I Was Wrong About Fire Emblem Engage

[@ToddHoward76]

If skipping the Somniel boosted your enjoyment that much, imagine what skipping the Monastery could do to Three Houses.

[@mrbilter83]

God that would make 3H much more enjoyable on subsequent playthroughs. Somniel is such a miniscule task compared to the Monastery

[@The_Big_Jay]

​@@mrbilter83 The Monastery was really neat until I realized I was expected to play the game 3 times.

[@ToddHoward76]

@@mrbilter83 The monastery killed my enjoyment of the game. It’s just such a boring slog even during your first play through. The prospect of doing at least 4 times to complete the entire game just destroyed any interest I had in playing again and every time I try to pick it up endlessly wandering through that boring cardboard cutout of an area makes me put the game down again.

[@samuellawson1425]

@@ToddHoward76 There is a mod that does just that. Just google "Three Houses No Monastery" and it's the one by triabolical.

[@ramones1314]

Somniel is far worse than Monastery. Monastery boils down to rushing like 3-4 dinners, getting your flowers, and MAYBE doing the arena, at least once a month for the reward. Somniel has UNSKIPABLE cutscenes and everything takes so dreadfully long.

[@mr.panamaniac]

Bro just spit in the face of all the writer's. This games good if we just skip the dialogue 😂

[@xHeigoux]

just like metroid other m, sweet!

[@jom.6181]

I mean the writers kinda spat on our faces by releasing this. It's so fcking formulaic and just plain dumb

[@TuskyBaby]

I don't think the writers exactly put their best foot forward, so hopefully they won't take it personally

[@TwilightWolf032]

@@xHeigoux No, Other M is still bad even if you skip all the dialogue. Since progression is tied strictly to story, even if you skip all the cutscenes you're still locked in an extremely linear path where every playthrough will flow exactly the same way, especially since there's a part of the game where attempting to backtrack softlocks your game! Other M is the antithesis to Metroidvanias!

[@AceonIce]

That's how I played lol it's just a game with silly swords and goofy anime boobs

[@johnsteelman3254]

Shoutouts to Bethany for teaching Mangs his default state of being is “wrong”

[@Panzergraf]

Not an easy task, I've tried that for two decades.

[@yucca5458]

Captain Astronaut uploaded his review on Engage after its release and his conclusion was: Engage is a damn good game IF you ignore half of it. This is probably the best aging take about Engage ever.

[@elpasitodelfin]

That video is hilarious. Definitely worth a watch!

[@tomo8940]

I don't think that's like a good thing though...

[@StirFryTuna]

At least the part thats good is the part that matters for repeated playthroughs. The story gets skipped on repeat playthroughs anyways xD

[@Noelle-M4]

Speedwing must feel SO vindicated by this, he was put down for so long, and now everyone can see his truth.

[@Brown95P]

"Can't complain about all the bad dialogue and load times if there are none left!" 🙄 No Mangs, you weren't wrong about the game, you just found a way to remove most of the bad stuff you were right about; that's a big difference.

[@shorewall]

Yeah, that is damning with faint praise.

[@gg_sam7847]

He says at the end of the video that this stuff was holding the actual good part (the gameplay. The reason people even play FE) back. FE gameplay isn't exactly the most riveting so getting bored between battles will just leave people not interested enough to do the next battle. What he was wrong about is it isn't worth going through the tedium to get to the gameplay

[@gamermanzeake]

@@shorewall It's laughably ignorant that anyone defends Engage, or really any of Post Shadow Dragon FE.

[@silentquake5154]

​@gg_sam7847 I don't know about that post Awakening fans and the huge crowd that came after FEH and three houses mainly just talk about the characters and story

[@gg_sam7847]

@@silentquake5154 yeah but those people don't really stay around in the community or play FE-like games because they love the formula so much. I do very much love the FE:TH story but even now when I replay it I'm always skipping content I've already seen

[@powerhousejp]

I don't think you're wrong at all, your argument was always "Engage would be great, if not for all these things that make it terrible." You removed what you thought was terrible, and now you're playing a great game. That sounds like vindication, tbh. :]

[@powerhousejp]

I'm glad you were able to find your enjoyment of Engage. I wish there were an official patch that made the improvements you enjoy, so lots more people can experience what makes it good.

[@badassoverlordzetta]

5:35 I'll just have to take your word for things like this. The "next generation" of video game graphics passed me by a solid decade ago and I just never really noticed. There are people who swear up and down that they cannot tolerate their games below 120 fps anymore while I'm sitting with my switch and literally cannot tell the difference. I could just have broken eyes, I guess that's possible after playing some 10000+ hours of world of warcraft graphics just stop meaning anything. But Fire emblem games have never once lost their swords and sorcery charm for me. Especially from an arts and aesthetics perspective it's something that's going to be hit or miss for people across generations, but that's just a battle all game devs will face as their audiences mature and new gamers enter the scene. Engage is a good game. It's nothing generation defining, but it is an earnest tribute to everything that Fire Emblem was and is up until today. It's good to see you recognize and appreciate that. This kind of retrospective recovery of a game's artistic value is what preserves a series through the generations, because you won't be alone in your findings.

[@yesile]

I get both sides of the debate. "If it needs mods to be good, then that means it isn't a good game:" I'd overall agree. The "bad" parts are part of the game, and can be judged accordingly. (I liked _Engage_ and don't consider it bad, but I won't deny it could be a lot better, and with such simple fixes a lot of times). But the argument of "this means the mods are what's good, not the game" is something I can't get behind. The mods without the game mean nothing. The mods didn't make the maps, or place the enemies, or create the ring system. It's more of a "diamond in the rough" situation: the game has a lot of good at base, but it also has a lot of bad. Use mods to cut that bad stuff out, and you're left with the "good" that was already there. ...That and a better UI. For Ironmanning, especially, I can see the Somniel being super annoying. You just want to breeze through stuff you already did multiple times, but nope, gotta' pick up ore, then load into the Arena, -then load into the Ring Chamber, oh shoot, you needed a higher level bond for the Skill you wanted, so -_-back-_- to the Arena, back to the Ring Chamber...- NEVER MIND, THAT LAST PART WAS PART OF AN UPDATE. GOOD ON THEM. But still, a decent amount of menuing.

