Fire Emblem Engage

 Switch
User Score
6.6

Mixed or average reviews- based on 822 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 451 out of 822
  2. Mixed: 154 out of 822
  3. Negative: 217 out of 822
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  1. gun661
    Feb 1, 2023
    4
    For a review of the story, see the many other reviews. Considering gameplay: Messy balancing and tedious, undercooked gameplay parts ruin potential fun.

    Many other games, even indie games, either have good balancing or clever options to adjust difficulty, not so Fire Emblem : Engage, regrettably. "Normal" and "Hard" difficulty quickly evolve into "send arbitrary unit forward and let    For a review of the story, see the many other reviews. Considering gameplay: Messy balancing and tedious, undercooked gameplay parts ruin potential fun.

    Many other games, even indie games, either have good balancing or clever options to adjust difficulty, not so Fire Emblem : Engage, regrettably.

    "Normal" and "Hard" difficulty quickly evolve into "send arbitrary unit forward and let it 1-hit-KO any enemy" snoozefests. To raise difficulty, you have to restart the game completely.

    The highest difficulty, "Maddening", provides challenge but completely messes with the game's balance and gameplay systems:
    - Your units gain experience slower. In effect, the characters you start with trail behind pretty quickly while progressing through the story. Every single new character that regularly joins your party is stronger right out of the box. Thus, you're pushed to constantly replace older characters with new characters, eliminating choice and any attachment you had to these characters.
    - The base game offers no relevant options to let older characters catch up (disregarding inconvenient and overcomplicated cheesing strategies)
    - But wait, there's a DLC that comes with a skill that let's your characters gain 20% more experience! The drawback: I had to completely restart the game again to profit from this skill's effect.
    - So I restarted the game again with the DLC and let my units gain 20% more experience. Difficulty again: Maddening. And yes, this time my older units stayed relevant. Regrettably, by chapter 10-11, supposedly difficult missions, my party was again completely dominating, smashing enemies the story wanted me to escape from, eliminating any challenge and immersion again...
    - So yes, I could think about what limitations I could set for myself to have a balanced game, and restart the game a third time... but honestly, I find daily chores to be more fun than this.
    - In summary, this game seems more like a very fiddly sandbox you need to extend (buy DLC) and tune very carefully to not ruin any fun. Even then, the toolbox feels way too clunky.

    - Most of the combat is limited to simple unit movement with simple "rock-paper-scissor" tactics. Varied tactics like "Gambits" in "Fire Emblem: Three Houses" have been dumbed down and only play a minor role later in the game.

    Interface problems, contributing to a lot of fiddling and confusion:
    - For example, if you want to change a characters' skills you need to access its inventory first... Yet, you can't equip a ring via the inventory. For that, you must access a different interface via the main menu...
    - Yet again, not all options to interact with rings can be found in this one menu. For some options, you must visit the "Ring Chamber", adding more loading times.
    - In the "Ring Chamber", you can inherit skills from a ring. Yet sometimes, you need more training with that ring. For that, you must visit the "Arena", adding more loading times.
    - To get to the next mission you have to leave the hub and load the world map (more loading times). From the world map, you can access the next mission (more loading times).

    Undercooked yet relevant hub activities which get tedious way faster than the hub activities of "Fire Emblem: Three Houses":
    - While in the hub (the "Somniel"), you can interact with the game's mascot to get bonus materials. You can feed it (loading times) or pet it (loading times). To access either menu, you leave the previous pet or feeding menu (more loading times) while you wait for long, unskippable animations to finish...
    - There's a couple of tedious and undercooked mini games you can play in the hub to get relevant materials after each mission. These mini games (like pressing "A" to do push ups) overstay their welcome the first time you're playing them. But to get materials the games nudges you into wasting your time again and again with these mini games, since it takes a good amount of time doing each of them.
    - The interaction with characters, especially the Emblem heroes, can be likened to talking with theme park mascots.    … Expand
  2. Sevish
    Jan 23, 2023
    4
    This is a Disneyland theme park version of fire emblem that is more concerned with smelling its own farts than giving a good story.

    All of that aside, the combat system and engine are top notch, which somehow makes it worse, like putting a porche engine in a pinto.
  3. ALLCAPS
    May 29, 2023
    4
    Overall lacking in depth. Story and characters are very shallow. The game doesn't know if it wants to be animal crossing or fire emblem. Lots of time was spent on useless game elements such as the post battle walk around. It's hard to actually get a sense of the different countries when you move through them so fast. Character designs are so over the top it gets annoying. The battles areOverall lacking in depth. Story and characters are very shallow. The game doesn't know if it wants to be animal crossing or fire emblem. Lots of time was spent on useless game elements such as the post battle walk around. It's hard to actually get a sense of the different countries when you move through them so fast. Character designs are so over the top it gets annoying. The battles are fine, but it could have been much much better.… Expand
  4. Harlot
    Jan 23, 2023
    4
    I'm sorry to say, this will be the first Fire Emblem game I won't finish since I started playing the franchise with FE Awakening.

    What great combat is there, isn't enough to make me stick with it. The art direction, story, writing and voice direction all make for an unbelievably anime tropey experience, in the worst way imaginable, with a story as bland as they come. I can't believe I'm    I'm sorry to say, this will be the first Fire Emblem game I won't finish since I started playing the franchise with FE Awakening.

    What great combat is there, isn't enough to make me stick with it. The art direction, story, writing and voice direction all make for an unbelievably anime tropey experience, in the worst way imaginable, with a story as bland as they come. I can't believe I'm saying this, but I think the game experience would be better if we just got to fight the battles without any dialogue or story in it.    … Expand
  5. matthewGbunton
    Jan 27, 2023
    4
    Engage feels like a mobile game and plays like it too.

    Awful story, pointless dialogues, vapid characters, etc. Even the art style is immature and garish.

    A massive disappointment after the sublime previous FE entry Three Houses.

    This will be the first FE game I will not complete it's that bad.
  6. Jakedoe
    Mar 4, 2023
    4
    Awful writing, like the worst I've seen in a long time.
    It focuses on combat instead of social which would be fine if the main thrust of the narrative made it actually worth going from encounter to encounter.
    It's so clichè and frustrating, at chapter ten end I wanted to snap my switch in half at how absolutely trash that plot development was. One big thing for me is death in the game,    Awful writing, like the worst I've seen in a long time.
    It focuses on combat instead of social which would be fine if the main thrust of the narrative made it actually worth going from encounter to encounter.

    It's so clichè and frustrating, at chapter ten end I wanted to snap my switch in half at how absolutely trash that plot development was.

    One big thing for me is death in the game, previously you could kill characters and it was impactful... now you can't kill veyle you can't kill anyone so the only people who can die permanently are your companions... great idea morons, you had a great thing that actually stuck with people and you abandoned it.

    Genuinely the combat is great, everything is else is pure distilled bottom of the barrel anime story.    … Expand
  7. Uzumaki514
    Jan 27, 2023
    4
    The technical aspect of the game is the only positive thing about this game. The story is and the characters are very bad. I skip most of the support because they're unbearable. The devs locked some outfits behind some amibo **** and they released a $40 dlc on day 1. I hope it's not the new direction to the series. This has no replay value.

    Fire Emblem Three Houses is way better than this crap.
  8. OhNoItsSenpai
    Jan 24, 2023
    4
    The game play is fun and plenty tough. There's a whole lot of extra stuff that doesn't really add anything to the game and will be quite cumbersome for those looking to max out. Worst thing about the game is the story though. The characters are all forgettable and the dialogue for support is completely soulless. If you've plaid every other tactical RPG out there you could get this one, butThe game play is fun and plenty tough. There's a whole lot of extra stuff that doesn't really add anything to the game and will be quite cumbersome for those looking to max out. Worst thing about the game is the story though. The characters are all forgettable and the dialogue for support is completely soulless. If you've plaid every other tactical RPG out there you could get this one, but that seems pretty unlikely. Wait for it to go down in price if you want this one for your collection. Also say one DLC being the only way to get the heroes from the last game is pretty disgusting.… Expand
  9. Keyston3
    Mar 14, 2023
    4
    Scared for the future of fire emblem. the combat is great, somneil is a waste of time because nobody has anything worthwhile to say. On top of already bad dialogue, the localization team butchered the game with their personal politics (representing roughly half the populous with the "inclusion" agenda) with that being said i'm all good with the changes made to Jean and Anna supports itsScared for the future of fire emblem. the combat is great, somneil is a waste of time because nobody has anything worthwhile to say. On top of already bad dialogue, the localization team butchered the game with their personal politics (representing roughly half the populous with the "inclusion" agenda) with that being said i'm all good with the changes made to Jean and Anna supports its all the other changes they made. can't talk about weight gain and forget mentioning anything womanly or manly. This is what happens when 20+ people are "needed" to translate/localize a game. The game is fun, played through it...… Expand
  10. 0011021911
    Jan 23, 2023
    4
    After awakening, I played every games except Echo, and Engage was the worst one .The only plus point of engage for me is that there are more yuri elements, but the character creation is poor.
  11. tsubakikasugano
    Feb 7, 2023
    4
    This is a spoiler free rant-review about FE engage. If you don't wanna read through the wall of text heres a quick point form of whats good and you can just skip to the end for a tl;dr

    The good: -Gameplay on maddening gets very challenging in mid-late chapters needing you to pull out all the stops to get through some maps making for some very fun gameplay -Some of the music is pretty    This is a spoiler free rant-review about FE engage. If you don't wanna read through the wall of text heres a quick point form of whats good and you can just skip to the end for a tl;dr

    The good:
    -Gameplay on maddening gets very challenging in mid-late chapters needing you to pull out all the stops to get through some maps making for some very fun gameplay
    -Some of the music is pretty solid.
    -There SOME good story-gameplay integration it would work much better if it was written well.
    -The paralogue chapters revisiting maps of the old games are really cool and the highlight of the game.

    The bad:
    The main character is incredibly unlikable. Nothing about him is consistent other than hes an effeminate retard and a huge loser. The most stupefying moment is his "relationship" with one of the antagonists. I was writing about how stupid it was but it was like 3 paragraphs to keep within the character limit and to keep the review spoiler free just trust me when i say its REAAALLLY STUPID.

    Every other character is paper thing and one dimensional written completely around their designated trope. The support conversations (from the ones ive read and skimmed through because after a certain point i was fed up with this **** did nothing for character growth either and essentially just boiled down to:

    "Hello Character i like *my trope*" "Ohoho character 2 *your trope* is quite funny here is *my trope*"

    or

    "Uh oh! Looks like *my character trope* and *your character trope* dont mix well, what kind of wacky antics will ensue!"

    I was on a fire emblem thread on /v/ last week and saw someone refer to a character as "Captain Estrogen" and you know what. I literally could not tell who in the **** they were referring to in a game with an actual trans character because 90% of the male cast consists of some of the most effeminate losers in all of fiction.

    The graphics are "good" in the sense that they have more polygons than the average switch game. But the artstyle is just atrocious it tries to go for this look with very vibrant colors but translates horribly in 3d coming off looking incredibly generic and uninspired like a ****ty Chinese 3d mobile game. On top of this, the character models are completely uninspired and look like they all were created in a character generator by clicking "Randomize" a few times.

