Can Fire Emblem Engage's Characters Take Themselves Seriously?

[@Faerghast]

Check out Honkai Impact 3rd new update here: bit.ly/3K7TzHm

[@MoebiusX9]

Something else that made me like Hortensia a lot was her regret and sadness over the loss of her mother. Makes her heartbreak over Hyacinth ever more impactful

[@Hebleh]

Yes Im so glad someone talked about Alfred I feel the unit strength curve where Alfred can fall off very quickly always made his sickness ring even louder in my head. Would love another video going into more characters

[@researchinbreeder]

I think Citrinne is one of the characters most hurt by the "compilation culture" of sorts regarding how many people engage (no pun intended) with support conversations, especially for characters they might not have used. A lot of her supports give off this ditzy, "money solves everything" air, especially in the C and B levels. But so many people stop there when judging her character, when almost every A support with some variation of that theme ends up with her explicitly learning to be less materialistic. And that ignores her supports with basically every Brodian character in her list, which are played fairly straight for the most part. With Diamant, the support surrounding noble duty vs familial love is strikingly effective. With Lapis, while money does come up, its done to establish their contrasting backgrounds and motivations, and ends on a lovely wholesome note. Admittedly the Alcryst one is a bit tired if you've read most supports from both characters, but their specific dynamic is still interesting, and joining in the same chapter means it's likely to be your first experience with their respective arcs. Finally, while Citrinne/Yunaka is arguably a Yunaka support featuring Citrinne, the fact that it IS Citrinne lends her character a lot of depth. She's not stupid, she's highly intelligent and adept on matters of the court. It's just that she's been extremely sheltered her whole life, and her idea of what friendship is was horribly twisted by a childhood golddigger pretending to be her friend (as told in the Alear support). As funny as "It's a Pebble! 😊" is (and it is, it's one of my single favorite line reads in the game), Citrinne is more than her checkbook and jewels.

[@neog8029]

It's funny because this problem also works in reverse. I saw Citrine and Yunaka's support first on my first playthrough and I was so intrigued and excited at the possibility that Citrine was a behind-the-scenes political player who wasn't afraid to clean house and spotlight anything shifty going on. I was so disappointed to read that most of her other supports are boil down to "Please take my money!"

[@krismarshall3803]

@@neog8029 I mean its not jus "Please take my money" lol, that's jsut devaluing her character XD. Its basically "Pleas take my money -> I'm really socially inept and have a privilege life so I have to look back at what I'm saying or doing because I'm rubbing people off the wrong way."

[@ogmechsftw]

i sincerely respekt the effort put in for the waifu.

[@Mahrac126]

Even if I often wish she'd open that checkbook for the war effort.

[@sequitur7222]

It’s also worth mentioning that a lot of Citrinne’s more materialistic tendencies are brought on by her own self-doubt issues where she feels like the only reason she has any of her current positions and relationships is due to her family and their money. She tries to overcompensate with absurd gifts and lavish spending because she doesn’t think she has anything else to offer. And I think that’s relevant since all of Alcryst’s initial trio deal with imposter syndrome and self confidence issues and I don’t think any other Royal retainer trio in the game has that kind of compelling theming to their relationship.

[@TheHenrytouchdown]

I don't know if you plan to cover it, but damn Pandreo and Pannette's support hit me hard. It felt oddly real for Engage, and helped cement the two as some of my favorite characters.

[@four_the_fourth9095]

i was not expecting it. I love them so much.

[@azurahoshido2592]

Hontensia is one of the characters that surprised the most of just how well written she is. If you can get behind her design,some of her traits and voice. You can see a complex character with sympathetic backstory and relationship.Some of her supports like Ivy,Veyle,Alear,her retainers and Alcryst proves that you shouldn’t judge the character on first impression and try to give them a chance.

[@Accountthatexists]

They did all the secondary nobles in this game well

[@regulusking4299]

Agreed. And admittedly I’ve grown to her design. Is it over the top and ridiculous, yes. But knowing Hortensia it makes sense why she dresses like that. She’s 14 and like cute things. The theming works and makes me put design aside. Engage while not the best in terms of characters overall does have a few amazing ones

[@joshuagabrielcatindig7607]

I'll add in Clanne as well, simce he imparts the same lesson his idol did in his support with her.

[@fakenamezenkil2232]

I still don't like Hontensia but more on her bart child parts and the cute trope of her she almost win my heart because of her backstory and her main story I wish they put the second lords more into the story instead of putting them in the trash after the arc of the country is done I love Celine, Alcryst and Fogado because of there and use in battle that includes Hontensia use a great supporter but her personality compared to them is bad I wish I can exchange xenologue Hontensia with the original

[@paperluigi6132]

That’s the whole entire point of supports, yet some people can’t just understand that.

[@c-domination]

How many FE fans takes to change a light bulb? One, but they will complain its not dark enough.

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

That light bulb shouldn't always be on by default

[@eternalflame9482]

Honestly my favorite serious moments in Engage has to be where Alcryst helps Celine with her fear of losing her older brother and sharing the same fear himself. And the one where Yunaka shares her backstory of leaving her old assassin life as Larimar behind to Citrine is also really good. \\Fell Xenologue spoilers ahead\\ . . . I also really love the story of Nel and Rafal (Nil). Nel dealing with the pain of losing someone she really cares about, losing all her friends in Elyos and being forced to put them down once they were revived as Corrupted, and unknownly losing her twin brother made me really like her as a character. And Rafal's story of dealing with his inferiority complex due to his upbringing with Sombron and his siblings only to take the place of Nil after his death and getting to know Nel really makes his betrayal impactful and also makes Nel's sacrifice to save him sting. Engage really had some good characters man.

[@DiegoG2004]

Oh, so that's why every enemy in the Fell Xenologue is weak to Sieglinde.

[@eternalflame9482]

​@@DiegoG2004 I never thought about it like that but true. 😂

[@DiegoG2004]

@@eternalflame9482 I was confused why that was the case in the Brodia map, since I used Eirika there. And then I notice everyone in the Elusia map are also weak to it (and the A Support Alear sword too). I was like, hold up a minute

[@hhjan594]

@@DiegoG2004 Yeah that was an intentionally hidden detail. I last checked every enemy you see in the fell Xenologue are labeled corrupted effective, even in chapter 1 and 2.

