Alastor plays and ranks the whole series! Mission Complete! ...For now.

[Acacia Sgt]

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Engage Day 10: Chapter 8

…Ah, I see, so I can spend bond fragments to give characters a more advanced bond with their emblem? Well aside from gambling for better bond rings, which eventually will be worthless once I have more emblems, I don’t know of any other uses for bond fragments, so fuck it, sure. Let’s get Louis up to snuff with Micaiah.

Don't sleep on the Bond Rings. For starters, I believe you need a ring equipped so the character can gain SP at all. Also, a few do have useful skills for when you can't put an Emblem on everybody... but yeah, it will be RNG dependent if you want them cheap, since from A to S alone is 10K Bond Fragments! And more if you needed to meld those A's too, etc.

But like, you better do get a decent enough number of bonds rings... just in case.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…But they still bond ranked up?

…That’s… interesting. Is there any incentive to win at all?

Well, for the extra EXP, and to gain a bit more SP. But yes, you still get some paltry EXP and gain Bond/Support points just for the match itself.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Apparently… you cannot equip res+2 and res+3 at the same time. Hell, I don’t even have res+2 anymore. Did that expenditure become pointless, or did I not notice you have to buy res+2 before res+3 becomes purchasable? Lemme check…

…Unfortunately I don’t have the resources to check. It’s frustrating how little SP I’m getting from battles. I don’t think anyone’s managed to crack 1000 points yet.

I'm pretty sure if you buy a lower-tier skill, the higher ones get their SP cost reduced by the number you spent on the lower-tier one. And you can skip tiers. So the only thing wasted was a few seconds.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

I notice a colosseum. I wonder if we’re gonna get a repeat of Awakening’s arena battle.

You know, sometimes I wonder if it's a good idea to have every location model show up already on the map. Granted, the connections still don't, so you can't guess the plot direction anyway, but still...

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Interestingly… when I see King Morion, and they’re talking about the disparity between how he is here and his reputation on the battlefield and his invasions of Elusia… I’m reminded of what Garon probably could have been if they had made any effort to make the conflict between Nohr and Hoshido even remotely morally gray. Actually have Garon be a human being and loving father with understandable reasons for instigating conflict, but who instigates conflict nonetheless.

Missed Potential, thy name is Fates?

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Ohp! And here’s the conflict. Elusian wyvern rider, huh? Could it be the evil sorceress?

Oh, it’s not the sorceress, it’s… someone new! Oh, I’ve seen thumbnails of her! So this is Ivy, huh? Nice character design, gotta say.

Yes, best girl is here!

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Okay, so Diamant has a personal skill that’s cool in concept but probably underpowered due to the disadvantages. But still, being able to increase hit by 15 has gotta have its uses.

Nice for landing killing blows, I suppose.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

I wonder what they would’ve done if they had to write a corrupted Roy into the story.

Gets even redder?

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…So I was right, Rise Above doesn’t just raise your level by 5, it gives you 5 more levels worth of stats. At least according to the tutorial slide. Alright, that sounds awesome. I’ll definitely be seeing what Pepsiman can get out of this next chapter. But for now, it’s Diamant’s.

From what I gather, it's more that it operates more on the growths multiplied by 5 and rolling once for that, rather than rolling 5 times. Could be wrong, though.

Anyway, it's good right now, but unless it allows to reach, say, level 25 worth of stats, it might fall off once you cap level.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

And I’m getting to use the ballista, and… so it just empowers your basic weapons to be long-range attacks with an accuracy buff? I mean, that’s super from a usability perspective, it fixes something I’ve complained about for ages. But also, in-universe, the actual fuck?

Just pretend it always has the same MT? XD

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Thankfully, I just barely had enough manpower to take out all the enemies rushing us, and mostly cushion Alcryst from the incoming warriors breaking down the walls. Lodestar Rush really helped. Unfortunately I can’t see how much HP the walls have left. Unless I’m missing something, the game doesn’t tell me.

If you do find it, share, since I've not either.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

But I have to wonder why he’s the “Emblem of Genealogy”.

Well, Sigurd already had a different title. The titles in general aren't references to their games of origin. Or at least, the Game Titles themselves. So Marth is the Emblem of Beginnings because he's the First Lord, Sigurd is the Emblem of the Holy Knight since that's the title granted to him by Grannvale, etc.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…I’m sorry, but that design decision to have generic bond fragment quotes be a thing that override normal dialogue was beyond asinine.

For its worth, there are some cases where characters you do bring to the fight talk about it instead of giving the bond fragments line.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Chloé: It’s not much of a fairy tale if the knight sits on the sidelines all the time, I’m just saying…

(10 Bond Fragments)

…Do… do characters start to complain if you don’t deploy them enough? Is that what the game’s doing here?

I don’t know whether I love or despise that.

Yes. I think five maps is the threshold (of any kind so Skirmishes count), then they start saying those lines.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Lilith is lying flat on her back, asleep with her tummy in the air. I want to pet her so badly, why doesn’t the game let me pet her when we’re out and about!?

It'd certainly way much more convenient, huh.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Leif gives proficiency with damned near everything. Whoever uses Leif enough could basically promote into whatever the fuck they please.

Master Knight, yo!

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…No game should ever let you hear a voice line in such rapid succession that it begins to feel artificial and synthetic. Even Three Houses, for all the “this one ye-I thank you” memes, let you buy items in bulk!

Yeah, that's... a bit annoying.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, so, the armory has new items. Including a fist art that gives you +5 defense, which is pretty cool. But what’s curious is that wind is both weaker and slightly less accurate than fire, for the same weight. Only advantage is the flier-slaying properties.

Guess they considered it the trade-off. Like thunder spells having three-range but can't double. Or the surge spells being one-range but with infinite Hit.

[Etrurian emperor]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

…He mentions the inconvenience him being eaten would be to his colleagues who would spend says looking for him without avail, and I’m sitting here wondering if he thinks Pepsiman wouldn’t fucking tell people what happened to him.

It be in character if Alcryst would consider himself being eating as something too unimportant for pepsiman to mention to others.

