Outstanding! As to say the least. Want the truth? A 6.0 does not speak for the true value of this game. At all.
With a greater cast of characters then in the past, it gives you far more choice over what type of party you most prefer, and also gives players of Path of Radiance a good fill of nostalgia. The way they pit you against your own heroes at certain points in the game also makes it all the more interesting. Although it can be hard if you really built up certain characters, it is a highly interesting concept.
The storyline is not the best ever, but not horrible. If you don't care to listen to the "Movie-Trailer Voiced Man" explain what is happening, then skip it plain and simple. If you've played Path of Radiance and enjoyed the story, then picking this one up to see how it all ended is not such a bad idea. When it comes down to the point when they pit Ike and Micaiah's parties against each other, the way they play out the thoughts and actions against the opposing group was well executed. There are moments in which it can get a little cheesy, particularly in the fourth part, but it is not horrendous. I think we all have been curious about the identity of the Black Knight (Which I won't reveal here.) Speaking of supposedly having an "unforgiving difficulty" and "Weak Characters", Destroying the Black Knight is now far less based around pure luck. The Cast of characters now has become stronger, with many of them almost being invincible if set up correctly, you can't just randomly fidget and hope your combination works, you have to plan it out. Unlike before however, you can re-set skills you don't want on someone, and if someone starts out with a certain skill, it doesn't count towards the skill capacity (Got to love Soren's Adept skill.)
Unlike the past game, there are far more different varieties of mission objectives. They range from the basic "Route the Enemy", to "Defend for X Turns", to "Hold the Line", to Defeating X amounts of enemies. There are more as well,, this provides for much more overall variety when playing the game. The Same strategy may not always work again anymore. If you must try things over and over however, you can always battle save at critical moments. When your heroes reach their Third Class, which is also new to this fire emblem, they learn their Final Skills, skills of exceptional power that usually kill the enemy in one blow. Most Boss foes do not even have these abilities. The ones that do, there are ways around them.
All in all, this was a great game, and I will continue to play it more until I've mastered it, just like the first one. If there's one thing this one lacks that Path of Radiance had, it was the Trial Maps that made you want to have the strongest party at the end. Even without that, it is still fun to prepare for the final fight. See for yourself how untrue that 6.0 is.
Note: For those of you than don't care for the storyline value, you can skip almost (if not) all the talking ;).
Another Note: The Difficulty is how you want it to be really. For some it really might be hard. Don't forget: Battle Save often!