Fire Emblem Engage Artist Celebrates First Anniversary With New Artwork

Can't wait for the Fire Emblem Engage Warriors game 😉

I can't really see a scenario in which I ever bother to play Engage again. Just a total crushing disappointment of a game, very glad I didn't opt to buy the DLC because by the end of it I stopped even bothering with the paralogues or watching supports because I just wanted to get it over with.

If you count Cindered Shadows I've played through Three Houses six times (and been meaning to do so again) but Engage I basically deleted the instant I beat it and I doubt I'll ever redownload it.

Hard to imagine a year has passed already.

Engage was such a great game and a massive step up from Three Houses with far superior gameplay and map designs. Sure, the story was basic but the actual strategy RPG of Engage was so fun that I didn't mind it. Really excited for the future of the series because this game has set a high bar for Fire Emblem gameplay!

This game was a massive disappointment. Everything but the gameplay suffered.

Dang has it really been a year since FE engage released? Time sure flies.

@Lizuka Same here, though I lost interest by the sixth map and never went back. Everything about the game just seemed off. Setting, characters, art style and even gameplay which seems to get so much praise.

@somnambulance I'm really curious what you think the worst FE story is!
(I think it is Engage myself lol)

Fantastic game. It was real brain bendy after Three Houses and its nonexistent strategy and terrible map design. My only real complaint is that there isn't NG+ where you can carry over weapon proficiencies, so experimenting and going for meme builds isn't super easy.

@Aeula Yeah, I honestly wonder what on earth I'm supposed to be missing with the gameplay because I really didn't get a lot out of that either. It's a bit harder than other recent Fire Emblem games, sure, but it feels like it's mostly born out of cheap map design with enemies just constantly spawning directly in your face or being able to snipe you from across the map than the AI actually being smarter or your team being better balanced.

@somnambulance I'd absolutely argue Fates has a better story than Engage. It's significantly dumber for sure, but at least it's actually trying to HAVE a plot instead of how Engage somehow simultaneously has virtually no story and yet still adamantly refuses to shut up for two seconds. Plus I can think of a number of Fates characters I enjoyed while Engage it's basically just Yunaka.

I loved this game but I never entered the somniel other then the first time they force you to. If you play this game as a pure FE game and skip all the dialogue/cutscenes then it's amazing.

@somnambulance Yeah, Fates was pretty damn bad lol
Here's hoping FE gets back on its feet soon!

Loved Engage, interested in whatever comes next!

@Lizuka

I was so ready to argue with you. I thoroughly enjoyed my time with Engage. The combat was fun, the Engage system felt fun, most of the characters were enjoyable on the battlefield.

...But then I realized, I don't think I ever beat it. I played decently far in, but don't remember any story beats. I don't know where I left off, what any of the characters names are, any locations. As much fun as I had with it, I haven't picked it up in months and don't really feel like doing so now. It's a fun, but forgettable, game.

And that's so crazy to me. I know I had fun playing it, but somewhere down the line I just stopped and never came back

I did not enjoy the game, huge disappointment.

I’m playing through the game right now, and controversially, I like it better than 3H. While its story is far from deep, the gameplay and presentation more than make up for it. I like the Somniel way better than Garreg Mach, as it feels like a warm and inviting vacation resort rather than a stark cathedral/school building. I have no patience for 3H’s “play through four (or even five) separate routes to fully understand the story” approach—one and done is good enough for me.

Best combat but absolute worst story

@Lizuka why was it a disappointment? I have considered buying it recently, but just wanted some perspectives from people who played it

Would love to come back to this game but not having New Game+ is a missed opportunity cause i really loved the combat and new mechanics, its way better than 3 houses.

As you can see in the comments, this game is incredibly polarizing. It was one of my favorite games of 2023.. and for others, it was a massive disappointment. For what it's worth, I do agree that the story was pretty much nonexistent, but the combat (and the art) were awesome and that's what I care about most in my Fire Emblem games.

@TheBigK What? Weapon proficiency is max out in FE Engage. Whichever class you swap or upgrade to, you're immediately assigned maximum weapon rank in that class. They did away with the weapon rank grind.

I need to get back to it. It got 2023ed.

@Calbant there just aren't enough games where you play as a Japanese student with powers and dating/friendship mechanics...

Such a huge improvement over three houses. I absolutely hated my time spent in that game. Engage was a fantastic return to form with great art, awesome characters and fantastic maps and gameplay.

This was a great tactics RPGs. While a step back interms of story and writing from 3H. There was still a lot of charm that really carried this game along with the mechanics. That being said, I hope we don't get anymore celebrations of Fire Emblem's history for a long time. After doing that 3 times with the first Warriors game, Heroes and Engage. Heck technically Smash. Give it a break.

Awesome game, does a lot of things right except the story and making the characters more meaningful like they were in Three Houses, but they were still plenty characterful once you took the time to get to know them. I know it wasn't the best Nintendo game last year but I think I probably enjoyed and played it the most.

