Topic: Fire Emblem Engage for Nintendo Switch

Point Uno: This game looks phenomenal on an OLED 4KTV. That hasn't generally been my experience with Switch games, but it is here. This might just be the most attractive game on the Switch. It's not just the cartoony character designs and primary colors, but also the incredibly clean UI. Everything looks so good in this game.

Point Dos: Between the Somniel and post-battle maps, I think I'm spending at least as much time out of battles in this game as I was in Three Houses.

@JaxonH I'm on Ch. 10 now. The game warned me some big fight was coming up, so I decided to call it a day.

It's not too hard to get S-rank rings. Just get into a system when you're watching TV or something, and you'll be able to generate several rolls per minute. It's tedious, but that's only a problem if you're primarily paying attention to the game.

Oh snap if the emblems know each other they increase each other's power during their emblem attack/skill. Ok, that's cool. I can't WAIT till I get Byleth. Also I finally figured out how to zoom (I could have sworn I'd tried the sticks but ok.). Enjoying my playthrough now (still prefer the monastery gameplay loop though.).

@Ralizah
I think Somniel was a good choice. Those who like all the extra activities from TH have plenty to do in between chapter battles, while those who didn't can safely ignore most of it (only essentials being picking up ore from farm and hitting the arena/ring chamber for skills). I, however, always liked the side activities as a good downtime balance. It never bothered me in TH like it did some ppl (except post-timeskip, I think it could have been streamlined a bit more, but that's small potatoes), and I like making my rounds in Somniel. I've got it down to a routine- fishing and wyvern riding, 3 arena rounds and picking up items, then making a meal before heading out (occasionally doing some shopping/forging as needed).

I tried a few save reloads going into new chapters and backing out... after 6 times in a row with nothing, I gave up in utter boredom. Now I'm just buying 10 after each battle, saving immediately before, and if I get nothing I reset and move on to next battle.

On the bright side, I upgraded my Elwind to Excalibur and have been using Clanne to absolutely wreck fools with that 20% extra damage. He also learned a skill from Tiki where selecting "Wait" heals 20 HP and cures all statuses. It can upgrade later to heal 30 and eventually even 40 HP.

Also grabbed Dual Attack skills for Kagetsu and Timmera, so they have a chance of Chain Attacking as long as enemy is in their movement attack range, not just attack range. It thoroughly impressed me in the Gold Corrupted skirmish I just did. Absolutely crucial skill for Backup units. That chip damage helps so much.

Just started Chapter 14 and... let's just say the objective is the most intimidating I've seen yet. I won't spoil it but, good night, it almost feels like the devs were trolling when coming up with this one, poking each other and laughing "ahahahaha lets see the player pull this off" 😃 Not complaining- I like the challenge.... But wow. It's a doozy.

BTW the game does look good, but depending on the games you play, may or may not seem outside the norm. There have been soooo many top-shelf games on Switch this past year I kinda feel like this is the norm now, barring cheap ports and games too heavy that were never intended to run. Be it Kirby Forgotten Land, 13 Sentinels, Mario Strikers, Switch Sports, Portal 1/2, Xenoblade 3, Monster Hunter Rise Sunbreak, Tony Hawk PS1/2, Splatoon 3, Persona 5 Royal, Nier Automata, Crisis Core FFVII, Mario Rabbids, now Fire Emblem Engage with Zelda TotK and Kirby Return to Dreamland and Pikmin 4 on the way... when those are the games you're playing, it just feels normal. Though I do think Engage is in the upper echelon of all those games. They should be proud of their work here. They did good.

@Ryu_Niiyama
For real? I didn't know that.

So... how does that work exactly? You mean like, Marth and Tiki? Or Leif and Sigurd? Or Ike and Micaiha? Or Byleth and Edelgard/Dimitri/Claude?

So if 2 units with Emblems that know each other do attacks next to each other there's stat bonuses?

