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

Reviewed on May 10, 2023


Comments