“I did not know pain was a flavor” has to be one of my favorite quotes ever now. If that’s the stuff you get in the affinity rank up cutscenes or whatever they’re called, I might be really missing out
you are not missing anything story wise, the worst part is, everyone tells you how the story doesn't take itself seriously, which is false. The worst problem about engage is that it takes its story waaaay too seriously, and even the jokes are so flat and bland
@mihaimercenarul7467 the problem with engage is that Yunaka is the only character the game actually gives you a thorough introduction to despite nigh everyone else in the cast technically being more important than her. This is what happens when they remove recruitment conditions and conversations...
I'm rarely bothered by stuff like this but it really did in Engage- Characters just appear in whatever next place they have to be. No matter what. Even if that place is the throne room of a guarded castle, they will appear in that throne room, and the enemies will be surprised by how expertly you snuck in.
Also gameplaywise, Yunaka Covert with Corrin's Smoke square was way too broken. Louis too. And because several things are incredibly broken, the game seemed balanced too difficult because it had to facilitate those things. (Coverts are broken -> Mages now ignore Avoid. Units have way too high DEF -> Mages are broken)
All this has convinced me of is that Engage was invented by Camilla. Deciding to add all of her friends from Heroes, making semi-copies of her friends from Fates, and taking parts of her personality (and her appearance) in others. She also copied her own homework with some hints of Fates' story being mixed in here. Not content with being overpowered in Conquest, she decided to extend some of her power to inventing a whole game.
reminds me of the crack theory shitpost about Fates being Inigo's self-written p*rn flic. which... fits far too well. especially with his daughter's existence.
With all the voice actor nostalgia in the video, I’m surprised you never mentioned Eirika being voiced by Kira Buckland, who I remember from one of your older videos being one of your favorite voice actors.
So funny story about the whole "Marni is right there"... that's a plot point in Mauvier's supports with Four Winds. Needless to say, the reunions are not that pleasant as you can't just treat a human being as a replacement to someone else.
celines dress looks like a ballroom outfit, not a combat outfit. fun fact if you just leave the post map area without talking to people you STILL get the bond fragments Regarding tiki and her revival crystal, i kept buffing louis or panette. because if im sending someone into armies of enemies i want to give em a safty net as they slaughter everyone. vengenge wrath panette is too op
tbh the rediculous thing isnt that celine has a dress as armor. just that i imagine moving in the type of dress she has to be a bit difficult on the battlefield because of its volume@@512TheWolf512
1:27:10 so the thing you noticed with jade is because of internal level since fates i think every character has an internal level, which is just their starting level + any level ups you gained. because of this there is no need to wait promoting, so promote at 10. because of this internal level it was lower for jade cause while the displayed level was unpromoted 1, the actual level was a bit higher, like alot higher. and because of the level difference you got less exp.
1:27:10 so the reason why Jade was getting less experience there was because the game tracks levels internally I assume you reclassed her to mage immediately so since she starts at level 12 and was level 18 at the time the game treated her if she was level 30. Awakening also had this mechanic but I think it was a little different I’m not the most familiar with awakening mechanics so take that with a grain of salt.
A wonderful and exhaustive review, even if I am a bit surprised that by the end you apparently never realized the Emblems were not actually the people from other worlds, basically they are magical constructs with the powers and some of the memories of the originals (hence why they tend to speak and act like the originals, with some like Veronica seeming to not even understand they are not the originals). Officially the Emblems have been described as "echoes" of the original heroes, hence why they sometimes manifest looking like a character that we know lived to be far older than what we see them as as a Emblem (Tiki for instance, her echo was from when she was still a child). Was looking forward to your reaction when Marth tells Sombron that they might meet the hero Zero Emblem is based on if they search enough other worlds, but "Emblems are not the same beings, we are not them," and since Zero Emblem is most certainly dead they cannot find them in any realm of the living. Likewise, the Emblems didn't go back to other worlds at the end, rather they died (with further implication they may revive one day). Alear is an exception to all this (being the same being as before, and not dying from the portal) due the unique way they become an Emblem and having an actual physical body. And yes, Zelestia is Giga S. Such a gorgeous design, nice personality and fun to play as a unit. I am curious what were some of the plotholes you found, as there are explanations for a lot of them (Veyle's helmet for instance is noted to be attached to her, she can't simply take it off, hence when she does remove it she breaks it instead and can only do that because it was already damaged).
Bro didn't seem to realize that the well recycled items until after completing the Xenologue. Fuck sake he didn't notice the characters had unique dialogue until halfway through the game genuinely how do you miss that.
