The only Fire Emblem Engage Review you'll ever need in 10 Minutes
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- čas přidán 22. 06. 2024
- Fire Emblem Engage is a somewhat divisive game within the fanbase. And that's why I'm here, to share opinions no one asked for and call it a "review." Don't worry though, my opinions are the good ones.
- Hry
Honestly I would even argue that skirmishes are punishing, rather than rewarding. Since they level up with you, getting stronger never feels like you're getting stronger. Instead it just feels like your weaker units are getting weaker and you're just grinding yourself into a corner.
I'm curious how much of the writers from Three Houses were involved in Engage. The character depth most of that cast had seems pretty much nonexistent in the parts of this game I've played so far. In some ways it gives me a little bit of hope for whatever the next Fire Emblem project is since if they're not tied up with Engage, they might be involved with preproduction there. Would love to see Three Houses story telling mixed in with Engage's game mechanics. And yeah, can we just give more stuff the option of being accessed through a menu rather than having to waste time running around a hub? That would be nice.
They were not, Engage was written by Nami Komuro who also wrote Awakening and Fates. But she had nothing to do with 3H (which is why the story is good)
The biggest problem with Engage’s characters is the support inequality. Celine and Alfred’s A support is some of the strongest supports I’ve seen in the series, but her supports with her own retainers are just tea nonsense. Coupled with how fast this game wants you to bench units, a character with rly good moments can come across as one dimensional, and the story cutscenes certainly do them no favors
@@Mabsol That makes... so much sense.
It would be amazing to have a 5-10 minute Menu over a bad hubworld. Alright gotta say it's cute and fine and all... But the way they want to force these into doesn't work for the series imo
When I saw the support between Citrinne and Yunaka I said to myself: "Hey, support that helps to understand the character story and that is serious."
my first FE game was Conquest and I really want them to remake it/port it to the switch, the game itself had a really cool story with Corrin in the middle of a massive war and trying their hardest to quell the tentions on both sides while doing their best to take as few lives as possible, it was so gritty and dark in places and I love the way Corrin being a kindhearted person actually gets them beaten down and hurt throughout the game, forcing them to strengthen their resolve even through everything thats happening to them
If they make a remake of Fates, they should really put more emphasis on how Corrin's naiveté and blind trust in the middle of war have severe consequences.
@@julienherard414they also need to stop sucking corrin off every 5 seconds. Sometimes corrin is making really stupid choices but since he’s the mc he gets a pass
I agree about the economy of the game. I was forging weapons after I just got 30K from Brodia and investing in that land thing and holy crap did that go away so fast. The skirmishes don’t seem to have the payout you would think they should (and like you said, it was always overleveled, they probably should’ve done 1 at the expected level, 1 one level him higher and 1 two levels higher instead of the 3 two level higher) the first chunk of the game I was thinking I was underleveled the entire time till I compared the expected story level to the expected skirmish level
However I do like the game, from what I played, overall so far. I think they could easily take the strengths from both Engage and Three Houses and make an even better game next time.
I agree with most of what you said, except about the economy. At the start of the game I was kinda on board with you on how it feels everything costs way too much and we don't have enough gold and silver, but once you adopt animals, Silver just starts coming naturally by having dogs on the somniel. Gold is a bit scarce as well at the beginning of the game, but there's some "optional" chapters later on that feel like they were made just to give you tons of money, and Anna is surprisingly really good in this game for a change, so building her for the purpose of making some extra gold will not be detrimental for your team. Tempest Trials and SP gains I completely agree though, it really feels like they wanted to implement what Fire Emblem Heroes had, but didn't realize grinding in FEH is considerably less time consuming and tiresome than in an actual Fire Emblem game.
Also, don't fall into the trap of donations to other countries, keep your gold, skirmishes are honestly not worth it.
I agree with the Somniel time sink. It felt like a chore to do all the activities. You tended to want to do them because the resources are so rare. Like the achievement panel for bond fragments is so not enough, especially when you engrave or create bond rings (yes I know about the paralogue trick). The answer? Fishing in the afternoon where you can reliably get 500-1k bond fragments per fish reeled in. But.. it takes like 10 minutes to do all of your fishing, and it resets in between each map you complete.
I'm not one that typically complains about game difficulty or anything like that, but this just gives you so many chores to do.
thanks for mentioning the skirmishes, i thought it was just me that wasnt enjoying them. the one skirmish i always refused to do was the bridge because it had way too many flier units
Agree with most of the stuff said in the video. And I also agree with the conclusion, in looking forward to next FE series. A good mash of the 3H social part (which i find boring but its the way the series is progressing) with the massive improvement of the overall battle sistem of Engage and tone down the grindiness a bit. They have all the tools now to make the next Fire Emblem THE top tier.