[Jotari]

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Oh wow, this is really more efficient than actually having them fight together. Though Louis still had to beat Micaiah in a match, which probably wouldn’t have gone well if she had Thani instead of Shine.

I kind of wish Shine was Thani. You could still give it the Radiant Dawn opening reference with lighting up fog of war, but then just give it armour and cavalry effectiveness too and call it Thani. That way it would be more useful on units with a poor magic stat, and units with a good magic stat would have an option at their disposal that isn't just sort of worse than the tomes they're already carrying. I've found very little use for Shine outside of the niche of Fog of War (and there really aren't many of them).

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Apparently… you cannot equip res+2 and res+3 at the same time. Hell, I don’t even have res+2 anymore. Did that expenditure become pointless, or did I not notice you have to buy res+2 before res+3 becomes purchasable? Lemme check…

I'm fairly certain buying the +2 booster reduces the price of the +3 booster. So you can basically buy them all at once or upgrade over time.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Ohp! And here’s the conflict. Elusian wyvern rider, huh? Could it be the evil sorceress?

 

Oh, it’s not the sorceress, it’s… someone new! Oh, I’ve seen thumbnails of her! So this is Ivy, huh? Nice character design, gotta say.

I guess you're skipping over the "how did the army even get here" for the sake of redundancy. Because this is even worse than the last map. Somehow this force has managed to march right on their capital without effectively winning the war. What's also kind of funny about this scene is that they say there's "a wyvern rider approaching" and then when we get Ivy's animated introduction, there's a load of fighting in the background, but then after that intro the dialogue kind of makes it clear the fighting hasn't started yet and still sort of implies she had just arrived by herself. At least if I'm remembering everything correctly. My pedant senses were tingled for one reason or another.

What I think this chapter could have been interesting as would be if the enemies were exclusively fliers. That would explain how they even managed to get there. Also give you a reason to field bot Alcryst and the hard-to-justify-her-existence-anymore Etie.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

…The boss looks tricky. I’ve heard scary things about what Leif can do from the promo stuff, and it seems to be entirely warranted. Genealogy-boss-style automatic weapon switching, a defense buff for WTA… I’ll have to be careful. But for a moment I forgot what ring she had and thought she had an Emblem of Michalis or something. Slapping bright red hair on lords that almost never have it is kinda jarring. I wonder what they would’ve done if they had to write a corrupted Roy into the story.

Yeah, I had that moment myself too. Especially paired with a reference to a Sage Lord I missed, I was like "Who the hell is that?" I basically deduced it was Leif by realizing it obviously wasn't Lyn, Lucina, Ike, Corrin, Byleth or Eirika.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

…I was wondering when Diamant’s retainers were gonna show up. We’ve got a male cav named Amber (my condolences), who is… profoundly annoying. Like, his voice reminds me of fucking Benji-kun.

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ikGvLUbOuU

 

He just sounds so profoundly infantile, and I really just kinda… don’t want to use him or interact with him in any way. At least once I’m not forced to deploy him. …Anyway he’s another lance cav, which feels like a waste, and now I’m wondering where the second retainer is. Will they show up mid-battle?

Does anyone else feel the character concept of "retainers" feels like a bit of a cheap shortcut to putting a character in the army? Of course there's royal persons will inevitably have retainers, but it feels like almost the entire playable cast of Fates and Engage are made up of royals+retainers without any Echidnas or Salehs. It's like someone goes "Hey, I've got a great idea for a character, it's a dude into body building who cries a lot" "Great, we'll just make him a retainer." Like, most Fire Emblem characters are not important and could be removed from the plot, but at least characters usually have some kind of narrative importance in the chapter you get them in. But retainers you basically just get as an extension of the royal they're associated with, most of the time at any rate. I guess compare and contrast against Minerva and the White Wings, who all manage to justify their existence independently to one another despite being in a similar role of service. For Fates and Engage it feels like these characters exist more for gameplay than the sake of anything else. Which, is fine, I guess. We do need archers and armoured knights and the like. And I can't think of any ways you could easily include more characters in the story the way it's paced now without shoving more chapters into it between major events. But still, it sort of fields like a really convenient excuse to just shove characters into the army, and not one I'm confident they'll be abandoning anytime soon.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

And I’m getting to use the ballista, and… so it just empowers your basic weapons to be long-range attacks with an accuracy buff? I mean, that’s super from a usability perspective, it fixes something I’ve complained about for ages. But also, in-universe, the actual fuck?

Instead of shooting arrows, the ballista shoots bows XD

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Uh… one of the knight NPCs just prayed. To me. In person. That was, uh… profoundly awkward, even though the prayer was entirely reasonable.

I do like how Awkward Alear is as a character. Like, I guess all Avatars take their undue praise a bit awkwardly, but here Alear kind of knows it's undue. He knows exactly why people are, literally, worshipping him and he genuinely doesn't know how he's meant to act about it. He also has some supports where characters are very clearly trying to flirt with him and it goes so far over his head it risks hitting birds, which I personally find endearing.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Leif gives proficiency with damned near everything. Whoever uses Leif enough could basically promote into whatever the fuck they please.

It's kind of funny how important Master Knight is to Leif's identity in crossover stuff like this, despite the fact that Leif is only here to represent Thracia and he doesn't get even the slightest whiff of Master Knight in that game.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Apparently Lapis crafts things as a hobby and Anna’s little Ferengi gremlin ears hear profit in the wind. Yet again it’s an “intro to a story” conversation that’s more a tease of what’s to come, which is a bit frustrating.

But the alternatives are lengthy supports that takes ages to read through because you unlock six or seven each chapter, or really time consuming and difficult to unlock supports that let you miss most of them on any given playthrough 😕 There's a happy medium somewhere, but I don't think any game has truly hit it.

 

Edited January 30, 2023 by Jotari

[Alastor15243]

10 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Don't sleep on the Bond Rings. For starters, I believe you need a ring equipped so the character can gain SP at all. Also, a few do have useful skills for when you can't put an Emblem on everybody... but yeah, it will be RNG dependent if you want them cheap, since from A to S alone is 10K Bond Fragments! And more if you needed to meld those A's too, etc.

