16:12 is such a good analysis of what made the plot feel so weird. Like there were so many moments that were supposed to be dramatic that I couldn't help but either groan or laugh that they were actually doing this (biggest offender being basically every plot beat involving veyle and the four hounds.
Ugh I feel you put so many of my own thoughts in this video! The gameplay is peak but can at times suffer from some boring or repetitive main objectives. It's less of a problem early game as it introduces different mechanical elements and there are still a lot of side-objectives to get to but by the mid-game while chapters still offer interesting play you just end up boss rushing at times (especially most of the paralogues!! I would have loved it if they actually had the objectives be part of the callbacks). I'm enjoying my second playthrough WAY more on Maddening difficulty, the balance reminds me of Conquest!Lunatic so far with it being really difficult and testing your skills while still being fair and fun (well maybe not the endgame of conquest AS much i--I still have a bit of trauma from there honestly
I'm glad we're on the same page. And you bring up a really good point with Lumera, it'd be really cool to have learned about her role beyond being a mother. She IS the Divine Dragon after all, and there's a lot you can do with her established role in the story.
I don't think Engage so much as threw it out, but merely reverted to how FE was pre Awakening, which in of itself is part of the problem. It's weird to dial back the social aspects after focusing on them for so long. And compounding the issue is Engage seems like to be this middle ground, with the Somniel, and it just kind of makes everyone annoyed. Fans who don't like the social stuff have to go through the Somniel management like 3H, and fans who like the social stuff get a severely water downed experience. Personally I'd rather they either cut most of the social stuff and keep it like, say, FE9/10, or keep it and improve it with later entries.
If you swap Engage and New Mystery my top 5 is exactly the same as yours lol. Anyway, at this point I've given up on getting a new FE game that has both good gameplay and story. But just like you I value the gameplay much more so if we keep getting games like Engage I'll be satisfied. I'm interested to see if the rumors of an FE4 remake coming soon are true and whether they will make significant enough changes to fix the boring slog gameplay.
I know exactly how you feel, I think I've also given up on getting a game with a good story and gameplay. You never know, but when I look back on the last decade of FE, any hope I had tends to dwindle. But as long as the game is fun, I'm all in. I'm also really interested in what they're gonna change for the remake. I think something as simple as breaking up the chapters by castle could help, but what I really hope for are something like indoor maps. It's a bit of a pipe dream, but adding a few indoor maps could bridge the gap between the mounted and unmounted units...and be a cool preview for a Thracia remake :)
A big weakness is the serial acquisition of units/characters. As the video discusses, gaining much stronger characters in subsequent chapters makes the earlier characters superfluous and irrelevant. Contrast that with FE3H, where there's a class full of students right from the beginning of the game. Those characters (and just them) could carry an entire playthrough (even in Maddening) if desired, even in the instance of recruiting out-of-house students and other teachers. Moreover, the multiple routes in FE3H adds flexibility and replayability, whereas in Engage, it's just one (nonsense) story. A player could play just one playthrough (that's a lotta "play") and put the game down. In FE3H, a player could start over in another route. And then it doesn't help that Engage's story is a mess. Also, it's a tactical game, not an exploration game. Exploring a battlefield after a win is burdensome. So is exploring Somniel. How about just putting all the materials in a chest so I don't have to go rooting around the hub world for things? That would have been much more streamlined. All that said, the tactical gameplay is pretty great. There are a lot of paths to victory, and even more for defeat, especially in Maddening. Gameplay is deep and rewarding. If they could have matched the stellar gameplay with an equally compelling story, it would be an instant classic. Instead, we have story nonsense, like at 17:55. At any rate, great video! Thanks for the effort! Subscribed!
