Board 8 > Fire Emblem Engage: Official Release Topic *Tagged Spoilers*

(+) Yeah! (+)

KamikazePotato posted...

The Fire Emblem subreddit brigading Engage's metacritic score because they're salty about the low user rating is kinda funny

Yeah, it's amazing what they accomplished. Brought the score up from 6.7 to 6.9.

KamikazePotato posted...

The Fire Emblem subreddit brigading Engage's metacritic score because they're salty about the low user rating is kinda funny

To be fair, have you read those 0s?

Last I checked, there at least a half dozen that say "haven't played, but the hair is dumb, 0/10"

Yeet

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/0/4/9/AAeolZAAEJox.jpg

UshiromiyaEva posted...

To be fair, have you read those 0s?

Last I checked, there at least a half dozen that say "haven't played, but the hair is dumb, 0/10"

Fair and balanced

In all seriousness, I think the fanbase has been sticking their head in the sand about the general populace's actual response to this game and what this could mean for the series going forward. Haven't talked about it because I don't want to be a downer to the people enjoying Engage, but I'm not looking forward to the next couple years of FE discourse

So apparently certain classes give Alear a ponytail.

That's neat.

You're not wrong.

If were talking about how Engage holds up as a Fire Emblem game, mechanically and structurally, obviously it's a far superior game to Three Houses. It's not even really close, and Three Houses is one of my favorite games in the franchise, I've got 325 happy hours in it with more to come. Hell, I may still have it over Engage by a hair depending on how I feel that day.

But the 800,000ish people who only played 3H, which includes a lot of journalists, don't care about that much. They wanna know why the 17th FE isn't just an improved version of 16th. They wanna know why it doesn't have the same aesthetic. They don't like that it's different.

And it's not like the game is flawless, it has plenty of issues here and there, but the idea of throwing a 5 or 6 at it requires a level of ignorance towards what actually matters here. There are so many improvements that need to stay moving forward. FE4R is one thing, but it's going to be a travesty of the next FE proper doesn't have the Break mechanic, or goes back to weapon EXP, or remove weapon type choice, the lost goes on.

I love 3H, I love the social stuff, I love the monestary, but frankly it's gotten to the point where I'm annoyed that people won't shut up about one of my favorite games of the last decade.

TheRock1525 posted...

So apparently certain classes give Alear a ponytail.

That's neat.

Berserker and Wolf Knight.

Go with Swords Wolf and you can even keep the personal weapons!

I also just learned that achievements give you bond fragments.

That helps a lot.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Berserker and Wolf Knight.

Go with Swords Wolf and you can even keep the personal weapons!

Also Great Knight.

TheRock1525 posted...

I also just learned that achievements give you bond fragments.

That helps a lot.

....Aren't you over 2/3rds through the game?

I imagine there must have been over 20k bond frame ts in that achievment chest.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

but the idea of throwing a 5 or 6 at it requires a level of ignorance towards what actually matters here.

I think you're under/overestimating what matters to a lot of players. The percentage of people who dive deep into FE gameplay and replay it multiple times isn't that large. Most people basically treat it as a JRPG; go in, get attached to characters, experience the story, fight with the characters you've grown attached to, numbers go up. Probably on Casual mode. The notion of playing multiple times instead of moving on to the next thing is never even a consideration.

From the standpoint of a casual (or even a longtime) player who isn't a fan of Engage's art direction or writing choices, I think a 5 or lower is easily justifiable. Sure, some people will like the art style and the writing, but it's clearly evident that it isn't as widely-regarded as Three Houses or even the GBA games. The arguments people make aren't helping, either. Lots of 'it's just an anniversary game for fans' and 'it's your fault for not setting expectations properly'. That's not what casuals want to hear when they aren't enjoying something.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

....Aren't you over 2/3rds through the game?

I imagine there must have been over 20k bond frame ts in that achievment chest.

There was 37k.

Edit: I learned from Reddit by a dude who have 79k waiting.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I love 3H, I love the social stuff, I love the monestary, but frankly it's gotten to the point where I'm annoyed that people won't shut up about one of my favorite games of the last decade

It's not about 3H. People like Engage less than almost every localized FE overall. Story, characters, and art all seem to be considered on a lower tier than Conquest by the community at large.

