Fire Emblem Engage has been Announced!

[DefyingFates]

34 minutes ago, VincentASM said:

So hopefully it's cute and frilly, ahaha.

So like Summer Tana's? That wouldn't be so bad, I suppose.

26 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

A few days before mine. So I've actually booked vacation during my birthday week for once to play it.

Ooh, congrats!

25 minutes ago, ciphertul said:

My worry is that it will be like Fates and we just won’t get the swimsuits.

Well, we saw it in the English trailer, so hopefully that means we aren't getting any cut content this time. I wonder if there's going to be some creepy skinship minigame this time, or something more wholesome like Three Houses/ Hopes.

[ciphertul]

7 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

Well, we saw it in the English trailer, so hopefully that means we aren't getting any cut content this time. I wonder if there's going to be some creepy skinship minigame this time, or something more wholesome like Three Houses/ Hopes.

Well, depends on if we get relationships. We haven’t seen any supports yet.

[DefyingFates]

5 minutes ago, ciphertul said:

Well, depends on if we get relationships. We haven’t seen any supports yet.

Supports are guaranteed, apparently the rating doesn't include any hints of S Supports though.

By the way, I meant to say this in the Twitter thread yesterday but may as well say it here: we didn't get Vander's full name for his Twitter reveal. I really liked that everyone in Three Houses got one (except Shez) as it added to the worldbuilding. It's a shame that we seem to not be getting the same here (though I'll maintain some level of hopium until we see some noble characters). Every unique outfit seems to have a description though (going off of Citrinne's default), so that provide some interesting stuff!

[Fabulously Olivier]

25 minutes ago, ciphertul said:

Well, depends on if we get relationships. We haven’t seen any supports yet.

God I hope we get S supports and they play the romance totally straight. It would be hysterical seeing voice actors having to pretend to be attracted to Alear.

[zuibangde]

52 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

Supports are guaranteed, apparently the rating doesn't include any hints of S Supports though.

I think Awakening, Three Houses and Engage all got rated Cero B. Fates is the only one rated Cero C. Although idk if the romance tag is a separate thing that all the other games got except for Engage. 

It is weird though because in the trailer, Alfred said something along the lines of how being around Alear brightens his day up. Imagine having characters kinda flirt with you and then the game says no to S supports.

35 minutes ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

God I hope we get S supports and they play the romance totally straight. It would be hysterical seeing voice actors having to pretend to be attracted to Alear.

We get it, you hate the character designs. There's no need to continuously bring it up and link unrelated things to it.

Edited September 19, 2022 by zuibangde

[DefyingFates]

9 minutes ago, zuibangde said:

I think Awakening, Three Houses and Engage all got rated Cero B. Fates is the only one rated Cero C. Although idk if the romance tag is a separate thing that all the other games got except for Engage. 

Do you know how Three Hopes was rated? Apparently that was rated differently and gave away the lack of romance there.

Speaking of Hopes though: I wonder if we'll go back to everyone being fully voiced all the time? Hopes' paths diverged a lot more than in Houses so the lack of acting in the camp made sense. If Engage is linear we could get acting again, but if it's a really long story as a result...

[Fabulously Olivier]

17 minutes ago, zuibangde said:

I think Awakening, Three Houses and Engage all got rated Cero B. Fates is the only one rated Cero C. Although idk if the romance tag is a separate thing that all the other games got except for Engage. 

It is weird though because in the trailer, Alfred said something along the lines of how being around Alear brightens his day up. Imagine having characters kinda flirt with you and then the game says no to S supports.

We get it, you hate the character designs. There's no need to continuously bring it up and link unrelated things to it.

First off, I'll say what I want. Thanks.

 

Second, I do find it genuinely hilarious. For the same reason why people used to find Gheb Emblem funny. For the same reason why people still find Oliver the authority on beauty funny. For the same reason why people's absurd create a characters in serious cutscenes are funny.

[zuibangde]

20 minutes ago, DefyingFates said:

Do you know how Three Hopes was rated? Apparently that was rated differently and gave away the lack of romance there.

I just checked the Japanese boxes for the games. Both Three Houses and Three Hopes are rated Cero B. However, Three Houses does have the romance tag at the back of the box whereas Three Hopes doesn't.

