"Just Ignore Half of it" ~ Fire Emblem Engage Quick Review, Very Brief

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I played Fire Emblem Engage.
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0:00 Introduction & Thesis
0:26 What is Fire Emblem Engage
0:49 Today's Sponsor HelloFresh
1:41 Perspective
3:28 Part I ~ The Core Strategic Gameplay
10:51 Customization & UX Nightmare
15:53 Talking About Maps & Enemy Placement
19:20 Starting Roster & Previous Characters
26:38 Part II ~ The Presentation
29:12 Part III ~ The Music
33:45 Part IV ~ Personality & Character Design
40:48 Mobile Gacha Game Influence
43:46 Part V ~ The Story
52:59 Returning FE Characters are Completely Wasted
56:25 Overall Summary and Outro
58:05 Outro

[@CaptainAstronaut]

Thanks for Watching! And Thanks again to HelloFresh for sponsoring today's video! Use my link in the description for a special discount and to help support the channel!

[@noahbradford5342]

"I guess all dragons have to die in the end.. But i wanted to be...a good dragon." That line of dialogue is just oddly funny to me can everyone make meme edits of this line it's so funny.😂

[@ellielynx3071]

@@noahbradford5342 22:19 ~RDK~RDF!~ 11:09 PM I'm watching the frame-by-frame and holes in the WOW, you guys are the real Proz for me. I'm not tossing those yoqyos again; you need 'em, I'll toss 'em. You hand it off to my friend Ser Jason, he'll knight me in the End for you guyz. He beat me at his own hand of cards; art so fast I couldn't even follow it with my I's. Nor my 0's nor my 1's. Rounded up just for fun. Cosmic flashing hands; Humanity said "Jaxx the Jazz again" and we followed Ali's coaching and roped a dope again. Trans people are needed, my friendz; you guys just forgot your left from your right again. Cheers for the UTuberz in Chatz, pleaze and thankz againz. I'll fight till next Monday for my new husbands if that's what it really, REALLY takes to avoid letting them break Uz againz. Memez az requezted againz. Amenz to my friendz.

[@ellielynx3071]

11:16 PM She/Her(zt) Thank Good for that, a Good Malice again (whew) and here I thought I was only dodging Reality ;-) take all you like, friend Z. I've been full for a long, long time and I've learned to purr when you sneeze like a good boy again. Erase the pronouns, and the dominoes falls like the piratez again. Finding Nemo again.

[@ellielynx3071]

~She/Herz Rose/River River/Rose For you guyz A Ro and a RO and a RU again.

[@ellielynx3071]

@@noahbradford5342 5 snaps into 4 again. Math: the Human Addiction. Follow the Methheads and you'll dust your own Knuckleheads with Lead. Plasticity Unfertilizing for the Youth Again.

[@jk829]

Fire emblem devs liked the switch so much, they made the protagonist a pair of joy cons

[@loooooooooby]

Bravo. All of the Colgate jokes are beyond stale at this point. Yours was very well-crafted.

[@Byakkoya11037]

I wonder if they make the CLICK sound when they wake up in the morning

[@vergil_6707]

@@Byakkoya11037 in FE heroes apparently they only get bed hair on one side of their head, like how only one of my joycons keep drifting ffs

[@aegisScale]

​@@vergil_6707 bet they need to get that half of their skull replaced every year or so💀

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

​@@loooooooooby Not the first time I've seen it

[@BombVoyageAU]

the Switch going into Powersave mode during a 15 minute cutscene between two chapters is my core memory of this game

[@htsunmiku]

What that's crazy 😭 whole ass anime episode

[@aidankocherhans9861]

Wait that wasn't a joke?!

[@aegisScale]

Bruh not even any of the dense-ass RPGs I've played recently went on that long💀💀💀

[@smtandearthboundsuck8400]

All that for a mid weeb trash story

[@lauralaura4362]

theres a 26 minute cutscene in xenoblade chronicles 3 at the end of chapter 5

[@iguessthisismyworkaccountl8437]

Fun fact, apparently, according to the main artist the characters WERE made with no context as to where they would show up, in fact they would have designed the some characters differently had they known that they would all be from the same country.

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

Apparently they were never told what the game was going to be about, or just to not make some of them look outright ridiculous

[@Tronerfull]

Holy shit now I understand why I hate all their designs. Why the fuck the "serious" assasin that has no desire to stick out has her hair full of reflectant star-shaped purpurine

[@Pablo_Martin_aa]

@@Tronerfull she is ex-streamer tho, thats why she uses quirky langue like 'hiya papaya' and 'zappy', on that note can i get a ZAPPY on the chat?

[@CobaltWarden]

Do you have a source for this? Googling isn’t bringing anything up but maybe I’m just missing something

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

@@CobaltWarden Faerghast did a video before the game's release where he showed off the developer interviews

[@RuubioRuubGaming]

Marth Fire emblem looking into the camera and saying “you are the fire emblem” killed me and is my pick for the video game moment of all time

[@a_peridox]

"he said it! he said the line!"

[@emperortgp2424]

I couldn't believe it when Marth said "It's fire emblemin' time!" and fire emblemed all over the place

[@RyanSaysJif]

Awakening: The fire emblem is a shield. Fates: The fire emblem is a sword. 3H: The fire emblem is your blood. Engage: The fire emblem is you.

[@piranhalettuce]

@@emperortgp2424 Truly the video game moment of all time

[@stevensmith1031]

I liked when he activated the Fire Emblem and said "Fire Emblem...Engage!"

[@blackdragoncyrus]

It speaks volumes that I did a Paralogue chapter where I had to protect a priest and his son, and after the battle, it's the 10 year-old son who ends up joining the army, and his parents sees him off like he's going off on a Pokémon adventure.

[@Evelyn_Rose1151]

That is the best description of Jean I have ever heard

[@TheoreticalString]

Yeah, I gotta say I was less than amused. After Three Houses really hit some decent points in writing - I mean it's a war game, but it had some musings on the cost of war, how it changes and hardens people, etc. - this game was beyond braindead. I mean Three Houses was not quite the revolutionary groundbreaking work it's sometimes praised as, but it's quite good at points and serviceable at worst. This occasionally approached "serviceable" from the wrong side. Especially with Permadeath a present and possible outcome for characters in one of the gameplay modes, going off to war isn't treated mechanically lightly - so why is it being treated so lightly by the story. This isn't Pokemon, the threat of literal permanent death is at least there.

[@Val_O7898]

Bro it's a videogame

[@creativename1673]

@@Val_O7898 That's a terrible argument. Video game stories should not be judged differently just because they're attached to a game, there exist both games with great stories in their own right as well as books/movies that are terrible.

[@kiyohimeisbetterthanmorgan220]

@@Val_O7898 That's exactly why we're complaining tho? Videogames are supposed to be enjoyable, in the case of RPGs they should have an enjoyable story, so of course nobody likes to see a kid go to war for no apparent reason since nonsensical stories aren't enjoyable.

[@moonmelons]

To quote one guy, "to be fair, throwing Sigurd by himself into the enemy army is basically how everyone plays fe4 anyway, so the Sigurd paralog is accurate to his game." Sigurd just forgot he wasn't actually in fe4 and couldn't actually solo your army.

[@calebjacobsen6814]

As someone who is currently playing FE4 I can say with absolute certainty that is how the game is played, fortunately I have friends who tell me I should at least use Quan as well.

[@blackdragoncyrus]

My favourite moment in the story was when the door closed behind the characters in a cathedral, trapping them inside, then the battle begins and they're on the other side of the door that closed.

[@damianiscringe1082]

they mentioned how they got into the other side though, they literally broke the door and came in

[@iButt]

@@damianiscringe1082 he means that they enter the cathedral's main hall in a cutscene, have the main hall's door locked behind them, and then the map starts with them outside the main hall again with no explanation

[@MinorCirrus]

And you forgot the stellar writing right after the doors close: - The doors! - We're trapped inside!! Thank you, I had gathered as much, game.

