"She cursed the emblem, calling it the end of war, but also the end of love..Now it has changed hands, and it is I who is cursed."

Having revisited it, FE12 surprised me. Though I had played it before and had already known it was a significant step up from Shadow Dragon, I ultimately only remembered thinking it was pretty good, but not groundbreaking. Returning to it revealed to me a tale of unrequited love, unwavering kinship, heartbreak, and loss.

I want to say first of all that although I have not finished FE3, I am mostly aware of the differences, and would like to start by saying that the story content that this remake adds is fantastic, and ties in perfectly with the pre-established themes of the original game. Say what you will about Kris being a self insert, or being overly-praised for their exploits, but I personally believe that what they bring to the table far outweighs the bad.

For one, I adore the prologue - it really captures this carefree, peaceful but determined "days of training" feeling - the calm before the storm. It serves to not only flesh Kris out but to establish their relationship with Katarina, a pivotal character introduced with the new story content. It also gives some much needed characterisation to characters who would've otherwise been literal who's in FE3. This later evolves in the form of actual support conversations once the newly added prologue ends. In addition to this, Kris, if anything, being a new member of Marth's army, works as an outlet for fleshing out Archanea's cast far better than Marth probably could. Yes, Kris getting far more supports than Marth is weird, but wouldn't it be awkward if Marth was only just discovering things about his comrades from the past war? In a sense, Kris is a blank canvas for Marth's army to project themselves onto, which serves as a far more natural gateway for the player to discover new things about them. Bottom line, Kris' presence is for the better of the whole cast, including Marth and Jagen, the two characters most commonly referred to as having their thunder stolen by Kris - I'll touch on those two later. There're plenty non-Kris support conversations too, which is something worth noting.

Though the new story content from there on out is locked behind gaiden chapters, unlocking some of it is thankfully pretty easy. If you want to see the most important thing, just make sure to have Kris promoted and at level 5 by the end of chapter 16. Regardless of how that gaiden chapter plays out, it's a real tear jerker. 20x also has some fantastic lore behind it, but uh, that means playing 20x. Don't play 20x, please. Don't even try fulfilling the 20x requirements, unless you're playing on lunatic like I was and was forced to LTC the map because of 3 waves of capped enemy paladins hounding you down. Just look the cutscenes up on youtube, or something.

I also like that Kris is an actual character and the story doesn't totally revolve around them. Their whole point is that they're Marth's most reliable and dependable friend who willingly left themselves out of the history books to let Marth be a beacon and icon of peace for the common people to believe in. Marth's shadow. I also think the concept of FE12 being not just a remake but a retelling with information that was lost to history being accounted for is really cool. It's not a rewrite, perse, it's the full story. In FE3, Marth is fed many exposition dumps, many of which on topics that he should know about, given the events of the previous war, being a descendant of Anri and whatnot. Giving these to Kris - who is instead someone who lived most of their life up to that point in a village training with their grandfather and is inherently less knowledgable of the world and grand scheme of the plot not only makes more sense from a narrative standpoint but makes Marth wiser and more experienced by comparison, something more befitting of him given his experience as the hero of the war of shadows. Marth struggling to cope with the potential loss of his companions is a key character trait that remains and is further exemplified by his attachment to Kris.

A common example I see being used to show Kris "stealing thunder" is during chapter 3, when Kris challenges Lang's authority, wherein two things happen;

Firstly, Marth apologises for Kris' outburst, only after failed attempts at diplomacy deciding to denounce Lang for the problems he's caused. This shows that Kris does not dictate Marth's emotions, and that he's also as capable as a leader as ever, believing first in diplomacy and stepping up for what he believes in when things get too out of hand.
Secondly, Jagen still challenges Lang, just like in the original game, causing him to flee from the scene. From the very start, Kris is set up to become Jagen's successor. They're the grandchild of an old friend, and given Jagen's old age and eventual passing, probably allowed him to die peacefully knowing that Marth was in capable hands. To say they're similar characters isn't unfounded, but to say that Kris steals from him is.

There's a lot of story content I want to get into that was there in the original game, but I want this to be spoiler-free. I'll just say that it feels like a natural and fitting extension and conclusion to Marth's story, and not Kaga just saying "hey let's do more Marth and Archanaea stuff". The final chapter interactions with the four clerics hit me really hard, especially one with a certain blonde haired knight. Unrequited love is a horrible thing to experience, and it can rarely be helped.

Gameplay wise, fe12 is incredibly solid. Lunatic until chapter 16 was probably some of the best time I've had playing an FE game, but everything after that gets kinda excessive. Enemies start having overly-inflated stats and forged weapons, and reinforcement/ambush spawns get downright evil, but it's doable without the rainbow potion. It actually felt playtested, contrary to FE11 Hard 5 where I farmed on earlygame bosses for several hundered turns in order to stand a chance going forward. Reclassing is back, and much better given unit balance is a lot better. There's no objective "best choice" like using Sedgar and Wolf for their ridiculous growth rates, or Caeda for demolishing bosses with the wing spear. Whereas FE11 was a weird hodge-podge of FE1/3B1 and modern FE design philosophies, FE12 feels more akin to the GBA titles, and that's for the better.

The game looks a bit nicer than FE11, too, despite re-using a lot of assets. It generally just has a brighter colour palette, better character portraits and nicer looking UI. I generally prefer the look of the DS games to Three Houses for example, honestly, since one of my favourite FE things were always the cute idle animations on the map. Fully 3D FE games just don't have them, and while I can excuse the Tellius games for being the only games with 3D models to represent units on the map for a while, they were the first 3D games in the series period. The DS games may not necessarily look good in comparison, but they and by extension every other FE game with 2D map sprites have far more charm. There're also some gorgeous illustrated stills for important cutscenes and pre-chapter story, can only hope we find hires versions of them some day.

One area that FE11 didn't fumble with was the soundtrack, and 12 is even better. All of the new story stuff has entirely new music, and it sounds fantastic across the board. Theme of Love and Puppets Don't Cry nearly brought me to tears, and the vigour behind Liberation and Holy War pushed me to actually overcome those lategame maps. I need to bring special attention to Puppet's Don't Cry, given that it's a new track added for the new story content. Again, chapter 16x can play out in multiple ways, and you're going to hear it (and maybe cry like I did) no matter what.

So yeah, FE12 is pretty good.

I have two wolves inside me, one loves New Mystery, the other hates it. They both kiss each other goodnight.

