It's been almost four years since the hugely successful Fire Emblem: Three Houses stormed onto Switch and reignited our passion for Intelligent Systems' long-running tactical RPG franchise. Here was a game that deepened the relationship and social sim aspects and captured the hearts of gamers who revelled in three separate campaign paths packed full of interactive melodrama that sat perfectly alongside the series' signature strategic action.
Fast forward to 2023 and you'd be forgiven for expecting Fire Emblem Engage to follow closely in the footsteps of its all-conquering predecessor whilst refining combat, smoothing rough edges, and adding even more relationships, more romance, and just generally more of all the aspects that so many people readily connected with last time around. Well, excuse you for being wrong, because this latest Fire Emblem escapade is side-stepping all of that in favour of a different flavour of adventure that harks backs to earlier entries in the franchise. Its focus is set firmly on combat, with everything else taking a firm backseat.
Yes, when we previewed Intelligent Systems' latest, it seemed as though everything was primed for more of what we were dished up in Three Houses. The stage was set for lots of OTT drama, we'd been introduced to the new Somniel hub area — which seemed like the kinda place a couple of fellow fighters might do a little bit of the old romancin' — and we were fully expecting to divide our time equally between smashing Corrupted on the battlefield and chilling out at the Somniel's quaint little café as we got to know our favoured party members a little better. *flutters eyelashes*
As it turns out, the Somniel, as big as it is and as wonderful as it looks, actually acts as little more than a base of operations from which to recharge, reload, and respec between combat sorties. It may give you plenty of side activities to engage in, with QTE training games, meals to cook, pets to adopt, an arena to train in, and, yes, endless support and bonding conversations to have with your teammates, but this time around all of the deep relationship stuff has been stripped back and streamlined to a minimum in order to get you back into the action quick smart.
Take those support and bonding conversations as an example. Forget about Three Houses-style dialogue choices or meaningful back and forths here; tête-à-têtes in Fire Emblem Engage are rarely more than a few lines long and they deal almost entirely in banalities, with no meaningful attempt to dig very deep beneath the surface of the characters involved.
And so it goes for the duration of the game as far as the social side of things is concerned, with the Somniel quite quickly becoming a place we almost avoided going back to if we're completely honest. In quite short order it becomes little more than a series of menus and hoops that you jump through in order to get your stat increases and new gear. There's the odd cute encounter here, make no mistake, we do enjoy heading down to the pens to pet all of our adopted sheep, pigs, and cats — and giving people a surprise gift of horse manure never really grows old — but we'd take the option to do all our levelling up, purchasing, ring polishing and weapon upgrading from a menu on the world map in a heartbeat if it was offered.
Is all of this disappointing? In a way, yes, but this game isn't in the slightest bit interested in presenting the sort of social sim its predecessor did, and so it's hard to judge it too harshly for not living up to our own misplaced expectations.
So, if you're coming to Fire Emblem Engage looking for the deep relationship antics that you so enjoyed in Three Houses, well, that stuff just ain't really here. And so it falls to the game's narrative to pick up the slack and inject some drama into proceedings which, thankfully, it absolutely does. The story of Alear, a divine dragon who's been awakened from a 1000-year slumber in order to do battle with the evil Fell Dragon, is packed full of cheesy OTT anime silliness and surprises.
There's a hugely likeable cast to get to know, lots of far-flung regions to venture to along the way, and it all ramps up nicely in the game's final third, introducing some wonderful villains who're absolutely bursting at the seams with big-time pantomime energy, providing a finale that twists and turns and gives players plenty of revelations to enjoy as it all comes to a suitably ludicrous end. We won't spoil a second of it here, but needless to say it's a satisfyingly strong narrative backdrop to the slick tactical action at the core of proceedings.
Further to this, and as much as it may very well be found lacking from a social sim standpoint, Fire Emblem Engage does still manage to introduce us to a host of highly enjoyable characters through its entertaining story, it's just that this time around you'll get to know them much better on the battlefield than you ever will back at the Somniel. Much like last year's stellar Triangle Strategy, this is a tactical RPG where we found ourselves warming to various characters as they became important parts of our combat strategies rather than through dialogue encounters. It's been almost a full year since we played Square Enix's masterpiece and we still fondly remember the likes of Anna, Benedict, and Cordelia for their escapades in action, through the moments when they pulled us out of the fire and away from almost certain death.
Here we feel exactly the same about the likes of Framme, our absolute MVP healer, Vander, the cast iron vanguard of our party, and Etie, the covert sniper whose long-ranged bow shots have saved our bacon time and time again. Oh and Merrin, dearest Merrin, let us not forget the ultra-cool, wolf-riding swordfighter who joined us at the midpoint of the game and quickly became a proper battlefield legend. It's in the heat of combat that real relationships and emotion are forged here, and this is a game that turns that heat right up to 11.
With this in mind, and without being pushy, we really can't recommend enough that you play Fire Emblem Engage with its signature Permadeath option switched on, it adds so much tension and drama that's missing otherwise — we endured a couple of properly sore losses along the way — and it really helps you connect on a deeper level to the personalities that make up your team. Also, if you really can't take the pain of losing a favourite fighter, the time-rewind mechanic has returned for this outing and it gives you unlimited uses (at least it does on normal mode) so you can always flip back a couple of turns if it's all too much to bear.
With regards to the combat here itself, well, if you're knowingly going to step away from one of the most important aspects of such a hugely successful game as Fire Emblem: Three Houses, you're gonna need to make sure the action element you're focusing on so intently isn't anything less than very good indeed. In this regard, Intelligent Systems has absolutely nailed it. Yep, the turn-based tactical action that's always been right at the beating heart of this franchise is hands-down the best it's ever been this time around.
Right from the get-go, Fire Emblem Engage feels like it's in a rush to get you onto its battlefields, flinging you almost immediately into quick tutorial scraps that teach you the fundamentals that you'll need to understand fully if you're going to make it through the huge encounters you'll face further down the line. For the most part, series veterans will know what to expect here, with the signature Weapons Triangle returning to the fray (swords beat axes, axes beat lances, lances beat swords), although this time it's been cleverly tweaked to incorporate the ability to break your opponent, disarming them so they don't get to respond to your attack in a turn if you've taken their weapon choice into account. A small tweak on paper, perhaps, but one with huge ripple effects on how you go about your murder business once you're in the thick of the action.
There's all the usual planning of fancy flanking manoeuvres and risky one-man stealth ventures behind enemy lines, with plenty of breakable scenery to brush aside if you need to open up routes, and carefully placing units in and around enemies in order to unleash huge chain attacks is as fun now as it's ever been. It's always a huge rush to take a seemingly insurmountable situation and toy around with it, pushing and pulling your party members here and there, experimenting, rewinding mistakes, and digging into your available attack options until you strike gold, pulling together some ridiculous combo and decimating an enemy force that seemed to have you totally outgunned. All of that good stuff is here in spades across countless battles that often run for a good hour at a time, it's proper sweat-inducing stuff, the kind of thing fans of this genre will absolutely revel in.
The combat maps on offer are full of their fair share of surprises too, with innocent bystanders to rescue, useful treasures to nab, points to defend and a host of other environmental tricks and traps that happen later in the game which we're not going to spoil. This is top-notch tactical action, in short, the kind of stuff that keeps you playing into the wee hours, keeps you on your toes, and punishes you in a heartbeat if you haven't been paying attention. We wouldn't want it any other way.
The biggest new addition this time is the titular Engage system itself, which is based around the Emblem Rings that Alear and their pals set out to collect from all around the continent of Elyos. Each of the 12 rings that you'll need to gather in order to face off against the Fell Dragon and his corrupted armies contains the spirit of a powerful Emblem Warrior — just about every character you can think of from across the series' long history — and by equipping a ring to any combatant in your party, you imbue them with that warrior's skills to make use of beside their own unique battle abilities.
As you fight alongside your chosen Emblem warrior, you'll charge up an Engage meter ("Engauge" was right there, people!) which allows you to enter Engage mode proper, merging you with the spirit of your equipped ring and giving you three combat turns to put all manner of special skills to work against your foes. During these three turns, you'll also get access to your Emblem's signature Engage Attack, an often screen-shaking assault that you'll want to keep for just the right moment as it can save your skin in a tight spot. Take Emblem Celica's Warp Ragnarok as an example here, which sees her partner character imbued with the ability to warp across the map to unleash a powerful magic bombardment that can often one-shot tricky distant foes and get them out of your hair as you push your party forward.
