I was initially worried about the characters and story based on reviews, but after 11 hours I can confidently say that I am enjoying those aspects more than what they gave it credit for.
Like oj said, story is subjective, it may cater to you or not. I'm here to enjoy the tactical battle and the engage feature of the game not here to search for social sim dating, super deep emo story.
@@gilpauloabracia lol why not improve both? Gatekeepers are the most annoying type of fans. The series could’ve improved on both but made the social aspects optional. That’s why most people played the last few games is because they offer great tactical rpg gameplay with great social aspects, not for either one but for both.
My first FE game was Three Houses. I'm 20 hours in Engage and am having a great time. I like it better, to be honest. The combat and gameplay is amazing.
Yes I cannot be bothered with the social sim aspect of 3H. It was fun at the start but it got tedious and found that I just wanted to get on the battlefield… I am actually enjoying engage much more than 3H so far
Three Houses were my first FE game too. I really like Engage too, but there are also a few things I do miss from Three Houses. Engage is a bit more combat focused, as you go faster from battle to battle than in Three Houses. I would liked to see the character class progression be a bigger thing. It feels like you just level them up a bit and then upgrade them immediately to their best class, while the progression lies more with the Rings. I feel Three Houses did really well with the class progression.
@@Szhusma 'Levelling them up a bit and upgrade them immediately to their best class' is literally how promotion works in 95% of Fire Emblem games and personally I am relieved to see a return to form from the bloated monstrosity that was 3H class progression. I also think that the way unit recruitment/upgrading works in 3H made it one of the most miserable games in the entire series to ironman. I miss the days when Fire Emblem was not designed around needlessly convoluted character progression and am glad to see Engage has taken a step back in that regard.
Been having a blast with engage. The plot is basic yes, but it’s not like it’s awful. There is no glaring plot holes or inconsistencies. It’s just a basic big bad dragon story which works fine. The characters are not super deep, but most of them are still enjoyable. Music is on point. Voice acting is good, and lastly ofc the gameplay is just fun as hell.
The story is just okay, but most of the characters are just fantastic. I didn't think I'd like Louis because of the whole "oh another chivalrous knight thing" but after going through a few supports with him he's actually got a LOT to him. This pretty much sums up every other character in the game, none of them are one note.
Having played the first seven chapters - along with Tiki’s Paralogue - I can confirm that Hard Classic is the sweet spot. It’s not a brain dead experience, thankfully.
This is the first fire emblem I've ran on classic hard, and boy I wish it let you know that important characters don't "die" but retreat cause ummm totally lost 2 units immediately and didn't realize
@@eerwin2494 wait, so it’s confirmed that important characters do not die even on hard classic mode? Im guessing its just the nobles that cannot die? If so that is lame.
This is my first Fire Emblem. I’m 12 hours in and it’s amazing. Idc what anyone is saying, it’s a 10 in my book. Makes me want to go play some other FE games. EspeciallyThree Houses.
This comment represents the american mentality in a nutshell; Look at something at first glance and immediately say whether its good or bad with nothing in between. You literally just played 12 hours of a 70 hour game and already came to the conclusion thats its a 10, despite the fact that you haven't even seen 1/3 of it. If you were in politics or pharmacy then god bless those who'd be around you.
I'm on Chapter 6 paralogue and this game is straight 🔥 Think it's my new fave in the series, which by extent makes it one of my favorite games of all time
fire emblem three houses was my first fire emblem game but I'm 24 hours into this one and I can say it's definitely my favorite of the two. the graphics, the animations, the beautiful character designs. and i love the emblem rings mechanic. it makes the unit look gorgeous and celestial. and i love the new mechanics like the fact thst short knives are poisonous. hands down the best $90 I've ever spent
Huh you’re one of the first people I’ve heard praise the character designs. Personally I can’t stand them and they remind me of a bunch of vtubers haha gameplay is good though at least
I disagree with the idea that a simple story is inherently bad, or even a predictable story is bad. I think Engages story is enjoyable (except that mountain of exposition about the rings in the beginning). However, I have to say a lot of these characters need some more depth. I wish they kept the new chapter dialogue for everyone and trying to guess responses that they would like.
I mean it kinda needs to be simple to bring in newer players. SO they don't jump into like....an intense as hell branching story like three houses. CUZ if the FE4 remake comes out.....THAT story will be hitting those Engage-only (even 3H) players like a truck lol, like they will not be prepared XD.
I don’t even think you NEED deep characters to like them as much. Yeah deeper stories can add a lot more to a character but I think there are a bunch with generally enjoyable personalities. My main problem is that some characters are way worse than others, like I kinda hate Etie, her voice is annoying a bunch of her lines are bad and her design doesn’t fit her personality about being strong and talking about her muscles all the time. Obviously that’s my opinion but that’s just something I noticed.
@Halfcraft deep probably isn't the best word for what I want. It's more that, I just want the characters shown interacting with the story more. Like, if after every map when we explore the grounds, if every character was there and gave a comment like when exploring garreg Mach, it would help the player connect.
This game SLAPS, I just beat chapter 11 on hard, now at 15 hours, and I was completely subverted on how this game was going direction wise. There's sooo many good choices and chapter 10-11 are SO good
I’ve played a bunch of hours (I haven’t seen quite yet, but I’m about to start Chapter 6), and I’m having loads of fun. Does it have the FE3H story and character depth? No. But the gameplay is top of the line. I’m sure Somniel may tire on repeat, but I adore what’s on offer now. I’m with OJ-it’s a great first Fire Emblem. As a series vet, I enjoy it for being an amazing experience with tactical gameplay and enough social aspects to make it fun. Then again, I’m steering into what the game is giving me, which I know not everyone is. But the game is giving me something enjoyable so far, and it’s not trying to do something it’s not. I’m happy with it
I really disagree that this would be a good first fire emblem, this one seems made with FE vets in mind with all the different characters from other FE games in them. Names like Sigurd would make 0 sense for a new player and the impact would be far less
@@prodigous21 I understand your opinion! That’s one factor I agree with you on to an extent, though I think it could just as easily motivate someone to pick up an older game (that’s just me though)
About 12 hours in and I'm already in love. My first was Awakening and favorite was Three Houses. Engage is like the perfect combination of all good aspects of the series. As someone who isn't a big combat guy the combat is very fluid and engaging. And while I do wish the supports gave more exposition on their back stories. I really do enjoy the characters. I think my only complaint is that there's almost too many characters I can't use and interact with them at once lol
Fire Emblem awakening was my first and favourite of all time. Fire emblem Three Houses social aspect was just TOO much. I don’t care about the meals and other pointless stuff (like the gardening, hot springs ect.) Also wasn’t too fond of the whole classes and calendar system. I do have to say I would have liked a more depth to the characters themselves this time around. The whole no “S” rank isn’t a huge deal. But the relationships between characters in FE3H I personally loved, they felt unique. I don’t have any complaints about the game, I love the gameplay. The mechanics make it an actual challenging game (in a fun way). I love the way it looks, the animated scenes! The rings is an interesting way of bringing the older characters to the forefront, maybe remakes are coming in the future?
Thank you, I was really debating on whether or not it would be worth the $60. I honestly had pretty low expectations for it. A lot of my friends seem to really enjoy it too though so, I’m pretty excited (I enjoy romance in my FE games so that’s what was holding me back).
Yeah the romance isnt all that great but the gameplay is ridiculously tight. Like it feels soo clean and intentional. Think of it as FE echoes with better gameplay
@@Holly-hr3xd i'm only on ch8 so dont know really. But it looks like pairing up units for kids isnt really a thing. I heard that they also censored some of the lines cause a lot of characters are underage. I'd still say the game is extremely worth it even if there was no romance or support conversations at all
@@Holly-hr3xd look up the ages of the character on reddit. If the character over 17 than they are romanceable for Alear I'm not to sure on the other characters though. Alear the only one to get S supports though
It's really annoying seeing many hate on the game or give lower scores cause it's not Three Houses 2 or something. It's ok to really like both games :-)
as a fire emblem fan I really want to love engage, but the character are super annoying and the story is really stupid and cringe... there is no lore or world building at all. FE4 up to Awakening had great story. FE1 and 2 where pretty bad, but fates was the worste, sadly for me engage has now the worste story... I wish it would be different cause I love the gameplay, but then the characters are trash aswell. In fire emblem every character had struggles and personality. Now we have, a girl who is a fangirl, a girl who only talks about food, a girl who only talks about muscles, a girl who is rich and buys everything with money. Really the character are so flat then I want to skip the support, one of my favorite additions to fire emblem and it makes me sad. Fates level of character...
