If you are a Fire Emblem fan, this game can let you down, but it can also make you quite satisfied.
I digress.
This Fire Emblem can be a let down at times. Thieves don't promote, which really pisses me off. Assassins/Rogues were always good or useful (I loved assassins, btw). Now a thief is completely useless except for the castle levels, and you'll have no point in leveling them up, as they'll never be in the front lines, or attack anything, at that. Thieves (along with Marth) DO get a level 30 cap, rather than 20, but that doesn't make up for jack.
There's also a real.. Weird feature: Class swap. You're able to change any character's class, from a set list of classes. You can make a cavalier into a myrmidon... or a mage. You can make a knight into a mercenary or something else stupid. I really don't like this feature. It defeats the purpose of having a class to a character. There's only one worthy myrmidon in this game, and he can easily be outclassed if you switch a better character. Cavaliers are obnoxiously good in this game, btw. So you can class swap numerous cavaliers, as you get 3 or 4 pretty good ones.
Another annoyance is that Marth can't be promoted. They couldn't add that? Are you kidding me? He DOES get 10 extra levels, making his level cap 30, but I'd just like to see something new. Not to mention his Falchion is also a cheap weapon. I guess that makes up for it, right?
I also don't like how you get the gaiden chapters. You don't get them from doing specific things in the subsequent chapter, this time around. Now, you get almost EVERY gaiden chapter just for having less than 15 people in your squad (or was it 15 or less?). The only other gaiden chapter that isn't achieved in this way is just by having a certain character dead, etc. It just makes it seem like these chapters are completely unrelated to the main story, sure they're side stories, but wouldn't that mean they should at least have SOMETHING to do with the main story? Whatever.
Yes, this game overall is a good game still, and is still a Fire Emblem. It can be really easy at times, but the hard mode is ridiculously hard, good luck with that. There are cool new features, but there are also flipsides to all these features. It's still worth buying if you're a Fire Emblem fan. Just don't be expecting something as good as FE7.