Topic: Fire Emblem Engage for Nintendo Switch

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika I will... In a few weeks time...

Oh yeah one other praise for the story which I forgot to include on the other page is I just way prefer protagonists that have a voice. I know people don't, and that is fine, but I always find it so strange when the protagonist is the one person who doesn't speak in an otherwise fully voiced game, and in Three Houses for example, I think it created some unintentional comedy during some exchanges and caused what were probably supposed to be big moments to just kinda whiff for me. I still do wish Engage had dialogue options (although I know that can also rub people the wrong way with a voiced protag when they maybe say a line of dialogue differently to how you read the intent of the choice or whatever), but I think I actually prefer a voiced protag with no player choice, over having dialogue options but a completely silent protag. Alear gets to feel like an actual character, rather than just some weird player conduit.

@Kermit1
If it's your first FE, definitely play on Normal difficulty. Especially for this game, which has the most challenging Hard Mode since Fates Conquest.

As for choosing Classic or Casual (permadeath on or no permadeath), I actually strongly recommend going Classic for permadeath, and here's why. This game has turn rewinds, and you get unlimited uses on Normal. So there's not any real threat of having to reset and restart a map. This will lead you to rewind time and correct your mistakes rather than just brute force your way through the game knowing mistakes have no real consequence.

So I'm a little confused, I scanned my Byleth amiibo at the Gazebo thinking that I was going to get the Fodlan Winds track and Byleth's outfit. But instead, it just gave me a clothing and music ticket. Do I need to be at a certain level or chapter in the story to unlock the outfit and music?

@StarPoint When you can use an Emblem ingame, you can unlock their respective outfit and music provided you have the right ticket. So once you can use Byleth ingame, you can get their outfit and music. Be careful what you spend your tickets on because rescanning an amiibo on any future day will give you a Relay Ticket instead. There’s 13 Fire Emblem amiibo:

• Marth (Smash)
• Tiki (FE)
• Alm (FE)
• Celica (FE)
• Roy (Smash)
• Ike (Smash)
• Robin (Smash)
• Lucina (Smash)
• Chrom (Smash)
• Chrom (FE)
• Corrin 1 (Smash)
• Corrin 2 (Smash)
• Byleth (Smash)

You need 12 of them to unlock all the music and clothing.

@Grumblevolcano ahh, that makes sense. Thanks.

@JaxonH I really can't tell you how much you've helped me with your comment, I was going to reply sooner, but I was too busy playing XD
You really made me rethink how I've been playing and to use the high level/higher class characters to chip away at the enemies and the lower ones to grab the kill, it's been so helpful and everyone is so much more even (well as even as I can get them, some characters I bring with the best of intentions and they just don't see much action)

With what you said about growth, I played it safe and just waited to max level to promote, just so I can fulfil the stats in the previous class just in case the newer one doesn't provide as much in certain areas and it hasn't failed me yet, but I'm playing normal no permadeath though so take what I say with a grain of salt, I'm a filthy casual, and the bane of old FE fans. :S

Also I think that's a few times you've helped me on forums now, I really appreciate it! ^-^

Amazon had this for $4 off MSRP for some reason, so I broke and ordered it. Not like I won't enjoy it.

Won't be here for a week or so, but I'm pretty deep into other games at the moment anyway.

@Ralizah
Fire Emblem playthroughs can take weeks so you'll be playing alongside most of us. Well... at least me, anyways. I'm slow. I like to soak it up and savor it slowly.

@Nanami_Ataraxi
Oh good! Glad to be able to help. Truthfully I don't even know if I'm going to wait to promote or not. I may google the class for growth rates at Level 10 and see which is better.

Other strategies to keep in mind is always leveraging weapon triangle weaknesses for Breaks. It's so crucial in this game. Maybe less so on Normal but still. And archers can one shot fliers in most cases. Also pay attention to unit sub-class (Qi Adept can chain guard, Backup can chain attack, Covert gets double terrain bonuses, etc), also fliers ignore terrain bonuses btw, in case you didn't know.

Also, remember any character can bond with any emblem, even if they're not equipped on that character (just go to Arena to deepen bonds with Emblems). If you hit Level 5 with an Emblem you unlock skill inheritance, which means you can go into the Ring Vault and spend SP to inherit skills from that Emblem.

I'm making it a point to get as many characters bonded with Sigurd as possible, so that I can buy the Canter skill with SP to inherit it. It's such a strong skill, being able to move 2 squares after attacking. If you have the expansion pass you could do likewise with Edelgard which has a skill that boosts EXP earned.