I then checked other non FE games with romance in the game such as Rune Factory 5 and it's rated Cero B without a romance tag.

SOS POOT is even funnier and is rated Cero A with no tags whatsoever despite being able to marry someone and have children with them. However, SOS POOT is definitely targeted towards a younger audience which may be why it's Cero A and have no tags. 

However, if the sources are reliable and they say Engage doesn't have romance tag, then based on how previous FE games were rated, then we may have to expect that there's no S supports. Rune Factory 5 not having a romance tag is very strange though.

Edited September 19, 2022 by zuibangde

[Ziegenpeter]

I would be genuinely surprised if there wasn't any s-rank romance shenanigans. But I would also welcome it. Xenoblade 3 once again reminded me that I prefer canon pairings over player-influenced romance.

Edited September 19, 2022 by Ziegenpeter

[Fabulously Olivier]

5 minutes ago, Ziegenpeter said:

I would be genuinely surprised if there wasn't any s-rank romance shenanigans. But I would also welcome it. Xenoblade 3 once again reminded me that I prefer canon pairings over player-influenced romance.

God, Trails made me feel this so hard. The romance of Trails took such a nosedive with Cold Steel. The protagonist is no longer allowed to have a quality romance, and he loses them every game like they're power ups in a Metroid. And because everyone has to be available for Rean, no one else is allowed to have a romance either. Can't have any more Olivert x Schera's on our watch.

[ciphertul]

41 minutes ago, Ziegenpeter said:

I would be genuinely surprised if there wasn't any s-rank romance shenanigans. But I would also welcome it. Xenoblade 3 once again reminded me that I prefer canon pairings over player-influenced romance.

Not me, most FE canon pairing are just bad.

[DefyingFates]

52 minutes ago, Ziegenpeter said:

I would be genuinely surprised if there wasn't any s-rank romance shenanigans. But I would also welcome it. Xenoblade 3 once again reminded me that I prefer canon pairings over player-influenced romance.

Same. I figure there'll be marriages in epilogues like in past games though, surely? Don't get me wrong, I think it'd be an interesting change if everyone had canon pairings (or stayed canonically single), but that seems like a weird tradition to exclude from the anniversary title of all things. Unless Hopes was a sign that they wanted to move away from that and not just because of how Hopes in particular was structured.

Honestly I was expecting something like Three Houses where only Byleth got an S Support, but who knows? Maybe we'll get a platonic/ implied S Support like in Three Hopes instead.

[Dark Holy Elf]

2 hours ago, zuibangde said:

It is weird though because in the trailer, Alfred said something along the lines of how being around Alear brightens his day up. Imagine having characters kinda flirt with you and then the game says no to S supports.

I don't have to imagine it, I've played Three Hopes! (Yeah, I know, Hopes has a four-line vaguely-S-support-if-you-squint dialog at the ending based on your merc whistle choice, but it doesn't feel like the same.)

1 hour ago, Ziegenpeter said:

I would be genuinely surprised if there wasn't any s-rank romance shenanigans. But I would also welcome it. Xenoblade 3 once again reminded me that I prefer canon pairings over player-influenced romance.

I kinda echo @ciphertul's thoughts. The last FE to really lean into canon pairings gave us a bunch of clunkers IMO. Not only that, but when many games (certainly including FE) have leaned heavily into canon pairings in the past, they've tended to be incredibly heteronormative. Maybe this wouldn't be the case for a game released in 2023, but I'd be worried, for sure.

I do like the idea of mixing in a small number of canon established couples like Louise/Pent, but I think the shipping elements of Fire Emblem have been a huge success and I'd be sad to see them left behind entirely.

[DefyingFates]

34 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

I do like the idea of mixing in a small number of canon established couples like Louise/Pent, but I think the shipping elements of Fire Emblem have been a huge success and I'd be sad to see them left behind entirely.