New Mystery was never released outside Japan, has a new character in Kris the avatar and all other characters that never played a role in Book 2 of the SNES original, making the game a sort of Mortal Kombat Armageddon: everyone is here, everyone fights. There has never been so many characters (77!) in a Fire Emblem game and all are recruitable in a single playthrough. Together with base conversations, we have a semblance of Support, too. There has never been so much content.

Yet it's bland. Some characters shine in their portrayal (I will always love Palla and Catria with all of my heart), yet the worst offender is weirdly enough the protagonist(s), Kris and Marth. In the original game, Marth had a new role as Akaneia's peace keeper, everybody knew him and respected him. Kris steals the show in the remake, always having something to say and to add, yet his\her characterization is ... loyalty to Marth and Altea. That's it. To make things worse, all the new cavaliers and knights feel now like lackeys of Kris, rather than his\her companions. It's fun to make some wacky builds for Kris, I won't lie: I had a female mage reclassed into Cavalier\Pegasus Knight until her Str\Spd were good enough. Then I reclassed to Swordmaster to use a Levin Sword with her good magic bases. If you were to play the harder difficulties you won't have such luck: if you don't play Knight\Berserker, you're playing to lose. Lunatic + is a devious little scoundrel and I won't ever finish it, thank you.

Map design on the other hand is vexing. Some maps are incredible, most are immense. I can feel some sort of map design, like the Ogma & Sirius map or the original content. Others are straight from the 90s, in a bad way. To this day, I would like to know what sort of zaza the person who made the desert chapter smoked. He gave wyverns the 1-2 range! Normal doesn't have it, but still.

As you can see, as an Akaneia fanboy I am torn. Book 2 originally was the cherry on top of the franchise, a little bow to present you the perfect duology of Marth and his friends' fight. The story and the important moments are still there, but they feel less important, less impactful, because a hero that was never there now has to take the spotlight, just to canonically disappear at the end. He was never there ...

The special chapters are fun, challenging and offer a different perspective on characters. They made me appreciate Midia! The audacity! Who even likes Midia?! I would recommend playing this game just for that one aspect, yet the game is still fun, it can be enjoyable and it has its moments. Just ... please, let's not talk about Kris. Let's talk about Robin instead. They learned their lesson and decided that maybe a bit of cognitive dissonance is better compared to a protagonist with no redeeming qualities.

There were some things I quite liked better than Shadow Dragon. There are a couple maps that are a step above most FE11 ones, the units are a lot more fun to mess around with, supports flesh everything out a bit more, the hidden objectives are way less vague, etc. Yet this is still a worse game overall for a few reasons. Despite having some new maps, there is SO MUCH rehashing from Shadow Dragon, like seriously a ton of repeats. There are also so many repeated units, which leads to a really bloated cast by the end where it's really hard to even figure out what to invest in, especially after getting like 3 new units every map. The balancing in this game takes everything frustrating about FE11 and just makes it even more bullshit, like they expected you to use a guide lmao. Kris is a very broken unit and Marth is a lot better than Shadow Dragon but I almost felt like I never had an army without some liabilities, and a deathless run seemed impossible. I don't mind difficulty in these games but nothing about this felt fun, just ridiculously strong enemies that can't be touched by effective weapons a lot of the time and not really a lot of utility either. All of this would be better if the rest of the game was good but there's nothing to write home about really. The story feels like more rehashed aspects of the first game, and not to beat a dead horse but Kris is seriously one of the worst characters in the series lol. I think you can still have fun with this game but it was definitely my least favorite FE so far.

Upon writing my Gaiden review, I pointed out that I plan to finish reviewing every Fire Emblem game on this site before moving onto other things, including Engage/Warriors: Three Hopes, which I finally managed to finish.

So yes, they will be added to help finish off this review Marathon, but what I failed to mention specifically was that I won’t include Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, the first game in the series released in 1990, and the best selling game in the series before the advent of Fire Emblem 7, Mystery of the Emblem, the first SNES game, released in January 1994. Now why did I decide to leave those out? Well, it’s because there’s nothing to say about them. FE1 and FE3 are, in my opinion, obsolete and can be skipped for any reason besides curiosity. That’s not to say they are pointless games. They ARE in fact, very important, but because they have not stood the test of time, it’s only natural that Intelligent Systems would take its last intelligent initiative, to remake these two games into two DS games, for the purpose of localizing them to the West so we can finally witness the story of Marth, the mascot of the series.

And while Shadow Dragon was faithfully localized... New Mystery of the Emblem, Shin Monshou no Nazo, was not. It remains a Japanese exclusive to this day, and like GK2, the motive to keep it Japan exclusive was because of the poor sales behind its predecessor. Also like GK2, FE12 was developed using the same engine, with some new additions incorporated into it, proving that both games were relatively cheap to make compared to their respective box office flop predecessors. This is also proof of my belief that Fire Emblem and Ace Attorney are really not all that different from each other, considering everything released before and after 2010 and 2011 respectively speaking, was properly localized. However, that is not a real problem, because unlike GK2 fans who whine about GK2 being ignored by Capcom in favor of the “FAR INFERIOR” DGS Duology just because they got localized over it even though that decision makes more sense, which is something I explained in greater detail in a video I’ve already made...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LdN4a-niEt0

Funny enough, I’m completely fine with FE12 being Japan exclusive. Not because I don’t want it to get localized, but because I am so happy to have played a FAN TRANSLATED PATCH of it. That’s right, this game was professionally translated by a group of fans who took it upon themselves to archive this forgotten masterpiece, breaching the language barrier. I owe my deepest respects to The Heroes of Shadow for localizing this game, just as I do the fan team who localized GK2 out of love for the series. Unlike GK2 however, the script for this game was incredibly expressive, resulting in a very smooth translation. The difference between FE12 and GK2, is that the latter is the worst game in its respective franchise, and should arguably remain JP exclusive because of its awfulness, whereas the former is easily one of the best games in the entire Fire Emblem series, and it is constantly overshadowed. I kid you not, GK2 is FAR more well-known than FE12 will ever be, as evident from the higher view count of any GK2 related content compared to FE12. GK2’s Pursuit theme has almost a million views on YouTube while the amazing Preparations Theme for FE12 is very difficult to find in full loop in a satisfying quality. That’s how obscure FE12 is, besides just being a JP exclusive game.

