SatsumaFSoysoy

First off, not really your fault, but since I didn't play the English version, I actually have no idea what chapters you're talking about when you mention names like Dead Man's Mire. I'm just guessing based on memory. I disagree that the swamp makes it more exciting, but I guess here we fundamentally disagree on what makes a good map. I consider having to move about a dozen units two tiles a turn while getting pelted by Slime, arrows and Gargoyles to be not fun and bad map design. In other words, "taking away the swamp makes the level less interesting" doesn't mean anything to me; that level should not have existed in the first place. On the level with Saizo (the random named Dread Fighter guy, I'm not sure what his English name is), the Gargoyles aren't even scary to begin with at that point in the game, since your stronger foot units should be able to deal with them no problem; I didn't need to use Expel at all. My Palla and Catria duo (with Est as support backpack) baited Saizo out for the rest of my army to deal with, but the rest of the map, including the Snipers and the Cantor, were basically all dealt with by Palla and Catria. By abusing forges and Arts at that point in the game, even the Snipers can be swiftly dealt with without taking damage. I gave Catria an Iron Lance (mostly because I didn't know Saunion existed at the time), and Palla a Steel one, and Catria would chip the Sniper first with Hit and Run while the Avoid boost gives her a good shot at taking no damage (even if she does, she won't die, so it's fine as long as Genny heals), then Tempest Lance from Palla would take the Sniper out for good. I actually don't remember what Dolth Keep is. Anyway, I already mentioned that only Leon is relatively relevant for a good while, since he can actually hit things that Palla and Catria are fighting. Catria overall isn't as good as she was in Gaiden (mostly because the enemies got buffed), but her lack of physical bulk is semi-negated by the fact that the most threatening enemies on Celica side are all magical-based (the occasional Dread Fighter is best left to be handled by your own Dread Fighters and Celica). And if you want to override that completely, you can just give Catria the Saunion forged from the Javelin, and she becomes a great magekiller and chipper for Palla. Palla is still top notch, especially now that she has that 60% Str growth, better physical bulk, and support bonuses from her sisters. She (usually) gets enough Speed to not get doubled by anything except Dread Fighters and some Bigles, and that's good enough. She can also abuse certain Arts like the one I just mentioned to trivialize certain encounters, and patch up her lower Skill since pretty much all Arts give a Hit bonus. You'd want to use the Dread Fighters etc. that you get, of course, but I don't think there's any doubt that they're the ones that carry Celica side overall. Est won't catch up unless you grind like crazy though, so she doesn't really matter.

Yeah, if you sacrifice your trained one to merge with a new one, the new one will inherit all of the old one's skills. +1 does give a slight jump in Arena score, but it won't be too bad. You'll get about +6 to your average Arena score in matchmaking, possibly less (I'm not sure how much exactly).

Unless you really want to fish for Azura, probably not. Hinata is useful already as 4*, unless you really want Ruby Sword+ fodder for some reason. Cecilia is free. Titania is cool but is also a 4*.

I still need to give my Cecilia Gronnblade... Unless Elincia somehow comes with super low attack, that'd be pretty crazy. Guaranteed four hits without a Speed check?

It's not that the game encourages going slowly by design; like you said, Cantors and the sort discourage this. But despite not encouraging people to go slow, it FORCES you go slow via terrible terrain on Celica's side. With no access to Warp/Rescue and very few movement mechanics available (you can shove with an Iron Shield... Wheee...), all non-fliers have to suffer. In Chapter 4, there are multiple swamp chapters where no one except Palla and Catria (and trained Est) can do meaningful actions for about 6~7 turns, because that's how long it takes to move two tiles at a time across a swamp, while Cantors summon Gargoyles to chip at you even more. And once you do even get to the edge of the island with enemies, there are multiple Dread Fighters and Slime-wielding mages waiting for you, which means in order to safely land, you'd need Palla and Catria to thin out the enemies in the first place. Celica's maps really encourage snowballing those two units, and essentially makes it lowmanning.

LOL, ANOTHER Azura banner?

Lies, Elincia doesn't have enough Str. What if Amiti is a Brave Sword with BRASH ASSAULT

Or they could just make the Tomahawk exclusive to Linus lel. Wouldn't make much sense, but hey, the Regal Blade is uninheritable.

Oh, wow. Maybe they put that in just in case they need it someday?

Celica's side would be so much more tolerable if she had access to Warp, but I guess that's exactly why they didn't give it to us.

Hm, it'd be interesting if they made maps with NPCs that you had to protect on them. Probably a bit hard with Heroes sized maps, though.

But wait, check this out: what if it's a 2-range only axe... with Close Counter as its ability! Talk about unique.

I just Warped in Mathilda and Alm for that one lol.

It'll be a 2-range only axe!

1) meh 2) MEH 3) That's fair.

1) What if they added new originals instead for a new season of story chapters? 2) What if there was a healer-only 10th stratum quest? 3) What happened to Eirika?

And they're both B skills too. They truly are a pair. Oh, Stahl and Sully both give great Assists (Swap and Draw Back) too. I wonder what fodder skills Sain and Kent will bring...

D-disgusting...

I just realized that both Abel and Cain both have the same purpose Fodder (Swordbreaker 3 and Wings of Mercy 3)

Nooooope. Each route in Fates only got three too, so I guess it technically hasn't changed.

No, I mean you just have some random unit take a hit, then have Nino Reciprocal Aid or Ardent Sacrifice, then all the killing begins. It doesn't matter if you have Fury or not, since Nino just needs to lose 10 HP via those two Assists to have Desperation activate.

Huh, I've only had about two enemies actively ignore illusions that they could have attacked. They'll only attack the summoner if they can't reach her illusions, which can happen since they're formed all around the summoner instead of all in front.

Oh. For some reason I was thinking you were talking about levels, and I was confused.

I mean, you just Ardent Sacrifice/Reciprocal Aid, and then Desperation activates. Not much help needed.

Which is my point. Who even cares about colors and counters when everything just dies?