So, Fire Emblem Engage was stupid, right?
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- Опубликовано: 17 мар 2023
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Engage Special Edition Artbook Flip-Through here:
• Fire Emblem Engage Art...
Blind Review of Engage Character designs here:
• Blindly Judging Fire E...
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Going back in time and finding out Zephias motivations were tied to wanting Sombron to make her preggers about sums up this games story.
Lollll for real it’s her entire character 😂
She should have chosen us.
@@DrBXXI Alear's dick don't work.
Okay, but when the emblems say “You are the Fire Emblem” I legit lost it. I feel like it was meant to be so serious, but I legit had to take a minute and laugh to myself.
Morbing time has destroyed us all. Lol
it was cheesy for sure
Honestly I can't hate the game when stuff like that happens. It's so funny
Your description of Alear's relationship with Lumera is basically Mikoto from Fates saying hi to Corrin before becoming the Arby's meme and blowing up
Dude this is the funniest breakdown of Engage’s story and writing that I’ve seen. This game’s plot is so dogshit 😭😭
HAHA I’m glad you enjoyed!!
I feel like they maybe could have saved the Lumera death scene if they had made it happen quicker (if it can't be tragic, you can at least sort of make it feel sudden and abrasive) and only focused on the "Don't go, I didn't get the chance to know you yet." She doesn't know Lumera, but she could still be sad about losing the chance to know her mother.
Also I was excited the whole game when they were referencing the fact that Alear used to be evil. And then the reveal was like "You're a fell dragon!" and then all the details were hand waved away. And I was like "I knew that already, I was waiting for the details!"
The gameplay was so good, and I can see how the story was written in service to it. I do think it's possible to make a good story under those constraints. I think the last scene with Zephia and Griss could have been an interesting scene in a different game.
I really enjoyed your take on this.
I’m glad you enjoyed the video!
Yeah I guess my biggest issues were pacing and context. So much of the game lacks setup and payoff, and events usually resolve pretty much immediately in service of keeping the game moving. It felt like they were trying to build all of these moments that didn’t amount to anything.
Omg for the bad guys I think they should have a side story like they made for the villains in the first valkyria chronicles, I think it would work quite well to flesh out their characters
FEE feels like a fever dream like i can’t believe after FE3H being so earth shattering and generating such a strong fandom presence after 4 years still we have… this…
Literally 😭
The unintentionally funniest part of the game for me was the pre-rendered cutscene in Chapter 9 where Morion just watches and does nothing while Hyacinth puts the Lyn ring on, despite being well aware of the power the rings hold. Like, I actually laughed out loud and I feel like that was not the intention.
Yeah some of the stuff in those story segments is odd. Like the way that Veyle suddenly has all the rings is also unexplained, she just swiped them I guess? Who’s to say 😂 suspend your disbelief I guess
King Moron.
@@sylphiemk I remember that scene. If I'm not mistaken, Veyle was able to steal the Dragon Time Crystal from Alear, she then used it to change events, so she was able to steal the rings from Alear.
@@Dragonite43- But how did she manage to steal back the crystal without anyone noticing? The explanation for the rings doesn’t work if it makes just as little sense.
I love your laid back tone while talking about this game. Like you're not mad, just disappointed.
I’m glad you enjoyed! And yes I was disappointed lmao, but at least the game was enjoyable 😂😂
Yeah I really enjoyed the laid back tone too. Felt like a conversation
Absolutely agreed with all your points, also loved this very casual format. Felt like a chat with a friend rather than a stiff breakdown, great work
Thanks for watching! I’m glad you enjoyed
These conversations are hard to get.
Almost like a fairy tale
I don't know... The plot it's so shamelessly cliche that i found it funny. With some exceptions most characters lack any real personality and are just walking tropes, but they have been like this for a long time already. I picked Goldmary for two good reasons, and because she is good cooking. (it was her or Rosado).
Bro has the audio quality and script of a 100,000+ sub channel and I check the views and I'm... Viewer 240?!
Alright, you got me, I subscribed. 😅
Oh my god that’s very very nice thank youuuuuuu 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼 I hope to get to 100k someday lmao
@@sylphiemk If it isn't rude of me what are your preferred pronouns? I don't want to be rude by using bro or anything frivolously, you may not be irritated by it but some people find it hurtful.
I use they/them but I’m ok with any. Thanks for asking!
It seems that every discussion on Engage going forward is doomed to open with the concession that fully enjoying this game requires one to actively ignore half of it.
I've played a version of every Fire Emblem game and beaten all but Awakening, Fates, and Genealogy and yet I find myself utterly disinterested in checking out the latest title. After the success of Three Houses and the gorgeous presentation of Echoes, the ludicrous whiplash of this title's new direction is downright lethal.
Yes Captain Astronaut's video about engage really hit the nail on the head in terms of how you really have to eat around what you don't like. I think the game has some redeeming qualities, especially now that all the updates are out and the game is actually finished (?) lol. The gameplay works well and I think they'll reuse a lot of the successful mechanics in this game in a future title, but if Fire Emblem Heroes: The AAA Home Console Game doesn't sound appealing then I'd say skip it, because that's exactly what this is
As a day 1 FEH player who still logs in from time to time to do free pulls, Console FEH sounds abysmal XD
Captain Astronaut's video is what convinced me to give the game a pass a few months back, actually. I'm hopeful that they'll be able to expound on Engage's mechanics in the next title without putting the rest of the game in the anime blender. In the meantime, the rest of this extensive series isn't exactly lacking in replayability.
agree so much on the Lumera death scene, so melodramatic for a character we've known for like 15 minutes at most. as it was happening, i couldnt help but think that it would make more sense for one or all of the stewards to be at her side crying instead, as theyve known and worshipped her as a goddess in the flesh for their entire lives. it would've been interesting to have alear on the sidelines sort of unsure how to feel given the fact that lumera is practically a stranger to them, and maybe even feeling guilty that theyre not as sad as they should be.
