Congrats on the release! I played a bit earlier today, figured early thoughts would be of some use.
For context, Iāve played until Ch6 on normal classic.
Gameplay
Prologue:
Fairly simple, no real comments on that. That stationary bonewalker was a bit odd but he got thrown into the river
Ch1:
Oh boy. This chapter I have a problem with because of the positioning, the abundance of enemies immediately Iām forced to deal with, the fact that the majority are mercenaries, and that weāre already facing steel weapons.
- only units i can bait initially are sword units (edited)
with my pirate
the reinforcements canāt deal with mercs or bandits themselves either
talk āhintā tells me to use the forest
but that literally kills me
All those deaths sans 1 due to ch1 (stats at the start of ch6).
My suggestion would be removing the steels as they donāt give me an AS advantage, only deal more damage. I would alsoā¦ not have the axe main character forced to bait into 2 sword units. A lance bandit would help with this, or if Weston was a Lance Cavalier to better soak up their damage when he arrives and having Sarah as a sword Pegasus knight to dance around the brigands. Maybe only 1 mercenary and that 1 brigand that move to attack you. Thanks for no enemy archers at least lol
Ch2:
Similar issue as ch1, the initial flood of enemies combined with awkward positioning and very bad AI for our young foolish friend Will makes for an annoying recruit/first few turns. This is where Scottās second death occurred, and Willās death occurred (but as an NPC it doesnāt seem to count?).
My suggestion would beā¦ not making Will an NPC. And removing the cliff tile adjacent to the village on the righthand side. Most of the problems I had were with both of these things. The cliff makes my position difficult, and Will requires me to rescue drop to immediately recruit or have Sarah hold on to him for extra turns, which are important given I have so much initial pressure. I would probably remove that archer that start off in the middle or push him backwards and remove the brigand in the middle.
Ch3:
While I didnāt lose anyone on this chapter, I restarted it because of the amount of thieves that showed up on the map combined with the positioning of the enemy units blocking me. And none of the chests were items, so I couldnāt steal anythingā¦ 
A lot of reaver weapons as wellā¦ And this is chapter 3. Second playthrough of it I stole everything though. RIP Zabza
Ch4:
The mogalls flying across the map really annoyed me until I realized the MC was literally a pirate and could just walk across the water and OHKO them 
Katie showed up, but no one could talk to her, so she justā¦ stood there. The whole map. Not sure if that was intentional lol
Also, using VBA to see if it crashed on the village and it didnāt; that may have been a report from an older version of VBARR. Won inside of the soft time limit and got the extra reward.
Ch5:
I donāt remember having any issues or real feedback on this one, it was fine, Andrew killed every wyvern without being hit once 
. Also, Jeremiah didnāt join, which I found odd given the dialogue but I may have missed something.
Something someone pointed out to me when playing was this though:
Why does he need the iron rune? lol And if youāre wondering, yes I fought him. Yeah I won. Easily. Yepā¦ Stole the Fire Emblem tooā¦
Ch5x:
I was a bit confused by this one, as all of those NPCs were standing next to the thrones, which could have saved them, but they chose to justā¦ not. And died within 1 turnā¦ Idk they could have died in a cutscene lol Won inside of the soft time limit and got the extra reward here as well.
Story
Something I think maybe Iām alone in disliking, but when I get an exposition at the beginning of the game, it tends (at least for me) to detract from everything else around me. I donāt have any context for these places and by the time I do, Iād have forgotten everything that initial showcase 5-10 chapters ago. My suggestion is usually to show whatās relevant for right now, and bring up the wide-shot later down the line when Iāve had interactions with these kingdoms/locations and focus more on the main characters at the start. For example, donāt really know much about Scott and Arianna. I know they were soldiers and are now mercs, but idk what exactly theyāre doing before they get re-involved with their former commander. The nature of their relationship is also not clear for a few chapters (I thought they were siblings, then that they were married, currently have decided to go with dating). The abundance of talk conversations does address this for the most part, but Iād almost say there areā¦ too many? It started to become noticeable when I had time crunches in chapters 4 and 5, as well as ch1 and ch2 because of the initial rush of enemies.
Overall
Despite maybe coming off as harsh, Iām enjoying it a lot, plan on streaming it again in my server during the week. I will say that the chapters definitely feel like theyāre intended for someone with prior knowledge of what will happen, as any minor āmistakeā is typically heavily punished, which feels a bit unfair for the early game. Weapon distribution also feels like itās a lot for just the first few chapters. But I suppose that may just continue as the game progresses. Andrew and Keegan are also incredible units, thanks!
Iāll have more when I play more! If no one posts after me Iāll just update this post, otherwise Iāll just reply to it or you if you respond to it.
