Thracia: B******t

Yeah.  So, on this repeat episode of Thracia 776 (Chapter Two: Ith is a stupid name for a town), all my posse did what they were supposed to do.  They captured the mooks that needed to be captured, killed the boss in two turns, and generally acted like good little Fire Emblem characters.  See, I said the boss, Bucks, brought back memories of Hyman from Chapter Three of Shadow Dragon.  Bucks is even worse on paper-- he's a pre-promote with a bow and an axe.  In Chapter Two.  And since I saved all the villages, I get to Chapter 2X, which is already complete bullshit.  

It's bad enough to have shops when we have no money.  I mean, none. You get zilch to start with and have to sell your excess stuff, and since you have no money and can't buy anything, you don't know that you even have excess stuff.  The villagers don't reward you with bags of gold... but you do come in for some verbal abuse!  And here's a bloody fog-of-war map with no torches, and I already know that it's essential to capture one of the dudes I can't see instead of killing him.   Oh, and there's sand.  Thank goodness I only have one horsey-horsey to worry about instead of the usual squad of cavaliers.  But the simple existence of sand already means my most reliable mugger unit for capturing is either bogged down or has to dismount and use his secondary weapon that sucks. 

Thracia 776 is overflowing with BS already.  At least FE8 waited a couple more chapters to throw in fog-of-war, giant spiders, and helpless NPC units.  And FE8 provided torches on the front end.  :/

I guess it's a great depiction of what it's like to be a dirt-poor bunch of losers malcontents with more ambition than sense. 

-x-

Switching back-and-forth between FE4 and FE5 is head-spinning.  The games are so radically, radically different.  Even the color palette is different; FE4 is all bright and pretty and Thracia is kind of... grimy.  It's almost as dramatic as the difference in feel between FE6/7/8 and Shadow Dragon.  In terms of play, I think they're as different as two FE games can be outside of the Gaiden line of descent with world maps and monsters, and honestly FE8 has more core similarities to "normal" FE games than does FE4.  (FE2 truly is the odd duck because the weapons and magic are... weird.)

-x-

Speaking of FE2... we finally got DLC Cellica, and I can only say she disappoints.  Should've been a Grandmaster (Cellica was the original swords'n'tomes unit, damn you to hell MyUnit).  Shouldn't look so... bland.  Cellica's got style that even NES art can't dim.  Now she's just kinda cute.  At least she still has a nose.

-x-

Regarding DLC... Watching people insist on what we are and are not going to get as DLC units is funny and sad in the same way that watching people insist on who "deserves" to be in SSB4 is funny and sad.  Predictions are fun, guys, but we don't know anything about the decision-making process IS is using.  Nobody expected DLincia.  Nobody saw the Bride class coming.  So, to say that we WILL get Sigurd/Hector/Eliwood/Lyn and they HAVE to be this class because of reason X is just... foolish.  It would've made sense to have Grandmaster Cellica.  Didn't happen.  Would've made sense to have Ephraim allow access to an unmounted lance-using class.  Didn't happen.  The next unit unveiled could be Ninja Sothe for all we know.

And to insist you know what's next just makes you look like kind of a jerk.  Rather like the people who insisted they KNEW the true nature of Masked Marth and that anyone contradicting them was delusional.