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. 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
  2. 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.
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. 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
  7. 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
  8. 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 :(
  9. 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
  10. 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
  11. 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.
  12. 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
  13. 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
  14. JugdralCHAD
    Apr 16, 2023
    0
    Awakening, Fates and Engage are a collective embarrassment to the FE franchise. Go back to making Fire Emblem games please instead of this cringey post-ironic otaku slop.
  15. 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
  16. 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
  17. 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
  18. Willwick9000
    Mar 31, 2023
    0
    You need 12 individual amiibo to access all content. Disgusting Nintendo…
  19. 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
  20. 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
  21. q420572640
    Mar 8, 2023
    0
    Is this a piece of garbage?Except for the fighting, I didn't have any impressions, which made me very uncomfortable playing.
  22. 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
  23. 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
  24. 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
  25. 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
  26. 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
  27. Edele
    Feb 22, 2023
    0
    I prioritize the story, performance, character design first, and then gameplay. Although the combat system in Engage is excellent, the other aspects of the game fall far short of Three Houses. Playing the game was a frustrating experience. Each character felt like a soulless tool, and they lacked memorable personalities, making it challenging to recall their names and images.

    The story    I prioritize the story, performance, character design first, and then gameplay. Although the combat system in Engage is excellent, the other aspects of the game fall far short of Three Houses. Playing the game was a frustrating experience. Each character felt like a soulless tool, and they lacked memorable personalities, making it challenging to recall their names and images.

    The story was a significant disappointment, failing to meet my expectations. While some might argue that the combat system in the Fire Emblem series is all that matters, I believe that a good game requires a reasonable story, character design, scene design, and music to support it. Investing all resources into one aspect does not make it a good game.

    Overall, Engage fell short of my expectations. While the combat system is enjoyable, the lack of memorable characters and plot hindered my enjoyment of the game.    … Expand
  28. 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
  29. 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
  30. 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
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Awards & Rankings

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

Critic Reviews

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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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