[@oof5992]

The ring chamber isnt even needed now, you can inherit skills from the Arena in the base game, they thankfully fixed it.

[@yesile]

@@oof5992 Oh, that's good to know. I'm kind of playing on Version 1.0. ...For reasons. Which may or may not be related to me playing on Nintendo TV, but being too lazy to download updates. (Though perhaps I _will_ finally update, if not to try mods -and get my free update items, at long last.)-

[@ChillstoneBlakeBlast]

The UI clutter is a really big issue most nintendo games face nowadays. Look at Echoes of Wisdom and Brothership for just how bad their options menus are.

[@T_K7]

So would you call Sonic '06 a "diamond in the rough" with what Project '06 has done? I get not handwaving away what the core offers, but there's a certain point where stripping away from the base for the sake of improvement becomes an indictment against said base, especially when it then requires other external challenges & devices just to run the polished core.

[@yesile]

@@T_K7 I never played that game, so I don't know. 🤷‍♂ If it has good gameplay, held back by UI flaws, yes, I'd consider it a diamond in the rough. But again, I never played, so I have no idea. I think we agree overall? I said that a game's flaws _are_ part of the game, thus, someone could consider _Engage_ a bad game. I just also said that the mods themselves aren't the ones making the core game (the _Fire Emblem_ part of _Fire Emblem)_ fun; they're just ridding the game of the _unfun_ components, so one can enjoy the fun components without having to slog through the other stuff.

[@corkraddish]

I think also important to realise the "Nintendo TV" requires some external processing power. Without that, your experience on it may be worse than the Switch. It's a good option if you have that processing power, but important to keep in mind that those with an older or more casual "processor" may not have this option available to them.

[@grampaseri]

I can run Engage on an emulator with a 9 year old PC that's had no upgrades. The Switch is incredibly weak.

[@corkraddish]

Wow! Didn't realise it was that easy to run. I haven't had too much experience with it but tried Tears of the Kingdom on a 5yr old gaming PC and it ran terribly.

[@grampaseri]

@@corkraddish Open world is probably a lot harder to do if I had to guess. The biggest map you ever use in Engage is the Somniel.

[@dunslax3]

"Well you see, the game isn't bad if you just mod out all the bad things about it"

[@cupie2255]

I used a mod that takes away the swarms of enemies in the DLC maps while placing the bosses at the beginning so you can complete the map without boosting your exp and gain access to the additional customization of the DLC bracelets. More customization, more builds, more replayability. Also, the mods that let you change your unit's outfits even in battle and cutscene animations are nice as well.

[@zaekulia]

Glad Engage is back on the menu. I never hated the game I just wish the Emblems weren't so dominant My main gripes with the game mostly show in the second half so we'll see how that goes

[@oKnuTo]

About the modding aspect, I think there are also different kinds of mods, simple Qualify of life mods don't add anything. Obviously, every game can be moded to a great game if you alter level design and add story. But this mod doesn't it simply removes the tedium and technical limitations of the original hardware. Different example of a game that i would never ever play or real hardware but i love playing on the whale emulator is Pokémon collosem good this game needs a speed-up button. But if you have it or simply a flat speed increase to 150% the game is amazing.

[@dangfxn771]

Can someone please post what mod Mangs is describing

[@TuskyBaby]

Yeah its different than how people describe their experience, for example, modding Skyrim. They turn it into a completely different game with improvements and additions to aspects like combat, making it something it was never intended to be. These Engage mods just let you get to the intended game faster. Its completely different. It should still be acknowledged that Engage has its fair shortcomings when discussing the game, but hopefully more people will respect the things it does well from now on.

[@GenoShion]

It's really subjective what people want out of a Fire Emblem game. Some people don't mind wasting their time running around the Somniel and collecting resources, interacting with units, etc. but for Mangs, he already made it clear that the best Battle Preps was Path of Radiance, so I'm not surprised that he would enjoy the quality of life changes. It's not that mods make the game good...but that the bad parts masked what is good about Engage. Mods only made it clear by adjusting the bad parts in ways that made veterans enjoy some of their best moments playing Fire Emblem. It's not perfect, but what truly is?

[@portalguy2246]

ENGAGE FANS ARE EATING GOOD TONIGHT

[@brightht2324]

That's kind of the issue I have with Engage. A lot of issues that I have with Engage are choices that shouldn't have been made in the first place. Why is there an unskippable 40 second cutscene when cooking? Why can't you skip Arena intros\outros? Why do you have to fight emblems when you pay bond fragments and the outcome doesn't matter? For the achievement? You can randomly fight emblems in the arena, it doesn't matter. It's a lot of little things that feels like "Well yeah, that would get annoying after a while" that they just...didn't care. QoL mods are fantastic but getting mods to work for "Nintendo TV" isn't something a lot of people will do, it's taxing or requires some "restructuring" of the channels on your switch. Which I hear can brick your system if done incorrectly. Just looking at the footage I see something things changed that should've been in the base game. Why can't you swap outfits at the Somneil and have them persist during battle? That seems like such a basic thing that's not there. Engage is a game that's nearly hit version 1. The mods for engage put the last few touches to make the game hit version 1. It's a lot of clean up that the developers didn't do. That makes the game feel way better than it currently does, even if there's still a massive amount of issues with the game.

[@sacredsillver]

I recently played Engage again and avoided standard arena/minigames/ring polishing/ancient well and made my own route to speedrun the Somniel, it felt like a much better experience without gimping the gameplay much. The vanilla game is great enough that I think anyone can eventually find a sweetspot for how they can enjoy it.

