32 playable characters confirmed, & maybe more? (Leaks mentioned)

[Troykv]

17 hours ago, martystarboy said:

 

The image was specifically from the tweet saying you could recruit via talking. It's normal to be able to talk to ally NPCs without recruiting them, however that would be a bit deceitful on the official twitter's part. It could be a mistake of some kind, but I doubt it. Tbf a lot of the NPCs in this game are pretty "unique" by FE standards (that blue-haired hooded guy shown in the chain challenge really stood out), and the hat is kind of similar to Framme's, who has the same class. Maybe there's a connection between Framme and this character, or maybe they're a Donnel type where they're a bit generic on purpose? I've totally almost missed recruiting characters in older FE games bc they were hard to distinguish from NPCs before.

There is Ralph, he appears alongside other character that looks more recruitable (Amalda), but you aren't actually guaranted to get Amalda and she doesn't join her anyway... Instead, Ralph is the character that joins.

[Saint Rubenio]

17 hours ago, martystarboy said:

The image was specifically from the tweet saying you could recruit via talking. It's normal to be able to talk to ally NPCs without recruiting them, however that would be a bit deceitful on the official twitter's part. It could be a mistake of some kind, but I doubt it. Tbf a lot of the NPCs in this game are pretty "unique" by FE standards (that blue-haired hooded guy shown in the chain challenge really stood out), and the hat is kind of similar to Framme's, who has the same class. Maybe there's a connection between Framme and this character, or maybe they're a Donnel type where they're a bit generic on purpose?

To be honest, with how transparent they've been with the information, and the identity of the one leaked character, I expect any unrevealed characters are likely to be key plot characters that'd be more spoilery to reveal as playable. It strikes me as odd that they'd just randomly hide a nobody qi adept that looks like a generic... unless there's more to that person than meets the eye and using them as the example for the recruitment twit was a meta way to hint at their existence. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

...Man, the game can't come out soon enough...

17 hours ago, martystarboy said:

I've totally almost missed recruiting characters in older FE games bc they were hard to distinguish from NPCs before.

Usually you could tell because they had faces at all

[Moltz23]

People noticed that Gamemania's preorder bonus for FE Engage is a collection of stickers based on the battle sprites of the known playable cast plus some potential outliers. And curiously, everyone in it is sorted in a very... peculiar order, for a lack of a better word (maybe it's reflective of story progression?):

Unless there's more info being kept under wraps (or the plot secretly happens to be banshit insane), I honestly think Engage can potentially end up having a playable cast of 32 characters without DLC at minimum, with maybe a 2-3 more if the devs felt like giving each country (sans Gradron/Gradlon??) the same amount of representatives, because for some reason both Solm and Elusia have 1 more playable character confirmed compared to Firene and Brodia:

Edited December 19, 2022 by Moltz23

[Saint Rubenio]

10 minutes ago, Moltz23 said:

People noticed that Gamemania's preorder bonus for FE Engage is a collection of stickers based on the battle sprites of the known playable cast plus some potential outliers, and with everyone being sorted in a very... peculiar order, for a lack of a better word (maybe it's reflective of story progression?):

Unless there's more info being kept under wraps (or the plot secretly happens to be banshit insane), I honestly think Engage can potentially end up having a playable cast of 32 characters without DLC at minimum, with maybe a 2-3 more if the devs felt like giving each country (sans Gradron/Gradlon??) the same amount of representatives, because for some reason both Solm and Elusia have 1 more playable character confirmed compared to Firene and Brodia:

Worth nothing that both Solm and Elusia have odd ones out in Seadall and Anna, characters who aren't a part of a "liege n' retainers" set. It's still rather weird that they do, but the others don't, though.

Beyond that, I've seen this shared all over, but I have to wonder how official this sprite sheet really is. Maybe it's just not a thing in my country, but I've never heard of this "Gamemania" before.