[@TwilightWolf032]

That chapter pissed me off on so many levels I had to stand up and walk around the house to clear my head. It already comes out right after a very, VERY stupid story segment where the king keeps waving death flags around the battlefield just begging to be killed, doesn't do jack to prevent the evil king from using the ring he's veeeeeeeery slooooooowwwwwly putting on despite knowing what they are and that they are in possession of those, while previously having refused the help from the army that is not only fighting against said enemy forces to much success but also employs the CHILD OF THE GOD THEY WORSHIP, it also portrays the absolute worst cutscene in the entire game! They enter the cathedral after the Emblems tell them they probably shouldn't, the door closes behind them and they're forced to fight. Standard trap. It pisses me off that the boss in this chapter can use Lyn's skill that allows him to basically one shot anyone in your army with low max HP (especially your flying units) without any prior warning, forcing you to go back in time to reposition your units in a way that he wastes that shot, but that's a whole other problem I have with the ability of turning back time. Back to cutscene. The camera panders to show the entire room you're in, which is massive! There are only a couple of people on your side and a couple in front of them, and suddenly, the CGI starts, and now... there's only the king and the fell dragon present? Where are my characters, they were standing EXACTLY where the king is standing right before he dies! And now that the CGI is over, it's everyone back to their positions and - oh hey, what's Hortencia doing here? Gasp, she shoved the kid laughing at her father's demise, instead of casting a spell or attacking her! And now she's gone forever from the cutscene, she'll never be shown again until the chapter you recruit her! And suddenly the Elite Four walk in, and EVERYBODY TURNS THEIR BACKS TO THE LAST BOSS FOR A WHOLE 10 MINUTES! Dragon kid, that wasn't present for the cutscene where they walked in, suddenly is, and after the CGI cutscene is done and we get back to the in-game cutscene, now it's the last boss that's gone! Sure, you hear his voice, but did he teleport away? Is he still there? And then another cutscene shows a different angle and the last boss shows up again! AN THEN WE'RE OUTSIDE!? Engage has the worst cutscenes in all of Fire Emblem! Character positions don't matter, characters fade in and out of existence according to what the writers feel like doing instead of crafting a story where characters organically move the plot forward, plot twists happen for the sake of having a plot twist, and the dialogue is just atrocious! Any cutscene on the Wii, GCN or even GBA games is a thousand times better than the best rendered cutscene in Engage! In the past games you could actually tell where everyone was, and when the rest of your army was not shown in the VN style, it was implied they were busy dealing with their own thing during or after battle. You could fill in the blanks yourself, but with Engage's obsession of showing everything angle because they're using a 3D engine, characters being or not being there when they should or shouldn't become much more of a problem! Juts look at FE10's cutscene before the final blow to the last boss: it chooses a camera angle that shows Ike and Micayah talking to each other, but only show a very small portion of the arena you're in, implying the rest of your forces are off-screen dealing with Ashera. It's CGI, so it can't account for who you chose to bring to the final battle or even who survived the battle, but it can be smart about how it presents itself BY NOT BEING 10 MINUTES LONG AND FADING CHARACTERS IN AND OUT OF EXISTENCE!!!

[@thereaIitsybitsyspider]

"Go back inside, father. You must live to keep Brodia stable." "Do you think I'm weak? I'm going outside!" *dies immediately*

[@vollied4865]

Hey give the king credit, he's the longest lived parent in the entire franchise dude survived FOUR missions, new record 😂

[@thereaIitsybitsyspider]

@@vollied4865 Greil lived for 7, Jeralt lived for 9. Eliwood actually lives the whole game. 4 might be a record low outside of the ones that die before the prologue.

[@leomassafm160]

​@@thereaIitsybitsyspider this just made me realize that Eliwood is probably the only Fire Emblem dad that was spared from the Fire Emblem dad curse.

[@GonnaDieNever]

@@vollied4865 Technically in Fates and Awakening...

[@xavierwhitcraft1310]

@@leomassafm160 Chrom technically lives the whole game too

[@francisspecimen675]

FE3H: Why can't we just all get along 😭😖🥺😩 FEE: Why can't you all just eliminate each other 💀💀💀💀

[@nuibaba280]

What a terrible take.

[@catelyntully9494]

Don't forget that Alear actually died 3 times, and while one is in the past you see/learn about all 3 in the spawn of 1 chapter.

[@lo4tr]

But, don't you see, the problem with doing flashbacks is always that the stakes are lowered because you know whom lives or dies. Alear dying and coming back multiple times means you can have a flashback scene and actually have them die! Genius writing. Fixes all the flaws with the scenes so many writers get wrong.

[@HeyItsThatEl]

It's honeslty super reassuring to hear someone step into Fire Emblem Story Discourse tm and just refute the dichotamy that is "either we get good gameplay or good story and I care about the gameplay because I'm a real big dick strategy gamer and I don't get bogged down by foolish trivial things like characters or narrative." Like it makes me feel fuckin' insane. A lot of Fire Emblem games have BOTH.

[@Danitron904]

Which ones have both? I am curious. Because I feel everyone has a different answer, including me.

[@Fernybun]

​@@Danitron904The GBA games are solid in both regards

[@gheredin4074]

Path of radiance and radiant dawn@@Danitron904

[@Byakkoya11037]

@@Danitron904 Everyrone has a different answer because everyone's standards for what makes a story "good" are different.

[@itzgladgatorgonegladitzmad9701]

@@Danitron904Genealogy is pretty good in both fronts. Thracia is good but has the Thracia fog that sucks ass. The Sacred Stones is pretty good if you don’t mind an easier game in terms of enemy quality.

[@xana3961]

I remember someone once suggested, since Gatekeeper won the popularity vote, that they had a story with a bunch of normal, almost faceless soldiers that slowly revealed their faces and personality as the story went one, becoming the protagonists of the story and gaining an active role in the plot as you progressed the levels in comparison to just having it from the beginning.

[@Knucklebreaking]

Honestly there's plenty of room with random npc plots that are very under used in games. Imagine if a fun seemingly generic npc turned out to be a legendary hero in disguise the entire game or that generic npc having their own interesting story. Octopath traveler plays with stuff like this but nothing as likeable as Gatekeeper.

[@TornaitSuperBird]

It only works if you manage to make them as charismatic as possible.

[@sebastianbronowicki7073]

That plus something akin to the nemesis system would be godlike

[@mr.stuffdoer8483]

@@TornaitSuperBird I mean just spend the same amount of budget on the VAs as Houses had and you pretty much already have that. Engage having a more mid cast and performances certainly didn’t help its writing

[@mr.stuffdoer8483]

@@sebastianbronowicki7073 if you mean the shadow of war thing, I’m pretty sure the reason we haven’t seen that in other games is that they copyrighted the mechanic. If they ever release it, I feel the progression of AI tech in past years could make the concept even better

[@TheNerfer]

Not gonna lie, Hortensia kinda looks more like a court jester than a princess with all the flashy colors and the heart mark on her face.

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

Clown vomit, the character

[@extremmefan7305]

She's basically the most pampered little princess

[@kylecyrus9457]

Gonna be honest, I lowkey live her design. It's not good, but it's so over the top goofy that I feel happy everytime I see it

[@Yoshixandir]

I thought she was supposed to be a clown not a princess. Especially since her voice was grating I thought she be annoying villain

[@Shalakor]

@@Yoshixandir To be fair, when you're not the firstborn your obligations as princess become: try to find something else to give your life meaning. Clowning is clearly her passion.

[@weebsquit347]

If you showed me the characters outside of this game, i wouldnt even guess that they're from Fire Emblem.

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

That's how everyone reacted to the first leak.

[@Pablo_Martin_aa]

Idk man alfred and Diamond look like generic lords to me

[@uneconqueambulante2094]

What is Futaba doing in your profile pic ?

[@Pablo_Martin_aa]

@@uneconqueambulante2094 screaming in COD lobby

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

@@Pablo_Martin_aa Diamant maybe, but not Alfred, and he's the exception, not the rule.

[@sicsempertsundere993]

“I’ll rip that traitorous tongue from your mouth!” “Then you’ll finally have the truth in your grasp.” Lukas was absolutely spitting with that line.

