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

(+) Yeah! (+)

Kenri posted...

Definitely not complaining about the game getting harder, since I've breezed through the story (and the appropriately-leveled paralogues) up til now.

What difficulty are you on?

Hard classic

JRPGs have a serious "not butchering recurring villains the moment they show up to talk" problem but it's especially bad in Engage because FE usually doesn't have that problem. Like here we fight Mauvier and Marni in C16 and then immediately go to C17 and they're there again? Did we travel together? Are we buds now on a road trip? Fuck off. Plus we're not just attacking Zephia on sight because... why, exactly? I get that stuff like this is in service to the plot but it actually makes the plot significantly worse. Just invent new bit villains instead of keeping shitty ones around past their expiration date.

Engage is really weird about refusing to kill people. I feel like it might have the least killing of any FE?

AlearCeline A says otherwise lol.

Named characters specifically, though the main story has relatively few human enemies too.

why can we not wear these outfits into battle

more like not so intelligent systems

It's probably something wierd like "it's actually two different models for exploration versus combat"

but like we could do that in three houses

and when you talk in supports none of them wear the actual outfits theyre wearing on the somniel

I was almost going to say it was worth the Hounds being unkillable if we get to off every single one of them in a single chapter but they're fucking STILL alive after C17?? This has to be the most you ever fight a single unit in an FE game without them dying right?

Also that chapter took me like 2 hours, most of it spent trying to figure out a way to hurt Mauvier

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TEMOm1FAXWA

Hubert is optional to beat in several of the chapters you fight him in, at least. But yeah I did forget about him.

Maybe Berkut? I can't remember how many times you fight him in Shadows of Valentia.

3 maybe?

I think I'm actually just wrong. A lot of enemies are fought 3 times. Ishtar, Kishuna, the Death Knight, etc. Though some of those fights are optional. Maybe these guys in Engage just stand out to me because there are four of them and I don't like them lmao

Remind me of how far in the game Cindered Shadows characters were recruitable in 3H after playing the expansion?

Thinking if getting a new file of Engage to Chapter 6 just so I'll have it when the time comes.

I think it's pretty quick. When you get full functionality of the monastery, I think.

I thought I remembered it being really early, yeah.

I would just assume that the units would become available here at the same time as the DLC Emblems.

Of course that's assuming Fell Xenologue even follows the same "seperate menu option" structure Cindered Shadows did.

Regardless, it's not like getting to chapter 6 takes long skipping cutscene anyways, lol.

Kenri posted...

3 maybe?

I think I'm actually just wrong. A lot of enemies are fought 3 times. Ishtar, Kishuna, the Death Knight, etc. Though some of those fights are optional. Maybe these guys in Engage just stand out to me because there are four of them and I don't like them lmao

I think you could fight the Death Knight six or seven times on a single playthrough. Chapter 4 where he first shows up, chapter six where you rout everyone else or beat him, chapter 8 in Remire, chapter 11 of non-CF routes, Mercedes/Caspar paralogue, Fort Merceus and SS/VW Enbarr. I'm not sure if the paralogue is on non-AM routes and he's dead by Enbarr on that route so it might be a maximum of six on any given route.

If I stuck with this file for Wave 4 I'm really gonna be using Etie 3 times in a row lol.

Too good.

Different class each time at least.

Oh noooo I made Alear a wolf knight and now she has Merrin's ridiculous tail

Panthera posted...

I think you could fight the Death Knight six or seven times on a single playthrough. Chapter 4 where he first shows up, chapter six where you rout everyone else or beat him, chapter 8 in Remire, chapter 11 of non-CF routes, Mercedes/Caspar paralogue, Fort Merceus and SS/VW Enbarr. I'm not sure if the paralogue is on non-AM routes and he's dead by Enbarr on that route so it might be a maximum of six on any given route.

My first time playing (AM) I couldn't beat him in C4, 6, or 8 and didn't recruit Caspar so it didn't feel like too much.

In VW it was definitely more of a "this little shit again?" situation

Kenri posted...

Oh noooo I made Alear a wolf knight and now she has Merrin's ridiculous tail

Tails for all!

If it bothers you, the great thing about Engage, especially now that you've reached the chapter where seals become unlimited, is you can now reclass to whatever you want, whenever you want, with no penalty! Well, you need proficiency, but that's effortless to get in the Arena.

I just hate that I can't get Alear with a ponytail on the classes I like.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Remind me of how far in the game Cindered Shadows characters were recruitable in 3H after playing the expansion?

Thinking if getting a new file of Engage to Chapter 6 just so I'll have it when the time comes.

They'll have NG+ added by then

MacArrowny posted...

They'll have NG+ added by then

Ehhhhh I dunno, I liked having NG+ on my 3 Houses playthroughs because I was just doing it for the story and it made the process faster, but here where I'm actually primarily playing for the unit building I may come to regret all the extra buffs I assume would come with this.

