Fell Xenologue & Fire Emblem Engage DLC Review
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- Опубліковано 15 кві 2023
- Is the Fire Emblem Engage DLC worth it? Depends!
Fell Xenologue Playthrough: • Fell Xenologue - Fire ...
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While the new OCs are neat, the fact they're locked behind a very poorly implemented sidestory is just insane given how well Engage's base game is balanced.
That, and the DLC also damages the balance of the base game by giving you a ton of materials (P2W) and also making your units way, way overpowered in Maddening if you do the DLC paralogues for the DLC emblems. Those maps shouldnt give XP on Maddening, the same way that the Xeno maps dont give XP.
The extra materials and money I think are the biggest balance breakers, and I think hurts the base game's design the most, since they cant simply be ignored.
It's why I'm not buying it. i'd love to play with some new units, emblems, and maps, but that's because i love the gameplay. i wouldn't enjoy the gameplay if in order to experience it, i have to either wreck the balancing in the base game, or wait so long to play the dlc that i barely get to use any of it in the main story. the fact that there's no new game plus kills it for me :(
@@206Sam not too mention fell xenologue should have been endgame content
The base game doesn't feel balanced at all to me. If you choose to do skirmishes, they balloon in difficulty so much, you can't even play them for quite awhile
@@Burns_REDi don't know why skirmishes are so difficult compare to the normal maps. I get Intelligent systems didn't want to make things so easy but in higher difficulties skirmishes are so few that it's funny how despite suppose to help You, you can't do them until having some extra levels
Zelestia and the bracelets alone make it worth for me but the implementation of the Xenologue was admittedly poor, which is a shame since the story is actually more interesting to me than the main campaign in some ways.
To be specific the Xenologue implementation into the main game which Mekkah describes. Clearly the makers of 3Houses knew how to work with DLC better than Engage.
The main problem I have with how the DLC works is the fact that I would have to replay chapter 5 when I want to get these characters for another playthrough. I played the DLC on normal, because I'm bad at videogames. My adrenaline was through the roof and it was extremely exhausting. I never want to play that map again. They should release a patch where you don't have to replay the DLC for the OCs. Nobody should have to play chapter 5 more than once. I am certain that that chapter was made by a sadist. I still liked the characters though. Post DLC Nil is an angry bean and I really like that about him. He is just so done with everything. It's great. I still don't want to play chapter 5 ever again.
Overall, it's good value, but it really needs a New Game Plus with all DLC characters and bracelets unlocked so you can start fresh without needing to replay the maps and not getting too much XP from the DLC maps.
First fargest and now mekkah on the dlc reviews today. Truly a well of gifts
Another problem with the level scalling, is that if you do the xenologue at a later point, and have access to a ton of characters who join promoted, they keep their promotion throughout the early xenologue maps, meaning an early joiner like Lapis will start as a swordfighter in the first maps, while Kagetsu will start as a swordmaster...
So some characters just start out being simply better than others on numbers alone, while also having multiple weapon types and higher movement!
If they at least gave us a Trails of Cold Steel type NG+, where you can pick from a whole list of checkboxes what things you wanna bring into a NG+ playthrough, like stats, levels, items, classes and SP, it wouldn't be a problem at all, as they could just let us pick "treat fell xenologue as completed" if you had finished it during your last playthrough, while letting everything else be reset to what a fresh save would be...
It's like they couldn't decide when the xenologue should be balanced around for the players, so they just sorta made it slightly annoying for everyone.
Just like with all the other Fire Emblem DLCs. If you are a fan of the specific game, and want more of the game then the DLC is for you. If you played the game and went "that was fun, but time to move on" then don't bother buying the DLC.
The value of $30 to me has gone up as of late. A younger me would have easily dropped 30 bucks day 1 and not thought twice about it, but for right now my money and time are worth more than what FX offers.
From a mathematical perspective, I consider $30 a bit steep for a six mission DLC campaign, seven Divine Paralogues and Emblems, five new characters, considering that $60 gets you the main game, with 27 story chapters(arguably 24 if you don't count the prologue and the first two chapters, which are rather short), 15 Paralogues, almost three dozen characters and 13 Emblems.
@Artificial Ace Attorney i agree. As a 1 to 1 comparison you are paying 50% less and getting effefectively 25% of a games. Its should have been $15.
