The Problem With: Fire Emblem Engage
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 พ.ค. 2024
- Fire Emblem Engage, the latest entry in the series, is looking to be one of the best in the series yet. But has it lived up to the hype, or is it doomed to hide in Fire Emblem: Three Houses' shadow? Watch The Problem With to find out.
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You know the story is bad when you skip cutscenes on your first playthrough.
I beat the game and I'm never picking it up again
@@leoestellar5232 dayum
It's awful. It doesn't hold a candle to fire emblem radiant dawn.
@@kevinburke1325 The Good news is that there are other Strategy games to play. Valkyria Chronicles 4, War Groove, Triangle Strategy, and even Tactics Ogre Reborn.
@@leoestellar5232 The Good news is that there are other Strategy games to play. Valkyria Chronicles 4, War Groove, Triangle Strategy, and even Tactics Ogre Reborn.
Having played both 3H and Engage, I will say that the amazing animation in Engage wasn't enough to make me love it. I would have rather paid for a 3H DLC with a new route, than Engage.
I love Engage AND 3H
We'll have a game that will put more emphasis on story and characters. Then we'll have ANOTHER game that focus solely on refining gameplay. Why can't we have both? I have no idea.
Wouldn't be surprised if they got both right but mess up with the voice acting.
Can we try the Path of Radiance thing again and have a main character who is just some dude when the game starts and has to actually earn their prestigious title?
Agreed. Even in three houses there was an element of being an outsider and having to prove yourself. Having everyone kiss your ass from the get go is very irritating
@@mowrt620 Ike, and Roy are good at having to prove themselves.
Roy, while yes a noble, was a 15 year old kid who was not ready for the horrors of war. He has to face the harsh reality of it.
Ike? Well. You already know.
@@Lightningstrike1220 I was talking about the avatar character
So playing as Nemesis in a pre-3H game? xD
@@thenecromancer8805 I mean playing as the villain would be interesting I suppose
That birthday support was acted out as if they were both about to die or something, I miss the 3H dub where people knew how to sound conversational
There are good characterizations in this game, but some characters are so one-dimensional that it's hard to believe they were written by the same people. I'm starting to believe this is fault of the localization somehow considering they had already changed characters to be quirky and gimmicky. In Fates, for example, Effie's character is very exaggerated from the original, making her seem much more of a brute than she really is. I mentioned Effie because the same thing occurred to me when I saw Etie's dialogue, she's always talking about gym/training related stuff! It's like that's her whole character, and then you have better written characters like Diamant and some of the main Lords.
Just speculation but I think it's likely taking into account past localizations.
It feels like different people wrote the stories and developed the characters cause they did lol. Koei Techmo had a heavy hand with the story and scenarios in Three houses. While Engage is back to the team that wrote Fates I believe.
@@tielmaster7879 They should have just sold this series to Koei
@@kuleshov_sam that is bad suggestion considering Koei reputation with their monetisations
Part of this is just censorship, a lot of censorship. So, I don't imagine it's helping the dialogue.
I’ll be honest I can’t remember who is who. The cast was not memorable to me at all. They felt like tropes more then characters
Seriously disappointed with the support conversations. Almost no one has any depth.
Yunaka is the only good character.
I agree. I've never skipped support conversations before but daaaamn, I was skipping those things like never before. Just didn't care at all.
Great minds think alike Dimitri.
@@thatguybis1997 it’s so unfortunate!! The gameplay is great but honestly, I usually play for the characters and their personal stories as my top priority. It is probably my least favorite Fire Emblem as it flopped from both a story and character perspective. Hoping they don’t slash the entire story of the rumored FE4 remake.
@@dkong1 damn I'm pretty torn. I do love the gameplay, and I love a good turn based SRPG, but I do want the characters to be interesting or the story to at least be engaging. Otherwise the games become meh, vs amazing.
Oh my god dude you have no idea how refreshing it is to hear a genuine opinion about this game. I’m absolutely cringing at the dialogue regarding our golden hearted god main character and the “bad is bad cause it’s bad so I must be good” generic storyline. I agree that the gameplay is phenomenal though but outside of that I’m not compelled at all.
Appreciate the review man and your genuine personality.
Thanks for the comment! Appreciate you Josh, you're not alone.
Engage sucks. A massive downgrade from 3H in almost every way.
I mean you’ll be hearing about it more now. Especially since you see that sales were 60% below 3H which kinda of shows that despite the praise the game got it had big flaws that made people not want to buy it and now that it’s been some time since release people are now showing why the felt the game to be disappointing or weaker despite it being a fun game
@@Yoshixandir I don't know why so many people online were so defensive over this game. It's not like it was good, let alone worth the 3.5 year wait after three houses.
It's already enough IS has completely ruined Paper Mario (thank god for bug fables), imagine if they ruin Fire Emblem too! Continuing to not care about story in rpgs.
@@dinar8749 Well the good news is TTYD is getting remastered and I'm SUPER looking forward to that! The bad news? I don't think intelligent systems is going to change anytime soon because it's very clear that they do not listen to feed back. If they did, they wouldn't have made another Corrin beat to beat for Engage. I think ever since Awakening they let the success of that game go to their heads and forget over time what makes fire emblem, fire emblem. At least that's my theory anyway. They seem to switch between focusing on only making the gameplay good (Engage) vs only making the story good (3 Houses). I don't get it, why not both! You know...like awakening? The game that put you back on the map? It sucks...
What gets under my skin most of all are the Engage fans that defend the game giving it a flawless 10/10 without ever acknowledging it's flaws. In fact, I made my opinion pretty clear about the game after I finished it. That Alear was boring and a coward, and that the story was either reused or forgettable. When I explained why this was online, I was pretty much attacked by fans and was told my opinion sucks, that fire emblem was never about the story (as someone who has played FE since POR that is utter bull shit), and no matter what way I worded things. If I critiqued anything about Engage, I was wrong and the game was perfect no matter what. I have had this problem with a handful of the communities involving Nintendo games recently. Specifically FE, Animal Crossing, and Pokemon. I don't really understand why, if I don't like the game, I don't like the game, but don't scold me for my opinion. It was only months after the game released that NOW people are coming out and saying why Engage was bad in some ways and I seriously don't get that either.
