One thing I'd like to add is that the lack of paired endings that aren't with Alear only made things worse. Because of this, each character other than Alear only have two endings. Something that CERTAINLY doesn't help Alfred. And this ALSO reduces the replay value, once you notice how Alear's endings are rather similar to Robin and Corrin in that it's basically "Alear ruled happily ever after, and they did something with their spouse." compared to some of the more elaborate endings that Byleth has, such as "Jeritza confessed to Byleth while the two were raiding Those Who Slither in the Dark" and other such things. I mean, if there was a variety of paired endings, players would be all "Oh, so pairing Alfred up with Yunaka actually prevents his death, but his pairing with Veyle does not, let's see what happens if he ends up with Hortensia." and play the game many times.
Engage doesn't even allow Alear to be a spouse with anyone strangely enough! Every S rank is meant to be a "symbol of mutual support and trust," so you can blame the localization team for that one, but to be fair. I don't like the idea of Alear marrying a character from this game anyway because they outlive everyone by like a thousand years. Also, characters like Diamant deserve better than her. Totally on the Diamant X Ivy ship train because at least you could build a better story and do interesting things with the world around that concept.
@@binxthebinx6575 Wait, Treehouse friendzoned Alear with *EVERYONE?!!* I thought it was just *SOME* units. Yeah, screw this game. I'm selling off my unopened copy ASAP. Maybe we DO need Child Units to make sure that Treehouse doesn't pull off moves like this.
@lunatic0verlord10 No wait, save your copy! Nintendo is stopping production on physical Engage cartridges(along with other switch games), it might be worth some money later since it was only out for a year.
@@binxthebinx6575 Well, I guess an unopened copy of a game, no matter how worthless the game is, is still worth a lot after a while. I guess I could get more money from it than what I paid for, if I'm patient.
Its kind of a one and done. The dlc was done poorly And its horribly imbalanced. The base game is good, but the characters 'traits' are cranked up to 11. The gameplay is good, but when theres support convos you skip because you just cant stand that character..its not great. No replayability at all really unless you wanna mess with builds....the mechanics are cool, though you kinda need to have background knowledge on the rings to get the whole idea. This game was meant to be an anniversary one that got delayed and it definetly seems like it.
@@BARadiantDawnFor me the characters are good and the supports make them more likeable. I think some of them have to go really deep to actually see how well they’re written as characters. The gameplay and map design is great, and I think the gimmicks make it fun. There’s a lot of replayability with experimenting with character combinations, classes, and emblems. It’s up to people’s opinion, so I can respect if someone doesn’t enjoy the gimmicks or characters
@@codytoeung5089 i like the rings and how they function, not gonna lie, clanne and frammes 'omega fan club' turned me away from them completely where all i can hear is fanboy/girl moments. Some characters i like, but some have their one trait wayyyyyyyy amplified to the point of being annoying. I still enjoy playing the game, but moreso for gameplay
Lots of games you can change classes, but apart from that theres no replayability. Lots of games have either a stellar story you want to play and hear again and again, or route splits for replayability
@@BARadiantDawn Honestly I think the foreshadowing made it fun to go through the second time. I really didn’t care for the story a second time aside from that, I just really enjoyed playing through with more experience with the game and trying new stuff. There are different aspects that make games replayable to others. Ironically despite the different routes, 3H is hard to go through a second time because of the length of preskip and the monestery Clanne and Framme definitely are benches for me. They do get good supports but they really are some of the less interesting characters
After the realism and in-depth character stories of Three Houses, people expected something like that again. We instead got Colgate MC, one of the worse stories so far where everyone legit worships your MC [who is portrayed as a coward for some reason] and this odd anime aesthetic that just doesn't look very good.
If we're being absolutely fair, I think we're being a little bit too kind to other Fire Emblem Games that we end up being harsher on engage. One of the worst is.... tough to say. Give it time. Like wait until two games later and you'll begrudgingly admit it wasn't that bad but still pretty bad. It's kindof a "one step forward two steps behind" type of thing. For example, Fire Emblem Awakening was good and there was a really neat Time Travel plot, you got to marry off your characters, etc. etc. Fates Overcorrected by having kids in the babymaking deeprealms. The DLC was also pretty nonsensical, Corrin was about as interesting as watching grass grow, and the choice of choosing between your adopted and your real family was totally negated by the fact that Corrin isn't even the biological brother. People hated it distinctly because the people felt more like, Anime-OCs rather than actual soldiers which is the same complaint that Engage had gotten. Thats an odd thing to hear seeing how Engage made deviant-art oc's but comparatively they all really did look too anime. When Engage came out i kinda expected it would try to overcorrect what made three houses good. This always happens, the next game will probably be better.
Something funny (though quite messed up) about this, is that while Engage was hurted by the pandemic, I think Three Houses was actually HELPED by the pandemic (though, TH would have being more succesful regardless of the circunstances) I'm intrigued with what the future of the franchise will bring, considering the boons and flaws of Three Houses and Engage.
3H could've used one more year of development honestly. I love 3H but i always feel like it's missing something; the battle animations could've use more variety, flashing out VW route more and not making it a slightly different copy of SS, their scrappes ideas like revealing Claude's true identity, etc. Engage could've hire a better writer, it's all. And maybe art director.
Personally I think a longer game with ng+ would have helped with the narrative. Take the tutorial chapters and replace them with some moments from the previous war to build up Alear and Lumeria's relationship, while also establishing later character motivations for the zephia. I would also liked to have some paralouges for the supporting cast to expand on relationships.
A major problem I had with Engage is how the setting of Elyos never felt grounded or believable. The problem stems from the complete lack of any medieval drama theming the series is known for. Things you expect to see in JRPG's such as in depth worldbuilding, factions, and interesting characters with meaningful goals like in 3 houses is left superficial in Engage in favor of recycling outdated FE tropes. Another strange thing about Engage is the character designs. As many people point out the characters have too many tacky elements like Yunaka's star ornaments and combine with each characters motivation/backstory being hidden in supports, it's hard to form a connection. Ironically the character I ended up liking the most is Alear herself due to her quirky lord design, voice acting, and dorky support moments that made her stand out from the rest of the boring cast. It's a shame she's in a boring game for Alear has great potential. Hopefully IS can learn better story telling from other franchises like Triangle Strategy and Octopath in the future.
But still here’s what I want for the next fire emblem game on the switch to comes out. I expect that with a new engine they should move over to the unity engine or the unreal engine because the idea is that fire emblem should go in a different direction this time go with a fusion between Xenoblade Chronicles and Warhammer but the art style reminiscent of order Xenoblade chronicles games, Xenoblade 1 and Xenoblade x art style put the filter would be akin to dune in the game should take place on the planet of Bashtar. Here is synopsis. Melange, an unknown substance that could dramatically advance human society. In the past, this substance caused a cosmic catastrophe on planet Bashtar that engulfed the surrounding star systems, and eventually its very existence was lost. Decades later, the Melange reaction was confirmed again on planet Bashtar. In search of the unknown substance that should have been lost, various speculations begin to swirl. Various parties are getting involved; The government, corporations, cultists, and unknown mercenaries... The protagonist is one of them. The game is going to be an action, RPG, akin to Diablo and will have that lets you move around an overwhelmingly scaled map that represents a unique sci-fi world with dynamic and fast pace action
I don’t like seeing Engage’s story get compared to 3H when 3H is more complex than most FE stories to begin with. I’d rather it be compared to the broad series as a whole, where it still falls a bit short in complexity but nowhere near as badly
Engage, Engage, Engage… a mixed bag is certainly the best way to describe it. There’s a lot of stuff I like, but there’s a lot of stuff I don’t. While it makes strides in its gameplay, it’s main story writing ranges from surprisingly solid to fairly dull to infuriatingly stupid. It’s funny that this game was meant to bring in a new generation of fans, when we just had that happen in Three Houses, while the more orchestrated attempt to do that failed in comparison.
It failed on both regards. It excels in gameplay but fails in the rest. It’s a game where it’s very hard to recommend. I’m more inclined to recommend newcomers to 3H cause it feel like it will be more ironically engaging and they will probably have a lot more fun with the world building
The only surprisingly solid part of the writing was the Brodia arc (at least for me anyway and most people I have seen online agree.) After the retreat map, Engage is pretty infamous for having an absolutely terrible third act. The worst in the whole entire series. If I knew then what I knew now. I would tell my friends to buy Engage, beat chapter 10 or 11, then go back to GameStop and get your money back. You can do it in a day if you speedrun, no one should have to commit to $60 if the first tenish hours of the game (really fourish if you only count the Brodia arc) is the most competently written part out of a 100+ hour game. I would never wish that even on my worst enemies.
