Is Fire Emblem Engage's Fel Xenologue Really That Bad?

[@brandondeking]

Yep. And you need to replay it every playthrough if you want to get the units.

[@raikonzero]

Say what you will about Three Houses, but at least that DLC expansion was a one and done for the Ashen Wolves.

[@ResurgentRaven]

​@raikonzero I'd still say Engage's DLC is slightly better because the extra emblems you get (aside from Chrom) are actually pretty good. Most of the things you get from 3 Houses DLC pale in comparison to everything else from every other game.

[@Gesh86]

What amuses me so much about Chapter 5: If you're playing on Normal, equip Nel with the Tiki Bracelet and engage her into dragon form whenever possible, she just ends up winning her duel before your rescue team arrives. Damsel simply undistresses herself. Probably won't work even on Hard, but it's still so funny to me.

[@Fedra3443]

It works in Hard, I did it like two weeks ago.

[@Dragnarok1]

My only praise for the DLC is you legitimately romance someone. No friendzones or anything like that. That's in the English version by the way.

[@chaosamber7719]

Short answer: Yes Long answer: I like the idea behind it, and there's a lot of great boss convos and things like that, but the maps themselves are tedious, and you have to replay them everytime if you want the new units in the main game

[@ResurgentRaven]

This.

[@Thalzo]

Take Engage, and remove the good gameplay, the good maps and units. But make the final boss battle decent. You get the Fell Xenologue as a result.

[@mikeschmidt2526]

So... reverse Engage. Quite ironic, I must say

[@marthaawah8948]

Oh so a divorce

[@Posby95]

That's not really fair. Map 4 seemed fun.

[@Thalzo]

​@@Posby95And it is. Chapter 4 is fun and I honestly wished we had more like it. But sadly, the same cannot be said for the rest of the chapters. 1 is mid, 2 is boring, 3 is either boring or too crazy, and 5 is the worst of them all. The decisions that the devs have made for the DLC also don't help. It's so bad that even the Engage bros don't like it.

[@Pogma776]

This is what Engage's writing should've been, still mediocre but not straight up bad to the point where it's reason enough to not play Engage

[@Spiresbeyond]

The story should never really prohibit you from playing the game. All fire emblems have ultimately pretty mediocre to bad writing lol

[@Aeivious]

@@Spiresbeyond Right, the fun gameplay loop and unit building is almost never hampered by mediocre storytelling. Look at conquest, generally celebrated as one of the best fire emblem games but has some of the most laugably bad writing there is. It doesnt matter, just spam the skip button and get to the game.

[@alainlaroche573]

@@SpiresbeyondImo, it’s a matter of what you want out of a FE game. I don’t think Three houses would of work so well if it had Engage’s writing. Heck FE 4 is really mid gameplay wise but a lot of people holds it in high regard because of it’s storytelling. Im more like you, I value gameplay above all else but I dont think it’s the case for everyone.

[@Kiwimite]

I always see some commenters saying "FE story always sucked lel", but that's really not true. Have you played FE7, FE9, FE4??? Sure they have their problems, as all do. But that attitude is purposefully diminishing what's there. Maybe YOU just don't care for story. Personally, I won't play a game with shit writing and story.

[@javxion6576]

​@@SpiresbeyondNah, Fire Emblem stories are good and there is value in playing the games for them. Saying Fire Emblem always had bad writting is fake and seems like an excuse to justify the weaker games narratively.

[@audreyschicksalholmwiltz3872]

I like this DLC, because for the first time in all of Engage we have a playable dragon, the stats are not too crazy like the other "Manakete" but it is enough to give a breath of fresh air that we can finally play a dragon. The narrative in Fell Xenologue is heavily carried by Nel who goes completely crazy! The moment when she killed the Elyos nobles one by one was very unexpected and also very sadistic by Engage standards. The funniest thing is that I could guess who the traitor was from the start, which honestly didn't surprise me considering that from the start the main story was very predictable. But gosh, the level of difficulty here is really challenging! I played it on hard and damn that last chapter really hit me. It's really an improvisation of the Sombron boss fight you talked about the other day, I love it!

[@yucca5458]

We need Mangs to beat chapter 6 on maddening.

[@OrlandoAguirre222]

I just did yesterday. It was HELL. I literally needed Alear to dodge the 2 Mage Canoneers that reinforce near Nel and Nil and he had to dodge a 25 and a 50 something hit chance. I'm so glad I got lucky enough with both dofges because I Mulagir Astra Stormed the Wyvern in the North just to be able to breath and clear out Hortensia and the last few enemies. So hard, but the sheer relief I felt after beating it is nice.