@@artificialaceattorney6822 They also give you weapons, SP books, Bond points, and stat boosting items. Just to add on what you said earlier.
@@TheOmegaDragon tbf, that's not really content. That's just them shoving ressources in your face that exist in the base game. (You can't even refuse to get these even tho the game itself is balanced around dlc-less playthrough, wth?)
Technically these 6 maps are SUPER long and while that in itself does not make them better in a vacuum, we are judging the DLC merely on quantity here
I played on Normal around the middle of the Solm Arc (after recruiting Seadall) and had a fun time, minor annoyances aside. It did trip me up when my units were suddenly different advanced types, but I got through.
Fingers crossed they roll out updates to address that. Several of my hopes:
- FX characters automatically join you after chapter 6 once you beat it (ofc with please level scale the characters, it's not that hard)
- Maddening + where they scale up enemies in main game chapters to your level and perhaps giving enemies unique skills earlier. Or anything so that the game balance due to DLC is restored a little bit.
I don't think they will fix game mechanics in the FX and personally I don't care whether they fix it or not. Just let us not to have to play the xenologue everytime to unlock the characters and classes because that is just stupid.
For a more casual fan like myself I feel it is quite good and entertaining only on normal. While I did do this around solm during my hard run, it was still quite difficult to do especially the last two maps, the last one I had to go normal as I just wanted to use the dlc units at that point. One of the main problems is the reinforcements that spawn constantly, while in most maps there is limit and it is quite fun to play around but in the last map the amount of wyverns spawns was just wayyyy too much for me. I really like the characters and the fact the for each run you have to do it to get them is not at all a good implementation of the dlc. Overall great on normal but very tedious on other difficulties, I have not done maddening nor will I ever do it for fell xenologue.
I despise limitless reinforcements especially Wyverns (too bulky) and Griffons (too dodgy). If it's a few waves then I'm fine with that but, to come in way to often and not be able to one round them is overkill.
I beat the FX in hard after ch.16 and it was a nightmare. Specially ch.3 and ch.6. Not having some specific rings makes the difficulty insane (Micaiah and Sigurd.)
Considering the major difference in quality I felt between the main game and the Fell Xenologue, I’m convinced this was designed well after the main game was polished 5 times over.
I played both on Maddening, only DLC used was wave 1 (small resource boost, Tiki Ring, and 3H Ring). The file was at endgame when I played it.
Chapter 1 felt nice, introduction to wolf poisoning, compact map, it’s pretty good.
Chapter 2 felt similar since I was able to choke my units into a small corridor at the bottom of the map.
Chapter 3 was pretty annoying considering the dozen fliers that sandwich you into the bottom of the map.
Map 4 was when I dipped into the SP books that the game gives you for dlc and beating the game, for some nice one shots with Panette using Ike. It makes sense that the game wouldn’t just let you sit at the start and watch 2 armies kill each other, but sending 5 range defense piercing fliers is pretty dumb.
Spoilers for the story of the DLC past this point btw
Chapter 5 was another dumb map, with no way to save Alear, you’re forced to keep a physic user to spam heals on them. Also, I hope Nel has a good ring on them, or else they might be using a few too many elixirs, and you’ll need 2 people dedicated to using physic. I do like the concept of the map, but the execution just doesn’t sit right with me. Also, the wolves in that map double Kagetsu, which is ridiculous.
Chapter 6 made me lower the difficulty because I was absolutely done with this shit. You have to rush through enemies that you have no good way of killing, the enemies block your way extremely easily, the game gives you none of the proper resources to help, and if you aren’t fast enough, you get insta killed.
Overall, the DLC on maddening felt like a downward slope in terms of enjoyment; started okay, ended with quite an awful feeling…
I did the first three chapters of the xenologue on hard then the rest on normal. It was just was too frustrating for me to enjoy any bit of it. I’m glad you had some of amount of fun, chapter 3 onward for me is where this fell off a cliff.
The only map I found as too much blind (maddening) was the final map, honestly. I adored the brutality but I come into the difficulties for that. My biggest problem with the final boss was that the mechanic it has isn't super well communicated.
The story's charming, the conversations are fun, that's all I asked for. I laughed, I felt sad, I saw the twists coming but I was satisfied with them.
But yeah, the implementation is *atrocious*, which is a shame because Nel is probably my favorite FE character. The DLC across the board is just so close to being good!
The dlc sucks.
