Azz

I actually quite enjoyed what we got story wise. I do feel like the story helped more to serve the gameplay and set up really cool gameplay moments like chapter 11 and 17 than actually tell a story but as someone who is quite used to shitty shounen/power of friendship type stories, Engage was fine imo and did nothing that was bad, just rather typical and at worst, boring. The game knew what it was and what it was telling and didn't try to be anything it wasn't. The bad guys were the bad guys and the good guys were the good guys. I do think the four hounds could've used more. Getting their backstories moments before they die was eh, especially for Marni where it felt the most expository. I really wish they tried something else since what we did get I do find interesting and I actually really enjoy their dynamic as this family unit that are all kinda fucked up and because of how they were brought up before finding one another, they all have these shitty toxic traits but you can tell, if stuff happened differently, they would be a genuine and loving found family. I also didn't mind Veyle having a split personality. They needed someway to make the dragon girl redeemable so what they did makes sense I guess. The most annoying moment imo and the one where I did roll my eyes was the end where Alear died protecting Veyle, was brought back as a corrupted, died, again, and then was brought back by the emblems as an emblem. In any story, dying twice and being brought back both times, especially in such quick succession is always just boring, tired and shitty and I think they shoulda found some other way to bring them back. Just bring them back as an Emblem straight away or smth instead or needing Veyle to bring them back as a corrupted. I get they also wanted Veyle to have her moment of breaking free for the final time but regardless, it's still bad. Other than that, I don't think I ever enjoyed and just had fun with a FE story like I did with Engage. The game knew it wasn't very serious and didn't take itself seriously so it was easy to chuckle along, but there were also several really nice and touching moments, mainly with Alear and Lumera (both times) or when facing Morion with Diamant or Alcryst that made me tear up a bit and were genuinely emotional. I do think the last act is the worst, but overall I did enjoy the story.

@Shadow Mir for your question about chapter 13

I just checked and after having completed the game, I also only have Tear Streaked (Ice) also. Oddly enough, I don't believe there is a calm version. I did some looking on YT and the Ice version is the only version uploaded. Yes, once you master seal, you are free to just second seal into any promoted class (provided you have the right weapon ranks available). Going back to a base class is pointless unless you are specifically challenging yourself to have to deal with worse weapon ranks and lower max stats.

Oh yeah, Elsurge with Thyrsus is important. I primarily use Elwind now since Anna has good enough magic to one shot with it, but Thyrsus with Elsurge used to be need to one shot. Yeah, wind has lower weight. Elfire would probably be fine, since it actually only has one more weight than Elwind, but Elwind is sufficient now and I don't want to waste funds on forging an Elfire now lol

Mentorship probably helps but I'm not arsed to grind to get that on everyone after having got Lineage already lol. Yeah, I just got Boucheron from level 1 to level 13 in one skirmish. To deal with ranged units, normally I mark them all to see their range and position accordingly. Normally I have two walls of threeish units, one that works with my training unit, and one that stays behind and kills any stragglers that may be coming from the opposite direction that my training unit isn't really gonna be dealing with. The numbers can be intimidating and normally I prefer maps that have somewhat decent chokepoints or have healing/unbreakable tiles that give some extra avoid. I really only use maps that all your units start together and there aren't too many directions where enemies are coming from. Solm Palace is quite good since you start in between the throne room and the outer area so the training unit is stuck between two walls of three and kills the weakened throne room enemies and then moves downs to the enemies from the other area of the palace that are left after the throne room is clear. As for Anna, yeah she makes a good amount of money. She's so OP that she can clear a map on her own, with Byleth and a fully maxed Elsurge/Elwind with 13th emblem/Sigurd engraves to help her avoid. She has max 39 luck as a High priest, alongside HP/Luck +10 and Luck +12, she has 59 luck (I think boosts from skills max at 20 for some reason since it should be 61 but it's only boosted by 20), so that's 59%. Normally I get about 5000~ each battle with Anna.