Can I go off about how fucking funny the Zero Emblem/Emblem of Foundations is? Because it's incredibly funny that the Emblem young Sombron latched onto as a mentor was seemingly uh, an Emblem of Sombron himself. I presume since the world Sombron is from is a mirror Elyos where the Divine Dragons won the Fell Dragon War with him as the sole survivor, that the Dark Emblems he summons in the final chapter are from that same world, fitting that world's topsy-turvy nature. And Emblems are heroes (or villains) from worlds other than the one the Emblems themselves are from, that's ordinarily part of the definition. Thanks to being exiled from his world before he got his start as a villain, Sombron is the villain of a different world to the one he's from - and thus eligible to be an Emblem in that world. And, of course, Sombron's actions laid the _Foundation_ for the entire history of this version of Elyos, hence the Emblem being called the Emblem of Foundations. Also, Sombron's start of villainy was to burn an entire village to the ground when all they did to deserve such retribution was offer hospitality. This is the origin of the Zero Emblem's invocation: "Burn us, Emblem of Foundations." The Emblem of Foundations is also known as the Zero Emblem in reference to the paradoxical nature of its origin: the villain it represents only exists because the Emblem itself already existed, but the Emblem can only exist because of Sombron's legacy existing _somewhere_ in the timestream. This name, the Zero Emblem, is also a reference to it and Sombron's eventual fate: Sombron tried countless times to summon his Emblem again, but each time he failed… until the end of the game, at which point he has come to truly embody the legacy of the Emblem of Foundations. So when he tries to summon it again, he summons _himself_, in a direct parallel to how Alear summoned themself at the start of the final battle. Then, deliriously not realizing that _he_ is the reason he feels the Emblem's presence, he Engages with himself. Engaging is the process of Emblem and ringbearer fusing into a single being. Two become one… and in Sombron's case, one becomes Zero. (Furthering the parallel, Alear, the Fire Emblem, is the thirteenth Emblem (out of twelve), while the Zero Emblem is named such because it is the zeroth Emblem (out of twelve). They each go out of bounds on opposite ends of the list.) This also means that Sombron doesn't even get to die and go to the afterlife that canonically exists in the setting. Instead, he's trapped in a paradoxical state. He exists and is alive, metaphysically speaking, but he has no location, because by taking the role of both Emblem and ringbearer in the fusion process, he effectively did the equivalent of deleting his character model, so to speak. (Basically, Sombron as the Emblem disappears as he fuses into Sombron as the ringbearer, except They're The Same Body so oops.) Engaging only lasts 3 turns, of course… but Sombron has no location to return to, because the merged body doesn't exist, so when the Engage state ends, he is still nowhere. He is gone forever, existent but nonexistent. And none of his victims will ever have to see him again, even in death.
@@FlameUser64 while that is a neat theory, it has some issues. An early one is that there is no indication Sombron came from a mirror Elyos. He was sent to Elyos because it was a world ruled by god-like dragons, a world that those sending him thought he could live comfortably in. Doesn't mean as much if the world he was in was itself ruled by dragons. People also can't become Emblems outside of a one time "miracle" only the 12 Elyos Emblems even knew about. All other Emblems are separate beings from the people they resemble.
@@Ryodraco It's pretty much outright stated that he's from a mirror Elyos. He came from a world that had a war between the Divine Dragons and the Fell Dragons, much like Elyos's Fell Dragon War 1000 years ago. But in that world, the Divine Dragons won, and he was the sole surviving Fell Dragon. Again, much like Lumera was the sole surviving Divine Dragon after Elyos's Fell Dragon War. He was only not killed because the Divine Dragons couldn't bring themselves to kill a child, so he was banished instead. And that world _also_ had Emblems, which even in the DLC have still only been seen on versions of Elyos. And while that's ordinarily true, it's _also_ true that when Alear makes that comment about how the Emblem of Foundations must be someone only Sombron can see, we see from his PoV… and it's just Alear and Veyle in the shot, while the Emblem's light glows inward from the edges of Sombron's vision, seeming to me to imply that the light is coming from behind Sombron's own eyes. Furthermore, the only thing that has _changed_ between this attempt to summon his Emblem and all the previous failed attempts (aside from Alear being an Emblem now I guess, but I doubt Alear was two different Emblems and it doesn't fit as well thematically) is that he's at the very end of his story. And Emblems are beings made from the legends of heroes (or villains, in the case of those Dark Emblems).
@@FlameUser64 then why was Sombron able to summon the Emblem of Foundations multiple times in the past? Given Marth's belief is that the Emblem vanished because it died (due to having traveled to another world in an awakened state), it makes some sense that Sombron saw the Emblem again because he himself was dying and passing into the afterlife. Also, I've seen him tell his backstory multiple times, and at no point does he say who or what his kind were warring against on his native world. If his world was one ruled by divine dragons, then why would they bother to describe Elyos as "a world ruled by god-like dragons" as if it was different from his own world?
the two lines/parts that live in my head are from chapter 4 when Alear is inviting the first set of merchants to the Somniel. Vander tries to object and she's like "what?" the VA delivery on that "what" tickles my brain. The other is Yunaka's exchange with Alear in chapter 6 "you must have great eyesight Yunaka" "yea I have a killers eyes" "what was that?" "Killer eyes! Like they're so good!"
Couple of things to add. Alfred will not die if you give him the pact ring. 2nd, Hortensia is actually one of the best written characters in the game, she makes a terrible 1st impression, but shows tremendous growth in her supports. She is also the best support/healer in the game due to her personal skill. The rest of the rankings I understand where you are coming from.
2:25:40 So many things were straight lifted from Fates, like Lumera being Mikoto 2.0, Veyle being Azura 2.0, the "twist" of being the offspring of the villain who is also a dragon 1:00:30 for such an important scene that changes how you play the next chapters is so ridiculous the way you lose the rings, like guys there is a giant serpert/dragon in front of you why would give your back to them? 2:11:00 Also calling the hounds fan favorites is funny because they arent, the DLC was done way in advance is why it released so fast
Game was a ton of fun, loved how they kind of looked at past strategies people would try and cheese maps with and worked on ways to counter it (break/follow ups for turtling, enemies ignoring 100% dodge and 0 dmg, enemy boss break bars to handle warp strats, etc). Game felt super play tested and it was nice to have maps that felt designed again. The playing previous games does help, especially when doing the emblem maps that are modeled after maps from the character's games. There are some weird replayability issues like having to do the DLC stuff again in each run, but I wouldn't hold that against the initial experience which is superb. Overall it was comforting to see IS still had it in them to create a stellar gameplay experience, now if only they could nail story and gameplay at the same time, since I think the last time they did that was tellius.