@@binxthebinx6575oh god chapter 10 and 11 was a pain in the ass. You lose basically all progress with the rings since you lose them and what’s worse is you get use to the mechanic and just to have it be taken away is frustrating even worse is how limited you are for the rest of the game
@@Yoshixandir Implementing that in chapter 10 was the DUMBEST thing IS could have done. The game already doesn't do a good job with teaching new players how to reclass. Hell, I have been playing FE for YEARS and I had to restart my third run of the game because I didn't understand that reclassing involves gaining those proficiencies from certain emblems. It was already needlessly complicated for a VETERAN PLAYER! Now Imagine you have enough understanding to build your team...and then your rings get taken away and you can't finish what you were doing (or it will talk longer depending on what ring you get next.) See, this is why I feel even the gameplay can be waaaay too overhyped. The only thing I can say about the emblem rings is that they're fun to use...that's it, and Alears ring just...fricken breaks the game on any difficulty. To me, Engage is easy on any setting, but again, I have been playing for years and hard mode felt like normal mode to me. Same with maddening where it felt more like hard mode in the past few FE game...
*What ACTUALLY went wrong?* *The honest truth is pretty ugly.* The Short Version: Nintendo put a New developer as the lead for the game who had no experience. A basic "Yes Man" who likes action games and not turn based tactics games, and was heavily influenced by Nintendo wanting to aim for a New Younger Audience which meant dumbing down the game, and making it flashier. The Long Version: If you read the "Ask the Developers" interviews that were released. The guy in charge (Tsutomu Tei), had never been a director of a game at IS before, and seemingly never discusses having any previous experience working on a FE game. So while I can't say what his previous role was, if any, it doesn't seem to be significant enough to mention in his bio. I'd link the Nintendo article, but RU-vid is pretty finicky with links these days. (Typing Ask the Developer Vol. 8, Fire Emblem Engage Part 1, 2, and 3 should get you too it) If anything, just someone picked by Nintendo to lead the development. Listening to the other two employees of Nintendo that were in the interview. Tei and the two mention wanting to "appeal to a broader audience" and saying that RPG mechanics such as the Awakening / Fates marriage system took too long to play out in the game. According to them it "wan't fun" so they developed the Emblem Ring idea instead. With the goal of intruding the "fun elements" early on. I'll quote the Nintendo stooge "Higuchi: We wanted to introduce this fun element for players as early as possible. I felt that the fun of tactical RPG games wasn't as intuitive or immediate as that of action games." So basically you had Nintendo heavily influencing the game with employees who were more interested and familiar with Action games than tactics RPGs. Then from the games IS developer, "Tei: People often say that turn-based tactical RPGs seem difficult or too complicated... In fact, I’m not very good at them myself." Take of that what you will, I take it as even the new IS dev wasn't interested in making a Tactics game. Just taking orders and advice from his Nintendo handlers. "Tei: We had several candidates. We were looking for an artist whose design style would appeal to a broad audience - including younger players - as well as the ability to portray a variety of characters. Among the candidates, Mika Pikazo-san's drawings were colorful, vivid, and really popped! They were a perfect fit for the flashy direction we wanted for this title." So from that we can see the "broader audience" meant appeal to children. In spite of marketing toward long time fans, which makes no sense since new players and young players would not get any of the references. So basically they tried to do both and focused on the younger new audience by lying to the older one. As it would seem, the games development and design was all over the place. Trying to create a game for a new younger audience, while throwing a bone to the old players to make it seem like they were not being abandoned when they were. As for another section about their Artist choice that influenced the game in a bad way. "Tei: Well, I thought it'd be better to be upfront about the request. That said, there was one concern she had. Since she usually draws young characters, she was concerned about her confidence level in some of the character design." So to answer why all the characters were loli or V-tuber style. It's because that's the only style the artist knew, and he went with it. Also, it also turns put it was her idea to make toothpaste-chans hair color red and blue. As before Tei just went with whatever he was told, advised, or requested. From everything I have read, Tei should never be in charge of any product. Unless he was specifically chosen because he just follows orders and has no skill as a leader or director. "Tei: As I mentioned at the beginning, I'm not very good at strategy games myself, so during development, I hoped to create a game that even those like me would want to try out or find interesting."
I couldn't have been more disappointed in everything Engage did. The Break mechanic forced the game to be more offense focused like an action game. Making counter attackers / defensive play styles obsolete. Not to mention, FE3H introduced the idea of player choice. Where Engage had none of it. The characters were all one dimensional and cringe. With generic "Hahaha I'm evil" villains. No deeper motivations until the death scenes which was far too little character exploration far too late. Lets not start about how dreadfully short the class list was or the weapon list. FE3H had the right idea letting the players equip any melee weapon to a class instead of V1, V2, or V3 of the same class. I could go on... as a professional writer I can easily write a better plot outline for a tactics game in a day. Though that's not saying much compared to Engages plot.
@@EXchoco That's more or less the crux of the problem, but the context is there to say the problem is much deeper. It's that IS and Nintendo are mismanaging the IP for profit. Nintendo has long since abandoned its consumer friendly / family friendly image in favor of being the EA of Japan. IS quite frankly can't push out a good product to save its life, it's the happy lap dog of Nintendo. The company never pushed back on Nintendo when they make unreasonable demands.
When I played 3H I immediately started a second play through after beating it. With Engage I waited months started it and didn’t finish it lol. As someone that likes to get invested in the story I was really pissed that it was so similar to Fates which I consider to be the worst FE game I have played.
man fire emblem story was never that great its always their gameplay and mechanics that were top level. Their best story is mostly on par with other games that has it as a normal story
tbh I never had an issue with the monastery. I usually just do the arena once for the item reward, and then every week i just get my flowers, eat 3 meals, maybe choir/byleth tutor and then finish the day. but the somniel? oh my lord. i didnt even do half the the things you could do there and I still hated it. the arena was torture, feeding sommy was torture, and collecting the items was torture. i think if i ever replayed engage I would just not bother at all now knowing that youll never fucking get enough bond fragments anyways to even create the builds you want so theres no point in trying. but then that kills replayability cuz theres all this sandbox type stuff to do that you just....cant do. and yeah skirmishes were harder than actual chapter missions cuz the enemies were higher levels and B lined it for you turn 1. they didnt just wait around for you to soak up emblem energy puddles and spam emblem attacks over and over. looking at you Lyn.
I do love how Alear can talk, but I find the game a huge step backwards from Three Houses. I’d rather have Claude, Edelgard and other non-sword-wielding-protagonist characters over Alear in future Smash games (Alear is more assist trophy or trophy material)
@@AkameGaKillfan777 u talk rubbish engage is definitely a fire emblem game. u didnt even play the series but engage is definitely the usual hero vs villian fe story type
ngl, personally i liked Engage more then 3 Houses, cause the issue i had with 3H was that since the story is constantly moving, you aren't able to raise affinity with many characters personally as well as train them to be well prepared, especially if you plan on rotating your units and use different ones as they are bound to fall behind sure Engage isn't perfect and has it's flaws, but any game will have it's issues despite how good it is
I've been playing FE games since Awakening came out. I barely heard about Engage at all, so it REALLY wasn't advertised well. On top of that, the animation just reminded me too much of Genshin so I just decided to pass on this one. Here's hoping the next game is a hit.
Engage is an incredibly solid game at its core held back by a few baffling design choices. You got most of them, but I wanted to throw in a few more personal bugbears: - I found the Somniel to be genuinely MORE pacebreaking than the monastery ever was, mainly because the fast travel system is way worse and the most important facilities are locked behind additional loading screens. - another reason the characters fail to shine: support ranks are the hardest to build that they've been since the GBA era, because units only gain support points when taking actions directly adjacent to each other. And yet they still included the same quantity of supports as the other modern games, which had a higher range for building support in battle AND way more methods for getting points out-of-battle. Hard to appreciate the character writing when it's literally impossible to see most of it in one playthrough. - and to add insult to injury, for the first time in series history the support log is TIED TO FUCKING INDIVIDUAL SAVE FILES, so if you want to see every support you need to complete multiple playthroughs all while remembering or writing down which supports you already got so you don't waste actions on building to conversations you've already seen! I swear it's like IS spent so long working on nothing but FEH that they forgot how to make games with decent UX.
0:52-I guess that pretty much sums up all of the RU-vid band wagons that hate games like Dragon Age 2, Assassins creed 3, Final Fantasy 16, Dragon Age Inquisition, Assassins Creed Origins, Kingdom Hearts 3, Final Fantasy 10, Final Fantasy 12, Fire Emblem Awakening, Fire Emblem Fates, Jak 3, Tales of the Abyss, Tales of Arise, Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword and Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess.