Me, still playing Three Houses in 2023: lmao can’t relate
By the end of my Engage playthrough, I wanted to go back to Three Houses.
Honestly 3h gets really, really boring after you do all 4 routes.
@@artificialaceattorney6822 Trust me it was so bad I went back and learned how to play 3H modded on emulator.
My favorite support conversation is Yunaka and Panette B. Most supports and characters just so gimmicky and awful, it’s as if their entire personality are based off tea, ghosts muscles, animal, bugs, singing, howling, being nice, being cute, being delirious, being sociopaths etc.
The story is a weird re-tread of Awakening's but a lot worse. There's a cult trying to resurrect the Fell Dragon, and it's up to the main crew with the power of a Divine Dragon to fight them by collecting McGuffins. The Emblems themselves are a lot like Awakening's Einherjar and they fill a similar role to Lucina and the child units, in fact the devs looked at that for inspiration when creating the Emblems as a mechanic.
The two games even have the same twist about the protagonist being related to the main villain. Also Lumera's death is like copied and pasted from Mikoto's in Fates. Like it's the exact same thing. Minion of the villain tries to kill the protagonist but their mom steps in and takes the blow instead, dying in their arms. Like. Beat-for-beat. The same.
Awakening was paced better and felt less like it was meandering. We got to see what the future of Archanea and Valentina looked like. Chrom and Lucina were interesting characters whose narrative I wanted to see. I don't care about a single soul in Elyos.
I like that it kind of re-treads Awakening's story. Look at it from the standpoint of someone who never got to play Awakening. Or even better, someone who has never played Fire Emblem. It's a simple, easy to digest story that avoids getting too bogged down in plot or having convoluted twists and turns.
Yes, it's like a watered-down Awakening, but that's not entirely bad.
In terms of characterization... they dropped the ball hard. Most characters do fail to appeal to longtime fans that are used to the depth of the better written characters of old (even Three Houses, as good as it was, didn't compare to some of the older games). But they are one-dimensional because it's easier for new players to grasp.
The focus on Engage is gameplay, which has been made slick and satisfying, with in-depth tutorials that aren't too bothersome.
Engage is not a bad game, it is an entry-level game. If it brings new fans into the fold to play other FE games they have previously missed, it's still a win for future titles. I appreciate it as a tactical battle game, even if the storyline and characters fall a little short of other games in the series. And it's a beautiful game, to be sure.
I hope the next Fire Emblem continues the graphical and gameplay trend, but actually tries for a good story. Maybe not multiple storyline level, but where actions have consequences and actually lead to different outcomes as the game goes forward. Multiple endings would be cool af.
@@jamesbrandon5162 The Good news is that there are other Strategy games to play. Valkyria Chronicles 4, War Groove, Triangle Strategy, and even Tactics Ogre Reborn.
Jeez bro spoiler f*cking alert.
@@DreadCthulhuu I mean you're missing out on nothing
@@hypotheticaltapewormYou don’t get to decide that
The whole: Divine one and Divine Dragon gets old really fast lol. In Japanese probably not so much since it's said: Shinryu. Not only sounds more "strong" but it's also a name usually used by strong bosses (like in Final Fantasy), it probably could help to deal with that.
Listening to the game in Japanese and reading the English dialogue. I can say that more than a few lines were just off or just actually wrong.
Great review, I agree with everything you’ve said! I mostly love Fire Emblem for the unique characters so even though I tried going into Engage with little expectations it was still a bit of a let down. Although I do love Yunaka lol
you forgot the censoring of the script
As a Fire Emblem fan going back to the DS era, I really love the game. I will say I feel like I don't really know any of the characters all that well. Outside of the main character, you basically only get to see cutscenes with your characters when they join your team. The support scenes seem a lot shorter than Three Houses. I think the other issue is that in Three houses, almost every major cutscene had all the members of the house you chose. You just got to spend a lot of time feeling like your team were all your friends.
The biggest, most devastating issue with this game is that there is no new game+. So on top of having only one main route, there is no transferring bonds over to another playthrough for easier access to builds and combinations. The game won't have anywhere near as much mileage that you could get from three houses.
Like every other game in the franchise.
@@Ljtaw Three houses has a newgame + though
I agree I am skipping most of the dialogue myself but the combat makes up for it
at the very least, the presentation and graphic fidelity bar has been set REALLY high for this franchise now, this game is absolutely gorgeous!
Yeah, I realized what type of story I was in for when they killed off Lumera within two chapters of meeting her... and then playing some big dramatic cutscene as if I was supposed to care she died. Then Alear kind of cries a bit before forgetting all about it and going on a nice adventure with her new friends. (And I use 'her' for Alear because I refuse to acknowledge the male version as existing; the male design is beyond awful.)
And then, of course, we have the Divine Dragon and the Fell Dragon but neither of them seem to have anything to do with Naga and Grima. I think it would be interesting if Grima and Naga both had Emblem Rings and were responsible for granting the power of the Divine Dragon and Fell Dragon respectfully. Then the overall story arc of the game is humanity breaking free from the repetitive cycle of conflict between those two, ultimately destroying all the Emblem Rings in the final chapter to set everything free. This would also feed nicely into a meta-narrative about not relying on nostalgic pandering as we break free from having past games shoved down our throats.
As for the characters... it's rather polarizing for me. There are no characters I'm really indifferent about; I either really like or really hate characters in this game. Many of them have good designs, some of the best I've seen from Fire Emblem in some cases, but others are among the worst. And, more often than not, the characters have trash personalities and the supports don't seem to give greater insight into anything other than how one character reacts to the specific quirk of another.
Naga and Grima aren't the only Divine and Fell Dragons. Tiki is a Divine Dragon, Sothis is treated like one.
This comment describes it exactly right.
Since I’ve been playing path of radiance recently, I’ll use it as a point of comparison.
Your father doesn’t die in the game until chapter freaking 7. And not only that, there are plenty of moments that the game gives you to make Ike’s father look like a total badass, so he really starts to grow on you, which makes his death a big deal, especially for our main character Ike, as he now has to lead this mercenary band.