[@Mercurius19]

Yes. It took me like 10 hours across four nights to beat. It was very frustrating at points, but approaching the end of the fight and finally beating it was one of the best FE experiences I've had in a while.

[@_-Bane-_Main]

It would, in my opinion, be 10X better for the base game if the Xenologue was accessible from the main menu and not tied to specific save files. Once you complete it the first time, you should be able to recruit the new characters around the time you would normally gain access to the Fell Xenologue by interacting with the Well (and maybe a free second seal). Having to complete it every time you want to use the new cast is absurd. Also, GOOD LORD, Nel might have the best character design in the entire game.

[@mrmax7779]

Rise from a thousand years ago!

[@magicalcapi9148]

I couldn't believe they actually did it again with Nel, and proceed to act like it was nothing

[@mrmax7779]

They must really like the concept of dragons sleeping for long periods of time

[@haveyoutakenyourjoymygoods943]

Might as well say my own thoughts on it. I will say, story wise, up until xenologue 4, this was actually kind of not bad. Seeing a world we travelled througth in full war again, our friends fighting each others ect was actually kinda cool.... And then after xenologue 4 everything went to shit story wise. Gameplay: help, just Help, what they they thinking for real lol Nil and Nel... Nil is just.. no, have him evil from the start and call it a day, if you want a tragic ending, have him be an unwanted ennemy type. nel i'm fine, like the idea of someone not liking you actually saving you at the end. The final boss fight is actually kinda awesome, but a bit too long. So yeah, story up to xen 4 was kinda cool, then at the end it's urgh. But, it's better that i thought

[@Abundy]

The maps had some good ideas and concepts, but everything around them sadly sucks, and I say that as a big Engage defender. The characters being preset, but retaining their emblem bonds and inherited skills sucks. The set inventories with no options for Engraves/forges sucks. The difficulty on Maddening is super high and only feels appropriate if you have a team optimized for it, but that's so clunky and made as annoying as possible with this mix of pre-set and inherited units, that the difficulty never really feels earned or fair.

[@masayuki2133]

Yes, next question

[@keykanon]

How could you talk bad about the storyline that made 'OR I COULD USE THE WARP STAFF' canon?

[@yamatoko219]

Better than the main story, still nearly died of cringe

[@Zyaire286]

It was so bad that the video didnt even title it properly (fel instead of fell😂)

[@Battlecarrier]

THE DIVINE DRAGON LOOKED AT ME!!!!!!!

[@Forever_Zero]

It's so weird how Engage's mechanics have so much thought put into them, they feel really refined, but when it comes to game balance it's clear they had no idea what to do with the rings so they gave characters terrible skills and in the DLC they just give you pre-set classes and items, they were truly afraid to give too much power to the player... But anyway, I don't hate the DLC, it's ok if you want extra content, but it's far to be a "must play"

[@XAPPLAYS--Xander]

Yes it is, and I don't need to elaborate further.

[@ray0064]

Haven’t watched the entire videos of yours yet but nothing made me happier than seeing my girl Goldmary putting in work on the first map.

[@justinmoreno390]

I think the Fire Emblem Engage DLC can be summed up as: "Great rewards, not so great maps"

[@206Sam]

One very underlooked resource in the DLC is Alear's ability to Engage+. Bonder Forger+ grants +30 hit rate, +30 avoid to all allies in a 2-tile radius, from BOTH Alear and their engage partner, and is absolutely *essential* to increasing reliability, especially in claustrophobic combat situations like Ch3 where Gregory is otherwise a liability. AOE +30 hit might be one of the best skills for the DLC since you dont have any forged weapons or +hit engraves.

[@blackmask4552]

Yes and I contributed to the pain.

[@JustCrazyDK]

19:34 Another example of a missed "3-Way Army" was Awakening's Paralogue with Yarne. Summary of Paralogue : Two sides fight to see who's balls are bigger. You are also given the option to side with one of them, or none of them. Choosing None of them makes them...team up on you for some reason...??? But hey! More EXP and Yarne if you can get him through that mess. Picking one side locks you out of picking the other two villages while picking no sides locks up no villages. And for Revelations : There's another one. The Opera Map, where you get your typical Beast unit. Ryoma and Xander are fighting there for some reason.

