If we compared the older games where most are wearing not bright as hell clothing and wear more armor then yes I would think so, awakening is a good example.@@ShursGarden
@@ShursGarden tharja makes sense cause of the fact she used to belong to the grima cult and since she's in the desert she wears light clothing. Though black probably not the best idea. Nowi I don't know why they made her outfit so skimpy considering she looks like a loli. Young Tiki wear more appropriate attire than she does.
I think Engage could've benefit a lot from having a NG+ considering how build-heavy it is; definitely would've given it more replayability. I always found it puzzling how it wasn't ever added, especially when 3H had it.
Because in FE, building the unit is part of the gameplay and 3h simply recognized they made a boring system and even they recognized it'd be cruel to force players to grind again.
I think I'd love if it took the Fates route of NG+, where it's not really an NG+ but after you beat the game you can save a character's set and buy from it cheaper than normal.
They even handled dlc better when u beat cindered shadows you permanently unlock the ashen wolves. Fell xenolouge you have to play it again to re unlock the winds and Nel.
It's so jarring, it's just a feature you'd expect now, and would come in handy in a game like this I want to start over and try out different builds and shit, please
@@marcoasturias8520 Engage is the game whose unit building requires grinding in the donation mechanic, SP, bond fragments etc. 3H you will get there without going out of your way so long as you have the path in mind as you play. In that way building the unit is much more tied into the gameplay in 3H. I and many others never get "bored" of it.
One thing I'd like to add is that the lack of paired endings that aren't with Alear only made things worse. Because of this, each character other than Alear only have two endings. Something that CERTAINLY doesn't help Alfred. And this ALSO reduces the replay value, once you notice how Alear's endings are rather similar to Robin and Corrin in that it's basically "Alear ruled happily ever after, and they did something with their spouse." compared to some of the more elaborate endings that Byleth has, such as "Jeritza confessed to Byleth while the two were raiding Those Who Slither in the Dark" and other such things. I mean, if there was a variety of paired endings, players would be all "Oh, so pairing Alfred up with Yunaka actually prevents his death, but his pairing with Veyle does not, let's see what happens if he ends up with Hortensia." and play the game many times.
Engage doesn't even allow Alear to be a spouse with anyone strangely enough! Every S rank is meant to be a "symbol of mutual support and trust," so you can blame the localization team for that one, but to be fair. I don't like the idea of Alear marrying a character from this game anyway because they outlive everyone by like a thousand years. Also, characters like Diamant deserve better than her. Totally on the Diamant X Ivy ship train because at least you could build a better story and do interesting things with the world around that concept.
@@binxthebinx6575 Wait, Treehouse friendzoned Alear with *EVERYONE?!!* I thought it was just *SOME* units. Yeah, screw this game. I'm selling off my unopened copy ASAP. Maybe we DO need Child Units to make sure that Treehouse doesn't pull off moves like this.
@lunatic0verlord10 No wait, save your copy! Nintendo is stopping production on physical Engage cartridges(along with other switch games), it might be worth some money later since it was only out for a year.
@@binxthebinx6575 Well, I guess an unopened copy of a game, no matter how worthless the game is, is still worth a lot after a while. I guess I could get more money from it than what I paid for, if I'm patient.
Its kind of a one and done. The dlc was done poorly And its horribly imbalanced. The base game is good, but the characters 'traits' are cranked up to 11. The gameplay is good, but when theres support convos you skip because you just cant stand that character..its not great. No replayability at all really unless you wanna mess with builds....the mechanics are cool, though you kinda need to have background knowledge on the rings to get the whole idea. This game was meant to be an anniversary one that got delayed and it definetly seems like it.
@@BARadiantDawnFor me the characters are good and the supports make them more likeable. I think some of them have to go really deep to actually see how well they’re written as characters. The gameplay and map design is great, and I think the gimmicks make it fun. There’s a lot of replayability with experimenting with character combinations, classes, and emblems. It’s up to people’s opinion, so I can respect if someone doesn’t enjoy the gimmicks or characters
@@codytoeung5089 i like the rings and how they function, not gonna lie, clanne and frammes 'omega fan club' turned me away from them completely where all i can hear is fanboy/girl moments. Some characters i like, but some have their one trait wayyyyyyyy amplified to the point of being annoying. I still enjoy playing the game, but moreso for gameplay
Lots of games you can change classes, but apart from that theres no replayability. Lots of games have either a stellar story you want to play and hear again and again, or route splits for replayability
@@BARadiantDawn Honestly I think the foreshadowing made it fun to go through the second time. I really didn’t care for the story a second time aside from that, I just really enjoyed playing through with more experience with the game and trying new stuff. There are different aspects that make games replayable to others. Ironically despite the different routes, 3H is hard to go through a second time because of the length of preskip and the monestery Clanne and Framme definitely are benches for me. They do get good supports but they really are some of the less interesting characters
I also think that a lot of the depth that these characters have isn't that deep. Celine doesn't need to be so obsessed with tea to have "I use tea breaks as my only escape" be a character moment---if anything it's over played to the point that it undercuts the moment as a character beat by portraying Celine as a dillitente who we're supposed to see as otherwise due to support exposition. Edelgard actually had that exact same "tea breaks are a rare escape from my duties" character moment that Celine has and the fact that tea breaks *aren't* her defining character trait makes her comments on how much she values them do far more for her character than the same information did for Celine.
I feel like a lot of the "depth" Engage characters feels less like a natural part of the characters and more of a "quick, we need to explain why we're doing this single character trait to death". Alear's lore "justification" for that blacklist-worthy design as well as the protagonist worship falls into this boat as well. The media illiterate in the FE fanbase (which is quite a large portion, and an even larger portion of Engage defenders) seem to think that a character having some "reason" for a shitty characterization somehow redeems it, when in reality it just makes it more insulting.
NG+ was really needed to make Engage better. To carry over bond rings, sp, inherited skills. Let there be unlimited access to seals from the start to really get into some weird builds (like Clanne being intended for a physical build but starting as a mage and not getting access to a second seal to respec him until chapter 9)
@@rhettmitchellI replayed it, and it is such a pain not having a NG+ when it really needed it. I played normal the first time and hard the 2nd. It’s annoying to get levels and increase bond ranks when skirmishes are too difficult on hard. I only got through bc I used the training skirmishes which gives bonus exp for surviving units and you don’t lose anymore if they “die” in training skirmishes
That's actually a negative for me in the Fodlan games. New game + existed because the game technically branched since chapter 1 but at the same time it just served to further highlight how much the maps are reused. It didn't help that you could easily just recruit everyone, therefore removing all the weight of fighting most of the former classmates. On top of that, you can't really blaze through the maps to get to the actual new content in Part 2 because of Fire Emblem's mechanics. Add the fact that I played all four routes on release, replayed Crimson Flower for the DLC and did a sixth run to see the Ashen Wolves' conversations and I never wanted to see the monastery again. Three Hopes is not much better, as it separates the sidequests into each of their routes. With how Gatekeeper's sidequest is only available on a third cycle and Arval's is only available on a bad ending route after you get a good ending on a previous cycle, that means that you must beat at least *six cycles* to 100% the game. Given I had my first run I went for the bad ending intentionally because it'd be easier and on my fourth I went for that run's good ending and didn't know about this requirement, I felt like having to arbitrarily beat the game three more times was too much and quit.
The weirdest part is that you have an online profile that records your stats... but if you wanna try a new build you have to make a new save file and reset your profile... like gurl??
And yet most players, me included, enjoyed 3H and ThreeHps much more than Engage No one in Foldlan is as boring and unmemorable as Bunet. The writing and some of the things the Engage characters say are child-like
After the realism and in-depth character stories of Three Houses, people expected something like that again. We instead got Colgate MC, one of the worse stories so far where everyone legit worships your MC [who is portrayed as a coward for some reason] and this odd anime aesthetic that just doesn't look very good.
If we're being absolutely fair, I think we're being a little bit too kind to other Fire Emblem Games that we end up being harsher on engage. One of the worst is.... tough to say. Give it time. Like wait until two games later and you'll begrudgingly admit it wasn't that bad but still pretty bad. It's kindof a "one step forward two steps behind" type of thing. For example, Fire Emblem Awakening was good and there was a really neat Time Travel plot, you got to marry off your characters, etc. etc. Fates Overcorrected by having kids in the babymaking deeprealms. The DLC was also pretty nonsensical, Corrin was about as interesting as watching grass grow, and the choice of choosing between your adopted and your real family was totally negated by the fact that Corrin isn't even the biological brother. People hated it distinctly because the people felt more like, Anime-OCs rather than actual soldiers which is the same complaint that Engage had gotten. Thats an odd thing to hear seeing how Engage made deviant-art oc's but comparatively they all really did look too anime. When Engage came out i kinda expected it would try to overcorrect what made three houses good. This always happens, the next game will probably be better.
Experimentation isn't really incentivised because of how promotions work so playthroughs feel kinda samey. Also some maps can feel pretty tedious IF you don't intentionally use warp skip mechanics. But warp skipping is efficient but hardly fun. Also the emblem ring roulette the game does at various points some how feel even worse (to me) than radiant dawn's infamous availability issues.
Something funny (though quite messed up) about this, is that while Engage was hurted by the pandemic, I think Three Houses was actually HELPED by the pandemic (though, TH would have being more succesful regardless of the circunstances) I'm intrigued with what the future of the franchise will bring, considering the boons and flaws of Three Houses and Engage.
3H could've used one more year of development honestly. I love 3H but i always feel like it's missing something; the battle animations could've use more variety, flashing out VW route more and not making it a slightly different copy of SS, their scrappes ideas like revealing Claude's true identity, etc. Engage could've hire a better writer, it's all. And maybe art director.
@@raviolibirb8009the person who wrote engage wrote awakening and fates before, so by that fact you can tell the quality of it lol, I know it's basically impossible by this point but I'd like the next game to be rid of avatars and bring back a traditional lord as the protagonist
A major problem I had with Engage is how the setting of Elyos never felt grounded or believable. The problem stems from the complete lack of any medieval drama theming the series is known for. Things you expect to see in JRPG's such as in depth worldbuilding, factions, and interesting characters with meaningful goals like in 3 houses is left superficial in Engage in favor of recycling outdated FE tropes. Another strange thing about Engage is the character designs. As many people point out the characters have too many tacky elements like Yunaka's star ornaments and combine with each characters motivation/backstory being hidden in supports, it's hard to form a connection. Ironically the character I ended up liking the most is Alear herself due to her quirky lord design, voice acting, and dorky support moments that made her stand out from the rest of the boring cast. It's a shame she's in a boring game for Alear has great potential. Hopefully IS can learn better story telling from other franchises like Triangle Strategy and Octopath in the future.
But still here’s what I want for the next fire emblem game on the switch to comes out. I expect that with a new engine they should move over to the unity engine or the unreal engine because the idea is that fire emblem should go in a different direction this time go with a fusion between Xenoblade Chronicles and Warhammer but the art style reminiscent of order Xenoblade chronicles games, Xenoblade 1 and Xenoblade x art style put the filter would be akin to dune in the game should take place on the planet of Bashtar. Here is synopsis. Melange, an unknown substance that could dramatically advance human society. In the past, this substance caused a cosmic catastrophe on planet Bashtar that engulfed the surrounding star systems, and eventually its very existence was lost. Decades later, the Melange reaction was confirmed again on planet Bashtar. In search of the unknown substance that should have been lost, various speculations begin to swirl. Various parties are getting involved; The government, corporations, cultists, and unknown mercenaries... The protagonist is one of them. The game is going to be an action, RPG, akin to Diablo and will have that lets you move around an overwhelmingly scaled map that represents a unique sci-fi world with dynamic and fast pace action
I don’t like seeing Engage’s story get compared to 3H when 3H is more complex than most FE stories to begin with. I’d rather it be compared to the broad series as a whole, where it still falls a bit short in complexity but nowhere near as badly
Personally I think a longer game with ng+ would have helped with the narrative. Take the tutorial chapters and replace them with some moments from the previous war to build up Alear and Lumeria's relationship, while also establishing later character motivations for the zephia. I would also liked to have some paralouges for the supporting cast to expand on relationships.
Many people are deeply critical of the game, but the YT algorithm deranks videos / channels that release negative content about products. TH-cam's algorithm is biased in favor of "hype" and promoting products as its buisness model to advertisers. The viewers and content creators are the product for TH-cam to sell.
Yeah I have a lot of the same criticisms too, but I feel like a lot of people let those negatives affect their enjoyment of the game way more than it did for me. I still really enjoyed the gameplay and a lot of the characters, bc I’m able to laugh at the silliness and eventually get to the deeper stuff. I do wish there was more of that though. But it was still overall kinda disappointing after what we had with the last game. It doesn’t help even if only playing/replaying for the gameplay either, when NG+ doesn’t even exist, so it’s impossible to try new builds until you’re like 3/5 through the game again
@@techpriest6962 I find that hard to believe since I've gotten more positive videos of Paper Mario: Sticker Star recommended to me, and that's FAR more hated than Engage.
@@AkameGaKillfan777agree. Sticker star was a disaster. Engage at least has good gameplay but the flaws are not avoidable cause it’s a constant complaint from the majority. Boring story boring characters questionable choices (like not being to transfer skill), weird artstyle, no game plus and a bad dlc
Engage, Engage, Engage… a mixed bag is certainly the best way to describe it. There’s a lot of stuff I like, but there’s a lot of stuff I don’t. While it makes strides in its gameplay, it’s main story writing ranges from surprisingly solid to fairly dull to infuriatingly stupid. It’s funny that this game was meant to bring in a new generation of fans, when we just had that happen in Three Houses, while the more orchestrated attempt to do that failed in comparison.
It failed on both regards. It excels in gameplay but fails in the rest. It’s a game where it’s very hard to recommend. I’m more inclined to recommend newcomers to 3H cause it feel like it will be more ironically engaging and they will probably have a lot more fun with the world building
The only surprisingly solid part of the writing was the Brodia arc (at least for me anyway and most people I have seen online agree.) After the retreat map, Engage is pretty infamous for having an absolutely terrible third act. The worst in the whole entire series. If I knew then what I knew now. I would tell my friends to buy Engage, beat chapter 10 or 11, then go back to GameStop and get your money back. You can do it in a day if you speedrun, no one should have to commit to $60 if the first tenish hours of the game (really fourish if you only count the Brodia arc) is the most competently written part out of a 100+ hour game. I would never wish that even on my worst enemies.
@@binxthebinx6575oh god chapter 10 and 11 was a pain in the ass. You lose basically all progress with the rings since you lose them and what’s worse is you get use to the mechanic and just to have it be taken away is frustrating even worse is how limited you are for the rest of the game
@@Yoshixandir Implementing that in chapter 10 was the DUMBEST thing IS could have done. The game already doesn't do a good job with teaching new players how to reclass. Hell, I have been playing FE for YEARS and I had to restart my third run of the game because I didn't understand that reclassing involves gaining those proficiencies from certain emblems. It was already needlessly complicated for a VETERAN PLAYER! Now Imagine you have enough understanding to build your team...and then your rings get taken away and you can't finish what you were doing (or it will talk longer depending on what ring you get next.) See, this is why I feel even the gameplay can be waaaay too overhyped. The only thing I can say about the emblem rings is that they're fun to use...that's it, and Alears ring just...fricken breaks the game on any difficulty. To me, Engage is easy on any setting, but again, I have been playing for years and hard mode felt like normal mode to me. Same with maddening where it felt more like hard mode in the past few FE game...
When I saw the leaks, especially Alear's design, I thought "No, that can't be it. It must be bait". And I was wrong. I was willing to overlook the designs before playing the game until I experienced it first-hand. I mean, I like the gameplay, the freedom in customising units, and the animations, but the rest is eh Character designs are sometimes too busy and with unnecessary details. Did Yunaka need all those stars? How about Hortensia and that clown outfit? Awakening, Fates, and 3H had "simple", yet memorable designs AND decent personalities and backstories to carry the character if design alone was not enough. Severa's appearance, for example, is pretty plain, but was beloved enough to appear in two games. 3H, with all its gameplay issues, is being discussed to this day because of the plot, setting, and characters. Engage's main plot can be summarised by "Gather the rings, make allies, and defeat the evil dragon who's actually your father"
I think the final shift was a big reason for me, three houses was my first game and I loved the thrones/Harry potter feel to it. Then I saw engage and I didn’t have any nostalgia for the past heroes and the art style wasn’t my vibe
I really like this video. It doesn't just throw critique after critique while ignoring the positives, but actually delves into the struggles associated with the game that lead to the fanbase becoming so divided on engage.
If anything the most fun I had with Engage was building up my units with strong skills and class set ups. Just wish to plot wasn’t so forgettable. But I’ll give credit where it’s due it’s better than Fates conquests writing.
Almost anything is better than fates writing ironically i think that saves fates a bit it’s bad but we remember it. Engage is forgettable like even outside the game people don’t even talk about a lot. The only meme that has come is toothpaste Chan. In the others there was tons of outside fan engagement but with engage it’s kinda of dry
I’m not sure I agree with the idea of Alear being a well-written protagonist, especially considering that they couldn’t commit to him being scared of the Corrupted early on (which I guess comes down to Nintendo telling IS to not make Alear *too* cowardly). If anything, the lack of being able to commit to narrative beats carries over into the overarching issue with the writing of the game. I’m mostly referring to how they were building up the importance of family for the duration of the story, only to drop it in the final act. Even the Corrupted Alear & Emblem Alear concepts aren’t fully committed to, with the former only lasting one chapter & the latter not forcing them to the same existence as the other Emblems. And that’s before we get to the wild scramble to build out characters, which can be seen right at the beginning with the super-drawn-out death speech of Alear’s mom (with said drawn-out death speeches becoming a recurring trend in the story). And yeah, this even extends to how the character designs don’t really have much rhyme or reason, considering how loud they are. Some compare them to vtubers, but I feel like that cast too wide of a net. Maybe narrow it down to Hololive specifically. And in general, I’m not even sure if calling the story lighthearted is accurate since that only really applies to a couple of moments. It’s more bland, if anything.
I find Alear well written for what they are. I disagree with the idea that Alear isn't committed to being scared of corrupted it's brought up plenty of times even in surpports, Alear just had to suck it up and grow stronger. Even in Firene, Alear had to be saved by Veyle from a corrupted.
@@nuibaba280 But that’s the problem, it’s tucked away in supports as opposed to being shown in the main story. It’s the opposite of “Show, Don’t Tell”, another recurring trend in the game (one that ties into stuff like the drawn-out death speeches & the exposition dumps at the 11th hour).
@@Neoxon619 But it was shown in the main story. Alear's one step away from pissing their pants when Lumera first spawns her own corrupted. And Alear had to be saved by Veyle because they froze up when a corrupted ran up on Alear. Alear's solid for a FE protagonist, they have a surprisingly silly and endearing personality with very prominent flaws. Flaws that are present in the main story too. Supports are still important for a character's writing as well.
@@Neoxon619 I disagree as well. Supports have always been a key thing and a lot of 3H characters also get their best moments from supports Its moreso a problem with the Supports system rather than a problem with Alear himself
tbh I never had an issue with the monastery. I usually just do the arena once for the item reward, and then every week i just get my flowers, eat 3 meals, maybe choir/byleth tutor and then finish the day. but the somniel? oh my lord. i didnt even do half the the things you could do there and I still hated it. the arena was torture, feeding sommy was torture, and collecting the items was torture. i think if i ever replayed engage I would just not bother at all now knowing that youll never fucking get enough bond fragments anyways to even create the builds you want so theres no point in trying. but then that kills replayability cuz theres all this sandbox type stuff to do that you just....cant do. and yeah skirmishes were harder than actual chapter missions cuz the enemies were higher levels and B lined it for you turn 1. they didnt just wait around for you to soak up emblem energy puddles and spam emblem attacks over and over. looking at you Lyn.