But like, you better do get a decent enough number of bonds rings... just in case.

Oh I made sure quite early on to get enough for everyone in my army, or at least everyone I'm fielding, don't worry.

11 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

If you do find it, share, since I've not either.

Will do.

5 minutes ago, Jotari said:

I kind of wish Shine was Thani. You could still give it the Radiant Dawn opening reference with lighting up fog of war, but then just give it armour and cavalry effectiveness too and call it Thani. That way it would be more useful on units with a poor magic stat, and units with a good magic stat would have an option at their disposal that isn't just sort of worse than the tomes they're already carrying. I've found very little use for Shine outside of the niche of Fog of War (and there really aren't many of them).

If I knew what the fuck the slaying formula was (I need to buckle down and try to work that out at some point soon), I'd have a better idea how batshit insane having an armor slayer tome would be. I know for certain I'd be terrified to put Louis near it.

7 minutes ago, Jotari said:

What I think this chapter could have been interesting as would be if the enemies were exclusively fliers. That would explain how they even managed to get there. Also give you a reason to field bot Alcryst and the hard-to-justify-her-existence-anymore Etie.

Or hell, just make all of the non-flier enemies Corrupted, rather than some of them, and have them summoned on-site.

 

[Jotari]

5 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

Or hell, just make all of the non-flier enemies Corrupted, rather than some of them, and have them summoned on-site.

 

What could be cool would be if Ivy arrived with a small squadron and was assaulted by a bunch of green allied units who immediately kill themselves on her, and then they are immediately resurrected as her forces. So you have to race to save your green allies from becoming the bulk of your enemy's forces. Despite pulling zombies as a plot point about half a dozen times in the series, I don't think they've ever actively made it an aspect of the gameplay.

[Alastor15243]

3 minutes ago, Jotari said:

What could be cool would be if Ivy arrived with a small squadron and was assaulted by a bunch of green allied units who immediately kill themselves on her, and then they are immediately resurrected as her forces. So you have to race to save your green allies from becoming the bulk of your enemy's forces. Despite pulling zombies as a plot point about half a dozen times in the series, I don't think they've ever actively made it an aspect of the gameplay.

Christ, imagine if you had to put down your own slain units.

[Acacia Sgt]

Alternatively... the ground troops were carried by the fliers.

[Jotari]

8 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Christ, imagine if you had to put down your own slain units.

They have done that, kind of, with Heirs of Fates where you fight the parent units using the child units, but, again, not actively in gameplay. It would be pretty great though. Imagine knowing one of your units is going to die on enemy phase, so you trade away all their weapons and leave them for dead 😮

[Eltosian Kadath]

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

But what’s really cool is they finally fucking fixed miracle! They actually made it into something genuinely interesting and reliable! Roy has an ability that basically says that as long as you have more than 30% of your max HP when combat starts, that combat cannot kill you. You’re guaranteed to keep at least 1 HP. The entire round of combat, incidentally, not just any individual hit. That’s badass.

I do like this version of miracle, thanks to the consistency of it, although I kinda like the Tear Ring Saga, and Berwick Saga item based miracle effects a little better.

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

Main issue here is I’m not sure how aggressive the enemies are going to get. So I need to make a good mix of heading off enemies coming at me and not baiting in enemies who would have initially left me alone.

Fairly certain the Pegasi do that Conquest thing of not attacking, and just rushing the defend points instead, so you have to actively hunt them...

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…So, heavy weapons are excellent for people with Emblems, because all of their drawbacks are negated while using them for special attacks. The enemy can’t counter, and by the looks of things, you can’t miss either.

Do they still have the knockback effect when they are used with an Emblem's super? If so, I wonder how that works with Sigurd's...

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

But I have to wonder why he’s the “Emblem of Genealogy”.

To be fair, almost all of his powers seem to be based on his Genealogy incarnation, which is kinda a shame, as Thracia had a lot of wild mechanics they could have drawn inspiration from...

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…Do… do characters start to complain if you don’t deploy them enough? Is that what the game’s doing here?

 

I don’t know whether I love or despise that.

That is really funny, and I rather like it.

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

…Helllloooooo… who’s this lady? She looks significantly older than Fire Emblem usually allows playable female characters to be. …Saphir?

Niime was playable back in the day, so old lady recruitables aren't unprecedented...

 

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

So here’s something that’s just kinda occurred to me gradually… I’m pretty damned sure Diamante was one of the people I saw in that opening cutscene in the prologue. So that pretty much eliminates that whole thing being a distant flashback. It was the future. So I wonder what the fuck the story was behind it.

Its probably just some pointless premonition, with best case scenario being that the characters we see are just resembling their ancestors very closely.

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

Oh, I have a support with Alcryst? Let’s see…

 

…Jesus Christ he’s groveling to a wolf.

 

…He mentions the inconvenience him being eaten would be to his colleagues who would spend says looking for him without avail, and I’m sitting here wondering if he thinks Pepsiman wouldn’t fucking tell people what happened to him.

 

…And… it worked. The wolf left.

Alcryst for wolfknight confirmed

 

2 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

 

 

Yunaka is kinda shocked nobody’s been doing more thorough background checks on her and is actually kind of uncomfortable with how trusting everyone is. And Alfred uses this as an opportunity to chat with Yunaka and get to know her better.

Guess who just volunteered for the tedious, and thankless job of doing background checks on the new troops Yunaka.

 

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Nice for landing killing blows, I suppose.

Or getting a break off, as it does trigger on attacks that can break, if the unit would be capable of countering if you fail to hit the break.

 

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

I do like how Awkward Alear is as a character. Like, I guess all Avatars take their undue praise a bit awkwardly, but here Alear kind of knows it's undue. He knows exactly why people are, literally, worshipping him and he genuinely doesn't know how he's meant to act about it. He also has some supports where characters are very clearly trying to flirt with him and it goes so far over his head it risks hitting birds, which I personally find endearing.