Soren isn't just in Ike's game, he's the living proof of how much of a chad Ike is. In a world where humans and beast-men are at top levels of racism and the only thing they hate even more than each other are the children born from a mixed race couple, Ike just stumbled upon Soren, who is one such child, and went like "Oh, you're a smart guy? Cool, how about you come with me and become my tactician." We did it guys, we solved racism.
Literally every single support conversation in this game has me going "What are you two fucking talking about?!" like the meme of Eggman from the Sonic blind fandub
42:03 Slight correction, only Black Eagles has two different endings (it just changes the narration at the end) for Three Hopes, Blue Lions and Golden Deer are the EXACT same no matter if you recruit Byleth or not. 1:58:05 So you like the scene BECAUSE it completely rushes this plot point out the door, has Alear get over it in a minute, thus making it so that the entire twist is all meaningless, understood.
Yeah no offense to Ram but has some real hot takes on the plotting of this game. From skipping through the Xenologue when it has the better story, to...everything about Amber, who feels like if Spider-Ham was completely insufferable. I think there was like one line from his that i didn't cringe at. The biggest surprise was liking Amber but calling Timerra's singing cringe. Like i said, it's his opinion. Its just...an out there opinion.
The translation is certainly bad because there was no bother localizing any jokes/inflections that don’t land in English, but there is nothing a translation can do to save that awful core story campaign and all its plot holes/characters. So I’d say it’s both
i was so upset when byleth didnt interact with the 3 lords!! im still sad i missed it, but im so glad i wasnt the only one! and now to look up that scene so i can cry happily
Amazing video! I'm really glad you focused a on the supports where the majority of the character development is. I'm not sure if you you knew but the social events like cooking, swimming, napping, training (exp. sparring) etc. reset after an online trial run. It's the best way to quickly spam support points in between chapters. I got about 95% of all supports done (including dlc characters) by the end of the game on my first playthrough. Also I noticed you didn't speak much about the skills you can equip. Stacking the right ones with the right emblems can create insane combos and broken abilities.
Hector is in this game, I am so happy. Yes he is dlc, but at least he is remembered and gets voiced, but can we appreciate one thing. Hector is in this game! I am old.
I just love your videos, your sense of humor is so damn funny and wholesome. All the perfectly cut edits had me crying 😂 AND a very cultured taste as well.
The best thing about Engage for me was that it made me want to go back to the older games to either re-experience the stories of my favourite lords or experience the games I missed for the first time.
Anna breaks the economy of this game. Power-level her, then change her to a mage class because she has the best Mag growth stat. Give her any Goddess Icons to raise her Luck stat for increased procs of her special ability. It’s great.
Well done on persevering through both this new game and making your humorous walkthrough for it! Your hard work on editing all the gameplay footage you recorded really paid off in the end! After enjoying your past few Fire Emblem walkthroughs (i.e. Fates and Three Houses), I found various gags you included all the more hilarious, especially callbacks to Fates since this game seems to reflect its animesque vibes. =P
Commenting to beat the algorithm! Given how many people like to treat this game like it's the anti-christ, it's so refreshing to see someone give it the credit it deserves. Engage does a lot right and it's a ton of fun to boot! Also, you got really creative with some of your units, that was really fun to see too! Thanks for yet another great video, RamZaes!
I don't know how to feel... Like when seeing your final ranking I saw the top row and thought yay finally people who respect Jade, Alfred, Amber and Pandreo's contribution. Fun. But when looking at the lower placed ones, like Hortensia and Kagetsu in a few of the lowest tiers... it's weird, because both are not only top tier units but also very entertaining to watch. How they didn't intrigue you with their skills or after a few supports is honestly surprising to me.
I couldn’t bring myself to actually watch more than like 3 supports especially when I realized the conversations with the emblems are like 2 sentences max which I think just goes to show there way too many characters when the main reason people probably picked up the game have like 1 sentence as a support
Ngl the art design in this game looks too cartoonish and their heads are a tad too big. I just can't take any of it seriously at all, I prefer three houses waaaaaay more.
i dont remember my entire team, but my two lynchpins of my army were panette and louis. cause having 2 enemies that you can just send into entire armies and have them not die is amazing. think i also used most of the ferine cast because it just was good.
I think I would actually enjoy this game more if the Somniel didn't exist. It's "optional" in theory, but in practice, ESPECIALLY on Maddening, it forces you to fuck around doing tedious upkeep tasks for like half an hour inbetween every single map if you want to keep up with the game's difficulty curve. The gameplay itself is fun, but the downtime makes me want to not play the game in the first place... Maybe I wouldn't mind if the characters and world we were spending time with during all this was more 'Engaging'.
I love the Fell Xenologue specifically becauss you vould have both versions of vharacters interact, and even better when you make them fight their retainers
About 80% into the video and it only just occured to me he actually didn't use Kagetsu thanks to that sparring match. Props for sticking to the bit I didn't expect that.
I think it's just easier to consider this game as an anniversary spinoff. Even if the core gameplay matches the mainline, the mechanics, story and writing serves more as references to the modern 3ds/switch era than actually having a unique plot. That's why they went with a more anime artstyle. Fe Heroes even groups Engage after Mirage sessions rather than after 3 Houses.
fell xenologue is held back heavily by the fact that s) its difficulty defaults to the difficulty your save file STARTED at, so when your file starts on hard, xenologue start on hard even if you reduced the difficulty. and b) while everything is set, SKILLS ARE NOT and neither are emblems. so if you do it late game you have alot more tools then in earlygame. especially the skills are a heavy effect on the maps
Honestly I am so happy that you had fun with this game. I have seen so much hate towards this game and it makes me sad since it is definitely my favourite even with its flaws. Thank you RamZaes for making this video and liking this game.
