bases seem even more important while ignoring the fact that pre-promotes are still often overshadowed by trained units introduced around the same time.
This varies game to game and unit to unit I feel, GBA prepromotes, especially FE7, were on crack. Pent, Harkin, Marcus, Hawkeye, Seth, Milady, etc were jacked and can almost win the game for you. Rutger is also a massive exception due to hard mode bonuses being massively in his favor, while Guy is just good for awhile then just gets cucked because lolswords in a game where javelins own everyone. FE7 is a game with a pretty weak late game besides a small few chapters/sections, so just running it over with Pent and Marcus is plenty valid so it makes caring about characters like Guy kind of whatever. While in iirc New Mystery growths are fucking everything because stats are off the wall on the hardest difficulty, so growers really do matter more then in most FE games.
I will give some leeway to Mekkah: the class changing and skills add a lot of complication that can make the game either really easy or really hard based on how much you feel like modifying units. Having one or the other is relatively easier to manage since you don't have to play games pertaining to stat and growth bonuses certain classes offer in comparison to others. Sometimes you just want gameplay that can be summarized as "this unit is in x class with y bases and z growths, here's how they stack up to their fellow units in that class" rather than trying to determine what class is better for a unit and what skills you should slap onto them.
I think for me I played autistic jrpgs before FE, so to me sub systems and shit are normal if sometimes catching me off guard, but it baffles me how Mekkah talks so much smack about Mangs being dumb (even if it is tongue and cheek back in their golden years), yet Mekkah is like a fucking grandpa when it comes understanding Fates.
That and he makes tier list videos based on his boomer level of understand takes when he can't understand the game. If he reads reddit so much, he can find a very rough baseline of all the viable pairings and combos you can do with just about anyone, that's how I learned about Selena + Peri being an interesting if late way to help fix Selena's noodle arms and movement without going the Pegasus route which keeps her stuck with E lances as Cav lets her use her sword rank.
I can understand not liking the rise of skills on units in Awakening and onward, but not being able to grasp it is another thing entirely I think. It's not much different from just checking the equipment of an enemy. I guess he's just too used to the GBA games where you don't really have to check equipment or stats all that often because a lot of the enemies suck anyways. When it comes to pair up or reclassing, I've got nothing there lol
My bigger issue is Mekkah talks like an expert in his tier list videos, yet he gets confused on one of the most core foundations of the game. GBA games warp so much discussion because their prepromotes are insane and their enemies are weak as hell, Fates isn't the hardest endgame, but it has some real bite to it and Xander/Camilla/Leo can't just win like Harkin/Pent/Hawkeye do. I think only Ryoma has "GBA tier" levels of bullshit, but that's mostly due to how Astra interacts with pair up and him being a rare exception of having unhindered 1-2 range as a non-mage.