Fire Emblem Engage Review Scores: Siliconera- Perfect 10! Digitally Downloaded- Perfect 5 Stars! Dexerto- Perfect 5 out of 5! NintendoLife- 9 out of 10 Excellent! Famitsu- 36/40 IGN- 9 out of 10 Amazing! Console Creatures- Recommended! GameXplain- Loves It! Game Informer- 9 out of 10 NintendoWorldReport- 9 out of 10 ScreenRant- 4 Stars out of 5 Eurogamer- Recommended! Destructoid- 9 out of 10 Shacknews- 9 out of 10 TheGamer- 4 Stars out of 5 Nintenderos- 9.0 out of 10 VG247- 4 Stars out of 5 God Is A Geek- 9.5 out of 10 Atomix- 95/100 The Sixth Axis- 9 out of 10 The Games Machine- 9 out of 10 Stevivor- 9 out of 10 Video Chums- 9 out of 10 Player2- Grade A- Vandal- 9 out of 10 Vooks- 4.5 Stars out of 5 GAMINGbible- 9 out of 10 Exceptional Areajugones- The Most Accessible Game in the Saga! OpenCritic- 83% Mighty! CGMagazine- 8.5 out of 10 The Enemy BR- 4 Stars out of 5 IGN Italy- 8.8 out of 10 GLITCHED- 9 out of 10 Pocket-Lint- 4.5 out of 5 Recommended! Stuff- 4 Stars out of 5 NME- 4 Stars out of 5 GamesHub- 4 Stars out of 5 GamesReviews- 9.0 out of 10 Excellent DigitalTrends- 4 Stars out of 5 Empire Magazine- 4 Stars out of 5 Bleacher Report- Recommends! The U.S. Sun- One of the Switch’s Best JRPGs! The Switch Effect- 4.5 out of 5
The issue reviewers had was there's less side bullshit than three houses had. That's literally the main issue everyone had. Engage takes the series back to preawakening, even pre Tellius, games. This game has more in common with fe 7 and sacred stones than the newer games aside the combat. The combat is the best it has been, but the characters compared to three houses the characters are just stat vehicles. This is made more obvious considering there are like 50 characters in the thing. Like you're expected to lose characters if you don't want to turn back time. Like if you can keep etie alive without savescumming you deserve a medal
Just finished Chapter 6. Got the Expansion Pass. Each unit has had a heroic moment to shine on the battlefield to endear them to me, which is better than anything scripted. I'm pretty attached to my crew. Zero complaints or regrets.
I am really enjoying it so far. I think that the story is just enough and all social aspects are fine as they are. I am still fairly early in the game, but so far so good.
As I started being exposed to more games with social mechanics, I can say it’s definitely more enjoyable. Just like going from SMT to Persona, I ended up liking Persona 5 more than SMTV. Taking that away from Engage must’ve made some reviewers upset and seen as a step back. (Btw I’m playing on maddening classic)
I prefer my srpg the way it is, story and deep tactical battles. I will still play 3H later on but im glad that (social sim ) was reduced to much simpler feature here in this game.
@@therealjaystone2344most people did. It’s a large vocal minority who are happy it’s gone, but the fan base was much smaller as a whole until three houses. So it’s understandable
The story of engage feels so weak and not as well told compared to three houses and I can’t help but wish the support conversations were a bit stronger. Some are, but there are characters that the support conversations just can’t save I will never like them lol The bond conversations are lazily done and such a poor implementation. They are one to two sentences and don’t do much. It’s not even worth the 10 second bond conversation lol I get that as a fan you like the minor quips they make, but I think you need to be honest with how bare bones it is. What a great opportunity to REALLY delve into their pasts and that ball is dropped. The animations is FIRE, combat is so good, story is meh and a step back, I prefer the social system like most people do, so I’m satisfied with what’s in here but can’t help but wish it had more depth but I’m glad to see it. Character writing is so quick and bare that I desire more. We need to be honest about it the great gameplay but weak writing. It’s passable but..they’ve done better. Awakening forever lol
Exactly! I think that Engage should've kept the same quality to their social mechanics but made it optional for players who don't enjoy doing social stuffs. People who say social aspects of games aren't important are completely wrong, Persona and SMT shows it.
10 hours in. This is worlds better than Three Houses basically. Much less of the BS stuff and much better in everything else. This time, I feel invited to spend 20 minutes or so in between missions and then go to combat (AKA the game) and then... Combat is great, the music as well. Triangle Strategy was my second best game of 2022 and this is, so far, just as good and potentially even better (time will tell). Good thing they listened to fans and unfortunately, the press will always be the press so they will undermine any game that comes close in release date to the Playstation exclusive of the hour (Forspoken atm) as well as their ignorance reviewing "niche" games in general
The gameplay in Engage is exceptional and that aspect of the game certainly deserves the praise it gets. However, the story and characters are often generic, milquetoast, and cringey. I’m pretty sure there are more edges on a slab of jello than there are in this game. The dialogue is often brutal, it comes across as if it was written for literal babies. Three Houses had far more interesting characters arcs and a more compelling story.
Most the complaints are people admitting they don’t care much about core FE gameplay and difficulty. They just want the social persona 5 stuff and sure…3H had more supports,dialogue and a better story But engage is fast paced with better gameplay Imo I’m glad I can go somniel 2 minutes and leave to next chapter asap
No. Most reviews are saying they want an overall good game. They care about gameplay. But they also care about characters and story. And unfortunately engage fails on 2/3 fronts. Good gameplay but terrible character writting and plot. So overall it's a dissapointing game. Really it's the opposite. People who love this game are just proving they care about nothing but the gameplay.
@@johnathanera5863 "People who love this game are just proving they care about nothing but the gameplay." Sorry if I am mistaken, but isn't that exactly what OP was saying?
@@Shykeful no. He was saying people who don't like it don't care about gameplay or difficulty, that's not true. They do care, but also care about other aspects of the game. Almost nobody is saying the gameplay is bad, that's universally praised. Where the lower scores come from is lack of interesting or deep characters and a joke of a story. People are bummed about lack of social features like 3H but that's NEVER where people say they took off points. It's just that the game fails in more areas than it succeeds, hence the lower scores.
I think gameplay is the most important in strategy games, however you can't spend as much time as FE does on plot and character with them being *this* poorly written. We aren't expecting Shakespeare, but I do expect a story that's at least competent and or heartfelt. Blazing Blade/FE7 had sloppy writing but it had a great tone and atmosphere, SS and Tellius games were competently told and had weight, even if not the deepest Your alternative is to be like xcom and have the plot be a bare bones framework to get us from mission to mission, which is how you will replay this FE. You just complete skip virtually all dialog
The difference in story/script writing in engage is jarring to me. The characters say some obnoxiously cringe lines back to back to back. It's written for 8 year olds to enjoy. The combat has teeth on hard mode for sure. It is just incredibly hard to get from battle to battle as the story and characters are just so bad... Also why are half of the characters 10 years old in this game. Definitely doesn't help.
I am loving this game up to Path of Radiance level. I just wish hard did not have such a difficulty gap with maddening. Mad was wearing me down, and hard is way to easy.
I played fire emblem fates conquest years ago on my 3ds and haven't played a fe game since. Finally came back to play this new release and I am having a wonderful time.
I do have to suspend my disbelief a lot, story wise, like a focr appearing on the border on the other side of a nation for example, logistics, timing stuff like that, which sadly I felt path of radiance and radiant dawn did actually do well. Gameplay wise it is rather enjoyable, still not massively keen on the engage mechanic but needs more time.
Love triangle strategy and mario rabbids spark of hope, i think mario+ rabbids just review better coz of mario effect. just started FE engage, so far so good. I just don't trust reviewer or critics because they tend too critical about games or bias about it. And every people has different taste on games, i rather play the game myself.
In Three Houses, you could tell who enemies were going to target and how much damage they were going to do. Is there a way to do that in this game? I have played it for 5ish hours and haven't figured it out yet.
Look, I can see myself replaying this and enjoying it all the way through. Three houses just... not. That Game was either too hard on maddening (rather than hard I'd say tedious and bullshit at times) or too easy on hard mode, as well as having meh to bad map design. The characters and story were good enough sure, but being fun seems like what a game should be focused around, thats why Pokemon and Mario games are well liked despiste their lackluster stories in most of them.
Been playing fire emblem since 2003. I’m just glad so many new players and enjoying the franchise. I’d highly recommend trying the older games, fire emblem and sacred stones. It’s peak material, from the story to the gameplay
Haven't played a full Fire Emblem game since Awakening. I've heard the mechanics are good but the story, not so much? A shame, 'cause that's a big deal for me. Frankly, I find it hard to understand how anyone can enjoy games like these without a compelling story and characters, but hey, to each their own.
