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. SomethingSom
    Jan 26, 2023
    5
    Gameplay is fun. The story and characters are soulless. Feels like a mobile game but it’s a full priced Nintendo game.. yikes
  2. Brazen100
    Jan 25, 2023
    10
    breathe of fresh air to have a new fire emblem in my life. The gameplay is very tight and balanced even with all the overpowered options your given
  3. Gomorrha
    Jan 25, 2023
    6
    Just how do you guys manage to post your reviews here? Yet again, I had a lengthy review written for a game, yet again this site won‘t let me post it for no reason.

    Then again, pretty much everything you need to know has already been written many times here. Just read the reviews that give a score between 4 and 7. Everything above or below is fanboying or hating.
  4. 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.
  5. Cracker1
    Jan 25, 2023
    8
    The only people complaining about there being a lack of story are the people who jumped in at Three Houses, which wasn't actually a Fire Emblem title but an Otome Game with half-hearted strategy elements tacked on.
    This game looks much, much better than I initially thought looking at the screenshots, the soundtrack is amazing and the gameplay is good.
  6. Lonewolftee
    Jan 25, 2023
    5
    If you played 3 houses then this is a major improvement in terms of graphics and perfomance. The animations are even improved, the combat and the mechanics are great. Music is also a let down, I haven't heard a single song that caught my attention. However the story and characters are god awful. I have never played a Fire Emblem where I didnt like a single character until now. TheIf you played 3 houses then this is a major improvement in terms of graphics and perfomance. The animations are even improved, the combat and the mechanics are great. Music is also a let down, I haven't heard a single song that caught my attention. However the story and characters are god awful. I have never played a Fire Emblem where I didnt like a single character until now. The main character Alear is the most boring and bland protaganist I have ever played with, I honestly would have preferred him/her to be silent. The dialog is terrible, the story is so uninteresting that I started skipping halfway through. The English voices arent bad but their dialog is what ruins everyone, they all seem dense, naive, weak, overly kind. The MC is the Divine dragon or whatever and everyone respects him to simp levels and he doesn't deserve it. TLDR, story and charcters are so bad that it actually ruins the game, im afraid what they would do to a remake at this point.… Expand
  7. Icebeam
    Jan 25, 2023
    10
    Literally can't stop playing.
    I loved Three Houses, and this game takes it to another level with such a beautiful art direction.
    Where the plot falls behind, the gameplay makes up for it.

    The only improvement I could see it's in the menu's layout: managing items and equipments can be a bit frustrating.
  8. Vidril
    Jan 25, 2023
    6
    A Fire Emblem game that sacrifices everything the series has in service of combat and mass-market appeal. If this is your first Fire Emblem, you might greatly enjoy it's expressive combat, beautiful colour direction, and high production values. Maybe even getting interested in the prior games via the Emblems. If you're a returning Fire Emblem fan though, you can very well be disappointedA Fire Emblem game that sacrifices everything the series has in service of combat and mass-market appeal. If this is your first Fire Emblem, you might greatly enjoy it's expressive combat, beautiful colour direction, and high production values. Maybe even getting interested in the prior games via the Emblems. If you're a returning Fire Emblem fan though, you can very well be disappointed by the absolutely hollow story, ill-fitting character designs, sorry excuses for Supports/Bonds, and constantly reminded of the better games that came before it via the Emblems.
    Fire Emblem Engage tries to capture a broader, outside audience, completely forgetting what made both the veterans and the 3Houses crowd like it in the first place.    … Expand
  9. 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
  10. GameforGamers
    Jan 25, 2023
    10
    One of the best games i've played this year, it's great to see how great the fire emblem games became recently and fire emblem engage is just another amazing addition to the series
  11. reachlivingston
    Jan 25, 2023
    8
    I don't know how how to explain all the 0 scores except to say that they are from tantrum throwing juveniles who are mad because FE Engage is not a Three House's clone. The characters in FE Engage that I have met so far are fun, the battles are stellar, and the whole game reminds me of earlier FE games before the social simulator was added to Three Houses. The game looks great, althoughI don't know how how to explain all the 0 scores except to say that they are from tantrum throwing juveniles who are mad because FE Engage is not a Three House's clone. The characters in FE Engage that I have met so far are fun, the battles are stellar, and the whole game reminds me of earlier FE games before the social simulator was added to Three Houses. The game looks great, although some of the color choices are a bit suspect (I am not a fan of the super bright and colorful main character design, for example). The story is so so and I would like to see a bit more I. The way if building relationships with characters, but not to the extent of the ss hool simulator we got in Three Houses. Overall, this is a great entry into the FE franchise that hardens back to pre Three Houses installments and is worth the asking price based on the great combat alone.… Expand
  12. Connnnor93
    Jan 25, 2023
    9
    Excellent Fire Emblem game. It's one that was definitely made for the fans. The art style may put some people off which is understandable. But saying it's a "bad" game because of character development are clearly people who have never played an entry before awakening. Just because it doesn't have romance building and a less developed support building in no way make it a worse game. TheExcellent Fire Emblem game. It's one that was definitely made for the fans. The art style may put some people off which is understandable. But saying it's a "bad" game because of character development are clearly people who have never played an entry before awakening. Just because it doesn't have romance building and a less developed support building in no way make it a worse game. The tactical gameplay which is what really matters is solid. It's most definitely an entry which has been made for the fans.

