As someone that never could really get into Three Houses; either because of it's overwhelming amount of content, decisions to make or just the fact that they drop you in the middle of a whole ass hub world filled with characters and different stuff to do; Engage feels like a breath of fresh air for fans of classic FE like me, it does an amazing job at welcoming new and returning players to its mechanics and gameplay loop, with simple to understand but very interesting and deep Ring system and overall tons of new stuff to shake up the formula and keep me invested

I heard some complaints about the character designs being too "anime" which I can honestly understand, but I just think that has to do with anime getting more and popular especially during the early 2000s. Fire Emblem was always anime as hell, it's just that anime has recently been leaning into character designs with big eyes, colorful hair, exaggerated proportions, etc., I think Fire Emblem has always been a trend chasing franchise in that regard, so that didn't bother me much

I especially liked the characters from the Solm queendom! I really like it when Fire Emblem has more informal characters because it feels like a breath of fresh air over all the regal-infused talk and formal stuff.

Story took a backseat on this one though, we're back to the "You're the chosen one, kill the evil dragon" structure but I'm honestly fine with it since they haven't really done it in a good while. The dialogue was some of the corniest I've ever read and honestly? It doesn't bother me that much, in fact I really liked it! I'm a Sonic fan, I don't need a story to be coherent, cohesive, serious or whatever, I just want it to make me feel things, to be fun and enjoyable to experience, and it sure did, this was one of the cheesiest stories I have ever experienced in a videogame, and I wouldn't have it any other way. Supports were a bit too much for me though, I started skipping most of them halfway through the game

I'm not the biggest Fire Emblem nerd tbh, I played most of them but only ended up beating a handful, but I really appreciate what they did with the Emblems fan-service wise, it really feels like an anniversary game with all the Paralogues dedicated to each character (some of them even copy maps from the original games tile by tile which is a very nice touch), especially with characters like Lyn, Eirika or Ike I was super excited to hear them talk, I really enjoy this "Heroes of Legend" approach to old Fire Emblem protagonists, really makes it feel like a connected cohesive world that evolves but remembers its history, even when they are probably thousands of years apart of each other

Overall, a really enjoyable experience! I really think the game's getting WAAAAY too bashed for not being Three Houses 2, and imo it's a way better first entry than 3H if you're trying to get into the series, it really has that accomplishing crossover feel where it makes you want to play those older games and experience those stories these characters went through

Super corny and super fun, just the way I like it