Yeah, compare that to fire emblem engage. A death in chapter 2 with barely any screen time of his mother and I’m supposed to be sad over her death? What a joke.
Should’ve included this in the video but, figured it’d make it too long. So here it is in comment form.
@@thatguybis1997 I never did get around to playing Path of Radiance or the sequel (prequel? I forget which is which), but my frame of reference against Lumera comes from other games.
Three Houses: Jeralt dies after many chapters and we get to directly interact with him--learn from him--throughout the whole time. We get to see how his presence effects everybody, other students as much as Byleth. When he dies, it feels like he's been taken away from us.
Awakening: Emmeryn doesn't have too much screen time, but she is a strong enough character that we understand who she is and what she stands for. Her death signals a tangible change, not just in Chrom or the Shepards but the world as a whole; Plegia starts to become more peaceful, even up to the very late game chapters.
Binding Blade: Lyn's uncle dies and, frankly, I didn't care about him as a character... but I had spent enough time with Lyn at that point, understanding her desire for family, that the death of her last remaining family member was still impactful.
Fates: Corrin's mom (Mikoto?) dies right at the beginning of the game without giving anybody a chance to get emotionally attached... and, while the scenario could be similar to Binding Blade, we know that Corrin still has family around so it doesn't hit anywhere near as hard. Still, at least her death is enough to cause Corrin to go Dragon for the first time and signals the start of the war.
Ultimately, Lumera's death feels like a watered-down version of Mikoto's. And, if your story is being uncharitably compared to Fate's story, well, you definitely have a problem.
@@lo4tr The funny thing is, Lumera’s death scene was so damn long, I was too busy looking on my Phone when it finally ended that I didn’t notice until a good 10 Minutes later.
@@nickcalderon2637 It was still early enough that I was trying to remain invested storywise... so, I watched the whole thing. I' just sitting there watching Alear stand still while the dark magic circle appears, not trying to move or anything, when suddenly Lumera swings in to tank the hit.
I start yelling at my screen, hoping that the game wasn't going to be cheap enough to kill off a character I never had time to get invested in. But, nope. They could have just weakened her, had her remain confined to the Somniel to act as a sort of advice giver instead. Frankly, I think it would have been interesting exploring the dynamic between Lumera and Alear; how the differences in memory shapes their relationship going forward, giving actual meaning to the earlier 'birthday gift' cutscene, giving Alear something of an actual personality.
I agree gameplay is really good but I wish they'd gone a different route with the engage system. Don't have Marth be my power up and give me a couple similar moves, give me Marth. I don't want my one note flat character to pretend they're Ike for 3 turns, I just want Ike.
I love the break mechanic so much feels like a good use for axes to break all those pesky lance units
I can normally turn my brain off on bad stories, but no matter how much I dumb it down, this has to be the worst story and cast of characters in the whole series. All one note with very little to keep me invested. The story just had to be serviceable, and they just dropped the ball.
I'm pretty sure the "Optimization"-Feature was a thing since at least Shadow Dragon...
The trailer and old FE characters gimmick turned me off. But now that I’ve seen some of the character designs, I’m going to pick up a cheap used copy and give it a playthrough. (I was originally apathetic about “Echoes” also, but it became one of my favorites). People always crap on “Awakening”, and maybe because it was my first FE game, but I loved the characters and the storyline. It fell apart at the very end, but it’s still one of my favorite games.
ok the game is good over all but it really is a downgrade from 3H even in terms of battle mechanics
yes the weapon triangle is more meaningful now and the engage is technically a replacement of the battalions
but the battalions give you a lot more options for customizations and there for tactics diversity and the mages are just so... boring
every single spell is the same thing... now yes in 3H it wasnt all that much different but there were a few AoE spells or some with distinctively long range while now its just 1-2 or 3 range and thats all... no real tactical application
and staffs... just why?!? what happened with spell diversity in this game
and for F's sake just make a hot seat PvP mod for the franchise
have not tried the map editor but if you are making that at least let us try it vs a person
atleast there is hope for a more diverse class system with the DLC but as things are, even that feels like a downgrade to 3H
kind of miss a flyer with an S rank with bows
From what everyone's saying people think fire emblem engage gameplay I better than 3h which I agree with 3h combat sucked
Thank you for this honest review. I'm so dissapointed with engage. Three houses had amazing characters, dialogue and voice acting. Great story and godlike music! Engage dialogue is so cringe I skipped most of it cause I couldn't stand it. Characters look like clowns. They look childish and they're all fanboying for Alear. S support was super dissapointing as well. Music was mid except a few tracks that were amazing. Story was very bland. Gameplay was good but it still had issues. Like skirmishes gave no gold, classes upgrades were boring, with no preview of your character model. There was base and advanced class, so if you don't plan on reclassing your characters, then that's it lol. Combat was good but the camera was pretty bad and I just didn't care about any of my units.
I miss the three house social aspect, it was a nice change of pace in between battles and the dialogue was so good. I understand some people didn't like it, but it was pretty much optional so you could just skip that if you wish. Also the music was so godlike and it had a lot of replayability value.
In short, about halfway through engage I started speed running that sh*t just to finish it, and felt an urge to replay three houses after, and that's exactly what I'm doing! Much better game imo.
Edit: Also the latest game heros, Dimitri, Claude and Edelgard, are locked behind an expensive dlc. And all the past hero's outfits are locked behind amiibos.
Whoever made Framme and Clanne be "Divine dragon Fan Club members" needs to get strangled. Your first allies in the game and already they're insufferable. Lissa, Elise, and Sakura weren't nearly this incredibly grating.
Also you can blame the localiser for making the story worst
that birthday dialogue was hilarious haha!
This might just be me missing the reason, but aren't Divine Dragons supposed to be primarily green?
Love the gameplay in this one compared to TH. Definitely more interesting characters in TH though (camp Edleguard!).
Best character in this one is Anna. Yeah she's "one dimensional" in that she's obsessed with her business, but her support dialogues have nuance with her wavering confidence. She also has the best critical tag lines!
But man ... where is my Berny?!?
I beat the game on hard. Tried to go through it again and couldn’t.