So far what I've been doing is: Get Lineage on whoever (it only costs 150 SP and 30 quid so everyone should be able to inherit it at base and getting to level 5 with the leaders is only 400 bond fragments), use my bulky units I used during my run to body block and then have the unit(s) (normally I train 1 or 2 at most on a map) kill whoever from behind. I do this rather than using Micaiah since then you have to take gold into account and since I'm trying to min-max everyone rn cause why not, I really don't fancy having to worry about gold. The method is slow but it has worked for me. I've managed to get Anna, Citrinne, Chloé and Lapis all up to level 20 promoted in the space of 3ish skirmishes. I also started throwing Tiki on them for stat gains. My goal is to at least get to level 20 and then second seal and go to level 20 again (which only Anna has done thus far since I've been using her to grind gold using her as a High Priest with Byleth and the Luck +12 skill to complete donations. She has maxed everything bar strength and defence lol)

He follows you around the Somniel and can help you out in minigames

Spoiler late game unit:

Am not sure tbh. I just remember that I didn't interact with Sommie for a couple of chapters and his affinity started to drop so I can't say what happened to you. I haven't used Lindo so I can't say. I would imagine so since it doesn't specific weapon type, just says weapon but I say it would require some testing. Also can't answer that since I haven't touched tempest trials at all, sorry

You have to constantly feed/pet Sommie after every chapter/battle for his affinity to stay maxed out. If you stop, over time his affinity will decrease and you will have to build it up again

Besides the changes to some of the supports, mainly S supports to make them more platonic (especially with the characters who are coded in the game to be underage), I'm not too sure what else was changed exactly. In regard to the changes to the S supports, I'm all for them. You shouldn't be able to romance someone like Anna who is supposed to be 14 or Jean who is like 10. I do agree with some people raising an eyebrow at how Alear can't romance units who are supposed to be 17 (like the younger royal siblings, Rosado etc) yet can romance characters who are older than them (Alear is supposed to be 17 according to the game files). Personally I'm not too miffed so whatever, headcanons exist also, But in regards to changes, that's all I know about

Now that I'm near enough finished and my units are starting to hit level 20 in advanced classes, here are mine now that I'm done (for context, I used Alear (obvi), the three stewards and the eight royals as my main 12) Best: Ivy: By far my best unit. Her with Lyn just absolutely decimated everyone in sight. Her magic growth was insane, as was her speed, which Lyn helped no doubt. She one rounded everything. Combined with the support she could give when she wasn't killing things, she was godly and by far the MVP of my run. Hortensia: Combined with Byleth, she was a support bot who could dish out quite decent damage thanks to her speed when she needed too. She also made dealing with some of the more threatening magic enemies less of a pain thanks to instruct/the goddess dance res boost since she's a flying unit. Not much else to add other than she was good support. Timerra: I've heard mixed things about her but my god mine was a one woman army. She was able to take hits and give them out and her speed wasn't too shabby and she doubled often enough. Her sandstorm class ability activated quite often and tore through units. Her combined with Ike was an amazing combo. Her and Ivy were a dream team. Fogado: Elusia and Solm really representing. Fogado at first seemed like the reverse of Alfred, being fast but wouldn't dish out as much damage, however, his strength growth was quite good and he really showed why doubling (even if you don't deal massive damage all the time)>>>>>dealing big hits but not doubling. While Alfred left most units at kill thresholds after hitting them massively, Fogado reliably one rounded things. I definitely would love to get Alacrity on him since he is so fast. I had him with Corrin so he was a reliable mage killer and his HP was chonky. Diamant: While he started to fall off, Diamant's efforts before late game cannot be ignored. His strength was insane and his speed was surprisingly good. I do think he suffered a lot post chapter 11 (it didn't help I didn't give him any replacement emblem and I didn't use bond rings at all) but he still managed quite well. Late game he has started to struggle doubling but he still dishes out massive damage and he's great on EP with the forged silver blade I gave him. Disappointing: Clanne: Yeah, he's not very good. He doubles consistently but his magic is so low that he deals the equivalent of one hit that most of my other units do. He did get better when I got Eirika and attached her to him (thank god she boosts magic) and since I have him as a Mage Knight, her emblem attack is quite good since Ephraim deals extra damage, but Clanne has been a struggle to use overall. I really wanted to make him god tho despite his 10% mag growth but c'est la vie... Alfred: I think most people have talked about him but yeah he kinda sucks. He is good early game since he deals good damage and combined with Siggy, his range is massive and the brave lance takes away his speed issue. However post chapter 11 he falls off hard. His strength is good and he is quite bulky, but he is never good enough to kill and he never doubles. He does contribute and I do have Lucina on him so he chips in with Dual Assist+ but he's not very good standalone. Worst: Vander: I mean what was there to expect lol. He falls off so quickly and his stats never pick up so late game he's as frail and does as little damage as Framme does early game. With the TLC I've given him and Sigurd, he has gotten better and does contribute, but it was a struggle and I would say overall, he was very sucky. Wont stop from using him again tho lol, Vandad shall conquer! Framme: Yeah she sucks. She deals little to no damage and so many units can do her job but better. I feel like if I made her a mage she might have been able to do damage but I didn't really wanna reclass much so I kept her as is. She works fine since I have her with Miccy so she can full heal when I need it and because of that she does level quick but yeah she's rather sucky

