I've played about 2/3rds of the Fire Emblem demo now and am loving it!

My biggest criticism is I strongly suspect Three Hopes is going to handle its fantasy race allegories worse than even Three Houses did. Which is saying something...

Shez is a charming disaster though. I can't take their rivalry with Byleth seriously. I don't know why anyone would— it's straight up comedy. They're going to keep getting their ass handed to them until Shez admits defeat and decides to become Byleth's bro instead (says my headcanon).

F!Shez is MVP imo but M!Shez absolutely comes to life when he's with Claude— they have a lot of chemistry and it's delightful because Claude deserves more easy confidants and homoerotic relationships.