How are the three routes ranked in terms of quality?

[Zerxen]

I am mostly concerned with the quality of gameplay of the routes. I am not willing to purchase all three routes due to financial issues. I am hoping to purchase Conquest and either Birthright or Revelations. In order to give me an idea of which route to pick, I decided to make this topic

[Shephen]

It is really up to personal preference. Personally I think Hoshido > Nohr > IK

[LeopardFire]

If you're debating between Birthright and Revelations, then I'd consider what matters more to you in understanding the plot: Getting the "complete" story, or seeing the flip-side of the situation after defeating Conquest. I've heard Birthright lives up to Awakening's difficulty standards and that Revelations has severe balancing issues, so I don't know which is superior in regards to game-play.

[Ownagepuffs]

My favorites are IK > Hosh > Nohr if that helps.

If you can only purchase 2, then I'd suggest Nohr and IK.

[NekoKnight]

If gameplay is your main priority, I'd say Nohr>Hoshido. Nohr maps are interesting and make you think hard about your strategy. Although i like Hoshido for flavor, I found Nohr an overall more enjoying gameplay experience. I haven't played IK, and while it allows you to get all the characters and shops, I heard a lot of the maps are gimmicy and character recruitment is imbalanced. If you want to do multiplayer, however, IK is the best choice for having the most options, characters and items.

[Dollysama]

IMO:

Hoshido > Nohr > IK

[VincentASM]

Out of Birthright and Revelation, I'd be tempted to go with Revelation.

Birthright is fun in its own right, but I think you should get Revelation to "complete" the story.

[MitoRequiem]

I'm surprised at the amount of people saying Hoshido > Nohr lol.

Nohr > Hoshido > IK for me.

Nohr maps are very interesting.

Hoshido maps are pretty straight forward.

IK Maps I dunno I kinda hate them but this is the file we'll be using for future DLC so we kinda need it lol. It has a ton of balancing issues I pretty much just used +Mag Kamui to get through it the first time through. Now I'm using Fem Kamui with Samurai STR+/-RES. The units they give you just I dunno I don't agree with it at all what were they thinking. I'm not sure how it is on Normal maybe it's better I'm currently playing on Lunatic but Odin not being able to kill anything on his join chapter is kinda pathetic.