When I finally return to the game I'll probably just say she had been retired for about a year, but came back because she just can't imagine not being an adventurer. That would explain me/her being really rusty in combat and forgetting some details about what's happened in the story so far.

I know that 6.x and Dawntrail take place shortly after 6.0, but my headcanon is that my WoL experienced too much trauma from the entire 2.0-6.0 saga (plus all the side stories like Coils, Werlyt, Bozja, etc.) and retired after that story concluded. My girl needs a break!

On top of that I still have a LOT of catching up to do in #FFXIV. I finished 6.0 a few weeks before 6.1 dropped, took a break, and haven't touched MSQ since. I've only been logging in to do seasonal events and make sure my house doesn't get demolished.

Maybe when the AM6 chips roll out in a few years I'll do a new build. By then I'll need to replace pretty much all the parts anyway, except *maybe* the GPU. For now though, I'm still rocking a Ryzen 7 3700x.

Also I wouldn't worry about trying to play *all* the games. There's a lot, but most aren't really connected that tightly. A good chunk take place in the same universe/timeline, but that's about it. It's kind of like Zelda where each game is separate but a few have actual sequels (ala BOTW/TOTK).

FE Awakening for the 3DS was the jumping-in point for a lot of people in the west (including me) and I think it's still good for that. It keeps a decent amount of the themes, mechanics, and feel from previous entries while also showing the new direction the series was headed for.