Fire Emblem Engage has been Announced!

[vanguard333]

Just now, Fabulously Olivier said:

Or it was made this way precisely because of the enduring popularity of Awakening. They could also be trying to gauge the popularity of characters with mainline audiences for prospective remakes. 

I suppose, though Awakening mainly endures because it was the game that revived the franchise 10 years ago and brought in a new set of fans, and the massive success of Three Houses demonstrates that at least most of those fans are more than willing for IS to make FE games that aren't like Awakening.

I think that second one is a lot more likely, especially since, this time around, they are referencing all the past games fairly equally rather than just referencing Shadow Dragon and the newest games and leaving the GBA and Tellius games in the cold like Warriors and Tokyo Mirage Sessions (and Awakening to a lesser extent, as the only games to be referenced in the story outside of bonus content were Marth's games and Gaiden) did. Not to mention the trailer repeatedly showing off Sigurd: one of the protagonists of the first game chronologically that has yet to get to get a remake.

 

1 minute ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Supposedly it was originally meant to be an anniversary game, celebrating the 30th year of the franchise. Or so it was claimed some time ago, around the time of the leaks or a report or something like that. As such no surprising if they were doing the "past heroes of the series" gimmick again.

An anniversary celebration would also make a lot of sense as a reason for them to do that.

[DefyingFates]

14 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

There's no particular reason to contextualise an undo ability in-universe really, it'd get increasingly weird in each successive game having to come up with a new excuse for the ability to exist and giving it a unique name. Just have it be a regular UI feature with zero fanfare.

True! If it is part of the Engage's gameplay though, I'm still surprised we haven't seen it - not even as a menu option...

[Imuabicus der Fertige]

In the screen with the goat creature... I swear one of the birds has a speech bubble. Also a sparkling spot of dirt?

5 hours ago, Cysx said:

Chloé's damage of 42 with a Slim Lance is... surprising, to say the least.

She is fighting a Thief with a hammer. Maybe a more dangerous version of fates effective weaponry.

 

Hm, might the... Engage Wombo Combo be turn/combat limited? Both the Alfred/Sigurd scene and the Celine/Celica as well after Celine/Celica combat round we get a look at the characters, all of which have numbers on by their portrait.

[ciphertul]

So does anyone think this will be another sandbox like Awakening/Stones or linear? I really hope it’s not the half-assed middle of the road Houses was.

[DefyingFates]

3 minutes ago, ciphertul said:

So does anyone think this will be another sandbox like Awakening/Stones or linear? I really hope it’s not the half-assed middle of the road Houses was.

I hope it's a sandbox. I know that'll make people antsy about overlevelling, but I always liked being able to do side missions, and a sandbox also increases the chances of there being a postgame - or even just a way to replay maps for money, Supports, etc. without replaying the whole thing from scratch.

Also, didn't Houses do what Birthright and Revelation did?

[Fabulously Olivier]

Maybe we'll get a demo when they do the deep-dive presentation they hinted at in the Direct. 

[ciphertul]

13 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

I hope it's a sandbox. I know that'll make people antsy about overlevelling, but I always liked being able to do side missions, and a sandbox also increases the chances of there being a postgame - or even just a way to replay maps for money, Supports, etc. without replaying the whole thing from scratch.

Also, didn't Houses do what Birthright and Revelation did?

Houses was use or lose, above normal you only had so many battle attempts and then you where forced to move on. Also you couldn’t unlock new classes or do supports once you started the extra missions.

[joevar]

im calling it now: break mechanic is for interrupting counter attack. since 3 of the battle with break shows enemy lose grip of their weapon and knocked down despite not death

31 minutes ago, ciphertul said:

So does anyone think this will be another sandbox like Awakening/Stones or linear? I really hope it’s not the half-assed middle of the road Houses was.

its sandbox ala awakening im sure. what with heroes emblem being present.

45 minutes ago, vanguard333 said:

one of the protagonists of the first game chronologically that has yet to get to get a remake.

one of biggest reason im going to play this. just to see past lord thats not Marth in actual HD 3D model with glowing up "facelift"

---

but why the heck marth art in mural used FE1 art with bulging muscle, but actually showed up with slim hand and FEH outfit

[Azz]

Over all, I'm quite positive about the game.

-I enjoy the art style. I'm liking how colourful it is which is an improvement on the TH artsyle which was probably my least favourite part of the game for me.

-The designs don't bother me too much. The male protag is my favourite of the two, mainly because I feel like the extremely long hair makes the red and blue a bit much compared to the short of hair of the male protag. The other designs are okay. Very high anime style, but I've played and enjoyed Xenoblade 2 so it doesn't really faze me.