I think a lot of it might have to do with Nintendo and IS wanting to get Engage out of the way. And I don't mean them rushing the game or anything, but more so developing and releasing it as like an appetizer before the next new FE on the next console, despite it being a new mainline FE. The older FE lords returning and this feeling like a celebration of FE as a whole would be enough for a lot of people to get into the game, and the focus on gameplay more than story and characters would make it feel less complex, or something? Idk how to describe it. It's clear they were waiting until Three Hopes released to reveal Engage, rather than just waiting more before releasing it, and then releasing the DLC at a monthly rate. I don't think the next new FE will be treated this way with it most likely being on the next console, similar to Three Houses
Engage had great gameplay along with map improvements, but I have no clue what happened in characters and story. I have heard that Engage was some sorta anniversary type game and hope they go back to previous games in that area :-)
it was a anniversary game that got delayed all the way and also apparently it is also made alongside 3H (Koei). Engage made by the OG 3h made by Koei. Tbh i think 3H has cause a lot of the fans to say that 3H is not a good starting point and it did more damage than good to FE. Engage was considered a true fire emblem game compared to 3H.
I like so little about this game that it's legitimately the only Fire Emblem game that I fully dislike. But that is okay! Not every game in a series has to cater to my specific needs. I despised the story for it's cliches and wonky writing, but that sort of thing could just be what someone looks for in this type of game. I don't like the game, but that doesn't mean it doesn't deserve it's fans.
I am not surprised at its reception. They threw gacha bait into a mainline entry, a tonal mismatch with a majority of fans of those games. From the designs to loud quirks, they are designed to scream at you to be noticed. I don't know how it was received by Heroes players, but I haven't wanted to punch this many characters in their stupid face since the studio decided marriage options should include incest. I know Alcryst has a decent support here and there, but his surface personality is the best argument you can make in favour of playing on Classic. ... and despite all of that this has been the FE I have enjoyed most in years. "It is really good if you ignore most of it" just isn't a very convincing argument, no matter how fun the combat is.
"I haven't wanted to punch this many characters in their stupid face since the studio decided marriage options should include incest." Uuuh... you do know that's a thing that has existed in this franchise since the FE4 days... right?
My thoughts exactly. If I killed off every character I found insufferable, I'd be stuck with Yunaka, Vander, and Alear, who's only there by requirement. Not sure if I could even beat Maddening
@@emblemblade9245 Idk, people actually look at the Awakening cast pretty fondly. It's not like they decided to single out Engage. Engage characters just suck from the outset, to the point where no amount of "they're good in this one A support" can save them. Awakening had tropes, but they still had characters, even if minor, to carry those tropes.
Three houses is hard to beat. The concept of choosing house with different characters and personalities is just too good. It gives us more freedom on how do we want to build our team.
More like you haven't seen a single interview and think writers do that instead of doing their best in writing something but either they dont have the ability or other issues that exists. your comment reeks of elitism and ignorance on how video game writing even works.
2:40 - me! That’s me! I’m that person. Three houses was a fucking black hole that just consumed me. It was SO engrossing. And I’ve heard that Engage’s narrative just isn’t anything like three houses so I’m just skipping it exactly like you say others are.
The characters and gameplay drew me in, then the hidden lore made me a Three Houses fan for life. The deeper you go, the more intriguing it gets. My main complaint with Three Houses were the graphics and the grinding. I just wish every Fire Emblem game had a grinding area like The Sacred Stones had the Tower of Valni.
I personally enjoyed my time with FE Engage, but for me it was mostly the story and characters (Alear and his/her sister was great though, as well as the four generals.). I loved the Engage system, but everything fell apart when it came to resource management. And the super repetitive nature of grinding for bond fragments put me off hard. I've been missing the wacky new units old games got, and their cool promotions, or even the multi tiered promotions we got in FE 3 Houses and FE RD. Also I've been missing light magic alot too... but beside that point, it was just a bunch of small misses in this game. if you took the combat of Engage, mixed it with a story like RD, Base management like Fates, characters like Awakening, and maybe just a teeny dose of fan service. I think we could get a wonderful title.
Gonna be real here, I've been having waaaaay too much fun with this game. I know it ain't the best FE game, but I've run this game on classic mode maddening at least 20 times and am not planning on stopping.
I feel like Nintendo didn’t put too much effort to commercialize this game. When I first saw it I thought it was a fire emblem side game kind of like a warrior game. It really turned me off even though the game turned out to be a mainline game
I just wasn't in the mood for this constant d-riding. Divine Dragon here, Divine Dragons there. I actually started a second playthrough (didn't finish it) while skipping absolutely everything, supports included, no matter if i knew them already or not. If people like this type of happy go lucky stuff, fine, but i don't. It's a shame though, the gameplay was so much fun....
Glad to see criticism of this game in any form. Thank you! Although I have to vehemently disagree with Alear being even half decent in any capacity. He was easily the worst part of the game and in my opinion a big reason why the rest of the cast fell so flat beyond the unrealistic world, fan service etc. There was so little to build around that character, and every scene he was in was a total drag. M Alear voice acting was really grating too.
I personally thought that the lighthearted and goofy tone of Engage was refreshing, but i can totally understand being put off by after just playing three houses. It remains me of a similar situation with persona 3 and 4. Perhaps after a few years, people will come back and consider giving Engage another try, cause im having fun with it after not being able to get reinvested in the series for a while
Yeah I liked it too. After the first trailer I knew to not set my expectations into thinking it would be anything like 3Houses. I expected something similar to Shadow Dragon given it's more basic plot. I also didn't mind a lot of the characters. I liked a lot of them in fact. I'd say the only reason why people think the Engage case is so bland is because they don't invest too much in their supports to see them fleshed out more. As opposed to 3Houses where you pretty much straight into their depth at the start. Which did lead to people feel like it was a ton of trauma dumping. Saying that Byleth was more of their school therapist. I'd probably say I didn't mind the lighter tone Engage went for as I'm used to watching a lot of anime and tokusatsu aimed at kids. So this felt right up there. Even the Emblem role call at the end was very Super Sentai inspired. I do hope Engage is looked back on more fondly. Once we get 1 or 2 more entries it could happen. I know Awakening for a time was controversial and now is looked back on fondly. And it does look like people do love a good portion of the Engage cast given the latest CYL results in FEH.
I love the fe series , I played FE 3H like 6x on maddening for the fun of it , but this entry wasn't it .I have the game and all I done was the first village. I got annoyed with all the "The Divine Dragon" , "Oh Great Divine Dragon" , generic characters cast, and mc .Like I know byleth didn't talk but i felt more emotion when jeralth died compare to this traditional parent death scene ., Hell I think I rather corrin as mc . ik a lot of people wrote it off bc of the art style but I don't mind the art style , it just the personality behind the characters that ruin it for me, but that is just my personal take on FE engage . I did notice tho that there was a lot less fan art and VC interaction , I remember even non fe friends getting a byleth ship fan art from time to time on their feed or VC live stream / collabs . ... I will finish it eventually and just hoping the series goes back to FE3H style for the next entry .
i think the saving grace for engage for me is the fixed growths runs, I always enjoyed it more but never could as I only just played a rom hack this year. Opening was fine but i would have preferred without showing all the future characters, it would have been a great homage to Awakening where it opens in a very similar way
As a major fire emblem fan, I didn't pick it up because of the art direction, characters, and overall tone. I love the artist's work, especially on bae from hololive, but I don't like it in a fe world (why does celica look like strawberry shortcake). For me if I'm not drawn to a game's aesthetic, characters, and world, I don't even care to look into the gameplay and story. Not to mention, after awakening dlc, feh, and the og warriors, I'm really sick of them bringing up past characters 24/7 and I'm tired of avatar/god protagonists.
*Honestly, the issue I have with Avatar protagonists is that they never do it right.* Let me pitch an idea to make my point, and you tell me if it sounds better or worse than the FE (self-inserts). Here is what I think would make for a better Main Character concept and story outline for a self-insert character. **-** Instead of being an amnesiac, you as the MC get summoned from another world. *(Overused? Sure, but better than amnesia. It would justify the MCs initial state of disbelief / confusion)* **-** The MC would be summoned as a result of a prophesy that foretells of a hero with the power to alter the tide of a war that has lasted 2 generations without end. *(The trope would justify why some characters in the setting would (have faith or doubt) you.)* **-** However, the other kingdom hears about this prophesy and their best warriors take a risk to fight their way into the citadel where the summoning happens. In order to try and convince you to leave with them instead. *(The MC would not have enough information at the time to know what each side is fighting for yet, so the player gets to decide without bias who to trust.)* **-** Before you decide, your heroic / divine power reveals itself chaotically which causes the citadel to start crumbling. With the faction you pick being the ones who reach you first and escape. *(Justifying future character conflicts without either side knowing the choice you were going to make since the cutscene would show a character of that faction reaching you first in the chaos.)* **-** This would begin your story in the war, with you learning about and fighting with the side you initially chose. The other sides characters would be conflicted by the idea you have been brainwashed by lies. Which presents an option half way through to switch sides at a critical choice, or join a third faction in the war that reveals itself once both sides are weakened. *(Allowing you to bring over some faction exclusive characters you bonded with to the side you switch too.)* This offers: - Player Freedom - Faction Choice - Nuanced Plot / Intrigue - Conflicted Characters All that would need to happen is to create the reason for the war before the player arrived, the themes of each faction, and the character designs.
