Fire Emblem Engage

Story: Pretty run-of-the-mill for a fire emblem game. Not amazing but not terrible. You play as the protagonist who is adored and worshiped by everyone and you travel to various countries picking up allies to join your fight against the main bad guy who wants to destroy the world. The story for the most part is generic and shallow although it does become more interesting towards the end game with some plot twists. Emotional moments either come off as barely serviceable or cringeworthy. The bland story is exacerbated by the fact that the vast majority of your allies have little significant participation in the story and instead just sit on the sidelines spitting out generic dialogue that recites the next phase of the plot. Characters: Most seem vibrant, quirky, and fun. Design-wise the characters strike an odd balance between outlandish and good-looking. Unfortunately, you don’t get to learn much about most of your units outside of support conversations, many of which are plagued by awkward dialogue exchanges (especially in the English) that sometimes give off vibes that two AI are talking with each other. A couple convos are outright ludicrous and serve nothing but to make you feel like these units are anything but human. The past fire emblem protagonists (besides Marth) have little to no screen time outside of 1-2 line bond conversations and their dedicated paralogues. Decently disappointing since they were the focal point of the game’s marketing. Romance: I singled this out because it’s what interests a lot of fans. Building relationships and bonding with your units is somewhat subdued in comparison to the last several FE titles since Awakening. There is a way to put a ring on your favorite character, but many of the dialogues awkwardly avoid direct romantic language leaving you very confused as to whether you’re actually romancing the character or not. Many are also stuck to just platonic relationships even when it feels like they should be something more. Your units also cannot also have paired endings with each other, and you cannot romance the emblem characters. Engage probably has the weakest romancing out of the games in the series that support it, which is ironic considering its title. Gameplay: Combines a lot of elements from past titles and combines them with new ones to create a refreshing experience. Class changing and gaining skills are more straightforward and require less grind than in Three Houses. New mechanics like battle styles, weapon triangle break, smash, and emblem rings add more tactical depth to the game. Character classes are better balanced due to the new mechanics and you’ll be less tempted to just put everyone on a wyvern or a horse like in some previous titles. Weapon durability is gone (except for staffs) so you save 10 minutes on your pre-battle routine. The new hub world called The Somniel is a good improvement over the Monastery in Three Houses. It’s smaller, the teaching mechanic is gone, and you’ll never have to run around the place for ages to complete quests, recruit allies, and progress through story events which saves loads of time. Unfortunately there are still lots of things you are encouraged to do in the new hub world that can severely bog down the pace of the game if you really want the feeling of playing optimally. Otherwise my only minor complaints are that there is no new game+ and that you cannot change your unit’s battle appearance despite there being other cosmetic features. Difficulty: The difficulties satisfy a wide enough range of playstyle preferences. Easy is suitable for players who want to experience the story and characters without worrying too much about team building, complex mechanics, or doing lots of optional activities. It may make the game too much of a pushover for first time players who have played other FE games. Hard is a great difficulty for novice or veteran players who really want to test their existing skills with the new mechanics for the first time without having to be too precise with character building. Maddening is actually quite balanced this time and provides veterans a fair challenge without being extremely punishing. That being said, masochists who enjoyed the punishing difficulty of Maddening/Lunatic in previous titles may be disappointed. You can always decrease the difficulty during the game, which is a nice new feature (though you can never increase it). Localization: It’s true that some small pieces of the English dialogue (particularly in the supports) are changed from the Japanese version maybe because it could be viewed as strange or creepy for western audiences. For example, a character who loves watching women in the Japanese version is changed to a character who loves watching people, and sometimes romantic terms like 大好き [I love you] are erased from a character’s dialogue. Otherwise, the main story is not crazily changed at all, so you may only find yourself needing to reference a more perfectly translated script for some of the romantic supports. Overall, Fire Emblem Engage’s gameplay is a new peak in the series, however its story, characters, and social simulation elements are pretty weak and disappointing which prevents it from being top of my list.