Considering hardly anyone ever talks about FE12, and whenever someone DOES talk about it, they usually call it out as an inferior remake to FE3, when that is hardly the case at all. If FE15 is proof of anything, people apparently like badly written garbage more than a remake that is actually faithful to its source material. I stated in the FE15 review that FE11 and 12 are fantastic remakes as opposed to FE15 because of that distinction. However, FE12 makes a lot of interesting changes that turned an okay SNES game into one of the greatest works of art I’ve ever seen.

Because this game is incredibly amazing, I must first get any grievances out of the way. For one, there’s this rather annoying cleric character whose name I forgot about, whose only personality trait is her flirting with Marth, but she’s an outlier and not the norm. The rest of the characters are fantastic, and because this game is so consistently perfect, I can’t find anything that can count as even a minor blemish outside of that. This game was also the first in the series to add Casual mode, which a lot of people hate for making the game easy, but I never once thought it was a problem, considering it makes complete sense. The best part is the fact that it’s optional, so if you want permadeath, play in Classic mode. This is how you add things without destroying what already existed – make them optional. I actually played it on Casual mode and enjoyed it immensely, not because it was on Casual mode, I would’ve still loved it to death even whilst playing in Classic mode.

Now let us look at the elephant in the room: Kris. Easily one of the most hated parts about this game, particularly because it was they who championed this self insert protagonist, a concept that often spawns a lot of problems in the later games. Now, I acknowledge that the self insert protagonist started here, and sadly became a staple in the series even after the damage has already been done thanks to Kouhei Maeda, who stopped directing Fire Emblem games after Heroes and Fates. However, the concept itself is not the problem. It’s the execution of said concept. For example, a story premise is a concept, and it can be executed well, or it can be executed poorly. As the final True Fire Emblem in the series, it makes sense that this idea was executed tastefully. Sure, Kris was still an important character in the overall story, but they were integrated as a SHADOW, in other words, not as the main protagonist. Using a self insert to be yet another vassal for Marth was the best possible way to make this idea work, and while most people despise the added story content to accommodate Kris’s addition, which is the assassination subplot, I actually think it enriches the entire narrative once you consider that it does make sense, and acts as yet another piece of the puzzle without retconning anything from FE3. The main point of contention with Kris is how they somehow shaft Marth in a way that is never explained by the detractors. This is a feeble argument that has no evidence to support it aside Marth not appearing in the tutorial chapters, which mimics Kaga’s omission of the main protagonist in some missions from Berwick Saga onward. Just because NEW content shows the avatar protag, doesn’t mean Marth’s screen time is reduced in any way, because that’s not what happened. Marth is still the main character of his story, and the writers understood this completely, keeping him the central focus amidst the additions. I still remember how Marth felt so bad for Lorenz (the cool guy with the eyepatch, not the ugly purple haired guy from Three Houses) when the latter committed suicide, and how guilty he felt over Hardin’s betrayal. All this was still in the original game, so the emotional tension remained, and it hit just as hard, arguably even harder once you consider the beautiful new images added to the game. The assassination subplot transitioned well into the main story, somehow not feeling off or forced. It ties in nicely with the fact that Jagen has grown too old to fight, considering he is now a drill trainer, which was a fantastic idea for a tutorial. Seeing Jagen, Athena, and Cain return from FE11 as drill trainers in the tutorial chapters is everything a Duology player could ever ask for, and they all retain the same voice and personalities, proving once and for all that FE12 is a sequel done right, unlike GK2. This is a perfect take on modernizing an already good story, making it completely timeless, a feat that is honestly difficult, and the writers must be commended for that.

New Mystery of the Emblem is pure perfection through and through. Though people tend to dislike Katarina, she is actually a really good character. Katarina is a creation of evil, forced to do horrible things, but even with all that, she is still able to feel emotion, and so much that it’s enough for her to cry when puppets like her supposedly cannot when you confront her for the final time. It was already shocking to see her betray you so early in the game, especially considering you were already building a bond with her as soon as she appears, because the writers knew how to utilize that limited screen time. It’s like Kristoph Gavin from GS4, if you ask me, considering Katarina was already acting as a tactician in much the same way Kristoph was a mentor to Apollo. The horrifyingly normal appearance of the evil bishop, Eremiya, is a compliment to the fact she saved many orphans from death, which is a contradiction to every game succeeding FE12. She and her team of orphan assassins bear ties to Gharnef, expanding on Gharnef’s influence and with it, the game’s narrative itself. Clarisse is an incredibly cool secondary antagonist, along with Roro (called Legion in Heroes, I assume), acting as villains in Gaiden chapters, perfectly tying together the new with the old. This is not even mentioning how perfect the additions to the old content were, proving that the writers were completely intent on not only modernizing, but also improving a story that was already great. Marth’s 2nd Book was already fantastic to begin with, and the fact that so much of that precious FE11 gold was added to it, even moreso than FE11, is why this game is so perfect. It was the most addictive game I’ve ever played, refusing to put it down ever since I picked it up. HowEVER, when I completed the game, I couldn’t help but feel so... Satisfied over how wonderful it all was. It was all a very cohesive experience, and despite falling in love with it, I never saw myself needing to play it again for a long time, even though I really should’ve played it over 10 times by now, considering I first picked it up in 2017 right after completing Fire Emblem Gaiden. I remember I would play it on road trips, and would use whatever opportunity I could to play it, but it wasn’t toxic addictiveness like with League of Legends. It was the kind that makes you look back on it fondly, and since I haven’t played it for like what, 5 years as of writing this? FE12 has had a profound impact on me, and I always considered it to be the peak of Fire Emblem, even when compared to FE7 and 5, which are better only for the fact that they’re longer and grander in scope, albeit only objectively, for I still consider FE12 my personal favorite. In the case of Fire Emblem 5, the story was better because of how much was done to show the darkness and grief, but this game has more than just a great story. It also has some of the best support conversations ever written in the history of this series. Xane’s shapeshifting shenanigans, Cecil’s fun training mentalities, female Kris (I STILL remember my Kris’s name by the way, even though I emulated FE12 on an eroding tablet. Her name was Sophia, as a reference to Sophia from FE6) sharing her sentiments with the broken Gra Princess Sheema, Barst’s awkward social interactions, Darros’s regret of being a bad pirate, among many, many others. Seeing FE9’s best feature, manifesting as the amazing base support conversations, return, was the greatest gift I could’ve ever had. So much for being a Japan exclusive – FE12 is the best in the series, hands down.