So Chloé prf mag growth is 35 and sage's is 30 so she'd have a growth of 65 all together. Classes seem to be where units will get most of their growths from as you'll see a good amount of units will have lowish personal growths but classes will bring them up. With how levelling is infinite in Engage (provided you have the funds to buy second seals), growths are probably gonna end up being more important in the long run. Jean's skill works in that it doubles his class's growths. So his base mag growth is 20 and martial monk is 25, but with his prf skill, martial monk now has a growth of 50 in mag, thus making his total magic growth 70. Also yes, max stat modifiers for characters do return. I.e. Swordmaster has a str cap of 40, but Lapis has a -2 mod in str so if she's a Swordmaster, she'll cap at 38. There are no HP or build modifiers for any characters.

Tbh, if you do want to use Chloé long term, her magic growth is fairly serviceable at 35%, you could easily make her into a Sage if the mobile staffer starts to lose it's shine with better supporters around and you need a new magic user because the base early game magic users are all fairly mid imo.

Yeah promoting ASAP is the way tbh. It's definitely weird to do however it's just better in the long run. You can infinitely level by getting to 20 and second sealing back into the same class and advanced class growths are better than base class ones and you get a skill at level 5. There really is no downside. Also reclassing in base classes is also a waste since you are just forcing yourself to level up 10 levels to promote when you could just promote asap then reclass into an advanced class straight away, no issue. As for what I did, I did wait until level 12-15 for some units mainly because at the time, I wasn't aware of the benefits of early promoting, however now that I do, when I go to maddening, I'll be early promoting lol. I haven't reclassed much at all because 1) money is hard to come by in this game and I'm not using Anna so my pockets have been dry and seals are expensive and 2) my units have been performing fine in their base classes (I'm mainly using the royals and their classes are some of the best in the game anyways so yeah). The only unit I did reclass with a second seal you get in chapter 14 I believe is Vander to Wyvern Knight which I then changed back to Paladin with another second seal you get in chapter 17 or 18 because he was performing even worse than when he was a Paladin lol.

I feel like early-game, Griffin Knight is definitely the go to. Having a flying staffer is just too good to pass up early game where your other options for healers are Framme and Jean who fall off quite easily (in fairness Jean can get good provided with enough TLC, but I've been using Framme consistently and on normal mode, she is struggling to do anything bar get one rounded and heal, which in fairness makes sense but still she's...) so benching them post Anna paralogue/chapter 7 where you get your first master seals, Chloé will make a great replacement. Alongside Miccy on whoever you have her on (maybe mage!Anna/Céline idk), between the two, healing should be good. Then I feel like down the line when Chloé inevitably starts to get a bit limp in the damage side of things and you have access to more supportive units like Ivy, Pandreo and Hortensia who can do what she did but better, I think reclassing Chloé to Wyvern, if you intend on using her would be wise. Aside from Chloé, putting Vander in Great Knight would be a good idea if you intend on using him. Vander falls hard post the Firene chapters tbh (which makes sense considering what he is, but he's honestly a pretty shitty Jeigan even compared to other Jeigans). Reclassing him to Great Knight gives him actual bulk and access to more accurate weapons since his accuracy is also shite (trust me, I know cause I am attempting to use him lol).

