New Preview Videos Dropping

[Technoweirdo]

On 1/7/2023 at 2:52 PM, Popers1328 said:

New gameplay video by NWR, this time it's one turn of Chapter 7 on Hard/Classic
We get to see Jean in action for a bit. One cool thing that happens is the enemy uses Chain guard to prevent another enemy from getting broken allowing them to counter-attack Alear. Also Alfred gets Annihilated by Hortensia's Noble Rapier. Dragonic Time Crystals have 10 uses, I'm guessing you don't unlock more and you just start with all of them then.

That chain attack sequence...

Clearly the design team wanted to make up for all the blocked Dual Strikes in Fates. All of them.

[Azz]

NWR shared Jean’s recruitment in a tweet. Jean got a British accent oddly enough

 

[Keikyushi]

47 minutes ago, Azz said:

NWR shared Jean’s recruitment in a tweet. Jean got a British accent oddly enough

 

That's a British accent? I thought he just has an accent because all villagers do

[Saint Rubenio]

54 minutes ago, Azz said:

NWR shared Jean’s recruitment in a tweet. Jean got a British accent oddly enough

 

That moment when NWR does the Engage twits better than Americantendo.

Also can I get Sean instead of Jean? I think I want Sean rather than Jean, myself.

[Taho]

On 1/9/2023 at 5:13 AM, hadosama said:

Almost all the previews have been normal mode. 

Thanks.

 

Might have a go in Hard mode before trying out Maddening. Get a feel for the mechanics, first. Several reviewers have hinted at the massive gameplay changes as compared to older entries. Might need some hands-on time before we have the juice for a Maddening run 😁

[Azz]

1 hour ago, kienquocsi said:

That's a British accent? I thought he just has an accent because all villagers do

It sounds vaguely British to me idk. It could also just be how the VA is annunciating their words. 

1 hour ago, Saint Rubenio said:

That moment when NWR does the Engage twits better than Americantendo.

Also can I get Sean instead of Jean? I think I want Sean rather than Jean, myself.

I agree, why are we recruiting a child who is only a medic in training when we have a whole dilf grown man who is probably a better medic like???

Also his name is Sean and I would love some Irish dudes in my army

EDIT: Also the previewer from NWR said that he's gonna see if he can make another video answering some popular questions he has been asked so hopefully we'll get something soon

Edited January 10, 2023 by Azz

[Saint Rubenio]

36 minutes ago, Azz said:

I agree, why are we recruiting a child who is only a medic in training when we have a whole dilf grown man who is probably a better medic like???

Seriously. I know anime loves its heroic children, but c'mon, don't we have enough of those already? Let me have Jean's mom and dad instead dammit.

36 minutes ago, Azz said:

Also his name is Sean and I would love some Irish dudes in my army

Maybe the reason he doesn't join is that his surname is Bean

[Etrurian emperor]

In this podcast a reviewer gives some impressions about the game. What he has to say about characterization and story honestly sounds kinda damning. The story being overly vanilla, the cast very gimmick heavy and the worldbuilding consisting of ''these characters are from this country and that's all you'll need to know about the country''

 

Edited January 10, 2023 by Etrurian emperor

[Solaris998]

1 hour ago, Etrurian emperor said:

In this podcast a reviewer gives some impressions about the game. What he has to say about characterization and story honestly sounds kinda damning. The story being overly vanilla, the cast very gimmick happen and the worldbuilding consisting of ''these characters are from this country and that's all you'll need to know about the country''

 

We've heard so many conflicting reports about this at this point that I'm just not gonna trust any of their opinions and judge when I play myself

[Etrurian emperor]

2 minutes ago, Solaris998 said:

We've heard so many conflicting reports about this at this point that I'm just not gonna trust any of their opinions and judge when I play myself

We do? The story being basic seems to be something all previewers mention.

[martystarboy]

30 minutes ago, Etrurian emperor said:

We do? The story being basic seems to be something all previewers mention.

I can’t remember which review it was but a lot of worldbuilding is said to happen in the dialogue you can get when you explore maps after battle. A lot of reviewers probably missed this. Also yeah, ton of conflicting thoughts on characters being “flat” “dynamic” “boring” “fleshed-out”. It’s true that it’s subjective but those are suspiciously opposing sentiments. As for the story people have said it’s plain, but some found the story beats at least intriguing for how they were handled. Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

Edited January 10, 2023 by martystarboy

[Use the Falchion]

Maybe it's me, but I'm not surprised by the idea that many reviewers are saying that the game is vanilla or straightforward, but I don't know why that's a BAD thing. Straightforward and simple isn't inherently bad, so long as it's done well. I haven't seen a lot of indication that it hasn't been done well, other than that it's not what the previewer would prefer (or what the audience would prefer). 

