So I've just finished Birthright. Personal review [spoilers]

[Quirino]

After not having played Fire Emblem for a while, I picked up the special edition of Fates a couple of weeks back (for its European release). I was sceptical of the game at first, because the other 3DS game, Awakening, has turned out to be my least favourite entry in the series. I mean I love what it's done to revive the series, but personally I could just not stomach this game.

But then I started playing Fates, I heard Birthright was the easiest route so that seemed like the perfect route for me. And this was the first Fire Emblem in a while I actually managed to complete. I really liked the game: balance was brought back with attack stance/guard stance, the character designs and personalities just appealed to me more than Awakening's did and the map designs were much better (save for some maps towards the end).

I personally liked the changes in weaponry. Having infinite weapons, but in limited amounts, reminded me of Gaiden and Genealogy of the Holy War (the latter has infinite weapons if you have enough money). Also, I think this is the only game where I ever brought iron weaponry to the endgame. I tried to not use silver weapons often (only when I really needed a kill) and not everyone could double with steel weapons. I probably should have used forging more, I neglected it mostly save for a forged steel naginata for Hinoka and a forged iron shuriken for Saizo.

So the units I used and my personal opinion of them. This was mostly a blind playthrough, I used the info on SF in rare occasions. This was a hard/classic playthrough (where I reset once I lose a unit). I did use the rewards for owning 3 routes (2 ebon wings, 2 dread scrolls and some boots+dragon herbs). Also the pairings were mostly random, and I have no interest in 'optimizing' them, I prefer to play the game somewhat casually (not the mode though).

Avatar (Daniel) - I chose +mag and -luck which was a terrible choice since I never reclassed Avatar (it was only after chapter 20 that I realized this). If I had realized earlier, I would probably have reclassed him to Dark Falcon. So he was pretty mediocre all around. Especially in midgame his defense and speed really let him down. For a next playthrough I'll go either +Spd or +Def. Married Azura.

Felicia - My main healer for the biggest portion of the game. Also had debuff utility early on and once she got the flame shuriken she was a very decent magic fighter. Not much else to say here. Married Takumi.

Kaze - My main fighting unit for early and midgame. His fantastic speed meant he could double almost everything the game threw at me with a steel shuriken even. I reclassed him to dread fighter soon to try and fix his strength. During midgame he was a killing dodge-machine. During the latter part of the game his defense just didn't do it anymore but he was still a very decent finisher and also a great magekiller all around. Married Hinoka. I picked up somewhere that you lose him if you don't have an A support with the avatar and I'm very glad I happened to read this.

Azura - Earlygame dancer with perfect availability. Hell yes! I had to keep her out of the attack zone because almost any hit would kill her but I never had many problems doing so. Since I mainly play defensively, she wasn't as useful as she would've been in a LTC run, but still saved me quite a few times. Married Avatar.

Silas - Silas was my main tank in the game and boy did he do a great job at it. I reclassed him to great knight to optimize his defense and he was my only unit that I could throw in a group of enemies and he would come out alive. He even took only 2 damage from Ch. 27 Garon paired with his daughter. His resistance was horrible though, so I had to keep him out of the line of fire for mages. If it were not for him, I wouldn't know how to finish chapter 25 with the entrap staff. Married Oboro

Rinkah - pairup for Kaze during earlygame, ditched her soon after. I prefer units that have something called speed and her strength growth was also abysmal.

Sakura - Healer for early and midgame, ditched her once promoted units could heal alongside Felicia.

Subaki - I decided to use him when he joined, for being a male pegasus knight and all, but low strength and speed made me ditch him later on, also in favor of Hinoka. Married Hana.

Hana - I was very torn on whether to use Hana or not. Strong and quick, but made of paper. In the end I did decide to use her, and she didn't let me down. Her defense was still bad, but she was a killing machine. Married Subaki.

Saizo - I reclassed Saizo to dread fighter together with Kaze and he didn't do quite as well. I think my Saizo got really speedscrewed. He couldn't double most of the midgame and endgame enemies. In the endgame I reclassed him back to master ninja in order to fix this, and it partially worked. I wouldn't reclass him to dread fighter in a future playthrough. He did do a nice job of being sort of a mixed tank, with very decent defense and resistance stats. Married Orochi.

