Sire

I also tend to play FE on Hard (been playing since Blazing Sword, although I haven't gotten Engage yet). However, for Unicorn Overlord I also had experience playing the classic Ogre Battle games, so I just went in for the hardest option at the start. -- That said, I do also mess around with Lunatic/Maddening difficulties on repeat playthroughs, so please keep that in mind. Honestly, it felt somewhat easy, with only one or two chapters in the entire game giving me some pause (having to use up all 10 item uses and wishing I had more, as Expert limits them). Most of the initial difficulty comes from transitioning to a new area and facing off against the new enemies. However, once one learns their tactics, the rest flows rather smoothly. For example, in Albion... As for my teams, I mostly had a core of five... My other teams...

Finished my Expert run in about 88 hours. I did nearly everything except the final mining area in Albion. -- Gave the Ring of the Maiden to Scarlett, as it seems to be the "canon" choice. Yes, it is rather vanilla, but I did enjoy it a lot. There were other interesting options for me (Virginia, Ren, Rosalinde, Yahna), but as I started getting deeper into the game and looking up some of the conversations/epilogues, I feel like simply giving it to Josef instead for my "True Playthrough." I love the father/son dynamic between Josef and Alain, and one can always headcannon Alain gets Scarlett (or whoever) anyways. === Small side note, as I went for the Maiden Ring as fast as possible after maxing out Scarlet, the only other option I had available was Lex. I thought it was pretty funny. === Virginia was originally going be my next choice, but... Overall, I absolutely loved the game, especially since Ogre Battle 64 is one of my most favorite games of all time. I do wish there was a proper NG+ and a postgame, and I'm holding out hope that there may be a later patch that adds this in (some of Vanillaware's other titles apparently did this, like Dragon's Crown). * * * * * As for favorite characters... -- Gammel grew on me. I originally started out jailing him, then I restarted my save to let him go. When I finally ended up recruiting him, his team ends up being one of my MVPs as I had him run the "Arrow Rain" build composition. It also helps he is just a fun character. -- Aramis was also a surprise. I was having a rough time making Swordfighters work (having a Cleric with Parting Resurrection helps a ton), but he and Leah worked really well. I also loved his story beats whenever he appeared, and Aramis is way cooler than Gilbert. -- Melisandre was also fun, especially since she ended up sneaking onto my Alain childhood team (Alain, Lex, Chloe, Scarlett) since I only really planned out unit compositions of four instead of five. -- Rosalinde I was indifferent about before release (just another "elf waifu" bait), but seeing her in action inside the game changed my opinion rather quickly. She plays well, and I enjoy her personality and voicework. Elemental Roar is such an amazing ability. -- Josef is MVP, and I don't care what anyone says. The "Gaze upon the face of your demise" has the same energy of Frederick's "Pick a god and pray." While it is true his stats are deliberately crap due to his pre-promote status, he does seem to have his full stats once he is max level at 50. Special shoutouts to Rolf, Nina, Ochlys, and Sharon. I liked them a lot as well.

Finally got around to trying the demo, and upon seeing the UI I had immediately flashbacks to me Ogre Battle 64 days. Considering Ogre Battle 64 is one of my most favorite games of all time, I had an absolute blast playing the demo and will definitely be playing it on its full release. I'll probably be restarting my save though, as I ended up not recruiting two characters (since I thought doing so would have gameplay/story ramifications, but apparently there isn't. The only reason to not recruit them is to get an alternative reward instead of a new character.) Well, time to speedrun the demo and see what else I can discover...