    Don't get me wrong, fire emblem has always had inspirations from anime behind its character designs, but in previous games it was very believable that the majority of characters could exist in a medieval fantasy world. None of the characters in engage, bar a VERY SELECT FEW, feel like they can fit into that type of world (the world the game is trying to portray). The thing is even if the graphics were incredible and made the switch look like a ps5, it wouldn't solve the root of the problem which is its awful artstyle. The design of the majority of character is just flat out garbage and dare I say, ugly. I sincerely hope Mika Pikazo sticks to drawing vtubers and never touches FE again.

    Seeing how big the part of the characters is, ill keep the part about the story short. Its bad. Not in terms of plot holes and such it is a *somewhat* coherent story, but its some of the most lazy, half-assed, uninspired writing ive ever seen. It reads like a story someone in grade 6-7 would write for creative writing.

    There are tons of awful scenes that try to be "high impact" such as deaths that try to pull at heartstrings but either end up making you laugh or want to skip through it as much as possible because none of it feels earned at all. You either never get enough time to grow attached to a character, or they try to make you feel sorry for the character the moment they die rather than building towards it.

    The writing in general for both story and dialogue is cringe at its best and puts you to sleep at worst.

    tl;dr:
    I guess you might call it a “mixed bag."

    But let me tell you what kind of mixed bag. It’s a trash bag that’s had a bad day. Like, say, your mom cleans out the cat litter; fresh and stale doody pebbles go right in the bottom of the bag. And then your sister throws out her used tampons, and where do they go? In the same bag. And then your brother comes home, piss-ass drunk just upchucks, pukes right into the bag/ Now I’m not trying to be disgusting, but that is a realistic situation, and what it all comes down to, THAT'S A NASTY BAG. But I’d rather take that **** out to the garbage than deal with this piece of **** **** this game, get out of my face!

    All kidding aside, its kind of like Conquest, but worse. Its worth a playthrough but its definitely not one ill ever touch again.

    Score being as close to objective i can be: 6.5/10

    Personal score: 3/10    … Expand
  12. Jtzuav
    Jan 29, 2023
    4
    Story is incredibly generic and boring, characters are almost all one-note and boring, cringe and/or annoying. Even good gameplay can't save this. Frankly, it would be better if it was just the combat with no story or supports at all. If you must play, it's best skip the entire story and supports and just play the maps.
    Ideally don't buy it at all. If this sells too well they won't learn    Story is incredibly generic and boring, characters are almost all one-note and boring, cringe and/or annoying. Even good gameplay can't save this. Frankly, it would be better if it was just the combat with no story or supports at all. If you must play, it's best skip the entire story and supports and just play the maps.
    Ideally don't buy it at all. If this sells too well they won't learn their lesson that this level of writing is unacceptable no matter how good the rest of the game is.    … Expand
  13. iwillbe
    Jan 21, 2023
    4
    I felt like the game was a step back from previous games. The characters are forgettable. I also found the plot to be predictable. The heroes of the past felt underdeveloped. Just no replay value like three houses had. I think the combat was probably the best part but truth to be told i was never a fan of the weapon triangle system. I'd avoid this game if you are expecting it to be as goodI felt like the game was a step back from previous games. The characters are forgettable. I also found the plot to be predictable. The heroes of the past felt underdeveloped. Just no replay value like three houses had. I think the combat was probably the best part but truth to be told i was never a fan of the weapon triangle system. I'd avoid this game if you are expecting it to be as good as previous titles.… Expand
  14. Zorz4
    Jan 24, 2023
    4
    Compared with three houses, it has better system and level design, but worse plot and characters. Three houses has the highest sales volume in fe history. I don't know why they can't make better system and level design without retain its advantages.
  15. failnaught
    Jan 24, 2023
    4
    Innovative and interesting gameplay with dazzling character designs, but the insipid plot and bland characterization of the cast leave a lot to be desired, especially it being the successor of the highly-raved Three Houses. It feels very infantile and regressive, highlighted by some moments reminiscent of past FE glories which are unfortunately few and far between. Cutscenes and dialoguesInnovative and interesting gameplay with dazzling character designs, but the insipid plot and bland characterization of the cast leave a lot to be desired, especially it being the successor of the highly-raved Three Houses. It feels very infantile and regressive, highlighted by some moments reminiscent of past FE glories which are unfortunately few and far between. Cutscenes and dialogues look and sound like a high school theater rehearsal and are painful to watch at times. I really dislike the repetitive nature of the personalities as well. Also, if we get a penny for every dang time "Divine" or "Divine Dragon" is mentioned or used, we'd all be the next Bezos or Musk, I swear.

    I spent hundreds of hours in Three Houses and Three Hopes, enjoying every single moment of it, and I can sense emotional attachment to even the minor characters (Gatekeeper and monastery animals, anyone?). In Engage, I just couldn't wait for things to end, and I can't be bothered developing any attachment to any of these characters. Save your money and replay Three Houses and its spin-off, it's a way better use of your time and money.    … Expand
  16. givemeice
    Jan 25, 2023
    4
    As someone who has played many fire emblem games, I can say for certain the gameplay is amazing for engage! However, that's all the game really has going for it. It is flashy and I suppose meant to appeal to the hearts of nostalgia. Still, I wonder why so many would go as far to give it a 10. It is far from a 10. A 10 game would have more going to it than gameplay. At least the story inAs someone who has played many fire emblem games, I can say for certain the gameplay is amazing for engage! However, that's all the game really has going for it. It is flashy and I suppose meant to appeal to the hearts of nostalgia. Still, I wonder why so many would go as far to give it a 10. It is far from a 10. A 10 game would have more going to it than gameplay. At least the story in fates was a bit more engaging than engage. I finished the game, but I do not feel as though the gameplay is enough to get me to play it again. Sorry to the fans that cannot take criticism over this game that has not much plot and characterization, but it is a disappointing release. I just hope their next game has a bit more plot over this one. And dont get me wrong, I know there are people that don't play for plot, but games without a plot are not a 10. And yes, we will continue to compare it to 3 houses because 3 houses was a step forward while this one is a step back. Why else would they be adding 3 houses in the form of a dlc? Because they want to make use of the game some more. The highest I would give engage is a 6.… Expand
  17. Deathcookies21
    Jan 27, 2023
    4
    Combat is good. Everything else is really bland and boring. Dialogue is really cringy at times. There is nothing special about any of the characters, designs are boring, some are weirdly proportioned like big body tiny head.. The MC design is atrocious not to sure why they approved it. The engage system is kind of a let down and doesn't really add anything except nostalgia. I played itCombat is good. Everything else is really bland and boring. Dialogue is really cringy at times. There is nothing special about any of the characters, designs are boring, some are weirdly proportioned like big body tiny head.. The MC design is atrocious not to sure why they approved it. The engage system is kind of a let down and doesn't really add anything except nostalgia. I played it for a couple of hours then went to eat something, came back and had no desire to continue playing didn't even care about the story. When I tried to play again later I found myself on Facebook 10 minutes into it because it was more interesting than this game. This game just doesn't hold my attention. The name engage is ironic because this game is not engaging at all.… Expand
  18. Beamer92
    Feb 1, 2023
    4
    Absolutely the worst Fire Emblem I've ever played.

    Wow. Where do I even start? Awful writing. Terrible writing for a pretty unenthusiastic voice acting experience. No offense to the voice actors, you can only do so much with terrible writing. Every single one of the characters is a nothing personality. And the Emblems may as well be a Siri AI with even less personality. Now, sure, Fire    Absolutely the worst Fire Emblem I've ever played.

    Wow. Where do I even start? Awful writing. Terrible writing for a pretty unenthusiastic voice acting experience. No offense to the voice actors, you can only do so much with terrible writing. Every single one of the characters is a nothing personality. And the Emblems may as well be a Siri AI with even less personality. Now, sure, Fire Emblem has always been campy. But they tried! Here's some campy high fantasy dialogue you can just commit to. This lacks commitment to any kind of real threads woven through a story. Just a hodgepodge of "I guess there should be some dialogue here...". Normally I look forward to Support interactions and I just can't even stand listening to these people.

    And to do that to our favorite heroes? Lyn is one of my favorite characters and she's just a nothing sandwich. I'd honestly prefer the Emblems be silent ghosts. It would ruin them less for me.

    And the characters! Oh my goodness, what a bag of garbage. With like... two exceptions... every other level "Here's three more nothing characters made up of a prince/princess and 2 retainers". And that's it. Zero depth. I don't care about any of them beyond what they can do for me. Yunaka is maybe the only one that displays any kind of personality.

    For Combat, I appreciate the weapons triangle. I don't much care for the Break system. Its a choice. Its... fine.

    Now these rings... Did we really need Mega-Evolutions for our Fire Emblem Pokemon? It can be kinda fun, but its too much. Far far too much. Its a massive jump from "Here's your legendary Axe" to "Here's..... all this stuff". I'm not trying to memorize a million different things in order to find decent combinations. For a game as simple as this at its core, adding complexity for the sake of complexity is just stupid. We're spending more time on setup for battle than actual battle. I appreciate the utility the rings can provide. Its an interesting addition, but it just does not hit very well as an overall system.

    And these Somniel activities... what a bunch of garbage. These mini game are silly and worthless. They're not even good. Wyvern riding is an absolute travesty. None of it is important or remotely worth the time to do any of it.

    Bond rings? Really? Maybe cut the amount in half. Who's got time or resources for all this?

    Also, I've never been poor in a Fire Emblem game before. I've got a castle and you're telling me we're broke? Meanwhile there's a whole philanthropic system to give all your money away just to adopt pets or fight battles to get resources for upgrades you..... now have no money to afford? Just wow. Just. Wow.

    And where's the choices? Where the defining moment that allows me to choose a different path for multiple playthroughs? So far I've got no reason to play again after this abhorrent story resolves. So far my protagonist is just along for the ride.

    And its been well documented how ridiculous the protagonists look. All justified. They're absurd.

    It feels like they took Three Houses, which I enjoyed despite being a bit of a departure from earlier entries, and completely misread the generally positive feedback. Took all the garbage, cranked it up to 11, then left all the good stuff behind. The only thing they left in Three Houses that I'm happy about is the teacher-student love affairs.

    I just don't understand how we got here. Maybe playing Triangle Strategy to fill the void Fire Emblem left set my expectations too high. I go from a difficult "Hard Mode" where I actually have to strategize to this cake-walk of a "Hard Mode" and I just can't help but be disappointed.

