GRAPHICS: Honestly, I like 'em way more than other people seem to. I don't have any issues with the character models and I don't care about the maps supposedly lacking detail, it's never bothered me and everything does as it's meant to. There's some pop-up sometimes around the monastery/NPCs appearing out of nowhere when they load, but I can easily ignore that.
CHARACTERS: There are so many of them that I'd be surprised if you can't find a solid few you really enjoy. They're very varied in personality and appearance, though the character writing varies from "complex and in-depth" (Edelgard, Dimitri, Rhea) to "basically one major personality trait" (Raphael, Bernadetta, Cyril). My personal favourites are Claude and his subtle cunning, Sylvain and his flirtatiousness, Hilda and her pink femininity paired with being an absolute powerhouse unit, Lorenz and his development, Leonie and her loyalty, Yuri and his resourcefulness, and Raphael (sure, I listed him as an example of objectively one-note writing, but I could still write you a whole essay on this guy). I love the Golden Deer as a collective, though.
GAMEPLAY: I really like the combat in this game. It's the first time I've played anything like this, and it's one of very very few games where I go out of my way to participate in fights because I want to, or where I find myself thinking "man I feel like doing some combat in that video game right now". The dialogue options outside of battle are silly, though - it's the most blatant case of "two options that are just reworded ways to say the exact same thing and get the exact same response" I've ever seen.
MULTIPLAYER: Eh, functionally non-existent. All it is is that if you have your online mode turned on, glowing circles will appear on battlefields signifying where other players have died or killed a unit often and granting you some XP or basic items if you stand on those spots, as well as giving you stat pages in loading screens that show things like who the most popular character for players to take to tea that month or what the most frequently fed animal at the Monastery is.
Overall, this is a great game. I've played through Golden Deer 4 times so far (one for each gender of Byleth so I could S-support everyone in it, then starting over and doing the same again to refresh myself after ages of not playing), almost done with my first run of Blue Lions, then I'll move on to the others.
Taking a half-star off because White Clouds is mind-numbingly annoying to get through if you're replaying it often like I am since it doesn't vary by route, the romantic M/M options are pretty trash (one single gay romance option in the base-game before two more were added with paid DLC, one of those being route-specific, is crazy in a game with dozen and dozens of straight ones) and for more minor issues like the dialogue options thing, but I can't justify rating it lower - I still really like it and it's definitely one of my favourite games.
Favourite Male Character: Claude, Raphael, Lorenz, Hanneman, Sylvain, Yuri
Favourite Female Character: Leonie, Hilda, Manuela
First Character I Liked: Marianne
Favourite Character Design: Hilda, Sylvain
Favourite OST: TBA
Favourite Scene: Claude and Byleth vs. Nemesis
Least Favourite Character: Solon (though I'm oddly fond of Tomas)
CHARACTERS: There are so many of them that I'd be surprised if you can't find a solid few you really enjoy. They're very varied in personality and appearance, though the character writing varies from "complex and in-depth" (Edelgard, Dimitri, Rhea) to "basically one major personality trait" (Raphael, Bernadetta, Cyril). My personal favourites are Claude and his subtle cunning, Sylvain and his flirtatiousness, Hilda and her pink femininity paired with being an absolute powerhouse unit, Lorenz and his development, Leonie and her loyalty, Yuri and his resourcefulness, and Raphael (sure, I listed him as an example of objectively one-note writing, but I could still write you a whole essay on this guy). I love the Golden Deer as a collective, though.
GAMEPLAY: I really like the combat in this game. It's the first time I've played anything like this, and it's one of very very few games where I go out of my way to participate in fights because I want to, or where I find myself thinking "man I feel like doing some combat in that video game right now". The dialogue options outside of battle are silly, though - it's the most blatant case of "two options that are just reworded ways to say the exact same thing and get the exact same response" I've ever seen.
MULTIPLAYER: Eh, functionally non-existent. All it is is that if you have your online mode turned on, glowing circles will appear on battlefields signifying where other players have died or killed a unit often and granting you some XP or basic items if you stand on those spots, as well as giving you stat pages in loading screens that show things like who the most popular character for players to take to tea that month or what the most frequently fed animal at the Monastery is.
Overall, this is a great game. I've played through Golden Deer 4 times so far (one for each gender of Byleth so I could S-support everyone in it, then starting over and doing the same again to refresh myself after ages of not playing), almost done with my first run of Blue Lions, then I'll move on to the others.
Taking a half-star off because White Clouds is mind-numbingly annoying to get through if you're replaying it often like I am since it doesn't vary by route, the romantic M/M options are pretty trash (one single gay romance option in the base-game before two more were added with paid DLC, one of those being route-specific, is crazy in a game with dozen and dozens of straight ones) and for more minor issues like the dialogue options thing, but I can't justify rating it lower - I still really like it and it's definitely one of my favourite games.
Favourite Male Character: Claude, Raphael, Lorenz, Hanneman, Sylvain, Yuri
Favourite Female Character: Leonie, Hilda, Manuela
First Character I Liked: Marianne
Favourite Character Design: Hilda, Sylvain
Favourite OST: TBA
Favourite Scene: Claude and Byleth vs. Nemesis
Least Favourite Character: Solon (though I'm oddly fond of Tomas)