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. Ozmozz
    Jan 22, 2023
    5
    I try really hard to like it, with is all colorful but empty cast, and it's bland story without any taste. Yes the gameplay is really good, but the lack of love that was given to the story, the lack of emotion and depth is very overwelming for me. Heck, even Fates manage to give us three better stories than this title. A huge step back, for better gameplay... To bad.
  2. zzzzy00
    Jan 22, 2023
    5
    Poor modeling and script. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the character design, but the 3D modeling.
    In terms of game system, it loses the degree of freedom and plot depth in the previous game, but it does not completely delete these contents. Instead, there is a semi-finished character plot and main story.At the same time, item collection is also annoying, you have to go to    Poor modeling and script. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with the character design, but the 3D modeling.
    In terms of game system, it loses the degree of freedom and plot depth in the previous game, but it does not completely delete these contents. Instead, there is a semi-finished character plot and main story.At the same time, item collection is also annoying, you have to go to every corner of the map, after every battle!
    What is commendable is the combat system, adding the weapon restraint system, canceling the durability of weapons and so on. This is at least a good sign: players said the previous game's training system was too boring, so they simplified it; weapon durability was bad, so they removed it. I think the production team is at least listening to the players, which is why I gave it a 5.
    I think this one just serves players who are familiar with Fire Emblem from the previous titles, it shows the main characters from previous generations, maps and music from previous generations, and maybe they will reset the previous titles afterwards. But I don't think it's a passable Fire Emblem.    … Expand
  3. 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
  4. 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
  5. 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
  6. Manks
    Jan 28, 2023
    5
    The combat is good but the story is awful. Idk how they can have such a massive and good story in 3 houses then go to this. Feels like a b team made it whole the main team is working on the next ambitious one.
  7. Harper321
    Feb 3, 2023
    5
    fire emblem engage is definitely one of the fire emblem games of all time..
  8. coldburgers
    Feb 3, 2023
    5
    Story is pretty bad even by fire emblem standards. I try to listen to it for a bit but almost always end up pressing start to skip it all. Dialogue is quite ... cringe for lack of a better word, helps to put the language to Japanese.

    Characters are all pretty bland, and have pretty bad same face. MC worship gets annoying too. Gameplay is pretty good - about what you expect from a    Story is pretty bad even by fire emblem standards. I try to listen to it for a bit but almost always end up pressing start to skip it all. Dialogue is quite ... cringe for lack of a better word, helps to put the language to Japanese.

    Characters are all pretty bland, and have pretty bad same face. MC worship gets annoying too.

    Gameplay is pretty good - about what you expect from a fire emblem game, same with the music.

    Also, maybe more of a minor gripe but I did not like the UI in this game compared to other Fire Emblem games.

    I enjoyed it well enough but found it hard to be motivated to play more than a few maps at a time, definitely one of my least favorite Fire Emblem games that I've played    … Expand
  9. Nene27
    Feb 4, 2023
    5
    I will start off by saying that I have only every played Fire Emblem Three Houses. I loved that game, I replayed it multiple times. I didn't really like this game and I am not going to be replaying it. Due to the story being so linear, there is no reason too.

    The gameplay is definitely a step up. I liked weapon triangle and how the characters moved. I liked the different maps for each    I will start off by saying that I have only every played Fire Emblem Three Houses. I loved that game, I replayed it multiple times. I didn't really like this game and I am not going to be replaying it. Due to the story being so linear, there is no reason too.

    The gameplay is definitely a step up. I liked weapon triangle and how the characters moved. I liked the different maps for each NEW part of the story. However, I didn't like revisiting the same maps again and again to farm resources. The story is okay, nothing new or exciting just meh. It's a linear game with no meaningful choices. Lots and lots of plot holes and things that just don't make sense.

    The outlandish character design wasn't that big of a deal for me. What did bother me the most was the absent storytelling. The support/bond conversations really don't mean anything. Moments that should be sad weren't. The characters are either boring or annoying. I really didn't care to learn anything more about them after getting the supports past a C. Not that their supports told us anything much more about them anyway. I got everyone to A and it was a waste of time.

