FE5 offers a unique experience with a well written story and the best ludonarrative in a Fire Emblem game.

FE4 focused hard on the large scale political drama at the expense of some of the more intimate character moments and Thracia 776 is the polar opposite. The scale is much smaller this time around, being limited exclusively to one country which seems like it may be a bane but Thracia is far from an uninteresting setting. The conflict between northern and southern Thracia is intriguing to say the least, and Leif's backstory and development made me all the more interested in seeing the story of FE5 play out, even if I already knew the ending thanks to FE4.

I've seen many people bring up the characters with 2 lines of dialogue when criticizing FE5, but I feel like that's missing the forest for the trees. Yes, Kain and Alba are not exactly the most interesting characters but that completely ignores how FE5 is able to make incredibly interesting and fleshed out characters out of very little dialogue. My favorite example of this is Perne. Practically everything pertaining to his character is limited to chapter 12x, but he still manages to be a compelling and morally grey character nonetheless. There are many more examples such as Amalda, Miranda, Diarmuid, and Linoan but I would be here all day if I went into every character. Suffice to say I believe FE5 has the best character writing that FE has seen thus far.

I think what this game really excels in is it's ludonarrative. This is at it's strongest during the Manster escape arc, where your army consists of a tiny group compared to how many enemies you face and you have barely any resources at your disposal. The entire game conveys the feeling of a desperate, hopeless struggle which is the perfect tone for Lief's journey. You can't just kill enemies like you used to, you need to capture them and strip them of their equipment to supply your army. There's an ever-present randomness with nothing in battle being %0 or %100 which relates to just how unfair this entire situation is for Leif. Being able to tell a story in this way is something unique to video games which is why I appreciate whenever a game takes advantage of it.

The gameplay is like a radical evolution of FE3's formula. Similarly sized and structured maps, but FE5 both brings in elements from FE4 and adds in it's own deluge of unique mechanics on top. In particular, the way you play maps in FE5 sets it apart from prior games. In FE3 it was mainly a point A to point B affair with the occasional side objective but the new chaoter goals and unorthodox map design forces you to play in more creative ways. It makes for a strategy game unlike anything that came before which, when combined with the uptick in difficulty, makes for a unique and memorable game.

As for complaints, I truly don't have much of a problem with anything in this game. There is a couple of chapters with elements that I would describe as completely unpredictable but I feel that a lot of people have difficulty discerning between unfairness and challenge. There is the aforementioned characters with 2 lines of dialogue, but those are so few and far between that I have a hard time caring too much.

While I don't believe it quite reaches the same highs as FE4, FE5 still delivers a worthwhile experience with its own unique take on storytelling. It's a shame this game tends to become a victim of strawmen built up by people who haven't even played it, because it deserves more people to give it a fair chance.

Play Thracia 776 Lucina, it's the best one.

easily the best game in my favorite series. despite a large chunk of the cast having 2 lines of dialog in the entire game it all shines through so much more than anything modern fire emblem has to offer with its hours of dialog for every character.

the gameplay is at its peak for the series and is a perfect sendoff to the kaga era of fire emblem, with an amazing ludonarrative and integration of story and mechanics. no other game in the series is even half as mechanically solid as thracia. genuinely cant imagine a better fire emblem game ever releasing

Thracia doesn't play fair. You don't play fair with Thracia. In this equilibrium, there is balance.

The story of Thracia mostly serves to expand on a segment of FE4, but this is a weird little game with a lot of charm on its own. Everything is smaller scale, and it's about the people along the way more than anything.

Thracia has a lot of weird mechanics, most of them charming. It's in many ways a character builder, but stats also matter very little. It lets you indulge in aesthetic pleasures, and do frankly silly things.