With regards to the unit balance and acquisition, Engage feels like a classic FE in the sense that later units are designed around giving the players an option to always fight back. Classic FE generally felt as if it were balanced around Permadeath, and to compensate, you're almost always given enough units to make up for any you lose later. That way, you're never soft locked out of progress. ...But the problem is that there's a tricky balance with late recruits. For example, in FE7, units like Pent, Hawkeye, and Harken are INSANE, so much that there's a very good chance that they'll match or surpass similar units in their class. Engage is very similar, where the Solm squad are crazy good compared to everyone else. Why would you keep Anna or Boucheron when you can field Panette, whose better in every way? I'm not entirely sure how this issue is resolved either, because on one hand, I do like having units that are usable on recruitment. But I also think they shouldn't be so good that they outclass the early units. I think a good balance might be like how FE7 handles other, less OP prepromotes that join later. For example, Isadora is another unit who joins around the mid game, but she doesn't outclass units in similar classes. (And then there's how modern FE is less balanced around Permadeath in general, but that's a much longer discussion) I've also seen a theory that Engage wasn't balanced with Reclassing in mind, and to me, that makes the unit balance make way more sense. For example, Kagetsu and Merrin generally will always double in their base class, but will fail to one round enemies due to low strength. Panette will have shaky hit rates in her default class, Pandreo is...well he's still good, but nonetheless! If you look at just their case default class, they seem balanced...but the minute they pop into another class, they become absurd, and any weakness they had gets fixed. I know that was a little long winded, but I hope that made sense, and I agree with just about everything else you said as well. The unit balance is something I wanted to explore a bit more, but I needed to really think about it for a bit. Plus it'd have bloated the video length quite a bit xD
@@ViviVariety Panette is a bonkers, OP monster with just the tiniest bit of babying. Sure, her hit rates are lower (due to axes), but there are numerous tools to increase that. Even on Maddening, she can easily become unstoppable, especially by switching her out of Berserker and into Warrior (so just one reclass). And that's what sort of makes serial acquisition frustrating. I could baby the earlier units into infinity, but they'll never approach or match the likes of Panette. In contrast, there are far fewer OP opportunities in FE3H, perhaps with exceptions being Lysithea or Bernadetta, but I don't think either are monsters. As an aside, it's easy to see I'm partial to that game vs. Engage. Other commenters (like Choops or Adam with FED) seem to agree, in that they posted Engage videos, but once played, they returned to earlier games to show custom runs. I guess a possible solution is to create a "custom run," like all-female units, or no Bond rings, but it's getting away from the gameplay that IS playtested. Anyway, it's a very thoughtful, well-done video. Thanks for your effort!
Thanks for the compliment, I appreciate it a lot! And I completely agree with where you're coming from. I really liked Engage far more than I thought I did, and I think there's enough strategy gameplay for me that'll keep me coming back. ...That said, even I would agree that the unit acquisition is a legitimate, frustrating problem. There are times when I debated using a specific character or characters, but I always went back to "why would I use this unit when I could just wait and get someone infinitely better?" Again, I love the game and I look forward to going back to it again and again with all sorts of tweaks and different runs, but I completely understand people who don't feel the same. Things like the unit acquisition, the story, the tedious segments in between maps...it's just that kind of game.
@@ViviVariety You hit the nail on the head. "Why invest in a unit when there's a stupendously superior one around the corner?" Hurts replayability in that I know I'm wasting time with a unit I won't use again but need at the moment to beat a map. Many games deal with this by providing units promptly/early (I bought BG3 but haven't yet played because I just started another Maddening run (Ch6); I understand most if not all the characters are available from within a couple of hours), so there's greater flexibility and less frustration. OTOH, there are games that provide characters late (lookin' at you, P5R with Haru or "Kasumi"), but it's still a masterpiece. I don't think Engage reached that level. So, there's definitely an art to it. There's another video about Engage to the tune of "It's a masterpiece... if you just ignore half the game." Captures the sentiment perfectly. Cheers, and I look forward to seeing your next video. Good luck!
@@ViviVariety I knew I recognized it from something I've played but I couldn't remember where. And yeah I played 13 Sentinels when it first came out but haven't gone back since
Oh, you have no idea how badly I wanna make a video like that...I even had to cut out huge chunks of this script and the other FE one because it was just story bashing over and over lol
![[MV] A leap of faith...ความเชื่อใจครั้งสุดท้าย (From "Petrichor the series")](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/U1piZH2CNXA/mqdefault.jpg)
16:12 is such a good analysis of what made the plot feel so weird. Like there were so many moments that were supposed to be dramatic that I couldn't help but either groan or laugh that they were actually doing this (biggest offender being basically every plot beat involving veyle and the four hounds.
