Thieves in other FEs: "Tee hee, off to steal your treasure! Don't mind me!" Thieves in Engage: "Tee hee, off to 1-round most of your army! And then steal treasure!"
Fates but it’s just one game so they can focus on making one story. Three Houses and Three Hopes took a step back towards this by lumping all the routes into a single game, but still, when development isn’t split into three and a half different routes, it prospers. Mind you; the story isn’t exactly much better, but the gameplay seems to have become much more refined as a tradeoff.
Engage is far more SINCERE, which makes it far easier to get into a Fates style story. It's the Ted Lasso of Fire Emblems. That is, it doesn't demand you take it seriously at the same time, but provides things that do a far better job of giving us reasons to do so if we want to.
@@mr.personalspace7831 I feel like there really shouldn't be an actual relationship between the 3 paths and the difference in gameplay since their not usually done by the same team. I think what helps Engage's gameplay, even compared to awakening and Fates but especially 3 houses, was their deviation from making builds. Removing the emphasis of skills by having most of them tied to the emblems or the specific class (without being able to pass it down to other classes) allows them to balance game play better.
Lol this was absolutely me. I kept abusing the fuck out of the rings early game bc there was nothing stopping me and then all of a sudden chapter 11 hit and I felt very deliberately called out by the game for it. It was great. I had to reset like 6 times on that map alone in order to get the proper strategy.
It seems like you've stirred a fair few people with this, lmao I love that this game represents the entire series, the good and the bad, and we ended up with a fun story that most people dislike because it's not 3H. Characters could've been done a lot better, but this seems so fun, I can't wait to sink my teeth into it. Engage represents the good and bad of the series, and I love it for that. It's the "ultimate" Fire Emblem, and a commemoration of how far they've come. The fact that they've nailed the gameplay is way more important than having a complex story or deep characters, speaking as a Shadow Dragon and Fates fan. I don't want to play with complete blank slates (which Engage's cast isn't, but they are mostly one-note), but the characters' design are so colorful and vibrant, and some support conversations are complete bangers in fanservice and are very funny.
Engage made me use mechanics that I've never actually used in other FE games. Actual use of vulneraries, Staffs and personal skills made the game so much enjoyable. Excel, you really need to play the Trial maps from the Emblems. Those have some crazy good map objectives, little details in each map that are the equal from actually playing the game in the OG game (the Leif map is actually the Thracia 776 experience in a Nutshell) , and you win some crazy asf skills from each Emblem (Mullagir from Lyn lets you do some crazy damage against the Dragons).
@@intensellylit4100 Usually not I always sell any Vulneraries/Elixirs the moment they appear. And from Staves, I only use heal and nothing else, with Silence only used one time and Warp only for the secret Shops. The only exceptions for both things are Thracia 776 and Engage.
I agree with you. Normally I'll use wards and warp, but here I'm loading up two or three units with obstruct, rescue, warp, the break staff, physic, mend, and freeze. It's kinda crazy
@@moosiemoose1337 exactly And a good reason to actually use staves is that not all bosses are inmune. You can actually freeze a moving boss or silence a Magic one. That gives you actual incentive to use the staves
@@robertobrosful a specific one I like to do is force a 1-2 range unit into close range by putting a bait in range, and obstructing the 2 range so the only option is to attack in 1 range
What I really like about this game too is that the combat animations and modeled cutscenes don’t look incredibly different from the cutscenes like the ds games and 3h. It’s got a really consistent style that I like a lot
I also like that you can wear things in the somniel but in cutscenes you have your main clothes. In other games you still have the clothes you're actually wearing even if it doesn't fit at all.
Thank you for this! I've seen a ton of people comparing this game's story negatively to Three Houses, and I can definitely agree 3H had much more interesting worldbuilding and like, more elaborate backstories for the characters, but I think a lot of people either mistake that for the actual story in the game or misremember how 3H's story was actually told.
Yeah, FE3H’s story gets worse the more you play it. There’s the fact that pre-timeskip has the same plot, the fact that golden deer and church route are the same, there’s so much left unresolved, and not in ways that felt like the point. Edelgard route in general. FE3H’s story is really unsatisfying. Not to mention the game doesn’t tell you what seems like important information unless you play every route. It’s rather goofy that the only in universe confirmation that the relics are made out of dragon bones is at the end of the golden deer route.
@@samkeiser9776 And then Hopes fixes most of that but not only do they add more questions, towards the end they just decided to fuck the story again and we have the same issue of unsolved misteries again.
@@samkeiser9776 exactly while the game is very fun it's clear they didn't have the time to actually finish plus outsourcing part of the work to koei tecmo didn't help one bit it's clear they changed the story half way through for some reason as the game is nothing even close to what it's reveal trailer showed
@@samkeiser9776 oh yea and forgot to mention the game early makes a big deal of byleths connection to Sothis and seems like the game will eventually lead to something like her return or a struggle of divine proportion against another god but forgets about it after jeralt dies so disappointed with that
@@acefreak9561 Byleth’s connection to Sothis amounts to a free hair dye job, and an in-universe justification for the turn rewind, it’s most important because it’s a reason Rhea cares so much about you. But that entire element of the story could be cut out without changing the plot. Unless Sothis is also supposed to be the reason everyone thinks Byleth is such an important figure in their lives despite the fact all he does is teach lysethia armor rank early on so that she can get Armor knight base defense and be incredibly tanky for a while.
This is the first time I've heard anyone praise the story. I thought I was losing my mind. I agree that what the story does well is ludo-narrative integration.
How I learned to stop worrying and love the colgate. Featuring, people who can like a game even if it has some things that don't vibe with you as much as you'd like. Personally, I like engage a LOT. And I find the characters and story pretty endearing as well.
It might be a basic and predictable story, but I've seen worse. And as you said, the characters are interesting. The strongest point tho is the gameplay and map design. It's an absolute blast to play
This game is very weird. In a neutral way. At first i didn't like any of it. I didn't like the story or the characters and i didn't play much during the first days.... but then the gameplay was revealed bit by bit. The Somniel got really interesting and i somehow fell in love with the gameplay. I thought "Hm the story might be bland and the characters are uninteresting, but at least the gameplay is stellar" And now? I think i even start to like the characters and i'm somewhat getting into the story... If there's a lesson this game taught me it'd be, that you should never judge a game by your first impressions
@@edisonsiowxiong The fact Engage managed to make me feel for a character like Hortensia is a plus in my book lol. Like pretty much a lot of us thought nothing of her, but dear god that girl was being rung through the ringer and just suffering. Like you can't help but feel sorry for her with how desperate she has become, or how Ivy straight up admits they can't go back to their country because its no longer theirs; and how she can't stand to see her go back to them because they know Hortensia is literally alone and probably the only royal family left. So they're basically just going to keep on using her. Which tracks when you remember she's 14, she's kinda rightfully dumb in that regard to not see it.
@@poyopoyowanya Horny chess? I'm assuming you are only referring to the modern games? Because the older games definitely weren't focused on booba in your face 😂
My favorite part about this game is the fact that the awakening paralogue is literally just an open map where incredibly strong enemies rush at you from not that far away. Haha, not today Lunatic+
I used every draconinc time crystal use for that map and beat it with my whole team at less than 50% hp and a few with like 2 hp left. It was damn close
I had alear and jean advance, and on turn 2 they just barely couldn't reach lucina, so I had clanne use byleth's goddess dance. from there I engaged jean with edelgard, did raging storm, then finished lucina off with houses unite lol. jean is such a good fucking unit
@@bryanjgarcia909 did you know if you use houses unite while adjacent to byleth, it becomes house unite plus, and gives you another turn, in addition to its usual effects...
FE engage is what happens when you take a saturday morning cartoon vibe and merge it with FE fates conquest. You get a game with challenging maps and fun gimmicks, while having characters you can either cringe or enjoy with a very straightforward story.
Yeah, I was really annoyed and disliked the character when I first got the game, but once I realized I shouldn't take this game's story seriously, I stopped caring about them and focused on the high quality gameplay.
@@moosiemoose1337 Not really an excuse for underwhelming story and characters. The game is a major disappointment in those aspects in comparison to Three Houses.
@@hatslapper6860 I feel like if you like at fire emblem overall, it's always been game play focused. most of the games have a pretty forgettable story unfortunately.
This game feels ridiculously fire emblem. Almost cheesily so in the story, but in a way i honestly found charming. And the gameplay is so fucking good, it really made me care about the characters. For me fire emblem has always been more about my personal story of managing the army as a tactician if that makes sense, and the story being an interesting setting to help me get into that role. This game does that perfectly 👌🏾
I went for tiki at chapter 12. I essentially gimped myself for what would become a 2-3 hour 48 turn war, complete with like 20 rounds of dragon reinforcements and reliance on Alear’s ability to dodgetank. I loved every second.
And the Tiki emblem is worth every bit. Dragon transformation for all classes, the ability to use the otherwise enemy-only Revival Crystals, the Starsphere ability giving basically everyone an Aptitude ability, it's beyond epic.
@@sapphireweapon12345 yeah it’s a great bracelet and can help difficult to level units turn into a temporary killing machine which I loved so I can put on someone like Anna to get gold and catch her up and better chances at luck gains on level or put on a healer so they can go from chain guard the attacker to killing someone and helping attack
Me tooo. I did it supper early on and was at over 40 turns. It went on for so long that I reached the end of the reinforcements 💀 I was trying so hard to get back into an advantageous state and I just couldn't. So I kept killing and killing as they came 😭😭
Going after Tiki's Emblem is first thing is like taking on the Final Map at the early game. Not advisable unless your units are all strong enough to tackle it.
@Xxx_Jim_the_Reaper_xxX It's definitely doable early. And probably easier earlier. Enemies scale to your progress in that map with lvl 11 being the floor. Early cafeteria and workout stat boosts have a stronger proportional effect earlier than later too, with everyone being at a lower stat total. You do have less tools and it will definitely be a slog, but Tiki being 1 range locked makes the fight possible at any stage.
Nice to see an FE fan appreciating what this game has to offer. I feel like there's a lot of people that have only played 3 Houses and then won't give this game a chance. I absolutely loved 3H, but to me this is the perfect compliment game to have next to it on the switch. Loving it
It’s funny, cuz I loved FETH as my first game. And then I played almost every game post-awakening, including Engage, and it almost completely fell off to me.
I couldn't even finish 3 houses. Not because of difficulty, but because I got sick of grinding in the monastery. 60 bucks for half a game for me, I guess. Engage looks like a buy though, so maybe I won't be stuck playing ancient fire emblems anymore.
Finally, someone that ACTUALLY plays Fire Emblem games aside from just Three Houses and says it how it is. This game has been a blast, as someone who's expectations were low but not zero, all these "It's not Three Houses" or "bad story" reviews were not convincing me so I decided to get it and see for myself. Turns out I've enjoyed this game way more than Three Houses, and the designs, characters and story have grown on me. Definitely peak.
