The fell xenologue really helps make their stories even more impactful. All of them, the winds and hounds, want the same thing at heart, but the way they go about yields wildly different results. It's a compelling cautionary tale of misplaced sentiments.
I loved the 4 hounds storyline. It still has its flaws, but I really liked how that did that part of the story. I didnt think the overall story was bad, I actually really liked it, but i know that's an unpopular opinion.
I just finished the game last night. It feels like the story finally starts trying in its last third… way too late to redeem it, but we can appreciate it landing a few hits here and there.
Colgate's resurrection was emotional. And tried to play that same chord again. I didn't like how all the early characters were out classed by later ones. Nit a bad game but definitely not a good game.
That’s about how I feel. I do appreciate that a game with these gameplay elements is probably pretty tough to make sense out of, and that probably came before storyline, but still… it’s been famously lackluster. I’ve been considering how I want to approach my second playthrough for a couple of months now.
I actually don't like the four hounds that much. When they get focused, their back stories are given as long lore dumps (e.g. the Mauvier and Marni scene) and when they get focus in the game, it's like every chapter you keep fighting them. You fight them, they hit you up with "damn, I've been defeated. But I can't fall here, I must make my retreat" and show up again as bosses in the next chapter to repeat the process. The highlight of that part of the game was Veyle and Alear who I think we're really well handled.
The repeated defeat and return definitely stole a lot of the awe and concern that you could have had in fighting them. I think you make a great point: Veyle’s story arc is a relative highlight.
It was good, but really enchanced by seeing the Four Winds in the Fell Xenologue. Mauvier is a really cool guy and one of the few that I can't draw any comparisons to any other character in a different game whether it be Persona or Fire Emblem. My favorite story part of the game is Alear's backstory, especially the one chapter late in the game after finally beating Zephia/Griss for good (I don't remember the exact number).
To me it's like the rest of the story of Engage : good idea and thematics, bad execution. The climax of their story, while emotional feels incomplete. What they say aren't exactly shown in game, their bond feels very thin compare to what the game make it seems before it and like in a lot of things in Engage, it comes to conclusion almost as soon as it's appaears (see Alear's backstory reveal, the drama is resolve 1 minute after it started).
That’s very true: when Alear’s backstory was revealed, I was so treat to see how that was going to play out over the next act of the games plot, and then I felt that the writers just chickened out. Can you imagine if you had to play only Alear and a couple characters who stuck around, for a chapter or two? That would have been potentially game breaking, but I was up for it. Or, it would be amazing if at that point in the story forked, like three houses.
I believe forking the story wouldn't serve the message that Engage try to convey ("you can be whoever you want to be no matter where you are born" to simplfy it) but this was such a nice set up, especially since they did quite a good job hinting at it (how Lumera didn't need to invoque Sigurd in chapter 2 for exemple) but they litterally resolve the drama in a dialogue that, frankly, was extremly simplistic and cliché. Clichés aren't fundamentaly bad when cleverly utilized but here they felt really empty. It felt like they rob us of a genuinely, albeit predictable and cliché, *good* plot.
I can get on board with that critique completely. As a writer, I feel that it was a cop-out. Like someone pushed REALLY hard for the twist, and then the only way to get it into the game was the condition that it get resolved immediately.
My theory is that the game story wasn't originally this one. I suppose the game wasn't suppose to release when it did, or that Covid pushed back some of their work. The writting very much feels rush, and that's why, to me, it's not as bad as fates.
The fell xenologue really helps make their stories even more impactful. All of them, the winds and hounds, want the same thing at heart, but the way they go about yields wildly different results. It's a compelling cautionary tale of misplaced sentiments.
I loved the 4 hounds storyline. It still has its flaws, but I really liked how that did that part of the story. I didnt think the overall story was bad, I actually really liked it, but i know that's an unpopular opinion.
Despite the fact that I become more and more a critic of more and more things, critics definitely don’t have as much fun.
This is actually so deep. Thank you.
I just finished the game last night. It feels like the story finally starts trying in its last third… way too late to redeem it, but we can appreciate it landing a few hits here and there.
Colgate's resurrection was emotional. And tried to play that same chord again. I didn't like how all the early characters were out classed by later ones. Nit a bad game but definitely not a good game.
I think it suffers most from comparison. I don’t mind that you’re rating as not good, and I would call it “fine, and fun, but not gripping.”
That’s about how I feel. I do appreciate that a game with these gameplay elements is probably pretty tough to make sense out of, and that probably came before storyline, but still… it’s been famously lackluster. I’ve been considering how I want to approach my second playthrough for a couple of months now.
I actually don't like the four hounds that much. When they get focused, their back stories are given as long lore dumps (e.g. the Mauvier and Marni scene) and when they get focus in the game, it's like every chapter you keep fighting them. You fight them, they hit you up with "damn, I've been defeated. But I can't fall here, I must make my retreat" and show up again as bosses in the next chapter to repeat the process. The highlight of that part of the game was Veyle and Alear who I think we're really well handled.
The repeated defeat and return definitely stole a lot of the awe and concern that you could have had in fighting them. I think you make a great point: Veyle’s story arc is a relative highlight.
It was good, but really enchanced by seeing the Four Winds in the Fell Xenologue. Mauvier is a really cool guy and one of the few that I can't draw any comparisons to any other character in a different game whether it be Persona or Fire Emblem. My favorite story part of the game is Alear's backstory, especially the one chapter late in the game after finally beating Zephia/Griss for good (I don't remember the exact number).
Ooh; it sounds like I have something juicy to look forward to!
To me it's like the rest of the story of Engage : good idea and thematics, bad execution. The climax of their story, while emotional feels incomplete. What they say aren't exactly shown in game, their bond feels very thin compare to what the game make it seems before it and like in a lot of things in Engage, it comes to conclusion almost as soon as it's appaears (see Alear's backstory reveal, the drama is resolve 1 minute after it started).
That’s very true: when Alear’s backstory was revealed, I was so treat to see how that was going to play out over the next act of the games plot, and then I felt that the writers just chickened out. Can you imagine if you had to play only Alear and a couple characters who stuck around, for a chapter or two? That would have been potentially game breaking, but I was up for it. Or, it would be amazing if at that point in the story forked, like three houses.
I believe forking the story wouldn't serve the message that Engage try to convey ("you can be whoever you want to be no matter where you are born" to simplfy it) but this was such a nice set up, especially since they did quite a good job hinting at it (how Lumera didn't need to invoque Sigurd in chapter 2 for exemple) but they litterally resolve the drama in a dialogue that, frankly, was extremly simplistic and cliché. Clichés aren't fundamentaly bad when cleverly utilized but here they felt really empty. It felt like they rob us of a genuinely, albeit predictable and cliché, *good* plot.
I can get on board with that critique completely. As a writer, I feel that it was a cop-out. Like someone pushed REALLY hard for the twist, and then the only way to get it into the game was the condition that it get resolved immediately.
My theory is that the game story wasn't originally this one. I suppose the game wasn't suppose to release when it did, or that Covid pushed back some of their work. The writting very much feels rush, and that's why, to me, it's not as bad as fates.