[@iButt]

I'm genuinely astonished with how amazing Echoes' script is. Every FE game after Radiant Dawn has had such bland dialogue with maybe a few gems in the supports, but FE15 was a fucking gold mine of character interactions and voice acting.

[@TrevorLamb-xo2id]

God I love that exchange so much

[@A_Person_64]

Lukas is very cool

[@funninoriginal6054]

"A battle between god and mortal? Sounds exhilarating to me." If SoV had a CON stat Lukas's would be the highest to carry his massive balls of steel like holy shit

[@jadedacostawang7326]

When the dialogue bits started I immediately remembered Lukas saying: "A battle between god and mortal? Sounds exhilarating to me." He had so many great quotes!

[@yang6642]

Fernand: “I’ll rip that traitorous tongue from your throat!” Lukas: “Then you’ll finally have the truth in your grasp!” Lukas was such a badass.

[@datboiaurhen]

Literally the epitome of: "Wow! What a fun game! :D" The cutscene starts to play "...ah"

[@pswitch2629]

Gotta love Zephia and Griss's 10-minute death cutscene

[@mihaimercenarul7467]

Alear's mom death: those are rookie numbers

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

The clanging metal pipes they try to pass off as music makes that moment extra special

[@thegodforger923]

The devs must be Eternal Sonata fans.

[@leaffinite2001]

The whole cutscene i was just thinking "oh my god. Theyre actually trying to make me care. Why. These characters suck i dont like them. Why is it still going!"

[@mr.stuffdoer8483]

@@leaffinite2001 fr, they at least gave Marni some semblance of a sympathetic element, but then Griss and Zeph just killed _her,_ pretty much cementing them as being cunts. THEN THIS BITCH GOES ON A RANT ABOUT WANTING TO BE A MOTHER?! _WHAT?!?!_

[@Helder_Mark]

FE Engage is what we’d get if RWBY had a bigger budget for animation, but same bad writing. It gives the exact same energy

[@mr.stuffdoer8483]

Fuck you’re absolutely right. It makes so much more sense now, I think I subconsciously connected that but hadn’t realized it.

[@Lex_Araden]

Damn, the truth hurts.

[@-JaggedGrace-]

RWBY- tier writing? No way I’m ever buying this game now 😨 at least if you’re talking about post-Monty RWBY

[@AzumarillConGafasBv]

Shit, that's true I still like RWBY, not Engage tho

[@MattWensley1992]

The rwby comparison was my first thought too, especially the "sudden 4 bad guys including hot lady, psycho, nice muscle man and the other one" and even the way some characters faces look and animate. But damn, rwby came with some charm at least

[@middle_pickup]

Fire Emblem Three Houses was an addiction. I couldn't put it down. I couldn't get it out of my head. I've spent over 1,000 hours playing it many times. Fire Emblem Engage was a game that I bought, played for a couple chapters, and a few months later remembered that I own it. It's such a sad follow up from Three Houses.

[@ferintown6628]

How dare you call Conquest’s story bad? I’ll have you know it’s the greatest comedy of our generation

[@duckyfishes9445]

It truly is a great comedy. I had fun with it for sure

[@aaaah540]

Since the Fire Emblem series takes place in medieval times, one might think all of the pretty husbandos and waifus might actually have terrible dental hygiene. But actually, in the real world, the first known toothbrushes were invented in 1600 BC! Our warriors might be fresher than you think!

[@Guy-cb1oh]

Fire Emblem games DO NOT take place in Medieval times. Plus even if they did, its a myth that medeival people had bad oral hygiene. They didnt need toothbrushes as much because Sugar was rare in medieval europe.

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

​@@Guy-cb1oh Yeah they do

[@Hell_O7]

​@@Guy-cb1ohhoney still a thing, right? And it's not like sweet stuffs is the only bad thing for your teeth anyway.

[@maltheopia]

@@Guy-cb1oh The people of the time ate a shitload of cereals, and not just in Medieval Europe. Egyptian mummies, and I'm talking the upper-class, had HORRIBLE dental hygiene on account of all of the grains they ate and beer they drank.

[@fartface8918]

​@@Hell_O7there wasn't an industrial revolution level of production behind honey subsidies on an amount of land multiple times bigger than Europe the same way we have for corn

[@babaXIII]

Remember guys, somebody was PAID good money to write that somehow Veyle just stole the rings and time crystal. That whole scene is an insult to writing. Everybody in that room should be ashamed.

[@DesensitizedMuffin]

and then afterwards Zelkov somehow steals the time crystal and rings back lol.

[@babaXIII]

@@DesensitizedMuffin yup, the level of ineptitude in this game's story is baffling.

[@asolomoth1066]

"Somehow... Veyle stole the rings"

[@Edgeperor]

I think they genuinely just teleport into her hands, which really begs the question of why she never used that insane power afterwards

[@NotGeno]

@@asolomoth1066She said she stole them while the hounds were introducing themselves.

[@HHopebringer]

"If you think I pick favorites, you're mistaken. I love ALL my children equally." [Earlier that playthrough] "I don't care for Ashe."

[@HHopebringer]

(THIS IS NOT SERIOUS BTW. I recruited Ashe on EVERY playthrough I made of Three Houses)

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

Me with Lorenz

[@entechgt]

I used ashe n he was op for me, idk if it was luck or just him being goated tho

[@NarrowSpark96]

Amber is so forgettable that you didn't even remember that he uses lances, not swords.

[@ltranc]

I like how despite everything, he’s genuinely one of the best Brodian units.

[@Swiss816]

@@ltranc this game does that a lot. On repeat playthroughs like every unit I ignored shined more than the royalty I insist on using cause thats what FE has taught me is that Noble/Lords are usually always good :(

[@Lechgang]

@@Swiss816 Diamant and Ivy are some of the best units in the game. The Fierene royalty are ass though.

[@commanderryu7554]

​@@Lechgang Eh Céline is a star player for me but Diamant has fallen off for me personally, alfred is bad tho

[@CatsLilaSalem]

@@commanderryu7554 Most people got an very strong Etie, but my Etie was very weak and slow sadly. And my Diamant was super busted, rest was average at best, Anna horrible but turns out she should not stay as an axe user with her magic potential. Alear was super bulky but could barely damage anything

[@scarlett285]

Something that I don't think I've heard anyone else talk about the way whenever enemy phase occurs the map music always changes to the same enemy phase track every single time. Their weren't very many maps where I was really really into the music but on the ones I was such as Sigurds paralogue the way the enemy phase music would kick in always made me so unbelievably upset

[@dhisufiroafrozenseraphimdragon]

I dislike enemy phase music in every game it appears in.

[@onecreepypenguin9138]

You can turn the enemy phase music off iirc

[@artificialaceattorney6822]

I dislike the idea of enemy phase music. It ruins the flow of the soundtrack. I much prefer the games in which the map theme plays all map, only transitioning to the more intense variant during battle, unless you engage a boss with a unique theme.

[@dhisufiroafrozenseraphimdragon]

@@artificialaceattorney6822 I agree.

[@Mojo1356]

They don’t even let you turn it off for the main campaign- only grinding maps and tempest trials.

[@raphialfehr8593]

"I guess fell dragons have to die in the end. But I wanted to be a good dragon" I have never laughed so hard, I have not played engage,but as soon as I heard that line I burst out laughing at how cringe it is, and then the level up jingle with "The new worst dialouge in FE history" just took that to another level

[@steaktastebetterpill]

Alright, that part at 9:00 where you awkwardly forced in "Three Houses" actually got me laughing.

[@comfy-pajamas]

im so glad they let you inherit skills in the arena (and also let you equip the skills while still in the menu) on the last update. it was much needed

[@anthonynguyen1289]

I’m pretty certain the inheriting of skills from menu was a day 1 thing or at least before whatever update you’re referring to because I was definitely using it while not being able to inherit skills in the arena. In fact I still haven’t updated (I don’t have internet at my house and need to travel to update the game), so I can probably verify this.

[@AustinOnStandby]

@@anthonynguyen1289 Everything you just said can be summed up as “I have no knowledge about anything you’re saying, but I’m still going to act like I do.”