To be very fair 'Bad story' is a legitimate criticism, ESPECIALLY if you came into the game expecting something like 3H or the Tellius series. It might not be important to you, but 'bad story' isn't some fake criticism, many people play games for the story and characters... And Engage has the most paint-by-numbers story imaginable and characters that look and act like clowns. The gameplay is absolutely fire, but I'll never get why people imply it has to be one or the other. We COULD press IS for both. Both is good!
@@richardlee3679 Tbf even FE's best stories usually rely heavily on their themes rather than actual writing. 3H was very ambitious and you can clearly see on subsequent playthroughs where they dropped the ball, and Three Hopes was even worse despite having the same writing team. FE taking time to refine their formula a bit and reassess their priorities is completely fine, and I think that's what they were going for with this game. Three Houses was so unlike every other FE game that it burnt me out and I think Engage going back to FE's roots was a perfect play to not only give what older fans have been asking for but also to weed out some of the "Three Houses only" fans, something a lot of longtime series with sudddenly exploding fanbases have been struggling with recently.
@@Snowstorm... Oh, for sure! I'd never say 3H story was perfect, but I do think it had one of the strongest casts on any FE game and deserves a bit of credit for aiming higher than 'Slay the bad apocalypse dragon'. I also don't begrudge gameplay centric players a game that caters to their tastes, I'm just not sure why so many of them seem almost gleeful that the story of Engage is as bland as toast. I've seen so many comments in the vein of 'Finally, I don't need to bother with some stupid STORY, I can play a REAL FE game!' Like... It CAN be both, and I'm not sure where this false dichotomy arose from that FE can focus on story or gameplay but only one and the two sides must fight for control of the franchise. FE has always had story, otherwise it'd just be fantasy XCOM and I'm not sure why people are forgetting that as though the series has always been nothing but elaborate chess.
I know it's not relevant to you since you only go for the hardest difficulty, but man I never was so challenged while not being overwhelmed by a FE hard mode, Hard mode feels superbly curated for my level of play with the franchise, it ain't a walk in the park at all but it's very rewarding from beginning to end (rather than most other FE "hard" difficulties where once you got your juggernauts going the game is over) Edit 9 days later : I don't think it can be a problem on a first blind run, but I'm currently at the mid point on my second run still in hard and I really wish I would have tried out madenning, once you know a thing or two the game gets a bit too easy (and I was able to get an almost ironclad juggernaut, dodgetanking is busted).
Yes! I guess the disappointing but understandable part is the extra grind maps are so much harder than the main story maps that if I grind just a couple, the main story maps get too easy.
@@moosiemoose1337 I noticed this too. Wanted to do a skirmish to level up some of my guys that I hadn't used as much. NOPE! Took them to the story map instead since it was way easier.
@@chrisjones1388 I really hope they balance those or add some lower level skirmishes in the DLC, because the higher levels in skirmishes are really confusing
Completely agree! It's actually incredible to me that they made mechanics as OP as the emblems and yet balanced the difficulty so perfectly that while feeling powerful they very much are tools you'll need to rely on in order to win. I was nervous about picking Hard mode when I started but I'm so glad I got to have this experience! (I might do normal for my next playthrough though just to grind supports easier haha)
Damn, you might have saved me a lot of pain I've played two prior FE games and I had the same experience so I went straight to maddening. Now I'm getting my ass whooped but if hard is too easy I'll just lose interest
Everyone complains about the game having a simple history and all that, but that's not necessarily bad tho Look at another games with simple history that are absolutely GORGEOUS games like metroid dread and dragon quest 11, they are pretty straightforward like "choosen one needs to get legendary sword to destroy bad guy" or "you need to escape this planet, and beat the bad guy" The thing is, those games are so good not for the story, but for how it plays, and engage is ABSOLUTELY one of the best even in its series, the art is INCREDIBLE, and the music is very catchy (I've been playing that firene fight song in my head for days) and pretty much everything else is just scratching perfection, but the thing is, we came expecting 3H level, and while the game greatly surpasses that, the history feels worse than it actually is, another "choosen one gets powerfull weapon to kill bad guy" But yeah, definitively worth playing, it's a solid game and a solid fire emblem
Honestly I'm glad that they are positive reviews about Fire Emblem Engage on YT because this game is really awesome (even if I played it only through with easy and casual level). The story is great, the characters too (tbh the "new" characters are my favorite chars from a video game in the moment) and the voice acting is perfect tbh. It's always perfect in every situation (if someone is sad, if someone is excited, if someone says something while he/she is very weak and dies shortly afterwards). I didn't hear all possible phrases and I also heared barely nothing from male Alears voice but it's one of the best voice acting video games I've ever experienced. I've only played Engage as only FE game but I definitely want to play Three Houses, Awakening, Fates, Echoes and also the Warriors games.
I *adore* boss hp in this game. Having bosses actually be a difficult fight and needing to be planned around is just what FE needed. Most of the time they eventually rush you so you have to make a decision on if you can afford to go for chests/drops or if you have to focus on attacking the boss and removing a revival stone (or two) lest you become overwhelmed next turn
wow you must be a real FE vet. I'm 30 hours in maddening and only in the teen chapters. Each map takes so much careful planning its an absolute pleasure and joy... especially since I'm stubborn and want to make my favorite characters viable... aha
Honestly Engage has to be a part of the discussion of greatest fire emblem from a gameplay perspective. It’s just a fun af game to play. Engage has set a massively high bar for FE gameplay going forward. I really hope the odd stupidly scored reviews don’t give the devs an impression that we don’t want gameplay like this. Cause WE DO.
Even the gameplay is mediocre. There are 2 maps in the game that aren't "route" or "defeat these bosses" definitely have to work on that going forward. Maybe take some notes from the Tellius series for map design and objective gameplay.
I can't say I enjoy the story, but I've never been blown away be any FE story, it definitely isn't the reason I'm a fan. I like everything else about the game and I can see myself going back to it for a very long time, as I have done with FE7, 8 and Fates.
@@bunkflunk I don't find RD very replayable. The gameplay feels too slow and not different enough between playthroughs. PoR is nice, finished it a few times.
@@feri7mble man do i disagree, like your opinion sure, but Ive played the hell out of that, I think what realy makes it replayable is the vast amount of units that you can attempt to use in the game while never being fully replaced by other units until part 4, its a very unique way of FE that allows more units to shine.
A lot of people's first FE game was Three Houses which was very different from the traditional FE game IMO. Engage feels like a nice return to the old FE style but with really cool new ideas with the Emblem rings
Engage feels more like a mix of Awakening and Fates than it does a traditional FE. Especially with durability gone and almost every map being route or defeat boss.
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 I'm just glad they didn't repeat 3H gameplay, maps were a snoozefest and the social Sim aspect got annoying really fast for me. You could play for hours and not go through a single battle
Naw this feels like someone at the studio really really really wanted to make Fire Emblem Echoes Awakening but got shot down so they did everything they could to sabotage this shit out of this awful game
Interesting! I'm on Chapter 10 right now and am interested in seeing what happens next :) Only on Hard, but it definitely has difficult yet fair moments! Haven't had this much fun with the gameplay since I played through Conquest Lunatic!
I'm on hard and just about to finish chapter 10. Honestly, this is probably the most fun I've had with an FE game. After Three Houses I kind of forgot how it felt to actually think through fights until I started playing Engage. I'm not sure my skills are enough for Maddening, but once I finish my hard run I'll definitely give it a shot. The gameplay is just that good.
The anti juggernaut are so welcome ! After seeing the Covert class bonus i was really tempted to just go Ahah Yunaka In bush go brbrb But then she would just get killed by assist strike if i let her in meaning i needed to still giver her support or look at the ennemy composition . I also thinks this is one game where the classes are insanely balanced in itself
Yunaka In Bush with full dodge build still works really well to bait or cripple a whole group by herself. You just need to check anti juggernaut setup that swarm units with support units and kill her with tons of chip support damage. Otherwise she is immortal. Also, tons of map doesnt have a single bush soooo
My favorite part of Engage is the fact that Armor Knights aren’t dead weight anymore. I think this might be the first time in the series that I could justify fielding a Knight.
Louis is unironically an absolute monster unit, give him a greatlance with the correct engraving and +5 refine and he is going to solo tank and murder half the map by himself, until a magic unit pops up and oneshots him 😂
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 they weren't really that good in sacred stones outside of duessel. Map wise there were units who on average could do what armors do but smoother/faster cause of their higher move as for the two armors, gilliam is nice but comparably not as useful as some other characters, and amelias averages aren't all too good for her
I field 3 armor knights Louis Jade and lapis the funny thing is lapis can actually dodge since I pair her up with Marth it's kinda funny in a way how utterly devastating the chain attack system wax to juggernauting yet armor knights a unit meant for that very same strategy ended being the absolute top tiers
i wasn’t expecting much from this game for some reason but my friend said it was pretty good and before i knew it, i was hooked easily my favorite fire emblem which introduced so many mechanics and features i never knew i needed!
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 It’s kinda silly to claim that people skipped or didn’t like 3Hs cause it was „too deep and serious“. Its story had horrible pacing, the monestary gets annoying and time consuming extremely fast (which hurts replayability), the actual FE gameplay was pretty bad (map designs were recycled way too often, the maps were boring and didn’t require actual thinking for the most part) and it looked really dated on top of that. It’s not weird to have little interest in 3Hs if you like FE for the traditional FE gameplay (same goes for Gaiden/Echoes which don’t have most of 3Hs problems, but are known for their questionable map design). I liked 3Hs (mostly Azure Moon, all the other routes I played after suffered from the replayability problems) and adore Echoes, but let’s not pretend that they are better cause they are “deep” (or others didn’t like or even played them because of that).
Okay, I gotta go on this tangent after beating the game because I didn’t see anyone else really talk about it. Spoilers ahead so watch out! So like, Alear dies and becomes a corrupted then dies again to become an emblem. But, like… literally why? Everyone, including Veyle, were so distraught, and as Veyle held him in her arms, no one thought… to use the TIME CRYSTAL TO REVERSE IT? This got me so unbelievably shook. It’s like they forgot it existed. Now, before anyone says “well it’s designed for casual gameplay to undo bad plays” sure yeah, but it is mentioned in the story multiple times. There’s a whole cutscene devoted to Veyle dropping it, and a whole scene where Ivy gives it back to us after it was taken back by Veyle. So while Veyle held her dying brother in her arms, why didn’t she go like “oh yeah, the crystal!” And before you say “well it was evil Veyle that used it so good Veyle wouldn’t know about it” sure, but literally anyone else there could have mentioned it. Like I said, Ivy at the very least knows it exists and what it does because Alear calls it the time crystal when she returns it. It just feels like they overlooked it for purely plot reasons, which feels weird since this time mechanic was in Three Houses and in a moment where a significant character died, Byleth tries to go back and can’t because of magic preventing the outcome to change. They could have done that here. Personally, I thought the whole thing with dying and becoming an emblem (especially the FIRE emblem, hoo boy I could go on a tangent about that too) was kinda meh and didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I don’t hate it. If they really wanted that to happen, a simple acknowledgement of attempting the crystal would have been fine, maybe Veyle or someone tries to use it and Sombron’s power is so mighty that it fails or maybe Alear taking the brunt of that attack damaged it. I don’t know. I just remember being so frustrated that no one even mentions the crystal during that series of events that the emotional significance was lost on me. Overall, I really do like the game. The gameplay is amazing, the story as a whole is good, the characters are fun, and ultimately they did a lot of things right with this. I know this is a strange hill to die on but I just had to vent about this somewhere. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
I remember looking at reviews from other TH-camrs saying how bad the story is, so I’m glad to see that you enjoy the story as much as I am right now (on chapter 16, so idk what happens fully yet). They say that the story is bad and then compare it to three houses which is a very unfair comparison because 3H has characters and lore that go all over the place. It’s straight forward and isn’t too complex, and I’m okay with that. The gameplay is amazing. I like thinking about conquest when I play this game.
i would say personally that the story is clearly the weaker side of the game but it's not bad.... it is lacking in terms of grey kind of morality that other fire emblem used to give us (well except for one or two really...)
