@raikonzero I'd still say Engage's DLC is slightly better because the extra emblems you get (aside from Chrom) are actually pretty good. Most of the things you get from 3 Houses DLC pale in comparison to everything else from every other game.
Yeah seriously, it's honestly not worth the hassle doing it every freaking playthrough. 3 Houses did it right with the Ashen Wolves staying unlocked. Would also prefer if the Emblem Bracelets also stayed unlocked, but I have no problem about doing those maps (tho Chrom and Soren's are extra annoying)
What amuses me so much about Chapter 5: If you're playing on Normal, equip Nel with the Tiki Bracelet and engage her into dragon form whenever possible, she just ends up winning her duel before your rescue team arrives. Damsel simply undistresses herself. Probably won't work even on Hard, but it's still so funny to me.
The most basic rule of designing an escort mission: making sure that the principle can't simply get himself out of trouble. Even Pent had a hard time staying alive at times, and that wasn't even intended as a true escort mission.
Tbh, it'd be kinda sick to corner some lord, and they risk it all on a devil axe gambit against the mc in a story. But this, he just had the staff the whole time...
Short answer: Yes Long answer: I like the idea behind it, and there's a lot of great boss convos and things like that, but the maps themselves are tedious, and you have to replay them everytime if you want the new units in the main game
I like this DLC, because for the first time in all of Engage we have a playable dragon, the stats are not too crazy like the other "Manakete" but it is enough to give a breath of fresh air that we can finally play a dragon. The narrative in Fell Xenologue is heavily carried by Nel who goes completely crazy! The moment when she killed the Elyos nobles one by one was very unexpected and also very sadistic by Engage standards. The funniest thing is that I could guess who the traitor was from the start, which honestly didn't surprise me considering that from the start the main story was very predictable. But gosh, the level of difficulty here is really challenging! I played it on hard and damn that last chapter really hit me. It's really an improvisation of the Sombron boss fight you talked about the other day, I love it!
I just did yesterday. It was HELL. I literally needed Alear to dodge the 2 Mage Canoneers that reinforce near Nel and Nil and he had to dodge a 25 and a 50 something hit chance. I'm so glad I got lucky enough with both dofges because I Mulagir Astra Stormed the Wyvern in the North just to be able to breath and clear out Hortensia and the last few enemies. So hard, but the sheer relief I felt after beating it is nice.
Yes. It took me like 10 hours across four nights to beat. It was very frustrating at points, but approaching the end of the fight and finally beating it was one of the best FE experiences I've had in a while.
@@Posby95And it is. Chapter 4 is fun and I honestly wished we had more like it. But sadly, the same cannot be said for the rest of the chapters. 1 is mid, 2 is boring, 3 is either boring or too crazy, and 5 is the worst of them all. The decisions that the devs have made for the DLC also don't help. It's so bad that even the Engage bros don't like it.
It would, in my opinion, be 10X better for the base game if the Xenologue was accessible from the main menu and not tied to specific save files. Once you complete it the first time, you should be able to recruit the new characters around the time you would normally gain access to the Fell Xenologue by interacting with the Well (and maybe a free second seal). Having to complete it every time you want to use the new cast is absurd. Also, GOOD LORD, Nel might have the best character design in the entire game.
Might as well say my own thoughts on it. I will say, story wise, up until xenologue 4, this was actually kind of not bad. Seeing a world we travelled througth in full war again, our friends fighting each others ect was actually kinda cool.... And then after xenologue 4 everything went to shit story wise. Gameplay: help, just Help, what they they thinking for real lol Nil and Nel... Nil is just.. no, have him evil from the start and call it a day, if you want a tragic ending, have him be an unwanted ennemy type. nel i'm fine, like the idea of someone not liking you actually saving you at the end. The final boss fight is actually kinda awesome, but a bit too long. So yeah, story up to xen 4 was kinda cool, then at the end it's urgh. But, it's better that i thought
@@Spiresbeyond Right, the fun gameplay loop and unit building is almost never hampered by mediocre storytelling. Look at conquest, generally celebrated as one of the best fire emblem games but has some of the most laugably bad writing there is. It doesnt matter, just spam the skip button and get to the game.
@@SpiresbeyondImo, it’s a matter of what you want out of a FE game. I don’t think Three houses would of work so well if it had Engage’s writing. Heck FE 4 is really mid gameplay wise but a lot of people holds it in high regard because of it’s storytelling. Im more like you, I value gameplay above all else but I dont think it’s the case for everyone.
I always see some commenters saying "FE story always sucked lel", but that's really not true. Have you played FE7, FE9, FE4??? Sure they have their problems, as all do. But that attitude is purposefully diminishing what's there. Maybe YOU just don't care for story. Personally, I won't play a game with shit writing and story.
@@SpiresbeyondNah, Fire Emblem stories are good and there is value in playing the games for them. Saying Fire Emblem always had bad writting is fake and seems like an excuse to justify the weaker games narratively.
Dang Mangs forgot the other possibly worse plot twist. Nil is a weak person, but he’s been dead since before the story. Rafal was pretending to be weak because Nil really did suck balls. Also yeah Rafal not only mass murdered the world, but he took out Nel’s real twin and took his place.
I dont remember the exact wording I think the real nil was already dying when rafal Otherwise it really is just a consequence(?) of having an overly compressed "story" and characters
19:34 Another example of a missed "3-Way Army" was Awakening's Paralogue with Yarne. Summary of Paralogue : Two sides fight to see who's balls are bigger. You are also given the option to side with one of them, or none of them. Choosing None of them makes them...team up on you for some reason...??? But hey! More EXP and Yarne if you can get him through that mess. Picking one side locks you out of picking the other two villages while picking no sides locks up no villages. And for Revelations : There's another one. The Opera Map, where you get your typical Beast unit. Ryoma and Xander are fighting there for some reason.