Fighting with an equipped Emblem warrior also sees your bond with them increase over time, in turn raising your attack powers and opening up new abilities as expected. However, it also gives regular fighters the chance to inherit some of the skills of their magical Emblem counterparts, enabling you to accrue lots of extra abilities and buffs which you can then switch in and out of use for battles as you see fit, even when you're not wearing a particular Emblem Ring. You can also forge Bond Rings, sort of cheap knockoff versions of Emblem Rings proper, that give your party members buffs and stat increases without the ability to call forth an actual Emblem in battle. There is a lot to get to grips with, a ton of choice in how you present yourself on the battlefield, and it gives this game a huge amount of replay value going forward as you attempt to romp to victory on both the hard and maddening difficulties, the latter of which is giving us nightmares just thinking about it.
Engaging with Emblems, utilising all of their skills on top of your own, and pulling off great big Engage attacks is what it's all about here, then. You've got everything that's made the Fire Emblem series such a blast to play in the past, that same wonderfully tight, intricate, deep combat that'll have you scratching your head and carefully considering every single option, now enhanced by the truly impressive level of choice and flexibility that the ring system brings to the table. There's an almost endless array of matchups to make between your favourite fighters and Emblems here, with tons of variations in the builds you can take into battle. It all works seamlessly, feels fantastic to muck about and experiment with, and, more importantly perhaps, it's all conveyed to the player in a concise and easy-to-parse manner.
Intelligent Systems has made sure that every single bit of battle knowledge you need in the heat of the moment is clearly represented onscreen at any given time. Your available abilities, your enemy's potential attacks, and movement radiuses, health gauges, ranks, classes, attack, and defensive stats... it's all present and correct and commendably simple to understand. For a game with so much depth, with so many layers and moving parts to its action, it's easy to get to grips with. It really is super slick stuff — hugely addictive and challenging, even on the lowest difficulty. Indeed, we played through the campaign on normal mode, the lowest available setting, and found ourselves needing to rank up by utilising the endless side skirmishes and paralogues scattered around the gorgeous world map in order to be at a level capable of defeating some of the harder battles towards the end of the game.
Speaking of paralogues, make sure not to skip any of these if you can. You'll add lots of cool new fighters to your roster by doing so and, by jumping into them as they pop up, you'll likely be able to avoid some of the grinding we had to do late in the game as we rushed, perhaps a little too quickly, through the main campaign. All in all, it took us well past the 45-hour mark to see the end of this one first time around, but if you factor in skirmishes and paralogues — if you're a player who wants to adopt every pet, find every available character and max out all sets of Bond Rings — well, you're looking at a significant amount of extra gameplay on top of that figure.
This is a big game then, and it's absolutely jam-packed full of ways to do battle. Whether it's a critical story mission, side skirmishes, paralogues, or a run at the Tower of Trials — where you're faced with overcoming back-to-back battle scenarios in order to win rewards — Fire Emblem Engage always puts its combat front and centre. It feels like an unabashed celebration of the tactical side of this beloved series and, when the action feels this good, it's hard not to get swept up in it all.
There are also a smattering of smart online modes to dig into which have impressed us overall, adding yet more in the way of replayability to the mix. Relay Trials see you tackle maps with other players in a co-op mode accessed via tickets earned in the main campaign. Battles here don't have to be played in one sitting, and you can match up with friends or random players to jump into the fray in order to help out others who've had a turn and then put their game to one side. This mode also adds a new mechanic, with Entryway portals dotted around arenas to be opened up for other players to then spawn at when they take their turn.
Outrealm Trials, on the other hand, see you take on other players' armies in preset or custom-made maps. Here you can engage in quick battles on a selection of arenas from the main campaign or, in custom battle mode, make use of a slick and simple map editor to lay down various blocks of terrain, obstacles, and even stationary weapons before uploading your unique battlegrounds and getting stuck into combat. All of this online goodness works really well as far as our experience has gone so far, and it's been super quick and easy to jump into all of the modes on offer.
We should also give mention to the overall presentation of Fire Emblem Engage at this point. Three Houses certainly had a few issues with its overall performance upon release, as we noted in our review, but this new entry is nigh-on flawless in this regard. Over our entire extended play time here, we didn't experience a single noticeable hitch in the frame rate, no bugs, no crashes, no stuttering as you rush around the Somniel or explore battlefields for treasure once the fighting is done. In both docked and handheld modes it looks and sounds glorious, too, with Mika Pikazo's artwork and Yuka Tsujiyoko's stellar soundtrack making for one of the most polished experiences on Switch thus far. Yes, we know Alear's multi-coloured mop has proven controversial amongst fans online but trust us, they'll get over it.
In the end, what you've got here is an entry in this iconic series that is inevitably gonna divide players. Fire Emblem Engage isn't trying to emulate its most recent predecessor — it's taken a different stance and focused on combat first and foremost, ditching most of the deep social and romantic aspects in favour of preparing for and indulging in great big tactical battles. It may seem like a negative to some, but for us the reigning in of certain narrative excesses makes for a game that's much easier to simply jump into for a quick strategy fix, it makes for a Fire Emblem adventure that we can see ourselves replaying and coming back to over and over again, because it doesn't bog its scraps down in dialogue and cutscenes.
If you're coming to this one looking for the depth of content in the downtime between battles that Three Houses provided, you're going to be disappointed, simple as that. But if you're here for the combat — if all you really want from Fire Emblem is to test your mettle against super smart adversaries in some of the slickest and most satisfying turn-based combat around — Intelligent Systems has got you well and truly covered. We doubt you'll play many better tactical RPGs in 2023 than this one.
Conclusion
Fire Emblem Engage is another stellar entry in this storied franchise, but it's also one that takes a noticeably different stance than its most recent predecessor. It's all about the combat this time around, at the expense of the relationships and romance that made Three Houses such a fan favourite, so if you're looking for that social element here, you're bound to be left feeling at least a tad disappointed. However, for those jonesing to get down and dirty with some sweet turn-based tactical action — action that's embedded in a satisfyingly OTT, beautifully presented anime narrative — this is as fine an example of the genre as you'll play this year.
Comments 217
That negative is a positive for me as ironic as that sounds given my username/profile image.
Roll on Friday!
Awesome! Super excited to play this at midnight Thursday!
The relationship system no being as strong is really sad, because that’s really my favorite part, but the battle system is so good that I’ll probably get it.
That con isn't even a con for me, and I think that's true for a lot of people!
Friday can't come soon enough
Nicely written! Seems like things are as I'd hoped and they shifted away from many things that were prevalent in Three Houses, though I did like that game still. I'm really excited for this and I hope all the newcomers to the series can appreciate the focus on gameplay.
Edit: Well I just heard that Nintendo Treehouse couldn't keep their slimy fingers from censoring the English release of this game. Hopefully the other versions aren't butchered, otherwise this would be a no go in my eyes and I'd get it from Japan.
I don’t really see the con as a con. All FE games don’t have to have a social/romance aspect. Pokémon Snap isn’t about capturing Pokémon for instance. At least not in its traditional sense. If it’s a darn good game regardless, which appears to be the case, I doubt I’ll miss it much.
I didn’t care much for the “school simulation” stuff and wanted a more traditional game. This seems to be what I was asking for so I’ll pick this one up in a month or so when I finish a few more games from my backlog.
This is the opposite of what I hoped for; I absolutely love the art (especially the character art) in this game but I'm not a big fan of tactical rpg combat. With such an emphasis on combat, this is probably not the game for me unfortunately.
presentation looks pretty good.
@StarPoint @HeeHo Same for me, lol. I've never played a Fire Emblem game, and I think part of what always turned me off was the wiafu shipping fanservice stuff they started with Awakening. Not trying to hate on anybody who's into that sort of thing, so please don't come at me, but those elements just make me cringe if I'm being completely honest.