Ugh I feel you put so many of my own thoughts in this video! The gameplay is peak but can at times suffer from some boring or repetitive main objectives. It's less of a problem early game as it introduces different mechanical elements and there are still a lot of side-objectives to get to but by the mid-game while chapters still offer interesting play you just end up boss rushing at times (especially most of the paralogues!! I would have loved it if they actually had the objectives be part of the callbacks).
I'm enjoying my second playthrough WAY more on Maddening difficulty, the balance reminds me of Conquest!Lunatic so far with it being really difficult and testing your skills while still being fair and fun (well maybe not the endgame of conquest AS much i--I still have a bit of trauma from there honestly
I'm glad we're on the same page. And you bring up a really good point with Lumera, it'd be really cool to have learned about her role beyond being a mother. She IS the Divine Dragon after all, and there's a lot you can do with her established role in the story.
I think, while the social aspects are a point of contention for some players, I dont think the solution was to toss the whole element out
I don't think Engage so much as threw it out, but merely reverted to how FE was pre Awakening, which in of itself is part of the problem. It's weird to dial back the social aspects after focusing on them for so long.
And compounding the issue is Engage seems like to be this middle ground, with the Somniel, and it just kind of makes everyone annoyed. Fans who don't like the social stuff have to go through the Somniel management like 3H, and fans who like the social stuff get a severely water downed experience. Personally I'd rather they either cut most of the social stuff and keep it like, say, FE9/10, or keep it and improve it with later entries.
I agree ivy is fanvorite 👍 as well I agree dude 👍
If you swap Engage and New Mystery my top 5 is exactly the same as yours lol.
Anyway, at this point I've given up on getting a new FE game that has both good gameplay and story. But just like you I value the gameplay much more so if we keep getting games like Engage I'll be satisfied.
I'm interested to see if the rumors of an FE4 remake coming soon are true and whether they will make significant enough changes to fix the boring slog gameplay.
I know exactly how you feel, I think I've also given up on getting a game with a good story and gameplay. You never know, but when I look back on the last decade of FE, any hope I had tends to dwindle. But as long as the game is fun, I'm all in.
I'm also really interested in what they're gonna change for the remake. I think something as simple as breaking up the chapters by castle could help, but what I really hope for are something like indoor maps. It's a bit of a pipe dream, but adding a few indoor maps could bridge the gap between the mounted and unmounted units...and be a cool preview for a Thracia remake :)
A big weakness is the serial acquisition of units/characters. As the video discusses, gaining much stronger characters in subsequent chapters makes the earlier characters superfluous and irrelevant.
Contrast that with FE3H, where there's a class full of students right from the beginning of the game. Those characters (and just them) could carry an entire playthrough (even in Maddening) if desired, even in the instance of recruiting out-of-house students and other teachers.
Moreover, the multiple routes in FE3H adds flexibility and replayability, whereas in Engage, it's just one (nonsense) story. A player could play just one playthrough (that's a lotta "play") and put the game down. In FE3H, a player could start over in another route.
And then it doesn't help that Engage's story is a mess.
Also, it's a tactical game, not an exploration game. Exploring a battlefield after a win is burdensome. So is exploring Somniel. How about just putting all the materials in a chest so I don't have to go rooting around the hub world for things? That would have been much more streamlined.
All that said, the tactical gameplay is pretty great. There are a lot of paths to victory, and even more for defeat, especially in Maddening. Gameplay is deep and rewarding.
If they could have matched the stellar gameplay with an equally compelling story, it would be an instant classic. Instead, we have story nonsense, like at 17:55.
At any rate, great video! Thanks for the effort! Subscribed!
With regards to the unit balance and acquisition, Engage feels like a classic FE in the sense that later units are designed around giving the players an option to always fight back. Classic FE generally felt as if it were balanced around Permadeath, and to compensate, you're almost always given enough units to make up for any you lose later. That way, you're never soft locked out of progress.