[@catfancier4269]

I have also been playing Fire Emblem since FE7 first released in English on the GBA. I initially put Engage down due to the lack of story draw. I came back to it later on having accepted it would mostly just be for the gameplay. I had so much fun with Maddening mode (no paid DLC) that I immediately Ironmaned it afterward. During that Ironman run I ignored the minigames in the Somniel to reduce the tedium between maps and had a great time. Finally, I’ve been doing No Somniel runs and while I have yet to complete one, my current run is now past Chapter 20 and going very well. Short of having access to the Nintendo TV, No Somniel completely fixes Engage’s pacing issues between maps and provides a satisfyingly brutal increase in challenge, and yet Engage is so well designed that it has never once felt unfair. Proper planning and execution are still paramount, and I am still able to use subpar units like Alfred and Jade and stand a real chance. Engage is my favorite game in the series. It may have missed with story, and it does like to waste your time between maps, but the story can be skipped and the Somniel tedium can be seen as training wheels to be discarded when they are no longer desired or needed. There’s just so many fun maps in Engage, and so many viable units, builds, and combinations. Even with No Somniel’s restricted build options, there’s still plenty of them to consider, and every decision matters that much more as mistakes are not easily corrected. Engage is just a delightful game.

[@catfancier4269]

@@mihaimercenarul7467 I’ve always enjoyed using the units I like in Fire Emblem and not just the best ones. Engage is well balanced enough that beating it on Maddening shouldn’t be an issue regardless of which units you use, assuming you plan and play well. While early game units are often outclassed by units that join later on, the difference isn’t enough to make them worthless, just suboptimal if you want to have an easier time. I love seeing my early game scrubs hang in there and gradually rise to greatness over the course of a playthrough.

[@TuskyBaby]

​@@mihaimercenarul7467OP: Lays out all the reasons he enjoys the game in a clear, descriptive fashion... You: "Nuh uh. Its actually bad. You have bad taste." Bro you are the least convincing person in this comment section. Literally nothing constructive or intelligent to say. Go back to your echo chamber and let the adults talk 😂

[@lejon73]

personally, my main issue with engage is how they balanced random battles, the rest i i didn't mind it much but making all the random battle zerg swarm maps based on your highest level units just makes grinding units who are behind impossible in classic, maddening didn't have much of those, so it's not something you really notice there, but the fact that story battles are the easiest battles in the game, while the maps supposedly used for grinding are the hardest, kinda says something about engages balance, and i'm really not a fan of how they did that, the story i actually never minded as much, i find it overhated by a lot, the system with the emblem rings i actually found quite fun, but as someone that likes grinding all of my units and do everyones support and such....those random battles are the fucking worst, anyways, that's just my feelings on the game, i personally think the game is fine, due to it's issues with random battles specically, and no ng+ on top of that, it's probably one of the weaker entries for me personally, with not very much replayability, overall, i don't find it as bad as most people seem to, but it's definitely a step down from 3 houses

[@mrbilter83]

He's finally seen the light.... Engagebros we actually won

[@MustafaARIKLeBG]

I never thought I would see this day 😭

[@Zyaire286]

Heck yeah 👍

[@KamelGuru]

Don't worry about the ninjas, we're vikings, meaning we have axes and bows, so we have the Bartre weapon triangle over Ninjas (and Oboros)

[@ryandunn8014]

YES! This is what I have been saying since Fates. A hub world adds nothing, and only makes the game a huge drag.

[@TuskyBaby]

Thankfully Fates' isn't TOO time consuming, but I still would prefer going back to classic battle preps. Hell, I would settle for Tellius-esc Base preps if they don't want to go all the way back to the GBA/SNES prep styles. Just let us get to the core gameplay faster without losing out on options and other important gameplay-related stuff.

[@Aeivious]

@@TuskyBaby I wouldnt mind a hub world that is dynamic with the game. I think FE: 3hopes did it okay, still repetative, but something similar where your camp is ever changing, similar to andoran saga.

[@TuskyBaby]

@@Aeivious that doesnt address a lot of people's issues with hubs though

[@Rislear]

I find it silly to argue about whether Engage is only good with mods when FE players have been playing modded versions of every game before FE7 (through fan translations) and even of the ones after. Most people who play FE8 do so using some sort of randomizer or patch to increase enemy growth rates so they can make up their own hard mode or use some patch to have global ranges or whichever other QoL like getting 3x effectiveness in back into FE7 or removing playable hard mode bonuses for FE6. Mangs himself uses permanent speed up when playing FE9 and even has a program that lets him display hit rates during combat The only difference with Engage is that it's a modern game so you need a better PC to run it while every phone can run a GBA emulator but playing a modded/hacked version of FE is so ingrained into players' minds that most have forgotten that they're doing it unless it's a major hack.

[@oof5992]

100% agree, speedup alone makes some of the older games more bearable and fun. Anyone that plays thracia nowadays is using the Lil manster translation patch that adds a lot of new things even if you disable all the options. There's a lot of examples.

[@voltron77]

The switch isn't a bad console, just an old one that is basically 7 years old. Of course, the switch 2 will be better.

[@hectorgregorio95]

Engage story definitely competes with fates for worst story. But holy shit did I had fun during my hard run of engage. I wanna try no dlc cuz tiki and carmilla were broken af

[@TuskyBaby]

"Carmilla" I'm now imagining a fusion of Camilla (FE) and Carmella (Sopranos) and I need her as a unit 😂

[@hectorgregorio95]

@TuskyBaby fun shit is I wrote the typo and it's fucking Fate grand order's fault. Also was too lazy to edit lol

[@thomaskopv2366]

Im sorry guys, but what is the "Nintendo TV"?

[@SotheAlbion]

Homebrew. Its rooting your Switch.

[@awesomesmileyguy]

Emulator

[@DamienCloud]

We need a modlist Man,gs, what do I install on my nintendo tv? Your opinion on how to make it a good game will be a game changer for me

[@reycoswanson]

While the character design taste is subjective, I personally like most of them, I always enjoyed engage because I mostly ignored the story. It's not like I was expecting anything stellar out the gate so maybe that's got something to do with it. It's fair to say a poorly written story brings down the experience. Though gameplay wise, engage is very solid. Im 5 playthroughs in just experimenting with different characters and builds. It's a blast.

[@shadow_ryu105]

Honestly same

[@dilberfard7173]

Still, mods are not representative of the true game. People who only have switch still have to deal with the tedium of the vanilla game. You were not wrong.