    If you like a game that has great gameplay mechanics and a meh story is fine. Then pick this game up. If you are like me and the story is very important to you too. Don't waste your money or wait till it goes on sale.    … Expand
  10. DCLarson
    Feb 6, 2023
    5
    Fire Emblem Three Houses was my first FE game. I loved it. I played every route on all three difficulties. I did the same with Three Hopes. I'm almost at the final battle of Engage and I cannot wait to be done with game. I doubt I will ever play Engage again, and I'm seriously regretting purchasing the DLC bundle. The story just does not work for me. I do not care about any if the character.
  11. dimilix
    Feb 7, 2023
    5
    Incredibly bland story and protagonist. Good game mechanics. They balance each other out (I guess?)
  12. Daveplaysgames
    Feb 9, 2023
    5
    This is my first fire emblem game, and sadly it will probably be my last too. I will start with the positives, the gameplay is actually top notch I had a lot of fun while I was in battle, unfortunately, all that joy quickly dissipated when I had to sit through some of the most generic, cliche riddled, drivel I have ever witnessed in a video game, delivered by what I can only describe asThis is my first fire emblem game, and sadly it will probably be my last too. I will start with the positives, the gameplay is actually top notch I had a lot of fun while I was in battle, unfortunately, all that joy quickly dissipated when I had to sit through some of the most generic, cliche riddled, drivel I have ever witnessed in a video game, delivered by what I can only describe as the most annoying set of overly enthusiastic characters I have ever encountered. Now, don’t get me wrong I am not the kind of gamer who insists on an Oscar winning script in a game, if I want deep and meaningful I will read a book or watch a movie, but I would like at least some slightly convincing characters set in a slightly convincing story, but engage fails so utterly and miserably in this respect it’s very hard to recommend. If you want to play a really great strategy RPG I would give Triangle strategy a go first. My overwhelming feelings attached to Engage is not the fun in the battles I had, but more to do with the hole left in my wallet, disappointing.… Expand
  13. Swiftyb
    Feb 14, 2023
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Gutes Gameplay in den Kämpfen, aber die Story ist schlecht erzählt, Logikfehler, unlogische Motivationen, regelmäßig werden tragische Dialoge als Motivationserklärungen benutzt, so viel Geheule über Mütter … schwach sobald man aus den Kämpfen kommt… Expand
  14. Kyrephare
    Feb 20, 2023
    5
    Writer: Long time Fire Emblem fan.
    Positives: the upgraded engine looks good, though a bit faded when I was expecting the color to pop a little more. Maps are a little more interesting than 3 Houses. Maybe a touch to many loading screens for my liking.
    Negatives: Gameplay is extremely breakable, in fact the game breaks itself early on by giving your main unit an extraordinarily    Writer: Long time Fire Emblem fan.
    Positives: the upgraded engine looks good, though a bit faded when I was expecting the color to pop a little more. Maps are a little more interesting than 3 Houses. Maybe a touch to many loading screens for my liking.
    Negatives: Gameplay is extremely breakable, in fact the game breaks itself early on by giving your main unit an extraordinarily amount of evasion very early in the game. The new combat wrinkles dont really work that well, except maybe smash weapons. Hard mode isnt even hard (though your view may differ as I am fairly adept at this style of game).
    Story wise, its easily the worst written story Ive come across in any game in a while and the characters are completely one dimensional and flat. They have 0 personality with maybe one or two exceptions. If you enjoyed the social/bond aspects of other games, your going to be disappointed in this one (or at least I was).

    Im not even sure who this game is for? It has a lot of nostalgia factors by introducing old heroes as essentially ghosts who fight along side you, but the game itself seems like its trying to approach a different audience than the series has built up over every entry released in the West by devesting itself from the bond/social system. Ive never cared so little about the characters, which is really bad because it kills any tension if say one character you really like gets in trouble. In old games this would add a nice bit of tension. Here I just kinda say "oh whatever".

    I cant recommend anyone really playing this game since I cant even tell who this is geared for. I guess if you can ignore everything except the gameplay you may enjoy it. But even for fans, Id recommend just starting up an older game for more enjoyment. Its not completely bad, but there are other games you can spend your money on.    … Expand
  15. Lifestranding
    Feb 23, 2023
    5
    Basically an SRPG game, but you only get the ‘S’
    ………………………………………………………………..
  16. TippyToes
    Apr 16, 2023
    5
    I have put two hundred hours into this game and played all the dlc maps. Through the shimmers of good gameplay, alright music, and a handful of memorable characters. I was left salty and burnt out by the end of it all. Like looking for that small, glimmer of light in the deepest, ocean abyss. I never found that hook to get me excited to play Engage. Instead, beating this game as close to aI have put two hundred hours into this game and played all the dlc maps. Through the shimmers of good gameplay, alright music, and a handful of memorable characters. I was left salty and burnt out by the end of it all. Like looking for that small, glimmer of light in the deepest, ocean abyss. I never found that hook to get me excited to play Engage. Instead, beating this game as close to a hundred percent as I could felt more like a chore than anything else. I won't drag on with how bad the story is since everyone is pretty much in agreement that it is horrible and uninspired. However, there are other things that I do think bring the game down. Especially after the fourth wave of dlc that I believe is worth talking about.