And I respectfully disagree! You are entitled to your opinion, though, so if you think it sucks that's fair.
I also found chapter 3 really difficult. I went into the third FX chapter after chapter 9 on hard and was PUNISHED. The scaling and difficulty jumped so much from chapter 2, I wasted hours on it and restarted a couple times. Don’t even get me started on the last chapter, but damn if it didn’t have a really decent story. Still on the fence about if it was worth it or not tho tbh
@@a_guy_with_glasses yeah, I started it before chapter 9 on Maddening and while the first two maps were fairly tough, the third one shoots into the stratosphere with its difficulty. It took me almost 5 hours, I was out of Time Crystal uses, Chloe, Louis and Diamant retreated and Alear was standing next to the boss with 10 hp, so I had to land like 3 60% hits in a row and Zelestia finished the boss off with Quadruple Strike dealing 38 damage to the boss's remaining 38 hit points.
I think the divine paralogues deserve to be played for their gameplay alone but I Understand not wanting the extra xp to break balance. It’s too bad you can’t disable xp from them but still play them or something
Really nice video. I started on Maddening with my endgame save file and found chapters 1-3 to be okay… but the others were so insane that I had to drop it to hard. Hard was a good balance and felt like they “balanced” the fell xenologue around having end game characters and bond levels.
I agree that the memey Opposite Day characters were just… bleh. But most boss convos were pretty good.
Mekkah, what did you think of the final chapter of the DLC? I thought it was a great final battle. And I think it also kinda showed how not having permadeath can actually make battles more interesting sometimes than not, akin to some other tactics games.
The final map took forever but it was gratifying to beat because of it. I totally understand people not liking it though because that kind of design isn't for everyone, but it let me and Raisins flex our strategic muscles a lot even on Hard. The concept was good. As a whole I think the idea of forced casual mode + 10 rewinds but with a couple of likely Game Over conditions was a fun new twist - I wish I remembered that line for the main review.
But again, it's not for everyone.
I did it on normal after chapter 8 or 9 on my maddening playtrough. I wanted to use the characters and then do the xenologue again when my units were ready. Now I'm excited to see if their inherited skills will stay, as I used them on this file and if I can even restart the xenologue on the same file.
no it doesn't work for dlc character. Their bond ring always lvl 1 and no inherited skill
be careful for the rest of your run if you're still playing as the rest of the dlc maps are now boosted to endgame levels as you beat the xenologue
@@chipbannatyne yess, did them all before the FX to avoid that. also thx ren ren, looks like Nil will stay useless.
So are we getting any new dlc for Fire Emblem Engage or not
When do u unlock it cause I can’t access it unlike the rest of the dlc
It’s so weird to me how much better the xenologue story is than the base game, like why couldn’t we have gotten that in the main game
The FX story is rubbish too.
@@mateusgreenwood1096 I disagree a bit, but thank you lol
If only there was some well or something that interacts with the dlc where they could have given you the dlc items as a menu option
it was right there :(
FE: Engages DLC is like an exercise in self control, because the game is significantly easier if you fully utilize it, you’ll have emblems on almost everyone in your army for the entire if you fully utilize it, not to mention better weapons, stat boosters, way more money, etc. it is actually very strange that the game does it like it does, especially because it’s not retroactively available, if you decide to delete your dlc resources, you can’t collect them later or anything like that. FE DLC has always been kind of bizarre (grinding DLC, weird beach fan-service maps, SoVs overclasses which essentially never see use ever unless you grind.) ashen wolves at least felt like a passive add on, but I think what gets me the most is that you can’t access the DLC classes without doing the Xenolouges, which they aren’t even connected too. Both Enchanter and Mage Cannoneer are pretty cool classes, I think Enchanter is probably my favorite class in Engage, and cannoneers are broken like any unit with 8 range will always be, but them being locked behind 6 maps is kind of just weird.
The game could’ve added their items to the shop, without requiring completing the DLC first, and the DLC could’ve just still given you the items after the Xenolouge, it’s a crime how inaccessible they are.
Playing on my Hard endgame file in Hard mode, the difficulty was weird in that it was just right in terms of intensity, but the maps were so long that it got tiring. And clearing the finale (which I genuinely believe to be what Engage's finale should've been) only gave me more anxiety with the final reward.