Metacritic will not determine what games I like. I know I already like RPG’s so I’m gonna get them as long as I have the platform for them. What you say about FE Engage is definitely true.
I think Intelligent Systems needs to consider doing a brand split, aka SMT and Persona and Forza Horizon and Forza Motorsport. A lot of people knocked this for not being Three Houses 2, because that was the last game we got. If they’re going to pivot between social sims and hardcore strategy they should be separate series so people have a better idea of what they’re getting
If they're absolutely insistent with moving the Three Houses style forward, then yes they absolutely should do this. It would clear up a lot of confusion for the fan-base and they can focus on pleasing those particular demographics.
P.S. I have slightly over 15 days - yes, days - of in-game played time for Tactics Ogre: Reborn. I know more about the game than any one of these reviewers. And I can say with absolute confidence it is a classic that deserves at LEAST a 9, if not significantly higher. Just the fact that the game has that much replay value should tell you something. Moreover, Pathfinder: WOTR has an extremely compelling story, that has like 5-6 different endings, and a secret ending -- but far more important than that is the constant stream up DLC, and the damn-close-to-infinite replicability. You could dumb weeks of in-game time into the game and still not see everything the game has to offer; and that's not counting the upcoming DLCs and existing DLCs
I'm just going to say it, if people are afraid to. I like the game a lot. It's a solid 9 for me. And there is PLENTY to do for this type of game in the Somniel.
Loving the game so far but my good impression is really being carried only by combat. Somneil is good idea but lack polish and already became a chore plus most of story&dialog are bland/predictable and kinda cringe ngl.
I'm completely loving this game. I'm not understanding these review scores besides them being biased against it since it's no three houses. Also, is it me or does Xander have a hard time leveling up? He barely get experience even tho I used him up to recently and I'm like 12 hours in now. 🤷🏾♂️
Blazing Blade was my first FE game, and I love it. My favorite in the series is Three Houses. So far, I'm enjoying Engage for the battle aspects, but not really for the story/characters. To me, the "ultimate tactical game experience" on the Switch is probably Triangle Strategy. I like Three Houses better as a whole, but if I'm craving "tactical gameplay," Triangle delivers the best possible experience IMO.
@@RrEMBT yeah for real rather have a game with great story telling and great gameplay too. Instead of good gameplay and meh story for my srpg game. War of lions the goat though
as a fire emblem fan I really want to love engage, but the character are super annoying and the story is really stupid and cringe... there is no lore or world building at all. FE4 up to Awakening had great story. FE1 and 2 where pretty bad, but fates was the worste, sadly for me engage has now the worste story... I wish it would be different cause I love the gameplay, but then the characters are trash aswell. In fire emblem every character had struggles and personality. Now we have, a girl who is a fangirl, a girl who only talks about food, a girl who only talks about muscles, a girl who is rich and buys everything with money. Really the character are so flat then I want to skip the support, one of my favorite additions to fire emblem and it makes me sad. Fates level of character...
I 100% agree with the opinion you have expressed. Mario is a decent strategy game but no way is it a better game than Fire Emblem: Engage and no where near as good as Triangle Strategy.
In my opinion, while the combat is good, it's not that much better than most other Fire Emblems. It just feels like Fire Emblem, but shiny. Now Conquest, that game Imo, had unparalleled combat, because it's map design was out of this world.
So much scrutiny and lots of critique.. It’s just another tremendous entry in the series.. Enough said.. I just hope we don’t have to wait another 3 years for the next one..
I’m very underwhelmed with some aspects - like the story - and the characters and voice acting is a mixed bag, but the gameplay itself is very good. I am missing the fun of choosing which characters you want to recruit, working to earn their favor, and then selecting how they’re going to grow. Based on the first 8 chapters I’d say 8/10 game, as opposed to the 9/10 I gave Three Houses
3 houses kinda had the weapon triangle on maddening thanks to so many enemies having breaker skills... but yeah, I appreciate the new weapon triangle in engage. Far more punishing.
I defended the art style and criticized people who said the game was "too anime" before they knew anything about the story. I am now on chapter 16 and I have to admit they were right. I'll preface this by saying every single aspect of this game but the characters and dialogue is nearly flawless. I am absolutely loving it and I'm playing it every free moment I have. But my God this game has the absolute worst, grating, cringe characters and dialogue of any piece of media I have ever seen, and its not even close. 90% of the spoken lines sound like nails on a chalkboard to me. It's not that the voice actors are doing a bad job and nothing in the plot is particularly offensive, but the avatar worship from every single character and a good chunk of the rest of the dialogue makes me want to puncture my eardrums with a pencil. Again I must stress that every. single. character with only a few exceptions act and speak in a way that makes me physically uncomfortable. I'm here for the gameplay and I'm having a great time every time no one is talking and at least it's easily skippable on repeat playthroughs unlike 3h but damn. I had no idea it would be like this.
honestly yes. been playing since awakening and classic is the only way to go. hard classic if you can. you will never know pain like losing a beloved unit….. and it makes them feel so much more valuable and likable! trust me. permadeath is part of what builds attachment and what makes FE, FE.
Still bought the Divine edition even if I won't probably like it as much as 3H. The social aspects should've been kept the same quality but made optional instead of making it worse in my opinion. Telling people that a game is better off with worse/without the features that technically made the series better and brought in new fans feels like gatekeeping to me. Improvements on the gameplay and social aspects should've been both welcomed and the removal or degradation of one or the other should not be praised or be happy about. The social aspects can be as important as the gameplay, this is why I personally think that Persona is better than SMT in terms of popularity and gameplay.
That order is not unreasonable if approachability is a factor, and honestly as much as I enjoyed TS the pacing of the different sections was awful, and later in the game I found myself overleved...cause if I actually wanted to just sit down and play a missions I would do it in the camp. Much of the same could be said for FE, although the pacing is better. But again, it is not approachable it has alot of mechanics that would overwhelm someone who isn't familiar with the series. What you have are 3 games in a niche genre, that really lean into different aspects of the srpg genre, it's going to vary based on the taste and audience. The order could have rolled any way
My mailman didn't deliver it friday. For some weird reason it's supposed to be delivered, yet i received nothing. Tomorrow i'll have to spit fire on the phone!
the first time i played the easiest difficulty and found some struggling even while being slightly overleveled. The Triangle advantage break can set your units up to get hit hard. I am disappointed a bit with the amount of recruitable characters you get through unique interaction but It most likely has to do with the fact that this game is introducing itself to a new audience. It will also humble you really quick with chain attacks if you get too cocky. The story is your typical JRPG with no real plot twist. I think the only unique fact about this was one I didn't see any mercenary for hire unless you count ike. I also noticed a lot of recycled uses of 3h resources. I wish the cutscenes were animated like 3h the way they animated the scenes in this game felt cheap. I did appreciate the unique dialog they went out of their way to do. I just wish there was more unique paralogues.
The battles are top tier fire emblem, but my big problem comes with the gameplay loop compared to three houses especially. You had so much freedom in giving your units unique abilities and weapon proficiencies through their classes. But now, that’s all tied to be ring system. But you only have two ability slots per character, and you don’t get nearly enough SP to give every character abilities or weapon proficiencies to improve them or experiment with classes. And then they take half your rings away for the majority of the game in Chapter 11 and barely give you gold for upgrading weapons at the smithy. For a game with such great classes and battles, it completely restricts you through the gameplay loop and emblem rings which is a real shame.
Fire Emblem has come to mean (at least) two different things to two different sets of players. Either Intelligent Systems will need to find a way to integrate both fandoms into their titles, they will need to fully let one fandom go, or they may need to make one section its own sub-categorization with it's own games akin to how Persona branched off of Shin Megami Tensei. Since this game is extremely different from the last from a socializing perspective, and that game gained a large following due to those mechanics, it is not surprising that there are some reviewers who view this game as at best inferior and at worst outright broken or incomplete. Different people have come to expect different things from a Fire Emblem game, and while IS interest in experimenting with new systems keeps things fresh, it also risks alienating various sectors of a widening fanbase. It's the blessing and curse of mass / commercial success which has come from an aspect of the series which risks making it much different then what it's original 'core' was.
