"I am more skilled than you, you don't even play properly"

*Proceeds to use the warp staff to skip every map*

The more kills my Jagen gets, the better I am at fire emblem.

A 1% Crit Chance on Chapter 1 messing up an Ironman Run?
Nah, I don't think that would ever happen

There’s only one true way to play. A single unit dies, reset the entire run.

The more units die the better you are at Fire Emblem

For me it's all about personal playstyle sure using Armored Units makes the game slow and other units may sometimes perform better. But I a "slow and steady" person on a tactical level. Why risk having a single unit one round multi enemy units at the risk of it dying when I can set it up to where mine Armored Units can take the initial attack, wearing them down and then allow the rest of mine units finish them off at little risk of taking damage.

Gotta give a nod to Lethality, using fewer units is also an indicator of skill.

The more lances you throw at the axe enemies, the better you are at Fire Emblem.

What I'd really like to see is a Fire Emblem-ish roguelike. The genre is inherently compatible with Fire Emblem's permadeath, and getting consistently fresh challenges would be a wonderful addition.
They could also pull a neat generational thing, where time passes after a failed run, and surviving units are now older, and can join at higher levels but with lower growth rates. 2 generations later, your Est is a Jagen.

I think the most notable absence of challenge from this video is FE draft runs. Having only a select few units available can really change how things play out, and makes things like LTCs actually interesting since you can run into things like having to find alternative optimal strategies if you didn’t draft a warper, or not getting to use your favorite unit. It’s the in-between for ironmans and LTCs, since while when it comes to technical success most drafts, by their nature of being done with others, come down to turns (or time for races), they also create that “zero to hero” factor ironmans have, and are my preferred way to play FE.

I think Efficiency in terms of self-imposed limitations is critical to the definition. A good Fire Emblem player knows who the good units are and how to play 'efficiently' according to traditional definition, but a good Fire Emblem player can also use Mozu and turn her into a paragon of destruction if they so choose, without needing to take 10 or 20 or 40 turns per map.  A good Fire Emblem player should be able to accomplish whatever goals they set out for themselves (again, ideally without taking 80 turns). The best Fire Emblem players can do so 'creatively,' proactively understanding synergies or how stats/maps/calculations play into every strategy, but a good Fire Emblem player understands why those strategies works and learns where best to apply them.

The more armor units fighting at disvantage the better you are in Fire Emblem.

Has anyone ever tried a run of FE4 or FE5 where the goal is to get every playable unit in the game to max level promoted?

I have played so much fire emblem that i go at it as fast as i possibly can to not get burned out, but i don't have the mind to plan for future chapters/turns like some players too much (even less when its a first playthrough)

So i always go at breakneck speeds and sometimes i end up hilariously stuck on a chapter because my army is severely underpowered.

I really like this breakdown of different limitations and challenges, it provides a good framework to evaluate these playstyles with

I think that setting up reliable win conditions, with it being reliable in as many circumstances as possible (even if your units get screwed) is the best indicator of skill, and being able to figure that out reliably

Also iron mans are a good example of skill, since things will eventually go wrong and it’s up to you to have backup plans at all times

Yes, this will be on the test. Tomorrow, we'll discuss the efficiency triangle for the Fire Emblem: 3 Schools (of Efficiency). Class dismissed.

Ngl, I'll admit that doing countless resetting became pretty stressful and does become a game of tolerance, rather than something to enjoy, as someone who was playing FE Fates Conquest on Lunatic Classic. That's why next time, I'm doing an Ironman to try how that goes

Lol getting 8%ed by an Onmyoji on Fuga's map twice was hilarious

I think no grinding could actually be placed into the middle of the effort category, since it's also closer to something that a decent amount of players normally do, similar to full recruitment and some resetting.
A more fitting extreme end for Effort would be Speedruns I'd say, which are rarer challenge runs like Ironmans, Ranked Runs or LTCs.

As someone who first played fire emblem back in around 2009, I was raised to be a recuit everyone/0 deaths, max resetting, no optional content (but babying nino? A-OK!) kind of player. Once I started finding Mekkah and others on youtube, I kinda shifted to enjoying ironmans, or to RNGing units I can use. Recently I did a HHM run where I was only allowed one of each final class, and the unit that got allowed was RNG'd. So I guess my only real constant is that I try to minimize deaths and recruit everyone I can within the bounds of the rules I imposed.