[@leaffinite2001]

​@@anthonynguyen1289 it wasnt

[@anthonynguyen1289]

@@AustinOnStandby I messed up my original comment I meant the equipping of skills while in inheriting skills menu existed which is in fact in the game prior to the arena update. I think my brain farted when I made my original comment. I can upload a video showing my game being on an older patch and being able to equip skills while in the inheritance menu. You never needed to close the inheritance menu and open your inventory menu to equip skills you can find people on reddit discussing that prior to the arena update and I’m on 1.2 and I can do this. I know I did it on 1.1 as well. I believe it was in the game in 1.0, but I don’t think I played on that for long

[@blues03]

This is why I appreciated Griss. He brougth much-needed grit to dialogue. Unhinged, didn't care about anything as long as he got what he wanted, and has the best VA delivered lines between him and Alear. Ever. EVER. EVER!!

[@RockR277]

I could never get into his character. He was one of the characters that really made me mash through dialogue...

[@blues03]

@@RockR277 Even when he was standing around in the background of other characters, he always looked annoyed or bored (why am I here?). He's snide and rude but doesn't come off as annoying like Marni. He doesn't try to talk over your head like Zephia, nor is he a contemplative soul like Mauvier . Griss is who he is. I guess what I'm trying to express I feel we the players are like Griss when the story becomes campy and most of the characterss feel paper thin. "Let's get on with the story so I see what happens next so I can stay interested".

[@troykv96]

Griss it's a very simple guy, he likes pain, suffering and his mom, everything else is just to serve his 3 main motivations.

[@neog8029]

We know nothing about Griss other than he's a pain slut because orphan? I guess? Yeah, real great villain

[@leaffinite2001]

Idk the masochist villain trope is extremely played out. It felt dumb and silly. Its right out of a cartoon.

[@VGF80]

Come to think of it, the red-blue split design is pretty much an allegory of the discrete split quality of this game.

[@ThisIsNotMyUsername]

I knew I wouldn't be able to take this game seriously when Alear's mother has this dramatic death scene at the start of the game. No time for us nor the character to get to know her. It was designed to be a devastating scene, but it happens in such a lackluster way that I felt absolutely nothing. I want to finish the game to understand complaints with context, but I am dreading it

[@DylBro101]

Late reply but think back to Chrom’s mother from Awakening. We had like 7 chapters to get to know them. Lissa, Chrom, Emmeryn. And then we have this whole cutscene to see her die and how the characters react. They gave you ample time to know the characters. So you can feel it too

[@WhiteManOnCampus]

@@DylBro101 Emmeryn was their older sister, not their mother, but yeah. Same with Eliwood's father in Blazing Blade (my personal favorite FE from a story perspective). You get a lot of time to know the characters and what they mean to each other.

[@Yoshixandir]

I couldn’t take it seriously after she took long dying my switch went to rest mode

[@danielnolt3518]

Gave me flashbacks to Fates writing, and Corrin's mom (I dont even remember her name XD

[@yurisei6732]

I had the exact same experience. I saw absolutely every line of dialogue coming a mile away, but that death scene is what caused me to start making those predictions, just because I wanted to see how predictable it would really be.

[@Dakress23]

I don't hate Engage's plot nearly as you do tbh, but you do bring a good point in why Yunaka is easily the most popular character of Engage compared to everyone else: her introduction is very memorable, you get a sneak peek into her character layers, AND the map where you get her makes full use of her as an unit. It's a shame she ended up being more of an exception rather than a rule to follow overall, but eh...

[@chillstoneblakeblast3172]

Louis also stands out really well as a tank on his map. Etie can one shot fliers no matter the difficulty. Boucheron is your first Chain attacker and Chlóe is your first flier. Alfred is way more forgettable than these guys.

[@aphato2770]

​@@chillstoneblakeblast3172 Alfred keeps showing up throughout all the story Cutscenes and has an interesting character twist.

[@nuibaba280]

​@@chillstoneblakeblast3172 You say that but Alfred is a constant in dialogue and story. I find him less forgettable. He's also one of Engage's better written characters. A plot twist that recontextualizes a lot of what he says and does, some very sweet/fun dynamics (my favorites are the crown royals being put off by how carefree Alfred is in a harsh world), and he arguably has *the* best dynamic with Alear. Alfred actually treats Alear like a person, a friend that Alfred saw comfort/strength in throughout a sickly childhood than "omg rare critter divine dragon god thing! how may I serve you? can I worship you?". Alfred and his sister treat Alear as a close friend to mutually vent to. Imo, the close friendship developed throughout supports feels extra earned too since you help their kingdom on the brink of collapse and save their mom.

[@lionelbulgin1739]

The story is really bad 😭

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

And even then, they just had to go and slap her design in the face with those stars. I don't care about why she has them, they look stupid as hell

[@sniggelbob]

Genuinely was wondering how he would incorporate Thracia 776 into his bit, wasn't disappointed.

[@masterjoda999]

Even if the story _did_ 'pick up at the end', that's still a bad thing because if I have to get to the end for your story to be good, you have failed as a storyteller.

[@Yoshixandir]

Definitely engage story was boring predictable and un engaging. Same with the characters if I have to wait til the A support to care for these characters then they are written terribly. They need to catch my attention or give me a reason to care just them being “nice” doesn’t work since almost everyone in the cast is nice

[@spilledteaissadtea3037]

So fun fact I actually follow the artist who made the character design for Bebsi (Mika pikazo) and I got to say the design for fire emblem really feels like a commissioned work. What I meant by that is Nintendo held a gun to Mika’s head and told her to make a knock off Nintendo Switch-Chan character design. Which is weird because she knows what color theory is. A lot of her art uses rainbows and saturated colors, but she knows how to pull it together that doesn’t make my eyes bled out. So why the heck did Nintendo not allow the color pop artist do what she does best? I will never know. So this entire game is just every bad mistake that could’ve been made outside of game play, have been made.

[@coolyeh1017]

I think it is a case of the art not translating well into a 3D model. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 suffered from this for a few artists. Because if you look at the 2D art of the characters they are clearly thought out well and the artist's passion or favorite telltale signs (i.e. Nomura with his signature designs for Torna) and then their 3D model it cna be jarring. Fortunately, Xenoblade Chronicles 3 fixed most of those issues.

[@xemnasxiii3992]

@@coolyeh1017 I think i can agree with that with all 2D art of Alear they look very well done and thought out but i'd say in general Pikazo's art probably didn't translate well in 3D or at least the 3D art direction they were going for in Engage

[@elfireii328]

At the least, you would think nintendo would let mika have a say in the environmental design. If the whole game popped (like fe x shinmegami tensei), the game would look alot better imo.

[@TheNuts1225]

You know, there's a lot of really good character designs in this game. Diamant, Citrinne, Chloe, Louis, Jade. But the bad ones are reeeeeeeeeally bad. Alear and Hortensia come to mind. Yunaka would be good without the stupid star sprinkles in her hair.

[@xemnasxiii3992]

@@renzallen8251 but Pikazo never made art for FEH hell even F!Alear is made by Amagaitaro. Pikazo is mostly know for her FGO art and the Vtuber rig she made for Baelz

[@ForeverUnmotivated]

Engage made me realize I'm just not someone who can overlook a bad story just for some supposedly good gameplay. If I have no attachment to my characters, then I don't really care when they die, or get a good level up, or have a new support conversation for me to read, and at some point after the progression peaks I always get bored and stop playing. It happened before in Fates and some 3H routes, but always a good while into the game. I barely got 5 chapters into Engage before I was so unengaged that I just shut the game off when it tried to teach me about yet another overwrought mechanic that only exists to make FE KZbinrs spam my recommendations with their stupid lifehacks and give the game free advertising.

[@anthonycortes868]

What mechanic are you talking about?

[@KhaiNguyen-ru7lk]

Unengaged?

[@Mojo1356]

Gotta be honest. Shadows of Valentia made me care at least somewhat for the gameplay. For as much as Shadows of Valentia has the best writing in the modern entries from a fundamental perspective, the gameplay is easily the worst of the modern entries.

