I went into Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest with the understanding that it was a more difficult strategy RPG than its counterpart, Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright. I vowed to challenge myself and play in Classic mode–where characters who die in battle are permanently disabled–and I told myself I wouldn’t back down from the loss of a valuable comrade by resetting my 3DS and reloading an old save. It would be a mark of pride to finish the game under these conditions, whether everyone I commanded made it out alive or not.

Eventually I had to relent; by allowing a few too many people to die (three), I had doomed my little army to a massacre. If I had the chance to grind for more experience to bolster my party, I would have, but Conquest wouldn’t allow it. Conquest is a forward m…