Well you can't judge people's taste I guess!

I will absolutely take both the story and characters of this game over any of the 3DS titles. Honestly, a lot of the art too.

If you think any of the art in this is better than Echoes your taste is garbage.

I actually rank Echoes art near the bottom for FE lol, just not my thing. I think the actual QUALITY is very good, actually maybe the best, but it's just not doing anything for me aesthetically. I just can't say I care about....any of the Echoes characters....other than their high crit rates.

This seems like unreasonably hostile about something that's an opinion.

Like personally I obviously think it's a downgrade from 3H and I think I'll end up liking Awakening better but I'm still enjoying myself and don't feel the need to call people's taste "garbage."

I don't really get the arguments that Engage is this huge blow for the series. I feel like every FE game feels completely different in terms of gameplay, strengths/weaknesses, aesthetics, etc., even for those that are direct sequels. I wasn't expecting something that builds up on 3 Houses, because why would I? Engage has a lot of strengths where 3 Houses was weak in.

I guess the main takeaway is that IS should make games more like 3 Houses than Engage, which I'm completely fine with. I never expected Engage's Emblem Rings to ever come back and I much prefer the story and characters of 3 Houses for projects moving forward, anyways.

If I were to rate the best FE art...it actually gets tough.

Like, GBA FE has those GORGEOUS sprites, but I don't really feel particularly strongly about the character art. But then if I'm judging spires and their animation, I gotta also consider how good the Fates and especially the Echoes animation was for the hardware, even though I don't dig the art very much. Then you have Awakening, which dispite my distaste for the game I think has the best art for the 3DS games, but easily the worst battke models and animations of that lot.

I do love Tellius to death and the designs, but I don't think the actual art itself is all that high quality objectively (some of the colors are just...not good), and obviously the battle models, especially in Path, are...yeah.

Pre FE6 is some real classic stuff, especially the contrast in battle art from FE4 and 5 compared to GBA, and I do DIG the style of some of those designs, but I think the questionable hair for most characters is hard to ignore! Love seeing those Bond Rings though, I invested so much more in FE4 and 5 pulls than the rest just for that.

I think it's no surprise that I think 3H looks the best. It's a shame most of the in game assets and environments just don't hold up well, but the character art just speaks to me so much. I LOVE the designs in this game.

I had a gut reaction on Engage's announcement myself that I didn't like the direction, so it's not like I don't get it, but it's grown on me so much. There are so many tiny details and popping colors and design specificities, it makes you kind of regret promoting or changing anyone's class! Hell, I've made decisions for characters purely based on which promotion looks better even if it wasn't optimal. And the animations are SO GORGEOUS.

Oh...and Shadow Dragon and New Mystery look like ass. That's not a hot take. I stopped playing SD on release just because it was so ugly lol.

I gotta be honest, talking myself through it here....Engage ranks pretty damn high on the list for art to me.

I used all caps gorgeous twice, I'm a hack.

Art's interesting. I don't think I like FE art for the most part, so Engage actually gets kinda high for its good battle animations and general glow-up. I can't stand character design that focuses on school uniforms, so the first arc of 3 Houses is pretty low for me. The second half of 3 Houses is nice, though. Awakening and Fates have messy art direction, especially towards the generic enemies. I can't stand Awakening/Fates armor knights.

If I had to throw together an art list, it would be Echoes > GBA > Tellius > Engage > 3 Houses > Jugdral > Fates > Shadow Dragon/New Mystery > Awakening

Bitto posted...

I can't stand character design that focuses on school uniforms, so the first arc of 3 Houses is pretty low for me.

I get ya, I get ya, but like...

They're really GOOD school uniforms.

Its like the Attack on Titan thing for me, yeah they're all in the series' generic military garb for most of the runtime, but MAN is it some good drip.

I actually think Armor Knight design are a problem for this series from Awakening onwards, but in Awakening they're definitely at their worst. I don't like them here, either, or at least the Generals. I know it's those wierd French tube knight designs but that doesn't mean I have to like it lol.