I remember Jello Apocalypse saying somehing similar about Fire Emblem Fates. C support = Characters get annoyed at each other's one note personalities. B support: These two random characters secretly have the best interaction in the game.
Fates has a notoriously bad localization Saizo and Beruka is the most infamous example in Japan their C support is about the morality of being an assassin and in NA it's just a string of "..." and then the B support continues off from the C support of the original translation so if one wasn't aware of the original lines they'll just be confused
I believe the reason why Engage fell off for many people, myself included was that many of its pros and cons reminded people of the pros and cons found in Fates where the gameplay was enjoyable but the characters and plot left a lot to be desired. Many of the newer characters were shackled by their quirks or gimmicks which hindered many of their supports and their growth as people. Meanwhile, the story had quite a few holes in it from the lack of build up to major events to the massive expostion dumbs given to the player near the beginning and end of the stories. That to me is one of the factors why Engage fell off as a game
Tbf it had fates writer for this game so of course the story sucked.. blame intelligence system for trusting the man who wrote fates to write an anniversary game
True yet at the same time I felt like fate’s characters were a lot more memorable. Although I think it’s cause they at least could appear as enemies depending which side you picked and also probably cause fans did at least enjoy the characters in some regards (despite fates flaws fans did make tons of fanart memes of characters)
@@Yoshixandir There's video I found asking is Fire Emblem too main stream th-cam.com/video/AOglEDMI0xI/w-d-xo.html Since Fire Emblem wasn't very popular in the past and Awakening saved the series. It made me worried that Intelligent Systems will make the gameplay and story too beginner friendly, in order to appeal to a wider audience??? Engage was my fears come to life😦😦😦😦. Good thing Wargrove 2 and Unicorn Overlord is coming out.
@@bradDark6941 Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the workload and games being rushed out the door was the number one reason why the writing was bad. I read somewhere that the writer for fates had a 500 page manuscript of the story and due to time constraints, half of it was cut out entirely. If this is the same writer from Fates, I won't speak much about the guy since, obviously, I don't know a lot about his work, but I don't think he is solely to blame for how Fates turned out. For Engage, if ANYONE should be at fault, it's the game director who clearly has no idea what the fans want.
@@Yoshixandir While Birthright and Revelations are (to me) some of the worst FE games in the series due to how nothing they are, I feel that Conquest is worth defending at least to some regard. This is mostly because Conquest gives you more of a reason to care about your Norh siblings (half of them actually going through really good character development...when the game doesn't contradict it, I'm looking at you chapter 27). With your Birthright siblings, they are all written like sandpaper, like, HOW DO YOU DO THAT SERIOUSLY? The only things I remember about birthright is IS having the balls to kill off Elise (which I respect) and never unhearing Tommy Pickles voice from a very clearly twenty something year old woman. THAT throws me through a loop every time she opens her mouth (BTW, same voice actress as Tommy and Buttercup. No wonder I couldn't unhear it.)
*What ACTUALLY went wrong?* *The honest truth is pretty ugly.* The Short Version: Nintendo put a New developer as the lead for the game who had no experience. A basic "Yes Man" who likes action games and not turn based tactics games, and was heavily influenced by Nintendo wanting to aim for a New Younger Audience which meant dumbing down the game, and making it flashier. The Long Version: If you read the "Ask the Developers" interviews that were released. The guy in charge (Tsutomu Tei), had never been a director of a game at IS before, and seemingly never discusses having any previous experience working on a FE game. So while I can't say what his previous role was, if any, it doesn't seem to be significant enough to mention in his bio. I'd link the Nintendo article, but TH-cam is pretty finicky with links these days. (Typing Ask the Developer Vol. 8, Fire Emblem Engage Part 1, 2, and 3 should get you too it) If anything, just someone picked by Nintendo to lead the development. Listening to the other two employees of Nintendo that were in the interview. Tei and the two mention wanting to "appeal to a broader audience" and saying that RPG mechanics such as the Awakening / Fates marriage system took too long to play out in the game. According to them it "wan't fun" so they developed the Emblem Ring idea instead. With the goal of intruding the "fun elements" early on. I'll quote the Nintendo stooge "Higuchi: We wanted to introduce this fun element for players as early as possible. I felt that the fun of tactical RPG games wasn't as intuitive or immediate as that of action games." So basically you had Nintendo heavily influencing the game with employees who were more interested and familiar with Action games than tactics RPGs. Then from the games IS developer, "Tei: People often say that turn-based tactical RPGs seem difficult or too complicated... In fact, I’m not very good at them myself." Take of that what you will, I take it as even the new IS dev wasn't interested in making a Tactics game. Just taking orders and advice from his Nintendo handlers. "Tei: We had several candidates. We were looking for an artist whose design style would appeal to a broad audience - including younger players - as well as the ability to portray a variety of characters. Among the candidates, Mika Pikazo-san's drawings were colorful, vivid, and really popped! They were a perfect fit for the flashy direction we wanted for this title." So from that we can see the "broader audience" meant appeal to children. In spite of marketing toward long time fans, which makes no sense since new players and young players would not get any of the references. So basically they tried to do both and focused on the younger new audience by lying to the older one. As it would seem, the games development and design was all over the place. Trying to create a game for a new younger audience, while throwing a bone to the old players to make it seem like they were not being abandoned when they were. As for another section about their Artist choice that influenced the game in a bad way. "Tei: Well, I thought it'd be better to be upfront about the request. That said, there was one concern she had. Since she usually draws young characters, she was concerned about her confidence level in some of the character design." So to answer why all the characters were loli or V-tuber style. It's because that's the only style the artist knew, and he went with it. Also, it also turns put it was her idea to make toothpaste-chans hair color red and blue. As before Tei just went with whatever he was told, advised, or requested. From everything I have read, Tei should never be in charge of any product. Unless he was specifically chosen because he just follows orders and has no skill as a leader or director. "Tei: As I mentioned at the beginning, I'm not very good at strategy games myself, so during development, I hoped to create a game that even those like me would want to try out or find interesting."
I couldn't have been more disappointed in everything Engage did. The Break mechanic forced the game to be more offense focused like an action game. Making counter attackers / defensive play styles obsolete. Not to mention, FE3H introduced the idea of player choice. Where Engage had none of it. The characters were all one dimensional and cringe. With generic "Hahaha I'm evil" villains. No deeper motivations until the death scenes which was far too little character exploration far too late. Lets not start about how dreadfully short the class list was or the weapon list. FE3H had the right idea letting the players equip any melee weapon to a class instead of V1, V2, or V3 of the same class. I could go on... as a professional writer I can easily write a better plot outline for a tactics game in a day. Though that's not saying much compared to Engages plot.
@@EXchoco That's more or less the crux of the problem, but the context is there to say the problem is much deeper. It's that IS and Nintendo are mismanaging the IP for profit. Nintendo has long since abandoned its consumer friendly / family friendly image in favor of being the EA of Japan. IS quite frankly can't push out a good product to save its life, it's the happy lap dog of Nintendo. The company never pushed back on Nintendo when they make unreasonable demands.
When I played 3H I immediately started a second play through after beating it. With Engage I waited months started it and didn’t finish it lol. As someone that likes to get invested in the story I was really pissed that it was so similar to Fates which I consider to be the worst FE game I have played.
man fire emblem story was never that great its always their gameplay and mechanics that were top level. Their best story is mostly on par with other games that has it as a normal story
I remember that every fire emblem protagonist loses their parents one or the other, but Shez is the only protagonist that have an only no death cutesenen and only in AG with ash, and Mercedes talked about there family's and made good advice, but ash a support left us with a cliffhanger and he can be recute him I all routes and meet to be a dlc when we get him and A support in all routes
@@justasoulsfan9805 true. I find myself enjoy playing Hopes more than Houses solely because of Shez. Byleth is cool but i often find them kind of boring for being semi-silent protagonist when their entire character is "a very skilled professor who love their students". I can get pass their non-chatter, emotionless personality but making them silent during all of the supports kind of defeats the purpose when they have battle voicelines. Hopes did Byleth better than Houses imo
I'm one of the people you describe up front, a first time Fire Emblem player with Three Houses who was excited for a new FE game, and completely deflated by the tonal change. I keep wanting to go back to experience the traditional combat people talk about, but I just don't enjoy being in the game world.
Ya gotta do the Tellius games and Awakening then. Extremely good worlds, and excellent character writing. Definitely WAY more linear and restrictive styles, but in a way, that compels you to be careful and take the game more seriously. PoR and RD were my first Fire Emblems, and I love them to this day.
@@Novarcharesk PoR is a legitimately great game unfortunately gatekept by a need for an emulation-capable PC, a hacked Wii or enough $ to casually throw $200 at an old Gamecube game. Which isn't the worst thing, Deus Ex and Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines are some of the best games of all time and are effectively PC exclusive. It happens. It's hard to use PoR as an argument to buy a Wii U though, even secondhand. Also, Ike X Soren is one of my favorite ships. Don't let what the internet said about the prominent (probably) gay lead and his catboy bf fool you, the tone is more classic Berserk than modern anime. Ike breeds catbussy and is a man's man.
Same. The monastery was better because it was a real location connected to the story with characters commenting on what's happening. Both hub worlds can be tedious sometimes so the Monastery is better for its story significance. Music is also better in Garreg Mach.
Right I think the monastery is actually better. You really only have to do the meals. Stuff like weapon forging can be done in menus. In engage it’s like you have to run to pick up the iron, run to the black smith, run to the arena and watch the emblem battles to get the skills, do the well, etc…way more tedious.
I too love having to do 30 minutes of downtime (At least) between chapters who have boring maps, that truly is what Fire Emblem gameplay is meant to be
The fact that characters in the somniel never say anything of value is the main thing for me. The monastery may have taken a while but at least it felt worth it.
The monastery felt more interesting because the characters would discuss what happened in previous chapter or talk about current chapter. Example Caspar talking about how his father died in the assualt on enbarr.
I do love how Alear can talk, but I find the game a huge step backwards from Three Houses. I’d rather have Claude, Edelgard and other non-sword-wielding-protagonist characters over Alear in future Smash games (Alear is more assist trophy or trophy material)
So something I've thought about, Engage gets compared a lot to Awakening, for good reason often times. But something that I don't think gets really said is that Awakening has a pretty "normal" start and the MC, Chrom, has a simple and well done story line. And I think that grounding is the #1 thing I personally found missing in Engage. In Awakening I could always connect with that start, and Chrom's character, even when we got to some of the WILD shit in that game like time travel or Henry swapping bodies. Engage, just never really had that with me. By the time we were getting to the king dude getting resurrected I was just...kind of eh, nothing about it felt like it connected to Alear, the themes, nor like I had something to build into this. Or to use a personal example, I did not like Tharja at first, found her annoying. But I wanted to know more about the other characters so I watched her supports and realized...wow she's a cool character with an interesting backstory that is not given the credit her character deserves. I did not really like Boucheron at first beyond my bias for axe units. But also I just...didn't want to watch his supports. Maybe I would love him like I now do Tharja, but there's nothing around him I care about, nothing to ground me into looking into him more. I've seen like 1 Support with him, with Alear, and I just never bothered to learn more because I don't want anything to do with it really.
I do think a lot of this game’s characters have the Tharja effect of being more likeable in supports. Like Celine as mentioned in the video is a good example. Yunaka and Ivy are the other two big ones, where you really delve into their struggles and backstories I will say these characters feel overly reliant on this. Because I didn’t know anything about Alfred’s disease until reading up on stuff online. And both Ivy and Tharja I initially didn’t get the popularity of. Heck even now I’m not a fan of Tharja just because her more evil traits overshadow her nicer traits for me
@@codytoeung5089 Ivy felt a bit generic to me, although Yunaka was fine. But even then their more likable aspects are still repeated to much, so exploring the actual depths is still just, not attractive. Tharja...doesn't have evil traits? The only "evil" she does is an alternate timeline version of her wasn't the best mother to Noire, which is grossly exaggerated by people who ignore that most of Noire's trauma, like all the kids, is from the apocalypse.
@@nahte123456 That’s probably what I was mostly basing my criticism on. That and Tharja cursing her husband when he confronts her about it. I think it’s also the modern flanderization of her character. I do agree they focus more on their tropes than their backstory. Ivy at least isn’t inherently tropey. I did also find her boring for a long time but she has charm to her
@@codytoeung5089 The problem with Tharja is...that's impossible? Like not in a "she would never do that", but her ENTIRE SUPPORT with Virion is how he's immune to her curses, Gaius isn't immune but low level curses still don't work on him, Henry is just flat better at Curses then her and could just brush them off, and both Robin and Ricken also can learn Curse stuff. That's like over half her partners can is literally incapable of cursing like this, before we get into any character stuff. But also yes she's been increasingly slenderized as more and more obsessive and sexualized, despite really not being either in Awakening proper.
As a new fan to the series who had only plan 3 houses, but also watched a lot to do with the fire emblem franchise I was very excited to be able to play another fire emblem game. I had planned on preordering it but then the preorder for ToTK came and as a being a zelda fan fore much longer, I got that instead. I ended up getting engage around July after I beat ToTK and did enjoy it but as someone who enjoys darker themes, it wasn't my favourite. There were a lot of story points that were weird to me and I hated doing the somniel as it felt lifeless with the characters repeating the same thing everytime I went there. The strategy was amazing though and there were parts of it I really enjoyed like Destinea Cathedral and all of Brodia. Also Rosados the best character and you can't change my mind.
If you want some more actually good FE games I'd reccomend you boot up an emulator to play Shadows of Valentia, Path of Radiance and its sequel Radiant Dawn, and if your ok with a bit of old game jank Genealogy of the Holy war and Thracia 776. Those games along with 3 Houses is peak Fire Emblem for me
@@yusifudo46 this is all opinion based as I would say Mauvier was written pretty basic. Etie and Chloé are my current two favorite characters. The story is simple and I enjoy it for that. I will agree it is nowhere near the giants of storytelling that the Telius Saga had, but it was a simple game to go down memory road with the history of the series.
@@justingerry97 I think Awakening did simple better. I can't at all get with the characters in Engage and they were as flat as the Radiant Dawn cast. They don't have to be as well written as the Three Houses cast, but I expect better than Fates or RD which hardly has enough in the support category to make me care for them. I think Awakening did it better that although the cast was "not" as complex, they were fleshed out way better which made them more interesting outside the main campaign.
@@yusifudo46 i will agree with that, there is a reason Awakening is credited as to what revived FE in the west. I do still like a lot of the supports without Alear and that comes all down to prefere. I can't say with a straight face it is the best written game, but I still prefer it over FE8 and shadow dragon.
after having such an amazing story in fire, emblem, three houses, and having such in-depth back stories with all of the students that really helped you to care for each one of them the shallow story and characters of Engage just fell flat for me. I put over 500 hours in the fire emblem three houses, completing all of the houses, including the DLC and both routes for the black eagles and the second Playthru of the blue lions. I’m only about 15 hours into fire emblem, engage and I’m having such a hard time continuing to play because it’s just not interesting so far maybe it gets better a little bit further into it but the beginning of this game is underwhelming to say the least. The gameplay for battles is great, but I also don’t like the hub world. I did, however, like the monastery. I’ve always enjoyed fire emblem, so I bought the special edition of engage only to feel wildly let down by it. Hopefully my opinion will change after I’m finished with it eventually.
Three House's story was a complete mess in my opinion. The timeskip went completely unexplained, character motivations were messy, unanswered questions were aplenty, Byleth's cold characterisation goes completely against the idea students feel super close to him. On its surface, Three Houses seems like an amazing story. But when you actually sit down to think about it, it really falls short.
3H Characterization of student is even contradict each other between route. And... am I suppose to be sympathic with Edelgard? Black Eagle route fell to makem e feel that completely. I'm agreed on this that 3H is complete mess and gameplay is totally downgrade from either Fate or Echoes. Meanwhile for Engage, the story is no different from Shadow Dragon, Awakening, Echoes or even PoR in overarching. So, I don't consider Engage as bad story, just your average FE story. But gameplay become my top3 immediately. with map design and how ability works against map
Unfortunately Engage doesn’t get better. I think for most people it tends to go downhill. If you don’t like it now, you probably won’t later either. You’re right that it’s a total letdown how little they cared for this game after 3H had so much passion and love behind it… :(
@@EXchoco I don't think it was a lack of effort, they literally ported the 3DS engine to Unity. This is NOT an easy task. It's a change in priorities. Engage isn't trying to have a complex story or intricate characters. It was designed from the beginning to be a campy romp full of fanservice, and that simply hasn't resonated with the fanbase right now.
Not enough shifter units whether playable or as emblem rings. In that regard it is kind of a lackluster anniversary title. Ok so there is 1 dragon emblem ring but what about the Laguz, Taguel, Kitsune, or Wolfkin? Also it would have been nice if there were more weapon variety. It was so cool having scythes in FE 3 Houses but then they didn't return. Even if they're just another type of lance it seems like a missed opportunity.
I've also been a (relatively) long time Fire Emblem fan so I can also put in some input that can expand on the situation. The lighthearted anime mood and the loud designs aren't the issue so much as the cliches and the characters not being memorable, which sucks because the gameplay and the map design are fantastic. But asking someone to ignore maybe 2/5 of the entire game in order to enjoy it more is a hard sell. I'm pretty sure I wore out my + button on my controller more in this game than in Tears of the Kingdom, and I have 400 more hours there than I do in Engage. Between the characters feeling like they like the Avatar WAY too much and the dialogue being well acted but feeling like it was written by George Lucas, I kinda just press + if I decide to replay it I generally agree with your video when it comes to the comparisons to Fates and the complaints about bond rings, the castle, and NG+. I don't have much to add other than me being pissed about how they nerfed Sothe's skill from Radiant Dawn. While it's also pretty full of cliches, I've enjoyed the Fell Xenologues more than the main story. I really hope that we somehow get NG+ even this late.
For me, I was really turned off by Engages presentation. It felt like they wanted to cash in on past games but didn't want to alien new comers so they went for a half approach.
@@AkameGaKillfan777 u talk rubbish engage is definitely a fire emblem game. u didnt even play the series but engage is definitely the usual hero vs villian fe story type
I've been playing FE games since Awakening came out. I barely heard about Engage at all, so it REALLY wasn't advertised well. On top of that, the animation just reminded me too much of Genshin so I just decided to pass on this one. Here's hoping the next game is a hit.
Engage had great gameplay along with map improvements, but I have no clue what happened in characters and story. I have heard that Engage was some sorta anniversary type game and hope they go back to previous games in that area :-)
it was a anniversary game that got delayed all the way and also apparently it is also made alongside 3H (Koei). Engage made by the OG 3h made by Koei. Tbh i think 3H has cause a lot of the fans to say that 3H is not a good starting point and it did more damage than good to FE. Engage was considered a true fire emblem game compared to 3H.
You've nailed a lot of points as why Engage falls short of being a great FE game. The lack of NG+ is astounding as it limits creativity one can do with their teams, despite there being so many options that Emblems provide. The other big problem is more for people who got the DLC, but the new characters are locked behind the story on every playthrough, rather than just playing through it once and then just having the units available in subsequent playthroughs. I could have overlooked the writing problems because you can just skip that on repeat playthroughs, but because of the limited ways this game puts on these things are what detract from the overall experience.
More like you haven't seen a single interview and think writers do that instead of doing their best in writing something but either they dont have the ability or other issues that exists. your comment reeks of elitism and ignorance on how video game writing even works.
