Wait... Is Fire Emblem Engage Actually Good?

[@elgescherwerauchimmer700]

I think the engage story is good enough, it's not like Fates where it promises to be a grand morally gray story. engage has always been advertised as a typical Shonen story, the gameplay on the other hand is fantastic, from the gameplay alone engage is my second favorite in the franchise

[@paperluigi6132]

I’m gonna assume your favorite is Conquest.

[@NixLeonis]

@@paperluigi6132 they best their favorite is Echoes

[@renren47618]

@@paperluigi6132 My favorite is Conquest and i absolutely love Engage, but i still like Echoes and PoR more

[@seifeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee]

My personal favorite is PoR and Radiant Dawn. No other FE made me dive so much into caring my units like babies and make them all somewhat usable (talking about you Rolf and Mist and Elincia. I really wish there was an option for newer FE games that blocked any side battle besides paralogues, i can't help myself to grind them out lol.

[@paulman34340]

I'll take Engage's "Average-Above Average" (which isn't bad) "SINGULAR" story over Fates and 3Houses poor attempt at Routes anyday! 3Houses and Engage are funny in that both of them did things Fates tried to do. But BETTER (3Houses has a better Route system then Fates; Engage used ALOT of the underutilized elements of Fates story that IT squandered! Like Veyle/Lilith and Sombron/Anankos; Plus I liked what they did with Lumera WAY better then Mikoto) I'll say one thing with Fire Emblem! Is the Devs are good at reusing stuff and improving on the stuff there (at least their LIMITING the "taking shit out" in mass that they did back with Binding Blade and Awakening) hope they make a MIX of the Emblem Rings/Bracelets and the Bond Rings idea going forward (mix it with the Crusader Scrolls from Thracia 776 with effecting Growths and that would be even better) just don't make them GAME BREAKING like they in game (Olwen's S rank Bond Ring in the hands of Citrinne/Gregory/Mage Anna is GODLY! I rarely go for that build, but good god! Especially the rare time I ALSO use Saphir and Lindon! And then you have the other rings and their Engage attack) also make the rings BUFFERS but not "Story important" as Engage was when they were (also no ghosts! I'm sure the engine will be BETTER and we can rid ourselves of NOT CONTROLLING OUR CHARACTERS BATTLE OUTFITS that way) I usually skip cutscenes in a FE after I beat it (Watch them once) only rewatching my favorite scenes fully even if I'm now FULLY in the new run to play with a "New Final Party!" Some scenes just rock! (Engage for Example my NUMBER 1 favorite scenes is when Alear first summons Marth in Chapter 1 and fights the Corrupted with him to the Music of "Engage" and of course what Veyle does in the After the battle in Chapter 21 scene ALSO to the same Music!) Fates is the MOST I skipped scenes like MAD (I had only a VERY small few! Lets just say if I put EVER FE game's Scenes into 20 total. Engage would have 13 out of 20, and Fates would have 4 out of 20! Lower that Total to 10 for each route! 3 of 10 for Conquest and Birthright, and 1-2 out of 10 for Revelations!) when replaying. Engage I'll say the few I DO SKIP like Gospel is "The one after Chapter 10 battle" as that whole thing got cringey and then stupid (How alear lost the rings, funny, but stupid) but the others I do enjoy viewing them! (People be insulting the Four Hounds! I liked them because 3Houses was HUGELY lacking in straight up antagonists! Having the Students you DIDN'T recruit or can't is not a substitute! I actually liked Zephia and Griss, and the "Fell Princess" you know who she is! I'm seperating her from "the other person" since their "not the same person" personality wise. Plus Sombron was good because while he is STRAIGHT UP evil like Fomortiss from Sacred Stones and Loptous from Genealogy! Those games never EXPLORED much of those two's own stories! We only "get what we see!" Sombron was the same, but actually had a backstory behind him that caught my interest! Loptous cannot be said to have a character since we only get much from his VESSELS and not him! I'm now hearing idiots claim Engage had cliche "forging the bad guys or making them redeemable" which it really didn't! Mauvier would be the ONLY one, and he wasn't actually "redeemed" as he was still fighting for his liege and understood that didn't change his actions! Liked him as I like all "Lorenz" in the series, minus 3Houses Lorenz, I like him for DIFFERENT reasons! But as a Lorenz, he isn't ignorant to his actions, but he's got dignity and poise! Everytime he fights you, unlike Marni who is treating it like a game, or Griss who is a dick! He's more like Zephia in that he's fighting you "as the enemy" unlike her he doesn't insult/mock his foe! and Sombron wasn't "redeemed" I swear edgelords want you to FUCKING decap everyone and bathe in their blood! And any form of mercy like letting someone die with some fulfillment is "weak soft shit!" I wished they go back to their Edgy shit and stop trying to change everyone elses stuff into their own) Plus at least my one fear that I was happy Three Houses showed me and Engage cemented is the Child system is GONE! It only worked in Awakening and Genealogy! But I want to BE A LONG TIME before I see that system reused, and I'd rather it NOT be an optional thing like in Awakening! But like Genealogy where it's FORCED but you at least CAN see it coming and can ACCOUNT for it FAR easier then Genealogy did. Maybe in the FE AFTER the next entry (and by that, I mean AFTER the next entry as the next FE may be a Remake from the rumors! I don't think it's Genealogy as much as the DIEHARDs beg for it! Maybe Binding Blade as Blazing Sword was ALOT of US Long time players like me for example FIRST and so we WANT to play the elusive game FE US GBA was a prequel for! But if it is, I ain't crying, just hope they FIXED alot of issues Genealogy had, I hate this IDEA that a game with bad story is 0 out of 10 bad even if the gameplay is top tier, but somehow a game with the opposite is GREAT 10 out of ten and they'll make excuses after talking down to everyone who tried to defend the bad story game of "having bad taste" not that Genealogy had "BAD" gameplay, but it's gameplay is on par with 3Houses! Alright but Average! Funny enough that's how I see Engage to 3Houses! Average story, good gameplay- Good Story Average Gameplay! I'm still playing BOTH OF THEM ) they can bring it back and try another go! But I want REGULAR FE for awhile like Engage and Three Houses WITHOUT the child system!