And I’m STILL not done. The good things just keep piling up, which creates an endless loop of happiness. The developers and writers packaged in prequel content from a nearly inaccessible platform containing four missions setting up the original Mystery of the Emblem’s story, the Archanea Saga, as bonus content. Considering they make up the hardest levels in the entire game, they were added in, alongside the Gaiden chapters, to make up for the main campaign’s rather short length, proving they cared about the complete package of perfection. No other game in the series does that, not to mention a music gallery, with awesome pictures showing the Starsphere shards, corrupted Emperor Hardin, Katarina crying, Marth meeting up with Caeda apparently to discuss something, Marth smiling towards the camera, a flashback scene of Nyna and Hardin, and those are just what I can remember off the top of my head. Despite playing this game over 5 years ago, I remember so much of it because it really is that good, and it is tied with GK1 for the best DS game of all time. GK1 has better gameplay, but that’s about the only difference between these masterpieces. Ask me every time what my favorite Fire Emblem is, and my answer will always be the same: it’s FE12, which is the summation of everything that makes Fire Emblem great. Besides the developers pouring so much care, love, and passion into this game, the new additions made it feel so advanced past the SNES that it never once felt like it originated from the SNES. It always felt like a game made for the DS, well after the series has lived long enough to implement so much nuance, which returned in the form of Shadow Dragon’s new mechanics and quality of life changes, the greatest support conversations since Fire Emblem 9, and the greatest OST in all of Fire Emblem. Can I take a moment to explain that last bit? Starting off with the remade FE3 tracks, they’re just as perfect as the remade FE1 tracks. The new songs, composed by Hiroki Morishita, are incredibly good, sounding surprisingly consistent with Tsujiyoko’s remade songs, to the point I used to think she was still the only composer until I finished the game and saw the credits. It’s like this game was made with the expectation that this would be the last one in the series, so the developers, writers, and composers gave it their all. I personally ADORE this game to the point I wish every game in the world was like it. All that heart, all these wonderful characters, the fact people from Intelligent Systems actually cared about not only preserving something, but expanding on it without destroying it. FE12 is a love letter, both from Intelligent Systems for making it in the first place, and the Heroes of Shadow for localizing it. Despite being directed by Kouhei Maeda, the very person who destroyed the series, it’s very clear that this game’s staff did everything in their power to save it, and made it not only the greatest Fire Emblem game of all time, but also the greatest retrogame remake of all time.

… It is here where the great Fire Emblem series should’ve forever rested. On its 20th anniversary, on a very peaceful high note. I would rather have Fire Emblem perish forever on July 15, 2010, with its profound legacy permanently unstained, than to have it revived and continue the rest of its life as a solace shadow of its former self. Fire Emblem as I knew it, was essentially revived by Shouzou Kaga himself, in the form of Vestaria Saga I: War of the Scions, originally in 2016 in Japan, then localized in 2019 worldwide. Heck, the best revelation of 2022, an overall awful year for many people including myself, was to hear Vestaria Saga II being released on said year. Perhaps Fire Emblem can live on, with its ardent, respected creator bringing an ancient series back to the modern day, which only furthered my respect for Shouzou Kaga. The fact he cares so much about Fire Emblem, a series he created over 30 years ago, to the point he would literally keep producing Fire Emblem games as an indie developer, is proof of his undying passion.

The second half of Marth's story that never got released in the US, so I had to play a fan translation. Being similar to Shadow Dragon, another game I didn't enjoy very much, and coming off the heels of Path of Radiance, getting used to no Canto took time. Marth is still a sword locked foot locked Lord who can't reclass, but unlike my Shadow Dragon playthrough, I actually capped his level this time.

As a game, it does feel like New Mystery, like Shadow Dragon, hooks you up with the best units you can get early on, and while you get A LOT of units in this game, most aren't very good. It honestly feels like the game expects you to cannon fodder off some of these weakling units, especially with the number of weapons enemies drop on maps. These weapons do feel like they clutter up the convoy after a while, though.

Money, on the other hand, is pretty tight. Arenas aren't nearly as common this time to farm gold, along with the risk of losing units, the reward isn't too worth it. You don't even get the Silver Card until about halfway through the game, too, and most of your money will be spent on Silver weapons since they start giving them to you fairly early.

But let's address the elephant in the room, the New Mystery content, seeing as this is a remake of FE3. I had no real issues with the prologue chapters, barring the last one, which felt like an odd difficulty spike. The few extra chapters sprinkled in were...eh, I guess. They cut down your unit count to 5 or 7 in some cases, which was pretty bleh, but at the very least, there's more than one set of conditions to access them. It's also the only way to get Iote's Shield for one of your fliers, so good luck.

However, I now understand why people hate Corrin so much in Fates. Literally everyone sucks off Kris like they're some sort of second messiah, while Kris does the same to Marth. Keep in mind Marth's character is about the exact same as it was in Shadow Dragon, so Marth just kinda feels like a generic "good boy who does good" kind of character. At the very least, he didn't let his previous defeat of Medeus go to his head.

This game really ups the number of dragon enemies you fight, and with dragon slaying weapons not coming by too often, it did get a bit rough at times. Chapters 11-14 in particular weren't very fun due to the sheer damage output these dragons could put out. Please note I was playing on Classic, even though the option for Casual exists. At the same time, I was doing a no deaths run, so if any units died, including certain ones, I reset.

Speaking of which, mandatory units needed for the finale, one of which being a thief who doesn't reclass at all. That's just great. At the very least, Minerva and Sirius, who totally isn't Camus, are pretty usable. Characters just don't stay dead in this game, do they? Medeus comes back, Gharnef comes back, Camus isn't dead either.

Overall, my feelings about New Mystery are almost the same as with Shadow Dragon. It's alright, but there are better Fire Emblem games out there than this one. I do see a bit why this game never got released outside of Japan, though. Probably sales. Truly a shame we only got half of Marth's story in the US.

It's a fire emblem game, so the combat is fun. Some of the cast is nice. However, this is another game where I can't really wrap my head around why people like it so much. The story isn't particularly attention-grabbing and I don't really notice any moments that stood out enough for it to be more than just your standard fire emblem experience. I'll go over what I like about it first before I forget..