I wanted to wait until all the DLC was out before replaying the game on Maddening, and indeed the DLC has delivered interesting stuff. I want to try the cannoneer class and the new characters. I want to try the Wave 3 Emblems (I've beaten the game by that point, so I didn't get to use them after collecting them). But I can't get a promotion cannon and the new characters at an appropriate level even after I go through the chore of replaying FX itself, because I will instead get the full payout and lvl 20 characters. This is on top of the fact that the DLC Emblems come from level-scaled paralogues that break the Exp curve and should be done before FX if you're planning on doing them early enough to get the DLC characters actionably soon. This is an utter mess in terms of allowing the player to curate their own difficulty while using the interesting new mechanics they've paid extra for.
It's really unfortunate for a game as well-tuned as Engage at base to just drop all of the DLC's power onto the player, shrug and tell them to deal with it. There's value for the money here, but the outright negligent integration means that said value can ruin your game if you don't personally meticulously plan around it.
I'm a big fan of the idea that the FX finale should have been the finale of the base game, or part of it. Sombron works well enough as a monolithic force of evil, and his map as a victory lap. But that alone doesn't really make for a compelling villain or a good finale. FX's antagonist is Engage's most worthy villain by a good amount.
I almost wish I could take the good story and character bits from each and have them in the same story. Personally, I think the "certified Bismix moment" was excellently done - poignant, as well as good action. But it's just not enough when so much of the rest of the writing is underwhelming.
@@michaelvisosky743 To clarify, I was referring to FX 6's gameplay more than the story here. The base finale takes place in a featureless void and is a joke difficulty-wise, as Sombron can be dogpiled to death in a single shield-break. Meanwhile, FX 6 takes place in the Somniel (which is already a much better fit for the circumstances of the main finale too) and actually forces your army to tour the map, chasing the main boss and fighting Emblem-bearing minibosses along the way. It has the sense of scale, menace and closure that the main finale sorely needs, and I cannot call the FX boss underwhelming in any respect.
I played the game on hard, but the FX on normal. Early without strong bonds, the normal units seem to be on par with the new ones that way atleast
Madeleine has the new highest str growth of 50 and 55 def growth which higher than Louis 50 and Jades 40 but rivaled by Goldmarys 55 (who is not an armor unit)
As you talk about the Fell Xenologue overall thoughts Alear gains EXP in the background when you are not supposed to lmao.
Wait a minute is Spirits of the fallen an extra layer of Pay to win for the Fell Xenologue?
Yeah you can get EXP with online play, haha. I haven't tried to see if you can get a full level, but they get reset between maps anyway.
6:00 yep exactly the stance people should have with it.
I consider myself pretty good at FE games. But I just was not having fun in Hard Mode. Maybe if I grinded Bond Levels and inherited optimal skills I could have a more fun time...
but I switched to Normal, and just enjoyed the story, and had a lot of fun with the DLC characters in the main campaign.
I think the main issue is just the lack of tools to facilitate experimenting with the game to its fullest for the FX. This is in base Engage as well, which you can see with the lack of NG+ and certain restrictions the game puts in place during the course of the story, but at least there's stuff there to work with. With FX, it feels more like a 'puzzle' that the devs intended you to solve on Maddening, ignoring that you can potentially lose some of those puzzle pieces or never have come across them in the first place. Not to mention, as other YTers have pointed out, the forced-base-class restriction is incredibly disappointing as any fun experimentation you might have done with your roster is thrown out the window, it's practically the antithesis of the past 15 years of Fire Emblem!
FX does much of the same: You're forced to get the units at a specific level which means you don't get to get them early to adapt them into your army(Because they're level 20), they don't interact with the story at all, and you have to do the Xenologue every time. It's a dang shame because so many Strategy RPGs handle the implementation of DLC characters far better. My go-to example has been Super Robot Wars 30, where the characters are rolled out over the course of the story, and actually get to interact with the plot to a pretty reasonable degree, and have far more content on offer.
(At the same time, SRW 30's full gamut of expansion-DLC is a wopping $50, far more than Engage's $30 DLC pass, but I feel that at the very least SRW 30 feels robust albeit overpriced, while Engage's is mediocre.)
Engage really could have benefited from a NG+ like 3H. I personally really liked the Renown system in that game, and loved how much it made my NG+ experience customizable. It's such a shame that Engage takes so many steps back in comparison because it's truly a wonderful game, and it does so many interesting things.