Also I hate that they take out te assassin Promotion every other game. Maybe I am just riding on the nostalgia from the Assassins from GBA games
I think the biggest thing they could do for the series is keep a lot of the "life sim" stuff from Three Houses but make it very easy to skip most/all of it for people who don't love that part of the newer games. I loved all that stuff in Three Houses, but I am a longtime Fire Emblem, and a life sim fan so it is perfect for me. I know a lot of the hardcore strategy people hated it though. I think they could also try refreshing their games by trying a Fire Emblem that's not in the typical Fire Emblem fantasy setting. Try Steampunk, Sci Fi, High Fantasy (elves, dwarves, orcs, undead), retro futurism, dystopian etc... There's a lot they could do to give the series a fresh take without totally reinventing the parts of the modern Fire Emblem formula that work.
@patrickcollier7090 I dislike the Japanese style "dating sim" stuff. Activities like having tea or sharing a meal are repetitive tasks that don't actually develop the character or relationship beyond seeing a stat increase. This is where Fire Emblem could learn a thing from Bioware and American RPGs. If they replaced all that stuff with more support conversations/dialogue options would anything be lost?
I wanna play Engage just for the gameplay, I don't care about the story for this one.
I honestly like engage and I started with three houses, though the game does feel easy to me, even the skirmishes despite me having weaker weapons, generally. Just I wish we had more of a payout for the skirmishes and not having to walk just to find certain items after battle and get bond crystal from talking to my party seeing who thought I did good, oh this one leveled up maybe they'd give me more crystals. I'm mostly playing engage to relax after work and am on chapter 15. Though I like some characters I do admit they're not as interesting as three houses roster. Though learning more about previous fire emblem protagonists was cool and makes me want to play them which I wish nintendo would do their own series of pixel remasters for us westerners who didn't get the series till the gba. Though I do find it funny how predictable it is like if I say oh wow I bet you're gonna die soon than thirty minutes later the characters dead, or huh that person is weird and has shackles there either into some serious bdsm or are a villain or a relative of the villain. Like it reminds me more of dragon quest in terms of story than fire emblem which isn't bad and I thought from the title it would be a bit more silly as engage doesn't sound serious. Three houses surprised me with its story telling as it was a lot deeper than I thought with political intrigue, seeing these once classmates go at each other and effectively crush each other into adulthood but not out of malice necessarily. Is it like final fantasy tactics deep no but still impressive. Though let's not pretend final fantasy is a dead serious series I mean look at 5 and tell me that a villain named exdeath who despite having some cool minions that look like they belong in doom eternal is just an evil tree who at one point turns himself into a splinter to spy and runaway after killing somebody I won't say for spoiler reasons with all the most deadliest spells in the game. Oh and the less said about 13 and 8(due to a lot like plot and making leveling up a detriment instead junctions and card games) the better.
Just have an all-dog farm. They all give ingots, including silver. Super easy way to get a lot of silver.
You weren't lying in the title
I should mention if you have dogs graze, you get more than enough forging materials, the issue ends up being gold again.
Thanks for the review. I've been on the fence about it but I think I'll finally cave into my desires for a new FE experience and jump on this.
This is my first FE game, decided to watch a review after getting decently far into it, and so far I've been having a blast with it and it makes me want to check out the other titles in the franchise, but it's always interesting to see other people's opinions on things
I feel like that's a great indicator; if you really like a game in the series that fans tend to say is "pretty good, but not the best one", you have a lot to look forward to with the other games. That was my experience when I loved Fallout 4, only to find New Vegas was generally regarded as "better" (for story at least), and thoroughly enjoyed both!
Make sure to check out Three Houses wich is conveniently on the Switch and also Fire Emblem Awakening wich less conveniently is on the 3ds
@@joaopedroalves6777 I'll have to try those out next, thank you for the recommendation!
as someone who have played every other entry on fire emblem series (you)
which one from switch you recommend for someone willing to try but indecisive about which one?
Depends. If you're new to strategy games or strategy RPGs, go for Three Houses. The gameplay is more simplistic, and of you end up not liking it the story will still carry the game pretty hard. If you're more familiar with the genre and looking for something more challenging and complex, and don't care about the story, go for engage. It has the best level design and gameplay in probably the whole series.
@@shamelesslylenette so it will be three houses then.
I'm not new to strategy games, ff tactics is* my favorite one and I'm experienced with the disgaea series, but if the story is that good i guess I'll enjoy more.
And since its my first one of the series i think it's better
Thanks!
@@shamelesslylenette Isn't there now a third option? Fire Emblem (Blazing Sword), aka FE7, via Switch Online +. Does that change your recommendation?
Is there any way to play awakening in 2023 easily? I loved that game but don’t have a 3ds
It's my first Fire Emblem and it's true that the mass of information to assimilate is quite enormous, especially since I try to do everything and understand everything. It happens too often to me to make 3 hours on a fight and even as much time in Somniel.
