Favourite thing about that game
I'd say the characters, especially the royal families. They're so endearing and what really makes the narrative of Fates shine!
Least favourite thing about that game
The localization gets a dishonorable mention. It butchered Fates in so many ways I'm still finding out.
But the main thing is Corrin being an avatar. I love them as a character, but the fact they're an avatar makes the story worse in plenty of this and is the reason behind some of the more.. questionable decisions.
Like "oh, they're the player, we can't make them feel too bad for their choices" or "oh, the player should be able to marry any playable unit, who cares if they're Corrin's 14-year-old sister or an old man who's also their adoptive father", which I also feel is the reason behind their contorted family tree.
In general I feel IntSys can't write avatars/player inserts, player worship aside they either don't feel like a character or feel like a player insert. Robin's the only exception.
Favorite character in the game
Depends on the day, really. Sometimes it's Corrin, sometimes it's Hinoka, sometimes it's Sakura and sometimes it's Camilla.
But it's always one of the royals.
Would I recommend it? Why?
Oh, absolutely!
If this is the black sheep of the franchise it only shows how good Fire Emblem as a series is.
It could very well be the most polished game in the series, the gameplay has incredible depth and the potential for both amazing strategies and hilarious bullshit (like, say, do a run with multiple versions of the same character), the characters are endearing, Hoshido and Nohr are some of the places I keep coming back to the most, it has some of the best set pieces, the music is great and the story is capable of dealing some heavy punches in the gut.
And keep in mind, this is a game that was plagued by cut content and butchered by a baffling localization, and yet it's still as good as it is and one of the most polished games on the 3DS!
Free space to go off about something!
You know, people shit on Fates' worldbuilding all the time, and yet there's something about the world of Fates that has always captivated me, even in the distant days when I lurked in the Fire Emblem subreddit and was very much in the "Fates bad" bandwagon just like everyone else is.
Truth be told, I'm not sure what it is.
Maybe it's that Hoshido, Nohr and even Valla have some of the most unique locations in the whole series.
Maybe it's because the different music styles, weapons and other things help making Nohr and Hoshido different locations with their own culture without having to infodump paragraphs upon paragraphs of text.
Maybe it's because while Valla feels shallow as a location, what little is there really piques my curiosity to what it once was.
Maybe it's that what little is there really drives your imagination wild.
Or maybe it's none of these things. Who knows.
Whatever it is, the world of Fates is one I keep coming back to.
Hmm, I'd say 8 out of 10.
8.5 on the good days.