also im only 8 minutes in so you might mention this but it's also weird to me as im playing through that everyone just kind of... believes Alear when he tells them he's the divine dragon? like yeah sure alfred visited him while he was sleeping all the time so that tracks but every other character is just like oh shit this weird guy is telling me he's dragon jesus, surely he cant be lying or anything!
literally it all happened so fast and the emotional payoff was just not realistic. Like Alear is a couple hours into being alive and this person they don't know dies? The moment just doesn't work for me, I agree that maybe if they didn't know how to react that could've felt more justified
yeah the plot in that way feels way too clean. Alear goes pretty unchallenged for most of the game, it could have been cool to explore some disbelief. Tbh probably would've been good in Solm where they do nothing, maybe Timerra and Fogado don't believe and because they're not paying attention to what's going on outside their nation it could work? Idk
so coming back to this after finishing the game today and i gotta say, the last few chapters were legit so bad story-wise that i started skipping cutscenes, which i have never done on a first playthrough of a fire emblem game.
the amount of time wasted on obvious fake-out deaths like alear (twice!) and the emblems before the sombron fight, along with attempted emotional death scenes that just fell completely flat (marni, zephia, griss, lumera again for some reason) just became too much to bear. losing the emblems halfway through the game had some meaning because i knew i would have to actually play without them for a good chunk of the story, but having alear die or pretending the emblems are going away right before the final battle has 0 impact because obviously those things are gonna be undone in the next 2 minutes of cutscenes.
at least this game has some of the funniest lines in any game ive ever played, the stand-outs being Marth looking into the camera and telling you that you are the Fire Emblem, and alear telling lumera he wanted to be a good dragon.
i have a lot of thoughts on this game and nowhere to really share them but i'll refrain from writing an even longer essay but yeah, at least the actual tactical gameplay was great!
Yeah the game dropped the ball in the last chapters for sure, a lot of that stuff fell flat. Wild that you were skipping cutscenes though, I might do that on a second playthrough but yeah a lot of them are long and don’t really do much? But like you said, at least it’s fun to play 😂
The “HYBE/SM takeover” bit with Sombron was so out-of-pocket yet so damn accurate 🤣🤣🤣
Also, I deeply resonate with the sentiment of “I played this game and immediately forgot about it, then remembered it and realized I had so many things to say…all of them bad” lmao.
I’m finally borrowing this game from a friend and I’m very glad I didn’t have to pay for it, cuz as fun as it is the story has me rolling my eyes or falling asleep 😬. You made a great point, thru flip-flopped too much between being self-aware and painfully sincere, so nearly every emotional beat fell flat…
Literally the game launched and I immediately tore through it in 60 hours and then was like "what game did I even play during February?" 🤣 thanks for watching!
I was hoping you were gonna go through all the characters like you did the firene ones haha. Was looking forward to hearing your take on my femboy queen rosado 😂
I would’ve but I barely used/got to know any of the later retainers so I didn’t have much to contribute
Louie probably being a pervert cracked me up cause he has Brock's eyes
Chloé was a huge disappointment for me. When I saw her in trailers I fell in love with her design. But then I played the game and she won't stfu about fairy tales even when its completely unrelated to what's happening.
Haven't watched all the way through, but I will say that some of the designated serious scenes did actually make me feel a little bit; not really because of the writing, but because of the voice acting. I feel reasonably comfortable saying that whoever was responsible for the voice direction in this game did a really good job, because this game has a surprising amount of good performances. Both genders of Alear are great, Yunaka is gold, Alfred is utterly hilarious when given the opportunity (how 'bout that Veyle support?/"One thing's for sure: it's not fit for human consumption!"), Fogado is generally a treat... Now, admittedly there are a few areas where I think they're only passable, but having voice direction that's as consistently good as Engage's actually does manage to pick up some of the (many miles of) slack left by the writing. Nowhere near enough to erase the fact that the story's execution is godawful, but enough to at least give a token attempt at selling the feels.
I totally agree that most characters were performed well, the cast did a good job
Thank you for your review! I 💯 agree with what you said about this game. It’s the WHOLE PACKAGE we’re buying, and if 2/3 of the content is utter trash, then the game is, as well.
Thank you for watching!! I’m glad you enjoyed
ok but griss is the best character in the game because he's just batshit insane and doesn't know what the fuck is going on at all times, like he's just here for the ride and has no stakes in this its so funny
This is true Griss does bring the crazy, it would be nice if Gregory was crazier too lmao
@@sylphiemk that's the thing that disappointed me the most about the fell xenologue, a lot of the characters just feel like a cheap reflexion of the other. Griss was a very simple villain, but he was an entertaining one. Gregory lost all the fun Griss had from just being evil and insane lmao
Wait Sombron is a isekai protagonist. It all makes sense now.
Also something notable is that the game's chapter deployment slots were often so few for like no reason. Maybe it's because i played on hard mode but there were several chapters where i could only deploy like 7 units which i think ultimately leads to less supports and being unfamiliar with most of the cast like you mentioned
Moral of the story:
FE: Three Houses much better than Engage
There are things I like in the game. The gameplay, how pretty it is…but the story was just mind numbing and shallow. I don’t skip text and I don’t skip cut scenes and that all I wanted to do. I also had issues with the money system. I wanted my first playthrough to be blind. I didn’t look up videos or strategies, I played on normal and wanted to have a good time. Maddening mode is for my 2nd time. Yes I saw that Anna gives you more money but I didn’t level her because I wanted to try new characters. I didn’t realize this would leave me so poor that I couldn’t even buy healing staves. So that made even the really good gameplay something I was struggling with and took away so much experimentation and fun. I was so irritated. So yeah, this was rough and it’s really frustrating. I agree wholeheartedly with everything you said.