[@layerp]

"People who only have switch " Not true tho. You can also enjoy mods with a "switch pro", like he's doing in his "switch TV"

[@DrakonPhD]

I mean, its not the biggest mod out there really. Without a fun game experience at base, the mod would just speed up a bad game. Its a great game at its core (though I tend to like the characters/deisgns more then someone like Mangs, and think the story is just meh/alright then bad)

[@entl8319]

Yeah, but it is not justified either to simply let the tedium part completely overshadow the gold part. Cyberpunk 2077 was a disaster at launch but over the years people gradually realized that behind those ridiculous optimization issues and bugs, the game itself is actually one of the best games in recent years. If improvements have been made on the game, regardless by studio or fandom, I think we should not treat them as totally negligible although I do admit that most switch players do not have the resources to run Engage on the nintendo tv

[@SleepSommelier]

@@entl8319 cyberpunk is different than what is suggested here. CDPR made the changes themselves, updated it and 2.2 would be now vanilla cyberpunk if you bought it today. Engage on the other hand would still suck the same way if you bought it today. Meaning everybody who bought cyberpunk would be able to enjoy 2.2 but not with Engage. I only have my switch, never looked into switch tv, or however you wanna call it, and later on modding the game. That is quite the bar to jump over to just maybe enjoy the game.

[@fasddfadfgasdgs]

@@layerp So again you they are using hardware outside of nintendo's hand. It's a modded switch not Nintendos intended design. Even with mods Nintendo is heavily against it. What is sad is Nintendo future proof their games but use really shitty hardware to make it look as bad as possible.

[@DarkChaosKaxi]

The core of the game is fun, and mods that cut out the unnecessary fluff and extra stuff that cause it to drag just make it shine. The gameplay IS fun; stop keeping us from playing your game. XD I love the Civ series, but I use QoL UI mods to make it more streamlined and a better way to play the game they made. I see this as no different.

[@lukasneo91]

I haven't catched your Engage streams, nor watched the VODs yet (I'm still catching up on the Grandmasters Fog Tournament), but it's good to hear you're enjoying it thanks to the Nintendo TV and the mods available there. I only beat Engage once on Hard Mode, and started a Maddening run but the Somniel tasks and how slow the game runs on the Switch made me to not continue it. Maybe I should try the Nintendo TV version too, as I think that Engage gameplay is fun

[@Abundy]

I told you so. (Especially the mod part) Upon finishing the video, I'm happy you're giving the game another shot, even while some fair issues persist.

[@sergiogodinez3770]

"Nintendo TV"? What the heck are you talking about? Is that a euphemism for Nintendo Online or something? Or does he mean SteamDeck? Mangs, you are the poster child for the dense fanboy that only likes things his way and can't help but hyperfocus on specific details while overlooking a product as a whole. All of us Engage fanboys understand that the game's presentation is a mixed bag (great UI, but too much time spent at the Somniel; amazing gameplay but lackluster story; some wonderful character interactions and little FE Easter eggs hidden here and there but very formulaic or needlessly cartoony characters, etc.), but we look past that and love the game despite its flaws. You don't seem to be the type of person that's able to do that and that's ok. If modding helps you see the game like we see it, I think many of us will just be happy to hear you sing a different tune about this game finally, even if you have to take all of those extra steps. The point is that underneath all the questionable design decisions this game offers, there's an absolute treasure of a Fire Emblem game, and it's wonderful to see that you're finally starting to notice that. Like you, I also wish for a Fire Emblem game that brings back the 2D, or makes the in-between battle stuff less of a chore, or has a more serious tone with a truly epic plot and characters that we can all be proud of (and if we're not going to get rid of the avatar and bring back the Lord protagonists, maybe we can at least have customizable avatars?)... but I would also want that hypothetical new Fire Emblem game to do many of the things that Fire Emblem Engage already does, because it did so many things incredibly well and that makes for a very enjoyable, addicting strategy game experience that always leaves me wanting to play more. Keep on Mangs-ing, Mangsy!

[@RedSnd028]

And, this is exactly why I'm so glad I decided to invest in my gaming pc. Mod support can turn a solid game into something amazing, as I am experiencing with my personal GOTY choice, Dragon's Dogma 2. Who knows, maybe I'll give the Cobalt mod a shot. Thanks for the awesome video and awesome Engage streams, Mangs!

[@asdfasdf4924]

THANK YOU. I feel validated.

[@melthework4511]

When I first played engage I didn’t like it, I got a bit more than halfway through and dropped it the first week it came out I replayed three houses last month and decided to give this game another try after I finished and I’m enjoying it thoroughly. The story is still trash but the unit building in this game is really fun.

[@Blader838]

I thought general consensus always was Engage had Great Gameplay, Poor Story and Character Design. While its nice mods exist to cut out a lot of the poor parts, as a whole the game is still mediocre and if I was talking to someone interested in getting it, that is how I'd describe it. Hopefully IS will have realized that certain features like hub worlds, mini games, and Avatars have been losing their appeal and we'll get something more traditional ala GBA or Tellius era in our next new entry

[@TheMaestroMizerous]

And lose more sales? They need to fix them not toss it away

[@Harleqyin]

My original watchthrough of your Engage playthrough (which your consistent negativity really ruined) highlighted how much you enjoyed the new combat and generally good new systems, but completely eschewed them because of cringe dialogue and unlikeable characters. I'm not surprised to see this video, and I'm glad you've given it another chance.

[@Sines314]

Without mods, i was just thinking of disallowing the Somniel time wasters, hut ketting myself fully use the free DLC loot.

[@ranger607]

I mod Engage on physical hardware, and I've modded it to be more difficult. Imagine an enemy boss with Micaiah Emblem with Nosferatu, Miracle, Sol, Vantage+, Hold Out+++, and more.

[@superblanco444]

This game was a blast to play through on my maddening no emblem ring run xD

[@itsallenwow]

I don’t understand why you’re re-evaluating the game with mods included To me that’s much less fair of a review than even using paid dlc.

[@tobiasrheker5738]

@@itsallenwow to evaluate the gameplay. Most "new" (fe awakening>) fire emblem games have a bad story. But if you skip that story, you can still have fun.

[@F_Yale]

Yeah, it's weird. The game is not being re-evaluated on some overlooked merits, but on third-party additions. That's like saying "God, I didn't know Skyrim was this good" after going from Vanilla and discovering the myriad gameplay-correcting mods available. Mangs could be forgiven on account of him not really being a gamer, though, and more of a tunnel-vision KZbinr.