0:08 "As Spoiler Free as Possible" 4:36 *Shows probably a spoiler Character* (I'm about midway through and I don't have the character and they have somewhat important plot so)
I'm so eager to play this game! I remember back during the first announcement how mixed the reactions were; Be it because of those initial reactions or simply great planning, it's clearly apparent intelligent sys has brought us a truly amazing fire emblem game. Looking forward to experiencing it, and also seeing your content about it as always!
Engage has really felt like the first evolution for the series to me since Thracia 776, which added loads of under the hood mechanics that are staples of the series today. The 3DS games and 3 Houses had their charm, but they were based around some heavy gimmicks. Honestly, that's a lot of fun as a one off to give the games their own identity, but I don't really want to see the pair up mechanics or monastary in every game. Engage has the Emblems as its big gimmick, which I'd also like to see as a one off, but it's got plenty of new core mechanics which I think can carry over to future entries. The new weapon triangle break mechanic feels much better than I was expecting. It really rewards offensive play, and gives openings for your glass cannons to come in against dangerous opponents. And the new class category abilities (covert, backup, mystic, etc.) are a fantastic edition, aside from covert becoming too obnoxious as a dodge tanking. And of course, having instant access to usable weapon levels on reclassing is a godsend. These are features I'd love to see return as a series staple moving forward, perhaps with some minor refinement and rebalancing. My biggest complaint is the clashing design philosophies between in battle and out of battle. In battle hits new highs for quality of life, giving the player access to incredible information at their fingertips. In the Somniel. I may think, "I want to learn some skills for my characters." I then go to the ring room to check character SP, as you can't seem to check it anywhere else. I look through the emblem list and decide on some skills I want. If I have enough SP for said skill, I head to the arena and spend bond points to watch arena battles play out (whether you win or lose is immaterial) until I become able to acquire said skill. Then I need to head back to the ring room and acquire the skill. Then I need to open the menu one final time and equip my new skill. It's difficult to believe this is in the same game that shows abilities in effect pop up as you move to tiles on the map, and allows you to toggle a display of various stats for all units on the map at the press of a button, and tap of the control pad if you want to switch which stats.
You're right about the Tiki map being difficult. I made the mistake of going into it as soon as it was unlocked not having bought anything from the shop, and I scuffed my way to a victory after like 2 hours of trial and error.
Thanks man, I'm on chapter 12 or so. So figured I'd watch since you said "no spoilers" then went on to show several playable characters, including one I was wondering if we'd get...
The character designs aren’t even that bad tbh, they’re a little overdesigned maybe, but it’s only a handful of them that look like actual clowns, Hortensia, Pannette (think that was her name.) Yunaka, (as much as I like her, she has confetti in her hair and a star face tattoo was certainly a choice.) it’s a little bit of a shame that Alear looks extremely goofy, but it’s also funny. Some of the designs don’t necessarily fit the context of war, but I’d say there’s more good designs than bad ones.
Wow well what a pleasant surprise. I just wasn't expecting much from this title. After hearing such a glowing review I guess I'll go pick up the game soon, excited to have fun with it.
Ohhhh man, this is so exciting to see that they've smoothened fire emblem out so well. This just ramps my excitement up for remakes that are bound to come...
Same. Honestly I love the story and I also love the voice acting in this game. It's perfect and I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who loves Engage because it became one of my favorite games.
I mean, the story, specifically the script is bad. How much that impacts your enjoyment will depend on how important that aspect is for you. Theres nothing wrong with saying that, especially when character/story driven 3H was the best selling game in the series and this is FAR from that style I love story driven games. So it being as poorly written as it was made it impossible to care about the game world or characters. The gameplay for fire emvlem however is the biggest draw to the game for me, and it aced that.
@@1mealer The script is what you'd expect from the average FE game, Engage in particular gave me Sacred Stones vibes. Three Houses looks deep at first glance, but really isn't once you learn all the lore and realize it's not morally gray because everything is the fault of the evil mole people.
Fancy that, people can have different likes and priorities than you. Madness, I know. Snark aside, it's valuable knowledge to give to people. 3H brought in loads of people to the franchise and its only fair to say to those folks 'This game is nothing like that, the gameplay and graphics got tightened up, the story and characters are full clown hours'.
@@daz1543 Sacred Stones is significantly better written than this game. You actually can relate to and enjoy the characters in that game, and the final boss isn't a copy paste dragon. I don't remember a single character in Sacred Stones that was just goofy or cartoonish like the characters in this game, who seem to only know how to say "divine one" every 2 seconds. None of these characters even feel memorable to me as I've already forgotten many names. Whereas with Sacred Stones I remember half the cast and I haven't played it in over a decade.
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 you have rose-tinted glasses my friend, SS is not nearly as deep as you're remembering. There are more goofy supports than serious ones, I can say as someone who's played SS enough times to 100% the support log
I’ve had so much fun with this on Hard Casual! This might be the first FE game I end up trying an Ironman for because there are so many units and I ended up using almost exclusively the noble kids (and Jean)
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 thats not even close to true, sure the first 9 or so chapters are pretty lame but it picks up a lot better. It certainly beats 3H pre time skip and every one of fates story. Awakening's story was nothing special so I don't get why people keep stroking it. The fact is FE isnt known for its story and we really shouldnt attack it too much for it as its servicable enough to move you to the next challenge. I don't remeber a single time playing FE and thinking "Wow I cant wait to beat this map to see what happens next!" No i just want to get to the next chapter and the next challenge
PoR and Radiant Dawn are still the best two games in the entire franchise storytelling wise and I will die on that hill, I’m also a gigantic fan of radiant dawn’s gameplay, I just love the Tellius games
@@bunkflunk Radiant Dawn 100% has the best gameplay in the series. Nothing has yet to come close, which is a shame given how long it's been since the Wii title.
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 Engage has surpassed every game in the series in the gameplay dept. I'm not saying Radiant Dawn isn't also great, but better than Engage? Nah
Just finished my first run on hard and starting maddening soon. What I really appreciate is enemy units having a variety of weapons. Not every General uses an axe not every Hero uses a sword etc.
Yea this is the first game since awakening I was actually scared of entering an enemy phase with so much variety and actual use of strategy by the ai hell the ai juggernauts when it's at a disadvantage that shit caught me off guard
I love this game slightly better than 3 houses. Slightly annoyance is the SP gain is so abysmally low. Skirmishes on hard are somehow way harder than main chapters. Gold is pretty limited. And support points can only be gain by being next to your unit you want to support at your own turn.
the flea market sells gifts you can use to increase support with your units, it's really fast and cheap i do agree sp gain is low and gold is limited, knowing IS tho there will 100% be a free update for NG+ which will prob fix these issues
I bought the DLC and am beginning to replay the game on maddening, and I must say, getting through Tiki's paralogue in one try (albeit with time rewinds), was not only very challenging, but also felt super rewarding once I'd done it.
This game got 82 on Metacritic while Three Houses got an 89. "Muh cringey anime tropes" is too much to bear but hours of monastery busy work is okay? :/
It's understandable when most people only play fe3h ONE TIME. Also I've always been able to connect and care about the characters quickly in other FE games, even some FE7, 8 hacks, but engage took me a while to actually like someone on my roster.
Because 3Houses is overall better. Not sure why people take offense to that. This game only does gameplay slightly better. Everything else is significantly worse. The characters in this game are beyond forgettable and the story is utter garbage on the levels of Fates. Decent gameplay cannot save a game when everything else is bad. 3Houses has mediocre gameplay as well, but they did everything else right.
From personal experience, Tiki's Bracelet is definitely very strong, but the difficulty to obtain it makes it feel like you've actually earned the level of power it brings (the map features a huge amount of reinforcements, which also spawn fairly and in a way that, like you pointed out in this video, can be easily reacted to while making progress, and the map as a whole took me personally almost 1.5 hrs just on Hard due to map mechanics and how difficult Tiki herself is to take out, so Maddening would probably be 100% a mid-late game only option). Her Bracelet is fantastic once you get it though. It, without question, is a "Juggernaut-in-a-box" kind of Emblem. Hard hitting attacks, a conal aoe with lingering effect, and an all stats up while engaged, as well as Access to a significant amount of additional free +def/+res just for being by allies would probably help any unit a lot, not to mention she basically makes any unit have good growths, but her strength is balanced by the anti-juggernaut mechanics you also pointed out in the video.
I also played in hard, and ironically, it made the game easier Imo. You get so much exp, that I managed to catch up to enemies, bringing the story difficulty down.
i was sad to miss your streams because i didnt want to spoil myself on a game i didnt know if i wanted to play or not. But i think youve convinced me to get it lol
I Really think this is the best gameplay fire emblem can offer (Sure I've only played shadow dragon and beyond) but this game allows flexibility no character I've used in my 3 runs have been bad and with the rings they are very flexible
Engage is like the best of the 3ds era meshed into one amazing game: Awakening style world map and supports, incredibly fun gameplay like Fates, great combat animations like Echoes. If I'm being honest Engage showed me how bad the gameplay of Three Houses really was and how exhausting that game was to play. I don't dread doing anything on the somniel, I don't have to brace myself to sit through supports I haven't seen yet because of how long they are, the maps are smaller and less of a slog to get through, and oh how I missed class changing being so easy.. Only thing I miss is the better voice acting but even then there are some genuinely good performances in Engage.
The emblems also seemed like a far more expansive version of echoes weapons. I like 3H for what it is, but this game kind of feels like the real FE16, building off of what came before
I liked gameplay of 3H. But I'm a weirdo who doesn't care about challenge. I play everything on normal\casual. I liked how easy 3h is. The game for me isn't "will I win or lose" the game for me is "how one sided can I make this." I spend 40 hours or more a week working, I don't want my games to feel like work. I want them to bend to my will. The best game designers accommodate both the gamers who play my way and the gamers who enjoy a challenge. Kind of like Elden Ring
“i think it’s probably impossible to solo the game with a single character” hilarious to hear coming from jack benci’s solo alear challenge run. also say what you want about the story but it has the best inclusion of the fire emblem
Finally beat my blind maddening playthrough and it was absolutely a blast. I always felt like I had all the tools to succeed and failures felt like they were genuinely my fault and not artificial in nature. The only thing that was truly frustrating were those god damn maddening difficulty wolf knights, they feel just a bit overstatted compared to everything else. At least Wyverns had a relative weakness to magic, radiant bow and mulagir.
