Topic: Fire Emblem Engage for Nintendo Switch

Woo skirmish difficulty is getting scary. Having to roll back time or restart. Trying to squeeze enough SP out to get all units equipped with starsphere and lineage but it’s getting dangerous. That being said I have anna’s luck to the point that I am earning about 2k-5k a map. Doesn’t sound like much but every little bit helps. I may work on my old save to see how the next few chapters go.

Oof, had to reset Ch. 13. Ran out of rewinds and couldn't save Framme from an enemy who I didn't realize had a ranged attack capability.

At least on hard mode, this is rapidly starting to feel like a successor to Fates: Conquest.

@Ralizah
Yup, 13 was a tough one. I had to Retry twice at the start, then used a few rewinds toward the bottom of the map as all these enemies bum rushed from above.

Felt so good to be pushed to the limit like that.

@JaxonH This is probably the most well-balanced hard difficulty I've experienced in this series to date. I've heard Maddening is also really well-tuned for what it is.

I'm wondering if I should've gone with Hard Classic instead of Normal Classic. I'm on Chapter 17 now and the story remains fairly easy, with the skirmishes remaining absolutely brutal.

I'm tempted to just speed through the story now and then start a new playthrough on Hard with the knowledge gained from this playthrough.

Hopefully I find the time given the massive backlog from 2022... This game has also made me want to revisit other Fire Emblem games / pick up some other tactics games.

@Ralizah
Definitely agree. The rewinds are really what makes it so enjoyable though. In Fates Conquest, you simply had to restart with each mistake. It was excellent but restarting so often sucks.

With Engage you can mid battle save and rewind, which helps me learn from my mistakes and do better. This game has made me a better player as I've repeatedly experienced the types of mistakes I tend to make that lead to unit death, and have been given the opportunity to rewind and course correct.

For the first time ever, thoughts have started crossing my mind about trying Maddening. I'm not saying I'm ready for that, or even that I will. But I've had thoughts. And Ive never had thoughts about trying the hardest difficulty before, at least, on Classic.

I really love the Emblem mechanic, but that's obviously something we won't see return. The sub-classes, however, should become a series mainstay. For real. The sub-classes are brilliant. Imagine if the next new, non-remake game combines the sub-classes of Engage with the balanced pair-up mechanic of Fates. That would be some killer gameplay. Imagine pairing a Covert unit with a backup, switching to Covert to land on bushes, then switching to backup next turn to assist in a Chain attack, meanwhile your paired unit boosts your Chain attack by 1-2 damage.

@Buizel
May as well finish. You're 75% through so, why not wrap it up and then start a Hard Playthrough.

The Hard Mode of Engage really is brilliant. But if you're struggling with skirmishes I kind of hesitate to recommend it. The more I think about it, the more I'm convinced it's not so much a leveling issue as it is a strategy issue. I suspect a lot of players, particularly on Normal, have a certain strategy they use, and that doesn't work well in skirmishes where you're rushed.

In Hard Mode, the skirmishes have felt equal to main story, and perhaps that's because in Hard Mode, the story requires the same type of tactics that skirmishes require, which typically aren't required in Normal.

That said, I'm not particularly good at this series and even I adapted to Hard Mode, so I'm confident you can too.

It's very rewarding. Each and every battle feels like a true test of wits. The opening of each battle typically leads right into a high pressure mid-game, where tried and true tactics like turtling aren't always as effective as they have been in the past.
For example, certain enemies will not aggro you despite being in their range, forcing you to move closer to aggro them, putting you in range of a group of enemies. And enemies will always go for the kill if given the opportunity. They'll gang up on one unit without hesitation.

Hard Mode strategy heavily relies on exploiting the weapon triangle weaknesses (and fist arts exploiting bows, tomes and daggers), exploiting chain attacks, and utilizing every tool you're given (Obstruct and Freeze staves, vulneraries, anti-toxins, etc), as well as leveraging sub-class abilities such as Covert units getting double terrain bonuses, Qi Adept Chain Guards, Backup Chain Attacks (especially with Dual Assist skill), Mystical attacks ignoring terrain bonuses which can dig out high-avoid enemies entrenched in a fort or bushes. There's so much to consider to be successful in Hard Mode.

If that sounds appealing to you, I think you should definitely experience it.

@JaxonH @Buizel In fairness, I've found skirmishes to be harder as well, because they tend to be way higher level than the main story missions so far.

