I'd say that this game starts off as one of the best fire emblem entries. The cast is colorful (if a bit one-note, as is typical in these games), the narrative starts off as gripping, and it's mildly challenging.
Unfortunately, the quality takes a nose dive at around the 30% mark (after a little timeskip). After the climax of act1 the narrative failed to grab me, things just sorta...happen. Gameplay takes a back seat, since (as often happens in FE) the difficulty is very front-loaded. Some tactics are also really broken, like the pair-up mechanic (which makes any character a living god), and black mages wielding Nosferatu (who are basically unkillable, due to their high defensive stats and the self-healing from Nosferatu)
Which leads me to my last point: the game is woefully imbalanced in normal mode. At a certain point you start getting "child characters" that are ridiculously overpowered (one-rounding anything in their path after only a bit of training).
These characters are unlocked in paralogues (side-chapters) that have janky balance. Despite being progressively numbered, their difficulty is seemingly random (e.g. paralogue 12 could be a breeze, while paralogue 4 could be tough as nails).
By the end stretch (chapters 20-25) I was just coasting, as the game presented one boring, uninspired map after the other, as it tried (and failed) to present a fun challenge, and the story was just kinda going through the motions. I only needed to throw a couple of OP characters in the middle of the enemy lines, and they would just wreck shop.
The only moderately challenging chapter is the last one, and only because the game throws the kitchen sink at you (semmingly endless high-level enemies continuously spawn and bum-rush you)
To summarise, the story is pretty middle-of-the-road, and so is the combat. Overall, an inoffensive entry to the franchise. Its lows aren't that low, but it fails to reach any highs whatsoever after the first third.
Unfortunately, the quality takes a nose dive at around the 30% mark (after a little timeskip). After the climax of act1 the narrative failed to grab me, things just sorta...happen. Gameplay takes a back seat, since (as often happens in FE) the difficulty is very front-loaded. Some tactics are also really broken, like the pair-up mechanic (which makes any character a living god), and black mages wielding Nosferatu (who are basically unkillable, due to their high defensive stats and the self-healing from Nosferatu)
Which leads me to my last point: the game is woefully imbalanced in normal mode. At a certain point you start getting "child characters" that are ridiculously overpowered (one-rounding anything in their path after only a bit of training).
These characters are unlocked in paralogues (side-chapters) that have janky balance. Despite being progressively numbered, their difficulty is seemingly random (e.g. paralogue 12 could be a breeze, while paralogue 4 could be tough as nails).
By the end stretch (chapters 20-25) I was just coasting, as the game presented one boring, uninspired map after the other, as it tried (and failed) to present a fun challenge, and the story was just kinda going through the motions. I only needed to throw a couple of OP characters in the middle of the enemy lines, and they would just wreck shop.
The only moderately challenging chapter is the last one, and only because the game throws the kitchen sink at you (semmingly endless high-level enemies continuously spawn and bum-rush you)
To summarise, the story is pretty middle-of-the-road, and so is the combat. Overall, an inoffensive entry to the franchise. Its lows aren't that low, but it fails to reach any highs whatsoever after the first third.