I finished Tiki's paralogue on Maddening, it's actually not that bad with a lot of Bows, Alcryst entered as a Level 1 promoted unit and left at Level 7 though, lots of reinforcements
I thought the reinforcements were infinite so I pushed through a majority of the map while fending of enemies from the rear, only to feel like an idiot when they stopped.
Im so glad you liked the story, I just finished this game. To me this has the best fe story ever after path of radiance. The part with Griss and zephia made me tear up T_T
Honestly the one thing that would make this game better in my opinion would be a new game plus, where you carry over supports, bond ranks, bond rings, levels and stats but not items. There are some missable things I wanna go back and get but can’t
Hey I know this is not related to this video but I just found a really broken pairings with 2 units and 2 specific Emblem Rings. So first you need the 3Houses Ring (DLC) and Byleth Ring. So the strategy is, Have The unit with the 3 Houses Emblem Engage and have the unit with Byleth Ring next to them (you dont have to engage with the Byleth Ring). What this does is once you use houses Unite which is the 3 Houses Engage Finisher, they get another turn thanks to being beside Byleth. Now you still have your 3 turns to use Raging Storm which also gives you a next turn after using it, so that is 3 turns in on go. Then if you want you can then use Byleths Goddess Dance to dance for the unit with the 3Houses ring and thus getting 4 moves in one turn and if you really wanna go bananas, use your dancer to dance for them again in the same turn, or you can use your dancer to dance for the 3Houses Ring person position them just right so you can use Byleth's goddess dance on both the dancer and the 3Houses Ring person (I advise giving your dancer Canter) and then dance for them again. Essentially if you get the idea 6 Actions in one turn for 1 unit. Sorry for my rambling but it was absolutely bonkers when I found it out.
This is what I keep telling people yes the story is very Saturday morning cartoony and one of the characters is makima if she was bad at her job but it's charming straightforward and easy to digest while not being shy of presenting us with tragedy at times. But it's gameplay oh boy it's the best "PURE" fire emblem experience great maps decent gimmicks solid mechanics and great replayability it's only negatives are money and bond fragments being slow to farm but other than that it's a very good FIRE EMBLEM game no politics no ideologies no stupid choices just two dragons beating the shit out of each other
I actually hold your opinion here in high regard because your content makes it clear that you aren't afraid to talk shit about a Fire Emblem game if there's shit to talk about. I've only done the first five chapters (on Normal Casual) thus far but I am loving the game to bits and can't wait to play more. I look forward to seeing what content you come out with for Engage in the future, especially once you start getting memey with it, ;)
Tiki is really strong, but even in hard mode her paralogue was no joke. But you can get not only Tiki, but also the Silver Card, which makes shops prices 30% lower forever. But to get the silver card you have to either use Warp, or have a unit go all the way around the map (which if they don't have Sigurd's move boost, they have to be in range of a frost dragon breath for a turn, which locks there movement unless they have Sigurd's freeze immunity). Either way means the unit can't fight for the rest of the map. BUT if you spend time going to get the Silver Card the long way, you have to deal with the powerful reinforcements that spawn every other turn. It's not easy.
Goddamn, I've never heard someone so legitimately excited about a game in such a long time. Alright, you've convinced me Excel, I'll buy the toothpaste game.
For the record, the Tiki map is insanely difficult. I barely made it out without any casualties and I was only playing on hard. Those dragons hit like a truck.
The steel weapons are NOT part of the DLC, they are given to everyone. You might need to turn on Connected play to get them but I got them and I didn't have the DLC.
I did not get the steel weapons. Didn't connect online and no DLC, so based on what you said, you should say "possibly linked to Connected play" not "given to everyone".
Yes, as part of the 1.1 update notice it mentioned those resources would be given to all players. I got them too but didn't use them anyway until after a while
Did the same thing (Maddening/Classic, no DLC, first playthrough), absolutely loved the game. Story is a bit of a mixed bag imo, but I loved the gameplay more than any other first run. But I gotta say the DLC stuff makes things a good bit easier since you have them available in difficult maps where you don't have (all) other rings, and Edelgard&Co can be pretty broken since they can give you additional turns and Tiki is just absurdly strong. I'd recommend everybody to go through the game once at the intended experience (fixed, no DLC) for the challenge and then go crazy where you make your favorites super strong by abusing Tiki's growth boost etc.
@@ShiningAngelFeathers I'm pretty sure the way it works is that it basically adds your growths every level and increases the stat when it ticks over to the next number, so Tiki definitely still improves your characters over time
Currently on chapter 20 myself. Agree with everything you said here 😊 by far the fe game that has had me sitting at the edge of my seet the moast 😅 (aspecially when being hunted by the 4 axe guys in the chapter where u get the dancer). Btw would love to see some advanced builds/tips&tricks/strategies from you for this game 😁
I'm currently at chapter 15 or 16, I think. I am loving it so far. The gameplay is really fun. And yes, Bosses are quite challenging. I am playing on the lowest difficulty, but it still takes almost my entire team to kill certain bosses without getting everyone killed. I have benched Vander now, but he is a Jagen, so that's ok. Clanne has finally been promoted and Alcryst is completely busted. The tankiest archer I have ever used in a Fire Emblem title. Thankfully the next weekend is at hand and I can play the game a lot during that time. I love it and I love the music. The story is also really great so far and certain bits are even making me sad. Yes, I cried. This game is so great and I am not even through yet. I am wondering what the other DLC Emblems will be though.
My spoiler free take on the DLC: I found the boots and both DLC emblems to be invaluable on my blind maddening run. 3 houses bracelet(I put it on Alcryst) has Guard battalion for ranged attacks and it works on the fixed damaged monster attacks too, without engaging(RNG tho). Poison battalion is useless but flame battalion does chip and works to slow enemy movement and can be used from 3 range. Houses unite is a free nuke that works most of the game, shattering star let’s your archer exploit the AI and push further to the front line for a positional advantage. Because you can go to the Arena without a paralogue on this DLC bracelets you can access Failnaught in chapter 7 I believe(whenever you get the bracelet). To even put the cherry on top it costs 500 bond fragments to unlock level 5 and lineage is only 150 SP(20% bonus exp) something that will make your army extremely strong. Tiki(I had on Framme the entire game) has the ability to grant a revive stone at base. Becoming a dragon paired with chain block it was crazy good beyond just the engage move. Boots on your Pair Up unit(Alear for me for most of the game) opens up so much chip damage to help raise so units up or clear out threats like Wolf Knights. Sadly I couldn’t put a 3rd pair on him.
Thieves in other FEs: "Tee hee, off to steal your treasure! Don't mind me!"
Thieves in Engage: "Tee hee, off to 1-round most of your army! And then steal treasure!"
Thankfully, your Thieves can do the same too!
@@shytendeakatamanoir9740 Hiya Papaya moment.
@@moltrescompany This is a certified "moment" indeed
I'm still new ng FE does thieves steals items too?
They used to...
If you're doing the "red awakening laser out of the eyes" thing, you should make one blue to match Alear's heterochromia.
that is an excellent idea I will do that
@@Excelblem Would be funnier if the eyes gleamed the reverse color.
@@Twinsidedsoldier now your pushing it
Bros comment got the thumbnail changed
@@LiquidenSSBM fancy seeing you here
This is like "Fates done significantly better" mixed with a bit of Awakening. I can dig it.
That’s good. Fates gameplay was already superb
Fates but it’s just one game so they can focus on making one story. Three Houses and Three Hopes took a step back towards this by lumping all the routes into a single game, but still, when development isn’t split into three and a half different routes, it prospers.
Mind you; the story isn’t exactly much better, but the gameplay seems to have become much more refined as a tradeoff.
Engage is far more SINCERE, which makes it far easier to get into a Fates style story. It's the Ted Lasso of Fire Emblems. That is, it doesn't demand you take it seriously at the same time, but provides things that do a far better job of giving us reasons to do so if we want to.
This is the best description I've read so far.
@@mr.personalspace7831 I feel like there really shouldn't be an actual relationship between the 3 paths and the difference in gameplay since their not usually done by the same team. I think what helps Engage's gameplay, even compared to awakening and Fates but especially 3 houses, was their deviation from making builds. Removing the emphasis of skills by having most of them tied to the emblems or the specific class (without being able to pass it down to other classes) allows them to balance game play better.
Last time Sigurd fell off halfway through the game I had fun, gonna have fun this time!!
Fellow FE4 and Engage fan 🤝
Too soon 😢
I remember when he was a quarter way through chapter 10 and he said it was easy, how foolish those words were
I would argue that the early chapters definitely were easy (for me), but yeah, it really got quite difficult by the end.
@@Excelblem big difficulty spike at chapter 10 fr tho
What if you thought the game was easy, but God said: “FOR LORD SOMBRON!”
Lol this was absolutely me. I kept abusing the fuck out of the rings early game bc there was nothing stopping me and then all of a sudden chapter 11 hit and I felt very deliberately called out by the game for it. It was great. I had to reset like 6 times on that map alone in order to get the proper strategy.
@@cy4069 same, my army was devastated with the loss of Sigurd
The countdown until "The ghost of Marth compels Pepsiman to commit genocide" has begun...
Oh no i forgot about excelblem marth
It seems like you've stirred a fair few people with this, lmao
I love that this game represents the entire series, the good and the bad, and we ended up with a fun story that most people dislike because it's not 3H. Characters could've been done a lot better, but this seems so fun, I can't wait to sink my teeth into it.
Engage represents the good and bad of the series, and I love it for that. It's the "ultimate" Fire Emblem, and a commemoration of how far they've come.
The fact that they've nailed the gameplay is way more important than having a complex story or deep characters, speaking as a Shadow Dragon and Fates fan. I don't want to play with complete blank slates (which Engage's cast isn't, but they are mostly one-note), but the characters' design are so colorful and vibrant, and some support conversations are complete bangers in fanservice and are very funny.
Yeah, you're true. I also like that there are conversations that have a message which can help in real life which I also likes a lot.
Engage made me use mechanics that I've never actually used in other FE games. Actual use of vulneraries, Staffs and personal skills made the game so much enjoyable.
Excel, you really need to play the Trial maps from the Emblems. Those have some crazy good map objectives, little details in each map that are the equal from actually playing the game in the OG game (the Leif map is actually the Thracia 776 experience in a Nutshell) , and you win some crazy asf skills from each Emblem (Mullagir from Lyn lets you do some crazy damage against the Dragons).
Are you saying you don't use vulneraries *and* staves?
@@intensellylit4100
Usually not
I always sell any Vulneraries/Elixirs the moment they appear. And from Staves, I only use heal and nothing else, with Silence only used one time and Warp only for the secret Shops.