This is the first time I've ever looked at a Fire Emblem game and genuinely felt interested in what it had to offer. I always figured I would pick up Three Houses someday as my first FE game since it's on current-gen hardware and has gotten really positive reviews from critics and fans. But from the trailers and everything, there was just nothing about it that compelled me. I would have been playing it purely to see if there was something I was missing because of what everyone else said about it. But I look at this Fire Emblem game and I'm like yeah, I genuinely want to play this. It looks very compelling to me despite me being the furthest thing from an otaku weeb. (Which, again, I'm not hating on you if you are, it's just reallllllly not my thing.)
I don't have any plans on buying this game in the immediate future, though, given my massive backlog. But someday, I will play this as my first Fire Emblem game. I can guarantee that.
I missed the last one because it ventured too far off the FE path. I recently thought about picking it up and playing it before this one was released. Now, after reading this review and seeing that the game has returned more to the strategy and combat; I may just completely skip the previous one and go straight to Engage.
The more the reviewers said that the social aspect was weak and the strategy was strong, the more excited I got for this game.
This is gonna be a great one!
I’ve heard people say you can but didn’t see any mention in the review, can you customize the hair color of the main character to something less Pepsi? Like solid blue or maybe a good solid black?
The review and the pro-con list make me think you meant 10/10.
While I always appreciate more of a good thing, I also appreciate it when developers don't limit themselves to sticking with an exact formula, even a great one.
"...They'll get over it." Will I, will I really?
As much as I love the social aspect of Three Houses it became a bit of a slog after replaying the game multiple times and at times slowed the game down to a turtles pace.
I'm honestly ok with them cutting a bit of the fat, seems like IS decided to go for a bit more of a traditional route which is fine by me. Really looking forward to this.
So a 10/10 for me then. I hate the social mini games that had become a staple in the series. Looking forward to this one.
Dare I say it... perhaps it's slightly stripped back because it's an end-of-gen type release...?
"Social sim, relationship, and romance aspects are an afterthought this time."
Good. Shame I have to wait until next week to get this due to unfortunate circumstances, but I'm glad that it managed to exceed my expectations.
This looks like a return to form in a lot of ways (though I am not liking the visual style at all), but the expansion pass announcement really put me off. I know every instalment since Awakening has had it, but still... given that they routinely lock certain crucial elements of the storyline (especially Fates), characters etc. and even optional missions to help alleviate the tedium of grinding, it's a rather contemptible practice on Nintendo/Intelligent Systems' part.
With that said, a combat-focused Fire Emblem is very tempting indeed, as I found Three Houses to be off-puttingly convoluted with all of its schooling/gardening/social mechanics. I much preferred the way it was handled in Awakening/Fates, where extraneous elements of the game were relatively streamlined and complementary to the overall experience rather than completely overwhelming the core gameplay, so much so that Three Houses feels more like a fantasy school sim than the tactical RPG that the series is known (and loved) for.
I'm not certain that I'll grab this on day one as I'm keen to see somebody upload the first hour of gameplay or so before I lock in an early purchase. I'm also probably in the minority in that I quite enjoy the social aspects of the gameplay, but the unnecessary fetishising of certain characters (especally Camilla in Fates), I feel, cheapens the image of the franchise.
@jrt87 Fire Emblem Three Houses was released in June 2019? That's close to four years ago. I do get the Pokemon comment , just not FE.
Still have to read the review but just checked the score. Can't wait! Might even skip out of work a tad early Friday before the kids get home from school and enjoy the opening hours in silence 🤣
Looking forward to Friday!
The game might be fun but for me personally the childish punk design of some characters is a huge turnoff. I liked far more the more adult tone of FE Awakenings, and I cant take the game seriously. Imagine Gandalf with pink and blue hair- even if he is the grand wizard, the ridiculous design would undermine his authority. It’s a shame, I know they tried to make the game different visually, to make it stand out, but for an older gamer and someone who has really loved the series, for previously mentioned reason this is a big disappointment and I will have to skip this release:( really sad!
Aww but the blend of action and social sim is what I love about these games. Loved the DS version where your children would go to war with you and was a bit disappointed that it was walked back a bit in the switch. Now it seems like it's just getting phased out
I keep seeing comparisons to Three Houses... Honestly, Three Houses felt overly focused on relationships to me. I wonder how it feels compared to Awakening, which I felt was perfectly balanced on the combat/relationship front?
Cool to see a good score. But Three House also got good reviews as well and that bored me to death. Very uncertain if I should risk this or not.. Hmm
How long does a playthrough take roughly? Don't see it mentioned (or im blind).
Oh man, I can’t wait for this one to be in my hands this weekend. I loved the social aspects of Three Houses, but ultimately enjoy the series for its tactical action. To hear that this delivers on that sounds like music to my ears.
"Social sim, relationship, and romance aspects are an afterthought this time"
Thank goodness!
If I'm completely honest. I did find the social stuff in three houses to drag the game out way longer than it needed to towards the end so I am happy for a more combat focussed entry.
Also, I we don't want Three Houses 1.5 now do we?
I’m glad to see the solid review scores. I’ll be definitely picking it up. The lack of a strong story and characters are making me hesitant, though. That said, gameplay is king, and hearing that Engage has the best combat in the series to date is enough for me.
In other words, it sounds like they sent back to the classic fire emblem formula. Or, if you've only played 3H, it sounds like Engage is going to play more like the Ashen Wolves DLC. Combat first and foremost. Sounds great to me, as 3H got. But long in the tooth.
If complaining about a character's hair is your first bit of feedback about a game, you must lead the most charmed of lives.
Here's hoping the game delivers for me but kind of only wound up preordering it because it's Fire Emblem and not feeling terribly enthused.
Really hope you can just ignore the Emblem system entirely because I'm really not interested in that aspect at all.
I'm not saying I'm against the social sim/relationship stuff, but it being scaled back shouldn't really count as a negative, imo. Things got a little too waifu from FE:A to FE:TH, with FE:F's sibling love jumping the shark. They should have focused more on the gameplay and story, and I think they deserve props for doing just that.
I didn’t really love Three Houses. I do like social sims and visual novels, but the combo just didn’t work for me in a fire emblem game. I preferred my 3DS fire emblem experiences. Looking forward to Engage!
Excellent. Cheers for the review. Keeping up with the high standard of the series that I am a fan of then. I thought the relationship aspect of the previous FEs was interesting but it's no biggie to me that's it's not here this time.
Awesome, day one purchase. Very happy to hear the focus is on the tactical RPG gameplay rather than social sim.
The one con completely killed my interest. Oh well, back to Three Houses. Or hey, maybe I'll finally pick up Awakening before the eshop closes down instead. That has some social stuff, right?
@jrt87 money
nintendo world report gave it a 9 also but said these 2 cons
Classic Mode is feeling ignored
Main story is a bit simple
early reviews on metacritic only give this game only a 82...rating..
Fire Emblem fans be feasting this year
this sounds exactly what I want
It's been awhile since I've been this excited by a new strategy RPG. The bright colors and slick animations have me... Shall we say.... ENGAGED.
I think Digital Foundry have ruined me slightly here, but those little performance dips every time the action swoops in from map view to battle view bug the heck out of me in all the preview footage. I wish I could just get over it, but it's one of those annoying little things I know may very well drive me mad.
Let's gooooo! Sounds like it will be my favorite all-time Fire Emblem game. Snagged the Divine Edition preorder on Walmart and so ready to play this one.
Oh wow, I did not expect the review to pan out this way. Very interesting.
Still passing on the game, though. I've firmly left the series behind at this point. Hope those that do buy, enjoy.
I do like to hear that after how cluttered Three Houses felt, even within those social elements. Think I’ll have a vastly better time with this.
Been looking forward to this, but I won't be buying it immediately. I have quite a few strategy RPGs in my backlog, including Fire Emblem Echoes on 3DS. I'll work on finishing some of those first.
This sounds more up my alley than 3 Houses.
While I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Three Houses, it also felt much too convoluted, up to the point where I often felt like I lost grasp of the game. In terms of combat I liked the approach of Triangle Stategy more. This seems more a lot more streamlined than its predecessor — I might enjoy that.
I’ll get this eventually. Nobody does strategy better than fire emblem in my opinion and this game having that as the focus, I must buy this. I do wish the art style was a little less over the top but overall the game looks like a solid entry.