Yeah I think the money scarcity was a huge thing, for me I think it’s more so just a deterrent - I’m not a hardcore FE player, I’ve never tackled a difficulty past hard because I’m just not that good lmao. It just felt like having no money meant I was spending more time in the menus trading things around, and I really didn’t like the UI lmao 😂 I got the season pass after the wave 4 trailer so now I’m gonna give NG+ a shot, maybe I’ll do it on hard haha
I'm peeved off the game tried to intentionally be funny and corny with the writing but not have ANY big Tokyo Mirage Sessions reference. The game is aight but could've went more all out to servicing all Fire Emblem fans, esp the extreme anime lover ones. *internally crying*
Omg that could’ve been cool for a dlc reference. I’m honestly shocked that they didn’t lean even MORE into heroes tbh
@@sylphiemk Yeah the extra emblems are neat, but kinda basic and feeling like it should've been in the game already kind of surprise content. But hey, at least I can pretend that I'm playing Tokyo Mirage Sessions 2 by using Emblem Robin+Chrom in Japanese voices!
it’s a shame there’s no fe 0 (aka fe cipher) reference even though sombron’s super secret god ring is literally called the “Zero Emblem”
I fucking cackled out loud multiple times lmao the way you described this story was so funny! 🤌🏼 I agree with those few chapters being awesome and actually engaging story-wise (also gameplay). I’d also just add chapter 17 as well for story and gameplay reasons. Having Hortensia and Ivy fight their dad was so heartbreaking. I already cry way too easily lmao but those exchanges broke me. Same with Morion and his sons. I’d also agree with your take on Céline! She feels so real compared to most of the rest of the cast. I wish she could’ve actually had a real conversation with Edelgard. It feels like Céline, Ivy, and Hortensia were the only characters the writers bothered to make the player care about. The backstory with Céline taking care of Alfred and being scared of the future was something I was surprised to see (also her supports with Alcryst, Jesus it was peak 😭😭). Ivy and Hortensia’s backstory with their mother was also some awesome worldbuilding for once and it felt so real among everything else. To a slightly lesser extent, Alcryst, Diamant, Yunaka, and some of the Brodian retainers feel more 3-dimensional as well. A lot of people hate on Seadall, but I commend the writers for actually trying to have a character openly talk about their eating disorder. Aaaanyway, the game became a lot more enjoyable for me after all the updates and DLC came out. Having way more opportunities to increase support was VERY welcome, I’m so surprised that shit wasn’t in there already. And the whole well system makes it easier to actually inherit good Emblem abilities and it makes it more fun to make your faves as broken as possible. Still super annoyed about no NG+ though like wtf are the Engage devs smoking?? I just hope the FE4 remake does justice to the original and they make the big ass maps more enjoyable/easier to deal with somehow
Thanks so much for checking out a bunch of my stuff! I really appreciate it 🙏🏼
i loved the gameplay of engage but the story didnt keep me ''engaged'' because there was no world building or character development between chapters also the characters were just forgettable tbh
whats your thoughts on three houses?
i loved the sim aspect and story, but absolutely adored the characters and world building in 3h especially in between chapters
i wish they made a game with 3H's story and world building/characters combined with engages gameplay
I really enjoyed 3H and all other entries I’ve played, I have a few other vids talking about three houses and three hopes. 3H though might be one of my favourite games ever? It’s the game I’ve put the most playtime into.
Yeah it would’ve been nice if they were able to take 3H’s story or something a bit more complex (bc 3H is good but the story isn’t perfect imo) and combine it with cleaner gameplay and visuals, which engage serves
No for real, I was cutting up and having a great time for the early game because it was really funny! Yunaka’s intro is probably the funniest scene I’ve watched in a game lately. If the entire game was that witty then I would be on board with the “Engage is actually a self aware masterpiece” idea, but they don’t stick with that and I wish they would’ve. If I heard that I would think Scary Movie, not what we get in Engage! A parody of Fire Emblem tropes would’ve been really fun, but they start playing it really straight and tbh I feel that was a mistake since Engage doesn’t do anything groundbreaking. They’re not subverting expectations here, this isn’t Bravely Default
The gameplay is good, the UI is clapped, and the gacha elements of the bond ring system and the free Well update worry me for future fire emblem games. I hope they never make a scarce economy like this again, only to give free items and money in the DLC… the Emblem Bracelets were cool enough, just implement the other things into the story… I just don’t get it! Love the game but it has its flaws
Omg yeah I didn’t touch on it enough but the UI/menu navigation and the utter lack of resources both sucked. Like I was generally ok for gold but there were multiple times where I had to switch weapons between units bc I couldn’t buy more
the two cringiest moments for me was Alears LONG ending speech and the power ranger type scene, Bro had to mention every single ring!
and two, in many scenes these guys will be facing the enemy (which is supposed to be a tense moment) and then start talking amongst themselves about something else and the villain is just standing there... in general there are a lot of scenes where characters are just standing there doing nothing
Hey I just saw this today but your video here was great.
Thanks for watching, glad you enjoyed!!