    I think this really disillusions me to the franchise. I'm unlikely to preorder, much less purchase, the next game in the series. At best, if it reviews well, I may get it after its been out a while.    … Expand
  19. Leifur
    Feb 4, 2023
    4
    A major step backwards in many ways. Characters are flat and display a single personality trait that they hammer into the ground. The writing is cringe - a certain death scene meant to be emotional feels more like a comedy as you have known this person for about 10 seconds and have no emotional attachment. The gameplay is strong, but this is a below average attempt from IS. Play ThreeA major step backwards in many ways. Characters are flat and display a single personality trait that they hammer into the ground. The writing is cringe - a certain death scene meant to be emotional feels more like a comedy as you have known this person for about 10 seconds and have no emotional attachment. The gameplay is strong, but this is a below average attempt from IS. Play Three Houses or an older Fire Emblem if you are looking for something more enjoyable.… Expand
  20. WomanSlayer69
    Feb 4, 2023
    4
    Fire Emblem Engage more or less takes a step back from Fire Emblem Three Houses. The visible improvement is only from the graphics, while for the gameplay it only adds the weapon triangle system which was already in the old game and the emblem ring system which is exclusive to this title. even though the emblem ring is innovative and unique, the basic gameplay only relies on that, if it isFire Emblem Engage more or less takes a step back from Fire Emblem Three Houses. The visible improvement is only from the graphics, while for the gameplay it only adds the weapon triangle system which was already in the old game and the emblem ring system which is exclusive to this title. even though the emblem ring is innovative and unique, the basic gameplay only relies on that, if it is removed, then you can say there is no other innovative thing in the gameplay. And regarding the story and characters in this game, the story is boring and the character designs are too over the top and their dialogue is abysmal. There are even some mobile games whose stories and characters are better than this exclusive switch game, this is really embarrassing. overall I do not recommend buying this game at full price, because it is not worth your hard earned money… Expand
  21. Kaseijin64
    Feb 5, 2023
    4
    Fire Emblem Engage is a return to a more classic style of Fire Emblem. The map design and tactical gameplay are quite good, and among some of the best work done in this series, albeit with some baffling balance decisions concerning the in game economy and too heavy a focus on grinding for post game content. The main campaign offers very solid gameplay and each map is consistently fun toFire Emblem Engage is a return to a more classic style of Fire Emblem. The map design and tactical gameplay are quite good, and among some of the best work done in this series, albeit with some baffling balance decisions concerning the in game economy and too heavy a focus on grinding for post game content. The main campaign offers very solid gameplay and each map is consistently fun to play. However, the game is hobbled by what is by far one of the worst plots in gaming history, the writing is poor the story massively cliched in a way that doesn't offer any enjoyment or pay off and by the late game the plot is such a train wreck it completely ruins the experience. 8/10 gameplay. 0/10 utter trash story that starts weak and just gets worse as the game goes on.… Expand
  22. AmigoUA
    Feb 8, 2023
    4
    Game feels half finished - a lot of things in the game are pointless.
    And I don't even take into account mediocre story and writing.
  23. Edge077
    Feb 9, 2023
    4
    Such a disappointment, the most underwhelming story of the series. Characters are not at all interesting, after a while you just stop caring. Gameplay is good but not better than other instalments. Compared to 3 Houses this is so many steps back.
  24. Bonni44
    Feb 11, 2023
    4
    Three houses is one of my favorite games on the switch, so my expectations for engage were really high. I saw people say you can't compare engage to three houses if you haven't played other fire emblem games......yes I can. It's like telling me I can't say I prefer apples over oranges because I never tasted bananas..... that's just stupid. So let's start with the pros: - Beautiful graphicsThree houses is one of my favorite games on the switch, so my expectations for engage were really high. I saw people say you can't compare engage to three houses if you haven't played other fire emblem games......yes I can. It's like telling me I can't say I prefer apples over oranges because I never tasted bananas..... that's just stupid. So let's start with the pros: - Beautiful graphics (I'm not talking about the artstyle here). It looks better than most switch games.
    - Fun combat (not that different of 3H like people say but it's a plus for me, I love 3H).
    - Good music (not on 3H level) but a few tracts were really good. Now the cons: - Horrible characters. 90% of the cast looks underaged, male characters are just effeminate losers, except like one or two. Main character is really bland and worshiped by everybody and it's not earned. Characters are way too colorful to fit in a medieval setting.
    - Dialogue is super cringe, support conversations have no depth and don't develop the characters. They just talk about tea and things they are scared of etc. It's literally the conversations I was making my barbies have when I was 5. The supports were so boring I just started skipping them after a few. S support was also super dissapointing.
    - Story is not great. It's cliche and linear and with no choices at all.
    - Less classes with no visual preview of your character.
    - Skirmishes give no gold.
    - Somniel mini games are boring and useless.
    - Latest heros, Dimitri, Claude and Edelgard are locked behind an expensive dlc. Emblem's outfits are locked behind amiibos. I would have to spend hundreds of dollars to unlock everything in this game. Three houses was a more mature game, with incredible dialogue and voice acting. With grief, loss, romance, and difficult choices to make. Fire emblem is a game about war, and engage felt more like a morning cartoon. I know some people didn't want to do the other routes in 3H because they didn't want to do the monastery stuff again, but you can literally skip it with new gameplus. I personally loved the social aspect in 3H, it was a nice change of pace in between battles. It made me really care about my students and I was really motivated to build them right and use them on the battlefield. I could also pick which characters I wanted to recruit. In engage, they just give you a ton of characters for free, and I just didn't care about any of them. I just felt like I was fighting with a bunch of clowns... Overall this is a stepback compared to 3H and I was dissapointed enough to write this review.    … Expand
  25. Lewyn
    Feb 22, 2023
    4
    I'll start by saying, I am a big Fire Emblem fan, my first game in the series being Radiant Dawn. However this game left me being extremely disappointed.

    First the story, uses literal every trope in the series shoehorning them in every second. Making it feel more like that events that happen in the story feel forced. As for this round of characters, I couldn't find a single one I enjoyed,    I'll start by saying, I am a big Fire Emblem fan, my first game in the series being Radiant Dawn. However this game left me being extremely disappointed.

    First the story, uses literal every trope in the series shoehorning them in every second. Making it feel more like that events that happen in the story feel forced. As for this round of characters, I couldn't find a single one I enjoyed, and found myself skipping nearly every Support Conversation. It also doesn't help this batch of characters looks are often overly designed. The new batch of Characters will likely not mash well with others in Heroes either as this game is first to drop Nordic Names in favor of French names.

    Then for the gameplay... Its painfully dull. The new Break System doesn't feel rewarding and often makes it more difficult to level up certain units. The ways skills work, and the finite amount of resources at your disposal makes the new skill system frustrating. Lastly what the games does and doesn't teach up in tutorials make no sense. Like the game will tell you about to shop, pet your pets and few mini games but won't tell you how skills are learned or bond rings work.


    The only positive is seeing some of the older characters again. Kinda wish instead we got a game of Lucina traveling through time seeking help from different characters of past games instead of this weird mess.    … Expand
  26. AmiGC
    Apr 9, 2023
    4
    El gameplay está muy bueno, el mejor junto a Fates para mi, la música sí me gustó, pero están ridículos los personajes y la histora, normalmente esas eran las cosas que más me atraían de FE como tal. Que hayan metido a personajes de entregas anteriores fue lo que me llamó la atención y creo que eso es un punto más malo que bueno. Yo lo jugué sin expectativas y aún así terminóEl gameplay está muy bueno, el mejor junto a Fates para mi, la música sí me gustó, pero están ridículos los personajes y la histora, normalmente esas eran las cosas que más me atraían de FE como tal. Que hayan metido a personajes de entregas anteriores fue lo que me llamó la atención y creo que eso es un punto más malo que bueno. Yo lo jugué sin expectativas y aún así terminó decepcionandome… Expand
  27. turbo_dweeb
    Aug 24, 2023
    4
    this game is a sh*t poopy game and the characters act like f*cking youtubers that make videos for r*tarded infants with ere*tile dysfunton. 4 out of ten poopy game dissapointment
  28. Ophenix
    Mar 5, 2023
    3
    The story is trash, the character and the world have had zero thought put into them, a lot of the mechanics are an absolute bore and the economy is really bad. Like, realllllly bad. You need to grind 4-5 maps to upgrade a late game weapon levels of bad.

    But the combat is a step in the right direction so I’m not giving it a lower score. I think a lot of my complaints can be fixed (why    The story is trash, the character and the world have had zero thought put into them, a lot of the mechanics are an absolute bore and the economy is really bad. Like, realllllly bad. You need to grind 4-5 maps to upgrade a late game weapon levels of bad.

    But the combat is a step in the right direction so I’m not giving it a lower score. I think a lot of my complaints can be fixed (why can’t I see absolute levels? Why are resources so grind heavy?) and it might raise the game to a 6. However, it’s a disappointment and I’m happy I got it second hand so I don’t give my money to IS. I’d be happy to pay for another game as good as Three Houses but I’m not paying full price for the Hiya-Papaya Zappies!    … Expand
  29. CrypticScrutiny
    Feb 17, 2023
    3
    Once titles like this become mainstream in the west, they're ruined. What you will see from the FE franchise, from here on out, is something akin to how titles like Pokémon have been handled. Churning them out one year after the next, with no real concern or attention to detail. The stories will be the same incipit, dull and vapid monotony. The characters lifeless and unrelatable. TheOnce titles like this become mainstream in the west, they're ruined. What you will see from the FE franchise, from here on out, is something akin to how titles like Pokémon have been handled. Churning them out one year after the next, with no real concern or attention to detail. The stories will be the same incipit, dull and vapid monotony. The characters lifeless and unrelatable. The combat? It's Fire Emblem mechanics. What you'd expect. The story and motivations are uninspired and fail miserably to capture interest or investment. For me, games like Fire Emblem have a unique tale behind the combat. Due to FE being a widely popular bankable property in the modern era, they now expect that you will pay them for brand notoriety alone. Barebones and without merit enough to justify it's existence in any fans library. Sad to see this series go the way of all properties that catch on in the west.… Expand
  30. Plumbo2000
    Jan 22, 2023
    3
    People are overhyping the gameplay. It doesn't suck but it's nowhere near good enough to make up for how bad the story, characters, music, worldbuilding and dialogue are. Also it has a major flaw in that the units are badly balanced and tend to be either amazing or immediately benched, if you get any satisfaction from raising your units up this is not the Fire Emblem game for you.
    It's    People are overhyping the gameplay. It doesn't suck but it's nowhere near good enough to make up for how bad the story, characters, music, worldbuilding and dialogue are. Also it has a major flaw in that the units are badly balanced and tend to be either amazing or immediately benched, if you get any satisfaction from raising your units up this is not the Fire Emblem game for you.
    It's just a thoroughly boring experience that tries to posit itself as the new mainline entry whilst giving you nothing but shallow garbage and leaning on nostalgia for older, better games as a crutch.
    They should take the Break mechanic and put it into a real FE game, because this half-assed garbage is going to be forgotten in a month. Engage is going the same way as Fates where people are blinded during the honeymoon period and then realise shortly afterwards that the game was thoroughly disappointing. Intelligent System seriously need to get their act together and show that 3H wasn't an outlier and that they can make Fire Emblem games that take themselves seriously and stand on their own merits rather than leaning on self-references and parodying itself.

    You're better off buying Conquest, 3H, the GBA era or the Tellius games.
    The one thing Engage does right is shoving old characters in your face and reminding you that there are better Fire Emblem games you could be playing.    … Expand
  31. Truetobytrue
    Feb 1, 2023
    3
    I'm an RPG fan who ran across the series since Awakening. To those ppl assuming negative ratings come from otome crybabies, Let me tell you something.

    I don't care about the S+ support and romance. That's a side feature to garnish the ending afterall. I don't know where yall have been reading those comments from, but yall aren't getting the major problem. Most say the same thing: Story,    I'm an RPG fan who ran across the series since Awakening. To those ppl assuming negative ratings come from otome crybabies, Let me tell you something.

    I don't care about the S+ support and romance. That's a side feature to garnish the ending afterall. I don't know where yall have been reading those comments from, but yall aren't getting the major problem. Most say the same thing: Story, story and story. Note that Fire Emblem is an RPG game, a game that requires enough plot and setting so that it motivates us to take action as our character. Well, Engage failed to meet the average player's satisfaction due to lack of quality with all those childish plot, unnatural lines, weeb action, etc. Those features don't even reach the modern Shonen standards. No matter how much i tried enjoying the combat, the unbearable cutscenes and support lines kept ruining the fun. I can skip them all, but that would basically mean this game failed as an RPG.

