FE Engage's Fell Xenologue is Delightfully Bad

[@rand0md00d3]

I just imagined a rewrite of a scene with Nel as the MC when you mentioned she should've been MC. Imagine this: in the middle of the story, you get a similar scene to Nel snapping at Alear and admitting that she was in love with them and never had the chance to tell them, but instead of Alear, she snaps at someone else from the main party. Then towards the end of the game when it's revealed Alear's the 13th emblem, it's rewritten from Nel's POV so she's basically seeing the love of her life again, but as an Emblem. It's soul-crushing but heartwarming at the same time, and I feel like the game should've been written this way from the start. It was what they were going forward with the Hounds for example but it felt disjointed to me. Tbh I liked the lords in the DLC, they were more serious than their main game counterparts and their dialogue with their retainers is crushing and the voice deliveries are so good.

[@sylphiemk]

I support this rewrite!! I said in my engage review that I thought that being from another universe should’ve been the setup for the plot, entering a world with existing conflicts and the MC’s place in it is mostly to do with them being a fish out of water and finding a group of those who have been “othered” by the conflict, like the 4 winds but a fuller party. Nel I think would be perfect for that, I think Alear kind of fails as a main character because they’re so dignified by the writing, meaning there’s less room to allow for them to be complex, but Nel has a POV beyond do right thing I am hero. It would also assign so much value to Alear being the 13th emblem too, the payoff would be amazing.

[@joeyjose727]

16:29 the only thing Sombron has ever been right about… Nel is the moment! I liked her pushback on Alear, and I was convinced she’d be evil after she killed Firene and Brodia’s royals until the corrupted twist. I guess as an adult I just forget to read, because I didn’t realize every enemy in the Xenologue has the corrupted tag from the start. I know certain people just thought it was a mistake, so that was really well done! I agree that Nil not being Nel’s real twin brother was pretty dumb, like I think it might’ve been cooler if Rafale’s dragon power let him transform into anyone, making him the ultimate manipulator and someone capable of easily assassinating his siblings and the royals. Nil’s design is cute but I don’t think it serves anything to have real Nil and Rafale as identical siblings, but not each others twins. Then the snake dragon form would’ve fit even better! The implementation of the xenologue was so bad though omg, such a shame. I love that the Three Houses Ashen Wolves all hang out in Abyss so you can recruit them at any time! They scale to your level, something every character in the game needs to do because that’s the structure. But in Engage the FX characters all join at level 20… but you can unlock them as soon as ch 7 or 8??? What sense does that make? And having to do the FX every new save file is some of the worst design I’ve seen in years… honestly I really dislike doing the dlc Bracelet paralogues too, the maps are generally really long so they’re a slog to do repeatedly. Especially starting with Tiki’s… I dislike Engage’s use of reinforcements, tbh maybe I’d prefer stronger enemies than having to fight reinforcements on every map, that shit drives me crazy 😭

[@sylphiemk]

OMG I NOTICED IN THE FIRST MAP THAT CELINE AND ALFRED HAD THE ICON and I truly thought nothing of it, I was like k werk guess they're evil and that's why they have the icon. No thoughts head empty don't see any corrupted here. Yeah something different needed to happen with Nil, everything worked to a point but they squandered the potential for me at the end imo, them not being siblings didn't serve any function. I hate to hear that the bracelet paralogues are long, I already feel that engage is too long and, while the maps are good, 4 movement is too little, I wish it was 5 for infantry and 6 for mounted, 4 for armour, and then +1 on promotion. I just think the pacing would be faster, esp if there are less enemy units, reinforcements specifically. It turns a 60-65 hr playthrough on vanilla engage, if you're doing all the paralogues and skirmishes for gold lmao, to something that's for sure gonna exceed 85 hrs to do the FX and bracelet paralogues. NG+ is gonna be a long project 🤣🤣🤣

[@joeyjose727]

