Woof, I am finding myself more disoriented by this game than I expected. I am confused and seeing symbols or information that I don't know how to interpret. It's embarrassing.
1. How does class mastery work? In actual battle, I noticed that the experience pane includes a meter for "class mastery." At first, I took this to mean it was time to promote the unit because I wouldn't learn any more skills from it. But this didn't make sense because I was reaching class mastery around levels 4 or 5. What does class mastery mean and how to I use it?
2. It took me two whole lessons to realize that the lecture period was simply distributing experience to units based on their interests. I had no idea what was happening. I assume the side chores like horse tending give experience (and rewards) to things like riding, flying etc? So I should only assign those chores to people who would I want to fulfill those classes? I still don't fully understand how the experience and level up stuff at the end of the lecture period works. You can give target experience to students with high motivation, but then everyone gets experience at the end of the lecture?
3. I do not yet understand how battalions are supposed to work or when to use them. I keep forgetting they're there and who has them. I discovered a replenish option which I didn't remember being explained previously, but perhaps I just missed it in the tool tips.
4. Everybody I want to recruit wants Byleth to have certain stats in skills they prefer, but I didn't understand how to raise stats like Magic when the starting class has no magic. I found out (perhaps too late) that professors will give you experience and consume one of your activity points. Knowing this is an option, I wonder why anybody would instead choose to fish or garden, unless they don't consume activity points?
5. I don't understand where class skills are coming from. Bernadette is a noble, for example. This is her class. But she unlocks skills related to archery, like the counter ability. If skills aren't tied to class, what are they tied to? When should you ever promote?
Wh
6. Speaking of promotion, I don't understand how it works. You can use a seal to have somebody take an exam and get certified in a certain class. It will then ask you if you want to change to that class. What is the benefit of certifying a unit in a class but not switching to them? If skill unlocks aren't tied to class, when should you promote your units?
7. I reached the point where there were auxilary battles (paralogues, I assume) that I could choose from. But they have recommended levels (5 and 7) that are much, much higher than my units who are mostly around level 2 and 3. It took me about two hours to clear the first one because only Byleth and Edelgard were Level 7 and everyone else was 4 or below. It felt pretty good to clear a map that way where anybody getting hit more than once was certain death, but I can't help but wonder how I was supposed to have leveled my units. Before taking on the Level 7 map, I decided to spend another week schooling, only for the Level 7 map to become unavailable. I definitely could not have cleared that map with the units I had, but spending time to school them blocks off the option. Does it come back?
8. I'm playing on Classic and I reset when somebody falls, but based on the dialog on defeat, it doesn't look like anybody is dying. Is this the case? Can the students not be killed on some maps? I know they couldn't in the practice battles but I expect people to be dying horribly at this point and instead they're like "ack! how embarrassing! bye!"
I've played a lot of Fire Emblem but FE was traditionally very rigid and easy to follow. I am still trying to make sense of all the new systems. I'm about 99% sure this is all going to click for me in a few more chapters and I'm going to end up restarting from the beginning. I hate feeling like I'm wasting time and resources trying to figure out a game once I actually understand it. I'm definitely enjoying the game but I'm as dumb and blank as Byleth when I play it.
Other random things I barely understand...
1. Motivation
2. Authority
3. Choosing which students for singing in the choir, cooking with students, and everything it benefits.
4. Which stats (reason, magic, faith) are connected to which abilities
5. I spent like an hour trying to retrieve Dorothea's undershirt which was, in fact, not one of the "lost items" I'd read so much about.