[@swagner7767]

"Louis my beloved" No kidding, you just give him Sigurd's ring and he'll take on the entire enemy army by himself

[@jackmanleblanc2518]

Give Louis Sigurd's ring and give Panette Ike's ring. Those two can take on the world. And, more importantly, Louis can take out those pesky sword units.

[@brazluck5463]

The story is definitely a bit barebones, especially during the start, but I feel like it’s not trying to be like 3H, it wants it’s own tone. I definitely had the same experience tho of not knowing if I liked the game until chapter 11. And even after that there were some ideas and story turns that actually surprised me late gameish

[@paulman34340]

I agree with this! I was less critical with the early game chapters as I treated them as more an "intro" then anything else! But yeah I treated Chapter 10/11 as the Beginning of the midpoint and up to Chapter 21/22 as the start of the late game as when the story picks up (I can FORGIVE the early game as intros can be long and tedious, but I do pay attention in case it's "on the test later). I rate the story in the "Average-Above Average" category! Frankly what I like over 3Houses is I don't have to replay the game multiple times to get the entire story (I'll take one solid run over multiple ones! Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn STILL scare me with how many FUCKING TIMES I had to replay just to get everything! I was scared to "skip cutscene" because of this! 3Houses only thing I hated was not being able to do this early game before Chapter 10 because I wanted to open up Rhea and Sothis in case I changed my mind later on their endings! Honestly I skip after viewing them once BECAUSE I'm in it now LARGELY for the gameplay now! I will watch the few I like, but others I'll skip, ESPECIALLY the After Battle Cutscene in Chapter 10! Sorry but I was both laughing AND annoyed at how that went down, especially how Alear LOST the rings! Chapter 11 with how Zelkov somehow STOLE the Time Crystal back from the Fell Princess WAS hilarious though, Kagetsu calling it a pretty crystal also sold it for me! But every new run, I don't skip the Prologue, Chapter 1, Chapter 2 and Chapter 3 cutscenes...minus Lumera whole "death" part! I was ABIT sad, but Fiery Joker said it best when he played the game! I barely got to know her! Once again I.S.! STOP THINKING I'LL CARE ABOUT THE CORNELIUS IF YOUR JUST GOING TO KILL THEM OFF SO SOON! Jeralt and Greil were great BECAUSE I got alot more time to actually CARE about their characters, and none beat Greil who still has the LARGEST amount of time! Jeralt only gets it after I played 3Hopes because he's not any different personality wise in 3Hopes, so I transfer it to his 3Houses self! But NONE can beat the "Cornelius" that is "Sigurd and First Timeline Chrom") I've never met a Fire Emblem I didn't enjoy (minus NES Shadow Dragon, FUCK will I ever play that one again, If I want to, I'll play it's DS remake on the WiiU! I just CAN'T readjust myself to NES controls no matter what unless it's Super Mario Bros and I grew up with the damn thing, it was my first console LOL)

[@degreeskelvin3025]

You didn't mention how dope the animations are. Some of these crit animations made me feel like I was 10 again and watching Joshua's myrmidon crit happen for the first time. *Insert Ratatouille food critic meme*

[@drpac9164]

Great review. Story is very camp but honestly, after all the discourse we got from Three Houses (especially being an Edelgard fan) this is welcome. I genuinely love Engage and was pleasantly surprised by how difficult the game can get in some maps.

