shoving good weapons and items on you towards the end. I guess it doesn't help that 2 of the 3 lords aren't good units either.

I also thought this game was fine story-wise but pretty dumb. Like the gameplay, there was nothing I particularly hated but nothing I was a big fan of either. Hate to make another comparison but going from the Jugdral games to this felt like a pretty noticeable step down. Like a large portion of the story being dedicated to this generic magical essence just gets really old fast, and they add some really funny story diversions to try and stretch out such generic ideas. At least 40% of the cutscenes in this game have to be the one note villains talking about the magical essence and how they will harvest more of it and it's just like... goddamn I get it lol. The best part of the story is probably just Hector. Hector is awesome.

Anyways the more I write this the more I think I might not have liked this game so much but it was fine overall I guess. I spent my playthrough thinking "Yup, this is a Fire Emblem game alright. It sure does those Fire Emblem things that are neat" and that's the most praise I can give it for now.