Topic: Fire Emblem Engage for Nintendo Switch

Chapter 22 finished. What a beautiful game, full of beautiful people. Yeah, I think I love this one.

I just wish the skirmishes weren't so unbalanced. Loved the game otherwise.

Probably my favorite release last year.

@Ralizah
This game is surprisingly challenging, at least on classic mode.

@Jhena The story missions are a good, well-balanced challenge. It's one of the few games in the series that actually feels good to play on the highest difficulty.

The skirmishes are just nonsense. They just bombard the player with units. Even easy skirmishes are harder than almost any story mission.

@Ralizah
I was overrun in skirmishes quite a few times. Sending Alear to the frontline feels so good, because he is practically invincible.

Finished chapter 24. I am glad Zephia and Griss found peace at the end. Alear of the past feels so lonely, sad and hurt, I just wanted to give him a hug and tell him that everything will be fine.

If I were to describe Engage it would be very quick and forgotten much like Tokyo Mirage Sessions. Both had colorful worlds, zanny characters, simple plots meant to appeal to a younger audience that overall were fun to play. That said both quickly fell over everyone's radar and were sadly forgettable. I wonder if this released sooner would it have had a longer life span especially with the Switch 2 very close. Regardless I respect what the game wanted to accomplish, but if they don't want to scare away fans mainly Three Houses newbies again this kind of story effort and character writing can't happen again.
The series needs to evolve to were both gameplay and story can be great not one or thr other.

Sorry if this counts as necroposting, but I actually jumped back into this game recently.

Full disclosure: I am a Three Houses newbie. And I adore that game for everything it is. I loved exploring Garreg Mach, The structure of the calendar system, and the heavy emphasis on character relationships. So when I played Engage, I quickly fell off because it felt like everything that made me fall in love with Three Houses was either removed or dumbed down completely. The really dumb character designs, the very unserious plot and the lack of Three Houses gameplay structure quickly fizzled out my enjoyment on this. It didn't help that traditional Fire Emblem fans were chastising me for preferring those systems over Engage since the consensus seems to be the gameplay is far superior. So I put it down after Chapter 9.

But after watching Frieren Beyond Journey's End (which is superb anime btw, please watch it), I was hankering for a fantasy setting again so I decided to try again on Switch 2, this time with a more positive mindset.

And yeah, the story so far still sucks, The Somniel doesnt hold a candle to Garreg Mach, and the dumbed down relationship system is a major bummer. But the game is still fun. Even Engaging, I daresay. I like the Engage mechanic and the map design for battles is superb. And the character designs while still ridiculous, have grown on me slightly. On their own they're awful but within the context of the game...they actually kind of work. Even Alear isn't THAT bad.

Except for Celine. I truly dont understand what the hell they were thinking with her. She looks like a Christmas ornament with that dress of hers and her hair...my God I can't even imagine the hair care routine. I'm a dude with long curly hair and it definitely grates on me sometimes with how particular I need to be. But her? My God.

As for what I really like, again the map design is great, I think a step above Three Houses. And I do LOVE the usage of bold, saturated colors. And while the music is a step down compared to Three Houses, it's still superb. Being that they share the same developer, some tracks give me HEAVY Thousand-Year Door vibes. Especially the Corrupted theme.

I've yet to catch up to where I was but I'm glad I'm trying again with a more open mind. Hopefully I can knock this out before Fire Emblem Fortunes Weave comes out. And yes, being a Three Houses sequel DOES hype me up very much.

Edit: Oh and playing this in handheld mode on Switch 2 with Handheld Boost Mode enabled is THE way to go. In Docked Mode on the TV, the aliasing is God awful, the draw distance in 3D environments is distracting and it's easy to tell how limited the devs were on the original Switch hardware. But running the Docked settings on the handheld screen through Boost Mode really allow the game's visuals to pop and the poor aliasing and technical flaws are far less noticeable. I definitely recommend playing it this way.

@TerribleTerabytes engage really was a ‘shut your brain off’ experience for me as far as the story and characters went. With that said, the gameplay was truly fantastic, and I hope fortune’s weave takes notes.

Also Frieren mentioned! Great show

Okay, hot take: I don't think Engage has a terrible story. Certainly, it's nothing remarkable, but very classical and intuitive, in the way something like a Disney movie is. Disappointing compared to Three Houses in this regard? Absolutely. But nowhere close to the dumpster fire that something like Fates was narratively.

My issue with the game will always be how unbalanced the random battles were. You get rushed by reinforcements to an almost absurd degree. The story battles were all a lot of fun, though.

An update to my previous post: I officially made it past where I was in my last playthrough, Chapter 10.

I'm vibing with the gameplay a lot more this time. I gotta say, Engage skills are absolutely CRACKED out of their mind.

I discovered that Sigurd allows you to plow through however many enemies you wish so long as they're in a straight line. I took out FOUR dudes in one go with Vander after using this move, wondering if it would allow me to cleave through all four and was shocked when it did. Then you have Cecilia who can both attack twice in one turn AND also warp across the map to wherever you want to deal your special move. Insane. And then Micaiah allows you to full heal your ENTIRE team regardless of where you are. I've been intentionally keeping Yunaka waaaay far back so that she can pop her full team heal and then chug Vulnerys next turn to heal the damage drawback this does to you. I really love how many tactics and strategies these skills open up, it really does take the gameplay to the next level.

@Ralizah I'm still meh on the story but I'm over it at this point. I've just accepted that this isn't Three Houses and is more akin to a Saturday morning anime that was meant to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the series. (If not for the pandemic delaying it.)

I cringe at some of the dialog (Hortensia really irked me) and the support cutscenes are very bland. (And only have three ranks apparently?) But the gameplay is really hooking me and the music is fantastic. This is definitely a vibes only game. I'm enjoying it for what it is.

Its funny, because this might be one of the most mediocre games I have ever played, but I think it is my most played Switch game and not even by like a small margin. In fact, it might be one of my most played games ever in terms of pure hours.

It is just so playable, in a way Three Houses isn't, I tend to play through Engage probably pretty close to yearly because I know this game is gonna offer me basically zero resistance or pushback. I can just load up a boxset, boot this up, kick up the feet and chill out over the holidays or whatever.

It is why I am both super excited for the new Fire Emblem, and also somewhat nervous, because if it is as micro managey as Three Houses is, then sadly we're just back to playing Engage every year instead.

@Pizzamorg I really liked the micromanagement with weapons, classes and moves. I feel like I'm the only person on the planet that likes weapon durability mechanics.

All I'm asking is that Fortune's Weave takes notes from Three Houses support conversations with deeper romance and pairing options. I REALLY miss how deep Support convos were in Three Houses, it really made the characters and World feel truly alive. Bernadetta pre-censorship was my favorite.

@TerribleTerabytes to be clear, it wasn't really meant to be commentary on which is better, but I realise why it could be framed in that way.

It is just that if I want to replay Three Houses, I need to clear my diary and pay attention, which is why I have only played it a few times. Whereas Engage is like a YouTube video, I can play it while cooking my dinner, while doing my work, while doing my chores whatever, given how little it really demands of you.

It is both the very reason why it is so mediocre and also the very reason why its so perfect for someone who is busy and works full time, because I can just slot that game in anywhere in my life and it is playable.