Hey man it’s just video games and they’re supposed to be fun so it’s never that serious but I HIGHLY and strongly encourage you to try other fire emblem games if u haven’t
I just had to comment on the Deltora Quest reference. I loved the books! Good video! I wish that Engage was better, but it’s got some very solid gameplay
So a funny thing you can do is the quintuple strike you have your dedicated boss killer then attack-> sedall dance (position him with canto diagonally behind your boss killer) -> attack-> byleth dance (so it hits the boss killer AND sedall) -> attack -> sedall dance -> attack -> veronica contract -> attack if your veronica user is a ranged person they can do a normal attack before the byleth dance too. nothing lives this.
Gameplay, designs, game engine and story seem like a horrible amount of steps backwards at this point. Should have taken inspiration from Langrisser and Growlanser at this point given how many FEs have been at this point. Kinda surprised for all the whos at Roy, Leif etc. they were in Fire Emblem Awakening after all. Oh wait, they were DLC. Dang I'm old to remember them before Awakening.
to be fair the reaction to the engage leak. was exactly my reaction with three houses designs. I still think to this day Byleth and Sothis have terrible designs. FE has been having issues where their characters are OVER designed. Where there's just so much redundant elements that it begins to look less stylised and more ridiculous.
I agree, lolis just suck and Female Byleth has a bad design. But Male Byleth just looks cool as hell. What people were complaining about was that Engage designs just didn't look serious at all. Three Houses designs, especially the time skip ones, all looked unique and colourful yet still looked as if they were fighting in a war. Engage? None of that.
Limited time Yunaka merch! ramzaes.creator-spring.com/
Hiya Papaya!
54:19 I think she's actually talking about Shamir.
2:14:24 Funny story, Jade is the only one I've actually done.
The funny part is Timerra’s va (Dani Chambers) can actually sing pretty well irl
yeah, because Dani was told to sing badly on purpose because it's part of Timmera's character.
She's called the "Racket of solm" for a reason 💀
Nilou gaming
So can Reba Buhr, Ivy’s VA. Which made their B support very funny in hindsight.
time to engage so hard with this video
For real
This comment is engaging for the community.
we ended the engagement due to me playing too much Fire Emblem
Hopefully it’s more engaging than the actual game
I engaged so hard my hair turned red and blue.
“I did not know pain was a flavor” has to be one of my favorite quotes ever now. If that’s the stuff you get in the affinity rank up cutscenes or whatever they’re called, I might be really missing out
*flavour
English is English
@@but_iWantedTo_speakGerman No, English is what people want it to be.
you are not missing anything story wise, the worst part is, everyone tells you how the story doesn't take itself seriously, which is false. The worst problem about engage is that it takes its story waaaay too seriously, and even the jokes are so flat and bland
@mihaimercenarul7467 the problem with engage is that Yunaka is the only character the game actually gives you a thorough introduction to despite nigh everyone else in the cast technically being more important than her.
This is what happens when they remove recruitment conditions and conversations...
@@mihaimercenarul7467 Storywise in your opinion, is it above or below Fates?
The amount of thought and effort you put into every musical sting and reaction grab is incredible
I'm rarely bothered by stuff like this but it really did in Engage- Characters just appear in whatever next place they have to be. No matter what. Even if that place is the throne room of a guarded castle, they will appear in that throne room, and the enemies will be surprised by how expertly you snuck in.
Also gameplaywise, Yunaka Covert with Corrin's Smoke square was way too broken. Louis too. And because several things are incredibly broken, the game seemed balanced too difficult because it had to facilitate those things. (Coverts are broken -> Mages now ignore Avoid. Units have way too high DEF -> Mages are broken)
Comically, Saphir is 35 years old in canon.
@@tuvillo apparently the designer was just told to design an older woman
All this has convinced me of is that Engage was invented by Camilla. Deciding to add all of her friends from Heroes, making semi-copies of her friends from Fates, and taking parts of her personality (and her appearance) in others.
She also copied her own homework with some hints of Fates' story being mixed in here.
Not content with being overpowered in Conquest, she decided to extend some of her power to inventing a whole game.
reminds me of the crack theory shitpost about Fates being Inigo's self-written p*rn flic.
which... fits far too well. especially with his daughter's existence.
@@effluxi9587This is one of the most legendary posts of all time, a classic lol
@@effluxi9587 I can absolutely believe he would write up a daughter who outdoes him in everything
Lol SOME hints of Fates' story?
She put herself in the game along with a spiritual successor to herself in the form of Zelestia of the four winds.
So, Pepsi got engaged.
Also Pepsi: Marth our wifi connection is at 1 bar, how do i increase.
The dedication to keeping the running joke up whenever a character said come throughout the entire video is impressive.
With all the voice actor nostalgia in the video, I’m surprised you never mentioned Eirika being voiced by Kira Buckland, who I remember from one of your older videos being one of your favorite voice actors.
So funny story about the whole "Marni is right there"... that's a plot point in Mauvier's supports with Four Winds. Needless to say, the reunions are not that pleasant as you can't just treat a human being as a replacement to someone else.
Dunno if someone has comented this but if you S Rank Alear/Pepsi with Alfred, he survived his anime disease.
You could say Pepsi's design really POPPED
🎉🎉🎉 😂
@@monca1222I think it lost its fizz though.
celines dress looks like a ballroom outfit, not a combat outfit.
fun fact if you just leave the post map area without talking to people you STILL get the bond fragments
Regarding tiki and her revival crystal, i kept buffing louis or panette. because if im sending someone into armies of enemies i want to give em a safty net as they slaughter everyone. vengenge wrath panette is too op
I'd imagine an actual magician wouldn't have as much of a need of armour. Problem is conveying that fact
tbh the rediculous thing isnt that celine has a dress as armor. just that i imagine moving in the type of dress she has to be a bit difficult on the battlefield because of its volume@@512TheWolf512
1:27:10 so the thing you noticed with jade is because of internal level
since fates i think every character has an internal level, which is just their starting level + any level ups you gained. because of this there is no need to wait promoting, so promote at 10.
because of this internal level it was lower for jade cause while the displayed level was unpromoted 1, the actual level was a bit higher, like alot higher.
and because of the level difference you got less exp.