@WreckitRyan I completely agree but man this could of been that much better of a game with a better story.

@GinMiguel
Heroes is Nintendo's highest grossing mobile game and Smash is the best selling fighting game of all time.

These aren't going anywhere lol.

This game really wasn't for me and I tried I got deep into the campaign but ultimately put it down around chapter 22. I liked the class groupings of "Armour", and "Backup" as examples. As they added an interesting twist to combat but the rest of the package I didn't care for and I hope this art style is left behind going forward.

I suppose the upside to having playing Engage is it got me back to Fates and I'm on track to 9999 BP before the online goes away now.

Just finished my first playthrough today actually! Bought it back in early December during that sale and absolutely loved it.

Very tempted to play this game. I think I might play Three Houses first because it opens the door to playing Warriors Three Hopes.

@Lizuka Same, Three Houses was my favorite game of 2019 whereas Engange was an absolute dissapointment

Kinda reminds me of Awakening and Fates. Awakening was amazing, Fates a dissapointment

Fire Emblem Engage is an absolute classic for me and I love Pikazo's artwork. I've done 3 playthroughs of the game and look forward to many more down the road. Have my fingers crossed and hoping for some Engage amiibos eventually.

Edit: does my heart good to see all praises this game is getting in the comments. I had quite a lot of genuine, natural fun playing Engage. Good to see I'm not the only one who had a goofy smile on my face playing the game!

Engage redeemed FE fro me after 3H's dull battles, bloated academy content and tedious grimdark storyline. Bright, pacy and with brilliant combat, the game is hugely underrated.

I just keep hoping they find the balance between a decent story and gameplay. Gotta say though I prefer Three Houses overall. And can they please keep the incest writer away from the script?! This is getting insane. I did enjoy the variety of characters in Engage but I kinda fell off about midway through (I did beat the DLC though). I am glad that as an anniversary game many of my favorite Lords came back (Always happy to see Lyndis) but overall it wasn’t what I was looking for. That being said it was worth it to hear Kotono Mitsuishi again. Even if her role was short.

@JR150 I'm not suggesting Fire Emblem Heroes or the FE representation in Smash be discontinued. Although there is a case that FE is a little over represented. I'm saying that after engage for the next Gen Fire Emblems for. No more multiverse crossovers regarding past fire emblem protags. At least for the time being.

This game was way, way better than I thought it would be. The art style even grew on my significantly. I think I still prefer three houses and awakening but not by much.

@GinMiguel
Fair enough. Though I disagree on FE being over-represented. That's not the problem.

Other franchises like Zelda and Kirby are under-represented and need more characters.

Game was way better than people would have you believe.

As someone who has put over 100 hours into Engage and played its DLC and over 400 hours into Three Houses and played its DLC I feel I can give my piece on it. Three Houses has the superior story, characters, music and world. Engage has the better gameplay and presentation. However, Three Houses gameplay is not bad, there are aspects to Three Houses gameplay I think are superior to that in Engage, but Engage mostly clears in the gameplay front. On the flip side though, Engage's story, characters and world are so basic and boring that I almost believe the DLC is better than the main game simply because I actually found myself caring about the plot.

Glad people stopped taking a steaming crap all over Mika Pikazo. Her art really deserves the respect.

As for me, I didn't bother with this game after hearing about the censorship applied. I'm much less tolerant of that compared to about 10 years ago when I complained about Fates removing intimacy but still bought it...
Give me everything you intended or don't do it at all.

Interesting how most people agree that Engage's gameplay is better than Three Houses yet a lot still say Three Houses is the better game. Is gameplay not king after all?
At least when it comes t Fire Emblem, fans seem to rate the games by story, writing and characters rather than gameplay, lol.

I still haven't started Engage myself, I still have a lot of routes in Three Houses to get through, but I'm working on it. And it is nice to see people appreciating Mika's artstyle. It certainly is something that takes getting used to.

The last few FE games have had beautiful art style!

@JR150 I feel going forward 8-9 from a series is too much. Mario, Pokemon and Fire Emblem are there now. But yes, The Zelda series could do without a Zelda form, and more Links being the representation. And Kirby does deserve another fighter. If Sakurai was or will be interested in taking from the games he didn't work on.

I enjoyed it. Not my favorite FE game but I still liked it.

I skipped all story, boring support / bonding / relationship and world hub stuff and just played the maps and I had a blast with this game. Hope next time they skip the world hub stuff it’s so dull and focus on the story but with similar gameplay to engage.

Honestly I was pretty happy with this game. The story and characters (with a few exceptions) weren’t great, but the gameplay was absolutely superb and (at least on hard mode) a satisfying challenge for me. I would love for them to combine the best elements of three houses and this game for FE18.

I have yet the play it. To me art looks like a mobile game and that's what keeping me away from this. I'll play it eventually. They should have just used the LN illustrator like the did with Echoes, instead they go to a Vtuber?

@Shiro28 Vtuber designer, if anything.

@PtM Still looks like a mobile game. I'll get it eventually, hopefully if a sales happens