One very underlooked resource in the DLC is Alear's ability to Engage+. Bonder Forger+ grants +30 hit rate, +30 avoid to all allies in a 2-tile radius, from BOTH Alear and their engage partner, and is absolutely *essential* to increasing reliability, especially in claustrophobic combat situations like Ch3 where Gregory is otherwise a liability. AOE +30 hit might be one of the best skills for the DLC since you dont have any forged weapons or +hit engraves.
19:35 Chapter 13 as well. There’s 3 different enemy factions in Nohr, Hoshido, and Valla, and every single one of them gangs up on you as red units instead of fighting each other.
The maps had some good ideas and concepts, but everything around them sadly sucks, and I say that as a big Engage defender. The characters being preset, but retaining their emblem bonds and inherited skills sucks. The set inventories with no options for Engraves/forges sucks. The difficulty on Maddening is super high and only feels appropriate if you have a team optimized for it, but that's so clunky and made as annoying as possible with this mix of pre-set and inherited units, that the difficulty never really feels earned or fair.
One thing I will say especially in engage is that the effect of forges (or lack of) is kinda (gamebreaking sometimes) FE in general has been trying to(?) balance forges in every game
It makes sense that you have to replay the DLC to get the characters on another save file. There is no new game +. Nothing carries over. You cannot view support conversations on the main menu.
I will say one thing I have really hated in modern fire emblem is this weird desire for every map to have way too many enemies. If you cant make an engaging and challenging map without making me have to look at 30 units in a choke point, then you've failed. Ultimatley this boils down to them wanting to introduce aoe attacks, which just dont work. Things like emblem attacks and battalions in the last two games have pulled the importance from the individual units into managing special resources and it has really made the games worse for it.
It's so weird how Engage's mechanics have so much thought put into them, they feel really refined, but when it comes to game balance it's clear they had no idea what to do with the rings so they gave characters terrible skills and in the DLC they just give you pre-set classes and items, they were truly afraid to give too much power to the player... But anyway, I don't hate the DLC, it's ok if you want extra content, but it's far to be a "must play"
I think the funniest part about the Chapter 5 is that, on normal or hard, a Bond Level 1 Tiki Nel can actually kill Nil. Just bring enough healers to keep Alear and Nel topped off, always finish off the respawning healer with Fog Breath splash damage, and you can deplete an HP bar every time you engage. It's a defeat boss map, so once you do that, the map ends. You never even have to engage with the wolves or the royals.
Yea this dlc was a mixed bag. On maddening the boss is just a bit too much in my opinion, love the progress IS is making in improving their boss design though. Honestly this dlc reminds me a lot of Heirs of Fate in its design and story.
To me, it feels like, at least, with the lower difficulties, they wanted to keep in mind that players might be running the DLC early, when skills and rings that you have access to may be a bit more restricted, which is why they feel like such a step down from Maddening, which wanted to be brutal no matter how many resources you had to give you the edge.
For the Fell Xenologue, I have all emblems and units up to chapter 16 (just got there) and ChromRobin. Also missing the FX units (on the last stage for that).
The best DLC we ever got was Rise if the Deliverance, IMO. But yeah, for Fell Xenologue, I actually put it on Normal mode, not because of the difficulty, but because I just wanted to be done with it. So having to replay it every time for the unlocks is not great. The fact that is is keeps your emblem rings progress also means it's exponentially more difficult at some points in the game. The first time, I tried maddening, and that was when I only had Lucina and Lyn after the escape chapter. If I didn't have the DLC bracelets, I would have been screwed. The DLC should just give you all of the rings and set the skills if they want to force you into fixed stats. Not doing so means it's nigh impossible to get the new units early enough for them to even matter.
Nel and Zelestia were worth it. Plus seeing all the conversations with the Fell Royals was crazy to me. I'm glad the final boss fight was actually good for once.
The other downside is if you play through it early and beat it (like before the ring loss chapter) the fact that all the winds and the dragons are lvl 20 prepromotes will cause the game to increase your base team level, this makes doing the other dlc maps for the bracelets or even the skirmishes an absolute pain cause now you basically have to use those 5 to just have a fighting chance
Felt like the story just died when we found out that all the lords are corrupted. So in this mirror world, only the twins and Winds were living people. And thus when it ends they just leave that dead world behind. It makes everything feel really pointless, when no one else matters and there were no stakes. Mauvier died just cuz rocks fell. No wonder the other Alear in intro said we won't meet again. He'd have some explaining to do yapping about saving this world, when there's a whole 6 people in it that aren't zombies. All we did was solve a goofy sibling rivalry by slapping one of em around, and the world remains dead, unless the Winds are gonna repopulate it in their own.
Having to replay it every new playthrough for the characters is egregious. The idea behind it is interesting and the story is way better than the main game, but that was already a low bar
"Came pretty close to greatness, but ruined by bad decisions." Yup, sounds like engage tbh. It's so close to a great game. It's just drowned out by the fanservice and nostalgia-bait. Plus, having the emblems being sentient was... certainly a choice.