To start with, one thing I enjoyed was the 'how's everyone' feature on the preparations menu. I thought it was a pretty good way to get dialogue from characters you don't get to use or interact with. And I enjoyed the amount of support conversations that were in the game, I just wish more of them were between other characters that weren't my protagonist. I enjoyed a good chunk of the characters in this game, my favorites were Malice, Minerva, Sirius, Arren, Linde, Navarre, and Palla... they were all pretty interesting without falling too much into a single trope, and their designs are pleasing to look at. The art in this game is very good but I especially enjoyed the drawings that would show up during key moments and in between chapters... I don't really know the name for what they are but the point is they looked very visually distinct, I almost wish the whole game was made in that style. And the attack animations are very smooth too, which was a nice surprise.

That's all the praise I can really give this game. Personally, I can not stand Marth. But maybe even more so, I can't stand our custom protagonist. I obviously chose to be a female, and the way this game writes your female protag is very much indicative of how the series would end up in its next entry. Constant mentions of how my character wasn't 'feminine' enough and how much that truly worried her, multiple scenes where characters were talking about her body being 'manly and rough' and there were even a few anime-esque moments involving my characters chest. Very obnoxious... if I'm choosing to be a girl then why would I find it blasphemous that she's capable of fighting? And I gave my character a really short haircut too, I obviously don't care that she doesn't look like a pin-up girl. Beyond that, she only cares about training and Marth and fighting and it's really exhausting when every support conversation is just about one of those three subjects. I got to choose her backstory, which is nice, but I didn't know making her an orphan would give her an abusive grandfather that raised her from day one to be in the army. Which is uncomfortable but the game talks about it like it's a laudable thing. I did not enjoy playing as a fantasy boot-boy.

The gameplay is nice but aggravated me more than any other fire emblem game besides Echoes that I've ever played, and I had save states. Where do I begin.... well, it's very confusing that every character but Marth lacks a distinct sprite. I had several swordmasters and they all looked the same on the map, leading to me accidentally moving characters that I didn't mean to pick. And they all look the same in the zoomed-in attack scenes that happen too, which is maybe more understandable, but it's still off-putting. And on that subject, there are far too many characters in this game. There is someone you have to talk to to recruit every chapter, and it's very very stressful. It gets exhausting really quick, especially when these characters are set up to be your enemies and you don't want to kill them or else Marth will get sad at you despite the fact that he's a prince and therefore is destined to screw people over by the nature of how monarchies work. But anyways, most of these recruitment characters are not interesting at all and are mostly filler, which makes it even more of a chore to have to recruit them. And only Marth can talk to them most of the time, which is very inconvenient and difficult to plan out. Besides that, your armory never upgrades so it's always selling iron weapons which is very annoying. The amount of people you can take into battle seems really low for the amount of characters in the game. I also had to reset constantly because even my strongest units died far too frequently for my liking, even during drills, which is a really aggrivating descision that you can permanently lose a unit just from training (that you pay for).

The story was not bad but I also felt no attachment to it either, partially because I do not have any interest in stories like these that revolve around princes and princesses and very fantastical politics. That's why I liked playing fe7 as Lyndis, and my favorite fe game overall is Path of Radiance. And my final regret with this game... the process which you have to go through to get Tiki is really frustrating, and I missed out of her; one of my favorite characters that I was really looking forward to finally seeing. That obtaining her relies on getting missable items that are very easy to kill a unit trying to obtain them is very unfair, and even on a second playthrough is incredibly easy to miss and never have another chance at it again.

Overall I didn't have a very fun time with this game. It was very stressful and grating, and I feel like there was not enough to coarse me to finish it. I spent more time strategizing on how to not kill certain recruitable units, which really interrupted the flow of the game for me. And some of the writing makes this game feel reminiscent of Awakening, which isn't what I play a Fire Emblem game to see. I think I found my match in Path of Radiance, so I think this is the last fe game I'll check out. That and the gba games are enough for me!

fire emblem: new mystery of the emblem is one of my very favorite fire emblem games, topped only by thracia 776 and in some respects genealogy of the holy war. it has some of the most solid map design in the series and accomplishes the herculean task of making fe3 into a game that is actually enjoyable to play. it's also the first fire emblem game to have the now controversial "my unit" system, and the only one that's actually done well at all, which may be a surprise when the follow up to the well implemented kris were robin and corrin. i guess there is an argument to be made that kris is why we got those two but the issue is less the idea and more the implementation.
the art direction in game also isn't the best, but when the low points of the art in the series range from "seasonal harem anime" to "90s cult classic young adult manga" it's really hard to complain. the actual art done for promotional material is also some of my favorite in the series, only topped by the wonderful sachiko wada's work on sacred stones and units in heroes. musically new mystery is among the better fire emblem soundtracks, with holy war and dark emperor hardin being obvious standouts, but there isn't really anything as spectacular as genealogy's doorway to destiny or the masterpiece that is end of despair.

this is the last fire emblem game we got before the series devolved into a hollow shell of itself focused more on the dating sim/vn elements than the narrative or gameplay, so i treasure it deeply and it's always a lot of fun to play, even if just to pick up and do a few maps in.

EDIT: i dont agree with a lot of this review atm but keeping it up anyway

Cleric!Athena moves up so that she can rescue Draco!Minerva, Draco!Minerva proceeds to move to Maria to recruit her and give her the one use rescue she had in her inventory. Next Maria rescues Julian (who has a forged Elfire tome called SpitElfire) and proceeds to recruit Lena and give her the tome. Lena then attacks and exactly one-rounds Elice with the new tome she's got.

Feena now dances for Cleric!Athena so that she can rescue Marth. Paladin!Dice proceeds to move forward and one-shot Nyna with Gradivus. Marth finally attacks Medeus with his Falchion.

Capped level Bishop!Arran will then use his again staff on Lena so she can move once more and heal Marth with the Recover staff. Capped level Sorcerer!Beck takes the one use Again staff from Arran so that Marth can act again.

Horseman!Caesar uses the map save point and resets the game until Marth gets a critical hit on Medeus.

Finally, Sage!Radd grabs the Rescue staff from Athena and ends his turn. Sage!FeMU then grabs the last another one use Again staff from Arran so that Sage!Radd gets to act again.

Radd moves forwards and then proceeds to Rescue Berserker!Roshea close enough that he can reach Medues. Berserker!Roshea then gets the final hit on Medeus and wins the map.

Thank you for playing Lunatic Reverse!