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

​@@Mojo1356 Yeah, the gameplay of Echoes is dated as hell and wasn't as polished as it should've been.

[@comyuse9103]

i can enjoy a mediocre story, but engage's just actively takes away from the experience. it is actively bad, and that is honestly impressive in its own right.

[@Flygonite]

THANK YOU for using that exact conversation from SoV as your example; Lukas is the absolute man and that exchange was perfection

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

Fernand not so much

[@hmm_norah]

The difference in writing is absolutely mind boggling.. I usually dump on Koei Tecmo but tbh they should maybe take over for more Fire Emblem games if Engage is the new direction otherwise.

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

They need to stay as far away as possible from the graphics though. We should not be getting N64-Ass pixelated clouds on a 2017 HD Game Console that gave us Mario Odyssey, Splatoon 2 & 3, Smash Ultimate, and more which all look VASTLY better and run at a stable 60fps compared to 3H which can't even manage 30

[@alexanderkosten7611]

​@@AkameGaKillfan777 They're still more competent than Game Freak. N64 Tree, anybody?

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

@@alexanderkosten7611 You can count the pixels in the clouds. The character models are good though

[@nuibaba280]

Hell no. Koei's story writing wasn't any good.

[@auraguard0212]

Koei wrote Azure Moon. (And the clusterfucks that are Crimson Flower and Verdant Wind, but still.) Intelligent Systems wrote Silver Snow and White Clouds; the reason your lord pick only matters gameplay-wise in the first half (and has no bearing on the story) is that the lords were supposed to be shafted originally, because Silver Snow is the canon ending. Koei's playtesters liked the lords and pushed for the fanfiction that American (for Edelgard) and Japanese (for Azure Moon) fans actually ended up liking through some fluke. Koei then responded to the American 3H base by releasing 3Hopes, which made the story and characters _worse_ by trying to fill in what Intelligent Systems didn't answer... with more questions. 3 Houses is a fluke.

[@benjaminborkowski12]

The "FE always had bad stories" take is the copium that bothers me the most. If it took like 2 decades for FE7 to be nitpicked into being considered a bad story, It took years for thousands of obsessive Reddit nerds to tear apart 3 Houses, it took me a couple hours for Engage to pull a LooneyTunes "Look behind you so i can steal your rings out of your back pocket" gag and take it 100% seriously

[@guilhermecardoso2365]

I hate that take, but i found 3H'S story to be really bad after i beat the 4 routes. They tried to tell a good complex tale but the mc fellatio, the 4 route structure and the shitty villains ruined it.

[@jaceybella1267]

​@@guilhermecardoso2365it's a super satisfying framework with big ideas, but yeah, coming together in the end didn't bring the cohesion I was looking for (and I don't just mean a happy ending lol). On one hand I'd really like to see IS take on a multi-route structure like this again, on the other hand if that's the next title I think that would make the veteran fan vs 3H newbies divide even larger

[@nahte123456]

I mean I think it's a dumb idea in general. Like to be clear I never liked FE7's story and I think a lot of the popular stories are really overblown (Radiant Dawn's story is one of the worst in the series and you can't convince me otherwise, only Shadow Dragon is worse). However they are enjoyable, they normally have depth, and they take the story series, which Engage really...doesn't. Still a better story then Shadow Dragon but that's a really low bar.

[@totidoki05]

yes and this idea completly ommits tracia, gaiden (or echoes), path of radiance, genealogy of the holy war? Hello? are we just so used to shitty generic anime plots in FE that we assume it's at its core? Even FE1 had ambition in its story, FE8 an FE6/7 too, there are some interesting subplots, treasons, character drama can be taken seriously, shitty story and characters are not a norm in fire emblem. Heck even 3 houses was good in the end but was tarnished by its format.

[@rances4418]

It’s just lazy excuse this coming from someone who thinks fire emblem stories never been good. Closet we got was three houses so I was hoping they were finally going to tell a good story and we got this. That not only has lack luster story but characters.

[@pawarl.o.s.881]

50:36 never before have I been introduced to a character in Fire Emblem and thought "I will intentionally let you die"

[@Pandaboybk]

It's really bad that I literally cannot name a single character from that game. I could probably name every character in Three Houses, this game disappointed me so much coming off of that.

[@Izigurand]

How did we get from the game with God Shattering Star to “yup, that’s a soundtrack” in one installment? (Three Hopes doesn’t count)

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

Simple: "lets look at other media which are absolutely nothing like FE and copy them!"

[@ProudlyIdiotic]

Always great to see the title of a video be so truthful

[@Pazuzu4All]

My biggest worry is that Intelligent Systems is going to learn all the wrong lessons from this, like what happened between Awakening to Fates.

[@Neoxon619]

Physical sales for Engage are currently doing worse than Three Houses, although we won’t have the full picture until we get digital sales numbers as well.

[@internetguy7319]

@@Neoxon619 Thank god, praying for that to continue

[@Luna-pk7gz]

@@internetguy7319 imagine wanting a game to sell less lmao

[@thebloatgaming553]

@@internetguy7319 the fact that you want the game to do badly is just sad lol

[@hyperm8]

@@thebloatgaming553 I think he wants it to do badly, or at least worse than Three Houses, so that IS gets the picture that people prefer an FE game that focuses on story and characters

[@wordsandyou]

Thank god someone mentioned the UX. People say ignore the terrible story (impossible). But actually using the tactical layer is also such a chore.

[@nuibaba280]

"Ignoring the terrible story (impossible)". Me when the skip button function was programmed into the game:

[@Melkac]

(Impossible) There literally is a skip button. Plus all fire emblems have terrible stories, not sure why you think this is the exception.

[@heathersmith4042]

@@Melkac all fire emblems do not have terrible stories, and certainly not on this level. the only story the same level as this one is fates. i've seen plenty of mediocre stories in video games- i have never seen one that has such poor, juvenile, GRATING dialogue, combined with shamelessly contrived and uninspired "plot twists" that they foreshadow by having characters look directly into the camera and spell out exactly what's going to happen, combined with literal cardboard cutouts masquerading as characters, that still somehow takes itself so seriously it gives you 5 minute long death scenes for characters you don't even know. there were no moments in three houses where i literally just sat back and started laughing at a "serious" scene, but it happened plenty of times in engage. even more often than that i put the controller down to check my email.

[@johnathanera5863]

​​@@Melkac lol. You're opinion is invalid if you think all fire emblem stories suck. You just cant read.

[@TuskyBaby]

​@@heathersmith4042I agree Engage is all these things you say it is, but there are certainly other games/forms of media with similarly as bad writing 😂

[@WiIICheck]

“I guess fell dragons have to die in the end… But I wanted to be… a good dragon…” Almost killed me from laughter 😂

[@evandrake6269]

I truly, genuinely, cringed when I heard that line. I had to turn my volume all the way down that way I didn't get embarrassed bc my fiancee heard it 😭

[@NotGeno]

@@evandrake6269Fire Emblem Engage haters when the emotionally stunted character acts emotionally stunted: 😮

[@quack-tastictictac1630]

@@NotGenoThey’re talking about how the dialogue itself is badly written, not about the character’s personality. You gotta admit, it’s a pretty stupid line.

[@NotGeno]

@@quack-tastictictac1630 I do agree that the translation keeps using the wrong words. You don’t have to keep saying ally, just say friend

[@Ender41948]

@@NotGeno It's not the translation, it's just a badly written story.

[@Neoxon619]

I guess, in addition to the hair of Alear being a nod to dental hygiene, the clashing hair colors also represent the clashing levels of quality with various aspects of Engage. Amazing gameplay, awful story. And that pretty much seems to be the consensus from what I’ve seen. To be honest, I'm partially hoping that we get another new mainline Fire Emblem game before the next Smash game drops so we don't have to be obligated to have Alear be playable.

[@MenwithHill]

Fundamentally it's a game about duality. Truly a masterpiece of meta commentary, bravo.

[@hesdry3593]

Came here by you're resetera thread. Thx

[@kyperactive]

So the game is a cry for help?

