i'm at the last few chapters of my current replay, and i'm not too sure i'm going to finish it so i'll just log it now.

the binding blade is an oddity. it's the first fire emblem after the departure of series head shouzou kaga as well as the 2nd version of what would eventually become fe6 and both facts seem very apparent. the map design is either bland and empty, cluttered and awful, or an odd mix of both and the only map in this game i can actually say i had fun playing was chapter 17 on the sacae route. between the engine for the gba titles not being as refined as in 7 or 8 and the entire game just being seize chapters playing the game is entirely an act in tedium and time wasting. i know the sacae route is worse than ilia but i really did want to give it a shot if only because not a single map in the game is appealing to me and i at least wanted something new to keep me occupied.
something especially frustrating/silly about binding blades maps has more to do with blazing blade, which on one hand realizes that the sacae maps in 6 weren't that good and avoided redoing them at all costs just for one of the worst ones to rear its ugly head again in engage but also brings back some of the least interesting maps with either minor/no iteration, and in the case of the laus chapter iteration that makes it even less fun to play. no idea how that happened.

well if the actual gameplay part is unsalvageable, at least a good narrative can make something at least somewhat worthwhile. too bad binding blade decides to just give us neither!
the story is mostly just the broad strokes of interesting ideas that had a lot of potential, but the execution makes it all so painfully boring. in a game with some of the absolute best side characters and even main characters, there is absolutely zero excuse for the main story to be taken over almost entirely by roy and fucking merlinus, neither of whom are very interesting and compelling within the main narrative of the binding blade.
characters like elffin and guinivere and lilina are either good and interesting or at least have the potential to be, but outside of a few chapters around their introduction lines that could've gone to them just go to merlinus unless the devs actively thought "it would be weird if merlinus knew/said this so let's have one of the other guys do it" and it is so deeply frustrating. despite the story starting out as roy retaliating against potential bern invasion to lycia, it quickly becomes much more about roys army assisting etruria on the western isles and ultimately the story that takes up the most of the games chapters is the etrurian army vs bern army, which makes the fact that elffin and guinivere don't get much very frustrating. i would've loved a fire emblem game focused on these two if only because i enjoy their characters and a refresher/mage lord duo is a really cool concept, and more fire emblem games focused on both sides of a warring continent is something i'd love done well more often. i'd hate to see games like genealogy or thracia skipped in terms of remakes, but i hope that when/if we get around to binding blade that they can take what's here and iron out the issues because between a theoretical main cast of roy/elffin/guinivere (with more of a grasp on writing) and the entire conflict with zephiel could be really good, but part of me doesn't think they'll do an echoes style overhaul for a story that was held back for reasons other than hardware.

the binding blade is a game that ultimately has a lot of potential, but falls short of reaching most of it. the cast is stellar once you get past 80% of the early game characters, but it makes such little use of it that you'd be forgiven for thinking it had one of the weaker groups. gameplay isn't much better either, with it hands down having my least favorite maps in the series to the point where i'd take cindered shadows or celica's route in echoes over them any day. i mostly just went back to this one because elffin is in it and he's my favorite character in the franchise and as of now he isn't really recognized as important enough to get any content outside of his game, and i can't really say i feel like i used my time well. i know a lot of people like this one, but in pretty much every aspect you'll find that other games in the series do it much better.

replayed this one to do the ephraim route. i think coming out of a replay of the first classic fe game i ever played multiple years after starting this series has made me appreciate it a lot more. it still has one of the best casts, probably the best visuals and soundtrack the series had on the gba, the story is one of my favorites in fire emblem when viewed from both routes, and lyon is easily the best main antagonist in the series. i do think the maps are pretty easy on normal mode, but the maps are well designed and it's far from the easiest. i honestly wonder why the difficulty is such a point of contention for fe8 but not awakening which is much easier.

overall a very special game to me. it's still a bit upsetting that magvel is the only pre-modern continent we never got explored again in a future entry to the point where its mythology/lore is easily one of the least fleshed out in the series other than fates and engage. at this point hoping for a sequel to fe8 is a bit silly, so i'll just enjoy what we got the way we got it.