[@maxuni6651]

I noticed it in chapter 2 but i also love atention to details. Every alternative version has unique class name and description and unique personal skill name. After Nil revealing his true colors his pasive also changes the name.

[@Krishavoc14]

Hi Faerghast there is actually a third person that knows about and it’s actually Alcryst in his supports with Céline

[@artificialaceattorney6822]

Actually, Celine mentions the disease, but claims that Alfred recovered from it. No one outside of the Firene royal family knows that Alfred's still struggling with the disease.

[@BaselardFE]

Man I love Alfred he's great. When you learn of his illness things just click and you have a whole new perspective to view him from. Him dying after the game ends is so incredibly sad :( He worked so hard man...

[@V27272]

Nah literally man, Alfred is the goat

[@mihaimercenarul7467]

@@V27272 trash

[@icecreamorc]

I really enjoyed Alfred and having that moment that recontextualizes him. I'll admit that I did cheer when I saw that he died young. I love that they were willing to give a great character such a bitter ending. I've had a soft spot for raw endings like those, life is unfair and folks rarely get a happy ending. Also the feeling of the prince of flowers being a lot like a flower in the sense that he was vibrant but fleeting is such a nice bow on his motifs.

[@splittingskies9138]

I literally screamed "F***" when I found out what happened to him after the game ends. So sad.

[@tzzawtunteresa]

@@splittingskies9138 he.. didn't die did he... 😭😱

[@TheJaredPunch]

Needless to say, the Fell Xenologue was definitely dark. Considering that spoilers: Everyone is dead and the Alternate Elyos is pretty much hell on earth.

[@FireFury190]

Really has those Drakengard/Nier vibes.

[@josefarias1119]

and also horribly written

[@kevingame3198]

Just like warriors three hopes scarlet blaze unrecruiting byleth ending

[@mondenglanz2210]

For me one of the more serious supports that impacted me was that of Alcryst and Céline. Seeing them share that vulnerability of having nightmares about losing their siblings made me want to just hug both of them. It felt almost uncharacteristic but also so refreshing for alcryst to be so calm and caring instead of talking himself down the whole time, i really enjoyed how he looked past his self-hatred for once to comfort Céline.

[@luislara9952]

There's one part that was caught on my mind, i developed a big like to Morion and started to analyze more his character, people oftem makes fun of him for being the father who dies troop and almost all his lines at the end of Chapter 8 are about him throwing death flags like crazy, but putting that troop aside the writters were REALLY cruel to him, like everything that happened to him from the beginning of chapter 9 to the mid of 10 was super sad , at least every other father got the chance to say goodbye but not him, they gave him a very depairful way to die, something I feel he didn't deserve

[@mudkipmercenary3647]

Finding out serious supports in a rather comic relief style game is always a big bonus for the players. Finding out hidden secrets about certain characters is what fire emblem has pretty much made a standard for it’s support writing. I’d love to see another video involving more serious based supports in the near future! I seem to find way too many comic relief based supports in this game alone, and would love to see a bigger picture about some of these characters. Who knows, it may make me like someone more than how I felt before. Keep up the good work Ghast!

[@caspianbchalphy]

There are plenty of supports that I like because they are taken seriously. Alfred’s stuff when he talks about his responsibility as a prince and his sickness. Mavier’s supports I thought were interesting, etc. Actually Alfred’s story is basically Theodore Roosevelt’s life story (though their endings are different). Both were really sick as children but going outside and exercising helped them get healthy.

[@grayfox4819]

Regarding Alfred: his support with Celine is what made me deciding that I'm going to give him S support with Alear in EVERY. SINGLE. PLAYTHROUGHT I will do in future, regardless of which characters I will use. Alfred is one of my favorite dummy characters ever, and the fact that he dies young in the epilogue if not paired with Alear is just heartwrenching to me, so if the S support with Alear prevents that, so be it.

[@nuibaba280]

Based Alfred enjoyer

[@johnathanedwards9054]

Sometimes the people with a constant smile on their face are the ones going through the most pain.

[@jvts8916]

It was much less hard for me to get used to Engage's side characters because my entry point was Shadow Dragon. Back then characters had a join conversation, an ending paragraph and a death line and even the former wasn't a guarantee. That's not even going into units like Wrys (who had a recruit line that was seen as so weird it became his catchphrase)

[@gameboyn64]

Shadow dragon is the only game where i routinely let a vast majority of the characters die and derive enjoyment from that

[@gameboyn64]

It's kind of interesting that the running theme with most of engage's characters is about quickly judging based on appearance, outward personality, or circumstance. Ironic that that's what many did with the game itself.

[@EvilDickism]

Sometimes looks aren't deceiving.

[@TheOneTrueOtaku1]

It’s kinda funny, Engage is probably the lightest game in the series but when things like Alfred’s struggle with sickness and mortality, Hortensia’s lose of her mother and attempts to stand out in the court, and Yunaka’s past and trying to run from it, it all just hits differently.

[@asmrtpop2676]

I felt it was the same kinda darker elements of Three Houses except 3H wrote it much better with vastly more lore to go with it.

[@hyperm8]

@@asmrtpop2676 Not to be *that* guy but Three Houses has much much darker elements than anything Engage offers. From the Crest Experimentations to the Tragedy of Duscur, Engage seems like a fairy tale in comparison. That being said, it isn't fair or right to compare Engage to Three Houses. Engage has its own way of telling dark moments and they tell them rather effectively in my opinion.

[@bulborb8756]

however I have found that of the modern FE games...Three Houses is my least favorite entry since needing to view everything in that game requires so many playthroughs, plus your funneled down a path that you barely can take time to do things in the game at your own pace. and while Engage has it's darker moments in the supports, I don't mind how the cast is

[@JoseDorda]

Alfred ending was kinda of a bummer.

[@boshman11]

the Fogado pandreo support is my absolute favorite, glad you mentioned it

[@Dakress23]

I feel when people say Engage isn't a serious game get confused with the overall direction/vibe the setting is going for. Engage might be cheesy and have the energy of a saturday morning cartoon/power rangers show, but that doesn't mean it can't explore serious themes if the situation calls for it (Super Sentai in particular can get really fucking dark when it wants to).

