That was me a few hours ago. Started the Siege of Desaix's fortress, and had to deal with seven extra enemy shamans (or whatever they're called now). I'm playing on Hard to begin with, so it made advancing into the fort a huge pain in the ass. Figured I should probably back off and let the shamans come to me first.

 Like you though, I'm digging it a lot. There have been some annoying design choices that I'm glad they changed (letting witches move after teleporting), but fortunately the levels are much shorter, usually taking 15 minutes or so. I'm liking the turnwheel too. I can see how it'd be easy to abuse, but it's helped thwart RNGesus more than once so far. Unless an enemy crits Alm or Celica, I don't have to worry about losing from BS luck anymore.

Yeah, that was pretty annoying that witches can move after teleporting, even though they weren't a threat. The turnwheel is def great. It saved me a few times from a reset   ...Or when a unit misses their shot at 90%. "Come on dude, how can you miss that!!!! D:<"

I will say that the exploration in dungeons is a pretty pleasant change. Full VA is expected though. Especially with Fates and Awakening having VA.

I've used the turnwheel after missing a 93% hit chance, let things play out identically, and hit the second time. I can't speak for level ups with absolute certainty, but I'd assume everything is reset. I'll need the try it out to be sure though.

I've yet to max out anyone, and the only units I've promoted are villagers and Lukas, who I promoted ~level 12. I'm basically planning to promote units at the point where it's too much of a pain to level them up any further. My archers and mages are levelling up frequently due to being more useful in this game (Mae, Boey, and Leon are all above level 15), so I'll likely wait till 20 to promote. If that isn't the level cap...I guess I'll probably promote them anyway. Snipers seem overpowered in this game, so I might go early on him. Definitely changing my typical play style here.

I'm leaning towards no on Mila's Wheel changing the stats you gain on a lvl, since on a few occassions I'd done that and still got the same points on the lvl up, on minor variations of said unit gaining the lvl up. Perhaps the points will be changed if you wait later in the battle for that unit to lvl up from doing a different action. I'm not 100% sure on this though.

Also, I've only promoted villagers into new classes, and trying to get close to lvl 20 for all units. I'm feeling maybe I should just promote them now, since I'm pretty much done with chap 3 with still basic units, but I'll wait until chap 4 to make that decision.

Also, I've found something to complain about: The desert section in general.

- These maps are just infuriating. Traveling through desert is painfully slow and just made for very slow going battles.

-Witches are just unfair. It seems they can teleport where ever and whenever they feel like and pick on the lowest resistant, slowest units, and RES rarely ever increases, due to the percent being in the 5% area or lower for units. I've had a unit in the back just get killed because of witches.

-Cantors show their worst in the Grieth battle, as well as sniper/achanist combos and Leon just.. sucking. I spent almost an hour, trying to kill the snipers with him, while fighting off an endless army of skeletons. It was just a bad mix, with Cantors just needlessly dragging the map.


And.. that's it, my rant. Beware the desert section, and the Sonya battle is just way too hard. Cursed team of witches...

 I was thinking the same thing with the desert LOL but my assumption is that it will be brief.

 The witches never bothered me, though when it came to choosing between Deen and Sonya to fight, I obviously chose Deen because of the reasons you listed. No way I was going to fight an army of mages and witches in the desert with only one sniper.

Honestly, I hope it gets expanded upon. I would love a fully explorable country with an SMT4-style map and overworld.

Either way, loving the voice work. Much better than what appeared in the new Zelda.

Yeah, Deen's map is easier, since you have a unit that can tank the hits, but is still kinda annoying with the slow movement.

I tried Sonya's map on a seperate save file, but lost because of very bad luck with Celica missing the finishing blow on a high percentage and getting killed off instead, and since you can't use the turnwheel to save the main units, I have to redo the map, as well as having a lot of feelings of frustration...

Perhaps it was just my pegasi not being high enough levels or lacking certain stats they weren't able to take on all the witches in a group. Also, I only had one javelin at the time. I got a 2nd one after I beat Grieth. Those are the only 2 javelins I know, unless I missed one in a building somewhere.