GBA Generals were just....too good, frankly one of the best generic designs in the entire franchise. You literally can't do anything to Generals to beat that.

I guess there must be something I'm missing with the Echoes art. I definitely don't dislike it, I just don't care. And, again, I think the actual art itself is VERY good, it's just the design that does nothing for me.

I've seen a number of people say it's the best FE game too, which is just nuts to me, so clearly something just didn't click.

My problem with Engage's character design is everything is just a bit much. Celine being a prime example.

I loved the uniforms in 3H and the little differences between characters that show their personality. And most of the timeskip designs were great, save weird things like Felix's hair.

TheRock1525 posted...

My problem with Engage's character design is everything is just a bit much. Celine being a prime example.

Firene characters in general don't look great, another example of the game putting it's worst foot forward. Some people are all about Chloe but I dunno, she looks way better after turning her into a generic Sage TBH. Etie is the only one I really dig (absolutely should be turned into a Warrior instead of a Sniper to keep her aesthetic going TBH), and Yunaka is actually Brodia so she doesn't count.

Characters like Zelkov, Diamant, Panette, Yunaka, Timerra, and quite a few more are just somenifnthe best looking character's we've gotten I think. Especially looking through that Artbook, it all just pops so much, so many little details. Stuff like all the keys lining Zelkov's coat, it's so good.

Yeah, that was overly hostile, sorry.

I think Celine's design is great other than the flowers on top of the crown.

Etie should've had more muscles - her Pact Ring art looks much better.

Yunaka's design might be okay without the star on her cheek. Timerra's balls are pretty bad too.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

I actually rank Echoes art near the bottom for FE lol, just not my thing. I think the actual QUALITY is very good, actually maybe the best, but it's just not doing anything for me aesthetically. I just can't say I care about....any of the Echoes characters....other than their high crit rates.

Do you prefer the FE2 versions to the Echoes versions of the characters?

MacArrowny posted...

Yeah, that was overly hostile, sorry.

I think Celine's design is great other than the flowers on top of the crown.

Etie should've had more muscles - her Pact Ring art looks much better.

Yunaka's design might be okay without the star on her cheek. Timerra's balls are pretty bad too.

Do you prefer the FE2 versions to the Echoes versions of the characters?

Lol It's NP.

I think Celine's design is actually super well done in terms of what they were actually going for, with those old wire frame French dresses, it's just not my thing. I also wish the promotions for the lords in this game weren't so minor visually, I know they were trying to keep them super consistent with their base design, but I wish there was like...a little more going on there.

GOTTA get Etie to Warrior to maximize the ab potential, it's night and day. Her post fight poses are shredded.

I know a lot of people think Yunaka is cringe (well, vocally at least, she's already come as away as the most popular character in the game by a significant margin.) but NAW I love that star shit. I love Timerra's balls too. Sometimes I'm just all in on the exotic designs.

I worship the ground Panette stands on and anyone who calls the stitching ugly gets a smack.

And uh, no, I definitely do not prefer the original FE2 designs over Echoes. FE1 and 2 are fun to look at but they are definitely NES games. I think it's pretty impressive for the tike, though.

That Gaiden box art is so bad, too? Why does it look like a terrible US cover of a Japanese game?? Except for Rudolph in the back there he looks cool as hell.

I should also clarify when it comes to older games I don't factor in external art as far as the art goes. I love those Bond Rings shots for FE4 but that art isn't actually in the game.

Some of the Gaiden promo art looks OK.

....Not all of it.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/2/8/5/AAeolZAAEJsd.jpg

TheRock1525 posted...

My problem with Engage's character design is everything is just a bit much. Celine being a prime example.

I loved the uniforms in 3H and the little differences between characters that show their personality. And most of the timeskip designs were great, save weird things like Felix's hair.

And I like Felix's hair. And Celine's poofy dress.

Speaking of Felix, I got an S rank Felix ring. Wish it did something cool like some of the other random S rank ones.

Timmera is my favorite of the new characters. She reminds me of Annette from three houses, who was one of my favorite characters from that game.