[@mihaimercenarul7467]

it tried too much to be taken seriously and it failed, idiots

[@MrGombaonfire]

A support I really like is the boucharon and lapis the way we see her insecurities about being poor being contrasted with boucharon who figures it out despite being portrayed as dumb in some of his supports does a good job at grounding him while still letting lapis directly face one of her fears

[@nikoladedic6623]

Man, after Fell Xenologue... this hits weird.

[@Headshooter309]

I really like these, going in depth with character supports is one of my favorite aspects of fire emblem and I wish people would see the story value of the supports as many people look at the characters mostly at face value and judge them solely that way.

[@psychicbeagle5106]

Engage really is an okay main story propped up on pretty good writing for the individual characters. Sombron? The big evil dragon who you have to stop. Alear says as much themselves. But him being so explicitly evil leads directly into his kids' stories, which are great. You already covered Veyle, but a few of Alear's supports manage to covertly dig up the trauma that survived through their amnesia. There's a good reason why they're scared of his zombies in the first chapter, and why Clanne and Framme being threatened made them bury that fear. On my first playthrough, I read the entire main plot as the story of an abuse survivor who was trying to make the mother who adopted them out of that mess proud. That little bit of humanity instantly elevated it above the plot of Fates, which tried and failed to tell a more serious story. It's good to see the same underlying warmth that went into Alear also worked its way into their allies.

[@FlameUser64]

Yeah no the entire game is about survivors of abuse and trauma! That's literally the theme throughout the _main plot_ too, not just the supports, and so much of the anime BS that goes on makes more sense when you view it as a vehicle for talking about abuse and showcasing its effects. FINAL CHAPTER SPOILERS AHEAD: of course, it's all potentially a bit undermined by whatever the timeline shenanigans are that never get completely explained, and by the implication that Sombron _is_ his own Emblem so when he Engages after you defeat him, he effectively unexists himself and presumably doesn't even get to participate in the afterlife that canonically exists in this world.

[@psychicbeagle5106]

@@FlameUser64 I'd say the story is more about family on the whole, with abusive family situations being woven throughout the antagonists' narratives. I.E., Zephia is a classical narcissist who feeds her "children's" worst qualities to her own benefit. This is then set against good families to highlight how messed up Veyle's situation is. Three of the kingdoms have good royal families of different kinds, and Elusia's royal family is broken in a way that lets it act as a bridge to the outright abusive nature of Sombron's (lack of) relationships. I'd say Engage took the family element of Fates, and then actually focused in on it instead of getting scrambled by other goals. Case and point, the Yato was a sword of confusing, poorly explained mythos that tried to sound all high-fantasy and junk. Liberation is just a nice sword that Lumera gifted to Alear, representing their bond. The former wants to do something more impressive, but the latter ends up being more cohesive in its simplicity. Kind of like Engage as a whole, right? But, oh yeah, that last scene with Sombron was all kinds of scrambled. I think the idea was the ongoing theme that abusers have reasons that make sense to themselves, but which fall apart under closer scrutiny from sane people, but the pieces didn't quite connect. As an aside, am I the only one who thinks that Sombron's base form already looks like he's Engaged with an Emblem? He's got the glowing pieces hanging off his back and everything, even though literally none of his kids look that ornate in their base forms. It's said he's been wearing his Emblem's ring the whole time, and he's the only character who sees that Emblem at the end. Could be because the Emblem was always there, but Sombron was too far up his own agenda to see it. Meh, he really could have used some more substance.

[@FlameUser64]

@@psychicbeagle5106 Warning for everyone else in this comments section: endgame spoilers ahead! Sombron _doesn't_ see the Emblem. We see from his perspective when Alear makes that comment, and there's nothing there that Alear and Veyle don't see other than the white outline around his vision. It's a bit scrambled, but we actually can piece together what's up with Sombron. The Emblem he idolized and viewed as a role model was the "Emblem of Foundations", with an invocation of "Burn us, Emblem of Foundations". It's mentioned that Sombron himself burned a village to the ground when the villagers tried to support him and his Emblem vanished. Sombron's _establishing moment_ as a villain, over a thousand years ago, was burning a village of innocent people. Additionally, his actions in the past set the _foundation_ for the story of Engage. Finally, the Emblems of Sombron's world are copies of villains of other worlds, created using their legends. Sombron himself is a villain of a world different to the one he originated from. The Emblem of Foundations that Sombron took with him is an Emblem of Sombron himself. The Emblem vanished due to not being in the world it was from, which kickstarted his villain arc and led him to become the very same villain the Emblem embodied. By the end of the game, he's come to embody the legend of the Emblem of Foundations, so when he tries to summon it, he summons _himself,_ much like Alear summoned themselves at the beginning of the final boss after resummoning all of the other Emblems. And when he Engages with it, he also Engages with himself. Engaging is, of course, the unification of the Emblem and their wielder. Two become one… and one becomes Zero. The Emblem of Foundations's other name, the Zero Emblem, references both the recursion that created it and the sourceless nature of its time loop… and its legend's eventual fate.

[@FlameUser64]

@@psychicbeagle5106 Oh, and as for the themes of the story, I really do think it's about abuse, trauma, and the role of friends, found family, and role models in escaping abuse. The story repeatedly shows the ways in which all of the villains, even Zephia herself, were corrupted and abused by Sombron or by each other, and the ways that led them to become abusers themselves.

[@octanecat3825]

Spoilers for the fell xenologue I was genuinely surprised when the c support between nel and Rafal explained how they have dragon stones when nel destroyed hers

[@ivanbluecool]

It has its moments but I wish those moments were better fleshed out as a whole. Hotesia ivy clarinne were a lot more deep than I thought they'd be The Xeno dlc was great showing lumera isn't the only one who can pray someone alive.

[@mauricesteel4995]

Louis could help Saphir and knew what to do because he probably has experience dealing with recurring nightmares and trauma, his liege, Princess Celine, has recurring nightmares about Alfred's death.