Just think of it like this swords beat axes, axes beat lances, and lances beat swords. If it Flys it dies by bow. If it's a monk or armored cast magic on them, daggers just punch them, and daggers destroy archers. Just think of the classes like pokemon and it'll be a lot easier honestly kind of like how fighting types are weak to flying, psychic, and fairy type pokemon, but beat rock, normal, and dark types. With some being half effective or just normal damage. Another bit of advice grind your character in the arena after every battle and you'll be overpowered quickly especially if you inherit Martha avoidance plus 15 and if you have the bundle learn lineage from on of the three houses cast and equp those two skills. I barely get hit when fighting emblem characters never mind regular enemies.
Nice thorough review! I decided to get the game despite the characters and story.
This is a high quality video good job
Well, this just defines a love-hate relationship
Boucheron doesn’t want to be on team muscles though. He just has them, but he isn’t interested in muscle training. He is the forever lost boy who fishes and cries reading books….not exactly riveting, but not about muscles. I agree though with the characters being that one thing….unfortunately.
You did a really good job explaining where the game hits and where it misses! I absolutely love the gameplay, but I think the one surprising aspect that I didn't see mentioned were the visuals! I know that, to some, the visuals can look a little plain, and I do agree at times. I think I just personally really enjoyed how Engage actually feels like it was a console game from the ground up, unlike Three Houses where a lot of the visuals still felt stuck in the 3DS design language. I think there's also TONS of potential for the use of those 3D models on various gameplay/story screens, and I honestly hope that we get to see this design language expanded on in a future game. Other than that, I think you hit the nail on the head! Super good step in terms of gameplay, awful step in terms of story. All around good video, keep it up!
I definitely like the visual style of this game a lot, and noticed a lot of improvements in the quality of combat animations especially. Visuals don't do much for me, I tend to play animations off anyways, which is probably why I didn't mention it in the video.
@@shamelesslylenette Ahhhh, that's definitely a fair point! I get why some people may not care so much about them. They just happen to be one of my favorite parts of FE games in particular, so I was just puzzled to see it barely acknowledged. Thank you for clearing it up, though!
I mostly agree with the review, especially your points about the characters. The supports get better later on in the game, but a lot of them are "fluffy," come off as rather contrived (one character tells the other how old she was when the latter's mother died) and feel less relevant to the story than those in Three Houses.
I disagree about the Monastery vs Somniel. I personally find that it doesn't take all that long if I know what I'm doing, and liked many of the versions of the mechanics better. For example, sharing a meal at the monastery not only gives you bond points, but also restores motivation, while cooking is what gives you sat points. It wasn't long before I was doing the bare minimum at the Somniel between battles, and I never even touched many of the features.
Youre not supposed to grind skirmishes
Meh, I just miss the old days of Sacred Stones Fire Emblem. All these new Fire Emblem games seem to lean more and more heavily into anime tropes, which I'm not a fan of. Thanks for the video
Glad I wasn't the only one who thought like that. Was worried about being an angry old man about it. 3 houses is my favorite modern fe but when I saw engaged it felt like it was a downgrade and it looks like I was right.
@@ShadowMaster1171lmao Th is anime as fuck
Also engage is definitely an upgrade from TH which was designed with the ass
Thanks for the refreshingly honest review. I have only played 3 Houses and Awakening and I had read that a lot of FE loyalist fans really loved this game. I couldn't understand that. I mean its not a bad game but it could have been so much better. I hate the tempest trials for the same reason you do and I also have no idea how those relay trials work because they just don't go anywhere after i start them. This game has been rather disappointing overall, but like you I am still playing it :P
I also hated the map editor they included. Why not just make a full map editor and let people play community generated maps? Why make it this weird capture the flag type thing? I have questions about the whole thought process that went into the online feature set. I tried all of it once, didn't find any of it fun or rewarding, and will probably never play any of it again. With a few tweaks and better implementation, these could have easily been my favorite features of the game.
@@patrickcollier7090 "Why make it this weird capture the flag type thing."
*coughs* Fire Emblem Heroes Aether Raids *coughs* Heroes is still currently giving Nintendo so much money that its kinda like....expected for them to pull a few things from the mobile game and implement them on console, for better or worse.
his opinions were the good ones
i agree
Did you know? Celine likes tea.
I mean, I love tea as well but I would not consider tea as a major personality trait for me or anyone really... except Celine.
I've played so many FE and this was the first time I never jumped at a preorder. Thank you for the honest review! I'm probably going to buy it if it goes on sale at the end of the year instead of full price
Do you think having thr ability to summon other hero's make the game easier too early in the game? Is it necessary to use all the time in gameplay?
