Beat on Normal, 1250 turns rank E. The game would not work on my main emulator so I had to use my backup, which does not have turbo features. So I actually had to play the entire game at normal speed, which took forever. The game kept locking up my psp until I disabled sound effects, and I had to watch the ending on PC due to locking up upon seizing the final throne. I missed a lot of characters and bonus stages due to playing blind. I read a walkthrough after each stage to see what I missed, and a few times referred to it during a stage to confirm something I figured. I had to read up on the capture system as the game did not teach it properly. I thought you had to keep prisoners until the end of the stage and then you would get their items; good thing I kept a back up save state at the end of the stage 1 so I could go back and get those items. I tried to capture and take items as much as possible, even going as far as save state scumming and resetting the random seed by changing options. I liked the tactical trade off for capturing; how it reduced the stats of any unit trying to capture and holding a hostage, even if it was unrealistic to not be able to loot the dead. I also liked the logistics of acquiring limited use weapons.

I missed the first bonus stage in stage 2 as I let the enemies destroy a house. I did load a save from the beginning and see that I could easily reach that house and protect it, but did not think that was worth restarting the stage. And I would have no legit way of knowing there was a bonus stage. I took too long rescuing Leif during the prison escape and had Brighton and Macha holed up in a room fighting off a ridiculous amount of enemies, with Lara stealing their healing potions. Brighton levelled up a ton and later on was the first character to level 20 and first to class promote. By the time I got the others out of prison the reinforcements were just about done. In the following bonus stage I tried to farm swords by capturing the respawning swordsmen, but Ced killed a lot of them. I wondered if the enemies would respawn infinitely, but eventually they stopped and Ced escaped.

The arena fight with Eyvel and Nanna was the first time where the game was ridiculously unfair. How the hell is level 1 Nanna supposed to survive? First try Eyvel killed the sword and axe gladiators during the first turn and counterattack. Next turn she got wrecked by her daughter and the spear guy was free to kill Nanna. Tried a bunch of different things but the bastards would always go after Nanna. Eventually I got to where Eyvel killed the swordsman, lost to the spear guy who escaped with her, and Nanna only had to fight the axe guy, which took some save state scumming to prevent him from one shotting her with a crit. She could not do enough damage to kill him so he kept using his healing potions until he finally got killed by my mage as I lured him close to the wall. The next stage was fleeing the castle with overpowered Galzus chasing. I did what the game suggested and used Karin to fly everyone over the wall into the closed off section with the shop. I instantly recognized the cheap advantage of having everyone locked in an inaccessible area. I had everyone except tank Dalshin over by the time enemies started attacking, and it was a simple process of letting him solo them and flying him over the wall when he needed healing. The mage sniped anyone who got close to the wall. Then came the arduous process of killing Galzus himself. I used Karin to lure him into the town while Leif went and killed the enemy bishops to prevent them from healing. He could not take the general, so lured him back to the others to get killed. I tried everything I could to get Galzus close enough to the wall to get killed by my mage, but he would not do it. I ended up having to unlock the door and let him attack Leif (who was the most powerful character at this point) with the brave sword equipped. Leif got him down to 25% hp before being captured and the next turn Asbel killed him.

In the next stage I blocked myself in the mountain pass with defenders on each line until defeating the south enemies and pushing all the way north to wipe out the attackers. Then I grinded the arena until I made like $160k, leveling up as many characters as far as I reasonably could stand. Some of the weaker characters could not even use the arena. I found this process extremely tedious and boring. I hated this style of infinite random arena in FE 1 and 3, and I hated it here. I got some characters (like Leif) all the way to 20 while others I was content with getting them to 15 or so. Nanna got a ton of xp just from healing, and with infinite money and healing staves from the shop this was definitely the stage to grind. After a ton of hours of as much as I could stomach, I continued on. Stage 9 with the squadron of dragon riders was a pain as it took a huge amount of trial and error manipulation to kill all the flyers without anyone dying, especially their boss. I ended up having to send Leif solo right into the enemy infantry group with an iron sword equipped to trick the boss into attacking him instead of killing a weaker character. Grinding him to 20 in the arena paid off. I did do a bit more arena grinding in later stages but kept fatigue in mind.

