New Heroes: Engage

[Humanoid]

Not as bad as I'd feared, but also not as good as it needed to be to entice me. Worst case scenario was of course just having four new heroes with one obvious demote on the actual banner. The art is also at least better executed than in Engage proper, though nothing will save the actual designs.

Alfred sounds like the comic relief from 80s cartoons (e.g. Vernon in TMNT) and isn't a character I'd want in my barracks, which is disappointing because in terms of his kit, it's the one that I would want. Celine as a defensive/support mage holds no interest, and Chloe as an enemy phase flier is likewise a hard sell, though if you ignore the dead A-skill she seems like she'd be an excellent Galeforcer. Still no appeal though as I already have a perfect Harmonic Cordelia. That leaves Alear to sell the banner to me, and the Charge thing is admittedly enough of a game-changer that I don't mind her sword infantry status. But not on this banner.

Edited January 16, 2023 by Humanoid

[Mercakete]

14 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

Here:

https://fire-emblem-heroes.com/en/order-of-heroes/

Thanks! Man, I love how they're handling that! =D You don't need to worry about only having that one one save file. So long as you've redeemed the code, it will apply to every save file you make! I love that!

[Diovani Bressan]

5 minutes ago, Florete said:

Engage launches in FEH with 5 ladies and 1 dude. Lmao.

A single dude that will not even be added to the main pool once the banner ends.

[Othin]

30 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

So this banner decided to skip Alfred and Celine's male retainers while shoehorning both of the females in, already shafting the dudes.

Well that probably doesn't bode well for anyone who ends up like a male non-royal in this game. The story of Fire Emblem: Heroes in these days.

Not even making use of the insta-demote is really weird.

Brings to mind how Three Houses still has 9 of its 24 house students only available as seasonals, and 7 of them are male.

22 minutes ago, Mercakete said:

Huh. So, I'm curious about Alear (especially since this one reminds me of M!Corrin's base form, being all "I'm a dragon! *uses sword*" so I wonder if M!Alear will use a dragonstone or something), but the one I've been the most curious about (in the first trailer) is actually using the rearmed lance! Neat. (Except that I think this means he won't be in the regular pool, so...he may be a tad difficult to get after this...) I'll free pull blue, I guess, but I don't know about going all in. I want to save up for the Valentine's banner, and the child banner after that. Plus, there are actually some banners still floating around I'd like to pull some more from...

Yeah, Alfred will not be in the regular summoning pool. I was going to suggest he could fix it with an Ascended version, but Engage getting any male Ascendeds is looking unlikely.

18 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

It looks like they gave up on Arcane weapons being evil pretty quickly.

Two sparks is nice. Probably will grab Alear and Alfred with them. Not sure who I'm actually going to be pulling for. Might go with blue just because of the double focus rate.

According to the announcements, there is an error with Joyous Tome's description: The start-of-turn healing activates regardless of if there are allies in range, so Celine herself always get healing.

None of the characters or skills are particularly groundbreaking, so it's nice that I don't feel compelled to pull for merges.

According to the English notification, the thing that's wrong isn't the description, it's the functionality. Celine is getting healing regardless of range only until they fix the bug in 7.2.

[Mercakete]

7 minutes ago, Florete said:

Engage launches in FEH with 5 ladies and 1 dude. Lmao.

5? Where are you seeing the other 2 ladies?

[Diovani Bressan]

Just now, Mercakete said:

5? Where are you seeing the other 2 ladies?

GHB (Lumera) and free hero (Etie) from log-in/quests.

[Othin]

1 minute ago, Mercakete said:

5? Where are you seeing the other 2 ladies?

The GHB and insta-demote.

[Florete]

1 minute ago, Mercakete said:

5? Where are you seeing the other 2 ladies?

Etie is a quest freebie and Lumera is the GHB.

Oh damn, beaten to the punch twice.

Edited January 16, 2023 by Florete

[Diovani Bressan]

Alfred's Prf skill in Engage has the same name as his Prf skill in FEH: Self-Improver.

In Engage, it is: It unit uses Wait without attacking or using items, grants Str+2 for 1 turn.

How did it went from Str+2 when doing nothing to a bunch of stats and Guard?!

[Mercakete]

2 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

GHB (Lumera) and free hero (Etie) from log-in/quests.

1 minute ago, Othin said:

The GHB and insta-demote.

1 minute ago, Florete said:

Etie is a quest freebie and Lumera is the GHB.

Oh damn, beaten to the punch twice.

Thanks for the clarity, guys! :)

[Sunwoo]

3 minutes ago, Othin said:

Not even making use of the insta-demote is really weird.

