Incredible story, great gameplay, interesting characters...overall, an awesome game.
Except, I had never played a Fire Emblem game before. In fact, I was fresh off of Tales of Symphonia, so I was expecting something quite different. I knew there was a grid-based battle system similar to chess, but I thought that was just the battles, not exploring the overworld.
Boy was I surprised -- but quite pleasantly so. This game has two major things going for it: one of the best plots ever in a video game (neck-and-neck with that of Tales of Symphonia, actually), and incredibly deep strategy, partly due to the fact that you don't need to spend any of the game wandering around, wondering where to go. The first 10 chapters or so weren't all that difficult, but once you start getting into chapter 19 and 25, you're spending AT LEAST an hour and a half on the one chapter. That's what I like (I don't much like getting really close to winning when your favorite character dies, but it's all part of the game). This game makes you think, and keeps you on the edge of your toes. There's no button-mashing here -- everything is either carefully planned out or recklessly done.
Except the first thing I mentioned, the plot, has A LOT of reading if you want to know everything there is to know (like me). This may be seen as a downside, but you don't have to watch the conversations if you're really impatient.
This game also has a few cutscenes (I think about 6 in the whole game). When you watch the first cutscene, it looks really cool, but also incredibly not-realistic. It's more or less a graphical style you have to get used to, but thankfully it's only in the cinemas. On the battlefield, the characters -- and environments -- look great.
Overall, this is one incredible game if you love a game that will eat up at least 30 hours of your life, has an incredibly immersive plot, and forces you to think about what your opponent might do before you move.