I think people put too much emphasis on story for a FE game I don't think the story is more generic than Three House, 3H's story is super generic and "anime" it just gets more of a praise because it gets it tropes from melodramatic anime. lets not pretend like 3H doesn't have characters with one trait too. So long as the characters are fun and aren't annoying they are fine for a FE game and the characters are mostly fun even but some are forced (rosado). The important thing is that the maps and gameplay are fun and well design, they are engaging(:3)). The Maddening difficult is the first super hard mode that is well balanced It's a bit crazy but I don't think the overly bloated enemy's with infinite skills was fun in the previous games and unlike the other recent games the increase difficult doesn't make the game's faults apparent. The game also made the time in the hub area less tedious and take less time I swear I spent more time in the school of 3H more than playing the game I'm glad they fixed that. If they keep this amount of consistently fun gameplay I think a remake of 4 will be the next best FE. I played on Hard mode and I'm currently doing a lesbians only maddening run.

When a FE fan says they hate awakening I think they put too much weight on the story, FE has always been anime inspired just cause this one reflects modern tropes doesn't make it more or less anime even if the specific tropes are annoying as hell. I don't put that much weight in story in a FE realistically only Genealogy (with a historical epic story) and Ike's games are the only FE stories I've like although other games have nice characters. Awakening's problem is that it's just boring. Some of the most boring and lazy map designs on part with three houses and Echoes, so much of the maps are boxes with a few things placed down or box split into three boxes but at least the other games have more charm to them. Every other game I could least like and get attached to some character. Everyone in this game are so boring or annoying I could not remember a single character other than Lucina, Chrom, and Robin, and that might just be because of smash. mid game to late I just started to only use robin and chrom pairing with a cleric and dancer. Maybe I could have accepted the baby mechanic if they just killed everyone off and started a new game. I know people say this game started pandering emblem but where are the hot or cool or fun characters lol, they look like they're from bravely default. The dark mage isn't even a goth rep stop playing. overall I still like FE so it gets an average score.

Despite the weird designed maps which are often called bad I think the game is fast enough and charming that most of the time I didn't care, until act 3 where the game becomes really sicko on hard mode. In general the hard mode isn't good in this game the maps and pacing don't hold up for the extra challenge to be engaging. Hard mode is just tedious the dungeons are fun addition to the formula without consuming the game although I would like future games to explore them in way thats more than just a hub area. However the dungeons become annoying in hard because the amount of times you have to run through them sometimes and the box maps with fast as fuck flying enemies which force boxing clerics and the forced deployed bad units with your own units. Meanwhile Normal mode feels really fast and allows the momentum of the early game carry through the late game. You could also use whoever you want and not just Palla, Catria, Alm, Dread fighter and cleric. The characters are well written (which in FE means not annoying and for the most part aren't a single quirky trait/ bit). The instigating force behind the story doesn't make sense and it is a dragon turns evil plot but the story is so character driven it doesn't matter when I play the game the main story that sticks is Alm and Celica, their bonds with their main group, and the deliverance revolt against annoying nobles.