I played the first 5 chapters in hard and enjoyed my time but i hated the final boss, so much so that i change to normal difficulty
what i did is that i was max bonded alear with emblem veronica if you combine reprisal+ with the liberation's true damage and corrins deffus you can beat fell nil in one turn or two turns, you can also do it in hard and maddening but those recuire more setup of your units.
I played maddening with an end game save. I thought all the maps were pretty good although extremely challenging except the last map. I tried beating but I got so frustrated I just turned it to normal and stomped to the end. I don’t think the DLC totally destroyed the main game’s difficulty as long u r on maddening and get the characters at the proper time but it definitely makes it way easier. I probably got my 30 bucks worth especially since I’m sure I’ll do more playthroughs but I certainly wish some things were better implemented
I don't think the Bracelets themselves break the game. Per se. I'd argue that none of the DLC bracelets are as broken as Eirika, Corrin, and Byleth. Maybe Soren with the final secret recruit, but that's not the only option for crazy crap. The only real exception is Starsphere, but that's best used on units you get early, and they generally aren't that good. You're also spending a whopping 1500 SP for something that does literally nothing when you get it. Giving up power now, for power later.
What causes the DLC Maps to break the game is the XP. The game STRONGLY encourages you to do them early, due to the maps getting much harder when the enemies promote. And it's a lot easier to manage that difficulty with the 6 starting bracelets (Roy and Micaiah are a pretty big deal in particular), rather than just Lyn and Lucina (though by the time you get Byleth, you're probably about on par again). However, this is six missions, with scaling enemies, that you're doing. My Chloe came out making Kagetsu look like a total chump. Not only does this have you over-equipped in Emblems going into chapter 11 and 12, but some characters will be able to just flat-out juggernaut your opponents. Admittedly, my invested characters, and the Xenologue ones I decided to keep, were mostly about on par with Kagetsu. But that does mean you're going into Chapter 12 bringing along 7 Kagetsus. Rather than a single Kagetsu, who is still Sword-locked.
I think you can have fun with one or two DLC bracelets, without shattering the game too much. 3H is free, of course. If you don't inherit Starsphere on everyone, you can give Tiki to Great Knight Louis, and her dragon weapons will make him effectively unbreakable, while still rocking great defensive stats and movement. It's good, but not gamebreaking. Then grab one more. Soren is the most game-breaking, but only if you exploit his Nostanking potential, or his Reflect Staff XP spamming, I guess. Just don't throw Hold Out on whomever you give him too, and it'll be fine. The rest are all good, but aren't going to break the game.
Now, this all definitely makes the game easier, don't get me wrong. But there's a big difference between "Oops All Kagetsus" and having an extra Emblem and a couple of levels. Especially if you give the levels to the Alfred Gang, Celine, Jean or Anna, who were going to be behind in level anyway.
How bracelets break the game. First they give you way more firepower in parts of the game where you shouldn't have many rings. After ch 6, you have 4 rings to a maximum of 6 till the end of ch 10. Ch 11 you are supposed to lose all your rings slowly getting them back, gaining about 1 per chapter. Second, they also come with bond lv 20 unlocked granting you access to incredibly powerful abilities and stats much earlier than rings. Third, the emblem rings are all pretty insane (except maybe camilla). The 3 houses ring gives massive strength, gambit, combat arts, weapon sync. Tiki gives starsphere, divine blessing, breath. Hector gives quick riposte, storm's eye, heavy attack, piercing glare...
The corrin ring is easily one of the most overrated ring in the game. When it works, it works, when it doesn't, it does jack shit. Easily one of the most inflexible rings in the game as it only works for a handful of units. Its skills all have very narrow use cases; it's engage weapons are mediocre at best; it doesn't improve a units offensive combat parameters unless its a mage.
The funny thing about byleth is what it is doing. The byleth ring makes the rest of your team better and in doing so make your broken bracelets, even more broken. Say you evaluate a ring at a value of 7 while a bracelet is a 9. You use byleth and now they are essentially evaluated at 14 and 18 respectively meaning the gap has increased.
The XP argument is a little sillly when you remember that Skirmishes (including Training Battles) and Trials exist.
@@auraguard0212 skirmishes are super rare and not worth on maddening. Trials don't give exp on maddening.
@@gameboyn64 but getting axed by optional chapters is?
@@auraguard0212 care to rephrase? I have no idea what your trying to say.