S Rank Olwen ring is seriously one of the most disgusting things in the game.

I need 900 more bond rings left to get it and I already had my +5 Infused Thunder tome ready to go.

People told me Olwen sucked in Thracia and I should have gone with Eyrios, but I stuck with her and made her a God. WHO'S LAUGHING NOW HUH???

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/5/5/1/AAeolZAAEJwn.jpg

FINALLY

Kinda shocked they went for Olwen and not Reinhardt for that effect.

UshiromiyaEva posted...
I know a lot of people think Yunaka is cringe (well, vocally at least, she's already come as away as the most popular character in the game by a significant margin.) but NAW I love that star shit.

I like Yunaka, but I just can't shake the idea that they tried a little too hard to make her zany and likeable. Like, Engage doesn't do 'subtle' in literally any aspect but they went so hard to the other end of the scale it's like I'm constantly being beaten over the head by the art and narrative direction.

Yunaka is one of the few Engage designs I like. She intentionally looks like a clown, while everyone else seems to be doing it unintentionally

On this second playthrough where I'm promoting as soon as possible instead of trying to cap, I'm desperate for the game to show internal level on the surface somewhere. Mentally I've always gone out of my way to keep everyone the same level in these games if I can, and I have no idea what actual level anybody is lol.

KamikazePotato posted...

Yunaka is one of the few Engage designs I like. She intentionally looks like a clown, while everyone else seems to be doing it unintentionally

Bruh ain't no way Hortensia ain't supposed to be a clown.

Finally getting Goldmary supports.

How is Goldmary real...

She's almost great, except that 80% of her supports are about cooking.

Goldmary is getting naked around Framme.

Edit: BTW why is Framme like my best unit? I don't even have to give her an Emblem ring.

Now Goldmary is asking about Yunaka's underwear jesus christ

TheRock1525 posted...

Edit: BTW why is Framme like my best unit? I don't even have to give her an Emblem ring.

My first playthrough had Martial Master Framme and she was a God.

Framme comes off way better than Clanne because Framme is exactly where she needs to be as either a High Priest or MM, while Clanne is a dog shit mage with one of the lowest base magic growths in the game (he's getting 25 from the Mage class but his natural is only 10) and needs to be reclassed immediately to a physical unit if you want to use him, or at least a Mage Knight (still not great). His natural strength before class bonuses is 35, so overall he's a slightly worse Anna but in reverse.

Gimme that potatoe!!

UshiromiyaEva posted...

His natural strength before class bonuses is 35, so overall he's a slightly worse Anna but in reverse.

Clanne's probably better than Anna because of like 7 maps of free deployment to gain exp and he can mostly replicate the stuff Celine does with Celica in that time (she's only got a 35% growth in magic, too!)

My Framme has been upgrading her strength almost every level so far, but also getting nice defense and speed boosts. I was gonna come in and ask if she's supposed to be secretly good or if it's weird RNG luck.

Celine has decent growth all around though, the entire point of keeping her in her main class is that she can jack of all trades. Heal, magic, and physical all decently, not the best but gets the job done.

There aren't a lot of units that you can safely enemy phase two high strength enemies and then counter with one rounding Elfires.

....Well unless the Mage General DLC is true, then a bunch of people can do it.

I don't think Celine is taking two hits from anything with a serious physical attack stat unless you get absurdly lucky with her growths, her base HP is bad and her defense is solid for a mage but not amazing. Her durability felt surprisingly solid on Hard but now that I'm on Maddening she definitely became a typical mage who dies in two hits, and she's not as reliable about killing stuff either (Warp Ragnarok and doubles vs armours both kept coming up a point or two short, part of why I'm glad I decided in advance I'd be ditching her on this playthrough in favour of Citrinne, who has her flaws but damage sure isn't one of them)

Oh yeah, Celine immediately became the #1 candidate for a Spirit Dust after two straight maps of leaving enemies at 1hp.

part of why I'm glad I decided in advance I'd be ditching her on this playthrough in favour of Citrinne, who has her flaws but damage sure isn't one of them)

Getting points of Bld on anyone with a level up is a blessing, but getting them on Citrinne is like a gift from God. Any time you don't have to sacrifice Speed on her and you can actually double units other than armoured ones she becomes a terror.

lol Zelkov Ivy B

That was like an FFXIV sidequests cutscene.