Funny, I still haven't beaten it since I'm playing Maddening. I JUST beat Chapter 5 and 6. Absolute HELL. Might watch this video after I beat it. Edit: Haven't beaten it yet, but I couldn't resist NOT watching a Mang's video for long. Played it twice now with both sessions ending in headache of trying to keep Nel safe. I got kinda close on my second attempt by rushing the Northwest with all my resources. Gotta say, if folks saw the final map as more of a boss fight than the actual boss, this chapter certainly embraces that idea by making him involved in so much of the chapter you really feel like even when fighting all his goons ya still can't count him completely out of the equation unlike Sombron who although you still have to play around him, it's basically only as a merry-go-round of avoiding his attack range. I still like the epic battle against Sombron, but I think I might love the final Xenelogue map. It has its issues like being STUPIDLY hard, but nothing's perfect.
I think it's possible the warp staff part was deliberate meming from the devs. They did it before with Dorcas' mutton in Heroes, so why not now. Of course, it could also just be the artrocious writing of Engage, but it's funnier and more bearable to think it was on purpose.
It feels like the dlc doesn't fit into the game at any real point. Even if everyone is predetermined level and statwise, learned abilities and rings are not predetermined. A first playthrough for the dlc makes little sense due to half spoilers. I would assume it's best to do this on the saphir joining chapter, but that's so late game... the fact it's all casual makes doing the dlc pointless tbh, let alone on anything other than normal. The world is desolate so the whole thing couldve been carried by alear and tge new units too, making the map easier with less enemies, and allowing bracelets temp use.
The concept is cool but they flopped the execution big time. Most of the extra cast you get are downright useless by the 3rd map, and if you play too far into the main game, trying to train up the extra units becomes far more of a hassle. Probably imo the best time to do it is before Chapter 10 assuming you don't have any of the DLC bracelets considering you lose all your Emblems in Chapter 10/11. But then you don't have any of the Solm/lategame good units for helping you clear maps (not that it matters much, as most of them suck balls because your weaponry is restricted and you're also restricted to their "canon" class. Nel is actually one of the worst characters in Engage (and yes, I do mean Nel and not her brother, Nil and especially his alter ego Rafal, are significantly better characters).
Mangs on his way taking notes from Fell Xenologue Final Boss for Andaron Saga 2... Overall, Fire Emblem DLC is basically a Tech demo for the ideas that the Devs wanted to implement into the series if they had more time, but had to set aside because of release dates and funding. The Equipment thing of FX would not have been horrendous if all the equipment would have been in the convoy, only added to characters as they are if you use the "Optimize" Button. The idea of an Optional Guantlet was done WAY better in Unicorn Overlord, being an optional Arena guantlet that can be done anytime once you unlock and being rewarded with a very strong character and useful equipment if cleared early, but Decent equipment and servicable character if done late in the game. Fell Xenoligue Difficulty would have worked much better if the devs told you "Normal for Story/Completion which can be done right away, Hard for a Small challenge that is best done once you have 6 Emblem rings and Maddening is best done when you have all 13 Emblem rings for a "Post/Optional brutal side content for the challenge". Characters not scaling was definitely a huge issue with Engage as a whole. The mayority of Prepromotes outclassing the earlygame cast is one of the reasons I don't like playing Engage, even though theoretically I should. In this DLC, it's just a straight up sin that the DLC units do not auto level, which should be very easy to program and has been done in the past with Three Houses and Fates. Overall, Fell Xenologue is not qorth the money, but I really hope IS takes great consideration on the feedback so that the next game delivers more on what the people want/Don't want in the next Mainline FE game (Not remake because Remakes should be reserved for experimental changes like Combat Arts/ Reclassing).
I do feel like you were a bit harsh, I think your rating would have been a bit better overall in a vacuum- after all, Engage tends to be the butt of the joke all the time, so we all went into this with low expectations. The biggest sins, in my opinion, are the balancing issues and the fact that you have to replay on every file.
It's a sad day when a channel dedicated to Fire Emblem and Advance Wars has made 3 videos about the most recent FE and AW games/DLC, and ALL 3 are about how those games/DLC failed.
Me before this: Yes Mangs, yes it is very bad Me after: It was that bad (except 2 maps) Also, if I had 1 nickel for each Nel(l) that is cute, I would have 2 nickels, which isn't a lot but it is strange that it happened twice
I did like Nel, and Nil being horrible just to sabotage you is kinda funny and annoying at the same time The final map had me a little offguard first time and my units destroyed along with the terrain oops, so i restarted it. Good final map The only reason Mauvier died is because you already have him, and also both Mauviers felt like the exact same character.
I didn't hate Engage's DLC. Yeah it was dumb how it ended but I think the playable cast is worth it. At least Nel and Zelestia are from my experience. Most of the maps are cool but yeah. Mixed bag for sure but I did have some fun with it at least.
I honestly respect the DLC way more than i do Cindered Shadows in 3H! Because in that, you can do what i did and just beat it once on normal and then never touch it again, making it feel like a waste, and you get a bunch of extremely OP stuff to use forever, with especially the chalice breaking the game entirely... At least with Fel Xenologue, you have to EARN all that OP goodness on repeat playthroughs... The entirety of Cindered Shadows is literally the only maps in a Fire Emblem game i have beaten, but only ever beaten ONCE. The one thing i DO hate, is that i would have liked a version where you could use your own builds instead of being forced to use classes and inventory the game picked out for you...
This dlc I did not enjoy playing during my first playthrough because I did it in maddening and I just didn't want to see it again, which sucks because I would like to try to play around in engage with dragons that actually turn to dragons or do goofy stuff with the 3 winds and the new classes, but the experience is just so unfun I couldn't do it a second time, the only chapters I enjoyed were the Ivy vs Timera chapter and Nil's bossfight, I think that the engage team nailed those 2 making them both challenging and fun exceot from the fact that Nil takes damage mostly from Alear's sword and Nel. I would have been more fond and forgiving of the dlc if I could at least keep my classes or inventory instead of the set classes and items... at the end of the day this dlc is just a mess I wish was better, because I enjoy the game and now these units and cool classes feel like they are going to waste
A really simple thing they could have done to make the DLC less crap, was make it so you could change the forced characters' inventory in battle preps. Why oh why can I give them emblem rings, but if I want a particular item, I have to waste a turn digging through the convoy?
