Surprise! Fire Emblem Engage's 'Wave 3' Expansion Pass DLC Is Releasing Soon

Kind of undecided if I want to get the DLC for Engage or not. My playthrough's stalled out with 10 chapters left because I just find it insanely hard to get invested in compared to other games in the series. Usually a wealth of characters I love in these things but in Engage it's really just Yunaka, Alcryst, and Timerra and the rest are largely bland at best.

Granted even if I do get it it'll be when the new story comes out. I don't really use the Emblems much to start with so not really in a rush to have more of them.

The game was rumored to be ready about a year ago, so it's no surprise that they've already finished all the DLC.

I've already bought all the DLC and nearing the end of the game. Looking forward to playing more paralogue maps and extending my playthrough of it.

I've put in over 100 hours into Engage and needless to say I'm loving it.

Makes me somewhat wonder if the game under performed Nintendo's expectations, and so they're releasing the DLC quicker than expected to help sales.

Only say this cause Three Houses had it's DLC spread through the entire year.

I'm surprised that the Waves are coming out this fast. I mean Wave One came out shortly after the release, Wave Two was two weeks ago and now Wave Three is coming next week.

@Korsica_Is_Best_Girl I highly doubt Engage underperformed in sales. With TOTK coming out in May along with SF6, FF16 and possibly Xenoblade DLC in June I feel like their trying to not to have so much going on in with those two months.

@Torakaka Seems like Nintendo might have another FE game for the year or probably trying to hurry up before the next system comes out next year or something.

@Korsica_Is_Best_Girl I think it's to do with TotK, that it ends up getting a Direct in mid-March. As soon as TotK gets its big info blowout it'll probably be the only game people talk about so releasing other games/DLC before then gives those other games/DLC some time in the spotlight.

@Torakaka @Lizuka All this stuff was done at the time of the base game. Don't pay for something that was carved out to grind money out of you. Should've been included.

At this rate i will never have time to play all this...

3 Houses was better imo. Kind of regret buying Engage and the DLC.

@Korsica_Is_Best_Girl I'm thinking it's far more likely to be as simple as them having had this game baked and ready to ship as early as 6 months prior to release. The same can likely be assumed of the DLC Waves, if the video preview of Wave 4 is anything to go by. We usually don't get plot glimpses till much later, that we did honestly speaks for itself.

@Thenewguy Didn't you say that the game was fantastic and how much you enjoy the combat.

@Joker1234 Yes. But now that Ive finished it I dont really feel like playing it again or anymore. So even though its a great game I would rather play 3 houses again.

As someone who's played most of all the other Fire Emblems, I just couldn't get into this one. Most of the character interactions are very cringy. The story is pretty poor, the characters are boring, gameplay is okay. It just feels like a 3rd grader wrote most of the stuff in this game. I took an L and stopped about 15 hrs in. There are way better games out there than to waste time on this one. Very disappointed

I liked Three Houses overall more and the emblem thing is okay. I tend to forget to use them a lot. I wish they had master classes still. Some of the 'class change looks are not too exciting'. I do really like the combat animations.

Niiiiice! I'm taking my time with the game and have just reached chapter 17, so I might play something else for a few days until the new emblems are released and then finish the game with all DLC emblems in my squad. I wish more of the minor waves from DLC passes were released this quickly - by the time content is released for most games, I will have moved on to something else!

@MKD88 I ended up getting back to it in light of this article, after not touching it in a couple of weeks, and rapidly hit the Eight Deadly Words point with this game, just completely ignoring the side content now and skipping every cutscene and support conversation. Honestly think it dramatically improves the game, went from dragging my feet through the experience to blitzing through chapters 18, 19, and 20 in the span of a couple hours, though I have already pretty much consigned this one to, "I'm going to finish the game then I'm deleting this off my Switch and never touching it again."

@Korsica_Is_Best_Girl
I called this as soon as they announced that some vtube designer was creating characters and that "emblems" would be the focus. It's all waifu BS. Wouldn't be surprised at all if a gross FE gacha is coming soon.

Just waiting on wave 4. Grinding SP and skills right now.

That's good news. I hope that one of the updates introduces a new game plus mode.

Do people really still believe this is a true Marquee FE title? It's clear that this just wasn't on the same level as "Awakening" or "Three Houses"

@Bizzyb was there anyone out there actually talking this one up? It’s a terrible follow up to 3 Houses

@mrMike The big issue I'm having with the gameplay is that a lot of its map design is just... Really, really unfun. Generally not exactly HARD but toward the latter end the game gets really fond of maps where you're just having to spend your time slooowly walking across a giant open field where enemies can just freely snipe at you or ones where every single turn more and more enemies spawn everywhere imaginable. It's not generally difficult but it often turns very bloated out and tedious.

Speaking of tedious, I know there are people who hated the monastery but I think the Somniel just feels a million times worse to navigate. How needlessly convoluted its layout is combined with how none of the characters ever have anything interesting to say anyway (granted the game itself never has anything interesting to say) just makes it so much more of a momentum-killing drag for me.