I think a lot of it might have to do with Nintendo and IS wanting to get Engage out of the way. And I don't mean them rushing the game or anything, but more so developing and releasing it as like an appetizer before the next new FE on the next console, despite it being a new mainline FE. The older FE lords returning and this feeling like a celebration of FE as a whole would be enough for a lot of people to get into the game, and the focus on gameplay more than story and characters would make it feel less complex, or something? Idk how to describe it. It's clear they were waiting until Three Hopes released to reveal Engage, rather than just waiting more before releasing it, and then releasing the DLC at a monthly rate. I don't think the next new FE will be treated this way with it most likely being on the next console, similar to Three Houses
@@raincastmusic What ACTUALLY went wrong? The honest truth is pretty ugly. The Short Version: Nintendo put a New developer as the lead for the game who had no experience. A basic "Yes Man" who likes action games and not turn based tactics games, and was heavily influenced by Nintendo wanting to aim for a New Younger Audience which meant dumbing down the game, and making it flashier. The Long Version: If you read the "Ask the Developers" interviews that were released. The guy in charge (Tsutomu Tei), had never been a director of a game at IS before, and seemingly never discusses having any previous experience working on a FE game. So while I can't say what his previous role was, if any, it doesn't seem to be significant enough to mention in his bio. I'd link the Nintendo article, but TH-cam is pretty finicky with links these days. (Typing Ask the Developer Vol. 8, Fire Emblem Engage Part 1, 2, and 3 should get you too it) If anything, just someone picked by Nintendo to lead the development. Listening to the other two employees of Nintendo that were in the interview. Tei and the two mention wanting to "appeal to a broader audience" and saying that RPG mechanics such as the Awakening / Fates marriage system took too long to play out in the game. According to them it "wan't fun" so they developed the Emblem Ring idea instead. With the goal of intruding the "fun elements" early on. I'll quote the Nintendo stooge "Higuchi: We wanted to introduce this fun element for players as early as possible. I felt that the fun of tactical RPG games wasn't as intuitive or immediate as that of action games." So basically you had Nintendo heavily influencing the game with employees who were more interested and familiar with Action games than tactics RPGs. Then from the games IS developer, "Tei: People often say that turn-based tactical RPGs seem difficult or too complicated... In fact, I’m not very good at them myself." Take of that what you will, I take it as even the new IS dev wasn't interested in making a Tactics game. Just taking orders and advice from his Nintendo handlers. "Tei: We had several candidates. We were looking for an artist whose design style would appeal to a broad audience - including younger players - as well as the ability to portray a variety of characters. Among the candidates, Mika Pikazo-san's drawings were colorful, vivid, and really popped! They were a perfect fit for the flashy direction we wanted for this title." So from that we can see the "broader audience" meant appeal to children. In spite of marketing toward long time fans, which makes no sense since new players and young players would not get any of the references. So basically they tried to do both and focused on the younger new audience by lying to the older one. As it would seem, the games development and design was all over the place. Trying to create a game for a new younger audience, while throwing a bone to the old players to make it seem like they were not being abandoned when they were. As for another section about their Artist choice that influenced the game in a bad way. "Tei: Well, I thought it'd be better to be upfront about the request. That said, there was one concern she had. Since she usually draws young characters, she was concerned about her confidence level in some of the character design." So to answer why all the characters were loli or V-tuber style. It's because that's the only style the artist knew, and he went with it. Also, it also turns put it was her idea to make toothpaste-chans hair color red and blue. As before Tei just went with whatever he was told, advised, or requested. From everything I have read, Tei should never be in charge of any product. Unless he was specifically chosen because he just follows orders and has no skill as a leader or director. "Tei: As I mentioned at the beginning, I'm not very good at strategy games myself, so during development, I hoped to create a game that even those like me would want to try out or find interesting."
I am not surprised at its reception. They threw gacha bait into a mainline entry, a tonal mismatch with a majority of fans of those games. From the designs to loud quirks, they are designed to scream at you to be noticed. I don't know how it was received by Heroes players, but I haven't wanted to punch this many characters in their stupid face since the studio decided marriage options should include incest. I know Alcryst has a decent support here and there, but his surface personality is the best argument you can make in favour of playing on Classic. ... and despite all of that this has been the FE I have enjoyed most in years. "It is really good if you ignore most of it" just isn't a very convincing argument, no matter how fun the combat is.
"I haven't wanted to punch this many characters in their stupid face since the studio decided marriage options should include incest." Uuuh... you do know that's a thing that has existed in this franchise since the FE4 days... right?
My thoughts exactly. If I killed off every character I found insufferable, I'd be stuck with Yunaka, Vander, and Alear, who's only there by requirement. Not sure if I could even beat Maddening
@@emblemblade9245 Idk, people actually look at the Awakening cast pretty fondly. It's not like they decided to single out Engage. Engage characters just suck from the outset, to the point where no amount of "they're good in this one A support" can save them. Awakening had tropes, but they still had characters, even if minor, to carry those tropes.
I think it was intended to be an anniversary title, especially with all the crossovers, and Covid delayed it. With FE 4 Remake seemingly being the next title, it won’t be until the Switch 2 until we see the next super big FE title, and that’s okay! I will still eat the games up, but as for the next large FE game with the hype and marketing and longevity, I think it will be a Switch 2 moment. Gonna watch this now and wonder if our minds think similarly. :)
Honestly, the biggest problem was just that it wasn't really a normal fire emblem game due to the overreliance on its new gimmicks. They were so OP and gamebreaking that the "normal" FE experience was kinda gone. And sure, the min-maxers/LTC-type players/maddening players seem to have enjoyed it, probably cuz these are players who naturally gravitate towards the more extreme strategies in older FE, and thus the experience wasn't that strange to them. But if you normally avoided those strategies, then Engage is a very awkward experience due to how different it is.
But the shakeup is exactly what I love about Engage, it’s new system keeps me coming back all the time. Emblem rings, the new weapon triangle, unit sub-classes, these were all PHENOMENAL additions to FE and I want them to return in some fashion
@@Blitz_Spencer Good for you I guess, but honestly it just kinda sucks. Even ignoring the mismatch in expectations, at best its an overdesigned unfocused gimmicky mess. Which is a shame, most of the mechanics have potential. Its just too much at once, and consequently the core gameplay suffers.
@@kakalukio Man, the way you describe it, it sounds like we played two different video games LOL We'll just have to agree to disagree here because Engage's core Fire Emblem gameplay is so good, and most of the maps are great
I made a comment earlier summing up my opinion, and it's a lot like this. They took everything great in the last title (class & weapon freedom), and instead of improving the flaws they threw 50% of it out for the sake of "new" which I didn't enjoy. The Rings were a hard requirement for the game and the new break mechanic changed the games pacing and play-style drastically. I play a counter attacker style with lots of heavies, mages, and the wyvern riders in the late game. Though with the way Engaged was designed, my playable was basically thrown out the window thanks to the break mechanic turning counter attacking / tanking into a useless play-style in favor of the notorious mounted unit spam of the "meta build's" of past games that was made even more prominent.
Honestly, the "rings" should have been limited to only a few unique characters instead of taking over the game by giving them to all units by default. Maybe a bond level requirement to use the rings power. Instead of getting the ability by equipping the ring.
Three houses is hard to beat. The concept of choosing house with different characters and personalities is just too good. It gives us more freedom on how do we want to build our team.
Something worth noting about why Three Houses and Engage are so different from each other is the fact that both games were developed at the same time, with 3H being made as the next bold, big chapter for the franchise, while Engage being a made as a "simpler" anniversary title. With that said, I think IS was also overseeing both radically different projects in order for them to see which one would appeal the most towards newcomers, since they also intended for both games to broaden their audience. It's pretty clear which of the two managed to capture most people's attention, so I'm very curious to see how they approach the next non-remake game whenever it comes out. I'm excited either way! Also really great video!
0:52-I guess that pretty much sums up all of the TH-cam band wagons that hate games like Dragon Age 2, Assassins creed 3, Final Fantasy 16, Dragon Age Inquisition, Assassins Creed Origins, Kingdom Hearts 3, Final Fantasy 10, Final Fantasy 12, Fire Emblem Awakening, Fire Emblem Fates, Jak 3, Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Arise, Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword and Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess.
2:40 - me! That’s me! I’m that person. Three houses was a fucking black hole that just consumed me. It was SO engrossing. And I’ve heard that Engage’s narrative just isn’t anything like three houses so I’m just skipping it exactly like you say others are.
The characters and gameplay drew me in, then the hidden lore made me a Three Houses fan for life. The deeper you go, the more intriguing it gets. My main complaint with Three Houses were the graphics and the grinding. I just wish every Fire Emblem game had a grinding area like The Sacred Stones had the Tower of Valni.
I haven't seen the video nor i will see it (?) But the title just made me think one thing, hope? As far as i remember no one expected anything from this game, i just feel that it was better than the general vibe for it was
_Hiya Papaya!_ Anyways, honestly? I haven't seen much talk around this game lately. Even Three Houses is more talked about (not counting Smash Bros. Of course. That is an interesting aspect as Engage doesn't have THAT kinda push lol)
Skirmishes dont make any sense in that game. Why didnt they cap the exp so your best units dont get too strong ? In Fates, the strongest units get only 1xp when they kill a weaker ennemy in dlc map, so it was ideal to improve your weaker units without hacking the game. It was something so easy to implement.
Engage is an incredibly solid game at its core held back by a few baffling design choices. You got most of them, but I wanted to throw in a few more personal bugbears: - I found the Somniel to be genuinely MORE pacebreaking than the monastery ever was, mainly because the fast travel system is way worse and the most important facilities are locked behind additional loading screens. - another reason the characters fail to shine: support ranks are the hardest to build that they've been since the GBA era, because units only gain support points when taking actions directly adjacent to each other. And yet they still included the same quantity of supports as the other modern games, which had a higher range for building support in battle AND way more methods for getting points out-of-battle. Hard to appreciate the character writing when it's literally impossible to see most of it in one playthrough. - and to add insult to injury, for the first time in series history the support log is TIED TO FUCKING INDIVIDUAL SAVE FILES, so if you want to see every support you need to complete multiple playthroughs all while remembering or writing down which supports you already got so you don't waste actions on building to conversations you've already seen! I swear it's like IS spent so long working on nothing but FEH that they forgot how to make games with decent UX.
This was a really well made video. I feel like this was made out of love for Engage, as it seems like you gave this game a fair shake, but had quite a few criticisms. I found myself thinking a lot of these things, in particular the ridiculous SP costs and the story's last-act stumble, on my playthrough. I appreciate that they were bold enough to try out new ideas and not just pander to new-time Three Houses fans, but it feels like this game was perfectly designed to alienate those fans as much as possible when this could have a been a perfect transition game from the relatively unique style of 3H to a more traditional FE experience.
for me, what went wrong was ultimately a lot of the weird character growths ( Clanne's base growth spread was something you would normally give to someone that's either going to be a Myrmidon or a Swordmaster) and overcomplicating things for the sake of it (Most notable in the changes to the weapon upgrade system and skill system. Though even the Farm suffers this because there's no reason to use anything but the dogs). With how gold was handled it also made you wary of grabbing any new weapons on a blind playthrough. All of this mixes for a rather poor experience It made the game feel way more overwhelming than it needed to be. Also for some reason sometimes doing a grinding encounter is *harder* than tackling the next story mission? Like what?
@@maziio646It's really subjective. As an older Fire Emblem player, I haven't loved and felt attached to an FE continent (Fódlan) since Elibe (FE6 and 7). I hated Awakening and Fates for their lack of character and world development so Three Houses was something I embraced. Then Engage comes along and brings back the aspects I hated from Fates and Awakening... Again, this is all very subjective. I just wish people would stop putting people as "old school fans hate Three Houses, loved Engage" and "Three Houses fans are all newcomers who don't appreciate the older titles." That's a return to the elitist drama from the days of the 3DS.
I personally thought that the lighthearted and goofy tone of Engage was refreshing, but i can totally understand being put off by after just playing three houses. It remains me of a similar situation with persona 3 and 4. Perhaps after a few years, people will come back and consider giving Engage another try, cause im having fun with it after not being able to get reinvested in the series for a while
Yeah I liked it too. After the first trailer I knew to not set my expectations into thinking it would be anything like 3Houses. I expected something similar to Shadow Dragon given it's more basic plot. I also didn't mind a lot of the characters. I liked a lot of them in fact. I'd say the only reason why people think the Engage case is so bland is because they don't invest too much in their supports to see them fleshed out more. As opposed to 3Houses where you pretty much straight into their depth at the start. Which did lead to people feel like it was a ton of trauma dumping. Saying that Byleth was more of their school therapist. I'd probably say I didn't mind the lighter tone Engage went for as I'm used to watching a lot of anime and tokusatsu aimed at kids. So this felt right up there. Even the Emblem role call at the end was very Super Sentai inspired. I do hope Engage is looked back on more fondly. Once we get 1 or 2 more entries it could happen. I know Awakening for a time was controversial and now is looked back on fondly. And it does look like people do love a good portion of the Engage cast given the latest CYL results in FEH.
One thing that really annoys me about this game is how it feels impossible to optimize and complete. The donations are way too expensive to benefit from all of them, the weapon forging is too expensive to give everyone the strongest version of the weapon they are using, and the skirmishes are so insanely hard that I'm barely able to beat them. The bond rings are so random and there are almost no good ones, and your SP gain is so slow it's impossible to give units the best version of a skill. All that combined made me feel pretty weak, and with the INSANE reinforcements this game has in the late game, I was just glad I beat it and thougt, there is no way a second playthrough will be easier with more experience and knowledge about the game, the game gives you nothing to optimize or whatever. Its just scraping by.
Alear is way better than Corrin. What made Corrin so bad is that despite being surrounded by objectively capable leaders, everyone put everything on Corrin for no believable reason and Corrin refused to change. To stop being naive and take the lives under their command seriously. At least Alear is willing to kill people without throwing a tantrum over the mere idea of death.
Looking back on it, it's a damn shame Engage got this reputation, because I really loved this game. Yes, it's simplistic, yes it had flaws, but I really didn't care; I was having fun. I kept assuming folks dunked on it because it wasn't like Three Houses. Ugh...😞 I do agree with the fact that it did a terrible job with straggling units catching up, and that we can't choose who to spar with in training.
@@EXchocothe people who obsessively defend Engage has twisted people's complaints of the game not being as good as 3 Houses as everyone who hates the game being people who only played 3 Houses and 'doesn't know what true Fire Emblem is really like' as if tge entire series consisted of Engage and Fates
@@ultimate9056 And that's ignoring the absolute fact that Engage doesn't need to be compared with 3 Houses to identify its problems, nor does it diminish how bad they actually are. But that's besides the point because it's still a Fire Emblem game, it can and should be compared to past entries. Otherwise it would be a completely different series.
@@EXchocoBut it IS as good as 3H overall, just in different ways. Engage has far better gameplay while 3H has a far better narrative. Nothing wrong with preferring one over the other, but Engage gets a lot of undue hate by people who were expecting something that Engage was never intended to be.
I don't think I can emphasize just how important other releases for the same console are. I would literally not be watching this video if Pokémon Sword and Shield hadn't been such horrible games. In 2019, I was torn between where to spend my limited money, the Good Old reliable Pokémon that was getting it's first mainline series game on a home console, or Fire Emblem. You know, the Smash Community's punching bag. Three Houses did caught my eye, with it's aethetic, music and concept, though I ultimetly decided that I was going to buy Sword and maybe the next year give Three Houses a shot. But then everything changed when E3 2019 rolled around. On one hand, Three Houses revealed the true nature of it's story, with Dimitri yelling "Kill every last one of them!" becoming a small meme. On the other hand, the Pokémon community was on fire because of Dexit. Needless to say, I went with Three Houses. 4 years later and here I am, finally trying Awakening and later on Fates. And also watching a video that really summarized why I I wasn't as excited for Engage like I was for Houses.
@@AkameGaKillfan777Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Defending Engage is just the reaction to 3 Houses fans criticizing it. Of course they’re gonna criticize 3 Houses.
I think it fell short because some just expectet FE16 2.0 while others still where stuck in their "Thracia good, everything after trash" mindset. If you give the game a chance, the story is not that good, but that didn't stop people from liking fates either, so why would it do here? Well because it isn't like FE16 and most fans of Fire Emblem came to the fandom through FE16. The combat of engage is actually amazing, and it is sad that people only seem to shit on the game. Fates combat was also very good when the story wasn't and people did not say "fates bad". Atleast not to the extend they do with engage. The mapdesign is also so much better as in FE16 for example, much more variety and more fun. They even fixed the dancer class again, that was completely useless in FE16. Besides the "classic Fire emblem" fans that dislike every new game after the 2000s, I think the negative mindset against engage comes from the fact that most of modern fire emblem fans aren't fire emblem fans, but just FE16 fans. And engage is amazing, but no FE16. (FE16 stands for Three Houses, for everyone that didn't know)
I think I came to the series first playing The Blazing Blade on an emulator. I then played Three Houses like 5 times and tried Heroes a few times (it’s not the greatest in my opinion but decent for a FE mobile game). I haven’t been too disappointed with Engage. You’re right, it’s no FE16 and the character interactions aren’t deep and everyone looks like a VTuber now, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad FE game. I picked it up because it was a new Fire Emblem and because Engage brought back something that FE16 left out: the weapon triangle.
For me I just didn't like the way the gameplay revolved around the emblems. Many people say the gameplay is the best in the series - but since I dislike the emblem system I just can't feel this way.
I feel like Intelligent Systems has a new black sheep. It’s a self-fulling prophecy of not giving the game the attention thus, giving players an excuse not to play and cycle continues.
But it is not as popular as Three Houses Not only would the Geoneology/Thracia Remake be like 3H but the next Non-Remake game as well Engage is not getting a Dynasty Warrior Spinoff like 3H did
@@nuibaba280it sold decently for the corporate perspective. From a franchise perspective though it's a flop much like how Echoes reached its targets but was one of the worst selling FE games
@@nuibaba280 Because Echoes released at the end of the 3DS's lifespan, was barely promoted, was a remake of the franchise's then-black sheep: Gaiden, and even then it sold higher than expected. Engage meanwhile peaked in the first couple months and didn't sell enough for Nintendo's liking despite being heavily promoted, being a de facto anniversary game, being released in the prime of the lifespan on Nintendo's best-selling home console and the third highest-selling console of all time behind only the DS & PS2 *and* having a spin-off manga in Weekly Shonen Jump: the most successful manga publisher in the world.
I don’t enjoy the gameplay that much and can’t really tell why. I’ll just say I still find the lack of any kind of ng+ baffling, as you seem to suggest. And yes the visuals are a big turn off to me. I can appreciate they’re targeting younger people who like this newer anime style but it’s just not for me.
Probably the lack of class freedom, and the way the games new combat system forces you into an offensive focused play-style to force the combat to be quicker.
I'm with you. After early game, the gameplay slowly becomes more and more of a drag. By late game it is a snooze fest packed with reinforcement infested maps. The constant routine of the somniel is also a huge drag, after every battle you always have to spend at least 10 minutes there. You can skip it, sure but you'd be missing out on a ton of bonuses.
Because when you look at everything in the game besides the Emblems, it's either downgraded, or removed. Support Points are only built on Player Phase. The class system is just a weaker version of Awakening's where you can't transfer skills between classes. Skirmishes are completely random and you can't scout them out for Gold or even just get a preset amount between Chapters. The accessory shop requires Gold and forging materials to buy outfits from, and they don't show up outside of the Somniel. Meals are always force-fed to your units and it's a lot more random on how they'll turn out. The SP mechanic only exists to turn people into Heroes players, which disgusts me. This game reminds me of something TheMysteriousMrEnter said when he was talking about Spongebob and Rocket Power, on why he likes the former but not the latter, which I can also apply to both FE Switch titles: games like 3 Houses create culture. Games like Engage don't, they leech off of it.
Dialogue in this game is usually awkward unintentionally and it harms moments where thing are supposed to be awkward. Celine and Etie’s C support is a good example of that as while they TRY to portray Etie as out of her element it’s less effectively portrayed due to this game ALREADY having awkward dialogue that’s supposed to seem natural.