Stage 11 with the ballista trap was tough to get Lara through. I had to make a human chain and pass her from character to character. I took a little too long here to get the bonus stage. I also took too long in the next stage, missing a few more characters. Stage 13 seemed overwhelming at first, but the enemies were not really set up to threaten Glade on a castle. Still I rushed my infantry over to him as fast as I could, with Leif being just in time to kill the enemy general. Stage 14 was the best in the game, holding off a siege. I missed Dean’s special weapon but had him behind enemy lines causing a little bit of havoc. Leif, Dalshin and Macha were the tanks, but the south path had a lot of hammer enemies so I should have put Dalshin somewhere else. At the split path I went right for B path. I paid gold to unlock the gate and had Dalshin (now a general with a bow) to pretty much solo the gate.

Stage 18 was where the worst part of the game surfaced; forced split teams with no way to assign who was where. So Lara my only thief was on the right side, and I only had 1 door key for the left side to use. And no one could use teleport staves yet. There was no way I could rescue the civilians and recruit Xavier, so I had to kill everyone. Stage 19 was another painful forced split. Most of the south force was cavalry, but Fergus and Callion started closest to the enemy and were dismounted due to be using in the previous indoor stage. It took some save state scumming and a lucky double move for Fergus to keep them alive, but I likely could have saved them with rescues from the flyers. Instead I had them save the civilians. Macha and Halvan were the only infantry in the south and I had them hold up in a forest, whereupon they wrecked the entire enemy force. Macha was a goddess. I consolidated the rest of my forces into a line and moved south, while my 3 flying units took position behind the forest for hit and run attacks. I even had to ship Macha some extra weapons. The enemy reinforcements went on so long that I wondered if they were truly infinite, but they eventually stopped and I got a ton of sweet xp. The main threat were the poleaxe knights; just had to make sure they could only attack infantry. Then came how to defeat the ballista, long range blizzard and general group. I used Leif and Macha to eat bolts until they ran out of ammo, then had Asbel use a pure water and go down by himself. The mages would not attack him. It took some trial and error but I ended up killing 1 general, trying to capture a mage but not doing enough damage, killing the boss during counter attack, then capturing the mage and swiping his stuff. Then repeat for the other side, leaving the final general in the middle to be captured by other units.

Stage 20 was another fun defensive siege. At first I was annoyed how my characters were spread out trapped behind locked doors, but the enemies fixed that. Asbel soloed the entire sword group while every other line not only held but pushed out. Trouble started when reinforcements spawned, notably ballista. I still can’t believe that level 5 crappy Miranda dodged 2 shots in a row. Took some save state scumming to see where they spawned, then blocking those spots. Next time I will be sure not to have weak characters near the edge of the map. Stage 21 was one time where I consulted the walkthrough because Linoan was fatigued and there was dialogue about her visiting a church. Ok do I get anything good to make it worth using a stamina drink on her? Yes I do, worth it. At this point I was getting annoyed with the way the game set up long range ballista and mages in inconvenient positions that just made the game tedious. I sent out 2 groups of infantry; swords to the NE and axes to the SW, which split up the enemy flyers and made them easy to kill. All my cavalry and casters hung back. Never got the next bonus stage because I never lost any characters.