[@Neoxon619]

@@kyperactive In the sense that the gameplay designers are desperately asking for a better story writers, yeah.

[@ausgod538]

As always you have terrible opinions, congratulations lol

[@bummerfriend]

I miss when fire emblem was medieval war that happened to be anime, instead of anime war with some medieval elements

[@skipiroththeonewingedpenguin]

43:09 So it did take a while but uh...they did indeed add Emblems to Fire Emblem Heroes. At the time that I'm writing this, the feature was literally just announced.

[@KeleuHerdley]

32:34 “It’s pretty catchy the same way that herpes is catchy” 💀

[@WatipitiEvolved]

Dude, I can only make a couple of clever jokes and then I'm mentally exhausted for a few days. This guys does it EVERY. FREAKING. MINUTE. in this video. Truly a masterpiece.

[@natoriousthehopeful2786]

I agree with a lot of your points, ESPECIALLY THE STORY: this was a MAJOR step down from Three Houses. Side note Diamante was actually one of my BEST units. I would just send him and Tamera on the front lines and they were tanking almost everything in we threw at them

[@JurzGarz]

But but but the “discourse”! Me no likey when games have themes that people have debates about!

[@PumpkinFox]

I remember when Chloe didn't even feel like giving up her single gimmick when a town in her territory was burnt down to the ground.

[@A_Person_64]

Modern FE writers try not to reduce a character to one trait and run it to the ground challenge (IMPOSSIBLE)

[@PumpkinFox]

@@A_Person_64It's not like there isn't stuff to get out of characters in this game. At least from what I've heard, a lot of characters can be pretty deep. I just can't bother with it because they all just give such bad first impressions.

[@coronette]

@@PumpkinFox I feel like you really hit the nail on the head with the struggle I had with this game. I wanted to like the characters, but by the time I got past their first impressions I just didn't want to bother. It really takes digging into their supports and by that point... why.

[@MogofWar]

You say the story's bad, but my favorite part is when Alear yells out "It's Engaging time" and engages all over the enemy's face. Then Framme and Clanne start cheering them on, and Alear turns to the camera and says "Remember! Dental hygiene is most important."

[@jvts8916]

I already didn't like the morbin' meme, but the people that started attributing to things that *weren't even out* made it painful. I'd argue that most of the "cringe" is only due to people deliberately accentuating the negative because that's what influencers did preemptively.

[@rappermi]

Braindead comments from lames that dont have any sense of humor..

[@gabrielsandor3474]

I wanted to like this so bad but it has 69 likes and I don't want to be the one to change it. Edit: it got to 71 before I finished the comment

[@Zek3nator]

@@jvts8916what do mean? He’s just talking about his favorite part of the game. Don’t you remember it? It was pretty lit.

[@justinmorales9597]

Every time they say engage in the game I point at the screen and say “He said it!”

[@viheart]

Ah yes a nice bite sized video

[@picochap]

It's a big bite frfr

[@Byakkoya11037]

Alligator Bites lmao

[@bleepbloop2366]

Talking just about the character design aspects bc I really like art and character design in general: seeing Engage's character lineup in the trailers was a huge reason that I didn't buy the game myself despite enjoying other modern titles like Echoes and Three Houses. It IS really funny that the new designs do indeed look like pop idols compared to previous installments, when Three Houses' characters were designed by the woman who is literally most famous for her work on an idol anime lol. I personally hope they bring back Kozaki Yusuke for the next main game since I love his designs in general, but I'd be so happy with anyone but engage's designer. In my opinion, their designs aren't BAD when taken out of their setting and only looked at on an individual basis, but the style doesn't really fit fire emblem, and like you said, I don't really feel like the artist knew how to design lineups of multiple characters that were meant to be from the same countries or organizations (or like... The same game). It feels to me a bit like they didn't want to invest much money in the story or overall designs, but were maybe just trying to throw stuff at a wall and see what sticks as far as gameplay and new aesthetic elements go?? On the bright side(?), The models and animations do look gorgeous, so we can hopefully look forward to this quality in the future, Intelligent Systems probably made some money to invest into a new (better) game, and the main character is at least a great reminder to keep up with your dental hygiene 👍

[@R8Spike]

I haven't played the game but the characters look like something from a Arthurian Touhou clone not a war game

[@OriginalGameteer]

For me, I think most of the character designs when deployed in battles look perfectly design The somniel outifts... definitely not as big on

[@b.h.4249]

Three Houses got me into Fire Emblem and I really didn't expect this kind of 180 turn in terms of direction, holy shit. I'm just glad I decided to hold off on buying the game until seeing the reviews after having been burnt by Fates and SMT V before. As someone who prioritizes story far more than gameplay, I would have probably ended up resenting the game for costing me so much falsely spent money. Now I can just lean back, spread the message of the importance of dental hygiene and hope that the next entry will be more for me.

[@leaffinite2001]

I mean 3h wasnt great either but at least it tried to introduce interesting ideas or plot elements. Engage has way less stupid stuff but thats cuz it never does anything.

[@nahte123456]

Fire Emblem is a very fluid series, every game except the GBA ones are rather different from the rest. If you really liked Three Houses I recommend Path of Radiance or Awakening and do not touch Shadow Dragon.

[@b.h.4249]

@@nahte123456 Oh, thank you for the recommendation! I intended to go back to the older ones at some point, thank you for giving me some direction. Have a good one! :)

[@nahte123456]

@@b.h.4249 Feel free to ignore me but if you want to elaborate a bit more on what you liked or value more I could give you a more precise recommendation. That was mostly that PoR and Awakening have solid stories and similar enough gameplay without being to much or little either way.

[@b.h.4249]

@@nahte123456 Oh, that's incredibly nice of you, thank you! I mostly value character-driven narratives that go in-depth with the characters and let them develop over the course of the story (especially when it concerns the MC). I also like it when the morality isn't completely black and white and it's acknowledged that in war no one can be absolutely good and really appreciate deeper world-building. No other strong preferences really come to mind right now, I'm not particularly choosy about gameplay, I've played 3H and Fates so far and found both fine. I can look past many issues if I'm invested enough as long as the issues aren't too egregious. Thank you again for the offer!

[@richardlee3679]

This is a review that speaks to me - I feel exactly the same on almost all areas and it's somewhat gratifying to know I'm not the only one. Engages gameplay is class and I really enjoyed using all the different tools granted to the player to get out of tricky situations. I did think that endless reinforcements got a BIT much on some maps, but it was largely a thoroughly enjoyable experience... That I will never repeat because the characters and story are so bad. I know it's subjective, but I've never had the look and personality of a cast of characters feel so jarringly awful as Engage. I hate how the characters look, and as you've said, it's as much to do with the lack of cohesion as the garish colours. None of the people in Engage look real. Take Ivy. What part about her design says 'Princess'? How about 'Mage', or 'Cold Country' or even just 'Fights Battles'? She could just as readily be described as a modern day burlesque dancer and that'd make about as much sense. It's all form, no function, which means I don't care about any of them because they're not actual characters. And this is only compounded by the bland story and the stupid, one note characters who are by far the most unhinged morons from any game I've experienced. When Amber arrived in his intro chapter shrieking in a baby voice about how his 'hOrSeY wOrSeY did an OoPsIe WhOoPsIe' I took his lance, killed him off and genuinely never thought about him again. Never before have I encountered a character so offensively grating, and while Amber is the worst, many aren't much better. Its just so frustrating to see parts of the FE community greet these regressions with a dismissal that FE always had a bad story or a weird kind of glee - 'Thank goodness I don't have to pay attention to STORY in my strategy game!'. Like... Should we not push IS to include both story AND gameplay? And just because previous FE stories were simple, doesn't mean they weren't well told. Sacred Stone has a 'simple' plot, but it's earnestly told with perfectly serviceable world building. If I wanted a complete divorce of story and gameplay, I'd just play XCOM. This got rambly, but suffice it to say that I agree very strongly with this review and loved how you presented your points - you got yourself a new subscriber!