Wow...gotta be honest...I wasn't very interested in this one as I haven't loved the series direction in a while but this may have changed my mind. I like 3 Houses okay but it was a one and done for me. The fact that the dating silliness has taken a back seat peaks my interest. I will just have to get used to the protag's fruit-by-the-foot hair. Lol
Sucks that the social aspect got toned down. That has been half the appeal for these games since Awakening.
Imagine if Persona ditched the social aspect. All you would have left is a mediocre SMT game.
That said everything else about the game still looks good and still getting day 1
@rawzeku they daid about 45 hours for an average playthrough, more if you want to do more side stuff.
Definitely looking forward to this. I can never go wrong with the FE series. The Warriors spin off games don’t really do it for me though.
I don't mind at all that it is different to the last. Just like there is a place at my table for Persona and mainline SMT, there is one for this too.
@Krambo42 Awakening is easily the best entry in the series imo. Amazing story, best characters, and invented the dating sim wheel FE has been riding on the past decade. Its there but not overdone.
@Krambo42 I’m in the camp of this being a good thing, the series was always fine without the dating sim system. To each their own.
I would encourage you to get a physical copy of Awakening if possible! It’s starting to go up in value, and the base game will remain yours forever after the shop closes. And yes, relationships actually play a major role in the game’s side content. Do you!
Advance Wars, when?
This sounds really more to my liking than Three Houses, I really wasn’t keen on the social aspect of that game and found that part quite boring, so pleased there’s more emphasis on combat
@Enriesto Eh, I don't have much interest in buying physical 3DS games, though I appreciate the tip. I do think Awakening seems more up my alley than Engage. I think I'll do it!
I liked the social aspects of Three Houses, but it drags on a little bit so this sounds great to me.
The scale back in focus sucks a bit for me as I have been enjoying the story and find the monastery to be mostly streamlined (fast travel and the map are your friend...NG+ also makes most of your previous work easily unlockable) as is and learning the politics and motivations really made me invest emotionally in the story. It is unfortunate that is going to be scaled back, but I see Engage as an anniversary type game that is designed to be less about its own story and more about showcasing the elements of the series (hence the light dragon vs dark dragon retread). Which I am also fine with. That being said with this sounding like Awakening pt2 (which was also very kitchen sink) I will likely march though this quickly. 3H's story kept me replaying (at 188 hours and still have a route and a half left and need to redo Silver Snow). However, I have never met a fire emblem I didn't like (one of the strengths of the series for me) so I am still looking forward to Friday.
The protag hair comments are interesting considering NL wouldn't stop complaining about Alear's design and now seem to act as if it was just online chatter.
This gives me the happies. Although I liked Three Houses' social mechanics, it's true that eventually they bog down the game... and ALL Support Levels starting from scratch in a New Game Plus, with only Byleth's being buyable, didn't help.
Some may not like how the social sim mechanics have been cut down, but for others, it's a welcomed change. Perhaps one day they can find a nice balance. In the meantime, can't wait for Thursday midnight.
@johnedwin And that's a very good score.
I'm totally okay with the negative because the whole relationshit stuff in the previous games were just overly long and tiresome after a certain point. I'm really looking forward to Friday.
Meh. I do enjoy the FE gameplay at its base, it used to be my favorite series of games for a long time and I know I'd probably get some enjoyment out this it if I just played it, skipped the cutscenes, ignored the entire ring system and turned off the voices and battle animations, but there's just so much "gringy" crap built in between the gaudy, low quality character art and the minigames that really have no place in SRPG to begin with. I would likely just get pissed off and I really don't want to give money to IS for this. There's a line for everything and this is where mine is.
Removing the waifu simulator but making it the cringiest, childish game yet is some real monkey paw stuff.
cant wait to pick it up this friday.
The scaling back in social elements seems rather logical, if anything, Three Houses also scaled back the romance element with the removal of S supports for everyone but the protagonist from the main story and Three Hopes was also lesser in romance and bigger in platonic relationship.
Yet, those banal few lines long support conversations are a turn off. Two lines conversations often gives you two dimensional characters. The main strength of Three Houses was in his cast, how almost no character felt like filler, how every one of them had its funny moments, serious moments, cute moments, and overall different vices and virtues explored in the many many dialogue scenes. So far, this and the art direction is making me wary of this Emblem, we shall see how things go when more details become available, perhaps they do show nuanced and interesting characters with little dialogue.
"Social sim, relationship, and romance aspects are an afterthought this time"
So...why is that a con? GIVE IT A 10/10! YOU COWARDS!
I really didn't like the direction "three houses" took with the series. Monastery and the social sim was super dull for me. Looks like I'll really enjoy engage!
I didn't play Three Houses because of the social aspects of the game. Really excited that stuff was put on the back burner this time around. Can't wait to check this out on Friday.
Silly main character design aside, this sounds like a FE game for me. I skipped Three Houses because it sounded like it was going too far into relationship sim and far away from the combat I was used to (didn't they weaken or remove the weapon triangle in that one too?). Engage sounds more like a return to form that made me enjoy the earlier entries in the series.
@Krambo42 Definitely grab Awakening before it goes away. The social focus is vastly leaner than it was in Three Houses, but the game does a good job of balancing support conversations and character building with tactical gameplay. It's the sort of balance I was hoping Engage would achieve.
@Steelhead Just finished FE Echoes recently. Gameplay is a bit simple compared to these newer mainline entries, but the story, cast, and presentation are phenomenal.
This is going to be glorious! Can't wait
Oh no, my least favorite part of Fire Emblem since Awakening is highly de-emphasized?? What ever will I do???
@nessisonett
Yeah, seriously.
I think leaving the relationship stuff out is not a CON! That was always the least appealing stuff to me honestly. I just want a good combat-focused strategy game without the dating sim stuff. At least making it 100% completely optional is a PRO.
Well now going through this review, I’m finally sold on this new entry and I now know my next Switch game purchase!
Removed - unconstructive feedback
So the only Con is a huge Pro...
Excited for this one
@Indielink three houses got a 89 many were expecting engage to be mid 80's or even higher..for all the hype i expected something close to three houses then to three hopes..
@igornorado some people do not like the characters and the main story is kinda simple..
No mention of Amiibo and what they do?
I would love the social sim elements I think, but it's that exact thing that has discouraged me from playing three houses, I'm so scared of huge commitments like that, especially with the 4 routes, I'm the sort of person who plays all endings, so for my sanity I'm starting with this one first. The review is great and I'm so excited to jump in!
@jrt87 are you joking? Kirby and Pokémon you mean lol
@johnedwin I don't think anyone was expecting this to be higher than Three Houses. There has been backlash since the reveal over the art style and the apparent story beats. Looking at the review summaries it's quite clear that most reviewers really enjoyed the gameplay but are very torn on the much thinner story. So the fact that it's still in the same ballpark as Three Houses means the gameplay is just that good.
I won't miss the social bonding aspect one bit; the monastery in Three Houses was so spread out that it became a time sink just to go around between missions to make sure I had fulfilled all my obligations for a given month, and frankly it killed the pacing and detracted from not just the missions themselves but the main storyline. Glad to see a return to a more mission and combat-centered focus.
Just say 10 outta 10
The con isn't too bad for me, as I think dialing that back could help not detract from a grander narrative. (World's at stake? How about tea with my crush first?) Though the trailers and review still make me concerned that the story is goofier than I would hope.
Sounds like a real win for me too. On the wishlist it goes! (Man the Switch has a lot of great Games!! )
I have to wrap up Tales of Arise before this comes in....I'm looking forward to it. First Nintendo game I've been excited about since Kirby and The Forgotten Land.
Also, I love the weapon triangle, and I will never, ever play casual mode.
Can't wait to start this weekend! I'm glad the focus on dating-sim is a bit less. I did enjoy talking to everyone in Three Houses and getting a lot of background stories from all of the support conversations, etc, but I always enjoyed battling way more. I'm glad the focus is once again on the bread & butter of the series.
"So, if you're coming to Fire Emblem Engage looking for the deep relationship antics that you so enjoyed in Three Houses, well, that stuff just ain't really here"
Okay. So it's actually a big downgrade to super fresh take on 3h. That's the most disappointing thing that I've read about this game. I was so hyped, now my expectation just low.
