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Combat Arts didn't make it to Engage under that name, but Engage Attacks certainly share a lot of DNA with them, in terms of being fancy special attacks that the player chooses to perform instead of a regular attack. Though, by the same measure, the idea of "choose to perform a special attack" wasn't new in Shadows of Valentia either. Off the top of my head, I recall that the Gamble skill worked that way in at least one of the Tellius games, for instance, and there are probably other examples too. I do like the framing of New Mystery and Shadows of Valentia being preludes to their subsequent games though, since it does make a lot more intuitive sense to talk about Awakening and Three Houses as being big touchstones for the series, while the remakes have felt more experimental. I wonder if that means we shouldn't expect a Jugdral remake (if it happens) to be either a faithful remake of Genealogy or to look similar to Three Houses and Engage, but to be a wild west of new and experimental ideas, some of which might make it into the next mainline game.

In fandom discussions, it's pretty common to see a distinction between FE games from Awakening onwards and those that came before then. I've done so myself. And in some ways, yeah, that's a meaningful distinction. Not only did it see a massive upswing to the popularity of the series, but there were also some changes to design philosophy, with more focus on social sim elements, more character building, and greater accessibility to casual players, which have largely continued to this day. But at the same time, none of these things have a clear dividing line where they were absent beforehand and then present after. Support conversations and skill systems are both longstanding features that have been growing more complicated over time. Casual mode debuted in New Mystery. And they've also continued to be developed since Awakening, especially with time rewind being introduced in Shadows of Valentia. And it's also not the only notable inflection point in the evolution of the series as a whole. There's a meaningful split between the Kaga games and the post-Kaga games, or (very similarly) between the Japan-exclusive games and the ones with international localisation. And then more recently, I think that Shadows of Valentia is another good watershed, introducing not only time rewind but also full voice acting, both of which substantially change the feel of the game. So my question is: is it still worth our while to discuss pre- and post-Awakening Fire Emblem as if they are different beasts?

2000 is pretty great, and I am proud of it, but it's not as impressive as it seems. "Daily" is chess.com's version of correspondence chess, which is heavily influenced by how much time and effort you're willing to put into each game. And when I played it, I was pretty routinely only having one game at a time and putting an hour or more into every move. Whereas I know that other people have dozens of games at once and make each move without much thought. Which is weird to me, since if you want to play quickly, why not just play with regular time controls? But regardless, it's not really comparing like with like and does over-inflate my actual strength. My rapid rating of around 1400 is a truer representation of my actual playing strength.

Part of me wants to add "don't use a title that has been used in a ton of other works" as a new rule... except that I'm now humming "find a girl, settle down, if you want you can marry" to myself, and if that isn't just the most unwittingly Fire Emblem song line then I don't know what is.

I mostly don't remember chapter titles. Or chapter numbers for that matter. There are a few that have managed to stick in my head from seeing them talked about enough in the fandom, like Elincia's Gambit or Reunion At Dawn, but those are the exceptions rather than the rule. Mostly, if I'm thinking about a chapter, I'll think of it as "the one with the wind", "the one at the Mila tree", "the one where you're supposed to stealth around the guards", and so on. And if you ever see me referring to a chapter by name or number then it's a safe bet that I've just gone and looked it up. So, mostly what I want from a chapter title is something that sounds cool and evocative and makes me enthused for the next chapter and that I will immediately forget seconds after reading it when I start to play said chapter. And what works well in those terms depends a lot on where the chapter falls in the story and what type of mood it's trying to get across. Reunion at Dawn has a very different mood and feeling to something like Clash. The former works for its position at the beginning of part 2; we're coming out of the climactic ending of part 1, leaving the little interlude, and starting to build to something else. On the other hand, for the latter, we already have the tension ratcheted up high and a simple one-word title that says "and now there's a big fight" is all that is needed. So I guess that what I want from a chapter title is one that understands the emotional core of the story beat that we're in at the time, and promises to deliver on it.