By the way... there's subclassing?! Or are we just talking about inheriting skills from Emblems and various classes?

Units have fixed archetypes (at least I don't think it changes with class?). There is Covert who get more advantage from terrain (I think?), back up units who can do those chain attack things (I think?) there are some others as well, I don't pay a huge amount to it, but with rings like Lucina, you can effectively take one Unit of one Archetype and dual archetype them by adding Dual Assist to them.

@JaxonH tbh I think with this kind of game it makes sense to do multiple playthroughs on increasing difficulty. There's just so much depth to the combat that it's impossible to pick up everything on a first run, with no outside sources. Plus knowing how the game unfolds and what types of characters, classes, mechanics, etc., are due to come up helps with some forward planning on how to invest in your units, etc. So far a lot of this has been rather ad-hoc as I've learnt the mechanics of the game.

So maybe I would've struggled with Hard Classic on a first run, but it sounds like it would be optimal knowing what I know now about the game and its mechanics.

@Ralizah
It's not something you customize. All classes in the game are assigned a sub-class, or "type". Alear is a dragon, for example, a special subclass. But the main sub-classes non-special units fall into are as follows:

Qi Adept - Chain Guard
Backup - Chain Attack
Covert - Double Terrain Bonus
Mystical - Ignores Enemy Terrain Bonus
Flying - Very High Move, No Terrain Bonus
Calvary- High Move
Armored- Unbreakable

A well balanced team should have at least one of each sub-class, two for Backups.

@JaxonH @Pizzamorg Alright, so we're just talking about battle styles. Gotcha. Wanted to make sure I wasn't missing out on some integral mechanic.

On higher difficulties I think these archetypes can create cheeses, so that might dictate the type of Units you use, but it really has little bearing on anything on Normal tbh.

@Ralizah
No, you're not missing out, but it very much is an integral mechanic.

This is the first game to introduce sub-classes as a way to not only enrich the strategy but balance infantry against high movement classes. Like, Cavaliers always got more movement, and fliers always got high movement without terrain bonuses, but for that reason, those classes were typically more desirable than infantry classes.

Whereas with Engage, infantry units now also receive unique traits that make them advantageous, so it's no longer meta to run all cavaliers/flying units. Chain Guard, Chain Attack, Unbreakable, Double Terrain Bonus and Ignoring Enemy Terrain Bonus are game changers in the literal sense. The entire gameplay premise is based upon utilizing these baked in attributes of sub-class types. Now, when promoting to a cavalier, you have to ask whether or not it's worth giving up Chain Attacks for, or ignoring Enemy Terrain Bonuses, etc. A mounted mage gains movement but loses the Mystical bonus, so youll have a hard time digging out High Avoid enemies entrenched in a fort or bushes.

In fact, paired with certain rings these sub-class abilities can be extremely powerful. Using a ring on a Covert unit like Yunaka to create fog, for example, which not only grants +30 Avoid, but doubles to +60 since she's a Covert. So many possibilities now with sub-classes.

@JaxonH Didn't say it wasn't an integral mechanic. I wanted to make sure you weren't referring to an integral mechanic I was unaware of.

But yeah, the tactical possibilities for this entry are pretty limitless. This game has a stage creator with shareable maps, right? It'll be interesting to see what sort of challenges people come up with.

@Ralizah
It does, though I haven't messed with it aside from playing against AI of another player on a map they created... and I got slaughtered. Tower of Trials is no joke in general. Probably best to save for endgame, unless you just want to design stuff.

@Ralizah I fully expect a handful of well-thought-out, meaningful maps and a bunch of spammy trash.

I know I am not playing as intended but I did a skirmish with just Alear, Anna and Yunaka and walked out with 10k. Leif on a covert unit can net 1000 on an engage power kill. And I found out anna’s inherited skill with Tiki for luck will stack when paired (which is broken). Caved and got the heroes weapons and gave Anna her axe and watched the money roll in. It wasn’t easy and there was a run where somehow Anna dodged and killed 10 units on 1hp (I was sweating watching that go down). Luck be a Lady Dragon. But if I can pull that down every skirmish until I move on I am golden.

@Ryu_Niiyama
I might have to train Anna up. I just benched her cause I didn't feel like putting in the work, but... maybe I will

I have so many units I want to train up. This game gives you an enormous army of charming characters, and then allows you deploy, like, six of them at a time. It's cruel.