What's next? Removing romance options?
Looks I'm the minority here. Ehh.
I hope that they will at least put original Japanese voices on the actual cartridge, not as ***** DLC.
On one hand, overall I think more combat/vanilla FE focus is a great thing, and I'm no longer put off by the Emblem Ring mechanic. However, it's a shame the relationship building took a hit. I'm not really a shipper/waifu/husbando person, but some of those supports were funny, weird, and/or quite deep at times. I have more than one SRPG waiting for me already, so it'll be a bit before I grab this one. FE games sometimes have some great holiday sales anyway.
Actually, the game was censored in the west. Most of the romantic dialogue has been removed vs the Japanese version i.e. Nintendo Treehouse censored another game.
Could be you didn't know or are intentionally not covering this, I'll know if this comment gets deleted.
@Ralizah Sounds good to me, thanks!
Nice review and nice score. Ordered it.
But why is the video-review private? That's just nonsense!
The sole "con" is a major pro for me. Guess I'm not getting off the Fire Emblem train after all! This seems like the game I've wanted since Awakening, minus the overreliance on Marth again. I can forgive that easily if I don't have to awkwardly sip tea with him! Going back to the old support dialog is entirely a positive. I'm sold.
From what we've seen between all the previews "social sim, relationship, and romance aspects" are mostly the same as in Three Houses with even some additional ones, but there's one key difference: they're almost if not completely optional which is great for both those who like them (me included) and those who don't!
Absolutely loved Awakening on the 3DS, but the school aspect of Three Houses did not click with me. I might have given the game 10hrs and moved on to something else. Hearing that battling is more of a focus over relationship building really isn’t a con for me. Once I clear a couple of games out of the backlog, I am definitely going to give this a go.
Please check also my general comment, but here are direct responses to some of you:
@Mrkittyhead The relationship system seems to be the same as in Three Houses so you're good to go!
@EaglyTheKawaiiShika Luckily they're mostly still present with some exceptions like the calendar if I recall correctly.
@FishyS While it's certainly the core of the game, there are a lot of options to make the tactical RPG combat easier (casual mode, turn rewinding, automatic optimization etc.) and there's more to the game than that.
@Brydontk Except for the children most of the social sim stuff is still in this game, Somniel is like a combination of My Castle from Fates and Garreg Mach from Three Houses.
@Stewtred Seems to be really similar to Awakening except for the Somniel.
@Krambo42 I guess the con is there just because those aspects are optional, Engage still has most of them and even additional ones. I'd say Awakening has less of those except for romance being more prominent because of child units, that said I'd still recommend it before the eShop closes down!
@SmileMan64 I'd say Engage does exactly that, it strikes a nice balance.
@Nanami_Ataraxi You'll probably enjoy Engage a lot then, as far as we know it doesn't have multiple routes and the social sim elements are mostly still there!
@Araragi Except the "relationship antics" seem to mostly still be in Engage? I really don't get it. By the way, I've heard that you can switch between English and Japanese voices so if that's right they probably will be on the cartridge (just like in Three Houses and Three Hopes).
@Tyranexx The relationship building and supports are still in Engage so I hope you'll enjoy it when you eventually get it.
@BloodyMurder The censorship is one of the few things I've heard about from the leaks, probably the reviewer simply didn't know.
@JohnnyMind "Except the "relationship antics" seem to mostly still be in Engage?"
People that are playing the leak are saying that the dialogue between characters and interactivity between them are cut to almost zero. Forget about deep characterization from 3H. Some people said that there way less interaction between characters then it was in older FE games. Also, the dialogue seems to be way more censored than 3H was. Like, whole romance subplots of many characters are switched to platonic ones in ***** eng translation.
That's a big letdown for me, because for me, deep characterization and bonding with characters are one of the reasons why I love Japanese games so much.
@JohnnyMind Do you know anything about romance? I really don't care about children units but i liked the romance aspects of the past few games.
visuals look dated, lol
@Ralizah Glad to hear it. It's been on my backlog for years. I'm planning to play it soon.
This’ll be my first full-price purchase this year.
Absolutely love Fire Emblem.
@Not_Soos I'm an otaku weeb, and I honestly don't recommend Fire Emblem at all. I have played every entry starting from Sacred Stones on GBA, and they are without hyperbole, all exactly the same game. Fire Emblem cannot and will never hold a candle to Advance Wars. Because of permadeath, every unit, though they have their own personality, are not important to the story in the least. If you don't like the main gameplay there is nothing to get invested in at all, because the characters don't matter, and the story is usually terrible, especially the newer ones. I'd get Three Houses cheap, and see if you can tolerate it. The AI aren't even interesting. You just throw a unit into their range, and they bum rush it. Fire Emblem exists only because anime boobs sell, not because it's a good strategy game. It's basically Disgaea, but easier to get into.
@Araragi Unfortunate if that's the case about the dialogue.
From what I've seen from trailers etc. combined with the few leaks I've checked the system seems to be almost exactly the same as the one in Three Houses so that's what I was talking about.
Yeah, have heard about the censorship and that's a bummer, it will be even weirder for me since I know Japanese and I'm playing with the Japanese voices so I'll be able to spot significant changes (although I'm playing in Italian instead of English, I wonder if that version has also been censored).
@Tokiwa From what I've heard it should be structured like in Three Houses, but beware that some romantic options have been censored in the English version to be friendships instead.
@JohnnyMind if it was translated from Japanese, then most likely it won't be. I heard from my friends in Germany that their translations of Nintendo games were always way more faithful than English. Unfortunately, I don't know German. I'm learning Japanese, so I'll be able to spot major problems, but my Japanese knowledge is still lacking to go full Japanese. But I'll use original voices, as always in any foreign media.
@Mrkittyhead Yeah, I might actually get Three Houses first because of this. Have always been interested in the relationship system added in Awakening through Three Houses and removing it puts this a bit further down on my wishlist.
Exactly what I wanted to hear. I love the focus on strategy and battling and don't care about the social aspects. That's why I prefer Awakening to Fates, and I suspect I'll prefer Engage to Three Houses.
i am in no rush to get this game i have other's on my list i want to get first.. one good thing about fire emblem games they will always be in stock even years later..
@TowaHerschel7 From what I've seen from trailers and the few leaks I've checked the relationship system is mostly the same as in Three Houses (check my previous comments if you want more details) so I wouldn't discount Engage.
@JohnnyMind Don't get me wrong, I'm under no impression supports were taken out entirely. The review seemed to imply to me that it's just more barebones. I like my tactics games when I'm in the mood, but story and writing are king when it comes to RPGs for me.
As long as they still had permadeath, I'll still get into the game.
I want the romance and social bulls-t out of Fire Emblem. The ridiculous focus on that in the modern games adds nothing. The older GBA/GC era games were far superior, both in gameplay and story.
the negative convinced me to get this
The rare no con review!
Fire Emblem: Awakening was the first one I played and, for me, that had the right level of social interaction. It's good to pair teammates up so they work well together in battle, it's just that they took it too far with Three Houses, when you had to spend a lot of time exploring a hub building and interacting with the characters there.
Three Houses absolutely consumed me but I'm really not buzzed about this one. I'll probably pick it up during one of Nintendo's "generous" sales.
I love how the most complained about aspect of Three Houses is now a con because it's no longer included.
To the people crying over censorship, what actually happened? I did a bit of googling and all I could find was that a single S rank support conversation was toned down because one of the characters is 17. That's really not a big deal, folks.
_________
@ArcticEcho Are you serious? You played Sacred Stones but think Fire Emblem "exists for anime boobs"? Sacred Stones wasn't the least bit fanservicey. Compared to Disgaea, Fire Emblem is basically prude.
@Bret
For many people it's more about the principle of opposing censorship in localizations than if the censored content at hand was anything of note in the first place.
"Cheesy OTT Anime Silliness"
shudders
Fate-reject character designs whose personalities go about as deep as "cheery and loves helping people"
shudder intensifies
I guess the in-depth character development worked for Three Houses because it made one feel feelings when you eventually had to start killing your former friends.
Might wait to see if the Divine Edition pops up in stores after the scalper 30-day return policy expires. Just like with the loftwing and Metroid Dread amiibos.