...But the problem is that there's a tricky balance with late recruits. For example, in FE7, units like Pent, Hawkeye, and Harken are INSANE, so much that there's a very good chance that they'll match or surpass similar units in their class. Engage is very similar, where the Solm squad are crazy good compared to everyone else. Why would you keep Anna or Boucheron when you can field Panette, whose better in every way?
I'm not entirely sure how this issue is resolved either, because on one hand, I do like having units that are usable on recruitment. But I also think they shouldn't be so good that they outclass the early units. I think a good balance might be like how FE7 handles other, less OP prepromotes that join later. For example, Isadora is another unit who joins around the mid game, but she doesn't outclass units in similar classes.
(And then there's how modern FE is less balanced around Permadeath in general, but that's a much longer discussion)
I've also seen a theory that Engage wasn't balanced with Reclassing in mind, and to me, that makes the unit balance make way more sense. For example, Kagetsu and Merrin generally will always double in their base class, but will fail to one round enemies due to low strength. Panette will have shaky hit rates in her default class, Pandreo is...well he's still good, but nonetheless! If you look at just their case default class, they seem balanced...but the minute they pop into another class, they become absurd, and any weakness they had gets fixed.
I know that was a little long winded, but I hope that made sense, and I agree with just about everything else you said as well. The unit balance is something I wanted to explore a bit more, but I needed to really think about it for a bit. Plus it'd have bloated the video length quite a bit xD
@@ViviVariety Panette is a bonkers, OP monster with just the tiniest bit of babying. Sure, her hit rates are lower (due to axes), but there are numerous tools to increase that. Even on Maddening, she can easily become unstoppable, especially by switching her out of Berserker and into Warrior (so just one reclass).
And that's what sort of makes serial acquisition frustrating. I could baby the earlier units into infinity, but they'll never approach or match the likes of Panette.
In contrast, there are far fewer OP opportunities in FE3H, perhaps with exceptions being Lysithea or Bernadetta, but I don't think either are monsters.
As an aside, it's easy to see I'm partial to that game vs. Engage. Other commenters (like Choops or Adam with FED) seem to agree, in that they posted Engage videos, but once played, they returned to earlier games to show custom runs.
I guess a possible solution is to create a "custom run," like all-female units, or no Bond rings, but it's getting away from the gameplay that IS playtested.
Anyway, it's a very thoughtful, well-done video. Thanks for your effort!
Thanks for the compliment, I appreciate it a lot! And I completely agree with where you're coming from. I really liked Engage far more than I thought I did, and I think there's enough strategy gameplay for me that'll keep me coming back.
...That said, even I would agree that the unit acquisition is a legitimate, frustrating problem. There are times when I debated using a specific character or characters, but I always went back to "why would I use this unit when I could just wait and get someone infinitely better?"
Again, I love the game and I look forward to going back to it again and again with all sorts of tweaks and different runs, but I completely understand people who don't feel the same. Things like the unit acquisition, the story, the tedious segments in between maps...it's just that kind of game.
@@ViviVariety You hit the nail on the head. "Why invest in a unit when there's a stupendously superior one around the corner?" Hurts replayability in that I know I'm wasting time with a unit I won't use again but need at the moment to beat a map.
Many games deal with this by providing units promptly/early (I bought BG3 but haven't yet played because I just started another Maddening run (Ch6); I understand most if not all the characters are available from within a couple of hours), so there's greater flexibility and less frustration.
OTOH, there are games that provide characters late (lookin' at you, P5R with Haru or "Kasumi"), but it's still a masterpiece. I don't think Engage reached that level.
So, there's definitely an art to it. There's another video about Engage to the tune of "It's a masterpiece... if you just ignore half the game." Captures the sentiment perfectly.
Cheers, and I look forward to seeing your next video. Good luck!
Song at 7:24?
That should be Halcyon Days from 13 Sentinels, Aegis Rim!
@@ViviVariety I knew I recognized it from something I've played but I couldn't remember where. And yeah I played 13 Sentinels when it first came out but haven't gone back since
"The story is one of the weaker aspects" So just like every other Fire Emblem game.
Oh, you have no idea how badly I wanna make a video like that...I even had to cut out huge chunks of this script and the other FE one because it was just story bashing over and over lol