I’d rather replay my FE games on GC/3DS, so that’s exactly what I’ve been doing. And it’s been great
I haven't liked the main character since Awakening honestly. The whole CAC thing was done well there, Chrom being the iconic style of hero similar to Marth, Ike, etc. while Robin was more of a supporting character until his past is brought up and the focus switches to him.
In Fates, Three Houses and Engage its always just "You are the most important thing ever, everyone loves and worships you please notice me senpai." Stuff. It can be done, but it's getting old, like MMO games, lol. You can't connect to the characters properly, and these games heavily rely on characters and story.
I mean, the plot is literally written in a way that the protagonist HAS to be the most important one. They make it abundantly clear that the only one who can beat the fell dragon is the Divine dragon, and without Lumera, you were the only one left. It’d be weird if you WEREN’T the most important thing ever, when you’re the only one who can save the planet.
@@alsosprachzarathustra4756 That's sort of my point, your character is becoming more and more dramatically important in each story. Fates you are the favored child of two waring families that is also a dragon with a secret hidden story unfolding. Three houses has the main character receive visions from a divine being of complete mystery that only he/she can talk to while being immediately entrusted to teach an entire school, and now we have this.
I'm not saying any of it is bad, I'm just so tired of the main character being just the most loved and revered thing in every other character's eyes. Respectable, sure, but not literally revered and worshiped. Getting too much of it lately.
I think the localization might be sub par too, which is contributing to the weird dialogue.
Dialogue that is cheeky and weird somehow fits better with Japanese than English, so it translated in an odd way. I don't think the dialogue was all that bad in Japanese, but when I heard the English I had to switch back immediately for my 'second' playthrough.
Wait are you able to speak Japanese?
@@Blue-fg8vt not at a native level, but at a conversational/grade school level, yes I can.
The problem?
- Too simple a story
- infinite rewinds on normal
- deliberately mistranslated dialogue to be less offensive to twitter people.
- censored romance options (I'm not including Anna or the Boy apologists.)
- DLC that's day one and that your forced to buy in bulk or nothing.
Everything else is great.
I think I will always be a fe fan and continue to play them but man I miss sacred stones and the radiant games.
I really think you sum up the good and the bad of this game very well. I'd have one critique of the gameplay to add: The Emblems make the game too easy, and there needed to be more limits on them. In the endgame, where you can field ALL your units with Emblems - it's just too easy to go ham and F the consequences. And it's very easy to Engage early in the map and have a second shot later in the map. The Engage rings also make the Bond rings utterly useless for most of the game. It's not a well-balanced mechanic; it needs more tweaks. And as great as the game looks, I also think the art direction just KILLS the game. What were they thinking with those design choices?
I'm a new player to fire emblem, what would you recommend to play first?
(thanks for all the suggestions)
FE7
Why not start at the beginning with Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon?
I would Say three Houses because this game is not only worse then three houses (Three Houses being 4.5 out of 5 and Engage being 3.5 out of 5) but it is harder too. Bonus if you play three houses you can move on too three hopes after that then you move to this game after you are done with the fire emblem three houses.
Definitely Fire emblem awakening or Three houses. Before Fire Emblem awakening, the series had a reputation for being too hardcore and punishing because you weren't able to grind between maps and there was permadeath for your characters that you couldn't turn off.
It got to the point where the series sales were so low that fire emblem awakening would have been the final game if it didn't sell enough copies. Awakening saved the series and helped fire emblem to become way more successful
@@wowwar2 If Awakening is that great I really do hope they port it or remake it for the switch then because I only Play Console game for many reasons but the mane one is I would lose anything that was hand held lol.
I feel like they will release a Remake After this for sure
I feel like I shot myself in the foot having started with Awakening. Awakening was so fantastic that now I hold all other fire emblems up to that standard and am sorely disappointed. What annoyed me the most with Engage? (Spoiler) the mom dies in the first 5 seconds and everyone’s sad, sure. But like, I don’t know her? Am I supposed to care? It’s like finding out someone you used to go to school with but haven’t spoken to in over a decade’s mother passed away. Yes it’s sad, I’m sorry for your loss but it doesn’t impact me so… why am I listening to her REALLY LONG death speech? Ugggh…
While I agree that the games plot is pretty simple and one note I haven’t found that it’s been much of a detractor. It’s obviously not like this for everyone but for me, a story lacking depth or strength is different then being overtly bad. And this one is just inoffensive and safe. So while nothing is particularly gripping I’m also not really upset by it. The gameplay and presentation combined with the massive qol improvements has made actually playing the game so much more enjoyable then 3h for me even though that story was far better.
The storyTELLING is overtly bad.
Philosopher Reviews: Fire Emblem Engage (2023):
This is essentially third-world country warlord simulator.
* Child soldiers
* A woman who looks suspiciously like a prostitute and deals with poison (from where?) and says, "I can handle myself". She is just recruited next to the child soldiers.
* Protagonist just seem to recruit anyone who passes by. Naive as heck.
* Evil enemies who look like the KFC gaming console. Corrupted indeed.
* A protagonist with a God complex who feeds his army with food he/she finds on the floor. Sometimes this food is cooked too. Sane, am I right? Nope. This basic work will not be done by your troops. This is a warlord's work.
* Gatcha game.
* DLC pass.
* Protagonist can handle a warband but not specific types of pets such as cats and chickens.
* Robbie Rotten lookalike who dies early on. That sucks.
Summary:
When you're engaged, prepare for divorce.
Fire Emblem Engage's problem is the polish was purely on the gameplay; and everything else was for the most part ignored. The cast of characters are really reduced to one-dimensional attributes with some characters just being worse versions of Bernadetta. (Where at least Bernadetta has some growth, none of the rest of the cast really reflects that.) Some characters made their overexaggerated personality work. Like Goldmary being so full of herself actually gets pretty comedic. Whereas other characters like Rosado are a little grating where it gets old incredibly quick.
Fire Emblem stands at it's best when the gameplay is fun and the characters are enjoyable. The plot doesn't have to be perfect; but as long as things make sense and don't feel so drawn out, it works out perfectly. Awakening was a good example; even if the plot gets a little slow. Engage really seems to have Fate's level of character problems with localization making quirks into personality.
Engage is great for gameplay; if you ignore the rest. But do you really want to ignore 45% of the game just for the remaining 55%?