I am now on Chapter 12 I think, I am unlocking a lot of skirmishes but for some reason they are massively far ahead than the story missions are (story missions recommending base units between 15 - 20, while some of the Skirmishes are Advance 4? Really confused how you are meant to pull falling behind units up. The AI, at least on normal, basically has no intelligence, they just work like sharks to blood in water, so if I put in a low level unit into the mix, every enemy on the map will run past every other unit of mine to kamikaze into that low level unit and take them immediately off the board.

I don't trust putting them in during story missions either, in case I have a very specific objective to complete and so I want my best out there. And sure there is the arena, but you can only do it three times a visit and you aren't getting much XP return.

I mean I guess I did moan about being overwhelmed with units, but I wish this took the Midnight Suns approach of having all units be given a baseline level that scales off of the protag, because now, thanks to a lack of similar protections here, I have a handful of units that are now so far behind there is seemingly no salvaging them. I am kinda glad I am not playing on classic, because if I lost the small group of regulars, I think my playthrough would be over as the reserves are cartoonishly behind. That is unless I am missing something here.

Just need to stress how tragically poor the bond events are in this game. When Fire Emblem Warriors has better writing and deeper characterization that’s a problem.

Yeah they are just... Nothing. Each character has one note and one hyper fixation and that's it, so every new support level is two people exchanging one sentence of dialogue each and that's it. And it never gets any deeper even as you get to A ranks. It's just "can I have some tea?" "Only if I can feel your muscles!" Over and over again. Like I thought anything would be a step up from the weirdness of Midnight Suns, but I'm actually missing the chance to go birdwatching with Blade as we talk about our feelings. At least it has some substance.

Something else I miss from 3H — characterization and story aside — is that voice announcing each chapter. Here, it’s silent and completely anticlimactic.

@scoobdoo
We're lucky they even have bond lines at all. I read a report that shows this game has an insane amount of support interactions between all the characters, not to mention the 6 different wake up animations for each character, not to mention emblems have different lines with different characters. It's a problem exponential proportions. The amount of interactions is truly staggering, so it makes sense the less important ones are just a line. Besides which, I think they didn't want the Emblems outshining the main cast.

Lol I freaking love the characters in this game so much 😂

I know I keep repeating myself, but I just can't help it. This game is SO. FREAKING. GOOD.

This Divine Paralogue map for Tiki that came in the expansion pass is the stuff of legends. Especially on Hard Classic. There's like 40 enemies on this map! It feels so intimidating and impossible, especially needing to Warp Ragnarok outside the castle to nab the Silver Card, and I don't have a Warp or Rescue staff to use in conjunction to ensure Celine can get back inside afterward. So I'll need to wait til I've cleared most of the map, then Warp Ragnarok outside, and just make due without her against the boss.

And there it is... that feeling again. I'm enjoying this game so much I had to take a short break mid-battle to post here, ya know, crank the valve open and release some pressure from too much excitement.

This is the best Fire Emblem I've ever played. Bar none, no contest, it's simply the best.

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika If you have any interest in the 3DS games, pick those instead. Given there’s still a bunch of Japan exclusive FE games, the 3DS games probably won’t come to a current Nintendo platform until the Switch 3 meanwhile Engage will likely be playable even on the Switch 2 at launch because of backwards compatibility.

Even as someone who is enjoying Engage and has put a silly amount of time into it since release, I still feel it is a pretty skipable title overall, if you are on the fence. Like I like Engage a lot, but the more I play the more I struggle to try and work out who this game was designed for, especially as Three Houses saw unprecedented success for the franchise. Like I thought this was just a step away from the social elements which were polarising and an evolution in all other aspects, but instead it doesn't really resemble Three Houses in any aspect, almost nothing has been added here, but a lot has been either out and out taken away or just streamlined into oblivion. This feels more like a totally new blank slate to create a foundation for an entirely different direction in future, rather than the next step for the franchise itself.

@Wolfleaf
Two excellent entries (then again, there's no such thing as a bad Fire Emblem game).

@EaglyTheKawaiiShika
If you're a Fire Emblem fan they're absolutely worth it. Might not be now if you are yet to get into the series, but once you do you'll wanna play all of them. All 3 Fates paths are unique enough to be considered their own game. And with some of the best gameplay in the series (it was the undisputed champ in that respect until Engage dropped) each and every path is worthwhile. Probably won't wanna do them all back to back, but they're all worthy FE games.

I highly recommend Engage as your first though. Up until now, Awakening was the game best suited to get ppl into the series. But Engage is better than Awakening in every way- better gameplay, better characters, better story, better balance of side activities, better difficulty balance, game isn't broken like Awakening either with the OP pair up mechanic (which wasn't balanced until Fates), the character models actually have feet... It's also just far more modern with better graphics and QoL, definitely better voice acting (which Awakening has very little of anyways).

But if you insist on not starting with Engage, Awakening is the next one in the list.

You just sold me on Midnight Sons. That sounds BEAUTIFUL.