The emblems are definitely very strong in this game especially early on, but the difficulty spikes around midgame so it feels needed to have these strong abilities at that point.
I pre-ordered... digital edition and let me tell you so much pain 99.9% percent regret purchasing
Nintendo exclusive games hardly ever go on sale though. This game will be full price for a long time.
There are also parts of the game where emblems play less of a role and honestly the abilities of a lot of the emblem's aren't that great. There are a couple that early on have an ability that lets you one-shot most enemies but you can usually only use it once or twice a battle. Towards the end of the game I found myself using the emblems less because a lot of my characters did more damage without using the emblem special moves.
The story is not ‘goofy’ on purpose, as a style choice. It’s a symptom of bad, lazy writing. A story can be simplistic and yet be told well, like a fairy tale, but it’s not. The setups are awkward and confusing for almost every battle. You’re constantly wandering in the middle of nowhere, getting lost, seeing enemies on the horizon or new characters wandering out from behind a rock. When you invade the enemy castle, the party seems to just walk up to it and go inside. The dominant personality trait is ‘kooky’ in order to cover up bland characterization. The dialogue sequences are almost exclusively polite drivel about tea. 😂
Thank you, I’m tired of seeing practically every person that gives this Story a pass with the reasoning “It’s supposed to not be taken seriously lol”, as if that just automatically makes the Story not that Bad.
@@nickcalderon2637 Haha, I'm pretty sure the motivation behind the story is that Nintendo wants to sell a lot of classic Emblem character figurines to a younger audience :P
I just beat the game and everything you said was true. The story was painfully bad.
Hot take:
Triangle Strategy > Fire Emblem Engage
@@diogenes3300 that its so probaley true
@@countryboyred certainly a hot take cause engage is amazing to play and triangle strategy still feels super clunky and the choices are kinda predictable
In maddening skirmishes are extremely rare and dont respawn so my resources are limited but the game is still manageable
Maddening doesn't get skirmishes, only the one tutorial skirmish.
@@raymondlane you get a skirmish after chapter 11. A 2nd one spawned around chapter 15 (I'm currently on chapter 19)
@brubie Jesus christ its that scarce?! Without skirmishes a maddening playthrough will be kinda short
Idk if I'd consider 26 chapters and 15 paralogues short
@brubie I'm just too used to three houses giving you a bunch of auxiliary battles, especially once you max out professer level. But tempest trials combined with that many prologues, and I guess that sounds decent enough
For me the gameplay is amazing. Probably the best in the series so far. The story is bad…fighting the same people over and over. Nobody dies they just join your team. It’s not like old games where there’s strategy involved with recruitment and if you don’t recruit the character you don’t get them. They just join your team. And the fact that the enemy doesn’t learn their lessons and just keeps giving rings back. So the story is just tedious but again the gameplay and animations are the best of the series.
i really like the charakter designs here. I dont like mos of them in thee houses. SO i am thinking of playing this instead. I hope its not trash
I'm new to the game, I want a new game to play. The main story is not as bad. The games I play have no or very little story.
I'd like them to experiment and flesh out the "fluffy elements" of Fire Emblem as the series goes on. I think it'd be important to move the series away from being a 1-dimensional series of battles and more into a world worth living in, fighting for, and saving from whatever evil is encroaching on it.
Oh and definitely pursue another full-on JRPG in Tokyo Mirage Sessions 2. I want to see more of the Fire Emblem cast show up in the modern world in those stylish forms.
I love this game. The gameplay is so good and feels like a natural Evolution of classic FE. I only wish they actually wanted to write a story. Because that is what it feels like to me: They didn't care. It feels as if they had a brainstormed script with elements they should implement - and they were supposed to use this to write a story. And instead they just called it a day and used it for the final game. Even Fates had a strong prolouge and the bad stuff becomes meme since it takes itself seriously. And there is actually stuff to get invested in. You can tell they WANTED to do something in Fates. In Engage the story is barely at the absolute minimum... They put more effort into Heroes Plotlines. And that's really sad considering how good the Tellius and Jugdral games delivered in this department.
(This comments a mess basically me remembering alot of stuff in the middle of typing)
I love the gameplay mechanics and especially the class changes where u can be a class but have a different weapon set up. I thought that was a really nice touch. Hated how limited 3Hs classes were.
1 complaint I have about engage combat is u can't pause and move camera anymore for that cinematic effect.
But yeah, the game is really grind with the money and sp.
I enjoyed the game more than I thought just looking at the trailer and map didn't seem very enticing to me.
I also miss animal/dragon units it would be cool if they could have a class and transform in their animal form like engaging for more versatility, basically like using Tikis bracelet.
Oh and even supports r kinda grinding too only go up on player phase is really annoying I like it felt like we got alot of supports but feels more grindy
I actually think the story is good, but it's good in a silly, goofy way that it almost feels like a Saturday Morning cartoon.