Like a few others I became heavily interested in FE when Awakening was released. The story line and gameplay were amazing, as well as the support conversations. Every character had their story. Fates did as well and then Three Houses really set the bar high. Engage wasn't interesting like the others. The storyline was muddied and the characters didn't have a story. The only thing I enjoyed was being able to have extra boosts with whatever ring is chosen. I hope they release another FE game that was even better than 3H. Until then I wish they would make fates and awakening for switch. I miss being able to turn Corrin into a dragon.
Honestly it gets a lot of hate, but I genuinely adore the story to bits and Alear has kind of become my favorite lord in the series, something Roy held for the longest time. It's a shame it's generally pretty trashed on in a lot of circles, but as a result the actual fanbase I've been around for it is really cozy and positive, so I guess it works out for me personally at least.
Its a great game but the few things thats holding back to being my favorite game is replay value, like im kinda baffled that there no new game+ which three houses had and it made me wanted to keep playing it. Also not being able to change outfits outside of the somniel is also dumb and huge missed opportunity.
As someone who interacted constantly with the main community, Fodlan's community, and Engage's community. You're right, I met some very open minded and fun people. Fodlan's community consists of a lot of annoying dour people that'll actively trash you for the route you chose, figures that a lot of the more annoying people I met post-Engage were 3H diehards.
I like so little about this game that it's legitimately the only Fire Emblem game that I fully dislike. But that is okay! Not every game in a series has to cater to my specific needs. I despised the story for it's cliches and wonky writing, but that sort of thing could just be what someone looks for in this type of game. I don't like the game, but that doesn't mean it doesn't deserve it's fans.
As a major fire emblem fan, I didn't pick it up because of the art direction, characters, and overall tone. I love the artist's work, especially on bae from hololive, but I don't like it in a fe world (why does celica look like strawberry shortcake). For me if I'm not drawn to a game's aesthetic, characters, and world, I don't even care to look into the gameplay and story. Not to mention, after awakening dlc, feh, and the og warriors, I'm really sick of them bringing up past characters 24/7 and I'm tired of avatar/god protagonists.
*Honestly, the issue I have with Avatar protagonists is that they never do it right.* Let me pitch an idea to make my point, and you tell me if it sounds better or worse than the FE (self-inserts). Here is what I think would make for a better Main Character concept and story outline for a self-insert character. **-** Instead of being an amnesiac, you as the MC get summoned from another world. *(Overused? Sure, but better than amnesia. It would justify the MCs initial state of disbelief / confusion)* **-** The MC would be summoned as a result of a prophesy that foretells of a hero with the power to alter the tide of a war that has lasted 2 generations without end. *(The trope would justify why some characters in the setting would (have faith or doubt) you.)* **-** However, the other kingdom hears about this prophesy and their best warriors take a risk to fight their way into the citadel where the summoning happens. In order to try and convince you to leave with them instead. *(The MC would not have enough information at the time to know what each side is fighting for yet, so the player gets to decide without bias who to trust.)* **-** Before you decide, your heroic / divine power reveals itself chaotically which causes the citadel to start crumbling. With the faction you pick being the ones who reach you first and escape. *(Justifying future character conflicts without either side knowing the choice you were going to make since the cutscene would show a character of that faction reaching you first in the chaos.)* **-** This would begin your story in the war, with you learning about and fighting with the side you initially chose. The other sides characters would be conflicted by the idea you have been brainwashed by lies. Which presents an option half way through to switch sides at a critical choice, or join a third faction in the war that reveals itself once both sides are weakened. *(Allowing you to bring over some faction exclusive characters you bonded with to the side you switch too.)* This offers: - Player Freedom - Faction Choice - Nuanced Plot / Intrigue - Conflicted Characters All that would need to happen is to create the reason for the war before the player arrived, the themes of each faction, and the character designs.
@@nickcalderon2637 That's a bit like saying a car and a tank are the same because they both can be driven. The mobile "heroes" plot is far more shallow because it's a low effort mobile game that sells gatcha mechanics instead of selling people on its story.
@@techpriest6962 I'm referring to the premise of the Avatar Protagonist being Isekaied essentially, that's what the Summoner is. Should've made that clear, my apologies.
@@nickcalderon2637 No worries, but yes it's more or less using the isekai idea since that is what FE feels like it wants to do, (but doesn't commit to) in its Avatar protagonist titles.
I don't know if anyone will agree with me on this but god damn it Diamant was robbed from a good game. I say this as someone who has played Conquest and wished that Xander was the main character instead of Corrin. This is essentially the third time (that includes 3 Houses) where I felt another character should have been the protagonist over the avatar and it's sad to think that this will more than likely be the only game Diamant is in. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me THREE TIMES....God damn it Diamant deserved better. I'm still salty about this after beating the game by the way. He was literally the closest thing to an Ike like character we had in years....uuugghh....
@@EXchoco What ACTUALLY went wrong? The honest truth is pretty ugly. The Short Version: Nintendo put a New developer as the lead for the game who had no experience. A basic "Yes Man" who likes action games and not turn based tactics games, and was heavily influenced by Nintendo wanting to aim for a New Younger Audience which meant dumbing down the game, and making it flashier. The Long Version: If you read the "Ask the Developers" interviews that were released. The guy in charge (Tsutomu Tei), had never been a director of a game at IS before, and seemingly never discusses having any previous experience working on a FE game. So while I can't say what his previous role was, if any, it doesn't seem to be significant enough to mention in his bio. I'd link the Nintendo article, but TH-cam is pretty finicky with links these days. (Typing Ask the Developer Vol. 8, Fire Emblem Engage Part 1, 2, and 3 should get you too it) If anything, just someone picked by Nintendo to lead the development. Listening to the other two employees of Nintendo that were in the interview. Tei and the two mention wanting to "appeal to a broader audience" and saying that RPG mechanics such as the Awakening / Fates marriage system took too long to play out in the game. According to them it "wan't fun" so they developed the Emblem Ring idea instead. With the goal of intruding the "fun elements" early on. I'll quote the Nintendo stooge "Higuchi: We wanted to introduce this fun element for players as early as possible. I felt that the fun of tactical RPG games wasn't as intuitive or immediate as that of action games." So basically you had Nintendo heavily influencing the game with employees who were more interested and familiar with Action games than tactics RPGs. Then from the games IS developer, "Tei: People often say that turn-based tactical RPGs seem difficult or too complicated... In fact, I’m not very good at them myself." Take of that what you will, I take it as even the new IS dev wasn't interested in making a Tactics game. Just taking orders and advice from his Nintendo handlers. "Tei: We had several candidates. We were looking for an artist whose design style would appeal to a broad audience - including younger players - as well as the ability to portray a variety of characters. Among the candidates, Mika Pikazo-san's drawings were colorful, vivid, and really popped! They were a perfect fit for the flashy direction we wanted for this title." So from that we can see the "broader audience" meant appeal to children. In spite of marketing toward long time fans, which makes no sense since new players and young players would not get any of the references. So basically they tried to do both and focused on the younger new audience by lying to the older one. As it would seem, the games development and design was all over the place. Trying to create a game for a new younger audience, while throwing a bone to the old players to make it seem like they were not being abandoned when they were. As for another section about their Artist choice that influenced the game in a bad way. "Tei: Well, I thought it'd be better to be upfront about the request. That said, there was one concern she had. Since she usually draws young characters, she was concerned about her confidence level in some of the character design." So to answer why all the characters were loli or V-tuber style. It's because that's the only style the artist knew, and he went with it. Also, it also turns put it was her idea to make toothpaste-chans hair color red and blue. As before Tei just went with whatever he was told, advised, or requested. From everything I have read, Tei should never be in charge of any product. Unless he was specifically chosen because he just follows orders and has no skill as a leader or director. "Tei: As I mentioned at the beginning, I'm not very good at strategy games myself, so during development, I hoped to create a game that even those like me would want to try out or find interesting."
I felt that Engage had, overall, much better map design, but overall it wasn't nearly as strong as FE3H. The soundtrack wasn't nearly as good as any other games in the last decade. The characters were hit and miss, but i though it was similar to others in the series.
The music being really disappointing was the biggest suprise for me. I started FE back in 2016 with Fates, beat the other 3DS titles, 3 Houses and Warriors: 3 Hopes, and they have some of my favorite songs in ALL of gaming, right up there with Sonic and Bayonetta. Even the Rogues and Redeemers 3 DLC battle in Awakening and Vanguard Dawn DLC battle in Fates which I know directly reference past games have pretty good music. When I started playing Echoes, I immediately recognized Celica's battle theme because I listened to the remix of it in Super Smash Bros Brawl so many times, so the remixes don't fall short either. Engage is just uninteresting and unfitting nearly every step of the way. The early game battle theme I think sounds like Harry Potter music. The 4 Hounds themes are the Time Eater from Sonic Generations mixed with falling metal pipes. Alear becoming an Emblem reminds me of High School Graduation. The final map theme is just a LOOOOONG intro with some of the most awkward vocals I've ever heard, in any song, not just video games, and I hate the guitar. The end credits just make me feel hollow and indifferent rather than satisfied or relieved. The characters are about the same as Fates, and to a lesser extent Awakening, but Echoes and 3 Houses absolutely did better with them(Raphael and Hilda are exceptions, NOT the rule)
I think the game was solid. But definltey a NG+ would have being nice, and it seems like there are lots of cut content. Lets just hope one day theres going to be a FE game where the devs get to do what they want and not be limited by nitendo policies
at a buffet, i personally sneak corndogs into the buffet so others can enjoy them. I hide 6 corndogs in my jacket pockets. it then, is a joy for me to see other patrons of the establishment eat my corndogs thinking they were part of the buffet.
I hate to be that guy, but Engage’s gameplay really wasn’t that good. If it was people would come back to it, but they haven’t. Maps aren’t that good, they suffered from Hector Hard mode deployments, and once you get Corrin map design goes out the window. Lategame becomes an unfun slog of endless reinforcements. Break is a poor version of the weapon triangle, I’d rather have no weapon triangle than break. Rings kill any sense of unit identity. And speaking of units, Engage has the worst balance sense Radiant Dawn. Why use Alear’s cheerleaders, the Firenese (except Chloe) and the Brodians (except Yunaka), when the Elusians and the Solmians outclass them in every way imaginable.
Right like..all of the FE streamers quickly stopped streaming the game citing low views. Idk just something that suggests to me a lot of people don’t find the gameplay very enjoyable.
I appreciate your attempt at constructive criticism, but it’s far more than Engage deserves. It was an attempt to see how little effort IS could put in to sell a Fire Emblem game. It somehow does what Fates did, but even worse. That tells me that IS thinks it’s playerbase are a bunch of mindless consumers who will buy something because Marth is in it. It shows that they think so little of this fanbase. And that’s insulting. Engage deserves the dog piling and it deserves to fade into obscurity. They just didn’t try. It’s like trying to give criticism of a live action Disney remake. Yeah, it is technically the fair thing to do, but what’s the point, when it was meant only to be a product pushed out as fast as possible in a desperate attempt to bring in a “new generation” and appease shareholders and executives.
Thank you for this. It truly does feel like Engage did the bare minimum to try and make a quick buck rather than using their resources to try and make a game that connects fans of story and gameplay alike.
Fates' stuff was way worse and the way it blew up the fanbase 10x harder was a testament to that. You can't look the game and its graphics and say it didn't try, it just went in a direction you disagreed with that's all. It happens.
@@nuibaba280 You do realize that both Engage and Fates the same issues of having good gameplay but poorly executed characters and story. Honestly, it's okay to critique a game on its shortcomings
@@eternaldarklight8204 Engage had way better characters than Fates, Alear wasn't nearly as insufferable as Corrin. The community reception supports my point. The hate Fates got makes Engage look like a fan favorite in comparison lol.
The game feels like the designers had so many ideas, but nobody was around to rein them in to make a coherent whole. Now, a year later, the game is mostly forgotten, which is in some ways the worst possible thing for a project. Especially considering that this game's characters and gimmicks are clearly intended to be as attention-catching as possible.
The game isn't widely forgotten. There's still lots of people hating it and fans that enjoy it. Engage gets lots of new art and fan content everyday with hundreds or thousands of likes.
Ur right, ppl who became a fan thru three houses, was let down by engage. If they just push forward with the concepts and mechanics of TH for the next game it would bring more interest
Exactly, 3H did in fact improve on certain aspects of previous games, most especially the class abilities and combat arts, and the new things it tried could easily be improved in future entries. Engage decided to throw just about everything I liked about Awakening, Fates, 3H and even a small bit of Echoes out the window and replace it with something worse, or nothing at all. "Best gameplay in the series" my ass 🙄
Yeah please no. I rather have them improve on Engage's gameplay with a straight forward story like Echoes, FE7 or whatever. If you want 3H again read Otome Visual Novels.
I feel like Nintendo didn’t put too much effort to commercialize this game. When I first saw it I thought it was a fire emblem side game kind of like a warrior game. It really turned me off even though the game turned out to be a mainline game
Like I always say: Too much cash grab games kill the cash grab game so too bad that the Fire Emblem serie have follow the same path of the Pokemon serie by release almost every years one game on Switch with 6 Fire Emblem games with somes classic games, warriors games, a crossover game and a anniversary game in 7 years so, just like Pokemon, one day or another one the Fire Emblem serie would end up to become a failure when we see how bad look Engage when we check all those review from people who buy Engage and feel disapoint and hate it but, unlike Pokemon who belong to Gamefreak / Pokemon Compagnies, you can blame Nintendo to have cause the failure of Engage by mainly care for cash grab games who are very popular in Japan with 6 Kirby games, 6 Fire Emblem games and a lot of old succeed video game port from previous console to the Switch like Luigi's Mansion 2 from 3DS or Paper Mario TTYD who are one of those most popular games from the 3DS and GCN instead take some years for do a game in good quality. And meanwhile, since 7 years, we still waiting for somes true others game less popular in Japan on the Nintendo Switch like Star Fox and Kid Icarus who don't have anything or a remake/remaster game, just 2 Metroid games with no life sound anymore about Prime 4 since 7 years, just one Rom Hack about F-Zero from SNES to Switch with 99 players instead to made a new 3D HD modern game, one new Animal Crosssing, just a Wii U port of Donkey Kong Country but no new fresh Donkey Kong game about DK be playable as the main protagonist and, now I talked about Mario previously, it's funny to mention that the only thing we get for the Mario Kart serie was just a Wii U port from 2014 about Mario Kart 8 but no real new fresh Mario Kart game despite it supposed to be one new fresh game per console but never a old Mario Kart game port from previous console to a next console with a hight price like if Nintendo didn't want spend too much money for made new stuff. It doesn't give you envy to buy the next Nintendo console due to the lazyness from Nintendo if they gonna just release a lot of old success video game port and a lot of cash grab games while they don't will care for their others series on their next consoles.
mechanically and visually it was astounding but the story was just incredibly mid tier. it's passable sure but it felt kind of bland. My favorite fire emblem story was definitely the telius games
It also didn't help that the characters all didn't look like they belonged to an army.
That's the case for like, every FE Game. You're telling me that it's standard wear for mages to wear skin tight see through outfits?
If we compared the older games where most are wearing not bright as hell clothing and wear more armor then yes I would think so, awakening is a good example.@@ShursGarden
@@rockowlgamer631 Again, Tharja and Nowi exist. Also bright as hell clothing was the norm in the GBA era.
@@ShursGarden tharja makes sense cause of the fact she used to belong to the grima cult and since she's in the desert she wears light clothing. Though black probably not the best idea.
Nowi I don't know why they made her outfit so skimpy considering she looks like a loli. Young Tiki wear more appropriate attire than she does.
And also the fact that the characters talk like it's the 21st century. I kid you not, Fogado says "bamboozled" in one of his supports.
The character designs are so goofy. There's no way I'll play this game featuring toothpaste chan
I think Engage could've benefit a lot from having a NG+ considering how build-heavy it is; definitely would've given it more replayability. I always found it puzzling how it wasn't ever added, especially when 3H had it.
Because in FE, building the unit is part of the gameplay and 3h simply recognized they made a boring system and even they recognized it'd be cruel to force players to grind again.
I think I'd love if it took the Fates route of NG+, where it's not really an NG+ but after you beat the game you can save a character's set and buy from it cheaper than normal.
They even handled dlc better when u beat cindered shadows you permanently unlock the ashen wolves. Fell xenolouge you have to play it again to re unlock the winds and Nel.
It's so jarring, it's just a feature you'd expect now, and would come in handy in a game like this
I want to start over and try out different builds and shit, please
@@marcoasturias8520 Engage is the game whose unit building requires grinding in the donation mechanic, SP, bond fragments etc. 3H you will get there without going out of your way so long as you have the path in mind as you play. In that way building the unit is much more tied into the gameplay in 3H. I and many others never get "bored" of it.
One thing I'd like to add is that the lack of paired endings that aren't with Alear only made things worse.
Because of this, each character other than Alear only have two endings. Something that CERTAINLY doesn't help Alfred.
And this ALSO reduces the replay value, once you notice how Alear's endings are rather similar to Robin and Corrin in that it's basically "Alear ruled happily ever after, and they did something with their spouse." compared to some of the more elaborate endings that Byleth has, such as "Jeritza confessed to Byleth while the two were raiding Those Who Slither in the Dark" and other such things.
I mean, if there was a variety of paired endings, players would be all "Oh, so pairing Alfred up with Yunaka actually prevents his death, but his pairing with Veyle does not, let's see what happens if he ends up with Hortensia." and play the game many times.
Engage doesn't even allow Alear to be a spouse with anyone strangely enough! Every S rank is meant to be a "symbol of mutual support and trust," so you can blame the localization team for that one, but to be fair. I don't like the idea of Alear marrying a character from this game anyway because they outlive everyone by like a thousand years.
Also, characters like Diamant deserve better than her. Totally on the Diamant X Ivy ship train because at least you could build a better story and do interesting things with the world around that concept.
@@binxthebinx6575 Wait, Treehouse friendzoned Alear with *EVERYONE?!!* I thought it was just *SOME* units.
Yeah, screw this game. I'm selling off my unopened copy ASAP.
Maybe we DO need Child Units to make sure that Treehouse doesn't pull off moves like this.
@lunatic0verlord10 No wait, save your copy! Nintendo is stopping production on physical Engage cartridges(along with other switch games), it might be worth some money later since it was only out for a year.
@@binxthebinx6575 Well, I guess an unopened copy of a game, no matter how worthless the game is, is still worth a lot after a while.
I guess I could get more money from it than what I paid for, if I'm patient.
@@lunatic0verlord10Actually no, there are still some unambiguously romantic ones there. The other person was just exaggerating.
I actually wanna know what happened, I haven’t heard people talk about this game in a while, if at all since it released
Its kind of a one and done. The dlc was done poorly And its horribly imbalanced. The base game is good, but the characters 'traits' are cranked up to 11. The gameplay is good, but when theres support convos you skip because you just cant stand that character..its not great. No replayability at all really unless you wanna mess with builds....the mechanics are cool, though you kinda need to have background knowledge on the rings to get the whole idea. This game was meant to be an anniversary one that got delayed and it definetly seems like it.
@@BARadiantDawnFor me the characters are good and the supports make them more likeable. I think some of them have to go really deep to actually see how well they’re written as characters.
The gameplay and map design is great, and I think the gimmicks make it fun. There’s a lot of replayability with experimenting with character combinations, classes, and emblems.