Edited December 19, 2022 by Saint Rubenio

[BoydSteakhouse]

15 minutes ago, Moltz23 said:

for some reason both Solm and Elusia have 1 more playable character confirmed compared to Firene and Brodia

But in terms of retainers each nation has 4 (2 for each leader) so there's mostly consistency 

Edited December 19, 2022 by BoydSteakhouse
Misinformation correction

[EarthboundAddict]

If all the characters are just royals and retainers with few exceptions that actually kinda sucks... part of what I like about fe casts is that it features soldiers from a variety of different upbringings, backgrounds and social classes and I don't really feel like you get that variety with a roster full of nobles/royals and their presumably high ranking retainers

[Moltz23]

14 minutes ago, EarthboundAddict said:

If all the characters are just royals and retainers with few exceptions that actually kinda sucks... part of what I like about fe casts is that it features soldiers from a variety of different upbringings, backgrounds and social classes and I don't really feel like you get that variety with a roster full of nobles/royals and their presumably high ranking retainers

If it helps, the background of the retainers is at least allowed to be far more varied given we know Panettone (the goth/doll girl and Timerra's retainer) isn't from Elyos to begin with.

[Etrurian emperor]

1 hour ago, EarthboundAddict said:

If all the characters are just royals and retainers with few exceptions that actually kinda sucks... part of what I like about fe casts is that it features soldiers from a variety of different upbringings, backgrounds and social classes and I don't really feel like you get that variety with a roster full of nobles/royals and their presumably high ranking retainers

It also kinda implies the world is super small and that the countries don't exist outside of the royals immediate vicinity. 

The lord+retainer combo does have some merits but its a waste to have almost the entire cast devoted to that concept. 

[Azz]

I don't inherently think the lord+retainer relationship is inherently bad tbh, I think having pre-established relationships is always a great writing dynamic imo. However I do agree that having a whole cast of them is a bit much. I wish they took a note from TH book and the main lords (Alfred, Diamant, Timerra and Ivy) had one each like Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude while everyone else was just a normal country citizen in the army. I really don't think the royal siblings also needed retainers, or again, they should've only had one.

Either ways, while its not the best, I don't think its the worst and hopefully we see them at least have interesting relationships with their lord and fellow retainer and have good dynamics with characters outside of their trio.

[Safy]

I'm not a fan of "lords and retainers only" either. A ragtag band is always better.

Is there a reason the villains have sprites? Does this imply they are all playable? I know 

Spoiler

Mauvier is.

Zephia and Veyle would be cool since that would mean more dragon units for us and Zephia would be a welcome addition as the rare adult lady in this cast.

[Keikyushi]

1 hour ago, Safy said:

Is there a reason the villains have sprites

Every units have sprite on the battle map, allies and enemies alike

[BoydSteakhouse]

2 minutes ago, kienquocsi said:

Every units have sprite on the battle map, allies and enemies alike

IMHO enemies will become playable mainly because the theme of the game is blue and red harmonizing. This is made evident by the fact that IS couldn't resist making Veyle's eyes purple... also there is a serious lacking of dlc characters but a bunch of emblems so something tells me they're gonna have the baddies jump ship come post-game ala Awakening. 

At least I really want Griss playable for non-unobvious reasons...

 

...

[martystarboy]

20 hours ago, Moltz23 said:

People noticed that Gamemania's preorder bonus for FE Engage is a collection of stickers based on the battle sprites of the known playable cast plus some potential outliers. And curiously, everyone in it is sorted in a very... peculiar order, for a lack of a better word (maybe it's reflective of story progression?):

Unless there's more info being kept under wraps (or the plot secretly happens to be banshit insane), I honestly think Engage can potentially end up having a playable cast of 32 characters without DLC at minimum, with maybe a 2-3 more if the devs felt like giving each country (sans Gradron/Gradlon??) the same amount of representatives, because for some reason both Solm and Elusia have 1 more playable character confirmed compared to Firene and Brodia:

 

At this point, I agree with you that this is probably it for our main cast unless they throw us a curveball. Still can't figure out what that "talk to recruit" tweet had going on, but the model in that image is so vague it's hard to speculate about it much. All of these sprites are from the official JP website (except maybe Sombron(?), though he could've been a hidden sprite), so I don't think Gamemania has any special insider knowledge, as cool as that would be. I certainly hope our dancer, Seadall, is not the last recruitable character...that would suck even if we get Byleth's 4-way dance earlier.