Brings to mind how Three Houses still has 9 of its 24 house students only available as seasonals, and 7 of them are male.

Yeah, it's kinda mind-boggling how the developers never stopped to think about this. And of course they seem reluctant to make banners with more than two males at most, and nowadays it doesn't even matter with all the Rearmed and Ascendants they keep putting in. They can't seem to see anything that's not in front of their faces.

[Ice Dragon]

3 minutes ago, Othin said:

According to the English notification, the thing that's wrong isn't the description, it's the functionality. Celine is getting healing regardless of range only until they fix the bug in 7.2.

Yeah, that seems to be accurate. I was skimming the announcement and didn't pay attention to which was intended to be correct. Will edit.

 

1 minute ago, Diovani Bressan said:

Alfred's Prf skill in Engage has the same name as his Prf skill in FEH: Self-Improver.

In Engage, it is: It unit uses Wait without attacking or using items, grants Str+2 for 1 turn.

How did it went from Str+2 when doing nothing to a bunch of stats and Guard?!

Same reason every other skill also does that.

[Mercakete]

Just now, Diovani Bressan said:

Alfred's Prf skill in Engage has the same name as his Prf skill in FEH: Self-Improver.

In Engage, it is: It unit uses Wait without attacking or using items, grants Str+2 for 1 turn.

How did it went from Str+2 when doing nothing to a bunch of stats and Guard?!

Clearly, he improved himself between the main game and coming over to Askr.

Actually, it would be fun to get a seasonal of him. I just really want him to have "buddy" as part of his title, alluding to the double meaning. ("Bud" as in a growing flower, and "buddy" as in freind.)

[Humanoid]

Have to admit that I completely glossed over the fact that two units are colour-sharing here. I mean, I looked at the skills, but my brain just didn't process that there were two lances here. Obviously that means Blue becomes more desirable now, and I may end up opening all blue orbs on the ticket rounds.

A boost here is that unlike prior Rearmed heroes, I wouldn't have to do any weird SI prep to give Alfred's skills away. His kit just goes to Oscar immediately with no further thought required. But I'd struggle to find an active role for Chloe if the dice land that way instead. Is it enough to make Blue on this banner more appealing than say, Red on the Desert banner? Probably not, because Linde and Nino are both more desirable units than Chloe.

If I'm being smart, I completely hold on to the tickets until after both the Mythic and the Hero Fest banners are revealed. Do I have that kind of willpower? Uhhh....

[Alexmender]

I can only hope Lumera will have a Prf because this banner is a skip for me (Harmonic Linde seems to bring more value than anything on this banner). 

Anyways, let's check these guys out:

Alfred is the Arcane user and has a unique A skill. The Arcane lance gives Slaying, spectrum+5, guaranteed follow up and follow up denial if the user is healthy. It also grants special acceleration if the user or the foe moves to attack. Alfred's unique skill gives a lot of Atk, Def and some Spd in exchange of 5 Res, and if Alfred's healthy it gives him Guard. This guy screams low/mid Spd high Atk/Def horrid Res Lance cav, which isn't very unique. 

Celine's weapon seems to have an incorrect description but the general idea is that she's a different flavor of a healer without needing to be in said class. She and allies within 3 spaces get 7 healing at start of turn and after every fight. If her allies are healthy Celine gets up to 45% DR and 15 true dmg. It reminds me of Aureola but it trades the effective against magic for stronger support, DR and true dmg.

Chloe's prf has that janky effect of Nina's prf and Saul's staff where she needs to fight alongside units with ally support. At least she doesn't need to be close to them to get the effect so it's not that big of a deal (she's useless for the AI, though). If she meets her Prf condition she gets Spectrum+5, Guard, true dmg and reduces foe's Atk based on her Res. It's good but not very enticing after W!Cordy. 

And lastly there's F!Alear. She gives the Assault Troop effect to herself and her support partner. If she fights with units from different Fire Emblem games she debuffs her foe's Spd/Def by up to +12 and she gets Dodge. Her kit is meant to make her a superb dodge tank but she's going to get blown up by any DMG reduction piercing special, which are pretty common nowadays. 43 Atk and 46 Spd base are pretty neat. 

On another note, the 5 orbs for getting Engage is lol, that game seems to get the better end of the deal with 3 gacha rings and the Askr trio weapons. 

[Tybrosion]

22 minutes ago, Diovani Bressan said:

Alfred's Prf skill in Engage has the same name as his Prf skill in FEH: Self-Improver.

In Engage, it is: It unit uses Wait without attacking or using items, grants Str+2 for 1 turn.

How did it went from Str+2 when doing nothing to a bunch of stats and Guard?!

