nevar

Definitely the exploration bit is a HUGE plus for me. I just...love doing the activities and mingling with everybody. It's a nice break from story missions. The whole battle-after-battle-after-battle thing in the previous games never had bothered me, but experiencing the monastery made me realize I always want exploration to be a thing now in the future games. Also, i never minded the whole avatar thing as long as they're not the focus of the game and imo they did a great job with Byleth. Easily my favorite of the avatars. I like adjutants. It's a way to level up, at least a little, your weaker units and build support points. It's also not as OP as a pairup system (a good thing). They seem to have really focused on better story telling this time around and what a relief that is. Hoping for more of that in the future.

I honestly prefer that they're silent! I've had people tell me already that they hate that Byleth is not like Robin (talkative, has a set personality), but I dunno. I prefer it the way it is now. When there are dialogue options, I can then imagine what sort of tone or in what way they say those words (don't know if that makes sense). I think if Byleth had voiced lines, I wouldn't dislike it per say...but it's sort of like playing Link in the Zelda games where if Link had a voice it would ruin my interpretation of his personality or how he carries himself. Anyway yeah, I like the fact that Byleth does show emotions as the game progresses.

Gatekeeper as a playable unit or just more scenarios with him. Love that guy.

Depends on the pair, I suppose. Because I recruited both Hilda and Caspar, and I triggered their C-support after the timeskip. Their C-support, then, was not timelocked. Ignatz and Mercedes are the same way. Student supports between each other seem to be fine, then. Byleth supports, I'm not sure. I didn't get to test it out. I mostly had B supports with everyone pre-timeskip anyway.