I heard about EE occasionally before its release, and it interested me, mostly due to it being a telephone project that I wasn’t involved in whatsoever. So when it released after the FEE3 showcase, I picked it up immediately and played through it pretty quickly. Although I was initially drafting up a feedback post that was more detailed, going into specific thoughts on each chapter and its units, that was a bit of a chore, so instead, I figured that it would make more sense to share feedback in a more general form. Overall, I enjoyed the hack a great deal and would recommend it, especially to anyone interested in seeing what more modern community projects have in store.
Story
At times, EE being a telephone is plain to see; different writing and formatting styles can and do contrast harshly at times, and a character can read one way in one chapter but a different way in the next. That being said, there was clearly a strong focus on writing from some chapter contributors. There were the occasional telephone “filler episodes”, but generally, the plot progressed at a good pace once it got past the early game. Some notable highlight chapters for me story-wise were 3, 10, 13, and 15. The story does get a little bit insane, especially with the heavy usage of resurrection bringing back characters who had long outlived their welcome, but it ended strong and cohesive with the climb up the tower for endgame, with the towers having some slick eventing to make it cooler than it would’ve otherwise been.
For main characters, Diego, Erina, and Forben were probably the most compelling. There are a few other units that show up often enough, but I can’t say their appearances left a strong impact (Rumina being shady for no reason save a sequel hook was funny, though). Petra, in my opinion, mostly suffered from a lack of early focus beyond just being the leader, and although she did get her own personal connection to the plot later with her father’s resurrection, it felt a bit too late for me to care much about it. She was fine overall but didn’t feel as well-developed as some other mainstays, which is a bit rough for a lord. As for antagonists, I was most partial to Cassius, the main villain for the majority of the story, and Forben, even though his betrayal was more of a matter of when, not if. Flavius does very little to actually oppose you, but his and Diego’s duel in E-4 is a very cool set-piece.
Overall, I would liken the plot (and EE in general) to a rollercoaster; while there are some notable lows, there are also some very high highs. Despite any inconsistencies, it’s a fun ride overall, and I enjoyed seeing how characters developed and changed from the initial introductions.
Gameplay
Similar to what I said in the Story section, telephone will of course end up with some inconsistency, and gameplay is no different. I mostly found that it coincided with gameplay; if I enjoyed a chapter’s story, I was also fairly likely to enjoy its gameplay. For this reason, I felt that the earlygame had more chapters that were a miss for me than the mid-lategame. The general feel of the game was similar to CotA in its FE8 adjacency, but the new classes added and generally better enemy quality made it feel more unique. Particular standouts in gameplay were 6, due to the cool riddles and side objectives encouraging proactive play, and E-1, which had a cool atmosphere along with the cliffs for fliers and Jeff to make use of. The lategame did feel as if it spiked in difficulty, with some unit combat falling off, but there were enough tools there to take advantage of.
Endgame Units
As your lord (technically), it’s good that Petra is a pretty solid one. I wouldn’t say she was that impressive early, though the 6 move unpromoted is nice, but the Hessus is nice sometimes along with her fairly consistent ORKOing once she gets rolling. She dips a bit until promotion and her second Prf, but once she has those, she’s pretty much your best combat unit probably? If I have any complaint, it’s that her promotion felt a bit boring as she’s basically just a Super Berserker.
My Diego seemed a little blessed early, essentially being a better Datura by the time she showed up. Similar to Petra, his combat was quite good unpromoted, but promotion and his second prf just made him even better. In particular, he gains much better 1-2 range than Petra has, along with Luna access which is nice. His combat stayed strong throughout, along with his ability to tank any magic thrown at him (which is much more useful here than in vanilla).
