I put in three hours of the open playtest today, and it's wonderful. Even in this unfinished state that kept timing me out from the server, this is an incredibly fun game. I want to live in a world where I will be able to put as many hours into this game as I did with Ascend back when I was in high school.

Unfortunately, I don't think that world is this one. I think this game is doomed to unprofitability and shutdown, and I think that any games that try to resurrect the spirit of Tribes 2 (I'm looking at you, Midair 2,) are also inherently doomed to failure. I'm not sure if there's anything that can be done about that.

Tribes' formula saddles the game with both a high skill floor and an absurdly high skill ceiling. It's harder to pick up than most FPS games, and high-level players are untouchable. Brand-new players will get blue-plate-special'd from a kilometer away by a dude zipping around at 250 kph with a light spinfusor, and those brand new players might not even recognize incredible shots like that for what they are - coming from any other FPS, dying that way just feels like your opponent is cheating. We all know full well that when casual new players have a first experience with a game like that, they drop it, and they tell their friends not to bother.

Tribes: Ascend tried to mitigate this in a few small ways, adding a slow out-of-combat health regen (which, for the record, I don't think was too offensive of a change), the jetpacks gave you some forward momentum instead of purely upwards momentum, and, more importantly, making the easier-to-use weapons a lot stronger. Of course, this means they just buffed hitscan weapons, because spinfusors are pretty hard to use! It could be really discouraging for a new player to realize that the only way to deal reliable damage is to land rocket launcher hits from 200 meters away.

You know what happened if you were there - the hitscan buffs, especially with regards to the sniper rifle, were very offensive to the core playerbase. Changes like that go against the spirit of Tribes! The skill and elegance of projectile weapons and momentum inheritance is the entire point of Tribes!

And now HiRez was stuck between a rock and a hard place - either stick with the decisions they had made and alienate their core audience for the sake of being more accessible to newcomers, or roll the changes back to the way things were in T2 and keep the hardcore players happy - while dooming this low-budget F2P game to an extreme niche that couldn't possibly pay for the game's maintenance.

HiRez tried both options, sticking to their guns for quite a long time before finally nerfing the most egregious hitscan weapons a couple years later. Neither worked, and Ascend shut down.

Tribes 3 doesn't have powerful, easy-to-use weapons. It doesn't have health regen, instead having a kind of slow heal-over-time health kit that players drop on death (though Redditors seem to hate this, too.) The inheritance system is actually fine-tunable in the options menu, letting your spinfusors handle precisely the way you like. Tribes 3 feels like a love letter to the psychotically hardcore fans that kept Ascend alive so long past its expiration date. But I don't know if those same darling psychos will be enough of a revenue stream to keep this game alive. I have a sinking feeling they won't.

Tribes is fun as fuck. It's fun to hit the edges of hills juuuust right and get a sick speed boost. It's fun to shoot aimlessly at the horizon and get a kill from across the entire map ten seconds later. I think a LOT of people would find Tribes fun if they gave it a chance. But due to twenty years of accumulated design, a lot of which wasn't even intentional, the expectations thrust upon Tribes mean it's an unwelcoming game to get into, and a downright hostile experience for people more familiar with more standard shooters. I think this game is doomed to be unprofitable to run.

If you like weird games about going real fast, please give this one a shot. I promise it is worth the learning curve. Tribes doesn't feel like anything else - except maybe SSX, but with rocket launchers. And if you do give it a try, please keep playing it, for as long as you find it fun to play. I want to give this thing as much of a chance at survival as possible.

Shit-Ass Dead Dude... Know'st thou of Hell Fuck Castle, high in the mountains...? (laughter). It was once the domain of King Big Sad Guy, who did the Flame Thing.. Legend tells of the castle's steward, the great and terrible HorseDog, but who is to say if it still roams the halls... (solid minute of laughter). Oh, how silly of me; but of course, a new arrival in Drangranthric wouldst know not such tales... One such as thee... wouldst be better suited to sharpen the blades of the dreaded wraith of Why'd They Put Anorher FUCKIN SWAMP LEVEL Marsh..... Armor Type of Dude. That is... ifst thoust canst livest thatst longst... (five minutes of laughter; unskippable)

Re-review time! TL;DR - VA-11 Hall-A is comfy enough to be a good game, but too comfy to be good cyberpunk.