1:27:10 so the reason why Jade was getting less experience there was because the game tracks levels internally I assume you reclassed her to mage immediately so since she starts at level 12 and was level 18 at the time the game treated her if she was level 30. Awakening also had this mechanic but I think it was a little different I’m not the most familiar with awakening mechanics so take that with a grain of salt.
I do concur, more non-horror RPGs should have weirdly spooky sections in their games, maybe make an entire dungeon or an entire questline for it
Here's a fun fact: Veyle's VA also voiced Humanity's Companion, Sophia from P5S
I did it. I watched the whole thing. Thanks for making my Sunday a lot more cheerful Rams.
Giving characters you hate horse shit is probably the best thing in this game lmfao
A wonderful and exhaustive review, even if I am a bit surprised that by the end you apparently never realized the Emblems were not actually the people from other worlds, basically they are magical constructs with the powers and some of the memories of the originals (hence why they tend to speak and act like the originals, with some like Veronica seeming to not even understand they are not the originals). Officially the Emblems have been described as "echoes" of the original heroes, hence why they sometimes manifest looking like a character that we know lived to be far older than what we see them as as a Emblem (Tiki for instance, her echo was from when she was still a child). Was looking forward to your reaction when Marth tells Sombron that they might meet the hero Zero Emblem is based on if they search enough other worlds, but "Emblems are not the same beings, we are not them," and since Zero Emblem is most certainly dead they cannot find them in any realm of the living. Likewise, the Emblems didn't go back to other worlds at the end, rather they died (with further implication they may revive one day). Alear is an exception to all this (being the same being as before, and not dying from the portal) due the unique way they become an Emblem and having an actual physical body.
And yes, Zelestia is Giga S. Such a gorgeous design, nice personality and fun to play as a unit.
I am curious what were some of the plotholes you found, as there are explanations for a lot of them (Veyle's helmet for instance is noted to be attached to her, she can't simply take it off, hence when she does remove it she breaks it instead and can only do that because it was already damaged).
Bro didn't seem to realize that the well recycled items until after completing the Xenologue. Fuck sake he didn't notice the characters had unique dialogue until halfway through the game genuinely how do you miss that.
Can I go off about how fucking funny the Zero Emblem/Emblem of Foundations is? Because it's incredibly funny that the Emblem young Sombron latched onto as a mentor was seemingly uh, an Emblem of Sombron himself.
I presume since the world Sombron is from is a mirror Elyos where the Divine Dragons won the Fell Dragon War with him as the sole survivor, that the Dark Emblems he summons in the final chapter are from that same world, fitting that world's topsy-turvy nature. And Emblems are heroes (or villains) from worlds other than the one the Emblems themselves are from, that's ordinarily part of the definition. Thanks to being exiled from his world before he got his start as a villain, Sombron is the villain of a different world to the one he's from - and thus eligible to be an Emblem in that world. And, of course, Sombron's actions laid the _Foundation_ for the entire history of this version of Elyos, hence the Emblem being called the Emblem of Foundations. Also, Sombron's start of villainy was to burn an entire village to the ground when all they did to deserve such retribution was offer hospitality. This is the origin of the Zero Emblem's invocation: "Burn us, Emblem of Foundations."
The Emblem of Foundations is also known as the Zero Emblem in reference to the paradoxical nature of its origin: the villain it represents only exists because the Emblem itself already existed, but the Emblem can only exist because of Sombron's legacy existing _somewhere_ in the timestream.
This name, the Zero Emblem, is also a reference to it and Sombron's eventual fate: Sombron tried countless times to summon his Emblem again, but each time he failed… until the end of the game, at which point he has come to truly embody the legacy of the Emblem of Foundations. So when he tries to summon it again, he summons _himself_, in a direct parallel to how Alear summoned themself at the start of the final battle. Then, deliriously not realizing that _he_ is the reason he feels the Emblem's presence, he Engages with himself. Engaging is the process of Emblem and ringbearer fusing into a single being. Two become one… and in Sombron's case, one becomes Zero. (Furthering the parallel, Alear, the Fire Emblem, is the thirteenth Emblem (out of twelve), while the Zero Emblem is named such because it is the zeroth Emblem (out of twelve). They each go out of bounds on opposite ends of the list.)
This also means that Sombron doesn't even get to die and go to the afterlife that canonically exists in the setting. Instead, he's trapped in a paradoxical state. He exists and is alive, metaphysically speaking, but he has no location, because by taking the role of both Emblem and ringbearer in the fusion process, he effectively did the equivalent of deleting his character model, so to speak. (Basically, Sombron as the Emblem disappears as he fuses into Sombron as the ringbearer, except They're The Same Body so oops.) Engaging only lasts 3 turns, of course… but Sombron has no location to return to, because the merged body doesn't exist, so when the Engage state ends, he is still nowhere. He is gone forever, existent but nonexistent. And none of his victims will ever have to see him again, even in death.
@@FlameUser64 while that is a neat theory, it has some issues. An early one is that there is no indication Sombron came from a mirror Elyos. He was sent to Elyos because it was a world ruled by god-like dragons, a world that those sending him thought he could live comfortably in. Doesn't mean as much if the world he was in was itself ruled by dragons. People also can't become Emblems outside of a one time "miracle" only the 12 Elyos Emblems even knew about. All other Emblems are separate beings from the people they resemble.