The best FE game. New Mystery is the best designed game in the series from a gameplay standpoint. All of its maps are memorable, it turns hated tropes like dessert maps into amazing maps (Anri's way), and has such a customizable cast of units. Reclassing is vital in this game and is so fun to mess around, and the stat boosters really help make any unit you like into a great one. Hard is the perfect difficulty, and the ones above can be great challenges. While its story is not great, the characters are fun, and some of them are amazing, like Minerva, Michalis, Katarina and Xane for example in terms of writting.

I typically don't write reviews on here but this game was such a fascinating mess of mistakes I just need to let it out somewhere

What Went Right:

- There's definitely some interesting map design in this game: parts which pressure you to complete a map quickly are good, and in some spots this is done well (e.g simple stuff like thieves heading towards villages you want, some instances of reinforcements behind you). I also like stuff that pressures you into using resources: I tend to be rather conservative with resources and try to promote at 20, save high level weapons/staves until I think I need them most, etc. but this game had several spots which strongly encourage you to drop these habits. I had to promote most of my party a bit earlier than intended due to a midgame difficulty spike and it felt cool having to do that and be rewarded for it.

- While objectively they're pretty broken, stuff like infinite range staves are silly and fun, I like them! Having the option to simply skip a chapter if it looks annoying and unfun is cool, and you get to do this quite a bit, given the multiple Rescue staves, Warp having 7 uses, Hammerne having 3 uses. These provide charm to a game and it gave me a few little bursts of dopamine.

What Went Wrong:

- While not the most important, it does lead into most of the others so it goes here first: roster bloat sure is a thing. This game has 80 characters and I could not tell you a single thing about most of them - I finished the game an hour ago and could maybe name 20 at most. On top of having very little personality or backstory, the game is balanced in such a way that there's little use for them in gameplay either - past the early to midgame virtually every new recruit I got was just a strictly worse version of a unit I had already trained up. The Tellius games have a similar amount of characters but they at least feel like humans I can say stuff about and they almost all get a little bit of time in the spotlight: a decent chunk of recruits in this game are just randos who show up to you after a chapter like "yo im on ur squad now" and it's like, cool? Thanks?

- By far the worst thing about this game and why I've rated it so low is the infamous same turn reinforcements. Chapters 12 and 13 are this at its worst, and the most angry I've been at this franchise in over 15 games now - untelegraphed, flying, 12 move dragons who can nuke any remotely squishy unit you have laying around. It feels like a massive middle finger to the player having to restart a chapter because you crossed some magical zone which triggers these and now any unit you tried to bring along who isn't a buffed up cav/dracoknight is dead. Want to look these up online beforehand to gain some intel? Good luck! Being as obscure as it is I found it very difficult to find accurate information on these reinforcements to plan around them - fireemblemwod is probably the best one out there but still has some inaccurate information, and I had a few spots where I relied on what it said until woops here's a few extra waves of reinforcements, time to reset!

- This ties into a general theme of information just not being properly expressed to the player. Fog of war is pretty limited in this game but unfortunately still does exist, and likes to throw ballistas or long range snipers at you to reaaaaaaaaally make sure you're not using anything but your government assigned paladins to curbstomp the map. There's several spots in the game where you can't carefully bait out enemies because none of them will notice you until you cross this magical line that triggers all 10 of them at once. While I can see some merit to this from a map design aspect, it is pretty frustrating not knowing which type it is and being owned because you guessed wrong. Some other examples include fairly obscure recruitment methods (which, to the game's defense, it does usually give you a little base conversation strongly implying you should bring a certain unit) and reliance on getting certain items to properly complete the game, but I only have so many words for this review.

- This is a bit more of a minor gripe but the amount of reused maps from FE11 was pretty disappointing, especially given if you're playing FE12 for the first time in (current year) it'll likely be because you just finished FE11 and are sunk cost fallacy-ing your way into seeing what all the other games are like. In some cases in the franchise this has been used in an interesting way but most of these either played identically or were just more annoying versions of the original, wh ich kinda sucks.

- Lastly I should bring up the story. This is the world's coldest take by now but Kris as a character kinda sucks - the amount of screentime put into hyping you up as the coolest person ever, how Marth is struggling so much but you're his magical saviour, is pretty lame, and takes away from the plot a bit. This includes parts where they alternate between serious lore dumps and Kris trying on a new hairstyle but those were funny at least! The side story with Katarina was okay, I guess? It was nice to see them reunited but it ties into a general storytelling problem in this game where it feels like nobody takes accountability for their actions - every nice character who initially starts antagonistic in this game is just being manipulated by someone (usually Gharnef!), then that stops and they're just completely cool. come on you can try a little harder (do not look at my favourite fire emblem game it is irrelevant to this plot point i promise). The reuse of Medeus and Gharnef is also just kind of boring, but I don't really care that much in a game that isn't exactly the most plot driven game in the franchise.


I do think this game has some merit to it, and there's definitely good parts to it, but it was unfortunately my least favourite game in the franchise up to this point. hopefully fe1 through fe5 don't make me change my mind on that :)

A remake of Fire Emblem 3. People don't like the story in this one, but like its immediate predecessor, Shadow Dragon, the gameplay is great. It's a pretty cool port too. They reintroduce all the characters the SNES original had to cut for space, they adapted the Satellaview Broadcast Fire Emblem maps, and they added a couple stand-alone story maps to flesh out some of the more plot important characters.
Some complaints though. The new maps for the original characters are a little annoying, and the final chapter has four (sort of) forced deployment slots in addition to Marth, which restricts the potential team you can take to the final chapter. The second issue is present in the SNES original though.

I want to preface this review by saying this is the first Fire Emblem game I've played and completed in full since I beat Fire Emblem Awakening 3 and a half years ago. (I played a little bit of Echoes but only got a few hours in, and I got 60% through the Blue Lions route of Three Houses and dropped it because the game was just too ridiculously long and had a very tedious and overly drawn out gameplay loop).

I've played a good amount of the FE games up to now and consider myself a veteran of the series, and when I played this game, I thought it'd be just another standard FE experience (okay story, decent cast, and all right gameplay), and in some ways it is, but this game honestly surprised me in a number of ways I wasn't expecting. I think it's very underrated in the fanbase and deserves a lot more love, and I'll explain why.

First I'll start by discussing the story. I know the biggest point of contention with this game's story is the new story content, specifically the addition of the Avatar named Chris, along with Katarina and her subplot. I know most people go on about how Chris steals Marth and Jagen's thunder they had in the original narrative and think Katarina's subplot is just filler, but I want to echo some sentiments that Qlip (another reviewer on this site) said in regards to these criticisms.