    So yea. I don't need any otome bishoujo element, especially after watching all those scenes.
    BUT
    I would rather have that than the uncomfy 'petting' feature they added back. Now that's more otome, but it came out to be nasty. That ring polishing with all that kimochi this, kimochi that... was absurd.    … Expand
  32. Meatball-bandit
    Feb 3, 2023
    3
    The gameplay and mechanics are fantastic; Maddening seems really balanced; but besides that, I do not like anything else in the game. Characters are undeveloped, writing and story is horrible. Worst of all, there’s no ‘new game+’. once I beat maddening, what’s the point of replaying? I don’t get to keep any SP, or skills.
  33. Twnkek
    Feb 3, 2023
    3
    While some areas were definitely improved from other games (mainly the visuals: animations, shaders, ...), most aspects have me worrying about the future of the license.
    Music is good but I won't go as far as saying it is great. I find the UI pretty difficult to read and even the controls feel weird sometimes.
    Character designs are arguably bad, annoying, and frequently would take me out    While some areas were definitely improved from other games (mainly the visuals: animations, shaders, ...), most aspects have me worrying about the future of the license.
    Music is good but I won't go as far as saying it is great. I find the UI pretty difficult to read and even the controls feel weird sometimes.
    Character designs are arguably bad, annoying, and frequently would take me out of the story. I couldn't take a single character seriously either because their design was straight up stupid or their backstory was uninteresting/often non-existent. Some characters have literally no backstory and are completely one dimensional, only existing because of a specific trait that they will bring out in 80% of their conversation. I found myself skipping the support conversations for the first time in the series, it's hardly forgivable after the supports we had in Three Hopes recently.
    The story events feel artificial, forced, and just impossible to take seriously. In general I feel like the tone of the game is too serious for what it has to offer, if there were effective jokes that could make me smile from time to time I would have certainly enjoyed it more. The involvement of the emblems in the story also felt extremely minimal and artificial, but I guess it was to be expected.    … Expand
  34. voc
    Feb 9, 2023
    3
    I created an account just to leave a review on this game. Honestly it is a chore to play. Even though I love turn based combat games, it gets stale midway in as you basically only have one class upgrade for characters (dumb as it limits possibilities and discourages you from exploring builds and going in a designed path imo). Then, you have a generic and bland cast. What was once an areaI created an account just to leave a review on this game. Honestly it is a chore to play. Even though I love turn based combat games, it gets stale midway in as you basically only have one class upgrade for characters (dumb as it limits possibilities and discourages you from exploring builds and going in a designed path imo). Then, you have a generic and bland cast. What was once an area of excitement has now become unbearable. Most charachters have 0 development. I am in chapter 22. 4 more to go. But this game is a mess compared to 3 houses. I think Nintendo rushed this one out.… Expand
  35. OliverGaming
    Feb 12, 2023
    3
    As a veteran of the series. I can tell you from first-hand experience that everything about this game fails in comparison to its predecessors. New players will be blissfully unaware of how bad the story, gameplay, music, and animation is through no fault of their own. What's worse is Engage constantly takes shots at veteran players who like characters such as Ike, Marth, or Roy over theAs a veteran of the series. I can tell you from first-hand experience that everything about this game fails in comparison to its predecessors. New players will be blissfully unaware of how bad the story, gameplay, music, and animation is through no fault of their own. What's worse is Engage constantly takes shots at veteran players who like characters such as Ike, Marth, or Roy over the cowardly, badly
    voiced acted, and completely forgettable Alear. When a character like Diamant actually goes through an arc, fits the world he lives in, and is hands down the best character in the game. It makes me question why he wasn't the protagonist instead. Worst of all, the series is so predictable that when I guess something would happen later down the line, it did. That's probably because Engage rips plot points from other fire emblem games and the supports and conversations characters have with each other are embarrassing and cringy at its worst. It's that bad.

    I'll just end it by saying this.
    The era of the avatar is over, and what we need desperately right now is another Ike.

    Edit: So I thought about it and realized my score was a little bit too harsh. So, I wanted to change it. It's still not a good game by a long shot, but I will admit some, but not all of the gameplay is fun. There are music tracks in this game that are composed really well, and characters like Diamont and Ivy were really the only things keeping me playing. Other then that, I still wouldn't recommend this to my worst enemy. Play Awakening first, or if you have a good way to do it. Fire Emblem Path of Radiance.    … Expand
  36. KittyLove
    Feb 12, 2023
    3
    Diamant should have been the protagonist.

    I can pick apart everything wrong with this game. The gameplay, the music, the animation, everything, but the biggest grievance I have with Engage comes from the avatar once again. This is the third game since Fire Emblem Fates where I had to sit down and ask myself "why wasn't this character the protagonist?" Before, it was Xander with    Diamant should have been the protagonist.

    I can pick apart everything wrong with this game. The gameplay, the music, the animation, everything, but the biggest grievance I have with Engage comes from the avatar once again. This is the third game since Fire Emblem Fates where I had to sit down and ask myself "why wasn't this character the protagonist?" Before, it was Xander with Conquest. After that, it was Edelgard, Dimitri and Claude with Three Houses, and now it's Diamant with Engage. He is one of the very few characters that actually goes through an arc and character development. If you compare all the stuff he goes through to Alear's story. They have no where near the same level of writing and voice acting, not even close, and after feeling this way for the third time. The avatar character is starting to get under my skin and I believe they really need to go.

    There are a good amount of characters in the Fire Emblem series since Fates that I feel deserve a second shot. Diamant is definitely one of them. He is the protagonist that I desperately wanted for so many years, and yes. A character like him deserves his own game, or a least a series of maps where the avatar is not involved.    … Expand
  37. GNOwlie
    Feb 27, 2023
    3
    Just goes to show that Koei should be making the Fire Emblem games, NOT Intelligent Systems.

    Sure the voice acting is just as good, graphically speaking, it's technically better, and the game play feels good (although feeling too much like a super hero games half the time) The nagging opinion I have is this game is took as many steps backwards as it did forwards. For starters, I    Just goes to show that Koei should be making the Fire Emblem games, NOT Intelligent Systems.

    Sure the voice acting is just as good, graphically speaking, it's technically better, and the game play feels good (although feeling too much like a super hero games half the time)

    The nagging opinion I have is this game is took as many steps backwards as it did forwards. For starters, I can't stand the character design. Everyone looks like children, even the adults. I prefer the mature themes, and while the protagonist is far better than Byleth character-wise, that's not much of a compliment as Byleth was just awful, meanwhile Alear is just a typical teen.

    Graphically the game is better, sure, but they don't do anything special either. At no point did I walk around to take in the scenery like I did in FE3H. Empty locations, with nothing in them.

    Battlefield exploration is dull, and boring. Three Houses' battlefield zoom-in was infinitely better.

    Somniel is basically everything I hated about Sanctuary in Three Houses:
    1. Few characters in Three houses had boring things to say. Here EVERYONE has nothing interesting to say. It isn't even fully voiced.
    2. Activities are a bigger chore than ever. Rather than being built into the narrative (being a teacher, teaching your units, and bonding along the way), somiel is just there to take up your time.
    3. More frequent loading screens

    Character personalities are near non-existent btw. Everyone you recruit has NOTHING to add to the narrative outside their introduction maps. The Emblems are the worst offenders here. They get their own trashy support called "bond" where they tell you that you have nice hair today, or something generic like that, but that's it.

    Game play is the only thing this game did relatively well. The return of the weapon triangle feels really good. And while I think the super hero-style game play behind the emblems is out of place, the abilities are sick, and fun to use. Even if they are definitely OP.

    All-in-all, Intelligent Systems tried to stick with the formula they know, while changing things for the worst in a lot of style, and narrative areas. And man, it's hard to go back to this older, but more childish style of game after the leap forward Three Houses Took.    … Expand
  38. theresno
    Mar 18, 2023
    3
    The good:
    -The gameplay before chapter 20 is the most polished, tense, and well-planned of any FE game I’ve played. Maddening mode is a perfect blend of fair challenge and punishing difficulty. The Engage mechanic is fun and adds a new level of depth to the experience. I do wish the mechanic could have been tied to something other than old characters, though. Ancient, mystical rings with    The good:
    -The gameplay before chapter 20 is the most polished, tense, and well-planned of any FE game I’ve played. Maddening mode is a perfect blend of fair challenge and punishing difficulty. The Engage mechanic is fun and adds a new level of depth to the experience. I do wish the mechanic could have been tied to something other than old characters, though. Ancient, mystical rings with allusions to old characters behind them would have sufficed, and the story might have been stronger for it.

    -The changes made to the weapon triangle and how certain units function are well executed. Armored knights are now useful thanks to the new break mechanic, and overpowered weapons can’t steamroll through enemies regardless of weapon type.

    -The combat animations are fluid and impressive. Critical hits are fun and feel like a return to the stylish critical hits from GBAFE.

    The okay:
    -The graphics, while more consistent and polished than the 2008-2022 entries to the series, are not to my taste. In addition, there’s a large amount of clipping on the models. Lumera’s hair will poke through the back of her cape, Clanne’s braid will swing through his chest/shoulder, any dangling cloth on characters like Timerra or Zephia will clip through their bodies when they move their arms etc.

    -The voice over is good. Not quite on the same level as 3H or Echoes, but much stronger than Fates, Awakening, and the Tellius duology.

    -The music is middling compared to other entries to the series. I can only remember one song after two playthroughs and even then I don’t particularly like that song much.

    The bad:
    -Engage’s story is, as many have pointed out, the weakest part of the game. The attempts at emotion were clumsily handled and I couldn’t help but roll my eyes at some of the more “dramatic” scenes.

    -The cast of characters is the least likable I’ve seen in an FE game. Even Archanea’s roster full of non characters with no personality was better than the roster of irritating characters in this game. Supports range from one note to mildly interesting, but any potential depth was left unexplored.

    -The designs are overdone. The casual clothes are a great idea in theory. In practice, most of it looks too modern.

    -The menus are cluttered and convoluted. The Somniel menu will not alert you if you have new supports ready to watch, and it hides them under a menu called “references”, which is not where I would expect to find them. They should have been their own tab, and the storehouse should have been moved under the inventory tab.

    -QOL is bad in the shops, where bulk purchases are no longer an option. If you thought Anna’s “Is that the one?” “Thanks a bunch!” was annoying last game, be prepared for a whole new level of irritation.

    -The Somniel is lacking. At launch there were very few activities to build supports between units, which can be crucial for combat in maddening mode. This has since been fixed with a patch, which I consider a negative because it should have been in the game at launch. Instead, they prioritized putting out day one paid DLC over basic functionality of the hub world. I didn’t enjoy any of the minigames, but still do them because the bond fragments they give are important if you want to learn new skills. -The multiplayer aspect isn’t fun and I gave up after trying both options. According to the version 1.2 patch notes, random match multiplayer didn’t even work at launch and had to be fixed. IS should have focused on making the base game actually function from the start instead of working on DLC.

    -The cutscene audio mixing is poor and the music drowns out the dialogue. Marth and Alfred’s introductions are prime examples of this.