I wont deny there are flaws with the dlc perhaps you could say its inevitable due to its nature Similar of sorts to the 3h and the others Honestly the short answer is that it feels they crammed too much into the last chapter or so Gameplay wise is odd I guess I mean the big elephant in the room is liability and what not At the very least they had 3 difficulty settings Although the fact that the whole thing is fixed on casual mode is kinda odd and might have been part of the cause or effect If anything though having 4 or more difficulties in general Its always going to be tricky to balance One thing is that I wish there was an option to skip straight to the boss battle perhaps The last bit about the "rewards" for finishing the dlc seems like they probably had some kind of executive oversight orr completely forgor how to add characters
6:10 I thought this was a nice change of pace over how much crap you collect throughout the regular playthrough, I'm surprised so many people didn't see this as a proper challenge and instead call it a bad design choice. Reminds me of the Dynamax adventures in gen 8 DLC, where you use set pokemon that you are given cause if you were able to bring your own it wouldn't be fair for the legendary to get walloped by a team of level 100 pokemon. 12:43 I mean she is kinda hot though that personality is a yikes for sure. 28:05 Yeah, I found it very stupid that she "sacrifices" herself to knock Reval's senses to make him care. A simple slap across the face could've done it. lol 7/10, and honestly it has an ok story compared to the original story. #Panettebestcritmachine.
I think ultimately it mostly boils down to customization And continuity People want to feel like they have control of the game and the fixed inventories and stats are welp
I don’t think this review is fair unless it’s played on maddening. When designing a map/game the actual game should be fun on levels of difficulty. The fact that everyone lowers the difficulty of this DLC is telling. It’s simply not fun at all.
The story would've been WAY better if was simpler. I was giving it a fair shot, until getting to half way. Less is more. Wasn't all awful, had some salvageable ideas, but overall, pretty bad
I think this DLC would have been better if Alear was benched and the focus was on the other four protagonists and there mirrored versions. The reason why I say that is because this DLC is DESIGNED to have the clones interact with each other to see their unique dialog. Plus, it would have the potential to give characters like Alfred and Timmera some much needed character development which was seriously lacking in the main game. Personally, I would have preferred dlc routes where Diamant, Alfred, Timmera and Ivy got to lead their own army's for a couple of maps with the potential of more character development or lore from each country. Idk, the dlc just didn't do it for me because I already didn't like Alear and the fact that they are pretty much the center of attention again when other characters deserve more love just really got under my skin in the end.
I haven't bought a video game since FE Awakening and I STILL felt ripped off after playing Engage/Xenologue. Soulless corporate slop. Muh alternate universe sad waifus and husbandos... so cringe. Pain peko.
Yep. And you need to replay it every playthrough if you want to get the units.
th-cam.com/users/shortsYTJyaeaRsO0?si=ZBeroVAr2x8XY9vN
Say what you will about Three Houses, but at least that DLC expansion was a one and done for the Ashen Wolves.
@raikonzero I'd still say Engage's DLC is slightly better because the extra emblems you get (aside from Chrom) are actually pretty good.
Most of the things you get from 3 Houses DLC pale in comparison to everything else from every other game.
Yeah seriously, it's honestly not worth the hassle doing it every freaking playthrough.
3 Houses did it right with the Ashen Wolves staying unlocked.
Would also prefer if the Emblem Bracelets also stayed unlocked, but I have no problem about doing those maps (tho Chrom and Soren's are extra annoying)
Another based thing about the "Nintendo TV", it's super easy to edit the chapters to be instant wins. I think there's a mod for it too.
What amuses me so much about Chapter 5: If you're playing on Normal, equip Nel with the Tiki Bracelet and engage her into dragon form whenever possible, she just ends up winning her duel before your rescue team arrives. Damsel simply undistresses herself.
Probably won't work even on Hard, but it's still so funny to me.
It works in Hard, I did it like two weeks ago.
Cool Strat. 😂 Gotta try it when I play again.
That's hilarious I love it.
Interesting i normally just equip her with corrin and ice every turn.
The most basic rule of designing an escort mission: making sure that the principle can't simply get himself out of trouble. Even Pent had a hard time staying alive at times, and that wasn't even intended as a true escort mission.
How could you talk bad about the storyline that made 'OR I COULD USE THE WARP STAFF' canon?
Tbh, it'd be kinda sick to corner some lord, and they risk it all on a devil axe gambit against the mc in a story. But this, he just had the staff the whole time...
Short answer: Yes
Long answer: I like the idea behind it, and there's a lot of great boss convos and things like that, but the maps themselves are tedious, and you have to replay them everytime if you want the new units in the main game
This.
I like this DLC, because for the first time in all of Engage we have a playable dragon, the stats are not too crazy like the other "Manakete" but it is enough to give a breath of fresh air that we can finally play a dragon. The narrative in Fell Xenologue is heavily carried by Nel who goes completely crazy! The moment when she killed the Elyos nobles one by one was very unexpected and also very sadistic by Engage standards. The funniest thing is that I could guess who the traitor was from the start, which honestly didn't surprise me considering that from the start the main story was very predictable.
But gosh, the level of difficulty here is really challenging! I played it on hard and damn that last chapter really hit me. It's really an improvisation of the Sombron boss fight you talked about the other day, I love it!