@@sylphiemk there isn’t even ng+ which is the devastating part 😭 Three Houses was my only FE game so when I hear people saying “ng+ was only a Koei Tecmo thing, Intelligent Systems don’t do that” I just think… “well they should!” Who decided to implement the DLC this way? Boot… Also that is how movement works! Maybe making it so everyone gets +1 movement than they already have in base classes, then again for advanced, making the final classes have 5 mov for Armor, 6 for Infantry, and 7 for Mounts 👀 that would speed things up a bit! Because lord some of the DLC maps are a sloggg… even the late game tbh, I will never do a maddening run without mods ever again because the amount of reinforcement spam just becomes boring to me, I just wanna play with what’s in front of me! I just started warp skipping late game chapters because I knew they would be a miserable experience otherwise I hope the next game improves on what was here, because I think the gameplay of Engage is relatively good! But why can’t we just streamline it… fuck using a Master seal AND an Advanced seal just to put someone in a different class line, I find that specific type of resource management really annoying. It feels like the game doesn’t want me to ENGAGE with its systems! Like omg inheriting skills before the well was added… my first playthrough pre-well was so clapped, my units had basically no amazing skills because there was just no way to get them. Like pleaseeee who was ever unlocking Str/Dex+5 from Edelgard for 8,400 SP???? In a game that constantly takes away your methods of gaining SP??? So nasty 🤢 never again

[@sylphiemk]

I’m so upset at the news of NG+ I’m just kind of used to the feature at this point that I assumed it’d be here. And yes for movement I meant the game would be a bit faster if they base classes started with 1 more movement than what they have already, I think it would’ve made the maps a bit faster. 4 move for infantry was a bit hard to play with for the first(ish) half of the game. I also hope the next entry maintains the strong gameplay but improves on the UI and shopping experiences, both for weapons/items and skill spreads. I practically didn’t use skills during my run bc in a lot of instances I didn’t have enough SP for the good stuff

[@candybunny2462]

Miscellaneous thoughts and opinions 1. The game goes out of its way to indicate Madeline has romantic feelings for Mauvier 2. I also liked that Nel had a bit of a chip on her shoulder and was kinda snarky with Alear, though I was heavily disappointed when it was revealed she was like that because of her hang up with Alear was due to having feelings for them. We don't really get that deadpan attitude from her supports and the last thing Engage needs is another major female character with an unnecessary crush on the protagonist. 3. Alm and Ephraim really don't deserve to be dlc bracelets, let alone rings. 4. One thing I'll agree with is that Azura definitely should've been Alt!Timerra's emblem. Wields lances and sings? The contrast would've been great with xenologue Timerra.

[@sylphiemk]

1. Ok that's what I thought - it felt so out of place for me? Like 2 throwaway lines that aren't gonna go anywhere?? I would've preferred if they stuck to a platonic, found-family angle for the winds 2. Wildly disappointed to hear that Nel loses her edge, the fact that she has some bite really made her stand out to me 3. Omg let Alm be a bracelet 🤣 4. OH I hadn't even considered the Azura bracelet making so much more sense for Timerra - also would've been good to have another lance-focused emblem in the mix imo Thanks for watching!

[@yukiizura]

