Board 8 > Raka Plays Fire Emblem Engage (spoilers as I play)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Devs probably loved Kagetsu, because its insane how good he is. Took him all the way to endgame without an Engage ring and he was still one of my front runners.

A lot of my favorite units coming up for you over the next few chapters.

....And the bechwarmer lol.

One of the upcoming units I assumed I would hate both in and out of combat, but he surprised big-time on both fronts.

Now I'm tempted to do more Skirmishes just to take a better gauge on which units I want to use.

But I believe Hard is still manageable without min maxing and I can use my favorites? Or at least I hope so.

God just give me more Master Seals already.

I assume you already know, but the shop has a limited number for purchase that refresh.

They don't become infinite until Chapter 18.

Yeah I bought all the stocks available starting Chapter 9. But then I couldn't buy the last Second Seal. Is there a reliable way to farm money?

As an aside, I think Bond conversations with the Emblems are very gratuitous. And so's the fight. It could've been more streamlined.

And the fishing too, it feels like there's one step too many.

Engage is extremely stingy with Gold. Farming skirmishes with Anna is really the only way to go.

Also, on difficulty: definitely stick with Hard. However, if you decide to get the Fell Xenologue DLC campaign, DEFINITELY go to to Normal inside that. They are NOT tuned the same.

Oh, I love the Emblem fights. Lucina and Lyns are kinda bad so it leaves a bad impression at first.

Lyns doesnt even use a FE7 map lol

I'm not sure we're referring to the same thing? I meant the ones at the Arena where you can pay Bond Fragments to "fight" the Emblems in a duel to raise their Bond level.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Engage is extremely stingy with Gold. Farming skirmishes with Anna is really the only way to go.

That escaped my mind. Thanks. And noted about the DLC.

I can't remember exactly when this unlocks so I'll spoiler it, but the best way I found to get money in Maddening was to play Ivy's minigame every chapter and sell whatever I won from it.

Oh yeah the Arena fights can get pretty funny sometimes under the right circumstances. Chipping and dodging back and forth until the game gives up.

However, nothing beats the king.

https://youtu.be/rLJQe0PVGWc?si=ZgleJ5Rb8klgsL7f

FE4 Miracle certainly was a skill

Oh yeah, sorry. You should get the thing Im referring to pretty shortly after Chapter 11 though.

The Arena could definitely be streamlined and it is annoying that its in its own separate area.

Not going to post through it, but jumped into another playthrough myself. Just winging it.

Finally finished Fell Xenologue and yeah this sure is not good all the way until the end lol. Wanted to use all these DLC characters at least once, though.

Bump

Beat the game again, that's the 4th time, and the first time with the final 2 waves of DLC included.

I genuinely think this game is better if you don't have any of the DLC. The stuff they added into the core game after the fact like the Well are neat, I never used that before, but yeah kind of wish I didn't have any of the bracelets. Only DLC character I liked using was Madeline, I guess she's technically considered terrible but I must have gotten lucky because she was the strongest character in the playthrough lol. To clarify, Rafal was a broken enemy phase beast the likes of which this series has rarely ever seen, but I actually kind of dislike him because of it. I'm sure he's useful as fuck in a Maddening playthrough, but a Maddening playthrough with the DLC seems tainted to me unless you force yourself to not use the new characters until the game is properly caught up with them.

Whoops I've actually played it a couple times more. Thanks for the bump.

Tried getting Anna to proc her Personal Skill to get more gold but it didn't happen yet. I'm scarily low on funds... I might just continue the story and hope for the best.

It's crazy since they have the Donation system, I thought it was meant to be money sink since you can get too much money, but not at all.

Donations are a total waste of money other than pumping Brodia to level 3, which is going to turn random Brodia grinding battles into the best source of post battle ingots for weapon crafting.

Also if you didn't know, while you wanna go grab all the shinies after a battle, you can leave the stage without talking to anyone and still get all the bond fragments.

That's good to know, thanks. Though on the other hand I can't upgrade anything since I have no gold.

And yeah I noticed the bond fragments thing, IIRC the game mentioned it.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/8/843346c0.jpg
Time for some Engage on the train.

Also man the level scaling for skirmishes is crazy.

So I did the paralogue at the Arena and I think this is what was mentioned a few posts ago?

I'm SO happy that I got a decent amount of gold from the paralogue.