[@Accountthatexists]

I love saphir cause she just a nice person who just is a simple soldiar and treats everyone the same

[@tuskoub]

Engage’s parallels feel a lot more like FE6 than you’d think. You brought up the Thracia/Binding Blade : Three Houses/Engage comparison. One that I find most interesting though, is that Engage feels like a soft reboot of the modern era since Awakening in the exact same way that Binding Blade was a soft reboot of the classic era since Shadow Dragon

[@gameboyn64]

To me engage felt like the long lost sibling to awakening and fates that barrows heavily from the gba era more so than a reboot

[@sunkeyavad6528]

I haven't seen all the supports yet, but from the ones I have seen I now do think that alot of the characters in this game deserved to be in a better story than Engage. Used to think it was just the gameplay that's wasted on this story. Now I think some characters are wasted on it too.

[@LiliOfTheValleyIZkewl]

When mentioning character's lives getting cut short post war you didn't mention Gangrel. The only way to stop him from taking his life post war is to pair your Robin up with him. He's not the best character out there, but he's grown on me in the like 20 something times I've played through awakening.

[@regulusking4299]

Alfred and Celine support was the first A support in the game for me. And I’m so glad it was bc it turned my whole view of Alfred a 180. He felt so goody-two-shoes but knowing he’s masking an illness from basically everyone changes my whole perspective on him, the theming adds up. And even more sad that unless you bond support him he dies an early death

[@dachking6657]

The characters in this game are honestly really enjoyable in my opinion. Like…yeah, if you’re looking for deep characters with relatable/compelling pasts, very few of them fit that description. Those in this video are a few of the exceptions. Regardless, I find almost every single one greatly enjoyable to watch as they interact with others and battle. I mean…looking at my profile picture, at least one of them obviously had an impact on me 😅

[@navynarupan8979]

The old characters actually being serious for the most of their supports while the younger cast are mostly "cringe" in theirs...Hmm...Why does this remind me of how people grow up? Anyway there are supports in the game that are just weird and outright awful, but once you understand what their background is like, you do start to understand why they act the way they are and add more nuance to their goofiness. Alfred is a really good example of why he is the way he is in his supports and the moment you realize he is actually sick, his actions and personality start to make more sense. Truly a don't judge a book by its cover moment.

[@garretschinkel2740]

My favourite support that I’m recommending is Pandreo and Pannette. Gotta love some secret family drama

[@isaaccollins4533]

Panette and Pandreo's past is a gut punch once you get in their supports. Also Yunaka's backstory with Citrinne's support chain

[@ArchonZach]

Supports in this really felt like playing Russian roulette. Was it going to be a goofy chat about tea or something ridiculous, or were they going to talk about their dead loved ones lol

[@Myeongkee9]

I think something that really doesn't help people's judgments of supports in Engage is the fact that they're just _incredibly_ annoying to grind in this game. I remember support conversations being much easier to build up in 3H, partly due to all of the monastery activities that allowed you to do so. Engage does not have as many of those options, and the points gained in-battle seem a bit slower overall than in 3H (though feel free to correct me on this if I am wrong), and so a lot of people might not ever get to see all of the more in-depth conversations for themselves, thus they miss everything certain characters have to say. Another thing that probably doesn't help is how a lot of early-game characters like Alfred tend to fall off pretty hard by the second half of the game because of all the newer, better units you get. And conversely, certain late-game characters like Saphir come at a point where you probably don't _need_ to ever use them unless you really want to. As such, these characters rarely see enough battle to build up their supports, and thus get overlooked as a result.

[@gameboyn64]

The support building problem has to do with the method as to how supports are built. In this game, you only get support points on player phase when you attack an enemy while adjacent to an ally or when healing an ally. In past games you got support points on enemy phase as well. I belive you also got support points for linked attacks in 3 houses but i don't remember. Unit disposability is a contributing factor. In past games pre promotes are almost always worse than units trained from the beginning of the game which was balanced by the fact they required no investment. In this game the pre promotes are mostly better than the early cast often boasting better bases and growths which is why engage's cast has the highest turnover rate in the series.

[@xander0901]

I don’t think it’s fair to compare Engage to Three Houses from a story building/character writing standpoint for the simple reason that you get to interact with 90% of the cast in Three Houses for a significant part of the early game and all of them are presented as allies. You learn a lot about their backstories by playing through each house and you get to see the students interact with each other in interesting ways. The time skip is an amazing plot device because it fundamentally changes the dynamics of the entire cast and the writing is done so well such that students recruited outside of their native house recognize the inherent conflict in their situation. Engage has a decent balance of light and serious moments, but the writing feels less serious than Three Houses because you don’t get to interact with the Engage cast in the same way.

[@rockowlgamer631]

The DLC characters are pretty decent, and the maps for Fell Xenolouge is pretty challenging even on Normal mode

[@bakuraXmarik]

Since i called the main character colgate. I could not take the whole game seriously anymore XD. Every time her name is on the scream i start laughing

[@trcv8117]

pleaseee do more support stuff w/ engage and in general!!!

[@soraandthegang1066]

Pandredo and Panette support for me is still the best in the game. It’s really heartwarming and honestly is such a contrast to both there goofy personality. That’s also why they’re my two favorite character in the game

[@Jamstaro1]

I love the serious supports. But I hate how lackluster the c and b supports are sometimes that it kills any motivation to watch them sometimes.

[@korinoriz]

As much as I like Engage's writing more than most people (that is a decent classic "good vs evil" story as a break from all the bleak complex stuff common these days), and think it's overhated. I agree with this. It's almost whiplash how bad a fair amount of C and B supports are going into the actually good B and A supports.

[@Jamstaro1]

@@korinoriz I enjoy the writing... The main story kind of falls flat imo. But I do enjoy the combat a ton and enjoy the supports that aren't benign. I just wish I could have the best of both worlds. And I guess that makes me greedy. But we've seen in the past when they do good if not great supports

[@mihaimercenarul7467]

@@korinoriz nah the story is garbage

[@ThisIslandDoesNotExist]

​@Mihai Mercenarul Agreed. I'll probably go to hell for saying this, but I kind of, sort of, maybe enjoyed Conquest's story more than Engages. Yes, I know. Fates has some of the worst writing in the series. I get it. I have written about that song and dance for a while now. However, I just think the drama surrounding Corrin fighting their siblings by birth or your adoptive siblings you knew all your life is leages better story wise than "collect the thing, fight the dragon." That story at least has some sort of suspence and tention to it no matter what path you choose. Due to that, you at least felt a connection to your siblings while in this game there is close to none of that (at least for me personally.) What's worse (For Engage at least) is that the Nohr siblings are more memorable to me. In Engage, I'll probably have fond memories of Diamant and Ivy...annnd that's it. Even in Conquest, you couldn't forget characters like Odin Dark. Like, how could you? He was a fantastically fun character to learn about. Engage, again, just doesn't have that which is why I'm making this comparison. I'm probably the only one on Earth who will say Conquest's concept, it's characters and their supports are much better than Engages. Oh righty. Let's see what happens now 😳