It is one of Alear's more redeeming traits, that he feels so believably awkward about the creepiness of being literally worshiped

 

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

What could be cool would be if Ivy arrived with a small squadron and was assaulted by a bunch of green allied units who immediately kill themselves on her, and then they are immediately resurrected as her forces. So you have to race to save your green allies from becoming the bulk of your enemy's forces. Despite pulling zombies as a plot point about half a dozen times in the series, I don't think they've ever actively made it an aspect of the gameplay.

1 hour ago, Alastor15243 said:

Christ, imagine if you had to put down your own slain units.

This Zombie Emblem map sounds like a really cool idea

 

1 hour ago, Jotari said:

They have done that, kind of, with Heirs of Fates where you fight the parent units using the child units, but, again, not actively in gameplay. It would be pretty great though. Imagine knowing one of your units is going to die on enemy phase, so you trade away all their weapons and leave them for dead 😮

They also kinda did something similar with FE5's Dead Lords, although the units that come back zombified are very specific

1 hour ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Alternatively... the ground troops were carried by the fliers.

If this game had rescue mechanics I might even buy that explanation...

[Alastor15243]

9 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Do they still have the knockback effect when they are used with an Emblem's super? If so, I wonder how that works with Sigurd's...

Not that I noticed.

 

9 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Niime was playable back in the day, so old lady recruitables aren't unprecedented...

You'll note I said "usually". I had her in mind with that qualifier.

 

11 minutes ago, Eltosian Kadath said:

Or getting a break off, as it does trigger on attacks that can break, if the unit would be capable of countering if you fail to hit the break.

Excellent point. Makes me feel even more confident about making him wear Lief for now.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

20 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh hey, another armor knight! With a good deal less defense and a bit more res. And a personal that gives her 2 more res when she waits. Interesting, but personally I prefer Louis a lot.

Yep, Jade suffers from showing up after Louis, who seems really popular right now. It's a shame - I really like her design, but I'm already invested in Louis.

20 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

So Morion didn’t take the ring to the big offscreen fight up ahead.

Ah, the Travant gambit. It makes some sense here - if he dies, then he's handing his enemy a superweapon.

20 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

I’m looking at Anna’s class changing options, and I’m noticing that she has better overall stats when reclassed to basically any other type of unit but backup. I’ll keep that in mind, and also, I don’t like it.

I've heard people giving high praise to Mage Anna, but when 90% of my reason for bringing Anna in the first place is ranged Chain Attacks, to reclass her doesn't make sense.

20 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Apparently Lapis crafts things as a hobby and Anna’s little Ferengi gremlin ears hear profit in the wind. Yet again it’s an “intro to a story” conversation that’s more a tease of what’s to come, which is a bit frustrating.

While other kids were stuck up on "Goodnight, Moon", or engrossed in "The Very Hungry Caterpillar", Anna was nose-deep in "The Rules of Acquisition".

20 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Do… do characters start to complain if you don’t deploy them enough? Is that what the game’s doing here?

 

I don’t know whether I love or despise that.

So far, I've encountered four kinds of explore lines:

1. Story-related. These usually come from just-recruited and/or major characters, and seem to supercede all else.

2. "What a great battle! Here's 50/100 Bond Shards."

3. "Please stop benching me. Would 10 Bond Shards convince you otherwise?"

4. An area-specific observation that isn't really plot-relevant, but can contribute to characterization and worldbuilding. These appear to have the lowest priority.

20 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, this is acceptable. I won’t be doing it much, but it doesn’t feel like something I need to do much. Just if I want some fish for cooking. There also feels like significantly less min-max pressure, what with it not being a crucial source of some professor rank exp equivalent.

Fishing is definitely more complicated this time around. Personally, I enjoyed the relatively quick timing-based minigame in 3H over this title's lengthier, more involved minigames (fishing and exercise). But that is a matter of tastes. And in any case, Sommie joining you is a nice touch.

20 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Okay, so, the armory has new items. Including a fist art that gives you +5 defense, which is pretty cool. But what’s curious is that wind is both weaker and slightly less accurate than fire, for the same weight. Only advantage is the flier-slaying properties.

27 years later, and IS is still atoning for the dreadful tome balance in Genealogy. Oh, I haven't really used the Shielding Art yet, but I'm a fan conceptually of weapons that provide defensive buffs. Could be this game's Guard Naginata.

20 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

And to my immense dismay, there appears to be no way to buy items in bulk. We’re back to Awakening in regards to tonic buying.

The Gen I Pokemon games, on the original Game Boy, knew how to let you buy multiples of an item at one time. This is just ridiculous. 

Also, they don't tell you how many you already have. Not as essential, but would've been a nice touch.

20 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

EIGHT FUCKING CHAPTERS INTO THE GAME, SOMEONE MENTIONS THAT PEPSIMAN SHOULD BE ABLE TO TURN INTO A DRAGON!

Yep, this got me really liking Morion. Also the fact that he totally looks like he could've been this game's "evil King", a la Rudolf or Zephiel, but he's actually on your side instead.

20 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Ohp! And here’s the conflict. Elusian wyvern rider, huh? Could it be the evil sorceress?

 

Oh, it’s not the sorceress, it’s… someone new! Oh, I’ve seen thumbnails of her! So this is Ivy, huh? Nice character design, gotta say.

This isn't a problem unique to Engage, but I really hate how Ivy shows up, face-to-face with your army, to say "my army is on its way". Like, why don't Alear, Diamant, and company engage her right then and there, before her troops arrive? If they were to take her hostage, they could stop the invasion then and there. Instead, they wait patiently to let her retreat to the back lines as her forces make their way there. Blithering buffons, all around.

20 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Oh! Ivy didn’t get away! She’s still here! Surrounded! That explains so fucking much of how we got that ring!

 

…And then she flew away on her horse. Somehow. The simplistic story scenes make it impossible to fathom what is going on here.