A common example used to show Chris monopolizing Marth and Jagen's importance is during Chapter 3 when he challenges Lang's authority. This prompts Marth to apologize for his outburst, which shows that Chris doesn't dictate Marth's emotions, and that he's also as capable as a leader as ever, believing first in diplomacy and stepping up for what he believes in when things get too out of hand. Meanwhile, Jagen still challenges Lang, just like in the original game, causing him to flee from the scene.

The thing people fail to acknowledge is that Chris, while a main focus, does not steal the spotlight from Marth, this is still Marth's story and he leads the charge of his army to fight against the new threats plaguing Archanea. Chris is merely there to support him. This isn't like Awakening where Robin (the avatar) basically becomes the main character halfway through the story and steals a lot of spotlight from Chrom.

Another important point to consider is that, in the original Mystery of the Emblem, Marth gets a lot of Archanea's lore and history infodumped to him throughout the game, even though a lot of it is stuff he should already know as the ruler of the continent who had to study all this history for a nation he is going to rule, and would likely also want to know the story behind his ancestors and their reigns. It makes a lot more sense for Chris to be the one told these things given his rural upbringing in a secluded village by his grandfather who didn't teach him these things. Marth obviously doesn't know some things regarding the nature of the dragons and their goals, as well as Naga's and Medeus's plans, so he's still infodumped on these things in the cutscenes which makes sense. It also just makes sense for Chris to be getting more supports with the cast than Marth, given Marth is already well-acquainted with most of his army as of the previous game, while Chris is a new character who can learn a lot from these pre-established characters and see new sides to them that Marth would already know. In short, I disagree hard with people saying the Avatar is bad for the story, if anything I think his inclusion makes a lot of sense.

As for why I think Katarina's additions to the story also work really well thematically and narratively, I have to talk about New Mystery's story as a whole, which will include spoilers, so skip this section if you wish to avoid being spoiled.

To me, the main theme of this game is really about love in many forms; the sting of unrequited love, faked love via manipulation and abuse, friendship, romantic love, and unconditional/pure love in general. We see this many times throughout the game, such as Hardin being corrupted by his bitterness toward not having his love reciprocated by Princess Nyna, Marth and how much the bonds he makes with his friends pushes him forward and helps him become the beacon of light the world needs, Minerva and her struggle to reconnect with her brother Michalis, etc.

Katarina's subplot ties into the story very seamlessly, as she and Chris start off in the prologue of the story as knights in training who become very close friends along with the rest of the trainees, and we grow attached to them and their relationship. (The prologue in general captures a really nice calm before the storm buildup that helps flesh out and get us attached to the new characters at a solid pace that doesn't take too long but does enough to justify their place in the story.)

Sadly, at the end of the prologue, Katarina "reveals her true colors" as an assassin trying to kill Marth and betrays Chris, leaving the party. We learn throughout the rest of the game that she's been manipulated and raised as an assassin by a warped Bishop who is working for Gharnef, and was pushed onto the wrong side through no fault of her own. Even so, she still clings hard to this twisted love for her adopted sister and adopted mother because she doesn't want to be alone and has nothing else to live for, even though she knows deep down it's wrong, and it's hard to blame her. But of course, it's Chris's unconditional love and friendship with her that comes from a genuine place of caring that saves her, and gets her to come to the right side in the end. I teared up a little seeing her reunite with Chris, her main music theme called "Puppets Don't Cry" is really moving.

The last thing I'll say on the story front is that I love how the final map perfectly encapsulates the theme of love that New Mystery embodies so perfectly. The final map is a very difficult trek down a wide corridor filled with a literal army of dragons who are surrounding and protecting Medeus. The only real way to beat this map without letting anyone die is to have everyone fighting literally shoulder to shoulder to form a moving wall of soldiers, so they wall out the dragons and slowly advance toward Medeus as a turtle pack against what would normally seem like an insurmountable foe. When you reach Medeus, you find he's being protected by 4 Clerics, who are characters all close to the main leads of the story (Elise being Marth's sister and Merric's love interest, Lena being Julian's lover, Nyna being totally not Camus's love interest, and Maria being Minerva and Michalis's sister they want to save), except they're being brainwashed by Medeus into helping him and becoming sacrifices for his resurrection. Naturally, it's only through the characters closest to them reaching out to them and fighting tooth and nail to break them free from this brainwashing that saves them from their horrible fate, and gives Marth the opening he needs to slay Medeus once and for all. (Naturally I used the three focal characters of the story to defeat the final boss, I had Chris who I made a mage pincer Medeus with Starlight from the right side, Katarina pincer him from the left with Hellfire, and sent Marth in from the front to finish him off with Falchion.) Love literally saves the day, and I love how well the gameplay reinforces that theme.

On that note, I'd like to segue into how amazingly well crafted the gameplay is in this game compared to previous Fire Emblem entries I've played. I'll be comparing it a lot to Fire Emblem Awakening in particular, given this game is the direct prequel to it and shares a lot in common with it.

For reference, I played this game on Hard/Classic Mode, the usual norm I play each FE on for a first playthrough. The game is pretty challenging with a lot of strong units, but the game is well balanced in the sense that for however many difficult opponents you face, your own army is also very strong due to growth rates being buffed more in this game compared to previous Classic FE titles, but not to the point that it makes your units broken. This game in general is very good at introducing a lot of really nice QoL additions to classic Fire Emblem gameplay that make it more friendly to newcomers while leaving options for and maintaining the challenge that the series is known for.

One nice QoL feature added that this game carries over the Tellius duology's Bonus EXP system mechanic in the form of the Drill Grounds training, which makes you guaranteed to get stat level ups when you level up there. Another is the "How's Everyone" mechanic that updates after you leave the game for usually several hours to a day, which gives free EXP to your units and really good items such as better healing items and strong weapons to help even the odds. It's a good way to get an edge on the enemy, but not to the point where it breaks the difficulty of the game, as it's not abusable. You have to wait through real time to get some of these rewards, and even then, sometimes they're not great. As for the Drill Grounds, they cost a lot of gold to use to farm EXP, so if you're not careful using it, you'll have nothing left to use to actually stock your army up on supplies, so that's another good balancing factor. Compare this to Awakening, where you have DLC maps that let you infinitely grind for few money/EXP without any consequence to get as overpowered as you want, and it's clear where the balancing philosophy was directed when each game was made.