[@MiguelHernandez-lo5lg]

@@mihaimercenarul7467 🤡

[@klissattack]

7:20 a man long past his prime at the ripe old age of 48

[@Faerghast]

hello viewer! I hope you like this newest Fire Emblem Engage support video. And learned something too! If you did, please don't forget to leave a like and comment down below. And please subscribe if you haven't already! Additionally, I'll be streaming Wave 4 DLC later today. So stay tuned for that on this channel! Subscribe: goo.gl/1xHJzR

[@Hypershell]

Alfred and Celine's A Support really hit me unexpectedly. It recontextualizes both of their motivations; not only Alfred's obsession with fitness, but also Celine being the most "serious" of the younger royal siblings. She has to live with the specter that her older brother is under a threat that nobody can really control. And she has to be prepared for the fact that, if she does lose him, she must assume his responsibilities as heir to the throne (I believe this was mentioned in the main story as a seeming hypothetical, but I don't recall wher). You can (and should) easily spend an entire video on Yunaka alone. Even her wake-up duty lines are good, there's one where she drops her act while she believes Alear is still asleep.

[@Accountthatexists]

Ik that in this game it made it feel like a big war but it felt like more of like a little party of poeple going to save the world, like avengers movies. I feel like that's how they should of showed it cause we saw no army or mention of one , beside the playable characters

[@ToonyDoodles]

It's always a good day with a Faerghast upload

[@hewo6598]

I killed Lindon, so I wouldn't have discovered the Saphir thing without Louis ;-; Edit: that explains why Alfred died young 😭

[@shawnheatherly]

Hortensia really ended up being one of Engage's best characters.

[@mihaimercenarul7467]

not really, she was one of the worst and most forgettable

[@MiguelHernandez-lo5lg]

@@mihaimercenarul7467 🤡

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

​@@MiguelHernandez-lo5lg Oh look, a Hortensia emoji

[@SweaterPuppys]

Engage is a lot like Fates in its writing where it’s not good but when it does try to be serious it actually comes off as a genuine attempt at respecting the player’s maturity

[@SweaterPuppys]

@Exalt Aegis awakening is pretty down there when it comes to writing quality, nowhere near as bad as fates but definitely on the same tier if not right above and I think It’s fair to put engage in that sphere

[@astracontritus1209]

@Exalt Aegis Bro like half of the plot hinges on the main characters being stupid enough to let rings be stolen off of their fingers, I don’t know if I’d call that ‘competent’ writing

[@MiguelHernandez-lo5lg]

​@Astracontritus I mean Alear was on a power trip when heading to Elusia to save Morion. I don't think Alear was counting for his dad to reincarnate and yoink the rings. If we are talking about idiots who let rings gets stolen away talk about the Four Hounds. They all share one brain cell.

[@nuibaba280]

@@astracontritus1209 To be fair, Alear got screwed over and made up for their failure to retreat.

[@kyperactive]

​@Exalt Aegis "Competent plot", good one. For the characters? Shouldnt even be a high bar, but it is nowadays. The actual story tho? Basic. As hell. I feel any Grade 1 kid couldve written that story. Not saying you cant like it, just aint really a competent "plot" by the means of it. Defeat evil dragon who happens to be purple (series staple btw), find friends who will help you defeat da purple dragon, win with the power of friendship! Bad guys have motivations upon death instead of in the story? Preposterous! Also dragons. Kind of an obvious one, but gotta keep thee on the toes. Really and truly tho... competent is a terrible word for this... much more of a passing grade story than a story that pushes far beyond that.

[@DiegoG2004]

They might be made of 1 or 2 traits, but if you get the correct support, you get to see them be more than that.

[@darkron288]

Alot of engage's cast are deeper then they appear , it just sucks most of the fanbase didn't give these guys a chance because they weren't like the three houses cast which is such a dumb mindset

[@johnclopez96]

Exactly most of the criticism is mostly three houses fanboys yeah there some cringe in engage I won’t denied that hell three houses has cringe moment in my opinion

[@eternalflame9482]

Three Houses fans be like "I can't like these characters unless they've been through trauma." Don't worry I'm an 3H fan myself so I can legally say this lol.

[@johnclopez96]

@@eternalflame9482 bro me too and don’t forget they’re god awful animation for me was flyan and Raphael support bout like the battle cry or something and gawd damn is wayyy more cringe then engage in my opinion

[@nickcalderon2637]

Good on you all to label people that don’t like this Game’s Story and characterization as just Three Houses Fans

[@astracontritus1209]

@@nickcalderon2637 Anime fans accept criticism challenge: impossible

[@psychickumquat]

Even Hortensia outside her supports is really well done. She's a frightened kid who just really wants her life back before the whole fell dragon business. She's doing anything she can think of to try and make things go back to the way they were, even if it hurts others. Her actions are understandable and really heartbreaking.

[@pacosalvs13]

The first time I saw Hortensia I thought she was cringe af, like wtf is that goofy hairstyle but when I played Engage I was shocked of how much I ended up loving her, easily one of my top 3 Engage's characters

[@artificialaceattorney6822]

I'll concede that there are some good supports, but even they have their flaws, such as awkward "as you know" exposition (Ivy reminding Hortensia how old she was when her mother died), telling rather than showing and characters infodumping their backstories rather than sharing interesting anecdotes about themselves to illustrate their pasts. Like with Fates, a lot of Engage's writing flaws show up in the supports.

[@RammZzZzZ]

I feel bad for Alfred now, gotta use him more in game.

[@sunkeyavad6528]

I can only recommend watching the supports. I originally thought the character roster was going to be as awful as the story, based on how bad the character introductions and first few supports were, and expected it to dislodge Fates from the throne of weakest character roster for me, but by now with only almost half the supports seen I can already tell it's at least better than Fate's on average. At least some characters you could definitely also put into Three Houses instead of some other characters without worsening, if not even improving the overall roster.