[@Testbug000]

Mangs… graphics and FPS are two different things 😅. One is how pretty things look, the other is how fluid it feels. That said, I imagine everyone got your actual point. Also yes, a skip or reduce in between missions once you’ve beaten a fire emblem game is a feature which makes sense. Would they remove it all? Nah. But streamlining it a lot of it would get most of the benefit.

[@robsonclark9678]

Ya, I felt the lifeless expressions of many of the characters during talking was a bit issue. Three Houses they had such cool expressions unique to each character. Engage to me just felt like marrionettes having their mouths moved.

[@RiftSideRicky]

maybe Fire Emblem Engage are the friends we made in the way

[@rydrake9509]

Aside from cutscenes I agree that game was sluggish on my switch, I agree that Emblem Soren, Tiki, Hector and Veronica made the game too easy

[@Draylin41]

I recently watched a video about the recent Zelda game and many of the complaints I've had about FE Engage were echoed in that video. Just so many ways it felt tedious and wasting the player's time. There's not even skippable dialog in that game, you have to go through every chat box to get to the next bit of gameplay. This just led me to realize, a lot of the things I don't like aren't an FE problem, they're a Nintendo problem. They make some awesome games, but they don't really give players the options they'd like for how to play through them most of the time. Hardware aside, there are so many ways mods can improve a game that should just be standard options.

[@awesomesmileyguy]

To a lesser extent this plagues Brothership too. Sure you can speed up practically every cutscene, but it still takes time to speed through all the tutorials, cutscenes and dialogue.

[@MarkJBarret]

Engage gameplay carried me through 400 hours of cringey story on launch. I am there is a way to not deal with the bad parts and just keep replaying the good stuff!

[@lero4827]

Mangs sitting in his cabine thinking about his mistakes is a different kind of character development...

[@nocberry]

When i played this game 2023 for the first time i didn´t liked it much too. But this year i revived my youtube channel and i made a let´s play of Engage and for some reason i fell in love with it. I didn´t used mods and played only on "hard" difficulty (because i suck in that kind of games), but maybe because i knew how bad the writing and most of the charakter designs were, i could concentrate to enjoy the good part of that game, and that are the gameplay and the maps. To be honest i even enjoyed the bad stuff this time, mainly because i knew that it will not be good and i could make my comments and could make fun about it, but also i turned down my standards like i would, when i watch shows or movies made for children. You know you are not the target audience, but you can still have a good time. (with 4 nephews and niches aged between 2-6 years old you see a lot of child stuff xD) Engage isnt a bad game (even on original Hardware with 30FPS), it´s a very good game packed in an aweful package.

[@nin10doadict]

Well, I don't have access to a "Nintendo TV" and don't really want to go through the trouble of getting one at the moment, so I think I'm not going to attempt to play through Engage again yet. I am giving Echoes another shot though. Never did finish it.

[@Florete_FE]

The English voice acting isn't the problem. The writing is the problem. Except Hortensia. Can't stand Hortensia's English voice.

[@xmar5]

i enjoyed engage my first play through on maddening felt satisfying beating a hard map. but i do wish future fire emblem game would cut down slog on the monastery part

[@Omperor]

“If there’s one thing that I have learned ever since I got married it is that it's important to admit when you were wrong.” Longhoused.

[@KaosKittyStudios]

I basically tried doing just this, but I still couldn't get past the story. I've always enjoyed and loved Fire Emblem for both game play and story. I need both to enjoy it, and I wasn't able to play it w/o the story bringing down my enjoyment. BUT I am hopeful for the future of the franchise if the game play continues to be like Engage's, but with better story.

[@TheMongral]

My stance on engage has always been that, story aside, engage has the strongest raw gameplay of the series. Simply put, if the next FE game has at least the bones of engage’s combat, then it’ll be a great game. It doesn’t do some things well (as shown by this video), but what it does well it does well, and the fact that this mod removes the tedious parts it really helps you see the strengths of engage. If anything this light bit of modding helps showcase what is good about engage, while highlighting exactly what the issues were. This mod is basically the visual aid to your prior “good” and “bad” videos, showing “engage does this good, and this bad”.

[@joejodoin3494]

The best way to play the game imo is actually maddening with paid dlc. You can ignore the xenologues, but get the Edelgard, Tiki, Soren, Chrom, and Veronica emblems. Those emblems specifically allow you to make some insanely fun builds and pull off some really fun strategies. And it's still a challenge, but not so much of a challenge that it becomes frustrating.

[@furrykittens9312]

As an Engage enjoyer I am happy to see this. I really should watch these streams to see your transformation in real time. I do agree with most of your criticisms of the game, just for me it wasn't enough to overwhelm how much I enjoyed the gameplay from day 1. I did find myself on my second playthrough really speeding through the Somniel, especially as I neared Endgame. I do think that the game mechanics, builds, and map design are the best of any game in the series from a gameplay standpoint. I will also say the 60 FPS difference is noticeable just from looking at this footage and comparing to what I looked at for 100+ hours in my last playthrough (I did Fell Xenologue and yes I play slow).

[@StirFryTuna]

My mind is blasted watching the animations on his stream as it looked like nothing i'm used too.

[@henrymapleton]

No, I clicked this video to see Cringe (Pet thing) again

[@braunstein5645]

I enjoyed this game before, but watching your streams and seeing what a different experience the game can be if you know the right mods is making me want to play through it a third time. On the...Nintendo TV, obviously.

[@Merciless_Douma]

I'm so glad you made this video. This game runs and looks so beautiful on the Nintendo TV. Using the FPS mod and some frame generation you can get it to 240 FPS at 4k with Nvidia HDR to boost the visuals as well. It runs and looks absolutely beautiful and I love the game so much more for it. Then consider the mods and extra outfits and qol. Thanks for making a video on this subject

[@TIDbitRETRO]

I can’t agree that Engage is the worst written FE game because we live in a world where Fates exists.

[@JordiumZ]

Except fates isn't bad

[@TIDbitRETRO]

@ You’re joking, right? The writing in Fates is TERRIBLE. Lol

[@JordiumZ]

@@TIDbitRETRO I like the gameplay, music and characters

[@TIDbitRETRO]

@@JordiumZ None of those are the WRITING.