His Prf skill became that because FEH powercreep is on mega crack at this point.

[Ice Dragon]

10 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

Yeah, it's kinda mind-boggling how the developers never stopped to think about this. And of course they seem reluctant to make banners with more than two males at most, and nowadays it doesn't even matter with all the Rearmed and Ascendants they keep putting in. They can't seem to see anything that's not in front of their faces.

Or, more likely, they have sales data that says that male characters don't make them as much money.

[Sunwoo]

12 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Or, more likely, they have sales data that says that male characters don't make them as much money.

Considering that the majority of male banner units are bad demotes, generally less impressive than the female units on the same banner even when 5-star, and far fewer in number, did they ever have a fair shot to compete against their female counterparts?

I'm not convinced that male characters not making them as much money isn't also due in part to IS continually fucking them over.

[Xenomata]

I know absolutely nothing about Engage. Hell I don't even know if it's released!
...don't tell me if it is or not, I'll check after I post this. Anyway...

Spoiler

 

.

• Arcane Qiang permits any Lance unit to access a guaranteed follow-up, negate the enemies follow-up, and also some sort of Clash Blade effect? All on top of the now-standard Arcane weapon effects of all stat +5 and slaying. The Arcane Sword sure does stand out more and more...
  I kinda like that this isn't a dark-themed weapon, but I thought they would wait until after every existing weapon type had a dark weapon before doing whatever the theme of this lance is.
  As for Alfred himself, I don't know why they decided to give him flat stat boosts instead of a skill effect. Nor do I know why they went with such a high boost in Def. Again, I know nothing about Engage, so I guess he has high Def growths? Also Guard. Flow N Trace is probably gonna be pretty popular for most melee cavs and fliers. Cross Spur Atk looks pretty lacking in comparison. Overall looks like he'll be pretty strong and physically bulky on top of having some Spd thrown in, but will be exceedingly weak to magic since he has to pick between his Prf skill or Distant Counter, his Prf also making his Res worse.
• Celine... I guess she was a Cleric in Engage? Or had some sort of healing effect in her Prf skill? Should be nice if all you want is some passive HP recovery.
  What I find truly weird is that despite having a Prf weapon that demands she be within 3 spaces of an ally, she doesn't have a Finish skill. In fact, she doesn't even have a way to grant herself a [Bonus] effect for the full benefits of Ideal.
• Oh great another weapon that relies on having OTHER units on the same team in a support partnership. She's already been delegated to skill fodder in my mind...
  Speaking of skill fodder, Pegasus Flight 4 offers some nice additional effects to make the skill less underwhelming. It's kind of a shame, however, that the units who would benefit are somewhat strictly limited to those who have good Spd and Res.
• So this girl comes loaded with THREE separate ways to have Spd-based damage reduction, and she doesn't already come with Vital Astra? Yeah I think I know what Special everyone will be giving her, regardless of how well it actually works in practice.
  And she wants heroes from other titles within 3 spaces to boost the Spd/Def penalty on enemies? I wonder which Askran god is gonna get paired with her as well...?
  Anyway, offering the Charge effect to allies is pretty nice, albeit somewhat limiting her potential support ally choices since most Cavs don't need the Charge effect. Since the extra spaces are considered warp movement though, it might be nice for Legendary and Scion Leif to get around the limitations of Njorun's Zeal. That is, assuming I understand how the Charge effect works.
  Close Call 4 now exists and I am not looking forward to having to deal with it.

...again I have no knowledge of Engage. I can't say if these units are accurate to their original depictions or not, and I have no statement on their characters. Hell, for all I'm aware Alfred could be in his default outfit. They're all clearly powerful units, but hell all new units these days are strong.

 

 

Edited January 16, 2023 by Xenomata

[Tybrosion]

24 minutes ago, Ice Dragon said:

Or, more likely, they have sales data that says that male characters don't make them as much money.

We could already deduce that from their selection of Duo / Harmonic Heroes:

Males Used: 21 (4 Double Male Duos / Harmonics)
Females Used: 66 (26 Double Female Duos / Harmonics)
*assuming I counted correctly

[Ice Dragon]

Translation notes, I guess:

 

The banner name, "Engage", is "エンゲージ" (engēji), "Engage".

Alfred's epithet, "Floral Protector", is "笑み護る花" (emi mamoru hana), "Flower Protecting Smiles" or "Smile-Protecting Flower". Hyphens are important.

Arcane Qiang is "魔器・鍛錬の花槍" (maki: tanren no kasō), "Arcane Weapon: Training Flower Lance". "Qiāng" (枪 | 槍) means "spear" in Chinese. I have no idea why they decided this weapon should be Chinese because everything on this banner is clearly French. As usual, "魔器" (maki), "magic weapon", is the term for both Arcane weapons and Rearmed Heroes.