So she was killed twice, but she and her wyvern were both well enough to make their escape. While surrounded by the Brodian army. Even as she, presumably, just dropped the ring (which Hortensia avoided, despite an identical context). I'm starting to think that our side isn't as competent as they think themselves.

[Acacia Sgt]

53 minutes ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Also, they don't tell you how many you already have. Not as essential, but would've been a nice touch.

Hm? They do. Right there in the bottom left corner of the screen.

[Alastor15243]

19 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Yep, Jade suffers from showing up after Louis, who seems really popular right now. It's a shame - I really like her design, but I'm already invested in Louis.

In fairness, as has occurred to me since Monday, she doesn't exactly have fierce competition when it comes to axe users at the moment.

...Which reminds me that I haven't engraved any weapons since getting Celica.

19 hours ago, Shanty Pete's 1st Mate said:

Ah, the Travant gambit. It makes some sense here - if he dies, then he's handing his enemy a superweapon.

Fair enough, but standing by and watching the evil king put the ring on (to say nothing of why the fuck the evil king didn't have it on in the first place) was pretty absurd.

...Speaking of, full disclosure: Youtube thumbnail spoiled a bit of King Morion's fate, unfortunately.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

On 1/31/2023 at 3:12 PM, Acacia Sgt said:

Hm? They do. Right there in the bottom left corner of the screen.

Does it? I will have to check next time.

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

In fairness, as has occurred to me since Monday, she doesn't exactly have fierce competition when it comes to axe users at the moment.

I was still trying to make Anna and Vander work, so even in that regard, Jade was screwed. Boucheron also exists. But depending on the player's choices, Jade might be a nice second Axe user.

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Which reminds me that I haven't engraved any weapons since getting Celica.

...And I just remembered that I have three Engravings I can do, but haven't yet. I definitely recommend trying out the newly available ones!

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Fair enough, but standing by and watching the evil king put the ring on (to say nothing of why the fuck the evil king didn't have it on in the first place) was pretty absurd.

Obviously, the play would've been to cut off King Hyacinth's hand. Then again... I wonder, has anyone tried summoning an Emblem as a toe ring?

5 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

Speaking of, full disclosure: Youtube thumbnail spoiled a bit of King Morion's fate, unfortunately.

That's rough, buddy.

[Etrurian emperor]

8 hours ago, Alastor15243 said:

...Speaking of, full disclosure: Youtube thumbnail spoiled a bit of King Morion's fate, unfortunately.

On the other hand its Fire Emblem so there really wasn't going to be any other outcome for him. It be more of a spoiler if his fate somehow was anything other than everyone already expected. 

[Sunwoo]

Realtalk, I actually kinda liked Morion as a character. I liked how he interacted with Diamant and Alcryst, and in general people who weren't his enemies. He's built up before his introduction as this intimidating guy who's probably going to stonewall you until you prove your worthiness, but he's pretty chill. While still making it clear that his invasion of Elusia was definitely not a good thing.

It's nice that they had the capacity to write a minor character with that amount of complexity, and it's a shame that they don't put that talent to use more often nowadays.

[Jotari]

I tried using Jade, I even ditched Louis for her because I felt I had too many lance users (all said lance users also eventually got the ditch too). I thought her personel giving her Res would make her a more competent wall, but her low speed just made her impossible to field after a while. I think the most valuable defensive stat in this game is HP (and avoid), because, at least in maddening, enemies are able to just take massive chunks of damage out of you no matter how high you pack your defense, and being doubled is basically a death sentence.

On a minor side note, in the chapter where you get Anna, does the boss (generic female bandit!) move? In maddening she moves, and is quite troublesome to deal with, but I noticed she starts on a healing tile and has a skill that prevents you from moving her with smashes and stuff, so I'm wondering if she was originally designed as a stationary boss that they converted to a moving one for Maddening.

[Shanty Pete's 1st Mate]

6 minutes ago, Jotari said:

On a minor side note, in the chapter where you get Anna, does the boss (generic female bandit!) move? In maddening she moves, and is quite troublesome to deal with, but I noticed she starts on a healing tile and has a skill that prevents you from moving her with smashes and stuff, so I'm wondering if she was originally designed as a stationary boss that they converted to a moving one for Maddening.

Playing on Hard. She stays put.

2 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

On the other hand its Fire Emblem so there really wasn't going to be any other outcome for him. It be more of a spoiler if his fate somehow was anything other than everyone already expected. 

I mean, Queen Evv survived. At least, nothing bad has happened to her yet, and I'm not saying more because I don't wanna jinx it.

On 1/31/2023 at 3:12 PM, Acacia Sgt said:

Hm? They do. Right there in the bottom left corner of the screen.

Circling back to this - they do indeed. When you're about to buy something, it fades a bit into the background, which I found rather counterintuitive. But the count of items you already have is technically visible.

[Alastor15243]

Engage Day 11: Chapter 9

 

Hey everyone! I’m back after that mid-week break, and I’m ready to roll! Let’s begin!

Got a few assorted notes that occurred to me over the hiatus:

Right, so, one of them was that, even though it rips my soul to suggest a game should be more like Three Houses, I’m starting to think that unit type proficiency should have been a thing in this game, not just weapon type. It feels weird being able to freely change between classes that use the weapon type you’re using. It might’ve made reclassing more interesting. It also would’ve meant potentially getting Hector instead of Lyn to have an armor emblem, which would’ve been interesting. But who would’ve taught flying…?

…If we go by the Micaiah logic, then Marth would be a good candidate. Technically also Lyn due to her close friendship with Florina. And literally every single one of Corrin’s siblings except Leo can innately reclass to some sort of flier as well, so she’d be a shoe-in.

But then, I say “it might’ve made reclassing more interesting”… honestly, the class list in this game is pretty bitch-basic. Even most of the personal classes are just redecorated versions of existing classes we’ve seen hundreds of times. The wolf rider class is pretty much the only one that’s new, not counting Griffons. And let us say I do not appreciate that with the exception of apparently Pepsiman’s reclass, all of the fist classes are scrawny mages. I hope something happens that expands the class list, because while the game’s good so far, reclassing doesn’t look nearly as fun as it could be.

