FEA: Completed. Hard Mode Classic, for those wondering. Since everyone else did it, I might as well post my final team:
Chrom (Great Lord): Pretty much a given. Married Sumia. Basically Ike-9 Mk2, which is to say "This is how you do a Marth-style Lord right."
Robin (Grand Master): Male, +Mag, -Luck. Decent mage who could use some physicals, Married Lissa because that's the closest he's going to get to Chrom who is his secret lover.
Sumia (Falcon Knight): Had damage issues later in the game, even with Gungnir/Brave Lance + Lanceflaire or whatever, but hey, healing, and paired with Chrom for extra smash or something.
Sully (Paladin): Decent Paladin, not much else to say. Married Kellam, so I guess someone finally acknowledged he existed?
Kellam (General): Doesn't take damage, him being paired with Sully was actually a consistent strategy I fell back on when I needed someone safe.Lon'Qu (Swordmaster): Is a typical Swordmaster though like Sumia, he had some damage issues for a while late game, though unlike Sumia, Swordflaire did actually end up putting him back up due to Crit rates and Astra. Balmung was a nice defensive back up as well. Married Olivia because...shut up.
Virion (Bow Knight): Better than I was expecting given early game Male FE Archer, maybe I got a lucky one? He was lagging for a little mid-game than had a good end game performance. Mobile, was decent at offense, somehow had RNG in his favor when I needed him to survive a turn because enemies unexpected attacked him, and is absolutely MAGNIFICENT!!! Married Cordelia.
Maribelle (Valkyrie): Mobile healer who can't take a hit to save her life. She probably cost me some of my most resets for never just having the raw HP to survive hits and being hit by stray attacks. That said, her healing was exceedingly useful, hence why I kept her in my party, and her offense as an Assist was passable when she got high enough to use a forged El-Thunder.
Olivia (Dancer): The OTHER person who cost me a lot of resets because there are times I'd use her to dance someone then REINFORCEMENTS LOL YOU LOSE! She was also the only character to receive any sort of stat up item in the form of a Seraph Robe because it was pissing me off...or did Maribelle get that? ...or Both? Whatever, the point is, I didn't use them much! That said, she's an FE Dancer, and is about what you expect from it, which is to say, a nice utility, and works as a Pair Up just for the speed boost.
Gregor (Bow Knight): For a Mercenary character, he's slow...yet also tanky. He struggled to double things frequently...though he was still capable of killing or just tanking out areas, and decided to love critical hitting or assist kills with a Killer Bow. So I guess the proper term would be GREGOR SMASH!!! Also, Gregor is the bravest man alive, as he married Tharja.
Tharja (Sorcerer): "Dark Knights sound awesome! ...wait, why is her Dark Magic fading out? ...oh, only Sorcerer can use it, guess I gotta go that way
" ...and I don't regret it at all. Tharja got my Silver medal (Chrom getting gold, Lon'Qu got bronze) and wasn't surprised, given how often I'd fall back on her just tanking out entire scenarios with Nosferatu. Gregor as her consistent pair up gave her just enough speed to double most things, and late game, she had Tomebreaker so Mages just couldn't' touch her at all. Actually, she was my main way of dealing with both Validar and Aversa (also used Robin w/ Superior Jolt against Validar.) Best part was that she actually had a defense score, so didn't die to a sneeze, so Nosferatu strategy could actually work!
Cherche (Wyvern Lord): I probably should have made her a Griffon Knight as I had more faith in her speed than I should have, because she couldn't double much, though a few maps I did pair her with Sumia and such and she was good there. In any event, I was a little underwhelmed; she's tanky, but the bow weakness is ever present, doesn't deal with magic well, isn't as evasive as I'd like, etc. She's no Miredy or Jill when it comes to Unpromoted Female Wyverns in the series, which just makes the disappointment grow! She was good come endgame at least, and it looks like Gerome would end up being rather powerful if caught up but whatever. Oh yeah, she married Henry...because Henry is awesome and I should have used him in my final team! yes, there should be a pun there, but I'm at a loss. Also was my main Axe user, especially after I dropped Vaike, so there's that.
