Topic: Fire Emblem Engage for Nintendo Switch

@TowaHerschel7 It'll change romance options in games that have those, as well as affect very minor changes to some dialogues, depending on the propensities of the character you're talking to. There's one character in Three Houses that's a bit of a playboy and way easier to recruit to another house if you're playing as fem Byleth.

Otherwise, it's mostly just aesthetic.

@TowaHerschel7
Superficial. At least in this game. In past games it could affect who you had children with, but that's not a mechanic in Engage.

2nd playthroughs for this will be with different difficulty settings and changing classic/casual permadeath, and using different units in battle since the game gives you way more characters than you can take into any given battle. Usually you use your 12 favorites and ignore the rest.

@Ralizah
I don't know. I think they're special but given they're available early game I don't imagine they'll be too powerful. Probably better than iron, maybe on par with steel or, iron might with special buffs. But that's just a guess.

I also fired up Heroes and it's a lot to take in, but keep in mind that's the whole game. The appeal is min maxing units and stuff, so having a lot of menu options is part of the gameplay. But ya, that's just a mobile thing. Keep the player's attention with overload of options and modes.

Should we be nervous it is less than four days until the release and the review embargo still hasn't lifted yet?

@Pizzamorg embargoes normally get lifted on a Tuesday at 2pm UK time for a Friday release. Click on the site at 2.01 and the review should be up.

That is true. With Scarlet and Violet the review embargo lifted late, but the performance issues were well documented in the previews, so Nintendo don't appear to be trying to hide anything. And like you say Engage has had a really strong preview circuit.

Oh is that the rule? I seem to remember SMT V was weeks before its release when the reviews dropped on that. I guess that was the exception rather than the rule. Thanks for the heads up.

@Pizzamorg Only for Nintendo releases though. SMTV was a Sega release in America (and Nintendo in Europe for some reason) which probably explains why it's review was out earlier.

Ah that would make sense then. Good to know for future, thank you. Feel like I've been conditioned over the last few years to always expect the worst when a review drops like a day or two before a release. Happy to note this is (probably) not a red flag.

If anyone is interested to know who the remaining DLC emblems will be, the characters were datamined:

There's also word coming out of the same Discord as the leaks about the game, and it is being said the game is actually quite difficult on Hard Mode. So anyone who was expecting an easier-than-usual game and was planning to start with Hard Mode... just don't do so lightly. Though I suppose with the 10 rewinds and the fact you can always lower the difficulty (though you cannot raise it), and the fact you're given the option to keep EXP earned on a Game Over and retry, there's not much risk with choosing Hard Mode out the gate.

@JaxonH Thanks for that info! Three Houses on normal difficulty was definitely way too easy for me. I’ll probably still start this one out on hard mode just to get more of a challenge, but the fact that you can lower it is good.

@StarPoint
When I first played Awakening I did it on Normal Casual, being my first foray into the series and all. And while I did find it rather easy for the most part given character deaths weren't permanent (meaning the only way to truly lose was if Chrom or Robin died, or the whole team wiped), I still found it utterly engrossing and captivating. Nintendo games are really good at that- even when they lack challenge, they're still so fun and addicting to play!

I later realized permadeath added soooo much to the experience as it provided a certain weight to your actions, knowing there were consequences. The problem for me was, I got so attached to my characters I couldn't stand losing a single one of them, especially with the support conversations they could unlock. Thus, the only course of action in a death is to reset, which can get frustrating if you've spent 40 min on a map.

That's why the rewind feature was so revolutionary to me. It allows one to boldly embrace permadeath and the amazing weight of potential consequence it brings, without having to worry about getting screwed by RNG or even just poor strategy in general. Since a death would be a reset anyways, simply rewinding accomplishes the same thing without the repetition and frustration. Of course, this means rewinds need to be limited, otherwise it's basically just casual mode in disguise.

Engage Normal mode will have infinite rewinds, so there's no reason not to choose Classic mode with permadeath. Better to rewind, learn from and fix your mistake than be give a free pass as it is in Casual Mode.

But Hard and Maddening limit rewinds to just 10 per map. Which may sound like a lot, and I guess it kind of is, but they can go quick in later maps. I remember using 4 or 5 of them in a Three Houses map, and that was on Normal. Oftentimes poor strategy in the beginning sets you up to fail on multiple fronts later in the map, so unless you're rewinding multiple turns to solve the root cause, it's easy to blast through those rewinds using them as immediate band aides.

While I'm in this thread (Before I bow out in a few days when the game releases), I should mention I intend to start Three Houses before too long. However, I doubt I'll play through every route. I intentionally don't know a lot about the game, but is there any route that gives the player the most comprehensive version of the plot and various goings-on? At face value, I'm leaning towards the Blue Lions route.

@JaxonH Can't say I'm surprised that there's an English translation patch considering that I was aware that older FEs from the Famicom and Super Famicom are also patched. I'll be honest, I prefer to game using native carts/hardware when possible, but some companies - ESPECIALLY the Big N - make that very hard sometimes. Freaky, didn't know Casual Mode originated with New Mystery of the Emblem; I always thought that was introduced with Awakening. Which I suppose is true for outside of Japan.