[@nuibaba280]

Alfred's illness and the impact on that also gets featured in Celine and Alcryst's support chain. The illness side plot is really sad especially when their father died from the same illness when the royal siblings were young and Celine started developing a steely heart if it meant preparing for the future without Alfred.

[@DarrienGlasser]

Damn 4 minutes of intro is crazy

[@tationotaliaferro8418]

I was shocked when, reading everyone's ending, it said that Alfred died young. I stopped using him after a minute, so I didn't realize.

[@grayfox4819]

Also... I think you should play the Fell Xenologue and watch the supports of the new characters... and this video's theme is elevated exponentially.

[@crimsonowl1420]

I was taken by surprise by Hortensia. She didn't make a good first impression but after listening to his supports, I grew to like her... still don't like her outfit though.

[@ceresbane]

I would have honestly rather have had these serious supports as the only supports. I'm not saying have every support be serious. I'm saying have everyone have support C-A but only have a few select ones have these serious support conversations. As for the silly support. have them be interactions while they hang around the post battle, in the somniel and etc. Make those environments less of a gimmick and really make them feel lived in. Or better yet. Mini side quests or events in the Somniel where citrinne is genuinely offering you money for her friendship. Accepting the offer gives you gold (ends it right there) or a boost in her support bonuses during battle while increasing your support with her.

[@Just_Shaun]

Fire emblem engage is my first fire emblem game, so perhaps I’m biased or uneducated… The characters in engage are great, they are all distinct from one another in personality and look. Sure some of the archetypes are unoriginal in terms of fire emblem at large, but I don’t know any of them so it never crossed my mind. My favourite character is Boucheron, I love how they take the usual level-headed ‘buff’ character and make him unironically a big softie, especially emphasised with his Alfred and Celine supports. Not to mention, the warrior class is now my favourite class, with so much utility and the inherent weakness of long ranged axe attacks, being their low hit rate, is circumvented. I loved using Dorcas in fe7, but his supports were quite niche, I love how every character interacts with everyone in engage. Regarding whether characters should ‘take themselves seriously’, I think that it’s really important to reach a middle ground. Characters should have deep meaningful stories but still be well-rounded and sometimes silly or even raunchy because it’s funny.

[@nuibaba280]

Based

[@GabeNwagbala]

Coming Soon...

[@korinoriz]

I remember prerelease thinking game journalists saying a lot of the early supports being weird and bad was just them being used to Three Houses (which granted had its fair share of goofy supports) and "game journalists bad". However, I was shocked at how right they actually were. A fair amount of the C and B supports are pretty bad, and because a lot of fandom and Three Houses only fans are used to that quality, I feel it left a much more bad taste in their mouth than it should've. Which is a shame cause there are a fair amount of good supports. It's also a shame supports are harder to get in Engafe compared to Three Houses which were frankly a bit too easy to unlock. Because of all this, it's why you see people dunk on this game, when the writing quality, for the most part, is actually pretty in line with the broader series.

[@QueenAleenaFan]

Barely. Sometimes

[@luccabritto2566]

So interesting a video about engage is sponsored by honkai impact lol

[@caspianbchalphy]

The first impressions things definitely played a role in why I ignored certain characters. Specifically i ignored all the Solm and Elusia retainers. I didn’t care is any of them are good units they either annoyed me or I thought they were boring.

[@krismarshall3803]

....ignoring Pandreo huh? XD blasphemy

[@caspianbchalphy]

@@krismarshall3803 Annoying was the issue lol. After I got better support grinding options I liked him more. Specifically him talking about faith was a lot better than I thought

[@Kisaru1000]

Bruh, how could you ignore Merrin and Panette?

[@caspianbchalphy]

@@Kisaru1000 Merrin Just seemed kinda boring in the chapter she appeared in and I didn’t like Panette’s design (plus she seemed like there was not much to her). My guess is that Timerra took center stage and I cared more about her than the other two that she drowned out her retainers. Don’t worry in future playthroughs I plan to use them both haha

[@gameboyn64]

I feel that Hortensia is one of the characters that didn't survive localization very well. The english version for some reason turned her sass up to 11

[@nuibaba280]

Hortensia's dialogue is fine imo. What screwed her over is her voice being inconsistent and grating for many. I've seen people that read the localized script w/ Jpn voices and ended up loving Hortensia.

[@gameboyn64]

@@nuibaba280 the vocal direction is a part of localization. Part of the job of the localization team is to direct the voice actors to what they want the character to sound like that fits culturally while still capturing the essence of the original character.

[@nuibaba280]

@@gameboyn64 You said sass, I assume you were talking about dialogue. Hortensia's sass isn't the issue imo, it's her voice. It gets higher and more annoying.

[@gameboyn64]

@@nuibaba280 the english dialog is noticeably "sassy-er" but it also applies to the tone of voice she uses. Sass may not necessarily be the perfect word to describe her personality but annoying isn't a characteristic. It's more of an observation describing your opinion and it can be pretty vague. In my opinion, the Japanese va actually has a much higher voice than the English va. The difference to me is the tone of the delivery

[@commanderminh7402]

Meanwhile there also a game call Limbus Company,is also a gacha game that also have dark and funny moment:😐

[@nigini6092]

I don't know. The fact that there is a video that needs to point that there is good in Engage while Three Houses never NEEDED hit pieces to demonstrate that it can take itself seriously just means that there is much, MUCH more bad than good in engage's story.

[@nuibaba280]

Not really. Fire Emblem is in a state where supports are too hefty for many. Even 3 Houses doesn't have its entire set of support chains in the spotlight.

