ok so this is like the hardest game I've ever played because completing a chapter took me hours nearly every time because every decision can lead to so many outcomes, that made me consider every move extremely carefully and while that did grind my progress to a halt at times it was (mostly) a really fun experience which really made me master its systems and mechanics in order to succeed, I don't regret choosing this as my first fire emblem game even if it certainly wasn't the most standard pick
oh yeah and the story was like laughably bad, some decently charming characters in there though

k2 is an absolute blast, the story is engaging right from the start, full of great character moments and memorable scenes, it frankly makes its predecessor look shallow in comparison, considering just how much confidence this games exudes
the gameplay while critiqued by some, has been pretty enjoyable for me, with a satisfying progression loop and a fun physics engine to boot it was almost never boring for me, although I do understand the complaints about the game eventually becoming "too easy"
in general there's a lot more respect for player's time, with way less unnecessary downtime between everything and barely any story filler
the finale had me worried at first but turned out to be an immensely gratifying conclusion anyway, which at one point I thought was nearly impossible
I have not done much side content (save for the Majima saga, which was enjoyable) at the moment of writing this but I will absolutely go back for it, and from what little I've seen of it it promises to be quite good
this was an absolute fucking capital J Journey of a game and I adored the overwhelming majority of my time with it

slaps roof of taxi this bad boy can hold so many yumes
in all seriousness this game was goddamn impressive, a tremendous BEHEMOTH of mostly good content and I haven't even touched the surface of it
the biggest story in the franchise so far dares to get away with so many protagonists, all of whom are likeable in different ways
the gameplay is overall very solid, with only one character never really feeling quite that great
there's some absolute peak Yakuza moments to be found in this game, I have to mention that it has probably my favourite portrayal of Kiryu in the series (it's either this or 2)
having said that Saejima's part does drag the game down a bit for me, it's not a huge deal in the grand scheme of things as the game still manages to come out very strong but the atrocious pacing and just generally not having a very interesting story to its name make Saejima's chapters hard to be excited about
well that and I think the finale could have maybe felt a bit better
but in the end, this is indeed a great Yakuza game, one of the best

massively overhated, it's no conquest obviously but the map design is still mostly nice save for a couple of stinkers, fates game mechanics do a lot of heavy lifting but it's still a fun time, getting characters from both armies is neat and opens up a lot of possibilities for interesting builds and strategies even if unit balance in this can be absolutely horrendous lol, so despite everything I enjoyed my time with this and unlike birthright this game is rarely ever boring
oh and the story is complete garbage but like, you've played the other 2 at this point, I don't see how this is unexpected