Before Engage even came out, I was waiting patiently and decided to replay PoR meanwhile. And god, after not having played PoR in a while I realized again how much fantastic the world building, lore and cast of characters are ! this game just does everything right. Every characters have their own personnalities and are unique, but WITHOUT being too eccentric and over the top like Engage does, and a lot of them go through amazing character development. Lethe for example, who starts off being rude and distant with beorcs, will get to love their compagny afterwards. Same thing for Jill, she used to call Laguz ''sub-human'' and think they nothing but disgusting creatures that attack humans mindlessly. But after spending some times with Lethe she realized not all laguz are like that, and thus, broke every stereotypes she might have gotten during her childhood in Daein (Jill has a very sad convo with her father during a specific chapter too...). What I loved was also Ike, he was just a random brat who gets beaten by his father at the very first cinematic, but the fact that he is the son of the strongest swordfighter of Tellius already sets him up to do great things in the future. Ike isn't worshipped, it's actually the total opposite : At some point, Ike starts leading the mercenary, and from there he has to gain the trust of people consistently around him, and proves himself as a commander. And to me, being able to be respected because of your actions and charisma as a leader, and not your social statut, makes Ike the most relatable FE protagonist. I'd love to talk about PoR villains but my comment will be too long otherwise xD.
As for Engage, it had none of the qualities I stated above. I feel like the game fails at being both humoristic and serious, it's just uhhh... cringe. while the story is very simple and has way too many bad plot holes, a lot of characters just look unappealing to me, Alear being the first one. Not too sure why they go so overboard with crossover but I'm against the idea of bringing back older protagonists as ''Emblems''. I like lords because of their role and impact in their respective stories, having them all in one game like that is pointless and just feels like nostalgia-grab to me...
They brang back past emblems because Fire Emblem engage is a anniversary game that's celebrating fire emblem
@@ClipMasterVT Fair, I tend to forget that
POR is still the best Fire Emblem IMO.
Well I was really enjoying 3 houses until i was forced to do stuff at the school i got bored so quick just wanted to get back in the fight now thst i have this i feel like i might enjoy those things more maybe idk. But I wonder if i shouldn't get the DLC for the 3 houses emblems rings
I do think the localisation is genuinely pretty bad for this one though there is plenty of cringe regardless. A lot of small puns aren’t present in Japanese and a fair amount of characterisation is lost. Like Etie in English sounds like a muscle head but in Japanese she sounds like a rich girl who is invested in training. Honestly the worst characters to me are the firene and starting characters. Brodia has a good set and the other two don’t seem too bad so far.
The birthday dialogue is also less cringy in Japanese because the English voice seems like it’s trying to match the word spacing of the jp despite English not having that kind of word spacing.
One gripe I have with the English is Alear’s voice and dialogue. Alear sounds quite cold and decisive in English while she sounds much warmer and humbler in Japanese to me. I feel like characters reactions to her make more sense when she’s nicer.
Remember when that chick tried healing Lumera and it just didn't work?
Weakest characters of all FE games, period.
FE1 and Fates where worse in my opinion
Agree. At least fates despite it bad story I can remember majority of the cast. I can’t tell you who anyone is
This is my first FE game. I'm honestly shocked at people's complaints about the plot. It's not Shakespeare, but it's better than 90% of AAA games
I know a lot of AAA games with way better plots than this, but even just looking within the same series, it's a huge step back from even just the last game. I know it's your first, but the characters are usually a lot better so it's hard to forgive this one
You are right on that but compared to other Fire Emblem Games the story is pretty bland. Most AAA games have bad story but Fire Emblem fans Expect more
@@roadjcat the game is going back to its roots
@@ClipMasterVT Is it? Like the first 6 games? Because the GBA games that released in the West were better than this IMO
@@roadjcat I meant back to the roots like the others 3ds games 3h was a one off of the series
Do you have the English Censored ver. or Japanese ver. English in the sub title is censored very hard to a point where the story not interesting.
I kind of see the plot as a bit of a dumbed down sacred stones but you are a divine dragon instead of two fleeing royals. Just that going round and collecting powerful objects to oppose the big bad. Honestly because Sacred stones was one of my favourite stories and just because of how bad Fates was story wise I give the story of Engage a weak but definite pass. Also I don’t mind Alear and I think it makes sense how everyone is a bit star struck with him/her as they are viewed as a literal deity in their world. So unlike Corrin that was a sheltered royal that starts with seeming more capable royal siblings but some how they all defer to him/her it seems more natural people follow Alear, despite the amnesia they know they are battle tested and they are seen as a god in their world so it’s natural people will flock to them. Also I am glad they made Alear talk, I really wish they made Byleth do the same. Also I think they should have added dialogue for people to say Alear’s name if you stuck with the name Alear, I’m kind of sick of self inserts it limits what you can do with the lead. Just imagine if Ike was a self insert then you have just really damaged two of the best games in the series. I don’t need to feel like I am in the game to enjoy it, I don’t need my ego stroked to enjoy a story, just tell me an engaging geopolitics driven historic inspired war story that fire emblem use to be so great at. Also I really don’t mind if they moved away from “a dark dragon is actually pulling the strings” I honestly think games like Sacred stones and Genealogy of the Holy war would have been even better if they were just human inspired struggles but they aren’t hurt too bad they are two of the best story wise but the dark dragon is just something that needs to be dealt with and the end, well for sacred stones the evil beast king or whatever but it’s a similar concept.
Personally I think tellius is still the strongest since even though you ended up fighting a goddess she wasn't the villain at all. The actual villain was just a man who lost everything orchestrating the end of the world to reset it as he believed it was too fargone
I may play Monster Hunter: Rise on Gamepass until this game is discounted a little, but the gameplay of this game has some allure.
Fire Emblem Engage had this issue.
How am I supposed to be hyped about Sigurd if I can't even play the game in English?
How am I supposed to be hyped about Ike if I can't play the game without a scalper milking it?
How am I supposed to be hyped about Lucina and Celica if you literally just shut down the 3ds shop?
