Hawkwing

The trailer was alright. No new gameplay was shown, though to be fair, I expect that to be its own video. Especially for a strategy game, where you need to sit down and explain what the mechanics are and how they interact, which isn't that engaging unless you're already interested in the game. Anyway, a bunch of new characters were shown off, and I... don't hate the designs, but I'm not a fan of them either. I do appreciate how bright and colorful the costumes are, and everyone's outfit looks distinct. At the same time, I dearly hope the tone is lighthearted and goofy because I cannot take these designs seriously at all. There's so much needless stuff on them that I'm wondering what the heck the mornings routines of these characters are in order for them to find time to put all these trinkets on, and only a handful of characters look ready for a fight. I don't think the outfits are bad so much as I think it's a weird direction to take for a medieval fantasy series with a heavy focus on battles. I do feel I would tear into this aspect a lot more if they didn't already reveal that alternative costumes will be a thing. Chances are, if I'm not a fan of a characters current outfit, I can replace it with something I do like. Besides, Fire Emblem is no stranger to weird armor designs, and as odd as Engages outfits can be, I don't think they reach the lows of Awakening and Fates "characters literally fight without pants" (even if I also think that Awakening and especially Fates had stronger armor designs at their peak). At the end of the day, I'd say I'm more perplexed than anything regarding Engages art direction. Being limited to 12 rings of just the protagonists with no villains or side characters is disappointing, if unsurprising. Fire Emblem Heroes has been out for 5 years now, and that game is still missing some notable characters, and Three Hopes managed to fill in the roster of a Warriors title by reusing most of the cast from Three Houses. As cool as having several villains and side characters from past games would be, I can easily see how the workload to do so would add up quickly and that's alongside creating an entirely new cast from scratch. On the gameplay front, we haven't seen the full extend of how Engaging works yet, so perhaps anything more than 12 characters started to cause issues of some kind, either from being overcomplicated or unbalanced or some characters were too similar to each other or whatever. The decision didn't come out of nowhere, is what I'm getting at. As for the story, I'm sticking with my assessment when the game was revealed that Engage will either be extremely formulaic and have a ton of fun with its tropes and cliches, or there will be some major twist(s) that turn the entire game on its head. The setup in the trailer was so straightforwardly generic that I can't imagine it going any other way. Anyway, the trailer didn't do much for me personally. I still plan on picking the game up eventually, even though it's not a day 1 buy for me as I'd like to see some reviews and fan feedback first. Still, the next few days should be interesting as the trailer is analyzed and dissected and more details come out.

SAL’s CAMPAIGN FINALE: Sal Fallon, The Bounty Hunter VS Kashio, The Freelancer Replies: Update:

A pretty fun take on a meme. I think I've seen it here before, though.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/227220/discussions/0/846945955412539900/

SAL’S CAMPAIGN DAY 4 BOSS FIGHT: Taking Down The Spree Replies: Update:

Sal’s CAMPAIGN DAY 4 FREELANCE MISSION: The Fourth Wall

SAL’S CAMPAIGN DAY 3 BOSS FIGHT: A Bounty Hunter, A Smuggler, A Crayote, And A Bureaucrat Fight A Biohazard Alternative Title: There might not be a lot of talking, but holy crap was there a lot of gameplay this time around. The boss alone took 2 hours to arrange and comment on. It did not help that Mandaloregaming and Ahoy both posted hour-long videos on the same day, and I accidentally played XCOM 2 for six hours straight last Saturday. Replies: Update:

Good music/10 Will Look For Extended Version Later

A little late responding, but I had to laugh when Nintendo spent 5-6 minutes hyping up a 2 minute long trailer and then said nothing afterwards. That was such a Nintendo move, and I still don't know whether I love or hate them for it. Still, I'm glad they said upfront that they were still working on polishing parts of the movie and that they were composing the soundtrack right now. The music in the trailer was pretty generic. Speaking of the trailer, I love this movie visually. Every creature looks recognizable but with the added detail that a movie can afford over a video game, and the poster alone has a ton of attention to detail about how various parts of the Mario Universe could function outside the context of a videogame. Any tweaks to the character designs seem like they were made to be easier to animate in the context of a movie and don't come off as jarring. I don't go to the theater that often, but I'm legitimately thinking about going to see this on the big screen. In terms of voices, Jack Black makes a strong first impression as Bowser, Toad doesn't sound annoying, and Luigi's grunts still sound like Luigi. I need to hear more lines before making any calls on Chris Pratt as Mario, but the little we did hear was... fine. And honestly, I'm okay with fine in this scenario; I can see myself being not complaining about listening to the voice for an entire movie. Overall, I'm cautiously optimistic. Nintendo seems to have enjoyed the process of making a movie so much they straight up bought an animation studio, which I'll take as a good sign. I do get the impression from the trailer alone that a lot of people involved were very passionate about getting a Mario Movie just right. I am by no means expecting a masterpiece, but I dearly hope that this is a super fun family film that is gorgeous to watch.