@@nickcalderon2637 That's a bit like saying a car and a tank are the same because they both can be driven. The mobile "heroes" plot is far more shallow because it's a low effort mobile game that sells gatcha mechanics instead of selling people on its story.
@@techpriest6962 I'm referring to the premise of the Avatar Protagonist being Isekaied essentially, that's what the Summoner is. Should've made that clear, my apologies.
@@nickcalderon2637 No worries, but yes it's more or less using the isekai idea since that is what FE feels like it wants to do, (but doesn't commit to) in its Avatar protagonist titles.
As someone who got into FE about 1,5 year before Engage's release, has been playing all FE games (mostly) chronologically and hasn't even got to 3H yet... yeah, the first problem is what killed it for me. I watched let's play of first few chapters and it did not leave good impressions - the story felt like the most generic thing imaginable and Clamme and Framme are the most annoying characters FE ever conceived. This combined with everyone's design being so out there and the constant worship Alear gets, after watching 4 chapters i decided i don't want to play it. And I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought that and decided not to buy it. First impressions matter a lot - you don't have to pull all the stops and throw everything in the opening, but it needs to do at least some things right, be it a story, characters, gameplay, art direction or at least world building and for me Engage failed on all fronts besides gameplay, which got weight down by everything else.
I agree with almost all of these points, except I liked Clanne and Frame. My reason for liking them didn't even haven't anything to do with engage though, so I understand the hate they get 😅. If you've played Final Fantasy 4, they're literally just Palom and Porom (black made and white mage twins who are literal kids). First impression of this game was pretty awful, coming off of 3H and Fates (which promised a family drama, whether it delivered or not: mileage will vary.)
@@monstermoo4191I wanted them to shut up already. Bethesda at least had the foresight to make Adoring Fan an amusing easter egg. IS put two of them as one of the first characters you see. They are supposed be Jakob and Felicia of this game which... well... They fall short, to say the least.
Man I completely forgot this game came out at the beginning of the year, my brain had tricked me it came out last November or something. I played it on release and got maybe half way through before jumping on to something else, probably the Dead Space remake. But I agree with your points in the video, it seems like such a jarringly different game when compared to three houses. I wonder if the devs though Three Houses was too dark, so they wanted to soften the edges in tone with this game, but just went too far in the other direction. I might go back and finish it, while the story wasn't gripping me the combat was still as fun as ever.
at a buffet, i personally sneak corndogs into the buffet so others can enjoy them. I hide 6 corndogs in my jacket pockets. it then, is a joy for me to see other patrons of the establishment eat my corndogs thinking they were part of the buffet.
I understand a lot of the gripes that people had with the story of Engage. When I first got the game I played it for about an hour or so and then I put it down for a few months, but when I picked it up again I did so with the mindset of not really taking the story so seriously. I just saw it as a fun little adventure and enjoyed the gameplay on each level. And that's what really sold the game to me was the fantastic gameplay and his presentation. I think that a lot of the power of the emblem ring system comes from really looking at the individual abilities that you're looking for a character to inherit and planning around that. Like I could grind a level or two with a character holding Corrin's ring, and then go to the battlegrounds on the Somniel to quickly get them to inherit draconic hex so that that character can have it without that ring. Also, I don't know how many other people realize this but when you do certain things in the game like complete the story or finish certain amount of battles you get bond fragments for free that you can collect from the accomplishment board on the Somiel. I think that the Somniel is a better version of Gareg Mach. The entire time I was playing engage there really wasn't anything that I felt like I was missing from the Somniel if I didn't visit every other mission or so like I did with Gareg Mach. The music in the setting was beautiful, and it's a nice and concise setting with a friendly atmosphere. The only place of note that I really want to was the battle arena because you can quickly level up a character's bond supports. And on top of that once your character reaches the max level for their class all the XP that they get afterwards just becomes SP. I highly recommend that whoever starts out the game gets the DLC expansion as well. Not only do you get a really good challenge with the Fell Xenologue DLC, but you also get the chance to win additional emblem bracelets after playing their challenging bonus levels. I had a lot easier of a time after the main party lost their emblem rings because I still have my emblem bracelets from the DLC. The only thing that I didn't like about the DLC was not really the fault of it at all but rather the notification system in the game like when I go to the Somniel, I'll get a brief notification for something for a split second and then it will disappear again and I don't know where to find it again. I was literally about to fight the final boss on the last level when I realized that I could go to an obscure area of the place and play the Fell Xenologue. I can't wait for them to do a new game plus mode for this game because when that happens I'm going to play that DLC again earlier in the game so I can have the better characters for a longer time.
One more thing, I like the return of former game protags but really dislike the concept of "Emblem Rings" because rings are stupid. The game is called Fire EMBLEM so why not use EMBLEM instead? Emblems of different protags will be much more visually memorable. Plus emblems are so suitable in a military setting. Rings are so random and they look gay on two male characters I am so cringed. This is a small thing but it really pisses me off.
It doesn't take the series to new heights though, is the problem. It's got mobile-game tier mechanics like Bond Ring farming, and even on Maddening, it's pretty straightforward. Three Houses offered something new and interesting with a better story, battalions etc., that this didn't build on. So. B-.
this makes me think that i was perhaps too harsh on 3H. I started with Awakening and went back and began to love the more direct style of games like the Tellius series, Echoes, and FE6 and 7. I bounced off 3H because I felt like there was way too much time between the tactics battles that I just didn't want to do, but felt like I had to do to keep my army in the best shape possible, and I stopped playing before I even made it more than 15 hours in. Perhaps I should find a copy of it again and give it another go.
I hate to be that guy, but Engage’s gameplay really wasn’t that good. If it was people would come back to it, but they haven’t. Maps aren’t that good, they suffered from Hector Hard mode deployments, and once you get Corrin map design goes out the window. Lategame becomes an unfun slog of endless reinforcements. Break is a poor version of the weapon triangle, I’d rather have no weapon triangle than break. Rings kill any sense of unit identity. And speaking of units, Engage has the worst balance sense Radiant Dawn. Why use Alear’s cheerleaders, the Firenese (except Chloe) and the Brodians (except Yunaka), when the Elusians and the Solmians outclass them in every way imaginable.
Right like..all of the FE streamers quickly stopped streaming the game citing low views. Idk just something that suggests to me a lot of people don’t find the gameplay very enjoyable.
I appreciate your attempt at constructive criticism, but it’s far more than Engage deserves. It was an attempt to see how little effort IS could put in to sell a Fire Emblem game. It somehow does what Fates did, but even worse. That tells me that IS thinks it’s playerbase are a bunch of mindless consumers who will buy something because Marth is in it. It shows that they think so little of this fanbase. And that’s insulting. Engage deserves the dog piling and it deserves to fade into obscurity. They just didn’t try. It’s like trying to give criticism of a live action Disney remake. Yeah, it is technically the fair thing to do, but what’s the point, when it was meant only to be a product pushed out as fast as possible in a desperate attempt to bring in a “new generation” and appease shareholders and executives.
Thank you for this. It truly does feel like Engage did the bare minimum to try and make a quick buck rather than using their resources to try and make a game that connects fans of story and gameplay alike.
Fates' stuff was way worse and the way it blew up the fanbase 10x harder was a testament to that. You can't look the game and its graphics and say it didn't try, it just went in a direction you disagreed with that's all. It happens.
@@nuibaba280 You do realize that both Engage and Fates the same issues of having good gameplay but poorly executed characters and story. Honestly, it's okay to critique a game on its shortcomings
@@eternaldarklight8204 Engage had way better characters than Fates, Alear wasn't nearly as insufferable as Corrin. The community reception supports my point. The hate Fates got makes Engage look like a fan favorite in comparison lol.
It sucked that the gameplay was so great but everything else was pretty average. I definitely had a fun time with the game, but this is a game where I'll skip the story in sdditional playthroughs.
Literally last night, I was talking with a friend about this game and how disappointed I was. The characters were all lame. The enemies were lame. There’s no post-game so there’s no reason to replay it. I maxed out basically all of my favorite characters stats within a month and I never picked it up again. Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn were the peak of character design and story for me. Awakening had Priam…and other dlc, I guess. Three Houses was the peak of replayability, even though the characters were lacking imo. And Engage had none of that. It’s like they’ve been slowly removing the best parts of the series generation by generation.