@@Ryodraco It's pretty much outright stated that he's from a mirror Elyos. He came from a world that had a war between the Divine Dragons and the Fell Dragons, much like Elyos's Fell Dragon War 1000 years ago. But in that world, the Divine Dragons won, and he was the sole surviving Fell Dragon. Again, much like Lumera was the sole surviving Divine Dragon after Elyos's Fell Dragon War. He was only not killed because the Divine Dragons couldn't bring themselves to kill a child, so he was banished instead. And that world _also_ had Emblems, which even in the DLC have still only been seen on versions of Elyos.
And while that's ordinarily true, it's _also_ true that when Alear makes that comment about how the Emblem of Foundations must be someone only Sombron can see, we see from his PoV… and it's just Alear and Veyle in the shot, while the Emblem's light glows inward from the edges of Sombron's vision, seeming to me to imply that the light is coming from behind Sombron's own eyes. Furthermore, the only thing that has _changed_ between this attempt to summon his Emblem and all the previous failed attempts (aside from Alear being an Emblem now I guess, but I doubt Alear was two different Emblems and it doesn't fit as well thematically) is that he's at the very end of his story. And Emblems are beings made from the legends of heroes (or villains, in the case of those Dark Emblems).
@@FlameUser64 then why was Sombron able to summon the Emblem of Foundations multiple times in the past? Given Marth's belief is that the Emblem vanished because it died (due to having traveled to another world in an awakened state), it makes some sense that Sombron saw the Emblem again because he himself was dying and passing into the afterlife.
Also, I've seen him tell his backstory multiple times, and at no point does he say who or what his kind were warring against on his native world. If his world was one ruled by divine dragons, then why would they bother to describe Elyos as "a world ruled by god-like dragons" as if it was different from his own world?
I would buy the shit out of a Fates remaster/remake. It was my intro to FE
The perfect quote for players, “Who”?
"Who" for some of Fire Emblem's most popular characters, (especially Lyn and Hector) felt weird to me.
@@amanasd26who?
Just kidding, those are from one of the few FE I played
the two lines/parts that live in my head are from chapter 4 when Alear is inviting the first set of merchants to the Somniel. Vander tries to object and she's like "what?" the VA delivery on that "what" tickles my brain. The other is Yunaka's exchange with Alear in chapter 6 "you must have great eyesight Yunaka" "yea I have a killers eyes" "what was that?" "Killer eyes! Like they're so good!"
The optimal way to grind supports is through training. You can instantly go C and B in just 1 session each (except with Alear)
Couple of things to add. Alfred will not die if you give him the pact ring. 2nd, Hortensia is actually one of the best written characters in the game, she makes a terrible 1st impression, but shows tremendous growth in her supports. She is also the best support/healer in the game due to her personal skill. The rest of the rankings I understand where you are coming from.
Also I agree about the weird customization choices and no new game + was a weird choice
Hortensia is one of the most annoying characters
What do you mean he can't die?
@@wilfur3077 Alfred dies in the epilogue of Engage unless you give him the pact ring
Is hortensia the best healer? Jean is right there. And at least foe he seems like the best healer
Pain IS a "flavor". Spicyness is a pain reaction
Didn’t watch the video but already liked, this thumbnail is a work of art🍷🗿
Top 10 Longest Anime Death Speeches.
Lumera is in that list TWICE.
Amazing video!
This was not my favourite Fire Emblem game, but this was my favourite video about it.
2:25:40 So many things were straight lifted from Fates, like Lumera being Mikoto 2.0, Veyle being Azura 2.0, the "twist" of being the offspring of the villain who is also a dragon
1:00:30 for such an important scene that changes how you play the next chapters is so ridiculous the way you lose the rings, like guys there is a giant serpert/dragon in front of you why would give your back to them?
2:11:00 Also calling the hounds fan favorites is funny because they arent, the DLC was done way in advance is why it released so fast
Game was a ton of fun, loved how they kind of looked at past strategies people would try and cheese maps with and worked on ways to counter it (break/follow ups for turtling, enemies ignoring 100% dodge and 0 dmg, enemy boss break bars to handle warp strats, etc). Game felt super play tested and it was nice to have maps that felt designed again.
The playing previous games does help, especially when doing the emblem maps that are modeled after maps from the character's games. There are some weird replayability issues like having to do the DLC stuff again in each run, but I wouldn't hold that against the initial experience which is superb. Overall it was comforting to see IS still had it in them to create a stellar gameplay experience, now if only they could nail story and gameplay at the same time, since I think the last time they did that was tellius.
Super play tested except for Sigurd's amazing strategy to charge ahead of his own army then box himself into a corner.
I'm just glad you stanned Alfred.
Alfred is best girl.
Soren isn't just in Ike's game, he's the living proof of how much of a chad Ike is.
In a world where humans and beast-men are at top levels of racism and the only thing they hate even more than each other are the children born from a mixed race couple, Ike just stumbled upon Soren, who is one such child, and went like "Oh, you're a smart guy? Cool, how about you come with me and become my tactician."
We did it guys, we solved racism.
That wasn't Ike though, that was Ike's father.
Oh. Haven't played much of Path, I did play Dawn a lot though. @@GyaruRespecter
@@GyaruRespecteryeah the real reason Ikexs a chad is because he impregnated a twink so Priam could be born. Take that, PragerU
Literally every single support conversation in this game has me going "What are you two fucking talking about?!" like the meme of Eggman from the Sonic blind fandub
42:03 Slight correction, only Black Eagles has two different endings (it just changes the narration at the end) for Three Hopes, Blue Lions and Golden Deer are the EXACT same no matter if you recruit Byleth or not.