Another mechanic in modern FE that I think was used better here is the mid map save points feature, which was the predecessor to what would become the rewind feature in later games. The mid map save points are great for 2 reasons. One is since it lets you take a break if you need it during the long and difficult maps this game presents (some took me 1 to 2 hours) and lets you keep this save permanently unlike a suspend save in case you get screwed over by bad luck. I'm honestly surprised Awakening didn't have this feature given how geared toward newcomers it is. But the second reason why it's done well is because the save points are strategically placed by the developers and puts the balancing around this sort of "rewind/failsafe" mechanic more in their ballpark than the players. The rewimd mechanic, especially in Engage, is very abusable and can trivialize game difficulty by negating game overs and character death; you're encouraged to use it heavily in the games it's in as it's your most precious resource in a game series all about important resource management. However, with the map save points, not only do they let you take a break from the game if needed, but they're only mitigated to whatever spots the devs dictate to keep the game balanced and not make them broken like Engage's infinite rewind (and even then I'd say the save points placements are incredibly fair for the most part). I do think to balance the rewind mechanic in newer games, a system should be implemented that either makes the rewinds a resource you need to replenish manually for a cost if you overuse it, or give a reward to players who choose to use it less or not at all as incentive. Or heck, maybe even do both depending on how challenging you want the game to be!

Back on topic though, New Mystery also made me use a lot of creative strategies to clear its maps that I hadn't ever been pushed to use in other entries, such as using the Warp/Rescue staff to strategically provoke enemies into attack range or to collect key items, as well as having to think outside the box for recruiting a lot of units in more precarious situations to get them out alive.

As much as I do love this game though, it naturally has its flaws, like any game. The one real sticking point of this game (which most FE games have to some degree, though none as bad as this entry of the ones I've played) is how badly you NEED a guide when playing this game if you want to actually beat it without having a hard time/keeping everyone alive, and seeing all of the maps the game has to offer.

The main complaint I'm referring to here is that New Mystery is unneccesarily vague with how to collect the Zodiac Shards, which are key to getting the true ending of the game. It's weird considering the game's "Talk with Everyone" option gives you tons of hints on how to get most of the recruitable units in this game (very nice QoL feature by the way), but when it comes to the true ending, they don't say a lot. They at least address its importance in the plot, but for some reason the developers had the great idea of informing the player about their importance... only after you finish the chapter where you can easily miss a Zodiac Shard in a chest if you don't know it's there. Up until that chapter they're pretty easy to not miss given bosses drop them, but I don't know what they were thinking with placing it after the first easily missable shard, that just seems like bad/mean game design to me. There's also other stuff like how Starlight (a legendary magic tome that's the only thing that can kill Gharnef) and Falchion (the legendary sword that makes the fight against Medeus more doable due to how incredibly tough he is) are also easily missable and can make your run of the game much harder as a result, which makes a near flawless game fall a bit short for me. Luckily this is one of the only real issues the game actually has.

The other main critique I have regarding needing a guide to complete this game without getting frustrated are two main points:

1. This game has way too many fog of war maps if you do all the Gaiden Chapters, which aren't fun because they're just a ridiculous amount of trial and error unless you look up where the unit placements are ahead of time to avoid unneeded frustration.

2. This game has so many reinforcement triggers that it's not even funny. This is the first time I actually had to go out of my way to look up what causes and where the reinforcement triggers are located on the maps in order to plan my strategy around that gameplay-wise, since it was getting annoying dealing with nearly every single chapter in the game. I got through even Fire Emblem The Binding Blade (a game notorious for its difficult and annoying reinforcements) without having to look them up. Though then again, I was in my teens when I played it and more stubborn, so I likely just toughed it out and didn't think to look it up at the time. Side note, the guide I used to help me with map triggers and such was the FEWOD website (Fire Emblem War of Dragons), it's a really handy site for stuff like this that gives general strategies and helps you with formulating your own for every map in the series, I'd recommend it to anyone big FE fan!

Despite the QoL additions the game adds to make it friendly for newcomers, I will admit that it's not best for newcomers due to its challenge and need for a guide in order to complete the game without much frustration or missing out on important story content, Awakening is definitely better for newcomers in comparison. However, for veteran FE players, I think this game is perfect at finding the best of both worlds of classic and modern FE gameplay wise and would recommend it to any long time Fire Emblem player.

This last part is personal preference, but I feel that the classic more grounded style of Fire Emblem's storytelling/aesthetic that this game was the last to embody fits the series better as a war drama, rather than the more lighthearted/comedic and anime route that Awakening onwards went with. I really miss that style. Thankfully Intelligent Systems does still cater to us classic fans with their remakes, as Fire Emblem Echoes shows by maintaining that classic style and not remaking it to be more like the more modern style we see in recent FE mainlines.

Also, I have to say, the OST for this game is just stellar. It takes a lot of SNES music and fleshes it out for modern standards incredibly well, and the new music is nothing to scoff at either. The final boss theme, "Reign of Despair" is incredibly epic and blows the SNES version out of the water. It truly captures that feeling that everything is on the line, and that this is the last push to end this tragic war once and for all, which feels very satisfying after how harsh this trial has been on all of the main characters involved.

The last thing I want to touch on is that I disagree with people who say the sprites in this game look ugly. They don't have the same kind of charm and polish that the GBA games do I'll admit, but those games just went above and beyond in that department. The portrait sprites for this game still look solid enough, though I will admit that the previous game (Shadow Dragon's remake on DS) actually does have some legitimately ugly sprites, such as timeskip Marth's whose has scraggly looking hair and a weird block chin. Thankfully they fixed his design with his portrait sprite here.

I'm honestly saddened that Nintendo took more effort to translate the original version of FE1 (Marth's first game) over translating this wonderful remake. Then again, the fact the first game is so barebones writing wise and has much less text as a result was probably one big reason why upon closer inspection. I'm so incredibly grateful to Heroes of Shadow for translating this wonderful hidden gem of a game in a series I've loved for many years.

If anyone reading this ever plays the game for themselves, I hope you enjoy this entry as much as I did. It deserves far more love in the fandom and is much better than most people will make you think if you ask their opinion on it. This game was a fantastic note for Classic Fire Emblem's era to end on, and I wish we had more entries like it.

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