18 hours ago, Azz said:

I don't inherently think the lord+retainer relationship is inherently bad tbh, I think having pre-established relationships is always a great writing dynamic imo. However I do agree that having a whole cast of them is a bit much. I wish they took a note from TH book and the main lords (Alfred, Diamant, Timerra and Ivy) had one each like Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude while everyone else was just a normal country citizen in the army. I really don't think the royal siblings also needed retainers, or again, they should've only had one.

Either ways, while its not the best, I don't think its the worst and hopefully we see them at least have interesting relationships with their lord and fellow retainer and have good dynamics with characters outside of their trio.

Yeah, as unbalanced as this cast is, I feel like lord+retainer dynamics aren't the worst thing we could've gotten stuck with (luckily, I enjoy this type of dynamic, though I could very well get burned out by the end of Engage). I kind of wonder if they're going for a "motley band of royals & co who go rogue and try to stop the war through their own means" story rather than a "group of soldiers on the frontlines" one? As children of the current rulers, their parents could be sheltering them. Diamant's whole thing might be wanting to protect his father despite expressly being ordered to stay put? Who knows.

[Saint Rubenio]

2 hours ago, Safy said:

I'm not a fan of "lords and retainers only" either. A ragtag band is always better.

I don't think I mind too much, but I have to agree. Ragtag band leaves more freedom.

2 hours ago, Safy said:

Is there a reason the villains have sprites? Does this imply they are all playable? I know 

  Hide contents

Mauvier is.

Zephia and Veyle would be cool since that would mean more dragon units for us and Zephia would be a welcome addition as the rare adult lady in this cast.

On the one hand... yeah, Zephia is the most mature-looking female character in the game (that we've seen so far, there's still two queens left). On the other hand, her design is by far the worst in the game, if you ask me... but if she's playable, that means I can throw her some real clothes. Sooooo you know what, yeah, I'll join you in hoping she's playable. As little sense as that'd make, she gives me true villain vibes.

27 minutes ago, martystarboy said:

Still can't figure out what that "talk to recruit" tweet had going on, but the model in that image is so vague it's hard to speculate about it much.

I still feel like the character being talked to there looks a bit too generic to be a recruitable. My dream would be that it was a sneaky way of teasing Fates capture, but that's just my dream haha.

16 minutes ago, martystarboy said:

All of these sprites are from the official JP website (except maybe Sombron(?), though he could've been a hidden sprite), so I don't think Gamemania has any special insider knowledge, as cool as that would be

This is why I'm taking it with a grain of salt. I'm not sure if it was in this thread that I said it, but I've never heard of this Gamemania place in my life. I can't imagine they'd be picked for privileged information or rights to share that information over any other more recognizable, international chain. I think it's possible they've just taken information that's readily available and created a quaint little pre-order bonus out of it. Not necessarily something I'd take as confirmation of anything.

Or maybe I'm just reaching because, while I'd be... okay with this cast, I'm really hoping for at least a few more

[Moltz23]

1 hour ago, martystarboy said:

All of these sprites are from the official JP website (except maybe Sombron(?), though he could've been a hidden sprite), so I don't think Gamemania has any special insider knowledge, as cool as that would be.

All of them but Sombron and Alear's, because I looked everywhere on the site's code and neither has had their battle sprites uploaded yet (that, and Sombron still has no profile as of this post). If I had to guess, Gamemania likely has those graphics because Nintendo themselves send it to them for promotional/advertising purposes.

EDIT: Before I forget, I noticed the Somniel trailer revealed Divine Dragons gain more boons than usual when they're involved in meals, which is oddly specific given Alear's the only one playable as far we know (otherwise, why don't say "Alear also gains" instead?). Maybe we can recruit other dragon units later on?

Edited December 20, 2022 by Moltz23

[Use the Falchion]

I think we'll see a few more playable characters, if only because most FE games like to have duplicates for classes/options, even if it only shows as the difference between pre-promotes and regular units.* Even Fates made sure that nearly every playable class had at least two units in total.** We haven't seen another Peg Knight or Wyvern Rider, which is weird to me and is something we haven't really seen since Three Houses.***   Units like that make me think that there are more playable characters. 

 

So yeah, I'm on the "we'll have between 3-6 more playable characters we haven't met yet" side of things. Not too many more I feel, but enough that we get a sense of the world and we don't feel confined to one character per class or type. 