It’s up to people’s opinion, so I can respect if someone doesn’t enjoy the gimmicks or characters
@@codytoeung5089 i like the rings and how they function, not gonna lie, clanne and frammes 'omega fan club' turned me away from them completely where all i can hear is fanboy/girl moments. Some characters i like, but some have their one trait wayyyyyyyy amplified to the point of being annoying. I still enjoy playing the game, but moreso for gameplay
Lots of games you can change classes, but apart from that theres no replayability. Lots of games have either a stellar story you want to play and hear again and again, or route splits for replayability
@@BARadiantDawn Honestly I think the foreshadowing made it fun to go through the second time. I really didn’t care for the story a second time aside from that, I just really enjoyed playing through with more experience with the game and trying new stuff. There are different aspects that make games replayable to others. Ironically despite the different routes, 3H is hard to go through a second time because of the length of preskip and the monestery
Clanne and Framme definitely are benches for me. They do get good supports but they really are some of the less interesting characters
I also think that a lot of the depth that these characters have isn't that deep.
Celine doesn't need to be so obsessed with tea to have "I use tea breaks as my only escape" be a character moment---if anything it's over played to the point that it undercuts the moment as a character beat by portraying Celine as a dillitente who we're supposed to see as otherwise due to support exposition.
Edelgard actually had that exact same "tea breaks are a rare escape from my duties" character moment that Celine has and the fact that tea breaks *aren't* her defining character trait makes her comments on how much she values them do far more for her character than the same information did for Celine.
Oh yeah that’s very true. I can see a few other similar traits between those 2 as well, even other than the tea thing
I feel like a lot of the "depth" Engage characters feels less like a natural part of the characters and more of a "quick, we need to explain why we're doing this single character trait to death". Alear's lore "justification" for that blacklist-worthy design as well as the protagonist worship falls into this boat as well.
The media illiterate in the FE fanbase (which is quite a large portion, and an even larger portion of Engage defenders) seem to think that a character having some "reason" for a shitty characterization somehow redeems it, when in reality it just makes it more insulting.
It's about the depth of an average FE character but keep singling out Engage for series wide tropes lol.
@nuibaba280 yeah I wonder why I'm talking specifically about engage in the comments section of a video that's specifically about engage?
@@arglebargle5531 Your criticism is dishonest and makes zero sense. People say these characters have depth for the standards of FE chars lmao.
NG+ was really needed to make Engage better. To carry over bond rings, sp, inherited skills. Let there be unlimited access to seals from the start to really get into some weird builds (like Clanne being intended for a physical build but starting as a mage and not getting access to a second seal to respec him until chapter 9)
Yeah, no NG+ makes me really not want to replay it
@@rhettmitchellI replayed it, and it is such a pain not having a NG+ when it really needed it. I played normal the first time and hard the 2nd. It’s annoying to get levels and increase bond ranks when skirmishes are too difficult on hard. I only got through bc I used the training skirmishes which gives bonus exp for surviving units and you don’t lose anymore if they “die” in training skirmishes
That's actually a negative for me in the Fodlan games. New game + existed because the game technically branched since chapter 1 but at the same time it just served to further highlight how much the maps are reused. It didn't help that you could easily just recruit everyone, therefore removing all the weight of fighting most of the former classmates.
On top of that, you can't really blaze through the maps to get to the actual new content in Part 2 because of Fire Emblem's mechanics. Add the fact that I played all four routes on release, replayed Crimson Flower for the DLC and did a sixth run to see the Ashen Wolves' conversations and I never wanted to see the monastery again.
Three Hopes is not much better, as it separates the sidequests into each of their routes. With how Gatekeeper's sidequest is only available on a third cycle and Arval's is only available on a bad ending route after you get a good ending on a previous cycle, that means that you must beat at least *six cycles* to 100% the game. Given I had my first run I went for the bad ending intentionally because it'd be easier and on my fourth I went for that run's good ending and didn't know about this requirement, I felt like having to arbitrarily beat the game three more times was too much and quit.
The weirdest part is that you have an online profile that records your stats... but if you wanna try a new build you have to make a new save file and reset your profile... like gurl??
And yet most players, me included, enjoyed 3H and ThreeHps much more than Engage
No one in Foldlan is as boring and unmemorable as Bunet. The writing and some of the things the Engage characters say are child-like
After the realism and in-depth character stories of Three Houses, people expected something like that again.
We instead got Colgate MC, one of the worse stories so far where everyone legit worships your MC [who is portrayed as a coward for some reason] and this odd anime aesthetic that just doesn't look very good.
If we're being absolutely fair, I think we're being a little bit too kind to other Fire Emblem Games that we end up being harsher on engage. One of the worst is.... tough to say. Give it time. Like wait until two games later and you'll begrudgingly admit it wasn't that bad but still pretty bad.
It's kindof a "one step forward two steps behind" type of thing. For example, Fire Emblem Awakening was good and there was a really neat Time Travel plot, you got to marry off your characters, etc. etc. Fates Overcorrected by having kids in the babymaking deeprealms. The DLC was also pretty nonsensical, Corrin was about as interesting as watching grass grow, and the choice of choosing between your adopted and your real family was totally negated by the fact that Corrin isn't even the biological brother.
People hated it distinctly because the people felt more like, Anime-OCs rather than actual soldiers which is the same complaint that Engage had gotten. Thats an odd thing to hear seeing how Engage made deviant-art oc's but comparatively they all really did look too anime.
When Engage came out i kinda expected it would try to overcorrect what made three houses good. This always happens, the next game will probably be better.
Experimentation isn't really incentivised because of how promotions work so playthroughs feel kinda samey. Also some maps can feel pretty tedious IF you don't intentionally use warp skip mechanics. But warp skipping is efficient but hardly fun.
Also the emblem ring roulette the game does at various points some how feel even worse (to me) than radiant dawn's infamous availability issues.
Something funny (though quite messed up) about this, is that while Engage was hurted by the pandemic, I think Three Houses was actually HELPED by the pandemic (though, TH would have being more succesful regardless of the circunstances)
I'm intrigued with what the future of the franchise will bring, considering the boons and flaws of Three Houses and Engage.
I bet the next non-remake game will be more like the Foldlan games but with improvements
I share your view. I only picked up 3 houses when I was looking for new games to play during the boring pandemic and fell in love with it
3H could've used one more year of development honestly. I love 3H but i always feel like it's missing something; the battle animations could've use more variety, flashing out VW route more and not making it a slightly different copy of SS, their scrappes ideas like revealing Claude's true identity, etc.
Engage could've hire a better writer, it's all. And maybe art director.
@@raviolibirb8009the person who wrote engage wrote awakening and fates before, so by that fact you can tell the quality of it lol, I know it's basically impossible by this point but I'd like the next game to be rid of avatars and bring back a traditional lord as the protagonist
A major problem I had with Engage is how the setting of Elyos never felt grounded or believable. The problem stems from the complete lack of any medieval drama theming the series is known for. Things you expect to see in JRPG's such as in depth worldbuilding, factions, and interesting characters with meaningful goals like in 3 houses is left superficial in Engage in favor of recycling outdated FE tropes. Another strange thing about Engage is the character designs. As many people point out the characters have too many tacky elements like Yunaka's star ornaments and combine with each characters motivation/backstory being hidden in supports, it's hard to form a connection.
Ironically the character I ended up liking the most is Alear herself due to her quirky lord design, voice acting, and dorky support moments that made her stand out from the rest of the boring cast. It's a shame she's in a boring game for Alear has great potential. Hopefully IS can learn better story telling from other franchises like Triangle Strategy and Octopath in the future.
Oh bull shit. Alear is in not a bad character but he is your typical dime a dozen anime protagonist compared to the rest of the cast.
@@MichaelJones-rz5sw If Alear is a dime a dozen, the rest of the cast are crypto currency, bitcoin, and NFTs
@@AkameGaKillfan777 What an idiotic dishonest comparison.
But still here’s what I want for the next fire emblem game on the switch to comes out. I expect that with a new engine they should move over to the unity engine or the unreal engine because the idea is that fire emblem should go in a different direction this time go with a fusion between Xenoblade Chronicles and Warhammer but the art style reminiscent of order Xenoblade chronicles games, Xenoblade 1 and Xenoblade x art style put the filter would be akin to dune in the game should take place on the planet of Bashtar. Here is synopsis.
Melange, an unknown substance that could dramatically advance human society. In the past, this substance caused a cosmic catastrophe on planet Bashtar that engulfed the
surrounding star systems, and eventually its very existence was lost. Decades later, the Melange reaction was confirmed again on planet Bashtar. In search of the
unknown substance that should have been lost, various speculations begin to swirl. Various parties are getting involved; The government, corporations, cultists, and unknown
mercenaries... The protagonist is one of them.
The game is going to be an action, RPG, akin to Diablo and will have that lets you move around an
overwhelmingly scaled map that represents a unique sci-fi world with dynamic and fast pace action
I don’t like seeing Engage’s story get compared to 3H when 3H is more complex than most FE stories to begin with. I’d rather it be compared to the broad series as a whole, where it still falls a bit short in complexity but nowhere near as badly
Bruh they were promoting Pepsi instead of coke! It’s not that deep!☠️
Pepsi superior
Personally I think a longer game with ng+ would have helped with the narrative. Take the tutorial chapters and replace them with some moments from the previous war to build up Alear and Lumeria's relationship, while also establishing later character motivations for the zephia. I would also liked to have some paralouges for the supporting cast to expand on relationships.
How did I not notice it was precisely the CYL1 winners on the intro?
Hearing a lot of your criticisms makes me feel so validated in having many of the same criticisms
Many people are deeply critical of the game, but the YT algorithm deranks videos / channels that release negative content about products.
TH-cam's algorithm is biased in favor of "hype" and promoting products as its buisness model to advertisers. The viewers and content creators are the product for TH-cam to sell.
Yeah I have a lot of the same criticisms too, but I feel like a lot of people let those negatives affect their enjoyment of the game way more than it did for me. I still really enjoyed the gameplay and a lot of the characters, bc I’m able to laugh at the silliness and eventually get to the deeper stuff. I do wish there was more of that though. But it was still overall kinda disappointing after what we had with the last game. It doesn’t help even if only playing/replaying for the gameplay either, when NG+ doesn’t even exist, so it’s impossible to try new builds until you’re like 3/5 through the game again
@@techpriest6962 I find that hard to believe since I've gotten more positive videos of Paper Mario: Sticker Star recommended to me, and that's FAR more hated than Engage.
@@techpriest6962You’re joking right? The algorithm goes for thumbnails first, and negative videos about Engage always use eye-catching thumbnails
@@AkameGaKillfan777agree. Sticker star was a disaster. Engage at least has good gameplay but the flaws are not avoidable cause it’s a constant complaint from the majority. Boring story boring characters questionable choices (like not being to transfer skill), weird artstyle, no game plus and a bad dlc
Engage, Engage, Engage… a mixed bag is certainly the best way to describe it. There’s a lot of stuff I like, but there’s a lot of stuff I don’t. While it makes strides in its gameplay, it’s main story writing ranges from surprisingly solid to fairly dull to infuriatingly stupid. It’s funny that this game was meant to bring in a new generation of fans, when we just had that happen in Three Houses, while the more orchestrated attempt to do that failed in comparison.
It failed on both regards. It excels in gameplay but fails in the rest. It’s a game where it’s very hard to recommend. I’m more inclined to recommend newcomers to 3H cause it feel like it will be more ironically engaging and they will probably have a lot more fun with the world building
The only surprisingly solid part of the writing was the Brodia arc (at least for me anyway and most people I have seen online agree.) After the retreat map, Engage is pretty infamous for having an absolutely terrible third act. The worst in the whole entire series. If I knew then what I knew now. I would tell my friends to buy Engage, beat chapter 10 or 11, then go back to GameStop and get your money back. You can do it in a day if you speedrun, no one should have to commit to $60 if the first tenish hours of the game (really fourish if you only count the Brodia arc) is the most competently written part out of a 100+ hour game. I would never wish that even on my worst enemies.
@@binxthebinx6575oh god chapter 10 and 11 was a pain in the ass. You lose basically all progress with the rings since you lose them and what’s worse is you get use to the mechanic and just to have it be taken away is frustrating even worse is how limited you are for the rest of the game
@@Yoshixandir Implementing that in chapter 10 was the DUMBEST thing IS could have done. The game already doesn't do a good job with teaching new players how to reclass. Hell, I have been playing FE for YEARS and I had to restart my third run of the game because I didn't understand that reclassing involves gaining those proficiencies from certain emblems.
It was already needlessly complicated for a VETERAN PLAYER! Now Imagine you have enough understanding to build your team...and then your rings get taken away and you can't finish what you were doing (or it will talk longer depending on what ring you get next.)
See, this is why I feel even the gameplay can be waaaay too overhyped. The only thing I can say about the emblem rings is that they're fun to use...that's it, and Alears ring just...fricken breaks the game on any difficulty. To me, Engage is easy on any setting, but again, I have been playing for years and hard mode felt like normal mode to me. Same with maddening where it felt more like hard mode in the past few FE game...
@@binxthebinx6575yes to this.
When I saw the leaks, especially Alear's design, I thought "No, that can't be it. It must be bait". And I was wrong. I was willing to overlook the designs before playing the game until I experienced it first-hand. I mean, I like the gameplay, the freedom in customising units, and the animations, but the rest is eh
Character designs are sometimes too busy and with unnecessary details. Did Yunaka need all those stars? How about Hortensia and that clown outfit? Awakening, Fates, and 3H had "simple", yet memorable designs AND decent personalities and backstories to carry the character if design alone was not enough. Severa's appearance, for example, is pretty plain, but was beloved enough to appear in two games. 3H, with all its gameplay issues, is being discussed to this day because of the plot, setting, and characters. Engage's main plot can be summarised by "Gather the rings, make allies, and defeat the evil dragon who's actually your father"
There's no way you're gonna say Fates had decent personalities but not Engage lmao. Please don't tell me you believe that.
I think the final shift was a big reason for me, three houses was my first game and I loved the thrones/Harry potter feel to it. Then I saw engage and I didn’t have any nostalgia for the past heroes and the art style wasn’t my vibe
I really like this video. It doesn't just throw critique after critique while ignoring the positives, but actually delves into the struggles associated with the game that lead to the fanbase becoming so divided on engage.
The character design + coming off of a game where the story was strong. Engage has a better gameplay, but everything else falls short
If anything the most fun I had with Engage was building up my units with strong skills and class set ups. Just wish to plot wasn’t so forgettable. But I’ll give credit where it’s due it’s better than Fates conquests writing.
Almost anything is better than fates writing ironically i think that saves fates a bit it’s bad but we remember it. Engage is forgettable like even outside the game people don’t even talk about a lot. The only meme that has come is toothpaste Chan. In the others there was tons of outside fan engagement but with engage it’s kinda of dry
I’m not sure I agree with the idea of Alear being a well-written protagonist, especially considering that they couldn’t commit to him being scared of the Corrupted early on (which I guess comes down to Nintendo telling IS to not make Alear *too* cowardly). If anything, the lack of being able to commit to narrative beats carries over into the overarching issue with the writing of the game. I’m mostly referring to how they were building up the importance of family for the duration of the story, only to drop it in the final act. Even the Corrupted Alear & Emblem Alear concepts aren’t fully committed to, with the former only lasting one chapter & the latter not forcing them to the same existence as the other Emblems. And that’s before we get to the wild scramble to build out characters, which can be seen right at the beginning with the super-drawn-out death speech of Alear’s mom (with said drawn-out death speeches becoming a recurring trend in the story).
And yeah, this even extends to how the character designs don’t really have much rhyme or reason, considering how loud they are. Some compare them to vtubers, but I feel like that cast too wide of a net. Maybe narrow it down to Hololive specifically. And in general, I’m not even sure if calling the story lighthearted is accurate since that only really applies to a couple of moments. It’s more bland, if anything.
I find Alear well written for what they are. I disagree with the idea that Alear isn't committed to being scared of corrupted it's brought up plenty of times even in surpports, Alear just had to suck it up and grow stronger. Even in Firene, Alear had to be saved by Veyle from a corrupted.
@@nuibaba280 But that’s the problem, it’s tucked away in supports as opposed to being shown in the main story. It’s the opposite of “Show, Don’t Tell”, another recurring trend in the game (one that ties into stuff like the drawn-out death speeches & the exposition dumps at the 11th hour).
@@Neoxon619 But it was shown in the main story. Alear's one step away from pissing their pants when Lumera first spawns her own corrupted. And Alear had to be saved by Veyle because they froze up when a corrupted ran up on Alear. Alear's solid for a FE protagonist, they have a surprisingly silly and endearing personality with very prominent flaws. Flaws that are present in the main story too. Supports are still important for a character's writing as well.
@@Neoxon619 I disagree as well. Supports have always been a key thing and a lot of 3H characters also get their best moments from supports
Its moreso a problem with the Supports system rather than a problem with Alear himself
@@Hebleh I don’t disagree, I just feel like they could’ve done a better job of balancing the two.
tbh I never had an issue with the monastery. I usually just do the arena once for the item reward, and then every week i just get my flowers, eat 3 meals, maybe choir/byleth tutor and then finish the day. but the somniel? oh my lord. i didnt even do half the the things you could do there and I still hated it. the arena was torture, feeding sommy was torture, and collecting the items was torture. i think if i ever replayed engage I would just not bother at all now knowing that youll never fucking get enough bond fragments anyways to even create the builds you want so theres no point in trying. but then that kills replayability cuz theres all this sandbox type stuff to do that you just....cant do. and yeah skirmishes were harder than actual chapter missions cuz the enemies were higher levels and B lined it for you turn 1. they didnt just wait around for you to soak up emblem energy puddles and spam emblem attacks over and over. looking at you Lyn.
I remember Jello Apocalypse saying somehing similar about Fire Emblem Fates.
C support = Characters get annoyed at each other's one note personalities.
B support: These two random characters secretly have the best interaction in the game.
Literally Framme and Diamant's B support and I haaaatte Framme with every fiber of my being.
Damn, I didn’t know Jello still played FE.
Fates has a notoriously bad localization
Saizo and Beruka is the most infamous example
in Japan their C support is about the morality of being an assassin and in NA it's just a string of "..."
and then the B support continues off from the C support of the original translation so if one wasn't aware of the original lines they'll just be confused
I believe the reason why Engage fell off for many people, myself included was that many of its pros and cons reminded people of the pros and cons found in Fates where the gameplay was enjoyable but the characters and plot left a lot to be desired. Many of the newer characters were shackled by their quirks or gimmicks which hindered many of their supports and their growth as people. Meanwhile, the story had quite a few holes in it from the lack of build up to major events to the massive expostion dumbs given to the player near the beginning and end of the stories. That to me is one of the factors why Engage fell off as a game
Tbf it had fates writer for this game so of course the story sucked.. blame intelligence system for trusting the man who wrote fates to write an anniversary game
True yet at the same time I felt like fate’s characters were a lot more memorable. Although I think it’s cause they at least could appear as enemies depending which side you picked and also probably cause fans did at least enjoy the characters in some regards (despite fates flaws fans did make tons of fanart memes of characters)
@@Yoshixandir There's video I found asking is Fire Emblem too main stream th-cam.com/video/AOglEDMI0xI/w-d-xo.html
Since Fire Emblem wasn't very popular in the past and Awakening saved the series. It made me worried that Intelligent Systems will make the gameplay and story too beginner friendly, in order to appeal to a wider audience???
Engage was my fears come to life😦😦😦😦.
Good thing Wargrove 2 and Unicorn Overlord is coming out.
@@bradDark6941 Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the workload and games being rushed out the door was the number one reason why the writing was bad. I read somewhere that the writer for fates had a 500 page manuscript of the story and due to time constraints, half of it was cut out entirely. If this is the same writer from Fates, I won't speak much about the guy since, obviously, I don't know a lot about his work, but I don't think he is solely to blame for how Fates turned out. For Engage, if ANYONE should be at fault, it's the game director who clearly has no idea what the fans want.
