if it were me, I'd have taken the idea of being torn between two families and spun it in a way that actually forced the player to make decisions and become invested in the characters, as well as not have stupid corn solve his problems through what's usually sheer force and the magic of "beat them up but don't take their lives" in a war. also, less random plot device bs, less terrible character designs, writing that isn't super cringe-worthy, actually giving characters some noteworthy personality (bonus points if it doesn't seem 1-dimensional),

for instance, you can't fix the lack of emotional investment in either family (due to not knowing them well/establishing a MEANINGFUL backstory with Corrin and his siblings) by just fixing the writing, at most you could talk about it but without actually seeing them grow up, fight, learn about each other, make up, etc., it's difficult to really believe in the bonds they talk about, even more-so when depending on your route the other side can go crazy and try to kill you as if though everything up to that point meant nothing (or very little)... also when everyone likes Corrin for no other reason than being Corrin, that doesn't help. Alm might be kind of generic but his ideals are grounded in some sense of reality and he actually has some meaningful discussions with people and *gets* people to like him (or tries to anyway), rather than them liking him off the bat. I'm not going to spoil the specifics but Echoes is probably around FE8 level in plot which is far from amazing but given what I've had to deal with lately, is enough to not make me cringe every other minute and wish FE were dead or something, lolol. meanwhile Fates is bad enough that a game without any story would have been better because then at least people who care about writing/story like me could focus on the gameplay, which is only awful about half the time.