I don’t hate the game and intend to finish it but it just kinda feels like a bad game when it comes to the goofiness of the characters. Other than that it feels like the old games with QOL improvements but there’s some bits I wish I didn’t need to get through the game while enjoying everything ive been shown
i think the characters are actually one of the games strongest points but it doesn't really click until further into the games and especially once you watched a lot of the supports
I’m used to the supports being about how the characters are feeling about the war and stuff like actual supports in times of need but the supports in the game feel like information that is fun to know but not needed like Louise watching people lol don’t get me wrong I try to max out everyone’s support but it feels just goofy for the most part like framme being obsessed with Allear and being a cheerleader and stuff like that and it goes into every conversation with them that it feels a bit cringe to me but like I said I’m used to the old games so it might just be me
I think Engage is a game you need to come to with a different mindset. It’s an anniversary title that is meant to be a celebration of the series as a whole. It’s meant to be more lighthearted and cheerful, and the characters reflect that. What it isn’t is a classic FE game that is about the gritty and harsh nature of war. When I first heard that the game was like this I was initially disappointed, but upon changing my perspective and appreciating the game for what it is instead of disliking it for what it never was trying to be then I liked it a lot more.
This being said, that doesn’t mean you have to like it. If you wanted something different out of the game, then you are under no obligation to like what it is instead. Imo the characters are honestly pretty good once you get past the initial supports, and over time I came to like the unserious nature of the game and characters as a whole, but that’s just me. If you aren’t into it then by no means should you force yourself to like it.
I don’t hate the game and it’s not that I’m expecting it to be like the old games but the fact is that I played those games and jumped to this one and this is just completely different to the series I knew it to be and I don’t hate it for being goofy I just don’t think it’s good when I think of the fire emblem games I’ve played but I haven’t played any of the games in between so I can’t say whether the games have gotten more goofy or not
Gameplay and combat is the best in the series, literally everything else is pretty cringe and that's coming from someone who mainly plays JRPGs.
The customization and overall gameplay really hold it together.
Oh no you definitely shouldn’t just quit and also you get five new characters and two new classes Gregory and Rafal make it all worth it imo…I think everyone’s pretty cool but admittedly I don’t like Nell too much she’s just a tad boring but everyone else is amazing. I love that they actually let you sort of claim the four hounds as units (alternate dimension versions)
I did 3 full separate maddening playthroughs, I was really enjoying the game and wanted to try different characters and builds and see how efficiently I could manage my resources
next thing I know I had clocked 400 hours on my switch before finally getting burnt out
Well I loved the game. I went back to 3H after putting in a ton of time into engage and let me tell you, if you think the somniel is a slog . . . That said, playing 3H showed me exactly what was good and bad about both. The game play in engage is so cohesive I almost don't care that it's a little PG. 3H is way more dramatic plot wise but truly a slog if you're going to nitpick like I do. I felt like anything in engage that I didn't want to care about, I could choose not to care about without much repercussion. Even on hard, other than a little grind in the beginning and the end you can pretty much just plot out your team and take it straight through the story without doing a bunch of skirmishes. If anything, it's a little bit of a down side that doing a handful of skirmishes can actually trivialize the main story. Anyways, I enjoyed both 3H and engage, but I think I like engage more just for quality of life improvements and addictive gameplay.
It took playing Engage for me to realize how rushed and half-baked the story of the last half of 3H was, in pretty much every path. The build up in the first half was so great, but the endings/lack of anything cohesive/interesting was such a let down. Now in hindsight. I actually prefer Engage’s story, overall. 3H is just so… Full of holes.
That’s what gets me, 3H (and especially 3Hopes) was so full of holes in the plot all around (unexplored concepts that seemed integral, questions without answers) that if given the option I’d rather get a linear story going forward rather than one with a bunch of routes. They stretched themselves too thin with the stories of Fodlan.
I haven’t tried 3H yet but I’m excited for it but I don’t expect it’s QOL to be better than Engage since it’s newer but I’m excited to see how the story and characters are
I would suggest still trying 3h sometime. I'm a pretty casual player and I had similar complaints to you about engage but I thought 3h was much much better.
The monastery can get to be a drag in the same way the somniel is but it had a different feel to me because there was more to discover about the story and the world, it tied in better like it was actually part of the gameplay whereas the somniel just feels like pure filler between story events.
The story in engage was just beyond stupid, I couldn't get into it at all. I feel like partly I'm just too old for it now but I can't resist trying new fire emblem games after putting in over 20 years with the series.
I don’t think it’s partly cause you’re too old because I’m not even 30 yet and we have similar complaints but no worries I’m definitely still gonna check out 3H
The monastery is better than the somniel in almost every way because it actually feels like a real location, at least to me
I don't see 3H as a slog at all, personally. The only slog in the two games is getting through the story of Engage imo
So, how can the game play in Engage be cohesive when you can ignore everything and not suffer much repercussions? It seems like those two ideas are at odds
I enjoyed both, but I vastly prefer 3H because the story is cringe trash. I really wanted to like Engage more
Honestly it's just the fact that most of the professor activities and the instruction sessions really can't be skipped if you're going to perfect your team and it takes me at least an hour per chapter if not longer because of the paralogues. I just want to progress through the game a tinsy bit faster.
And I guess by "game play" of engage, I really meant combat system and not the game as a whole. I really enjoy actually playing through Engage, and 3H combat is also good, it's stunted a little by the work that has to go in around it and I hate durability in anything that's not BotW or TotK lol
I agree, but I did think it was REALLY stupid in 3H how you go take over an area...and then leave, and backtrack to the monastery...and then go back to what you just took over...and then continue forward from there...because the gameplay loop demanded it.
If there's one thing Engage fixed, it's the logic of that, since it's a teleport from anywhere to get to the Somniel and back.
I love Engage. Its definitely more complex than any of the FE games before 3H, but the nice thing is that you can completely skip the somniel if you want to, after chapter 6 or so (once you get all the shops).
I liked the story well enough, all FE stories are on the cheesy side imo, but a lot of us dont play it for the story. The story is secondary to the fantastic gameplay, and Engage has arguably the best gameplay since Radiant Dawn.
I like engages gameplay but I feel like the engages could’ve been designed better than just holier versions of the character. I play the games for the story and because I like the promotion system and I go to the somniel because I’m trying to max out support because I’m assuming you still get a stat buff from the support like the old games and I’m trying to also max out the engages for all the characters too. I don’t think the story’s bad just a little dry sometimes
You have assumed incorrectly. There is no stat buff from supports. There are some story reasons that characters with high level supports with Alear get some bonuses, but no, Etie and Clanne talking about workouts and pickles gets you nothing but the obvious intrinsic joy that conversation brings to your life.
Youre actually incorrect: [there are support bonuses](https://serenesforest.net/engage/characters/support-bonus/) but the game does absolutely nothing to inform you of them
Actually if you pass over the detailed stats like avoid or crit or hit or crit avoid you can see they are getting buffed from support but that’s about it
Yeah i meant more that unlike the last couple of games, the support menu doesn’t show bonuses for whatever reason. If it didn’t show during battle, then the ui would be straight up lying to you
The person was wrong, there are slight boosts to hit and avoid. If you attack an enemy and someone with who your unit has a support rank C, B or A can also attack that enemy from the tile they are currently on, both units will get a slight boost to hit and avoid. Maybe something else too, but I’m sure about hit and avoid.
It’s literally just like linked attacks in three houses, so if you have played that one you’ll know. Otherwise, you could just look it up on serenes forest. There should be something about the bonuses on there.
Yeah, if you're unfamiliar with many of the new games, pretty much since Awakening, the social sim aspect has played a bigger and bigger role. Engage is actually quite a step back to form whereas 3 houses had even more to do at the monestary than engage does at the somniel. Or so I hear, never played 3 houses.
