Fire Emblem Engage Totally Beaten:

I replayed Fire Emblem Engage with the new Fell Xenologue characters and classes, on maddening classic difficulty, and unlocked all the new scenes and skits featuring them.  Once I got through the Divine Paralogues it was mostly smooth sailing, though occasionally I did have to retry.  The new Enchanter class is pretty strong due to the weapon surge ability -- ultimately my trump card was to weapon surge thoron, which three of my characters were wielding.  Thoron with +5 might echoed becomes really scary.  The hold out ability granted by the packed lunches is also really strong.  Plus I gave my enchanter (Framme) the Micaiah emblem ring, so she could fetch any staff she wanted at the moment from the convoy and then use its augmented version at will -- that's strong.

The mage cannoneer class sucked until the very end, where I was given Piercing Strike, the first cannonball that did any actual damage.  I combined that with Sigurd's +30 hit skill and suddenly the class was working when before it totally didn't.  Aside from a few niche uses like being able to pull enemies from a safe distance this class failed to impress, even if it did finally become viable at the end.

I think the cleverest innovation I did this time was giving Erika to Hortensia.  Even Hortensia can kill corrupted with Twin Strike using Sieglinde, it's such a powerful ability, and while not engaged Erika's base stat boosts fit Hortensia perfectly.  I also gave my pact ring to Hortensia this time, though I didn't use the Alear Engage very often so it's hard to say if that was a good decision.  Even though I donated fully to Elusia in order to get the Nodus staff, I never actually used it even once during the entire game.  *Sigh*.  The Venomous spear you get from donating to Firene came in handy all the time, in contrast.  I guess this proves that Firene donations are the way to go.

With all the extra classes and emblems and bonus loot provided from the downloadable content, the regular game isn't much of a challenge, even on Maddening difficulty.  But it was still fun.  The DLC for this game is essential as far as I'm concerned, the game wouldn't be remotely the same without the extra material.

Now I can finally turn my attention to Octopath Traveler II.  I may have stopped playing Engage, but I'll never forget it.  What a game.