-The gameplay looks fun. Am hoping it's an improvement on TH since that felt very barebones even with the added mechanics. I'm really hoping we're revisiting Conquest style gameplay.

-It seems like classes are taking a note from Heroes, which has me hoping for more class diversity, even if units are locked to one weapon type.

-We seem to be getting another My Castle/Monastery style base again. As long as its small and concise and it doesn't bog down the gameplay as much as the monastery I'll be happy. If its something like the Three Hopes base, I'll be happy. 

-I have no feelings toward the story. I think it is a step down from TH though tbh, after years after discourse I'm happy to see us get a fairly basic story of chosen one versus evil dragon. As long as it is told well despite being basic, I'll be happy. I think it would be very funny if, despite the very anime visuals, it had an amazing story ala Xenoblade 2 ngl.

Overall, I'm fairly excited and optimistic.

[kratoscar2008]

4 hours ago, zuibangde said:

Is there an official rating of the game revealed? It would be surprising to see the most fanservicey mainline game to exclude a major fanservice component.

That being said, I think I remember the leak showing

  Hide contents

part of the support list of a male character and the support level only goes up to A with the avatar. I thought it was because the avatar was male back then but knowing what the avatars look like now, I'm pretty sure the pixel art in the leak was for female Alear.

 

I saw some people saying that. After Hopes was rated without romance which turned to be accurate then I will have to take it aa correct.

And yeah the leaks showed that so maybe there isnt romance or now the avatar can pair up at A.

[ciphertul]

1 hour ago, joevar said:

its sandbox ala awakening im sure. what with heroes emblem being present.

I hope so, I do enjoy leveling everyone.

[DefyingFates]

1 hour ago, Azz said:

-I have no feelings toward the story. I think it is a step down from TH though tbh, after years after discourse I'm happy to see us get a fairly basic story of chosen one versus evil dragon. As long as it is told well despite being basic, I'll be happy. I think it would be very funny if, despite the very anime visuals, it had an amazing story ala Xenoblade 2 ngl.

I'm happy you brought that up, because XC2 is a great example of something looking absurd on the surface and being pretty deep if you gave it a chance.

Of course I'm not saying it was okay that XC2 was crammed full of fanservice and lousy anime cliches, but it doesn't seem like we're getting any of that here (we haven't seen a Camilla yet, for example) so I have hope that we won't get that stuff in Engage period.

[Armchair General]

8 hours ago, Cysx said:

That's after enemy Def, too, and of course the enemy has 0 in every combat parameter. Something's up.

It's from something along the lines of Darting Blow, I'm guessing

[lenticular]

10 hours ago, joevar said:

why not low Mov? so many SRPG has low Mov but still work. if everyone has low Mov with many smaller, tighter maps, and none of open field i dont see it being a big problem. also if we're going to have Fe4 remake next from the leak, then we will have our High Mov FE

I don't have a problem with low move if it's done well and has small, tight, well-designed maps. I'm just a little wary because some of the early maps in Three Houses (the Miklan map especially) were exactly the wrong kind of low move maps. Having low-move characters having to trek over large maps can get really tedious. I also worry about the possibility of desert maps. One of the four countries in the trailer looked like a desert, so I'm expecting multiple desert maps. And if these reduce movement as usual, then they're going to be awful. 4 move is fine (if the maps are designed for it), but you can't really go much below that before things grind to a halt. So, overall, yeah, low movement might be great. But it might also be terrible. It depends on how it's done. And I'm enough of a pessimist to imagine the worst case scenarios first.

[Fabulously Olivier]

56 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

I'm happy you brought that up, because XC2 is a great example of something looking absurd on the surface and being pretty deep if you gave it a chance.

Of course I'm not saying it was okay that XC2 was crammed full of fanservice and lousy anime cliches, but it doesn't seem like we're getting any of that here (we haven't seen a Camilla yet, for example)

One of the characters is literally in fishnet stockings and a casino bar-bunny cosplay, so I don't know what game you're looking at.

Edited September 14, 2022 by Fabulously Olivier

[Ziegenpeter]

I legit had to pause the trailer several times. This is already not a good sign.