Sometimes you can have rocky road ice cream, but vanilla is what you want. Sometimes after a heavy dish and a complex dessert, you need a little water or a nice palate cleanser in your life. Engage doesn't seem to be advertisng as much more than it is, and I'm fine with that. I'm looking forward to some fun gameplay, nice soundtracks, and a few characters I'll learn to love. I don't think that's too much to ask, nor do I feel like expecting more than that. We just got a pretty morally and geopolitically complex game in Three Houses and a solid follow-up in Three Hopes. It's been heavily rumored that we're getting a Genealogy Remake next, and that has all the complexity one can handle. Let this game but a simple fun celebration. 

Edited January 10, 2023 by Use the Falchion

[Etrurian emperor]

17 minutes ago, Use the Falchion said:

Maybe it's me, but I'm not surprised by the idea that many reviewers are saying that the game is vanilla or straightforward, but I don't know why that's a BAD thing. Straightforward and simple isn't inherently bad, so long as it's done well. I haven't seen a lot of indication that it hasn't been done well, other than that it's not what the previewer would prefer (or what the audience would prefer). 

In theory that's true. Path of Radiance plot is as simple as it gets and its arguably one of the best Fire Emblem stories. Though so far the continent looks more like Ylisse then Tellius.

[Keikyushi]

5 hours ago, Azz said:

I agree, why are we recruiting a child who is only a medic in training when we have a whole dilf grown man who is probably a better medic like???

Logically, someone has to stay back in that village to treat people, and that someone can't be a kid in training.

But emotionally, yeah I want Sean in my army too.

[Hawkwing]

4 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

In this podcast a reviewer gives some impressions about the game. What he has to say about characterization and story honestly sounds kinda damning. The story being overly vanilla, the cast very gimmick heavy and the worldbuilding consisting of ''these characters are from this country and that's all you'll need to know about the country''

 

I listened to the Engage portion of this podcast yesterday, and I'm honestly surprised at how much confusion it caused. I've seen people think the reviewers comments about how the map design remined them of Three Houses was a sign that the maps are bad, when no, he was just saying that their openness with the occasional chokepoint (such as a bridge) remined him of the game. The reviewer did state that it never reached the peaks of Conquest and they wish there were more varied objectives, but that seemed to be their only complaint on the gameplay front.

His comment that there was some romance but it wasn't the focus also caused some confusion. I personally got the impression he meant that some supports and character relationships leaned toward the romantic side, but it's not a outright gameplay mechanic like in Awakening or Fates.

Hearing the story is straightforward and the lore is alright is extremely disappointing. However I've noticed that no reviewer has said it is outright bad, and the podcast mentioned that the story is as skippable as Conquest. I'm hoping that Engage is the kind of game that knows you're primarily here for the gameplay, and gets to the action quickly. While I enjoyed Three Houses, the sheer amount of time spent on cutscenes and in the monestary when I'm primarily there for the battles did bring the game down for me.

I'm most concerned about the comments on the characters. While I enjoyed the "gimmicky" casts of Awakening and Fates, there were certainly problems with the approach. Awakenings characters could be overreliant on support conversations to flesh them out, which didn't help when Awakenings support quality could be all over the place. Fates cast could be fun, but there isn't much to talk about after the fact, and it didn't help that they used Awakenings flawed support setup with even more characters and less time for writing.

We don't have an exact idea of how Engage approaches its characters yet. I'm hoping that they're more entertaining than annoying, and if they are annoying that they're not in your face all the time.

[Shadow Mir]

3 hours ago, Solaris998 said:

We've heard so many conflicting reports about this at this point that I'm just not gonna trust any of their opinions and judge when I play myself

I'm gonna do this myself:

[X] Doubt

[Lynsanity]

8 hours ago, Saint Rubenio said:

That moment when NWR does the Engage twits better than Americantendo.

"We didn't realize people were interested in learning more about this" seems to also be NoA's attitude towards the entire game.

[Metal Flash]

4 hours ago, Solaris998 said:

We've heard so many conflicting reports about this at this point that I'm just not gonna trust any of their opinions and judge when I play myself

I will also do this, seems like the best option.

[PrincessAlyson]

5 hours ago, Solaris998 said:

We've heard so many conflicting reports about this at this point that I'm just not gonna trust any of their opinions and judge when I play myself

I will be doing the same. Previews and reviews are great and all, but many of them seem conflicting and I'd rather just play the game myself to see whether I enjoy it or not. From what it looks and sounds like, I probably will. 

[Use the Falchion]

5 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

In theory that's true. Path of Radiance plot is as simple as it gets and its arguably one of the best Fire Emblem stories. Though so far the continent looks more like Ylisse then Tellius.