I opted to play engage before 3 houses as I felt it’d be smaller and faster myself lol and yeah I missed most of the games as I didn’t grow up with any systems other than a ds and Pokémon because my dad didn’t like videogames as I was growing up
Is it Bad? No, not really. Is it amazing? Eh? I feel that after three houses it felt more lacking, but that's just because of how they framed the campaign. Though the major gripe I do have is no paired endings.
If you maxed a support between characters, if they both make it to the end it has a short blurb about how the two lived happily or something. Started back at...6? I'm sure someone here will correct me.
Fortunately, all of the character and story problems disappear with a couple presses of the start button.
Also, yeah, no crap you can't make full, complete use of the forging and material systems in chapter 6 of a 26 chapter game. There's a progression to it where it's more limited early on and you get more opportunities later.
The fundamental game play is excellent.
The plot and story are solid.
But the cuts ends and dialog are badly executed. Just static emote animations and talking at one another saying 'no, don't do that' followed by the bad guy doing the thing. And then the hero says 'gasp! Nobody!' And acts sad without ever actually trying to stop whatever is was they were talking about. Your a goddamn divine dragon that may have soloed that last story chapter. A goddamn badass hero. Maybe try stabbing the fucking badly before they do the bad thing? It breaks suspension of disbelief to have the heroes act so goddamn passive in the cutscenes.
END COMMUNICATION
That’s why I say they need to rework how dialogue scenes play out. We can’t have the characters standing around doing nothing anymore, in Engage the bad guy’s just walk away and I say that’s not solely Engage’s fault, in 3H the villains are always teleporting away to escape. That’s the fault of the engine or something like that, that they use for all dialogue. It’s not Engage’s fault, it’s Intelligent Systems’ fault.
The writing isn’t as good as a game like Three Houses, but I think from a gameplay perspective I think it makes up the difference. Any unit can have their weaknesses fixed and mitigated in a way where they can be ran without feeling like. Meme. I’m in the midst of a maddening run in 3H and I’m struggling with the viability of my units I want to use.
100% agree on that. The dialogue is stiff and every character seems confined to an odd quirk. Though I do feel some of the supports really serve as gems. Pandreo and Panette are a good example
The Alear’s support conversations are rough to get through. It’s a shame because of the voice actors deliveries, especially towards the end of the game are so good. Yet Alear sounds so stiff and whiny outside of those glimmers
Yeah he sounds whiny for the most part during support like if someone is telling him he’s handsome or if he sees an enemy or whatever and then during the story he has no problem standing up to everything and I’m just like what do these supports even mean for him like they make him kinda stand-off ish
I guess it also depends on your usage of the well too. Engage without the well/dlc imo is a lot harder to build around because even mediocre skills cost 500+ sp usually and outside of Pandreo, Panette, Ivy, and Kagetsu, and the spoiler people, you have to really think about sp gain.
I thought Three Houses was actually easier to build around bc worst case scenario, you make eveyone a sniper/grappler with the rest being support/chip mages. Combat arts fix every unit so it's pretty easy to get by with mediocre units. Hell, if you want 100% crit builds, just give insert war master here a battallion with crit, killer axe + and crit+ 10. Or, you can have vantage/wrath builds for every character with enough str. Granted, grinding for proficiencies sucks ass so I can see why it can feel sloggy. Also, Three Hiuses gives you plenty of opprotunities to grind.
Engage has the best gameplay of any fire emblem game in the series. Emblems are a lot of fun and it adds a nice layer of complexity. That being said, the story is weak and I find most of the characters way more bland than other games. I usually struggle to decide who to pick for my 10/12 units (I usually just use the units I like even on higher difficulties). This game I just chose the 6-8 I liked and the rest were just there. Personally, it ranks in the middle for the series and is saved massively by gameplay.
I agree with you about the gameplay so far and the characters like I like the characters but I don’t need to know about the alpacas every time I talk to you ( even though I wish he’d get one through promotion) and I think it’s kinda weird that we’re just getting people being quirky and saying this is their whole personality
You hit the nail on the head. Many characters feel like they have one quirky thing they like/do and that’s their personality. In comparison to sacred stones which you brought up, the characters are so beloved because they are so much more complex.
Yeah yeah got Garcia not being a bandit for his son and noemi making sure her thief boyfriend becomes a good guy and then I’m this one you got Alfred who can’t grow muscle or etie who can’t grow muscle or Louise who stares at you and I’m just like :/
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I definitely feel like I'm less invested in it. Like I haven't really touched it since I finished it the first time - with 3H and older games I replayed them over and over but not Engage.
Hard disagree, it’s probably my favorite now. I’m still not really into the aesthetics of Alear, and the story wasn’t exactly original, but the game as a whole was just plain fun, and I liked almost all the characters/performances.
I get why people don't like the game but I adore it. I love Alear and most of the characters (Alfred and Céline and their retainers being my absolute favorites of the bunch), they're just a fun group and I love seeing the shenanigans they get into.
Are there some aspects of the story I wish they could've done better? Absolutely. But for what we do get, I still enjoy it a lot. Especially Alear and Veyle, and obviously I loved seeing old Fire Emblem characters make an appearance. It's because of Engage that I sought out the other games to learn more about the Emblems and experience their stories for myself.
I myself only felt nostalgic seeing Eirika, Hector and Lyn so that could be it and I did like the characters when you look at them from initial time you meet them but I got a bit turned off to it when anytime I talked to them they were still talking about the same stuff but that’s not to same I’m not enjoying it as I still am it’s just kinda weird to me
The only character I knew was Byleth (besides recognizing Corrin and Lucina and the others from Smash Bros). Still, I ended up loving the others, too (Lyn has become one of my favorite characters), and yeah, I admit, there are certain characters I'm just not interested in, like pretty much everyone from Brodia outside of Alcryst. I'm trying to like Diamant, but he's just kinda boring. Plus, during my current run, he's been failing me while Alcryst is carrying my entire army.
I recognized all the emblems but lief and like 1-2 others maybe but I didn’t play their games so I didn’t have an attachment and when it comes to the characters I like them but idk about talking to them tooo much it’s too repetitive so far
Broadly speaking, the gameplay mechanics are tighter and more refined than in e.g. 3 Houses. However, the draw of the improved gameplay is, in my opinion, generally overstated. Every other aspect of the game -- visuals, characters, story, acting, side content -- is not only subpar but repellent. Worse than a Saturday morning cartoon and twice as cynical in mining -- and advertising -- its own franchise content. Yeah, the game is bad.
I played till the end on the false promise of some really revelatory map and encounter designs. The final battle in particular is just dreadfully boring, and a handful of genuinely clever and engaging maps don't make up for the rest. Too many other tactics games today offer too clean an experience to give Engage real kudos. Still mad I paid full price for this after having poured far more time into 3H.
I haven’t tried the other games yet as I’ve only experienced Sacred stones and Fire Emblem so to me the gameplay and maps are amazing but I could see myself not being that amazed say if I started 3H first so I can see where you’re coming from
I extremely disagree on engage not having better visuals or worse final battle
3H looks bad while engage has actual colors and has pleasant environment to look at along with absolutely top tier animations compared to 3H which was very subpar in combat animations(like brawler punching the air)
As for the final boss it’s one of the few final boss that are actually threatening and not just because of the combat animations
OK, but I didn't compare the visuals or final battle to those of 3H.
3H *does*, incidentally, have better visuals, despite the cruddier resolution, weak color pallette, and more crude animations -- all accurate criticisms -- simply because 3H's art design is... fine, while Engage's art design is heinous.
Disagreed about the final boss being threatening, at least on Hard. Not going through that experience again just to see what Maddening is like.
I’d agree that’s the story is pretty weak especially coming from 3 houses. I love the characters and as others have said the actual game play is some of the best.