 

*More specifically, I'm thinking of Wyvern Riders. Most games (well, at least FE7 and beyond) seem to have a Wyvern Rider and then a Wyvern Lord (exceptions are SS and 3H). 

**EXCEPT FOR ONI SAVAGE THANKS RINKAH. 

***Three Houses is weird in general though, and at least we had several units who could function as Peg Knights if desired. 

[Keikyushi]

1 hour ago, martystarboy said:

I kind of wonder if they're going for a "motley band of royals & co who go rogue and try to stop the war through their own means" story rather than a "group of soldiers on the frontlines" one

Actually ever since I saw Firenese and Solmese soldiers as potential enemies, I have been thinking "Why are they fighting their own countrymen? Did something happen? What happened?" A band of royals going rouge and now have to fight their own soldiers sound fun as hell, yeah.

[Azz]

I really feel like the 'If divine dragon...' things really is them not being very good at hiding the fact Veyle will be playable. While I do think she could also be the cloaked girl who attacks Alear and Lumera, her presence in the very centre of the SE art just screams 'I'm playable!' regardless of whether or not she plays an antagonistic role at first. Either that or a new character we have yet to see will also be a divine dragon. Also we have DLC.

As for the Four Hounds, I feel like they'll only become playable either via DLC or in some kind of NG+/something akin to FEA SpotPass chapters/Creature Campaign-esque mode.

Spoiler

All of them sans Mauvier look so obviously evil that, unless they pull a FEA, I don't see them being playable in the main story at least. Mauvier however looks like every enemy general who is morally good but too loyal to his lord's cause but is recruitable after being made to realise how evil his lord's motivation is aka, every Lorenz ever (not Camus, Camus' actually die by their loyalty). Zephia is very obviously gonna be the Gharnef to Hyacinth's Hardin (evil sorcerer puppetteering the corrupt king), also will possibly be some kind of foil to Alear with both of them being dragons, Griss is mentioned to be loyal to his cause (he could be a Camus but idk) and Marni feels like she'll have Hilda (Genealogy) and be very cruel and deserve to die.

I really don't see that monk from the twt post being playable. They look so generic it just doesn't make sense. I really don't know what the twt is doing when they coulda used Jade since we know we have to recruit her by talking. But they are also the same people who dedicated a post to talking about how bows are locked to 2 range.

There is finally the mystery of Jan. They could definitely be playable, however it depends on how the fortune telling works and if it allows NPCs to be mentioned because, knowing Merrin, like someone else said, it could be her wolf or a NPC from her past. We'll just have to wait and see. At the same time, the twt hasn't been very secretive about playable characters and showing late game maps so personally I find it hard to believe there being too many playable characters outside of the ones we already know tbh.

[Moltz23]

If Veyle does turn out to be the hooded girl that kills Lumera, that very much complicates her chances of becoming playable though, more so if the Engage's promotional stickers pairs her along with Zephia and Sombron (both who are confirmed bad guys).

[Safy]

4 hours ago, kienquocsi said:

Every units have sprite on the battle map, allies and enemies alike

I see. Still a bit fishy to list them together with the playable characters like this.

2 hours ago, Moltz23 said:

EDIT: Before I forget, I noticed the Somniel trailer revealed Divine Dragons gain more boons than usual when they're involved in meals, which is oddly specific given Alear's the only one playable as far we know (otherwise, why don't say "Alear also gains" instead?). Maybe we can recruit other dragon units later on?

Yes, seems like there has to be at least one another playable divine dragon unit, otherwise that doesn't make any sense (and I think that same "if Divine Dragon" was used in some other context as well). So Veyle might be the most likely option.

1 hour ago, Moltz23 said:

If Veyle does turn out to be the hooded girl that kills Lumera, that very much complicates her chances of becoming playable though, more so if the Engage's promotional stickers pairs her along with Zephia and Sombron (both who are confirmed bad guys).

They can just do the ol' "your friend but actually bad but you saved me and so now I'm good again" thing. Or with her having those chains around her ankles, perhaps she doesn't help the baddies voluntarily.

[Azz]

Yeah if Veyle is both the hooded figure and playable, I can easily see them pulling a 'she was possessed!' ala Tiki or 'there are two Veyles' ala Robin.