@JaxonH I am still testing it out but yeah I was adjacent to a unit bonded to Marth and my unit was bonded to Tiki. I engaged Tiki to put divine blessing on another unit that was adjacent to me and then I saw a plus next to the name of the power. I didn’t think anything of it so I activated the move. All of a sudden Tiki calls Marth’s name (or rather her nickname for him) and he responds and a banner that says Tiki & Marth pops up with them side by side and the power activates. I’m crawling through the game since all I care about is unit leveling and gold so I don’t know if it is just the bracelets (I doubt it) and a ring or if two rings do it too (as I don’t have any other pairings right now). It of course has to be two emblems but only one has to be engaged but as far as I can tell so long as the two are adjacent something happens. I did it again and the text for the power read there would be additional effects. I don’t know what yet as I had to go back to work right after. But it should be fun once the other bracelets unlock as well. There doesn’t seem to be a limit as I did it twice on one map.

Edit: I am not sure yet but I think Alear has to be one of the linked units. So far I couldn’t get the other unit to link on their attack. I will reverse their items and see what happens.

On Ch. 12 now. That, uh, escalated quickly.

Ch. 11 was brutal. Sort of reminded me of a Fates: Conquest map. I really liked the panicked, desperate feel of it as an ever-encroaching army of baddies is hunting you down, forcing you to send your units almost flying into enemies ahead of you. Definitely adds to the sense of vulnerability to suddenly be robbed of your time-rewinding abilities as well, and even have it utilized against you by the enemy.

@JaxonH My first few visits to the somniel, I ran around and talked to everyone every time. Those habits from Three Houses die hard.

I actually haven't encountered the fishing or wyvern riding minigames at all. Do I need to unlock them?

@Ralizah those activities come in a chapter or two.

Edit: I used the Mipha amiibo and got sashimi in return. I cackled.

Also some maps where you rescue people they show up on the explore part and give you more stuff sometimes.

I wasn't looking forward to it, but Chapter 18 went pretty well for me. It was one of those dreaded ship-to-ship battles, and I was expecting a ton of fliers to be sent towards me. Some of my units are still a bit vulnerable on enemy phase (and often inaccurate when it counts), but it was a nice respite from the previous few chapters.
I was fearing it was going to be an experience like in Sacred Stones, although that's compounded by the fog of war on the level. My last fog of war map was frustrating though, and I'm not looking forward to the next one.

Louis is serving me well for the most part. I always look out for mages, and I'm not averse to letting him take a hit from one, but a word of warning - on the later levels, enemies have backup skills that can easily wear down even the toughest of generals. My Louis was attacked by about 6 enemies, and they took over 50 points of health off him in a single phase.

@Ralizah
I thought fishing should already be unlocked for you. Cause wyvern riding unlocked for me after Chapter 11 or 12, I think? And I'd been fishing several times when wyvern riding unlocked. Maybe I'm misremembering. But I'm on Chapter 14 and have done wyvern riding at least 5 times now and I've got fishing more than that. Should also get the fleamarket after Chapter 13, I believe.

Btw, I'm learning to only spend money on upgrades for key weapons, like my Excalibur that does extra damage from skill, or daggers since they increase by 2 Mt each level, or the special Heroes crossover weapons which can be pretty decent if you upgrade them.

Unlike skills, buying a +1 doesn't discount +2, so I think it's better to just save up and go for the big upgrade right away. Granted, I wasn't doing this before and have tons of Javelin +1, Steel Sword +2 and various +3 and +4 weapons like Iron Daggers and Slim Lances. But moving forward, it's go big or go home. Same for bond fragments. Now that I've trained everyone up with the emblem I want them to inherit from, I'm saving more bond fragments than I'm spending. For now, anyways. Broke as a joke though- had to do a Gold Corrupted run just to buy a masterseal so Ivy could promote, as she hit her level cap.

The military fund cash injections come after clearing a country, right? I'm on the final Solm battle so I should be getting more cash after this. Much needed cash.

I haven't spent a dime on donations aside from Firene Lv 2. The opportunity cost is too high when my silver card allows 30% discounts in the stores.

@JaxonH it doesn't seem that these features are unlocked in specific chapters? I just started chapter 15 and only just now unlocked wyvern riding, whereas I feel like I had fishing unlocked before where @Ralizah is...

Maybe it's to do with the time of day you explore the Somniel?