[@JordiumZ]

@@TIDbitRETRO wait I misread your message but I still think even fates has better written than engage tbh

[@Theguywholikedthethinginthevid]

Fallout 4 is an example of a game that is mid as a base game, but FANTASTIC once modded. You can turn the game into an apocalyptic horror game with more quests, guns, armor, and raise the difficulty where perk choices actually REALLY matter and makes certain perks you would usually lift your nose at, actually very useful and, sometimes, necessary. The game isn't bad, but it can be tweaked to perfection.

[@ristokukk1]

fell alear is hot but dangerous blue alear is safe and peaceful who do you think witch alear is hotter

[@Zyaire286]

I’ll say blue alear for the blue hair archetype.

[@Biggles_mets]

I need to know about this "nintendo tv"

[@MegaphoneFranke]

I played Engage on Hard mode. ONCE. And the whole time I felt like I HAD to have been playing it wrong in some way. I know for a fact that my units were RNG blessed overall, yet it felt like even my tanks folded to two or three units during an enemy phase - and even the Emblem Rings did little to alleviate this. The entire game felt incredibly punishing and I played Hard specifically so there would be some forgiveness. I’m the type of player who likes to use and train every unit, and Engage (again to me) felt like it brutally punished that playstyle, even on Hard Difficulty. That’s not even getting into how I felt Gold was so scarce, even with DLC. I know I’m no Fire EmblemTuber, but I kept telling myself that there was no way Hard should’ve been as frustrating of a slog as it was. I even cursed the cartridge when I finally was able to put it down. I know this might be a stupid question, but what was I doing wrong? I acknowledge that it is likely a skill issue on my part. How could I make the gameplay of Engage more enjoyable?

[@oof5992]

Engage is a Player phase focused game, where most units can't tank enemy phases like in the other games. You need to be more proactive on the player phase to succeed in engage, however on Hard mode theres enemy phase strategies like Defense stacking and Avoid stacking, + Bonded shield from Lucina.

[@Tarodan]

If you're trying to train and use literally every unit, I don't think Engage will ever be an enjoyable experience for you. The game is very much balanced around picking a team of 12 and sticking to it. Underleveled tanks are especially rough. As for gold being scarce, I agree. Donation levels for zones are a pretty nasty noob trap. Only Brodia is worth investing in for massive metal drops. You would need to grind a LOT of skirmishes to make the other countries worth leveling more than once. Even without donating much on later runs, I was still struggling for cash constantly and had to sell all the gear my team wasn't using. I also agree with what oof5992 said. Only a well optimized Louis and Goldmary are really capable of taking more than two or three hits from enemies. It's important to play around the edges of enemy range, have melee units cover each other's flanks, and eliminate as many enemies as you can each player phase. Most emblems give you insane offensive potential, but only Ike, Tiki and Hector are helpful defensively. Personally, I think abusing Corrin is mandatory on higher difficulties. Use 3-range units (I personally use Ivy for flight) to freeze big groups of enemies while they're just barely outside range. A Corrin user + Seadall dancing for them can freeze up to 10 enemy units every turn they're engaged. Freezing and debuffing bosses is crucial as well.

[@shannonjones8877]

A lot of the strategy in Fire Emblem games revolves around scarcity. Aside from games that keep spawning random encounters, everything is a finite resource, from gold to xp to your units themselves. So resource management is extremely important. It helps to come up with general guidelines you can use for your team compositions. For example, i like to have at least 4 tank units (2 main, 1 off, 1 dodge), but sometimes i'll add 1 or 2 more depending on the playthrough. I also like to have a sustainable mounted squad made up of at least 4 units (2 tanks, 1 dps, 1 healer) that can operate independently of my main force but can also return to them quickly if needed. Some things of note: 1. Every elder royal sibling works as a tank. 2. Leif and Lyn work well on main tanks. Ike and Eirika work well on off tanks. Roy and Lucina work well on dodge tanks. Sigurd also makes a decent option for tanks that can use the extra def/bld/mov. Marth is also pretty good for making a decent late game tank. 3. Micaiah engraving on Elfire makes for a very capable dodge tank (great way to use Clanne, btw). 4. Having access to all Dragon Veins with Corrin on Alear significantly boosts the effectiveness of your tanks. You basically want to pick 12 units to focus on for a playthrough, and as long as you have at least 4 tanks and 4 healers you should be able to make it work. And you can actually get through the game just with the units you get in Firene because you already have 12+ units before entering Brodia. It also covers the bases: 2 main tanks (Alfred, Louis), 1 off tank (Boucheron), 2 dodge tanks (Clanne, Chloé). And also 4 healers (Framme, Céline, Chloé, and Jean). (You can also reclass Vander to Royal Knight for another healer.) Oh and as for gold, you only need to get Firene, Elusia, and Solm to lv 2 but you should get Brodia to lv 4. And i assume it's the same on hard but i know that on maddening you earn enough gold to get Brodia to lv 4 before you even make it to Elusia.

[@DrakonPhD]

While I'm more positive about some of you less-liked aspects then you are (I like most character designs, a lot of supports are great - Lapis is one of my favorite characters in the series - I think the story is just meh/servicable and not actively bad), I'm glad that with relatively minor mods you can see the strengths of the game a lot more clearly! As long as you enjoy the game after all.

[@johnnyhall9154]

It's definitely my least favorite of the franchise, but I did enjoy it while I was playing it.

[@Bonechill4198]

Are you truly wrong if you have to avoid all DLC, emulate it to a different platform, and use a mod that removes all cutscenes, dialogue, and busy work. Seems like the game is still bad it's just people found a way to make it enjoyable in spite of Nintendo.

[@joejodoin3494]

Am i the only one who still finds maddening incredibly hard even with dlc?

[@hanzou1238]

Depending on your skill level and the party you choose to use I could see it still being hard even with dlc.

[@joejodoin3494]

@hanzou1238 I've played a lot of fire emblem, and personally have found engage maddening with dlc harder than any of the first 10 fire emblems on any difficulty (not counting PoR japanese hard mode, which i havent tried yet). FE 11-14 are all much harder on their highest difficulties for sure, but SoV and 3 houses i found easier on their highest difficulties. So really there's only 4 fire emblem games that i think have harder difficulties than engage with dlc. Other than the DS and 3DS games, which fire emblem games have you found harder?