[@johnclopez96]

I feel like a lot people over exaggerating bout the character I mean yeah they’re still cringe don’t get me wrong lol but I think it not as bad as people try to make it I think some of the criticism is from the three houses fanboys even though three houses has cringe moment but yeah that my thoughts love the video and damn I Louie best boy 😝😝👊👊

[@nuibaba280]

lol

[@ThisIslandDoesNotExist]

I'm sorry, I don't quiiite agree with some of the things said in this video, and here's why. It is absolutely a good thing for a character to take themselves seriously and show the more grittier side of their life. However, out of the 30+ characters. You only gave 3 examples and one of them (Saphir) is a character you get so late in the game most people won't even bother with her. Allowing a character to be fleshed out or grow through their supports is a great thing, but again. This video shows me that, just like the rest of the game. The writers of Engage had no intention of developing their characters or giving them any backstorys to flesh them out. Besides Saphir, Alfred, and Clowny here (who fleshed out the majority of there backstory/character development through a single character conversation.) Most of the supports fall under the characters stereotype and that is something with this series that needs to end. I think my biggest gripe is with what they decided to do with characters like Alcrist. In his supports with Diamant, Citrinne, and Lapis. It is shown to us that Alcrist beneath the surface is a very selfless character who wants to get stronger for his friends. His, and Diamant's as well as Ivys are very well done. For Diamant, many of the conversations show that he isn't perfect and does have flaws and vulnerabilities. For Ivy, she fights with the fear of her country's history and what her parents did in the past. All of these are fantastically written, but here's the problem. I don't like the idea of searching for "the good supports," and I also hate that some of this is not woven into the story already when character development is sorly needed. Yes, Alcrist is more or less a secondary character, but considering he is Diamant's brother. It would have been just overall better to weave his character growth into the story as well. Why not? What does it hurt? That's all I'm trying to say. Two, three, maybe four characters that only get development through their supports is not going to sell me on this game. For first time players? I'm sure they will love it, but for me who has played many fe games in the past. I want more serious moments. I want a story with characters to get me invested. That's the biggest problem with Engage. I shouldn't have to look for these supports unless there is a purpose to them (like stat boosts, marriages or children in the previous games.) For me, they are just there because they have to be. They could have taken the supports out and no one would miss a thing, that's how pointless I think they are sometimes. Sorry for the essay. Didn't mean to make it this long...

[@nuibaba280]

Your essay is not agreeable in the slightest. They do have backstories and genuine effort in giving them character. The plot didn't explore them much, yes, but that's a curse of being a traditional FE game. Lots of other games had the best character moments be in supports with certain supports being more memorable than others, that's not a fair thing to single out Engage for. The cast is still great in spite of that. Ghast only gave 3 examples because he didn't want to pad out the video, he only uses a small amount of examples often. There's a lot of characters that get a good amount or manage to be endearing in their own way.

[@nuibaba280]

Fogado, Celine, Diamant, Ivy, Pandreo, Panette, Merrin, Mauvier, Veyle, Vander, and Yunaka are easy examples of characters that can and have been written seriously. With backstories to boot. Even the memiest character in the game: Bunet, has a surprisingly serious backstory that explains why he's here in good detail.

[@ThisIslandDoesNotExist]

@ヌイババNuibaba Ok, well. I'm not going to say anything more to this because you think my criticisms to this game is "not agreeable in any way." All I'm going to say is this is how I felt about the game after I beat it. Other than a select few characters. I still think the story is lazy and sloppily written. I still think supports in this game (depending on the character) are just playing off their stereotypes and offer no reward after completing them, and I still think that there is no excuse as to why they could have just woven some of the support conversations into the main story. Yes, there are great support conversations (Diamant, Alcrist, Ivy, Yunaka), but the problem is there are more bad ones than good ones that make me want to skip them in the end. I would just like for once this week for me to post my feelings about this game without someone being "your views on this game is wrong." Like, fine. You don't have to agree with me, but don't be like, I don't know. A jerk about it just because I see the game differently. I literally can't talk about this game online anymore because of this.

[@nuibaba280]

​@@ThisIslandDoesNotExist It's not agreeable to me. Your point felt unfair since you singled out Engage for series' standards and assumed only 3-4 chars have any type of depth despite Ghast saying otherwise...

[@ThisIslandDoesNotExist]

@ヌイババNuibaba I am not critizing it because of its standards. I am critizing it because their purpose and the writing for them are getting worse over time. I have no incentive to go through every single damn support like you probably have. I only support the people in engage that I like, and even then. What do you get out of it after you A ranked someone? That's why I think supports in this game are not necessary. You get nothing for doing them. They serve no purpose other than to hear a good or bad conversation. That is the point that I'm trying to make. In awakening and fates. Marriages give you stat boosts and children that you can create to be whatever they want to be stat wise, giving the game replayability. For Engage, you get nothing from doing this and because of that. That replay value is now dead. That's the point. That's why this sucks. This is not unagreeable. These are facts using evidence to prove my point. So next time you don't agree with me on something. I will be allowed to properly nerd out on you. Just be nice to people and respect there views on things, please? Like, it's called human decency. Maybe take a class on it. My opinions on this game will not change. End of story.

[@Pablo_Martin_aa]

The lack of good support music(ie no recollection and regret) drags supports down

[@justinorper6298]

Nice

[@neog8029]

Hortensia's breakdown in Solm Palace would have been so much better if Hortensia was given the decency to cry it out with Ivy instead of having the Elusian siblings' emotional conflict be hijacked by the first of many Hound encounters and mind control garbage. Her design is still ludicrously bad, and I have to wonder how it got approved, but her character arc is probably the best character arc.

[@essixthefalcon8657]

Engage is such a hit and miss, it's a shame. It could have been good, even with the corny story!!! But it just felt at some point people behind it gave up. A shame really.

[@julienherard414]

Honestly, if the characters didn't look so wacky and give off terrible first impressions, this game would be much less of a miss

[@AzemSP]

I get where you’re coming from but Engages supports feel like a waste of time when at most 30% of them are well written or interesting.

[@DuskoftheTwilight]

I don't think the impression that the characters are simple and not that well written has more to do with being the next game after Three Houses than anything else, that game put a lot of effort into fleshing out each character and defining their place in the world, when you go from that to Citrine being "a member of a noble family" and talking about "the Brodian nobles" as a nebulous, monolithic group, it can't help but come off as not being as strong on the worldbuilding side.

[@r.c.3813]

i feel like this games serious supports stand out way more than 3h serious supports because of how goofy most of the game is like you just read one of the funny support like yunaka and etie's support and than alfred and celine A comes along and you just get hit with the depressing alfred story.