Orochi - I picked up somewhere that Orochi's speed was a real problem. I reclassed her to Dark Falcon instantly and it really worked wonders for me. By midgame she could actually double some enemies that were no generals. Plus her amazing magic growth meant that she didn't often even need the double hit for fast enemies, with tiger or rabbit spirit equipped. Horse spirit was her main spell though, for the speed increase. With it equipped, she actually had the same speed as Saizo before I reclassed him to master ninja. Married Saizo.

Hinoka - Classic pegasus knight and a very good one at that. Once promoted to falcon knight, she was one of my most reliable mixed tanks, killing machine and also healed in a few occasions. Needed a few levels to get going, but then she really is one of the best units. Married Kaze.

Oboro - Tellius-like spearfighter. She wasn't my best unit. She was decent all around but never excelled in anything and has issues doubling enemies all the way through. Married Silas.

Takumi - I know archers are not considered the best units generally, but I like to use one for every playthrough and Takumi was my archer for his playthrough. And he was one of my strongest units all the way to endgame. Really his only flaws were his speed at times, but with such high damage and crit rates it was never a big problem for me. Fujin Yumi is all he ever needs. Promoted him to sniper initially for the better stats, but later heartsealed him to kinshi knight. Married Felicia.

Reina - Prepromoted unit with high bases. She was insanely useful for midgame, before my units were promoted, but after this her defense fell short and I ditched her once my units started promoting. Mainly her defense fell short and her other stats did not make up for this. Also, not being able to support anyone but the avatar lets her down.

Lobster - Kills everything, dodges everything. That's all. Didn't pair him though, which was pretty stupid in hindsight.

Scarlet - Underused her, so she fell short for endgame. I think if I used her just a bit more (and she was my only club user), she would've turned out pretty good, but I'd need someone to confirm this. Also, like Reina, can't support anyone but the avatar.

Sophie - The only child I used extensively. She was basically a bit more balanced version of her father. With defense that's a bit lower but still great, and a higher resistance. Paired with her father they were an unkillable physical tank and also on her own she held out really well.

Caeldori - Used her sparingly. She seemed pretty good though, had all around good stats and I wouldn't mind using her for a future playthrough.

Izana - Used sparingly, was a decent magic killer and a decent healer for when I used him, for a future playthrough I might consider actually levelling him and see how good he will become.

Storywise, this game is just your average Fire Emblem game where a group of people tries to save the world, defeat the bad guys and overthrow a kingdom. The story until the route-split and in the endgame is pretty good, between those two parts it's a little bit dull.

The difficulty curve was pretty good in my opinion. There were a few chapters that gave me a lot of trouble. The first map that did was chapter 11 (the boat level), where everyone rushed toward me when I got too far to the left. Another one being chapter 21, with all those ANNOYING stone enemies. For what I've heard about chapter 23 I thought it was okay and did it in 1 try, since Camilla can't kill anyone with the DVs and I only needed to heal up the characters who were in range of enemies. I failed the endgame on the first try because I got overwhelmed by the number of enemies. Second try I used hexing rod on Garon and had Lobster + Avatar kill him in 1 turn.

Overall though, this has definitely been one of my favourite Fire Emblems to play (where I've played FE1-4, 7-11 and I've started, but never finished, FE13) and I can't wait to play Conquest and Revelations, even if I'm a bit scared of the stories of Conquest's difficulty.

A question I do have, at the end of this wall of text, is if there are any units (especially children, since I neglected most of them) that are really good but that I've overlooked? Or perhaps some class changes that would've really benefitted one of my characters.

[Zxtakuto]

A magic focused Avatar is much better on conquest since the promotion for the nohr prince/princess is more magical focused as well as getting acces to tomes giving it a magic weapon that can double and has more of a chance of triggering offensive skills rather than relying on the dragonstone. also about conquest, yeah..... good luck to ya.

[Abvora]

Glad to hear you enjoyed the game!

Units you overlooked: Ryoma's kid Shiro is usually really good, so yeah, marrying him off would have been a wise move. You had Rinkah and Kagero left over, and both of them are really fantastic moms for Shiro. The Avatar's kid, Kana, is nothing special, but Shigure is pretty solid, especially when fathered by the Avatar. You were fine this run since you had Hinoka, but in Conquest he's going to be your only Pegasus Knight, and since Azura supports so slowly with anyone not the Avatar you might want to marry her again (their supports on each route are different anyway) so you can get him at a reasonable time.

