Fire Emblem Engage has been out for one week now and it is fair to say that we loved it (it did get a 9/10 in our review, after all). While many of us who like to have our games in boxes found no issues with getting our hands on the physical edition, it seems that the popular demand of the title meant that not everyone has been quite as lucky, including the game's lead voice actor.
Brandon McInnis voices the male version of Alear ('The Divine Dragon') in Engage. If you have played the game already or indeed watched anything from the massive pile of promotion that came in the run up to its release, then you will know that this is a pretty big part. The biggest part (if you play with a male protagonist) in fact. Yet the actor recently took to Twitter to share his difficulties in getting his hands on the game's special 'Divine Edition' come release date.
As explained in the above thread, McInnis had his special edition preordered from his local GameStop, but supply issues meant that the store had fewer copies than it was told. This meant that many eager Engagers had their preorders cancelled at the final hurdle, including those who worked on the game, it seems.
Of course, the actor's role in the game should give him no more privilege in the preorder race than anybody else. McInnis went on to explain in his replies that the he didn't pull the "Do You Know Who I Am?" card at any point and remained polite and respectful to the employees in what was bound to be a difficult period of customer exchanges (good move, Brandon)!
Fortunately, this is a story with a happy ending. While the VA did have to get a digital version of the game to get playing as quickly as possible, he was eventually able to source his prized Divine Edition from an eBay seller (all's well that ends well, hey). In many cases this would seem like a fair amount of work — the game is fantastic in all forms, after all — but for this instance we have to agree with Alear himself. That Divine Edition really is a beauty!
All this goes to show that getting your hands on a limited edition physical is always going to be a tough one, even if you are the game's star!