[@thiefpotato2759]

I like engage more than 3 houses. I think focusing on gameplay after three houses was definitely necessary. I like the characters and I actually think this might be my second favorite cast as a whole, after echoes ofc. I don't hate anyone and I feel like the boring/bland ones still have some substance. I like the story. I think it does what it needed to do. Its not too overly complex, which is a godsend. I hope the positive reception from the story shows IS that we don't need 5 million sides and that the gameplay itself should be what makes people replay the game.

[@heroicvileplume7184]

I was so worried this game would suck. It only took two chapters and Lumera ganking Vander with the ridersbane from three states away to dispel that doubt. Engage is the funniest Fire Emblem game, the one with the best bosses, and the one with the most tight but ridiculous balancing I've ever seen. Nuking an enemy from 20 squares away should not be balanced in any sense of the word, but IS actually did their homework and played the game they made, looked at all the stupid stuff, and thought out the implications of every last ability. At multiple times during my first playthrough, I thought I had found the unbeatable strategy that would trivialize the game. It would let me get away with my cool idea for a chapter or two, then absolutely body me just to show me that it takes more than one game-breaking strategy to break this game. I'm about halfway through a maddening run, and god help me, they keep hitting me with the kitchen sink and I keep scraping past. Also, I absolutely love chapter 11. The earlygame really eases you into the experience, before going "remember all those fun tools you had? Survive without them while we destroy you with your own tactics"

[@xylon7333]

So to randomly answer the xenoblde question, it depends on the game. xc2 has the most relevant break status, where you deal fusion damage if break status is inflicted with a blade combo. as for 1 and 3, not as much, its more a step to topple. i believe it does have some stat implications, but I'm unsure. what it can do tho, is interrupt attacks. inflicting breaks also inflicts a stagger status that can cancel whatever attack the enemy is currently doing. this has various mileage on bosses.

[@ze_darku_magician5504]

In one it's not a huge buff but considering you can basically permanently have it applied it's pretty good, in 2 it's essential if you want to deal damage (not really but it's really broken. Your overall damage increases by like 30-50% as long as you use elemental combos to take full advantage of it), in 3 it literally only staggers the enemy.

[@dylanpeddle6859]

The story in Engage is much simpler then Three House's stories but I still like it. I like the dynamic Alear and Veyle had, Veyle ended up being one of my favourite characters in Engage. I also like the Four Hounds and even liked some stuff about Sombron in the late chapters of the game. I really like Three Houses but I found the gameplay, the map design and the locations you visit I like more in Engage than Three Houses.

[@liamwilson7549]

Lol 3 houses stories aren’t even stories, it’s more like they give you several maps with stuff in it plaster recurring characters onto them and expect you to know wtf is going on. Just compare the Tellius Series or FE7 to 3 houses and the directing differences are night and day. In those older games we have clearer pictures of what the villains are after, their motivations, and frequent updates on what they’re doing. In 3 houses seeing what the villains were doing was a privilege and it was almost entirely a story told from the singular perspective of the professor. Then there’s Echoes, a masterpiece for fire emblem in directing. Obviously the biggest villain stereotypes, but that is what makes fire emblem good. I want the villain to be a big scary buff knight with glowy red eyes ready to devour souls or a dark elf dragon man. 3 houses tried to do this, they almost succeeded with the death knight but it went absolutely no where. Regardless of 3 houses success, it is important not to praise it in its entirety and forsake criticism where it is needed. All fire emblem games have flaws in certain areas.

[@edelgardvonhresvelg3222]

@@liamwilson7549 If you played all three routes, the motivation for all three lords +Rhea and Twsitd are quite obvious. Edelgard wants to dismantle a flawed system, Dimitri wants to seek vengeance for his friends and family, Claude wants to end racism, Rhea wants to resurrect her mother, and Twsitd wants revenge against Sothis. If you couldn't catch that then I don't know what to tell you. And we do get frequent updates in between chapters about what different factions are up to. I will not stand here and pretend fe3h is a perfect game tho, the maps are definitely lacking, Byleth, in all honesty, is a bad protagonist, and the game presentation is on the dull side. I love fe3h but 3 Hopes learns from fe3h's mistakes and improves upon them. In regards to engage, the game takes a simpler route to its story, which isn't bad, it gives time for characters to be developed more and I'm happy that Alear has character growth in this game. Obviously, as an fe3h fan I would have loved to see more nuance in the story, but I don't mind it. To whoever is reading this stay safe and have a nice day!! :D

[@liamwilson7549]

@@edelgardvonhresvelg3222 those are the basic premise for the lords not the villains. Tell me what the villains want in one sentence. 3 hopes isn’t an official fire emblem game, it’s a warriors game. I own it, but I couldn’t bring myself to even finish the game. I will admit however that 3 hopes vastly improves upon the social aspect of fire emblem 3 houses characters and fixes up the missing story elements not shown in 3 houses, but being a warriors game it is exceptionally dull gameplay.