Depends. On exactly what NG+ entails, I suppose.

I wish more characters had wierd natural proficiencies to encourage wildly different reclassing.

It's really just Panette with Daggers (and while she'd be an interesting Thief, is maibky for Wolf Knight), and Anna with Bows (which, unless you're building some kind of Radiant Bow focused build, is a pretty lame one for her).

Of course, there's always the classes that naturally give you S regardless to work with.

Kenri posted...

My first time playing (AM) I couldn't beat him in C4, 6, or 8 and didn't recruit Caspar so it didn't feel like too much.

In VW it was definitely more of a "this little shit again?" situation

I always beat him in every map except 6 so he wears out his welcome very quickly. Especially since he's an awful boss with his infinite range counter attacks and high crit rate that basically forces you to never have a truly reliably way to kill him other than Dark Spikes OHKO (since he is also very evasive and durable so things like Lance of Ruin Knightkneeler whiff non-stop). The Hounds at least have the decency to never be as obnoxious as he was and they even change up a few details of how they fight you from time to time instead of being the exact same guy scaled up higher and higher (unless you do the Caspar paralogue and KO him with Caspar, then he finally ditches the damn scythe of getcritbitch from then on)

I love show every class looks in Timerra's color scheme.

It's a shame that you'd have to be nuts to not stick with Picket for Sandstorm.

Just beat the game this morning. Hard/Classic.

The gameplay is a ton of fun, it definitely exceeded my expectations. But the story...my expectations were so low, and I'm still kind of in awe at how completely dogshit it is. I'm legitimately struggling to think of a more poorly executed story in a video game (Fates, maybe? lol). I physically recoiled from the cringe at a few parts, and I feel like I usually have a pretty decent tolerance for that kind of thing. If I ever meet someone who says Alear is their favorite character, I'm gonna punch them in the kidneys.

I might try a second playthrough when all the DLC is out and just skip through all the cutscenes so I can try some of the units I didn't use. It's kind of whack there's no New Game +, though.

I really don't get how the story gets roasted this much. It's not like it isn't trying to be campy. I'm not saying I love it or anything, but I enjoyed it well enough.

I certainly like it more than the story of any of the 3DS games (though the actual dialogue in Echoes is very good, I just don't care about the story itself at all) .

I dunno, it's kinda funny that the main character is more upset about someone stealing their jewelry than their mother dying.

A lot of people just don't want Campy to be the tone of a Fire Emblem game. 7-10 all took themselves seriously. The 3DS era was...tolerated, because FE was on life support before than and fans recognized that it was either this or nothing. Then Three Houses came along and reminded the fanbase of what a story that takes itself seriously is again, while also being the bestselling game in the series. Now Engage is back to Awakening levels of silliness. Not everyone is going to like that, and with Three Houses being a financial success, they don't have to pretend to like it either.

There's also an influx of people that started with Three Houses, and consider that to be the series standard now. I've seen a fair number of people that started with Awakening/Fates get upset about that, which gives me no small amount of schadenfruede because the influx of horny Awakening/Fates fans back in the day was miserable even though it saved the series.

I honestly don't remember Awakening being silly.

Like a bog standard plot, sure, but it didn't feel silly.

To me, it only makes sense to combine story and writing (dialogue, characters, supports, etc.) together. With that in mind...

Engage is...fine. The supports are hit-or-miss, but I'm really glad we're no longer doing the "everyone supports everyone" thing we did in Awakening and Fates. That said, I say at least half of the supports I've seen are still really bad. As for the actual story, it's very whatever. I don't think it takes itself seriously outside of Chapter 10 or 11, which is certainly in its favor. I think the worst thing about Engage is that it's just very boring. Fates's story is bad, but it's fun to make fun of.

Altogether, it's definitely below average, but not trash tier.

And here I am

A self inflicted snob who gets to pretend to be a hardcore FE elitist because I slammed everything out in 4 months.

My perspective is fucked, I guess.

Awakening's plot takes itself pretty seriously but the supports are goofy to the point where it overshadows the tone of the main story.

I think the worst part is going from stories of political conflict where all sides can be justified in some way to the main villains being just "I like to kill. Killing is fun. Kill kill kill."

KamikazePotato posted...

Awakening's plot takes itself pretty seriously but the supports are goofy to the point where it overshadows the tone of the main story.

The only support that ever stuck with me is Lucina having a horrible fashion sense which is pretty cute.

TheRock1525 posted...

I honestly don't remember Awakening being silly.

Like a bog standard plot, sure, but it didn't feel silly.

It was just ungodly boring to me. I don't care about any of the characters at all except Joker vibes guy, and he kicks it halfway through!

I'm almost certain that if I replayed FE6 right now I'd probably end up moving it above Awakening. Considering Revelations isn't actually a videogame but is in fact one of God's plagues let loose upon mankind, that would put Awakening right down there at the bottom of my list as the worst FE game.