Moving on…

I also wrote down, and I quote: “Reject Anna, embrace axe armor?”.

A fair point. I don’t particularly care for this iteration of Anna anyway. Just because Jade isn’t as good as Louis doesn’t mean she isn’t better than Anna.

Oh also:

“ENGRAVE”

Right! All those engravings I can do! Gotta get on that!

…

…What’s going on with Roy’s?

I picked a random slim lance to see what this would do to it, and while Leif’s is a pretty cool attack, accuracy and avoid boost in exchange for one more weight…

…Roy’s increases might by 2… in exchange for adding eight more weight and a thirty avoid debuff.

Meanwhile Micaiah reduces the weapon’s attack but adds 20 dodge and 40 avoid, as well as making it 1 lighter. That I think is going on Yunaka.

But like seriously, what the fuck? Is Roy’s just a joke on him being the Emblem of Binding? That his engraving literally binds you? Is there some secret benefit to it? Does the game really think that suddenly going from +1 to +2 might on an Emblem engraving is such a batshit insane power step that this has to happen for it to be justified? I suppose applying it to a smashing weapon has few downsides, though, but still, seriously…

I gave it to Louis’s iron greatlance. Then I gave Yunaka a Micaiah-engraved steel sword and a Leif-engraved iron dagger. I wanna test to see if engaging lets you use any weapon of that Emblem’s type, or just the specific ones bound to them. If it’s the latter, then I’ll give the sword to someone else, but Yunaka with a sword with 40 avoid sounds fucking terrifying.

Alright, enough prep! Time to go!

Yet again, WHY THE FUCK do I have to do this ridiculous song and dance of skipping a cutscene and loading the next, over and over and over?

But yeah, I don’t think anything about this map is excessively complicated. I’m gonna open up with engaging right out the gate with Yunaka and Louis to simplify this first wave, and after that, we’ll improvise.

Oh yeah, also, I like how the prep screen lets you cursor over characters to see who has talks. Really makes planning how to recruit allies easier. So I know that both Diamant and Pepsiman can recruit Jade.

…Okay, so the music thinks we’re still in Brodia. Interesting…

…Alas, it would appear that engaging does not, in fact, let you use the weapon type the Emblem gives you, just the weapons.

Oh shit, Yunaka’s rapier crit is pretty badass!

…And Anna continues her streak of getting good levels! Okay, actually, I think I’m gonna keep giving her a chance.

Given that it’s confirmed to be utterly useless on Yunaka, I gave the Micaiah-engraved steel sword to Diamant.

The lieutenants are charging, which is cool. I’m gonna weigh my options with how to handle them, keeping in mind this is Yunaka and Louis’s last turn of engagement.

…Right, shit, forgot what Ivy said in the cutscene. They went to the forts, and summoned corrupted reinforcements. Who did not move that turn. Excellent.

But Zelkov, being a thief, is gonna be just about impossible to take out on that fort. I’ll have to see if I can get him to leave it.

…That was simple. They just fucking leave their forts when baited. Good deal.

Kagetsu was shockingly tough, however. I had to use Leif and Diamant’s Quadruple Hit in order to do significant damage to him, which hilariously left him so wounded a chain attack or a 3-damage hit from Alfred could finish him off.

Personally I would’ve preferred to see Diamant’s conversation with Jade, but he activated his engage, the clock is ticking, and Pepsiman’s close enough to do it now.

Oh nice! I didn’t notice before, but the game tells you how many turns of engagement are left with a little number by the Emblem portrait!

….FUCK.

Okay, I screwed up royally. I miscalculated terrain navigation, exposed Framme to take advantage of brawling, and put myself in a situation where my two remaining northern units can’t attack the same enemy. This means I’ll have two lance armors alive at the end of the turn rather than one, and…

…and Anna can just barely survive if she dives in to shield Framme. And Framme can take one hit from the one who can reach her.

…Wow, lucky me. Thank goodness for Great Sacrifice.

…Wow, that was a full level up from using Great Sacrifice. That… that’s amazing.

Oh, and I found an elsurge! Awesome!

Oh, and Jade can still talk with Diamant! Alright, let’s see what their dynamic is like.

…Okay, she seems pretty no-nonsense. Knowing this game, I was kind of expecting there to be something about her to subvert that, like maybe she’s single-mindedly obsessed with the prince, or oblivious to social conventions, or comically literal-minded, or goes completely ridiculous when a certain topic of discussion comes up. Is she actually just the tough, serious knight lady she appears to be? Honestly, now I’m curious to check out her supports.

So with Micaiah’s engagement, rewarp’s range has doubled. Good to know! But weirdly the staff range still has the “affect adjacent squares” cross that Micaiah gives to healing staves. Either that’s a glitch, or they’re implying I can group-rewarp somehow.

Alright, Louis is baiting in the boss. She’s stronger with her magic than last time, but Louis can still take it. Especially with a chain guard and Pepsiman supporting.

So Louis can do a shitton of damage with his engage special attack, so I’ll have him open up the next HP bar.

…Nope, wait, probably wise to do it now, given the chain guarding healer nearby.

He killed three enemies at once, counting Ivy’s first HP bar.

Attacks that don’t do damage apparently can’t break, but that’s where poison comes in! One dose and suddenly everything does at least a little damage!

Let’s see if we can kill some of these other enemies too while we’re at it.

…Well that’s curious. Either this is exclusive to Roy’s form or something… or only the blue part of Pepsiman’s hair changes when he engages. I’ll have to pay more attention to that…

In hindsight, perhaps giving the +evasion sword to the guy who has a personal that reduces his evade was a bad call. Or maybe not, since it only applies on player phase.

But yeah, he finishes off the boss after my remaining units finish off the axe armors, and we’re done here. Kinda sad that they gave us an objectively inferior rematch with her immediately, but I’m hoping this means she joins us now.

Now then…

…I just realized there’s this big fuckoff leaf-shaped bit of… whatever it’s made out of… in that thing in front of Ivy’s face. And since I can’t see one of her eyes through it, that means it’s definitely obstructing her vision big time.