I tried to cheaply win stage 22 by warping Asbel. First try he wrecked Saias, but got killed by ballista. Second try he killed the ballista, wiped out the enemy mage knights (including the boss), but could not stand up to the generic paladins. Ok the long tedious way it is then. Another tedious stage of using tanks to eat ballista shot before moving in. Stage 23 I sent Leif by himself to the top villages to get loot and eat ballista shot. I used a paragon sword to get double xp without using it up; that should also work for thieves stealing. My archers got great use here sniping over the cliffs, but I was not prepared when the flyers attacked. I used blizzard on the flyer boss to put him to sleep and had to use blocking and dismounting to prevent the flyers from killing anyone. Stage 24 was another split stage, which I of course had to restart and figure out who to give door keys to since I only had 1 thief. She was on the left path with a bunch of warriors, who all got poisoned and had no healer. 1 dark mage tried to get away with a child but I just barely managed to chase him down with Dermott (the only unit there who had more move than the mage). Another dark mage carrying a child was teleported to the right side, but that turned out not to be important. I warped Ced to the right to capture a dark mage with a restore staff, then silenced the other trouble makers. He pretty much soloed that side. I did manage to use an archer on the right to lure the center enemies into attacking, and killing that archer from over the wall. The 24x bonus stage was a little annoying. I could not see the status staff users to silence them, so I had to restore their effects, but with the team split I could not keep up and had to leave some of my guys asleep. I could see the 2 dark mages with warp staves in the kill box room and the spawning enemies, so I silenced them to prevent them from doing what I knew they would do. Selphina and Dalshin, who were trapped at the left entrance because only 1 thief, killed the enemy archer spawns in the kill box. They stayed there with Nanna and Dermott for charisma boosts. Meanwhile, I ate the long range magic and slowly pushed to the end. At one point I stopped save state scumming to prevent units from being teleported into the kill box; I wanted to capture those warp staves anyway. It was a good thing I killed all those archers because they stopped spawning by this time, but the dark mages swarmed that room. I had to send more characters there to kill them until they too stopped spawning. I blocked the stairs with the swordsmen and did not bother to deplete them.

And then the final stage. Every team had a ranged unit to kill the long range dark mage on turn 1. Then I had to sleep the archer boss and warp Dalshin away from the sword boss. Axe boss got killed by Macha with wind sword ranged attacks. I restored the berserk and used my own berserk on the thief boss. At one point he got poisoned by his subordinate, which would have been a hilarious way to go if I did not load the state to prevent a death, which also caused him to avoid the poison this time. I used berserk on the sword boss for him to kill his minions, then I opened the door for the mage boss. I wanted to silence her to make her useless, but she had to be off that +10 magic spot in order for me to use an ensorcel staff to get higher magic than her. But Halvan and Osian killed her. Then I had to work fast to kill the reinforcements and block their spawn points as my thief slowly went around unlocking every door. For the final boss I had blizzard, silence, sleep and berserk for the minions. The boss killed the berserked guy. Then I warped Mareeta into that spot and had Nanna rewrap herself in. Mareeta killed the boss with a lucky crit, which was good because regular damage would have needed me to get more characters there.

I mostly used weak iron weapons for higher dodge, less cost, more xp and to make it easier to get captures. I tried to extract as much xp and loot as possible, and ended up with way more resources than needed. I did buy a few iron weapons along the way, and a few wind tomes. I gave each character 1 or 2 weak weapons, 1 mid level weapon and 1 good weapon. A ranged weapon if they could, and a healing potion. I gave scrolls to low level characters to get stat boosts, and later gave them to tanks to prevent crits. I found sword users to be the most useful, especially when having to take dismounted units indoors. Inventory management was a constant struggle and it would have been useful to have more characters to store more items. I only had 2 weak swords in excess in storage. My storage included: 15 lances (6 high end), 8 javelin, 18 axes (including 5 hammers and 2 poleaxes), 3 bows (both my archers had full inventories of bows though, mostly silver), 1 elfire, 13 thunder, 3 thoron, 4 wind, 2 bolting (no one had skill to use this), 5 meteor (all taken into the final stage but did not need to use them), 12 heal rods, 5 long range physic rods, 1 fortify, 1 rescue, 4 warp, 3 restore, 1 torch, 4 rewarp, 1 master seal (I bought a bunch), 1 door key, 2 stamina drinks (had to use most at the final stage), 20 healing potions, 5 pure water, 4 antitoxin.