[@edelgardvonhresvelg3222]

@@liamwilson7549 I'm not going to judge your taste in games as we all have different ideas of what makes good gameplay, personally, I love 3 Hope's gameplay but that is just my opinion. In terms of the villains, they are Twsitd, and I gave you the answer already, their motivation is to seek vengeance against Sothis. there its one sentence. idk you are on about

[@liamwilson7549]

@@edelgardvonhresvelg3222 k what did sothis do? We aren’t told diddly squat. The only way to learn about the workings of the story itself is by reading the books in the library within the game. And even then the books themselves are vague. That’s terrible storytelling. The majority of the things I would have liked to see on screen in 3 houses were not there, we had to figure it out with our imagination, like Edelgard’s betrayal. All we knew on blue lions path was that she wanted a world free of religion, we never got any context behind those who slither in the dark, we were forced to play through a different path to fill in the blanks. It’s only after playing all 4 paths (church choice instead of siding with edelgard is 4th route) that the story starts to make some kind of sense, but by that point the story has become so repetitive that you lose interest.

[@meguca201]

Engage is actually so good that it actively makes the gameplay of 3h feel worse by comparison. Imagine needing to use your brain instead of making every unit a wyvern lord or dark flier.

[@renren47618]

I tried playing BE afther cleaning Azure Moon on 3h when i'm too tired to actually think on Engage and man the Monastery is so ass and the gameplay is very eh too Engage it's a way better game than 3h even tho the story is great on 3h

[@alcoholicwater]

As a fan of fire emblem 6 on the gba and older titles I couldn't play through three houses with its mandatory social hub stuff just let me go map to map and now I'm going through hours of engage enjoying this gameplay no more school

[@Megajmaster1000]

You can literally skip the monetary and go straight to the maps. There's an option in the game to do so

[@lagspike7763]

Great video! I'm surprised you didn't compare it more to Awakening or Fates because Engage honestly feels like it IS just Conquest 2 in its design philosophy.

[@Bicken]

I'm gonna be real, I was getting more sacred stones vibes than fates

[@lagspike7763]

@@Bicken Really? I feel like this "make a dogshit story but add a ton of mechanics hat make the game a ton of fun" reeks of fates

[@TheUltimaGhost]

@@lagspike7763 Story isn't as dogshit as Fates. It doesn't try to be deep and it's only one route and not 3 godawful ones

[@lagspike7763]

@@TheUltimaGhost Yeah but it's not much better than fates. I just think the ideas in how the game is made to be played are very reminiscent of CQ and Rev. A lot of stat stacking, a lot of positional awarenes, and a lot of game knowledge requirements

[@misoginugget715]

Personally I like the story but I think it would be much better if it doesnt feel rushed. for example when a key character dies in the story, it doesnt have any impact on me because I just met that person like 2 chapters ago and now they are dead.

[@moonmelons]

Honestly one of my main problems with the engage story is that not just once, but TWICE the game writes itself into a corner piling on the doom and gloom and hopelessness of the situation before realizing they have written themselves into a corner and the protagonist manages to get themselves out of the corner by... honestly just the main antagonist fucking off and letting the hero's survive for no real reason? It's really stupid and each time it introduces plot elements that make no sense given the story before it.

[@DietersYT]

If you’re complaining about the story…there are these things called books you should check out. Gameplay 10/10

[@knarrow0222]

I heavily disagree about the story and the characters. I will say that yeah Engage's story is not on par with Three Houses but it's good enough and certainly not as bad as some people make it out to be. In fact I feel this story has simular vibes with Awakening in terms of story which I like. \ The characters on the other hand I really like. IMO, These are some of the best characters I have seen since Awakening. Three Houses characters are good, but I persoanlly didn't find them memorable compared to Engage's characters.

[@RattlesnakeTequila]

gameplay is so good cant stop playing it

[@neil5458]

Same

[@ODUBlue]

Yep, same here too

[@mylespiper5561]

I actually came to fire emblem from three houses and was disappointed to learn how bland the story was, but I actually adore this game and even slightly hold it above three houses, and learned to love the actual gameplay of Fire Emblem, which wasn’t really there in three houses.