@Lizuka For me there was actually a tipping point in the Desert world (I think it is around Chapter 12?). More interesting characters, better music, more variety in goals and maps.

I tried really hard to enjoy this game but tbh it was a dragfest. I prefer 3H much more

I'm excited for all the DLC to get released, cos I wanna do a 3rd playthrough. The combat, maps, gameplay loop, and general focus on strategic elements in Engage has brought me back to my favorite series after how disappointing 3H was to me. I rarely beat games twice these days let alone 3, if that tells you how much fun Engage is. Pretty game too.

I’m actually kinda evenly split on 3 Houses and Engage. I did love the story of 3 Houses infinitely more, but Engage’s gameplay blows 3 Houses out of the water for me. 3 Houses’ maps were pretty basic and even on the higher difficulties, the AI seemed absolutely brain dead aside from the Death Knight. Engage is much more challenging on hard with enemies taking advantage of terrain, teammate buffs, the break mechanic, and the teleporting staves.

@mrMike Let's not kid ourselves, FE is about 40% gameplay, 60% story and characters.

Yes gameplay is obviously important but most gamers truly love this series for its story and characters.

@Bizzyb FE didn't always have much story. (Play FE Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light and you'll see what I mean) Candidly speaking, FE has never been really known for strong story telling and most characters in the series are one note tropes. (This coming from me, who would argue that Sacred Stones and Path of Radiance had great stories, but this is general consensus amongst the fan base) The gameplay has almost always been the focal point up until 3H, which tried to have more focus on story and the tedious micromanagement that was the monastery.

Respectfully speaking, I much prefer the gameplay and combat focus of Engage, cos 3H for me had so much forced downtime at the monastery. 3H even got rid of the weapon triangle, which has been a focal point of the series since Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War. I've been playing this series for over a decade now and I think there's an unpleasant divide amongst the fan base: older fans tend to lean towards Engage for being more like traditional FE and being innovative enough to add to the battle system without becoming overly convoluted. New fans tend to like 3H more, cos while FE has had social sims aspects for awhile now, 3H put heavy emphasis on it til it was a focal point of the game. 3H fits more in modern molds to conform with other social sim games like say Persona 5.

I agree with @mrMike assessments, and I mean no disrespect to you of course. The series just kind of changes over time then bounces back to it's roots.

@BodkinDQ No disrespect at all...and your opinion is incredibly valid, though like I said...imo "most" gamers (including the mass casuals) get more out of this series with its characters and story than it's gameplay.

Of course there will be more gameplay focused people like yourself...though I believe you guys (and gals) are actually in the minority.

@Bizzyb Glad you didn't take offense, words don't always translate well in writing vs actual speech and some people may think of it as trying to start something, so thank you for keeping an open mind, man!

Anywho, keeping in mind with what I wrote earlier, I've been playing this series for over a decade. Over the past quite a few years, most notably since Fates, the FE fan base has changed immensely. You'll find a lot of old farts like me still prefer the combat focused entries. FE doesn't usually focus much on story, and I'll be objective here, even as much as I don't care for 3H it did have heavy focus on story and a lot of people really liked it.

3H brought in a whole new fandom who do put focus on story, so I can see where your perspective would come from.

One thing I dislike is how after Engage release many gamers, fans and press are making this absolute divide of: Story/characters vs gameplay...and particularly, how Story/characters is somewhat intrinsecally tied to the whole "social sim" "waifu simulator" and "dating sim" aspect of the franchise etc.

If anything, those two parts have very little to do with each other. Awakening was a hit in part because people loved the character dynamics and the great flexibility in support options but pretty much everyone agreed the story was lackluster. Radiant Dawn soryline is considered rather good and the cast is dearly beloved as a whole, but their supports system is laughably simple and half the cast never says anything after the very chapter they are introduced. Fates characters are widely mocked for making a circus and illogical mess of its whole second generation gimmick...and the story is widely mocked for being a crazy pastiche of ideas when it was hyped as "too big and complex that it needs three games (plus extra paid DLC)".

And then we have 3 Houses and Engage. Both 3 Houses and Engage have a story full of twists, surprises, betrayal, loss and the like. Happy moments, sad moments, nostalgia bait you name it. But speaking of the characters, the cast of 3 Houses is more beloved not because you play as an authority figure that can bed pretty much any student you fancy after they turn 18. It is beloved because the characters are far more likeable and more evolved from the two dimentional caricatures the franchise is well known for, and since you spend so much time with them (perhaps tediously, begrudgingly, repetitively) you see how they change and how they mature, and not unlike a real professor finally you feel happy for them when they have a happy ending at the end of the game...but more importantly, you feel bad when you see how they fail...or worse, they die. And unlike any other game in the franchise, your direct decisions and triumphs instead of your mistakes will cause the death of at least some of your beloved main characters, perhaps of many of them.