Those who have the game, what are your first thoughts?

I like that you can pick "casual mode" where if a unit falls in battle, it's not perma-death.

There is a "Classic" mode which has the perma-death thing.

I think that's what stopped me from playing the last few, my short temper and OCD wouldn't let me continue without getting every character.

Thrawn
Oh, its AMAZING!!!1! I love shipping all the characters, and all their interactions are hilarious. OH GODS ITS AWESOME!!!1!
Bet you wish you had it ;D

The opening cinematic is the best opening to a Fire Emblem game ever.

I'm trying to figure out how difficult this game is going to get. At first I was thinking Path of Radiance difficulty but now I'm getting worried that it'll jump to Radiant Dawn difficulty. Of course I'm playing on Hard so that may have something to do with it. Still, I don't remember having to face Wyvern Riders as early as Chapter 5 in any other games.

Fun fact: Enemy reinforcements can move and attack the same turn they spawn.

Supports feel like they're easier to build up. Like I said, only on Chapter 5 and I already have a B support and several C's. Its probably due to the fact that they did away with the 5 supports total limit. There's also a barracks like in PoR/RD, where you can listen to conversations from your units and gain experience and stuff. Unfortunately the conversations are little more than "Great job on the battlefield today/I'll do my best!"

The double-teaming system is quite fun, and I hope it sticks around for future games. Although its incredibly disappointing to see a cavalier run around with your character in the battle animation and not have it do anything.

Anyway, really enjoying it. Hope I don't have to let someone die to get past this darned chapter...

quote Pikachu

I'm enjoying it so far. Only disappointment for me right now is the lack (so far) of an open world. I don't like shooting from place to place on the world map.

Well, Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn don't even have overworld maps. As far as I know, most FE games don't. So even the overworld map is an extra, imo.

Pheonyx - Is there BEXP? Also, Reinforcements spawning and attacking same turn sounds painful. Especially since there's no guidebook to know where reinforcements are coming in?

Seriously, that's my main thing right now. I'm pretty annoyed that there's no guide. I need an easy way to look at all the classes, stat caps, item locations, skills, etc. etc.

*In before someone directs me to Serene Forest*

Yeah, Pikachu, in PoR and RD basically you just go:

Base Camp > Battle > Base Camp > Battle > Repeat x 30 > Game Over.

I'm on Normal, reinforcements came from forts in one stage. I had to block up the forts to stop them from spawning. I THINK they could act, but they didn't come every single turn or anything.

I really like it, because it forces you to be cautious and aware of the map while treating every fort as a deathtrap.