We will do an honest Fire Emblem Engage Review. Each new instalment of Fire Emblem has always left the plot unfinished. Every time we play a new game, we explore a brand-new area, interact with a fresh cast of characters, take on a fresh mission, and more. Each game offers a fresh experience, even if the mission is frequently as cliché and grandiose as saving the planet.
Fire Emblem Engage Review
Fire Emblem Engage, which introduces Alear as a new hero and presents players with a new continent to explore along with new allies and enemies, is in many ways a continuation of that philosophy. In other aspects, Engage is the biggest outlier in the history of Fire Emblem, exploring the back catalogue of the game to honour its former heroes. This sums up Engage in its whole well.
It is both new and old. It’s new yet also well known. It’s Fire Emblem, but maybe not quite in the way we’re used to.
I anticipated Engage to take inspiration from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, as did many of us. The most recent mainline game was a critical favourite, sold close to four million copies (making it the most successful Fire Emblem ever), and catapulted the franchise into a new level of popularity.
Engage has little desire to resemble Three Houses. While it borrows some of its social signals, this is more of a modernization of games that came before it; it is less of a sequel to Three Houses and more of an heir to Awakening.
This is a brilliant move from a gameplay perspective; it’s far richer than Three Houses in terms of both individual combat and how you approach the map and select your objectives and paralogues. The game’s less violent sections, which often have the most charm and heart, fall short.
Fire Emblem Engage Battlefield
Let’s start by going to war. The essential gameplay mechanics remain the same: you control a squad into a grid-based tactical fight and fail if the main character Alear is killed. You can decide whether or not death for everyone besides Alear is eternal, in addition to the difficulty. Although it is rare, you will have the opportunity to turn back time. Use it wisely.
The efficiency of different units is determined by the variety of their attacks (archers are particularly good at taking on flying units, for example). If you’ve ever played a Fire Emblem game, you already know all of this. However, Engage introduces one (very good) intentional alteration and one (very terrible), probably unintended, change. It’s a contrast-based game.
The Engage mechanic has been changed on purpose. You come across 12 past heroes during the campaign, and you can summon them from rings for a brief period of time to gain additional powers. They possess specific moves in addition to the ability to utilise their most famous weapon. With Sigurd’s assistance, you can ride through a group of adversaries and deal multiple blows to them all at once. Roy attacks adversaries with a sword of flames that deals arc-shaped damage.
The wearer’s health is drained by Micaiah, while every other ally’s health is restored. It gives battles a devilishly complex layer of strategy. First, there is the issue of when to release the so-called Emblems. To sweep the fodder early and expect to have time to recharge? Or keep them all for a fast annihilation of the stronger bosses? It’s also important to choose which fighter would best fit each ring’s strategy; neither Micaiah nor Sigurd should be allowed to exhaust your tank.
Emblems Are Overexposed In Fire Emblem Engage
Unfortunately, the Emblems are somewhat overexposed in the narrative. The entire plot revolves around collecting the rings, having them stolen, and then recovering them. While it’s exciting to watch how the bosses would use the Emblems, it can be upsetting to become accustomed to Marth (the first Emblem, of course), just to have to deal with his absence suddenly. Byleth is introduced in the middle of the novel with minimal fanfare and plays no significant role in the events, underscoring the Three Houses’ lack of influence.
Then there is the unintentional alteration. The process of adding new classes to your units is bafflingly challenging. It is easy to understand in theory. You can find, acquire, or buy two different kinds of seals to switch classes.
They will soon begin to lock themselves out of everything, though. Since there were superior fighters and no way to upgrade them, the majority of the characters I first met at the beginning—who appeared in every cutscene—did not engage in combat past the third or fourth skirmish. Even though I picked them up right away, some side tasks allowed you to pick up a couple of newcomers, but they were too weak and never made an appearance.
It takes more than just putting up a good enough battle for them to improve and gain new abilities. Early on, I was able to give one of my units the Sniper class. They were my MVP each and every time for the following eight or nine battles. They slaughtered everybody who stood in their way. However, throughout time, other units overtook them and acquired new classifications. Despite playing a significant role in each battle, my sniper had nowhere else to go and eventually lost his place in the main group.
Final Lines: The best Fire Emblem game to play is this one. Nothing inflated. Even though I haven’t seen all of the very first games, I’ve seen enough to declare my support for this one. But to truly encounter? very last on the list. It’s extremely aggravating because, despite the fact that I might care for some of these folks and their situation, the game gives me absolutely no incentive to do so. The gameplay and battles in Fire Emblem Engage are excellent, thus I heartily suggest it. Just be ready to discover that, at the end, you are skipping a lot of material.
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