Chapter six of fell xenologue in maddening is the hardest and brutal thing ever… Will not lower difficulty… bring me more pain!!!
You get a sister-wife out of it. So yes, yes it's worth it.
I haven't tested this, but I have seen a comment claiming that on normal mode auto battle can clear at least the first few chapters of the xenologue. Which at least makes the task of clearing it on subsequent playthroughs less bad.
This is true. I went through the first 4 chapters of it just by clicking auto battle.
I jumped into it at chapter 6 on maddening with no dlc bracelets or inherited skills and it was AWFUL, i had to turn off maddening to beat the first map at all and then flicked to normal out of rage when i lost the third map after like two hours
I feel like this should’ve been the games endgame Content
Me watching this video, having bought the DLC day one: 👀
I seem to disagree with most people in that I found chapter 6 to be a brilliant end of game challenge and really enjoyed it. Yes it’s plenty hard, but compared to engage’s final map which is trivially easy even on maddening this felt like a much more rewarding and interesting send off and a true test of your understanding of engage’s systems. Admittedly they could have explained its mechanics a lot better, but going up against a gauntlet of royals was a fun ending.
Chapter 5 sucks though. Played on maddening with no dlc rings on an endgame file fwiw
the dlc and the emblem bracelets really screw with the balancing of the game normally
They can't balance the main game around assuming you bought the DLC. That's just mean.
Still, there is a little conflict between how much of a power fantasy they want to give with the DLC, and how hard they want it to be. Divine Paralogue level-scaling is weird, for instance, while Fell Xenologue makes the Advance Wars release look like it's gonna be terribly-tuned.
Oh don't get me wrong, I don't want them to balance the game around the DLC. I am saying the problem with powerful DLC is that you can't have a balanced no-DLC as well as a balanced yes-DLC playthrough. That's why I think FE DLC should have little or no impact on the main campaign.
Honestly, chapter 5 alone really drags the whole rating down for me. I needed a break after playing that one, even on normal. It’s hard but not in a fun way, it’s like 3 escort missions all at once and it’s pure rng unless you know the exact strat for it. The rest was pretty fun on hard though
Intelligent Systems is having the same problems Game Freak had with Sword and Shield. They don't have the right staff for developing AAA Console games, and their first big release that isn't handheld is really showing it.
Edit / Reminder: They did not do the technical development on Three Houses.
Except that on a technical level, engage is way better than 3 houses. Most of engage's problems stem from poor decision making on the developer side.
@@gameboyn64 There are clearly some serious programming limitations on the team if they have to essentially remove a unit from your team, then re-recruit a leveled up version of it EVERY chapter. I choose to believe they know these are bad decisions. They aren't dumb. But they must not have known how to not do it this way. I realize this is their first time with a new Engine, but like I said... It's VERY similar to Game Freak and Sword and Shield. It also explains the reason this game came out so long after what seems to have been the original projections. They were struggling with something.
@@Kasaaz Except they didn't have a problem with any of your other units. What probably happened is that because the FX OCs can't be taken back with you until you complete the FX, the devs found it easier to just create a new iteration of the character than to carry over and save info on a unit that's going to be auto generated again anyways without any regards to its impact on gameplay. It's not like the devs haven't been dumb in the past. The UI is often a mess in engage. Things like gaining sp, supports and skills were so badly implemented that they got a free patch to mitigate the problem. The relay trial thing will often say that it can't find a relay despite that being statistically unlikely. The leif emblem is a complete mess. Just because someone is smart doesn't mean they always come up with the best idea or think about every last thing. It's entirely possible they took longer than projected because they didn't want to deliver an unfinished rush job like koei did with 3 houses. It's development being in the middle of the pandemic probably didn't help.
The DLC emblems, characters and rewards are so broken that made actually Casual mode Maddening fun, because really... you are a psychopath if you have fun with the standard CLASSIC Maddening and without DLC (this it's way worse than Elden Ring overtuned bosses, because a lot of things are just stupid RNG manipulation). It was the first time I finished a Fire Emblem game in the highest difficulty mode without boring grind, exploiting RNG and frustration. The game is actually balanced and challenging on Casual Maddening + DLC (in a good way and not so punitive). Playing this way it's what I wish basic hard mode were in the standard game, because Normal mode it's too easy, Hard it's still kind easy if you are veteran and Maddening it's just bizarre and pointless.