@MetalKingShield From what I've seen this game takes a lot of inspiration from Awakening (single story, map etc.), but adds to it the Somniel which is Engage's version of My Castle/Garreg Mach, luckily mostly if not completely optional unlike in Three Houses (so more like in Fates in that sense).
Great review. Can't wait till Friday.
The negative is the extra positive that I was looking for and it will be an instant buy! If I would like to have dating and social nonsense, I would play a Sim game.
@Doctor_Pancakes I have to admit that I am in the same boat. For whatever reason, that hair annoys me way more than it should. It is so over-the-top that it is distracting.
Excellent. All of that relationship social nonsense from three houses did my nut in. I just want to fight. Thought my fire emblem days were over. Kudos to the devs for having the balls to change it up. Gone from not interested to very interested and will probably pick this up day 1.
Heck yeah. Seems like a true return to form for the series. More like this and echoes would be great. All the extra characters you can find makes this feel like a game that deserves to be iron manned al la the original.
@Bret The older ones were more gothic, yes, but everything post Radiant Dawn i.e. when it actually became popular, is full on waifu mobile gacha game. It is now far beyond Disgaea.
@ArcticEcho I didn't get far in Fates and skipped the Warriors games (not a musou liker) but are we really playing the same series here? The weirdest I can remember is Nowi's gross outfit.
@Notsoavid The 3ds games is where the focus on relationships and honestly dlc started. Three houses calmed down the dlc thing and was a step back from the waifu stuff in fates, but engage looks more like the gba, radiance games though the story seems to be unanimously silly and not very good unlike the radiant games. Before those though the story was always kinda anime bs
@ArcticEcho The gacha elements seem turned up in this one, but the waifu relationship stuff seems turned down even further than it was in 3h
As much as I loved the social aspects in Awakening and Fates I’m really glad they’ve been toned down from Three Houses. There was just so much in that one that I didn’t really feel like I was playing Fire Emblem most of the time, just teacher/tea simulator. Already preordered Engage so can’t wait for some classic FE gameplay on the 20th!
@Bret Well, the fact that Fire Emblem Heroes exists, kind of proves my point that it's very much just a gacha game about collecting attractive characters. It doesn't necessarily have to be super pandering, but it's clear with all the petting and what not, in the recent entries. The deal is I wouldn't care about any of this, if I thought the main gameplay was engaging. Permadeath is a drag, all the units aren't that unique from each other, and the AI is predictable. You could turn off permadeath, but then it's just super easy. I think Fire Emblem could be great, but it needs a lot of work. Giving any of these games a 9 is extremely generous, the very best of this series is only worth a 7. It's like Pokemon, every time they improve one aspect, they ruin two to three others.
“ Fire Emblem Engage - Relationships Get Sidelined By A Thrilling Combat-First Focus”
Amém.
"Dialled back social sim and romance aspects may be a disappointment to some"
Okay, that's a day one purchase for me. I don't really need romance and social sim stuff when I want to play an tactical rpg.
@sanderev you seems to be very new to Japanese SRPGs then.
Some people have a very, very odd definition of 'gacha game' which is where you get most of your characters by buying items that give you to them at random. Rather than TRPG that simply have a lot of characters you can get via the story itself or optional stuff like paralogues. Or Disgaea's character creation for generic units/classes.
If you're not buying them and unlocking them at random like Fire Emblem Heroes then it's probably not gacha. Something like the core crystals in Xenoblade Chronicles 2 is close to gacha because you collect items that summon Blades mostly at random, but you don't buy for them, they're all found in game. Besides DLC blades, but those are specific Blades, not random ones.
Anyways, I think the game is shaping up to be great, but the localisation has me worried with Treehouse up to their old tricks. Seems like the social sim aspect is lacking almost purely because they've messed with the supports. I'm worried about the quality of the voice acting as well. It'd be fine if it seemed like the social part was less focused on just because it's garreg mach stuff but completely optional. But if it also seems toned down just because the localisers were dragging the support convos through the mud then they have my eternal loathing.
This is just me ranting, but you'd think they enjoy watching people finding out and hating their dialogue changes with how much effort they put into it. Or lack thereof. Disgraceful.
@Araragi Honestly, I've been playing FE since the GBA games. And it just has gotten more and more about the "social" aspect of the game, especially after Awakening. Than the actual combat.
And I actually tried many times, but I just couldn't get into Three Houses because of it. And seeing that it will be less of that in this new game, I am very happy about that.
@sanderev I mean general Japanese SRPGs (there are many franchises, like SRT, Sakura Taisen, Langrisser, Shining Force, Utawarerumono and MANY, MANY other). All of them have romance and long ass dialogue. This is how these games are and many people loves them for what they are. Losing someone that you made an emotional bond with on the battlefield is way more tragic. One of the reasons why I love Japanese games so much is because of how they are handling the characterization. Because most Japanese games are character driven instead story driven. This along with brilliant Japanese voices actors is making these games not just "games" but experiences.
@PJOReilly “get you back into the action quick smart.”
I want to marry your use of English. Also I agree on the imagined relationships and feelings about characters forged in battle. When I played Sacred Stones for the first time, a young cavalier named Kyle held a bridge alone against reinforcements to save the team. The mission dropped a paladin upgrade item for him. Much later in the game, he fell to a 1% chance critical after picking up a weakened team member to save them. He was avenged by his brother, who carried on the family legacy of sweet sweet Paladinliness, but I never got over Kyle’s sacrifice.
@HeeHo
Do you work at the Heeho mart of Tokyo Mirage Sessions?
@Brydontk
They can't have children from the future fight alongside ya in every FE game. It'll make'em less unique.
Maybe in a future FE, they can split it across 2-3 generations in one game where you can have a grandpa main from the 1st generation fight alongside his grandson main from the 3rd. That would be more interesting than what they did in Awakening and Fates
@sanderev
I hear ya. I started with the GBA games and think the series peaked with the Tellius Saga. I liked Three Houses, but after I beat it the first time, I spend less time with the social aspect and tried to get back into the battles as soon as possible. I'm encouraged to hear that Engage is more combat focused
@EVIL-C
You forgot to add "Wii" to that era list
@ArcticEcho
How can you play through that many FE games and not recommend it?
@Turbo857 True, Radiant Dawn was an excellent sequel to Path of Radiance.
I was personally incredibly disappointed by Three Houses deciding to go the high school dating sim route that I can't stand (the incredible combat and customization are the only things that kept me from disliking it in the end), so Engage dropping that and focusing on the combat is a massive plus for me! I can't wait for my copy to arrive. If there's as much party customization as Three Houses offered combined with much tighter pacing not additionally bogged down by requiring multiple playthroughs to understand the story at all, this could absolutely become one of my favorite entries.
@Indielink Three Houses story.... wasn't really that great to be honest. The ones that "Slither In the Dark" weren't ever fleshed out and motivations for characters like the Death Knight weren't developed. He was a poor man's Black Knight who in comparison had character development.
Splitting the game across three paths diluted the main story to some degree imo. Maybe a more focused story in Engage will make more sense.
@EVIL-C
Glad to see you include it! Probably 2nd among my top SRPGs of all time!
@Ryu_Niiyama
Lol, my issue with Alear's design was more about his frame than his hair.
Alear, like Byleth and Roy before him, look close to Marth palette swaps
@Turbo857 Yeah I just forgot. 😅 I recall liking it even more than it's GameCube predecessor. The older FE games are in a league of their own compared to some recent entries. I'd love remakes of POR/RD, plus the two GBA originals. 😍
I'm not a die hard fire emblem fan but enjoyed radiant dawn pretty well and fates maybe a bit less. Three houses was impossible to get into for me. The reviews for this have me interested as it seems to focus more on what I care about, combat, flexibility, etc. Never cared about the the stories in FE much.
