UK Charts: Fire Emblem Engage Bags Franchise's Second Biggest Boxed Launch

*throne lol...wow that's quite a feat in the UK!

1 in UK charts, the series has come along way since games stores had no clue what I was looking for trying to find shadow dragon on ds. Which eventually found randomly In a video store after tired so many gaming outlets

Fire Emblem at #1, you love to see it. Another great week for Nintendo software in general.

@Olliemar28 Lol I know that feeling!

Seeing FE on top is a sight to behold.

Fair play, good on them, but still love the Powerhouse that is MarioKart 8. As this is physicals only too, it's just mind blowing.

Good to see it did well!
I'm still luke-warm about Engage since there seems to be more focus on combat and less focus on socializing with your team.
I much preferred the step towards Persona that Three Houses took.
I'll pick up Engage eventually but not right now.

@Zimon the common thread among other engage players I've spoken to is that the "reducing the socialising" hasn't resulted equal improvement in the combat or story.

Yess Fire emblem on the top.

Awesome! I only played a bit of the intro thus far, but I love the focus on battling in this entry. I really loved Three Houses, but all that talking and bonding at the Monastery got a bit too repetitive for my tastes

-30% in comparison to its predecessor doesn't sound that great to be honest.
Or am I missing something?

Great entry at number 1. Sales will plummet next week as it's a niche title but still a great result for the franchise.

@HalloHerrNoob Whilst you are right, 30% is a lot, there is other context at play for why it's sales are stunted.

The main reason will be that the UK is currently in a cost of living crisis and many people simply cannot afford the luxury of videogames right now. To see Engage do so well is actually very surprising.

Three Houses also launched in late July, which seems to be the golden time to release RPGs as people have time off over summer. Releasing a game so soon after Christmas does not seem as wise.

Maybe the morons should have advertised it more.

@Kiz3000
Fair points (+ no data about digital sales).
I was just a bit confused why the sales numbers were celebrated that much when it's typically a pretty bad sign for a publisher if a game sells less than its predecessor.

The 30% decrease could be a result of folks going digital instead of physical this time around compared to Three Houses. Good to see it doing well though! I do miss the emphasis on social elements but it's still there in some capacity and the characters, while not anywhere near as charming as Three Houses cast, have definitely grown on me.

Easy to be #1 when there is no competition,it's the only major title out last week.

It deserves it, it's such a great game, but like the previous comment, there's not much else to compete with.

I always buy more than I intend to in a month, because of indie games shadow dropping all the time, but on my 'to buy' list this time around (games that I actually knew about) was just this and the two Personas, so the release date has made it flourish for sure.

Wow never did I see a Fire Emblem game this hype for the UK market.

there was barley marketed Fire Emblem outside of Japan so no surprise

I find this is sort of the ideal scenario for me.

It's still selling well, so Nintendo knows demand is still high overall, but it's sending a message that while, yes, people want Fire Emblem, they're especially interested in a more ambitious and serious home console entry like Three Houses.

I won't mind entries like Engage as in-between titles, though.

I bought three houses in a sale online digitally and this physically. So it’s the other aay around too

Brilliant to see. Absolutely loving the game so far. I enjoyed Three Houses but felt like there was too much fluff when it came to the monastery sections, especially towards the start of the game. Engage feels like a welcome return to how the 3DS entries were structured and it's really fun to see characters from those games (and more) returning via the various ring systems.

It’s nice to see it in the number one spot. This franchise has come a long way since Awakening. That being said - I do not like Engage at all, and that’s sad to say considering I’m a big fan of the franchise. It is honestly one of the most generic games I’ve ever played, particularly from a Nintendo franchise. The characters are boring, not memorable at all, and their design is very off putting. Seriously, who made the hair and thought, “This looks amazing!”. The only thing good about this game is the combat, but even then, it can’t save the rest of the game that is lacking in all facets. Oh well.

Happy for the people who made it but the more I play the more I am of the opinion that this really is a pretty average game. The writing is terrible, world is either empty or padded with menial activity and battles are fine but I wouldn't exactly say industry-leading in their quality. It's not a bad game but I was expecting more after 3H.