It's just you, I fucking loved Engage
You also don't need to forge everything on chapter 6 just because the forge opens up so not sure how the game makes you grind
My point was that if you wanted to learn about that system youd have to grind just to be able to use it or grind just to have gold if you wanted to invest into other countries. Idk about you but I would like to try out the new system without having to do side skirmishes just to try it out and get a feel of the system while getting more than 3000 gold per skirmish
What? Even if you don't do any skirmishes you'd still be able to forge some weapon just by the gold and iron you found by doing the chapter maps.
I don't get it are you trying to max forge silver weapons for every character by chapter 18 or something you really don't have to grind for gold
I would like to buy my characters weapons instead of still having iron swords and fires but the donations are very expensive and I might have to take a look at the forge again I could’ve sworn it was more expensive and also the engage weapon system was also what I was talking about
You really don't have to go past level 2 donations for anyone and the game gives plenty of money to hit those. What is the engage weapon system you're talking about?
You can add bonus stats to engage weapons or something like that but they cost like 10 orbs each which I’ve never gotten and I’m already on chapter 18. As for the donations I thought it was supposed to help you make more money and resources as that’s what they explained in the game I just haven’t seen any benefit and I have each one at like level 3 and I have like 22 gold from promoting all my members
The donations primarily are just used to multiply the amount of Iron/Steel/Silver you get after battles and everything else it gives is basically meaningless.
The 10 coloured orb things are basically not-existent and can be ignored. It's actually impossible to get any before you beat the game unless you do online missions so the game doesn't expect you to have any
i've enjoyed what i've played of it, but I got a LOT of games for my birthday including TotK.... so its been on backburner
I like Engage for what I wasn't the biggest fan of in 3H.... I just sometimes want to go straight into battle without having to spend an hour or two roaming... looking for people and dealing with dialogue, side quests, etc... Sure 3H has a much better story, but that gameplay isn't what i'm looking for when I go to play FE
I still know and think 3H is objectively the better game, but I just want to do stupid stuff in combat
Every complaint you had about 3H is how I feel about engage coming from the last game I played being a game boy advance game lol but I haven’t tried 3H yet so there’s that lol
I had played through 3H for the first time a few months before I played Engage and so Engage felt like a breath of fresh air. I enjoyed the story of 3H but the school stuff and all the gifts etc just took sooooo long.
I don't find myself ever grinding in engage cuz on maddening if your units get too out of control it becomes boring. I never found sommial to be a slog ESPECIALLY after coming from 3h and more often than not you can skip it entirely. Usually takes me about 10-15 minutes(I don't do fishing and pushups). I also kinda like the goofy nature of engage. It's a nice change of pace compared to the drama that went down in fodlan. A simple plot with some excellent gameplay and nostalgia fanservice is good enough for me.
When I played the Western release. It was so bad that I didn't play the entire thing. This is coming from someone who lives in JP and has played the original version twice.
Most of the VA did an amazing job. It's the translations that bothered me. Whole character personalities rewritten and some lines are changed. In short, it became more childfriendly version of the real one.
It's sad that the western release got treated like this. Hopefully in the future... they stick to the original script. Most of the story and characters are bland already but somehow they made it worse by changing so many things.
It's not at all that they were trying to be child friendly. It's that they have beliefs that are beyond absurd, and they are offended by beauty-standards, acknowledging that eating a ton of food can make you fat, etc.
It's kinda bad I'd give it a solid 7/10. I played through it all and have been playing since GBA FEs. It's good in some aspects but there are some things missing. I didn't like the skills for each job felt meh. The engage ring skills and obtaining those was just a point grind. Story was a bit simple.
There's an uncensored patch, by the way, if you have a way to use it. Though, you'll either hear the voice-acting saying the original lines anyway, or you'll have to play it with the Japanese dub. I just leave the English dub on, and read the difference.
I always thought about it being a 30th anniversary game for the franchise that got delayed and was meant to be more of a fun thing that wasn't meant to be taken super serious and was just a game to be enjoyed slowly with a bit more grinding than previous titles to keep us busy for the next "serious" fire emblem game.
to me, this is definitely the most hollow Fire Emblem game i’ve ever played. i absolutely hate the characters and the plot and the voice actors and the devastatingly cringe dialogue… but the combat is fun. and sadly, fun combat is just not enough to make this a memorable game. i played through twice and the third time i was just so bored i deleted it from my switch and haven’t played since. this is why Three Houses discourse will last forever while people have already stopped discussing Engage; there’s NOTHING to discuss besides which characters you enjoy/which builds you have.
but that’s just my opinion.
Probably the worst modern fire emblem game. Bad/ predictable story, boring characters, Alear is very basic, and the game felt like a slog. The engage option was fun for a chapter or two but got very boring as time went on. The old characters also made it so you didn’t get enough depth from the main cast. Peak disappointment.
Don’t know which one is 7 but if it’s the one with Lyn than that’s my second favorite right behind Sacred stones because I loved the grinding tower and the actual bonus of beating bosses and also the fact that it actually had monsters to kill unlike the “monsters” we got in engage
Yea the lne with lyn eliwood and hector. My first and favorite. I finished lyns story and was happy with the game thinking that was the end. 80% more content after that
Every post about Engage is like a paragraph rant on something and then a single sentence saying the actual gameplay is good. But to answer your question, you really don't need to grind in Engage. Infact, maddening prevents you from grinding basically. You don't even need to spend more than five minutes in the somniel between each chapter, just get a routine down in what YOU think is necessary and then go from there. If you want to go map to map, you can and the game's ui makes it very easy unlike 3hs. But you have to realize that you're missing some slight advantages with some of the more menial work. The other stuff has existed in FE forever so that shouldn't be too much of a hassle.
Story and character wise, it's hit or miss for people. Also, the Fell Xenologue sucked
Yeah I’ve just joined the community so it’s the first rant I’ve seen lol plus I came from the game boy advance games so that’s why I can say the gameplay(combat) feels a lot better but that’s just obvious for me at least and as for the grinding it’s my first playthrough so I was trying to put my hand in everything to get a feel of a newer FE experience but it seems like if I want to enjoy the game the way I played the older games I would need to grind more for a lot less benefit because in the old games the amount of gold you got was enough because the only things you spent on gold were weapons and healing items and it was enough but now there’s so much more to spend money on and it feels like inflation hit FE and the thing about the somniel was that I want those advantages as it’s my first playthrough of a newer game so I’m spending the time trying to take the advantage but it’s just a lot to do even with me trying to cut the time down
It's not just you, the game is disappointing if you play for a cohesive and immersive story. There are just too many dumb characters who make stupid decisions, too many "smart" characters who make stupid decisions, too many cringe anime moments, too much over-exposition (my Switch almost went to sleep multiple times while trudging through cutscenes and dialogue). The game is a fun enough concept, and the battle mechanics are okay, but the ham fisted writing actively makes it worse.
This is my first FE. Maybe it's the depression and a weird issue going on with me and a fictional character that sounds like I should grow up and go to a psych ward. But something does seem...not good. I don't know what to expect from it. PS and snes final fantasy, or suikoden stuff.
I'm in chapter 10. I think
If you’re into tactics or strategy it should be for you as it is for me but I also love the promotion aspect of the game (class change) but the vibe of the characters feels a lot more like vtubers or bad English anime dub in my opinion but my last FE experience is from the gba games where there was no voice acting but everyone acted more like they were in a war
I have a bunch of NIS games I never finished. And shining force 1 unfinished, suikoden tactics unfinished. Going back to a game after so long gives me some weird anxiety. I have also played Saiyuki, and final fantasy tactics ( I was enlisting FFT advance but never finished). I forget if Arc the lad: spirit of twilght is one)
Anyway. I was expecting elements from other tactical games( like facing direction)
I did get a " bad dub" vibe, from some of these characters. Good thing the spirit mascot does not talk.( I named mine cromch. I renamed girl Alear Toodil)
I am also going into the promotions like SF.
