Then I will just play the game without permadeath. I enjoyed Awakening when I realized it wasn't really a strategy game, but more of an RPG with strategy elements.

I'd say that I'm one of the few on the forum that avoids save scumming because I'm one of the few, here, that was a fan of the series before Fire Emblem Awakening. Save-scumming was heavily frowned upon, not just by the traditional Fire Emblem community, but by the developers: who designed the game in such a way that it would punish you harshly for attempting it. I don't think newer FE fans would be able to handle the older games.

Awakening and later games are more RPG in their mechanics and less about strategy, while the earlier ones are more about strategy and less about RPG. The big difference is there's no room to rest in the classic games, you push forward through the story and battles, no extra grinding. Awakening and post-Awakening are a lot of "do a map" "now do some side maps" "do these battles on repeat to grind up some characters" "now continue on with the story on the next map" and you lurch forward. I don't dislike the new games, I actually like them, but they are different, and I found trying to play classic mode is kind of a trap, because Awakening (at least) certainly was not balanced for it.

I'm not weird, just old. Old enough to have played the original games long before Awakening. That's how they were designed to be played.

FE7 (Blazing) is my 2nd favorite in the franchise (after Path of Radiance), and Awakening is in my bottom three (alongside Shadow Dragon and Fates: Birthright), and I absolutely love this game. The world building and story are on par with the Radiant games, and the character writing might be some of the best in the franchise. Honestly some of the side characters have more depth than the MCs in Fates did and for my first five hours or so I found myself just reading through in-game lore and character bios to learn more about the cast. The high school setting is rather deceptive...this game really takes the medieval setting seriously and touches on topics like genocide, racism, political marriage, and doesn't shy away from taking a more gray perspective on war, something the games used to really excel at but lost touch with over the 3DS generation.

In terms of gameplay depth, I'm playing on Hard Classic mode, and I find the challenge to be worthwhile. Nothing mind-blowingly hard, but it keeps me invested throughout the fights. The cast is relatively smaller, I'm on chapter 7 and have only 10 characters so far, and so you'll want to be more careful, but since most of the characters are a blank slate that you can experiment with to achieve desired classes (within reason), you won't break the game unless you lose a significant amount of them...in which case I would question how you've been playing in the first place. 

Battle saves return from Radiant Dawn normal mode, but I almost never remember to use it since it works the same as a suspend, and the game brings in the turn reset feature from Echoes to fix any dumb issues or RNG luck...which of course is completely optional and shouldn't affect your experience. Overall as someone who's been into the franchise since 2003, I've been having a fantastic time with it, and it'll likely make my top 3 FE titles when all is set and done.

Okay, I need to say something here. I've been a fan LONG before Awakening, and I count amongst my real life friends over a dozen Fire Emblem fans who, like me, have been playing since the GBA era, and not a single ONE of us didn't save scum. And we don't even call it save scumming, we call it RNG manipulation, of which strategic saving and resetting is only a part. Thank you very much. The new games certainly are different, but no-death runs requiring RNG manipulation have been a long-time pass time of hardcore Fire Emblem fans. It's the only way I've ever known any of us to play. Maybe my first time playing an FE game I allowed a character or two to die because I just couldn't figure out a way through the map with everyone intact, but after that, it became a very rare occurance. Nintendo knows this is how the VAST majority of the fanbase has ALWAYS played, and that's why they felt comfortable making the changes they did. It was still controversial, but the controversy was partially over the fact that you could endlessly level your characters, partially over the increased emphasis on the "shipping" elements, not on the fact that it was designed to make it easier for you not to lose any characters to permadeath. Indeed, the only other thing that pissed people off was the fact that casual mode had no permadeath, because a bunch of elitist fans felt that filthy casuals not willing to earn their no-death runs weren't welcome in the fan base. The fanbase has since moved on because Nintendo gave multiple ways to play, Classic and Casual, and multiple difficulties, the highest ones making the extra leveling a moot point and requiring pure strategy to win. Eventually the hardcore fans realized there was still a space for them to do their thing and it was still just as fun.

You on the other hand are just weird. Weird even for a fan of the old games. Only weirdos let their characters be lost to permadeath.

I think I played FE on DS.
Is it a medievally version of Advance Wars? Archers instead of artillery n shit?
For someone who couldn't care less about story or micromanaging is there anything I should/shouldn't do to ensure I'm not wasting time?

Broke 30 hours, and it feels like the end is nigh. I still really like the game, but I have another complaint. Pacing. The beginning of the game is good. The back half (starting at chapter 2) is absolutely superb. But the middle of the game drags a bit. I think chapter 1 should have been shorter, and chapter 2 needs more battles. Chapter 2 is amazing. So much better than chapter 1.

It is but unlike Advance Wars your units aren't expendable they're unique characters.

Tbh I'd say you probably shouldn't get 3 Houses, half the game time is spent outside of battle experiencing characters and story and managing equipment n unit growths. Any of the older FE games would suit ya better.

I think you mean Part 1/2, and yeah Part 1 has 12 chapters plus more paralogues, Part 2 has 10, so it did feel rushed for me also, at least that's the case for the Golden Deer route. Course it didn't help that I started beating maps in 1-5 turns haha. Stride-Rescue-Dance-Warp plays need to be illegal!

Yes, part 2 is superb. Far more interesting and far less tedious stuff. I would have preferred a much longer chapter 2. I did read the FE has a game+ mode that sounds interesting when doing the other houses. I'm sticking with my 8/10. Great concept, but marred slightly by unbalanced activities and pacing.

i'm 40 hours in and in chapter 10 . admittedly i wasted a lot of time because my daughter saw me switching classes and wanted to see how every girl looks in every class and wanted me to give all the girls gifts -_-

I believe the game has me clocked at 12 hours roughly (give or take), and I *think* I'm on Chapter 2, but perhaps I made it to Chapter 3. I finished the...

... mission, which was the Chapter 2 battle. I watched the post-fight cutscenes, some support skits, and upgraded two of my character's to their Level 5 class. I chose to use the next free day to explore the monastery and saved and quit without exploring any of it yet.

I'm not far enough to have figured out how the skill mechanics work, but it seems like mastering a class gives you a perk (like +5 HP) that can be used with any class.

My question: Are these class mastery perks limited? In other words, am I only allowed to equip a certain number of them at a time, or can I stack as many as I can get. I'm trying to decide if I should advance classes that haven't yet reached their mastery level.

If you do decide to get it, you'll want to play in casual mode, not classic. This avoids permadeath, which gives you more room for error so you don't have to micromanage as much. There is a lot of time spent outside of battle, and that might be boring for you, but most of it is skippable. Just understand that doing so makes the game a lot shorter. Of course, since you can play it more than once for up to four endings (1 for each house, plus an extra ending under the Black Eagles house), you might still be able to get plenty of hours out of the game. By fast traveling and only doing what's absolutely necessary with Explore mode, you'll save a lot of time with the story. Of course, a lot of the appeal of the game is building up your characters, so you might not get much out of it if you play that way. But you certainly could play that way if that's your thing. The time spent on the micromanaging and character building does have a tangible effect though, so if you go this route, stay away from the tougher difficulty levels, which would be balanced around you taking advantage of every opportunity for growth.