Honestly, I'm surprised NMotE was never localized. I wonder if it had something to do with Shadow Dragon's reception? I owned a used cart of the latter once, the game was good but definitely difficult. Easy to tell that it was originally from the earlier days of console gaming. I sorta regret selling it, but I didn't ever see myself playing it again either.

@Ralizah I unfortunately guess the same. As mentioned earlier in this post, emulation in some cases like unlocalized FE titles is becoming more tempting....

@Tyranexx Golden Deer is probably the most comprehensive route plot-wise. Although also the most... detached from the drama of the second half of the game as well, in some respects.

https://nintendoeverything.com/fire-emblem-engage-rom-leaks-o...

Looks like yet another release will be enjoyed early by pirates, lol. Nintendo really needs to address this next gen. Literally of their big games leaks pre-release now.

Some interesting claims from the article:

"It turns out that the game is built with the Unity engine, which is something that most probably wouldn’t have guessed. To compare, Fire Emblem: Three Houses was developed with the Dynasty Warriors engine."

"Fire Emblem Engage was made entirely by Intelligent Systems. The studio did help out with Three Houses as well, but Koei Tecmo did most of the actual core development. Koei Tecmo wasn’t involved with Engage, so it makes sense for there to be an engine switch."

It sounds like the claim that Gust was involved with the production of the game might be false, then. It's interesting, though, because the look of the game, frankly, is exactly what I would expect if Gust had been involved with with its development. The bright colors, strong animation work, and moe-looking characters scream Atelier to me. Huh.

@Ralizah
Who can say. They may have had input or help in the backend we'll never know about from Gust, just like that secret studio everyone hires that never gets credited and is responsible for working on half the Switch 1st party lineup. Could have been in the contract to be not credited. And wouldn't surprise me given their work with KT for Three Houses and the leak that did prove true in all other respects.

@Tyranexx
I would say do Blue Lions, and after that Black Eagles. No one route is the "true route" or "golden route". They're all equally canon. I've done Black Eagles and am a few chapters away from finishing Blue Lions. And I think I like Blue Lions best. Though Black Eagles was good too, don't get me wrong. But Idk, this one just hits me harder I think. You won't have the full picture til you play all of them though.

As for emulation, my rule is this: if it's a JP only game that has a fan translation, you have no other option. I emulate those with the pledge that if the day comes they ever localize or remake it and release in the west, I'll buy it. Until then, no harm no foul. As for games that have released in the west, I only do so for games I have purchased and am simply using emulation for convenience's sake.

Everyone has their own view and stance. Some are hardline against it no matter what (a bit unreasonable of a position imo) and some are full tilt in favor of piracy (definitely unreasonable imo)- usually those people do some mental gymnastics to justify it by convincing themselves the company is "evil" and therefore its "ok", or accuse the platform manufacturer of keeping a "walled garden" and therefore it's "ok", as if consoles should be open platforms like PC and only due to Nintendo's "evil greed" is it a closed ecosystem... lot of PC fanboys use that logic anyways.

But I find a more nuanced stance is in order. If you genuinely buy when you have the opportunity, you've done your duty to support it as best you can. If the game isn't localized, pledge to buy it if it ever releases, even if the price tag is higher than you'd like- thats the cost of playing the game before its being sold to you.

I just wanted to ask people's opinion on the DLC. Are many of you planning to grab it?
I'm a bit on the fence at the moment as I haven't seen too much info on what the later DLC releases will add to the title.

*Edit: This posted twice so I deleted the duplicate

Like with a lot of Nintendo's DLC for some reason, it seems like it has a bunch of pay to win crap and not a lot of real substance. I guess if you want the game to be as easy as possible this might be worth a grab. I'm going to play through the game as intended once and then depending on if I enjoy it, feel I want to play again and feel I may need a boost to push through those early hours I'll pick up the DLC then. We've got time, as at least on the Nintendo store they have it that the last of the pass comes out in December of this year?

yeah booooooy

seems like the only less positive reviews are people wanted a persona like game like Three Houses again, and I thought that was the worst part of the game for me.

Holy cow, there are positive reviews everywhere! Even Polygon really enjoyed it. I'm actually kind of surprised at how much positive reception it's getting.

I really didn't have a doubt to be honest. Does anyone know how long the game is on avg? I haven't read the review yet, just peaked at the score, so ill read it later.

How exciting! This and chained echoes will keep me busy on switch for a while. And if not, I still have shadows and conquest waiting for me 😉.

The reviews are saying what I want to hear in that it's a bloody good SRPG. I do find it odd that the most anime looking Fire Emblem game doesn't seem to have the waifu face rubbing and children breeding parts from the last few.

I look forward to playing in this in a few months time once I'm finished with Bayonetta, Mario + Rabbids and Persona.