more than just a transition to 3D. it stands among the best of them.
let me get the frivolous details out of the way. the graphics serve their purpose well. i have no complaints whatsoever. the music consists of several orchestral pieces, which add to the experience even more.
the story adheres to the tradition of war and political strife that we all know and love (or don't care for). the aggressive kingdom of Daein declares war on the scholarly, martially incompetent kingdom of Crimea, and a band of simple mercenaries get mixed up in this mysterious conflict. once again, the writers have a refreshing new take on such a story. the bitterness of racism factors into it many times. this racism is between the beorc (full humans) and laguz (humanoids). the central protagonist, Ike, often states his feelings on the matters of racism and supremacy. while he may seem like a hopeless romantic at times, i find him pretty deep and insightful. you'll run across plenty of characters though, both memorable and forgettable. sadly, most of the characters do suffer from that condition the exists in games with large casts. this is that once they join forces with you, you'll hear little to nothing from them. despite that, the excessive dialogue may annoy you at times. you can skip it if you want, but you might get lost as to what's going on.
the gameplay is nothing new if you're familiar with FE. a chess-esque strategic RPG. it is done in a linear fashion with chapters and breaks in-between. you have a massive army of characters that can be hard to build up, but sometimes well worth it. also, you will have to manage a large and sometimes cumbersome inventory. as you might have guessed, your most valuable resource for playing this game is your judgement, and a hint of intelligence. given that, this game is recommended for the intellectual type. knowing everybody's strengths and weaknesses is a heavy burden, and sometimes you must take audacious risks to get the job done. the long lost idea of "skills" has been re-introduced. they are passive abilities which increase a unit's usefulness. they are not easy to come by, so they should be assigned wisely. a new kind of unit has also been introduced, the aforementioned laguz. they can transform into animals under certain conditions, and are often extremely powerful in this state without even relying on weapons. in their human state they are helpless, so beware. the fighting is pretty fast-paced compared to some past installments, since the attacks are just no-nonsense charge and strikes instead of dragged out flashy stuff (except for criticals, skill hits, and some spells). exchanges of blows are exciting most of the times and made even better by the detailed backgrounds on which they take place. it can get a little dull after a while, but is not as tiring to wait for as in previous episodes.
what is so great about this FE is te superior battle preparations and resource management [i must repeat some old news for those unfamiliar]. between chapters, you can exchange items among characters, buy, sell, and forge weapons, buy items, assign skills, award bonus experience, watch your friends chat, and more i may have forgotten to mention. careful, though, since Ike doesn't have gold coming out his rear-end! inventories now have 8 slots; 4 for weapons, 4 for other things. and a great relief for long-time fans is that you don't need promotion items!!!!! you can change to a superior class by reaching "level 21".
the problem with this game is the frustration factor. death is permanent, thus not to be taken lightly. you may spend a great deal of time fighting your way through an army with extreme caution only to have somebody important killed. luckily you can start a chapter from the beginning if you are dissatisfied with certain occurrences. if Ike dies, you'll have to restart anyway! it's easy to get discouraged and not want to play this game for the rest of the day, or a good, long while. if you have plentiful perseverance, then good for you!
managing experience points is a hardship too. some units eat too much exp, some units are difficult to get exp for, some may wind up being a waste of your time, some may get supplanted by a better unit of the same class, etc. this is the stressful aspect of the game. that, and taking care of weapons, which may break at inopportune moments.
there's a reason to complete the game again and again. for example there are trial maps for your characters which are in the post-completion stage, secret characters for trials, the sound test, illustrations, and cinema. i doubt you'd want to go through with this game the number of times necessary for certain secret characters...
this is a strong game, as well as intended for the strong. if you like great storytelling, want to test your mind, your instinct, and your patience (the hard part), look no further.