1:58:05 So you like the scene BECAUSE it completely rushes this plot point out the door, has Alear get over it in a minute, thus making it so that the entire twist is all meaningless, understood.
Rhea Lives in Sliver Snow if You A Rank her ot Higher.
Trivia: Do not S Rank Rhea, She is Byleth's Grandmother
Yeah no offense to Ram but has some real hot takes on the plotting of this game. From skipping through the Xenologue when it has the better story, to...everything about Amber, who feels like if Spider-Ham was completely insufferable. I think there was like one line from his that i didn't cringe at.
The biggest surprise was liking Amber but calling Timerra's singing cringe.
Like i said, it's his opinion. Its just...an out there opinion.
@@xacmashe3852 To be honest, I don’t like the Xenologue either, like I hate both the Main Story and the Xenologue Story equally.
NOOOOO KAGETSU IS SO BUSTED AND HES SO GOOD AGHHHHHHH
plus male alear is so good too! the voice acting for them is sooooo good i love it sm
This was your favorite general cast? To each their own I guess
i wonder if the translation is completely and utterly butchered or if the writing is genuinely that bad.
It's mostly the translation
The translation is certainly bad because there was no bother localizing any jokes/inflections that don’t land in English, but there is nothing a translation can do to save that awful core story campaign and all its plot holes/characters. So I’d say it’s both
@@rishiy6183 No it's the base script. Only supports were affected, and it's not like the Japanese version is anything special.
Now that you've beaten the game, you can always play Ringless No Somniel No Second Seal No DLC Maddening run!
I do wonder if there were any Emblems where Ramzaes said "Huh. They seem like a great character. Would like to play their game at some point!"
21:37 "Norian scum" (Hinoka's voice) flashbacks in my head
i was so upset when byleth didnt interact with the 3 lords!! im still sad i missed it, but im so glad i wasnt the only one! and now to look up that scene so i can cry happily
Amazing video! I'm really glad you focused a on the supports where the majority of the character development is. I'm not sure if you you knew but the social events like cooking, swimming, napping, training (exp. sparring) etc. reset after an online trial run. It's the best way to quickly spam support points in between chapters. I got about 95% of all supports done (including dlc characters) by the end of the game on my first playthrough.
Also I noticed you didn't speak much about the skills you can equip. Stacking the right ones with the right emblems can create insane combos and broken abilities.
I remember when some fans didnt like three houses, only if they know how bad it could get.
Framme's laugh being compared to the squeegie I was not ready for
Okay major props for the Slayers clip. Crazy to think that not alot of people these days have seen it.
Hector is in this game, I am so happy. Yes he is dlc, but at least he is remembered and gets voiced, but can we appreciate one thing. Hector is in this game! I am old.
I just love your videos, your sense of humor is so damn funny and wholesome. All the perfectly cut edits had me crying 😂
AND a very cultured taste as well.
The effort and background music... I've found my people. Thank you for this
2 hour long Jade appreciation video disguised as a playthrough
I love it
The best thing about Engage for me was that it made me want to go back to the older games to either re-experience the stories of my favourite lords or experience the games I missed for the first time.
Anna breaks the economy of this game.
Power-level her, then change her to a mage class because she has the best Mag growth stat. Give her any Goddess Icons to raise her Luck stat for increased procs of her special ability.
It’s great.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one who adored Alfred... and I'm glad I wasn't the only one that was like "WTF?!" when I saw that Alfred died in the end
“I’ve been waiting for this!” Also Mauvier is best boy
this reminds me how much of a pain it is to grind supports in engage (why are there so many freaking characters????)
I'm getting concerned with Fire Emblem's fascination with girls not wearing shoes
But how else are we supposed to know they are dragons? It's not like they have different ears or something compared to humans...
japan has a fetish we can all enjoy.
@@V-JesI mean you can't see Veyle's ears normally, the only other barefoot one is Corrin
@cryguy0000 and Idunn (according to FEH) and Sothis...
It's a very modern trend that girl wear shoes actually.
I just love the gameplay while trying to ignore the story, if we can call that story and not a draft.
Well done on persevering through both this new game and making your humorous walkthrough for it! Your hard work on editing all the gameplay footage you recorded really paid off in the end!
After enjoying your past few Fire Emblem walkthroughs (i.e. Fates and Three Houses), I found various gags you included all the more hilarious, especially callbacks to Fates since this game seems to reflect its animesque vibes. =P
Commenting to beat the algorithm! Given how many people like to treat this game like it's the anti-christ, it's so refreshing to see someone give it the credit it deserves. Engage does a lot right and it's a ton of fun to boot! Also, you got really creative with some of your units, that was really fun to see too! Thanks for yet another great video, RamZaes!
Finally I have been waiting for this for a long time thank you Ramzes!!!!!
I don't know how to feel...
Like when seeing your final ranking I saw the top row and thought yay finally people who respect Jade, Alfred, Amber and Pandreo's contribution. Fun.
But when looking at the lower placed ones, like Hortensia and Kagetsu in a few of the lowest tiers... it's weird, because both are not only top tier units but also very entertaining to watch.
How they didn't intrigue you with their skills or after a few supports is honestly surprising to me.
I couldn’t bring myself to actually watch more than like 3 supports especially when I realized the conversations with the emblems are like 2 sentences max which I think just goes to show there way too many characters when the main reason people probably picked up the game have like 1 sentence as a support
Man when that tweet called this a stupidly long video it wasn't kidding. I'm clearing an afternoon for this
Haven't done the DLC yet, but having three siblings is going to make the game feel even more like Fates~
Almost two and half hours I never get back...