I do play chess at an intermediate level, though almost exclusively online. And I tend to go in cycles where I sometimes play a lot but then sometimes hardly play at all for a while, and I'm in one of the latter at the moment. For anyone for whom these numbers are meaningful, my chess.com elo ratings are about 1100 blitz, 1400 rapid, and 2000 daily. I also used to play a whole lot of Scrabble, but haven't played in years. I was pretty good at it, though. Not anywhere close to tournament level play, but a strong casual player. Beyond that, I have at least some experience with most styles of board games. Classic games like draughts (aka checkers), backgammon, and go. 20th century games like Monopoly, Cluedo (aka Clue), or Risk. And modern "German style" games like Ticket to Ride, Pandemic or Small World. These days, I'm mostly limited by time and having people to play with, so I'll maybe play a few games of Ticket to Ride per year and that's about it. But overall, yeah, I love board games. I don't really see that much common ground between board games and Fire Emblem, though. They occupy very different niches in my brain and are rewarding and fun for me in very different ways. I don't think it's at all strange for anyone to be into one but not the other.

One thing that I do think is worth noting about Céline is that I think she's the sort of unit whose value varies quite a lot based on difficulty level. This often tends to be the case with hybrid attackers or jack-of-all-trades style units. Being just barely good enough at lots of different things is great; being not quite good enough at lots of different things is pretty lousy. So I think that Normal-mode Céline is notably better than Maddening-mode Céline. (My experience and rating was based on having used her mostly on Hard and a bit on Maddening.)

Digital and physical each have pretty sizable benefits and drawbacks when compared to each other. Digital requires less storage space, can be bought and then played quickly and at any time, can't be lost or damaged, has way less barrier to entry for indie devs, and so on. Obviously. Whereas physical can more easily be lent out or resold, don't depend on a company keeping their servers online, work even if you have bad/no internet access, and so on. Also obviously. I don't think it's right to say that either one is better than the other. It's just a personal preference thing which one an individual prefers. (I personally like digital as well, but that's just me.)

Lots of good choices here (including basically every arcade game ever made) but I'm going to say Pong. Yeah, it's incredibly basic by modern standards (and by "modern" I mean "1980 or later") but it's still a super fun casual multiplayer experience. You absolutely need to have the proper paddle controls for it though. Pong with mouse/keyboard/gamepad/joystick sucks.

For everyday wear, I'm going to say Volke. Though without all the daggers since I'd rather not get arrested. Looks super comfy, and I do like long coats. For a party or special occasion, I'll go with Calill. I'd modify the skirt of the dress to show slightly less leg and change the heels to flats because screw heels, but otherwise I love it. And just to get myself out of Tellius, if I were to explicitly be cosplaying a Fire Emblem character, I think I would like to try Petra.

