Impressions after finishing all 4 routes

>!I know these posts are a dime a dozen, but I just finished my 4th playthrough of the game after \~300 hours and wanted to share my impressions.!<

>!Snooping on forums on forum in a spoiler-less way a bit, I decided to do an AM run first. I did appreciate the twist, but the game had foreshadowed it efficiently so it was hardly a surprise. Still, it was satisfying. I rather disliked post-timeskip Dimitri, but he does redeem himself, and I do see where he is coming from. I thought the maps were fun and the overall narrative was satisfying but there clearly were loose ends with the shadow organization in the Empire after the last battle. At the time, I figured all storylines were going to be partial and you'd get a full picture from playing all of them so I was broadly OK with it. Lots of people said a AM run would make you hate Edelgard but it was well written and I did feel like there was more to her side than AM let you see, so I wasn't exactly up in arms against her. In retrospect, the partial reveals here are not worth much because you don't ever learn anything truly unique, aside maybe from a few quips regarding the tragedy of Duscur.!<

>!I decided to do a VW run next. GD felt like having no stakes or part in the story from an AM point of view so I was really curious to see how they spun it. I liked how you could see the other side of the BL without the professor's influence, and figured the professor being with GD would make them care and get involved. The maps were fun but overall I was dissatisfied with the narrative. I felt like they didn't have a clear thing they cared about. Initially I thought it'd be about class warfare, but in retrospect that's more Edelgard's story so they had to find something else: Claude wants to open Fodlan to the world. Sure, that works. But it's not played up enough imo, and I do think it's weird how much he cared about the church's secrets considering how irrelevant they are to his objectives. I was also disappointed that it wasn't a unique, partial reveal but a rather full one. I think it made relatively little sense to get all the pretty-much-full picture at the end as far as that narrative is concerned. I think it'd have been better if the Almyran had been more present in other paths and had more relevance to the overall plot, so that playing Claude's storyline would give you a unique point of view on the story without just having been this total reveal.!<

>!Third, I did a CF run. I was really curious to see Edelgard's side. I will say, turning against Rhea was rough. I'm definitely here for organized religion being the bad guys, but I'd grown to like the church people and I think the game could have done more to give Rhea a less human, more ambiguous figure pre-time skip. I did like the variance in missions post-time skip, they were great! And I feel definitely harder than other runs. But it was a bit jarring to see how the broad situations changes completely and makes the Empire the underdogs just because you sided with them. Sure, it makes for a more satisfying overall narrative having significant challenges to overcome, and maybe the game is better for it, but it was a bit jarring. Reveal-wise, it did OK as far as partial reveals go: gave you more/different stuff than AM without giving you the full picture... But when you,ve played all 4 runs, it doesn't really give you anything unique either. Also, not fully confronting TWSITD at the end was super unsatisfying. If not for the post-game text, it really feels like you completely played into their hand. It would have been good to confront them in some unique, Edelgard-centered way, maybe without completely revealing who they are. That's a big missed opportunity imo. I'm also left with questions around the Flame Emperor: what was the point of having the tragedy of Duscur to get these "powers", whatever they are? Once the flame emperor reveals its true identity, it only ever acts as its actual self. From there, the flame emperor persona, and alleged powers, are completely forgotten about. Feels pretty pointless.!<

>!And I wrapped it up with a SS playthrough. As forewarned, it was extremely similar to VW. The twist of the final mission was both welcome and very weird/jarring narratively speaking. In some ways, the big reveal at the end made more sense in this route, but it was also partial in a weird way. What do you mean Rhea does not know where Nemesis got the sword of the creator and what crests are?! I appreciated we learned more about what Seteth & Flayn were and about Byleth's origins, though. Still not my favorite run.!<

>!In conclusion, I can't say I didn't like the game. It was fun. I spent about 300 hours on it afterall. But I think the character writing is what saves a poorly exploited narrative, though. In retrospect, it wasn't all routes giving partial reveals, moreso than it was a progressive reveal. It would really work if you played the game multiple times in that order: AM, CF, VW/SS. But the games leaves it up to you and so you can kind of screw yourself out of the natural plot progression. The plot is fine and serviceable though, but I think it would have been better if:!<

* >!There was a neutral state of things before your involvement, so the situation was essentially the same for all routes post time skip. Also that later events be coherent throughout routes. For example: why does Edelgard only transform when confronted on the AM route? Why is the twist of the final baddies unique in VW / SS? Why do events turn out differently for not apparent reasons on other routes?!< * >!Make it an actual 3-way (or 4-way if you count the church) conflict around TWSITD, rather than a 2-way conflict (TWSITD + Empire vs Church / BL) with 1-2 bystanders on the sidelines (GD / BL)!< * >!Each route had a unique big thing to reveal. There's no shortage of secrets you could have spread throughout: the nature of Seteth & Flayn, TWSITD, the nature of crests & relics, Byleth's origins...!<

>!If I had a TL;DR to give of this game, it would be "Who cares about the Golden Deer? Not the devs".!<

>!If I had to give recommendations on what house to play, if someone intended to do all routes, I would recommend this order: AM, CF, GD/SS. But if they were only going to do the one playthrough, I would recommend they just do GD.!<