@@Yoshixandir While Birthright and Revelations are (to me) some of the worst FE games in the series due to how nothing they are, I feel that Conquest is worth defending at least to some regard. This is mostly because Conquest gives you more of a reason to care about your Norh siblings (half of them actually going through really good character development...when the game doesn't contradict it, I'm looking at you chapter 27). With your Birthright siblings, they are all written like sandpaper, like, HOW DO YOU DO THAT SERIOUSLY? The only things I remember about birthright is IS having the balls to kill off Elise (which I respect) and never unhearing Tommy Pickles voice from a very clearly twenty something year old woman. THAT throws me through a loop every time she opens her mouth (BTW, same voice actress as Tommy and Buttercup. No wonder I couldn't unhear it.)
*What ACTUALLY went wrong?*
*The honest truth is pretty ugly.*
The Short Version:
Nintendo put a New developer as the lead for the game who had no experience. A basic "Yes Man" who likes action games and not turn based tactics games, and was heavily influenced by Nintendo wanting to aim for a New Younger Audience which meant dumbing down the game, and making it flashier.
The Long Version:
If you read the "Ask the Developers" interviews that were released. The guy in charge (Tsutomu Tei), had never been a director of a game at IS before, and seemingly never discusses having any previous experience working on a FE game. So while I can't say what his previous role was, if any, it doesn't seem to be significant enough to mention in his bio.
I'd link the Nintendo article, but TH-cam is pretty finicky with links these days. (Typing Ask the Developer Vol. 8, Fire Emblem Engage Part 1, 2, and 3 should get you too it)
If anything, just someone picked by Nintendo to lead the development.
Listening to the other two employees of Nintendo that were in the interview. Tei and the two mention wanting to "appeal to a broader audience" and saying that RPG mechanics such as the Awakening / Fates marriage system took too long to play out in the game. According to them it "wan't fun" so they developed the Emblem Ring idea instead. With the goal of intruding the "fun elements" early on.
I'll quote the Nintendo stooge "Higuchi: We wanted to introduce this fun element for players as early as possible. I felt that the fun of tactical RPG games wasn't as intuitive or immediate as that of action games."
So basically you had Nintendo heavily influencing the game with employees who were more interested and familiar with Action games than tactics RPGs.
Then from the games IS developer,
"Tei: People often say that turn-based tactical RPGs seem difficult or too complicated... In fact, I’m not very good at them myself."
Take of that what you will, I take it as even the new IS dev wasn't interested in making a Tactics game. Just taking orders and advice from his Nintendo handlers.
"Tei: We had several candidates. We were looking for an artist whose design style would appeal to a broad audience - including younger players - as well as the ability to portray a variety of characters. Among the candidates, Mika Pikazo-san's drawings were colorful, vivid, and really popped! They were a perfect fit for the flashy direction we wanted for this title."
So from that we can see the "broader audience" meant appeal to children. In spite of marketing toward long time fans, which makes no sense since new players and young players would not get any of the references. So basically they tried to do both and focused on the younger new audience by lying to the older one.
As it would seem, the games development and design was all over the place. Trying to create a game for a new younger audience, while throwing a bone to the old players to make it seem like they were not being abandoned when they were.
As for another section about their Artist choice that influenced the game in a bad way.
"Tei: Well, I thought it'd be better to be upfront about the request. That said, there was one concern she had. Since she usually draws young characters, she was concerned about her confidence level in some of the character design."
So to answer why all the characters were loli or V-tuber style. It's because that's the only style the artist knew, and he went with it. Also, it also turns put it was her idea to make toothpaste-chans hair color red and blue. As before Tei just went with whatever he was told, advised, or requested.
From everything I have read, Tei should never be in charge of any product. Unless he was specifically chosen because he just follows orders and has no skill as a leader or director.
"Tei: As I mentioned at the beginning, I'm not very good at strategy games myself, so during development, I hoped to create a game that even those like me would want to try out or find interesting."
I couldn't have been more disappointed in everything Engage did.
The Break mechanic forced the game to be more offense focused like an action game. Making counter attackers / defensive play styles obsolete.
Not to mention, FE3H introduced the idea of player choice. Where Engage had none of it.
The characters were all one dimensional and cringe. With generic "Hahaha I'm evil" villains. No deeper motivations until the death scenes which was far too little character exploration far too late.
Lets not start about how dreadfully short the class list was or the weapon list. FE3H had the right idea letting the players equip any melee weapon to a class instead of V1, V2, or V3 of the same class.
I could go on... as a professional writer I can easily write a better plot outline for a tactics game in a day. Though that's not saying much compared to Engages plot.
Feel free to voice your thoughts, but please read everything first...
The context matters.
All this context is so important. A strategy RPG game made by a guy who doesn't like strategy RPGs..... bruh
@@EXchoco That's more or less the crux of the problem, but the context is there to say the problem is much deeper. It's that IS and Nintendo are mismanaging the IP for profit.
Nintendo has long since abandoned its consumer friendly / family friendly image in favor of being the EA of Japan.
IS quite frankly can't push out a good product to save its life, it's the happy lap dog of Nintendo. The company never pushed back on Nintendo when they make unreasonable demands.
@@techpriest6962 Exactly
Very well reasoned. Thank you!
When I played 3H I immediately started a second play through after beating it. With Engage I waited months started it and didn’t finish it lol. As someone that likes to get invested in the story I was really pissed that it was so similar to Fates which I consider to be the worst FE game I have played.
Engage's Story is vastly superior to 3H.
@@Guy-cb1oh Not even close.
man fire emblem story was never that great its always their gameplay and mechanics that were top level. Their best story is mostly on par with other games that has it as a normal story
Shez is underrated imo. 😅
Am I right or wrong?
Definitely right
Shez is way better than Byleth ever will be.
That's right!!😊😊
I remember that every fire emblem protagonist loses their parents one or the other, but Shez is the only protagonist that have an only no death cutesenen and only in AG with ash, and Mercedes talked about there family's and made good advice, but ash a support left us with a cliffhanger and he can be recute him I all routes and meet to be a dlc when we get him and A support in all routes
@@justasoulsfan9805 true. I find myself enjoy playing Hopes more than Houses solely because of Shez. Byleth is cool but i often find them kind of boring for being semi-silent protagonist when their entire character is "a very skilled professor who love their students". I can get pass their non-chatter, emotionless personality but making them silent during all of the supports kind of defeats the purpose when they have battle voicelines. Hopes did Byleth better than Houses imo
17:02 Because Alear "Let's run away." the Divine Dragon has such a "great" story-line, riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight?
I'm one of the people you describe up front, a first time Fire Emblem player with Three Houses who was excited for a new FE game, and completely deflated by the tonal change. I keep wanting to go back to experience the traditional combat people talk about, but I just don't enjoy being in the game world.
Ya gotta do the Tellius games and Awakening then. Extremely good worlds, and excellent character writing. Definitely WAY more linear and restrictive styles, but in a way, that compels you to be careful and take the game more seriously.
PoR and RD were my first Fire Emblems, and I love them to this day.
@@Novarcharesk PoR is a legitimately great game unfortunately gatekept by a need for an emulation-capable PC, a hacked Wii or enough $ to casually throw $200 at an old Gamecube game. Which isn't the worst thing, Deus Ex and Vampire the Masquerade Bloodlines are some of the best games of all time and are effectively PC exclusive. It happens. It's hard to use PoR as an argument to buy a Wii U though, even secondhand.
Also, Ike X Soren is one of my favorite ships. Don't let what the internet said about the prominent (probably) gay lead and his catboy bf fool you, the tone is more classic Berserk than modern anime. Ike breeds catbussy and is a man's man.
@@hardgay7537 no way, Ranulf and Ike are the best ship. Soren’s too pissy and, like, just kinda not friendly at all 😂
@@Novarcharesk I recommend Unicorn Overlord, its strategy RPG published by Sega.
I prefer the monastery, i think its great. The somniel.....eh it's ok i guess
Same. The monastery was better because it was a real location connected to the story with characters commenting on what's happening. Both hub worlds can be tedious sometimes so the Monastery is better for its story significance. Music is also better in Garreg Mach.
Right I think the monastery is actually better. You really only have to do the meals. Stuff like weapon forging can be done in menus. In engage it’s like you have to run to pick up the iron, run to the black smith, run to the arena and watch the emblem battles to get the skills, do the well, etc…way more tedious.
I too love having to do 30 minutes of downtime (At least) between chapters who have boring maps, that truly is what Fire Emblem gameplay is meant to be
The fact that characters in the somniel never say anything of value is the main thing for me. The monastery may have taken a while but at least it felt worth it.
The monastery felt more interesting because the characters would discuss what happened in previous chapter or talk about current chapter. Example Caspar talking about how his father died in the assualt on enbarr.
I do love how Alear can talk, but I find the game a huge step backwards from Three Houses. I’d rather have Claude, Edelgard and other non-sword-wielding-protagonist characters over Alear in future Smash games (Alear is more assist trophy or trophy material)
So something I've thought about, Engage gets compared a lot to Awakening, for good reason often times. But something that I don't think gets really said is that Awakening has a pretty "normal" start and the MC, Chrom, has a simple and well done story line.
And I think that grounding is the #1 thing I personally found missing in Engage. In Awakening I could always connect with that start, and Chrom's character, even when we got to some of the WILD shit in that game like time travel or Henry swapping bodies. Engage, just never really had that with me. By the time we were getting to the king dude getting resurrected I was just...kind of eh, nothing about it felt like it connected to Alear, the themes, nor like I had something to build into this.
Or to use a personal example, I did not like Tharja at first, found her annoying. But I wanted to know more about the other characters so I watched her supports and realized...wow she's a cool character with an interesting backstory that is not given the credit her character deserves.
I did not really like Boucheron at first beyond my bias for axe units. But also I just...didn't want to watch his supports. Maybe I would love him like I now do Tharja, but there's nothing around him I care about, nothing to ground me into looking into him more. I've seen like 1 Support with him, with Alear, and I just never bothered to learn more because I don't want anything to do with it really.
I do think a lot of this game’s characters have the Tharja effect of being more likeable in supports. Like Celine as mentioned in the video is a good example. Yunaka and Ivy are the other two big ones, where you really delve into their struggles and backstories
I will say these characters feel overly reliant on this. Because I didn’t know anything about Alfred’s disease until reading up on stuff online. And both Ivy and Tharja I initially didn’t get the popularity of. Heck even now I’m not a fan of Tharja just because her more evil traits overshadow her nicer traits for me
@@codytoeung5089 Ivy felt a bit generic to me, although Yunaka was fine. But even then their more likable aspects are still repeated to much, so exploring the actual depths is still just, not attractive.
Tharja...doesn't have evil traits? The only "evil" she does is an alternate timeline version of her wasn't the best mother to Noire, which is grossly exaggerated by people who ignore that most of Noire's trauma, like all the kids, is from the apocalypse.
@@nahte123456 That’s probably what I was mostly basing my criticism on. That and Tharja cursing her husband when he confronts her about it. I think it’s also the modern flanderization of her character.
I do agree they focus more on their tropes than their backstory. Ivy at least isn’t inherently tropey. I did also find her boring for a long time but she has charm to her
@@codytoeung5089 The problem with Tharja is...that's impossible? Like not in a "she would never do that", but her ENTIRE SUPPORT with Virion is how he's immune to her curses, Gaius isn't immune but low level curses still don't work on him, Henry is just flat better at Curses then her and could just brush them off, and both Robin and Ricken also can learn Curse stuff. That's like over half her partners can is literally incapable of cursing like this, before we get into any character stuff.
But also yes she's been increasingly slenderized as more and more obsessive and sexualized, despite really not being either in Awakening proper.
I would compare it more to Fates. Praised for its gameplay, criticized for its story.
I feel like engage should have leaned into having a comedic story. Because the current story engage has takes itself way too seriously.
My girlfriend loved 3 houses, had 0 interest in engage when I showed it to her, can't blame her I barely wanted to play it lol.
As a new fan to the series who had only plan 3 houses, but also watched a lot to do with the fire emblem franchise I was very excited to be able to play another fire emblem game. I had planned on preordering it but then the preorder for ToTK came and as a being a zelda fan fore much longer, I got that instead. I ended up getting engage around July after I beat ToTK and did enjoy it but as someone who enjoys darker themes, it wasn't my favourite. There were a lot of story points that were weird to me and I hated doing the somniel as it felt lifeless with the characters repeating the same thing everytime I went there.
The strategy was amazing though and there were parts of it I really enjoyed like Destinea Cathedral and all of Brodia.
Also Rosados the best character and you can't change my mind.
If you want some more actually good FE games I'd reccomend you boot up an emulator to play Shadows of Valentia, Path of Radiance and its sequel Radiant Dawn, and if your ok with a bit of old game jank Genealogy of the Holy war and Thracia 776.
Those games along with 3 Houses is peak Fire Emblem for me
FE 7 is on the switch GBA online streaming service. Definitely a good one even if most don’t consider it to be the best.
Story was absolute garbage, chars forgettable, writing extremely childish but the gameplay was great though, still mediocre game overall 😑
The only thing you said that was correct was that the gameplay was great.
@@Guy-cb1ohYunaka, Diamant, Ivy, and Mauvier do not count. The rest sucked.
@@yusifudo46 this is all opinion based as I would say Mauvier was written pretty basic. Etie and Chloé are my current two favorite characters. The story is simple and I enjoy it for that. I will agree it is nowhere near the giants of storytelling that the Telius Saga had, but it was a simple game to go down memory road with the history of the series.
@@justingerry97 I think Awakening did simple better. I can't at all get with the characters in Engage and they were as flat as the Radiant Dawn cast. They don't have to be as well written as the Three Houses cast, but I expect better than Fates or RD which hardly has enough in the support category to make me care for them. I think Awakening did it better that although the cast was "not" as complex, they were fleshed out way better which made them more interesting outside the main campaign.
@@yusifudo46 i will agree with that, there is a reason Awakening is credited as to what revived FE in the west. I do still like a lot of the supports without Alear and that comes all down to prefere. I can't say with a straight face it is the best written game, but I still prefer it over FE8 and shadow dragon.
after having such an amazing story in fire, emblem, three houses, and having such in-depth back stories with all of the students that really helped you to care for each one of them the shallow story and characters of Engage just fell flat for me. I put over 500 hours in the fire emblem three houses, completing all of the houses, including the DLC and both routes for the black eagles and the second Playthru of the blue lions. I’m only about 15 hours into fire emblem, engage and I’m having such a hard time continuing to play because it’s just not interesting so far maybe it gets better a little bit further into it but the beginning of this game is underwhelming to say the least. The gameplay for battles is great, but I also don’t like the hub world. I did, however, like the monastery. I’ve always enjoyed fire emblem, so I bought the special edition of engage only to feel wildly let down by it. Hopefully my opinion will change after I’m finished with it eventually.
Three House's story was a complete mess in my opinion. The timeskip went completely unexplained, character motivations were messy, unanswered questions were aplenty, Byleth's cold characterisation goes completely against the idea students feel super close to him.
On its surface, Three Houses seems like an amazing story. But when you actually sit down to think about it, it really falls short.
3H Characterization of student is even contradict each other between route. And... am I suppose to be sympathic with Edelgard? Black Eagle route fell to makem e feel that completely.
I'm agreed on this that 3H is complete mess and gameplay is totally downgrade from either Fate or Echoes.
Meanwhile for Engage, the story is no different from Shadow Dragon, Awakening, Echoes or even PoR in overarching. So, I don't consider Engage as bad story, just your average FE story.
But gameplay become my top3 immediately. with map design and how ability works against map
Unfortunately Engage doesn’t get better. I think for most people it tends to go downhill. If you don’t like it now, you probably won’t later either. You’re right that it’s a total letdown how little they cared for this game after 3H had so much passion and love behind it… :(
@@EXchoco I don't think it was a lack of effort, they literally ported the 3DS engine to Unity. This is NOT an easy task.
It's a change in priorities. Engage isn't trying to have a complex story or intricate characters. It was designed from the beginning to be a campy romp full of fanservice, and that simply hasn't resonated with the fanbase right now.
@@witwongFates? LMAOOO each of their stories sucked and I'll gladly debate you until the end of time. Nostalgia isn't a good argument either buddy
Not enough shifter units whether playable or as emblem rings. In that regard it is kind of a lackluster anniversary title.
Ok so there is 1 dragon emblem ring but what about the Laguz, Taguel, Kitsune, or Wolfkin?
Also it would have been nice if there were more weapon variety. It was so cool having scythes in FE 3 Houses but then they didn't return. Even if they're just another type of lance it seems like a missed opportunity.
I've also been a (relatively) long time Fire Emblem fan so I can also put in some input that can expand on the situation.
The lighthearted anime mood and the loud designs aren't the issue so much as the cliches and the characters not being memorable, which sucks because the gameplay and the map design are fantastic. But asking someone to ignore maybe 2/5 of the entire game in order to enjoy it more is a hard sell. I'm pretty sure I wore out my + button on my controller more in this game than in Tears of the Kingdom, and I have 400 more hours there than I do in Engage.
Between the characters feeling like they like the Avatar WAY too much and the dialogue being well acted but feeling like it was written by George Lucas, I kinda just press + if I decide to replay it
I generally agree with your video when it comes to the comparisons to Fates and the complaints about bond rings, the castle, and NG+. I don't have much to add other than me being pissed about how they nerfed Sothe's skill from Radiant Dawn.
While it's also pretty full of cliches, I've enjoyed the Fell Xenologues more than the main story.
I really hope that we somehow get NG+ even this late.
I just want an FE game that's like Genealogy of the Holy War, or better yet a remake. Is that so hard? 😭
For me, I was really turned off by Engages presentation. It felt like they wanted to cash in on past games but didn't want to alien new comers so they went for a half approach.
It wasn't cashing in, Engage is an anniversary game.
It was a anniversary game a crappy one though
Haven’t played engage yet but I do own it. 3 houses was my first game in the series and I fell in love with it.
Awakening was my first and I believe it to be the best. The only thing it's missing... Quite literally are the characters legs! XD
3 houses is such a non-fire emblem game
@@-8h- Engage even more
@@AkameGaKillfan777engage isn’t even fun to watch it’s boring as hell. At least with 3H the cast felt more alive
@@AkameGaKillfan777 u talk rubbish engage is definitely a fire emblem game. u didnt even play the series but engage is definitely the usual hero vs villian fe story type
I've been playing FE games since Awakening came out. I barely heard about Engage at all, so it REALLY wasn't advertised well. On top of that, the animation just reminded me too much of Genshin so I just decided to pass on this one. Here's hoping the next game is a hit.
Engage had great gameplay along with map improvements, but I have no clue what happened in characters and story. I have heard that Engage was some sorta anniversary type game and hope they go back to previous games in that area :-)
It needed another 6 to 8 months to really take off
@@frankieseward8667 I recommend Unicorn Overlord, its strategy RPG published by Sega.
it was a anniversary game that got delayed all the way and also apparently it is also made alongside 3H (Koei).
Engage made by the OG
3h made by Koei.
Tbh i think 3H has cause a lot of the fans to say that 3H is not a good starting point and it did more damage than good to FE. Engage was considered a true fire emblem game compared to 3H.
You've nailed a lot of points as why Engage falls short of being a great FE game. The lack of NG+ is astounding as it limits creativity one can do with their teams, despite there being so many options that Emblems provide. The other big problem is more for people who got the DLC, but the new characters are locked behind the story on every playthrough, rather than just playing through it once and then just having the units available in subsequent playthroughs. I could have overlooked the writing problems because you can just skip that on repeat playthroughs, but because of the limited ways this game puts on these things are what detract from the overall experience.
Engage is what happens when you prioritise the lowest-common denominator over any actual intelligent writing in mind.
More like you haven't seen a single interview and think writers do that instead of doing their best in writing something but either they dont have the ability or other issues that exists. your comment reeks of elitism and ignorance on how video game writing even works.