The only exceptions for both things are Thracia 776 and Engage.
I agree with you. Normally I'll use wards and warp, but here I'm loading up two or three units with obstruct, rescue, warp, the break staff, physic, mend, and freeze. It's kinda crazy
@@moosiemoose1337 exactly
And a good reason to actually use staves is that not all bosses are inmune. You can actually freeze a moving boss or silence a Magic one.
That gives you actual incentive to use the staves
@@robertobrosful a specific one I like to do is force a 1-2 range unit into close range by putting a bait in range, and obstructing the 2 range so the only option is to attack in 1 range
I can't believe it. An FE player managed to discuss the game without just repeating the word 'cringe' ten times! It's a christmas miracle.
"The writing is objectively bad because its CRINGE!!!"
Oh no, opinions!
The only thing that’s cringe is people calling things cringe. Which of course means I’m cringe rn.
Honestly though, can't blame people for desliking the designs, "Cringe" is a more cute word to use than what i normally use, Circus designs.
@@ally3417 "Cringe" is a word dumb people use when they cant articulate actual criticisms and just want to agree with others
What I really like about this game too is that the combat animations and modeled cutscenes don’t look incredibly different from the cutscenes like the ds games and 3h. It’s got a really consistent style that I like a lot
I also like that you can wear things in the somniel but in cutscenes you have your main clothes. In other games you still have the clothes you're actually wearing even if it doesn't fit at all.
Thank you for this! I've seen a ton of people comparing this game's story negatively to Three Houses, and I can definitely agree 3H had much more interesting worldbuilding and like, more elaborate backstories for the characters, but I think a lot of people either mistake that for the actual story in the game or misremember how 3H's story was actually told.
Yeah, FE3H’s story gets worse the more you play it. There’s the fact that pre-timeskip has the same plot, the fact that golden deer and church route are the same, there’s so much left unresolved, and not in ways that felt like the point. Edelgard route in general. FE3H’s story is really unsatisfying.
Not to mention the game doesn’t tell you what seems like important information unless you play every route.
It’s rather goofy that the only in universe confirmation that the relics are made out of dragon bones is at the end of the golden deer route.
@@samkeiser9776 And then Hopes fixes most of that but not only do they add more questions, towards the end they just decided to fuck the story again and we have the same issue of unsolved misteries again.
@@samkeiser9776 exactly while the game is very fun it's clear they didn't have the time to actually finish plus outsourcing part of the work to koei tecmo didn't help one bit it's clear they changed the story half way through for some reason as the game is nothing even close to what it's reveal trailer showed
@@samkeiser9776 oh yea and forgot to mention the game early makes a big deal of byleths connection to Sothis and seems like the game will eventually lead to something like her return or a struggle of divine proportion against another god but forgets about it after jeralt dies so disappointed with that
@@acefreak9561 Byleth’s connection to Sothis amounts to a free hair dye job, and an in-universe justification for the turn rewind, it’s most important because it’s a reason Rhea cares so much about you. But that entire element of the story could be cut out without changing the plot. Unless Sothis is also supposed to be the reason everyone thinks Byleth is such an important figure in their lives despite the fact all he does is teach lysethia armor rank early on so that she can get Armor knight base defense and be incredibly tanky for a while.
This is the first time I've heard anyone praise the story. I thought I was losing my mind.
I agree that what the story does well is ludo-narrative integration.
How I learned to stop worrying and love the colgate. Featuring, people who can like a game even if it has some things that don't vibe with you as much as you'd like. Personally, I like engage a LOT. And I find the characters and story pretty endearing as well.
It might be a basic and predictable story, but I've seen worse. And as you said, the characters are interesting. The strongest point tho is the gameplay and map design. It's an absolute blast to play
Think Engage's story starts out bad then gets AMAZING in the 3rd act, first time I ever felt emotional for a FE protag.
This game is very weird. In a neutral way. At first i didn't like any of it. I didn't like the story or the characters and i didn't play much during the first days.... but then the gameplay was revealed bit by bit. The Somniel got really interesting and i somehow fell in love with the gameplay. I thought "Hm the story might be bland and the characters are uninteresting, but at least the gameplay is stellar" And now? I think i even start to like the characters and i'm somewhat getting into the story... If there's a lesson this game taught me it'd be, that you should never judge a game by your first impressions
@@edisonsiowxiong The fact Engage managed to make me feel for a character like Hortensia is a plus in my book lol. Like pretty much a lot of us thought nothing of her, but dear god that girl was being rung through the ringer and just suffering. Like you can't help but feel sorry for her with how desperate she has become, or how Ivy straight up admits they can't go back to their country because its no longer theirs; and how she can't stand to see her go back to them because they know Hortensia is literally alone and probably the only royal family left. So they're basically just going to keep on using her. Which tracks when you remember she's 14, she's kinda rightfully dumb in that regard to not see it.
@@poyopoyowanya Horny chess? I'm assuming you are only referring to the modern games? Because the older games definitely weren't focused on booba in your face 😂
My favorite part about this game is the fact that the awakening paralogue is literally just an open map where incredibly strong enemies rush at you from not that far away.
Haha, not today Lunatic+
I used every draconinc time crystal use for that map and beat it with my whole team at less than 50% hp and a few with like 2 hp left. It was damn close
its just like awakening fr
I had alear and jean advance, and on turn 2 they just barely couldn't reach lucina, so I had clanne use byleth's goddess dance. from there I engaged jean with edelgard, did raging storm, then finished lucina off with houses unite lol. jean is such a good fucking unit
@@bryanjgarcia909 did you know if you use houses unite while adjacent to byleth, it becomes house unite plus, and gives you another turn, in addition to its usual effects...
@@vivil2533 !!! Are there any other duo effects from emblems?
FE engage is what happens when you take a saturday morning cartoon vibe and merge it with FE fates conquest.
You get a game with challenging maps and fun gimmicks, while having characters you can either cringe or enjoy with a very straightforward story.
Yeah, I was really annoyed and disliked the character when I first got the game, but once I realized I shouldn't take this game's story seriously, I stopped caring about them and focused on the high quality gameplay.
@@moosiemoose1337 Not really an excuse for underwhelming story and characters. The game is a major disappointment in those aspects in comparison to Three Houses.
@@hatslapper6860 how?
@@hatslapper6860 I feel like if you like at fire emblem overall, it's always been game play focused. most of the games have a pretty forgettable story unfortunately.
@@hatslapper6860major disappointment? Lol don’t think so
I'm just happy there's more people who will vouch that the game is worth a damn regardless of that its not Three Houses 2.
This game feels ridiculously fire emblem. Almost cheesily so in the story, but in a way i honestly found charming. And the gameplay is so fucking good, it really made me care about the characters. For me fire emblem has always been more about my personal story of managing the army as a tactician if that makes sense, and the story being an interesting setting to help me get into that role. This game does that perfectly 👌🏾
I went for tiki at chapter 12. I essentially gimped myself for what would become a 2-3 hour 48 turn war, complete with like 20 rounds of dragon reinforcements and reliance on Alear’s ability to dodgetank. I loved every second.
And the Tiki emblem is worth every bit. Dragon transformation for all classes, the ability to use the otherwise enemy-only Revival Crystals, the Starsphere ability giving basically everyone an Aptitude ability, it's beyond epic.
@@sapphireweapon12345 yeah it’s a great bracelet and can help difficult to level units turn into a temporary killing machine which I loved so I can put on someone like Anna to get gold and catch her up and better chances at luck gains on level or put on a healer so they can go from chain guard the attacker to killing someone and helping attack
Me tooo. I did it supper early on and was at over 40 turns. It went on for so long that I reached the end of the reinforcements 💀 I was trying so hard to get back into an advantageous state and I just couldn't. So I kept killing and killing as they came 😭😭
Going after Tiki's Emblem is first thing is like taking on the Final Map at the early game. Not advisable unless your units are all strong enough to tackle it.
@Xxx_Jim_the_Reaper_xxX It's definitely doable early. And probably easier earlier. Enemies scale to your progress in that map with lvl 11 being the floor. Early cafeteria and workout stat boosts have a stronger proportional effect earlier than later too, with everyone being at a lower stat total. You do have less tools and it will definitely be a slog, but Tiki being 1 range locked makes the fight possible at any stage.
I'm about halfway through and I've been pleasantly surprised how much I like this game.
Nice to see an FE fan appreciating what this game has to offer. I feel like there's a lot of people that have only played 3 Houses and then won't give this game a chance. I absolutely loved 3H, but to me this is the perfect compliment game to have next to it on the switch. Loving it
Same. I also like Three Houses but Engage is awesome if you give this game a chance.
It’s funny, cuz I loved FETH as my first game. And then I played almost every game post-awakening, including Engage, and it almost completely fell off to me.
I couldn't even finish 3 houses. Not because of difficulty, but because I got sick of grinding in the monastery.
60 bucks for half a game for me, I guess. Engage looks like a buy though, so maybe I won't be stuck playing ancient fire emblems anymore.
Finally, someone that ACTUALLY plays Fire Emblem games aside from just Three Houses and says it how it is. This game has been a blast, as someone who's expectations were low but not zero, all these "It's not Three Houses" or "bad story" reviews were not convincing me so I decided to get it and see for myself. Turns out I've enjoyed this game way more than Three Houses, and the designs, characters and story have grown on me. Definitely peak.
To be very fair 'Bad story' is a legitimate criticism, ESPECIALLY if you came into the game expecting something like 3H or the Tellius series.
It might not be important to you, but 'bad story' isn't some fake criticism, many people play games for the story and characters... And Engage has the most paint-by-numbers story imaginable and characters that look and act like clowns. The gameplay is absolutely fire, but I'll never get why people imply it has to be one or the other. We COULD press IS for both. Both is good!
@@richardlee3679 Tbf even FE's best stories usually rely heavily on their themes rather than actual writing. 3H was very ambitious and you can clearly see on subsequent playthroughs where they dropped the ball, and Three Hopes was even worse despite having the same writing team. FE taking time to refine their formula a bit and reassess their priorities is completely fine, and I think that's what they were going for with this game. Three Houses was so unlike every other FE game that it burnt me out and I think Engage going back to FE's roots was a perfect play to not only give what older fans have been asking for but also to weed out some of the "Three Houses only" fans, something a lot of longtime series with sudddenly exploding fanbases have been struggling with recently.
@@richardlee3679 Except the original poster said they liked the story lol
@@Snowstorm... Oh, for sure! I'd never say 3H story was perfect, but I do think it had one of the strongest casts on any FE game and deserves a bit of credit for aiming higher than 'Slay the bad apocalypse dragon'.
I also don't begrudge gameplay centric players a game that caters to their tastes, I'm just not sure why so many of them seem almost gleeful that the story of Engage is as bland as toast. I've seen so many comments in the vein of 'Finally, I don't need to bother with some stupid STORY, I can play a REAL FE game!' Like... It CAN be both, and I'm not sure where this false dichotomy arose from that FE can focus on story or gameplay but only one and the two sides must fight for control of the franchise. FE has always had story, otherwise it'd just be fantasy XCOM and I'm not sure why people are forgetting that as though the series has always been nothing but elaborate chess.