SAL’S CAMPAIGN DAY 3 ADMIRALTY MISSION: If This Were A Stealth Game, Things Would Have Played Out Very Differently Under normal circumstances, this wouldn’t have taken me a week. Heck, this was actually one of the shorter missions in the game and I wrote the first draft in 2 hours. The reason for the delay was that my sister came to visit last week. As much fun as I have writing these, I’d rather spend my free time with family that I haven’t seen for a few months due to college. She’s since went back, so I should get back to updating every two to three days unless something else comes up. …My father getting the anniversary edition of Skyrim on GOG didn’t help. Neither of us have tried Skyrim before, and we’ve both been addicted the last few days. I see where people are coming from when they complain about it “oversimplifying” mechanics, and I don’t necessarily disagree, but I’ve had a love-hate relationship with every Elder Scrolls game mechanically, and Skyrim is no different. Dual wielding is a ton of fun, though. I hope they keep that for the next game. On a final frivolous note, I'm laughing my butt off because while people are giving their opinions over whether or not they like Celine's dress, I’m playing a game where units look like this, and while people are debating over Mario's voice, the game handles it's voice acting like this. On a serious note, Sacrifice is an awesome game that I would love to see given the HD remaster treatment, even if it would have to be made by a team that “gets it”. Replies: Update:

I learned what an Eudaemonist is today. I can see that leading to some interesting conversations where Alfred's philosophy is discussed and debated. I'm warming up to his outfit. It's the right amount of overdesigned that I could see a pompous (if kindhearted) noble wearing. Animation wise, I'm concerned that the map movement will remain stiff, but the combat remain fun to watch. I particularly like how the enemy cavalier flips off their horse. That's a pretty fun defeat animation. 100% crit though? I'm guessing that's either debugging weirdness or whatever they heck they did behind the scenes to set up the scenario before recording the video. You can just make enemies hit harder rather than giving them guaranteed crits. If it's not a joke though, then I can see 100% crit enemies more or less having a "kill this foe IMMEDIETALY" sign over their head at all times. They would certainly be an interesting opponent to deal with. Maybe not a fun one, but an interesting foe. Not entirely certain what my final thoughts on Alfred's partners designs are yet. The lady looks okay although I hope not all the female characters in Engage look so young and we get some more variety in age ranges. Not a fan of the dude's armor, though there's been a lot worse armor designs in the series. There's been a lot better, too, though. I hope that Alear's reactions are something you can toggle on and off. It was neat in Echoes for the lords reactions to be on the bottom screen, but that worked because it was on the 3DS. It doesn't transfer over as gracefully to a single screen.

I always thought that porcupines would be fun addition as a defensive focused unit. Admittedly, I mostly just want them as an excuse to see quill beards and spiky hair, since I think that could lead to some really cool anthropomorphic designs. Snakes could also be neat to see, though that could just be because I've been replaying XCOM: Chimera Squad recently, and Torque has a lot of fun options. I don't know how well those abilities they'd transfer over into Fire Emblem's gameplay, but I can see the potential in a unit that has the ability to bind and crush enemies to prevent them from moving, or one that could pull allies or enemies towards them with their tongue. The Thin Man design from XCOM: Enemy Unknown is a good example of what a "snake person" could look like untransformed. As for returning beasts, I have a soft spot for the Taguel and would like to see them come back. More seriously, if they introduce different classes for beasts, then I think there is some solid choices for what to do with rabbit warriors. Perhaps one could burrow underneath the ground, being able to bypass certain obstacles and even set up pitfall traps to halt enemy advances. Another could focus on mobility, being able to hop on, off, and over certain obstacles and reach places other units couldn't. Maybe have one focused on being a straightforward warrior, and so on. I'd like them to come back with other beast units, though, so that each one could fulfil a different niche. On a different note, I always thought that a Taguel warren could make for a fun level and was disappointed that Awakening never took advantage of that.

Thanks to Mandaloregaming, I know that the dollmakers dungeon has some pretty creepy yet cool music for a dungeon. Also that Legacy of Kain still has impressive voice acting that holds up years later.

SAL’S CAMPAIGN DAY 2 BOSS FIGHT: Assassin Questions Their Life Choices At The Worst Possible Time

A game series I really want to play sometime. There are very few games with this kind of writing style nowadays.