I DEEPLY despise the art design in Engage. SO MUCH. Most of those units look like clowns. I don't even care about the gameplay at this point, I didn't even completely finnish every route in Three houses, it was so grindy, forcing me to repeat half the game each time before events started to differ. I used to love Fire Emblem. I played and finnished every other game before. Maybe I am just tired of Fire emblem and the art design of Engage just gave me the push out of the franchise.
I still don’t get why they didn’t tell the artist what she was designing for. In a diff video by mangs or ghast not sure who but they did an interview with the artist and she clarified that she was given zero idea that she was designing for a fire emblem game. Which makes you wonder why didn’t she get any information about what she was gonna be working on
@@Yoshixandir What ACTUALLY went wrong? The honest truth is pretty ugly. The Short Version: Nintendo put a New developer as the lead for the game who had no experience. A basic "Yes Man" who likes action games and not turn based tactics games, and was heavily influenced by Nintendo wanting to aim for a New Younger Audience which meant dumbing down the game, and making it flashier. The Long Version: If you read the "Ask the Developers" interviews that were released. The guy in charge (Tsutomu Tei), had never been a director of a game at IS before, and seemingly never discusses having any previous experience working on a FE game. So while I can't say what his previous role was, if any, it doesn't seem to be significant enough to mention in his bio. I'd link the Nintendo article, but RU-vid is pretty finicky with links these days. (Typing Ask the Developer Vol. 8, Fire Emblem Engage Part 1, 2, and 3 should get you too it) If anything, just someone picked by Nintendo to lead the development. Listening to the other two employees of Nintendo that were in the interview. Tei and the two mention wanting to "appeal to a broader audience" and saying that RPG mechanics such as the Awakening / Fates marriage system took too long to play out in the game. According to them it "wan't fun" so they developed the Emblem Ring idea instead. With the goal of intruding the "fun elements" early on. I'll quote the Nintendo stooge "Higuchi: We wanted to introduce this fun element for players as early as possible. I felt that the fun of tactical RPG games wasn't as intuitive or immediate as that of action games." So basically you had Nintendo heavily influencing the game with employees who were more interested and familiar with Action games than tactics RPGs. Then from the games IS developer, "Tei: People often say that turn-based tactical RPGs seem difficult or too complicated... In fact, I’m not very good at them myself." Take of that what you will, I take it as even the new IS dev wasn't interested in making a Tactics game. Just taking orders and advice from his Nintendo handlers. "Tei: We had several candidates. We were looking for an artist whose design style would appeal to a broad audience - including younger players - as well as the ability to portray a variety of characters. Among the candidates, Mika Pikazo-san's drawings were colorful, vivid, and really popped! They were a perfect fit for the flashy direction we wanted for this title." So from that we can see the "broader audience" meant appeal to children. In spite of marketing toward long time fans, which makes no sense since new players and young players would not get any of the references. So basically they tried to do both and focused on the younger new audience by lying to the older one. As it would seem, the games development and design was all over the place. Trying to create a game for a new younger audience, while throwing a bone to the old players to make it seem like they were not being abandoned when they were. As for another section about their Artist choice that influenced the game in a bad way. "Tei: Well, I thought it'd be better to be upfront about the request. That said, there was one concern she had. Since she usually draws young characters, she was concerned about her confidence level in some of the character design." So to answer why all the characters were loli or V-tuber style. It's because that's the only style the artist knew, and he went with it. Also, it also turns put it was her idea to make toothpaste-chans hair color red and blue. As before Tei just went with whatever he was told, advised, or requested. From everything I have read, Tei should never be in charge of any product. Unless he was specifically chosen because he just follows orders and has no skill as a leader or director. "Tei: As I mentioned at the beginning, I'm not very good at strategy games myself, so during development, I hoped to create a game that even those like me would want to try out or find interesting."
I've never played any of the Fire Emblem games, and probably never will, but that was a pretty good video nonetheless. Also, do you think you can do a "what went wrong" video for Cartoon Network: Punch Time Explosion?
1. The character design & their BG story are unbearable. 2. The storytelling are disasterous. 3. The gameplay are too complicated With those 3 things, it's already a great recipe for poor & bad games. I don't think with great marketing & DLC would help make it better.
Excessive "weeaboo pandering" is the biggest factor for me. Over-designed characters that look absolutely ridiculous and don't belong anywhere near the battlefield, one-dimensional personalities/traits constantly shoved in your face, characters non-stop praising the protagonist/self-insert just for existing, cheesy overplayed tropes (or at least, that's what it seems like from what little I've seen, this video included). It all killed any interest I might've had in the game. I hope Fire Emblem eventually returns to the grounded characters and designs from, say, the Tellius era and earlier, instead of pushing even further into "anime tropes" that recent games have been.
it came off to me as childish. Three Houses felt serious, adult, meaningful. Cheesy is mentioned in this video, ditto that sentiment. I was VERY disapointted after Three Houses.
Tsk 3 Houses Fans really think their Romance of Three Kingdoms fanfiction is good or meaningful... 3 Houses is a glorified Otome Visual Novel with meh gameplay.
@@justasoulsfan9805 At least somebody still think 3H story is meaningful, not even engage's own fans think engage story is meaningful. Seriously speaking not a single one of fire emblem stories is actually meaningful, not even fe4, but at least they are not childish even on surface like engage.
@@lsrrr3857 Yeah I contest the "Fire Emblem Games are not childish" idea. Most of them is about a chosen hero that defeats a big bad overlord while commanding an army of anime knights, thieves, mercs, wizards etc. and where the power of friendship and love conquers evil in the end. It's as mature as Mario, Zelda, Dragon Quest etc. So not at all. Most Nintendo games are as close to all age groups as it gets. As for 3H...it's just Romance of Three Kingdoms but Anime af (typical Koei Tecmo stuff). It's not really better but meh in a different way. You replaced generic anime-fantasy writing with generic Visual Novel writing. If you insist on Tactic RPG's with "serious stories" I would recommend Tactics Ogre or Triangle Strategy.
It's the esthetic, the gritty grounded look attracts casual fans and people without FE background better. Story and gameplay can only make a person STOP playing after they've purchased it (or pirated it). I hope they don't backpedal completely, because it'd be a shame they return to the bog they called gameplay from 3H.
If we compared the older games where most are wearing not bright as hell clothing and wear more armor then yes I would think so, awakening is a good example.@@ShursGarden
@@ShursGarden tharja makes sense cause of the fact she used to belong to the grima cult and since she's in the desert she wears light clothing. Though black probably not the best idea. Nowi I don't know why they made her outfit so skimpy considering she looks like a loli. Young Tiki wear more appropriate attire than she does.
I think it fell short because some just expectet FE16 2.0 while others still where stuck in their "Thracia good, everything after trash" mindset. If you give the game a chance, the story is not that good, but that didn't stop people from liking fates either, so why would it do here? Well because it isn't like FE16 and most fans of Fire Emblem came to the fandom through FE16. The combat of engage is actually amazing, and it is sad that people only seem to shit on the game. Fates combat was also very good when the story wasn't and people did not say "fates bad". Atleast not to the extend they do with engage. The mapdesign is also so much better as in FE16 for example, much more variety and more fun. They even fixed the dancer class again, that was completely useless in FE16. Besides the "classic Fire emblem" fans that dislike every new game after the 2000s, I think the negative mindset against engage comes from the fact that most of modern fire emblem fans aren't fire emblem fans, but just FE16 fans. And engage is amazing, but no FE16. (FE16 stands for Three Houses, for everyone that didn't know)
I think I came to the series first playing The Blazing Blade on an emulator. I then played Three Houses like 5 times and tried Heroes a few times (it’s not the greatest in my opinion but decent for a FE mobile game). I haven’t been too disappointed with Engage. You’re right, it’s no FE16 and the character interactions aren’t deep and everyone looks like a VTuber now, but that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a bad FE game. I picked it up because it was a new Fire Emblem and because Engage brought back something that FE16 left out: the weapon triangle.
I think Engage could've benefit a lot from having a NG+ considering how build-heavy it is; definitely would've given it more replayability. I always found it puzzling how it wasn't ever added, especially when 3H had it.
Because in FE, building the unit is part of the gameplay and 3h simply recognized they made a boring system and even they recognized it'd be cruel to force players to grind again.
I think I'd love if it took the Fates route of NG+, where it's not really an NG+ but after you beat the game you can save a character's set and buy from it cheaper than normal.
They even handled dlc better when u beat cindered shadows you permanently unlock the ashen wolves. Fell xenolouge you have to play it again to re unlock the winds and Nel.
It's so jarring, it's just a feature you'd expect now, and would come in handy in a game like this I want to start over and try out different builds and shit, please
@@marcoasturias8520 Engage is the game whose unit building requires grinding in the donation mechanic, SP, bond fragments etc. 3H you will get there without going out of your way so long as you have the path in mind as you play. In that way building the unit is much more tied into the gameplay in 3H. I and many others never get "bored" of it.