Hmm... For Fire Emblem, my first was Sacred Stones. While it does still hold a special place for me, my favorite has to be Shadows of Valentia, even with its terrible map design and certain story points. Shadows of Valentia had the polish and presentation that no title I've played matched since. If the map design were more like the Rise of the Deliverance DLC, I wonder how great SoV would have been... -- I have not touched Engage yet, something about that title still bothers me to this day. I do plan on playing it eventually though... For Advance Wars, my first was the OG on the GBA (from a friend, no less), and then I got into the series myself from there, playing all of the games. Seeing Reboot Camp is great, but my favorite probably has to be Days of Ruin (Dark Conflict in EU). While I did have to get used to the change in art style, especially for the unit graphics, I fell in love with its gameplay and expanded map editor. Command and Conquer? I think my first was Red Alert, and I believe it still remains my favorite despite the other C&C games like Tiberian Sun and Red Alert 2. Granted, I am including my time with OpenRA as a part of that, but I still love the first game all the same. -- Special shoutout to Mental Omega, a mod for Red Alert 2 that I know a lot about but haven't actually played myself. Honestly, I consider it a canon game despite its fanmade status. Warcraft is Warcraft III, although I also dearly love Warcraft II. While I didn't truly appreciate the regular skirmish until much later in my years, all the custom maps people made for Warcraft 3 were amazing. Mario Party... I was an avid Mario Party enthusiast back in the day, but then they released 8 and butchered the series with 9. Since then, the franchise has been dead to me. My favorite is probably still Mario Party 3 as I loved the larger maps (something they got rid of as the games progressed), although Mario Party DS was also really awesome. Special shoutout to Mario Party 7 probably being the most well-rounded of the Gamecube Era games. Mario Kart 64 was my first Mario Kart game, and probably still remains my favorite although I probably put more time in Double Dash and Mario Kart DS. I missed the Wii and 3DS era of Mario Kart, picking up Mario Kart 8 for the Wii U (base game only), and missing 8 Deluxe for the Switch. While I do have good memories of Double Dash (it was my first Gamecube game and I remember playing it fondly), something about 64 feels even more special to me. Smash Brothers, gotta go for Brawl. While I loved the original and Melee, Brawl's Subspace Emissary mode was the best thing ever and I absolutely loved the music for Brawl. While I played a bit during the Wii U/3DS era, and even a bit of Ultimate, my prime was during the Brawl days. -- Speaking of Smash Brothers, Smash Remix is something I came across recently that is essentially a love letter for the N64 version, and I remember enjoying Super Smash Flash 2 for a bit. Xenoblade Chronicles 3 won out for me in the Xenoblade Chronicles franchise, as my favorite previously was the first title. That said, I love all the games, including X, but if I had to pick one, it'll probably be 3. I just wish 3 had NG+ options like 2 did... ...and I'll stop here before I start coming up with more stuff.

Unicorn Overlord and Eiyuden Chronicles caught my attention. -- Unicorn Overlord being Vanillaware and reminding me of Ogre Battle is a Day One purchase for me. -- Eiyudne Chronicles just looks interesting and I want to look into it more. Although, after the initial interest wore off, I am puzzled with the decision to remake Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. -- Remaking Super Mario RPG makes sense as that was on the SNES (despite its somewhat timeless aesthetic). Paper Mario: TTYD was a Gamecube title and I think still holds up to modern day due to its style. Unless new stuff is added, I'm not sure if I'll pick it up as I can just play the original instead. Other titles of personal interest... -- Warioware: Move It! (I enjoy the Warioware games, although I don't really get the chance to play them.) -- Luigi's Mansion 2 HD (Never got to play 2, so having an HD version more easily accessible is nice.) -- Contra: Operation Galuga (It's Contra, although I myself never played any of the games.) -- Splatoon 3: Side Order (I don't own Splatoon 3, but I did enjoy my time with Splatoon 1 and 2. Perhaps one day I'll pick up 3...) -- Saga: Emerald Beyond (Seems like an interesting RPG, but I don't know if what was shown is enough to get me to buy it.)

Yeah, with Engage on the horizon as well as Omega-Force (the "Warriors Developer") now working on Fate/Samurai Remnant, it might as well be confirmed that there will be no DLC for Three Hopes. -- It's a terrible shame as I found Three Hopes to be superior to the first FE Warriors. I was hoping for more polish as well as making some NPCs playable, but I guess that's just how things go. * * * * * As for a "Definitive Edition" of Three Houses/Hopes in the future, it would be cool to see as I love the world of Fodlan. Alas, I think it has been made clear that the devs don't want to implement a "Golden Route" for the Fodlan setting. The closest we got to that was the Cindered Shadows DLC campaign, but even then I imagine the war still starts anyway despite being an "alternative timeline." -- The idea of making a third game sounds interesting on paper, but I agree with DefyingFates on juggling the many avatars combinations being a pain. If they do make another game in Fodlan, I imagine it either being a prequel (perhaps the war between Serios and Nemesis), or a sequel in one of the neighboring lands. === That said, if we go by the rules of three (Three Houses, Three Hopes, Three ???), then perhaps a trilogy is indeed possible with yet another avatar and timeline. It definitely would be interesting to see how that timeline plays out, although I imagine each avatar would be assigned a house instead of picking one and the story will revolve around each house instead of focusing on the avatar themselves. (Perhaps Byleth goes Black Eagles, Shez goes Blue Lions, and a new "Outsider/Foreigner" Avatar joins the Golden Deer.) // Of course, perhaps there is a 4th route with the Ashen Wolves that has everyone working together, but who knows if that will lead to a "golden ending."

