Wistful
BACKER
Bio
I truly love the art of video games and try to play as many as I can. Nintendo fan for my whole life but had my horizons broadened over the past few years to so much more. Gaming is truly the best medium of entertainment and I I feel lucky to live in an era with access to such an massive amount of fantastic video games, and I think everyone should too. I also love design, art, and photography :)
Favorite Franchises:
Metroid, Pikmin, Final Fantasy, Soulsborne etc., Monster Hunter (although not a series veteran)
Metroid, Pikmin, Final Fantasy, Soulsborne etc., Monster Hunter (although not a series veteran)
Modern Platforms:
PS5, Switch, PC (laptop)
Other Platforms:
Wii U, Gamecube, XBOX (og), 3DS, DS
PS5, Switch, PC (laptop)
Other Platforms:
Wii U, Gamecube, XBOX (og), 3DS, DS
Badges
Roadtrip
Voted for at least 3 features on the roadmap
Adored
Gained 300+ total review likes
GOTY '22
Participated in the 2022 Game of the Year Event
Clearin your Calendar
Journaled games at least 15 days a month over a year
1 Years of Service
Being part of the Backloggd community for 1 year
Donor
Liked 50+ reviews / lists
Trend Setter
Gained 50+ followers
Organized
Created a list folder with 5+ lists
Loved
Gained 100+ total review likes
Full-Time
Journaled games once a day for a month straight
Busy Day
Journaled 5+ games in a single day
Listed
Created 10+ public lists
Popular
Gained 15+ followers
N00b
Played 100+ games
On Schedule
Journaled games once a day for a week straight
Best Friends
Become mutual friends with at least 3 others
Noticed
Gained 3+ followers
GOTY '21
Participated in the 2021 Game of the Year Event
Liked
Gained 10+ total review likes
Favorite Games
238
Total Games Played
022
Played in 2023
054
Games Backloggd
Recently Played See More
Recently Reviewed See More
While I feel like Three Houses was an overall better game, FE Engage reaches a peak of gameplay in the series that I think is my favorite overall of all the modern FE games. The engage mechanic is genuinely fantastic and adds a ton of fun but generally well-balanced (maybe outside of the DLC emblems) depth to unit customization, which there is quite a bit of, as any Fire Emblem.
I really did have a hard time taking much of any of the story seriously, it absolutely does have its moments at times but overall, it was just a little too cliché and silly for me to care very deeply about any part of it, which I can say I did for both Three Houses with it's complex political themes and Echoes, which is one of my personal favorite FE stories. I certainly do not play these games for the story but when it is so 'whatever' as it was here it does take a bit away from the experience. The characters and character design is certainly quite good at least, better than Three Houses for me.
It took me a very long time to finish this game but I'm glad I stuck with it, it really is some of the best Fire Emblem in terms of gameplay that you can get, with a high level of replay-ability and customization that you can come to expect from the series, and a very strong gimmick that only adds to the fun.
8.5/10
An exceptional finale to the Xenoblade Klaus Saga and expansion for XC3. Gameplay wise, this was a great smaller scope version of the XC3 combat, I was a bit concerned that without Ouroboros mechanics and classes that it would not be as interesting, and while I do prefer the complexity of the base XC3 combat, Monolith did a fantastic job with the slight differences and new mechanics to keep it engaging up until the end, with some excellent class design and balancing overall.
Easily the most fun exploration in any Xenoblade game, the Affinity Point mechanic is a really smart way to encourage going out of your way to fight everything and look for secrets, and the Affinity chart upgrades are very significant. I really liked that instead of gating progress to Community like in Torna, it gated by exceptionally difficult boss fights. While frustrating at times I think they were designed well overall to really make you use everything at your disposal to win, and Hard mode was a lot more balanced throughout the game compared to base XC3, since there wasn't really anything very difficult in that due to over-leveling beyond like Chapter 4.
Story-wise this is everything I could have hoped for. Characters, just as in the base game, were all fantastic and extremely likeable. The events in the last few chapters and implications of those were insane, and Monolith continues to blow it out of the park with some of the best cutscenes in anything I have played. The never-ending references and fan-service I appreciated so much and this really felt like a celebration of the entire franchise, and a wholeheartedly deserved one. Genuinely difficult for me to find really any complaints at all, this is just the perfect finale to Xenoblade and was an enjoyable and memorable experience from beginning to end.
Unfortunately I cannot get over my disinterest in Star Wars to get myself to care about this game. Combat was neat but I just don't care so much about like everything else that I'm just bored