Sorrow's Furnace (Guild Wars). Yeah, there are a lot of Guild Wars areas that I could choose, because I spent so many hours in that game and have so many fond memories. The Jade Sea and Echovald Forest are both great shouts, and I also have a lot of fondness for Vabbi and the Fissure of Woe, but I'm going to say Sorrow's Furnace as my favourite. A big sprawling underground dwarven mine complex, occupied by the evil faction of dwarves, and complete with ancient ruins, steampunk style tech and everything else you could want in a dwarven mine. Then add in a fun quest chain (assisting the slave revolt was a personal favourite), and the chance to get some of the best weapons in the game, and this place was just an all around winner. The Palace of Darkness (The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past). So you've played through all the dungeons on the map, collected the three mcguffins, secured the Master Sword, and then defeated the evil wizard who kidnapped Zelda. Then you're teleported into the Dark World and learn that you need to beat another seven dungeons and collect another seven mcguffins. Hardly revolutionary now, but when the game was new and I was a kid, seeing the sudden expansion of the scope of the game like that was amazing. And as the first dungeon of the Dark World, the Palace of Darkness managed to really hit it out of the park on two fronts. First, it's a significant step up in difficulty from what went before. The training wheels have come off and things have got real. Second, it has just enough similarities to its Light World counterpart, the Eastern Palace that you notice the whole "dark reflection" thing going on, but nowhere ner so many that it would feel boring, repetitive or derivative. This place is great. Vash'jir (World of Warcraft). These days, I would rather gnaw off my right arm than go anywhere near World of Warcraft, but back when I used to play it, this zone was my absolute favourite. This is not a popular choice, because it's an underwater level and everyone hates underwater levels. Except for me. I love underwater levels. And this one was so damn pretty and made me feel at peace. Except when I was fighting naga. That part wasn't so peaceful. Cascade Kingdom (Super Mario Odyssey). Another somewhat unpopular opinion. Not that most people dislike this, but few people seem to like it as much as I do. It's not one that I ever really see come up when people talk about favourite kingdoms in Odyssey, but I love it. I honestly couldn't tell you why, though. Maybe it's the music? Maybe it's the big waterfall? Maybe it's the compact size? Whatever it is, playing this level just makes me happy. Planet (Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri). Is it cheating to name the setting for an entire game? Well, I'm going to do it anyway. SMAC had more story than any other 4X game that I'd played at the time, and most of that was down to the setting, Planet, which was almost a character in its own right. It felt properly alien, and then seeing its development over the game both surprised and delighted me. Afterlife (Mass Effect 2). Mass Effect 2 is an action RPG and while there are times when it leans into the RPG side of things, there are other times when it leans more heavily into the action side and basically just feels like a shooter. But then for one mission ("Samara: The Ardat-Yakshi") there is no shooting at all, no action at all. It's all just wandering around talking to people, which is such a great change of pace for the game, and was only so memorable because the rest of the game is so shooty. And then to make it better, much of the level is spent in a cool futuristic nightclub with heavy ties to the criminal underworld. The Lab (Pugsley's Scavenger Hunt). Does anyone else even remember this game? It was such a great looking game for the SNES, and while all of the levels had their own great unique looks, the lab was my favourite. What can I say, I just like the mad science aesthetic, and this had Van der Graaff generators, Bunsen burners, dripping acid, the lot. Tower of Eternal Flames (Ancient Domains of Mystery). There aren't that many games that have levels where environmental hazards truly feel hazardous. As befits the name, this tower's fires will mess you up if you aren't prepared for it, not only dealing a lot of fire damage, but also burning up much of your best equipment. Managing to get a character past this challenge always felt really satisfying and signified that they were a serious contender to go on to the end game and maybe try to pick up an elusive victory. The Border House (The Longest Journey). I love The Longest Journey, and this place was the perfect way to open the adventure, both for the player and for the player character, April. It's a perfect thematic prelude.

Céline does feel like a definite step up from the (non-Alear) units that went before her, but that isn't saying all that much. My experience of using her was that she always managed to stay just barely good enough for me not to drop her. She never turned into a liability, but also never felt like a particularly strong asset. Her bases and growths are nothing to write home about and while her personal skill might get an occasional bit of use, it's mostly trash. What really helps keep her relevant is the Vidame class, which she has unique access to. Vidame is one of only two classes in the game that has access to three weapon types. And one of the three is the ever-useful staves. It's also a mystical class, which makes her a good choice for emblems with interesting bonuses for mystical units (Byleth, Celica and Marth all come to mind as decent choices). Compared to the other mystical classes, Vidame comes with worse magic growth, but better speed and def bases, and much better strength. It's not a strict upgrade, but it's an interesting option. Vidame also learns the Ignis skill, which is not the best skill in the world, but is better than Spell Harmony or Self-Healing which are the other choices for mystical units. As a general note, for dex% chance to proc skills, offensive ones (like Ignis) are much more useful than defensive ones (like Alfred's Golden Lotus). Offensive ones are generally taking something you want to be doing anyway (attacking) and turning a good outcome (doing some damage) into an even better outcome (doing more damage, maybe enough to turn chip damage into a kill). On the other hand, Golden Lotus is at its most impactful if it's turning a catastrophically bad outcome (takes enough damage to die) into a moderately bad outcome (takes some damage but still lives) except that this never really happens, because I'm not going to be leaving Alfred (or anyone) in situations where they'll die if their skill doesn't proc. But doing chip damage with Céline is something that I will do often so Ignis will get a chance to turn several of those into kills. It's not the best skill, but it's solid. Overall, while she does still end up getting outclassed by later units, I don't think she's as badly outclassed as previous units we've discussed, and Vidame does make sure that if you stick with her than she'll always be able to offer something that is unique, if not especially strong. I'm wavering between giving her a 5 and a 6, and while I cou.ld give her 5.5, I'm really loathe to do that. So I think I'm going to say that she falls a little way short of a 6 and end up giving her 5/10.