While I personally would still love DLC for Three Hopes, at this point it is looking more and more unlikely. If one still holds out hope for DLC, maybe it may be announced some time after Engage's release so people buy Engage instead of Warriors DLC. Also, everyone seems to be on the Engage train anyways, so keeping attention focused on a mainline title is probably the way to go instead of having a spinoff receive some focus. -- As for me, I'm more in the "wait and see" boat instead of the Engage hype train. I probably won't be picking it up on launch and instead wait a while to see how the story and gameplay hold up. It'll give me a chance to play other games anyways.

Did some looking around about the latest patch,,, Apparently Apex Skills are fixed (From Gamefaqs, 140% Before Patch, 240% After Patch, 320% with & Grievous Blow), which can be pretty important for those still trying out builds for Three Hopes. I'm personally intrigued about the end credits section, as I originally wondered if it revolved around recruiting Byleth or not (I got the "Good Ending" regardless, although I did recruit everyone). I haven't touched the game in a while or to test a "Kill Every Last One of Them" run to see if that nets the "Bad Ending," as I'm holding out for DLC to play more. * * * * * Regarding Outrealms for Three Hopes, I'm personally against it. Let Three Houses be its stand-alone universe. FE Warriors 2 can be the crossover game and hopefully be better than the first.

*dusts off thread* So, managed to finish the event and clear the CQ. MVP goes to MHXX, who was extremely useful for cleanup duty and handling hostile Foreigners. -- Otherwise, the majority of the event was Space!Ishtar and double Castoria. To deal with "unknown" nodes, I swapped out a Castoria for Summer!BB to perform two AoE NPs. -- Even the CQ was handled fairly easily with Space!Ishtar and the Castoria duo, although I'll admit having mine at NP2 and making use of Castoria's Overcharged NP helped a lot. The support Castoria ended up dying near the end, so Summer!BB came in to clean up. Story-wise, it was fairly enjoyable! The extra act was a little contrived, but I guess it all wrapped up fairly well in the end. -- Gameplay-wise, I did enjoy exploring the map tile-by-tile. I think I prefer this method compared to the dungeon crawling of Kama's event, if just because this method plays faster. I guess the main thing for me is the concern about "no future re-runs" and the limited-time nature of these events. While I do enjoy playing FGO for its story, I dislike the time limitations of it. I wish I could just explore and play the content on my own time instead of being forced to rush through events and the like to get the full experience. * * * * * In other news, I'm happy I got a Grail to spend as I was full on Embers and had no more space. Grailing the Valkyries to 102 cleared that up real quick, although I left them at 101 so I can keep the embers in the Second Archive safely stored for the proper EXP success events. -- I probably should have a spare grail on standby in case I need an Ember dump, as farming lottos gives me more embers than I know what to do with for regular raising of Servants and grailing some to 100.

I think there's two Extra Quests that are decent for Demonic Beast, although this is going off of memory and requires one to be doing campaign runs instead of just doing Record Keeper battles. 1. A Grave Threat - Fights against two Demonic Beasts (alongside some random enemy officers that spawn in later). 2. An Unexpected Encounter -- Fight against one Demonic Beast (alongside some random enemy officers) In terms of main chapter missions or the side maps, I'm not sure. I know some have guaranteed spawns, but I haven't wrote down what chapter does what. * * * * * * * * * * As for the "All S" checkmark, I don't know. I sorta stopped playing Three Hopes after finishing my 2nd Blue Lions run, hoping for DLC so I can someday return to the game.

double post time Finished the event, although I didn't get to clear out the shop or fully upgrade all the structures. At least I got the important stuff! -- This is the first event I skipped through the story as I was pressed for time but still wanted to claim all the rewards. Hopefully I'll get around to reading the story via the replay function or a potential re-run... -- I also didn't get to play around with any of the Raids, but apparently I didn't miss much so I'm not too worried about it. As for the challenge quest, I went in with my usual team of Space Ishtar, Castoria x2, BB, Mash, and Herc Insurance. -- I got blindsided by Avenger Nobu's "remove defensive buffs on Divine servants," so Space Ishtar got annihilated and I lost one of my Castorias to a crit. -- Luckily, BB with a non MLB Damage Bonus CE carried the rest of the match, even though I ended up losing the other Castoria and Mash. Herc got the last hit with his NP. * * * * * I still need to finish Olympus with regards to the main story. One day I'll be able to sit down and play through it properly...