My only praise for the DLC is you legitimately romance someone. No friendzones or anything like that. That's in the English version by the way.
We need Mangs to beat chapter 6 on maddening.
I just did yesterday. It was HELL. I literally needed Alear to dodge the 2 Mage Canoneers that reinforce near Nel and Nil and he had to dodge a 25 and a 50 something hit chance. I'm so glad I got lucky enough with both dofges because I Mulagir Astra Stormed the Wyvern in the North just to be able to breath and clear out Hortensia and the last few enemies.
So hard, but the sheer relief I felt after beating it is nice.
Yes. It took me like 10 hours across four nights to beat. It was very frustrating at points, but approaching the end of the fight and finally beating it was one of the best FE experiences I've had in a while.
Take Engage, and remove the good gameplay, the good maps and units. But make the final boss battle decent. You get the Fell Xenologue as a result.
So... reverse Engage.
Quite ironic, I must say
Oh so a divorce
That's not really fair. Map 4 seemed fun.
@@Posby95And it is. Chapter 4 is fun and I honestly wished we had more like it. But sadly, the same cannot be said for the rest of the chapters.
1 is mid, 2 is boring, 3 is either boring or too crazy, and 5 is the worst of them all. The decisions that the devs have made for the DLC also don't help. It's so bad that even the Engage bros don't like it.
@@mikeschmidt2526 if it were reverse engage it would have a good story
Yes, next question
Rise from a thousand years ago!
I couldn't believe they actually did it again with Nel, and proceed to act like it was nothing
They must really like the concept of dragons sleeping for long periods of time
It would, in my opinion, be 10X better for the base game if the Xenologue was accessible from the main menu and not tied to specific save files. Once you complete it the first time, you should be able to recruit the new characters around the time you would normally gain access to the Fell Xenologue by interacting with the Well (and maybe a free second seal). Having to complete it every time you want to use the new cast is absurd. Also, GOOD LORD, Nel might have the best character design in the entire game.
A simple patch like that would make the game a lot more enjoyable but Nintendo/IS are too arrogant to do that.
Might as well say my own thoughts on it. I will say, story wise, up until xenologue 4, this was actually kind of not bad. Seeing a world we travelled througth in full war again, our friends fighting each others ect was actually kinda cool.... And then after xenologue 4 everything went to shit story wise.
Gameplay: help, just Help, what they they thinking for real lol
Nil and Nel... Nil is just.. no, have him evil from the start and call it a day, if you want a tragic ending, have him be an unwanted ennemy type. nel i'm fine, like the idea of someone not liking you actually saving you at the end.
The final boss fight is actually kinda awesome, but a bit too long.
So yeah, story up to xen 4 was kinda cool, then at the end it's urgh. But, it's better that i thought
This is what Engage's writing should've been, still mediocre but not straight up bad to the point where it's reason enough to not play Engage
The story should never really prohibit you from playing the game. All fire emblems have ultimately pretty mediocre to bad writing lol
@@Spiresbeyond Right, the fun gameplay loop and unit building is almost never hampered by mediocre storytelling. Look at conquest, generally celebrated as one of the best fire emblem games but has some of the most laugably bad writing there is. It doesnt matter, just spam the skip button and get to the game.
@@SpiresbeyondImo, it’s a matter of what you want out of a FE game. I don’t think Three houses would of work so well if it had Engage’s writing. Heck FE 4 is really mid gameplay wise but a lot of people holds it in high regard because of it’s storytelling.
Im more like you, I value gameplay above all else but I dont think it’s the case for everyone.
I always see some commenters saying "FE story always sucked lel", but that's really not true. Have you played FE7, FE9, FE4??? Sure they have their problems, as all do. But that attitude is purposefully diminishing what's there. Maybe YOU just don't care for story. Personally, I won't play a game with shit writing and story.
@@SpiresbeyondNah, Fire Emblem stories are good and there is value in playing the games for them. Saying Fire Emblem always had bad writting is fake and seems like an excuse to justify the weaker games narratively.
✨The ground shits back✨
I think the Fire Emblem Engage DLC can be summed up as: "Great rewards, not so great maps"
Dang Mangs forgot the other possibly worse plot twist. Nil is a weak person, but he’s been dead since before the story. Rafal was pretending to be weak because Nil really did suck balls. Also yeah Rafal not only mass murdered the world, but he took out Nel’s real twin and took his place.
I dont remember the exact wording I think the real nil was already dying when rafal
Otherwise it really is just a consequence(?) of having an overly compressed "story" and characters
19:34 Another example of a missed "3-Way Army" was Awakening's Paralogue with Yarne. Summary of Paralogue : Two sides fight to see who's balls are bigger. You are also given the option to side with one of them, or none of them. Choosing None of them makes them...team up on you for some reason...??? But hey! More EXP and Yarne if you can get him through that mess. Picking one side locks you out of picking the other two villages while picking no sides locks up no villages.
And for Revelations : There's another one. The Opera Map, where you get your typical Beast unit. Ryoma and Xander are fighting there for some reason.
One very underlooked resource in the DLC is Alear's ability to Engage+.
Bonder Forger+ grants +30 hit rate, +30 avoid to all allies in a 2-tile radius, from BOTH Alear and their engage partner, and is absolutely *essential* to increasing reliability, especially in claustrophobic combat situations like Ch3 where Gregory is otherwise a liability.
AOE +30 hit might be one of the best skills for the DLC since you dont have any forged weapons or +hit engraves.
The problem is I wanted to actually use the units, so I was trying to beat the DLC way before I unlocked Engage+.
