I can sorta relate with you on this one...

Empjasis on the "sorta"

Man, you're cray cray.

It is based on the affinity between characters and the skill statistic, which I believe is explained in game, and if not fully, it is pretty darn obvious.

Also, SMTxFE is a spin off, so really the "new direction" is irrelevant as it isn't a main series game...

A lot of things are dependent on luck to some sense...this is what separates a good plan from a bad plan, your ability to plan ahead and make actions based on probability. It is a fundamental piece to numerous video games and pretty much every table top game.

Because of this variability you need to work in a way that is smart instead of brute forcing things. Your plan needs to account for the chance of failure. While this will lead you to fail in some scenarios, I wouldn't say that counts as much of a flaw. Failure is part of the game, and in that circumstance, you can simply try again, improving your strategy to better compensate for this variability.

Unlike the hit percent, crit, and miss which shows percentage, it doesn't show if it will trigger dualstrike or bodyblock 

Like I said, the odds are pretty easy to understand as they scale most strongly with your affinity to the other character and its pretty easy to feel out how the percentage system works. You just need to use your brain a bit...

So I need to use my brain = Excuse for poor and lazy game design? 

bad move bro, bad move :P. but i agree with you 

Don't get it, why is it that guys that played previous games couldn't see (especially in Fire Emblem of all the games) that the characters were almost ALWAYS anime/manga tropes and stereotypes?

They better presented then the actual Japanese fanservice games like what has become of Sega's Shining RPG Franchise, your typical visual novel/harem simulator and some other games but the games despite being able to present their characters in styles closer more high quality anime designs in game are basically no to different from what came before.

I mean there is like ONE Fire Emblem game in the whole series that had a deeply dramatic plot twist and that one was never released outside of Japan. Most games are fairly similar fantasy war stories about invasions, magic and sometimes fake geopolitical strife that mirrors real world issues. You can say you are playing it for the characters which are sometimes memorable but if you are looking for dramatic story with twists and turns comparable to the best literature then you are playing the wrong franchise. Heck probably the wrong genre given outside of a few exceptions how often SRPGs go back to a similar well.

As far as the talk of dual strikes and the pair up, it could use some work but it presented a good reason to have multiple characters around one another in strategic placements as well as allowed two characters to get experience for one kill which is welcome given how limited supplies and battles can be in certain Fire Emblem games. Not so much in Awakening due to DLC and the world map with roaming encounters but it helps with leveling and I am for better or worst a grinder at heart.

In any case, my rant to your rant, neither matter in the long run, the franchise is making money and money trumps rants every time.

If you play the support system optimally, there is not really much need to grind...I personally think it just adds another layer to the strategy, but I understand your point.

Compensating for the variability can also be done by working to break up enemies and preventing them from being able to dual attack you.

Overall, I think the variability when it comes to critical hits is much more frustrating than any of the dual mechanics ever were, because there is not really anything that can be done to compensate for critical hits whereas there is plenty that can be done strategically to optimize dual strike/defend mechanics.

As I said, it is also pretty easy to understand how the system works if you use your brain a little bit (and this is a SRPG after all). Afterwards, it makes sense why the statistic is invisible, and that is because the support level is the key to that statistic. Your S/A/B/etc ranking tells you how likely it is to get dual strikes with or without a number displayed on screen. Just by playing the game you should pretty easily understand how often you will get dual strikes.

Displaying that number would weaken the organic nature of the support system and make it feel like maths instead of character relationships.