Anyway, onward to the Solm dessert. We come across Fogado and his Sentinels (reminds me of Nephenee). New characters, fun.

The next chapter after this is the only chapter in the game for me where all 3 new units are locks, and includes my favorite unit in the game.

Of course objectively Chapter 12 was the same, but despite him arguably being the best character in the game I just don't like using Kagetsu.

So I found Timerra and her two attendants Panette and Merrin. It's lowkey hilarious how formulaic it is, with one noble and two retainers each time.

They all felt pretty good to use, though from their introduction chapter only Panette stood out to me.

Also did Lyn's Paralogue, the map sure is reminiscent of the good old days at the Sacea plains. Since I don't have that many fliers though, it took a lot of time just traversing the terrain. But hey at least I got some money!

Lyn's Paralogue is so easy compared to the original version of that map....which is not an FE7 map in the first place lol.

Panette is my favorite character in the game. There is not a single run where I won't use her. Keep her a Berserker? A+. Wyvern Ride? A+. Warrior? A+. Frankly you can turn her into anything that wacks people with metal and she's going to kick ass. However her default character design is the best one in the game, so yeah just keep her a Berserker IMHO. You don't wanna lose the DRIP, especially on the first day of Mardi Gras!

I tried Ike's Paralogue and it was brutal. Though I didn't deploy my A team. I'll try again with a better team.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Panette is my favorite character in the game. There is not a single run where I won't use her. Keep her a Berserker?

She was really good yeah. Looking forward to trying her more.

I believe we still have the Hortensia trio to recruit but surely not many more after them.

The Fell Xenologue sounds interesting, I looked stuff up about Timerra and apparently it's like an edgy alternate timeline stuff (IIRC Awakening had one?).

Ike paralogue might've been the toughest chapter in the game for me, at least relative to when it unlocks. I think I ended up just waiting to do it a while later when my team was stronger.

Raka_Putra posted...

So I found Timerra and her two attendants Panette and Merrin. It's lowkey hilarious how formulaic it is, with one noble and two retainers each time.

And it's the same formula as Fates! They really said "yeah this works great let's do it again"

Ike's can be hard, but Eirika's is definitely harder. That map is absolutely god damn fucked. In a game that gives you more power than any FE before it, it's still somehow one of the hardest maps in the series. Even with max DLC bullshit it's a beast even in Hard.

I was also unprepared for Ike just straight up demolishing, like, a quarter of the map. Now that I know his schtick and army composition hopefully I can better prepare for it.

I thought Ikes power to destroy obstacles was hilariously useless. Then he destroyed the castle in his Paralogue.

Yeah that was a good way to build up his hype. Truly an 'oh shit' moment.

Yeah Ike's map isn't looking good, I'll just save it for another day.

Also it it just me or do the maps in Engage feel large and crawling with enemies? It feels like there's more thrown at you.

Most of the Paralogues unlock above the current level you're at. The "enemy level" description is completely worthless because they're basing that off of promotions at 20, meaning "Promoted Level 8" is internal level 27 for them, while your level 12 unit you Promoted at 10 is internal level 21.

Oh that's pretty deceptive. Thanks for letting me know.

I guess it's time to recruit Hortensia and co.

I lied, I did one Training. And only Alear and Louis survived lol.

And is it just me or is the Skirmish freakishly much harder than the main story at any given time?

That's typical for Engage.

Hortensia GET, Emblem Byleth GET!

And, most importantly, war funds GET!

Bought some Killer weapons, and refined some others. Also bought two Master Seals, gave them to Hortensia (Sleipnir Rider) and Anna (Mage Knight). I feel much better now.

We're escorted by Timerra to Solm's second ring... and apparently it's in a haunted ruins. We find a very weird dancer surrounded by the Corrupted. And since the ring sounds female, it's probably Eirika?

...Oh I forgor about Corrin.

Well, since they got Male Byleth I guess Female Corrin makes sense.

Wow this miasma map is annoying as fuck.

The dancer can't move far, the map is very closed off, but we're supposed to use the Engage skill to clear the miasma?? I ended up only doing it once.

They chose a really bad way to demo both Corrin and the miasma mechanic. Seadall ideally wants to dance every turn, not waste turns cleaning miasma, and Corrin's Qi Adept effect is one of her weaker ones.

Corrin belongs on a Thief.

Except on Maddening where thieves are useless because enemies won't attack things they have 0 hit on.

