>>717755565NTA, there are some clear oddities IntSys missed with Part II more playtesting would have caught. Like how Ced will overflow his Speed with Forsetti, the Seliph x Julia jealousy glitch, Laylea being a better unit than Lene no matter what, and messier, more open map designs that don't flow as neatly as (barring Chapter fucking 2) Part I's. It definitely becomes more about enemy spam to counter your stat-stacked units, forgetting that the average player may not actually have good units if they messed up the breeding rituals.
>>717755712>>717755812I can agree that there are valuable things Pair Up and Rescue adds to the average chucklefuck that not having those mechanics is more detrimental to the play experience. Something FE kind of misses out compared to other SRPGs like Final Fantasy Tactics or even the Mario + Rabbids games is that the value of unit just existing on the field and what they add to others/player's interactivity. So much of the teamwork and support experience in FE is so passive and uninteractive, it is hard to call your team an army so much as a bunch of cheerleaders. Ignoring any balance complaints, Pair Up does provide plenty of genuine options and fluidity in a unit's possible turn.
But I just think Pair Up is a bit too much of a double-edged sword. It doubles down on FE's exploitable and defensive nature in its phase-based systems without adding enough strong options compared to a quantity of them. It makes the good better and the bad worse. Hence why I say the decision making is reduced. Not just in how Guard Stance is the overall stronger form, but how the vast majority of possible roads all lead to Guard Stance in some fashion, even if you go solo or want to keep your units flexible.