I don´t even think that the social aspects are the problem. It´s the bad story and character, like fates. We had good characters and story since FE4 until fates went full bs. Then 3 houses was amazing and now we are back to fates level. I prefer them to take out all of somnial if character and story would have been 3 houses leve. I want engage gameplay, 3 houses character, story and worldbuilding. Social sim is just a bonus, but I can´t even enjoy that if I hate all the characters
I can say this isnt my first fire emblem game as far as warriors is concern but i just started yesturday and this combat as a tactics game .. its kinda complicated for me to get used too but its all good just need to stick with it thou but man i dk how OJ is able to put sooo many hours in JRPGS for me there ok but i guess you like what you like
I loved path of radiance and radiant dawn. Played them several times. This one is missing the mark for me. The super anime voices and wild outfits are a bit much for me. Triangle strategy was better IMO. I will try to finish this. Maybe I’m just a crusty old schooler
I loved those games too and especially triangle strategy. I don't think there's going to be anymore fe games like those or fe4. Fe isn't catering to people that actually like strategy and tactics anymore it's for newer fans that are into anime stuff
@@dickmonddickelheimer9452 I mean, if anything this game caters to people who like strategy and tactics, the character design itself is a whole different thing altogether
@Oscelios I guess it caters to people who like strategy but honestly it just feels like Nintendo is using strategy as just another avenue to drain weebs of their cash. Because people that actually like strategy and tactics aren't going to like engage, just look at those plain and boring flat maps it looks like a mobile tactics game
I would just like to say this as someone who started Engage just 20 minutes after finishing my first run of 3 Houses (Blue Lions). The narrative feels JARRINGLY weaker than 3 Houses and the first few chapters do not in the slightest bit feel like Intelligent Systems took the writing of Engage seriously. It amost physically hurt going from such a well written story (Blue Lions) to the most cliched and rushed narrative I've consumed in a LONG time (Engage). While the visuals are an amazing improvement from 3 Houses, the voice acting of the mc is refreshing, and battle gameplay is beyond phenomenal (though noticably different and just a little uncomfortable at first when transitioning from 3 Houses), if you're like me and find narrative to be really important to you in games like this, reconsider getting this game. If you don't really mind a weak and pretty cliched narrative, get the game. Hard/Classic is really fun and Maddening/Classic is legitimately really difficult but fun. Edit: I will say though, I at least respect Intelligent Systems for all-inning on trying to make the characters and story fun and bombastic given they at least clearly knew the tone they were going for. I guess I might have gone into this expecting a little too much from a game originally meant to commemorate the 30th anniversary.
One thing they didn't take their time with is the English voice acting! There is literally some female characters that have a dude's voice. It through me off. 1 example is the female bandit leader early on for the side mission to get Anna.
Mario Rabbids is excellent and absolutely worthy of an 86. It's scored just right. The issue is FE and TS are underscored. They should be at 90 and 88, respectively.
This is easily the smash bros ultimate or monster hunter world of FE. The story isn’t anything groundbreaking or innovative, but it goes back to what a lot of fans love fire emblem in the first place while making it accessible for any new comers to ease them into a true FE experience.
The only two complains I have on Engage: 1. There’s no 3-stage class system. 2-stage class system is much less fun in the late game imo. I miss Radiant Dawn’s class system; 2. There is no dragonlord. Dragonlord is much cooler than wyvern riders to me. Except those, the game is great! I love it!
I watched a couple of videos of the game already, the story and dialogue (mainly dialogue) is cheesy and cringe and the mc design is bad. Like every time they were in frame I just groaned at seeing that hair
not a big fan of FE but I Like tactics games so I still got it anyway. The super cliche anime story telling is quite tough to swallow but I'm enjoying the gameplay presentation so far. Certainly enjoyed TS a lot more in any aspect.
This is a reminder to everyone. Reviews/Opinions are NOT SCIENTIFIC. You guys gotta stop doing this. You can’t compare reviews and fully expect that to be meaningful. This logic is killing the art of reviews. I rather every here just review the game themselves and leave it at that. You were never supposed to take someone else’s opinion and experience with a piece of art and and say yeah that’s what I would feel. I think we devalue others experience when we do this.
I think many take issue with bad reviews. Or dramatic ones and or disregard them is simply when they are written like the majority of desperate gaming journalists who haven't learned. Artificial rage bait articles attract the wrong attention. It's one thing to be funny when poking fun at a franchise. It's another when. A person or org is talking like they got a stick up their rear. 🤣
@@MJSGamingSanctuary don’t matter. A an opinion on anything is going to be driven a persons perception. Trying to make reviews scientific when it comes to art is the most suspect part of this whole equation. The only reason one would get mad a review is because they lack the ability to think for self. Otherwise why would you care how someone else opinion unless you were looking to validate something within you.
@@MJSGamingSanctuary why would I EVER find myself carrying about what someone thinks so much that it makes me want to comment negatively on the opinion. Logical that doesn’t make a lick of sense because we should all understand opinions are subjective by nature. Example it would never make sense to me to say someone’s opinion is bad. It makes more sense to me to explain why I myself like or dislike said thing being reviewed. Reviews are and always be more entertainment to me. It’s just fun to see what other people think of games even IF I don’t find myself feeling the same way.
I 100% agree that the none combat stuff isnt too little or lacking. It is NOT. Three Houses was absolutely WAY too much inbetween story maps, or even side maps. You might even lose what was said, because there's so much other stuff they force onto you. I miss the older titles where you had the typical "Story>Map>Story>Map" (ofc with support convos in there). But this is my opinion.
I feel like that is the main issue, there isn't much rest between the story and the maps, it can become very combat heavy. I feel like it is similar to the divide between persona 5 and SMT 5. SMT having better combat mechancs but is so much more focuses on combat, that there is less time on story and characters
@@xXxAilishmagexXx fire emblem for me is about wanting to develop and bond with the characters, because those are the characters that are at risk of dying from permadeath. The story and the reason to care about those characters are just as important as the combat, cuz without that, the game would just end up feeling 'pointless' because you wouldn't care about growing the characters
@@hardrubbernips_ i have played it for 20 hours, I wasn't able to beat it because it was way too tiring to play, there is not as much exploration as SMT 5 and the breaks between combat are too brief
I was initially worried about the characters and story based on reviews, but after 11 hours I can confidently say that I am enjoying those aspects more than what they gave it credit for.
Ngl, it feels like a dice roll whether the characters are good or not. Some of them are soooooo cringe.
Like oj said, story is subjective, it may cater to you or not. I'm here to enjoy the tactical battle and the engage feature of the game not here to search for social sim dating, super deep emo story.
@@gilpauloabracia yeah reviews commenters of this game proves many people need real social interaction irl, not in a damn game. Concerning
@@gilpauloabracia lol why not improve both? Gatekeepers are the most annoying type of fans. The series could’ve improved on both but made the social aspects optional. That’s why most people played the last few games is because they offer great tactical rpg gameplay with great social aspects, not for either one but for both.
@@gilpauloabracia story isn´t subjective at all, there are well written ones and engage is not one of them
My first FE game was Three Houses. I'm 20 hours in Engage and am having a great time. I like it better, to be honest. The combat and gameplay is amazing.
Yes I cannot be bothered with the social sim aspect of 3H. It was fun at the start but it got tedious and found that I just wanted to get on the battlefield…
I am actually enjoying engage much more than 3H so far
Three Houses were my first FE game too. I really like Engage too, but there are also a few things I do miss from Three Houses. Engage is a bit more combat focused, as you go faster from battle to battle than in Three Houses. I would liked to see the character class progression be a bigger thing. It feels like you just level them up a bit and then upgrade them immediately to their best class, while the progression lies more with the Rings. I feel Three Houses did really well with the class progression.
@@Szhusma 'Levelling them up a bit and upgrade them immediately to their best class' is literally how promotion works in 95% of Fire Emblem games and personally I am relieved to see a return to form from the bloated monstrosity that was 3H class progression. I also think that the way unit recruitment/upgrading works in 3H made it one of the most miserable games in the entire series to ironman. I miss the days when Fire Emblem was not designed around needlessly convoluted character progression and am glad to see Engage has taken a step back in that regard.
Been having a blast with engage. The plot is basic yes, but it’s not like it’s awful. There is no glaring plot holes or inconsistencies. It’s just a basic big bad dragon story which works fine. The characters are not super deep, but most of them are still enjoyable. Music is on point. Voice acting is good, and lastly ofc the gameplay is just fun as hell.
Your comment is my favorite. This sums up my thoughts. I'm having a great time with this game.
Agreed.
The story is just okay, but most of the characters are just fantastic. I didn't think I'd like Louis because of the whole "oh another chivalrous knight thing" but after going through a few supports with him he's actually got a LOT to him. This pretty much sums up every other character in the game, none of them are one note.
I love it. Fast, easy, pick up and put down. Also, the Hard classic difficulty is perfect. Makes you really think about every move.
Having played the first seven chapters - along with Tiki’s Paralogue - I can confirm that Hard Classic is the sweet spot.
It’s not a brain dead experience, thankfully.