[@petrus9067]

I cant with the female bebsi Model. Not even just the silly hair, her face just looks so out of my tastes. I will take 3 houses or even the dated graphics of 3ds FE (at least they used beautiful 2d portraits anyway) over this ugly generic gacha model with giant eyes and a weird jaw any time. Like, Alear actually looks Good in the artist's official drawing of her, not my thing but good. In the model, it just looks so bland. And most of the characters i feel this way in engage. The art is pretty, im not against *some* exagerated designs, but seriously

[@Hiya8partyz]

15:51 actually in that patch, a new area in the somniel gets unlocked, which is the well. You can throw in unwanted items and come back the next chapter to get new items, and those can be SP books. So the base game now does have a way to patch up the poor SP gain.

[@Hiya8partyz]

@@Introversion399 Where? If it did I didn’t notice.

[@Introversion399]

@@Hiya8partyz Nevermind, I am wrong. I Thought you meant the UI fix at 15:36. I need to get me some reading comprehension.

[@marcusclark1339]

bandaid to a bigger problem

[@redslothgaming3704]

This is one of the best Engage reviews I've seen. Hits on all the same points I had about the game better than I ever could all while being super entertaining. Amazing video.

[@jminich887]

I think it'd be funny if Kaga is the Zero Emblem, which is why it isn't named or acknowledged.

[@michaelvisosky743]

Yo I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought this. I was half hoping it would be the case.

[@deboreynolds]

I was thinking the same shit

[@OriginalGameteer]

I'm still shocked they made the Zero Emblem the primary motivation of the main villain, but decided to not mention its existence until literal endgame and tell us basically nothing about it Why does it even exist?

[@uberculex]

@@OriginalGameteer It really is like they got to the end and said, "wait, we don't have a reason for the villain to do any of this. Quick, make something up."

[@shymp8]

I remember being so disappointed in the final battle because I knew going into it that Sombron summons Dark Emblems of previous final bosses, and to just see generic robed figures was immensely disappointing and boring.

[@Asmallcorneroftheinternet]

The dialogue in Three Houses: The only thing I can hope for now is that if we survive. We bring into this world a new generation. That won't resort to this much bloodshed as we have. The dialogue in Engage: We're going on an adventure! Let's all have fun.

[@Yoshixandir]

Hell the characters barely feel like they’re in actual danger from the war. We have time to party, go camping and do random stuff at the market. It never felt the war was even considered. I hate how it breaks the immersion of war like how the priest feels like we can party despite u know a war

[@wstaudrey]

Critique: Video was TOO brief

[@eightyears9850]

I'm so glad someone had the same Engage experience I had. I felt like I was going to be delusional with people around me trying to justify its direction.

[@ofmcdonald]

"The gameplay loop is: you play advanced chess, and then your pieces talk to each other between battles." That description of the series is 100% based. 👏

[@gravitystr]

the character design of this game is an absolute nightmare

[@BoomingInfernape]

Lumera's Death was so good, they made a Lumera's Death 2!

[@colossalweeb]

The only dialogue i like in this game are a specific genre of bond conversations I've noticed where the unit is like "HEY IM AN IDIOT" and then the emblem just looks at them and goes "wow these guys are idiots"

[@WystaerMacaron]

My Gen Z sense of humor was the death of me at the clip of Captain Astronaut slamming the two colored papers together at around 34:30. I am wheezing at 1 AM over this. ...Also, dental hygiene's important, folks! So smile while you still have teeth!

[@asmrtpop2676]

Yet you wrote this like a true millenial. Interesting

[@murphthasmurf5923]

Surprised you didn’t mention the absolute butchering of Micaiah in this game, it’s like the writers didn’t even look at how she was in Radiant Dawn and just slapped a generic “priestess” personality on her. Anyway I have been saying the “AI generated FE” point since pre-release. The plot really is just a wash.

[@nuibaba280]

Micaiah wasn't butchered. If you played Radiant Dawn you'd known a lot of her personality WAS a saintly priestess type woman that can see the future. The plot screwed her over and put her under duress a lot, forcing her to make tough choices to protect her friends. Her entire character wasn't her war crimes, she had a lot of standard lord dialogue and moments. It's a major source of recruitment and gaining allies in RD. Micaiah was never "snarky". A single dialogue piece that didn't exist in the Japanese original script doesn't make her entire character.

[@mihaimercenarul7467]

​​@@nuibaba280 dude she was butchered. You try too hard to defend this.

[@elpopman2055]

​@@mihaimercenarul7467 Do you have any proof to say he was wrong. You literally Ignored his explanation.

[@abstr4ct_c0nt3nt]

​@@mihaimercenarul7467So no arguement,cool,good to know

[@mihaimercenarul7467]

@@abstr4ct_c0nt3nt în order to have a counter argument, you need an argument first. I am waiting.

[@JakeMatthews-OnLo]

It’s the fact we came from Three Houses to this.

[@BlackfangDragon]

The Solm characters are based on Latin Culture: Brazilian specifically. That includes the Royal family AND their servants. It’s the one thing where Mika had a specific design style in mind for a group. Though she wasn’t informed it was going to be a Desert country.

[@gabrielbolanos3871]

Oh, *now* everything makes sense… didn’t know that, thanks

[@Minarreal]

I'm not sure why would they be inspired by Brazilian culture. Because Timerra looks like a dark-skinned Brazilian woman and she also looks prepared for a carnaval (or a circus lol)? Well, ok, I guess. Her brother looks more like a dude taken out of the royal Turkish period, Panette wears a stereotypical Día de Muertos attire, Fogado's retainers don't have anything on them that directly associates them with their country, and Merrin is just a furry. To top it off, the Solmian capital looks like a discount Constantinople. Nothing Brazilian about Solm or its people.

[@BlackfangDragon]

Also you missed the part where I said “She was not informed Solm was a desert country” because she only did the designs. She had no idea what Solm itself would be like, which is takes from all sorts of cultures including an isolated part of Solm being based on Japan which is where Kagetsu is from.

[@mauricesteel4995]

Man, Fogado coming home and just yelling "MOM, IM HERE" like he was just some nobody feels so Brazil, right next to when asked where they left Ike's ring, their answer was "dunno, maybe its in the drawer or something".

[@of5606]

@@BlackfangDragon wow they did a fuckin terrible job then

[@LyrinaeSings]

I enjoy VTubers, I enjoy Mika Pikazo's vibrant art style, but god, I just want the Tellius writers AND character designers / artists back. This game seems like a bait for potential new fans in the Shonen Jump demographic than an actual celebration of FE for fans of FE - and I'm saying that as someone who very much enjoyed Engage despite everything. Really hoping it's just a silly anniversary game and will NOT inform the direction of the series going forward.

[@mctigerslug5498]

Honestly, the story really resonates with me. I've always wanted to be a good dragon.

[@TheBakonBitz]

Fates?

[@nuibaba280]

@@TheBakonBitz Bad.

[@TheBakonBitz]

@@nuibaba280 I’d even argue Corrin is more dragon-y than Alear. If Alear wasn’t called divine dragon every 5 seconds I’d be easy to forget he/she even is one.

[@izzy1356]

​@@nuibaba280 So it's a fair comparison then 😂

[@nuibaba280]

@@TheBakonBitz It makes Corrin's lack of dragon moments far more glaring since they could transform yet it never comes up in the plot ever again. Corrin is a worse protagonist than Alear.

[@TheBikeOnTheMoon]

Fire emblem engage's character designs don't look like they are from fire emblem really. They all looks so random and out of place.

[@Captain_Bottles]

I was actually excited from the game when people claimed that there’d be a branching path of good and evil that would change the protagonist’s hair colour, like in Shadow the hedgehog. But then it turned out to be untrue and all of my interest in this game disappeared in an instant.

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

It's not like that game handled branching paths though

[@Captain_Bottles]

@@AkameGaKillfan777 True, it didn’t handle that concept too well, but there was a sort of take on it. I was expecting this game to handle that idea but a lot better, since I enjoyed the paths in three houses - especially the split between saint snow and crimson flower.

[@sansundertale8765]

This review goes way above and beyond, your hard work really shows!