@@ausgod538 I have read the interviews, actually. They prove my point.
There are so many times where engage felt like a baby sensory video. This game was supposedly an anniversary title, but it felt insulting.
@@FireEmblemElitistit was insulting. Fates had a bad story but it never felt insulting just bad. Engage was so boring
I think a lot of it might have to do with Nintendo and IS wanting to get Engage out of the way. And I don't mean them rushing the game or anything, but more so developing and releasing it as like an appetizer before the next new FE on the next console, despite it being a new mainline FE. The older FE lords returning and this feeling like a celebration of FE as a whole would be enough for a lot of people to get into the game, and the focus on gameplay more than story and characters would make it feel less complex, or something? Idk how to describe it. It's clear they were waiting until Three Hopes released to reveal Engage, rather than just waiting more before releasing it, and then releasing the DLC at a monthly rate. I don't think the next new FE will be treated this way with it most likely being on the next console, similar to Three Houses
They should had updated the arena area. Only three times isn't a whole lot.
The character designs for me
Same
Everything else was fine and better but the waifu kpop designs for the girls and the fairytale designs for the guys really didn’t stick with me
@@raincastmusic What ACTUALLY went wrong?
The honest truth is pretty ugly.
The Short Version:
Nintendo put a New developer as the lead for the game who had no experience. A basic "Yes Man" who likes action games and not turn based tactics games, and was heavily influenced by Nintendo wanting to aim for a New Younger Audience which meant dumbing down the game, and making it flashier.
The Long Version:
If you read the "Ask the Developers" interviews that were released. The guy in charge (Tsutomu Tei), had never been a director of a game at IS before, and seemingly never discusses having any previous experience working on a FE game. So while I can't say what his previous role was, if any, it doesn't seem to be significant enough to mention in his bio.
I'd link the Nintendo article, but TH-cam is pretty finicky with links these days. (Typing Ask the Developer Vol. 8, Fire Emblem Engage Part 1, 2, and 3 should get you too it)
If anything, just someone picked by Nintendo to lead the development.
Listening to the other two employees of Nintendo that were in the interview. Tei and the two mention wanting to "appeal to a broader audience" and saying that RPG mechanics such as the Awakening / Fates marriage system took too long to play out in the game. According to them it "wan't fun" so they developed the Emblem Ring idea instead. With the goal of intruding the "fun elements" early on.
I'll quote the Nintendo stooge "Higuchi: We wanted to introduce this fun element for players as early as possible. I felt that the fun of tactical RPG games wasn't as intuitive or immediate as that of action games."
So basically you had Nintendo heavily influencing the game with employees who were more interested and familiar with Action games than tactics RPGs.
Then from the games IS developer,
"Tei: People often say that turn-based tactical RPGs seem difficult or too complicated... In fact, I’m not very good at them myself."
Take of that what you will, I take it as even the new IS dev wasn't interested in making a Tactics game. Just taking orders and advice from his Nintendo handlers.
"Tei: We had several candidates. We were looking for an artist whose design style would appeal to a broad audience - including younger players - as well as the ability to portray a variety of characters. Among the candidates, Mika Pikazo-san's drawings were colorful, vivid, and really popped! They were a perfect fit for the flashy direction we wanted for this title."
So from that we can see the "broader audience" meant appeal to children. In spite of marketing toward long time fans, which makes no sense since new players and young players would not get any of the references. So basically they tried to do both and focused on the younger new audience by lying to the older one.
As it would seem, the games development and design was all over the place. Trying to create a game for a new younger audience, while throwing a bone to the old players to make it seem like they were not being abandoned when they were.
As for another section about their Artist choice that influenced the game in a bad way.
"Tei: Well, I thought it'd be better to be upfront about the request. That said, there was one concern she had. Since she usually draws young characters, she was concerned about her confidence level in some of the character design."
So to answer why all the characters were loli or V-tuber style. It's because that's the only style the artist knew, and he went with it. Also, it also turns put it was her idea to make toothpaste-chans hair color red and blue. As before Tei just went with whatever he was told, advised, or requested.
From everything I have read, Tei should never be in charge of any product. Unless he was specifically chosen because he just follows orders and has no skill as a leader or director.
"Tei: As I mentioned at the beginning, I'm not very good at strategy games myself, so during development, I hoped to create a game that even those like me would want to try out or find interesting."
And yet, as a strategy game Engage plays far and away better than Three Houses did. Your interview details don’t support your dumb point
@@emblemblade9245 Not really. The Emblem rings allow you to power through nearly every enemy, especially once you use a Second Seal on characters.
I am not surprised at its reception. They threw gacha bait into a mainline entry, a tonal mismatch with a majority of fans of those games. From the designs to loud quirks, they are designed to scream at you to be noticed. I don't know how it was received by Heroes players, but I haven't wanted to punch this many characters in their stupid face since the studio decided marriage options should include incest. I know Alcryst has a decent support here and there, but his surface personality is the best argument you can make in favour of playing on Classic.
... and despite all of that this has been the FE I have enjoyed most in years. "It is really good if you ignore most of it" just isn't a very convincing argument, no matter how fun the combat is.
"I haven't wanted to punch this many characters in their stupid face since the studio decided marriage options should include incest."
Uuuh... you do know that's a thing that has existed in this franchise since the FE4 days... right?
My thoughts exactly. If I killed off every character I found insufferable, I'd be stuck with Yunaka, Vander, and Alear, who's only there by requirement. Not sure if I could even beat Maddening
Aaaaand they did that shit in Awakening too, so whatever.
Or maybe you started with Three Houses and don’t know better?
@@emblemblade9245 Idk, people actually look at the Awakening cast pretty fondly. It's not like they decided to single out Engage. Engage characters just suck from the outset, to the point where no amount of "they're good in this one A support" can save them. Awakening had tropes, but they still had characters, even if minor, to carry those tropes.
I think it was intended to be an anniversary title, especially with all the crossovers, and Covid delayed it. With FE 4 Remake seemingly being the next title, it won’t be until the Switch 2 until we see the next super big FE title, and that’s okay! I will still eat the games up, but as for the next large FE game with the hype and marketing and longevity, I think it will be a Switch 2 moment. Gonna watch this now and wonder if our minds think similarly. :)
The Genealogy remake is apparently already done, so the team could not well underway with the Switch 2 entry.
2:05 life is pain and suffering....
Honestly, the biggest problem was just that it wasn't really a normal fire emblem game due to the overreliance on its new gimmicks.
They were so OP and gamebreaking that the "normal" FE experience was kinda gone.
And sure, the min-maxers/LTC-type players/maddening players seem to have enjoyed it, probably cuz these are players who naturally gravitate towards the more extreme strategies in older FE, and thus the experience wasn't that strange to them.
But if you normally avoided those strategies, then Engage is a very awkward experience due to how different it is.
But the shakeup is exactly what I love about Engage, it’s new system keeps me coming back all the time. Emblem rings, the new weapon triangle, unit sub-classes, these were all PHENOMENAL additions to FE and I want them to return in some fashion
@@Blitz_Spencer Good for you I guess, but honestly it just kinda sucks. Even ignoring the mismatch in expectations, at best its an overdesigned unfocused gimmicky mess.
Which is a shame, most of the mechanics have potential. Its just too much at once, and consequently the core gameplay suffers.
@@kakalukio Man, the way you describe it, it sounds like we played two different video games LOL We'll just have to agree to disagree here because Engage's core Fire Emblem gameplay is so good, and most of the maps are great
I made a comment earlier summing up my opinion, and it's a lot like this.
They took everything great in the last title (class & weapon freedom), and instead of improving the flaws they threw 50% of it out for the sake of "new" which I didn't enjoy.
The Rings were a hard requirement for the game and the new break mechanic changed the games pacing and play-style drastically.
I play a counter attacker style with lots of heavies, mages, and the wyvern riders in the late game. Though with the way Engaged was designed, my playable was basically thrown out the window thanks to the break mechanic turning counter attacking / tanking into a useless play-style in favor of the notorious mounted unit spam of the "meta build's" of past games that was made even more prominent.
Honestly, the "rings" should have been limited to only a few unique characters instead of taking over the game by giving them to all units by default.
Maybe a bond level requirement to use the rings power. Instead of getting the ability by equipping the ring.
Three houses is hard to beat. The concept of choosing house with different characters and personalities is just too good. It gives us more freedom on how do we want to build our team.
Something worth noting about why Three Houses and Engage are so different from each other is the fact that both games were developed at the same time, with 3H being made as the next bold, big chapter for the franchise, while Engage being a made as a "simpler" anniversary title.
With that said, I think IS was also overseeing both radically different projects in order for them to see which one would appeal the most towards newcomers, since they also intended for both games to broaden their audience.
It's pretty clear which of the two managed to capture most people's attention, so I'm very curious to see how they approach the next non-remake game whenever it comes out. I'm excited either way!
Also really great video!
0:52-I guess that pretty much sums up all of the TH-cam band wagons that hate games like Dragon Age 2, Assassins creed 3, Final Fantasy 16, Dragon Age Inquisition, Assassins Creed Origins, Kingdom Hearts 3, Final Fantasy 10, Final Fantasy 12, Fire Emblem Awakening, Fire Emblem Fates, Jak 3, Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Arise, Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword and Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess.
2:40 - me! That’s me! I’m that person.
Three houses was a fucking black hole that just consumed me. It was SO engrossing.
And I’ve heard that Engage’s narrative just isn’t anything like three houses so I’m just skipping it exactly like you say others are.
The characters and gameplay drew me in, then the hidden lore made me a Three Houses fan for life. The deeper you go, the more intriguing it gets. My main complaint with Three Houses were the graphics and the grinding. I just wish every Fire Emblem game had a grinding area like The Sacred Stones had the Tower of Valni.
@@trickynick9139Three houses has grinding but normal mode only.
@@naiRISE766You can still grind in Hard and Maddening mode, it's just more limiting.
@@Chosen_DinTo be fair you can grind in Engage too, it's just designed horribly
I haven't seen the video nor i will see it (?) But the title just made me think one thing, hope? As far as i remember no one expected anything from this game, i just feel that it was better than the general vibe for it was
_Hiya Papaya!_
Anyways, honestly? I haven't seen much talk around this game lately. Even Three Houses is more talked about (not counting Smash Bros. Of course. That is an interesting aspect as Engage doesn't have THAT kinda push lol)
Skirmishes dont make any sense in that game.
Why didnt they cap the exp so your best units dont get too strong ? In Fates, the strongest units get only 1xp when they kill a weaker ennemy in dlc map, so it was ideal to improve your weaker units without hacking the game.
It was something so easy to implement.
Engage is an incredibly solid game at its core held back by a few baffling design choices. You got most of them, but I wanted to throw in a few more personal bugbears:
- I found the Somniel to be genuinely MORE pacebreaking than the monastery ever was, mainly because the fast travel system is way worse and the most important facilities are locked behind additional loading screens.
- another reason the characters fail to shine: support ranks are the hardest to build that they've been since the GBA era, because units only gain support points when taking actions directly adjacent to each other. And yet they still included the same quantity of supports as the other modern games, which had a higher range for building support in battle AND way more methods for getting points out-of-battle. Hard to appreciate the character writing when it's literally impossible to see most of it in one playthrough.
- and to add insult to injury, for the first time in series history the support log is TIED TO FUCKING INDIVIDUAL SAVE FILES, so if you want to see every support you need to complete multiple playthroughs all while remembering or writing down which supports you already got so you don't waste actions on building to conversations you've already seen!
I swear it's like IS spent so long working on nothing but FEH that they forgot how to make games with decent UX.
This was a really well made video. I feel like this was made out of love for Engage, as it seems like you gave this game a fair shake, but had quite a few criticisms. I found myself thinking a lot of these things, in particular the ridiculous SP costs and the story's last-act stumble, on my playthrough. I appreciate that they were bold enough to try out new ideas and not just pander to new-time Three Houses fans, but it feels like this game was perfectly designed to alienate those fans as much as possible when this could have a been a perfect transition game from the relatively unique style of 3H to a more traditional FE experience.
for me, what went wrong was ultimately a lot of the weird character growths ( Clanne's base growth spread was something you would normally give to someone that's either going to be a Myrmidon or a Swordmaster) and overcomplicating things for the sake of it (Most notable in the changes to the weapon upgrade system and skill system. Though even the Farm suffers this because there's no reason to use anything but the dogs). With how gold was handled it also made you wary of grabbing any new weapons on a blind playthrough. All of this mixes for a rather poor experience
It made the game feel way more overwhelming than it needed to be. Also for some reason sometimes doing a grinding encounter is *harder* than tackling the next story mission? Like what?
TBH, I wish people would talk about *Three Hopes* more. I love the characters and world of Fodlan.
More? really? we spent the last 4 years hearing about 3H, most old school fans just want to move on
@@maziio646It's really subjective. As an older Fire Emblem player, I haven't loved and felt attached to an FE continent (Fódlan) since Elibe (FE6 and 7). I hated Awakening and Fates for their lack of character and world development so Three Houses was something I embraced. Then Engage comes along and brings back the aspects I hated from Fates and Awakening... Again, this is all very subjective. I just wish people would stop putting people as "old school fans hate Three Houses, loved Engage" and "Three Houses fans are all newcomers who don't appreciate the older titles." That's a return to the elitist drama from the days of the 3DS.
Boy oh boy do I have a LOT of problems with Three Hopes and can perfectly tell you why it's still overshadowed by Three Houses
@@PeruvianPotatoHopes is a spinoff and was never meant to surpass the original work so no surprise there
I personally thought that the lighthearted and goofy tone of Engage was refreshing, but i can totally understand being put off by after just playing three houses. It remains me of a similar situation with persona 3 and 4. Perhaps after a few years, people will come back and consider giving Engage another try, cause im having fun with it after not being able to get reinvested in the series for a while
Yeah I liked it too. After the first trailer I knew to not set my expectations into thinking it would be anything like 3Houses. I expected something similar to Shadow Dragon given it's more basic plot. I also didn't mind a lot of the characters. I liked a lot of them in fact. I'd say the only reason why people think the Engage case is so bland is because they don't invest too much in their supports to see them fleshed out more. As opposed to 3Houses where you pretty much straight into their depth at the start. Which did lead to people feel like it was a ton of trauma dumping. Saying that Byleth was more of their school therapist.
I'd probably say I didn't mind the lighter tone Engage went for as I'm used to watching a lot of anime and tokusatsu aimed at kids. So this felt right up there. Even the Emblem role call at the end was very Super Sentai inspired. I do hope Engage is looked back on more fondly. Once we get 1 or 2 more entries it could happen. I know Awakening for a time was controversial and now is looked back on fondly. And it does look like people do love a good portion of the Engage cast given the latest CYL results in FEH.
One thing that really annoys me about this game is how it feels impossible to optimize and complete. The donations are way too expensive to benefit from all of them, the weapon forging is too expensive to give everyone the strongest version of the weapon they are using, and the skirmishes are so insanely hard that I'm barely able to beat them. The bond rings are so random and there are almost no good ones, and your SP gain is so slow it's impossible to give units the best version of a skill. All that combined made me feel pretty weak, and with the INSANE reinforcements this game has in the late game, I was just glad I beat it and thougt, there is no way a second playthrough will be easier with more experience and knowledge about the game, the game gives you nothing to optimize or whatever. Its just scraping by.
Alear? Well written? Now that’s a funny joke. Alear is literally just Corrin 2.0
No kidding, I couldn't stand Alear to the point i'd prefer no personality to his.
Alear is way better than Corrin. What made Corrin so bad is that despite being surrounded by objectively capable leaders, everyone put everything on Corrin for no believable reason and Corrin refused to change. To stop being naive and take the lives under their command seriously. At least Alear is willing to kill people without throwing a tantrum over the mere idea of death.
And he copies Robin's storyline.
you wake up around a bunch of people, you have amnesia, you are connected to the Fell Dragon
Alear is just slightly better Corrin. But without the ability to transform into a dragon.
@@MikeXeno365with a bit of revelation mixed in with Lumera coming back as a corrupted. Like how Mikoto became a servant of Anankos after she died.
Looking back on it, it's a damn shame Engage got this reputation, because I really loved this game. Yes, it's simplistic, yes it had flaws, but I really didn't care; I was having fun. I kept assuming folks dunked on it because it wasn't like Three Houses. Ugh...😞
I do agree with the fact that it did a terrible job with straggling units catching up, and that we can't choose who to spar with in training.
People dunked on it because it wasn't as good as Three Houses... yeah. Is having high expectations...unreasonable?
@@EXchocothe people who obsessively defend Engage has twisted people's complaints of the game not being as good as 3 Houses as everyone who hates the game being people who only played 3 Houses and 'doesn't know what true Fire Emblem is really like' as if tge entire series consisted of Engage and Fates
@@ultimate9056 And that's ignoring the absolute fact that Engage doesn't need to be compared with 3 Houses to identify its problems, nor does it diminish how bad they actually are.
But that's besides the point because it's still a Fire Emblem game, it can and should be compared to past entries. Otherwise it would be a completely different series.
@@EXchocoBut it IS as good as 3H overall, just in different ways. Engage has far better gameplay while 3H has a far better narrative.
Nothing wrong with preferring one over the other, but Engage gets a lot of undue hate by people who were expecting something that Engage was never intended to be.
I don't think I can emphasize just how important other releases for the same console are. I would literally not be watching this video if Pokémon Sword and Shield hadn't been such horrible games. In 2019, I was torn between where to spend my limited money, the Good Old reliable Pokémon that was getting it's first mainline series game on a home console, or Fire Emblem. You know, the Smash Community's punching bag. Three Houses did caught my eye, with it's aethetic, music and concept, though I ultimetly decided that I was going to buy Sword and maybe the next year give Three Houses a shot.
But then everything changed when E3 2019 rolled around. On one hand, Three Houses revealed the true nature of it's story, with Dimitri yelling "Kill every last one of them!" becoming a small meme. On the other hand, the Pokémon community was on fire because of Dexit. Needless to say, I went with Three Houses. 4 years later and here I am, finally trying Awakening and later on Fates. And also watching a video that really summarized why I I wasn't as excited for Engage like I was for Houses.
You know a fire emblem engage video is shit when all it do is comparing it to Three Houses
Given that it's an impossible challenge for Engage defenders to praise the game without comparing it to 3H, this is completely fair.
@@AkameGaKillfan777Every action has an equal and opposite reaction. Defending Engage is just the reaction to 3 Houses fans criticizing it. Of course they’re gonna criticize 3 Houses.
@@emblemblade9245 That's not what I'm talking about.
I think it fell short because some just expectet FE16 2.0 while others still where stuck in their "Thracia good, everything after trash" mindset. If you give the game a chance, the story is not that good, but that didn't stop people from liking fates either, so why would it do here? Well because it isn't like FE16 and most fans of Fire Emblem came to the fandom through FE16. The combat of engage is actually amazing, and it is sad that people only seem to shit on the game. Fates combat was also very good when the story wasn't and people did not say "fates bad". Atleast not to the extend they do with engage. The mapdesign is also so much better as in FE16 for example, much more variety and more fun. They even fixed the dancer class again, that was completely useless in FE16. Besides the "classic Fire emblem" fans that dislike every new game after the 2000s, I think the negative mindset against engage comes from the fact that most of modern fire emblem fans aren't fire emblem fans, but just FE16 fans. And engage is amazing, but no FE16. (FE16 stands for Three Houses, for everyone that didn't know)
I think I came to the series first playing The Blazing Blade on an emulator. I then played Three Houses like 5 times and tried Heroes a few times (it’s not the greatest in my opinion but decent for a FE mobile game). I haven’t been too disappointed with Engage. You’re right, it’s no FE16 and the character interactions aren’t deep and everyone looks like a VTuber now, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad FE game. I picked it up because it was a new Fire Emblem and because Engage brought back something that FE16 left out: the weapon triangle.