[Saint Rubenio]

If there are characters left, I seriously doubt they'd be random joes. They'd have showed those already, like they did Anna, Yunaka and Seadall. Judging by the leaked character, they're more likely to be critical figures that would be big spoilers to reveal as playable. Story is, after all, the one aspect of the game we know the least about. Everything we've seen really amounts to a synopsis and a few deaths that were obvious to begin with.

Personally, I'm hoping for some curveballs. Like have Lumera turn into an Emblem after dying (hey, wasn't there an obvious edit hiding an Emblem in the Somniel trailer?), have Morion and/or Hyacinth survive their obvious trailer death scenes and join the team, have the yet unveiled queens of Solm and Firene be playable. Something like that.

[Azz]

30 minutes ago, Saint Rubenio said:

If there are characters left, I seriously doubt they'd be random joes. They'd have showed those already, like they did Anna, Yunaka and Seadall. Judging by the leaked character, they're more likely to be critical figures that would be big spoilers to reveal as playable. Story is, after all, the one aspect of the game we know the least about. Everything we've seen really amounts to a synopsis and a few deaths that were obvious to begin with.

Personally, I'm hoping for some curveballs. Like have Lumera turn into an Emblem after dying (hey, wasn't there an obvious edit hiding an Emblem in the Somniel trailer?), have Morion and/or Hyacinth survive their obvious trailer death scenes and join the team, have the yet unveiled queens of Solm and Firene be playable. Something like that.

In regards to bold, I'm pretty sure that was the DLC trailer where it looks like an emblem was hidden. Along side that we've seen multiple shots of Alear specifically having an emblem gauge with no actual emblem inside it hinting at the idea they may be able to transform themself into their dragon form after a certain point in the story (am presuming after they promote which will hopefully be story based). I'm personally thinking Lumera may be this hidden emblem since in reality, she is one of the heroes who fought 1000 years ago, befitting of an emblem (also, her sprite is a lot like the emblem sprites in that she has no weapon equipped. Sombron also has this, possible dark emblem after beating the game???)

Also big agree at the kings/queens of the nations being playable would be cool. Morion is hot looks like he'd be really cool to play with and I'd love to see his dynamic with his sons, with Diamant being the very stereotypical crown prince and Alcryst, well being Alcryst. I would love to see Hyacinth's relationship with his daughters, especially since they are supposed to be from the evil nation. As for the queens, we needs more older women playable and also more POC rep which Sfoglia would provide cause Solm for some reason doesn't have any POC outside of their royals for some reason???

[Metal Flash]

If there are playable characters that remain unrevealed, I hope they aren`t another set of royals and retainers, we have enough of those already.

Kinda hoping Veyle is a spy sent by the Four Hounds to keep track of Alear. It would be cool to have a non-possessed evil loli dragon in FE

[Saint Rubenio]

41 minutes ago, Azz said:

I'm personally thinking Lumera may be this hidden emblem since in reality, she is one of the heroes who fought 1000 years ago, befitting of an emblem (also, her sprite is a lot like the emblem sprites in that she has no weapon equipped. Sombron also has this, possible dark emblem after beating the game???)

Lumera Emblem just makes sense, and it'd be a refreshing twist on the typical "FE parent dies" formula. Really hoping IntSys went for it.

41 minutes ago, Azz said:

Also big agree at the kings/queens of the nations being playable would be cool. Morion is hot looks like he'd be really cool to play with and I'd love to see his dynamic with his sons, with Diamant being the very stereotypical crown prince and Alcryst, well being Alcryst. I would love to see Hyacinth's relationship with his daughters, especially since they are supposed to be from the evil nation. As for the queens, we needs more older women playable and also more POC rep which Sfoglia would provide cause Solm for some reason doesn't have any POC outside of their royals for some reason???

Were it up to me, I'd take all of them. Skew the generic anime teen / badass older folks ratio a bit. But since that's very much not likely, I'll just hope for Hyacinth. Archetypical evil old man turning good and having awkward conversations with his traitor daughters would be a great subversion of a FE trope as old as the series itself.

As for the queens... well, at this point, I guess I'll settle for getting a face on them hahaha.