What's your favorite and least favorite FE4 Chapter?

[Lantairu]

I'm playing through FE4 once again, and I've been much more attention to the map designs in this game. Some are pretty good, others, not so much. So that got me thinking of my favorite and least favorite chapters, and, as usual, I thought I would ask all you people. So tell me your favorite and least favorite chapters of this game and why. My favorite chapter is probably chapter 3. This chapter is good for story reasons and gameplay reasons. It's a pretty big turning point in the story, as well as containing some of the most depressing moments in the game as well as some revelations. From a gameplay perspective, it doesn't have a bunch of annoying terrain to walk through, you have two things going on at once, Bridget, Tiltyu, and Claude all fighting the pirates, and everything going on down south. It also contains one of the most tense moments in the game with Eldigan. Overall I don't think any of the maps in FE4 are amazing, but this one is pretty well designed, and has lots of great story in it. My least favorite is easily Chapter 7. Totally uninteresting, Finn, Leif, and Nanna are all forced to just hang out for the majority of the chapter, it throws dark mages at you in the second chapter of the second gen, and there's a desert. You get some cool characters, but that's about it. What do you guys think?

[Punished Dayni]

Gonna agree on the least favourite (and I think worst) being Chapter 7. Once you get past the desert, you have Melgen and Ishtor to face. Then you get Darna on the counter attack with Aless (good luck if you want to kill him in melee), while more mages and armours come from Alster. Leaf, Nanna and Fin have to deal with all the troops from there if you're not in position, and you have to also pick up a unit from Darna, which frankly is a dick move at this point. And you end with a holy warrior at a point where most of your army are one-shotted. Yeah, this chapter sucks.

I'm going to split my favourite, as chapter 5 isn't the best gameplay wise, but the story and what it leads to is excellent. Marching your army through two holy warriors at the end game, seeing the Yied massacre, getting Tyrfing, and managing to return to Grandbell, only for the end of that chapter to happen might be the best in the series, and Doors of Destiny is actually my favourite map music because of all this. It's dragged down by the desert and the merely distracting bandits near the start though.

Gameplay wise, I'm going with chapter 10. Despite the staves (in a game with 1 restore staff), everything else is good for this point in the game, and having to solve the puzzle of fighting Julius and Ishtar, and then the final wall at Chalphy is tough, but far from insurmountable. It gives plenty of experience for the endgame, and it's a solid chapter overall imo. 3 is similar, but the one bridge tile between Augustra and Orgahill is a giant pain to get past with that many pirates.

[Rend Keaven]

I tend to have a favourite per Generation:

Gen 1

Favourite: Chapter 4- Not everyone's favourite but I personally really enjoy the atmosphere this map gives, the music that plays when the enemy is on the offensive, watching the enemy claim the allies castle while all you can do is sit and watch, the character development of Levin, Fury, Sigurd and too some extent Sylvia. Even the death scene was handled very well to the point where I really cared about what was happening. Oh and you get the best tome in the series.

Least: Chapter 1- Not awful but I did not like the difficulty spike of this chapter. The fact that the first chapter after the prologue involves you recruiting two of the most difficult characters, having to escort a thief who can't double attack and a cleric to safety is just kind of ludicrous to me and the forest area is a bit tedious for an early chapter.


Gen 2:

Favourite: Final Chapter- A great end to an epic game, Fun yet challenging squads of enemies to fight, great boss conversations and a satisfying end. Only thing I didn't like was how tricky Julia can be to avoid if you accidentally promoted her and give her a light tome.

Least: Chapter 7- You guys probably said this chapter better than I will, but in short this chapter is a mess. Leif and his team in an area that they can't leave for way to long and if you were me and gave the Ethlyn's light brand to someone else in gen 1, Leif will kiss his easy experience goodbye. Dark magic users who can two hit kill 90% of your team, dealing with long ranged magic without a silence staff is annoying as hell, having to backtrack to a castle to recruit another unit is annoying. The few good things I can say about this chapter is that you get alot of good units and weapons and I like to conversation between Seliph and Aress.

[FiboSai]

Gameplay wise, I dislike most chapters in this game. Chapter 3 is the only one I consider good. Your units get assaulted by different squads which start moving during different turns, which means that you are always fighting one squad while preparing for the next. Overall, this chapter has way fewer empty turns than the other chapters.

As I said above, I dislike most chapters, chapters 2, 4 and 7 being my least favorite. I went with chapter 2 as my least favorite for this poll. Mostly because this is the chapter in which mounted units have the biggest advantage. If you want to use your infantry units, you have to wait many turns for them to catch up.

[Lord Tullus]

I love chapter 3.

Every chapter in Gen 2 makes me feel like I suck at Fire Emblem, which I probably do. I haven't played the final chapter yet, but chapter 10 makes me feel like I've done everything wrong - even when I have Arthur with the forsetti. Seriousy - I don't want to solo the game with Forseti, and this chapter is making me consider it. Chapter 7 is annoying, but at least that chapter gives you good powerful units. Chapter 10 just... That guy with a brave sword. Don't get me started on him or Julius/Istar. The Latter being pure Bull Shit.

[Rinehart]

The poll would have been a bit easier to navigate if you used the chapter names instead of numbers. But anyways:

Favorite: Chapter 5 (Doors of Destiny)

This chapter's story is the most pivotal turning point in the game, and you face off with multiple important characters (Langbart, Trabant, Leptor), which gives it a really epic feeling. I like how the characters' conversations hint towards the outcome; for example, Claude's lover talk with Aideen and Dew's talk with Jamka. Lastly, I also like the design, which has very little backtracking.