    The new break system can really start up a great strategy and clerics are now more viable, instead of just healing they can be effective against spell users, archers and thief classes.

    If you are a true fan of fire emblem from entries before awakening, then this game will appeal to you. Especially with the return of characters from previous entries in the form of 'emblems'.    … Expand
  13. Faetori
    Jan 25, 2023
    5
    The gameplay itself and the technical portion of the game is pretty good. The return of the weapon triangle works really well and the general feel and flow of the combat is a genuine step up from previous entries.
    Graphics have been improved quite a bit as well; the general quality of the models and maps is very high, however, the design direction sometimes feel a bit too clean and    The gameplay itself and the technical portion of the game is pretty good. The return of the weapon triangle works really well and the general feel and flow of the combat is a genuine step up from previous entries.
    Graphics have been improved quite a bit as well; the general quality of the models and maps is very high, however, the design direction sometimes feel a bit too clean and sanitized, making the world feel too plastic and artificial at times.
    The real problem and why this game utterly fails is the story. The plot feels like it was generated by AI with the most predictable twists and most soulless characters. Even though the gameplay was fun, the poor quality of the story keeps stopping me from actually wanting to play it. And that really sucks.

    Fire Emblem has always been about the perfect ratio of a good story and good combat, in Engage it feels like half of it is missing.    … Expand
  14. DolphinReviews
    Jan 25, 2023
    0
    Awful. Anime is cringe as always. Turn based combat is outdated and dumb. Nintendo is Sintendo.
  15. Cococo
    Jan 25, 2023
    0
    Maybe good for old players, but I still prefer three houses
    The plot is too low to make people unable to insist on experiencing all the content. A three-year-old child can write a better story. She could have been the best work，but…
  16. 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
  17. Belonski
    Jan 25, 2023
    6
    One of the best Fire Emblems in technical aspects like gameplay, animations and sound coupled with probably the worst in story and characters. What a waste.

    Pity for the technical team aswell to have their good work ruined by such a big failure of the writing team.
  18. Diaz99
    Jan 24, 2023
    10
    Fire emblem engage brings back the challenging tactical gameplay Fire Emblem has sorely missed the las couple entries and it's more engaging than ever
  19. rucasouza88
    Jan 24, 2023
    10
    Different from previous, but awesome. Improved in lots of things too! I loved the game series from the Awakening and I feel something like that here too.
  20. jmd6174
    Jan 24, 2023
    5
    The Good: -Visually, the game is crisp and colorful, and the battle animations are smooth and dynamic.
    -Gameplay is as solid as it’s ever been; happy to see the return of the weapon triangle. From a purely tactical perspective, the engage mechanic adds a nice layer of strategy to the battles.
    The Bad: -The characters are *incredibly* bland, generic, and flat out forgettable. Support    The Good: -Visually, the game is crisp and colorful, and the battle animations are smooth and dynamic.
    -Gameplay is as solid as it’s ever been; happy to see the return of the weapon triangle. From a purely tactical perspective, the engage mechanic adds a nice layer of strategy to the battles.