@somnambulance its leaps and bounds better than 3 houses! Not sure why you feel that way. Combat is more engaging and more options. Story is quick, fast paced and over-world map is way better than the school/teaching setting. Unless its just me!?

Yet to play it, but interesting mix of reactions to it.

8 of the top 10 are available on Switch and I've bought all 8 of them.

@gizmo998 Except it’s not. Combat is better. Not to the extent you are saying it is though.

Marginally better combat isn’t worth the trade off on a worse story that is back to the linear style [so you have less replayability compared to 3H and the story going back to linear didn’t make it “better” either so what was the point? ] and the heavily nerfed social feature for others.

Mmmm. Second biggest boxed Lunch.

@Pak-Man I read it as boxed lunch, too. I was expecting to see a FE character bullying some other franchise, and taking their lunch money. Or their plastic, Masters of the Universe lunch pail.

So, can we all finally agree that Fire Emblem is a significant ip. What a start to the year. I know Zelda is going to be nuts. I think Pikmin could be a phenomonomon this year.

@Arawn93 is it really marginally though? Combat has way more strategy. I loved three houses too just prefer this style. Im starting too think there's 2 camps now. This style and the three houses style and how you view this game is which one you enjoy.

Always happy to see Fire Emblem do well. It should be expected now though. Excellent series.

I’m really excited to get to this when I finish my current game, I’m having to be disciplined not to jump straight in.

I haven’t played an FE game for over a year (Sacred Stones) and with so much to play I don’t really mind it seems more traditional and straight forward. I really enjoyed the social elements of Three Houses, but I never really play all the different routes in games anyway, and I’m an SMT fan.

@HalloHerrNoob Other than Pokemon, direct sequels on the same system tend to sell quite a bit less with Nintendo franchises. Mario Galaxy 2 sold much less than the first, OoT trounced MM, Mario Party 8 sold way more than 9, and it might be a stretch to compare Goldeneye to Perfect Dark but same with those as well.

@uptownsoul Galaxy 2 had a bigger drop than that over the first, but Mario is still around.

I read that as "Boxed Lunch". Like a bento.

@uptownsoul There isn't an endless supply of JRPG and SRPG players. When you have a popular console the late adopters are going to be more casual players so there's going to be a bigger proportion of fans for core genres as early adopters to systems.

If most of the extra 80million sales from Three Houses release and now were JRPG and SRPG fans
then Three Houses would have sold a lot more than 4million and the Xenoblade games would be selling a lot more than 2-3million per entry.

@uptownsoul But then, maybe it should have been considered a significant ip with Three Houses in the first instance and making number one again compounds that?

@Roibeard64 lol I heard about this happening when that came out. I was lucky thought, the dude working at GS was a Fire Emblem fan so he knew what I was looking for lol

@HalloHerrNoob It's still the second biggest launch for the franchise despite the decline.

@uptownsoul There's more competition now with way more strategy RPGs on the Switch than in 2019.

This might be my favourite Fire Emblem since Awakening. It's so nice to have a more focused entry that has a tight set of maps and battles. It's pretty sad that Three Houses is the best selling in the series, I hope it doesn't push them to make more with the overblown tea parties and waifu petting.

@uptownsoul Oh I don't know. I just like Fire Emblem lol

@uptownsoul don't forget these are UK numbers as well, we're in the middle of a massive cost of living crisis and (speaking personally) I haven't been able to afford to get the game yet... which I think will be a big part of the decline in sales numbers. Couple that with the lack of advertising and a 30% launch sales decline is what you get.
I'll pick up the game eventually but right now I just can't justify it when I'm struggling to pay for basics like food and fuel.

Getting a message saying I can't post comments at the moment for some reason, I don't think I've been in any flame wars lately 😅

Edit: well that comment posted normally so I dunno where my previous one went 🤷🏼‍♂️

@DreamlandGem it's appeared for me now I've refreshed the page, dunno what was going on there with the messages that I wasn't allowed to post comments at the moment 😅
Thanks for checking!

I could go for a boxed lunch. Ham and swiss, preferably.