I can't be hyped about a big love letter to the fire emblem games across the series when I have no way of knowing who the freak any of them are.
middling game that's boosted by production value, refinement from one game over and systems to make the player never feel down for too long
turn wheel issue is a band aid to a bigger issue they don't solve, incentivize playing through a lost and playing smart with minimal uses (ranking, and no uses bonus)
The combat gameplay is the best part of this game. Other than that they pretty much made it Genshin Impact.
Is Genshin Impact a genre now? Like wtf is that supposed to mean?
What do you mean it’s just genshin impact?
@@Eclin Pretty much yeah. It looks like it, plays like it, sounds like it. Aside from the combat its vanilla af.
@@randallgoeswhere that sounds like the only game you ever played was genshin impact
@@randallgoeswhere ?? Theyre nothing alike
To be honest I am so disappointed in engage.. We went from a good story to a bland one.. From major player to choices ( classes mastery etc) to basically the same boring linear unit progression.. The support conversion are just awful.. At least the emblem rings bring some nostalgia ( the only reason I even play this game).. I really wanted to like this but I won't praise a game just because it has better graphics.. This is a step backwards for the fe series unfortunately..
You can reclass every Unit you just need to give them the specific weapon proficincy from the Emblem ring. My Boucharon is now a wyvern rider after I teached him lances. But the story is still bad xD
@@sakutaro3musik486 well it's not as good as the reclass situation in 3 houses.. The class ui is quite confusing compared to the previous one.. It's not terrible but it's a step backwards.. That's my main issue with this game its a huge step backwards and I am really sad about it cause I love fe games..
I do agree with you. Alear has a lack of personality and feels like I am playing Fates. For the gameplay is great because it feel like I am playing fates, awakening and three houses all in one game but after you finish the story it makes it boring and less fun even if you want the pact ring with other character well you can’t because you gonna be stuck with that for the rest of your life. For the story, I find it poor written because to me personally I find it annoying when I hear “look its the Divine Dragon” beacuse I keep hearing it over and over, everyone keep fanning Alear just because he/she is a divine dragon it’s like Framme and Alear support. Overall of the game, 8/10
Edit: They should make a new game plus, let’s just say you wanted to play the game all over again to get different pair ending and you don’t want to go through the hassle of waiting for new item stock, bonding, and bond rings.
I agree with almost everything you said, except actually enjoying the gameplay. I love everything they added, but this game might have the worst RNG I've ever seen in the series, making it unplayable for me, personally. I get that there's a rewind function, but that was in past games as well, and I barely had to use them there; I really don't want to have to spam load game/rewind just to get through a chapter because an attack with 15% of hitting my unit with a weapon advantage hiding in a shrub got killed way more times often than not.
This is a 7.5/10 for me. Really strong qualities but the story doesn’t get any more than mildly entertaining occasionally. The first 5 chapters (right before Yunaka and Brodia) was so upsetting I genuinely wanted to drop the game.
I’m glad I didn’t, because wow, the gameplay is so good. Genuinely some of the most rewarding and streamlined tactical rpgs I’ve ever played. I do disagree with your take of the turn wheel though, as I think apart from really low crit rates randomly killing a unit, I like the weight of my choices being punished for not playing right
1:16 Okay but every single game has a few problems on its hands whenever they first release
I hated this game the moment I saw the trailer, but as time went by I heard about the actual gameplay being good, but the game still looked awful to me so I didn’t know what to think.
After seeing this review, I finally worked it out. We’ve seen this mess before.
Fire Emblem Engage is making the exact same mistakes as Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE (Though thankfully not on as extreme a scale)
Bad story, check!
Trying to win appeal through over the top designs, and bad anime tropes, check!
Desperately pandering to fans nostalgia by having the characters fuse with characters from older games, check!
The gameplay is the main redeeming factor, check!
So I can safely conclude the game is good, but I won’t buy it because #NotmyFireEmblem 😅
Thank you for giving me peace of mind over the matter.
Aside from everything... what is there to say?
Less classes, less weapons, shallow plot, child soldiers, shallow characters, no player choice or interactivity.
I feel like this is 3 steps forward one steps back from last year’s fire emblem. Three hopes finally feel like does game could still use a few more months in the oven. Dispite being a finished product
The gameplay in this game is really good as for the story I think it's ok. I don't hate the story but it's just kinda there to justify why your fighting. As for the characters I think they are ok other then the twins that are probably the most annoying of the bunch. most of the characters just don't have that depth that really makes me attached to them as previous games. Overall I think the game is fun but could have been better story/character wise.
The only one that I was interested was Yunaka
Is it locked to English voices or can I switch to Japanese?
You can switch to Japanese in the main menu after you start up the game.
Wait, this isn't Bismix?
The gameplay is some of the best in the series possibly on par with 776 problem is with such a bland story and anyoing shallow cast I'm unlikely to replay it save for once when the dlc is all out after that I'm done with this game unlike three houses which I've put almost 450 hours into an will likely play again sooner or later. Gameplay while important to a jrpg can't carry one alone without a fun cast to care about the game becomes forgettable
So it's the Disgaea 5 of Fire Emblem
My personal gripe is Exp. At chapter 12 by trying to spread out kills and hits across units all game my average party level including Alear is at 12, Chapter 12 recommends an average level of 14 and the characters who join that chapter and the chapter before are level 17 or promoted. Skirmishes are level 16 as well.
TLDR - it feels like there is just not enough Exp to keep earlier characters at level unless right from game start you are benching chars with advanced knowledge of who comes later in the game and the grind options are unusable on classic since a whole map of enemies above your level bum rush swarm you from turn 1. Engage right now feels like the single most 'only use three units' FE game I've played and that is made even worse by the Emblem rings, you slap the few you have on those three chars and bam never use any other units.
Are you playing on normal or hard? I'm about to start Ch. 6 on Classic/Hard and finding most enemy units are higher level than my units, but you find ways to make it work. I don't know if what you're saying is necessarily true, but I'll find out by Ch. 12 LOL
I’m not sure what could be done differently but I’m playing hard and on ch16 now and haven’t really had any exp issues at all. Some of the skirmishes were wild but enemy level and count hasn’t really been a problem for me. They also give so many promotion seals that by the end of ch 13 most of the party should be advanced classes. It’s possible you have missed some arena uses? Otherwise I’m not sure.