Yes… yes it is
It was so bad that the video didnt even title it properly (fel instead of fell😂)
Better than the main story, still nearly died of cringe
5:08 Mangs calling the Fell Xenologue a hack
After a fashion, DLC kind of is a hack, albeit with the original source code. :P
If I didn’t have to replay it every time I wanted to use the new characters, I’d be more fine with it.
This has to be the greatest thumbnail this channel has ever seen
THE DIVINE DRAGON LOOKED AT ME!!!!!!!
19:35 Chapter 13 as well. There’s 3 different enemy factions in Nohr, Hoshido, and Valla, and every single one of them gangs up on you as red units instead of fighting each other.
This DLC was made for ME so I could have my wife Evil Ivy in the game.
This dlc is so good that a made a save slot with it completed so I don't need to replay it again after every playthrough
The maps had some good ideas and concepts, but everything around them sadly sucks, and I say that as a big Engage defender.
The characters being preset, but retaining their emblem bonds and inherited skills sucks. The set inventories with no options for Engraves/forges sucks. The difficulty on Maddening is super high and only feels appropriate if you have a team optimized for it, but that's so clunky and made as annoying as possible with this mix of pre-set and inherited units, that the difficulty never really feels earned or fair.
One thing I will say especially in engage is that the effect of forges (or lack of) is kinda (gamebreaking sometimes)
FE in general has been trying to(?) balance forges in every game
Yes it is, and I don't need to elaborate further.
Haven’t watched the entire videos of yours yet but nothing made me happier than seeing my girl Goldmary putting in work on the first map.
They should have made a NG+ option with taking xenologue/fell units
improve replayability aspect, it's that simple.
It makes sense that you have to replay the DLC to get the characters on another save file. There is no new game +. Nothing carries over. You cannot view support conversations on the main menu.
yeah, I have no idea, I'll leave my like and keep watching your old videos
I will say one thing I have really hated in modern fire emblem is this weird desire for every map to have way too many enemies. If you cant make an engaging and challenging map without making me have to look at 30 units in a choke point, then you've failed.
Ultimatley this boils down to them wanting to introduce aoe attacks, which just dont work. Things like emblem attacks and battalions in the last two games have pulled the importance from the individual units into managing special resources and it has really made the games worse for it.
I think part of it is that the maps in engage might be smaller
And army sizes
This reminds me of the Future Past Xenologue from Awakening, but worse.
It's so weird how Engage's mechanics have so much thought put into them, they feel really refined, but when it comes to game balance it's clear they had no idea what to do with the rings so they gave characters terrible skills and in the DLC they just give you pre-set classes and items, they were truly afraid to give too much power to the player... But anyway, I don't hate the DLC, it's ok if you want extra content, but it's far to be a "must play"
Im not sure if its even possible to "balance" the rings
I think the funniest part about the Chapter 5 is that, on normal or hard, a Bond Level 1 Tiki Nel can actually kill Nil. Just bring enough healers to keep Alear and Nel topped off, always finish off the respawning healer with Fog Breath splash damage, and you can deplete an HP bar every time you engage. It's a defeat boss map, so once you do that, the map ends. You never even have to engage with the wolves or the royals.
Yea this dlc was a mixed bag. On maddening the boss is just a bit too much in my opinion, love the progress IS is making in improving their boss design though. Honestly this dlc reminds me a lot of Heirs of Fate in its design and story.
Yes and I contributed to the pain.
To me, it feels like, at least, with the lower difficulties, they wanted to keep in mind that players might be running the DLC early, when skills and rings that you have access to may be a bit more restricted, which is why they feel like such a step down from Maddening, which wanted to be brutal no matter how many resources you had to give you the edge.
That DLC had to be absolute hell for you. Glad you beat it.
For the Fell Xenologue, I have all emblems and units up to chapter 16 (just got there) and ChromRobin. Also missing the FX units (on the last stage for that).
The best DLC we ever got was Rise if the Deliverance, IMO.
But yeah, for Fell Xenologue, I actually put it on Normal mode, not because of the difficulty, but because I just wanted to be done with it. So having to replay it every time for the unlocks is not great.
The fact that is is keeps your emblem rings progress also means it's exponentially more difficult at some points in the game. The first time, I tried maddening, and that was when I only had Lucina and Lyn after the escape chapter. If I didn't have the DLC bracelets, I would have been screwed. The DLC should just give you all of the rings and set the skills if they want to force you into fixed stats. Not doing so means it's nigh impossible to get the new units early enough for them to even matter.
Nel and Zelestia were worth it. Plus seeing all the conversations with the Fell Royals was crazy to me. I'm glad the final boss fight was actually good for once.
What, would the universe explode should two Mauviers ever meet?
I think they either trolled us intentionally and/or didnt bother to do anything for mauvier since hes already in the main story
The other downside is if you play through it early and beat it (like before the ring loss chapter) the fact that all the winds and the dragons are lvl 20 prepromotes will cause the game to increase your base team level, this makes doing the other dlc maps for the bracelets or even the skirmishes an absolute pain cause now you basically have to use those 5 to just have a fighting chance
The preset maps was my greatest gripe about the DLC.
Felt like the story just died when we found out that all the lords are corrupted. So in this mirror world, only the twins and Winds were living people. And thus when it ends they just leave that dead world behind. It makes everything feel really pointless, when no one else matters and there were no stakes. Mauvier died just cuz rocks fell.
No wonder the other Alear in intro said we won't meet again. He'd have some explaining to do yapping about saving this world, when there's a whole 6 people in it that aren't zombies. All we did was solve a goofy sibling rivalry by slapping one of em around, and the world remains dead, unless the Winds are gonna repopulate it in their own.