    -Endless reinforcements aren’t fun or good gameplay design. Prepare to see a lot of them in the endgame chapters as well as the throwback chapters (even in ones that didn’t have it, looking at you, Celica map). This ruins what I considered nearly flawless gameplay, as it doesn’t allow you to prepare or recover from a missed attack in a meaningful way when you’re being boxed in by endless waves of enemies from all angles. At lower difficulties this may have been acceptable, but in maddening, where killing an enemy in a single round of combat is not an easy feat, it only keeps you locked in place for longer than you need to be.

    -The hit rates are FE6 levels of shaky. Your units will consistently miss 80% and up hit rates, while enemy units will consistently hit at 30% or lower.

    TL;DR: the game reaches some very high peaks and some very low valleys, making for a conflicting experience. As it stands, this is one of my least favorite FE games.    … Expand
  39. randomacc
    Apr 3, 2023
    3
    It is sad to see that Intelligent Systems approved a story and plot with the literary level of a fan hack. While certainly not all fire emblems are known for its story, they try to at the very least make it concise and try to make fun characters. This is a very sad fall from the subtleties the story had in the Tellius and Jugdral games. There is nothing worse than making nostalgic fanIt is sad to see that Intelligent Systems approved a story and plot with the literary level of a fan hack. While certainly not all fire emblems are known for its story, they try to at the very least make it concise and try to make fun characters. This is a very sad fall from the subtleties the story had in the Tellius and Jugdral games. There is nothing worse than making nostalgic fan service integral to the story. The emblems don´t make sense.

    Character designs feel soulless and generic, with no particular trait to make any character represent who they are through designs. The somniel doesn´t work as a hub area to expand or develop characters, only as a way to make half baked mechanics trying to emulate Garreg Mach in fire emblem three houses, most of the time however I get to the somniel and it feels like a chore checklist to be completed.

    While gameplay wise the graphics, animations and map design have been improved over three houses, OP mechanics such as the emblem rings make it hard to feel the units as evenly distributed and balanced given that you don´t actually have a vast number of rings until the latter half of the game, I reached chapter 20 and stopped playing when I realized there was nothing compelling to keep on going other than the fact that I payed 60 bucks for this one.

    I feel like this game was contaminated by the influence of the fire emblem heroes mobile game, entirely based on fan service. If you are going to charge me 60 dollars for this one, I expect a much more deep experience from the fire emblem main series.    … Expand
  40. Madmacx
    May 5, 2023
    3
    Complete letdown after 3H, this feels more like a minor spin-off than a genuine new fire emblem game.

    First off the story is basically none existent, it's really just a black and white story, good guys vs inherently bad guys with next to no plottwists or anything interesting happening. The social aspect was heavily toned down, characters are paper cut walking cliches with no personality    Complete letdown after 3H, this feels more like a minor spin-off than a genuine new fire emblem game.

    First off the story is basically none existent, it's really just a black and white story, good guys vs inherently bad guys with next to no plottwists or anything interesting happening. The social aspect was heavily toned down, characters are paper cut walking cliches with no personality whatsoever. The overall maturity of 3H took a backseat and it's fates all over again, a whiny one dimensional protagonist who is just flat out boring. 3H protag was mute and had basically no personality but still was more appealing. Also the game is heavily CENSORED by treehouse, whole conversation have been changed because they found them offensive.

    In one support conversation a female character complains about gaining weight (she says that in japanese), the english text indicates she's embarrassed because she made a funny face while eating... It makes no sense at all and is plain right stupid. Thing is treehouse found a girl shouldn't be concerned with her weight so they changed that. It's just the tip of the iceberg, a lot more dialogue was altered. The only thing this game has going are the smooth graphics and fun gameplay, but that gets old fast. After all the censorship, butchered dialogue, boring story and flat characters I couldn't finish it, I stopped at chapter 15. I have over 300hrs on 3H because I loved this game to bits. engage on the other hand is an embarrassment, and the people who censored it should never be allowed to translate any kind of Japanese game again.    … Expand
  41. shadowclaw2303
    May 26, 2023
    3
    Wenn ich ein mittelmäßiges Anime Spiel spielen will, brauch ich dafür nicht 60 Euro bezahlen, das geht auch deutlich billiger. Schade für die ansich ganz tolle Reihe :(
  42. GeekCharming
    Jun 8, 2023
    3
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. When it was announced, I was really excited to see what the next generation of Fire Emblem would bring coming off of 3H. The game looked great, at least I thought it did, better than 3H. I got the game late a birthday gift a few months ago and I'm gonna be honest: I can't finish this game. I've invested 50+ hours and have about 4 chapters left until the end but I just can't bring myself to keep going. My issues have been building up over time and I definitely plan to elaborate my gripes below.
    1. The animation in cutscenes feels cheap. I know FE never prided itself on having perfect graphics but it's very jarring when a group of characters are talking about how they need "to rush to the next objective" and all you get from that is a black screen and running sounds before they're all standing around said objective. Character repeat the same 4 animations to express their body language and/or mood and it never stood out to me as bad in previous titles but in this game it's hard not to notice. 2. The maps, although pretty to look at, don't feel well-designed. Too many maps introduce constant reinforcements that feel more like a punishment to players who want to take their time and strategize. Some of the objectives towards rhe end chapters feels so artificially difficult and frankly unfun to play. Some maps introduce a darkness mechanic where you can't tell just how many foes are lurking in the dark. It's a cool concept until you're given a very awkward way to bring in light (temporarily) as well as enemies having ways of warping your characters directly to them, isolating a party member and taking them out. How that information could have been communicated to the player is beyond me but it's still not fun to have happen.
    3. The story is as generic as it gets. The game itself feels very fan-servicey with it being an anniversary title but it was pretty boring to see the obvious "plot twist" at least 8-10 chapters before it happening and the characters making a big deal about it. (Veyle says she's looking for her brother. Veyle being Sombron's "only" child. Whose color pallete resembles Velye? Oh yeah, Alear. Alear is Sombron's child? Who could have possibly guessed that!)
    4. Character Bloat. I know that since the game introduces permadeath, they need a staggering amount of characters to make sure players have a lot of resources. Regardless, the vast majority of these characters have their one chapter introduction and are never heard from again aside from support conversations. The game starts you with a cast of characters and wastes no time shoving more and more at you nearly every chapter which is nice until you have 30+ characters with as much depth as a kiddie pool and only 12 slots to commit to using. The "main cast" tends to favor the lords from every area you visit seeing how they're the only ones who make an appearance in cutscenes and this might be my personal issue but I didn't end up using any of them in my playthrough. 5. Gating off character development to ring proficiency/character class change in general. There comes a point in the story where you lose all of your rings and if you don't have your character's classes changed by then it's a LONG haul before you can get that specific ring/proficiency back. Why that was the design from the get-go is beyond me. Also character class upgrades, after the initial master seal, you spend the rest of the game resetting their level to 1 once they hit max. I did maybe 4 or 5 optional side battles and felt bored with my team already being at their final state way before the game is even close to being over. (Why is there no Assassin for example??? Yunaka stays a theif the whole game???) I know this review probably comes off as more nitpicky than an actual critique but that's because I've never had these exact issues in a previous FE game before. None of my issues have been involved of the character designs, I really think this game does a good job of showing us a wide variety of appearances from the various regions and how that affects things like their clothing and mannerisms. I really love how they fleshed out the weapon triangle, breaking enemies for free damage felt SO good. The Engage system was a really cool addition, I really liked how each character has their own transformation with the Emblems and the combat animations with their signature attacks felt incredibly powerful too. I wanted to like this game but I can't bring myself to finish it after so many gripes so I figured now would be my opportunity to submit my review among the sea of reviews here and leave this as my goodbye to Fire Emblem Engage.    … Expand
  43. TmatoCE
    Apr 2, 2023
    2
    Top 3 worst fire emblem. There is little strategy now, emblems are cool but they suck the skills aren't so powerful and I never used most special attacks because they were weaker than a normal attack.

    Older games had some strategy, in this game you only have to run, because most maps have infinite reinforcement and that suck. I miss some things from previous games like secret shop, real    Top 3 worst fire emblem. There is little strategy now, emblems are cool but they suck the skills aren't so powerful and I never used most special attacks because they were weaker than a normal attack.

    Older games had some strategy, in this game you only have to run, because most maps have infinite reinforcement and that suck. I miss some things from previous games like secret shop, real coliseum... Mage got a downgrade, there is no mage triangle, now it's close and range. Almost every enemy use armor in this game so some characters with little damage are useless. Great weapons are not worth it, single attack are worse than double. I also dislike the break system, weapon triangle was ok there was no need for this break mechanic. I also dislike the extra life mechanic. You gotta kill 3 times some enemy and that doesn't add any difficulty just waste three units, a good fighting system wouldn't need it.

    Final boss has 0% hit on my main character, that's a joke I mean it was maxed but wth was that … Game doesn't give you enough resources. I only tried to upgrade s rank weapons the weren't great weapons(1 attack) and after farming a lot of hours didn't have enough so I gave up.

    I almost dislike every part of the game, the friendship conversations are soulless. A 4/10 is probably too high for this game    … Expand
  44. Ruffikins
    Aug 2, 2023
    2
    My review didn't work, so I lost everything I wrote, thus I'll try to keep this succinct. For reference, I've been playing Fire Emblems for nearly a decade, since Awakening and unironically think that this is the worst Fire Emblem I've even played. Even moreso than Fates.

    Story is strange, overly childish. Too many child soldiers, the cutesy aesthetic and how 'adorable' it tries to be    My review didn't work, so I lost everything I wrote, thus I'll try to keep this succinct. For reference, I've been playing Fire Emblems for nearly a decade, since Awakening and unironically think that this is the worst Fire Emblem I've even played. Even moreso than Fates.

    Story is strange, overly childish. Too many child soldiers, the cutesy aesthetic and how 'adorable' it tries to be clashes with previous games, which have always added a layer of depth and ominous themes, which while not being blatant enough to scare a child, could be enjoyed by mature audiencese. New and improved characters appear in every scene, causing you to become completely apathetic to their lore and stories. I've heard that the combat is amazing, but I disagree, it feels like it's downgraded. Moving throughout the terrain is clunky and each battle goes through the identical trope of, "Click engage, wipe out an enemy, repeat", being so tedious that it feels worse than its predecessors. There's also some weirdo character who is male, yet dresses up like a 'girl' and enjoys 'cute' things because he was groomed or something in youth. For a game that tries so hard to be cutesy and childish, it's just odd. Overall, stick with Awakening.    … Expand
  45. Kjr81
    Jan 22, 2023
    2
    [Editing to lower the score after I played until chapter 13] The combats are fun, but the story is TERRIBLE: It’s super basic and childish. It lost all the perspectives and multidimensionality of characters we saw in Three Houses. The plot and dialogues seem written by a 12 year old kid or simply an AI bot.
  46. abletoo
    Jan 22, 2023
    2
    I play JRPG to enjoy the story while testing out different strategy with given combat system.
    Here are my 2 main issues.
    Story: Unfortunately, they put their guards down too much on the story. It feels like they cropped part of previous games and pasted it there. Too much contrast to 3H for sure. While 3H story was heavy, in here it went like ashes. Also too much cringe on their comedy    I play JRPG to enjoy the story while testing out different strategy with given combat system.
    Here are my 2 main issues.
    Story: Unfortunately, they put their guards down too much on the story. It feels like they cropped part of previous games and pasted it there. Too much contrast to 3H for sure. While 3H story was heavy, in here it went like ashes. Also too much cringe on their comedy and action. They looked like a group of medieval power rangers in action. Shonen cliched into isekai.