…Okay, so Ivy just fucking outright admits that Pepsiman’s “[her] deity”. Which means that simultaneously:

1: People in Elusia know about Pepsiman the dark dragon descendant

2: Nobody in Elusia knows about Pepsiman the son of Lumera.

Yeah, the “adopted” twist is screaming louder and louder every minute.

But she just says “could I ask you to forget that?” after she says it… and Pepsiman says “yes”, like fucking what!?

…Okay, so Sombron can temporarily regain his powers through a ritual sacrificing sovereign blood.

Question:

If King Hyacinth is so willing to leave his daughter for dead, why even bother capturing King Morion when he could sacrifice Ivy instead? She’s royal, right? Sure, she’s not literally on the throne, but that doesn’t change your blood. And even if it did, just do a farcical ceremony to make her the queen and then kill her.

…Wow, that was a morbid suggestion from me. But I am curious what the rules of this ritual are.

So Ivy isn’t joining us yet, unfortunately. I thought not. Bit too early to be getting promoted retainers as allies.

…Why is the game’s tutorial slide system only now introducing Emblem Leif to me? Does this mean that arbitrarily now I can access his amiibo stuff? Let’s finish up here and see.

…Chloé gave me 50 bond fragments… while complimenting my growth rather than her own.

…As did Yunaka.

I got a bunny!

…Alright, let’s check the amiibo gazebo.

…No wait, story.

…Okay, if the game’s just going to act like I’m advancing on with the story whenever I depart from a story location, it probably shouldn’t ask me whether I want to go to the map or the Somniel until after I leave and see this story bit.

Oh look, little sister!

Veyle says she doesn’t know how she got here. Which certainly supports my theory that hooded cloak girl is her evil split personality identity.

…Oh wow. The music’s getting creepy and weird after she sees a ring.

…Thankfully we manage to snap her out of it before she does anything weird.

Alright, let’s zip through these bond conversations.

Sigurd saying he has something to learn from Louis about kindness seems weird, since excessive kindness is probably Sigurd’s fatal flaw.

…Céline and Celica’s support is almost literally just “I can’t even think of what to talk to you about” and “That’s okay, we have time”.

These conversations are already just two lines long.

…The game teases me with the prospect of Yunaka pressuring Marth into saying “Zappy” and does not deliver. For shame.

…Yes, apparently only now has the game registered that Leif is in my possession.

I have to assume this is an oversight that suggests the game originally had you get Leif from Ivy in the second battle, but the story was swapped around for some reason.

Anyway, his song is “Let’s Go, Leif!”, not “In Search of Victory ~ Leif”, which is a shame, since the latter is one of my favorite map themes.

…I’m gonna call it here and pick things up tomorrow. Looks like next map we’ll be heading into Elusia!

Alastor, signing off!

[Acacia Sgt]

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Right, so, one of them was that, even though it rips my soul to suggest a game should be more like Three Houses, I’m starting to think that unit type proficiency should have been a thing in this game, not just weapon type. It feels weird being able to freely change between classes that use the weapon type you’re using. It might’ve made reclassing more interesting. It also would’ve meant potentially getting Hector instead of Lyn to have an armor emblem, which would’ve been interesting. But who would’ve taught flying…?

Since Micaiah gives Knives as a reference to Sothe, then Marth could do the same for Flying thanks to Caeda?

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…If we go by the Micaiah logic, then Marth would be a good candidate. Technically also Lyn due to her close friendship with Florina. And literally every single one of Corrin’s siblings except Leo can innately reclass to some sort of flier as well, so she’d be a shoe-in.

Ah, you did thought that, heh.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

But then, I say “it might’ve made reclassing more interesting”… honestly, the class list in this game is pretty bitch-basic. Even most of the personal classes are just redecorated versions of existing classes we’ve seen hundreds of times. The wolf rider class is pretty much the only one that’s new, not counting Griffons. And let us say I do not appreciate that with the exception of apparently Pepsiman’s reclass, all of the fist classes are scrawny mages. I hope something happens that expands the class list, because while the game’s good so far, reclassing doesn’t look nearly as fun as it could be.

I'd say, it was certainly... a curious decision. Like, I can see it with Martial Monks being Fist+Staff, but did like High Priest also needed to use Fists? Maybe Berserkers could've been Axe+Fist. Or maybe a new class could've used that combination is the idea was to keep the Swordmaster/Berserker/Halberdier/Sniper quartet of mono-weapon S ranks.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…What’s going on with Roy’s?

I picked a random slim lance to see what this would do to it, and while Leif’s is a pretty cool attack, accuracy and avoid boost in exchange for one more weight…

…Roy’s increases might by 2… in exchange for adding eight more weight and a thirty avoid debuff.

It's meant to be used on either 3-range weapons that can't double anyway, or with Smash weapons... since you can't double anyway, or on armor units since... yep, you guessed it. Maybe not Smash weapons if it's not on an armor, due to risking receiving a lot of damage.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Meanwhile Micaiah reduces the weapon’s attack but adds 20 dodge and 40 avoid, as well as making it 1 lighter. That I think is going on Yunaka.

It does pair well with her. More so when you park her on an Avoid boosting tile. Her Avoid can go insane levels high!

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

But like seriously, what the fuck? Is Roy’s just a joke on him being the Emblem of Binding? That his engraving literally binds you? Is there some secret benefit to it? Does the game really think that suddenly going from +1 to +2 might on an Emblem engraving is such a batshit insane power step that this has to happen for it to be justified? I suppose applying it to a smashing weapon has few downsides, though, but still, seriously…

Like I said, it's meant to go to weapons that can't double anyway, and preferably either 3-range or on an Armor.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Alas, it would appear that engaging does not, in fact, let you use the weapon type the Emblem gives you, just the weapons.