[@renren47618]

Try playing Path of Radiance Good maps and story

[@trainerred1345]

I play JRPGs for the Story which is why i Loved Three Houses more than this game, but that doesn't mean this game is bad. That being said they decided to focus heavily on gameplay instead of story in this game....and because of that i found myself falling asleep for about the first 30 to 40 hours. The later story is fine, but still nowhere near as good as 3H. If you're more into gameplay unlike me then you might enjoy this, but if you prefer story more than gameplay like Me then you might be disappointed. I give this game a 7/10. It's not Mid, but it's a step above Mid.

[@ultimateqmazing2537]

In xenoblade break can be used as a really good interrupt. It sets you up for the smash or burst combo. But the initial moment it's applied it interuppts any attacks the enemy is doing.

[@paperluigi6132]

I think the problem most people have with Engage’s story is that some of them feel like they HAVE to compare it to previous entries. Dude, almost every game is standalone. A fair comparison is FE1/11 to FE3/12, since the latter is a direct sequel to the former. Another valid pair is Three Houses and Three Hopes, since the latter is timeline’s drastically different from the ones in the former. Comparing Sacred Stones to something like Fates is stupid, since they’re two completely separate universes. Comparing the quality of the writing is ok, but the writing itself isn’t fair. Also, they’re taking the game WAY too seriously for what it is.

[@auraguard0212]

Leif's whole thing is all of the broken stuff from Thracia, except for Capture; imagine if Lief had Genealogy's Vantage-Wrath combo, though.

[@nathankeel6667]

Engage is truly a anniversary game it feels like it's fe at its strongest amazing gameplay with hard mode feeling like a good base difficulty not difficult but still a challenge you can't brain dead threw and the story is classic fe teir not amazing but not bad and has alot strong individual moments my only grip is the charchters are weak their are some good ones and a few who's quirks I enjoy but I'm mostly attached to charchters threw game play witch is a good thing but in a post por game I feel like it should have both but 1 minor issue is not enoph to largely hurt the game

[@dionysuswinecult1495]

one of the things i think is a bit underrated in engage is the animations. first off it really brought back a feel of the gba games with new over the top animations that we haven’t seen since the switch to 3d. and one of my favorite things is the switch from gauntlets to arts. in 3h the gauntlets just didn’t make sense because they were supposed to be these quick double attacking weapons but the models were clunky metal claws whereas in engage they’re just scrolls representing different types of martial arts allowing for the units to do cool punches and kicks.

[@tierlis422]

I think I'm warming up more to the game. The biggest mistake I made was jumping straight into Maddening on first playthrough. Since I was learning stuff about the game, it was easier to fall behind and made the game absurdly hard. I played all the way up to Chapter 13 as if it were classic and then took Maddening to Chapter 17 where I finally had to drop the difficulty.

[@jaredkhan8743]

Idk what difficulty u played it on, but I can confidently say this games maddening mode is the most well designed and meticulously crafted mode of Fe I've played. Every unit is intentional with 10000 strategies to beat it, and it kicks ur ass from chapter 1 to endgame. I'm near the end but not completely finished, and unlike other hardest modes that kind of got easier at the end cuz my units were jacked, this one requires strategy through the end.

[@okazakikun1]

only problem i got with the game is the terrible "translation" of the game in US version. like im playing with jp voice and english text from what they say in jp are often completely different from what is in text and i also have it auto move through text and there are some random pauses cause the jp litterally says one or two words but the text has like a sentence or 2 and the character doesnt even say it later. and adds puns and jokes that are not there and the character has yet to ever make a pun or joke in jp voice its just in the english text.

[@khlimmave8583]

I noticed this too! Playing with german subs, but japanese voice and watching japanese LPs - the overboard goofyness for most of the scenes is a western-translation problem, not a original design problem. like, excuse me, but why did they have to make a normal "thank you" into "but this is picturesque, thank you very much!" like, not every character (even if said character looks like an anime character) needs a fckn overthetop cachphrase.

[@renren47618]

Threehouse needs to be fired, FE really needs a new translation team Since Fates they do this shit when they are able to, Three Houses and Echoes were good i think but man we shouldn't rely on a translation team that randomly changes the original source for the sake of making it more familly friendly or to avoid "problematic" shit(I'm not talking about that bs with Anna and Jean, that shouldn't even be in the game to begin with, i'm speaking with the dialogue they changed with Louis) And since Fates they also make the dialogue even more animey and over the top than the actually Japanese one and they actively make the script more cringe with this unfortunately (and i'm not even an "anime hater" i'm one of the people that love Fates and Engage desing and even characters)

[@mangodude2663]

Slap Sigurd on a General and let it destroy the whole map :D

[@RockmanX47]

The story of Engage is very much like a Japanese Tokusatsu (Kamen Rider, Sentai, Ultraman, etc) where it does have something to say storywise but that's the secondary reason you're in. The first reason and the hook is that you wanted to see men in tight suits punch and kick each other with the assistance of bad CG or exaggerated visual effects but in this case, it's because you wanted more Fire Emblem gameplay and by jove you're getting it.