[@hanzou1238]

@@joejodoin3494 Outside of the absurd difficulties in 11,12 and 13, I don't really find any of them to be that hard at all. Once you get used to the games mechanics you can beat them pretty easily. In Engage my first playthrough was on hard and my second on maddening, and the same strategies I used on hard worked on maddening too for the most part. The main differences were replacing certain characters (I used Clanne on hard but maddening swapped to Pandreo since Clanne is almost unusable), and abused the Micaiah ring a whole lot more in the endgame.

[@joejodoin3494]

@@hanzou1238 I think what i found hard about engage specifically was the soft time limits on maps because of infinite reinforcement spawns. In other games, like FE6 hard mode, FE7s HHM, Thracia, etc, you can just take your time on hard maps. With engage, if you don't make enough progress by a certain turn, you'll either get killed from behind, or start having more reinforcements coming form the front than you can deal with. But ya, utilizing warp and rescue with michiah in late game is pretty essential. Like that's one of the reasons I didn't find maddening with dlc too much easier is because by late game you have to use the tools you get in the base game to beat it anyways.

[@hanzou1238]

@@joejodoin3494 The reinforcements aren't really an issue until 21 and then yeah you basically have to rely on Micaiah for AOE Warp, Rescue, and Rewarp unless you want a horrible time. That is the one thing I dislike about the map design. I feel that spamming the player with enemy reinforcements is a lazy way to make a person play faster

[@hippiemcfake6364]

Going to a cabin in the woods so someone's ninjas can't find you, very clever! - If someone wants to DM me where to start looking to buy my own console, that'd be appreciated!

[@wilkinson7661]

Okay im genuinely curious, why do you think the japanese voices are so much better than the english ones?

[@KUNAIfever]

Dang it , i thought you are wrong about being wrong that its wrong

[@Diego_Curcino]

Are there any rumors regarding an upcoming Fire Emblem game for next year (along with Switch 2)? I'm abstinent from a new game in the franchise (mainline)

[@seamonkeydood4932]

I want to try this out but I can't find an engage xci.

[@tori4486]

Mangs, your not wrong about what you thought in those videos. What you said about the BASE game is completely right, you just found another way to enjoyed it

[@farisali2504]

Who are you and what did you do to mangs?

[@Mr.Ben.]

Thank you for all the content :)

[@shannonjones8877]

Can't relate, Engage has been one of my favorite FE games ever. It made me _want_ to do multiple playthroughs just to play around with different team comps and emblem pairings, unlike 3H which wants multiple playthroughs but after trying a couple times i'm too fed up with the game a few chapters post timeskip to actually get to the end. Engage has some of the best playability and replayability that the series has to offer. And even managed to do it without needing a child mechanic.

[@gigabyte2248]

I think there's a bigger point about game design here. For about as long as there have been video games, there's been a push for more. More graphical fidelity, more gameplay mechanics, more playable characters, more locations to explore, more treasures to find. Some of it has come from players, some of it has come from console makers, some of it has come from game designers. But, looking back at the greatest video games through the ages, a lot of them have been the ones that didn't push for more and, instead, made more intelligent use of what they had. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is a great example: it was a 2D game released when everyone was trying to make 3D games, but not only did it completely humiliate its contemporaries on the N64, it ended up being the co-progenitor of a whole game genre. The last few Fire Emblem games have over-extended themselves. Fates has ~1.5 good games' worth of content, but spread across 3 games. Three Houses was similar: Intelligent Systems *seriously* overextended on overall scope (Crimson Flower was severely undercooked) but also in individual ideas, leaving the monastery stuffed with things to do but none of them being particularly fun. Engage is not as bad as 3H but it still feels like it's lost sight of what the core play experience is. Having open spaces to explore and talk to characters is all well and good, but I'd argue the game would be better if the characters were better-written and had had more time in the oven. Fishing and flying minigames are fine, but I'd still argue they're distractions from the core gameplay. The big point of contrast, for modern Fire Emblem, is Shadows of Valentia. It sure had its problems, and was probably *too* faithful to the original, but it knew its brief and it stuck to it like glue. Alm and Celica are at the heart of the story, and were written so well that a new generation of fans fell in love with them. Most characters have only one or two sets of support conversations, with a lot of effort instead devoted to core story scenes (Lukas is a prime example). Sticking to the relatively-slim cast of the original, with only 4 major additions, allowed the art and writing teams to concentrate more on how to make characters distinct without gimmickry. Keeping in-town exploration limited to 2D visual-novel-style screens allowed the 3D dungeon crawling to deliver more compelling gameplay and more tightly-designed spaces. I'm not saying it's the perfect Fire Emblem game, not by any means, but it highlights how some of the biggest weaknesses of its contemporaries can be avoided.

[@randynielsen1413]

I gotta say, even with this, the customization bloat and character homogenization because of it still makes the game not that great.

[@Ranakel]

I will say for how much humbly pie you're eating on this video concept, I've never felt like Engage was put on blast unfairly. My understanding of your stance had always been "story/character designs are dreadful, but the gameplay's fun" right from the very first playthrough, and that's my general opinion still. The maps (outside of Solm) are excellent and varied, and yeah, if you cut the worst parts which mods allow, I believe it can stand at the side of Conquest. Which I personally had a bad first reaction to because of the story too, turns out.

[@imprudentdev1503]

I 100% Engage on my first playthrough, I did everything possible, I absolutely adored the Gameplay, literally the only thing that ruined it for me was the piss poor writing. I didn't even mind the designs that much

[@hustlevania3318]

Best fe to be released state side and it's not even close, been told ya,. Sadly because engage was a return to true fe form but did poorly compared to 3dog houses bcause the covid bump we are doomed to 3 houses 2,3,4,5 under different names for the rest of eternity.

[@lukaskunz-yl3sz]

Engage maddening is probably the best designed highest difficulty we ever had, especially the endgame chapters are amazing which is something the series has always struggled with.