My general belief is that first-week sales don't tend to have all that much to do with the quality of a game. Instead, they tend to say more about the strength of the brand and the quality of the marketing. If I buy a game immediately on release, it's probably because I like the series or because I've seen trailers and screenshots and think it looks cool. Or both. On the other hand, if I buy a game six months after release, it's probably because a friend recommended it to me, or I saw someone playing it on YouTube, or something like that. And in those cases, the quality of the game absolutely matters. My friends aren't going to be recommending games to me if they aren't loving them. So, if a game has great sales to start with but then they fall off a cliff, I tend to interpret that as a lot of people being interested, but then not liking the game well enough to recommend it and get other people interested too. If that is the pattern for Engage (and I've not looked closely at the sales figures myself), then I think that bodes well for Fire Emblem as a whole but not so well for Engage itself. Though I certainly wouldn't go so far as to call Engage a failure. One thing I would be interested to know, if anyone has the figures, is how well Engage's DLC did compared to Three Houses' DLC. I think that would be a nice way of comparing across the two games, of the people who bought it, how many liked it enough and were invested enough to want to spend more money on it.

I'm a little surprised you think this is as likely as you do. I definitely agree that it's possible, but Nintendo hasn't really shown much interest in porting 3DS games to the Switch so far. There's always the chance of that changing, though, especially as the Switch moves into its twilight years (and they run out of Wii U games to port). And also a chance that the impetus for it comes from IS rather than Nintendo. Even still, I'm not as convinced as you are. Well, the 3DS had two original games and then a remake, the Switch has had two original games and then might have a remake next. If we're looking that far into the future, I'm going to guess at 2 original games on the next system before they move on to remakes there.

So let's talk about Chain Attack. Chain Attack damages an enemy for one tenth of their health, rounded down. And that rounding down has some interesting consequences. When enemy health ranges are in the 10s, it theoretically takes between 10 and 19 Chain Attack hits to kill the enemy. With health ranges in the 20s, it takes from 10 to 15. By the time the health ranges are in the 50s, it's 10 to 12. This means that Chain Attack is more consistently good in the late game when enemy hp is higher. There are still targets in the early game where you're doing 10% damage, but not as many of them. Chain Attack is also something that becomes better once you're able to stack more backup units. Both because more damage is obviously better but also because of reliability. Hitting, eg, 2 out of 3 Chain Attacks has a much better probability than hitting 1 out of 1. Once you have multiple, you can actually start relying on them much more often. All of which is a roundabout way of saying that Boucheron isn't very good. Yes, he's your first backup unit and backup units are good, but he's a backup unit at the time when they are at their weakest. My experience in trying to use Boucheron is that he was pretty mediocre to start with, managed to maintain mediocrity only with care, and ended up dipping to the point where I dropped him. I give him 3/10.

Yeah, I know. I meant to imply that they might bundle it in with another remake again, but I didn't explicitly say so. I don't think of Three Hopes as a remake and haven't heard anyone else refer to it as such, but definitely if you do think of it that way then the likelihood of an Engage remake goes way up. For me personally, as someone who doesn't do emulators, actually getting a localised version that I can play would be a big deal to me. But beyond that, one thing that I would really want to see in any remake of the GBA games is an improvement to the support system. Mainly the ability to actually unlock the damn things without falling asleep pressing end turn a few hundred times. Actually seeing the supports would have made me enjoy Sacred Stones and Blazing Blade way more than I did. Also -- unpopular opinion alert! -- I kinda hate the graphics on the GBA games. I know they're widely beloved, but they just don't do it for me at all.