The difficulty being all over the place and changing without warning was my biggest complaint in the game play. The maps could’ve been really cool, but it was frustrating AF.
Also, the “pick up rewards by getting stupid, unimportant dialogue while you search a map needlessly” process was incredibly repetitive and boring. JUST GIVE THEM ALL AT ONCE. Making me go hunt for Flamme for 50 bond fragments is obnoxious.
I only played awakening. And I loved the relationships and how you could have certain children depending on your relationships. Does this game have that great character relationships and classes?
No this game does not. Fire Emblem engage is more focused on what builds you can make with the emblem rings over pairing units for children that continue on the story for their parents. If you do however want Fire Emblem games that play similar to awakening you have a few options, Fire Emblem Fates(FE14) or Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War(FE4). FE4 was never translated into English so there are some hoops you have to go through for that but other than that, I can't really think of any other games with the child mechanic off of the top of my head. Hope this helps.
@@darkflameghost8521 darn what a shame. As long as i can make meaningful relationships with characters I guess I can be okay with it. I just wish awakening could somehow come to switch
I already groaned at the anouncement trailer for this game, because the two-hair-colored protagonist design just looked silly and the emblem mechanic is such an obvious attempt to get people to buy the game over their nostalgia for past games, rather than having this game stand on its own two feet. I still bough the game without a second thought because it's Fire Emblem, and I've long since accepted many of the flaws of the series because the gameplay is just fun through and through, even in weaker entries of the series.
But here's the thing about the story: There is no justification for them to deliver such a bland experience in a modern Fire Emblem. I'm not far into the game, but so far it feels like they just retread the same old set of tropes they shuffle around in every game. It doesn't have to be this way. We know that there must be at least some people working at IS that know how to write. Radiant Dawn had an awesome narrative. Three Houses felt a little unfinished but had a lot of depth and potential in its story. Why the fuck are we back at "defeat evil dragon dude" again? And why, just why does every protagonist since Awakening have to be some divine being? It is infuriating because I know that they can do better.
This is my first fire emblem game, I got so addicted to it, I just blazed through it, it was so much fun. I was a bit disappointed in the story though, there were parts that were absolutely amazing to me, but most of it felt like "This is the bad guy, he's bad, this is the good guy, their good, lets battle each other because we're good and their bad", like, I wanted more depth than that. In Xenoblade 2 for example, there's no good or bad, there's only people who are complex and unique, shaped by a past, and at the end of the day, doing what they feel is right so fire emblem engage felt somewhat disappointing with cliche people and a good vs evil storyline. Some of the plot twists also felt extremely cliche and uninteresting while there were some that made me grip my seat in excitement. I will say, the DLC bracelets kind of ruined the experience a bit because it's clear the story or game wasn't designed for them.
Regarding other things, I just accepted and used whatever money I was given, and when I ran out then that was it. I'm not going to spend up to 40 minutes grinding for a thousand gold that's not even enough to buy a single weapon. The game occasionally dumps a ton of gold onto you as you progress and that's just what I used. I found the exp training to be so pitiful I never used it, I did spend considerable time bond training whenever possible, jumping everyone to level 10 or level 15 bond instantly with their emblem. For exp training, the best thing I found was to fight a skirmish and if your weak characters died, to startover the skirmish but keep their level. Gave way more exp than the training room did.
I'd recommend this game to anyone,it was so fun and exciting, but, it has some flaws, and the story and characters were a bit weak.
Based on what you wrote here you should check out Fire Emblem: Three Houses. The leaders of the Black Eagle, and Blue Lion houses are a lot more complex and morally gray than any characters in Engage. The story is really the star in Three Houses (much more so than in engage).
You should definitely play Fire emblem three houses - it's certainly got the depth and complexity storytelling that's sorely missed in Engage and the characters are really well written 👍
Three Houses definitely has its story flaws as well, but like the others, I also recommend it if you're looking for a darker complex story. It was my first FE game, and I was utterly blown away by the narrative in my first run. It's that kind of story that really hooks you as you play through it, and you'll only really start to notice its flaws after you play through the other routes and analyze it all in retrospect. Also, this is the only other FE game that's still readily available at present, so it's a good candidate as the next game you might want to try out.
However, since others have already recommended Three Houses, I would like to add some other suggestions as well, though you'll probably have to emulate these games as they're not being sold anymore. If you want a better vanilla story, I recommend Mystery of the Emblem or its remakes (Shadow Dragon & New Mystery). Note that these are the games Marth came from as well as pretty much the first FE narratives created within the series. While Marth's story does seem to be a simple good vs. evil conflict at first glance, there's a hidden layer of nuance and tragedy to its main antagonists. Unlike Sombron in Engage, many of Marth's enemies weren't evil at first (some were victims of political circumstance or manipulation, and some were even former allies), so yeah even though you don't like cliche or vanilla stories, this one might be worth taking a look at.