    The Bad:
    -The characters are *incredibly* bland, generic, and flat out forgettable. Support conversations are either so short or so shallow that even those don’t help flesh the characters out.
    -The voice acting, while not necessarily bad, is noticeably lower quality compared to Three Houses and Echoes.
    -The cutesy, ultra-anime style is just not my thing. Hard to take the characters and the world seriously when all the females look like 12 year-old vtubers. You can especially notice it with the emblem characters. Their faces look so child-like compared to their original designs.
    -The plot is basic to the nth degree. Honestly don’t think they could have come up with a more dull, hackneyed, and uninspired story if they tried.
    -The music is okay, but not up to the Fire Emblem standard.    … Expand
  21. Alink_xex
    Jan 24, 2023
    10
    Realmente a mí me gustó tanto el gameplay como los diseños de los personajes.. aunque la historia no mucho pero igual está genial
  22. EchoesOfC
    Jan 24, 2023
    10
    This an awesome FE game, its story may be the classic hero journey like in Shadow Dragon and Awakening but it's a nice breath of fresh air to return the roots of the series instead of multiple routes with big drama like 3H, sometimes it's just nice to lay back and enjoy the gameplay with a simple but nice story :)
  23. LongTimeFEFan1
    Jan 24, 2023
    5
    Fire Emblem Engage is an embarrassment to the franchise.
    It's not a 0/10 but it's definitely no higher than a 7 purely based on what it represents for the series. In the pre-Awakening games FE settings and stories took themselves seriously and were played straight. Starting with Awakening this changed to childish tongue-in-cheek self-parodying. Fates and Awakening were games for young    Fire Emblem Engage is an embarrassment to the franchise.
    It's not a 0/10 but it's definitely no higher than a 7 purely based on what it represents for the series. In the pre-Awakening games FE settings and stories took themselves seriously and were played straight. Starting with Awakening this changed to childish tongue-in-cheek self-parodying. Fates and Awakening were games for young children, with embarrassing, cringeworthy writing and dialogue and half assed generic plots. This likely stems from the fact that they no longer have the writing talent they once had. You're not going to squeeze a Genealogy of Radiant Dawn out of the current writers.
    However, Three Houses, the previous entry, attempted to recapture the magic of the older games by telling a serious, complex story that took itself seriously tonally and didn't cowardly retreat into self-satire to deflect from its deficiencies. Three Houses was not a perfect game, but it was a step in the right direction to restore some amount of dignity to the franchise.

    With Engage, we now have all of that getting thrown into the trash in favour of a retreat into the shallowness and obnoxious tone of the Fateswakening era of games. The lead scenario writer, Nami Komuro, was even the main scenario writer for Fates and Awakening! Why did they bring back a writer who was universally panned? Who knows. Again, perhaps it was because they simply lack the talent that they used to have?
    I'm not surprised that Engage has received an immense amount of backlash for its tone and style. When people say "return to form", they really mean "return to Fateswakening", but the fanbase has moved on since then. People who once assumed FE was always childish and camp realised they were wrong when 3H attempted to tell a serious story. Expectations have been raised, people don't want a Saturday morning cartoon format anymore, they want real stories to get them invested in real characters.
    If this game came out in 2014, I'm sure people would have been fine with it. But it's not 2014 anymore, and people expect more from their FE games outside of their gameplay. The shallow cope perpetuated by people who had only played Fates and Awakening that "FE stories were always bad" has been thoroughly debunked and nobody is falling for it anymore. They can be good, it's just that the modern developers are lazy.

    The gameplay mechanics are alright. Not good enough to make up for how the game fails in every other area. It could have the best gameplay in the franchise and it would still feel like a slog due to how childish and boring every other aspect is. It's also ironic that this is a series defined by perma death and making you feel an attachment to the units, when the average player wants to see every character from Fates, Awakening and Engage killed off for being a constant irritating presence.

    It's honestly quite sickening to see these shallow and obnoxious characters dragging around the ghosts of old FE characters, attempting to beat nostalgia into the audience. All they do is serve as a reminder of how good Fire Emblem once was, and how good it could still be, if anybody currently working at Intelligent Systems cared as much about the history of the franchise as the random people they hired from Koei Tecmo for Three Houses. Sad.    … Expand
  24. 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
  25. 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.
  26. LastHope17
    Jan 24, 2023
    5
    The directer had no idea what he was doing. It was his first FE game and he wanted to make it for people who don't play FE while also making it an homage to the history of FE. Does that sound smart to you?

    Look it up he's incompetent.
  27. pyrocyborg
    Jan 24, 2023
    10
    The insane review bombing force me to give this game a 10 to offset the high number of 0 it received. A lot of these "0" reviewers didn't actually play the game and are either from weirdos who wanted the main character (who's 17-18) to romance a 11 years old girl, or from people who despise everything that isn't a dating sim. This game isn't a 0, people! To everyone reading this in orderThe insane review bombing force me to give this game a 10 to offset the high number of 0 it received. A lot of these "0" reviewers didn't actually play the game and are either from weirdos who wanted the main character (who's 17-18) to romance a 11 years old girl, or from people who despise everything that isn't a dating sim. This game isn't a 0, people! To everyone reading this in order to make a purchase decision : please read the more nuanced reviews (5-8 out of 10) and totally ignore the 0.

