Yeah Awakening was very easy for a Fire Emblem game, they made it easier to level up, enemies easier to kill and weapons easier to acquire and all that so they could appeal to newcomers. This Fire Emblem has 2 versions, one called Birthright which is a bit easier like Awakwning where you could do extra missions to level up and gain extra gold, and another version called Conquest which is more traditional Fire Emblem, no extra maps to get more exp, or gold, so it's a lot more challenging which is how Fire Embelm is supposed to be, so I like that version a lot better.
As for the characters, I played birthright first, and I don't really like the characters on that side, I just started conquest and the characters on this version are far better and like them about as much as Awakening.
So basically if you want the easier more relaxed version go with Birthright, want more of a challenge and better story/characters go with Conquest.
Also, the gameplay here is a lot more balanced, so even though Birthright is the easier version, it's still not as easy as Awakening.