This is the first fire emblem I've ran on classic hard, and boy I wish it let you know that important characters don't "die" but retreat cause ummm totally lost 2 units immediately and didn't realize
@@eerwin2494 wait, so it’s confirmed that important characters do not die even on hard classic mode? Im guessing its just the nobles that cannot die? If so that is lame.
@@killgronia5815 my wording mightve been bad, they die but since they're important to story they "retreat" since dying would break the storyline.
@@eerwin2494 I see. Thats for the clarification.
This is my first Fire Emblem. I’m 12 hours in and it’s amazing. Idc what anyone is saying, it’s a 10 in my book. Makes me want to go play some other FE games. EspeciallyThree Houses.
This comment represents the american mentality in a nutshell; Look at something at first glance and immediately say whether its good or bad with nothing in between. You literally just played 12 hours of a 70 hour game and already came to the conclusion thats its a 10, despite the fact that you haven't even seen 1/3 of it. If you were in politics or pharmacy then god bless those who'd be around you.
try fe path of radiance and radiant dawn if you can, best fe games imo
@@nasis. I mean. I agree but damn dude hit the brakes lol. No need to go in on him so hard.
@@nasis. you can probably beat the game like 30 hours for real
@@johnathanera5863 dude seem hurt that someone dislike the game like dude engage is fun but the story is not
Love the game, not worried much about reviews giving it low score as long as im enjoying it.
Well said! People need to stop living on the internet
I'm on Chapter 6 paralogue and this game is straight 🔥 Think it's my new fave in the series, which by extent makes it one of my favorite games of all time
fire emblem three houses was my first fire emblem game but I'm 24 hours into this one and I can say it's definitely my favorite of the two. the graphics, the animations, the beautiful character designs. and i love the emblem rings mechanic. it makes the unit look gorgeous and celestial. and i love the new mechanics like the fact thst short knives are poisonous. hands down the best $90 I've ever spent
Huh you’re one of the first people I’ve heard praise the character designs. Personally I can’t stand them and they remind me of a bunch of vtubers haha gameplay is good though at least
I disagree with the idea that a simple story is inherently bad, or even a predictable story is bad. I think Engages story is enjoyable (except that mountain of exposition about the rings in the beginning). However, I have to say a lot of these characters need some more depth. I wish they kept the new chapter dialogue for everyone and trying to guess responses that they would like.
I mean it kinda needs to be simple to bring in newer players. SO they don't jump into like....an intense as hell branching story like three houses. CUZ if the FE4 remake comes out.....THAT story will be hitting those Engage-only (even 3H) players like a truck lol, like they will not be prepared XD.
I don’t even think you NEED deep characters to like them as much. Yeah deeper stories can add a lot more to a character but I think there are a bunch with generally enjoyable personalities. My main problem is that some characters are way worse than others, like I kinda hate Etie, her voice is annoying a bunch of her lines are bad and her design doesn’t fit her personality about being strong and talking about her muscles all the time. Obviously that’s my opinion but that’s just something I noticed.
@Halfcraft deep probably isn't the best word for what I want. It's more that, I just want the characters shown interacting with the story more. Like, if after every map when we explore the grounds, if every character was there and gave a comment like when exploring garreg Mach, it would help the player connect.
@@skypaladin9878 more like you want the characters be more human instead of anime tropes
@@krismarshall3803 Does every single fire emblem have to be catered to new players though? Especially on the story front?
This game SLAPS, I just beat chapter 11 on hard, now at 15 hours, and I was completely subverted on how this game was going direction wise. There's sooo many good choices and chapter 10-11 are SO good
I’ve played a bunch of hours (I haven’t seen quite yet, but I’m about to start Chapter 6), and I’m having loads of fun. Does it have the FE3H story and character depth? No. But the gameplay is top of the line. I’m sure Somniel may tire on repeat, but I adore what’s on offer now. I’m with OJ-it’s a great first Fire Emblem. As a series vet, I enjoy it for being an amazing experience with tactical gameplay and enough social aspects to make it fun.
Then again, I’m steering into what the game is giving me, which I know not everyone is. But the game is giving me something enjoyable so far, and it’s not trying to do something it’s not. I’m happy with it
💯
I really disagree that this would be a good first fire emblem, this one seems made with FE vets in mind with all the different characters from other FE games in them. Names like Sigurd would make 0 sense for a new player and the impact would be far less
@@prodigous21 I understand your opinion! That’s one factor I agree with you on to an extent, though I think it could just as easily motivate someone to pick up an older game (that’s just me though)
About 12 hours in and I'm already in love. My first was Awakening and favorite was Three Houses. Engage is like the perfect combination of all good aspects of the series. As someone who isn't a big combat guy the combat is very fluid and engaging. And while I do wish the supports gave more exposition on their back stories. I really do enjoy the characters. I think my only complaint is that there's almost too many characters I can't use and interact with them at once lol
It's more light hearted but easy to pick and have a quick match vs three houses that had a dating sim.
I like both. Also the graphic update is nice
Already pre ordered mine and it should arrive tomorrow.
Cant wait to spend another 100+ hours on fire emblem.
Fire Emblem awakening was my first and favourite of all time.
Fire emblem Three Houses social aspect was just TOO much. I don’t care about the meals and other pointless stuff (like the gardening, hot springs ect.)
Also wasn’t too fond of the whole classes and calendar system.
I do have to say I would have liked a more depth to the characters themselves this time around.
The whole no “S” rank isn’t a huge deal. But the relationships between characters in FE3H I personally loved, they felt unique.
I don’t have any complaints about the game, I love the gameplay. The mechanics make it an actual challenging game (in a fun way).
I love the way it looks, the animated scenes!
The rings is an interesting way of bringing the older characters to the forefront, maybe remakes are coming in the future?
Picked up the Divine edition at Bestbuy yesterday. I'm looking forward to playing it
Thank you, I was really debating on whether or not it would be worth the $60. I honestly had pretty low expectations for it. A lot of my friends seem to really enjoy it too though so, I’m pretty excited (I enjoy romance in my FE games so that’s what was holding me back).
Yeah the romance isnt all that great but the gameplay is ridiculously tight. Like it feels soo clean and intentional. Think of it as FE echoes with better gameplay
@@degreeskelvin3025 is there any romance at all? Like without Alear? Any within the story?
@@Holly-hr3xd i'm only on ch8 so dont know really. But it looks like pairing up units for kids isnt really a thing. I heard that they also censored some of the lines cause a lot of characters are underage.
I'd still say the game is extremely worth it even if there was no romance or support conversations at all
@@Holly-hr3xd look up the ages of the character on reddit. If the character over 17 than they are romanceable for Alear I'm not to sure on the other characters though. Alear the only one to get S supports though
@@mikethepokemaster2012 ok! Thanks for letting me know!
It's really annoying seeing many hate on the game or give lower scores cause it's not Three Houses 2 or something. It's ok to really like both games :-)
as a fire emblem fan I really want to love engage, but the character are super annoying and the story is really stupid and cringe... there is no lore or world building at all. FE4 up to Awakening had great story. FE1 and 2 where pretty bad, but fates was the worste, sadly for me engage has now the worste story... I wish it would be different cause I love the gameplay, but then the characters are trash aswell. In fire emblem every character had struggles and personality. Now we have, a girl who is a fangirl, a girl who only talks about food, a girl who only talks about muscles, a girl who is rich and buys everything with money. Really the character are so flat then I want to skip the support, one of my favorite additions to fire emblem and it makes me sad. Fates level of character...
I’m loving Engage, Three Houses is still my favorite with Fates/Echos being tied at third
I think this might be my first fire emblem looks too good to pass up.
As someone who's played and loved almost every single game in the series, Engage sounds like an absolute dream game to me.
Well of course someone biased will like it regardless haha
This video is just him crying that Mario plus rabbits got a higher score by 4 points
Fire Emblem Engage Review Scores:
Siliconera- Perfect 10!
Digitally Downloaded- Perfect 5 Stars!
Dexerto- Perfect 5 out of 5!
NintendoLife- 9 out of 10 Excellent!
Famitsu- 36/40
IGN- 9 out of 10 Amazing!
Console Creatures- Recommended!
GameXplain- Loves It!
Game Informer- 9 out of 10
NintendoWorldReport- 9 out of 10
ScreenRant- 4 Stars out of 5
Eurogamer- Recommended!
Destructoid- 9 out of 10
Shacknews- 9 out of 10
TheGamer- 4 Stars out of 5
Nintenderos- 9.0 out of 10
VG247- 4 Stars out of 5
God Is A Geek- 9.5 out of 10
Atomix- 95/100
The Sixth Axis- 9 out of 10
The Games Machine- 9 out of 10
Stevivor- 9 out of 10
Video Chums- 9 out of 10
Player2- Grade A-
Vandal- 9 out of 10
Vooks- 4.5 Stars out of 5
GAMINGbible- 9 out of 10 Exceptional
Areajugones- The Most Accessible Game in the Saga!