[@tobiz1922]

✨The ground shits back✨

[@zerosky8946]

This dlc is so good that a made a save slot with it completed so I don't need to replay it again after every playthrough

[@simonteesdale9752]

"Came pretty close to greatness, but ruined by bad decisions." Yup, sounds like engage tbh. It's so close to a great game. It's just drowned out by the fanservice and nostalgia-bait. Plus, having the emblems being sentient was... certainly a choice.

[@anthonynguyen1289]

Dang Mangs forgot the other possibly worse plot twist. Nil is a weak person, but he’s been dead since before the story. Rafal was pretending to be weak because Nil really did suck balls. Also yeah Rafal not only mass murdered the world, but he took out Nel’s real twin and took his place.

[@ianritchie-smith475]

I think the funniest part about the Chapter 5 is that, on normal or hard, a Bond Level 1 Tiki Nel can actually kill Nil. Just bring enough healers to keep Alear and Nel topped off, always finish off the respawning healer with Fog Breath splash damage, and you can deplete an HP bar every time you engage. It's a defeat boss map, so once you do that, the map ends. You never even have to engage with the wolves or the royals.

[@ChillstoneBlakeBlast]

Mangs on his way taking notes from Fell Xenologue Final Boss for Andaron Saga 2... Overall, Fire Emblem DLC is basically a Tech demo for the ideas that the Devs wanted to implement into the series if they had more time, but had to set aside because of release dates and funding. The Equipment thing of FX would not have been horrendous if all the equipment would have been in the convoy, only added to characters as they are if you use the "Optimize" Button. The idea of an Optional Guantlet was done WAY better in Unicorn Overlord, being an optional Arena guantlet that can be done anytime once you unlock and being rewarded with a very strong character and useful equipment if cleared early, but Decent equipment and servicable character if done late in the game. Fell Xenoligue Difficulty would have worked much better if the devs told you "Normal for Story/Completion which can be done right away, Hard for a Small challenge that is best done once you have 6 Emblem rings and Maddening is best done when you have all 13 Emblem rings for a "Post/Optional brutal side content for the challenge". Characters not scaling was definitely a huge issue with Engage as a whole. The mayority of Prepromotes outclassing the earlygame cast is one of the reasons I don't like playing Engage, even though theoretically I should. In this DLC, it's just a straight up sin that the DLC units do not auto level, which should be very easy to program and has been done in the past with Three Houses and Fates. Overall, Fell Xenologue is not qorth the money, but I really hope IS takes great consideration on the feedback so that the next game delivers more on what the people want/Don't want in the next Mainline FE game (Not remake because Remakes should be reserved for experimental changes like Combat Arts/ Reclassing).

[@DavisG603]

Yes… yes it is

[@grandarkfang_1482]

This reminds me of the Future Past Xenologue from Awakening, but worse.

[@BaneGaiety4848]

Good ideas drowned in a Sea of shortcomings. Not enough time to explain or go deeper into the characters. Lack of quality of life options.

[@lanalewis6982]

I like this dlc bc I could marry Griss, I mean, Gregory. Lol

[@mainantagonist3517]

Yea this dlc was a mixed bag. On maddening the boss is just a bit too much in my opinion, love the progress IS is making in improving their boss design though. Honestly this dlc reminds me a lot of Heirs of Fate in its design and story.

[@venusrose9890]

It's a sad day when a channel dedicated to Fire Emblem and Advance Wars has made 3 videos about the most recent FE and AW games/DLC, and ALL 3 are about how those games/DLC failed.

[@Posby95]

5:08 Mangs calling the Fell Xenologue a hack

[@Rudy6005]

Me before this: Yes Mangs, yes it is very bad Me after: It was that bad (except 2 maps) Also, if I had 1 nickel for each Nel(l) that is cute, I would have 2 nickels, which isn't a lot but it is strange that it happened twice

[@Cloud354]

The preset maps was my greatest gripe about the DLC.

[@kevinmullermendoza8897]

yeah, I have no idea, I'll leave my like and keep watching your old videos

[@SoverineSR]

To me, it feels like, at least, with the lower difficulties, they wanted to keep in mind that players might be running the DLC early, when skills and rings that you have access to may be a bit more restricted, which is why they feel like such a step down from Maddening, which wanted to be brutal no matter how many resources you had to give you the edge.

[@megaweebis]

i think at the very least the dlc was definitely worth trying for yourself rather than just taking everyone's word for it that it was bad

[@Cloud354]

Give Nils Wary Fighter at least.