@@richardlee3679 nah fates was the worst one. xander looks like a fool in all routes lol. its so trash that even heroes is better lol
The addition of crewmate sound effects truly sets this game above the rest.
Based Excelblem. People are being so cynical and miserable over this game
That's mostly from people that expected a grand story like Three Houses
@@fakesmile172 Or more than 2 objectives... Route and defeat the boss should not be every single map...
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 factually wrong
Someone clearly hasn’t played or watched a play through of this
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 Actually just objectively wrong lmao
I know it's not relevant to you since you only go for the hardest difficulty, but man I never was so challenged while not being overwhelmed by a FE hard mode, Hard mode feels superbly curated for my level of play with the franchise, it ain't a walk in the park at all but it's very rewarding from beginning to end (rather than most other FE "hard" difficulties where once you got your juggernauts going the game is over)
Edit 9 days later : I don't think it can be a problem on a first blind run, but I'm currently at the mid point on my second run still in hard and I really wish I would have tried out madenning, once you know a thing or two the game gets a bit too easy (and I was able to get an almost ironclad juggernaut, dodgetanking is busted).
Yes! I guess the disappointing but understandable part is the extra grind maps are so much harder than the main story maps that if I grind just a couple, the main story maps get too easy.
@@moosiemoose1337 I noticed this too. Wanted to do a skirmish to level up some of my guys that I hadn't used as much. NOPE! Took them to the story map instead since it was way easier.
@@chrisjones1388 I really hope they balance those or add some lower level skirmishes in the DLC, because the higher levels in skirmishes are really confusing
Completely agree! It's actually incredible to me that they made mechanics as OP as the emblems and yet balanced the difficulty so perfectly that while feeling powerful they very much are tools you'll need to rely on in order to win. I was nervous about picking Hard mode when I started but I'm so glad I got to have this experience! (I might do normal for my next playthrough though just to grind supports easier haha)
Damn, you might have saved me a lot of pain
I've played two prior FE games and I had the same experience so I went straight to maddening. Now I'm getting my ass whooped but if hard is too easy I'll just lose interest
People hated him because he told them the truth!
definitely looking forward to seeing you beat this game in the worst way possible
6:01 my Louis died in this exact way, ice vein and all. Glad to see chain attacks are universally forgotten
The best part is their S support have an actual talking MC. 10/10 on that alone
Everyone complains about the game having a simple history and all that, but that's not necessarily bad tho
Look at another games with simple history that are absolutely GORGEOUS games like metroid dread and dragon quest 11, they are pretty straightforward like "choosen one needs to get legendary sword to destroy bad guy" or "you need to escape this planet, and beat the bad guy"
The thing is, those games are so good not for the story, but for how it plays, and engage is ABSOLUTELY one of the best even in its series, the art is INCREDIBLE, and the music is very catchy (I've been playing that firene fight song in my head for days) and pretty much everything else is just scratching perfection, but the thing is, we came expecting 3H level, and while the game greatly surpasses that, the history feels worse than it actually is, another "choosen one gets powerfull weapon to kill bad guy"
But yeah, definitively worth playing, it's a solid game and a solid fire emblem
Honestly I'm glad that they are positive reviews about Fire Emblem Engage on YT because this game is really awesome (even if I played it only through with easy and casual level). The story is great, the characters too (tbh the "new" characters are my favorite chars from a video game in the moment) and the voice acting is perfect tbh. It's always perfect in every situation (if someone is sad, if someone is excited, if someone says something while he/she is very weak and dies shortly afterwards). I didn't hear all possible phrases and I also heared barely nothing from male Alears voice but it's one of the best voice acting video games I've ever experienced.
I've only played Engage as only FE game but I definitely want to play Three Houses, Awakening, Fates, Echoes and also the Warriors games.
I *adore* boss hp in this game. Having bosses actually be a difficult fight and needing to be planned around is just what FE needed. Most of the time they eventually rush you so you have to make a decision on if you can afford to go for chests/drops or if you have to focus on attacking the boss and removing a revival stone (or two) lest you become overwhelmed next turn
wow you must be a real FE vet. I'm 30 hours in maddening and only in the teen chapters. Each map takes so much careful planning its an absolute pleasure and joy... especially since I'm stubborn and want to make my favorite characters viable... aha
1:40 isn’t the whole point of 3H’s story is that people over hyped the significance of crests?? It was thematic that they were kinda meh in the end
I’m super excited to see how speedrun and LTC strats shapes up for this game.
Honestly Engage has to be a part of the discussion of greatest fire emblem from a gameplay perspective. It’s just a fun af game to play. Engage has set a massively high bar for FE gameplay going forward. I really hope the odd stupidly scored reviews don’t give the devs an impression that we don’t want gameplay like this. Cause WE DO.
Considering this game is polar opposite of TH, i doubt IS listens to people lol
@@-lord1754 TH’s was mostly made by Koei, not IS.
@@Hadosama It was still led and directed by IS
Even the gameplay is mediocre. There are 2 maps in the game that aren't "route" or "defeat these bosses" definitely have to work on that going forward. Maybe take some notes from the Tellius series for map design and objective gameplay.
I can't say I enjoy the story, but I've never been blown away be any FE story, it definitely isn't the reason I'm a fan. I like everything else about the game and I can see myself going back to it for a very long time, as I have done with FE7, 8 and Fates.
I always go back to fe 8 and the tellius games, those are my FE defaults
@@bunkflunk I don't find RD very replayable. The gameplay feels too slow and not different enough between playthroughs. PoR is nice, finished it a few times.
@@feri7mble man do i disagree, like your opinion sure, but Ive played the hell out of that, I think what realy makes it replayable is the vast amount of units that you can attempt to use in the game while never being fully replaced by other units until part 4, its a very unique way of FE that allows more units to shine.
A lot of people's first FE game was Three Houses which was very different from the traditional FE game IMO. Engage feels like a nice return to the old FE style but with really cool new ideas with the Emblem rings
Engage feels more like a mix of Awakening and Fates than it does a traditional FE. Especially with durability gone and almost every map being route or defeat boss.
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 I'm just glad they didn't repeat 3H gameplay, maps were a snoozefest and the social Sim aspect got annoying really fast for me. You could play for hours and not go through a single battle
Naw this feels like someone at the studio really really really wanted to make Fire Emblem Echoes Awakening but got shot down so they did everything they could to sabotage this shit out of this awful game
@@vollied4865 sounds like someone shit in your cereal homie, take a break
@@vollied4865 Your taste is bad and you should feel bad.
Interesting! I'm on Chapter 10 right now and am interested in seeing what happens next :) Only on Hard, but it definitely has difficult yet fair moments! Haven't had this much fun with the gameplay since I played through Conquest Lunatic!
But so you play in classic? If not not a real fan lol
@@pres002 Yes, classic mode is a given. However, it doesn't mean much in Engage due to the time crystal mechanics.
Have fun with Chapter 11. That's probably the hardest map in the game
@@DifferentialFEQ in maddening u only get to use it 10 times
@@exoheroes9453 It's like that in hard mode, too. I can see the limit being more of an issue on maddening mode, though.
I'm on hard and just about to finish chapter 10. Honestly, this is probably the most fun I've had with an FE game. After Three Houses I kind of forgot how it felt to actually think through fights until I started playing Engage.
I'm not sure my skills are enough for Maddening, but once I finish my hard run I'll definitely give it a shot. The gameplay is just that good.
The anti juggernaut are so welcome ! After seeing the Covert class bonus i was really tempted to just go Ahah Yunaka In bush go brbrb But then she would just get killed by assist strike if i let her in meaning i needed to still giver her support or look at the ennemy composition . I also thinks this is one game where the classes are insanely balanced in itself
Also, mages just ignore avoid bonuses from terrain, so theres that too
Yunaka In Bush with full dodge build still works really well to bait or cripple a whole group by herself.
You just need to check anti juggernaut setup that swarm units with support units and kill her with tons of chip support damage.
Otherwise she is immortal.
Also, tons of map doesnt have a single bush soooo
@@anonyme4881 that's what pair up is for. it ignores chip damage
My favorite part of Engage is the fact that Armor Knights aren’t dead weight anymore. I think this might be the first time in the series that I could justify fielding a Knight.
Louis is unironically an absolute monster unit, give him a greatlance with the correct engraving and +5 refine and he is going to solo tank and murder half the map by himself, until a magic unit pops up and oneshots him 😂
Knights were fantastic in the Tellius series, and in Sacred Stones.
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 they weren't really that good in sacred stones outside of duessel. Map wise there were units who on average could do what armors do but smoother/faster cause of their higher move
as for the two armors, gilliam is nice but comparably not as useful as some other characters, and amelias averages aren't all too good for her
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 being a knight in game with super kanto sucks
I field 3 armor knights Louis Jade and lapis the funny thing is lapis can actually dodge since I pair her up with Marth it's kinda funny in a way how utterly devastating the chain attack system wax to juggernauting yet armor knights a unit meant for that very same strategy ended being the absolute top tiers
i wasn’t expecting much from this game for some reason but my friend said it was pretty good and before i knew it, i was hooked easily my favorite fire emblem which introduced so many mechanics and features i never knew i needed!
I think this will be the first FE game I've bought since Conquest!
You really sold me on this, I'm excited to see how my playthrough goes.
I thought both echoes and three houses were great games personally
@@bunkflunk They were. But this game is easier for those who like Fates to enjoy, as the other entries may have been too serious or too deep a story.
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 It’s kinda silly to claim that people skipped or didn’t like 3Hs cause it was „too deep and serious“.
Its story had horrible pacing, the monestary gets annoying and time consuming extremely fast (which hurts replayability), the actual FE gameplay was pretty bad (map designs were recycled way too often, the maps were boring and didn’t require actual thinking for the most part) and it looked really dated on top of that.
It’s not weird to have little interest in 3Hs if you like FE for the traditional FE gameplay (same goes for Gaiden/Echoes which don’t have most of 3Hs problems, but are known for their questionable map design).
I liked 3Hs (mostly Azure Moon, all the other routes I played after suffered from the replayability problems) and adore Echoes, but let’s not pretend that they are better cause they are “deep” (or others didn’t like or even played them because of that).
@@stormnightmare4378 you just proved his point that people who enjoy this game are into more simple traditional fe games
@@evilmar2363 I guess? But singling out Fates makes no sense in that regard.
Okay, I gotta go on this tangent after beating the game because I didn’t see anyone else really talk about it. Spoilers ahead so watch out!
So like, Alear dies and becomes a corrupted then dies again to become an emblem. But, like… literally why? Everyone, including Veyle, were so distraught, and as Veyle held him in her arms, no one thought… to use the TIME CRYSTAL TO REVERSE IT? This got me so unbelievably shook. It’s like they forgot it existed.