Conquest kids to be on the look out for: Keaton's daughter Velouria is basically Keaton+++, Odin's daughter Ophelia is extremely good and her Paralogue has very useful loot. If you want to recruit Benny's son Ignatius you need to do it fast, because his paralogue is difficult and after a certain point becomes hair-tearingly frustrating. You should really recruit all the kids though; even if you aren't going to use them, the extra EXP and support grinding that can be done in their Paralogues is good.

[Quirino]

A magic focused Avatar is much better on conquest since the promotion for the nohr prince/princess is more magical focused as well as getting acces to tomes giving it a magic weapon that can double and has more of a chance of triggering offensive skills rather than relying on the dragonstone. also about conquest, yeah..... good luck to ya.

No kidding... I had to restart chapter 6 four times already. Now I'm on chapter 7 and just got rocked, and this is on hard/classic, I can't imagine what lunatic must be like. This is going to be quite the ordeal haha. Having never played Thracia or any lunatic mode before, this is definitely something new for me. I went with +Spd/-Luck avatar this time.

Glad to hear you enjoyed the game!

Units you overlooked: Ryoma's kid Shiro is usually really good, so yeah, marrying him off would have been a wise move. You had Rinkah and Kagero left over, and both of them are really fantastic moms for Shiro. The Avatar's kid, Kana, is nothing special, but Shigure is pretty solid, especially when fathered by the Avatar. You were fine this run since you had Hinoka, but in Conquest he's going to be your only Pegasus Knight, and since Azura supports so slowly with anyone not the Avatar you might want to marry her again (their supports on each route are different anyway) so you can get him at a reasonable time.

Conquest kids to be on the look out for: Keaton's daughter Velouria is basically Keaton+++, Odin's daughter Ophelia is extremely good and her Paralogue has very useful loot. If you want to recruit Benny's son Ignatius you need to do it fast, because his paralogue is difficult and after a certain point becomes hair-tearingly frustrating. You should really recruit all the kids though; even if you aren't going to use them, the extra EXP and support grinding that can be done in their Paralogues is good.

I'll keep it in mind, thank you! Also, the reason I never married Ryoma to someone is because I had a full team and I didn't like bringing someone who was just pairup. In my conquest run I can perhaps have some units on rotation in order to get more people married. Also, is keaton worth using in this run? I've never bothered with Kaden because he was a 1-range glass cannon and Hana already had that role.

I did recruit all the kids I had in Birthright, indeed those paralogues (which I did after chapter 22) made the remaining chapters so much easier. And like you said, I used the first few paralogues to finish supports. So I definitely intend on doing that again!

[Abvora]

I'll keep it in mind, thank you! Also, the reason I never married Ryoma to someone is because I had a full team and I didn't like bringing someone who was just pairup. In my conquest run I can perhaps have some units on rotation in order to get more people married. Also, is keaton worth using in this run? I've never bothered with Kaden because he was a 1-range glass cannon and Hana already had that role.

I did recruit all the kids I had in Birthright, indeed those paralogues (which I did after chapter 22) made the remaining chapters so much easier. And like you said, I used the first few paralogues to finish supports. So I definitely intend on doing that again!

If you put units on rotation, make sure you prioritize promoting the ones you intend to be on your endgame team so you don't end up screwed over. Keaton's not a Glass Cannon, but a Stone Wall--bulk, STR, and DEF in abundance. He's definitely worth using, in my experience.

[eclipse]

Congratulations~!

Now, for Conquest, here's the kids I thought were worth recruiting. . .

- Percy: Do it right, and you'll get a LOT out of his paralogue. Don't do this one too late, or it's gonna suck.

- Siegbert: Siegbert's personal is really good. However, he also needs to be recruited somewhat early.

- Soliel: Her paralogue's not too headache-inducing, and her personal skill is REALLY easy to pull off (since she can naturally reclass to Ninja)

- Ophelia: Her paralogue also offers a lot, so even if you don't use her, you'll get something for it!

- Nina: Getting everything in her paralogue is hard, but it's well worth the effort.

[Thor Odinson]

@Nina: I recommend getting Shurikenbreaker on her in some way or another, whether it's dip into bow knight or passed by dad if gotten late enough.

Makes chapter 25 that much easier.