Give Nils Wary Fighter at least.
Having to replay it every new playthrough for the characters is egregious. The idea behind it is interesting and the story is way better than the main game, but that was already a low bar
Yes it is, next question
"Came pretty close to greatness, but ruined by bad decisions."
Yup, sounds like engage tbh.
It's so close to a great game. It's just drowned out by the fanservice and nostalgia-bait.
Plus, having the emblems being sentient was... certainly a choice.
Funny, I still haven't beaten it since I'm playing Maddening. I JUST beat Chapter 5 and 6. Absolute HELL.
Might watch this video after I beat it.
Edit: Haven't beaten it yet, but I couldn't resist NOT watching a Mang's video for long. Played it twice now with both sessions ending in headache of trying to keep Nel safe. I got kinda close on my second attempt by rushing the Northwest with all my resources. Gotta say, if folks saw the final map as more of a boss fight than the actual boss, this chapter certainly embraces that idea by making him involved in so much of the chapter you really feel like even when fighting all his goons ya still can't count him completely out of the equation unlike Sombron who although you still have to play around him, it's basically only as a merry-go-round of avoiding his attack range. I still like the epic battle against Sombron, but I think I might love the final Xenelogue map. It has its issues like being STUPIDLY hard, but nothing's perfect.
Absolutely
I think it's possible the warp staff part was deliberate meming from the devs. They did it before with Dorcas' mutton in Heroes, so why not now. Of course, it could also just be the artrocious writing of Engage, but it's funnier and more bearable to think it was on purpose.
I like this dlc bc I could marry Griss, I mean, Gregory. Lol
Yeah
It feels like the dlc doesn't fit into the game at any real point. Even if everyone is predetermined level and statwise, learned abilities and rings are not predetermined. A first playthrough for the dlc makes little sense due to half spoilers. I would assume it's best to do this on the saphir joining chapter, but that's so late game... the fact it's all casual makes doing the dlc pointless tbh, let alone on anything other than normal. The world is desolate so the whole thing couldve been carried by alear and tge new units too, making the map easier with less enemies, and allowing bracelets temp use.
Good ideas drowned in a Sea of shortcomings. Not enough time to explain or go deeper into the characters. Lack of quality of life options.
I personally enjoyed the DLC…for the most part, I did not like how they reset all the characters
oh i just remember still not finish enrage and bought it on release day
The concept is cool but they flopped the execution big time. Most of the extra cast you get are downright useless by the 3rd map, and if you play too far into the main game, trying to train up the extra units becomes far more of a hassle. Probably imo the best time to do it is before Chapter 10 assuming you don't have any of the DLC bracelets considering you lose all your Emblems in Chapter 10/11. But then you don't have any of the Solm/lategame good units for helping you clear maps (not that it matters much, as most of them suck balls because your weaponry is restricted and you're also restricted to their "canon" class.
Nel is actually one of the worst characters in Engage (and yes, I do mean Nel and not her brother, Nil and especially his alter ego Rafal, are significantly better characters).
The boss map is definitely the best. I am so looking forward the next game with the FE team seemingly getting better.
They should have just had set bond ranks and skills if they were going to give characters set classes and stats.
is he cosplaying that general in Lyn’s story ch10 fe7 or is that his actual face?
Mangs on his way taking notes from Fell Xenologue Final Boss for Andaron Saga 2...
Overall, Fire Emblem DLC is basically a Tech demo for the ideas that the Devs wanted to implement into the series if they had more time, but had to set aside because of release dates and funding. The Equipment thing of FX would not have been horrendous if all the equipment would have been in the convoy, only added to characters as they are if you use the "Optimize" Button. The idea of an Optional Guantlet was done WAY better in Unicorn Overlord, being an optional Arena guantlet that can be done anytime once you unlock and being rewarded with a very strong character and useful equipment if cleared early, but Decent equipment and servicable character if done late in the game. Fell Xenoligue Difficulty would have worked much better if the devs told you "Normal for Story/Completion which can be done right away, Hard for a Small challenge that is best done once you have 6 Emblem rings and Maddening is best done when you have all 13 Emblem rings for a "Post/Optional brutal side content for the challenge".
Characters not scaling was definitely a huge issue with Engage as a whole. The mayority of Prepromotes outclassing the earlygame cast is one of the reasons I don't like playing Engage, even though theoretically I should. In this DLC, it's just a straight up sin that the DLC units do not auto level, which should be very easy to program and has been done in the past with Three Houses and Fates.
Overall, Fell Xenologue is not qorth the money, but I really hope IS takes great consideration on the feedback so that the next game delivers more on what the people want/Don't want in the next Mainline FE game (Not remake because Remakes should be reserved for experimental changes like Combat Arts/ Reclassing).
🥚
I do feel like you were a bit harsh, I think your rating would have been a bit better overall in a vacuum- after all, Engage tends to be the butt of the joke all the time, so we all went into this with low expectations. The biggest sins, in my opinion, are the balancing issues and the fact that you have to replay on every file.
It's a sad day when a channel dedicated to Fire Emblem and Advance Wars has made 3 videos about the most recent FE and AW games/DLC, and ALL 3 are about how those games/DLC failed.
The difficulty change is what really triggers me. It's either too easy or too hard. Just no middle ground.
U made it harder with not killing the units it absorbed
Now that you're done with engage you can finally dedicate yourself to rev
Me before this: Yes Mangs, yes it is very bad
Me after: It was that bad (except 2 maps)
Also, if I had 1 nickel for each Nel(l) that is cute, I would have 2 nickels, which isn't a lot but it is strange that it happened twice
Yes
I did like Nel, and Nil being horrible just to sabotage you is kinda funny and annoying at the same time
The final map had me a little offguard first time and my units destroyed along with the terrain oops, so i restarted it. Good final map
The only reason Mauvier died is because you already have him, and also both Mauviers felt like the exact same character.