We've probably all heard some version of the rumours that there's going to be a remake of Genealogy of the Holy War at some point, and even if we hadn't, it's not exactly a bold prediction to guess that we might get another Fire Emblem remake at some point in the not too distant future. So let's look at the whole series and think about which games are likely to be remade and which aren't. Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light (Famicom): This has already seen up to three distinct remakes, depending on exactly what you do and don't count as a remake. There are two ways of looking at this. On the one hand, you can look at it and say that it absolutely doesn't need yet another remake. On the other hand, you could say that IS/Nintendo really love remaking this so it wouldn't be that big a surprise if they decided to do it again. Overall chance: more likely than I'd like (still not that likely). Gaiden (Famicom): Was remade far too recently for a new remake to be plausible. A port of Shadows of Valentia to the Switch is just about believable, but it would be building off SoV directly rather than going back to Gaiden. Overall chance: not happening. Mystery of the Emblem (Super Famicom): The final game that has already seen a remake, which makes it unlikely. But on the other hand, no version of it has ever made it out of Japan, so there is still an untapped market for it. And it was mega-popular in Japan, so there might be a nostalgia market there too. Overall chance: just barely plausible. Genealogy of the Holy War (Super Famicom): Even if you ignore the rumours, this would still be an obvious choice. It's the earliest entry that hasn't been remade yet, and it also has a lot in common with the super-successful Three Houses, which makes it easy to market. Overall chance: feels like more of a "when" than an "if". Thracia 776 (Super Famicom): Everything about this can be used as both an argument for or against a remake. Hardly anyone played it, so there's no nostalgia market/so it would be new and exciting for more players. Its story is closely tied to Genealogy so it wouldn't make sense on its own/so it would be a natural tie-in or follow-up to a Genealogy remake. Its gameplay is notoriously unfriendly to new players so it wouldn't fit modern gamer tastes/so it's most in need of a remake. Overall chances: Maybe after/alongside a Genealogy remake, but not otherwise. Binding Blade and Blazing Blade (GBA): Going to talk about these together because it's highly likely that if they remake one then they'll remake the other too, either as part of the same package or one after the other. As the last Japan-only and first international release, they're in an interesting place in terms of series history. They also have popular lords in Roy (the Smash Bros effect) and Lyn (the West's first lord). They're also over 20 years old at this point, which was older than Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light was when it got its DS remake. Overall chances: pretty good. Sacred Stones (GBA): It's hard for me to imagine why they'd choose to remake Sacred Stones instead of the Elibe games. It's largely comparable to those two games but just not quite as strong a choice. It's chronologically more recent, and its lords aren't as popular. I guess maybe if they want to do both Elibe games in a single package but want to do a smaller GBA remake first? I don't really see it, though. Overall chances: unlikely. Path of Radiance (GameCube): A game that didn't seel well originally but has turned into something of a fan favourite/cult classic seems ripe for a remake, especially given how expensive the original now is to buy second hand. And also especially given that Ike is one of the more popular characters from the series (that Smash Bros effect again). But on the other hand, is the GameCube too recent to justify a remake? Maybe so. Nintendo have never released GameCube titles on Virtual Console or Switch online, so they might prefer to have this in their back pocket for when they do inevitably finally do so on their next console. Overall chances: possible. Radiant Dawn (Wii): This is entirely reliant on a Path of Radiance remake happening first. If there is a Path of Radiance remake then this is almost certain to follow unless PoR completely bombs. On the other hand, if there's no Path of Radiance remake then it would make no sense at all to make a Radiant Dawn remake first. Overall chances: only after Path of Radiance. Shadow Dragon and New Mystery of the Emblem (DS): Specifically remaking a remake would be a weird choice, especially since neither one of these was particularly successful. If they do want to do yet another remake, they're more likely to go back to the drawing board and remake the originals. A few of the remake ideas might remain, but I can't see them leaning on them too heavily or marketing them as being remakes of the DS versions. Might see a rerelease on Switch Online, and a translation of New Mystery is just barely this side of plausible, but nothing beyond that. Overall chances: close to zero. Awakening, Fates and Shadows of Valentia (3DS): These all feel far too recent to be remade for a while yet (even though Awakening now is only 5 years younger than Mystery of the Emblem was when it was remade). The tail end of the 3DS's life overlapped with the start of the Switch's life. It's possible that they might get a port to Switch, maybe with upscaled graphics or with some sort of special edition, but a full remake seems very unlikely. Overall chances: remakes aren't happening; ports are more likely (but still not super likely). Three Houses and Engage (Switch): I mean, obviously not. I'm going to trust that I don't even need to explain why. I suppose they might get a port when Nintendo's next console comes out. Overall chances: No. Archanea Saga (aka BS Fire Emblem) (Satellaview): Too small to be remade on its own, but might get thrown in alongside remakes of the two Archanea games. Overall chances: slim. Warriors (3DS & Switch) and Three Hopes (Switch): Not only are these both on Switch already, but if there are any future Warriors games, I can't imagine why they'd want to focus on characters from specific old games rather than either going with the whole series or specific games that are still the new hotness. Overall chances: nope. Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE (Wii U & Switch): Even in the future when this isn't already available on the most recent hardware, this is still never getting remade because of how much of a commercial flop it was. The best chance for this ever seeing light of day again is for it to show up when Wii U games finally get added to the Virtual Console/Switch Online equivalent in 2040. Overall chances: never going to happen. Heroes (mobile): It's still current and still getting updated. And even when that isn't the case any more, it's far more likely to see a sequel than a remake. Overall chances: not a chance. FE: TCG and Cypher (paper): I don't even know why I'm putting these here other than that they're technically Fire Emblem games and I'm an obsessive completionist. If they do decide to return to the TCG space, I imagine it would be with a new product. Overall chances: seems unlikely.