[@Zyaire286]

Agree with ya

[@valygomu]

Yes ! Even ignoring the whole mod thing. I played the game whild optimizing the somniel to spend the least time possible in it. But what you are saying is exactly what I think the core tactical gameplay and balance of that game is so amazing. They are going in right direction with the gameplay. They nailed it.

[@FrancisFjordCupola]

Worst written or worst translation?

[@zaftnotameni]

I played engage at launch and LOVED the battles, wanted to play again on challenge runs, but couldn't stand dealing with the garbage in between and gave up

[@tnrshaylon3061]

I really enjoyed playing through engage due to how good the gameplay was. Agreed on hating the writing/designs as well but as much as I wanted to play the game again, what stopped me was the Somniel. I lose alot of enjoyment when I skip things in games so just not getting the Somniel rewards wouldn't be fun for me but I don't want to waste time running around doing minigames instead of playing the actual game. Never knew there was this kind of QoL mods so I'll need to check it out.

[@dbzmagus]

Honestly this doesn't change my opinion at all. I'm not going to go through the effort of pirating a game I already paid for and then researching how to mod it just to make it good.

[@F_Yale]

True. This video is some weird-ass cope.

[@thespianmask]

Engage has some of the best combat and progression mechanics I've played in a modern FE game, but holy heck the writing is so bad what the hell. The MC being dragon jesus and yet having the writing of wet tissue paper is so sad.

[@nichiyohane]

Somethings are certain: let players have options to speed up main gameplay. all the other minigames are nice but don't overshadow the main dish.

[@Speedwinghere]

Told you so told you so told you so told you so told you so told you so told you so told you so. While the mod is nice in terms of saving a little time, im not convinced thats what actually makes the game good, although im glad it was enough to get you to at least play it with a more positive mindset on the correct difficulty for you, allowing you to appreciate its finer qualities.

[@Speedwinghere]

@@TeeIeh half the entire game. Tell me you've not played engage without telling me you've not played engage

[@F_Yale]

@@Speedwinghere Hyperbole to combat your trash point.

[@Speedwinghere]

@@F_Yale my trash point being what exactly, that speeding up pressing the skip button isn't magically what makes the game have good gameplay?

[@F_Yale]

​@@Speedwinghere Seeing that you responded "I told you so" to a video where Mangs says he was "wrong" and positively re-evaluates the *game*, meaning the sum of its parts, on the merits of third-part modifications drastically altering non-combat elements, leaving only the combat untouched (whose quality was never in question), I can only assume that your point was: "I told you that the game would be good if you could just get right into the combat", which is a trash point because a *game* is the sum of its total parts, so if you're just left one part that you like that obviously shouldn't be cause for creeping to the cross.

[@Speedwinghere]

@@F_Yale it took him two years to play on maddening with no dlc, I've been telling him he'd enjoy it if he did that for two years. It's just a joke anyway as he references me about three times in the video, stop getting so emotional

[@FireEmbros]

I feel heckin' cute and validated. Cant' wait for you to try the different combinations of Engage. It's not perfect, but it's definitely a very very solid experience in terms of gameplay and possibilities. The writing is pretty bad for sure, but the smoothness and the balancing of game are second almost to none! Can't wait to see more Engage on this channel!

[@justinmoreno390]

*Me looking at the video title* Me: Oh! *But it turns out to be mangs appreciating the mods more than the base game* Me: Oh...

[@scarocci7333]

The mods make you able to entirely focus on the gameplay, which is by far one of the best of the serie, and it's very important in a tactical rpg.

[@HerrFinsternis]

That's a misunderstanding. The mod allows him to appreciate the base of the game in the first place, which is always gameplay first in a tactical game.

[@aereonexapprentice7205]

Nope. Mangs is enjoying the base game at the end of the day. Put this good of QoL mod on Birthright or Awakening and it will not garner the same review lol.

[@DarkStreifer]

The switch is NOT a bad system. What's bad are the monkey unable to propery optimize stuff with the PC mentality o "they'll just buy more power" / understand the limit of the system and push beyond its limit, not the console.

[@T_K7]

Honestly it's held up fairly well for a portable system pushing 8 years old (10 if you acknowledge that it's basically a souped-up Nvidia Shield).

[@hheecckk526]

Damn who would have thought that mods that give qol features and performance boosts makes games more enjoyable. Who could have guessed that.

[@InternetMonster1]

When a person plays Engage, they can actually feel how good the game is. The UI, the map designs, the unit stats and resource management all lock-in together and create an incredibly intentional and cohesive gameplay experience. They stump you with these challenging puzzles and situations to pull yourself out of but also give you the tools to create your own solutions. I always feel like I "figured it out" when I get past a challenging part of Engage, like the developers designed a map a certain way BECAUSE of the specific rings/units I had for every stage. In comparison to 3 Houses which was my first game, I felt like every single map was trivializing because the developers designed the challenges around you NOT having access to the hundreds of tools you are given. I cannot recall any time I had to use the Stride battalion or that I had to use warp because it's almost like the developers are assuming the average player might only be using an army of exclusively melee, physical axe users and they couldn't risk the new guys being soft-locked because their team wouldn't be able to cross a ledge. This led to maps which are all about brute force and nothing else. Even on the higher difficulties the gameplay loop and average stage felt the exact same. Just chip strong enemies down and kill them, and go to the next enemy just like every other stage. That being said, 3 Houses set a tone and gave players a state of mind that doesn't exist in any other game. The simple buildup of complexity in the world and characters is just astonishing and it provides context to everything happening in the game. So when you clash two units in the game, you may just be oneshotting someone with your 34 strength 44 speed Felix, but it feels like an epic battle because your opponent is his former best friend, and you are fighting for the fate of Fodlan. Engage would have been a 10/10 if it had this context for its battles. But it doesn't. In-fact, the supports and story of Engage is actively so bad that it makes me feel discouraged from playing the game.

[@hiokiryuuhei4714]

Mangs has more wisdom since he got a A support rank. He's a changed man now ☺️

[@timothypeterson4781]

It's what I've always said about it. Mechanically it's competent. The writing and characters (writing and design) are almost completely trash.

[@josuecallejero9864]

"Mods fix the game's problems" is not a compelling argument. I'd never eat at a restaurant if someone says, "The pizza is good if you pick off the old toppings and add your own fresh ingredients."