not sure if i ever was as conflicted about a game as i am with fire emblem: engage...
i bought it day one and had watched a few of the trailers before, so i knew what i was getting myself into. that this game might not be as good as some other fire emblem games, that it would be more "anime".
it's clear that this game is a downgrade from what was fire emblem: three houses.
while three houses voice acted literally every line in the game, engage doesn't do the same. after battle dialouge or the characters reactions to food you cooked for them aren't voiced anymore, which is a shame.
the characters aren't as deep and developed as they were in three houses. they seem very one note, though i didn't bother to get every support conversation and only watched all alear supports and a few others mixed in. speaking of supports, they are-- alright? some of them aren't very good and just boring, while there are a few hidden gems. celine and alcryst have a very sweet and serious set of supports. over all, alcryst seems like one of the better characters in this game, just judging by the supports i saw of him.
the emblem supports are very dissappointing. they each say a line and that's it. i understand that if they did more, it would've been a ton of extra work, but i'd rather not have any supports with emblems than this.
the emblems themselves are fine. they are fun to use in gameplay, but it sucks that you don't have all 12 of them until the very end of the game. i understand that storywise this makes sense, but it sucked to have the one fun part of the game be taken away from me at a certain point.
somniel and all its activities didn't really interest me. the ring gacha mechanic lowkey sucked, simply because it costs way too much to forge an s rank ring. the food thing was alright but i much prefere the three houses version of it. i only did the work outs once and they were too easy and at the point i finally unlocked harder difficulties, i had lost interest in it. fishing wasn't fun either; again, the three houses version was better.
a positive is that you can marry whoever you want, no matter your characters gender. i watched three s supports and honestly, i would've prefered a more explicit "i love you" instead of the "we are allies forever"
the story very much reminded me of awakening and i'm sure i wasn't the only one. though, awakening did it better. especially chapter 11 (i think? maybe 10 or 12 even--) reminded me of a specific awakening map.
the emblem trials were fun at first, but got repetitive after a while. i didn't play every fire emblem game, so not all were equally interesting to me. though i do think they could've picked other maps from the respective games. especially celica's map was a bit underwhelming, but that might just be me.
the soundtrack is pretty decent though. i loved all the solm tracks and the credits songs. the four hounds had a nice theme as well.
speaking of them, they were BY FAR my favourite part of the game. i didn't expect anything from them going into the game and thought they would suck, but i was pleasantly suprised. the last scene griss and zephia share with each other is my favourite in the entire game and it made me very emotional. marni's backstory made me very sad as well, simply because she told it so casually. mauvier is alright too but was the least interesting one from the start (and of course happens to be the only one of the four hounds you can recruit--)
the final boss was very dissappointing. it was not just easy, but i actually expected more when they introduced the villain emblems. but they weren't even voiced, nor did they actually look like their respective characters.
i'm also very upset we never saw the emblem of origin and that we learned of it literally in the last five minutes of the game. i'm worried they might've actually cut that content and decided to put it in the dlc story.
one good thing about the final boss though, is the bad ending. it's one of the cooler scenes of the game and a very nice punch in the face if you actually get it.
overall, i can't help but compare this game to it's predecessor. i know that fire emblem can be better. both three houses and shadows of valentia are such great games, so it hurts to see this game not even get near their level of greatness.
still, i didn't hate my time with the game. yes, it was dissappointing. but there were a few good moments that made it worth it. but i do hope that the next fire emblem game we get actually does better...
i bought it day one and had watched a few of the trailers before, so i knew what i was getting myself into. that this game might not be as good as some other fire emblem games, that it would be more "anime".
it's clear that this game is a downgrade from what was fire emblem: three houses.
while three houses voice acted literally every line in the game, engage doesn't do the same. after battle dialouge or the characters reactions to food you cooked for them aren't voiced anymore, which is a shame.
the characters aren't as deep and developed as they were in three houses. they seem very one note, though i didn't bother to get every support conversation and only watched all alear supports and a few others mixed in. speaking of supports, they are-- alright? some of them aren't very good and just boring, while there are a few hidden gems. celine and alcryst have a very sweet and serious set of supports. over all, alcryst seems like one of the better characters in this game, just judging by the supports i saw of him.
the emblem supports are very dissappointing. they each say a line and that's it. i understand that if they did more, it would've been a ton of extra work, but i'd rather not have any supports with emblems than this.
the emblems themselves are fine. they are fun to use in gameplay, but it sucks that you don't have all 12 of them until the very end of the game. i understand that storywise this makes sense, but it sucked to have the one fun part of the game be taken away from me at a certain point.
somniel and all its activities didn't really interest me. the ring gacha mechanic lowkey sucked, simply because it costs way too much to forge an s rank ring. the food thing was alright but i much prefere the three houses version of it. i only did the work outs once and they were too easy and at the point i finally unlocked harder difficulties, i had lost interest in it. fishing wasn't fun either; again, the three houses version was better.
a positive is that you can marry whoever you want, no matter your characters gender. i watched three s supports and honestly, i would've prefered a more explicit "i love you" instead of the "we are allies forever"
the story very much reminded me of awakening and i'm sure i wasn't the only one. though, awakening did it better. especially chapter 11 (i think? maybe 10 or 12 even--) reminded me of a specific awakening map.
the emblem trials were fun at first, but got repetitive after a while. i didn't play every fire emblem game, so not all were equally interesting to me. though i do think they could've picked other maps from the respective games. especially celica's map was a bit underwhelming, but that might just be me.
the soundtrack is pretty decent though. i loved all the solm tracks and the credits songs. the four hounds had a nice theme as well.
speaking of them, they were BY FAR my favourite part of the game. i didn't expect anything from them going into the game and thought they would suck, but i was pleasantly suprised. the last scene griss and zephia share with each other is my favourite in the entire game and it made me very emotional. marni's backstory made me very sad as well, simply because she told it so casually. mauvier is alright too but was the least interesting one from the start (and of course happens to be the only one of the four hounds you can recruit--)
the final boss was very dissappointing. it was not just easy, but i actually expected more when they introduced the villain emblems. but they weren't even voiced, nor did they actually look like their respective characters.
i'm also very upset we never saw the emblem of origin and that we learned of it literally in the last five minutes of the game. i'm worried they might've actually cut that content and decided to put it in the dlc story.
one good thing about the final boss though, is the bad ending. it's one of the cooler scenes of the game and a very nice punch in the face if you actually get it.
overall, i can't help but compare this game to it's predecessor. i know that fire emblem can be better. both three houses and shadows of valentia are such great games, so it hurts to see this game not even get near their level of greatness.
still, i didn't hate my time with the game. yes, it was dissappointing. but there were a few good moments that made it worth it. but i do hope that the next fire emblem game we get actually does better...