Yeah, add me to the list of people who are a little sad about the slow decline not just of this forum but of web forums in general. I don't like either Reddit or Discord. Reddit has its awful "karma" system which mostly encourages groupthink and shallow content. Discord has the issues of obscurity/opacity that Dark Holy Elf mentioned, and I also don't like the immediacy of conversations there. I much prefer being able to read and reply in my own time, and generally go at a slower pace. And in both cases, there's the issue of the people who control the servers not giving a single shit about any of their communities or the people who make them up, which leads to them restricting the API or aggressively pushing super-reacts or whatever other nonsense they've been up to recently. Such is life, though. And I recognise that it won't be too many more years before I have to either suck it up and get used to either Reddit or Discord, or I have to just give up on the idea of online communities entirely. Oh well. Maybe that can encourage me to get out of the house more and spend more time in nature. I saw some really cute grebe chicks the other day. But for now, I am grateful for everyone who keeps these forums going, be they admins, mods, regular posters, or the lurkers who just pipe up occasionally. Thank you all for keeping this place alive.

Another unit for the "has a use early on but gets outclassed later" brigade. Similar comments apply to her as to almost everyone else so far. She has effective damage against fliers and 2 range lets her attack most things without taking a counterattack. Which is probably less useful than Vander or Framme, comparable to Clanne, and more useful than Alfred. And now I'm regretting not giving Alfred a lower score. And then it's really hard to think of any objective or optimised reason to continue to use her beyond the early game (though I don't doubt that she's viable if you want to stick with her because you like her). I also want to take a moment to complain about her personal skill. It's not the absolute worst I've ever seen, but it's astonishing just how badly it works with everything else she does. If someone like Louis had that personal then he might get something out of it, but on Etie, it's basically useless. Overall, I'm going to give her 4/10.

Fire Emblem tends to show the budget pop-culture version of feudalism. Whcih is to say, it has just enough hints of it to give the vague impression that we're in a world modeled after medieval Europe without really going into any of the details. It also mostly focuses on the more glamourous parts (knights! castles! princesses!) while leaving aside the parts that would be less palatable to modern sensibilities. So it's not really surprising that we don't see much of anything that resembles serfdom or manorialism. Our heroic noble characters would probably seem a whole lot less heroic if we saw that they were living lives of relative luxury based on the backbreaking work of indentured servants. Instead, when we see members of the peasant classes (Brom, Nephenee, Donnel, Mozu, Leonie, etc.) they are all free men and women. It's up to us to decide whether we think that serfdom is happening off-screen or not, and I don't think that we're really supposed to think one way or another. If anything, we're probably not supposed to think about it at all. (And for the record, none of this is a bad thing. Fire Emblem doesn't even remotely try for historical verisimilitude, so I don't think it's a problem that they're cherry picking the aspects of the past that tell the story that they want to tell. I do have a problem when games that present themselves as being historically accurate (eg Assassin's Creed) pull this kind of thing, but I don't think it's an issue for high fantasy worlds like Fire Emblem.)