OpenCritic- 83% Mighty!
CGMagazine- 8.5 out of 10
The Enemy BR- 4 Stars out of 5
IGN Italy- 8.8 out of 10
GLITCHED- 9 out of 10
Pocket-Lint- 4.5 out of 5 Recommended!
Stuff- 4 Stars out of 5
NME- 4 Stars out of 5
GamesHub- 4 Stars out of 5
GamesReviews- 9.0 out of 10 Excellent
DigitalTrends- 4 Stars out of 5
Empire Magazine- 4 Stars out of 5
Bleacher Report- Recommends!
The U.S. Sun- One of the Switch’s Best JRPGs!
The Switch Effect- 4.5 out of 5
So what exactly is the problem with the reviews? Even if some reviews you didn't post are lower, that's a lot of good reviews.
The issue reviewers had was there's less side bullshit than three houses had. That's literally the main issue everyone had. Engage takes the series back to preawakening, even pre Tellius, games. This game has more in common with fe 7 and sacred stones than the newer games aside the combat. The combat is the best it has been, but the characters compared to three houses the characters are just stat vehicles. This is made more obvious considering there are like 50 characters in the thing. Like you're expected to lose characters if you don't want to turn back time. Like if you can keep etie alive without savescumming you deserve a medal
Just finished Chapter 6. Got the Expansion Pass. Each unit has had a heroic moment to shine on the battlefield to endear them to me, which is better than anything scripted. I'm pretty attached to my crew. Zero complaints or regrets.
I am really enjoying it so far. I think that the story is just enough and all social aspects are fine as they are. I am still fairly early in the game, but so far so good.
As I started being exposed to more games with social mechanics, I can say it’s definitely more enjoyable. Just like going from SMT to Persona, I ended up liking Persona 5 more than SMTV. Taking that away from Engage must’ve made some reviewers upset and seen as a step back. (Btw I’m playing on maddening classic)
I enjoyed theee houses more than engage
I prefer my srpg the way it is, story and deep tactical battles. I will still play 3H later on but im glad that (social sim ) was reduced to much simpler feature here in this game.
@@therealjaystone2344most people did. It’s a large vocal minority who are happy it’s gone, but the fan base was much smaller as a whole until three houses. So it’s understandable
The story of engage feels so weak and not as well told compared to three houses and I can’t help but wish the support conversations were a bit stronger. Some are, but there are characters that the support conversations just can’t save I will never like them lol
The bond conversations are lazily done and such a poor implementation. They are one to two sentences and don’t do much. It’s not even worth the 10 second bond conversation lol I get that as a fan you like the minor quips they make, but I think you need to be honest with how bare bones it is. What a great opportunity to REALLY delve into their pasts and that ball is dropped.
The animations is FIRE, combat is so good, story is meh and a step back, I prefer the social system like most people do, so I’m satisfied with what’s in here but can’t help but wish it had more depth but I’m glad to see it. Character writing is so quick and bare that I desire more. We need to be honest about it the great gameplay but weak writing. It’s passable but..they’ve done better. Awakening forever lol
Exactly! I think that Engage should've kept the same quality to their social mechanics but made it optional for players who don't enjoy doing social stuffs. People who say social aspects of games aren't important are completely wrong, Persona and SMT shows it.
10 hours in. This is worlds better than Three Houses basically. Much less of the BS stuff and much better in everything else. This time, I feel invited to spend 20 minutes or so in between missions and then go to combat (AKA the game) and then... Combat is great, the music as well. Triangle Strategy was my second best game of 2022 and this is, so far, just as good and potentially even better (time will tell). Good thing they listened to fans and unfortunately, the press will always be the press so they will undermine any game that comes close in release date to the Playstation exclusive of the hour (Forspoken atm) as well as their ignorance reviewing "niche" games in general
Nah engage fun but it not no triangle strategy lore or plot wise. It really basic
The gameplay in Engage is exceptional and that aspect of the game certainly deserves the praise it gets.
However, the story and characters are often generic, milquetoast, and cringey. I’m pretty sure there are more edges on a slab of jello than there are in this game. The dialogue is often brutal, it comes across as if it was written for literal babies.
Three Houses had far more interesting characters arcs and a more compelling story.
Very much agree
agree
I haven’t stop playing it the game is awesome
Most the complaints are people admitting they don’t care much about core FE gameplay and difficulty.
They just want the social persona 5 stuff and sure…3H had more supports,dialogue and a better story
But engage is fast paced with better gameplay Imo
I’m glad I can go somniel 2 minutes and leave to next chapter asap
No. Most reviews are saying they want an overall good game. They care about gameplay. But they also care about characters and story. And unfortunately engage fails on 2/3 fronts. Good gameplay but terrible character writting and plot. So overall it's a dissapointing game.
Really it's the opposite. People who love this game are just proving they care about nothing but the gameplay.
@@johnathanera5863 "People who love this game are just proving they care about nothing but the gameplay."
Sorry if I am mistaken, but isn't that exactly what OP was saying?
@@Shykeful no. He was saying people who don't like it don't care about gameplay or difficulty, that's not true. They do care, but also care about other aspects of the game.
Almost nobody is saying the gameplay is bad, that's universally praised. Where the lower scores come from is lack of interesting or deep characters and a joke of a story. People are bummed about lack of social features like 3H but that's NEVER where people say they took off points. It's just that the game fails in more areas than it succeeds, hence the lower scores.
I think gameplay is the most important in strategy games, however you can't spend as much time as FE does on plot and character with them being *this* poorly written.
We aren't expecting Shakespeare, but I do expect a story that's at least competent and or heartfelt. Blazing Blade/FE7 had sloppy writing but it had a great tone and atmosphere, SS and Tellius games were competently told and had weight, even if not the deepest
Your alternative is to be like xcom and have the plot be a bare bones framework to get us from mission to mission, which is how you will replay this FE. You just complete skip virtually all dialog
The difference in story/script writing in engage is jarring to me. The characters say some obnoxiously cringe lines back to back to back. It's written for 8 year olds to enjoy. The combat has teeth on hard mode for sure. It is just incredibly hard to get from battle to battle as the story and characters are just so bad...
Also why are half of the characters 10 years old in this game. Definitely doesn't help.
I am loving this game up to Path of Radiance level. I just wish hard did not have such a difficulty gap with maddening. Mad was wearing me down, and hard is way to easy.
The gameplay is what matters most.
Damn right!
Not for me. I'm a story and character guy but the gameplay is great but I don't like it as much as 3 Houses for those reasons.
There's no reason Fire Emblem games can't have both good stories and good gameplay
@@athorem They used to, once upon a time. Now it seems we are given one or the other
I played fire emblem fates conquest years ago on my 3ds and haven't played a fe game since. Finally came back to play this new release and I am having a wonderful time.
I do have to suspend my disbelief a lot, story wise, like a focr appearing on the border on the other side of a nation for example, logistics, timing stuff like that, which sadly I felt path of radiance and radiant dawn did actually do well.
Gameplay wise it is rather enjoyable, still not massively keen on the engage mechanic but needs more time.
So Bad Plot and poor dialogue.. But Wonderful Gameplay.. Sounds like Fates
@@elpopman2055 it is fates 2.0 and I hate it :(
Love triangle strategy and mario rabbids spark of hope, i think mario+ rabbids just review better coz of mario effect. just started FE engage, so far so good. I just don't trust reviewer or critics because they tend too critical about games or bias about it. And every people has different taste on games, i rather play the game myself.
Awakening and 3 Houses are my favorites, but Engage is good too! It's cheesy.....but fun!
In Three Houses, you could tell who enemies were going to target and how much damage they were going to do. Is there a way to do that in this game? I have played it for 5ish hours and haven't figured it out yet.
Look, I can see myself replaying this and enjoying it all the way through. Three houses just... not. That Game was either too hard on maddening (rather than hard I'd say tedious and bullshit at times) or too easy on hard mode, as well as having meh to bad map design. The characters and story were good enough sure, but being fun seems like what a game should be focused around, thats why Pokemon and Mario games are well liked despiste their lackluster stories in most of them.
Oh boy ... Just wait till chapter 10 and the difficulty spike 🙃
Been playing fire emblem since 2003. I’m just glad so many new players and enjoying the franchise. I’d highly recommend trying the older games, fire emblem and sacred stones. It’s peak material, from the story to the gameplay
Haven't played a full Fire Emblem game since Awakening. I've heard the mechanics are good but the story, not so much? A shame, 'cause that's a big deal for me.