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/forum/f/f297dd17.jpg

Yeah, that map isiffy. A shame because Corrin is one of my favorite Emblem rings.

Oh it seems that the Fog gives extra Avo, which does sound much more useful. I gotta try it out more.

Currently at the map with the rising and ebbing sea levels, which is also kinda annoying (especially for the non-flying units). Ah well.

I played a lot of Engage on Sunday. What a good weekend.

Got Rosado and Goldmary. It's interesting that Rosado goes with he/him pronouns. Also I think I hate Goldmary's guts and she's not even that good at this point in the game.

Finished Corrin's and Byleth's maps. Oh man, Byleth's is such a nostalgia trip.
Corrin was a bit annoying and I had to play keepaway from her terrain effects, but Byleth's was no problem first try.

Got and bought more Master Seals, now the majority of the characters are promoted (even the ones I don't use... I just like seeing the promotion animation). And hey I'm glad there are some Skirmishes that give out gold.

I also did the big battle with King Hyacinth, Veyle, and her goons. That was fun! It was just the right difficulty for me. Zephia was the scariest one since most of my troops on her way were cavalries...

My latest realizations:

• Etie has kinda dropped off since Fogado joined :(
• Timerra is kinda mid to me, couldn't make her work
• Anna is super scary as a Mage Knight! She kills everything on her way
• Ivy is also super good, more than I realized in the beginning
• Same with Kagetsu, but he has a bit of a hard time against armored enemies
• Louis has like, near 100% growth rate on his Atk, Def, and Dex as a General I'm sure
• Now nearly everyone is a cavalry orz, not good when I'm facing anti-cavalry weapons! Maybe I should look into reclassing a few of them

Also, my Alear is closing in to Level 20 as an Advanced Class, I assume I should reclass him to keep him growing?
Also do we lose the class skill when we change classes?

Raka_Putra posted...

Etie has kinda dropped off since Fogado joined :(

What do you have her as? I think she's a pretty terrible sniper. If you haven't, try making her a Warrior.

Raka_Putra posted...

Ivy is also super good, more than I realized in the beginning

Arguably the best character in the game. Kagetsu beats her in relevant stats, but doesn't have her utility.

Raka_Putra posted...

Louis has like, near 100% growth rate on his Atk, Def, and Dex as a General I'm sure

The luck of the draw! Those exact numbers are 100(!), 60, 35 (!!) for General Louis.

Raka_Putra posted...

Also, my Alear is closing in to Level 20 as an Advanced Class, I assume I should reclass him to keep him growing?
Also do we lose the class skill when we change classes?

You can just second seal him back to a Level 1 Dragon and keep going. Class skills are locked, the only thing that swapping between classes does is effect your growth rates for those levels.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

What do you have her as? I think she's a pretty terrible sniper. If you haven't, try making her a Warrior.

Yeah she's a Sniper. 'oops' Duly noted, I'll look into that.
Though on the other hand I do need more bow users! Any suggestions? I do have Alcryst promoted...

UshiromiyaEva posted...

Arguably the best character in the game. Kagetsu beats her in relevant stats, but doesn't have her utility.

Yeah, her mobility + staff is super useful. Love her. Even if she's got a weird pot lid on her head.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

The luck of the draw! Those exact numbers are 100(!), 60, 35 (!!) for General Louis.

Wow, that's crazy. On his last few levels, he always leveled those three up and sometimes only those three...

UshiromiyaEva posted...

You can just second seal him back to a Level 1 Dragon and keep going. Class skills are locked, the only thing that swapping between classes does is effect your growth rates for those levels.

That's great to know, thanks!
It seems Dragon has OP bonuses with the emblems. I love putting Emblem Byleth on him. Especially since he's in no hurry to gain more levels.

Raka_Putra posted...

Yeah she's a Sniper. 'oops' Duly noted, I'll look into that.
Though on the other hand I do need more bow users! Any suggestions? I do have Alcryst promoted...

Warriors can still use bows! Best longbow users in the game. Because Etie has Inate now prociency she can use B rank bows as well, when usually Warriors have C bows (the blue glowing numbers when you class change mean that it's that characters innate weapon type and is receiving a 1 rank bonus). As far as higher rank bows go, Alcryst was the best bet, though either of the Thieves COULD be Snipers. Folgado ends up being the Shining Bow king to snipe armored unit, but he isn't really there for the raw regular bow damage.