So what were your overall opinions about Engage?

[Jotari]

2 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

To be fair I think Veyle really was supposed to come off as a dummy whenever she interacted with the Hounds.

This is the girl who started walking around town pretending to be a cat because Seadall inadvertently told her to. So, yeah, she is absolutely meant to a bit of a moron.

[Sunwoo]

6 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

To be fair I think Veyle really was supposed to come off as a dummy whenever she interacted with the Hounds.

It's not so much her stupidity and more that the game tries to portray her cluelessness as endearing and naive and a victim of the big bad Hounds and Sombron.

It's mostly that the game seems so desperate to have me like her and to feel bad for her, when I'm just facepalming at every other thing she does.

[Barren]

19 hours ago, Sunwoo said:

It's not so much her stupidity and more that the game tries to portray her cluelessness as endearing and naive and a victim of the big bad Hounds and Sombron.

It's mostly that the game seems so desperate to have me like her and to feel bad for her, when I'm just facepalming at every other thing she does.

I can understand that to a degree. I mean it took me a while to like Veyle because of the reasons you’ve mentioned. I don’t think she was a perfectly written character by any means but her tragic backstory worked well enough imo. My first thought was she was a sleeper agent of some kind for Sombron.

[Mizerous]

On 9/17/2023 at 12:45 AM, MeteorPhoenix said:

Yeah, it's quite interesting looking at r/fireemblem. Not quite a dead game, but there's been days where there's zero posts about Engage in the front page.

I've visited gamefaqs and while most people agree the story is very basic some like say not caring about character backstories or a good plot just wanting to do gameplay.

[MeteorPhoenix]

7 hours ago, Mizerous said:

I've visited gamefaqs and while most people agree the story is very basic some like say not caring about character backstories or a good plot just wanting to do gameplay.

Different people like different things. There's just less to talk about without a story, though. Less staying power and less word of mouth, which probably leads to less sales.

[Florete]

A random thing here, but I just finished my maddening run and I find it's honestly kind of a shame how quickly and easily the final chapter can be cleared once you know how it works. I'm generally cool with letting players be clever and find quick ways to do things, but like, this is the last battle. I can't help but feel it would have been better if the second set of dark emblems automatically pop up after you clear Sombron's first life bar, and then the same thing after the second one. And yeah, I guess I could just not kill him in one turn, but then I know I'm deliberately holding myself back and that doesn't feel good.

[Gyges]

On 9/3/2023 at 1:26 PM, Saint Rubenio said:

If she were playable I'd probably like her better than her children. Heck, I might already, even though she has five minutes of screentime. Solm is supposed to be such a unique and quirky country in general, wouldn't it have been great for it to be the one that broke the extremely stiff pattern the game uses up to that point and have the Queen join instead of one of her children?

Hard agree!!! I liked Timerra and Fogado on my first run but I honestly thought Seforia was the best NPC parent out of all of them, if her cutscenes alone were good she would've been even better playable.

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Also, this is more of a hot take, but I think Hyacinth joining would've been interesting too. No, seriously, hear me out here. Consider Corrupted Hyacinth. He's basically the same guy, with his mind muddled by Veyle. The whole "corrupted cannot be restored ever, just kill them" thing is already a very thin plot excuse for why we can't save these people. So how awesome would it have been if his children could get through to him with heartfelt talks, he regained his free will and he pledged to use whatever time he has left to redeem himself for his mistakes in life? His supports could've delved into the nature of the corrupted, the church of Elusia, how he ended up under Sombron's thumb and his whole story with his brother that only ever exists in Lindon's supports. There was so much potential there, if they'd just been willing to put in the effort and creativity required.

...All that, and we would've gotten a dead octogenarian brawler. How wild is that concept? Heck there isn't actually a prepromoted martial master, he would've fit right into the cast like a glove.

Interesting take, I think I agree... I think a lot of the parents were missed opportunities but Seforia and Hyacinth stick out to me the most on replay :/ I've wondered about the queen or his mistresses too besides the unnamed older brother.