Edit: a quick google tells me you either have to promote Ivy or Alear. The latter seems more likely tbh.

@Ryu_Niiyama @JaxonH @Buizel Interesting. I'll wait a couple of chapters, and if Wyvern Riding hasn't unlocked by then, I'll look it up. I guess I just missed fishing completely, though, so I'll find wherever the local hole is and add that to the pile of things I do between battles.

I've upgraded weapons a couple of times, but silver is in short supply, as it took me too long to realize I needed to have dogs actually milling around the ranch for them to provide me with rare metals. My first upgrade was getting Etie a Silver Bow.

I've been waiting to upgrade my units, but I'm hearing that I should probably just be upgrading them ASAP instead?

EDIT: Ah, you actually need to have a Wyvern available to do Wyvern Riding. That makes a lot of sense.

Since I am not really playing the story I’m not getting any seals so I’m just maxing and benching. Getting units to inherit the stat growth and exp skills are my focus for now. (And now that I figured out it is cheaper to forge weapons than hope the store unlocks them). Slowly outfitting my army with silver.

Huh, I've just realised Alear's hair is to match the Joy Con colours. I feel dumb for not picking that up sooner.

@jump
Ha 😆

Ya, that seemed like part of the celebratory design to honor the Switch as the system this title released on (though it does have plot reasons).

I just wish the hair color changed based on your joycon color. We know Switch detects joycon color. How cool would it have been to put in Neon yellow and Neon blue, or two Neon blues, or two whites... major missed opportunity imo

@Ryu_Niiyama
Sometimes it's cheaper, other times it's more expensive. Guess it depends on how you value silver ore.

Imo, an upgraded Steel weapon is often preferable to silver as the weight is low enough you can double (or at least not get doubled).

@Ralizah
Ah, you actually need to have a Wyvern available to do Wyvern Riding. That makes a lot of sense

🤦

Of course lol. And suddenly common sense fell out of the sky and hit me square in the melon.

BTW, absolutely upgrade ASAP, the sooner the better. Advanced class stat growths are almost universally superior, and EXP gains are based on total levels gained in all classes. So there's no reason to wait, and plenty of reason to promote as soon as you hit Level 10. The longer you wait, the more superior stat growths you sacrifice.

@JaxonH I have a bunch of dogs so I either trade silver for other ores or just upgrade a weapon. I like to have a mix of weapons/types personally to fit the attack pattern. Also making killer weapons as well. I just wish you could sell the horse manure.

So I think Marth just doesn't have a boosted version of his attack because when I put Marth on Alear and Tiki on Anna, Anna could do a boosted divine blessing. Like I said I don't have any other pairs currently (camped on chapter 8 right now) but I'll test once I get my army maxed and benched.

It's also a plot point. A very obvious one but still. I think they comment on it more in Japanese because I don't remember seeing as much written dialogue about it but going "ok another person commenting on the hair and eyes and not in a oh that is pretty sorta way." Plus with the flashback and what Queen Lumeria said it's like yep, purification.

@Ryu_Niiyama
A boosted Divine Blessing?

You sure you're not referring to the sub-class type bonuses? Because assigning Emblems to various sub-classes can provide boosted effects. For example, Tiki's Divine Blessing can also cure status ailments if equipped to a Qi Adept unit (iirc, it might be a different sub-class, either way you get the point).

When assigning them you'll see the type bonuses listed on the skills.

@JaxonH Nope. It’s a link up. Doesn’t happen if I am not near the unit with the emblem that knows mine. Not saying the other type doesn’t happen but it becomes “Divine Blessing+” when it is just Divine Blessing when I am alone. I googled someone on YouTube linking Byleth and the Three Houses Emblem as well. Plus type boosts don’t do the link animation I described.

Byleth/3H

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Q--RQTqqfdU

Tiki/marth
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=A1zyrB0R7lI

So, apparently the game has achievements you can redeem for bond points at the cafe's bulletin board. I didn't know about this, so I just redeemed 9000+ bond points in one go, lmao.

@Ralizah haha a similar thing happened to me. I thought the achievements were pointless and were just goals. But then I checked the board one time and I redeemed a ridiculous amount of points.