29:04 I imagined something a bit similar for my rewrite. Instead of Alear having amnesia, you have a 3rd party character (my plan was to have two Alear being two distinct characters, so one's a surrogate for the audience coming from the present while the other Alear's from a 1000 years ago, but that could be different) who was teleported to Lythos, and this character meet Alear along with Vander, Framme and Clanne. Basically every recruitable character worships Alear for being a divine dragon only for your character to discover the truth about Alear, and Alear's being avoiding talking about their past/straight up lie because they want to move on from their past/build a better future, like a mix of Yunaka and Rhea from Three Houses. With the coming DLC and possibilities of AUs and AU characters, I was thinking about doing a back and forth between what happened a 1000 years ago versus the present. That way, I'd justify as to why characters wear modern clothes and why countries like Firene have modern clothes, and some countries are more tied to traditional stuff. I kinda had a fun twist in mind for Sommie and Somniel would act like a present day Lythos, and as the game goes on, the audience can see the effects of your character's time traveling (AU characters like Hardcore Celine from the recent DLC trailer could be the characters from 1000 years ago while the kind versions from the base game are characters from the present, don't want to make them ancestor-descendant but more so archetypes, like a ''history repeats itself'' kind of thing). I wouldn't say it's the best idea for a rewrite but I liked it a bit more than just amnesia and the audience's forced to endure exposition-dumping.
I think the framing of the narrative from an outsiders perspective would really work. Amnesia kind of functions as a means of audience surrogacy but I think it’s a bit cooler to see how someone behaves knowing of their circumstances. Stories with amnesia and mind control are always gonna be tricky bc I think they’re really hard to develop well and feel like they have a good payoff for the audience. I also think not having 2 alear’s or like red/blue counterparts was kind of a missed opportunity. Once you see red Alear it begs the question of who blue alear is, I know their hair becomes blue when they can engage but I was waiting for a second entity to be the reveal
Anyone who is curious, I think the show you mentioned is called severance on Apple TV
Hehe yes it was severance
One other part that I found funny was when they not only resurrected the divine dragon once, BUT Twice, all in the span of chapter 22.
They were just throwing shit at the walls and I guess that's what got through in the writers room lol
I loved the gameplay and maps in this but something that pissed me off endlessly was how many times you had to fight the four hounds. it was ridiculous how you would defeat them and they would just say “no i won’t die!” and then walk away while your characters just stand there. then they would constantly show up throughout the story and you could never defeat them until the game decided that they should die. I just rolled my eyes every time they popped up in the last third of the game
Very good video!!
Thanks again!
Your right, I have a great sense of if i like you or not you beautiful creature
tyty 🙏🙏🙏
18:45 In that chapter, you CAN defeat the four hounds, there a bit hard, but its still doable. Veyle is the only one you can't defeat, but she doesn't move iirc
Yes you can defeat the hounds but like what’s the point lmao. Veyle you can’t beat, her health won’t go below 1
I was so pissed when she wouldn't die
Engage is the best FE gameplay I've ever experienced bolted to the worst FE story I've ever experienced... As someone who mostly cares about gameplay I love it... But holy heck is everything outside of the gameplay total trash...
LMAOOO yeah I feel like it’s a really tough sell to have your game be “plays amazingly, ignore everything else and you’ll have a good time” 😂
Play FE Fates Conquest. (It has some good characters though, like Charlotte.)
Conquest is great!
@@sylphiemk I would say the story is worse than Engage's. Clearly the king is evil from the start but everyone acts super stupid as if that wasn't the case. Everyone seems to act OOC because the script wants to move in a direction no matter what.
Yeah conquest was narratively silly from what I remember. My big takeaway was really enjoying the maps and gameplay
I have literally never played Engage, stopped after 3H, but the algorithm is feeding me the good shit 👌🏼 this vid was great, you've earned yourself a sub, you're really funny, keep slaying and hope you get monetized if you're not already (manifesting ✨)
Thanks so much for your support!!
gameplay is so fun but i am not wasting my time replaying through the story again.
Agreeeeeeed
so true bestie
thank u bestie
You’re hilarious and deserve more subs.
My FAVORITE part of the ridiculously drawn out and over the top cutscenes is when the Switch goes into power saving mode. Like the console itself is just so over how long it takes for Lumera to die… the FIRST time. There’s not one, not TWO, BUT THREE PARENT DEATH SCENES 😂 Lumera’s first and second death, and Moiron’s as well- WAIT. Ivy and Hortensia’s father also die immediately after Moiron. Holy crap, THAT’S FOUR!
Edit: welp, we can count Sombron in there so that’s FIVE… and there’s ALMOST a sixth with Fogado’s mother and.. the one chick. The characters are unbelievably forgettable, forgive me.
This game is a parody of Fire Emblem. Intelligent Systems knew what they were doing.
Omg thank you very much for your support, it means a lot 🙏🏼
Lmao yeah you can go quite a while without touching the controller, economy of text was not a priority really for engage 😂 and yeah omg the parents didn’t stand a chance. It’s not sad but Sombron dies so 5 parent death scenes LMAO. And haha yes engage was silly stupid fun for a lot of it 😂
Engage's gameplay was fantastic but the story was extremely mediocre and a lot of the characters felt flat (like seriously I can count the characters whose personality/backstory I cared about with one hand).
Yeah for real!! Besides the UI/menu navigation, the gameplay was extremely smooth. The story really wasn’t great though
@@sylphiemk the dialogue was so cheesy that during some 'serious' cutscenes I started laughing instead of being anxious/crying/angry/etc.
@@suenzhong7891 the dialogue was so melodramatic at times that the story was harder to get into, especially because some scenes overstay their welcome 😂
You should be able to build support on enemy phase its bad that you cant
Build support on enemy phase and build support when attacking enemies within any unit’s range. It’s crazy that (esp in the early game) units with only 1 attack range can’t build support with each other if they’re attacking the same enemy
The accent thing bothers the heck out me too. Hot take but I REALLY can’t stand listening to Zelda in BOTW/TOTK.
Lollll the TOTK video is coming and I agree the voice acting in that game doesn't work for me either
“Zephia, wow what a flop bitch.” LOL 😭😭😭
I know this is like months later, but I agree with a lot of what you say (although I love Amber 😭, he’s one of the handful of characters I like).