[Lagdou]

In terms of what is important for my enjoyment:

Character Design: Uninteresting and even detrimental, at first sight. Once you get used to characters being designed to accommodate all kind of audiences, you accept their design and sometimes appreciate the references to the History of Fire Emblem.

Zhelkov is a relief because I finally played with a sinister thief instead of a nice thief. Jaffar was sinister but had no developed personality.

Lapis is interesting because the gimmick of the pink-haired technical girl finds an interesting niche. Giving it a rural background allowing her to see the utility of basic objects is very pertinent.

Anna is an interesting interpretation of the comical resort of interpreting everything in terms of economic utility, and only remembering human values to manipulate people into buying something.

Mauvier is interesting for three aspects. First, in terms of his function as the "reverse paladin" of Veyle. Second, as a sincere religious believer of the negative church, who don't change his beliefs even after switching side. Third, because he contrasts with most of the playable characters for his maturity.

There are some sympathetic references in the rest of the cast: Boucheron seems to be a reference to Age of Empires 2 and Frank's Villagers shouting "Bucheron !", Kagetsu is an interesting social reinterpretation of the Japanese-samurai-from royal origins-travelling the world to improve his skills-always looking for a challenge, Celine and Celica has a vibe that somebody of another generation than me could probably explain, Citrinne's name and appearance are well-executed for an Electric Mage, Fogado and Timerra are obviously referencing to Oberyn Martell, Veyle is built on Lyon...

But that's a bit superficial.

And there are a lot of characters that I simply cannot like:

The "manga characters" Clamme, Framme and Yunaka, who run with their arms behind them in "V", are comprehensive fan service for the basic audience of their game, especially in an hommage game, but this is not my cup of tea.

The "intimidating" Etie and Panette, with this Joker tattoo, is simply something that I cannot take seriously because very poorly executed, and led me to immediately bench them by lack of emotional connection with the characters.

The main characters Albert, Diamand and Ivy having a transparent personality without any aspect standing out to make them memorable...

But once you accepted that the goal of this game is to present a cast providing satisfactions to most people, it's fine.

World building: It is surprisingly fine, once you understand that it is about doing something minimalist. A circle to symbolise the four seasons. The good people living in the sky and the bad people below the Earth. Possible inter-dimensional tricks to summons the historic places of The Emblem. Clear references to original real-world place (Mont Saint Michel, Notre-Dame, Alhambra (?)) for the capital cities. Running the inside circle to finish the game, after running the outside circle.

When it has no pretensions and this is correctly executed, you can hardly criticise it.

What you can criticise is some cultural mismatch: Firene is modelled on France, but the culture and History of France is "realistic dark". The capital of Solm seems to be based on the Alhambra, meaning a Arabic-European culture.

Story: I like realistic and complex stories with hard moral lessons, so I rapidly dropped any expectation about enjoying the story of this game. But once you have understood that this game is about paying tribute to the saga by running the simple "Good Heroes vs Evil Dragon"... I realised it was not a bad choice.

You are the good guys and they are the bad guys.

All the characters are positive and all the Emblems give valuable lessons to the player.

Because the boss characters don't die, you either convince them to join you and save them, or you either creates recurring ennemies that you appreciate to fight again and again.

And the quality of situations, dialogues and cutscenes in the last chapters comes as a completely unexpected surprise.

It's also good to occasionally have a soft Fire Emblem.

Emblems Mechanics: They replace the durability of weapons, since the point of the durability of weapons is to provided the player with occasional power spikes.

On the positive side, you can use your more powerful weapon all the time and experience a real progression in the kind of weapons you are using, while in GBA game you still use Iron weapons against Silver weapons opponents. You also have access to unique abilities modifying the basic rules of the game, allowing different and interesting strategic options, which imitate the philosophy of cardgames with expensive cards breaking the game by modifying its rules. They also unlock a RPG competence tree allowing a lot of personalisation for each character.

On the negative side, you lose the original meaning of Fire Emblem in which all units have realistic abilities, since they become units with "superpowers".

I also noticed that in situation that would force you to temporise and organise a defence before counter-attacking, or restart the chapter for using the wrong units in the wrong place, you can simply get out of this situation by using the Emblems ability. Especially because each map makes sure that you can reload them halfway.