Frankly, I find it hard to understand how anyone can enjoy games like these without a compelling story and characters, but hey, to each their own.
The combat mechanics and in fight graphics are where this game shines
im having problems deciding who to use on my team and what classes I should aim for
Three Houses is still my favourite, that being said I'm still really enjoying Engage, and I'm not going to be mad at it for not being Three Houses.
This has been happening over and over again IMO. I don’t look at reviews anymore. If I see something I like, I get it.
Metacritic will not determine what games I like. I know I already like RPG’s so I’m gonna get them as long as I have the platform for them. What you say about FE Engage is definitely true.
I think Intelligent Systems needs to consider doing a brand split, aka SMT and Persona and Forza Horizon and Forza Motorsport. A lot of people knocked this for not being Three Houses 2, because that was the last game we got. If they’re going to pivot between social sims and hardcore strategy they should be separate series so people have a better idea of what they’re getting
I agree. It's going to be hard to please both camps.
If they're absolutely insistent with moving the Three Houses style forward, then yes they absolutely should do this.
It would clear up a lot of confusion for the fan-base and they can focus on pleasing those particular demographics.
P.S. I have slightly over 15 days - yes, days - of in-game played time for Tactics Ogre: Reborn. I know more about the game than any one of these reviewers. And I can say with absolute confidence it is a classic that deserves at LEAST a 9, if not significantly higher. Just the fact that the game has that much replay value should tell you something.
Moreover, Pathfinder: WOTR has an extremely compelling story, that has like 5-6 different endings, and a secret ending -- but far more important than that is the constant stream up DLC, and the damn-close-to-infinite replicability. You could dumb weeks of in-game time into the game and still not see everything the game has to offer; and that's not counting the upcoming DLCs and existing DLCs
i still haven't played triangle strategy yet but i want to play engage also. which one should i get first?
Oh hey! I'm also playing on Hard Classic. It's such a good difficulty
I'm just going to say it, if people are afraid to. I like the game a lot. It's a solid 9 for me. And there is PLENTY to do for this type of game in the Somniel.
Loving the game so far but my good impression is really being carried only by combat. Somneil is good idea but lack polish and already became a chore plus most of story&dialog are bland/predictable and kinda cringe ngl.
At least there was no time limit, unless you are playing via hard or lunatic
I'm completely loving this game. I'm not understanding these review scores besides them being biased against it since it's no three houses. Also, is it me or does Xander have a hard time leveling up? He barely get experience even tho I used him up to recently and I'm like 12 hours in now. 🤷🏾♂️
Blazing Blade was my first FE game, and I love it. My favorite in the series is Three Houses. So far, I'm enjoying Engage for the battle aspects, but not really for the story/characters.
To me, the "ultimate tactical game experience" on the Switch is probably Triangle Strategy. I like Three Houses better as a whole, but if I'm craving "tactical gameplay," Triangle delivers the best possible experience IMO.
I would not put Engage up there with triangle strategy at all. It a fun game bur the game story(engage) is completely grneric
Triangle strategy is miles better in the character and story department. Even the downtime is done way better than somniel.
@@Paradox8823and a lot of people/reviews hated it because “too much dialogue and too much politics”.
People just want something to complain about.
@@RrEMBT yeah for real rather have a game with great story telling and great gameplay too. Instead of good gameplay and meh story for my srpg game. War of lions the goat though
as a fire emblem fan I really want to love engage, but the character are super annoying and the story is really stupid and cringe... there is no lore or world building at all. FE4 up to Awakening had great story. FE1 and 2 where pretty bad, but fates was the worste, sadly for me engage has now the worste story... I wish it would be different cause I love the gameplay, but then the characters are trash aswell. In fire emblem every character had struggles and personality. Now we have, a girl who is a fangirl, a girl who only talks about food, a girl who only talks about muscles, a girl who is rich and buys everything with money. Really the character are so flat then I want to skip the support, one of my favorite additions to fire emblem and it makes me sad. Fates level of character...
I just love this game!
I pre ordered
I am in chapter 11
It is my second Fire emblem game
My first was fates
And I am playin heroes for 6 years
I 100% agree with the opinion you have expressed. Mario is a decent strategy game but no way is it a better game than Fire Emblem: Engage and no where near as good as Triangle Strategy.
Not to be a conspiracy theorist but it seems like Ubisoft has some “influence” on the reviews.
Why Ubisoft ?
If you use the "Not to be x, but" type sentence structure, you are x.
This my 1st FE and God Dam its good and im a few hrs in its Crazy Dark too so far
In my opinion, while the combat is good, it's not that much better than most other Fire Emblems. It just feels like Fire Emblem, but shiny. Now Conquest, that game Imo, had unparalleled combat, because it's map design was out of this world.
So much scrutiny and lots of critique.. It’s just another tremendous entry in the series.. Enough said.. I just hope we don’t have to wait another 3 years for the next one..
I’m very underwhelmed with some aspects - like the story - and the characters and voice acting is a mixed bag, but the gameplay itself is very good. I am missing the fun of choosing which characters you want to recruit, working to earn their favor, and then selecting how they’re going to grow. Based on the first 8 chapters I’d say 8/10 game, as opposed to the 9/10 I gave Three Houses
Same. Combat is amazing but disappointed in the other stuff as that's the kind of gamer I am.
three houses is just too good. would prefer a three houses 2 for the next FE game 😆
agree
@@bakailfrozen1944 Three Hopes already exists
I wish 3 house had engages combat and I wish the class system and social/ relationships were more fleshed out in engage like 3 houses
3 houses kinda had the weapon triangle on maddening thanks to so many enemies having breaker skills... but yeah, I appreciate the new weapon triangle in engage. Far more punishing.
Chapter 10 on maddening. Really good game, maybe on the easier side of thing but still challenging enough.
Is this game better than Marvel Midnight Suns? I'm tryin to decide which one to get 🤷♂️
I defended the art style and criticized people who said the game was "too anime" before they knew anything about the story. I am now on chapter 16 and I have to admit they were right. I'll preface this by saying every single aspect of this game but the characters and dialogue is nearly flawless. I am absolutely loving it and I'm playing it every free moment I have.
But my God this game has the absolute worst, grating, cringe characters and dialogue of any piece of media I have ever seen, and its not even close. 90% of the spoken lines sound like nails on a chalkboard to me. It's not that the voice actors are doing a bad job and nothing in the plot is particularly offensive, but the avatar worship from every single character and a good chunk of the rest of the dialogue makes me want to puncture my eardrums with a pencil. Again I must stress that every. single. character with only a few exceptions act and speak in a way that makes me physically uncomfortable.
I'm here for the gameplay and I'm having a great time every time no one is talking and at least it's easily skippable on repeat playthroughs unlike 3h but damn. I had no idea it would be like this.
Iunno, something about FEE just seems too "Genshin Impact" looking for me. I just can't point my finger on why that bothers me.
Doesn't sound like a must buy immediately game for me so I wait and see if I can snap it up used sometime down the road.
Should a new player play the classic mode?
honestly yes. been playing since awakening and classic is the only way to go. hard classic if you can. you will never know pain like losing a beloved unit….. and it makes them feel so much more valuable and likable! trust me. permadeath is part of what builds attachment and what makes FE, FE.
Still bought the Divine edition even if I won't probably like it as much as 3H. The social aspects should've been kept the same quality but made optional instead of making it worse in my opinion. Telling people that a game is better off with worse/without the features that technically made the series better and brought in new fans feels like gatekeeping to me. Improvements on the gameplay and social aspects should've been both welcomed and the removal or degradation of one or the other should not be praised or be happy about. The social aspects can be as important as the gameplay, this is why I personally think that Persona is better than SMT in terms of popularity and gameplay.
agree
Anyone else notice when you go trunkten with an emblem the character models have that xenoblade 2 blades look I love it 😂
I think i like this game more than three houses
That order is not unreasonable if approachability is a factor, and honestly as much as I enjoyed TS the pacing of the different sections was awful, and later in the game I found myself overleved...cause if I actually wanted to just sit down and play a missions I would do it in the camp. Much of the same could be said for FE, although the pacing is better. But again, it is not approachable it has alot of mechanics that would overwhelm someone who isn't familiar with the series.
What you have are 3 games in a niche genre, that really lean into different aspects of the srpg genre, it's going to vary based on the taste and audience. The order could have rolled any way
What notch? Top?
