I've played a few previous fire emblem games so the I did enjoy seeing the old characters back and it felt good to play through updated versions of iconic maps. However, I think the way they handled this also led to what made the story feel kinda meh. Three houses worked well because it fleshed out all of it's characters and elements from their backstories were relevant in the main story, plus you also got a lot of those personal stories from paralogues you accessed by building bonds with them. It felt like everything was connected. By contrast in engage they gave all that time and the paralogues to the emblems; this meant that they had less time to devote to the new characters so they all ended up pretty one dimensional. They don't really have arcs because we don't get any opportunities to do anything with them; you get the four nobles who appear in the cutscenes but everyone else fades into the background shortly after being recruited.
It's very much a game that isn't really bad, but it's also the only game I've never finished so I'll always be mixed when thinking about it. For me I'd put it far lower then I would normally solely just because it couldn't hold my interest for an entire run. I give you praise for keeping this video short because there isn't really much that needs to be said about this game.
It really didn't seem like it'd be Three Houses level of story. I just sort of skipped it since I wanna enjoy both story and the actual gameplay when it comes to FE games.
I have a feeling that for long time fans of FE this game would be really cool with the Emblem system... But for a dirty Three Houses normie like me I found absolutely nothing that caught my attention with this game and despite having done a playthrough with every single house in 3H I didn't even add this game to my wishlist to keep an eye out for a sale.
If they would have put more effort into working out the plot beyond the absolute minimum I would give the game a 10/10. Gameplay is so good but the story at times made me angry at points or demotivate me from playing until I began skipping some sections here and there. FE never had deep complex stories but damn... I felt like they have no respect or expectation for the players intelligence. Most tropes, plotpoints and characters are just templates that were meant to be finished but werent. And for that I would go down to 8/10. Most players who only play their games once will leave this game with a bad taste in the mouth, skip story or stop playing unless they are into it. I cant imagine even those above 12 who don't give much for stories in Videogames will feel satisfied from this aspect. Then there are also some questionable descisions like making clothing only available for Somniel because....................... I love 50% of it but it has to drag problems that can mostly be ignored but I don't think that fully negates said problems. Especially after Three Houses took itself a lot more serious.
The word you are looking for is "infantilizing." When I first saw the trailer, I took one look at the character designs and lost interest immediately. I dont care if it has the best Fire Emblem gameplay or an amazing story, those candy colored characters was going to be too distracting for me. Fire Emblem has varied in tone but it always took war and the horrors that come with it seriously. My fear was that Engage will trivialize that aspect for the sake of keeping its cute characters cute. I get that they are supposed to look like Vtubers as they got a Vtuber artist to design them, but there is a reason you only watch a few Vtubers at a time. Ironically, part of the appeal of Vtubers is that while they have very pretty models, some of them can be pretty crass or vulgar. Fire Emblem has always made its characters pretty, but they have also always made them look like warriors. Many of Engage's characters look more like actors in costumes rather than actual warriors.
I've played a few previous fire emblem games so the I did enjoy seeing the old characters back and it felt good to play through updated versions of iconic maps.
However, I think the way they handled this also led to what made the story feel kinda meh.
Three houses worked well because it fleshed out all of it's characters and elements from their backstories were relevant in the main story, plus you also got a lot of those personal stories from paralogues you accessed by building bonds with them. It felt like everything was connected.
By contrast in engage they gave all that time and the paralogues to the emblems; this meant that they had less time to devote to the new characters so they all ended up pretty one dimensional. They don't really have arcs because we don't get any opportunities to do anything with them; you get the four nobles who appear in the cutscenes but everyone else fades into the background shortly after being recruited.
It's very much a game that isn't really bad, but it's also the only game I've never finished so I'll always be mixed when thinking about it. For me I'd put it far lower then I would normally solely just because it couldn't hold my interest for an entire run. I give you praise for keeping this video short because there isn't really much that needs to be said about this game.
It really didn't seem like it'd be Three Houses level of story. I just sort of skipped it since I wanna enjoy both story and the actual gameplay when it comes to FE games.
I have a feeling that for long time fans of FE this game would be really cool with the Emblem system...
But for a dirty Three Houses normie like me I found absolutely nothing that caught my attention with this game and despite having done a playthrough with every single house in 3H I didn't even add this game to my wishlist to keep an eye out for a sale.
If they would have put more effort into working out the plot beyond the absolute minimum I would give the game a 10/10. Gameplay is so good but the story at times made me angry at points or demotivate me from playing until I began skipping some sections here and there. FE never had deep complex stories but damn... I felt like they have no respect or expectation for the players intelligence. Most tropes, plotpoints and characters are just templates that were meant to be finished but werent. And for that I would go down to 8/10. Most players who only play their games once will leave this game with a bad taste in the mouth, skip story or stop playing unless they are into it. I cant imagine even those above 12 who don't give much for stories in Videogames will feel satisfied from this aspect.
Then there are also some questionable descisions like making clothing only available for Somniel because.......................
I love 50% of it but it has to drag problems that can mostly be ignored but I don't think that fully negates said problems. Especially after Three Houses took itself a lot more serious.
The word you are looking for is "infantilizing." When I first saw the trailer, I took one look at the character designs and lost interest immediately. I dont care if it has the best Fire Emblem gameplay or an amazing story, those candy colored characters was going to be too distracting for me. Fire Emblem has varied in tone but it always took war and the horrors that come with it seriously. My fear was that Engage will trivialize that aspect for the sake of keeping its cute characters cute.
I get that they are supposed to look like Vtubers as they got a Vtuber artist to design them, but there is a reason you only watch a few Vtubers at a time. Ironically, part of the appeal of Vtubers is that while they have very pretty models, some of them can be pretty crass or vulgar.
Fire Emblem has always made its characters pretty, but they have also always made them look like warriors. Many of Engage's characters look more like actors in costumes rather than actual warriors.