Azure moon on hard classic 2 years ago was my first entry to the series and I loved it so much. However I always wondered why Thales and his men just dipped from the entire plot and that bothered me ever since. I always had an urge for a second playthrough but couldn't actually get myself to do it due to burnout. I think the dlc was on sale in the eshop about a year ago and that motivated me to try again.
After I beat the dlc I started VW on maddening. I never felt like hard AM was ever a pushover but the difficulty spike was really something. Though I overall enjoyed the brutal difficulty aside from BS like same turn reinforcements and protecting super weak npcs. One thing I hated about rpgs are how just a little bit of grinding and optimization can make the entire campaign trivial and stress free. That wasn't the case for me on VW maddening because every time I felt like I may be over prepared the game threw overwhelming stuff at me every map lol. It was so satisfying to finally beat a map after hours.
The final 2 chapters were so rewarding and totally worth the whole grind. I am so glad I didn't get spoiled of any of it and could experience Nemesis in all its glory, blind for the first time. The music was so peak I just sat there for like 10 minutes... Truly one of the best finales to a video game.
Now I'm wondering whether I should also do a playthrough of CF and SS or just start engage which I bought like a year ago lol. Is there a lot more lore covered in the other two routes? Overall I loved the game and I'm super hyped for Fortune's Weave.