Guess I'll place my consolidated thoughts here after having the day to mull things over. Initial impressions were not great. I had some knowledge of the leaks and it was amusing at first, but seeing it being confirmed dragged down the mood. -- The aesthetics immediately jumped out to me. I suppose I fit into the category of enjoying "darker/realistic" FE instead of the going "full anime," although perhaps it may be more appropriate to say Engage may be more of a "fantastical tale of good vs evil" instead of the struggles of kingdoms and its people. // I know FE has been stepping into a more "anime" direction since Awakening, mainly due to S-Supports and the Private Quarters from Fates (Tea Time/Expeditions for Three Houses/Hopes). I just hoped Shadows of Valentia and Three Houses were good signs of a potential return to form... -- "Engage" being the title is underwhelming. I guess it works, but it just doesn't sound cool. Sometimes I misread Engage as Enrage though... -- The legacy characters and various callbacks are dangerous additions. While I'm sure FE: Heroes players will be more accommodating, I don't play FEH anymore and was hoping for a more "standard" mainline installment. // That said, apparently the leaks stated Engage was originally made to celebrate the franchise, but missed the initial date. Having a celebration in Heroes would have been good enough in my opinion, but I guess having a "mainline anniversery game" could also work. -- I'm personally not a fan of the "Base Camp," but this is more due to fears of being too similar to the Monastery of Three Houses where it interrupted the pacing of the SRPG side of the game. I know the "character bonding" aspects have always been a strong point for Fire Emblem (Support Conversations), but I can live without meaningless fluff dialogue and Avatar praise. Looking over the trailer again at the time of this post, I noticed there was no portraits for the "combat engagement" screen, instead using the 3D models. I guess this makes sense considering costume changes are a thing, but it is sad to see the portraits go. -- I could post other things I noticed, but Vincent's write-up on the main site covers basically everything and more, so go read that for a more detailed analysis of the trailer. As of the present moment though, I have went from dehyped fan to being a hopeful skeptic. All we have is 3 minutes of official footage to draw conclusions from, which is not nearly enough to hold a proper opinion on the game itself. -- I believe Engage is meant to be a more fantastical story of good vs evil, and it shows with the chosen aesthetic. It's a shame for me personally, but I have a feeling the "darker/realistic" FE may end up being the FE4 remake (provided the leaks was also true on that front). -- I just need to see more to form a more solid opinion. The environments look nice, but I need to see more of the various character designs and the UI, as well as knowing more about the main storyline. -- I'll try to remain hopeful that Engage is actually a really good game and that my initial impressions were misguided. Better to stay an optimist and just move on if it doesn't work out than be a pessimist drowning in misery the whole time.

It honestly depends on what you are going for. -- I consider the game finished by playing through all three routes once, even though there is technically a variation due to one important story choice. After beating the main story, experiencing as many supports as possible, and beating the paralogues, the game is essentially done. (I did this in maybe 170 hours for all routes, with some time spend grinding.) As for me, I'm trying to master all classes, and I'm like 270 hours in with only like 5 characters mastered. -- Only one character has all stats maxed, while I reached 120 (max level) on three characters. -- I've also been forging Relics, Divine, Agarthan, and Unique Weapons, which takes a lot of gold and materials. I'm about halfway done, although they function just fine with maxed out Might. == It's a long journey, and I'm spending my time doing NG+ playthroughs instead of spamming "Record Keeper/Free Mode Battles" so I can farm stat boosters and master classes faster.

Overall, the Direct was fairly solid with some good titles showcased. I'm sure the new Fire Emblem will be received well due to the popularity of Heroes and since its the new mainline game. As for further observations from the trailer... -- Gauntlets/Fists are back. -- I have a feeling the past "Hero Characters/Emblems" will be the "Pair Up/Adjutants" for Engage. // Also, there may be a fusion/transformation sequence for some stuff? -- Yeah, there's definitely a hub area. I saw Marth standing around while the MC was exploring, and the mini-map seemed to solidify its existence for me. -- ...Maybe the game might be good? It's just the initial impressions/aesthetics is not selling it for me. If I remember correctly from the leaks, the game was meant to be a celebration of Fire Emblem as a franchise, so that's why there's so many callbacks and bringing back legacy characters.