I'd argue that Awakening was no different, particularly when it comes to theme and tone. Also, since Awakening is my favorite game (but I also agree that PoR is arguably the best), I'm super stoked. I don't always need super-detailed lore of every single event in history. Key landmark events are enough for me. (Which, funnily enough, Ylisse had: You had its founding, its original battle with the Fell Dragon, and the Plegian genocide nearly 10 years prior. That was enough to give us the lore, political context, and motivation among key characters for the first and final arcs of the story. I was fine with it. If I want super-detailed story lore, I'll read The Wheel of Time again or play Mass Effect.*)

I'd argue that it's more important for the game to have better characters - which several previews have been iffy on - or even better gameplay, which nearly all of the previews have lauded, than to have a good story. People still hate Conquest's story, but the gameplay is praised as some of the franchise's best and still recommended to this day. People can hate on Awakening all they want, but Chrom won CYL 6, nearly ten years after his game came out. Lucina was one of the first winners. People LOVE key members of the Awakening cast. If the story is simple, so what? If the story isn't engaging (pun intended) and it's simple, so what? There will be something to love on the game, and we can focus our attention on that instead. 

 

Complexity doesn't always mean engaging or good, nor does simple mean bad. (I'm not accusing anyone in particular of this thinking, but it comes up more often than I'd want.)

[Azz]

Yeah I listened to their section on Engage and while hearing the story is iffy, I really didn't have high expectations tbh. I'm perfectly fine with the story being rather basic as long as nothing is really bad and thus far, while many previewers haven't been shy about saying that the story isn't anything special, no one has said its bad and I'm not opposed to a simple story (if anything I'd welcome one after how much 3H discourse drained me and made me enjoy engaging in the fandom less). As for characters, I also don't anything too deep as long as the characters are engaging, I know I'll latch on to some (some of which I already have). Also I'm of the mindset that you really to have to play it yourself before you can really make a solid opinion and thus I'm taking previewers opinions about story and characters with a grain of salt.

Gameplay wise everything seems excellent so regardless of everything else, the game will no doubt feel great to play and look and sound great at the same time so not much to complain about at least for me

[ciphertul]

8 minutes ago, Azz said:

Yeah I listened to their section on Engage and while hearing the story is iffy, I really didn't have high expectations tbh. I'm perfectly fine with the story being rather basic as long as nothing is really bad and thus far, while many previewers haven't been shy about saying that the story isn't anything special, no one has said its bad and I'm not opposed to a simple story (if anything I'd welcome one after how much 3H discourse drained me and made me enjoy engaging in the fandom less). As for characters, I also don't anything too deep as long as the characters are engaging, I know I'll latch on to some (some of which I already have). Also I'm of the mindset that you really to have to play it yourself before you can really make a solid opinion and thus I'm taking previewers opinions about story and characters with a grain of salt.

Gameplay wise everything seems excellent so regardless of everything else, the game will no doubt feel great to play and look and sound great at the same time so not much to complain about at least for me

I have said it once and I'll say it again... I can enjoy a subpar story.

[Lut-ang]

So what's with the evil Alear schtick that the trailer kept showing? Is that just all BS? Are they recycling Grima storyline with that? Any reviewer that mentioned anything about that?

[Emobot7]

6 minutes ago, Lut-ang said:

So what's with the evil Alear schtick that the trailer kept showing? Is that just all BS? Are they recycling Grima storyline with that? Any reviewer that mentioned anything about that?

I haven't seen much of that myself, trying to get into the game with as little information I can but from what I understand, the review and feedback we got were based on the 8th first chapters so they propably haven't gotten to that part of the story. This is also why I don't think we need to take too seriously the commentary regarding the plot because its not unusual for recent Fire Emblem games earlier chapters to be a bit more generic only to have a twist later that change our viewpoint of the scenario as a whole. 

Now regarding the characters interaction and their depth, I hate to be the bearer of bad news but conflicting report on that is not a good sign based on my experience. I mean, it depend on the taste of the peoples reviewing this but generally, in case like these, its more common for people to say its good when its a bit more meh than for people to say its bad when its actually good. 

I hope I'm wrong on this but my honest advice here is to lower your expection, at least a bit, like that, if the people being negative about that are right, its a lot less dissapointing and if they are actually wrong, you'll just be pleasantly surprised. 

[Saint Rubenio]

7 hours ago, ciphertul said:

I have said it once and I'll say it again... I can enjoy a subpar story.

I go one step further. I legit call Fates one of my favorite stories in FE. No other FE story has been as much fun to watch or made me laugh as hard and as consistently as Fates did. Every cutscene with Garon in it was a joy to sit through. On an unrelated note, my favorite movies are The Room and the OG Super Mario Bros.

What I'm getting at is, I sympathize with the folks who want a good story and characters. It's not fun to watch a series you love go in a direction you can't enjoy. I was there with Three Houses, I can relate. But personally? There are games and game series I play for the story. FE is not one of them. If this has good gameplay, that's all I need. And frankly, I'm just relieved they care about the gameplay again, after Houses's resounding success proved they didn't have to.

6 hours ago, Lut-ang said:

So what's with the evil Alear schtick that the trailer kept showing? Is that just all BS? Are they recycling Grima storyline with that? Any reviewer that mentioned anything about that?

Most likely scenario is it won't be any more than a lame cop out like Grima, but it's the most interesting part of the story so far for me, so the dream is that they actually use it.