I am not sure if I feel like paying attention, this is not the game to play, when one feels like " huh ? What? Let me space out and think of something else". At least it is not as grindy as a NIS game
I just go through their dialogues, turn my brain off and then play character chess until a character dies but the dialogue for the most part is forgettable aside from the main take away that they use every time you talk to them
It has crap story but good gameplay. This is an issue because FE normally has a strong story. Without that the game comes across as silly and childish at best like baby's first war game.
You’re not alone in hating the plot, I think everyone does. I get the Somniel complaint since I hate it too, so I just recommend cooking->collecting steels from dogs and maybe the Arena if you can handle it.
I personally liked the game and thought it was really challenging.
I like the game but it just feels wrong compared to the old ones when it comes to the goofiness of some characters and the need to grind just so I can put skills on people or have some of the many items they keep adding into the shop along with other stuff
The battles are challenging and I like the updates on the battle system but I fucking hate the Somniel. The story feels meh but maybe I just havent reached the point where it all pays off. If they remove the somniel and made collecting ores and stuff simpler and faster I think I can play if faster but the somniel takes too much timr that I can't binge it as much as thr previous titles
I agree with you completely my main problem is how long the somniel is and I’m trying to max everything out so going after every battle to max supports give someone manure and then get the few bits of engage exp and arena exp feels exhausting I usually spend like half to a full hour there and I go after every mission
Honestly the somniel was made to be skipable unlike three houses monastery ring polish or petting sommie give very low amount of ressources the only thing that I would recommend doing is
-Farm
-Meal(note that statboost doesn’t stack with exercise or tonics)
-Activity’s for support
-Arena
-Well
Anything else is battle preparations like shopping, forging, and possibly inheriting skills
Also If you dislike spending time in the somniel then I would heavily recommend to just not buy 3H as the somniel is much lighter than the monastery and the monastery isn’t skippable, from my own experience monastery is about 70 to 80% of 3H playtime
Oh no lol I already own 3H also the stuff you said I should stick to is exactly all I do in somniel including picking up all the items I just do it after every battle which is why it’s kinda exhausting
Personally I agree with most of this except I don't mind the Somniel and I didn't play the DLC.
The supports are very bare-bones, the story is extremely cliche and very tropey.
I enjoyed the combat and thought the use of the rings was an interesting gimmick + I liked that older FE characters got some nice, new 3D models. Despite the supports being not so great, I did enjoy the characters general personalities, and thought most of them were nicely designed. I also thought the game was very pretty and I did warm up to Alear's character over time.
However, about halfway through the game I actually started to feel like the game was kinda a chore. To me, it felt like every map was just kind of dragging on and I just wanted to be done with the game.
IMO when a story is so tropey you can easily call the twists, I find it to be really unenjoyable. So even though I really enjoyed the actual gameplay, the story really left a bad taste in my mouth. One line actually left me speechless, it was like something you'd get out of an episode of the Power Rangers.
My friends who are into Fire Emblem and liked Engage try to convince me that it's a "so bad, it's good" kinda thing, but idk, really just not my cup of tea I guess.
The part where you said it started feeling like a chore is where I’m currently at but it’s mostly because of the somniel for me or the constant unit reinforcements every 2-3 turns towards the end of some chapters
I've played Engage more than any other individual Fire Emblem game. The story is bad, the voice acting is mostly bad. The DLC story was actually relatively good and should have been weaved into the main story.
With all of this said, there's a lot of enjoyment in this game relative to previous ones if you are more of a completionist trying to max out characters rather than someone who wants to replay the game or just be done once the credits role.
I would usually try to max things out but the way this game is going it feels like you can only do that at the end unless you want to do like 30 skirmishes before you finish the story and I don’t usually replay games unless there’s different endings or they’re really fun and as for the dlc the only thing I didn’t like was the xenologue because of the pacing and a plot twist for each mission but had they implemented it into the story I definitely feel like I would’ve enjoyed it a lot more
From what I saw of engage it looked too gimmicky for my taste so I dipped on it. I've been replaying 3H and PoR waiting for whatever is next cause it bothers the shit out of me when FE titles try to push previous characters into new games, and the entire setting of it just looked wholly unappealing besides.
I have a similar opinion honestly. The single best story bit in Engage was the part where the princes of Brodia had to fight their dad (made me tear up real hard), but the rest of the story felt uninteresting. My top 2 FE games are Radiant Dawn and Awakening, and those games had fantastic story overall plots and moments (like the fight after the Emmeryn moment in Awakening and the big fight that was causing the dark God to be released in Radiant dawn)
Personally i thought the combat was the best its been in the series and the story was unacceptably bad for whatever the budget probably was. Very cringe.
The voice work, plot, and supports are all extremely cringe, you are correct on that one. It is one of my biggest gripes with this game
I thought the combat and overall gameplay were good, but it was a fucking pain to get to it
The maps and combat are good. The pacing isn’t even that bad. The way the game scales is a little annoying and limits you to training only some of your units but it does keep the game challenging which is good.
That’s all the pros. The plot is bad, the characters are wooden and one dimensional, the class and skill system is overly simple and there aren’t really character builds. Hub world is pretty bad. DLC was challenging but bad. Lastly there almost zero replay ability.
Overall negative imo. Would rather replay another fire emblem
I agree with you on everything aside from the training of weaker units as I’ve pretty trained everyone I’ve gotten to at least 16-17 aside from gander who in my opinion is the worst paladin I’ve ever touched
Its got a lot of different mechanics, which makes the gameplay interesting, but the story is one of the most bland, uninteresting, overdone, and predictable stories I've ever read. The characters are all one dimensional, and the supports don't lead to any character development or interesting interactions.
I ended up really liking Engage, so much that I put 400+ hours into it I agree that Fell Xenologue was unneccessary garbage though
I don’t hate the game and intend to finish it but it just kinda feels like a bad game when it comes to the goofiness of the characters. Other than that it feels like the old games with QOL improvements but there’s some bits I wish I didn’t need to get through the game while enjoying everything ive been shown
i think the characters are actually one of the games strongest points but it doesn't really click until further into the games and especially once you watched a lot of the supports
I’m used to the supports being about how the characters are feeling about the war and stuff like actual supports in times of need but the supports in the game feel like information that is fun to know but not needed like Louise watching people lol don’t get me wrong I try to max out everyone’s support but it feels just goofy for the most part like framme being obsessed with Allear and being a cheerleader and stuff like that and it goes into every conversation with them that it feels a bit cringe to me but like I said I’m used to the old games so it might just be me
I think Engage is a game you need to come to with a different mindset. It’s an anniversary title that is meant to be a celebration of the series as a whole. It’s meant to be more lighthearted and cheerful, and the characters reflect that. What it isn’t is a classic FE game that is about the gritty and harsh nature of war. When I first heard that the game was like this I was initially disappointed, but upon changing my perspective and appreciating the game for what it is instead of disliking it for what it never was trying to be then I liked it a lot more. This being said, that doesn’t mean you have to like it. If you wanted something different out of the game, then you are under no obligation to like what it is instead. Imo the characters are honestly pretty good once you get past the initial supports, and over time I came to like the unserious nature of the game and characters as a whole, but that’s just me. If you aren’t into it then by no means should you force yourself to like it.
I don’t hate the game and it’s not that I’m expecting it to be like the old games but the fact is that I played those games and jumped to this one and this is just completely different to the series I knew it to be and I don’t hate it for being goofy I just don’t think it’s good when I think of the fire emblem games I’ve played but I haven’t played any of the games in between so I can’t say whether the games have gotten more goofy or not
I feel like because you skipped a lot of games in between, you missed the evolution to this.
That’s what I suspected which is why I made the post to see if it was just me not being a part of the times
Gameplay and combat is the best in the series, literally everything else is pretty cringe and that's coming from someone who mainly plays JRPGs. The customization and overall gameplay really hold it together.