Also the raw level of the enemies isn’t necessarily a tell of what you should be. Nor is the level of team mates who join. They often have higher levels to compensate for the higher power of player units. And late addition team mates have to be a little stat bloated to make up for the fact that you won’t have a ring for them nor any equipment to spare.
@@SH1NK1R01 Yeah, I'm having no issues .. some battles have certainly been harder or I've had to play very conservatively but it's all still doable, even when the enemy units can always 2 turn kill most of my units lol
Hard Classic is what setting I'm playing on, and certainly if I only play the story chapters I can push through alright but ya know especially chapter 11 I've gotten real tired of starting enemy faze in range of an enemy half the time meaning a dead unit. Dunno if I just got RNG screwed alot or what but the it's been noticeable how my characters without engage ring are actually weaker than the enemy units.Yunaka is the only character who actually has had growth match / outpace enemy scaling and that is cus she is just cracked.
Anyway I got rather frustrated after chapter 11 cus the number of times I reset that map... 'Bless the turn rewind mechanic' and looked toward the skirmishes for catching up to the bloody level recommendation but their only use is overleveling already overachieving units who are the only ones able to survive the swarm of turn 1 full map aggro of higher level enemies.
yeah. first fire emblem i havent finished... i just cant get into it.
As someone who hated the amount of social sim in three houses I must say the story and character interactions are so boring I just started skipping after I got my first A rank between two major characters that shared a familial background. I figured if they didn’t have anything to say to each other no one else would.
Also, anytime a character says “tea” it’s auto skip from my tea time PTSD from three houses.
Idk why IS can’t develop a good story and good characters without throwing annoying, boringly repetitive gimmicks. Also, the character designs in this game are the worst of the entire franchise. There are a few good ones. I don’t want to spoil the game but I’m a fan of older, more traditional fire emblem character designs. And I’m not sure why they chose to go with this boring style of anime. If you’re gonna go this deep into modern anime tropes at least copy something fitting, like Beserk. More than half these mfs look like they belong at a carnival in Sailor Moon.
I love the combat
Man your review is almost exactly how I felt about this game. I made it to the desert area and just turned it off and i'm not coming back to it. This is the only Fire Emblem game where I couldn't find a single character that I didn't like. The characters and plot were so bad that it made me loose all will to play. Like I can't believe how bad the dialog is, especially from Alear.
Ahh I just can't with these characters and story. I know this game may have some solid areas, otherwise it wouldn't be selling so well, but when a game series that you like a lot releases a title that doesn't resonate with you, it's just painful. Better luck next game.... pls be a remake of FE4 AND FE5 or rerelease of FE 9 and 10. Or FE3H 2 or something like that.
It's incredibly uninspired and forgettable. If you're played any other FE games you've already played Engage. It also has atrocious character design which is why none of them have caught on. The only one that gets waved around is Alear because lol it’s your main character self insert avatar which has plagued the series imo and it's nearly exclusively ironically to joke about how bad the design is.
My thoughts exactly. Though I don't hate the artist her designs for nearly every character has too much going on, it feels way too cluttered. Also the designs just don't fit FE unlike past entries.
Alear is also so absolutely atrocious as a protagonist that it makes me miss Byleth. Not to mention all the dick riding from every single for absolutely no reason.
I'm new to FE but I was thinking couldn't they make this game a competitive pvp game? It would be like chess but you would pick your pieces.
That's a feature that has been available in other games.
Famously, the DLC-exclusive items available in Awakening allowed players to create absolutely busted units, and the DLC stages allowed for infinite exp grinding. The multiplayer allowed you to recruit other players' protags into your team either temporarily or (for a fee) permanently.
Because you could recruit your own protags on subsequent replays, you could also build a full PvP team of completely customized, totally cracked protags. Or even just start the game with a hypercarry unit to blitz through until you could farm DLC stages for easy exp.
Obviously, that was a problem.
Small aside: I went to the Nintendo store in NYC, and blitzed through all of the "hardcore" developer streetpass teams with a single endgame protag unit. I had Ragnell for 1-2 range (ranged sword counters? Yes please), a mercenary skill that prevented damage to a weapon's durability equal to luck% x 2 (and with the dlc item I mentioned, it was possible to get 55 luck, so you never break weapons), and Sol (for lifesteal = 50% damage dealt - trigger was stat % x 2 so I had basically a 1/2 chance to use it). It was an absolute shit show
I've come to like Alear after being disappointed by their wild design. Despite being a god, they're pretty much the straight man of the crew, while everyone else is quirky and obsessive about something.
The story isnt as bad as Dragon Ball Fighterz tho lol
They both have the exact same premise
True but that's a fighting game, it doesn't need to have a strong story since nobody really cares. With Fire Emblem, it hurts more because it's not here to serve a purpose like competitive fighting game.
Story trash, characters hatable, cringy lines… the battle system is fun but I have issue with the camera angle it annoys me tbh. Man hope the next FE won’t be on the same trashfire level as this game… sigh.
The only thing I care about in any fire emblem game is the main story and the characters. you had me in the first half, but then you completely lose me in the last few minutes when you go on to talk about how the game has a massive lack of good characters and writing, but then you give it an A+ in gameplay? That’s a huge red flag for me. I don’t care how good the gameplay is when the story is lackluster and boring, I’m not gonna waste my time and money on this one. I’ll just wait for the next one then hopefully it goes back to the fire emblem awakening form of storytelling.
I was so hype for this game, and sure the gameplay is awesome, but the story... oh god the story and the dialogue are so weak =((( Especially when you read the Japanese dialogue...
Now I'm playing FE3House for the fifth time lol
They need to make it darker like fftactics
Odd eyes dragon would of made more sense.
Never played such a nice power ranger game
I do not like that they felt the need to bring in old heroes, don’t like the story, don’t like any of the things to do at the hub(outside of shops and training)
I do like weapons not breaking, i do like battle, i do like character building
They brang back old characters because this is a anniversary game
@@ClipMasterVT Shouldn't of been a shitty anniversary game to begin with.
Tell me you only played less than 10hrs without telling me you played less than 10hrs.
“It gets better after the first 10 hours bro I swear!!!”
30 hours later.