[@snapfrostzz9946]

This is honestly the one of the best strategy rpg games I’ve ever played , I always wondered how they would top fire emblem 3 houses but they sure enough topped it hands down

[@dragonpopy138]

I've always been curious about Fire Emblem, and Three Houses was my entry point to the series. I played it, beat it, and enjoyed it. The customization was nice, the characters were enjoyable, and beating the maps felt... good. The story was, of course, really good, but everyone who's played Three Houses knows that. Now, why am I bringing this up... at all? It's because I want to promote engagement, all hail the algorithm, and because I found Engage to excel at gameplay especially. The ability to customize all of your characters with one ability from a ring because Canter is taking up the other spot is really nice, the characters you find are fun if not super deep, and the maps felt amazing. This game had me taken aback at how much harder it is than Three Houses, and I enjoyed it far more than I probably should have. That being said... the time crystal. The divine pulse. The turn wheel. Whatever your name for it is, I can't help but personally like it. I know that not many people do, but it feels like it lets you experiment with your characters, your emblems, and every part of the toolkit so much more than if the game didn't have it. Again, I came from Three Houses, so maybe it's just a factor of I'm not used to playing without. But I think it's a nice QoL feature that just makes the game more enjoyable and lets you experiment more.

[@icecreamorc]

I've been playing FE since POR and figured Engage was going to be a cake walk, Hard kicked my teeth in. Loved it.

[@wargodest]

Fr this is the first time hard actually feels like the right description for that gameplay mode

[@ithydoodles]

With the fun I'm having, I'd have to say yes.

[@DarknessDpa]

I am only on Ch 16 myself atm and my only complaint that I technically have is only just how the Skirmishes are and yes I know you can go through the game without doing them. I just mainly dislike how they scale to one's level and because of so leads to a rabbit hole of problems for me which involve all the enemies coming at you all at once and grinding on gold units since they don't look like they give good enough money in exchange for your time. Otherwise I like everything else about the game thus far and I do like the story enough because it's a simple goal and adventure. Three Houses had a nice story but it also seemed to try and do too much at once and that made it feel too weird for me even tho I played all routes.

[@evanherynk5863]

I am very pleased by the gameplay. It really does feel like a return to form. Like since Radiant Dawn return to form. Alear, design aside, is much more palatable than I thought they'd be. Turns out I needed this game and didn't want to admit it because some of the characters looked goofy. Blind maddening has been a blast.

[@charmishing]

Oddly enough, the character and story were what I loved about three houses but I can’t help but love engage for the gameplay.

[@Ultimabuster92]

The character writing in Three Houses was phenomenal, but i get people who say that the gameplay was bland. Who stopped me from turning all of my units into Wyvern Riders and steamroll the game? nothing and it became boring. The gameplay in Engage is very... well, engaging xD and charming. But i wouldn't say the Engage characters are bad. Some of them REALLY get on my nerves like Alcryst for example, hate that guy, but some of them are really lovable too

[@charmishing]

@@Ultimabuster92 you could do that in this game too aside from male units it’d just take effort. I liked the combat of three houses a lot but engage’s is better in every way. Engage’s characters aren’t bad but three houses has deeper supports for the most part. You get deep into the characters and those interactions reflect the themes in three houses

[@SeraSeraYT]

Engage's story is like the classic fire emblem games, basic but good enough. It shines the most with the gameplay. The break system alone changes how you deal with weapon triangle and it gives birth to several layers of strategy. Just a very good game overall paying homage to it's predecessors.

[@meowblaziken5634]

as a veteran casual player myself who been sticking to FE since GBA vers, the story pretty much fine. They followed the old school generic MC like in their prev past games and keeping those light-hearted feelings and positivity. Only 3H are totally diff vibe, its like a completely diff game experience for me, but i like them both regardless.