After watching your vid, I have a lot to say…idk where to start…hmm I guess I’ll do the gameplay topic!
I’ve seen many people say that this is the best Fire Emblem’s gameplay has ever been and I just…can’t agree 😭. Idk if it might be recency bias for some people, but I think Conquest & Thracia 776 are better and more fun to play. And look, I know Thracia gets the rep of being hard as hell, but I genuinely think it’s a very well designed game (aside from a couple quirks) and it’s peak FE gameplay (which is crazy since it came out in 1999). That’s not to say Engage’s gameplay is bad or average. I think it’s good, just not as amazing as most others seem to think it is. The end especially is a slog, and it’s just constant reinforcements after reinforcements. It’s fun to play though and I do get joy out of seeing my favorite FE lords like Byleth, Sigurd, and Leif be present.
Next I’ll talk about the characters. Ok…so for me, a lot of what draws me in to FE is the cast. Three Houses is my favorite and a big reason to why is because of the story and characters. Like…I genuinely love EVERYONE in Fódlan. So characters for me are really important, and I think supports help you bond with them and encourage you even more to grow your favorites and see them triumph. Engage really did not do well in that department. I’d say the only characters I really like are
1. Alfred
2. Ivy
3. Alcryst
4. Celine
5. Boucheron
6. Zelkov
7. Kagetsu
8. Amber
9. Mauvier
10. Veyle
11. Seadall
11 out of like 38 isn’t horrible, but it took me 2 plays to really understand and enjoy Alfred and Celine. I feel like Alfred gets shit on so much by people, but his backstory is good and the way he goes about talking with people and conducting his life just makes so much sense when you know more about him. How do you find out about his tragic backstory tho??? Oh yeah, his A SUPPORT WITH CELINE!!! And if you’re not using either of them, you’re never gonna see that. And Alear is…well…just no…I didn’t like Alear and I’ll leave it at that. I agree with you, it’s hard to raise supports in Engage. Sure they made it a bit easier with the little activities at the Somniel, but even then it’s still not as easy as some of the past games. This game isn’t like Fates or 3H where you might be encouraged to play multiple times which gives you more opportunity to see the supports you missed, so a lot of characters just get tossed to the wayside. And even then, like you said, some of the characters are just ass. If they weren’t in the final product it wouldn’t make much of a difference. One thing I liked about 3H was that the paralogues had pairs of people doing a sidequest together so you could see more of their personalities behind just their introduction in the game (Leonie & Linhardt, Hilda and Cyril, Petra and Bernadetta, Ingrid and Dorothea, or Caspar and Mercedes). And although Fates had the whack ass excuse for the paralogues with the kids, you still were able to see more depth to some of the characters. I remember Forrest’s paralogue being particularly good with some of Elise and Leo’s dialogue. While I did enjoy the remixed maps the paralogues in Engage had, more of the focus ended up going to the past protagonists because of it and not the auxiliary cast. It’s very unfortunate, but it is what it is.
Regarding the story…*SIGH*…look, I’ve seen SOOOO many people say that Fire Emblem stories are normally not very good, so a story like Engage is par for the course…like ok??? WHY should it be par for the course??? So it’s okay for Intelligent Systems to settle with mediocrity/garbage? I think not! They should strive for both excellent story AND gameplay. I apologize for bringing up 3H again, but I’ve seen many now say that the gameplay of 3H is ass. Look, I can acknowledge it’s perhaps not as good as Engage, but it’s still GOOD and FUN! And for me, personally it was heightened by the fact that I was invested in what was going on in the story and I adored the characters I was using. It motivated me to keep going! Engage didn’t feel that way.
And even ignoring Three Houses, I wholeheartedly believe the gameplay and stories of the SNES titles were solid. Mystery of the Emblem, Genealogy of the Holy War, and Thracia 776 had good stories and good gameplay (Thracia especially). I know some people will gripe about Genealogy’s map size, but it never bothered me and I honestly enjoyed it. And while Fates storyline as a whole has a lot of bumps, I will say I appreciate the fact that it was something DIFFERENT from what the series normally does. Engage is the mediocre regurgitation of Marth’s “We’re up against an evil dragon oh nooooooo!!!” Granted there are some nice bits, but not enough to bring the story back from the brink. I noticed in the credits Intelligent Systems hired the same writing agency for Engage as Fates which I find baffling because did they not realize how much backlash there was to that storyline??? ☠️
I know I’ve had some choice words for Engage, but I do think that it is a good game. Is it the best Fire Emblem? No way in hell, but it’s still a good FE game and I had fun with it. I like that the skirmishes never stop and you can technically just keep playing. I go back to it sometimes just to do maps with my favorites. I can’t see myself starting it over again though. I’ve put like 560 hours into it, so obviously I like it somewhat lol!
Great vid dude! Sorry for the long comment.
FIVE HUNDRED AND SIXTY HOURS!? Im excited to replay engage soon but that’s fucking nuts
@@sylphiemk PLSSS I KNOW 😭😭😭. I’m not lying, about 300 hours is literally just me tinkering around with the post game stuff. Like no joke, all I did was skirmishes over and over and do Tempest Trials. I also did the DLC maps I didn’t do during the main story and the final map of the DLC on Maddening since I wasn’t able to complete it before (which I don’t recommend doing, it took me 5 hours and was so stressful). I maxed out the donations for the countries and stats of the little team I used. I got a lot of extra supports and bond convos done, and tinkered with the augmentation of Engage weapons.
@tomasgarcia7499 that’s wild but also rad
I highly disagree with you that the Lumera death scene was boring. I found it to be one of the funniest scenes in the entire game!