I like this idea too, but this would never happen if Alear is able to romance everyone (unless they're guaranteed to get together if Alear doesn't marry one of them - that could work). Also, if we do get canon pairings, I'd like a wider range of them, as you said earlier. Not just straight couples~

[Azz]

I don't really mind how supports are done tbh, I just hope that there is a good mix of romantic and platonic supports and endings. I loved that Three Houses had so many endings between characters that weren't necessarily romantic. I especially want to see Alear get some platonic endings. While it annoys me that Gilbert and Alois are S ranks in TH making it seem like they are queer options, I do like that Byleth had a platonic ending with them (even if in their Alois ending they do get married).

I also think having some canon couples would be cool, but like Dark Holy Elf said, they unfortunately get very heteronormative and tend to not be very original, so keeping it to a minimum would be cool (or give us some gay couples please IS).

[Hrothgar777]

Quote

even if in their Alois ending they do get married

 

Wait, what?

[Azz]

26 minutes ago, Hrothgar777 said:

 

Wait, what?

In Byleth's and Alois' paired ending in CF, it is mentioned Byleth gets married to a random NPC. I didn't mean Byleth and Alois get married sorry lmao

[Dark Holy Elf]

1 hour ago, DefyingFates said:

I like this idea too, but this would never happen if Alear is able to romance everyone (unless they're guaranteed to get together if Alear doesn't marry one of them - that could work). Also, if we do get canon pairings, I'd like a wider range of them, as you said earlier. Not just straight couples~

If it were up to me, I'd treat any Louise/Pents the way Three Houses already treated Alois and Gilbert: you can S-support them if you want to get an ending based around them, but you won't be marrying them.

Well, either that, or you form a polycule.

[DefyingFates]

8 minutes ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

If it were up to me, I'd treat any Louise/Pents the way Three Houses already treated Alois and Gilbert: you can S-support them if you want to get an ending based around them, but you won't be marrying them.

Well, either that, or you form a polycule.

I'll take the former option, thanks 😛 To be honest I forgot about those two endings until you guys brought it up, but it's a great alternative! It'd be really cute to get an ending where Alear is best man/ woman at their wedding, or godparent to their kids, or some kind of platonic "friends-for-life" ending like that!

But because of the whole waifu/ husbando thing, that'd probably be relegated solely to the much older folk like Vander. Or any really young ones, if we get trainees again. Please don't do romanceable kids again, Fire Emblem.

Regardless, even if it's near impossible that we'll see it, it would be an interesting change to have some set-in-stone, well written romances amidst the free-for-all shipping you can partake in.

Well, I say that, but there's a part of me that wants to see the chaos that would ensue from the Emblems being able to be paired with people too.

Moving on from romances, I wonder if we'll see any "canon" Emblem pairings of different genders, and how Engaging will work in that case? Heck, Heroes is slowly adding NB representation, so seeing a NB character paired with an Emblem could be interesting too~

[zuibangde]

5 hours ago, Dark Holy Elf said:

(Yeah, I know, Hopes has a four-line vaguely-S-support-if-you-squint dialog at the ending based on your merc whistle choice, but it doesn't feel like the same.)

If that’s the direction Engage will take, I think many people will be unhappy. Whether people like it or not, S Supports/shipping is a big reason why some people play the FE games. 
 

I’m more afraid they decided to add S supports as some form of paid DLC though.

[KoriCongo]

3 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

I'll take the former option, thanks 😛 To be honest I forgot about those two endings until you guys brought it up, but it's a great alternative! It'd be really cute to get an ending where Alear is best man/ woman at their wedding, or godparent to their kids, or some kind of platonic "friends-for-life" ending like that!

But because of the whole waifu/ husbando thing, that'd probably be relegated solely to the much older folk like Vander. Or any really young ones, if we get trainees again. Please don't do romanceable kids again, Fire Emblem.

Regardless, even if it's near impossible that we'll see it, it would be an interesting change to have some set-in-stone, well written romances amidst the free-for-all shipping you can partake in.

Well, I say that, but there's a part of me that wants to see the chaos that would ensue from the Emblems being able to be paired with people too.

Moving on from romances, I wonder if we'll see any "canon" Emblem pairings of different genders, and how Engaging will work in that case? Heck, Heroes is slowly adding NB representation, so seeing a NB character paired with an Emblem could be interesting too~

Huh, I really love that idea, of S-supports with pre-married couples. I doubt it will be in Engage cause that's a very...high-concept idea, it was NOT popular in Three Houses (i miss M!Byleth the Dad-stealer jokes...), and...