My other recommendations are Path of Radiance (Ike's game) and its sequel, Radiant Dawn (Ike and Micaiah), as well as Genealogy of the Holy War (Sigurd's game) and its side story: Thracia 776 (Leif's). Shadows of Valentia (Celica's game) has a good story, but I'm not sure if you'll like the gameplay as much; it's a hit or miss depending on the person.
Many of the other games are good enough (just not my favorites), but there are two specific FE stories which I think are pretty bad. Just won't mention them because I don't want to start any debates here haha.
CONQUEST CHP 10? FR BRO
Seeing the video and this comment section, I feel like most people care about the story more than the gameplay, and I feel like most haven't done many supports.
I won't defend the story, I think it's nothing special, but as a justification for the gameplay it's serviceable, since almost all maps are amazing and the many systems in play help make the game much more interesting to customize than 3H, they really hit the nail in the head in how much meaningful customization you should be able to do, instead of changing any unit into anything.
Many support convos delve deeper into characters. Though everyone at first is either one note or not that interesting, the game does a fantastic job if you try out conversations.
All in all, I'm really glad the game is the way it is. It feels like it's proud of being a celebration of the series. At first, I was hugely skeptical of it, thinking it'd be console Heroes, but it's one of my all time favorites. Heavily recommend.
play thracia already then
They missed so much on the theivery and hostage taking.
To be honest, I am surprised you are labeling this as a game you would not recommend as your first fire emblem game. Really though, I honestly feel like this game is much more built to be beginner friendly if taking into consideration that the story is far less complex, warranting a much more streamlined experience that doesn't require a 300 hour investment into games like Three Houses. There's also no instant way to gain a copy of awakening with ease without shipping a used copy to your doorstep or hunting for the game at a used game store. Looking at it from the perspective of what's more easily available, three houses has much more of a learning curve, and I was experiencing that game as someone who played a decent amount of older titles. Fire Emblem Engage is more simple on paper with convenient guides introducing you to each emblem little by little; its just really grindy as you say if they care about bond rings, forging weapons, collecting support conversations, upgrading emblem weapons, unlocking wake up events. The story is also perfect for beginners, because if you are a first time player you may actually enjoy the melodrama of it all. So, I have to respectfully disagree with you on that.
Then its good,not great,just good.
0:04
Thanks this saved me a lot of time
The gameplay is great and is probably the best of all the series, but it's held down over bad character writing and interactions. It's hard to find a non one note character in this game and really like them. The character dialogue has no real meaning behind them and lack any motivations to make them seem more realistic. Also, for whatever reason the plot is a rehashing to past dire emblem titles, but fails to make it's story coherent. You have every right to do whatever you want and try out the game, but from personal experience it was hard to get through. With the lack of depth in character interactions, a lackluster story, and bad character writing I didn't feel inclined to get attached to the game. I rather got bored often. Honestly, if your looking for a great Fire Emblem title for the Switch just play 3 Houses.
TLDW: Gameplay good
Characters, plot, and main character
Music is mid
The game revolves around nostalgia, only reason why fans loved it!
but did you play fire emblem heroes 😂
I lost my car to heroes.
Yep you're definitely on point - for me the game is a solid 7/10. I literally sighed every time a new Noble character was introduced who 2 more forgetful retainers 🙄 The story is abit meh, and most of the characters are generic and forgetful. It kinda feels like a step back progressive wise, compared to Three Houses. That said, the tactical gameplay is solid, if a bit stop/start in parts. I am enjoying Fire Emblem Engage but I'm not loving it. Throughout my game play, I kept on thinking "I can't wait to play Three Houses again". I can't see myself replaying this game again.
Engage is a really fun game but it feels like Fates Conquest all over again(which is my favorite in the series), except that Fates's story was so bad that was funny and still has some really great moments sometimes, the cast is way more fun and interesting even if they are quirky as Engage, also Engage probably has the weakest soundtrack in the series while Fates soundtrack is peak imo.
Engage just feels like Fates but worse in everything but graphics but still a good game.
It really feels like a Spin Off instead of a mainline game, but it was fun to playthrough, however the story was very boring and the only ironically funny moments involved certain characters and the title drop memes.
So yeah, Engage is totally a lot of style and almost no substance but it's an enjoyable game and has one of the best gameplays in the series.
You are the first reviewer I have seen who I agree with 100%. I am a longtime Fire Emblem Fan and while I haven't played every game in the series, I have played a lot of them. I only have a few additional criticisms that you didn't touch on. I feel like the class change system in Engage is a real step back from 3 houses. I also feel like the online features in Engage were a huge letdown. All of the features here seem poorly designed and not super fun to use. I finished the game once and I will probably never play it again, sadly. I had high hopes for this entry, I am glad I played it but it just had the potential to be so much more.
