Volt-Ikazuchi

Just started playing it, still kinda dodging spoilers. I know there are Second Seals in the game, how early can I get some? Should I actually worry about them as a resource?

Honestly, remakes should help this, but I'm told Echoes didn't do so well. (Dunno how good that game is, haven't had the chance to play it yet.)

The more I think about it, the more bust potential I see. Coming off Age of Calamity, which had great gameplay but a horrendous story, courtesy of the blatant false advertisement and random OC with time travel, we got Three Hopes. A game whose first trailer points to a golden ending (I'm actually fine with that since 3H didn't have one), an OC and time travel is Byleth's thing since day 1. The one reason I'm not disgusted at the "Yay, golden ending!" potential is because realistically, all of the major factors have beef with Those Who Slither in the Dark. (Or would have. Sorry Lions.) That might explain Aymr being conspicuously gone. Interestingly enough, we see Edelgard vs. Dimitri getting broken up by Claude, Claude vs. Dimitri (why tho) and then both pairing up. Not exactly in that order. We know that Edelgard invades Garreg Mach in this game (Ch. 8 to be more precise). Honestly, I'd rather have multiple storylines, but I'll give them a fair shot. There's just too little information about this game's story rn. Also, as for non-3H characters... Don't hold your breath. This is not FEW2. It may come down the line, but this game is certainly not it.

Character quantity isn't exactly an issue in Warriors games. The better question is whether or not they'll be clones again. Honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if they were, makes a lot of sense considering how 3H worked. I hope you can reclass people into some alternate classes for other movesets tho. Or at least some different weapon types.

As long as the story isn't an immediate fail like Hyrule Warriors Age of Calamity was, this should be good. I can see them trying to get a golden ending going because realistically, Those Who Slither in the Dark are a common enemy that could work. Edelgard's raid on Garreg Mach is already confirmed to be a thing too, so that's interesting. I honestly don't know what they're going for because there's clearly a time-skip version of everyone with new designs. No eyepatch Dimitri is interesting too. I doubt that they'll run with DW8's idea of multiple story paths, this looks like a legit alternate dimension story. I wonder if Three Houses is getting some update with some of the new stuff like the character designs.

Modding purposes. Ideas that involve things that are in the game can be tested in practice, and so real experience comes out of it. That is a good point, I forgot how underwhelming Physic is in this game.

I'm not sure Heal +20 is even in the game, and frankly, it's kind of overkill. Units will have enough magic by that point to almost heal a unit up to full from below 50%. Also, pretty sure Rally Spectrum isn't in the game.

This. Seriously, what the heck is up with that? Even if Jeralt is avoiding the church, it's damn near impossible to raise a merc that never even heard of it. Also, the whole famous merc makes the idea of him blocking an axe with his spine even worse. Like bro, if these are your battlefield reflexes, you got hard-carried by Jeralt. Byleth is a whole mess that I just can't take seriously. They fail as a protag because they're all but a cardboard cutout. It would make sense as an avatar, but they also fail on that front because they're as customizable as a cardboard cutout. Seriously, it doesn't take a lot to get an avatar going. Just have more customization options and especially some dialogue options. They already have branching dialogue in 3H, but it basically amounts to nothing because all the options are samey. I'm not buying the pre-rendered cutscenes argument either. The reason is very simple. Why do they even exist to begin with? In-Engine cutscenes have been the standard in gaming for a minute now and IS used them on the 3DS. Somehow, even in the context of 3H, Byleth manages to be a bad avatar gameplay-wise. As you know, Byleth starts with 13 Strength, 45% Str growth, and gets a 1-2 Sword with a solid combat art. In contrast, if you want to go down the magic route, they start with 6 Mag, 35% growth, and a dismal spell list. Great job. Also, everyone has access to all classes depending on your actions barring Gender-Locks and the like. All they need is the proper ranks. Speaking of which, the good old professor does NOT do well on that front. Since Byleth is the teacher, they can't attend classes. And boy does that make getting said ranks with them an enormous pain. Spending activity points on Byleth's training instead of meals and the like means you're going to lose out on 2 students' training sessions unless you bribe them with gifts and lost items, and you're missing out on professor level. The closer to part 2, the less of a problem this is, but the early-mid game is crucial because of how important the Intermediate classes mastery skills are. They don't even have Bow proficiency. Their whole skill set is based around being adjacent to allies so they can get more exp, do more damage and all that stuff, but when it counts, all Byleth has to offer is a solid bonk with the Sword of the Creator. (Which defeats the purpose as that's more of a killing tool than a weakening tool.) It's not like they're bad as a unit, they are pretty good, but man, that's not an avatar kit at all!

Regarding the Armor Knight movement discussion... I'd rather have them with more movement than what 3H did. They're supposed to be slow, prone to getting doubled units that wear massive armor and look the part but they get Weight reducing skills? Huh? AKs with standard infantry movement points would still get bodied by most terrain and keep several of their defining points such as low speed, high defense, and low resistance. What they would gain however, is the ability to do their intended role of being a defensive frontliner unit. Let's be real here, when you use AKs, they're not going to be able to catch up with the rest of the army, let alone stay on the front. That all but defeats their purpose. As for Holy Knights... The problem with them is that they don't have a niche. Anyone that gets Physic is still going to do better in their black magic equivalent classes. Need more magic uses? Gremory. Need a horse? Dark Knight. Offensively, pure white magic users will never catch up and they shouldn't tbh. That's not what they're supposed to do. White magic is all about support and healing, so what's a good way to play off that? Have them focus on that instead of the raw output of black magic. Extra range. White Magic range + are skills that are already in the game, so it's simple to mod them in. Basically, the idea is to maintain them off the frontlines while also having them be able to chip in offensively. Nosferatu just isn't doing anything, even at 2-range, and the other white offensive skills are straight up outclassed, but the extra range would give people a reason to actually invest in the white magic classes and in Faith past C for Physic. A potential Class Skill list for Holy Knight would be something like: Canto, White Tomefaire, White Magic Range +1, White Magic Heal +10. (I know 3H classes only have 3 class skills, just have one be a mastery skill carried over from Bishop lol)