Anyway, after fighting through the trailer, I can say with confidence that I'm not a fan of the things I've seen. When I read the leaks, I pretty much expected this, though

 

Good:

- The weapon-triangle is back. The triangle was still kiiinda there in 3H, just relegated to abilities like axe-breaker etc., but I definitely prefer it when it's completely baked in as a core mechanic, so that's good

- Seems like one of the maps in the trailer is a "Defend the tiles" mission. That's pretty neat, I hope this is a good sign for the variety of the gameplay

 

Ok:

- I don't really have anything against FE going for a more gaudy and oversaturated art-style, at least in terms of colors. People may forget this, but the GBA games were kinda similar in terms of color saturation. Eliwood, Canas and Nils comes to mind. The thing is, though, that I'm just not sure that I like the way Engage does it. Someone said that it looks like Genshin Impact and that kinda nails it. The character models all look weirdly glossy/wet, and the enviroments look like they are missing textures. Feels like they heard all the criticism 3H got for its muddy/ugly textures and overcorrected it here

- I'm not a fan of the fanservice-y "Everyone is here!" route they seem to go with this installment, but I can't lie, it's nice to see HD-models of underappreciated lords like Leif, Roy and Micaiah (Roy in Smash Ultimate doesn't count 🤭)

 

Not good:

- While I have nothing against the saturated art-style, I'm definitely not a fan of the character designs. People already said more than enough about Toothpaste-Lord's extremely dumb and tacky hair and the characters are currently getting absolutely destroyed on other places, so I won't focus on them. But almost all the characters look like they came straight out of a low-budget Genshin Impact clone. The faces of the younger characters (especially the girls) look very weird, something about the eyes is bugging me. This is such a downgrade from the character design of Hidari and Kurahana. Mika Pikazo is a good artist, but it's kinda similar to Kozaki with Awakening and Fates: Good artist, but not a good fit for the FE series.

- I set my expectations low for the writing of this game. Stuff like "Fell Dragon" and antagonists, that look comically evil, are no good signs. After 3H's subtle writing (at least for FE standards), this seems like a step back again. Normally, I would wait for for info before passing judgement on the writing, but the whole "summon the lords from the past" shenanigans makes it hard to stay hopeful. I doubt they included this element in Engage to tell a good story and more just to satisfy the Heroes crowd.

- I'm not a fan of the avatar lord talking again. Maybe hot-take, but Byleth being a silent protag was a blessing in disguise

-  Why do all the characters look either like children or like old men? Even the characters with big busts have toddler faces, like that Pegasus Knight

- "Engage" is probably the worst sub-title yet

 

Anyway, I will still wait for more info before judging to the fullest, but I'm not a fan so far.

 

Edited September 14, 2022 by Ziegenpeter

[Fabulously Olivier]

As bad as the hair is, it isn't even the worst part of M!Alear's design (though for F!Alear, it absolutely is). The worst part is the horribly saturated color pallet of his outfit, and how said colors are distributed. And the casual/town outfit is even worse without the cape.

[Use the Falchion]

5 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

But Pokemon is a media juggernaut that will sell millions even if the next cartridge cost $70 and just had a gif of the Game Freak CEO laughing at the camera, so I don't think that's an apt comparison. But releasing this in 2023 and an FE4 remake the year after could work (depending on how long both projects have been in development, of course).

That's not untrue, but you'd think that Pokemon's success would mean that they would never release more than one game a year, let alone bigger games like PLA and S/V. But here we are. That's probably because the major deciding factor (IMO) isn't necessarily the size of the company, but the fiscal year. So long as the games are in different fiscal years, then they can be in the same calendar year. The timeline between Three Hopes and Engage is seven months, and other FE games have had even shorter times between their games. It'd be perfectly reasonable for FE to release Engage in January (and release DLC in May), announce FE 4 in June, and then release it in October/November. They'd be different fiscal years also, so it's not like they'd be counted at the same time. Besides, as hinted, this wouldn't be the first or even second time that IntSys has done that with Fire Emblem. (See 2005 with Sacred Stones and Path or Radiance for America, or 2017 with Echoes and Warriors. Granted, the latter two were smaller games overall.)

Now, do I really think that an FE 4 remake is going to come out in 2023? Not really. We have Engage, and we still have some potential (hopeful) Three Hopes DLC to worry about. But I also don't think the "two games from the same franchise in one year" club is as exclusive or unreasonable as you sort of imply. 

[Taho]

FE Engage is on the Nintendo e-shop as a pre-order 😶 (at least, it is in France) for 59€99. I wonder why they didn't announce it in the Nintendo direct like they did for the other games...

[Azz]

It's currently listed on Amazon UK, with no boxart or preorder option available but I imagine they will be soon since its coming out in January

[Zapp Branniglenn]

My stance on the leaks were "this looks fake, but if it's real it's Definitely the followup to Fire Emblem Heroes". This game isn't Fire Emblem Heroes 2...or is it? Don't think I didn't notice Ike and Lucina's designs being derived from that game instead of the source material. I'm almost surprised Leif is here, when they could just as easily have chosen Reinhardt, the true lord of FE5 and most recognizeable Thracia character as of the twenty first century. The cutscene art style appears to also be the same as in the mobile game. And the...eclectic hair color of our hero is no doubt the logical evolution of every original character from Heroes having frosted tip colors to contrast their real hair color. Will Feh the Owl appear to remind us about what still needs doing in the Monastery every week?