It felt like they wanted to make tight puzzles for the xenologue, and it’s fun but it’s also poorly structured with out the ability to earn XP making it feel like you aren’t doing anything to make the units better aside from just winning
I think the lack of progression is good. It lets you focus 100% on winning the map, instead of trying to optimize for long term benefit. It's a nice change imo. But I get why you wouldn't like it if that balancing act is what you enjoy about FE.
@@Mekkkah understandable for sure why you feel that way. I think I was just bummed I did get get to zero to hero some of the new characters 😂
I dont think its worth it. Its good but I dont want to replay it over each new file to get the units.
Personally I rather play it in normal cause I am not a fan of the Xenologue's difficulty overall.
FX is more frustrating than fun, to me. I tried to do it after Ch 6 and I've been stuck on FX Ch 3 for a week. I hate having my defensive line crumble because someone missed a 70%+ hit on a mobile enemy. I especially hate turtling because my weaker units miss out on XP and grow weaker because of it. ( I know FX has no XP but Nil feels like a growth unit)
No, it isn't. It's half the price of the full game for a really poorly crafted campaign with a painful story and characters that are genuinely not worth using. I pray someday they stop mutilating the manaketes.
The Bracelets, items and 5 characters make the $30 worth it. Otherwise oh ho.. no
I think the DLC is very poorly implemented and after I completed it I created a chapter 7 save where I rushed through it on normal just so I will never replay it again. What really bothers me is the paralouges bracelet maps are scaled but the dlc characters aren't? It really feels like they did not play test the fell xenolouge and I don't plan to play it again.
The bracelet maps are decently fun though, and honestly if you limit yourself to like 2 bracelets a playthrough instead of using them all the balance isnt completely deleted. I used just the Tiki and Edelgard bracelet for my first playthrough and I had a good amount of challenge while it still being fun.
Indeed. The Bracelets aren't that broken themselves. They're all mid-range Emblems. The issue is that more bracelets are always good, and we're not exactly speaking about Lief or late-game Celica here. I actually find the XP to be the most broken part about doing all the DLC maps.
Cindered Shadows is better implemented in almost every way
I found the xenologue story much more interesting than the main game story
But I would say it’s still makes me feel engage is a very average fire emblem game. Overall in terms of story it wasn’t good enough for me to play again so it doesn’t have that replay factor like other fire emblem have.
The Tellius saga (path of radiance and radiant dawn) is still my favourite games due to having just the right amount of depth to the story to keep it interesting but not as exhausting as the story of 3 houses. These are still the only fire emblems I could play again and again.
For me, I don't think the DLC will be worth it if it will upset the balance of a game that might just be the most perfectly challenging and fun game in the series I've played yet. Great review, I won't be buying it.
Literally the reason i won't buy the dlc was because there was no way to not take the rewards.
I found in 3 houses, i basically never use the dlc rewards. The dlc characters and classes were bizarrely "balanced" if not under powered. I played cindered shadows like once and never touched any of the dlc since basically always playing the game vanilla.
Seriously IS, where is the outfit patch
Same I don't want that nonsense forced on me. Until it gets fixed I'm fine just watching someone play the F.X eventually. This Is a far cry from how stoked I was to play Cindered Shadows and use the Ashen Wolves on subsequent playthroughs.
Should have been a one and done like cindered shadows, lost the will to continue once I found out I had to beat it every playthrough.
I did the Fell Xenologue yesterday, and goddamn it sucks ass compared to the main game. At least with Cindered Shadows, you only had to play it once, and from the main menu at that, but you're forced to play the Fell Xenologue every play through if you want to use the new units. There's no good time to recruit them either, as doing it early means they're too high leveled and the maps are too hard at that point, while doing it late means they're super underleveled and almost damn near unusable. This is easily neck and neck with Cindered Shadows as the worst DLC side campaign.
I'm a little over halfway through my first engage playthrough and hard fx was just exhausting. By chapter 3 every pre deployed character was a genuine burden and the sheer amount of reinforcements combined with half my army being useless it was all just too much. But normal is pretty mindless, and while I do enjoy the story, having to play through it every time just to get the new characters sounds dreadful. The DLC overall is handled pretty poorly, Three Houses did it so much better it's baffling how they did it here. And I dunno, 30 dollars is a lot and I feel like TH offered more substantial content with its DLC
It's interesting that even down to the DLC, whatever 3H excelled at, Engage didn't, and whatever Engage excelled at, 3H didn't. 3H's story was more interesting than Engage's, but Engage's gameplay was better than 3H's. Engage has better graphics, but most seem to prefer 3H's character designs. On and on with just about everything in these games. Now we can see that 3H had better implementation of its DLC (though I think which game's DLC content someone prefers comes down to personal taste). They really are opposites- no wonder they've been so divisive in comparison. Hopefully the next game will be able to combine the best elements of each.