[@mak4715]

Now that you're done with engage you can finally dedicate yourself to rev

[@jmesporlas]

The boss map is definitely the best. I am so looking forward the next game with the FE team seemingly getting better.

[@bkillinm]

I personally enjoyed the DLC…for the most part, I did not like how they reset all the characters

[@SoulofFinality]

Absolutely

[@CatsLilaSalem]

I did like Nel, and Nil being horrible just to sabotage you is kinda funny and annoying at the same time The final map had me a little offguard first time and my units destroyed along with the terrain oops, so i restarted it. Good final map The only reason Mauvier died is because you already have him, and also both Mauviers felt like the exact same character.

[@duusu2608]

I like it. Cool story and challenging. The class lock is annoying and makes it challenging for the wrong reasons, but I really like everything else.

[@OrlandoAguirre222]

Funny, I still haven't beaten it since I'm playing Maddening. I JUST beat Chapter 5 and 6. Absolute HELL. Might watch this video after I beat it.

[@hadoukenfighter]

A step down from 3 Houses DLC in every way, which is shocking for a game that people pretend has better gameplay.

[@spring4642]

Yeah

[@thelastrebel13]

Yes it is, next question

[@JasonGodwin69]

I haven't bought a video game since FE Awakening and I STILL felt ripped off after playing Engage/Xenologue. Soulless corporate slop. Muh alternate universe sad waifus and husbandos... so cringe. Pain peko.

[@SpookSkellington]

I beat the DLC and i genuinely cannot remember a single thing of it, it's like i got Man in Black memory wiped.

[@privategallade9120]

🥚

[@Aeivious]

I will say one thing I have really hated in modern fire emblem is this weird desire for every map to have way too many enemies. If you cant make an engaging and challenging map without making me have to look at 30 units in a choke point, then you've failed. Ultimatley this boils down to them wanting to introduce aoe attacks, which just dont work. Things like emblem attacks and battalions in the last two games have pulled the importance from the individual units into managing special resources and it has really made the games worse for it.

[@BBHood217]

What, would the universe explode should two Mauviers ever meet?

[@ANightfallShadow]

Yeah, it is that bad. I replay FE for the gameplay and after playing FX for the first time on Maddening(went to Hard on map 5), I never touched it again since.

[@magicalcapi9148]

The story would've been WAY better if was simpler. I was giving it a fair shot, until getting to half way. Less is more. Wasn't all awful, had some salvageable ideas, but overall, pretty bad

[@ResurgentRaven]

The concept is cool but they flopped the execution big time. Most of the extra cast you get are downright useless by the 3rd map, and if you play too far into the main game, trying to train up the extra units becomes far more of a hassle. Probably imo the best time to do it is before Chapter 10 assuming you don't have any of the DLC bracelets considering you lose all your Emblems in Chapter 10/11. But then you don't have any of the Solm/lategame good units for helping you clear maps (not that it matters much, as most of them suck balls because your weaponry is restricted and you're also restricted to their "canon" class. Nel is actually one of the worst characters in Engage (and yes, I do mean Nel and not her brother, Nil and especially his alter ego Rafal, are significantly better characters).

[@ExpensiveEbi]

It really was the mirror of engage. Not that fun, pretty good story

[@binxthebinx6575]

I think this DLC would have been better if Alear was benched and the focus was on the other four protagonists and there mirrored versions. The reason why I say that is because this DLC is DESIGNED to have the clones interact with each other to see their unique dialog. Plus, it would have the potential to give characters like Alfred and Timmera some much needed character development which was seriously lacking in the main game. Personally, I would have preferred dlc routes where Diamant, Alfred, Timmera and Ivy got to lead their own army's for a couple of maps with the potential of more character development or lore from each country. Idk, the dlc just didn't do it for me because I already didn't like Alear and the fact that they are pretty much the center of attention again when other characters deserve more love just really got under my skin in the end.

[@kmon9911]

Yes

[@astolfo2305]

oh i just remember still not finish enrage and bought it on release day

[@oof5992]

Soy Mangs my beloved

[@dunewalkerz]

U made it harder with not killing the units it absorbed

[@raho500]

is any DLC good? Or worth it, to be precise.

[@snorp_lord6141]

Engage gives a whole list of your dead units? 🤣 That's hilarious

[@RajamQED]

Sublime DLC

[@BobRod-mi8rq]

Fantastic gameplay😲😲😲 still bad story🥱🥱🥱

[@anthoneeBM.]

E

[@Timmio.]

You should still do a let's play on maddening (full game save file) for it.