Eirika Paralogue is so fucking rough.

A lot of the other missions that were super crazy the first time through were very manageable this time knowing what was going on ahead of time, but Jesus is the actual charge at Eirika is a nightmare.

Eirika paralogue was indeed rough. I wonder if I should just avoid the itch to split the party and just funnel all my units into one path.

Even if the constant reinforcements from all sides once you start interacting with the final section wasn't bad enough, the actual units themselves are mostly Heroes, and enemy Heroes in this game are pretty rough!

My review:

Hoo boy does this make a lot of mistakes. The bond scenes we get with the Emblems are mostly trite wastes of time (though some are fun), since they can't really develop characters from past games. The Somniel, Engage's replacement for 3H's monastery, is a lot smaller and more optional, but for what it is it's too big and most of the activities there feel like wastes of time too - add all that stuff to a menu and make the Somniel half as big and it'll be greatly improved. The cast and story are not strong, weaker than most FEs I've played (especially the cast). The game has a lot more "cinematic" scenes than previous FEs, but this mostly just makes them slower, and there are way too many shots that just zoom in on Alear's face. The art's kinda ugly for a lot of characters, particularly Alear and Corrin (she's so round!). They could've fixed this since you can customize your characters' appearance, but that doesn't let you change hair color and it's only active in very limited areas. Grinding supports takes way longer than any other recent FE for some bizarre reason.

But I'll be damned if the game isn't fun as hell. Almost every single map in the game is interesting. There was never a time I was annoyed by a bad gameplay gimmick, and a lot of them made me think. The rewind mechanic from 3H is back but heavily expanded with a full 10 uses, so if you play it smart you'll never suffer from being blindsided. Most of the Paralogues in this game are with the Emblems, and while they're basically nothing storywise, they bring back a notable map from each of their games. It's a cool way to do it, and all those maps are interesting, since it's not just the exact same map, there are some modifications, and of course the maps play extremely differently here (I would say Micaiah's map is too easy though, considering the air of despair the original had). Being able to abuse new gameplay gimmicks to destroy the maps is a blast, but most of them don't feel too easy despite that. I've seen people say that one of the strengths of Engage is that it makes you feel like an overpowered god, then challenges you anyway.

Maybe the strongest aspect of the game are when it combines gameplay and story in some of the maps. Chapter 10/11 were absolutely amazing, and some later chapters have similarly cool gimmicks. I love when it feels like I'm desperately trying to accomplish something impossible, and the game's great at delivering that feeling. The Emblems in general are executed extremely well in this respect. Getting a new Emblem is always super hype in the story because of the great new power you get, and all of them make sense and fit the character from the original game well (or most of them do, at least). It's great when you fight bosses that have Emblem powers too, so you can get a taste of your own medicine/a preview of what a new one will be like.

The story and characters also get better as it goes along. I kinda feel like each country has a better cast than the last (to some extent - I like Etie a lot), with the earliest ones being the most bland, which extends to their supports. Though the later ones can still be lame, most of them at least try to have flavor to them. The story actually pulls off some of its emotional beats, too. There's a series of three chapters near the end that feel like they're going to be a fetch questy waste of time "you have defeated everyone but the final boss, but you must now get the three objects to reach the final boss!" type stuff. However, each of those missions has a great emotional hook to it, and there's some story gimmicks that make for very interesting gameplay. Some of the twists are still cheesy, but most of them work pretty well regardless. The game's blessedly free of performance issues (as it should be), and the music can be downright awesome (chapter 10's track was my favorite, IIRC). The music sometimes changes within maps too, which is great and dramatic.

Overall, the flaws still bother me (a better story and cast would have this as my #1 or #2 FE, rather than #4 or #5), but the great parts are SO good. IS has shown they can have better casts (tempted to say literally every post-6 game has a better cast), and better stories. A future game that keeps similar mechanics with a better cast would be great, so long as they don't make it even more "cinematic."