How different would a Fire Emblem game be balanced if doubling was restricted to specific phases?

[Eden Agleam]

An idea that had crossed my mind for a while was revamping how the follow-up mechanic worked. The major change would be that player units could only double on player phase, and enemies could only double on enemy phase. The idea behind this would be to shift focus towards the player phase, but I'm wondering how this would effect slower units. Also, how would this change effect the importance of other stats?

[X-Naut]

Slower units wouldn't mind and would appreciate it because they were usually doubling less to begin with, and on top of that they can attack foes who were fast enough to double them before provided they initiate. You'd have to be careful about enemy density though, since enemy phase ORKOs become a lot more difficult to achieve.

[Technoweirdo]

Gaiden/Echoes: Do you really want this when Cantors exist?
New/Mystery of the Emblem: From what I remember, doubling anything's pretty hard in the first place, at least in the early game. lol
Thracia 776: If you have Wrath, you're a god. Charge is an okay substitute.
Binding & Blazing Blade: Good luck on turn-limited maps, especially in Binding Blade.
Sacred Stones: Seth will still do his job, just a lot slower.
Path of Radiance: You'll wish you were playing Radiant Dawn.
Path of Radiance: You'll wish you didn't have to beat the game to unlock animation skips.
Awakening: Early game will suck more until you get supports high enough to make Tag Team Attacks consistent.
Fates: RIP Pair Up meta. Tag Team Attacks become super-viable with select characters. Effie immediately comes to mind

General: Brave weapons that work on enemy phase get used even more. Or would be if they could be gotten early. Killers would be the next best thing. Offensive skills are nice too, though they're only really a factor starting mid-game.

[De Geso]

Not being able to double on enemy phase only makes player phase more important because now enemy phase becomes "fight enough enemies to choke a point and then wait for the bots to move." It lends to more repetitive, slower gameplay in a game with high enemy density, so the best route is to go with Shadow Dragon quality enemies in small amounts. It could be cool.

[Eden Agleam]

1 hour ago, Technoweirdo said:

Fates: RIP Pair Up meta. Tag Team Attacks become super-viable with select characters. Effie immediately comes to mind

General: Brave weapons that work on enemy phase get used even more. Or would be if they could be gotten early. Killers would be the next best thing. Offensive skills are nice too, though they're only really a factor starting mid-game.

You bring up good points, especially that it would be a benefit to brave weapons and ally strikes. 

13 minutes ago, YouSquiddinMe said:

Not being able to double on enemy phase only makes player phase more important because now enemy phase becomes "fight enough enemies to choke a point and then wait for the bots to move." It lends to more repetitive, slower gameplay in a game with high enemy density, so the best route is to go with Shadow Dragon quality enemies in small amounts. It could be cool.

Yeah, that was what my thought process was. I felt that this change would shift focus towards the player phase, but only if the enemies weren't dense clusters of nothing. DSFE enemy quality, however, could make this system work much better, so long as their numbers weren't too high. 

[Shadow Mir]

I don't like this, especially in Gaiden/SoV - would this really be desirable when arcanists, cantors, warping witches, 5 range archers, and worst of all, Medusa, exist??? I sure would not think so.

Edited July 17, 2018 by Shadow Mir

[Eden Agleam]

54 minutes ago, Shadow Mir said:

I don't like this, especially in Gaiden/SoV - would this really be desirable when arcanists, cantors, warping witches, 5 range archers, and worst of all, Medusa, exist??? I sure would not think so.

Ultimately, for this topic, I was referring to how a future FE game would play with doubling being locked to initiating. I realize that this wouldn't work for many of the games in the series (I shudder at the idea of this in SoV), but I feel like it could work well in a game balanced around it. 

[Jotari]

9 hours ago, Technoweirdo said:

Gaiden/Echoes: Do you really want this when Cantors exist?
New/Mystery of the Emblem: From what I remember, doubling anything's pretty hard in the first place, at least in the early game. lol
Thracia 776: If you have Wrath, you're a god. Charge is an okay substitute.
Binding & Blazing Blade: Good luck on turn-limited maps, especially in Binding Blade.
Sacred Stones: Seth will still do his job, just a lot slower.
Path of Radiance: You'll wish you were playing Radiant Dawn.
Path of Radiance: You'll wish you didn't have to beat the game to unlock animation skips.
Awakening: Early game will suck more until you get supports high enough to make Tag Team Attacks consistent.
Fates: RIP Pair Up meta. Tag Team Attacks become super-viable with select characters. Effie immediately comes to mind

General: Brave weapons that work on enemy phase get used even more. Or would be if they could be gotten early. Killers would be the next best thing. Offensive skills are nice too, though they're only really a factor starting mid-game.

A game with this concept would obviously have to be designed around the mechanic. Doesn't really make sense to look at old games and point out how it would or wouldn't work unless we're talking about implementing a hack.

[Moblin Major General]

I think there was a similar system in place in Berwick Saga. However, that game also had an initiative system of sorts. So any FE game that has it might have to take inpsiration from Berwick to do so effectively.