Yeah, Leif's map was the first map where I was like 'nope, I'm not going to try and route and get all the goodies am done'. I even managed to kill those two OP sages on Sigurd's map for the 2000G they had but with Leif's map I had to draw the line lol. Changing topic a bit, did anyone else find Micaiah's paralogue easy or was it just me? In fairness, I'm at the point now where I have 10/12 emblems, everyone is level 10-15 (and the recommend level was 10 Advanced class IIRC) and I'm also just better at the game (on normal however) but considering how each of the other paralogues all had smth that really would surprise you, even with the reinforcements after engaging Miccy it was quite easy.

I have to agree, I am really loving Alear. I find them so endearing and likeable. I have to say, at the beginning of the game where we first meet the corrupted and Vander is like 'lets fight them together brave divine one' and Alear is like 'lol nope I'm running'. I think a big help is their VA. I've only played as M!Alear however his VA has done a fantastic job. He delivers emotion so well, especially in chapter 3 when Lumera dies. Overall, probably my fav avatar

Personally I like it on smash weapons. If you put it on a Silver Blade of Silver Greataxe, using it in combo with Emblem Ike (and especially Great Aether) can be devastating. That or any tank that you know is gonna get doubled and doesn't care about being weighed down. Regardless, I do think it is one of the worse engraves, they really shoulda given it something else other than just +3 mt to offset the massive wt gain.

I am also struggling with that lol. RN, for grinding in general, I'm thinking skirmish->cooking->arena->skirmish is gonna be how to do it, especially for units you may have benched/have fallen behind considering how skirmishes scale with you, making it pretty impossible to grind low level units up to par. As for SP, everyone seems to be saying SP is pretty hard to get. After beating the game you do get skill manuals I think that straight up give SP to units. Am not sure if these are grindable if you repeatedly beat the final chapter or if they are a one time thing but other than that being a viable way to get SP after the game is over mind you it looks like you'll just have to keep doing skirmishes (which is gonna suck when I try to 100% my file lol).

Avoid determines odds of evading a normal attack whereas dodge is critical hits. So you can have both avoid+ and dodge+ but they do do different things

Just did Leif's paralogue and damn... Am playing on normal and I can't even begin to imagine it on maddening. There are like four ballista which complete makes your fliers useless and they deal so much damage it's insane. There are also infinitely spawning reinforcements and a shit tone of offensive staff High Priest. Definitely is a Thracia map lol.

1. No 2. No 3. Fixed prologue ala Awakening/Fates premonitions + 26 main story chapters + 15 optional paralogues 4. No 5. Not necessarily. Sword, lances, axes and bows are as normal. Tomes are like their Awakening incarnation where there is fire/thunder/wind variants but are under one weapon rank. There is a new surge variant that is 1 range only and never misses. Staves are split amongst healing and offensive. Knives/daggers are back, some are 1-2 range and they inflict poison on enemies which increase the damage they receive. Gauntlets from TH are back, now called Arts. They have a brave affect but are relatively weak. 6. Not particularly. The engage feature and break mechanic are probably the biggest changes alongside some other things here and there. 7. Completely linear. 8. They do feel somewhat shorter, but not too much so. Their length is still solid enough imo. Each character does have a bond conversation with all 12 emblems and they are quite short however. 9. There are three main ones: exercise, fishing and wyvern flight. All are optional and don't provide much. The exercise minigame provides very small stat boots that aren't worth it, and fishing and wyvern flight provide some items like bond fragments (used for emblem mechanics). There are some smaller ones too, the main one that I think is worthwhile is the cooking one which is similar to TH where you and two allies eat, you get support points and stat boosts. The arena is also there, which can be used 3 times after battle and also the tempest trials which is a series of battles where you get special items used to buff emblem weapons. 10. The Somniel feels somewhat smaller but I do think it is a good thing.

Lyn!Ivy has been a dream. Ivy is so fast and deals so much damage, and alacrity insures she never faces retaliation on PP. She is just amazing. Ike!Timerra is also quite strong. I feel like I have gotten significantly blessed with my Timerra because she is insane. Her prf class skill works well with Ike being bulky and if it procs when she is doing great aether, everything dies.

This is how the rewind feature has always functioned I believe. If you want to change what has occurred, you need to go back to player phase and change how you positioned that unit and how you acted with it to change what happens. If you just keep rewinding but change nothing about your positioning/actions, you aren't gonna change anything