@@yusifudo46 this is all opinion based as I would say Mauvier was written pretty basic. Etie and Chloé are my current two favorite characters. The story is simple and I enjoy it for that. I will agree it is nowhere near the giants of storytelling that the Telius Saga had, but it was a simple game to go down memory road with the history of the series.
@@justingerry97 I think Awakening did simple better. I can't at all get with the characters in Engage and they were as flat as the Radiant Dawn cast. They don't have to be as well written as the Three Houses cast, but I expect better than Fates or RD which hardly has enough in the support category to make me care for them. I think Awakening did it better that although the cast was "not" as complex, they were fleshed out way better which made them more interesting outside the main campaign.
@@yusifudo46 i will agree with that, there is a reason Awakening is credited as to what revived FE in the west. I do still like a lot of the supports without Alear and that comes all down to prefere. I can't say with a straight face it is the best written game, but I still prefer it over FE8 and shadow dragon.
I also think that a lot of the depth that these characters have isn't that deep. Celine doesn't need to be so obsessed with tea to have "I use tea breaks as my only escape" be a character moment---if anything it's over played to the point that it undercuts the moment as a character beat by portraying Celine as a dillitente who we're supposed to see as otherwise due to support exposition. Edelgard actually had that exact same "tea breaks are a rare escape from my duties" character moment that Celine has and the fact that tea breaks *aren't* her defining character trait makes her comments on how much she values them do far more for her character than the same information did for Celine.
I feel like a lot of the "depth" Engage characters feels less like a natural part of the characters and more of a "quick, we need to explain why we're doing this single character trait to death". Alear's lore "justification" for that blacklist-worthy design as well as the protagonist worship falls into this boat as well. The media illiterate in the FE fanbase (which is quite a large portion, and an even larger portion of Engage defenders) seem to think that a character having some "reason" for a shitty characterization somehow redeems it, when in reality it just makes it more insulting.
I remember that every fire emblem protagonist loses their parents one or the other, but Shez is the only protagonist that have an only no death cutesenen and only in AG with ash, and Mercedes talked about there family's and made good advice, but ash a support left us with a cliffhanger and he can be recute him I all routes and meet to be a dlc when we get him and A support in all routes
@@justasoulsfan9805 true. I find myself enjoy playing Hopes more than Houses solely because of Shez. Byleth is cool but i often find them kind of boring for being semi-silent protagonist when their entire character is "a very skilled professor who love their students". I can get pass their non-chatter, emotionless personality but making them silent during all of the supports kind of defeats the purpose when they have battle voicelines. Hopes did Byleth better than Houses imo
Experimentation isn't really incentivised because of how promotions work so playthroughs feel kinda samey. Also some maps can feel pretty tedious IF you don't intentionally use warp skip mechanics. But warp skipping is efficient but hardly fun. Also the emblem ring roulette the game does at various points some how feel even worse (to me) than radiant dawn's infamous availability issues.
NG+ was really needed to make Engage better. To carry over bond rings, sp, inherited skills. Let there be unlimited access to seals from the start to really get into some weird builds (like Clanne being intended for a physical build but starting as a mage and not getting access to a second seal to respec him until chapter 9)
@@rhettmitchellI replayed it, and it is such a pain not having a NG+ when it really needed it. I played normal the first time and hard the 2nd. It’s annoying to get levels and increase bond ranks when skirmishes are too difficult on hard. I only got through bc I used the training skirmishes which gives bonus exp for surviving units and you don’t lose anymore if they “die” in training skirmishes
That's actually a negative for me in the Fodlan games. New game + existed because the game technically branched since chapter 1 but at the same time it just served to further highlight how much the maps are reused. It didn't help that you could easily just recruit everyone, therefore removing all the weight of fighting most of the former classmates. On top of that, you can't really blaze through the maps to get to the actual new content in Part 2 because of Fire Emblem's mechanics. Add the fact that I played all four routes on release, replayed Crimson Flower for the DLC and did a sixth run to see the Ashen Wolves' conversations and I never wanted to see the monastery again. Three Hopes is not much better, as it separates the sidequests into each of their routes. With how Gatekeeper's sidequest is only available on a third cycle and Arval's is only available on a bad ending route after you get a good ending on a previous cycle, that means that you must beat at least *six cycles* to 100% the game. Given I had my first run I went for the bad ending intentionally because it'd be easier and on my fourth I went for that run's good ending and didn't know about this requirement, I felt like having to arbitrarily beat the game three more times was too much and quit.
The weirdest part is that you have an online profile that records your stats... but if you wanna try a new build you have to make a new save file and reset your profile... like gurl??
And yet most players, me included, enjoyed 3H and ThreeHps much more than Engage No one in Foldlan is as boring and unmemorable as Bunet. The writing and some of the things the Engage characters say are child-like
When I saw the leaks, especially Alear's design, I thought "No, that can't be it. It must be bait". And I was wrong. I was willing to overlook the designs before playing the game until I experienced it first-hand. I mean, I like the gameplay, the freedom in customising units, and the animations, but the rest is eh Character designs are sometimes too busy and with unnecessary details. Did Yunaka need all those stars? How about Hortensia and that clown outfit? Awakening, Fates, and 3H had "simple", yet memorable designs AND decent personalities and backstories to carry the character if design alone was not enough. Severa's appearance, for example, is pretty plain, but was beloved enough to appear in two games. 3H, with all its gameplay issues, is being discussed to this day because of the plot, setting, and characters. Engage's main plot can be summarised by "Gather the rings, make allies, and defeat the evil dragon who's actually your father"
If anything the most fun I had with Engage was building up my units with strong skills and class set ups. Just wish to plot wasn’t so forgettable. But I’ll give credit where it’s due it’s better than Fates conquests writing.
Almost anything is better than fates writing ironically i think that saves fates a bit it’s bad but we remember it. Engage is forgettable like even outside the game people don’t even talk about a lot. The only meme that has come is toothpaste Chan. In the others there was tons of outside fan engagement but with engage it’s kinda of dry
mechanically and visually it was astounding but the story was just incredibly mid tier. it's passable sure but it felt kind of bland. My favorite fire emblem story was definitely the telius games
Same. The monastery was better because it was a real location connected to the story with characters commenting on what's happening. Both hub worlds can be tedious sometimes so the Monastery is better for its story significance. Music is also better in Garreg Mach.
Right I think the monastery is actually better. You really only have to do the meals. Stuff like weapon forging can be done in menus. In engage it’s like you have to run to pick up the iron, run to the black smith, run to the arena and watch the emblem battles to get the skills, do the well, etc…way more tedious.
I too love having to do 30 minutes of downtime (At least) between chapters who have boring maps, that truly is what Fire Emblem gameplay is meant to be
The fact that characters in the somniel never say anything of value is the main thing for me. The monastery may have taken a while but at least it felt worth it.
The monastery felt more interesting because the characters would discuss what happened in previous chapter or talk about current chapter. Example Caspar talking about how his father died in the assualt on enbarr.
Skirmishes dont make any sense in that game. Why didnt they cap the exp so your best units dont get too strong ? In Fates, the strongest units get only 1xp when they kill a weaker ennemy in dlc map, so it was ideal to improve your weaker units without hacking the game. It was something so easy to implement.
I think the final shift was a big reason for me, three houses was my first game and I loved the thrones/Harry potter feel to it. Then I saw engage and I didn’t have any nostalgia for the past heroes and the art style wasn’t my vibe
I don't know if anyone will agree with me on this but god damn it Diamant was robbed from a good game. I say this as someone who has played Conquest and wished that Xander was the main character instead of Corrin. This is essentially the third time (that includes 3 Houses) where I felt another character should have been the protagonist over the avatar and it's sad to think that this will more than likely be the only game Diamant is in. Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me THREE TIMES....God damn it Diamant deserved better. I'm still salty about this after beating the game by the way. He was literally the closest thing to an Ike like character we had in years....uuugghh....
Ugly, over designed, poorly written characters. Sorry to the handful of nerds out there that care about the gameplay, I know you guys hated 3H but it was a world conquering phenomenon because it had amazing memorable characters and the time skip was a great gimmick, as apposed to the stupid past character gimmick of characters I don’t know and didn’t get any meaningful development.
I mean there's also the possibility that Engage's gameplay really isn't "10/10 best in the series." Absolute extreme ends of arguments go completely nowhere.
It was a world conquering phenomenon because it catered to VN Readers and GenZ players who project themselves on Edelgard to satisfy their political activist fantasies. Gameplay wise 3H is a boring slog that is carried by its worldbuilding.
