It is nowhere close to being as bad as Fates. The story never tries to pretend it is something it's not or branch off into multiple paths and take too much on like Fates did and the characters are much better written. It's just an homage to classic Fire Emblem (Especially the GBA games) with a more simplistic plot, but considering it is an anniversary title and celebration of the series history I think it is very fitting and endearing. You can clearly see so much passion went into this game and it is just a beautiful love letter to everything that makes the series great.