And, when you're bringing up that Lumera needed to be taken out because she's too strong... the game already gave us a reason. She stayed on the little island to protect the Emblem Rings so of course she's not going to join the journey when there are still Rings present. Especially when it was shown that the enemy has grown so much in power.
Imagine if the game was about Alear leading the charge to go from kingdom to kingdom to recruit them and set up a meet between all the leaders. You could use the Lythos palace as the hub area instead of the floating island, allowing you to build a relationship with Lumera after each mission as more of your memory returns. You could piece your memories together after each of the leaders are brought together. And, you could then see and interact with the different leaders as they appear within the hub area to meet with Lumera.
You acquisition Firene, Brodia, Elusia, and then Solm. Elusia plays the role as former sympathizers to the bad guys but have been trying to reform for the past thousand years and Brodia still has the tensions with them. When you get both kingdoms, the two are still at odds and you see that through the characters interacting in the hub world. The monsters you encounter in the early game are not super strong, not as strong as they should be, something that is remarked upon a few times by the characters. Then, the first part ends with the meeting between all the leaders; they agree to bring all the Rings together (including the ones you've been giving and/or found) in order to end the threat before it can begin. However, the Elusian king is found to have been corrupted long before and just went along with things so he could infiltrate the meeting and get access to all the Rings at once, also taking the time to poke holes in any defenses present in the castle. The real evil generals and actual strong monsters burst through and this is where Lumera is killed. The main group manage to keep the Marth and Lucina Rings and run away with the leaders of Firene and Solm at their sides. The Brodia king stays to fight, not only to save you but because he can't let go of his grudge with Elusia and wants to fight instead of flee.
The second part of the game becomes a case of hunting down the stolen rings, using guerilla tactics to isolate the individual commanders so it is possible. At the same time, you move the hub world to the Somniel, where only the divine can be, and continue to reinforce it against incoming monster attacks. The leaders of Firene and Solm can be sometimes found here and will provide supplies and money for the war effort, typically after a major chapter taking place in one of their regions. For the most part, the maps are the same ones from the first half of the story, only you and the enemy are in different starting locations. The main story itself is now tied to the many holes left in Alear's memory; she gained all the happy ones back but there are lots of bits missing which become clear that Alear is subconsciously blocking them from trauma.
You can still do the whole 'Alear is an evil dragon' thing, but the character will NOT become a damn ring. The Rings are explicitly said to not be the actual characters, but creations made to mirror the various heroes. So, Alear cannot become one. My take would be that each final mission would have two victory conditions, a 'good' one and one that leads to more violence. The choices you make would lead to Alear choosing to side with the Divine of Fell aspects of her power at the last chapter, leading to an ending where you either take over as the new Divine or the new Fell. You take all the Emblem Rings together and either remove the entirety of the Fell or Divine influence from the world, allowing peace to resume or taking over everything under your endless power.
Lol you’ve clearly thought about this a lot. I love your ideas, I would buy this game! It definitely gives the characters much more to do in progressing the plot while still maintaining engage’s world and general story structure. Except Alear becoming a ring I’d also be happy to see that go
@@sylphiemk When I play a game that I'm not engaged in (pun entirely intended) I tend to look at it and think about what could have been. The thing is, in the broad strokes, Engage has a lot of elements that could have been very interesting. You get the stretch of Brodia into Elusia in the actual game and it begins to feel really fun. But, the beginning and ending of the game are so obtuse and it really feels like three different games.
The beginning is all about Alear trying to get their memories and come to terms with the new world. The middle is all about the conflict between Brodia and Elusia, backed by the respective religious icons. The finale is all about Alear secretly being 'evil' but not really and somehow, Veyle secretly being evil but not really.
why are dislikes booing you, you're right!!!!
Omg finally someone who understands
I watched your take and found it interesting, because I agree hard on some points and disagree hard with a lot of others, but it was interesting to listen to your analysis and reasoning. My initial attitude toward Engage was that it was kind of a shitposty fire emblem game that *was* self-aware and most of the characters were designed to be humorous. I feel the game's writing was more lighthearted and oriented toward comedic writing rather than tragic or serious writing. I think a tl;dr is that one of the problems is the characters are locked behind supports, which you brought up a lot, and your perception of them is not going to be great just from doing the main story.
I agree the game does get serious around 10-11 and this was probably the peak of the game despite the earlier goofiness, but I disagree that the rest of everything is bad as I think some of the humor writing really does land, or at least personally that is how I felt. Unfortunately, where I do hard agree with you is that 90% of this is locked behind the supports and very little behind the mostly vapid main plot. But those supports, if you do unlock them, at least to me are really funny. There were a lot of Yunaka and Zelkov supports that made me laugh out loud, and I know you hate Amber, but I thought he was real silly at times too. Alear, weirdly enough, also has some super funny moments in his/her supports, which is unexpected as he/she is pretty bland in the cutscenes outside of the first one where he/she wants to immediately turn tail and flee.
Another thing I don't really agree with you on is I actually liked the Solm arc of the game. I feel like this was more of an adventure saga than serious main plot building, but I was ok with that, as the characters imo were enjoyable and I liked the plot of Alear building himself and his team back up after basically hitting rock bottom in 10-11. Timerra is another character whose supports establish she is very silly and whimsical despite being essentially the crown princess, and I didn't necessarily think that was bad, even though it's not that common in FE to have characters like this. Panette actually has really good supports which do establish she has a more complicated past than you might think and that is why she tries too hard to appear dignified, though occasionally the mask slips, and it wasn't that glued to her face in the first place. And Bunet is a shitpost of a character, but imo a pretty funny one. His desire to taste everything is played up for jokes and comedy. He's not a real character at all, but I thought the comedy was good with him personally as he takes everything to a monistic extreme. Goldmary's background is actually similar to Lapis's (I agree with you Lapis is a good character, but you wouldn't know this from the main plot as 100% of Lapis is locked behind supports; in the main plot she has like one line), and her haughty, hubristic 'tude is just a different psychological cope, which I also kinda liked.