Lucina (Great Lord): I didn't think I was going to bother with her due to Nino-syndrome until I saw how high her stats were for her level, combined with Parallel Falchion and all that, and went "Ok, let's try her out for a map"; by the end of the first Map (the Ship), she had gained 5 levels and was already starting to compete with Promoted Units. She's an absolute monster, and was pretty much the one character I didn't Pair Up when I had an Odd Number of units, because her stats were damn good overall and I was never worried about her dying (especially because Aether adds to her durability.) Unbreakable Silver Sword that is infinite Concoctions and murders Wyverns doesn't hurt either, of course. Promoted, I actually nerfed her with a forged Bronze Lance and she was still killing things (why? Not to make her worse, but because I wanted that D in Lances so she could use Javelins, for obvious reasons, and didn't feel like usnig an Arm's Scroll.)
Tiki (Manakete): I was using Nowi for a while, but when she hit level 20, I saw her stats (most notably her speed) and doubled checked her growths, I realized there's no way Nowi was going to be worth anything long term; at least Manaketes have strong Pair Up bonuses. Tiki, on the otherhand? I wish I didn't get her as late as I did, kicking myself for holding off on that paralogue. She's what I expect out of a Manakete, in terms of stats, durability, etc. She's fairly tanky, decent offense (even 1-2 Range in this game!), and on top of that, SHE HAS ACTUAL SPEED. Even with just a Dragon Stone, she absolutely crushes Nowi w/ a DragonStone+ on stats. Makes sense granted, as Tiki was a decent unit in FE12, so now that she's finally matured 1000 years later, you'd think she'd retain decency...or something...
Flavia (Hero): I wasn't going to use her beyond the chapter she joins but then the last few maps increase the party size, so I needed a competent character for that slot. It feels like the game hands the two PCs in Chap 23 to you for that reason: adequate PCs out of the gate who can fill in those empty slots. She didn't actually see much use though; mostly was paired up with Virion and gave him extra bonuses while sometimes occasionally doing competent damage as an assist, but really, that's all I ask for with a unit like that.
I used a number of other PCs on reserves for worthless randoms, or in cases of "Damn it, I need a Thief!", Anna would be subbed in for someone of the above, and it's probably the FE game I used the most characters in, excluding FE10 due to it's nature, and FE2 and FE4 where "You can use everyone, SO USE EVERYONE DAMN IT!"
Overall thoughts on the game?
"Finally, a worthy follow up to Radiant Dawn!"
It's not a better game than Radiant Dawn, but it at least shows an attempt at legitimately trying to be an equal game. The game is basically what happens when you take FE8 (which was already a remake of FE2 in disguise when you think about it...) and FE4, put them in a blender and this is what you get! Ok, and instead of a generation time jump system, they go with the DBZ Android Saga plot of "Child of character from the Future comes to warn about the EVIL FUTURE that must be averted!" spliced with a little bit of "Robin is totally FF7 Cloud" except the identity crisis here is more just straight forward amnesia rather than "I THINK I'M SOMEONE ELSE!" Despite all this, the game ends up being pretty stock for FE plot:
Evil Country is bad, beat evil country before it takes over your country! It does that plot twice actually, just ups the stakes the 2nd time, THEN decides "Validar is Nergal, he's trying to DESTROY THE WORLD WITH EVIL DRAGONS because evil" because we need an epic final boss fight with a dark madman, not some guy trying to be Ashnard WITH PURE IDEALS!!!
...actually, when you think about it, the game is a combination of every FE game out there in some way, which makes sense that the DLC and Spotpasses is basically them throwing their arms up and going "Ok, screw it, THIS GAME IS FIRE EMBLEM ALL-STARS IN DISGUISE!" I'm ok with this, and probably will take advantage of that on a replay, where I intend to use more children, as well as some of the DLC Characters (Dark Knight Micaiah seems really damn fun on paper), and possibly playing around with a Second Seal because I didn't do that much.
I'm thinking the game is an 8/10 right now. Doubt it'll go below that, question of do I think it deserves more or not...but for now, yeah, 8/10 works. Not quite Radiant Dawn level, but probably around Path of Radiance? Yeah, let's go with that.