@Turbo857 Really? The Agarthans were pretty well spelled out I thought. They lived beside the Nabateans, were blessed by Sothis with tech and assistance, they became arrogant (mimicking the core stones of the nabateans-look at how Kronya dies) and wanted to usurp Sothis's role, started a war and they fled/were banished underground, Sothis drained herself restoring the war torn land and went to sleep, they used that lapse to kill her by enlisting Nemesis to harvest her, then they created the sword of the creator and crest stone from her body parts and bound it to him, they sent him to slaughter the nabteans and then used their remains to create the rest of the relics, Seiros who was Sothis's youngest child raised an army by doing good works/miracles and inspiring a following, and with the last of her family went to war and defeated nemesis (including killing the 11 elites...I'm lumping Maurice since he died anyway). Seiros did revisionist history in an attempt to keep the same thing from happening again and founded the church and helped found the Empire by giving the first emperor her blood and thus her crest power, and gave the relics to the families of the Elites in the hopes that if they had power that was monitored they would be content and not try to gain more (she really underestimated human greed). The Agarthans had to lick their wounds and spent centuries consolidating power and fracturing the political structure of fodlan. They used experimentation to essentially create a new Nemesis (the flame emperor) as well as imo her safety valve, the survivor of the tragedy of duscur (as it is fairly obvious that they wanted them to kill each other if they couldn't control the flame emperor). Only problem was Seiros had spent all that time trying to bring back Sothis and sorta succeeded and that vessel blew all their plans to heck.
The Death Knight had backstory too...but part of it was dude is a homicidal mainac because his dad was a super crepo that was going to try to marry his step daughter (death knight's half sister) since her mom was past childbearing age. Because he needed/wanted more Crest babies.
Honestly I felt that Three houses needed another route from the Nabateans perspective in addition to what is in the game because there are so many political backstabs and manipulations that I'm surprised they condensed it as much as they did.
@StarPoint first entry I'm buying in ages.
Dang. I swore I'd only be grabbing 3DS games until the eshop closes. This will need to wait. I'm really not looking forward to seeing prices after that day. Besides, it was a blind spot for me in a lot of ways. I'm a weirdo who loves the Vita.
...wait, what were we talking about? Oh yeah. Less social stuff good. Really want this one now.
@jrt87 I'd like some big first party stuff too but I always feel like there's just way too many games to even hope to keep up with. I want to 100% River City Girls 1 & 2 and Tactics Ogre. That's without my 3DS backlog. Moonrider just came out. Chained Echos. It never stops nowadays. Now this. It's a great problem to have.
Was the social simulator aspect really that good in three houses? All I remember was eating meals and participating hymns with the same characters with same dialogue every time. Because you want to use same ones to get a waifu.
Besides, why would anyone want this game to be exactly the same as 3h? It's a new game with NEW stuff. Isn't that better? I feel like some reviewers gave a bad score just because it wasn't the same friggin game.
In my opinion, 3h had a very lackluster story, not counting Edelgard's betrayal and Dimitri's madness. The pacing was all over the place. I think Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn were far superior games.
If Engage is for the older fans, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna love it. I'm sure it's better than 3h but we'll see.
@shonenjump86 So, you're you saying Nintendo made a better game than Omega Force...
@Araragi I've never heard of and / or played any of those other games. And that is with good reason. I only know Fire Emblem, and what I said is how I feel. I liked the games that were focused on combat more.
Sure I like character building, but it shouldn't defer from the main gameplay. Which it absolutely did in Three Houses.
It would be the same if they'd make a Pokémon game where the Pokémon would start complaining about battling other Pokémon. Over and over again.
Heck yes! I approve of the dialed back filler content. As an adult I have no patience for longggg drawn out dialogue and or that is mostly fluff in games. This game sounds great the way the reviews written, with all the cool new features and stuff. If not already, hopefully one go around they'll remove the feature that shows how your soldiers stats stack against your opponents soilder your about to attack. Not a fan of spoiled who will win ratios before even attacking. 🙃. That's been like my only other main gripe with the fire emblem series.
Is there multiple routes, all at 45 hours each? Because I found the four 30-40 hour routes in Three Houses to be too much content. If this game is only 45-50 hours + whatever the expansion pass gives us then that's okay with me.
Such a pity they downplayed social / romance aspects. I'm a westernRPG fan and adored Three Houses. Just in time to cancel my preorder, I'll wait for a good sale and reivest the money on something else (maybe Hogwarts Legacy).
I'm very happy to hear the support system is being pared down. I don't like the waifu simulator that's taken centre stage since Awakening, Echoes notwithstanding, so I'm relieved that we're going back to something brief I won't feel bad about skipping.
@EaglyTheKawaiiShika Actually same, I'll enjoy Engage in its own right just like I enjoyed Three Houses and previous Fire Emblems.
What I wanted to say is that the social aspects, while certainly not as prominent as in Three Houses, are mostly still present in Engage so since you said you enjoyed them they could further enhance your enjoyment of this game!
@LXP8 It should be a single route, not sure exactly how long, but your guess is probably more or less correct.
@Chris_I Please consider this before cancelling your preorder: while the social/romance aspects are certainly downplayed compared to Three Houses they're still there for the most part.
From what I've seen this game is structured like Awakening (single story, map etc., practically only child units are missing), but with the addition of My Castle/Garreg Mach in the form of the Somniel which is optional, but still has most of the activities from those and even some new ones. The romance system is structured in the same way as Three Houses.
But, but....What about Amiibo-support?
@Turbo857 Because to me, a game should be somewhat worth replaying, and none of them are worth replaying. The only one I even finished was Path Of Radiance. I played them all, found them to be a waste of time, therefore I don't recommend them.
I always thought & felt from the marketing (plus Engage in the title) meant the focus was on combat & was not as big an effort or mainline game as Three Houses was. So don't really see that as a negative. Great to mention it in the review for those that haven't followed but thought the FE product team did a good job distinguishing this title.
@invictus4000 That is the most apt description of the main character possible. Every time I see that ridiculous wig, I'm taken straight back to the 90s.
My enjoyment of this game will go up immensely if there is an option to change the hair color to something far less distracting.
@EVIL-C
My brother always says there should be remakes of Sacred Stones and Fire Emblem (Blazing Sword). Personally, I'd rather see remakes or enhanced ports of POR/RD
@Turbo857 You two are both correct! 😄 ❤ I'd be thrilled with either or (preferably both 😉)
@Chris_I No way, it's long, long overdue they focused back on the combat and overall story, not just romantic plot threads. That's why old school early 2000s Fire Emblem was better. I went from absolutely adoring this series to not even bothering with 3H. Adding school on top of it is even more traumatizing, ugh... 🤮
@Ryu_Niiyama
That was a really thorough breakdown. Even though that's just about all true, I feel like the player really has to fish for some of that info. You get more info on the Death Knight by playing different paths but it all amounts to a fairly paper thin character.
As far as the Agarthans, we don't know much if anything about the main dude or any of the generals. It's like they're bad just because they wanted to be bad. With a character like King Ashnard from Path of Radiance, we were spoon fed background info throughout the game. By the time we fight'em, we know who he is.
Three Houses has a story but I wish it was explained better. Fates story was one of the worst
@Turbo857 I mean most characters are "bad because they want to be bad" but essentially it is hubris and vengeance as their motivations. They wanted to have the power of Sothis and her Children and be gods in their own right (don't most people in power want to live forever and rule over others? pretty common motivation.) and were bitter when they lost the war (technically as I mean really look at the cost) and had to flee underground and then in turn hated the rest of the world that lived above ground. They always seemed to be the most straightforward aspect of the game to me. I'm not sure what other information about Thales and the rest is needed without them delving into the Tragedy of the Red Canyon and part of the plot is the fact that so much of that history has been lost, distorted and abandoned... its intentional I feel.
As far as the fishing is concerned...that's sorta the point isn't it? That's why you have all the political threads in the supports and even why each of the lords have their own stance because they have half the story because of a war that is over a 1000 years old. If everyone knew all the motivations, half the conflict of the game would not have happened.
Ashnard is pretty much Might Makes Right, the person (also bad for the sake of being bad). He tries to dress it up with dismay that status/birth can determine worth (even though he benefits) but he wanted a world where the strong ruled (even though he was already in that position by birth anyway) and where war reigned. I always felt he was very flat/boring.
However I think that at this point the argument is that you enjoyed the story of the Tellius Games more than the Fodlan one (which is fine, but I don't feel you have substantiated your argument beyond that really). So I will leave it at that.
@Cia I think it depends on the person. If your first thought is "waifu simulator" then no matter what they put into the game it is going to miss the mark. I'm sure folks will still complain about Engage as well.