[@minebloxgeust5906]

2:20 break interrupts the attack of the enemy mid animation, yeah its kinda weak but hey it's cool i guess

[@sakutaro3musik486]

i love this game, I hope the next FE has as engaging gameplay but more of a serious tone like FE4 or 3 houses

[@DomsGameRoom]

I would say it’s actually pretty good, im not finding it too easy at all, i played on hard and if I wasn’t on casual mode I’d be fucking demolished, this shit is so hard lol. The story is okay and makes sense, im only kind of invested but I enjoy it, and it really feels like a mix between awakening and path of radiance for me, with the old school heart

[@Arutima]

Yes, it,s very good gameplay wise. But the story is basically a very vanilla Fire Emblem story. Bad guys appear, dragons are revived, group of misfits saving the day.

[@ThetaWindfall]

Yeah, I was getting the feeling that it was going to be real breezy, then chapter 11 happened and I was like "Oh, I see, thats how it is"

[@CobaltLotus]

Not gonna watch the video, because we all know the answer: **Yes. It's amazing.**

[@achilleaszigouris6926]

Interestingly enough I got into the series with 3 houses but I love this game just as much if not more. Sure the story is meh but the gameplay more than makes up for it.

[@PlasmaWisp100]

I’ve noticed a lot lately with my RPG’s that I’ve been REALLY enjoying the gameplay of them, but a lot of the stories have been falling short. Maybe I’ve played *too* many of them, maybe I’m getting old? Lol

[@Ultimabuster92]

The story is not as bad as it starts out. The characters are, for my taste, too quirky (Framme or Alcryst) or too one dimensional (Celine or Etie who only talk about tea and muscles) sometimes. But there are characters that i really like aswell like Louis, Lapis or Yunaka. It's not NEARLY as bad as i initially thought. I'd even say, that i really started to like this game over the hours

[@Ralizah]

I'm enjoying Engage quite a bit. I don't actually need the story to be good. Just... not painfully bad like it was in Fates. The tactical aspects and presentation are phenomenal, though, and a huge step up from Three Houses, even if I still prefer that game overall for its tremendous cast and memorable structure. Nice shout-out to Triangle Strategy, by the way, which is probably the best SRPG I've ever played. It really blew me away last year, to the point where I played it multiple times, which I almost never do in such short succession. It has the balance of story, map design, and tactical gameplay I've wished Fire Emblem had for years.

[@thoughtprism2963]

MAJOR SPOILERS if they actually had the balls to make the Divine Dragon unplayable as a unit when they turned into an emblem, that would have been a pretty unique touch, but alas.

[@theonesithtorulethemall]

I lovw how everyone things that 1. Alears Design is bad becours of the collors, and thats the chosen artists foult 2. Knows the collors are for Story reasons 3. Thinks alear looks good in 1 collor only Have they ever considert that alear Was desighnt eith 1 collor, but was changed for Story reasons and the hair isnt supossed to look thta grest mixed????

[@tomo8940]

Sure if you think Fire Emblem Heros is an absolute blast

[@RaidenKaiser]

Its a good game. doesnt hold a candle to what its trying to emulate but its good enough i still recommend it. Its a heavily flawed but fun experience.

[@Ian-es3ec]

Guess I can get this game for my birthday

[@johnclopez96]

I think people expect fire emblem engage to be like three houses which is not true fire emblem three houses focus on the three lords so they have to focus on the story and character while the graphics and animation is really bad while fire emblem engage they focus more on the emblems aka the gameplay if they were market that fire emblem engage will have deeper story then yeah I agree they did a really shitting job but that not what they focus to me since I prefer gameplay is a awesome wayyy better then three hours and the story I think there okay in my book so yeah I agree with this

[@coreymartin5981]

The biggest problem for is not of the boring and predictable story........its that the dialogue is awful all the way through for everybody AND that the characters are severely lacking of personality. You could swap out almost all the dialogue with other characters and nothing would seem amiss. The community hubs also lack charm and "life". I can't invest 20+ hours in a game like this with the only good thing is the combat. I tried and quit multiple times.

[@depressoespresso9748]

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Engage’s story feeling like a DnD campaign

[@darakkuunobelu7584]

Say no more. I was contemplating about doing playthough of Three Houses, If/Fates or Engage (never fully cleared previous two), but you helped me with decision. Engage it is.

[@2265Hello]

Honestly I enjoy the difficulty of the game (though it will be reduced as people learn more strats with what you are capable of and people learn how to abuse the ai)

[@stellarispantheon1063]

Barely related but I believe “Break” in Xenoblade interrupts the afflicted characters’ actions. It’s almost never relevant, but it does do more than set up for topple.

[@Leon_ISF]

to be honest i got in to fire emblem with three houses and i can still say engage is worth it (just my opinion)

[@DisasterLord]

Nice Dorte

[@tbyhmes1184]

Story was ok its a very subjective area to critique the game at. Fun gameplay tho.