I remember Jello Apocalypse saying somehing similar about Fire Emblem Fates. C support = Characters get annoyed at each other's one note personalities. B support: These two random characters secretly have the best interaction in the game.
Fates has a notoriously bad localization Saizo and Beruka is the most infamous example in Japan their C support is about the morality of being an assassin and in NA it's just a string of "..." and then the B support continues off from the C support of the original translation so if one wasn't aware of the original lines they'll just be confused
I've also been a (relatively) long time Fire Emblem fan so I can also put in some input that can expand on the situation. The lighthearted anime mood and the loud designs aren't the issue so much as the cliches and the characters not being memorable, which sucks because the gameplay and the map design are fantastic. But asking someone to ignore maybe 2/5 of the entire game in order to enjoy it more is a hard sell. I'm pretty sure I wore out my + button on my controller more in this game than in Tears of the Kingdom, and I have 400 more hours there than I do in Engage. Between the characters feeling like they like the Avatar WAY too much and the dialogue being well acted but feeling like it was written by George Lucas, I kinda just press + if I decide to replay it I generally agree with your video when it comes to the comparisons to Fates and the complaints about bond rings, the castle, and NG+. I don't have much to add other than me being pissed about how they nerfed Sothe's skill from Radiant Dawn. While it's also pretty full of cliches, I've enjoyed the Fell Xenologues more than the main story. I really hope that we somehow get NG+ even this late.
I really like this video. It doesn't just throw critique after critique while ignoring the positives, but actually delves into the struggles associated with the game that lead to the fanbase becoming so divided on engage.
One thing that really annoys me about this game is how it feels impossible to optimize and complete. The donations are way too expensive to benefit from all of them, the weapon forging is too expensive to give everyone the strongest version of the weapon they are using, and the skirmishes are so insanely hard that I'm barely able to beat them. The bond rings are so random and there are almost no good ones, and your SP gain is so slow it's impossible to give units the best version of a skill. All that combined made me feel pretty weak, and with the INSANE reinforcements this game has in the late game, I was just glad I beat it and thougt, there is no way a second playthrough will be easier with more experience and knowledge about the game, the game gives you nothing to optimize or whatever. Its just scraping by.
I believe the reason why Engage fell off for many people, myself included was that many of its pros and cons reminded people of the pros and cons found in Fates where the gameplay was enjoyable but the characters and plot left a lot to be desired. Many of the newer characters were shackled by their quirks or gimmicks which hindered many of their supports and their growth as people. Meanwhile, the story had quite a few holes in it from the lack of build up to major events to the massive expostion dumbs given to the player near the beginning and end of the stories. That to me is one of the factors why Engage fell off as a game
Tbf it had fates writer for this game so of course the story sucked.. blame intelligence system for trusting the man who wrote fates to write an anniversary game
True yet at the same time I felt like fate’s characters were a lot more memorable. Although I think it’s cause they at least could appear as enemies depending which side you picked and also probably cause fans did at least enjoy the characters in some regards (despite fates flaws fans did make tons of fanart memes of characters)
@@Yoshixandir There's video I found asking is Fire Emblem too main stream ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-AOglEDMI0xI.html Since Fire Emblem wasn't very popular in the past and Awakening saved the series. It made me worried that Intelligent Systems will make the gameplay and story too beginner friendly, in order to appeal to a wider audience??? Engage was my fears come to life😦😦😦😦. Good thing Wargrove 2 and Unicorn Overlord is coming out.
@@bradleydrake6941 Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought the workload and games being rushed out the door was the number one reason why the writing was bad. I read somewhere that the writer for fates had a 500 page manuscript of the story and due to time constraints, half of it was cut out entirely. If this is the same writer from Fates, I won't speak much about the guy since, obviously, I don't know a lot about his work, but I don't think he is solely to blame for how Fates turned out. For Engage, if ANYONE should be at fault, it's the game director who clearly has no idea what the fans want.
@@Yoshixandir While Birthright and Revelations are (to me) some of the worst FE games in the series due to how nothing they are, I feel that Conquest is worth defending at least to some regard. This is mostly because Conquest gives you more of a reason to care about your Norh siblings (half of them actually going through really good character development...when the game doesn't contradict it, I'm looking at you chapter 27). With your Birthright siblings, they are all written like sandpaper, like, HOW DO YOU DO THAT SERIOUSLY? The only things I remember about birthright is IS having the balls to kill off Elise (which I respect) and never unhearing Tommy Pickles voice from a very clearly twenty something year old woman. THAT throws me through a loop every time she opens her mouth (BTW, same voice actress as Tommy and Buttercup. No wonder I couldn't unhear it.)
Many people are deeply critical of the game, but the YT algorithm deranks videos / channels that release negative content about products. RU-vid's algorithm is biased in favor of "hype" and promoting products as its buisness model to advertisers. The viewers and content creators are the product for RU-vid to sell.
Yeah I have a lot of the same criticisms too, but I feel like a lot of people let those negatives affect their enjoyment of the game way more than it did for me. I still really enjoyed the gameplay and a lot of the characters, bc I’m able to laugh at the silliness and eventually get to the deeper stuff. I do wish there was more of that though. But it was still overall kinda disappointing after what we had with the last game. It doesn’t help even if only playing/replaying for the gameplay either, when NG+ doesn’t even exist, so it’s impossible to try new builds until you’re like 3/5 through the game again
@@techpriest6962 I find that hard to believe since I've gotten more positive videos of Paper Mario: Sticker Star recommended to me, and that's FAR more hated than Engage.
@@AkameGaKillfan777agree. Sticker star was a disaster. Engage at least has good gameplay but the flaws are not avoidable cause it’s a constant complaint from the majority. Boring story boring characters questionable choices (like not being to transfer skill), weird artstyle, no game plus and a bad dlc
Like I always say: Too much cash grab games kill the cash grab game so too bad that the Fire Emblem serie have follow the same path of the Pokemon serie by release almost every years one game on Switch with 6 Fire Emblem games with somes classic games, warriors games, a crossover game and a anniversary game in 7 years so, just like Pokemon, one day or another one the Fire Emblem serie would end up to become a failure when we see how bad look Engage when we check all those review from people who buy Engage and feel disapoint and hate it but, unlike Pokemon who belong to Gamefreak / Pokemon Compagnies, you can blame Nintendo to have cause the failure of Engage by mainly care for cash grab games who are very popular in Japan with 6 Kirby games, 6 Fire Emblem games and a lot of old succeed video game port from previous console to the Switch like Luigi's Mansion 2 from 3DS or Paper Mario TTYD who are one of those most popular games from the 3DS and GCN instead take some years for do a game in good quality. And meanwhile, since 7 years, we still waiting for somes true others game less popular in Japan on the Nintendo Switch like Star Fox and Kid Icarus who don't have anything or a remake/remaster game, just 2 Metroid games with no life sound anymore about Prime 4 since 7 years, just one Rom Hack about F-Zero from SNES to Switch with 99 players instead to made a new 3D HD modern game, one new Animal Crosssing, just a Wii U port of Donkey Kong Country but no new fresh Donkey Kong game about DK be playable as the main protagonist and, now I talked about Mario previously, it's funny to mention that the only thing we get for the Mario Kart serie was just a Wii U port from 2014 about Mario Kart 8 but no real new fresh Mario Kart game despite it supposed to be one new fresh game per console but never a old Mario Kart game port from previous console to a next console with a hight price like if Nintendo didn't want spend too much money for made new stuff. It doesn't give you envy to buy the next Nintendo console due to the lazyness from Nintendo if they gonna just release a lot of old success video game port and a lot of cash grab games while they don't will care for their others series on their next consoles.
I felt that Engage had, overall, much better map design, but overall it wasn't nearly as strong as FE3H. The soundtrack wasn't nearly as good as any other games in the last decade. The characters were hit and miss, but i though it was similar to others in the series.
The music being really disappointing was the biggest suprise for me. I started FE back in 2016 with Fates, beat the other 3DS titles, 3 Houses and Warriors: 3 Hopes, and they have some of my favorite songs in ALL of gaming, right up there with Sonic and Bayonetta. Even the Rogues and Redeemers 3 DLC battle in Awakening and Vanguard Dawn DLC battle in Fates which I know directly reference past games have pretty good music. When I started playing Echoes, I immediately recognized Celica's battle theme because I listened to the remix of it in Super Smash Bros Brawl so many times, so the remixes don't fall short either. Engage is just uninteresting and unfitting nearly every step of the way. The early game battle theme I think sounds like Harry Potter music. The 4 Hounds themes are the Time Eater from Sonic Generations mixed with falling metal pipes. Alear becoming an Emblem reminds me of High School Graduation. The final map theme is just a LOOOOONG intro with some of the most awkward vocals I've ever heard, in any song, not just video games, and I hate the guitar. The end credits just make me feel hollow and indifferent rather than satisfied or relieved. The characters are about the same as Fates, and to a lesser extent Awakening, but Echoes and 3 Houses absolutely did better with them(Raphael and Hilda are exceptions, NOT the rule)
Its sad to me because it just didnt really feel like fire emblem. It felt like it didnt take itself seriously. And the biggest thing for me was the romance. It was just completely washed and trashed out. Like they hired woke people to make this game because what it felt like was a bit boring. This game didnt catch me like the previous ones. But I will say that I very much enjoyed they new style of gameplay and that was refreshing but the story just felt so one off and not deep... I want to love this game but I didnt even finish it because I just felt done.