I didn't hate Engage's DLC. Yeah it was dumb how it ended but I think the playable cast is worth it. At least Nel and Zelestia are from my experience. Most of the maps are cool but yeah. Mixed bag for sure but I did have some fun with it at least.
i think at the very least the dlc was definitely worth trying for yourself rather than just taking everyone's word for it that it was bad
I honestly respect the DLC way more than i do Cindered Shadows in 3H!
Because in that, you can do what i did and just beat it once on normal and then never touch it again, making it feel like a waste, and you get a bunch of extremely OP stuff to use forever, with especially the chalice breaking the game entirely... At least with Fel Xenologue, you have to EARN all that OP goodness on repeat playthroughs... The entirety of Cindered Shadows is literally the only maps in a Fire Emblem game i have beaten, but only ever beaten ONCE.
The one thing i DO hate, is that i would have liked a version where you could use your own builds instead of being forced to use classes and inventory the game picked out for you...
I like it. Cool story and challenging. The class lock is annoying and makes it challenging for the wrong reasons, but I really like everything else.
This dlc I did not enjoy playing during my first playthrough because I did it in maddening and I just didn't want to see it again, which sucks because I would like to try to play around in engage with dragons that actually turn to dragons or do goofy stuff with the 3 winds and the new classes, but the experience is just so unfun I couldn't do it a second time, the only chapters I enjoyed were the Ivy vs Timera chapter and Nil's bossfight, I think that the engage team nailed those 2 making them both challenging and fun exceot from the fact that Nil takes damage mostly from Alear's sword and Nel. I would have been more fond and forgiving of the dlc if I could at least keep my classes or inventory instead of the set classes and items... at the end of the day this dlc is just a mess I wish was better, because I enjoy the game and now these units and cool classes feel like they are going to waste
Soy Mangs my beloved
A really simple thing they could have done to make the DLC less crap, was make it so you could change the forced characters' inventory in battle preps.
Why oh why can I give them emblem rings, but if I want a particular item, I have to waste a turn digging through the convoy?
I wont deny there are flaws with the dlc perhaps you could say its inevitable due to its nature
Similar of sorts to the 3h and the others
Honestly the short answer is that it feels they crammed too much into the last chapter or so
Gameplay wise is odd I guess
I mean the big elephant in the room is liability and what not
At the very least they had 3 difficulty settings
Although the fact that the whole thing is fixed on casual mode is kinda odd and might have been part of the cause or effect
If anything though having 4 or more difficulties in general
Its always going to be tricky to balance
One thing is that I wish there was an option to skip straight to the boss battle perhaps
The last bit about the "rewards" for finishing the dlc seems like they probably had some kind of executive oversight orr completely forgor how to add characters
is any DLC good? Or worth it, to be precise.
Fates had Heirs of Fate, which was IMHO worth the $7.99 asking price.
Please replay Vestaria Saga.
8:30 Now apply this logic to jeigans :)
6:10 I thought this was a nice change of pace over how much crap you collect throughout the regular playthrough, I'm surprised so many people didn't see this as a proper challenge and instead call it a bad design choice. Reminds me of the Dynamax adventures in gen 8 DLC, where you use set pokemon that you are given cause if you were able to bring your own it wouldn't be fair for the legendary to get walloped by a team of level 100 pokemon.
12:43 I mean she is kinda hot though that personality is a yikes for sure.
28:05 Yeah, I found it very stupid that she "sacrifices" herself to knock Reval's senses to make him care. A simple slap across the face could've done it. lol 7/10, and honestly it has an ok story compared to the original story.
#Panettebestcritmachine.
I think ultimately it mostly boils down to customization
And continuity
People want to feel like they have control of the game and the fixed inventories and stats are welp
A step down from 3 Houses DLC in every way, which is shocking for a game that people pretend has better gameplay.
This like reverse recruitment
I don’t think this review is fair unless it’s played on maddening. When designing a map/game the actual game should be fun on levels of difficulty. The fact that everyone lowers the difficulty of this DLC is telling. It’s simply not fun at all.
Sublime DLC
You should have had set units instead of the weird in-between we got.
The story would've been WAY better if was simpler. I was giving it a fair shot, until getting to half way. Less is more.
Wasn't all awful, had some salvageable ideas, but overall, pretty bad
Rafal and nel are real dragons! ( they can use obscurity). Why alear and veyle can't be dragon too!!?? 😭
I think this DLC would have been better if Alear was benched and the focus was on the other four protagonists and there mirrored versions. The reason why I say that is because this DLC is DESIGNED to have the clones interact with each other to see their unique dialog. Plus, it would have the potential to give characters like Alfred and Timmera some much needed character development which was seriously lacking in the main game.
Personally, I would have preferred dlc routes where Diamant, Alfred, Timmera and Ivy got to lead their own army's for a couple of maps with the potential of more character development or lore from each country. Idk, the dlc just didn't do it for me because I already didn't like Alear and the fact that they are pretty much the center of attention again when other characters deserve more love just really got under my skin in the end.
Engage gives a whole list of your dead units? 🤣 That's hilarious
It really was the mirror of engage. Not that fun, pretty good story
E
I haven't bought a video game since FE Awakening and I STILL felt ripped off after playing Engage/Xenologue. Soulless corporate slop. Muh alternate universe sad waifus and husbandos... so cringe. Pain peko.