After 47 hours, I've finished my first runthrough (the Church route). Feelings on the endgame's specifics in the spoiler.
Spoiler text.The last few chapters were fantastic, as was the rest of the game. The final battle with Rhea was hard as hell, but like always, Petra pulled through for me. 137 damage crit to finish Rhea off and save everybody's arse. She did the same against Edelgard a few chapters earlier and saved us there too. I stumbled into the church route (wanted to side with Edelgard, but messed up one of the decisions and realised too late) but it was fantastic as it is - Rhea is crazy as hell from this perspective as well though, so I'm glad it didn't just end with the fight against Edelgard. Flayn deserved to live too, she's a good Mint Pattie.
Ferdinand and Bernadetta's support is actually the cutest thing ever too. I love how supportive he is of her.
I wife'd Petra, because obviously she's the best girl. I really like how they left that decision until after the final battle, it feels more realistic imo.
This has been absolutely incredible from start to finish. Character design, world building, story, music, battles, everything. Not just my favourite FE, but it's now my equal favourite game of all time. They fucking nailed this, I had big expectations but I was still blown completely away. Very much looking forward to messing around with a few more missions in this file, and moving onto New Game+. Cannot wait to play through the other routes. I was planning on doing the Blue Lions/Golden Deer next, but I really want to see Edelgard's other route so I might just do that and ensure I go down that path this time. I'm going to get 200+ hours out of this, I can't stop playing.
