I 100% agree with your review and actually had the exact same thoughts about hesitating to recommend it to certain people. Had the gameplay (and the maps!) not been soooo good and been wrapped in the neat audiovisual packaging it got, I probably would have dropped the game halfway through. There were so many things that made it hard for me to take engage seriously and that is really just a shame considering the foundation of this entry could very well have supported an utter masterpiece and probably the pinnacle of the franchise.
This was a fantastic review! I've done two runs of Engage thus far because there were so many characters that I wanted to get to know but never got the opportunity to use. I can agree with many of your points; overall 3H is a more compelling game for me, but I can't deny how much I love the flashy artstyle, and certain characters really get the chance to shine (although I can agree not nearly as much as its predecessor). Veyle, Ivy, Chloe, and Hortensia have become absolute favorites of mine, with several others close behind. Another thing that stood out to me was your emphasis at the end about sexualization of women. This is something that hits close to home as a young woman myself, and surprisingly enough it didn't bother me too much (the swimsuit thing I just kinda rolled my eyes at). I suppose I've become a little desensitized as I'm an avid Heroes player, so fanservice is something I see often, but don't get me wrong-I am still bothered by aspects of this. Goldmary in particular irks me in this respect. Honestly, if the characters here had as much depth as 3H, it would easily be my favorite in the series-as for now I enjoy both switch titles for different reasons, which I think helps from becoming burnt out on the series as a whole. :)
Glad you liked the review! I agree - I am glad we have both games in the Switch catalogue. At the end of the day I think the two compliment each other very well. Hopefully we get a best of both worlds in the future. Hero's fanservice is WAY worse for sure -_- .
Solid review! Im still on chapter 21, but so far I have to agree with many points. Story is not even close to my liking and easily forgettable. Luckily for me, I don’t play fire emblem games for the story, but rather for the tactics gameplay! As someone who’s played most the American games that were available, this game does strike me as THE BEST gameplay wise.
The only thing i kinda don't like about engage, is that you get level 17 units and promoted units when your core team is level 12-14, it makes them feel overshadowed by them. Everything else is just perfect and i think it is one of my favorite fire emblem games since i hate three houses presentation because it feels incredibly clunky (up there on the top 4 with path of radiance, conquest and radiant dawn)
I did find recruits quickly outpacing older members. Haven't taken a full stat dive but it seems there are very few early characters worth keeping through to the end. That seems like a balancing decision designed for classic where units are lost. With casual being default I wish there were more worthwhile early units.
I immediately put most of my male units in the swim trunks and animal ears 😐 lol but really though, I do think the fan service stuff can go, I doubt I’d miss it. And the framing of the female characters is definitely odd now that you bring it up
A nice review! I hate fan service in games, but Engage didn't strike me as bad as fates did. The outfits the female characters wore in that game often showed way too much skin. The only thing I dont really love in Engage is that F!Alear has massive honkers that are hard to ignore.
They went for day 1 dlc even though everyone who played the game can see that the story was incomplete and was rushed. Story would have benefited from a few more chapters, too bad people still eat the dlc like dumbasses which perpetuates to continue the cycle.
@@CFU my point exactly! on my playthrough I was like where the hell were these plot points coming from, why weren’t these mentioned before! Why weren’t there more chapters exploring these characters if they have the audacity to churn out more paid “chapters/divine paralogues”. I mean I know why cuz 💰which im not against them making more 💰 but come on at least finish the base game first before you start churning out dlc. Why the hell was vander on the last cutscene, I ain’t sleepy joe.
Actually I heard from an interview that the engage ring system is more so a reference of the marriage system if I am understanding it. Also the menus are pretty bad in this game I personally think the little movements of the characters where probably thought out by the character designer as she is a V-Tuber artist and having those characters in motion is obviously important
Engage ring def = marriage for inheritance. I thought about talking about the menus but then I went down the rabbit hole of things that should have been a menu instead of weird stuff you need to watch play out. 100% agree about the menus.
I agree with pretty much everything you said except I kinda hate your "only interact with Alear" idea the whole appeal of fire emblem is your building a TEAM of units and training them as individuals and helping them grow with each other, its not a regular RPG where its really about the main character and their relationships with their friends. Characters are already so irrelevant to the main plot they need to at least interact with each other beyond the main character to give some sense of team
Totally fair point. If FE is going to keep supports between all characters I think a better balance needs to be struck somehow between actual development (instead of seeing the same trope play out each time) and respecting player's time. It is a hard problem to solve, and I don't want to see the system leave entirely. Engage wasn't as bad as 3H but in 3H I specifically remember a tipping point when I was spending more time listening to support/boosting supports than actually battling.
@@CFU for me the difference in 3H was that a lot of the Supports at least had substance to them or an underlying conflict that was resolved over time. In engage it's almost exclusively fluff that barely offers anything in terms of character depth. From a certain point onward I just defaulted to skipping them altogether save for very few exceptions which had me hoping there might be something there