Erina is a pretty interesting unit, in the sense that her main downside (poor Pow) isn’t really a problem for a lot of the game as she just heals. A bulky and fairly fast troub is a strong unit, unsurprisingly, and that she gets 3 Prfs to shore up her weaknesses (joining the club with Petra and Diego) along with a second, very sudden promotion reduces most of the downside that she would’ve otherwise had. A mainstay in the party (except when she and Diego were taken away 
)
Liam is… kinda busted? Mine was definitely blessed, so he ORKO’d a lot more early than he probably should’ve been able to, and I bought enough Luna in Chapter 4 to last him the whole game. Even if he wasn’t doing this though, I still think he’d be a top tier unit. He even sort of serves as a Gotoh with the endgame promotion, giving him absurd utility and stats (S Staves and what you can see here). Probably the #1 investment unit in the game, outside of maybe the lords.
Deesa was a close second for me, though. Perfect availability on a flier will do that, and despite the typical pegasus lack of strength, she actually has quite a bit. Her reaver Prf helps a lot in ORKOing some otherwise annoying enemies for her, and although her combat became less important as the game went on (due to lack of good i.e. magic 1-2 range), she was pretty vital in the early and midgame.
Terry kinda refused to hit Speed while unpromoted, but he capped Str pretty early. I never really used his bows, on account of E Rank being pretty useless, but he was my second best axe user for a while (until Baal and Gruyere leveled up enough to surpass him). An on-average Terry probably would be better than them, though, and Terry is likely the best user of the Profaned Heart.
Grunhilde is insanely strong, but not really in the combat sense. She can get some stuff done with Fiendish Bow for sure, but more importantly, she’s a bulky healer with very high staff range and strong heals. This is pretty useful in a few regards, mostly with Physic, Sleep, and Warp, the last being the most important. Her role is taken over a bit by Liam towards the endgame, but she can still do some things with status staves or Rescue. Basically, all of the Chapter 2 units are absurd, and over half the Chapter 1 units are also 
.
Speaking of absurd, here’s Enoch. Like some other units, I wouldn’t say he stays like that all the way through endgame, but at base, he just had ridiculous combat that no other unit could really match. His lack of Res isn’t much of a detriment until much later, so he kinda just rips through the game for a bit until magic users become more common. Having good Str/Def/Spd will do that, I guess.
Jeff was pretty solid, contributing decently for quite a while with a good Prf to encourage use. He leaves a good first impression, and although mountain walking isn’t as important on some maps, he benefits significantly on a few other maps after his join. A very versatile unit overall.
Chayse is probably the best bow user in the game, I would say. Riptide gives her a niche early in beating up powerful mage bosses or just OHKOing a generic one, but she did feel as if she fell off a bit as time went on and her chip was less valuable. Once she promotes and gets access to Arbalest+ through the 15 secret shop, she becomes the best PP delete button that you have with 3-7 range Luna and high offensive stats. Definitely bailed me out on a few of the tougher turns in lategame.
Old man trainee is a tried and true telephone classic, and Gruyere is no different. Although I had to hack in some promo bonuses, it just felt right to make him a Halberdier. Was he worth the effort? Probably not, but he sure was funny and did work in the lategame.
Baal is basically a worse Petra, but that’s not a terrible thing to be, really. His notably higher Con gives him some justification, and he takes good advantage of the S rank axe he comes with. He also doesn’t take long to get up to speed, so he’s probably worth training generally if you have an open slot. Ended up as solid filler for me later on.
Don’t have a ton to say on these two since they joined so late, but Eustace’s summoning was extremely useful along with his staffing. S also was a surprisingly good mixed tank with great 1-2 range (one I got killed for playing too aggressively in Phase 3 of Endgame and refused to reset such a long map for. Sorry, Stewart.)
Some other mentions include: Swyftpawe, who I tried to use despite how poorly she leveled; Rumina, who took her thieving niche while also having actual good combat for a bit and flight; and Turner, who I did use for a while until he was too stat-screwed to consider.
Tier List
Not particularly reasoned or thought out, mostly based on my impressions from the run. Some units that are high up are also ones I didn’t use and just guessed that they would be around that good, partially based on availability.