Leif: level 20 prince with 69 hp, 20 str, 5 mag, 19 speed/luck, 16 speed, 17 def, 9 con, 8 move. He was a very powerful tank that often got 3 attacks. 19 uses left of the light sword, 53 for Bragi blade.

Nanna: level 20 paladin with 34 hp,16 str, 14 mag, 18 skill, 20 speed/luck, 12 def, 9 con, 6 move. With a flame sword she could get 19 magic and was an all round great unit. Mostly used her for healing and status staves since she was the first to A rank staves. But she could fight very well and high magic + good physical damage made her great vs mages. 45 uses left of earth sword.

Mareeta: level 15 swordmaster with 43 hp, 20 str/skill/speed/luck, 6 mag, 18 def, 13 con, 8 move. I forget which sword woman I gave the continue, luna, and ambush books to; 1 has those skills naturally. 9 uses left of her dark sword. She was one of the best characters.

Macha: level 20 hero with 47 hp, 17 str, 2 mag, 20 skill/speed, 18 luck, 16 def, 11 con, 8 move. On par with Mareeta.

Halvan: level 11 hero with 52 hp, 18 str, 3 mag, 20 skill/con, 17 speed, 13 luck, 17 def, 6 move. Not quite as dodgy or offensive as the swordswomen, but still a powerhouse unit.

Osian: level 12 hero with 53 hp, 14 str, 3 mag, 16 skill, 20 speed, 19 luck, 13 def, 15 con, 7 move. Very similar to Halvan. His vouge had 21 uses left, and the other I took from an enemy has 58 left.

Dalshin: level 15 general with 47 hp, 20 str/skill/def/con, 3 mag, 13 speed, 10 luck, 6 move. He did not dodge near as much as the other tanks and was vulnerable to crits, magic and anti armor weapons. Being able to use bows (never got past E) made him excellent for countering flyers though.

Fergus: level 7 ranger with 39 hp, 15 str, 2 mag, 20 skill, 16 speed, 14 luck, 8 def, 16 con, 6 move. Good cavalry unit that was also good on foot, though not the best at either.

Dermott: level 6 ranger with 38 hp, 13 str, 5 mag, 14 skill/speed, 9 luck, 10 def, 12 con, 7 move. Another sword mounted unit that I had to take indoors due to lack of other units. He was decent but mainly used to provide charisma. Could have used arena grinding to bring him up to par. 53 uses left of Beo blade.

Callion: level 2 paladin with 36 hp, 15 str, 6 mag, 20 skill, 15 speed/luck, 11 def, 14 con, 6 move. One of my weaker and less used units, he was good because he could use swords both on foot and mounted. It was late that he promoted, too late to arena grind.

Dean: level 13 dragon knight with 42 hp, 14 str, 3 mag, 19 skill, 14 speed, 10 luck, 12 def, 13 con, 6 move. Good flying unit that seen a lot of use in outdoor maps. His A in swords made me take him during indoor maps but he did not get to fight much there.

Ced: level 20 sage with 35 hp, 5 str, 20 mag/skill/speed, 12 luck, 11 def, 9 con, 8 move. I was surprised he maxed level while joining so late. He got silenced in 24x because his mag was not maxed, but before and after he wrecked everything he attacked. I gave him status staves, wind and blizzard, saving his ultimate for only when needed (30 uses left).

Sara: level 20 sage with 26 hp, 0 str, 20 mag/skill/speed/luck, 20 def, 6 con, 8 move. She was a very powerful mage that could heal, use status staves and kill. I only had her use thunder and her elemental magic ranks never got past D.

Linoan: level 10 sage with 27 hp, 0 str, 20 mag/skill/speed/luck, 6 def, 4 con, 8 move. A staves, C thunder, she was more of a healer than nuker but got plenty of kills. She was the only character not level 20 when she promoted, but amazing stats anyway. Her nosferatu has 51 uses left.