It's alright. The art is all pretty great, the music is just as lovely as I remember it being, and the characters are all super appealing. Characters are written in a surprisingly genuine way, and their interactions with each other are the highlight of the game for me. Dialogue is consistently entertaining and charming, and is more than enough to get me all the way through the game without losing interest. So, overall, I think it's a success of a game. It does what it intends to, and it's an alright time.

I've got some quibbles, though, or I'd be rating it higher than three stars. My main issue is that I think this is one of the most surface-level and complacent depictions of a cyberpunk dystopia I've ever seen. The worldbuilding's pretty generic for the genre, which isn't a problem in and of itself, but god damn, there's zero bite to any of it. Even Cyberpunk 2077, a game that's frequently derided as "not cyberpunk," is a much, much deeper cut of society than this is. Characters in VA-11 Hall-A suffer at the hands of their society, yes, but it's almost untouched as subject matter. Characters seem unwilling to discuss the state of society, and when they do, they're shockingly complacent! The protagonist, at one point, declares that she believes the corporate stranglehold of her city-state is essentially morally neutral, because while they're choking the life out of the city's underclass and building a panopticon of a surveillance state, they're bringing positive changes too, such as... better medical technology? That she admits the poor can't possibly afford? It's puzzling.

Broadly, the game only engages with the "cyberpunk" part of its title in the most aesthetic, surface-level ways. I'm not sure if this is the result of some bizarre attempt at being apolitical, the writers' lack of interest in exploring further, or something else, but this all feels like a wasted opportunity.

The game's also persistently horny - not a bad thing at all, mind you, but the horniness feels juvenile in a way I can't put my finger on. Weirded me out from time to time.

So, in general, this is an entertaining little game that I like, but I cannot help but feel it to be largely a waste of its setting, genre, and potential themes. I did not come away from VA-11 Hall-A thinking anything about its setting or what it might have to say about real life, as good cyberpunk media should. I just came away thinking Dana is best girl, and not much else.

I am eternally destined to like games that are divisive because people are too joyless to appreciate em, and Fire Emblem Engage is absolutely no exception.

Don't get me wrong - my first impression of this game was far from stellar too. I had half a mind to avoid using Alear entirely because I hated their design so much.
But with every bit of gameplay features we got to see, I got more and more excited for this game - and man, I'm so glad I did. It is such a ridiculously fun game.

We haven't had such a heavy focus on player-phase combat in the series since FE12, which was already my favorite FE gameplay-wise - but this game just goes above and beyond. The Break system took me a while to get used to, but when it finally clicked it was so ridiculously satisfying.
The low deployment slots and gigantic amount of Emblem Ring combinations you could pull off means it's gonna be great fun to replay too, and I can't wait to give that a shot.

The story definitely takes a while to get going, and I don't blame anyone for losing interest relatively quickly, but I'm glad it picks up as well as it does.
Didn't think I'd ever say this about Fire Emblem but the ludonarrative harmony is what especially fascinated me about this game - there's some really impactful moments where you're supposed to feel powerless and it shows SO goddamn well through the gameplay that follows. It's incredible.

Despite the story being pretty basic at first, the characters are still as enjoyable as always - and although it takes more of a GBA FE approach of having some quick and simple supports, there's still plenty of meaningful and enjoyable ones. Ivy was a really stand-out character to me, because she's one of the few that tackles issues that are very specific to the game's setting. I think you could've taken any other character in a different setting and they'd still work - which doesn't bother me too much, honestly - but she's definitely the most layered character I've seen in the supports in my playthrough. Pleasantly surprised about that!

All in all, I'm really happy with this game. It's not perfect by any means, but I think any long-time fan should really be able to appreciate what this game's going for. Tons of subtle nods to older games and tons of direct fanservice with the Emblem Rings and how they play.
Couldn't think of a better (regrettably delayed) anniversary celebration!

Really excited for Fire Emblem's future after playing this game. Fantastic gameplay, a story that works more than well enough for what the game's supposed to be, great fanservice, incredible animations and hell - the game looks gorgeous in general, honestly.
With so much going well for it, I can't wait to see what's next!

This game is actually amazing. Story wasn't anything special, but it I like some of the story beats and how it incorporated its story into gameplay quite a few times. Definitely a lot of great moments present, and it is unfortunate that people will write it off.

There were plenty of times where you are powerless in the story, and then on the same map the game exactly makes you feel the same way. Something we have been missing in Fire Emblem since arguably Thracia?