As a new fan to the series who had only plan 3 houses, but also watched a lot to do with the fire emblem franchise I was very excited to be able to play another fire emblem game. I had planned on preordering it but then the preorder for ToTK came and as a being a zelda fan fore much longer, I got that instead. I ended up getting engage around July after I beat ToTK and did enjoy it but as someone who enjoys darker themes, it wasn't my favourite. There were a lot of story points that were weird to me and I hated doing the somniel as it felt lifeless with the characters repeating the same thing everytime I went there. The strategy was amazing though and there were parts of it I really enjoyed like Destinea Cathedral and all of Brodia. Also Rosados the best character and you can't change my mind.
If you want some more actually good FE games I'd reccomend you boot up an emulator to play Shadows of Valentia, Path of Radiance and its sequel Radiant Dawn, and if your ok with a bit of old game jank Genealogy of the Holy war and Thracia 776. Those games along with 3 Houses is peak Fire Emblem for me
after having such an amazing story in fire, emblem, three houses, and having such in-depth back stories with all of the students that really helped you to care for each one of them the shallow story and characters of Engage just fell flat for me. I put over 500 hours in the fire emblem three houses, completing all of the houses, including the DLC and both routes for the black eagles and the second Playthru of the blue lions. I’m only about 15 hours into fire emblem, engage and I’m having such a hard time continuing to play because it’s just not interesting so far maybe it gets better a little bit further into it but the beginning of this game is underwhelming to say the least. The gameplay for battles is great, but I also don’t like the hub world. I did, however, like the monastery. I’ve always enjoyed fire emblem, so I bought the special edition of engage only to feel wildly let down by it. Hopefully my opinion will change after I’m finished with it eventually.
Three House's story was a complete mess in my opinion. The timeskip went completely unexplained, character motivations were messy, unanswered questions were aplenty, Byleth's cold characterisation goes completely against the idea students feel super close to him. On its surface, Three Houses seems like an amazing story. But when you actually sit down to think about it, it really falls short.
3H Characterization of student is even contradict each other between route. And... am I suppose to be sympathic with Edelgard? Black Eagle route fell to makem e feel that completely. I'm agreed on this that 3H is complete mess and gameplay is totally downgrade from either Fate or Echoes. Meanwhile for Engage, the story is no different from Shadow Dragon, Awakening, Echoes or even PoR in overarching. So, I don't consider Engage as bad story, just your average FE story. But gameplay become my top3 immediately. with map design and how ability works against map
Unfortunately Engage doesn’t get better. I think for most people it tends to go downhill. If you don’t like it now, you probably won’t later either. You’re right that it’s a total letdown how little they cared for this game after 3H had so much passion and love behind it… :(
@@EXchoco I don't think it was a lack of effort, they literally ported the 3DS engine to Unity. This is NOT an easy task. It's a change in priorities. Engage isn't trying to have a complex story or intricate characters. It was designed from the beginning to be a campy romp full of fanservice, and that simply hasn't resonated with the fanbase right now.
@@raincastmusic What ACTUALLY went wrong? The honest truth is pretty ugly. The Short Version: Nintendo put a New developer as the lead for the game who had no experience. A basic "Yes Man" who likes action games and not turn based tactics games, and was heavily influenced by Nintendo wanting to aim for a New Younger Audience which meant dumbing down the game, and making it flashier. The Long Version: If you read the "Ask the Developers" interviews that were released. The guy in charge (Tsutomu Tei), had never been a director of a game at IS before, and seemingly never discusses having any previous experience working on a FE game. So while I can't say what his previous role was, if any, it doesn't seem to be significant enough to mention in his bio. I'd link the Nintendo article, but RU-vid is pretty finicky with links these days. (Typing Ask the Developer Vol. 8, Fire Emblem Engage Part 1, 2, and 3 should get you too it) If anything, just someone picked by Nintendo to lead the development. Listening to the other two employees of Nintendo that were in the interview. Tei and the two mention wanting to "appeal to a broader audience" and saying that RPG mechanics such as the Awakening / Fates marriage system took too long to play out in the game. According to them it "wan't fun" so they developed the Emblem Ring idea instead. With the goal of intruding the "fun elements" early on. I'll quote the Nintendo stooge "Higuchi: We wanted to introduce this fun element for players as early as possible. I felt that the fun of tactical RPG games wasn't as intuitive or immediate as that of action games." So basically you had Nintendo heavily influencing the game with employees who were more interested and familiar with Action games than tactics RPGs. Then from the games IS developer, "Tei: People often say that turn-based tactical RPGs seem difficult or too complicated... In fact, I’m not very good at them myself." Take of that what you will, I take it as even the new IS dev wasn't interested in making a Tactics game. Just taking orders and advice from his Nintendo handlers. "Tei: We had several candidates. We were looking for an artist whose design style would appeal to a broad audience - including younger players - as well as the ability to portray a variety of characters. Among the candidates, Mika Pikazo-san's drawings were colorful, vivid, and really popped! They were a perfect fit for the flashy direction we wanted for this title." So from that we can see the "broader audience" meant appeal to children. In spite of marketing toward long time fans, which makes no sense since new players and young players would not get any of the references. So basically they tried to do both and focused on the younger new audience by lying to the older one. As it would seem, the games development and design was all over the place. Trying to create a game for a new younger audience, while throwing a bone to the old players to make it seem like they were not being abandoned when they were. As for another section about their Artist choice that influenced the game in a bad way. "Tei: Well, I thought it'd be better to be upfront about the request. That said, there was one concern she had. Since she usually draws young characters, she was concerned about her confidence level in some of the character design." So to answer why all the characters were loli or V-tuber style. It's because that's the only style the artist knew, and he went with it. Also, it also turns put it was her idea to make toothpaste-chans hair color red and blue. As before Tei just went with whatever he was told, advised, or requested. From everything I have read, Tei should never be in charge of any product. Unless he was specifically chosen because he just follows orders and has no skill as a leader or director. "Tei: As I mentioned at the beginning, I'm not very good at strategy games myself, so during development, I hoped to create a game that even those like me would want to try out or find interesting."
I’m not sure I agree with the idea of Alear being a well-written protagonist, especially considering that they couldn’t commit to him being scared of the Corrupted early on (which I guess comes down to Nintendo telling IS to not make Alear *too* cowardly). If anything, the lack of being able to commit to narrative beats carries over into the overarching issue with the writing of the game. I’m mostly referring to how they were building up the importance of family for the duration of the story, only to drop it in the final act. Even the Corrupted Alear & Emblem Alear concepts aren’t fully committed to, with the former only lasting one chapter & the latter not forcing them to the same existence as the other Emblems. And that’s before we get to the wild scramble to build out characters, which can be seen right at the beginning with the super-drawn-out death speech of Alear’s mom (with said drawn-out death speeches becoming a recurring trend in the story). And yeah, this even extends to how the character designs don’t really have much rhyme or reason, considering how loud they are. Some compare them to vtubers, but I feel like that cast too wide of a net. Maybe narrow it down to Hololive specifically. And in general, I’m not even sure if calling the story lighthearted is accurate since that only really applies to a couple of moments. It’s more bland, if anything.
I find Alear well written for what they are. I disagree with the idea that Alear isn't committed to being scared of corrupted it's brought up plenty of times even in surpports, Alear just had to suck it up and grow stronger. Even in Firene, Alear had to be saved by Veyle from a corrupted.
@@nuibaba280 But that’s the problem, it’s tucked away in supports as opposed to being shown in the main story. It’s the opposite of “Show, Don’t Tell”, another recurring trend in the game (one that ties into stuff like the drawn-out death speeches & the exposition dumps at the 11th hour).
@@Neoxon619 But it was shown in the main story. Alear's one step away from pissing their pants when Lumera first spawns her own corrupted. And Alear had to be saved by Veyle because they froze up when a corrupted ran up on Alear. Alear's solid for a FE protagonist, they have a surprisingly silly and endearing personality with very prominent flaws. Flaws that are present in the main story too. Supports are still important for a character's writing as well.
@@Neoxon619 I disagree as well. Supports have always been a key thing and a lot of 3H characters also get their best moments from supports Its moreso a problem with the Supports system rather than a problem with Alear himself