Comparatively if given the choice between 3H’s dlc and Engage’s dlc I’d rather have Engage’s dlc again (with some tweaks obviously, I’m not going to believe it is perfect, because when is a dlc perfect).
As far as ‘bang for your buck’ is concerned Engage provides that much more. 3H all those cosmetic outfits they gave in Wave’s 1 through 3 were so pointless I only used the Sothis outfit on F!Byleth once (for one GD play though) and then the glasses for Byleth. For 25 dollars?, sounds atrocious in retrospect.
As for Engage’s dlc I have utilized something that was included from each and every wave. For 30 bucks?, HEL YEAH!, I’D GLADLY DO IT AGAIN (cough, cough, I don’t mind getting more dlc for this game, cough, cough)!
You're omitting the paralogues, quests, abyss itself, and the fact that it only costs $25
It's baffling to me how hard they dropped the ball on this one when Cindered Shadows was similar in concept but so much better executed.
I tried it on maddening at about chapter 20 with a few of the dlc bracelets. Map 1 and 2 were a blast, setting my expectations high, and I actually really liked the concept of having to defend Nil basically as a side objective. Then I got to map 3 and realized everything after was just a slog. Map 3 itself is probably one of my least favorite fe maps of all time. It's no HHM BBD, but it's really annoying. Another glaring issue is that all of the freebie units are horendously undertuned. They don't have to be monsters or anything, but their contributions are inconsistent at best. It also feels like on maddening they really expect you to have certain specific combos of tools, but, as you said, the player isn't guaranteed to have. For instance, a bond 15 Soren + Ivy feels almost mandatory for map 3.
Which brings me back to CS. Those maps intended you to utilize specific tools, but unlike FX, you're actually given everything you need. You don't have to worry about using resources and completing chapters or paralogues in the main campaign to fill out your toolkit. Also, every unit has a job to do.
I get that they wanted to try something a little different with the FX, but it just feels poorly thought out. Rather than the difficulties being proper difficulties, it feels more like you're supposed to pick your difficulty based on where you are in the main story, and even then, maddening just has so many issues that it feels about as tested as 3H maddening. Which, again, is a shame because they really nailed the difficulty on Engage's base game maddening. At least the story is pretty good.
I hate how the divine paralogues break the game because of the extreme extra XP. Not only that but the divine paralogues are considerably harder than the main game, so if you want to to tackle them in maddening you have to make very good teams, but then when you go to the main game you absolutely destroy it because you got a lot of XP you should've not had in maddening.
I think the sweet spot is doing the divine paralogues on chapter 9 before you lose your Emblem Rings. By then you will have at least 3 promoted units and the enemies will not be promoted into their advance class yet. First playthrough I either did them too early or too late but, doing it on chapter 9 was considerably easier.
I thought Engage was OK, but not the best Fire Emblem game, so I wasn't too keen on putting down half of the base game's cost for a DLC with a campaign that was infamous for poor balance. Then again, Three Houses is my favorite Fire Emblem, and I wasn't interested in paying $25 for Cindered Shadows, either.
It costs money and ruins part of the game in additon to being poorly designed with terrible writing that should have been spent on the base game. Where was this good daialogue and writing (bad localization) in the base game? It isn't worth it and is a mockery to fans of the franchise.
I still find it funny people are complaining about having to replay 6 chapters in *replay playthroughs* where you want to *replay 27 chapters* all by your own accord
I think most of the complaints are due to the difficulty curve with these 6 chapters depending on when you do them, who you’re stuck with during it, and the fact it screws up the other paralogues you haven’t completed. The main game wasn’t really designed with the dlc in mind (without YOU having to play and restrict yourself around it) which is a shame considering you had to pay so much for it. Cindered Shadows while also not amazing was better implemented I feel.
What?
@@AkameGaKillfan777 pass the phone to your parents
This wave 4 dlc was absolutely dog crap. The worst implemented main dlc ive ever seen in a game.