The game goes back to the GBA days and make supports very quick and simple, meaning after a map you don't have to spend a long time reading all of the supports. Not to say the characters are hot garbage, there are definitely good ones even with the change of length in them.

I played the game on Maddening and the gameplay itself is REALLY player phase heavy, which is awesome because that means you spend time more strategizing which is very welcomed for a strategy game. Generally the maps have a very consistently alright to good quality (with some really cool ones). Paralogues are definitely the maps with the lowest quality, but I'd argue you could blame the respective games for its quality. (on Maddening they are NEAR identical to the source material)

I had fun, only issue are the hit rate getting pretty shake late game and it gets kinda annoying when using the turnwheel doesn't even reset RN. It takes the FE12 H3 endgame approach where you want to fucking finish every late game map as fast as possible and the Thracia approach of using your entire arsenal to deal with every problem. Which I think is a fine thing at least, but a kinda annoying while dealing with hit rates.

My other complaint is that the UI has been a downgrade compared to its predecessors, a lot of design choices baffles me and it shouldn't be this hard just to look at a might of a weapon.

An insane amount of tools that the game gives you, story that works with the game, pretty good fanservice for older fans, amazing animations, beautiful looking world. A lot of steps forward, I am very content with this game. Definitely a favorite in the series for me.

I might edit this and go more in-depth and detailed when I finish the game, but this is after about 25 hours of gameplay time and over halfway through the main story so I feel pretty confident in my opinions on the game right now.

The more I play Engage, the more I enjoy it and I honestly just don't understand the hate at all, this is not even close to being the worst FE title let alone the worst game ever in general. Even the story is nowhere near as bad or offensive as people make it out to be, it's just very dated and simplistic.

If you can get past the extremely flamboyant, V-tuber, modern anime character designs (Personally I like a lot of them as they're very vibrant and colorful, but I get why they're not everyone's cup of tea), this is the most "classic" feeling Fire Emblem game post-Awakening with the most polished and arguably the best gameplay the series has ever had.

I'm very happy to see the iconic weapons triangle return and I love the new additions with the break and smash mechanics and of course the whole gimmick of Engaging with Emblems which you'd think would be overly OP, but since the entire game was designed around it and even enemies can Engage as well it is pretty well balanced and the game will really give you a challenge even on normal, but the one thing I honestly do miss is weapon durability.

I think a lot of the disappointment just comes from people who were expecting this game to be like 3H and don't get me wrong, I love 3H, it's great in its own way, but it is a Persona game in disguise with a Langrisser combat system. Nearly nothing about that game feels like Fire Emblem. It was a cool experiment, but I wouldn't want every future Fire Emblem to be like that and I'm very happy Engage actually feels like a real Fire Emblem game.

Engage feels like a true love letter to the series past (Which makes sense considering it is an anniversary title), I especially see so much influence and inspiration from the GBA titles everything from the animations to the over-world map making a return to the stripped down and more simplistic support events (Note: Most of the characters don't have a lot of depth, but I still find them likable and charming enough, however Alear is the best protagonist Fire Emblem has had in years) and even the very old-school 90s-like narrative with a classic tale of good vs evil, a band of heroes traveling around various kingdoms to collect magical artifacts to stop an evil dragon complete with a very campy 4Kids sounding Saturday morning cartoon dub and that really makes me feel nostalgic.

Also want to mention how much I love the side mission Paralogues which let you re-live iconic battles and maps from the classic games even with remixes of that game's music as well.

I also want to say that I am not a fan of the Somniel. Glad they cut down the Monastery-like content (Despite actually enjoying it in 3H for the most part), but I would've been happier if they removed it all together because while raising the Guardian Spirit, adopting animals, working out and eating meals with your friends are all cute side activities they feel like inconsequential fluff that could easily be skipped entirely if you wanted to and I think it was developed like that on purpose due to the criticisms of many people saying the Monastery parts of Three Houses went on for too long. The main thing that your base offers which is mandatory is the shops and smithy where you can buy new equipment and upgrade it.

One last thing to note, the animations and cut-scenes are very smooth and look better than ever thanks to the improved graphical fidelity and I haven't had a problem with the performance overall yet which is a miracle considering most newer games run horribly on the Switch.

Overall if you got into the series with 3H or 3H is your favorite in the series you'll probably be disappointed because Engage is nothing like it and in a way kind of dated, but if you've been a long-time fan and prefer old-school FE compared to the more modern titles I think you'll be pleasantly surprised and satisfied with Engage.