    Almost no game deserves a 0, and almost none deserve a 10. This game deserves neither and I would honestly give a 8 for effort as it's kind of a two steps forward, one backward game that didn't manage to check every box it should have.

    If anything, it's a return to form to the earlier titles in the franchise more than a spiritual sequel to Three Houses. Those who were introduced to the series with Three Houses may find this a bit difficult to swallow, and I totally understand.

    Pros :
    1) The animation quality (both cutscene and during combat) is MILES ahead of what Three Houses was. There is simply no comparison there. Every character felt stiff in Three Houses during cutscenes. They're more alive this time and can jump, move around and interact with stuff.
    2) Graphics are better too, if it's of any use.
    3) Combat system is snappy (for a strategic RPG, that is) and while they dumbed down on some systems, some others are back and the Engage mechanic offset the lack of battalion and gambits.
    4) Faster paced. Say what you will, but the whole school phase from Three Houses was kind of a pain on multiple playthrough, and you sometimes forced yourself to go faster just so that you could proceed to the next battle. This isn't an issue with Engage as there is no school.
    5) The game is more approcheable by newcomers. Less systems means that they don't have to understand everything to play the game.

    Cons :
    1) The battles lack scale. In Three Houses, battalions helped give the battle a sense of epic proportion with soldiers running and fighting around. In Engage, your characters are fighting alone against one or two opponents. It feels like a 10v10 fight more often than not.
    2) Romance options are really limited, mainly due to localization. This doesn't deserve the actual review bombing, but in the English version of Engage, you cannot romance characters that are of similar age to your main character (17-18), which means that half of the cast is out of "reach". But you can romance a 45 years old, go figure.
    3) The story is it's weak point : After a relatively original story like Three Houses with four story routes (even if two of them felt quite unfinished), Engage's story is very weak, both in scale and in effort. It's like your typical pre-teen cartoon story of good versus evil than a 10 years old could have come up with. It's highly predictable and it feels like it was written for pre-teen or teenagers at most. It's really no big deal in the grand scheme of thing, but it's a negative nonetheless.
    4) This follows number 3. As the story is weaker, the characters aren't as fleshed out and it's likely that you won't like the cast as much as Three Houses' characters, for example.
    5) While voice acting is on point (both English and Japanese), dialogue is kind of dumb and cringy. Evil characters say evil things and good characters say good things. There is no nuance, and character depth is severely impaired that way. Everything feels unidimensional.
    6) Social aspect is very limited compared to Three Houses.
    7) Menus feel a bit weird. There are a lot of submenus or location dependant actions that should have been implemented better.

    So, all and all, if the only thing you liked about Three Houses is the story, then skip this game as you'll be really disappointed. Now, I only wish they could get away from the typical anime tropes and create a mature game with mostly adult characters : This way, no one would cry about romance or lack thereoff.    … Expand
  28. VitorPsyKnight
    Jan 24, 2023
    10
    The best 3D Fire Emblem entry since Radiant Dawn, they decreased the boring school activities and focused in the battles. Eliminated the calendar, improving the game pacing. Have a better character design than Three Hope but wost than Path of Radiance. The story is forgettable but is good enough for the game.
  29. DaBigBoss
    Jan 24, 2023
    10
    What a **** review bombing this game have ... if u love fire emblem this game is for you
  30. Urliel
    Jan 24, 2023
    9
    So I adore this game: toss backs to old Fire Emblems with returning faces, great look, battles are fun, and I love the freedom of the new home base.... but those skirmishes though..... It's hard to enjoy the game to it's fullest when all you wanna do is smash your Switch because the skirmishes diffulty scales too hard. Lol 10 skirmishes with silver weaponry when you can't even afford steelSo I adore this game: toss backs to old Fire Emblems with returning faces, great look, battles are fun, and I love the freedom of the new home base.... but those skirmishes though..... It's hard to enjoy the game to it's fullest when all you wanna do is smash your Switch because the skirmishes diffulty scales too hard. Lol 10 skirmishes with silver weaponry when you can't even afford steel weapons yet. It makes it impossible to grind money or lvls to enjoy the multitude of classes. There needs to be scaled territories like the first area being up to lvl 10 or normal difficulty is something like uour lvl -5 or something. I wanna enjoy and grind out my favorite things but it's impossible when all I do is focus on avoiding snapping my switch in half… Expand
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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.
    Read full review
  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.
    Read full review
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