Asbel: level 18 sage with 39 hp, 3 str, 20 mag/skill/speed, 19 luck, 9 def, 9 con, 7 move. My main mage who kicked ass for the entire game. His staff rank was only D, so he was only a backup healer. A rank fire and wind, allowing for meteor and blizzard. Thunder was only B and he was the closest to using the long range bolting. I saved his special wind magic unless absolutely needed (13 uses left).

Selphina: level 13 archer knight with 35 hp, 13 str, 7 mag, 18 skill, 20 speed/luck, 11 def, 8 con, 6 move. Not amazing but she seen a lot of use and got her fair share of kills.

Robert: level 16 archer knight with 44 hp, 16 str, 6 mag, 20 skill/speed/luck, 11 def, 13 body, 6 move. It took forever to get his bow rank up to B, and it was the end game when he could finally use good bows. He kicked way more ass than Selphina and was always getting kills from lucky crits.

Lara: level 8 thief with 16 hp, 0 str/mag, 3 skill, 15 speed, 16 luck, 3 def, 4 body, 7 move. My only thief, her low body meant she could not steal most things. She did not get much xp and I should have given her a paragon sword with only a few uses left.

The reserve units who did not fight in the final stage:

Brighton: level 18 great knight with 51 hp, 16 str, 2 mag, 20 skill, 19 speed, 9 luck, 17 def, 17 con, 11 move. Very powerful unit that I probably should have taken instead of Callion. He wrecked everything he attacked while mounted, and was also good on foot. He had the most movement of everyone, which was amazing. It was stupid how he could only use axes while on horse.

Finn: level 9 duke knight with 39 hp, 16 str, 2 mag, 20 skill/speed, 17 luck, 13 def, 12 con, 9 move. One of the best mounted units.

Karin: level 16 pegasus knight with 38 hp, 18 str, 14 mag, 19 skill, 20 speed/luck, 15 def, 7 con, 9 move. I gave her the paragon book and made sure she always had a scroll. She was my best flyer. She was especially good vs mages with her good magic.

Eda: level 20 dragon rider with 29 hp, 13 str, 8 mag, 15 skill, 20 speed, 17 luck, 13 def, 5 con, 8 move. My weakest flyer but still very useful. I did have the item to promote her but she was not used in the final few stages.

Hicks: level 18 axe knight with 37 hp, 11 str, 1 mag, 10 skill, 9 speed, 14 luck, 14 def, 18 con, 8 move. He did see a lot of use for the early to mid game but I did not have room for him later on so he never levelled enough to promote.

Glade: level 7 duke knight with 37 hp, 12 str, 2 mag, 12 skill/speed, 5 luck, 12 def, 13 con, 9 move. Not used that much.

Eyvel: level 13 swordmaster with 28 hp, 9 str, 4 mag, 18 skill, 20 speed, 10 luck, 7 def, 8 con. She did not change much since the beginning. I opted not to use her for the final stage but she might have been better than Callion.

Ralph: level 5 hero. Only used him a couple times when I did not have enough characters. He did not see much action.

Miranda: level 6 mage. Only used a couple times and barely did anything.

Alba: level 9 lance knight. Used for like 1 stage and I think I grinded him in the arena a bit, but he was never needed past that.

Kane: level 4 lance knight: Never used.

Marty: level 5 brigand. Never used except the very beginning when I had to.

This game was not as good as FE 4, but better than 3 and 1. The same great tactical gameplay, characters and story, but still including some of the annoying features like cavalry being able to all attack the same unit from the same space. I appreciated being able to turn off the cutscene battles and found the capture and fatigue systems to add depth to the tactics. I did not like the infinite and random arena; the limited fixed arena in 4 felt more like a bonus minigame. At least the arena battles were not quite as unfair as in 1 and 3, as a good character would win most of the time. Random crits seemed to be more overpowered in this game, and there was still the sense of certain characters and enemies being way overpowered. I felt this game had slightly fewer deadly enemies than 4, but more obnoxious stage design with cheap long range enemies. Definitely want to play again to get everything I missed, max out more characters and see if I can make them even better.

8.5/10