[@nuibaba280]

Fair

[@NaturalEntertainer85]

Dude, it wasn't thaaat bland and corny, it's perfectly serviceable. I've been playing through the whole series back entries recently so far FE4, 6, 7, 13 14 and 15 and one thing you realize is every entry has virtually the same story - there is a continent, a big empire country, smaller neighboring countries 1 of which the main char is from, there are lords and commoners, bandits are the #1 guaranteed enemy you will face, you have to find special weapons/rings/doodads to seal evil, there are good dragon gods and bad dragon gods. Aka... virtually the exact story of Engage. Engage isn't somehow significantly worse story than any other entry, even Three Houses which in my opinion has the best story, is ALSO the virtually same story as all the other entries, it just has a lot of worldbuilding detail compared to very bare bones of the others, and superb voice acting and music. So in other words, there is nothing particularly special/amazing about early entries' stories that contrasts distinctly with Engage being somehow terrible. It's all about the same level of bland and/or corniness, good or bad depending on your opinion. But at least the newest entries have voice acting and great graphics. Anyway rant over

[@blazekaizer9000]

Come on Faerghast. You made a 2 hour piece on why the three houses villains were comically bad. Engage is the whole circus 🤡

[@culus5180]

I can’t lie, with the blatant cheese pizza and with how terrible the main story is I dropped the game, but the supports showcased in this video are a perfect example of what the game could’ve been.

[@ericriley1985]

Legit question. In what way is the story "terrible"?

[@culus5180]

@@ericriley1985 Dialogue drags on far too long, the interactions are imo cringey, they tend to back pedal way too much on serious tones into goofy mcu humour. There’s also just way too many plot holes and an exorbitant amount of MC hero worship that turns me off from the story. It’s a shame because I genuinely loved everything besides what i mentioned in my first comment.

[@ericriley1985]

@Culus I don't know; everything you described is subjective, so I suppose it all books down to preferences. Personally, I thought the story was adequate for what it was.

[@culus5180]

@@ericriley1985 that’s fair, I just found it to be worse than the standard they had set with previous games, I wouldn’t call it fates levels of bad but it came pretty close imo.

[@samflood5631]

I feel like that the cast of Baldur's Gate 3 are a lot better than the characters from Engage. I mean that game is better written, the characters have a lot of development, the love stories are engaging, especially with Shadowheart, Karlach and Gale, and it's a perfect mixture of light hearted humor and emotionally dark moments. Hell, sometimes Baldur's Gate 3 doesn't take it self serious at times.

[@SirePuns]

ngl, we really were spoiled by the Fodlan games (three houses and even three hopes) I keep forgetting that games like the Fodlan and Telius duos are the exception rather than the standard for FE games... but they really should become the standard for storytelling.

[@julienherard414]

I wouldn't say we were spoiled but rather exposed to good storytelling. Engage was an extremely watered down rehash of "chosen hero must defeat the evil dragon". A simple story can be written well like Echoes. Whoever wrote this story for Engage must think the target audience can't comprehend anything above a reading level of 1

[@Mavuika_Gyaru]

Yunaka accepting and burying her past is pretty good too

[@avej99]

Everyone always talks about “ZAPPY” and “HIYA PAPAYA” but not her horrible past

[@mihaimercenarul7467]

@@avej99 because her character is mediocre

[@avej99]

@@mihaimercenarul7467 and I oop

[@mihaimercenarul7467]

@@avej99 the problem her horrible past îs barely even discussed în The game.. Yeah she was an Assassin who was serious, and yet 98% of the time it's just her mediocre personality with the worst catchphrases.

[@EngimaMinh]

@@mihaimercenarul7467 because she does not like to bring it up. Let’s be honest here, nobody wants to reveal their darkest secret, and Yunaka is no different. Plus, there is a good reason why she act the way she is, using it as a way hide her old life away

[@accade_acaso]

Unfortunately the localisation changed a ton of dialogues. The Japanese version is a complete different experience. And I feel robbed 😢

[@astracontritus1209]

It’s just unfortunate because I honestly quite like most of Engages cast, it’s just that there’s so many of them and the story is complete ass for the most part that makes it hard to care lol

[@gameboyn64]

Engage actually has one of the smaller casts of the series. Engage at 36 characters is only 2 more than 3 houses and sacred stones but less than fates(67) awakening(44) radiant dawn(73) blazing sword(54) and binding blade(64)

[@nuibaba280]

But Engage is one of the smaller FE casts.

[@naheemquattlebaum2267]

I liked Engage's story and supports. It felt like a Disney movie 😂

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

*Illumination movie

[@Chronoatic1982]

Hortensia's JP VA does a way better job than the Eng VA does

[@AkameGaKillfan777]

So she's not high-pitched?

[@josefarias1119]

Copium, most of support convos are just meme stuff.

[@kyperactive]

Truly the only times the characters are ENGAGing in this game.

[@WeegeeKong]

I enjoyed the gameplay of this FE game but man the story really sucked for this one. Way to simple. I guess its because they just wanted to show off the whole engage aspect of it with summing emblems. Just hoping next one has more of a deep story.

[@Epirrel17]

I love the writing of Engage so much ! I was taken by surprise many times, and was very rarely disapointed. It even felt relatable more times than it should. This game has a special place in my heart now, even as a Fire Emblem fan. Thank you for covering it.

[@TheDonaldTrumpCard]

I really like the themes behind Alfred and Céline’s support, but his design made me write him off before I even played the game. Alfred is supposed to be uniquely thin because of his illness right? Then why does almost every male character have the exact same build as him? Every time I hear Céline call him a barbarian I look at his character design and die laughing because he’s designed to look like a fairy princess. Him being scrawny while working out makes sense but his getup is just the worst and betrays everything his character is supposed to be, but that goes for 90% of characters in this game.

[@nuibaba280]

Celine calls him a barbarian because of his attitude though. Not because of any massive strength, even Alfred acknowledges that he doesn't look like one. A big part of his character is being a flowery prince and softer looking. And it's been shown that Alfred's build in his model is in fact thinner than others, he doesn't have the same build. Someone showed this with the warrior class I think. A lot of characters from Diamant and Vander have more muscles on their model while Alfred is muscle-less.

[@TheDonaldTrumpCard]

@@nuibaba280 very interesting, thank you for educating me on the finer Alfred details. While his design is not to my taste, I can appreciate the deeper level of story telling apparent in his character thanks to your response. Digging a little deeper to find qualities that make a character great is what fire emblem is all about after all!