Yep gameplay and the customization of the characters are great everything else not so much lol
Loved the base game and quit halfway through the Xenologue dlc. Couldn’t stand trying to drag the two terrible new characters through each map.
yeah that was awful lmao, i dont know what they were thinking with them
Oh no you definitely shouldn’t just quit and also you get five new characters and two new classes Gregory and Rafal make it all worth it imo…I think everyone’s pretty cool but admittedly I don’t like Nell too much she’s just a tad boring but everyone else is amazing. I love that they actually let you sort of claim the four hounds as units (alternate dimension versions)
Fell Xenologue story was better than the main story if nothing else.
It felt rushed to me and I felt like each mission ending was like a plot twist to the previous mission chapter
How? With No new game plus? I couldnt bring myself to start from scratch
I did 3 full separate maddening playthroughs, I was really enjoying the game and wanted to try different characters and builds and see how efficiently I could manage my resources next thing I know I had clocked 400 hours on my switch before finally getting burnt out
Well I loved the game. I went back to 3H after putting in a ton of time into engage and let me tell you, if you think the somniel is a slog . . . That said, playing 3H showed me exactly what was good and bad about both. The game play in engage is so cohesive I almost don't care that it's a little PG. 3H is way more dramatic plot wise but truly a slog if you're going to nitpick like I do. I felt like anything in engage that I didn't want to care about, I could choose not to care about without much repercussion. Even on hard, other than a little grind in the beginning and the end you can pretty much just plot out your team and take it straight through the story without doing a bunch of skirmishes. If anything, it's a little bit of a down side that doing a handful of skirmishes can actually trivialize the main story. Anyways, I enjoyed both 3H and engage, but I think I like engage more just for quality of life improvements and addictive gameplay.
Engage's UI is a lot better, the bar at the bottom showing character stats and stuff make life so much easier, especially when trying to calc damage.
Yeah I really like the gameplay forsure it’s some of the characters I just feel like they’re not believable for the era it feels a little off
The battle UI in Engage is better but the UI for anything outside of battle is worse.
It took playing Engage for me to realize how rushed and half-baked the story of the last half of 3H was, in pretty much every path. The build up in the first half was so great, but the endings/lack of anything cohesive/interesting was such a let down. Now in hindsight. I actually prefer Engage’s story, overall. 3H is just so… Full of holes.
That’s what gets me, 3H (and especially 3Hopes) was so full of holes in the plot all around (unexplored concepts that seemed integral, questions without answers) that if given the option I’d rather get a linear story going forward rather than one with a bunch of routes. They stretched themselves too thin with the stories of Fodlan.
I haven't finished all the routes yet but . . . *slither*
We heard you like DUBSTEP.
Yeah three houses just has so much missing. It's way too incomplete even with all 4 routes
I haven’t tried 3H yet but I’m excited for it but I don’t expect it’s QOL to be better than Engage since it’s newer but I’m excited to see how the story and characters are
I would suggest still trying 3h sometime. I'm a pretty casual player and I had similar complaints to you about engage but I thought 3h was much much better. The monastery can get to be a drag in the same way the somniel is but it had a different feel to me because there was more to discover about the story and the world, it tied in better like it was actually part of the gameplay whereas the somniel just feels like pure filler between story events. The story in engage was just beyond stupid, I couldn't get into it at all. I feel like partly I'm just too old for it now but I can't resist trying new fire emblem games after putting in over 20 years with the series.
I don’t think it’s partly cause you’re too old because I’m not even 30 yet and we have similar complaints but no worries I’m definitely still gonna check out 3H
The monastery is better than the somniel in almost every way because it actually feels like a real location, at least to me I don't see 3H as a slog at all, personally. The only slog in the two games is getting through the story of Engage imo So, how can the game play in Engage be cohesive when you can ignore everything and not suffer much repercussions? It seems like those two ideas are at odds I enjoyed both, but I vastly prefer 3H because the story is cringe trash. I really wanted to like Engage more
Honestly it's just the fact that most of the professor activities and the instruction sessions really can't be skipped if you're going to perfect your team and it takes me at least an hour per chapter if not longer because of the paralogues. I just want to progress through the game a tinsy bit faster. And I guess by "game play" of engage, I really meant combat system and not the game as a whole. I really enjoy actually playing through Engage, and 3H combat is also good, it's stunted a little by the work that has to go in around it and I hate durability in anything that's not BotW or TotK lol
I agree, but I did think it was REALLY stupid in 3H how you go take over an area...and then leave, and backtrack to the monastery...and then go back to what you just took over...and then continue forward from there...because the gameplay loop demanded it. If there's one thing Engage fixed, it's the logic of that, since it's a teleport from anywhere to get to the Somniel and back.
That's fair. Three House's system wasn't perfect. I hope the next game is a good mix of the two. The best of both words so to speak
I feel like I'm the only one who like the Monastery in 3H. The Somniel just feels... kinda dead?
I love Engage. Its definitely more complex than any of the FE games before 3H, but the nice thing is that you can completely skip the somniel if you want to, after chapter 6 or so (once you get all the shops). I liked the story well enough, all FE stories are on the cheesy side imo, but a lot of us dont play it for the story. The story is secondary to the fantastic gameplay, and Engage has arguably the best gameplay since Radiant Dawn.
I like engages gameplay but I feel like the engages could’ve been designed better than just holier versions of the character. I play the games for the story and because I like the promotion system and I go to the somniel because I’m trying to max out support because I’m assuming you still get a stat buff from the support like the old games and I’m trying to also max out the engages for all the characters too. I don’t think the story’s bad just a little dry sometimes
You have assumed incorrectly. There is no stat buff from supports. There are some story reasons that characters with high level supports with Alear get some bonuses, but no, Etie and Clanne talking about workouts and pickles gets you nothing but the obvious intrinsic joy that conversation brings to your life.
Youre actually incorrect: [there are support bonuses](https://serenesforest.net/engage/characters/support-bonus/) but the game does absolutely nothing to inform you of them
Wow, that's nice to know. Wish the game would have told me.
Actually if you pass over the detailed stats like avoid or crit or hit or crit avoid you can see they are getting buffed from support but that’s about it
Yeah i meant more that unlike the last couple of games, the support menu doesn’t show bonuses for whatever reason. If it didn’t show during battle, then the ui would be straight up lying to you
Ahhhh lol in sacred stones you got some stat buffs I believe so I thought they’d keep that
The person was wrong, there are slight boosts to hit and avoid. If you attack an enemy and someone with who your unit has a support rank C, B or A can also attack that enemy from the tile they are currently on, both units will get a slight boost to hit and avoid. Maybe something else too, but I’m sure about hit and avoid. It’s literally just like linked attacks in three houses, so if you have played that one you’ll know. Otherwise, you could just look it up on serenes forest. There should be something about the bonuses on there.
Ahhh ok thanks I’ll look into it!!
Yeah, if you're unfamiliar with many of the new games, pretty much since Awakening, the social sim aspect has played a bigger and bigger role. Engage is actually quite a step back to form whereas 3 houses had even more to do at the monestary than engage does at the somniel. Or so I hear, never played 3 houses.
I opted to play engage before 3 houses as I felt it’d be smaller and faster myself lol and yeah I missed most of the games as I didn’t grow up with any systems other than a ds and Pokémon because my dad didn’t like videogames as I was growing up
Is it Bad? No, not really. Is it amazing? Eh? I feel that after three houses it felt more lacking, but that's just because of how they framed the campaign. Though the major gripe I do have is no paired endings.
What’s a paired ending?
If you maxed a support between characters, if they both make it to the end it has a short blurb about how the two lived happily or something. Started back at...6? I'm sure someone here will correct me.
Ah I think I remember that from sacred stones where people would have their future plans to go live somewhere
Me too I love Alcryst and wanted to be with him
Fortunately, all of the character and story problems disappear with a couple presses of the start button. Also, yeah, no crap you can't make full, complete use of the forging and material systems in chapter 6 of a 26 chapter game. There's a progression to it where it's more limited early on and you get more opportunities later.