Spoiler

the build of it that was leaked showcased that there isn't any S-supports to be seen

But I think a lot of people really could use that idea and run a good mile with it.

As for romantic pairings, I doubt any of Engage's cast would be that attached to any of the previous heroes. Outside of those that already have wives, canon or not, or those with adorations to other heroes (Lucina to Marth, for example) these are mythical heroes for their setting. It would kind of be like having a crush on Winston Churchill or Martin Luther King Jr. in a way, would be insane to watch anyone be like that. Maaaybe they would have someone that parodies Lucina, in a Faye/Monica kind of deal for someone.

[joevar]

it would be hillarious to me IF theres no marriage when  the whole game has Ring and Engage plastered all over it,  just to blue-balling people.

personally i want support to have different level between characters like in 3H, but not forcing pariing/marriage when its not going to work. but just please not random pairing at the end like 3 house. theres a lot to like and not to like with 3H support

6 hours ago, DefyingFates said:

Regardless, even if it's near impossible that we'll see it, it would be an interesting change to have some set-in-stone, well written romances amidst the free-for-all shipping you can partake in.

yeah, just as much theres people that like non canon pairing, theres also many good cases of canon pairing being interesting in other JRPG games (provided theres good writer in the team). 

9 hours ago, Fabulously Olivier said:

God, Trails made me feel this so hard. The romance of Trails took such a nosedive with Cold Steel. The protagonist is no longer allowed to have a quality romance, and he loses them every game like they're power ups in a Metroid. And because everyone has to be available for Rean, no one else is allowed to have a romance either. Can't have any more Olivert x Schera's on our watch.

its really weird really. thats straight up like a Harem visual novel. i like shipping like the next guy, but prefer it not centralized around the MC

-----------------------------------------------

im afraid sticking to free for all too hard will end up just like 3H ending pairing. where its just flavor text after the game ending thats doesnt feel better than an amateur writing a fan-fiction. im sure they could do better than that. Heck, even monastery/mycastle can be a benefit for that where we see paired character that get maxed support now standing together in base or something being close. theres potential for smaller pool of pairing thats not centralized around MC

[Metal Flash]

I`m more worried about if they will care more about the Emblems than the original Engage characters. If romance is to be included, I would not involve the emblems whatsoever. 

[Florete]

On 9/19/2022 at 8:18 AM, ciphertul said:

My worry is that it will be like Fates and we just won’t get the swimsuits.

That's just not really how Switch games work, what with the console being region-free.

[Zapp Branniglenn]

16 hours ago, Metal Flash said:

I`m more worried about if they will care more about the Emblems than the original Engage characters.

I've been thinking about this too. Who's the focus for this game? I'm not confident the Emblems will play any larger narrative role than the Heroes of Fire Emblem Heroes or Warriors of Fire Emblem Warriors. When we see Marth in Somniel (the between-map explorable space that replaces the Monastery) Marth appears in his same floating ghost form we see in battle. That right there implies he has literally no tangible impact on the world around him. And for all we know, only visibly appears to our main character, or whoever is wearing Marth's ring. Marth might not be able to interact with anybody in this world besides us. Will we see the roaring return of MC-sexuals like in Fates/Awakening, or will the writers stop and realize: wait...you can't marry a ghost...

But on the other hand, if the 12 Emblems are THE 12 Emblems of this universe, that may give them greater weight than if there were thirty, forty, or even a hundred of these dorks to collect like in some kind of gacha game. I've been floating the possibility that the Evil Ring we saw the villain wear in the trailer is implying we'll see villains from classic Fire Emblem games opposing us, but another possibility is that these are the 12 Emblems, currently mind controlled by the fell dragon, and we need to convert them to the light side as part of the story. Maybe you need all of them to fulfill some sort of prophecy. Each one could take up an entire story arch if they wanted. Fire Emblem Heroes loves giving us Evil versions of normally good characters, so this may be more of that.

Edited September 20, 2022 by Zapp Branniglenn