6:08 I like the name Fellyos/Felyos for the DLC continent. Also sorry for the long comment lmao. Also also, what difficulty did you play on out of curiosity, a lot of people are complaining about the difficulty of the DLC. Take what I say with a grain of salt because I haven't actually played the DLC because I'm broke af, so I'm largely basing this on information from people online. I think the story of the DLC is mostly good up until the very end where like you say they lose me, but the actual rewards for the DLC are underwhelming, partially because of implementation. From what I understand, you have to play the Fell Xenologue every single playthrough just to unlock the classes and characters, which drags the playthrough out unnecessarily (imo). But worse than that, the characters don't scale, they're always recruited as promoted Level 1. That means doing the FX too early because you're a slut for Gregory (hi) means you have a bunch of units too strong to use without breaking the difficulty, and it fucks with the level scaling on the paralogues and skirmishes, and doing them too late means you have a bunch of weak units who you have to baby. Having the bracelets post-Ch10 also messes with things because those chapters are designed for you to only have two Emblems. I also personally have no attachment to either of the new classes, which sucks so hard because 3/4 of the Three Houses DLC classes were amazing and I use them literally every playthrough. Ephraim, Alm, Eliwood, and Azura bare minimum should have all been bracelets (why Hector and Lyn but not Eli?), I totally agree there. I actually really enjoy Camilla, but she should *never* have been given bracelet privileges over Azura. I also agree that the Winds should have had more edge to them, a world as brutal as theirs doesn't have room for people that nice. Slayline, Altcryst, and Fauxgado from what I've seen are just so fun, I love over-the-top stuff like this. If Ivy fights herself she proper cringes it's great. So yeah, I think the story/characters are the best part here, but the implementation, classes, and fuckery with the difficulty all really sour it for me.

[@sylphiemk]

LMAO OMG FELLYOS IS SO OBVIOUS I can't believe I missed that opportunity. Also I played on normal, I am not very good at FE hehe. One day I wanna do an iron-man run or smth but I make a lot of silly mistakes when playing, thanks @ rewinding turns, it saves a bunch of time. I hadn't considered level-scaling but yeah that sounds annoying af if the units are barely usable and you have to sift through forums to find optimal recruitment time based on growths nd whatnot. Also yeah it would be annoying to have to redo the FX every playthrough in order to see the benefits. I'm mostly interested in a NG+ run because I wanna give the game a second shot and get to know characters that I couldn't get to in one playthrough, so I guess I'll have to raise some babies to marry Gregory. I'm also glad they added new ways to raise support points because engage vanilla is rough for that. Lmao the new classes are weird, the enchanter(?) was almost indistinguishable from the qi adept classes in the base game, and the mage cannoneer is cool but idk if it's really viable as a class... Haha gimme 12 bracelets pls! usually DLC like this overdoes it with the fanservice-y content so I'm surprised that they demonstrated some restraint, even like having the 13th being Veronica. Also I absolutely agree that the bracelets fuck with the chapter 10 power flip, because that's now way less meaningful. The evil royals do have some funny moments, I got the Ivy vs Ivy interaction and I thought her annoyance with her AU self was v funny

[@yukiizura]

@@sylphiemk Omg totally agree on the turnwheel, sorry elitists, but I don't feel like resetting the entire map just because the RNG decided that me missing a 97% hit and then getting 4% crit was fair and ok. Forgive me if I'm just misunderstanding, it's past midnight here, but when you say NG+ do you mean like carrying stuff over from a finished run to a new playthrough like you could in Three Houses? Because afaik that isn't possible in Engage. But yeah, Enchanter feels really gimmicky with its weapon power-up mechanic, and Mage Cannoneer seems lopsided being amazing on certain units like Boucheron but then trash on a bunch. And have you seen how much the seals cost??? Maybe you're right and the FE4 remake is on the way, so they didn't want to spend extra time making more bracelets. We can only hope

[@sylphiemk]

Haha I remember one map during the late game in conquest where I made it almost to the end and then lost a unit, I was like 45 minutes-an hour into the map and I was annoyed, but felt accomplished next time I tackled the map haha. Omg no proper new game plus??? I thought bc of the completion mark on the save file that there would be some sort of carry over that makes another playthrough easier, or carries over support and ring bonds and stuff. Guess I’m starting from scratch whenever I do my second play through 😭😭😭 and of course the reclass seals cost a bunch in a game where money barely works. I manifest FE4 remake every day 💆🏻‍♀️

[@yukiizura]

@@sylphiemk Omg same, but with Birthright, it was the chapter you fight Hans right at the end of the game. It was my first (and only lmao) Lunatic run ever, and the map took me maybe 6/7 tries, and Shura gets crit by like the third-to-last enemy. I was so close to just ditching his ass but I reset and managed it, and felt so proud 😭 But yeah there's no NG+ in Engage it's so weird because like how in the everloving fuck are you meant to get those 5000SP skills without abusing the well? It would make so much more sense if SP and Supports carried over. In fact, I don't think there's even a proper Support Log, the only one you get is in your bedroom for Supports specific to that playthrough, so no way to view like multiple S Supports unless you load up different saves. It's so dumb.