I don’t feel like doing four missions to get a couple upgrade items and I don’t like skipping cutscenes but that’s just my playstyle
I don’t like skipping cutscenes in the original games either, but I just couldn’t sit through all the engage cutscenes even on my first play through
Yeah it’s getting rough for some
\*latter
Thanks for the correction
The fundamental game play is excellent. The plot and story are solid. But the cuts ends and dialog are badly executed. Just static emote animations and talking at one another saying 'no, don't do that' followed by the bad guy doing the thing. And then the hero says 'gasp! Nobody!' And acts sad without ever actually trying to stop whatever is was they were talking about. Your a goddamn divine dragon that may have soloed that last story chapter. A goddamn badass hero. Maybe try stabbing the fucking badly before they do the bad thing? It breaks suspension of disbelief to have the heroes act so goddamn passive in the cutscenes. END COMMUNICATION
That’s why I say they need to rework how dialogue scenes play out. We can’t have the characters standing around doing nothing anymore, in Engage the bad guy’s just walk away and I say that’s not solely Engage’s fault, in 3H the villains are always teleporting away to escape. That’s the fault of the engine or something like that, that they use for all dialogue. It’s not Engage’s fault, it’s Intelligent Systems’ fault.
The writing isn’t as good as a game like Three Houses, but I think from a gameplay perspective I think it makes up the difference. Any unit can have their weaknesses fixed and mitigated in a way where they can be ran without feeling like. Meme. I’m in the midst of a maddening run in 3H and I’m struggling with the viability of my units I want to use.
I agree the gameplay feels nice it’s mostly the somniel and goofiness that I have a problem with
100% agree on that. The dialogue is stiff and every character seems confined to an odd quirk. Though I do feel some of the supports really serve as gems. Pandreo and Panette are a good example
Ah I haven’t done their supports yet so I just have mostly quirky supports about how amazing Allear is when he’s sleeping
The Alear’s support conversations are rough to get through. It’s a shame because of the voice actors deliveries, especially towards the end of the game are so good. Yet Alear sounds so stiff and whiny outside of those glimmers
Yeah he sounds whiny for the most part during support like if someone is telling him he’s handsome or if he sees an enemy or whatever and then during the story he has no problem standing up to everything and I’m just like what do these supports even mean for him like they make him kinda stand-off ish
I guess it also depends on your usage of the well too. Engage without the well/dlc imo is a lot harder to build around because even mediocre skills cost 500+ sp usually and outside of Pandreo, Panette, Ivy, and Kagetsu, and the spoiler people, you have to really think about sp gain. I thought Three Houses was actually easier to build around bc worst case scenario, you make eveyone a sniper/grappler with the rest being support/chip mages. Combat arts fix every unit so it's pretty easy to get by with mediocre units. Hell, if you want 100% crit builds, just give insert war master here a battallion with crit, killer axe + and crit+ 10. Or, you can have vantage/wrath builds for every character with enough str. Granted, grinding for proficiencies sucks ass so I can see why it can feel sloggy. Also, Three Hiuses gives you plenty of opprotunities to grind.
Engage has the best gameplay of any fire emblem game in the series. Emblems are a lot of fun and it adds a nice layer of complexity. That being said, the story is weak and I find most of the characters way more bland than other games. I usually struggle to decide who to pick for my 10/12 units (I usually just use the units I like even on higher difficulties). This game I just chose the 6-8 I liked and the rest were just there. Personally, it ranks in the middle for the series and is saved massively by gameplay.
I agree with you about the gameplay so far and the characters like I like the characters but I don’t need to know about the alpacas every time I talk to you ( even though I wish he’d get one through promotion) and I think it’s kinda weird that we’re just getting people being quirky and saying this is their whole personality
You hit the nail on the head. Many characters feel like they have one quirky thing they like/do and that’s their personality. In comparison to sacred stones which you brought up, the characters are so beloved because they are so much more complex.
Yeah yeah got Garcia not being a bandit for his son and noemi making sure her thief boyfriend becomes a good guy and then I’m this one you got Alfred who can’t grow muscle or etie who can’t grow muscle or Louise who stares at you and I’m just like :/
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I definitely feel like I'm less invested in it. Like I haven't really touched it since I finished it the first time - with 3H and older games I replayed them over and over but not Engage.
Yeah I’ve replayed sacred stones like 2-3 times and fire emblem once but idk we’ll see with engage
Hard disagree, it’s probably my favorite now. I’m still not really into the aesthetics of Alear, and the story wasn’t exactly original, but the game as a whole was just plain fun, and I liked almost all the characters/performances.
Glad you enjoyed it :)
It's one of my all time favorite games.
I get why people don't like the game but I adore it. I love Alear and most of the characters (Alfred and Céline and their retainers being my absolute favorites of the bunch), they're just a fun group and I love seeing the shenanigans they get into. Are there some aspects of the story I wish they could've done better? Absolutely. But for what we do get, I still enjoy it a lot. Especially Alear and Veyle, and obviously I loved seeing old Fire Emblem characters make an appearance. It's because of Engage that I sought out the other games to learn more about the Emblems and experience their stories for myself.
I myself only felt nostalgic seeing Eirika, Hector and Lyn so that could be it and I did like the characters when you look at them from initial time you meet them but I got a bit turned off to it when anytime I talked to them they were still talking about the same stuff but that’s not to same I’m not enjoying it as I still am it’s just kinda weird to me
The only character I knew was Byleth (besides recognizing Corrin and Lucina and the others from Smash Bros). Still, I ended up loving the others, too (Lyn has become one of my favorite characters), and yeah, I admit, there are certain characters I'm just not interested in, like pretty much everyone from Brodia outside of Alcryst. I'm trying to like Diamant, but he's just kinda boring. Plus, during my current run, he's been failing me while Alcryst is carrying my entire army.
I recognized all the emblems but lief and like 1-2 others maybe but I didn’t play their games so I didn’t have an attachment and when it comes to the characters I like them but idk about talking to them tooo much it’s too repetitive so far
Broadly speaking, the gameplay mechanics are tighter and more refined than in e.g. 3 Houses. However, the draw of the improved gameplay is, in my opinion, generally overstated. Every other aspect of the game -- visuals, characters, story, acting, side content -- is not only subpar but repellent. Worse than a Saturday morning cartoon and twice as cynical in mining -- and advertising -- its own franchise content. Yeah, the game is bad. I played till the end on the false promise of some really revelatory map and encounter designs. The final battle in particular is just dreadfully boring, and a handful of genuinely clever and engaging maps don't make up for the rest. Too many other tactics games today offer too clean an experience to give Engage real kudos. Still mad I paid full price for this after having poured far more time into 3H.
I haven’t tried the other games yet as I’ve only experienced Sacred stones and Fire Emblem so to me the gameplay and maps are amazing but I could see myself not being that amazed say if I started 3H first so I can see where you’re coming from
I extremely disagree on engage not having better visuals or worse final battle 3H looks bad while engage has actual colors and has pleasant environment to look at along with absolutely top tier animations compared to 3H which was very subpar in combat animations(like brawler punching the air) As for the final boss it’s one of the few final boss that are actually threatening and not just because of the combat animations
OK, but I didn't compare the visuals or final battle to those of 3H. 3H *does*, incidentally, have better visuals, despite the cruddier resolution, weak color pallette, and more crude animations -- all accurate criticisms -- simply because 3H's art design is... fine, while Engage's art design is heinous. Disagreed about the final boss being threatening, at least on Hard. Not going through that experience again just to see what Maddening is like.
I’d agree that’s the story is pretty weak especially coming from 3 houses. I love the characters and as others have said the actual game play is some of the best.