Now that I've taken the day, I'm starting to come around on the idea of Fire Emblem Engage. Not to the point where I won't make sarcastic comments like I just did above, but enough to acknowledge this is a whole new game with new possibilities and I don't know everything that's in there from this one trailer. I'll go to my grave saying that good ideas executed poorly are still Good Ideas, and the reverse may also be true. Mario + Rabbids? That's a bad idea that turned out excellent. A minimally play tested Hard Mode added to Three Houses? Wow, all the monastery busywork that's normally standing In Front of the Fire Emblem content suddenly matters. So when you tell me Awakening's Stat Backpacks are back in the form of Smash Bros characters, maybe there's more to it that we can't see.

Edited September 14, 2022 by Zapp Branniglenn

[Azz]

Somebody on tumblr did the maths and it makes sense that Engage would've been a 30th anniversary game. With TH meant to be released in 2018, then being delayed twice to July of 2019 then covid happening, it makes sense this game ended up being delayed and allegedly being completed for some time if the leaks are to be believed.

If this is a correct guess on how events occurred, I'm happy the game was kept until now because it looks much better than TH did at first (and even once finished at points).

[Ziegenpeter]

Just to be sure, but is it confirmed that Koei/Gust are working on this alongside IntSys?

The writing-trio of Three Houses worked on Three Hopes while Engage was in development. Maybe Engage looks so tonally different because the 3H writers are not involved in the project.

Edited September 14, 2022 by Ziegenpeter

[B.Leu]

What this trailer is telling me is "Good Fire Emblem can only be done right when not in IS's hands", because just look at that trailer, compare it either THs, and gosh, it's the day and the night, the colors are over satured everywhere, the interface look oversimplified, the designs, while not 100% bad, reminds me of pre-TH, and I'm nitpicky as all hell for this one, but look at Vander's bear, compare it to Jeralt's. Also, freaking Toothpaste. Dragon Child. Yeah, I'm definitely not getting any bad vibes from it. GG. 

Last time the game tried to put past games into one, that was Awakening, and Heroes and Tokyo Mirage, that's a bad sign not a good one.

But I'm not gonna pretend that TH was perfect, Three Houses and it's Garreg Mach of Infinity, Three Houses and it's bland maps, Three Houses and it's reusing of maps, Three Houses Birthrout, Three Houses with Kronya and FemByleth's designs. Engage's maps looks good, but so far, that's look and only look.

So I'm rather pessimistic, going from Echoes, to TH, to Engage is like inventing archery, then the tank, but going back to throwing stones.

Edited September 14, 2022 by B.Leu

[PrincessAlyson]

I'm feeling fairly optimistic. While I don't like seeing Marth yet again (give the man a rest), seeing the other heroes is pretty nice. Glad to see Erika and Micaiah. I don't mind the artstyle, although it does remind me of Genshin Impact. The gameplay and interface looks pretty good. I like the windmills and other scenery shown. The weapon triangle is back! Brawling is back! It also looks like there will be a home base again, which I don't mind. I enjoyed Three Houses and it's my favorite FE game so far, but I hope Engage's base is a little less busy. The gimmick of using past heroes is neat and has potential if done well. 

The story seems to be very typical "fight evil dragon" like in previous games. After the beautifully heavy stories in Three Houses, a more traditional good versus evil story might be a welcome breather, especially if a potential FE4 remake is on the way. I love the political drama and heavy themes in TH and would like FE4 to appear in the West so I can play it officially, but I'd like something else while waiting to see if the leaks are true. A more basic story can still be a good one if done right. 

Both M!Alear and F!Alear have absurd hair, but I personally find it charmingly absurd. I like the idea of the Avatar being a dragon and I'm hoping it's implanted better than it was in Fates. Corrin's status as a half-dragon was only story relevant for a short time (the most it mattered was the chapter it was introduced and Revelations Route). Their clothing designs are pretty solid, though the color distribution and saturation isn't great. I'm so happy F!Alear is nothing like F!Byleth in terms of her outfit. Some elements of their clothes remind me of Hoshido for some reason. Might be just me. The Pepsi Man and Pepsi Woman are silly in a way that I find cute. I love all of the toothpaste and Pepsi jokes.

Edited September 14, 2022 by PrincessAlyson