SAL’S CAMPAIGN DAY 2 ADMIRALTY MISSION: A Rat In A Cave Replies: Update:

Yes! A fence is destroyed during the fight! They brought back environmental damage from Echoes! And the capes seem to have actual physics to them! Thank you! One of my biggest critiques animation-wise of the last few games was the amount of clipping, and they seem to have addressed that! First impressions of the Engage system seem to fill in the role of combat arts, which makes sense. They functioned fine in Shadows of Valentia and Three Houses, but those weren't systems you could simply copy-paste into another game. In Echoes, for instance, it was expected that units would constantly lose and heal HP and the game being built around that, and it was typically an easy process to repair weapons in Three Houses to offset combat arts using durability. I get the impression you gain SP somehow and then spend it on powerful moves, but I could be off about that. As for conversing with characters from previous games... I need to see more examples first. I could see it being really fun and interesting to see past characters bounce off the new cast in a different environment, but I could also see them overshadowing the new characters or not feeling in line with their past selves. I am also concerned about the line of Marth "watching over" Alear, since I could interpret that as either Marth looking out for them for the past 1000 years or just the last few maps. I'm cautious, but I'm also reserving judgement until I see more. I mean the characters moving from point A to point B on the map screen. Previous games tended to be faster on that front.

I'm really liking the new battle animations. They remembered how dynamic camera angles can really help amplify the impact of an attack, and they look faster than several of the previous games. I'm also glad they removed the cut-in for critical attacks. They were cool in Awakening, but grew more stale with each game, and honestly should have been axed by Three Houses. The map animations look like they could use some work, though. They're pretty stiff when previous games tended to be snappy. Also, having dynamic music for the map and battle themes is back! Or at least, is more noticeable compared to Three Houses. I still think Shadows of Valentia's battle animations look better, but to be fair, I am comparing a completed game to one that hasn't been fully unveiled yet. Speaking of SoV, I hope they took a lot from that game, such as using different animations for finishing off an enemy, every class having distinct animations, characters having unique victory animations, attacks affecting the environment, etc. There's a reason people praise the game's presentation even if it also seems people forget what makes it so great, but that's a fanboy rant for elsewhere. It also seems that the conversation animations have been upgraded, or at least I hope they were. I really, really, did not like how Three Houses kept using the same stock animations over and over again for every conversation scene, and anytime something interesting happened, it was behind a black screen or occurred offscreen. For a game where a single run could take over 60 hours and going through every route could take well over 100, it just made things more stale than interesting. Engages aren't outstanding, but I know that making really good conversation system animations is not cheap or easy, so I'm okay with it looking fine. New Frame Plus has an excellent video discussing about how animations for conversation systems work in video games, if anyone's interested. I was initially concerned when I read that the twins were fans of Alear, as it seems like it would pretty easy for it to lead to "avatar worship" issues that Corrin and Byleth were plagued with. Thinking about it some more though, and Fire Emblem has done the "loyal to someone" trope before in different ways. Fredrick was incredibly loyal to Chrom, and while that's the subject of some conversations, Fredrick also has several supports that don't mention Chrom at all. In the story at least, you can get the sense of there being a mutual respect between the two, and I can say things about Fredricks character that don't revolve around his liege. From a different angle, while I wish she was given a more interesting personality, I do appreciate that SoV portrayed Faye's obsession with Alm as very unhealthy, and Dedue and Hubert in Three Houses shows that blind loyalty is not always admirable, as both are quite willing to do their masters dirty work. I'm still cautious, but I'm hopeful that the twins talk about more than just Alear and being dragon guardians. If the games tone leans towards the lighthearted side, then I could see some possibilities for humor in Alear having a fan club despite having absolutely no clue what they did to earn one. Especially if dialogue choices return and you get to choose how to react. I still want to see more designs before making any judgements about the art direction. Nothing aside from Alear (which personally falls into the "so bad, it's good" category) has grabbed me so far, but I'm also not wondering what the hell the thought process behind anything was, which is more than I can say about Awakening or Fates. That said, the fact that the twins both have braids with a different hair color as well as different bows leads me to think that it's related to their roles as dragon guardians somehow. Gauntlets were my favorite addition in Three Houses, I really liked how healers could defend themselves from the get go in Shadows of Valentia (with an unreliable attack which discouraged getting reckless with them), combine both and you get Engage's version of the monk class. I can tell I'm already going to like this class. I also like the idea of gauntlets (or brawling or whatever it's going to be called) and bows having weapon triangle bonuses against each other depending either on range or who initiated the fight. Bows and gauntlets are both reliant on playing aggressively to get the most use out of them, so the system could work. Just please don't bring back the weapon triangle from Fates. I'm using hidden weapons to debuff enemies, not to have an advantage over swords, and a mage having an advantage over bows meant nothing if the archer has high resistance. I remember playing a fan remake of Fire Emblem Gaiden back in 2018 (I think it's still available on a reddit post somewhere), and one if it's many bizarre additions to an already weird game was the inclusion of a mana system. It more or less had the exact same pros and cons that Three Houses system had. You got to see the fancy spells more often thanks to no long-term durability, and there was some occasional decision making between whether to use a weak but cheap spell or a costly powerful one. On the flip side, if it was a small map with few enemies, there was little reason to not use your big guns, while for longer maps you typically stuck with the cheaper spells. A mana system could definitely work for Fire Emblem. I just think it would be pretty predictable, and you don't need mana to have interesting and versatile spells that go beyond "hit the enemy really hard".