Now, before anyone says “well it’s designed for casual gameplay to undo bad plays” sure yeah, but it is mentioned in the story multiple times. There’s a whole cutscene devoted to Veyle dropping it, and a whole scene where Ivy gives it back to us after it was taken back by Veyle. So while Veyle held her dying brother in her arms, why didn’t she go like “oh yeah, the crystal!”
And before you say “well it was evil Veyle that used it so good Veyle wouldn’t know about it” sure, but literally anyone else there could have mentioned it. Like I said, Ivy at the very least knows it exists and what it does because Alear calls it the time crystal when she returns it. It just feels like they overlooked it for purely plot reasons, which feels weird since this time mechanic was in Three Houses and in a moment where a significant character died, Byleth tries to go back and can’t because of magic preventing the outcome to change.
They could have done that here. Personally, I thought the whole thing with dying and becoming an emblem (especially the FIRE emblem, hoo boy I could go on a tangent about that too) was kinda meh and didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but I don’t hate it. If they really wanted that to happen, a simple acknowledgement of attempting the crystal would have been fine, maybe Veyle or someone tries to use it and Sombron’s power is so mighty that it fails or maybe Alear taking the brunt of that attack damaged it. I don’t know. I just remember being so frustrated that no one even mentions the crystal during that series of events that the emotional significance was lost on me.
Overall, I really do like the game. The gameplay is amazing, the story as a whole is good, the characters are fun, and ultimately they did a lot of things right with this. I know this is a strange hill to die on but I just had to vent about this somewhere. Thank you for coming to my TED talk.
I remember looking at reviews from other TH-camrs saying how bad the story is, so I’m glad to see that you enjoy the story as much as I am right now (on chapter 16, so idk what happens fully yet). They say that the story is bad and then compare it to three houses which is a very unfair comparison because 3H has characters and lore that go all over the place. It’s straight forward and isn’t too complex, and I’m okay with that. The gameplay is amazing. I like thinking about conquest when I play this game.
i would say personally that the story is clearly the weaker side of the game but it's not bad.... it is lacking in terms of grey kind of morality that other fire emblem used to give us (well except for one or two really...)
@@Sterncold Engage story is far from perfect but it's also nowhere near as bad as people make it out to be.
0:08 "As Spoiler Free as Possible"
4:36 *Shows probably a spoiler Character* (I'm about midway through and I don't have the character and they have somewhat important plot so)
as someone who's currently struggling in chapter 18 in classic/maddening, I'd say congrats for the clear!
That chapter was a beast! I struggled on Hard mode…can’t imagine on Maddening 😅
whats the point of classic when time crystal
I'm so eager to play this game! I remember back during the first announcement how mixed the reactions were; Be it because of those initial reactions or simply great planning, it's clearly apparent intelligent sys has brought us a truly amazing fire emblem game. Looking forward to experiencing it, and also seeing your content about it as always!
Engage has really felt like the first evolution for the series to me since Thracia 776, which added loads of under the hood mechanics that are staples of the series today.
The 3DS games and 3 Houses had their charm, but they were based around some heavy gimmicks. Honestly, that's a lot of fun as a one off to give the games their own identity, but I don't really want to see the pair up mechanics or monastary in every game. Engage has the Emblems as its big gimmick, which I'd also like to see as a one off, but it's got plenty of new core mechanics which I think can carry over to future entries.
The new weapon triangle break mechanic feels much better than I was expecting. It really rewards offensive play, and gives openings for your glass cannons to come in against dangerous opponents. And the new class category abilities (covert, backup, mystic, etc.) are a fantastic edition, aside from covert becoming too obnoxious as a dodge tanking. And of course, having instant access to usable weapon levels on reclassing is a godsend.
These are features I'd love to see return as a series staple moving forward, perhaps with some minor refinement and rebalancing.
My biggest complaint is the clashing design philosophies between in battle and out of battle. In battle hits new highs for quality of life, giving the player access to incredible information at their fingertips. In the Somniel.
I may think, "I want to learn some skills for my characters." I then go to the ring room to check character SP, as you can't seem to check it anywhere else. I look through the emblem list and decide on some skills I want. If I have enough SP for said skill, I head to the arena and spend bond points to watch arena battles play out (whether you win or lose is immaterial) until I become able to acquire said skill. Then I need to head back to the ring room and acquire the skill. Then I need to open the menu one final time and equip my new skill.
It's difficult to believe this is in the same game that shows abilities in effect pop up as you move to tiles on the map, and allows you to toggle a display of various stats for all units on the map at the press of a button, and tap of the control pad if you want to switch which stats.
I did the Tiki map as soon as it was opened on maddening... my God that was a true challenge to get out with 0 deaths
The sequence from chapter 20 to endgame is the greatest sequence of fire emblem I've ever played
I’m playing on hard classic and I’m struggling I can’t imagine how it is on maddening. Really enjoying the game
You dropped this, king 👑
You're right about the Tiki map being difficult. I made the mistake of going into it as soon as it was unlocked not having bought anything from the shop, and I scuffed my way to a victory after like 2 hours of trial and error.
Thanks man, I'm on chapter 12 or so. So figured I'd watch since you said "no spoilers" then went on to show several playable characters, including one I was wondering if we'd get...
The character designs aren’t even that bad tbh, they’re a little overdesigned maybe, but it’s only a handful of them that look like actual clowns, Hortensia, Pannette (think that was her name.) Yunaka, (as much as I like her, she has confetti in her hair and a star face tattoo was certainly a choice.) it’s a little bit of a shame that Alear looks extremely goofy, but it’s also funny. Some of the designs don’t necessarily fit the context of war, but I’d say there’s more good designs than bad ones.
I respectfully disagree. But that's why the game gives you the option to change clothes. Lief's armor is sick.
I would actually say that Engage’s story is good too, but it has a rough start. After about chapter 10 is when the story started hooking me in more.
Wow well what a pleasant surprise. I just wasn't expecting much from this title. After hearing such a glowing review I guess I'll go pick up the game soon, excited to have fun with it.
Ohhhh man, this is so exciting to see that they've smoothened fire emblem out so well. This just ramps my excitement up for remakes that are bound to come...
I am honestly surprised that I am not the only person who thought that the story of fe engage was actually kind of good
I'm here with you bro. I also like the story.
Same. Honestly I love the story and I also love the voice acting in this game. It's perfect and I'm so glad that I'm not the only one who loves Engage because it became one of my favorite games.
Nice review, way better than the "professional" reviews that lowered the score over "bad story" and "It's not Three Houses"
I mean, the story, specifically the script is bad. How much that impacts your enjoyment will depend on how important that aspect is for you. Theres nothing wrong with saying that, especially when character/story driven 3H was the best selling game in the series and this is FAR from that style
I love story driven games. So it being as poorly written as it was made it impossible to care about the game world or characters. The gameplay for fire emvlem however is the biggest draw to the game for me, and it aced that.
@@1mealer The script is what you'd expect from the average FE game, Engage in particular gave me Sacred Stones vibes. Three Houses looks deep at first glance, but really isn't once you learn all the lore and realize it's not morally gray because everything is the fault of the evil mole people.
Fancy that, people can have different likes and priorities than you. Madness, I know.
Snark aside, it's valuable knowledge to give to people. 3H brought in loads of people to the franchise and its only fair to say to those folks 'This game is nothing like that, the gameplay and graphics got tightened up, the story and characters are full clown hours'.
@@daz1543 Sacred Stones is significantly better written than this game. You actually can relate to and enjoy the characters in that game, and the final boss isn't a copy paste dragon. I don't remember a single character in Sacred Stones that was just goofy or cartoonish like the characters in this game, who seem to only know how to say "divine one" every 2 seconds. None of these characters even feel memorable to me as I've already forgotten many names. Whereas with Sacred Stones I remember half the cast and I haven't played it in over a decade.
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 you have rose-tinted glasses my friend, SS is not nearly as deep as you're remembering. There are more goofy supports than serious ones, I can say as someone who's played SS enough times to 100% the support log
I’ve had so much fun with this on Hard Casual! This might be the first FE game I end up trying an Ironman for because there are so many units and I ended up using almost exclusively the noble kids (and Jean)
I haven’t finished the game but it’s been strange seeing so many people hating on the story, I’ve really enjoyed it so far (I’m at chapter 23)
It's worse than every other story in the series save maybe Fates? So the criticism is warranted.
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 thats not even close to true, sure the first 9 or so chapters are pretty lame but it picks up a lot better. It certainly beats 3H pre time skip and every one of fates story. Awakening's story was nothing special so I don't get why people keep stroking it.
The fact is FE isnt known for its story and we really shouldnt attack it too much for it as its servicable enough to move you to the next challenge.
I don't remeber a single time playing FE and thinking "Wow I cant wait to beat this map to see what happens next!" No i just want to get to the next chapter and the next challenge
@@Aeivious The first third of Awakening is really strong. Chapter 10 is still one of the best FE chapters to exist.
A review like this is exactly what I've been waiting for before buying!
I still stand by PoR having the best overall story andnworld building
PoR and Radiant Dawn are still the best two games in the entire franchise storytelling wise and I will die on that hill, I’m also a gigantic fan of radiant dawn’s gameplay, I just love the Tellius games
@@bunkflunk Yeah you aren';t beaten the Tellius games on story anytime soon.
@@dantemustdie00 what?
@@bunkflunk Radiant Dawn 100% has the best gameplay in the series. Nothing has yet to come close, which is a shame given how long it's been since the Wii title.
@@thelegacyofgaming2928 Engage has surpassed every game in the series in the gameplay dept. I'm not saying Radiant Dawn isn't also great, but better than Engage? Nah
Just finished my first run on hard and starting maddening soon. What I really appreciate is enemy units having a variety of weapons. Not every General uses an axe not every Hero uses a sword etc.
Yea this is the first game since awakening I was actually scared of entering an enemy phase with so much variety and actual use of strategy by the ai hell the ai juggernauts when it's at a disadvantage that shit caught me off guard
@@acefreak9561 so scared when you can just time crystal whenever you want
@@evilmar2363 cuz I was playing in maddening and you got very limited use of the time stone
Based.
And wrong 😂
Glad to see a review of the game that isn’t just bemoaning the fact that it isn’t Three Houses again.
Fantastic game, at minimum the second best FE game along with Conquest
I love this game slightly better than 3 houses.
Slightly annoyance is the SP gain is so abysmally low. Skirmishes on hard are somehow way harder than main chapters. Gold is pretty limited. And support points can only be gain by being next to your unit you want to support at your own turn.
the flea market sells gifts you can use to increase support with your units, it's really fast and cheap
i do agree sp gain is low and gold is limited, knowing IS tho there will 100% be a free update for NG+ which will prob fix these issues
@@vystaria ah i didn't get to the flea market yet so that's good news. and hopefully yea, i put in so many hours for 3houses because of the NG+
I bought the DLC and am beginning to replay the game on maddening, and I must say, getting through Tiki's paralogue in one try (albeit with time rewinds), was not only very challenging, but also felt super rewarding once I'd done it.
This game got 82 on Metacritic while Three Houses got an 89. "Muh cringey anime tropes" is too much to bear but hours of monastery busy work is okay? :/
It's understandable when most people only play fe3h ONE TIME.