Bad localization.
I hate the camera in this game! Is this just a me thing? It might be just a me thing. When in combat. Sometimes I want to pull the camera way out so that I can see how far the enemy will go...and it will not pull out that far no matter how hard I try. It's so bad, in fact, that when that red line tries to indicate where an enemy might go. I can't see it because the camera is locked and will not pull out any farther.
On a side note, I actually went out of my way to buy the dlc and even though I hate the practice. The main problem I have with it is that because I did all those maps. I am so over leveled that the game is not fun anymore for me, and I'm playing on hard, HARD GUYS. To give you an example, I'm on chapter 16 right now and my Diamant is a level 10 successor class. I have done none of the prologes yet and now I'm debating if I want to because if I do decide to do all of them. Everyone will be maxed out before I even get to the third act. That's my biggest problem with the game right now. Hard is...not even hard for some reason and that's the biggest issue for me. If it wasn't for the RNG. I would actually give maddening a shot...
you know i tend to just skip the stuff. i just wanna play broken chess pieces
the design of the main character alone told me that i will never play this game.
Sorry, man. Your mic makes this unbearable.
It's just disappointing. I mean, I like tactical RPG's enough that I enjoyed the game, but it was definitely disappointing. Not nearly as good as 3h.
Yeah I won’t be getting FE engage. What I love about FE games is that I you get to know your units. You learn their backstories, their flaws. You learn to really care about them and in turn that makes battles even more nerve wracking because you want them to stay alive that much more. Plus thirsting over Felix helped too 😂 Anyway, After seeing how downright annoying and bland the characters are in engage, I don’t think there’s any way I’ll be able to finish it. I’m just gonna go back and try one of the houses I didn’t choose in FE,3 houses instead of buying engage.
.....you really are listening to the wrong people LMAO. Like okay, real talk, the supports for the characters you start out with until you reach the next destination (Brodia) are pretty much just whatever or dumb fluff (with the exception of less than a handful. Like Celine and Alfred revealing Alfred is dying and how they're dealing with it. Or how Alear finds out that Celine will cut a bitch and basically is a warmonger of a ruler if she were to becomes one -contrast to her other constant tea focus-. OUTSIDE OF THAT, the rest of the cast / once you mix the original cast with the later cast in supports, they get good supports. Hell, one-track mind muscle freak Etie has one of the most comical supports I've read in a while, and that's with an Elusian character called Goldmary.
Honestly Engage goes into the same amount of character depth with its side characters as any of the other one-note FE games (so basically not include PoR -to- RD as those are direct sequels with the same cast GRANTED RD has no supports at all so its honestly one of the worst FEs when it comes to characters if you haven't played its prequel) like Sacred Stones, Fates, Awakening, FE7, Echoes, etc. Its just the 3H normies are so used to having multiple play throughs that the general mentality of "Oh, well I can always learn about them on my next playthrough." and "Oh, I can just grind in the monetary with classes to get to know them." 3H literally is the cheat code that new fans expect all FE to do now lol....yeah no.
Like Engage is basically like any other FE game -sans the cheat 3H- that didn't have a sequel. If you're a side character, you just disappear from the story after we recruit you, and only are relevant through supports lol. FE has always been like this. IDK, why people were reviewing it like this was some new concept that Engage specifically had. Like fuck, every FE game had it until 3H with its cheat system.
Here's the reason why I call it a cheat code and FE going forward CANNOT function like 3H....a game cannot delegate too much time fleshign out.a massive cast. 3H was the exception because it was 4.5 routes in a single game. There are a few games with split paths in the past, but all-in-all the plot was all linear. It will take too much time from the main story if you have all characters you recruit at this scale to get development. This is why 3H managed to pull it off because of the different paths. If 3H only had one path, ya'll would be saying the same junk when it came to characters in 3H because you all wouldn't have bothered to find the time to raise everyone and get to know them.
This also brings up the mind numbing argument that newer fans want all fire emblem games to be like 3H and just come with multiple story paths but like....no.....please god no XD. Some of us have busy lives and jobs, we don't have all the time in the world to delegate to beating a game multiple times. Like I already beat Engage in Hard mode and basically am in the middle of Maddening just because the final DLC wave appeared after that. I'm completely fine with those 2 playthroughs lol.
@ Kris Marshall stop it. You CANNOT be serious right now 🤣 🤣 “please no. Don’t give me MORE content for the same price. I don’t have enough time so I just want to spend &60 for short games that I keep buying, rather than getting my moneys worth and getting a bunch of content that will last me for a month” I hope you realize how utterly ridiculous that sounds. Look, I work as an NP in the ER at NYU. I work 60-80 hours a week sometimes. Does that mean I want games to be shorter? No! Your logic is simply mind boggling. You make it seem as if you can’t save a game and continue a week later. You just want to rush and have it be over with so you can spend another 60 on a different game. Lol what?