Thank you for watching! I appreciate you taking the time to write this. When I bring up the game getting worse after chapter 11, I mostly meant the main game story and not character/support writing, outside of the villains. I didn’t know this all info about the solmic and elusian characters from my playthrough, I’m sure you know why 😂. It’s cool to know that getting to know the solmic characters better on a next playthrough could be worth it. I liked Fogado, I didn’t like Timerra (she’s not a bad character, I just wasn’t endeared to her), and I didn’t end up using most of the later retainers so that’s part of why I glossed over them. I do think it’s good that there are less support strings between characters in this game so that they’re not totally overdoing it and scrambling to find new ideas. I genuinely do think some of the supports are funny. I recorded the one I used between Chloe and Amber bc it made me laugh, same with the Chloe/Citrinne one. My lineup by the endgame mostly consisted of units I had from before ch 10, and then all the royals pretty much, so that mid-to-late game cast were all difficult for me to get to know. I remember when the credits rolled reading that Panette (IIRC) never found her parents and then started an orphanage and thinking that was intriguing. Engage might be one that I’ll take some time away from before revisiting as opposed to jumping into NG+ right away, I’m hoping they do something to make support building easier bc I know that’s a pretty consistent critique from what I’ve seen.
Mauvier was hot at least.
At LEAST
So sorry for the (very) late (and absurdly long, wow, i am sorry) comment, but school's been kicking my ass and I haven't had the chance to actually watch this til now lmao.
I think my opinion of the game overall is quite a bit more positive than yours, but that isn't to say I don't agree with several of your points because I *really* do. Supports being as slow as this is awful, Lumera continues the downhill trend since Emmeryn (can we please shelve this trope at this point), several characters are extremely repetitive and one-dimensional and it gets exhausting hearing Merrin talk about bugs after the 47th time, and Zephia helping us at the end was a giant asspull that legitimately pissed me off. I'm also disappointed, more in the gameplay end, that Ch10 comes with a warning, because that really just spoiled the whole "we're taking your rings" thing for me, and for the sake of two chapters... was a warning necessary? Maybe include it on Normal, but Hard and above should have had it be a surprise imo.
Like I say though, my opinion is overall more positive, and I think that does largely come down to personal preference. I don't agree with your take that most characters having large aspects of their personalities hidden in Supports is necessarily unusual or bad, that's how the series has always worked because the cast is too large to fit every tertiary character into the plot. On the note of characters, I do enjoy at least a sizeable portion of them, simple as some of them are, and I definitely find these characters infinitely more interesting than the casts of some other FE games.
I enjoyed the story for what it was, I think because I went into it expecting a campy game to just have fun with. I felt like it was almost trying to bring a nostalgia factor in of being over-the-top in everything, and that worked for me (I completely get why it didn't work for others). Whatever tone the game threw at me I went with, and that made it for the most part enjoyable, even if it wasn't exactly groundbreaking. I think the villains kinda fit that too, though as a general villain simp, I am disappointed more wasn't done with the Hounds. The fact that for me to be allowed to play as Griss he needed his tats and piercings removed, be renamed Gregory, and lose all his masochism is a homophobic personal attack against me and I am already in contact with lawyers.
(Edit I forgot lmao): I really do want to praise the shit out of the game tho for the plethora of legit gay S-Supports that Alear gets. The improvement in this is massive comparative to Three Houses (for M!Alear in particular) and that just makes me real happy. I'm going to overpraise this, so we continue to get improvements moving forward.
Great video as always though! Still waiting for the day you blow up, like come on how has it not happened yet.
Omg I hope school’s going well lmao, focus on ur studies 🤓📖
I didn’t mind when Emmeryn got killed off, it didn’t feel that weird bc of how it was contextualized and where it happened in the story. I liked Lumera but I think her death wasn’t impactful and it made the illusory thing later not work for me. I do agree that we should shelve “the queen dies for the protagonist” trope, I’m over it and it bars us from powerful women participating in our stories.
I understand why a lot of people would like this game, I liked this game, I think there’s a lot of good stuff here, but it didn’t necessarily move or excite me. I think it’s great that you like it, I’m never gonna yuck someone’s yum over something like that. I think my issue isn’t necessarily that character development happens in the supports, but more so to do with how intentional you have to be with playing to build support points to see those convos. Perhaps I didn’t frame my point well enough.
Omg omg I literally didn’t see any of these gay s-ranks, I played as Girlear and tend to not pick an S-rank on first playthrough after choosing Sothis in 3H bc I stumbled into crimson flower and thought she’d be reborn or smth, not that we’d have odd romance with dragon grandma god child, but oh well 😂. I will have to look into these bc we all know I’m here for the gays.
Thank you for enjoying the video and I appreciate the thoughtful comment!! The support really helps me and the channel 🙏🏼🙏🏼🙏🏼
@@sylphiemk LOL thank you~
Yeah, Emm's death is pretty impactful imo, it's just ever since none of the other parental figure deaths have come close for me and it feels like they keep doing it because Awakening did. Like the premonitions and amnesia, too.
Oh yeah, I don't want to come across like "ew you HAVE to like this thing I like" because I totally see why this game isn't for everyone. I'm glad most of us can rally behind the banger gameplay at least lmao
not the Sothis S-Support omg 💀 Yeah there's like, a good... 10? Blatant "they're gay, your honour" S-Supports for M!Alear. A couple even full on say "I love you" and I may have freaked out a little hearing it. Really hoping the next title expands this to non-protag characters too.