Also I've always been able to connect and care about the characters quickly in other FE games, even some FE7, 8 hacks, but engage took me a while to actually like someone on my roster.
@@moosiemoose1337 yeah so far I don't really like any of them, MC is okay though, i expect them to get better too
Because 3Houses is overall better. Not sure why people take offense to that. This game only does gameplay slightly better. Everything else is significantly worse. The characters in this game are beyond forgettable and the story is utter garbage on the levels of Fates. Decent gameplay cannot save a game when everything else is bad. 3Houses has mediocre gameplay as well, but they did everything else right.
Cope... there's NG+
fantastic review excel
From personal experience, Tiki's Bracelet is definitely very strong, but the difficulty to obtain it makes it feel like you've actually earned the level of power it brings (the map features a huge amount of reinforcements, which also spawn fairly and in a way that, like you pointed out in this video, can be easily reacted to while making progress, and the map as a whole took me personally almost 1.5 hrs just on Hard due to map mechanics and how difficult Tiki herself is to take out, so Maddening would probably be 100% a mid-late game only option).
Her Bracelet is fantastic once you get it though. It, without question, is a "Juggernaut-in-a-box" kind of Emblem. Hard hitting attacks, a conal aoe with lingering effect, and an all stats up while engaged, as well as Access to a significant amount of additional free +def/+res just for being by allies would probably help any unit a lot, not to mention she basically makes any unit have good growths, but her strength is balanced by the anti-juggernaut mechanics you also pointed out in the video.
I also played in hard, and ironically, it made the game easier Imo. You get so much exp, that I managed to catch up to enemies, bringing the story difficulty down.
i was sad to miss your streams because i didnt want to spoil myself on a game i didnt know if i wanted to play or not. But i think youve convinced me to get it lol
I Really think this is the best gameplay fire emblem can offer (Sure I've only played shadow dragon and beyond) but this game allows flexibility no character I've used in my 3 runs have been bad and with the rings they are very flexible
I finished every game since fe 6 and can confirm, engage is the best in terms of gameplay.
Engage is like the best of the 3ds era meshed into one amazing game: Awakening style world map and supports, incredibly fun gameplay like Fates, great combat animations like Echoes.
If I'm being honest Engage showed me how bad the gameplay of Three Houses really was and how exhausting that game was to play. I don't dread doing anything on the somniel, I don't have to brace myself to sit through supports I haven't seen yet because of how long they are, the maps are smaller and less of a slog to get through, and oh how I missed class changing being so easy.. Only thing I miss is the better voice acting but even then there are some genuinely good performances in Engage.
I liked the school activities in three houses ngl
The emblems also seemed like a far more expansive version of echoes weapons. I like 3H for what it is, but this game kind of feels like the real FE16, building off of what came before
@@bunkflunk it just made replays exceedingly boring
I liked gameplay of 3H. But I'm a weirdo who doesn't care about challenge. I play everything on normal\casual. I liked how easy 3h is. The game for me isn't "will I win or lose" the game for me is "how one sided can I make this." I spend 40 hours or more a week working, I don't want my games to feel like work. I want them to bend to my will. The best game designers accommodate both the gamers who play my way and the gamers who enjoy a challenge. Kind of like Elden Ring
“i think it’s probably impossible to solo the game with a single character” hilarious to hear coming from jack benci’s solo alear challenge run. also say what you want about the story but it has the best inclusion of the fire emblem
Peak fiction but unironically
Hold up! Why did I never think of what this man did with Micaiah at 1:55. I'm gonna have fun warping the whole party then
Finally beat my blind maddening playthrough and it was absolutely a blast. I always felt like I had all the tools to succeed and failures felt like they were genuinely my fault and not artificial in nature. The only thing that was truly frustrating were those god damn maddening difficulty wolf knights, they feel just a bit overstatted compared to everything else. At least Wyverns had a relative weakness to magic, radiant bow and mulagir.
I finished Tiki's paralogue on Maddening, it's actually not that bad with a lot of Bows, Alcryst entered as a Level 1 promoted unit and left at Level 7 though, lots of reinforcements
I thought the reinforcements were infinite so I pushed through a majority of the map while fending of enemies from the rear, only to feel like an idiot when they stopped.
Im so glad you liked the story, I just finished this game. To me this has the best fe story ever after path of radiance. The part with Griss and zephia made me tear up T_T
Honestly the one thing that would make this game better in my opinion would be a new game plus, where you carry over supports, bond ranks, bond rings, levels and stats but not items. There are some missable things I wanna go back and get but can’t
I've recently started playing through, about a chapter a day, and I am hooked. If I didn't have to work I'd be playing through much quicker.
Player phase emblem truly is the best fire emblem
Excel i think you should stream the Trial maps in your finishied save
Hey I know this is not related to this video but I just found a really broken pairings with 2 units and 2 specific Emblem Rings. So first you need the 3Houses Ring (DLC) and Byleth Ring. So the strategy is, Have The unit with the 3 Houses Emblem Engage and have the unit with Byleth Ring next to them (you dont have to engage with the Byleth Ring). What this does is once you use houses Unite which is the 3 Houses Engage Finisher, they get another turn thanks to being beside Byleth. Now you still have your 3 turns to use Raging Storm which also gives you a next turn after using it, so that is 3 turns in on go. Then if you want you can then use Byleths Goddess Dance to dance for the unit with the 3Houses ring and thus getting 4 moves in one turn and if you really wanna go bananas, use your dancer to dance for them again in the same turn, or you can use your dancer to dance for the 3Houses Ring person position them just right so you can use Byleth's goddess dance on both the dancer and the 3Houses Ring person (I advise giving your dancer Canter) and then dance for them again. Essentially if you get the idea 6 Actions in one turn for 1 unit.
Sorry for my rambling but it was absolutely bonkers when I found it out.
Eh it's a Speedrun tactic at the very least to clear maps real quick but there's defo better strategies out there for regular gameplay
nice review! I would love to check this game out sometime. you kinda convinced me
I'm glad you enjoyed it so much!
This is what I keep telling people yes the story is very Saturday morning cartoony and one of the characters is makima if she was bad at her job but it's charming straightforward and easy to digest while not being shy of presenting us with tragedy at times.
But it's gameplay oh boy it's the best "PURE" fire emblem experience great maps decent gimmicks solid mechanics and great replayability it's only negatives are money and bond fragments being slow to farm but other than that it's a very good FIRE EMBLEM game no politics no ideologies no stupid choices just two dragons beating the shit out of each other
I actually hold your opinion here in high regard because your content makes it clear that you aren't afraid to talk shit about a Fire Emblem game if there's shit to talk about. I've only done the first five chapters (on Normal Casual) thus far but I am loving the game to bits and can't wait to play more. I look forward to seeing what content you come out with for Engage in the future, especially once you start getting memey with it, ;)
Tiki is really strong, but even in hard mode her paralogue was no joke. But you can get not only Tiki, but also the Silver Card, which makes shops prices 30% lower forever. But to get the silver card you have to either use Warp, or have a unit go all the way around the map (which if they don't have Sigurd's move boost, they have to be in range of a frost dragon breath for a turn, which locks there movement unless they have Sigurd's freeze immunity). Either way means the unit can't fight for the rest of the map.
BUT if you spend time going to get the Silver Card the long way, you have to deal with the powerful reinforcements that spawn every other turn. It's not easy.
Goddamn, I've never heard someone so legitimately excited about a game in such a long time. Alright, you've convinced me Excel, I'll buy the toothpaste game.
For the record, the Tiki map is insanely difficult. I barely made it out without any casualties and I was only playing on hard. Those dragons hit like a truck.
How comes I absolutely destroyed her map in maddening and everyone else is struggling HOW???
The steel weapons are NOT part of the DLC, they are given to everyone. You might need to turn on Connected play to get them but I got them and I didn't have the DLC.
I did not get the steel weapons. Didn't connect online and no DLC, so based on what you said, you should say "possibly linked to Connected play" not "given to everyone".
Yes, as part of the 1.1 update notice it mentioned those resources would be given to all players. I got them too but didn't use them anyway until after a while
Did the same thing (Maddening/Classic, no DLC, first playthrough), absolutely loved the game. Story is a bit of a mixed bag imo, but I loved the gameplay more than any other first run.
But I gotta say the DLC stuff makes things a good bit easier since you have them available in difficult maps where you don't have (all) other rings, and Edelgard&Co can be pretty broken since they can give you additional turns and Tiki is just absurdly strong. I'd recommend everybody to go through the game once at the intended experience (fixed, no DLC) for the challenge and then go crazy where you make your favorites super strong by abusing Tiki's growth boost etc.
Does growth boost even works in maddening though? I thought characters all have fixed stat growths on your first playthrough.
@@ShiningAngelFeathers I'm pretty sure the way it works is that it basically adds your growths every level and increases the stat when it ticks over to the next number, so Tiki definitely still improves your characters over time
@@Abundy That's interesting to know. Maybe I'll give it a try after my initial clear without dlc.
Currently on chapter 20 myself. Agree with everything you said here 😊 by far the fe game that has had me sitting at the edge of my seet the moast 😅 (aspecially when being hunted by the 4 axe guys in the chapter where u get the dancer). Btw would love to see some advanced builds/tips&tricks/strategies from you for this game 😁
I'm currently at chapter 15 or 16, I think. I am loving it so far. The gameplay is really fun. And yes, Bosses are quite challenging. I am playing on the lowest difficulty, but it still takes almost my entire team to kill certain bosses without getting everyone killed. I have benched Vander now, but he is a Jagen, so that's ok. Clanne has finally been promoted and Alcryst is completely busted. The tankiest archer I have ever used in a Fire Emblem title. Thankfully the next weekend is at hand and I can play the game a lot during that time. I love it and I love the music. The story is also really great so far and certain bits are even making me sad. Yes, I cried. This game is so great and I am not even through yet. I am wondering what the other DLC Emblems will be though.
My spoiler free take on the DLC: I found the boots and both DLC emblems to be invaluable on my blind maddening run.
3 houses bracelet(I put it on Alcryst) has Guard battalion for ranged attacks and it works on the fixed damaged monster attacks too, without engaging(RNG tho). Poison battalion is useless but flame battalion does chip and works to slow enemy movement and can be used from 3 range. Houses unite is a free nuke that works most of the game, shattering star let’s your archer exploit the AI and push further to the front line for a positional advantage. Because you can go to the Arena without a paralogue on this DLC bracelets you can access Failnaught in chapter 7 I believe(whenever you get the bracelet). To even put the cherry on top it costs 500 bond fragments to unlock level 5 and lineage is only 150 SP(20% bonus exp) something that will make your army extremely strong.
Tiki(I had on Framme the entire game) has the ability to grant a revive stone at base. Becoming a dragon paired with chain block it was crazy good beyond just the engage move.
Boots on your Pair Up unit(Alear for me for most of the game) opens up so much chip damage to help raise so units up or clear out threats like Wolf Knights. Sadly I couldn’t put a 3rd pair on him.