I loved every second of it 😂
Ngl the art design in this game looks too cartoonish and their heads are a tad too big. I just can't take any of it seriously at all, I prefer three houses waaaaaay more.
i dont remember my entire team, but my two lynchpins of my army were panette and louis. cause having 2 enemies that you can just send into entire armies and have them not die is amazing. think i also used most of the ferine cast because it just was good.
Holy moly this video is so incredibly detailed, thought out, funny, and well edited to be so long!
I think I would actually enjoy this game more if the Somniel didn't exist.
It's "optional" in theory, but in practice, ESPECIALLY on Maddening, it forces you to fuck around doing tedious upkeep tasks for like half an hour inbetween every single map if you want to keep up with the game's difficulty curve.
The gameplay itself is fun, but the downtime makes me want to not play the game in the first place... Maybe I wouldn't mind if the characters and world we were spending time with during all this was more 'Engaging'.
It takes 10 mins tops tbh, I can't imagine what you were doing for 30 whole minutes
When Bunet opened his mouth, you heard Space Dandy. I heard Whis.
I heard yassified Berkut. Same VA
Okay ... so its a continent, with a massive lake, with a huge island, with a lake, with an island, with a floating island above it.
... 12/10
I love the Fell Xenologue specifically becauss you vould have both versions of vharacters interact, and even better when you make them fight their retainers
About 80% into the video and it only just occured to me he actually didn't use Kagetsu thanks to that sparring match. Props for sticking to the bit I didn't expect that.
Yeah to me Engage feels like Fire Emblem cashing in on SRW's(Super Robot Wars') new found success
I think it's just easier to consider this game as an anniversary spinoff. Even if the core gameplay matches the mainline, the mechanics, story and writing serves more as references to the modern 3ds/switch era than actually having a unique plot. That's why they went with a more anime artstyle.
Fe Heroes even groups Engage after Mirage sessions rather than after 3 Houses.
@@monca1222 i love srw
fell xenologue is held back heavily by the fact that s) its difficulty defaults to the difficulty your save file STARTED at, so when your file starts on hard, xenologue start on hard even if you reduced the difficulty.
and b) while everything is set, SKILLS ARE NOT and neither are emblems. so if you do it late game you have alot more tools then in earlygame. especially the skills are a heavy effect on the maps
Honestly I am so happy that you had fun with this game. I have seen so much hate towards this game and it makes me sad since it is definitely my favourite even with its flaws. Thank you RamZaes for making this video and liking this game.
Hey man it’s just video games and they’re supposed to be fun so it’s never that serious but I HIGHLY and strongly encourage you to try other fire emblem games if u haven’t
Banger video m'lord!
I’ve been waiting for this!
I just had to comment on the Deltora Quest reference. I loved the books! Good video! I wish that Engage was better, but it’s got some very solid gameplay
19:03 "Look, Gary, I'm there!"
So a funny thing you can do is the quintuple strike
you have your dedicated boss killer
then
attack-> sedall dance (position him with canto diagonally behind your boss killer) -> attack-> byleth dance (so it hits the boss killer AND sedall) -> attack -> sedall dance -> attack -> veronica contract -> attack
if your veronica user is a ranged person they can do a normal attack before the byleth dance too. nothing lives this.
I genuinely can’t believe my reply made it into the video. Thank you so much and keep doing what your doing, I love it!
The conversations with Lucina are really good and are really making me like her more. And I’m loving female Corrin even more.
28:27 they react to events if you speak to them a second time after you get the fragments
I didnt know pain was a flavor.
Yukiko amagi : challenge accepted
I hope that a genealogy remake comes out so yall can know what a Chad Sigurd is.
Gameplay, designs, game engine and story seem like a horrible amount of steps backwards at this point. Should have taken inspiration from Langrisser and Growlanser at this point given how many FEs have been at this point. Kinda surprised for all the whos at Roy, Leif etc. they were in Fire Emblem Awakening after all. Oh wait, they were DLC.
Dang I'm old to remember them before Awakening.
Zelestia looks so different without all the… whatever it is she wears on her face.
Genuinely had a blast with this game. The story was mid but the characters and gameplay were fun
my favorite game right now especially with randomized classes, stats, and emblems
I would actually enjoy seeing Ramzaes play Super smash bros just using Ike or chrom
YES ive been waiting for this video
hearing clanne for the first time gave me whiplash as i realised it's the same VA as Deku
Your description says Fates lmao
Whoops 😂 fixed
My God
Someone please help me remember what song started playing at 5:58
It's ruining my day
Hip Shop from Deltarune you useless bastards
Hip Shop from Deltarune ❤
After 1 week of slowly watching i have finally finished the video. Man i like these longer videos, good work!
I haven't played this game but the moment Veyle mentioned another sibling when seemingly talking to Pepsi, I was like "ah. of course, makes sense"
The way I describe this game to people is “this game is weeb trash, but it’s my weeb trash.”
i am the fire emblem.
to be fair the reaction to the engage leak. was exactly my reaction with three houses designs. I still think to this day Byleth and Sothis have terrible designs.
FE has been having issues where their characters are OVER designed. Where there's just so much redundant elements that it begins to look less stylised and more ridiculous.
If you’re talking about Female byleth, I completely agree, but make byleth is one of my favorite protagonist designs
I agree, lolis just suck and Female Byleth has a bad design. But Male Byleth just looks cool as hell. What people were complaining about was that Engage designs just didn't look serious at all. Three Houses designs, especially the time skip ones, all looked unique and colourful yet still looked as if they were fighting in a war. Engage? None of that.
That was my reaction to Timerra. What the fruit are you wearing, woman?!
Alfred just wants to play Minecraft.
i’ve been waiting for this vid🙏🏾🙏🏾