The monastery has a number of functions, for one its main purpose is stat growth and it gives you a level of unit growth that you didn't get before, which allows for more unit diversity and power in fights. The primary purpose of supports have been info dumps and unit strength (paired units are stronger than un paired units). You don't have to marry in the game and its not even a driving force as most of the convos until you get around A-S rank are about either info dumps about the characters and usually their political position or information about the world at large via their interactions. It is cool to see friendships build or characters that disliked each other change their minds. None of that is new to FE but its a lot easier to do thanks to the monastery setting (try building supports in the older games, you have to keep your units clustered and it limits strategy). The second purpose was it centralized the story as the base of power for the Nabeteans and the Fodlan people as well as functioned as a microcosm to show all the political upheaval in Fodlan and the realms around it (ie world building). However all of it was skippable. You could have just battled/skipped every week and put the training on auto. 3Houses isn't as forced as people like to say it is.
@EaglyTheKawaiiShika don’t forget Air Emblem and Earth Emblem
For me - the social sim parts of three houses were a fun diversion at first but quickly grew old. And there was just too many basic fetch quests. So I’m happy that it’s back to the bread and butter of what makes the series great.
@Tirza Hahaha. Have a good day.
@nessisonett
I will say that the art style is so modern anime that it almost physically hurts.
@Araragi
Hi there. You cited Shining Force as having romance. Which entries are you referring to? I've played Shining Force 1, Shining Force 2, and Shining Force CD... and none of those have romance/social-sim elements. Other than Shining Force 3, which most people haven't played because it was a Sega Saturn exclusive that has been re-released since, I'm not sure which other Shining games you could be referring to. The later SF entries aren't even Tactics games.
So the Three Kindergarden Sim is back to tactical gameplay? Too good to be true.
I really have to read more Reviews. My disappointment with Three Houses was so big - I can't just focus on the Review on this page.
I don't mind it going back to being more battle-focused.
I've never much been the shipping/tumblr type anyway, even when I was younger.
One step closer to killing the Waifu Emblem bs. Might give the series another shot.
I'm maybe planning on getting this game when it goes for sale on Black Friday or sometime when Nintendo puts it for sale at a good price.
I'm having fun with it. But the dialing back of a deeper, branching story, lack of NG plus, and lack of social elements kinda bugs me as Three Houses is my favorite all time game (and as a gamer since the 90s, thats a pretty high bar).
I hope the next entry steers back to all the above (and I hope a patch adds NG here). Fire Emblem doesnt need to be watered down, but expanded upon. And while this one truly is a worthy add to the series, I hope Nintendo doesnt make the mistake so many other developers do- Trying to please everyone and ending up pleasing no one. This franchise is the king of SRPGs and its not even close. And they have shown they have what it takes to keep it that way. Lets hope that doesnt change!
@Ryu_Niiyama
Ashnard was a flat and boring character? What? He was indeed a might makes right kinda character, like Edelgard. But Ashnard killed his father and all of his siblings to be king. He married Dragon Laguz royalty, abandoned his son and left him for dead, drugged his wife's brother when he came to rescue her and took him prison and used him as his personal mount up until his death. Yes, his motivation was textbook greed and power. But you saw the depth of his character through all of his actions.
Again, who the heck is the leader of the Agarthans? Thales in comparison to Ashnard is no comparison at all.
I'm just saying: Three Houses doesn't have a bad story. The Tellius story is deep and multilayered but you understood the motivations of all the main players by the time you complete the game. By the time Path of Radiance or Radiant Dawn ended, you were satisfied.
When Three Houses ends, depending on your path you might feel otherwise. Claude's path = I was good with the ending. But Dimitri? Dude doesn't even battle the main dude's who are pulling the strings. Even when you play other paths to discover new information, like Death Knight origins, etc., it's nothing really earth shaking. Ok Byleth's mother was a clone vessel for Sothis... who is she? What was her name? Barely anything is said about that... unless you buy the DLC. But we eventually find out about Ike's mother, how she met Griel and the Fire Emblem as the story progresses.
Three Houses split story hurts the narrative in some paths. Radiant Dawn splits into 4 parts and all converge at the end. The Tellius saga has a much better cohesive narrative. And now that I've put time into Engage, it makes Three Houses feel even more bloated.
@Steelmidnight
I partly agree. Fire Emblem, as an IP, is the king of SRPGs hands down. But the absolute best SRPG of all time.... is Shining Force 3
@Gracetrack
There are some minor elements. Sarah later reveals her crush on Bowie and jealousy of the princess on Shining Force 2's ending. It's pretty sad. There's some minor flirting about, but no serious romance beyond that.
@Turbo857
I still think that the first two Shining Force games go toe to toe with Fire Emblem. I've replayed them so many times. I was considering trying the fan translation of Shining Force 3, now that's not too hard to get working. I was actually looking forward to the mobile game that they cancelled last year.
@steely_pete The only "censorship" really done was to remove romantic lines made by UNDERAGE characters. You know, underage? Like kids? Like children?
Seems like a censorship I support.
@Broadside
The hell are you talking about? This game doesn't display the age of characters, aside from someone like Anna I have no idea what you mean.
I'm on chapter 14, and can say I'm glad the series returned to this style of Fire emblem. I'm all for character building but not when it takes over of what should be the core of the game. a SRPG.
Definitely agree with this review and i'd give it a 9 as well. and would highly recommend. the only thing I can say is the time reverse kind of defeats the purpose of the classic system, but I usually don't use it unless heal the wrong unit etc.
I really like a lot of the characters personalities as well.
@FishyS Yeah it probably wouldn't be.
but! it is one of the easiest FE games I have played. and you can play in normal mode and reset your movements if you make mistakes. so maybe it might be a good starting point if you want to give strategy games like this a go. 🙌
@dkxcalibur I would recommend this over three houses 100%.
@Stewtred its definitely closer to awakenings.
@Beefcakeyamato I picked up Engage last weekend. I'm only on chapter 5 or 6 though.
I really want to give it a go sometime but those character design are very off-putting to me..
Shadow of Valentia was the first FE game I ever played. I nearly lost my mind, I loved that game so much. I later picked up Fates: Birthright and now Engage. While I enjoy both, I'm starting to worry I started with the best one and it's downhill from there.
@daveMcFlave
That mobile game looked kinda awesome too. RIP.
And yeah, I agree: Shining Force I and 2 is better than a bunch of Fire Emblem games. Shining Force 2 is clearly one of the best SRPGs ever crafted!
@dkxcalibur I'm a fan of the traditional FE games and tear ring saga. and it really caught me for some reason so I played almost all day. lol which is also something I don't get to do ever really lol how are you liking it so far?
@Beefcakeyamato I'm really enjoying it but I'm progressing slowly. I usually have time to play one-two chapters at a time. I believe I'm on chapter 6 or 7, but with all the training/skirmishes available completed. I like the story, the strategy/combat, the rings, characters. I'm not the biggest fan of the Somniel, but I don't hate it either. It just feels like filler.
How about you?
@dkxcalibur oh I agree 100%. I feel its a bit pointless, especially the animal adoption part. but I feel they could do the same thing with a menu. but then people would probably complain about that saying the game doesn't have enough variety etc. haha
@TheFox
You shouldn't, Valentia isn't generally regarded as the best one in the series.
@Rosona Mainly, I love the story of Valentia. To be fair to Engage, I think the gameplay is better, but the story is mind numbing.
While losing some of the social aspects is disappointing, it's well worth it to ditch those lame teaching mechanics and overly complicated academy setting from the first half of "Three Houses."
@FishyS Then "Fire Emblem" is probably the wrong series for you in the first place. Have you tried playing actual dating sims?
You might even get the chance to tragically die and get reincarnated as a character in the game.
I just started it today and oh boy, I love this game so far. ♥️
@HeeHo is this game worth it for beginners?
@anoyonmus Yeah, it works well as a standalone title too so go for it for sure.
Although I would say Three Houses is the better Switch game to start with for newcomers.
@HeeHo yeah but I want a game more focused on the gameplay and such. And also, 3 Houses had some performance issues iirc.
Thats why I thought of getting Engage. So I can start with that game for beginners
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