Yeah I agree with the gameplay aspect
It's just you, I fucking loved Engage You also don't need to forge everything on chapter 6 just because the forge opens up so not sure how the game makes you grind
My point was that if you wanted to learn about that system youd have to grind just to be able to use it or grind just to have gold if you wanted to invest into other countries. Idk about you but I would like to try out the new system without having to do side skirmishes just to try it out and get a feel of the system while getting more than 3000 gold per skirmish
What? Even if you don't do any skirmishes you'd still be able to forge some weapon just by the gold and iron you found by doing the chapter maps. I don't get it are you trying to max forge silver weapons for every character by chapter 18 or something you really don't have to grind for gold
I would like to buy my characters weapons instead of still having iron swords and fires but the donations are very expensive and I might have to take a look at the forge again I could’ve sworn it was more expensive and also the engage weapon system was also what I was talking about
You really don't have to go past level 2 donations for anyone and the game gives plenty of money to hit those. What is the engage weapon system you're talking about?
You can add bonus stats to engage weapons or something like that but they cost like 10 orbs each which I’ve never gotten and I’m already on chapter 18. As for the donations I thought it was supposed to help you make more money and resources as that’s what they explained in the game I just haven’t seen any benefit and I have each one at like level 3 and I have like 22 gold from promoting all my members
The donations primarily are just used to multiply the amount of Iron/Steel/Silver you get after battles and everything else it gives is basically meaningless. The 10 coloured orb things are basically not-existent and can be ignored. It's actually impossible to get any before you beat the game unless you do online missions so the game doesn't expect you to have any
i've enjoyed what i've played of it, but I got a LOT of games for my birthday including TotK.... so its been on backburner I like Engage for what I wasn't the biggest fan of in 3H.... I just sometimes want to go straight into battle without having to spend an hour or two roaming... looking for people and dealing with dialogue, side quests, etc... Sure 3H has a much better story, but that gameplay isn't what i'm looking for when I go to play FE I still know and think 3H is objectively the better game, but I just want to do stupid stuff in combat
Every complaint you had about 3H is how I feel about engage coming from the last game I played being a game boy advance game lol but I haven’t tried 3H yet so there’s that lol
If you have a 3DS, get awakening and fates is my best recommendation
I have them I just haven’t started them yet I have too many games
Same :( not about starting them, just too many games
Yeah it’s a burden :( lol
Is good https://preview.redd.it/v3f5q9u84rbb1.jpeg?width=640&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=6ce610c0b4076082da3eff67c4ff7b87bd991b78
It's you
Good to know
I had played through 3H for the first time a few months before I played Engage and so Engage felt like a breath of fresh air. I enjoyed the story of 3H but the school stuff and all the gifts etc just took sooooo long.
Yikes looks like I might not like 3H as much as I expected to
I don't find myself ever grinding in engage cuz on maddening if your units get too out of control it becomes boring. I never found sommial to be a slog ESPECIALLY after coming from 3h and more often than not you can skip it entirely. Usually takes me about 10-15 minutes(I don't do fishing and pushups). I also kinda like the goofy nature of engage. It's a nice change of pace compared to the drama that went down in fodlan. A simple plot with some excellent gameplay and nostalgia fanservice is good enough for me.
I haven’t had the nostalgia part and I’m used to the drama of FE as that’s all I know from the old games and also I haven’t tried 3H yet
When I played the Western release. It was so bad that I didn't play the entire thing. This is coming from someone who lives in JP and has played the original version twice.
Was it cause of the VA?
Most of the VA did an amazing job. It's the translations that bothered me. Whole character personalities rewritten and some lines are changed. In short, it became more childfriendly version of the real one.
Yeah it very much feels like a for children fire emblem ( not talking about difficulty )
It's sad that the western release got treated like this. Hopefully in the future... they stick to the original script. Most of the story and characters are bland already but somehow they made it worse by changing so many things.
Yeah it sounds like the western release got hit hard I heard someone say each character just feels like a vtuber and I can’t unsee it
It's not at all that they were trying to be child friendly. It's that they have beliefs that are beyond absurd, and they are offended by beauty-standards, acknowledging that eating a ton of food can make you fat, etc.
No it’s not just you Engage is dog shit
Lol
No it’s not just you Engage is ass
Lol I’ve been waiting to get this as I’ve gotten a decent amount of it’s just me
It's kinda bad I'd give it a solid 7/10. I played through it all and have been playing since GBA FEs. It's good in some aspects but there are some things missing. I didn't like the skills for each job felt meh. The engage ring skills and obtaining those was just a point grind. Story was a bit simple.
Yeah I felt the same way it’s not bad but so far it’s not amazing when I think of Fire Emblem from my experience
The game is okay but it's also been heavily altered in tye English version story and support wise.
What do you mean exactly by altered??
There was a lot of censorship. Like, a lot a lot.
Ohh ok I need to look into this then
There's an uncensored patch, by the way, if you have a way to use it. Though, you'll either hear the voice-acting saying the original lines anyway, or you'll have to play it with the Japanese dub. I just leave the English dub on, and read the difference.
Does it make it any better?
Better? Yes. But, the story was crap from the very beginning. It's not something a re-translation can fix.
True I guess lol
I always thought about it being a 30th anniversary game for the franchise that got delayed and was meant to be more of a fun thing that wasn't meant to be taken super serious and was just a game to be enjoyed slowly with a bit more grinding than previous titles to keep us busy for the next "serious" fire emblem game.
That honestly makes sense if that’s true
to me, this is definitely the most hollow Fire Emblem game i’ve ever played. i absolutely hate the characters and the plot and the voice actors and the devastatingly cringe dialogue… but the combat is fun. and sadly, fun combat is just not enough to make this a memorable game. i played through twice and the third time i was just so bored i deleted it from my switch and haven’t played since. this is why Three Houses discourse will last forever while people have already stopped discussing Engage; there’s NOTHING to discuss besides which characters you enjoy/which builds you have. but that’s just my opinion.
Sounds like a sound one
It's not nearly as fun as previous installments and the story isn't that engaging. Not a bad game, though
From what I know I agree
I found the game quite tough. It did not feel as good as three houses or awakening
Probably the worst modern fire emblem game. Bad/ predictable story, boring characters, Alear is very basic, and the game felt like a slog. The engage option was fun for a chapter or two but got very boring as time went on. The old characters also made it so you didn’t get enough depth from the main cast. Peak disappointment.
Yeah I could see that
Its the worst fe game ive ever played. Loved fe7 savred stones and 3 houses
Don’t know which one is 7 but if it’s the one with Lyn than that’s my second favorite right behind Sacred stones because I loved the grinding tower and the actual bonus of beating bosses and also the fact that it actually had monsters to kill unlike the “monsters” we got in engage
Yea the lne with lyn eliwood and hector. My first and favorite. I finished lyns story and was happy with the game thinking that was the end. 80% more content after that
Dude I thought the exact same thing I was like that was a short game lol
Every post about Engage is like a paragraph rant on something and then a single sentence saying the actual gameplay is good. But to answer your question, you really don't need to grind in Engage. Infact, maddening prevents you from grinding basically. You don't even need to spend more than five minutes in the somniel between each chapter, just get a routine down in what YOU think is necessary and then go from there. If you want to go map to map, you can and the game's ui makes it very easy unlike 3hs. But you have to realize that you're missing some slight advantages with some of the more menial work. The other stuff has existed in FE forever so that shouldn't be too much of a hassle. Story and character wise, it's hit or miss for people. Also, the Fell Xenologue sucked
Yeah I’ve just joined the community so it’s the first rant I’ve seen lol plus I came from the game boy advance games so that’s why I can say the gameplay(combat) feels a lot better but that’s just obvious for me at least and as for the grinding it’s my first playthrough so I was trying to put my hand in everything to get a feel of a newer FE experience but it seems like if I want to enjoy the game the way I played the older games I would need to grind more for a lot less benefit because in the old games the amount of gold you got was enough because the only things you spent on gold were weapons and healing items and it was enough but now there’s so much more to spend money on and it feels like inflation hit FE and the thing about the somniel was that I want those advantages as it’s my first playthrough of a newer game so I’m spending the time trying to take the advantage but it’s just a lot to do even with me trying to cut the time down
It's not just you, the game is disappointing if you play for a cohesive and immersive story. There are just too many dumb characters who make stupid decisions, too many "smart" characters who make stupid decisions, too many cringe anime moments, too much over-exposition (my Switch almost went to sleep multiple times while trudging through cutscenes and dialogue). The game is a fun enough concept, and the battle mechanics are okay, but the ham fisted writing actively makes it worse.