My mailman didn't deliver it friday. For some weird reason it's supposed to be delivered, yet i received nothing. Tomorrow i'll have to spit fire on the phone!
the first time i played the easiest difficulty and found some struggling even while being slightly overleveled. The Triangle advantage break can set your units up to get hit hard. I am disappointed a bit with the amount of recruitable characters you get through unique interaction but It most likely has to do with the fact that this game is introducing itself to a new audience. It will also humble you really quick with chain attacks if you get too cocky. The story is your typical JRPG with no real plot twist. I think the only unique fact about this was one I didn't see any mercenary for hire unless you count ike. I also noticed a lot of recycled uses of 3h resources. I wish the cutscenes were animated like 3h the way they animated the scenes in this game felt cheap. I did appreciate the unique dialog they went out of their way to do. I just wish there was more unique paralogues.
The battles are top tier fire emblem, but my big problem comes with the gameplay loop compared to three houses especially. You had so much freedom in giving your units unique abilities and weapon proficiencies through their classes. But now, that’s all tied to be ring system. But you only have two ability slots per character, and you don’t get nearly enough SP to give every character abilities or weapon proficiencies to improve them or experiment with classes. And then they take half your rings away for the majority of the game in Chapter 11 and barely give you gold for upgrading weapons at the smithy. For a game with such great classes and battles, it completely restricts you through the gameplay loop and emblem rings which is a real shame.
Not to mention, the story and characters are kind of boring and nearly non existent.
Fire Emblem has come to mean (at least) two different things to two different sets of players. Either Intelligent Systems will need to find a way to integrate both fandoms into their titles, they will need to fully let one fandom go, or they may need to make one section its own sub-categorization with it's own games akin to how Persona branched off of Shin Megami Tensei.
Since this game is extremely different from the last from a socializing perspective, and that game gained a large following due to those mechanics, it is not surprising that there are some reviewers who view this game as at best inferior and at worst outright broken or incomplete. Different people have come to expect different things from a Fire Emblem game, and while IS interest in experimenting with new systems keeps things fresh, it also risks alienating various sectors of a widening fanbase. It's the blessing and curse of mass / commercial success which has come from an aspect of the series which risks making it much different then what it's original 'core' was.
I don´t even think that the social aspects are the problem. It´s the bad story and character, like fates. We had good characters and story since FE4 until fates went full bs. Then 3 houses was amazing and now we are back to fates level. I prefer them to take out all of somnial if character and story would have been 3 houses leve. I want engage gameplay, 3 houses character, story and worldbuilding. Social sim is just a bonus, but I can´t even enjoy that if I hate all the characters
*A must buy for who?* Certainly not people who care about a good story or interesting characters.
I can say this isnt my first fire emblem game as far as warriors is concern but i just started yesturday and this combat as a tactics game .. its kinda complicated for me to get used too but its all good just need to stick with it thou but man i dk how OJ is able to put sooo many hours in JRPGS for me there ok but i guess you like what you like
I loved path of radiance and radiant dawn. Played them several times. This one is missing the mark for me. The super anime voices and wild outfits are a bit much for me. Triangle strategy was better IMO. I will try to finish this. Maybe I’m just a crusty old schooler
I loved those games too and especially triangle strategy. I don't think there's going to be anymore fe games like those or fe4. Fe isn't catering to people that actually like strategy and tactics anymore it's for newer fans that are into anime stuff
@@dickmonddickelheimer9452 I mean, if anything this game caters to people who like strategy and tactics, the character design itself is a whole different thing altogether
i totally agree. I don´t need social sim, but good story and character are needed in an sRPG
@Oscelios I guess it caters to people who like strategy but honestly it just feels like Nintendo is using strategy as just another avenue to drain weebs of their cash. Because people that actually like strategy and tactics aren't going to like engage, just look at those plain and boring flat maps it looks like a mobile tactics game
Is alm or chrome coming to the game?
I would just like to say this as someone who started Engage just 20 minutes after finishing my first run of 3 Houses (Blue Lions). The narrative feels JARRINGLY weaker than 3 Houses and the first few chapters do not in the slightest bit feel like Intelligent Systems took the writing of Engage seriously. It amost physically hurt going from such a well written story (Blue Lions) to the most cliched and rushed narrative I've consumed in a LONG time (Engage).
While the visuals are an amazing improvement from 3 Houses, the voice acting of the mc is refreshing, and battle gameplay is beyond phenomenal (though noticably different and just a little uncomfortable at first when transitioning from 3 Houses), if you're like me and find narrative to be really important to you in games like this, reconsider getting this game. If you don't really mind a weak and pretty cliched narrative, get the game. Hard/Classic is really fun and Maddening/Classic is legitimately really difficult but fun.
Edit: I will say though, I at least respect Intelligent Systems for all-inning on trying to make the characters and story fun and bombastic given they at least clearly knew the tone they were going for. I guess I might have gone into this expecting a little too much from a game originally meant to commemorate the 30th anniversary.
One thing they didn't take their time with is the English voice acting! There is literally some female characters that have a dude's voice. It through me off. 1 example is the female bandit leader early on for the side mission to get Anna.
Mario Rabbids is excellent and absolutely worthy of an 86. It's scored just right. The issue is FE and TS are underscored. They should be at 90 and 88, respectively.
Awesome bro, I been waiting for this video!
As a longtime fan of the series, any new FE is a must play for me. I just wish the game didn't hurt my eyes lmao
This is easily the smash bros ultimate or monster hunter world of FE. The story isn’t anything groundbreaking or innovative, but it goes back to what a lot of fans love fire emblem in the first place while making it accessible for any new comers to ease them into a true FE experience.
The only two complains I have on Engage: 1. There’s no 3-stage class system. 2-stage class system is much less fun in the late game imo. I miss Radiant Dawn’s class system; 2. There is no dragonlord. Dragonlord is much cooler than wyvern riders to me. Except those, the game is great! I love it!
I watched a couple of videos of the game already, the story and dialogue (mainly dialogue) is cheesy and cringe and the mc design is bad. Like every time they were in frame I just groaned at seeing that hair
not a big fan of FE but I Like tactics games so I still got it anyway. The super cliche anime story telling is quite tough to swallow but I'm enjoying the gameplay presentation so far. Certainly enjoyed TS a lot more in any aspect.
This is giving me those OG tactic feels (on maddening).
I still feel Three Houses is the better game because of depth and replay value, but this is as solid an entry into the series as any.
This is a reminder to everyone. Reviews/Opinions are NOT SCIENTIFIC. You guys gotta stop doing this. You can’t compare reviews and fully expect that to be meaningful. This logic is killing the art of reviews. I rather every here just review the game themselves and leave it at that. You were never supposed to take someone else’s opinion and experience with a piece of art and and say yeah that’s what I would feel. I think we devalue others experience when we do this.
I think many take issue with bad reviews. Or dramatic ones and or disregard them is simply when they are written like the majority of desperate gaming journalists who haven't learned. Artificial rage bait articles attract the wrong attention. It's one thing to be funny when poking fun at a franchise. It's another when. A person or org is talking like they got a stick up their rear. 🤣
@@MJSGamingSanctuary don’t matter. A an opinion on anything is going to be driven a persons perception. Trying to make reviews scientific when it comes to art is the most suspect part of this whole equation. The only reason one would get mad a review is because they lack the ability to think for self. Otherwise why would you care how someone else opinion unless you were looking to validate something within you.
@@MJSGamingSanctuary why would I EVER find myself carrying about what someone thinks so much that it makes me want to comment negatively on the opinion. Logical that doesn’t make a lick of sense because we should all understand opinions are subjective by nature. Example it would never make sense to me to say someone’s opinion is bad. It makes more sense to me to explain why I myself like or dislike said thing being reviewed. Reviews are and always be more entertainment to me. It’s just fun to see what other people think of games even IF I don’t find myself feeling the same way.
It's pretty good, although Three Houses is better in a number of ways
I 100% agree that the none combat stuff isnt too little or lacking. It is NOT. Three Houses was absolutely WAY too much inbetween story maps, or even side maps. You might even lose what was said, because there's so much other stuff they force onto you.
I miss the older titles where you had the typical "Story>Map>Story>Map" (ofc with support convos in there).
But this is my opinion.
I feel like that is the main issue, there isn't much rest between the story and the maps, it can become very combat heavy.
I feel like it is similar to the divide between persona 5 and SMT 5. SMT having better combat mechancs but is so much more focuses on combat, that there is less time on story and characters
@@wowwar2 thats what these games are about. not social dating sims.
@@wowwar2 Someone has not played SMT 4
@@xXxAilishmagexXx fire emblem for me is about wanting to develop and bond with the characters, because those are the characters that are at risk of dying from permadeath.
The story and the reason to care about those characters are just as important as the combat, cuz without that, the game would just end up feeling 'pointless' because you wouldn't care about growing the characters
@@hardrubbernips_ i have played it for 20 hours, I wasn't able to beat it because it was way too tiring to play, there is not as much exploration as SMT 5 and the breaks between combat are too brief