Yeah, only Micaiah lets you do that, and only with Staves, not Tomes as well.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Okay, she seems pretty no-nonsense. Knowing this game, I was kind of expecting there to be something about her to subvert that, like maybe she’s single-mindedly obsessed with the prince, or oblivious to social conventions, or comically literal-minded, or goes completely ridiculous when a certain topic of discussion comes up. Is she actually just the tough, serious knight lady she appears to be? Honestly, now I’m curious to check out her supports.

Kinda ironic since Treehouse translated this game, and we know what they did with Effie...

... right?

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

So with Micaiah’s engagement, rewarp’s range has doubled. Good to know! But weirdly the staff range still has the “affect adjacent squares” cross that Micaiah gives to healing staves. Either that’s a glitch, or they’re implying I can group-rewarp somehow.

Yes, her Augment skill means Staffs gain a +1 in Range. So they turn AoE. So you can mass-Heal, mass-Warp, Rewarp to bring buddies along with you, etc.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Okay, so Ivy just fucking outright admits that Pepsiman’s “[her] deity”. Which means that simultaneously:

1: People in Elusia know about Pepsiman the dark dragon descendant

2: Nobody in Elusia knows about Pepsiman the son of Lumera.

Yeah, the “adopted” twist is screaming louder and louder every minute.

Gah, I want to speak about this so much... but well, you will soon find out anyway.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

…Okay, so Sombron can temporarily regain his powers through a ritual sacrificing sovereign blood.

Question:

If King Hyacinth is so willing to leave his daughter for dead, why even bother capturing King Morion when he could sacrifice Ivy instead? She’s royal, right? Sure, she’s not literally on the throne, but that doesn’t change your blood. And even if it did, just do a farcical ceremony to make her the queen and then kill her.

…Wow, that was a morbid suggestion from me. But I am curious what the rules of this ritual are.

This too, you will soon learn.

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

Sigurd saying he has something to learn from Louis about kindness seems weird, since excessive kindness is probably Sigurd’s fatal flaw.

Maybe his brand of kindness?

1 minute ago, Alastor15243 said:

I have to assume this is an oversight that suggests the game originally had you get Leif from Ivy in the second battle, but the story was swapped around for some reason.

Which is for the better, considering how the second battle flows... but yeah, if true, sounds like they forgot to move the tutorial prompt.

[Jotari]

 

27 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

But like seriously, what the fuck? Is Roy’s just a joke on him being the Emblem of Binding? That his engraving literally binds you? Is there some secret benefit to it? Does the game really think that suddenly going from +1 to +2 might on an Emblem engraving is such a batshit insane power step that this has to happen for it to be justified? I suppose applying it to a smashing weapon has few downsides, though, but still, seriously…

I'm sure the idea is to give it to a unit that never intends to get a counter attack. Like a longbow or elthunder...but yeah, the boost should definitely be bigger for that much of a downside.

27 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

If King Hyacinth is so willing to leave his daughter for dead, why even bother capturing King Morion when he could sacrifice Ivy instead? She’s royal, right? Sure, she’s not literally on the throne, but that doesn’t change your blood.

Neither doe being royalty, to be fair. Unless there's been Fire Emblem's patented blood bonding going on, but I haven't see any suggestion of that. I can genuinely get behind the notion that how much authority the person wields is a tangible force measured on some metaphysical level more so than I can blood plasma being magical just by being royal.

27 minutes ago, Alastor15243 said:

Sigurd saying he has something to learn from Louis about kindness seems weird, since excessive kindness is probably Sigurd’s fatal flaw.

Being kind never actually backfired on Sigurd. What looks like an example would be him taking Shannon in, but it seems clear Repter and Lombard would have framed him as a traitor regardless, as they were really after Byron who had grown too influential.

 

[Alastor15243]

9 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Yes, her Augment skill means Staffs gain a +1 in Range. So they turn AoE. So you can mass-Heal, mass-Warp, Rewarp to bring buddies along with you, etc.

That... sounds like insane amounts of fun. Next indoor map I get, I'm going to have Clanne bring in an infiltration squad!

1 minute ago, Jotari said:

Neither doe being royalty, to be fair. Unless there's been Fire Emblem's patented blood bonding going on, but I haven't see any suggestion of that. I can genuinely get behind the notion that how much authority the person wields is a tangible force measured on some metaphysical level more so than I can blood plasma being magical just by being royal.

I mean, being royalty seems to tangibly give you better reclassing options here.

[Acacia Sgt]

3 minutes ago, Jotari said:

Neither doe being royalty, to be fair. Unless there's been Fire Emblem's patented blood bonding going on, but I haven't see any suggestion of that. I can genuinely get behind the notion that how much authority the person wields is a tangible force measured on some metaphysical level more so than I can blood plasma being magical just by being royal.

Well, for the latter it's usually the other way around. Either the royal gains the magic blood through actions they do not related to being royalty, or they become royalty due to having magical blood. And since most cases do come from beings that are worshipped as deities, then it's basically "Divine Right to Rule" but like, actually real.

Edited February 3, 2023 by Acacia Sgt

[Jotari]

13 minutes ago, Acacia Sgt said:

Since Micaiah gives Knives as a reference to Sothe, then Marth could do the same for Flying thanks to Caeda?

Ah, you did thought that, heh.

I'd say, it was certainly... a curious decision. Like, I can see it with Martial Monks being Fist+Staff, but did like High Priest also needed to use Fists? Maybe Berserkers could've been Axe+Fist. Or maybe a new class could've used that combination is the idea was to keep the Swordmaster/Berserker/Halberdier/Sniper quartet of mono-weapon S ranks.

What's funny about that is that the default Berserker character's support with Alear involves teaching them (that is to say Alear) how to fight with fists. Said berserker not being in a class with fists while Alear, who you've probably promoted by that point if you're playing right, has fists in their promoted class!

Edited February 3, 2023 by Jotari

[Acacia Sgt]

I'd say, though, I do like that Engage goes back to Jugdral/Tellius style of having the same "class" just with a different weapon type... but expands on it. Like, how Heroes can also be Sword+Lance instead of just Sword+Axe. Or how Griffon and Wyvern Knights also come in different flavors, with one set weapon type, but the other is of your choosing.