    Characters: Honestly, I thought I was watching a circus parade. I do know Mika Pikazo is a great artist with amazing quality. However, she is specialized on illustrating things with strong characteristic traits (ex. vtubers). Almost 90% of the characters in the game were designed with vast clothing in overly saturated colors, and all stood out against each other. Definitely, not a unified design. Plus, her style diminished the maturity on all physical traits. Most looked underaged compared to the previous characters. None of them looked intimidating, even the villains.

    New combat system was fun, animation quality was amazing, but if the story and setting doesn't support that... welp it's not a good JRPG to begin with. Now time to apologize to Fates.    … Expand
  47. alybry420
    Jan 28, 2023
    2
    The story, the voice cast, the art style… everything except gameplay are just straight up painfully childish and unable to endure. The worst purchase decision on switch.
  48. michaelflip
    Jan 31, 2023
    2
    This is the worst Fire Emblem game in the series. I got to Chapter 12 when I made this decision. The story is bad and there is no reason to use any particular character. There are over 6 different "Hero" units you get by Chapter 12. This game honestly seems like it's trying to tie in the mobile game into their Fire Emblem series.
  49. PickleNCP
    Feb 1, 2023
    2
    The character design is terrible. I'm not here to watch some kind of Vtuber war.
  50. sunshinehairpin
    Feb 12, 2023
    2
    This game is definitely the next "black sheep" in the Fire Emblem series alongside Fates and Warriors. The story is hilariously bad (especially towards the end) and most of the characters are completely forgettable. I know people will argue that Fire Emblem "was always anime", but believe me and other older Fire Emblem fans (my first game was Path of Radiance on the Gamecube, currentThis game is definitely the next "black sheep" in the Fire Emblem series alongside Fates and Warriors. The story is hilariously bad (especially towards the end) and most of the characters are completely forgettable. I know people will argue that Fire Emblem "was always anime", but believe me and other older Fire Emblem fans (my first game was Path of Radiance on the Gamecube, current favorite is Echoes: Shadows of Valentia) when we say that this game ACTUALLY IS TOO ANIME. You can easily tell just from the art style and Vtuber aesthetics (if the story and voicelines weren't already big indicators). Completely far-flung from the more medieval fantasy-like world the series is more known for.

    The gameplay is very unbalanced. Hit rates are completely broken as more and more people are noticing that they're consistently missing attacks that have 80-90%+ accuracy and getting hit by enemy attacks that have 30% accuracy. I don't know if it's a coding error or what, but the RNG is completely messed up in a lot of cases. The ring system is interesting in concept, but the more I played with it the more I came to realize that the game pretty much wants you to spam Engage attacks throughout the fights which sort of kills the immersion of trying to formulate intense strategies while in the midst of battle. They at least brought back the weapon triangle tho, which was something I thoroughly enjoyed.

    Character growth rates are abysmal, and even worse most of the early units are easily replaceable with better units as you progress through the game. It's a HUGE step backwards from the level progression system of Three Houses and even the systems of older Fire Emblem games. You can somewhat mitigate these problems with giving your characters more skills via building bonds with rings, but it requires A LOT of grinding to give your characters the necessary skill points and bond points to get everything.

    Most of the maps are uninteresting. The only ones that have interesting mechanics going on for them are in the last few chapters of the game.

    The Somniel is a neat concept since it feels like an upgraded version of My Castle from Fire Emblem Fates, but even then towards the end I found myself feeling like it was there so that I could "do my dailies" after every fight like I'm playing some kind of mobile game (this game has a gacha mechanic as well).

    There's a big spike in difficulty at around Chapter 11, and it's way more noticeable when playing on the harder difficulty settings. I did two playthroughs on both Normal and Hard respectively. Hard mode felt A LOT more stressful than Normal, and it's not even the most difficult setting. The people playing on Maddening are an entirely different breed. Godspeed.

    Oh, and slight spoiler: You have the option to marry anyone in the roster, including two little kids and your little sister. The US version has been heavily localized to give the Pact Ring cutscenes different context, but overall you know what the original script was implying. Gross...

    There's some fun to be had in this game, but the good moments are so few and far between that I have to give it a negative review. I genuinely love the Fire Emblem series, and it seemed like the series was only going to improve after Echoes and Three Houses, but obviously not every game can be a masterpiece. Here's hoping they address these issues in the next installment. I'm not worried about DLC. I'm done with this game.

    Edit: I gave it a few points for good music and visuals. Like I said before some of the gameplay is fun, but it loses its novelty towards the end of the game on higher difficulties.    … Expand
  51. Saizoreita
    Feb 6, 2023
    2
    the game is very good in the combat parts but the rest is horrible. in the social parts the game is horrible compared to fire emblem three houses, the character development is not good and neither is the intention between them making them boring you don't care about any of them ,and those animals you take to your base will do why not to interact with them to touch them at least for whatthe game is very good in the combat parts but the rest is horrible. in the social parts the game is horrible compared to fire emblem three houses, the character development is not good and neither is the intention between them making them boring you don't care about any of them ,and those animals you take to your base will do why not to interact with them to touch them at least for what those animals are there. And where is the romance in Fire Emblem Engage because Fire Emblem Three Houses had and was part of the charm of that game as the character development and its history. I recommend anyone who has never played a game in the fire emblems franchise to buy three houses and better than fire emblem engage… Expand
  52. L498
    Feb 16, 2023
    2
    As someone who's played and beaten every Fire Emblem game since Path of Radiance on the Gamecube, I can say with almost equal pride and shame, this is the first one I couldn't finish. There's no one in this story worth rooting for, nothing worth getting invested in, and the story itself feels like a crappy seasonal anime that no one would actually pay attention to if it didn't have "FireAs someone who's played and beaten every Fire Emblem game since Path of Radiance on the Gamecube, I can say with almost equal pride and shame, this is the first one I couldn't finish. There's no one in this story worth rooting for, nothing worth getting invested in, and the story itself feels like a crappy seasonal anime that no one would actually pay attention to if it didn't have "Fire Emblem" in the name... it's just painfully boring to try and play through.

    I wouldn't recommend it on sale, or at all for that matter.    … Expand
  53. Exocoex
    Mar 3, 2023
    2
    It's a Fire Emblem game, except the characters are flat and impersonable, plot is cliche and predictable and failure to build mood tends to leave you laughing at the game's feeble attempts to make you sad or upset on behalf of the characters. Returning characters are forcefully stuffed in the game with mechanics that do not provide much of anything and with minimum opportunities toIt's a Fire Emblem game, except the characters are flat and impersonable, plot is cliche and predictable and failure to build mood tends to leave you laughing at the game's feeble attempts to make you sad or upset on behalf of the characters. Returning characters are forcefully stuffed in the game with mechanics that do not provide much of anything and with minimum opportunities to interact with them. Menu system is a mess and the most frequently used menus are buried under rarely used keys and multiple submenus, requiring you to spend a noticeable amount of your gaming time simply clicking through menus.

    Combat remains as fun as ever but if you wanted anything else out of this game, don't.    … Expand
  54. Beefmolester
    May 23, 2023
    2
    The artstyle looks terrible, its more genshin impact than fire emblem and the character design is horrific. The story is medicore at best and the only good thing is the gameplay. I expected more from fire emblem, especially after three houses
  55. aaa1313
    Jan 22, 2023
    1
    bad comedy. Everything but the battle was ruined.
    Seriously, what did they do during that long development period?
  56. Schnem
    Jan 23, 2023
    1
    Not an RPG. no story to participate in it feels like a movie you watch and then battles to participate in. Game mechanic of battles are awful compared to three houses, hate everything they changed about battles and do not like the ring mechanics at all. Only good thing in the game is Sommie is cute but interacting with it is so slow and you can’t skip feeding or petting time so it takesNot an RPG. no story to participate in it feels like a movie you watch and then battles to participate in. Game mechanic of battles are awful compared to three houses, hate everything they changed about battles and do not like the ring mechanics at all. Only good thing in the game is Sommie is cute but interacting with it is so slow and you can’t skip feeding or petting time so it takes forever. I also feel like half of the time playing, you’re just waiting for the next scene to load. Do not recommend at all.… Expand
  57. aefc
    Jan 23, 2023
    1
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. The game system is old-fashioned, the story is broken, and the characters are unappealing.
    A game of the lowest rank with no fun at all.    … Expand
  58. Mogmog000
    Jan 24, 2023
    1
    Poor character design.
    Too many event movies, poor pacing.
    Engage system is unnecessary.
    DLC is expensive.
  59. Mich218
    Jan 25, 2023
    1
    Ok, I been playing the game, and nope, story is extremely bored and childish, look I can understand some stories could be slow but still those stories found a way to keep you eager to learn more about that story, but NO with this game, you could fall sleep with this game if not is because the battle system is like the best of this game, and still not enough to say the game worth completlyOk, I been playing the game, and nope, story is extremely bored and childish, look I can understand some stories could be slow but still those stories found a way to keep you eager to learn more about that story, but NO with this game, you could fall sleep with this game if not is because the battle system is like the best of this game, and still not enough to say the game worth completly becauae of that, Now lets talk about the engage stories, first I just read ENG version was censored, but to me is not just censored is more like they decide to rewrite every single event of the engage story for each character deleting all romance lines and change it by some generic and BORED lines, believe neither the Jap version is good either but english is Worst, is like you instead of engage your support you are making a partner/friend conversation but extremely generic and Cero love or romance, and last but not less, the character design, good lord, uninspired, bored clothes, the MC is ridiculous, and the models looka like they were made for a MMD video from 10 years ago, sorey this game have too many red cards, ia just a waste of time...… Expand
  60. assaultcuirass
    Jan 26, 2023
    1
    Cringe characters and story. This SRPG gets a big F on the RPG part. While maps are more complex than 3H everything else is still horribly unbalanced.
  61. Kale090
    Jan 29, 2023
    1
    This games looks great on the outside but once you play it you see it’s glaring flaws. It has very little story, the cutscenes are cheesy and the characters are so incredibly forgettable. There’s almost no character development among anyone in this game and most the characters you end up not using. The gameplay itself is great but everything else in this game feels like a chore. DO NOT BUYThis games looks great on the outside but once you play it you see it’s glaring flaws. It has very little story, the cutscenes are cheesy and the characters are so incredibly forgettable. There’s almost no character development among anyone in this game and most the characters you end up not using. The gameplay itself is great but everything else in this game feels like a chore. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!… Expand
  62. Ruthtria
    Feb 1, 2023
    1
    While this game shines as the forefront for what gameplay should be like in the Fire Emblem franchise, ir tries to make a return to a simpler, more straightforward story akin to the entries before the critically acclaimed 3 Houses. And yet, this story does not support and motivate the player to enjoy their time in the world of Elyos and connect with its large cast, instead throwing nonstopWhile this game shines as the forefront for what gameplay should be like in the Fire Emblem franchise, ir tries to make a return to a simpler, more straightforward story akin to the entries before the critically acclaimed 3 Houses. And yet, this story does not support and motivate the player to enjoy their time in the world of Elyos and connect with its large cast, instead throwing nonstop gameplay at them with thr narrative serving only the purpose of pushing you towards the next battle. It is disappointing to see so many long time fans call it par for the course because there is always better than something so lifeless.… Expand
  63. Mr_Fear
    Feb 2, 2023
    1
    - Less Classes
    - Less Weapons
    - Shallow Characters
    - Shallow Plot
    - No Meaningful Downtime Activities - No Meaningful Supports
    - No Player Choice
    - Lolis Everywhere (Pedo Bait)
    - The Break Mechanic which makes playing defense / counter attacker is no longer viable.