You’re also missing my entire point that the entente characters are CRINGE. The story is flat and has been told a million times in other games. There’s no depth to the stories or characters whatsoever. Engage has amazing mechanics but straight TRASH character and story that will even make a tween anime fan cringe at.
@@krismarshall3803bruh you don’t need multiple routes to flesh out your cast. The main story has almost no plot to begin with. Other FE games had bland side characters but at least the games felt grounded. Engage feels hella goofy at almost all times. They can’t even bother to give us recruitable enemies during chapters. Engage is crap compared to almost every other FE story wise and is alright at best gameplay wise. I say alright at best because all the new mechanics along with the ring mechanics just feels like too much fluff on screen. Not to mention a lot of casual fans don’t know half these ring characters. The explanations for the rings existing doesn’t make sense either
But are they really anymore than a bundle of stats? With how boring generic and repetitive, they've made the characters, they've turned the only thing that's important about them into their growth rates and personal skills
I don't find any of them compelling, interesting or even likable. They are all one-dimensional memetic jokes
Well that's just FE fates in a nutshell but atleast this game has better combat and a better custom character
i agree with you shamelessly lenette story is meh/massive disappointment
I just need for a strat rpg game is for the mechanics and gameplay to be good. Story can be nonexistent or great. They only add never subtracr
If the character design and personalities weren't ao wack, I would've given this game a chance. I just worry that I will cringe too hard that the gameplay will feel less appealing
As someone who played the game and didn’t bother to finish it because it was cringe; you made the right choice.
@@HughMungus45lmao there are only a few cringe moment in the game it’s still absolutely worth it to play it
I own the game. I want to like it. However, there's a lot of things in the game that turn me off from playing it. Like the character designs, the anime intro, the rock music, uninteresting story etc. It just feels weaker than three houses in almost every way.
I'm to old to deal with the weak points of this game, and the gameplay could never make up for me being bored outside of that, and I can tell I'd absolutely hate this game.
So as someone who couldn't care less about the story and mashed through the story and crappy school sections in 3 houses, this game is right up my alley eh?
i don't care
The hub would be good if your character could interact with it more. Not to mention I can't wait to see if future fire emblems take advantage of chat AI.
Alear is evidence that Fire Emblem character designs are getting worse.
IMO compared to 3 houses, I liked this story more
I disagree with many things and I wounder if you really played the game. I think many C support are boring but some have really good B and A support, I would actually say the cast is not too far behind Awakening and better then FE1, FE2, FE6-10 and FE Fates. They are on par with FE SoV in my opinion
I agree with just about all your points here, but I'm surprised you'd recommend 3h over this game for new players. That game was significantly more bloated than this, and being nearly entirely made by koei tecmo rather than IS, it really doesn't even feel like fire emblem most of the time.
Not that engage is perfect by any means, like you said. I just think it's still a bit easier to get into than 3h with how bloated the monastery is and how unbalanced the gameplay is
I don’t know what it was about Engage, but I couldn’t even get half way through.
Everyone sucks and is super bland.
The story is boring.
And the way everyone talks is so aggravating. Can’t walk more than 5 steps without someone jumping in to kiss your ass, and when on the rare chance they’re not, it’s about tea or some shit. Engage is by far thee worst FE I’ve ever played.
Let me resume this video, skip engage, play 3 houses, you're welcome.
Lmao shit house is THE worst FE ever realeased And I’ve played revelations
It’s an srpg pretending to be a trpg it was made by people who don’t normally make FE and it shows, it’s a shows how of poor design choices and feel like it was never meant for FE fans in the slightest
@@thomasquesada7248 Its exactly why is such a good game. 3H has the best writing in the entire franchise. You not liking it, doesnt make it a bad game. Its just shows you are a fanboy asshurting over an improvenment on the franchise.
the story sucks so bad, i really dont have a high bar when it comes to stories, for example im already more than happy with something simple like shadow dragon or blazing blade, but this aint it, its so boring. also gameplay wise i dont like the modern hub like area, this aint monster hunter, i just want to go from one stage to the next with zero downtime in between, the older games were so much better in this regard. i also dont like leveling everything up and all the grinding, the game has shifted into something completely different than what it used to be. the older games were all about strategy, now its all about wasting time and level grinding, this has nothing to do with what fire emblem used to be.
The English script has a lot of “woke” censored changes compared to the Japanese release. My wallet will pass, I’ll wait to sail the high seas. 🏴☠️
I hate the break mechanic, it is sooo annoying and for me doesn't really add anything.
Skill issue tbh