@JaxonH There's definitely a less oppressive level of challenge on default difficulty, thanks to the fact that the real-time elements let you scope out environments instead of committing to definite moves right away. Also thanks to the fact that, as I said, if a unit's HP is reduced to 0, you're allowed a couple of turns to reach them and take them back to safety (unless a second enemy unit also reaches the downed unit, in which case they're toast). So there's a lot fewer cheap deaths and re-loading overall. I'd say, in some ways, the gameplay is deeper, though: you actually have to explore environments and make heavy use of your terrain to survive. For example, you'll want your units hugging walls on any maps with enemy snipers. But, at the same time, you can climb buildings with ladders yourself, survey your environment, and position a sniper to pick off easy targets. There's also a lot of variables that are introduced to VC, such as smoke bombs. In some maps, for example, there will be enemy towers that'll mow down your approaching units. But you can use strategically fired smoke bombs to obscure the environment and allow your people to safely reach cover.

There's also a lot of balancing. Tanks are incredibly powerful units that you can use to destroy armored targets and encampments, and your soldiers can huddle behind them to avoid enemy fire. At the same time, though, they're slow, consume twice as many command points as normal units, and if someone fires a rocket or some other explosive at the exposed core at the back of it, it'll explode in one hit.

With that in mind, with this complexity comes some... downsides. The gameplay is... wonky, in some respects. Tanks can't run down enemy soldiers, for some reason. If you run up to an enemy unit, it'll fire continuously until you switch to attack mode, whereby they'll just... stop and let you shoot them (of course, the same logic applies to your units). A lot of times, it seems like you can't interact with your environment in a way that it seems like you should. Compare this to FE: everything about the gameplay is polished to a mirror sheen, and you'll never die just because some gameplay quirk exists that you didn't know about.

I'd also argue that a few VC levels are arguably cheats in terms of how they'll sometimes introduce gimmicks or set-pieces halfway through, and if you haven't positioned your units in anticipation of this coming change, they'll all get wiped out in a turn or two. I could arguably see a really skilled player completing any FE level on his or her first go, but there are VC levels that... I just don't see how players could clear without foreknowledge. It's not the majority of the time, but there are a few of them like this.

There are also some boss encounters where it wasn't entirely clear to me WHAT I was supposed to be shooting at until it was already too late.

Narratively... it depends on what you like. As I said, Valkyria Chronicles doesn't have a hugely complex plot, and despite all of your units being individual people, they don't really get the opportunity to develop as characters like in Fire Emblem. The plot and character development that's there is charming, though. I'd say the story in VC1 is head-and-shoulders better than anything in Fates, at least.

VC also has less replayability. You can play through the game a second time to S-rank all of the maps, but that's pretty much the only reason I'd see to revisit it (trophy hunting aside).

I'd say it deserves to be considered a classic of the SRPG genre, right alongside Fire Emblem and XCOM. I'm not sure if it's "as good" as FE, considering that's an apples and oranges comparison, but it's definitely a high quality game that has become one of my favorites.