For me I just didn't like the way the gameplay revolved around the emblems. Many people say the gameplay is the best in the series - but since I dislike the emblem system I just can't feel this way.
I feel like Intelligent Systems has a new black sheep. It’s a self-fulling prophecy of not giving the game the attention thus, giving players an excuse not to play and cycle continues.
I highly doubt Engage will be a back sheep, it still sold decently and will exist in its vacuum.
But it is not as popular as Three Houses
Not only would the Geoneology/Thracia Remake be like 3H but the next Non-Remake game as well
Engage is not getting a Dynasty Warrior Spinoff like 3H did
@@nuibaba280it sold decently for the corporate perspective. From a franchise perspective though it's a flop much like how Echoes reached its targets but was one of the worst selling FE games
@@ultimate9056 That's now how it works. From a franchise perspective it wasn't a flop either. It outsold most FE games including Echoes.
@@nuibaba280 Because Echoes released at the end of the 3DS's lifespan, was barely promoted, was a remake of the franchise's then-black sheep: Gaiden, and even then it sold higher than expected.
Engage meanwhile peaked in the first couple months and didn't sell enough for Nintendo's liking despite being heavily promoted, being a de facto anniversary game, being released in the prime of the lifespan on Nintendo's best-selling home console and the third highest-selling console of all time behind only the DS & PS2 *and* having a spin-off manga in Weekly Shonen Jump: the most successful manga publisher in the world.
16:47 None of whom are Alear.
I don’t enjoy the gameplay that much and can’t really tell why.
I’ll just say I still find the lack of any kind of ng+ baffling, as you seem to suggest.
And yes the visuals are a big turn off to me. I can appreciate they’re targeting younger people who like this newer anime style but it’s just not for me.
Probably the lack of class freedom, and the way the games new combat system forces you into an offensive focused play-style to force the combat to be quicker.
I'm with you. After early game, the gameplay slowly becomes more and more of a drag. By late game it is a snooze fest packed with reinforcement infested maps. The constant routine of the somniel is also a huge drag, after every battle you always have to spend at least 10 minutes there. You can skip it, sure but you'd be missing out on a ton of bonuses.
Because when you look at everything in the game besides the Emblems, it's either downgraded, or removed.
Support Points are only built on Player Phase. The class system is just a weaker version of Awakening's where you can't transfer skills between classes. Skirmishes are completely random and you can't scout them out for Gold or even just get a preset amount between Chapters. The accessory shop requires Gold and forging materials to buy outfits from, and they don't show up outside of the Somniel. Meals are always force-fed to your units and it's a lot more random on how they'll turn out. The SP mechanic only exists to turn people into Heroes players, which disgusts me.
This game reminds me of something TheMysteriousMrEnter said when he was talking about Spongebob and Rocket Power, on why he likes the former but not the latter, which I can also apply to both FE Switch titles: games like 3 Houses create culture. Games like Engage don't, they leech off of it.
@@AkameGaKillfan777 I find the somniel way more tedious (and yet gameplay wise more necessary) than the monastery
@@techpriest6962"Lack of class freedom"?
This might be the most free it has EVER been.
Everything i saw about the game pushed me away from it. It's the only game since awakening i haven't bought
Dialogue in this game is usually awkward unintentionally and it harms moments where thing are supposed to be awkward. Celine and Etie’s C support is a good example of that as while they TRY to portray Etie as out of her element it’s less effectively portrayed due to this game ALREADY having awkward dialogue that’s supposed to seem natural.
Like a few others I became heavily interested in FE when Awakening was released. The story line and gameplay were amazing, as well as the support conversations. Every character had their story. Fates did as well and then Three Houses really set the bar high. Engage wasn't interesting like the others. The storyline was muddied and the characters didn't have a story. The only thing I enjoyed was being able to have extra boosts with whatever ring is chosen. I hope they release another FE game that was even better than 3H. Until then I wish they would make fates and awakening for switch. I miss being able to turn Corrin into a dragon.
Honestly it gets a lot of hate, but I genuinely adore the story to bits and Alear has kind of become my favorite lord in the series, something Roy held for the longest time. It's a shame it's generally pretty trashed on in a lot of circles, but as a result the actual fanbase I've been around for it is really cozy and positive, so I guess it works out for me personally at least.
Its a great game but the few things thats holding back to being my favorite game is replay value, like im kinda baffled that there no new game+ which three houses had and it made me wanted to keep playing it. Also not being able to change outfits outside of the somniel is also dumb and huge missed opportunity.
@@UltimateInkling My question is, why couldn't they put in New Game+, especially if it was done early? You'd think they'd implement that.
As someone who interacted constantly with the main community, Fodlan's community, and Engage's community. You're right, I met some very open minded and fun people. Fodlan's community consists of a lot of annoying dour people that'll actively trash you for the route you chose, figures that a lot of the more annoying people I met post-Engage were 3H diehards.
I like so little about this game that it's legitimately the only Fire Emblem game that I fully dislike. But that is okay! Not every game in a series has to cater to my specific needs. I despised the story for it's cliches and wonky writing, but that sort of thing could just be what someone looks for in this type of game. I don't like the game, but that doesn't mean it doesn't deserve it's fans.
As a major fire emblem fan, I didn't pick it up because of the art direction, characters, and overall tone. I love the artist's work, especially on bae from hololive, but I don't like it in a fe world (why does celica look like strawberry shortcake). For me if I'm not drawn to a game's aesthetic, characters, and world, I don't even care to look into the gameplay and story. Not to mention, after awakening dlc, feh, and the og warriors, I'm really sick of them bringing up past characters 24/7 and I'm tired of avatar/god protagonists.
*Honestly, the issue I have with Avatar protagonists is that they never do it right.*
Let me pitch an idea to make my point, and you tell me if it sounds better or worse than the FE (self-inserts).
Here is what I think would make for a better Main Character concept and story outline for a self-insert character.
**-** Instead of being an amnesiac, you as the MC get summoned from another world.
*(Overused? Sure, but better than amnesia. It would justify the MCs initial state of disbelief / confusion)*
**-** The MC would be summoned as a result of a prophesy that foretells of a hero with the power to alter the tide of a war that has lasted 2 generations without end.
*(The trope would justify why some characters in the setting would (have faith or doubt) you.)*
**-** However, the other kingdom hears about this prophesy and their best warriors take a risk to fight their way into the citadel where the summoning happens. In order to try and convince you to leave with them instead.
*(The MC would not have enough information at the time to know what each side is fighting for yet, so the player gets to decide without bias who to trust.)*
**-** Before you decide, your heroic / divine power reveals itself chaotically which causes the citadel to start crumbling. With the faction you pick being the ones who reach you first and escape.
*(Justifying future character conflicts without either side knowing the choice you were going to make since the cutscene would show a character of that faction reaching you first in the chaos.)*
**-** This would begin your story in the war, with you learning about and fighting with the side you initially chose. The other sides characters would be conflicted by the idea you have been brainwashed by lies. Which presents an option half way through to switch sides at a critical choice, or join a third faction in the war that reveals itself once both sides are weakened.
*(Allowing you to bring over some faction exclusive characters you bonded with to the side you switch too.)*
This offers:
- Player Freedom
- Faction Choice
- Nuanced Plot / Intrigue
- Conflicted Characters
All that would need to happen is to create the reason for the war before the player arrived, the themes of each faction, and the character designs.
@@techpriest6962 I mean, that’s essentially the Summoner from Heroes.
@@nickcalderon2637 That's a bit like saying a car and a tank are the same because they both can be driven.
The mobile "heroes" plot is far more shallow because it's a low effort mobile game that sells gatcha mechanics instead of selling people on its story.
@@techpriest6962 I'm referring to the premise of the Avatar Protagonist being Isekaied essentially, that's what the Summoner is. Should've made that clear, my apologies.
@@nickcalderon2637 No worries, but yes it's more or less using the isekai idea since that is what FE feels like it wants to do, (but doesn't commit to) in its Avatar protagonist titles.
I don't know if anyone will agree with me on this but god damn it Diamant was robbed from a good game. I say this as someone who has played Conquest and wished that Xander was the main character instead of Corrin. This is essentially the third time (that includes 3 Houses) where I felt another character should have been the protagonist over the avatar and it's sad to think that this will more than likely be the only game Diamant is in. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me THREE TIMES....God damn it Diamant deserved better. I'm still salty about this after beating the game by the way. He was literally the closest thing to an Ike like character we had in years....uuugghh....
I gained newfound respect for Fire Emblem as a series. Its an anime-ish game that isn't "anime". I don't feel overly embarrassed to play it.
This was how I felt before Engage 😭 I'd rather die than admit to anyone I spent 60 dollars on it
This is true as long as you don't even glance at Heroes, lol
@@EXchoco What ACTUALLY went wrong?
The honest truth is pretty ugly.
The Short Version:
Nintendo put a New developer as the lead for the game who had no experience. A basic "Yes Man" who likes action games and not turn based tactics games, and was heavily influenced by Nintendo wanting to aim for a New Younger Audience which meant dumbing down the game, and making it flashier.
The Long Version:
If you read the "Ask the Developers" interviews that were released. The guy in charge (Tsutomu Tei), had never been a director of a game at IS before, and seemingly never discusses having any previous experience working on a FE game. So while I can't say what his previous role was, if any, it doesn't seem to be significant enough to mention in his bio.
I'd link the Nintendo article, but TH-cam is pretty finicky with links these days. (Typing Ask the Developer Vol. 8, Fire Emblem Engage Part 1, 2, and 3 should get you too it)
If anything, just someone picked by Nintendo to lead the development.
Listening to the other two employees of Nintendo that were in the interview. Tei and the two mention wanting to "appeal to a broader audience" and saying that RPG mechanics such as the Awakening / Fates marriage system took too long to play out in the game. According to them it "wan't fun" so they developed the Emblem Ring idea instead. With the goal of intruding the "fun elements" early on.
I'll quote the Nintendo stooge "Higuchi: We wanted to introduce this fun element for players as early as possible. I felt that the fun of tactical RPG games wasn't as intuitive or immediate as that of action games."
So basically you had Nintendo heavily influencing the game with employees who were more interested and familiar with Action games than tactics RPGs.
Then from the games IS developer,
"Tei: People often say that turn-based tactical RPGs seem difficult or too complicated... In fact, I’m not very good at them myself."
Take of that what you will, I take it as even the new IS dev wasn't interested in making a Tactics game. Just taking orders and advice from his Nintendo handlers.
"Tei: We had several candidates. We were looking for an artist whose design style would appeal to a broad audience - including younger players - as well as the ability to portray a variety of characters. Among the candidates, Mika Pikazo-san's drawings were colorful, vivid, and really popped! They were a perfect fit for the flashy direction we wanted for this title."
So from that we can see the "broader audience" meant appeal to children. In spite of marketing toward long time fans, which makes no sense since new players and young players would not get any of the references. So basically they tried to do both and focused on the younger new audience by lying to the older one.
As it would seem, the games development and design was all over the place. Trying to create a game for a new younger audience, while throwing a bone to the old players to make it seem like they were not being abandoned when they were.
As for another section about their Artist choice that influenced the game in a bad way.
"Tei: Well, I thought it'd be better to be upfront about the request. That said, there was one concern she had. Since she usually draws young characters, she was concerned about her confidence level in some of the character design."
So to answer why all the characters were loli or V-tuber style. It's because that's the only style the artist knew, and he went with it. Also, it also turns put it was her idea to make toothpaste-chans hair color red and blue. As before Tei just went with whatever he was told, advised, or requested.
From everything I have read, Tei should never be in charge of any product. Unless he was specifically chosen because he just follows orders and has no skill as a leader or director.
"Tei: As I mentioned at the beginning, I'm not very good at strategy games myself, so during development, I hoped to create a game that even those like me would want to try out or find interesting."
I felt that Engage had, overall, much better map design, but overall it wasn't nearly as strong as FE3H. The soundtrack wasn't nearly as good as any other games in the last decade.
The characters were hit and miss, but i though it was similar to others in the series.
The music being really disappointing was the biggest suprise for me. I started FE back in 2016 with Fates, beat the other 3DS titles, 3 Houses and Warriors: 3 Hopes, and they have some of my favorite songs in ALL of gaming, right up there with Sonic and Bayonetta. Even the Rogues and Redeemers 3 DLC battle in Awakening and Vanguard Dawn DLC battle in Fates which I know directly reference past games have pretty good music. When I started playing Echoes, I immediately recognized Celica's battle theme because I listened to the remix of it in Super Smash Bros Brawl so many times, so the remixes don't fall short either.
Engage is just uninteresting and unfitting nearly every step of the way. The early game battle theme I think sounds like Harry Potter music. The 4 Hounds themes are the Time Eater from Sonic Generations mixed with falling metal pipes. Alear becoming an Emblem reminds me of High School Graduation. The final map theme is just a LOOOOONG intro with some of the most awkward vocals I've ever heard, in any song, not just video games, and I hate the guitar. The end credits just make me feel hollow and indifferent rather than satisfied or relieved.
The characters are about the same as Fates, and to a lesser extent Awakening, but Echoes and 3 Houses absolutely did better with them(Raphael and Hilda are exceptions, NOT the rule)
I think the game was solid. But definltey a NG+ would have being nice, and it seems like there are lots of cut content. Lets just hope one day theres going to be a FE game where the devs get to do what they want and not be limited by nitendo policies
Every boss having 1 or more revival stones messed up some of the game for me. Especially on hard mode.
at a buffet, i personally sneak corndogs into the buffet so others can enjoy them. I hide 6 corndogs in my jacket pockets. it then, is a joy for me to see other patrons of the establishment eat my corndogs thinking they were part of the buffet.
3 houses was better by miles engaged added and went back to fates like gameplay but worse
I hate to be that guy, but Engage’s gameplay really wasn’t that good. If it was people would come back to it, but they haven’t. Maps aren’t that good, they suffered from Hector Hard mode deployments, and once you get Corrin map design goes out the window. Lategame becomes an unfun slog of endless reinforcements. Break is a poor version of the weapon triangle, I’d rather have no weapon triangle than break. Rings kill any sense of unit identity. And speaking of units, Engage has the worst balance sense Radiant Dawn. Why use Alear’s cheerleaders, the Firenese (except Chloe) and the Brodians (except Yunaka), when the Elusians and the Solmians outclass them in every way imaginable.
Right like..all of the FE streamers quickly stopped streaming the game citing low views. Idk just something that suggests to me a lot of people don’t find the gameplay very enjoyable.
Finally someone said it. I only beat the game once. I tried to do 2 maddening runs but I got so bored at late game I dropped them.
Agreed. I enjoyed TH gameplay a lot more, and my favorite is Fates Conquest, but I have liked all the ones I have played (only the modern ones).
Except the game play actually is good.
In Fate/ Stay Night, servants are more powerful than emblems.
Bros, I haven’t finished 3 houses or engage. Both have monsters with multi heath meters and I hate it. Those big beasts- ugh. I hope they don’t return
I appreciate your attempt at constructive criticism, but it’s far more than Engage deserves.
It was an attempt to see how little effort IS could put in to sell a Fire Emblem game. It somehow does what Fates did, but even worse. That tells me that IS thinks it’s playerbase are a bunch of mindless consumers who will buy something because Marth is in it.
It shows that they think so little of this fanbase. And that’s insulting.
Engage deserves the dog piling and it deserves to fade into obscurity.
They just didn’t try.
It’s like trying to give criticism of a live action Disney remake. Yeah, it is technically the fair thing to do, but what’s the point, when it was meant only to be a product pushed out as fast as possible in a desperate attempt to bring in a “new generation” and appease shareholders and executives.
IS could sell me dogs turds in a paper bag with a sticker of Marth's face on it and I'd buy it
Thank you for this. It truly does feel like Engage did the bare minimum to try and make a quick buck rather than using their resources to try and make a game that connects fans of story and gameplay alike.
Fates' stuff was way worse and the way it blew up the fanbase 10x harder was a testament to that. You can't look the game and its graphics and say it didn't try, it just went in a direction you disagreed with that's all. It happens.
@@nuibaba280 You do realize that both Engage and Fates the same issues of having good gameplay but poorly executed characters and story. Honestly, it's okay to critique a game on its shortcomings
@@eternaldarklight8204 Engage had way better characters than Fates, Alear wasn't nearly as insufferable as Corrin. The community reception supports my point. The hate Fates got makes Engage look like a fan favorite in comparison lol.
The game feels like the designers had so many ideas, but nobody was around to rein them in to make a coherent whole. Now, a year later, the game is mostly forgotten, which is in some ways the worst possible thing for a project. Especially considering that this game's characters and gimmicks are clearly intended to be as attention-catching as possible.
The game isn't widely forgotten. There's still lots of people hating it and fans that enjoy it. Engage gets lots of new art and fan content everyday with hundreds or thousands of likes.
Ur right, ppl who became a fan thru three houses, was let down by engage. If they just push forward with the concepts and mechanics of TH for the next game it would bring more interest
Exactly, 3H did in fact improve on certain aspects of previous games, most especially the class abilities and combat arts, and the new things it tried could easily be improved in future entries.
Engage decided to throw just about everything I liked about Awakening, Fates, 3H and even a small bit of Echoes out the window and replace it with something worse, or nothing at all.
"Best gameplay in the series" my ass 🙄
Yeah please no. I rather have them improve on Engage's gameplay with a straight forward story like Echoes, FE7 or whatever. If you want 3H again read Otome Visual Novels.
I want to like this game so much but im fucking baffled they didnt include a new game+ with how outrageously expensive everything is
Well I liked it
I feel like Nintendo didn’t put too much effort to commercialize this game. When I first saw it I thought it was a fire emblem side game kind of like a warrior game. It really turned me off even though the game turned out to be a mainline game
Like I always say: Too much cash grab games kill the cash grab game so too bad that the Fire Emblem serie have follow the same path of the Pokemon serie by release almost every years one game on Switch with 6 Fire Emblem games with somes classic games, warriors games, a crossover game and a anniversary game in 7 years so, just like Pokemon, one day or another one the Fire Emblem serie would end up to become a failure when we see how bad look Engage when we check all those review from people who buy Engage and feel disapoint and hate it but, unlike Pokemon who belong to Gamefreak / Pokemon Compagnies, you can blame Nintendo to have cause the failure of Engage by mainly care for cash grab games who are very popular in Japan with 6 Kirby games, 6 Fire Emblem games and a lot of old succeed video game port from previous console to the Switch like Luigi's Mansion 2 from 3DS or Paper Mario TTYD who are one of those most popular games from the 3DS and GCN instead take some years for do a game in good quality.
And meanwhile, since 7 years, we still waiting for somes true others game less popular in Japan on the Nintendo Switch like Star Fox and Kid Icarus who don't have anything or a remake/remaster game, just 2 Metroid games with no life sound anymore about Prime 4 since 7 years, just one Rom Hack about F-Zero from SNES to Switch with 99 players instead to made a new 3D HD modern game, one new Animal Crosssing, just a Wii U port of Donkey Kong Country but no new fresh Donkey Kong game about DK be playable as the main protagonist and, now I talked about Mario previously, it's funny to mention that the only thing we get for the Mario Kart serie was just a Wii U port from 2014 about Mario Kart 8 but no real new fresh Mario Kart game despite it supposed to be one new fresh game per console but never a old Mario Kart game port from previous console to a next console with a hight price like if Nintendo didn't want spend too much money for made new stuff.
It doesn't give you envy to buy the next Nintendo console due to the lazyness from Nintendo if they gonna just release a lot of old success video game port and a lot of cash grab games while they don't will care for their others series on their next consoles.
mechanically and visually it was astounding but the story was just incredibly mid tier. it's passable sure but it felt kind of bland. My favorite fire emblem story was definitely the telius games