[@CountArtorias]

I enjoyed the game a lot, it was very solid. However it really does feel like the story could’ve used more creativity, it was fairly generic and not risk taking

[@liamwilson7549]

Terrible aesthetics, great gameplay. I would say it’s a mixed bag like every fire emblem. I will say it’s the most grindy out of all of them, somehow even more grindy than 3 houses. I have gripes with how they handled the emblem bonding conversations, and the somniel is way way waaaaay too repetitive. It is still missing the dungeon exploration we had in fire emblem echoes and the immersive tower climb from Sacred Stones (technically the tempest trial is that but it has no risks involved with it and the loot you get is minimal). Don’t worry ladies and gents the next fire emblem will buff out those scratches. All this taken into consideration, I still believe it is the best fire emblem we’ve gotten yet mechanically. I really appreciate hearing the remastered remix of the other game themes from the franchise. I also thought it was really cool to see the retro games and GBA maps turned into 3D worlds. Really gave me hope for the future. If they get a budget on par with legend of Zelda we may get something truly wonderful one day for fire emblem.

[@Manavine]

I think break lowers damage in xenoblade by like 5-15% I think? 25% tops. Of course, when it's literally a step away from *"you literally do fuck all",* it really provides nothing valuable.

[@cristoph474]

I genuinely despise the graphical design, tbh. Pikazo can do much better than this Colgate sponsorship, so from the visual perspective, it's highly disappointing. That being said, it's only the visual side. It is good to see a review by someone with similar tastes of Fire Emblem as me, though. Definitely gonna try to play the game.

[@seifeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee]

I like FE engage and this is coming from an old school player fromthe gba games. The character's designs are not my cup of tea by is not really a big deal, the battles are challenging and the ring mechanics are fun that allows to try different combos and strategies. This game is a really nice mix between the classic and the newer games. The only thing that i would remove from this game are the stupid ass donations that I though were useful and made me reset the game early on cuz i was so broke thst i couldn't buy seals or heals. Really bad design when the gold is so limited until you turn Anna into a gold farming character.

[@joshuabattaglia9578]

Work at your pace. Content takes time. Quality > Quantity.

[@badlatency9979]

I would argue, the story is actually good. Hear me out. Is it a basic, simple plotline more or less ripped from Awakening without the time travel eugenics nonsense mixed with Shonen anime? Yes. However that doesn't make it bad storytelling, that just means it's not complex storytelling. It's story, on it's face, will still entertain, and that's the point of a story. It's a fun adventure with over the top characters and that's all it tries to be. Fates was a bad story, promising to be a grand epic of moral grays and choice and then ending up being just....empty and soulless and often nonsensical. Engage isn't that, it's worst story moment can be excused to...well, much like Awakening but far less severe...time manipulation shenanigans.

[@Zarathustra-rj4yz]

FE Engage is peak game design

[@lilbirdmuse8938]

Gameplay: great Story: laughably bad Character design: meh~ for every 1 I like, I hate 3. Marth saying “let’s engage!” right at the start almost made me turn the game off.

[@rockowlgamer631]

gameplay wise yes its good, story wise? FAR FROM IT Hell Fire Emblem Fates had a better story premise than what Engage has (even though it was screwed over)

[@Bicken]

Honestly, Fates having a better premise hurts it overall more for me, since all I can really see with that game's story is wasted potential.

[@rockowlgamer631]

@@Bicken That's what I meant, great premise of the main character having to choose either side or later on choosing to fight the reall villain pitting them against each other

[@richterbellassi]

Yea. This vidyo games is gud

[@hopeestheim7285]

FE Engage more like FE Engage: Vtuber Edition

[@knaz7468]

Agree. Fights are super fun. Making a final team of OP dudes with a perfect set of skills is wonderful. The plot and writing is so gawd awful ... by Chapter 21 I wanted to dig my ears out of my head with a dull spoon. So bad. Like, a junior high advanced English student could write better than this crap. I dislike almost all of the characters and just don't care about them. But the strategy is perfect, so good enough for me.

[@marcusclark1339]

in short no - liking for one element of gameplay doesn't make it good, at best its ok but anything not combat suffers immensely its very much a hold over game to skip if u have patience to wait for the next big game

[@cartergreen2309]

Mine is more it's alright. Good combat doesn't make up for bad writing, story, characters and design among other things. It's enough to make it okay. But in my opinion, and obviously some people don't agree, even if it's Fire Emblem more than the combat matters and this game is well below average in every other aspect.

[@takarahayashi4124]

Also, ignore the characters as much as possible, cause the cringe they bring can induce vomit.

[@Geozone117]

It's always been good. Dudes a clown.