I agree that that's part of it, but it also doesn't help his popularity that he's only really around in one route out of four. It's all well and good to have a character who is not very likeable at the surface level but is well written and has interesting depths and nuances, but having him be route-exclusive means that a lot of people are going to be judging him based entirely on the surface level.

Promote early. With the way that the class system works, there's very little reason not to promote at level 10 if you have master seals available. If you reach level 20 in a promoted class, you can second seal back to level 1 to continue regaining class xp. Once promoted, you can also second seal reclass to any other promoted class you have the weapon proficiencies for, so if you are looking to reclass anyone, it's usually better to promote first. Expect to be changing up your team quite a lot over the course of the game. In most FE games, your early game units are as strong or stronger than anyone you pick up later on (provided you're levelling them appropriately, of course). In Engage, this mostly isn't the case. Some early units can be great and most are at least usable, but you will typically want to be swapping most of them out for stronger units you pick up later. Level scaling on skirmishes is different to how it has been in the past. I don't really know much about how it works since I didn't bother much with skirmishes myself, but the general consensus seems to be that they can get very difficult and are not really viable for xp grinding.

So, let's start with the positive points about Alfred. He has pretty decent bulk when you first grab him, and can almost work like a second, worse version of Vander. He also has access to a unique class, meaning that technically he can do some stuff that nobody else can do. And that's about all the positive things I have to say about him. Even when you first pick him up, he's not particularly impressive. He does have halfway decent bulk, as I said, and he arrives early enough in the game that even just having a warm body is useful. But right from the start, he isn't really bringing anything unique to the table, while everyone else is. Boucheron has chain attacks, Etie has effective damage against fliers, Clanne doe magic damage, etc. But Alfred is just worse Vander. This isn't the worst thing to be, since Vander is still your best unit at this point, but being in direct competition with said best unit is an immediate mark against Alfred's usefulness. Then as we move into the mdeium term, he's still getting outclassed. One chapter after you get Alfred, you also get Louis, who is better as a tank, and Chloé, who is better as a highly mobile player-phase attacker. Once again, there's no role where Alfred particularly excels. And then in the long term, he ends up getting seriously outclassed by multiple late joiners. Which is a flaw that is shared by most early recruits and not something that's unique to Alfred, but most of the other early recruits have a better early game, either in terms of overall performance or in terms of having a specific niche. I'm also not particularly impressed by his unique class. Golden Lotus is pretty bad. Even at level 20/20 (or 10/20/10) you can still only expect a dex of around 25, which means an activation rate of 25%. Which is equivalent to saying that each physical hit will on average be reduced by 1/8. Or, as an alternative, you could just have promoted him to Great Knight instead of Avenir, which has 5 higher base def, which is going to save you from more damage on average unless you're being hit for over 40 damage at a time. And just having more defense is also something that is reliable and can be planned for. I don't want to come across as too down on him because, like almost all units in the game, I don't doubt that he can turn out decently if you use him regularly and invest in him. And he does come in at least a little bit useful when you first get him. But overall, I'm not impressed. 4/10.

But there were also people in that same thread saying that they weren't expecting any Fire Emblem content at all. I think generally it isn't helpful to try to represent "the fandom" as a single entity with a single opinion. We're a bunch of individuals with wildly diverging opinions. You're lucky if you can even manage to get the fandom as a whole to all agree on the statement "I like Fire Emblem", much less anything more controversial.

New Fire Emblem game announced! (for release in 2029) New Fire Emblem remake! (It's Shadow Dragon. Again.) Official translated versions of the first 6 Fire Emblem games! (translated into Chinese) New FE Warriors with characters from across the series history! (Play as Peri, Oliver, Gilbert, Merlinus, Orson, Bunet, 9 different versions of Anna... and Marth.) New Fire Emblem spinoff! (It's face petting scaled up into a full game) Tokyo Mirage Sessions to get a sequel! (It's a sequel to Tokyo Mirage Sessions) More seriously, I'm not expecting any Fire Emblem news. It's still too soon after Engage, especially since the direct's focus is on games coming out later this year. I'd love to be wrong, but I'm not hopeful.