[@athankfulghost4245]

When Marth looked me in the eyes and said, “You’re THE FIRE EMBLEM!!!”, I lost my shit and skipped the rest of the game. I find the story in video games to be just as if not more important than gameplay, at least for me personally. If I don’t care about the character and the story is bland, why would I keep playing? I care so little about these new characters, hell I cared more about the emblems and I’ve never played most of their games. I found the concept of emblems interesting and I thought I could learn about them, especially since 3H was my very first fire emblem game, these other lords were interesting. But what do we get jack shit. Edit: I accidentally got the dlc pass, (I just wanted Claude R.I.P, I can’t read.), and unsurprisingly the game still sucks, but the xenolouge isn’t horrible, it’s not good and has flaws, but not the worst addition. But you wanna know the worst thing, because there is no new game plus, you have to do the dlc in EVERY PLAY-THROUGH. Every single one. So if I wanted to use Rafal in a fresh play through? I can’t. It’s truly the worse.

[@user-xsn5ozskwg]

Out of all the properties I expected to do the "it's Morbin time/morbed all over those guys" meme unironically I didn't expect it to be Fire Emblem, yet here we are...

[@b.h.4249]

I completely agree with you when it comes to story having more importance than gameplay. The trailers were very obvious about the story being very thin, so I waited for reviews to come out and then decide if I'd buy the game. Seeing just how thin the story and characters are, I'm SO glad I didn't spend any money on this. I probably would've been more disappointed than with Fates.

[@leaffinite2001]

I mean i dont play games where i dont like the gameplay. So thats why youd keep playing. I prefer good stories but if thats all i cared about id watch tv or read a book.

[@aurielayala9683]

Eh I disagree with the story being more important than gameplay. Gameplay matters more to me because I spend my money so I can loose myself for an hour on the gameplay and having fun while doing so, and seeing on how all the mechanics come into play. If I wanted a actually good story with engaging characters I would rather watch a movie or a tv show tbh.

[@nuibaba280]

@@b.h.4249 Then that's your problem for your failure to make your own opinion. The characters are just fine, they rely on the support system like every other FE game and they're a better package than Fates.

[@michiyaslana5974]

Three Houses is one of my favourite games of all time. I had never finished a game and then immediately started it again before. And then I saw Engage’s protagonist hair, thought „oh for fuck’s sake” and never bought it. I’m glad I never bought it.

[@FlammySpritz]

Honestly I had heard going into this that the gameplay was good and the story/characters were bad but I was *not* prepared. My favourite (read: least favourite I had to put down the controller and groan in dismay) - during the scene were Gradlon (?) was rising out of the ocean and the characters heard it I guess, but didn't know what it was, and one of them said something like "Let's look" and ran to the window ... like ?????????? I was like oh this was written by two-year-olds lmaoo I have heard that it was being developed at the same time as 3H, I guess 3H got all the story and character writers lmao

[@everest5718]

I don’t know how, but when I first saw this game I knew it was going to be shit. Like I saw the trailer and my third eye blasted wide open and showed me that I shouldn’t spend my money on this, it won’t be worth it. (For context I’m a weirdo who plays fire emblem for the story and characters above the gameplay, so the gameplay being good isn’t very relevant to me) If I were to guess why I had a sudden vision of the future, I think character designs usually inform the story and aesthetics of a game. So when I saw the awful main character designs I knew the vibes weren’t good. Or maybe I’m insane idk

[@Flopdoodle]

No... In terms of story, character design and development, your gut gave you good signals here.

[@Dinklr]

Fire emblem three houses was very shocking to me because it actually had an involved story and not the minimalist storylines that most fire emblem games have(not to say there bad, just too light on cutscenes for my liking). good to see that they kept the involved story while also making it cringe as fuck and making the dialogue more vapid than vape steam.

[@electricenergy116]

Fun fact: Bunet's voice actor, Ian Sinclair, also did Berkut in shadows of valentia. If that doesn't illustrate the wild difference in quality between engage and the rest of the series, i'm not sure what will.

[@MrScigeek101]

Agree completely. I enjoyed Engage but the instant the map ended and the story cutscenes started I just glazed over. Three Houses had issues but overall I liked it. This game feels like its fixed the map variety problems and the graphics, but its just thrown out everything that made three houses good. Hopefully with three houses selling great and this one seeming to fall off quick theyll learn that the reason the Telius games werent successful had little to do with their stories.

[@falchion776]

This video almost perfectly encapsulates my thoughts on Engage. The only thing I disagree with is your thoughts on the music, but I do agree that it's one of the more forgettable OSTs, there's like 3 songs I like.

[@bornanime3255]

Damn that dialogue comparison was pretty much the perfect summation of how much the quality went down.

[@gregmcmill1798]

"I'll rip that traitorous tongue from your throat!" "Then you'll finally have the truth in your hands" wow that's genuinely a hard as fuck interaction

[@polyman6859]

Valentia localization goes crazy with the sauce

[@WildFireGaming7]

The more I think about this game the more I begin to hate it. And this video sums up everything I dislike.

[@LithiaSinclair]

The first fe game I played was 3 houses, engage the 2nd and only one. 3 houses really kept me *engaged* ( ;p) through the supports and side cast. There were definitely some doozies and the story wasn't always written or conveyed the best, but i left it off thinking about the characters when I put the game down too. I played 2 of the routes and i am still planning to start & finish the 3rd one (i just have plenty other games i want to play too) Meanwhile in engage, I bought the game, played for about a week and then at chapter 10 never really touched it again. Most fe fans around me really harped on 3h's monastery and more social sim mechanics, but for me, characters are *the* most important part of media to get sucked into. If the story or gameplay are lacking, but the characters are amazing, then I will love it. And thats why I got so disappointed with engage. Friends told me that the supports were just a return to form and they were more like classic fe than the long-winded 3h supports, but I just found myself incredibly bored by these characters. Hell, im a gacha player, I understand the appeal of cute designs, but there was absolutely NO grounds for me to even start caring about any of them. I liked Yunaka for as far as I got, but all the other supports felt very much copy/paste personalities, like they were written in such a way that the dialogue could fit any set of different characters. I really tried convincing myself to just at least finish the story, but I would much rather play 3h again than this. You're also right that I absolutely had NO idea about the rings and what they did because I lacked prior knowledge on 3h, it's a shame too because the style & animation were to me lovely, but i just found myself wishing 3h got the same level of visual flair instead of this

[@PanthalassaRo]

Man this is some false advertisement, I expected a KZbin short and I got a *very brief* movie length review! Always appreciate your content and effort!

[@a_peridox]

Just wanted to say how incredibly validating your video is, because I pretty much have the exact same opinion, except for music, mostly because I don't have a huge opinion on it, but that in itself is a problem. I don't like riduculing others for enjoying something that I didn't, but admittedly I have to question their standards for storytelling, at the very least

[@HiveOfHappenings]

Thank you so much for this review, I was wondering why so much of the visual-audio end of the game was putting me off but couldn't put my finger on it until now!

[@colorfulmoth]

My first reaction to Engage was literally this intro. Thanks for validating my opinion.

[@stevenjordan6512]

Yo. “K-Mart Claude” for Fogado killed me, almost as much as it killed Fogado.

[@hypersonic223]

Oh boy a review of Sonic and the Secret Rin- I mean Fire Emblem Engage

[@Byakkoya11037]

Make Believes Reborn

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

I thought it was more like Boom: The Rise of Lyric, because... *You can never have too many rings!*

[@Midnitethorn]

Watched this entire video. Subscribing and going to watch more. So glad to find an hour long video on fire emblem. The world needs more.

[@mariobuisness]

Engage's biggest problem is that the Ring room and the arena are in separate buildings

[@nuibaba280]

Thankfully they fixed that with a patch.

[@emerylsg]

@@nuibaba280 no its just the inherit skill option in the arena. everything in the ring room is still seperated

[@boredomkiller99]

Too be fair inherit skills is the only reason you want the two in the same place

[@nuibaba280]

@@emerylsg Who cares about the rest of the ring room stuff. The inherit skill thing was the biggest reason for any consistent visit.