    The only thing you could say was better is the graphics, which is not high on the list of importance in a FE game.
  64. TruthSeaker
    Aug 11, 2023
    1
    Absolute failure.
    After phenomenal Three Houses, they decided to go with a weird and questionable V-Tuber route while ditching storytelling and characters alltogether.
    Balance is also completely broken if you decide to do at least a little bit of resource/SP farming.
    Even a decent combat system couldn't save this snoozefest of a game.
  65. SpaceKow
    Feb 1, 2023
    0
    The tactical gameplay is great, but I just can't stand the characters or the story.
  66. jebacon
    Jan 26, 2023
    0
    Have to rate this game this low to fight back against the senseless English localization of the game. I want to play these Japanese games as the developers intended. Not as the Nintendo of America team think I need to so that I won’t be offended.
  67. Orangefizz
    Jan 25, 2023
    0
    I love turned based combat. I love Fire Emblem. I just wrote a love letter to Chained Echoes. This game, it's story line, it's character voice-over, it's script..... unbearable. I should have listened to the reviews. This game is trash. Total cash grab.
  68. OnlyOneHere
    Jan 28, 2023
    0
    This game is extremely expensive. The greedy developers are charging $60 for a turn-based game made with Unity. Are you freaking kidding me? The Unity engine should only be used for indie and free-to-play games. Not even EA is that greedy to sell me a Unity game for $60. As a matter of fact, I don't remember the last time I spent $60 on a game made with Unity. It just goes to show howThis game is extremely expensive. The greedy developers are charging $60 for a turn-based game made with Unity. Are you freaking kidding me? The Unity engine should only be used for indie and free-to-play games. Not even EA is that greedy to sell me a Unity game for $60. As a matter of fact, I don't remember the last time I spent $60 on a game made with Unity. It just goes to show how extremely cheap and lazy Nintendo are. Imagine charging $60 for an indie quality game. The graphics are a joke. It literally looks like a mobile game. The physics are beyond horrible. When I pay $60, I expect top notch AAA quality. That is exactly what this game lacks. The combat is boring and repetitive. The story is garbage and the dialogue is cringeworthy.

    There is no multiplayer. So once you beat the story, there is literally not a reason to play this game again. Charging $60 for a game with no replay value is a cash grab. Remember when Nintendo used to brag about quality, to the point where they slapped a seal of quality on the cover of their games? They created that as a response for Atari's massive collection of shovelware, and now they have ironically become what they mocked. Nintendo is a multi-billion dollar company. There is no excuse for these cheapskates to sell shovelware made with Unity for $60. That's pathetic. I don't recommend this game at all, unless you want to support laziness.

    Edit: Turns out there is a so-called multiplayer. Why didn't they put it in the main freaking menu? Jesus Christ are these developers so irrational. The co-op is a joke. It's just taking turns using the same army. You could literally play any turn-based game and pass the controller to another player, or you could go to Twitch and ask viewers for choices if you want online. That is not multiplayer. The PvP is playing against AI. There is no real-time PvP so my point still stands, there is no multiplayer.    … Expand
  69. Phuz
    Feb 4, 2023
    0
    Total junk. I bought this and DLC and would happily swap the lot just for a decent bit of 3 Houses DLC.

    I would love to say total mediocrity but that would be far too generous. It's a total irritation and a terrible FE game.

    The only plus side to this game is that it has made me play the old ports on my WiiU which I had all but forgotten I'd bought.
  70. ffp
    Feb 6, 2023
    0
    i wish fire emblem games would drop the date sim mechanics cuz if not, better convert this whole franchise into a visual novel.

    the technical aspects of the game are amazing, props to the devs for making this game's performance an issue.
  71. windchipi
    Jun 9, 2023
    0
    First time I see a JRPG without a new game plus.
    It was like a draft that had to be completed quickly to meet the release date. Not worth the price 60$.
    I hope the mechanic will be developed in the next game
  72. Toska123
    May 2, 2023
    0
    As a huge fan of the Fire Emblem series, this was an extremely disappointing entry. Here are the points I disliked the most:
    -Progression system holds your hand too much, it's too much trouble to get a character out of their predetermined role/jobs, so customization is extremely limited unless you are willing to grind for it.
    -Emblem rings are too powerful, even on harder difficulties.    As a huge fan of the Fire Emblem series, this was an extremely disappointing entry. Here are the points I disliked the most:
    -Progression system holds your hand too much, it's too much trouble to get a character out of their predetermined role/jobs, so customization is extremely limited unless you are willing to grind for it.
    -Emblem rings are too powerful, even on harder difficulties.
    -The story is incredibly bland, I am over 30 hours into this game and I literally couldn't care less about any of the dialogue.
    -The story is very repetitive. Go to a new kingdom, add a prince or princess to your squad along with their two retainers, fight a few monsters, maybe get a new ring, then move on. There's no nuance.
    -Whenever you get new characters, they simply outclass the ones you had before, meaning that the only unit that is even worth training at the very beginning is your main character. Literally everyone else will be replaced by stronger characters by the end of the game. Because of this, a bad progression system becomes completely useless.
    -The animations are re-used between different characters during dialogue sections. Normally, this wouldn't bother me. But they literally have one "girl animation set" and one "guy animation set" that get re-used between literally everyone, and it becomes extremely tacky very quickly. They should have at least created 2-4 animation sets for each gender...
    -The character personalities are incredibly bland. I didn't find myself connecting with nearly any of the characters like I have in previous games. Watching the character bond cutscenes in this one feels like a chore compared to previous games where I looked forward to every cutscene.
    -They got rid of weapon durability for some reason. One of the best parts of Fire Emblem is managing your limited resources inside and outside of combat. Taking that away makes this game lose an entire dimension to combat and the underlying strategic choices you make.

    Now, here are the things I liked about the game:
    -The combat is "don't broke, don't fix it". It's pretty much the same as Fire Emblem Three Houses as far as the actual combat goes, so the combat itself is still pretty solid. Just too bad that everything influencing your character progressions is terrible.
    -The graphics are actually pretty solid. I really liked the art and character designs in this game. It is really a shame that the story is so bad and the character personalities are so bland.

    Overall, extremely disappointed with this one. It's still fire emblem, so it's not a "bad" game. But compared to other fire emblem games, this may be the worst of all time.    … Expand
  73. disposable
    Feb 21, 2023
    0
    Kind of a mess! Really just a game for anyone who still goes "Squee" and gets wet when they see Marth. I guess there's something to being such a FE fan that you get the reference when Sigurd gives you silly move and teleports across the battlefield, but it gets old.

    I've seen a lot of people describe this as solid gameplay, bad story. I think the gameplay is pretty spotty though. Map    Kind of a mess! Really just a game for anyone who still goes "Squee" and gets wet when they see Marth. I guess there's something to being such a FE fan that you get the reference when Sigurd gives you silly move and teleports across the battlefield, but it gets old.

    I've seen a lot of people describe this as solid gameplay, bad story. I think the gameplay is pretty spotty though. Map difficulty is a bit like conquest, not terrible but oddly balanced. The expectation that you will use the rings maximally is baked in, a lot of houses you have to sprint to, etc. Weapon durability is out again, which they do every so often before realizing it breaks the economy and walking it back in the next game. They have this new donation system where you can get some minor map benefits, but it's not really a solution.

    The biggest issue with the gameplay is the break system I'd argue. Getting hit by an opposing weapon locks counters for a turn. This, together with the decreased move, really just slows the game down. Armor knights become quite critical, with the most effective strategy being the "ball of units" one.

    The story is quite bad. It's trying to be a callback to FE1 where Marth had to kill an evil dragon, but it somehow has less plot. Massive step back from Three Houses, one of the best FE stories, and I think a misunderstanding of what the fanbase wants out of these.    … Expand
  74. sauhui
    Jan 27, 2023
    0
    剧情 人设都很幼齿 难度有所提升 主角很弱 重甲+老辛=无敌法拉利。火纹已经在二次元媚宅的路上越走越远了，仔细想想其实很多作品都这样了，比如最近的水星魔女，高达的幼齿化比火纹还厉害，只能说时代变了吧，我等已经不能理解现在的日本年轻人了
  75. halksin
    Jan 23, 2023
    0
    Decent game plagued by bigoted localizers. The script was greatly changed, with several LGBTQ+ romantic interactions removed.
    They do not deserve your money.
  76. Daniela_r2
    Jun 5, 2023
    0
    Boring characters and supports. The writing is almost insulting for human intelligence. You can't experiment on builds without a lot of farming and the lack of NG+ doesn't help. The game relies on massive reinforcements in almost every map to create tension (in a way no other fire emblem game I played did) but it becomes boring very quickly and horribly worsens the experience. The originalBoring characters and supports. The writing is almost insulting for human intelligence. You can't experiment on builds without a lot of farming and the lack of NG+ doesn't help. The game relies on massive reinforcements in almost every map to create tension (in a way no other fire emblem game I played did) but it becomes boring very quickly and horribly worsens the experience. The original fire emblem characters are not always respected in their characterization (expecially Eirika) and they managed to make all their conversations boring and Lyn's paralogue map isn't even from her game. Also the lack of paired endings is something that extremely disappointed me.

    The dlc takes everything I disliked about story and gameplay and made it even worse.

    All of this saddens me because no other fire emblem game disappointed me so much in the past.    … Expand
  77. DGamer142
    Jan 22, 2023
    0
    I tried to like this game, but I could not, it seem a step back from all the improvements on gameplay, story telling and worldbuilding found on three houses. I personally dislike the cameos from old protagonists as this make the game fells like fire emblem heroes instead of a proper new entry on the franchise. I can’t recommend this one.
  78. Notimer
    Jan 22, 2023
    0
    This game is probably like 7 but I am harsher on it because it seems that the franchise is going in the wrong direction. With a story and visual presentation worse than the previous game and relying on previous franchise for cameos instead of creating new characters. The simpler battle systems seem a step back from me compared to three houses options. Worldbuilding also suffers a step downThis game is probably like 7 but I am harsher on it because it seems that the franchise is going in the wrong direction. With a story and visual presentation worse than the previous game and relying on previous franchise for cameos instead of creating new characters. The simpler battle systems seem a step back from me compared to three houses options. Worldbuilding also suffers a step down even if is not FATES level.… Expand
  79. Aeula
    May 20, 2023
    0
    The single worst entry in the fire emblem series.

    Worst plot. Worst art style. Worst main character. Worst setting. Worst theme. The engage mechanic is genuinely horrible. The weapon triangle was removed for a reason. Also why the hell do random voices yell the title of the game at you whenever you boot it up? A massive downgrade from Awakening, let alone three houses. I    The single worst entry in the fire emblem series.

    Worst plot.
    Worst art style.
    Worst main character.
    Worst setting.
    Worst theme.
    The engage mechanic is genuinely horrible.
    The weapon triangle was removed for a reason.

    Also why the hell do random voices yell the title of the game at you whenever you boot it up?