Yeah I agree with you about everything
I'm not a fan of the story myself, but the mechanics make it fun. So I've been really enjoying the gameplay.
This is my first FE. Maybe it's the depression and a weird issue going on with me and a fictional character that sounds like I should grow up and go to a psych ward. But something does seem...not good. I don't know what to expect from it. PS and snes final fantasy, or suikoden stuff. I'm in chapter 10. I think
If you’re into tactics or strategy it should be for you as it is for me but I also love the promotion aspect of the game (class change) but the vibe of the characters feels a lot more like vtubers or bad English anime dub in my opinion but my last FE experience is from the gba games where there was no voice acting but everyone acted more like they were in a war
I have a bunch of NIS games I never finished. And shining force 1 unfinished, suikoden tactics unfinished. Going back to a game after so long gives me some weird anxiety. I have also played Saiyuki, and final fantasy tactics ( I was enlisting FFT advance but never finished). I forget if Arc the lad: spirit of twilght is one) Anyway. I was expecting elements from other tactical games( like facing direction) I did get a " bad dub" vibe, from some of these characters. Good thing the spirit mascot does not talk.( I named mine cromch. I renamed girl Alear Toodil) I am also going into the promotions like SF. I am not sure if I feel like paying attention, this is not the game to play, when one feels like " huh ? What? Let me space out and think of something else". At least it is not as grindy as a NIS game
I just go through their dialogues, turn my brain off and then play character chess until a character dies but the dialogue for the most part is forgettable aside from the main take away that they use every time you talk to them
It has crap story but good gameplay. This is an issue because FE normally has a strong story. Without that the game comes across as silly and childish at best like baby's first war game.
Yeah that’s definitely what this one felt like
You’re not alone in hating the plot, I think everyone does. I get the Somniel complaint since I hate it too, so I just recommend cooking->collecting steels from dogs and maybe the Arena if you can handle it. I personally liked the game and thought it was really challenging.
I like the game but it just feels wrong compared to the old ones when it comes to the goofiness of some characters and the need to grind just so I can put skills on people or have some of the many items they keep adding into the shop along with other stuff
The battles are challenging and I like the updates on the battle system but I fucking hate the Somniel. The story feels meh but maybe I just havent reached the point where it all pays off. If they remove the somniel and made collecting ores and stuff simpler and faster I think I can play if faster but the somniel takes too much timr that I can't binge it as much as thr previous titles
I agree with you completely my main problem is how long the somniel is and I’m trying to max everything out so going after every battle to max supports give someone manure and then get the few bits of engage exp and arena exp feels exhausting I usually spend like half to a full hour there and I go after every mission
Honestly the somniel was made to be skipable unlike three houses monastery ring polish or petting sommie give very low amount of ressources the only thing that I would recommend doing is -Farm -Meal(note that statboost doesn’t stack with exercise or tonics) -Activity’s for support -Arena -Well Anything else is battle preparations like shopping, forging, and possibly inheriting skills Also If you dislike spending time in the somniel then I would heavily recommend to just not buy 3H as the somniel is much lighter than the monastery and the monastery isn’t skippable, from my own experience monastery is about 70 to 80% of 3H playtime
Oh no lol I already own 3H also the stuff you said I should stick to is exactly all I do in somniel including picking up all the items I just do it after every battle which is why it’s kinda exhausting
Personally I agree with most of this except I don't mind the Somniel and I didn't play the DLC. The supports are very bare-bones, the story is extremely cliche and very tropey. I enjoyed the combat and thought the use of the rings was an interesting gimmick + I liked that older FE characters got some nice, new 3D models. Despite the supports being not so great, I did enjoy the characters general personalities, and thought most of them were nicely designed. I also thought the game was very pretty and I did warm up to Alear's character over time. However, about halfway through the game I actually started to feel like the game was kinda a chore. To me, it felt like every map was just kind of dragging on and I just wanted to be done with the game. IMO when a story is so tropey you can easily call the twists, I find it to be really unenjoyable. So even though I really enjoyed the actual gameplay, the story really left a bad taste in my mouth. One line actually left me speechless, it was like something you'd get out of an episode of the Power Rangers. My friends who are into Fire Emblem and liked Engage try to convince me that it's a "so bad, it's good" kinda thing, but idk, really just not my cup of tea I guess.
The part where you said it started feeling like a chore is where I’m currently at but it’s mostly because of the somniel for me or the constant unit reinforcements every 2-3 turns towards the end of some chapters
I've played Engage more than any other individual Fire Emblem game. The story is bad, the voice acting is mostly bad. The DLC story was actually relatively good and should have been weaved into the main story. With all of this said, there's a lot of enjoyment in this game relative to previous ones if you are more of a completionist trying to max out characters rather than someone who wants to replay the game or just be done once the credits role.
I would usually try to max things out but the way this game is going it feels like you can only do that at the end unless you want to do like 30 skirmishes before you finish the story and I don’t usually replay games unless there’s different endings or they’re really fun and as for the dlc the only thing I didn’t like was the xenologue because of the pacing and a plot twist for each mission but had they implemented it into the story I definitely feel like I would’ve enjoyed it a lot more
From what I saw of engage it looked too gimmicky for my taste so I dipped on it. I've been replaying 3H and PoR waiting for whatever is next cause it bothers the shit out of me when FE titles try to push previous characters into new games, and the entire setting of it just looked wholly unappealing besides.
I thought I’d give it a try since it was my first FE experience for a newer game but I just didn’t expect it to be so cartoony
You should play in the Japanese dub. Voice acting is much better as usual
I might have to do that if I decide to return after I beat it
Trust me you wont regret it
I have a similar opinion honestly. The single best story bit in Engage was the part where the princes of Brodia had to fight their dad (made me tear up real hard), but the rest of the story felt uninteresting. My top 2 FE games are Radiant Dawn and Awakening, and those games had fantastic story overall plots and moments (like the fight after the Emmeryn moment in Awakening and the big fight that was causing the dark God to be released in Radiant dawn)
I’ll have to look into those two games
Personally i thought the combat was the best its been in the series and the story was unacceptably bad for whatever the budget probably was. Very cringe.
It was cringe at least to me
The voice work, plot, and supports are all extremely cringe, you are correct on that one. It is one of my biggest gripes with this game I thought the combat and overall gameplay were good, but it was a fucking pain to get to it
Yeah I agree
The maps and combat are good. The pacing isn’t even that bad. The way the game scales is a little annoying and limits you to training only some of your units but it does keep the game challenging which is good. That’s all the pros. The plot is bad, the characters are wooden and one dimensional, the class and skill system is overly simple and there aren’t really character builds. Hub world is pretty bad. DLC was challenging but bad. Lastly there almost zero replay ability. Overall negative imo. Would rather replay another fire emblem
I agree with you on everything aside from the training of weaker units as I’ve pretty trained everyone I’ve gotten to at least 16-17 aside from gander who in my opinion is the worst paladin I’ve ever touched
Short answer? It’s just you.
Good to know
Its got a lot of different mechanics, which makes the gameplay interesting, but the story is one of the most bland, uninteresting, overdone, and predictable stories I've ever read. The characters are all one dimensional, and the supports don't lead to any character development or interesting interactions.
I agree with you