So yeah...the Awakening fans and me don't see eye to eye lol.

My biggest dissociation with the FE fanbase at this point seems to be how much I do not care about Lucina at ALLLLLLL.

Lucina is just a female version of Future Trunks, and Future Trunks is rad, so Lucina is also rad. She's the only Awakening character I care about though.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

A self inflicted snob who gets to pretend to be a hardcore FE elitist because I slammed everything out in 4 months.

Engage is definitely also resonating with people who care primarily about the gameplay! I do think, though, that that section of the fanbase is a minority. Fire Emblem was dying when it was advertised primarily as a strategy series. The second it pivoted to a social JRPG experience, it exploded in popularity.

TheRock1525 posted...

I think the worst part is going from stories of political conflict where all sides can be justified in some way to the main villains being just "I like to kill. Killing is fun. Kill kill kill."

You know, I don't think I give 3H enough credit for basically taking the Fates premise and making it really good. 3H has the gravitas of the SNES FE stories, while have the likable cast of the FE7-10 era. It's a damn good game in theory.

It's a real shame that I don't feel any love towards it like I do towards FE7, FE4, or FE9. If I had to guess, it's because I did Golden Deer first. It's a fine route, but Blue Lions and Black Eagles are significantly better.

I obviously really love 3H and the 3H setting and story, I wouldn't have like 100 3H fanfics read in full if this wasn't the case (certainly won't be doing that much for Engage!)

....but I do think it's a shame that the actually presentation of the story in 3H is, frankly, really bad.

TheRock1525 posted...

I honestly don't remember Awakening being silly.

Gangrel was definitely the silliest (major) villain in the series up til that point (IMO it worked though), and character bits like Sumia being a ditz or Henry being a goofball were incorporated into the main plot in ways that typically didn't happen in earlier FE. Games before Awakening had silly characters and villains (especially 6-10) but they weren't as in your face about it.

TheRock1525 posted...

I think the worst part is going from stories of political conflict where all sides can be justified in some way to the main villains being just "I like to kill. Killing is fun. Kill kill kill."

I was just thinking earlier about how modern FE really doesn't get the series' themes. I think probably those themes were all Kaga, and it stuck around for the post-Kaga games that followed his notes, but now the writers either don't get it or are intentionally going a different way.

The villains aren't just caricatures now; a big theme used to be that even villains had friends and family they legitimately loved, but now villains don't care about anyone, now matter how much it feels like they should. And the way loyalty is treated is almost completely different in the new games, which is sad because that used to be my favorite part of FE's stories.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

My biggest dissociation with the FE fanbase at this point seems to be how much I do not care about Lucina at ALLLLLLL.

Man even as an Awakening hater I think Lucina is rad. Anytime they put her in something instead of Chrom or Robin it's a win.

Bitto posted...

You know, I don't think I give 3H enough credit for basically taking the Fates premise and making it really good.

The Fates premise was a subplot in FE4 and it was better there too!

I don't really think Engage is that much campier than previous FEs. It's just not executed as well here so it stands out more.

I haven't watched a Vtuber in a couple years, but it's time.

https://youtu.be/YdBLgUkFzxY

I'm just starting the game today and haven't read any posts here to avoid spoilers.

Should I purchase wave 1/2 DLC before I start the game? Is it something better experience integreated into the main game? Or is it the kind of thing if I love the game and want it I can purchase it and experience it later?

Right now all the DLC is integrated into the game as maps and gear. The actual expansion isn't until Wave 4.

But you can't buy waves seperately, so it's all or nothing.

Personally I think it will be worth it in the long run, but if you don't know if you're gonna be into it yet it won't hurt to wait. Other than some good weapons for chaprer 4 (seriously, if you upgrade them as you play the game gradually, they are endgame viable), you can't access anything else from the DLC until beating chapter 5.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Right now all the DLC is integrated into the game as maps and gear. The actual expansion isn't until Wave 4.

But you can't buy waves seperately, so it's all or nothing.

Personally I think it will be worth it in the long run, but if you don't know if you're gonna be into it yet it won't hurt to wait. Other than some good weapons for chaprer 4 (seriously, if you upgrade them as you play the game gradually, they are endgame viable), you can't access anything else from the DLC until beating chapter 5.

If you're talking about the free steel weapons, you get those whether you have the DLC or not.

No, the Heroes weapons

.....Oh but wait, that comes from the Heroes DLC code which is free, you're right.

TotallyNotMI posted...

I'm just starting the game today and haven't read any posts here to avoid spoilers.

Should I purchase wave 1/2 DLC before I start the game? Is it something better experience integreated into the main game? Or is it the kind of thing if I love the game and want it I can purchase it and experience it later?

DLC makes the game quite a bit easier.

Bopper review is out. Full game spoils of course.

https://youtu.be/tBQBSVNozo4