I am mitigated on this one, because I liked too much the challenge of solving GBA games with Iron Weapons and Heal staff, and assuming your errors.

Maps: I do not include this criteria, because it is especially important for games with limited technical abilities like the GBA games. In the modern games, I have the impression that maps have to be more tolerant of players. There are interesting ideas like Griss attacking randomly from the shadows... and... Ike destroying the castle... and... Fleeing while being attacked by your own rings... And... Hum...

Defending the castle with a balista... Except that this "trick of the map" works in your favor rather than working against you.

The Crystal stuff in the last chapter already existed in the last map of the Valni tower in Sacred Stones. The avalanche map is not punitive at all, since the map is designed to limit the consequences of being caught by an avalanche.

There is really a lack of memorable maps.

The problem of this game is really the maps, much like Three Houses. When doing the paralogues, you really notice the difference with maps that were intended to have a particular identity. Leif paralogues explicitly requires to use Warp, Sigurd paralogue can become a map in which you try to hold a mage assault with characters that are not particularly built for that.

Even Roy paralogue can be perceived as being significantly different due to the presence of mountains on the majority of the map, because you perceive the difference in playstyle when your movements are limited, especially when being caught inside a reinforcement.

I also have a huge problem with the Desert maps, who have lost all their identity by becoming "Valni tower" maps in which you have to move in the correct tempo rather than facing a movement penalty. 

I also severely dislike how they try to hide the low/high tide map as a desert map. It looks like a Mario Kart kind of trick for the visual effect.

I think that the direction that Fire Emblem has taken for its map is concerning, since it is all about being tolerant of the player, while the mechanics of the game are already very tolerant of the player...

Bond Rings: I find this mechanic really interesting, but more appropriate is it was a secondary ring for each character. It provides unique variations to characters. It's interesting but under-developed.

Dagger Mechanics: I really welcome the addition of a weapon that is neutral to the Weapon triangle (Fists have less the flavour of a weapon). I understand the Thief class being slightly overpowered because this is how you are testing the limits of the mechanic to balance it later.

"No Error" Cristal: I could understand having 5 utilisations of the Crystal if each map was supposed to last 20 turns and provide many situations in which the player could missjudge something, but in the context of FE:Engage, it is really about helping the inexperienced played to not struggle too much. For the veteran player, exploiting this mechanic is about attempting bold moves resulting in RNG gambles... 

Engraving: The problem of this mechanic is that you have no internal guide to understand which particular weapons and build benefits from which Engraving. It is a bit problematic because many of them require a good theoretical understanding of what you are doing.

Boost Objects: I am honestly released to see that you cannot feed 10 Speedwings to a single character, like in GBA games, and that some constraints have been inputed.

Forging: I am not a fan because it's too easy to create an efficient character with this mechanic.

Overall, I judge Engage to be the kind of experience that accomplish correctly its intended goal to be a soft game for new players. It is an almost flawless positive experience with surprisingly good aspects, but it does not have the density required for greatness.

7/10

Edited January 6 by Lagdou

[Etrurian emperor]

On 1/6/2024 at 10:21 AM, Lagdou said:

What you can criticise is some cultural mismatch: Firene is modelled on France, but the culture and History of France is "realistic dark". The capital of Solm seems to be based on the Alhambra, meaning a Arabic-European culture.

Given the windmills, the flowers and the clothing I've heard the argument Firene might be modeled in part on the Dutch. Though if that's the case I'd say its a particularly superficial result and that Leicester has actually more in common with the Netherlands. 

With Solm I mostly find it weird that there aren't any colored people beyond the royal family. Pretty much all the Solm retainers are a bunch of white people. 

 

 

[Acacia Sgt]

2 hours ago, Etrurian emperor said:

With Solm I mostly find it weird that there aren't any colored people beyond the royal family. Pretty much all the Solm retainers are a bunch of white people. 

The NPC's. If anything, it's the retainers (and Seadall) who stand out as the only white people in Solm. Even the bandit twins look to be darker skinned than them, even if not as much as the Solm citizens.

Unless you mean from among the playable cast in which case... yeah.

Edited February 17 by Acacia Sgt