AHHHH omg I need to look up these supports ASAP. Btw I just dropped a video reacting to the new trailer and I featured your username bc I mentioned your comment on this one, please check it out when you have the opportunity 🙏🏼
This has to be the first fire emblem game by the end of the game I really did not care about any of these characters, and really wanting to just skip all the dumb empty support convos. To the point where when it was time to "make a special bond" with one of the characters no one stood out to me as yes this character was super cool or I really liked. Such a huge departure from three houses or any other fire emblem game. Like you could have just had a game where you cut all this story out and just had maps, characters, and doing the strategy and you wouldn't really be missing all that much. Its almost as if the majority of effort was put into the game play and visuals, but the story, characters, and why I should care about any of it was completely left on the side. I hope the next one we get more of a balance
Yeah I think adjusting the pacing and context could’ve greatly improved the story experience. I really struggled to care after a certain point, especially bc it gets kind of repetitive in the mid/late game with the same things happening, just on a different map
28:07 same
you never miss
omg thank uuuu!! I’m glad you enjoyed!!!
I will never forgive you for skipping over Panette. Her Crit quotes alone make her the best character in the game.
Joking aside, i have always played FE for the gameplay so Engage is high on my list, but I skipped several cutscenes on my first playthrough, because i couldn't handle it. It's so cheesy in a bad way. I also skipped most of the support convos i got, because the characters are either in super annoying, or boring.
It's also really funny to have the old characters standing around reminding you of the better stories. Like after Lumera's death Sigurd is RIGHT THERE saying something like "damn bro remember my game?"
On a possitive note i was very happy to see Mauvier warp skip me. Also although i've not seen it happen it should be noted he has a rescue staff as well implying he could AOE rescue Marnie and her guards.
Byleth in his paralog even did a freaking warp chain by warping a warper to warp his unit to the other end of the map, like damn bro chill!
I am utterly baffled by the design choices of this game. The focus may have been on gameplay, but what exactly did that achieve? Congratulations, you created the most enjoyable FE gameplay since before Awakening, but this victory is a pyrrhic one. Too many design flaws stand in the way of this gameplay. Character customization is greatly restricted by the absurd sp costs of skill inheritance, the inability to retain advanced class skills upon reclassing, and the fact the best skills like Luna or Ignis are locked behind lord specific classes. The class system, in comparison to Fates, is one step forward but two steps back. Allowing advanced classes to exist in multiple forms that alter the unit’s weapons is nice, but the overall amount of classes leaves a lot to be desired. What stuns me the most is that this game, for whatever reason does not have a new game plus which would alleviate the sp problem, and make character customization more interesting. Yes, NG+ was only introduced in 3H, but why have something like the Somniel that's closer to the Monastery than My Kingdom? By focusing so heavily on gameplay, they made the means to enjoy and access this gameplay a nightmare. Quality gameplay means nothing if I lack the motivation, a result of the terrible story and bland characters, to endure the segments in between the gameplay.
It was only called New Game+ in 3 Houses specifically, but Awakening kind of had it with its renown system, and Fates has the Unit Logbook where you can get characters and skills from your previous playthroughs and visiting other people's castles.
See I feel like Engage is so ugly, not graphically but from an art direction perspective. I hate the character designs SO much, I hate how nothing is coherent. They don’t seem like they belong in the same universe at all. I think the whole game is too colorful and Genshin Impact-ified for my liking. I’ve also heard it is a pain in the ass to unlock skills or abilities or whatever they’re called now, and of course the bad characters and story.
All of that together makes me have zero interest in playing this game. I need good story and characters to keep me playing FE because the gameplay itself is not enough for me. I like the gameplay but I don’t love it. That’s why I haven’t finished a single FE game besides 3H but I’ve completed 3H around 10 times. Meanwhile I only got like halfway through Awakening? And the other games I’ve tried I’ve only dabbled in, playing a couple chapters before falling off. It’s just sad, I thought FE would be a series I really like but now I think 3H was just an anomaly in the series that I love, but the series as a whole isn’t for me.
I think that's totally fair. I've played a few FE entries and, while I'm a big fan of most of the games, I agree that 3H is my favourite, and because the series is anthological they do run the risk of losing their audience when the mechanics are always changing between entries. I think engage is fine to play (and I like some of the designs, unpopular opinion I know 😂) but the actual game systems outside of just battling are clunky and annoying to access
You’re funny. Good voice. Sububububbed
Thank you so much!
Tokyo Mirage Session was cheesy, but I thought it was a good cheesy that wanted to make me laugh and enjoy the story.
This was cheesy to a point I was cringing. I usually hate skipping cutscenes but I had to skip for how bad it was,
I would have preferred if they remade Three Houses. They could fix the graphics, add more scenes and story to the lord's routes, have Byleth fully voiced in cutscenes and support conversations, more time to spend with Jeralt, make the maps more challenging and fun, and add the ashen wolves dlc in the main game. Oh well, maybe one day.😑
I watched a v interesting faerghast video today about how 3H was mostly done by koei tecmo on the warriors engine and engage was done from the 3DS engine, which is probably why both games feel super different but we’re developed basically at the same time. I wish 3H mostly just got a visual overhaul bc it looks needlessly ugly haha
the alcryst introduction is so cringe, i has to pause the game just to stop the stupid dialogue, and in the same chapter u met hortensia, another mega cringe child comanding an army with 12 years? dresing like a clown xD. in this moment i realice this is genshin impact or some random anime game. but the mechanic are cool
In Hortensia’s defense, at least clowns are fun
listen, the video was fun but if you're gonna call people invested in the preservation of videogames creepers because they wanna preserve the original version of a work, you're signaling that you're a bit immature in your analysis