[@sylphiemk]

For me, the hinoka fight made me shelve the game for a while bc I had no bow users to check the pegasi reinforcements, then the second playthrough the takumi map screwed me at the end. I felt really accomplished when I got through those chapters though and finally completed the game. V upset about no NG+ in engage I really would’ve loved supports and gold carrying over 😭

[@renon1946]

What if: you wanted to summon 900+ alts of all the fire emblem games But IS said; here's an axe soldier. He's Ike at home.

[@sophitiaofhyrule]

The one thing preventing me from buying this DLC is that apparently it gets extremely hard, so much so that even people who are usually very good at FE had to change the difficulty to Normal when they usually play on much harder difficulties. And as someone who already struggles playing FE on Normal, something this difficult doesn't seem like something I'd enjoy

[@montanaripatrick]

The fashion! Look at the material! Anyway, personally I liked the DLC, made my second run when it came out. I just have 2 main issues with it: 1) The fact that the content isn't unlocked for the whole profile, like in three houses, but you need to repeat all the xenologues each run feels like a drag, especially considering its difficulty (very hard on hard and barely beatable in maddening, unless you play on normal then it's almost too easy); furthermore, it extends each playthrough's time without providing much beyond the first run. 2) The balancing problem: if you do it too early (before chapter 11), all the units joining will raise the army cap to 20, meaning that all paralogues (skirmish, dlc ones and so on) will now be unbeatable until you reach that point; it can be worked around, but it's still an issue for me. The new units are all pretty balanced, no one is too strong while the bracelets are useful additions which do make the main game much much easier (along with the well), but you aren't forced to use them.

[@sylphiemk]

Yeah the DLC was cool, I would've liked to do it for a second run but I didn't wanna sink like 70-80 hours in another round of engage right away. It's annoying that you have to play it each time, and I didn't realize that recruiting those characters too soon fucks with the level cap in all the paralogues, that sounds so dumb

[@montanaripatrick]

@@sylphiemk Skipping cutscenes and all it only took me 45 hours for the second one, but i completely understand and agree!!! Sad the base game is very linear and besides character builds very few things are left to experience in future runs

[@GunghoDynamo]

Maddening taught me that this is just suffering. why? because bad map design is FX's motto.

[@tomasgarcia7499]

I didn’t like that you couldn’t give the new characters items 😩. You had to like give it to other characters and then trade it to them. And the new characters were low key dead weight ☠️. I feel so bad saying that cause they’re not bad characters, but they barely did much in combat for me 😭. Also, the two last maps are nightmares on Maddening which caught me by surprise because none of the Maddening maps in the regular story are too crazy. The story was ok. I didn’t mind the 4 winds and Nel/Nil, or I guess Rafal lol. It was cute! Speaking of Rafal, he has good suppprts with Ivy and Gregory. Actually, a majority of his supports were good. Caught me by surprise. I do think Azura would’ve been a better pick for the 2nd Fates ring, but I can see why they picked Camilla. She’s just infinitely more popular lol which I don’t mind…Camilla is one of my fave Fates characters. I wish she had her old VA from Fates. I’m not a big fan of her new one :(. I would’ve loved to see Alm. I think he should’ve been there. I think Seliph would’ve been a good pick for a 2nd Genealogy ring. For Thracia…hmm…I think Nanna probably would’ve been a good pick…or Mareeta.