    A massive downgrade from Awakening, let alone three houses. I hope this isn't fire emblem's future.    … Expand
  80. theprotagonist
    Jan 22, 2023
    0
    Unfortunately, the supports for many of the characters, as well as many story elements were censored during localization. There are many other reviews complaining about the bland story and writing. However, please do not blame the original Japanese team. It is the English localizers' (Nintendo Treehouse's) fault in this case.
  81. Frenchoswarr
    Jan 28, 2023
    0
    I am worried about the franchise after finishing this fame, while perfectly playable the game feels odd to me, somehow the mechanics and characters feel blander than awakening’s while I am enjoying the game way less than shadow dragon. So far, I also don’t feel invested in any oof the characters. I hope Nintendo and Intelligent Systems don’t follow this route for the following game.
  82. ransom77
    Feb 5, 2023
    0
    This game is so **** bad. I have no idea how anyone could write the story and dialogue for this game and think its good.
  83. Sanick
    Feb 23, 2023
    0
    Pros: Squares and math

    The only positive thing I can really say about this game is that it is a tactical RPG. There are squares to count, and there's math to do. I guess that's fun, but Fire Emblem Engage does very little to make it refreshing or interesting compared to other games in the genre, and it sacrifices a lot of elements from its previous entry, Three Houses. Cons: Dull    Pros: Squares and math

    The only positive thing I can really say about this game is that it is a tactical RPG. There are squares to count, and there's math to do. I guess that's fun, but Fire Emblem Engage does very little to make it refreshing or interesting compared to other games in the genre, and it sacrifices a lot of elements from its previous entry, Three Houses.

    Cons: Dull Setting, Uninteresting Characters, Recycled Plot, Awful Writing, Poor Quality of Life, Bizarre Character Designs, Lackluster Cosmetics, No New Game Plus

    The writing in this game is crap.

    The game is all about rings, so they made the continent a ring. It's divided into four quadrants, each one with the climate of a Mario level. Original. There are some meager attempts at establishing political relationships between the four countries, but it's pretty bad, and doesn't make the setting interesting. Fodlan was infinitely better.

    The characters don't get even a fraction of the effort that the Three Houses cast received. There aren't even paired endings for any characters besides the one who the avatar S ranks. Character writing seems to have been a very low priority in this game and it shows.

    The story is about the main character traveling across the continent to find all the magical items so they can defeat the big evil. It's a story you've seen a hundred times and Engage does nothing to put a twist on it or make it original at all. Some plot points are rushed through with no time for characters to process information. Other times, characters don't even get an ounce of their backstory revealed until they're on their death bed, as though players should suddenly care for this character. At its worst, I found the story outright insulting as it expected me to accept blatantly ridiculous developments with a straight face.

    The game takes several steps back in terms of Quality of Life. Offenses include:
    - Can't rotate the camera 360 degrees around the map anymore
    - Can't remap buttons
    - Can't hide the dialogue box
    - The gallery of cutscenes, music, and Support conversations, is tied to specific save files instead of being on the main menu. This means you don't have a single gallery showing all Supports you've unlocked across multiple playthroughs.

    I greatly dislike most of the character designs. The main character's design is the worst for obvious reasons. Others just have stars or hearts on their face. Is it a sticker? A tattoo? I'm not opposed to a little color in character designs, but many of them cross the line into pure silliness. I can't take them seriously at all.

    The option to keep a character's default outfit in battle is gone. If you reclass them, they WILL use that class's outfit in battle with no exceptions. Cosmetic options in the Somniel (the base outside of combat) are unimpressive as well, often offering plain outfits with little to no patterning and color schemes which don't change between different characters. Oh, and these outfits cost valuable metals that you could be using to upgrade your weapons, so you must play inefficiently to use the cosmetics. Maybe they stay unlocked on New Game Plus? Except...

    There's no New Game Plus. This is inexcusable. Again, several steps backwards on something they already had in their previous entry. With the costs of cosmetics, weapon upgrades, and acquiring new skills so high, the game seems to be built around the idea that you could use NG+ to reach things you couldn't in a single playthrough. Yet, they dropped the ball.

    Mixed: Mechanics, RPG Stuff

    Engage's main brag is new mechanics, such as using the Emblem rings containing old characters, inflicting the Break status, and new aspects of classes. As much as some people are praising these mechanics, I felt that they had a lighter impact than I expected on the gameplay. I definitely wasn't willing to sacrifice all quality in the writing for a couple of mechanical trinkets.

    I felt that the variety in classes was lacking. In terms of magic, the Sage and High Priest classes are mostly clones of each other, leaving only two different magic classes: Sage and Mage Knight. Some classes, like Swordmaster and Royal Knight, are simply obsolete compared to others.

    In terms of customizing units, I would have liked more. Units only get two skill slots to use, and the SP costs of acquiring these skills are extremely high. So much so that some characters will wait most of the game before getting a skill you want for them. There wasn't a ton of variety in these skills either, with some skills standing out as the most obvious choice for nearly every unit.

    Overall, this entry completely lost my interest in the series. I won't pay much attention to future FE games unless they show a huge focus on writing, QoL, and greater customization of units in order to win me back.    … Expand
  84. Yarelis
    Jan 23, 2023
    0
    Uhhhhhhhhggg nopes!! Dissapointed. 3H better. This game is…. Idk… sorry but no
  85. DolphinReviews
    Jan 25, 2023
    0
    Awful. Anime is cringe as always. Turn based combat is outdated and dumb. Nintendo is Sintendo.
  86. avantic00
    Feb 6, 2023
    0
    Combat was great and all, but the amount of cringe it gave during gameplay kept distubing me from immersing into the game. I wasn't able to get a clean and comforting gameplay as my previous FEs. Even with good combat u can't cover the bad writing...It hurts to rate negative to my favorite series...But Imma also be harsh on this one, so they don't bring that scenario writer again.
  87. P1AVG45
    Feb 1, 2023
    0
    As far as gameplay is concerned, the gameplay mechanics of Engage are incredible and extremely fun, it is some of the best gameplay in the series. However, it is extremely unfortunate that the characters, dialogue and story have once again been deliberately sabotaged by the miserable localizers at Treehouse, rewriting characters, inserting cheesy dialogue, and completely censoring any andAs far as gameplay is concerned, the gameplay mechanics of Engage are incredible and extremely fun, it is some of the best gameplay in the series. However, it is extremely unfortunate that the characters, dialogue and story have once again been deliberately sabotaged by the miserable localizers at Treehouse, rewriting characters, inserting cheesy dialogue, and completely censoring any and all hints of romance out of the game. These translators must have a deep-seated resentment for the projects that they’re working on for them to end up with translations this poorly-made and low-effort. It is truly unacceptable.… Expand
  88. LosPollosAmogus
    Jan 22, 2023
    0
    I love fire emblem...buts gbis game is just sad. Bad Designs, worst fe story EVER, glitches and DLC before the game came out? I miss FE3H
  89. mathor
    Jan 21, 2023
    0
    bad story, but good system. The plot looks like a child playing house. The characters are also designed to look like children, which I think is bad
  90. Shayon_An
    Jan 21, 2023
    0
    Just like a rubbish. Worse than Three Houses. I don't know why Intelligent Systems create this Fire Emblem? Worse than every FE, Awakening is better and Three Houses is the best FE. Don't do this in next FE!
  91. Ihateminors
    Jan 21, 2023
    0
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. This game is complete garbage. The game is a shameful rehash of Awakening with the same gameplay mechanics, god awful support cutscenes that were written by a 3 year old who just learned how to speak, and story that is nonexistent because people didn’t like morally grey characters but instead like green dragon = good and purple dragon = bad. The voice acting is utterly laughable when compared to three houses. The game is just genshin impact with the surplus of child units and character designs. If you want an actually fun fire emblem game then play heroes because that is what this game is but free with a possibility of a lifelong gambling addiction instead of 60 dollars for a game that is so broke for ideas that they have to have characters from games never released outside of Japan.… Expand
  92. WorstFE
    Jan 22, 2023
    0
    This game should not exist. It insults past games and past lords. Be angry.
  93. Battlecorg
    Jan 22, 2023
    0
    The writing is so bad it makes the game unplayable. Even the support conversations feel like they were written by a 5 year old. No character has any shred of personality and its so cringe I can't even get through it. There's no excuse for it to be this bad. They've beefed up the fighting mechanics but it's clear as day that they did it by cutting all funding from the writing department.The writing is so bad it makes the game unplayable. Even the support conversations feel like they were written by a 5 year old. No character has any shred of personality and its so cringe I can't even get through it. There's no excuse for it to be this bad. They've beefed up the fighting mechanics but it's clear as day that they did it by cutting all funding from the writing department. I'd return it if the switch allowed that. Please learn from my mistake and do not buy this game.… Expand
  94. Mammospring
    Jan 22, 2023
    0
    Extremely soulless game with baby tier writing. Characters and story are awful. It's a downgrade from 3H in everyway. Sick of every game pandering to Vtubers. All it does is go for meme value rather than creating things with actual substance.
  95. FreshyPrince
    Jan 22, 2023
    0
    Usually it's 1 step forward, and 2 steps back with this company. With Engage, it's 10 steps back as it throws out everything 3Houses did correctly.
  96. NinoCortex22
    Jan 22, 2023
    0
    Not for me.... too much forced included. Sorry. System of "romance" made me sick. and the animations, NEVER
  97. lifeordeaf
    Jan 23, 2023
    0
    Beloved characters from older games are now personas for genshin impact rejects
  98. YouJustKnow
    Jan 23, 2023
    0
    Engage is the epitome of soulless and only IntSys apologists will defend it out of brand loyalty.
  99. carvelvsmapcom
    Jan 23, 2023
    0
    Undoubtedly the worst character designs in the series bar none, it's actually jarring to see someone like Sigurd next to some of these clowns that are trying to be passed off as FE characters. The story is just a hybrid of awakening and fates but somehow it's much worse. I would not recommend this game to my worst enemy as that would be too evil on my part
  100. DaliaMarth
    Jan 23, 2023
    0
    Muy decepcionante, personajes aburridos, historia muy mala, y el sistema de romance tanto versión japonesa como en inglés dan terror. Se les pasó la mano.
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Awards & Rankings

51
#51 Best Switch Game of 2023
2
#2 Most Discussed Switch Game of 2023

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 129 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 102 out of 129
  2. Mixed: 27 out of 129
  3. Negative: 0 out of 129
  1. LEVEL (Czech Republic)
    Jan 24, 2024
    80
    Hogwarts Legacy is definitely a beautiful-looking game that doesn't have a groundbreaking story, but does have a beautiful world, a fun combat system, broomstick flying, and of course an incredible amount of side quests and missions. [Issue#325]
  2. Gamereactor Spain
    Oct 16, 2023
    80
    It’s a title where difficulty isn’t just about advancing mission after mission but doing so with as few casualties as possible. This makes Engage the perfect gateway to the series, as well as a handful of good memories for those already familiar with it. A game which perfectly balances periods of action with quiet, enjoyable interludes in which to chat with other characters, play minigames and try out new weapons.
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  3. Pocket-lint
    Jun 23, 2023
    90
    Fire Emblem Engage is a superb strategy game that has taken a major technical leap forward, graphically superior to its predecessor in every meaningful way.It tells a well-meaning story that still manages to pack in a few surprisng twists, and while its social features are a little extraneous this time, it's still super relaxing to fall into its world.Multiplayer expands things even further, leaving us confident that the future is very, very bright for this excellent series.
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