Least Favorite: Chapter 4 (Dance in the Skies)

This was a tough choice, but overall I'm not a big fan of backtracking in FE 4, and Dance is the Skies is the worst example of this. Once you capture the northwest castle, it takes forever to trek all the way back to the bottom, even given the fact that the game essentially gives you some free turns to move while the Pegasus Knights and Beige Ritter battle it out. Also, not having Dew (there's no way to know beforehand he's needed for that bridge) makes it even more cumbersome.

[OliKad]

My favorite is Chapter 10, for all the reasons possible: you can finally get revenge on Alvis, you learn even more on how cruel the Louptou sect is, you can finally have a touching reunion between Sigurd and Seliph, etc.
This chapter also feature my favorite chapter theme and my favorite battle theme IN THE WHOLE SERIES. Yes, that much!
Also, despite the status staves and the generally numerous number of enemies, I've always found this chapter to be really freakin' fun, because almost everyone is at least close to promotion at this point, and this feeling cannot be beaten. Even without that, I dunno why, but Chapter 10's design always had a special epic feel for me that I can't really explain in words.

I'll say it: I'm a fanboy of Light and Darkness. It's just so good!

Chapter 9, however, is my least favorite, because you gotta recruit Hannibal, which is very annoying to do. It has also the only bad song in the game as a chapter theme, the very powerful dragon squad trio of whatever at the end - which raids all of your castles quite violently - all of that including Arion, a very strong boss with everything to make you cringe: Pursuit, Continue, Nihil - which makes arrows useless against him - and a Legendary weapon which gives 10 Power, Defense and Speed! He's a nightmare!
Heck, I'd say this whole chapter is a nightmare for me, even if I am the only one thinking that way. :P

[The Draco Knight]

Favorite: Chapter 3.

It has my favorite map theme in the entire game and in-gameplay it's fantastic as well: you are being attacked by different squads, each one of them being formed by different types of units, with the only exceptios being the two squads of general and armor knights, and there are various pirates that will quickly burn every village if you are not fast enough, sproning you into being fast and effective if you want to save the villages.

Even after this part, It doesn't stop being fun.

Really, the only part where It bcomes a bit boring is the last part with Bridget, Claude, Tailte and the Orgahill pirates.

Least Favorite: Chapter 1:

There is such a low variety of enemies on this chapter that always makes me want to just solo it with Sigurd, especially considering that most of your enmies are axe-users; not to mention the recruitment of Ayra which is just plainly boring and bad, since there is apossibility that Ayra may ​kill your "bait unit" or even going for another unit.

Oh, and there is the last part where you need to traverse the forest and all of your units are penalized in movement: here is worse than in Chapter 5 because there is Jamka, who you want to recruit - the problem is you need Aideen to do and she already has shitty movements on normal terrains, so the forest just make this recruitment more difficulty than It should be.

Not to mention that, like ayra, there is the possibility that he may kill one of your units.

Oh, and I find the music of this chapter really boring and repetitive.

[Yoshi2398]

My favourite will always be chapter 5 due to story reasons, having the best track in the game and how satisfying it is to kill Langobalt and Reptor the gameply of it isn't half bad either the only low point is the dessert and slight abundance of meteor mages. chapter 10 isn't far behind this either as well.

My least favourite is actually the final chapter and whilst it is definitely satisfying to finally kill Manfroy and end the game the annoying abundance of sleep staves meteor mages, barons, the three pegasus sisters, the deadlords and the constant worry of being hit by hel. that combined with the fact that Arions units can kill Julia when recruited and the fact that it's easily the longest chapter in the game make it not very fun for me personally. special mention to chapter 7 also being annoying but no quite as bad.

[ZemZem]

Great:

5, 6, 8, 10, Epilogue

Fine:

Prologue, 1, 3, 4, 9

Meh:

2, 7

Favorite overall is 8, least favorite is 2.

[Cyas]

I'll be the odd one out and say that I like Chapter 7. Seizing the second castle is actually pretty fun since the enemy group can be legitimately threatening and not even Forseti!Arthur can solo them reliably all on his own. Moreover, I've always loved optimizing Leif's EXP, money and items so that he can promote as soon as possible. Warp can shorten the back-tracking, I've never seen that as much of a problem. The music is also very good.

Chapter 4 would be my least favorite. Mostly because you're forced to wait until a story element is finished. Though, it also bothers me that un-promoted mounts can't access the second part of the map and I was never fond of the design of the first part of the chapter. My units always tend to get stuck there.

No clear favorite.

Don't get me started on him or Julius/Istar. The Latter being pure Bull Shit.

Ishtar in first-time playthroughs is very RNG to fight. But there are ways to trivialize her:

Promoted Seliph with a Brave Sword reliably ORKOes her before she can do anything. Faval can one-shot at base but struggles with Hit rate.

Ishtar/Julius in C10 can be entirely skipped by seizing the castle with help from Rescue/dancers.

Endgame Ishtar can be silenced, put to sleep or, if you want to be funny, berserked so long as the staff user has sufficient Magic+Magic Ring.
There's a video out there showcasing Ishtar killing the Final boss while berserked.