@Quik Reviews no it gets better after chapter 10 which isn't even 10hrs in. Just find it funny how you talk about bad characters and story as if 3 houses didn't have bland and cliche characters or reused story elements from previous games. Not saying this game is better than 3 houses but this is clearly a case of having too high expectations due to overhyping yourself.
I was gaming below 600 mins
@@SomniumBlaze Elibe, Magvel and Tellius games have likable and unique characters without them being over the top. Do I need to say more ? Engage fan service is just crap
@@SomniumBlaze Three houses characters were the opposite of "bland and cliche". That's fate's and engage's characters
Lumera is the only good character in this game and they killed her within 2 chapter , such a shame.
I summon… the Blue Hair forgetful dragon. :)
I don't mind characters seeming one-note at first glance in this game, they get fleshed out in Supports just like they always have in Fire Emblem games. Engage has plenty of characters like Yunaka who have a lot more going on in the background. Alfred and Céline are two of my favourites for this reason.
Please tell me your reason is actually more than “This isn’t like Three Houses therefore it’s bad!”
Were you disappointed?
@@thatguybis1997 I don’t know that’s kind of a shallow reason, considering Three Housed is an outlier in the franchise and Engage is trying to be more what Fire Emblem has always traditionally been.
@@Thenumber1yoshi engage is even more an outlier then 3 houses. 3 houses is really similar in tone too FE4 while engage is more like a comedy which it is aware of and Story wise the closest would be FE1 even tho the tone is different
@@sakutaro3musik486 Engage is more like going back to the Saturday morning cartoon vibes of Awakening and Fates though. And when I mean Three Houses is an outlier I’m talking about how Three Houses is closer to a Persona game than an actual Fire Emblem game, in fact Three Houses is literally just “Fire Emblem: Persona Edition” which is what I mean by Fire Emblem Three Houses isn’t anything like how traditional Fire Emblem games are!
@@Thenumber1yoshi Awakening and fates aren't "saturday morning cartoon vibes", even fates takes itself more seriously than engage. And what's wrong with sticking to the Persona direction for Fire Emblem? Persona 5's AWESOME! WAY better than engage.
Also calling engage "traditional fire emblem"...when path of radiance and radiant dawn (and basically every other FE game) shit all over engage.
Ngl, I personally don't dislike the characters or story so far. I may be in the minority.
I'm actually liking Alear a bit more than Byleth and Corrin. Idk he seems like such a cinnamon roll.
Could they have given more depth to the characters? Yes, but in my opinion what we got isn't as bad as people make it out to be.
Brodia and it’s characters deserved better.
I’m personally glad with the direction of this game. The support conversations were a huge drag to me on Three Houses. I get that some people like that but I prefer a snappier system and to keep more of the game focused on they battling.
Yeah the gameplay was fine, the story was the first thing I noticed that was off and the blue and red haired character lol
If your into this kinda game then it's worth picking up. However for me personally, I'm glad I have a hacked switch.
So you're just admitting to pirating a new game?
Scummy af tbh. It's one thing to pirate old games, but to pirate a brand new game is pretty shit.
This company almost went under/stopped making these games not long ago.
@@NuiYabuko Yes i am, gotta problem with that?
Played it for maybe an hour and put my switch back into android mode again as it has been for 2 years.
@@paulnewhouse5126 ao your stealing then I have no problem pirating old games or games from past co soles etc but pirating a ew game that just released is just wrong
@@ClipMasterVT Would you buy a car before test driving it?
I like to try a game out before shelling out $80-$100 canadian for it. I pirated hollow knight since I heard it was good, loved it so much now own it on Eshop and ps store and physically.
And here I taught you were going to give every acid that this game deserves.
Let me correct you:
The story is nothing special just like you said, but it has some major issues with the gameplay as well such as:
1, The game doesn't tell you that a character only obtain SP points if it equipped with a ring (emblem or bondring) it just says that SP can be obtained by battle and there I was with Louis with only 300 SP sice the moment i met him and yet Kagetsu reciving a ton of SP points.
2, The chain attack mechanic is bullshit! It nullifies the evvectiveness of your tank units it doesn't matter if they are regular tanks or dodge tanks they will be olbliterated by it. And no you can't bring up Pair Up (Corrin's skill) you can aquire that just later on the game.
3, You constantly have to sacrafice your units to complete a chapter or paralouge with I hate to do. I've never played a Fire Emblem game in classic mode but i always rewinded time when one of my characters died, because I wanted all of them to live to the very end. But not here!
4, There are waaaaaay too many reinforcements for your opponent wich is the most disgusting mechaninc in every fire emblem game. And sometimes they send in the units into the shadows wich I can't see! How the hell am I supposed to prepare for that?
It's just like when you play chess and you locked the centre, rerouted the knights to one side of the board an you ar ready to launch the pawns and suddenly after moving one a 3rd bishop from outside the board comes in and takes your rook. And you say:
"What the hell was that?"
"Reinforcements! I can call upon units outside the board!"
"OK so how can I have them?"
"You don't!"
"OK so how will I be warned before they come in?"
"You don't!"
All of this made me get the game over screen 6 times in a row on hard mode. And yesterday night ragequit as well.
Fire Emblem Three Houses is the best Fire Emblem game and this is just brain cancer! I regret buying it!
There’s more edge on a slab of jello than there is in this game. They could have done something interesting with Alear (maybe a sort of Jekyll and Hyde inner battle). Instead they made him/her a milquetoast, beta, weakling with less personality than a cardboard box. This might be the worst dialogue, story, and characters I’ve ever seen in a video game (and video games are notorious for their lack of quality in these areas).
The gameplay is great but without a story and compelling characters there’s no stakes. It’s literally just pawns on a board and while that can be fun, it takes away from the overall experience.
It's no longer a war game. A lot of fan services. I remember when fire emblem was dark enough to kill your entire squad mid-game.
I feel Engage will have no real staying power in the fandom
The character designs of this game make me want to gouge both my eyes out.
Yeah I don't know what they were thinking.
Seeing hortensia and ivy morn their father. Only to see how ridiculous they look removed the weight from the dramatic monemt
At least now its easier to pick a wife/husband now since now u just pick the hottest face.
I like Colgate-chan