Self-Improver is "自己研鑽" (jiko kensan), "Self-Improvement".

Flow N Trace is "怒涛・近影" (dotō: kin'ei), "Surging Waves: Near Trace". As usual, "影" (ei), here meaning "trace", refers to signs that something was here and no longer is.

Celine's epithet, "Joyous Royal", is "幸福の女王" (kōfuku no joō), "Queen of Joy".

Joyous Tome is "幸福の良書" (kōfuku no ryōsho), "Good Tome of Joy".

Spd/Res Ideal is "速さ魔防の万全" (hayasa mabō no banzen), "Spd/Res Perfection".

Chloe's epithet, "Fairy-Tale Flier", is "空想を舞う翼" (kūsō o mau tsubasa), "Wings Dancing in a Daydream".

Dreaming Spear is "夢想の翼槍" (musō no yokusō), "Wing Lance of Dreams".

Pegasus Flight is "天馬行空" (tenba kōkū), "Pegasus Flight".

Alear's epithet, "Dragon Child", is "神竜の王女" (shinryū no ōjo), "Divine Dragon Princess".

Libération is "リベラシオン" (riberashion), "Libération". This is French.

Close Call is "回避・一撃離脱" (kaihi: ichigeki ridatsu), "Evasion: Hit and Run".

Etie's epithet, "Fitness Fighter", is "剛腕の令嬢" (gōwan no reijō), "Strong-Armed Young Lady".

Protection Bow is "守護の弓" (shugo no yumi), "Protection Bow".

Lumera's epithet, "Dragon Monarch", is "神竜王" (shinryūō), "Divine Dragon King". This epithet is identical to Naga's, which was localized as "Dragon Divinity".

Monarch Blade is "神竜王の剣" (shinryūō no ken), "Divine Dragon King's Sword".

Edited January 18, 2023 by Ice Dragon

[Fire Emblem Fan]

Yeah, I gotta say, I don't like that we're getting absolutely ZERO male units in the main summoning pool. Alfred got screwed over, hard. Either Louis or Boucheron should have been put in place of either Chloe or Etie. Male Alear better come with a couple other dudes in the next Engage banner. But, knowing Feh...unlikely.

[Sayyyaka]

There aren't many characters I care about from Engage just by looking, so it's nice to see Etie is already a demote and I can ignore the rest.

Arcane Qiang isn't that interesting to me I think but at the same time maybe it's time Quan got an actual weapon.  Gaé Bolg's refine annoys me.  He could also inherit Flow N Trace.  If Day of Devotion isn't Jugdral focused then I may spark.

[Humanoid]

Screwed over in terms of availability perhaps, but being arguably the most desirable unit on the banner, and second-most as worst, doesn't strike me as being "screwed over", especially as he has the Prf skill to more than compensate, and also has a more complete kit than both Celine and Chloe.

On a different note, I'm somewhat pleased to see the stereotypical "strong" chararacter get the decidedly non-stereotypical archer role here. It takes a lot more strength to effectively shoot a bow in combat than it does to swing a sword or thrust a spear, but the fantasy trope of the archer being the delicate, weaker (and often female) character hiding behind the burly frontliners typically prevails.

[Ice Dragon]

40 minutes ago, Sunwoo said:

Considering that the majority of male banner units are bad demotes, generally less impressive than the female units on the same banner even when 5-star, and far fewer in number, did they ever have a fair shot to compete against their female counterparts?

I'm not convinced that male characters not making them as much money isn't also due in part to IS continually fucking them over.

We've had plenty enough good male units in the 6 years that his game has existed so far for them to collect data. There being less data on male characters than female characters doesn't mean that there isn't enough data.

There are currently 12 male-led paired Heroes, 2 male Ascended or Rearmed Heroes, and 18 male Legendary or offense Mythic Heroes, all of whom are in unit categories that are intended to be the flagship on a banner, and that's before we start counting the good "regular" units since they almost certainly have data on finer details like the number of summons of each color that were made on each banner.

 

4 minutes ago, Humanoid said:

It takes a lot more strength to effectively shoot a bow in combat than it does to swing a sword or thrust a spear, but the fantasy trope of the archer being the delicate, weaker (and often female) character hiding behind the burly frontliners typically prevails.

That depends on the bow, and a lot of the bows in Fire Emblem are not of the the types that require that much strength.

If we want to over-analyze the setting, the fact that most characters don't wear armor that can properly defend against arrows probably means that heavier bows were never a necessity, and defending against arrows likely never rose to a high enough level of priority due to the existence of magic.