Fire Emblem 6 - Race #2

[Fenn]

small maps, 4v4 battles, no permadeath, no accuracy

F2P aspects

premium currency

stamina

(In other news, I didn't have as much free time on the weekend as I'd hoped, and this week was busy too. Should have the next three days to myself, for real this time.)

[Cheater Hater]

small maps, 4v4 battles, no permadeath, no accuracy

F2P aspects

premium currency

stamina

Yes, it sounds bad, but let's go through these in order:
Small maps: Everything's scaled down (most things move 2 squares, knights 1, cavaliers 3) and there still feels like there's room for interesting maps (only through the first two chapters of at least ten). If anything, it helps it feel distinct from the mainline games, which obviously still exist (a remake of 2 in May, as well as plans for a Switch title in 2018).
4v4 Battles: The main "strategy" here is the weapon triangle, and considering the small maps (meant to only take up one screen) it would probably be overwhelming otherwise--we'll see if the story maps ever have more than 4 opponents, but "PvP" is definitely 4v4.
No Permadeath: Like it or not, the series has been trending in this direction, and it would feel worse since you're paying for the characters this time, and there's no real way to save scum on a phone.
No Accuracy: Of all the things, this is probably what I like least: the stats have been massively simplified (only HP, Attack/Magic, Speed, Defense and Resist) and thus misses and crits have been removed. I think part of this comes from the removal of save scumming (and probably to make "PVP" feel fair, though I have no clue what the endgame is there), but it's probably the farthest away from actual Fire Emblem the game comes.
Premium Currency: It's Orbs, and you need 5 to get a new character (fewer if you get multiple at once), but again, I haven't seen the need to do so yet--as I said, I could easily go through the campaign with just what is initially given to you (I got Anna, Virion, and two new characters, which all-together cover the full triangle+bows). Otherwise, the only thing I did was upgrading the castle to increase XP gain by 100% (which was shockingly cheap--you get 15 orbs to start and one per story mission, and it only cost about 25 orbs to fully max the castle). I'm pretty sure you could easily finish the story mode without spending a single orb, honestly.
Stamina: Your stamina bar is 50 units, but so far the story missions have only cost two or three stamina each, and a daily mission only cost 5. The higher difficulties cost more stamina, but I'm not sure what the differences are yet. Even so, you can get a stamina refill with MyNintendo for only 100 Platinum Points, which are very easy to get (I get 120 a week, not counting special things).

Overall, it seems like a fine experience for the low price of free. I have no idea how much it'll sustain itself once I complete the story (since I have no intention of collecting heroes), but the story isn't awful and the gameplay is a fine FE Light. Of course, I should really get back to FE:Fates, but this will work for now.