    First, the avatar pandering needs to stop. When the trailer came out for the fourth wave. I never felt so uninterested, for a series of dlc waves that cost thirty five dollars, for a character I little give no diddily squats about. If it was Diamant, or Ivy, or Yunaka, or a few of my favorite others characters that wasn't the main one. I would definitely care a lot more. Although the four crown princess and princesses and their siblings get something. It is still completely overshadowed by the amount of screen time, pampering, and worshipping that Alear gets. I don't even think that is how emotions work. The evil clones in wave four such as Diamant, Alcrist, Ivy, etc had emotions that made sense for their predicament. Alear is still looked at as a god. A character that can never do no wrong. Even from their enemies, and this kind of writing seriously needs to stop. I believe every avatar since fates had this problem. I honestly hope that maybe after this. IS will consider dropping the avatar for a while. Then again, I asked for the same after Byleth, but Three Houses sold almost three million copies. So clearly, listening to feedback was not the priority after that game came out.

    Next, the dlc. What a complete and utter load. The first three waves consist of nothing but new emblems and rare items which clearly should have been in the game day one. Even still, I hated doing most of these maps. Why do I hate them? It's because no fire emblem map should be thirty five turns or more. Are they insane!? To put that into perspective. I started Camillias map around seven at night. Pushing through and fighting wave after wave after wave of reinforcements using the Diamant and Ike emblem combo until I defeated the boss. By the time I was done. It was ten at night. I had been sitting there for three hours trying to get an emblem of a character that A. I did not like and B. Was completely useless through out my whole play through. What makes this more scummy is that there is no Hoshido rep. In an anniversary title meant to honor all the games. Conquest and Birthright being separate from each other. Besides, we all know why Camilla was chosen over Xander or Leo who actually went through an arc. Fan service, and it's not even good fan service. If IS made a game where you could actually play as past heros and expand on their lore and character development. That would be good fan service. Waving keys in front of our faces to hide your mistakes will only work for so long. Maybe, after the second or third try. IS might finally see this now...emphasis on might.

    Lastly, and most importantly. Even after the dlc. After getting playable characters who died in the main story, and after getting new powers, uninspired story ideas, or whatever IS can conjure up. I am here to say on the record, right now. My soul be damned, that Conquest and Birthright had a overall better story than Engage. The main reason as to why is because those games at least had stakes. There was tension. When a character died in that game. They stayed dead. Engage has none of that. No one is really ever considered dead in this game. There is nothing to be lost. There is nothing to worry about. So why should a player be concerned about anything in this game? I actually miss the drama Corrin had between the Norh and Hoshido siblings despite the flaws those games had. I believe that drama between characters is what worked for three houses and is what's needed for the next game. Fire Emblem Engage didn't feel like an anniversary game to me. It was more so a series of underdeveloped ideas, wasted potential, and a overdone avatar character that you can't make to look like you anymore.    … Expand
  17. TeachCooker
    Mar 20, 2023
    5
    I'll get the low hanging fruit out of the way first. The characters and story are really boring. Not much to say other than the plot is uninspired and the characters are just walking tropes.
    The gameplay itself is where I have mixed feelings. For every positive there is a negative holding it back.
    For starters, bringing back the weapon triangle was a good move. The lack of it in the last    I'll get the low hanging fruit out of the way first. The characters and story are really boring. Not much to say other than the plot is uninspired and the characters are just walking tropes.
    The gameplay itself is where I have mixed feelings. For every positive there is a negative holding it back.
    For starters, bringing back the weapon triangle was a good move. The lack of it in the last few entries removed a basic level of depth many players expect.The emblem/ring system is an amazing addition that explodes the level of customization for your units to near absurd levels. Engage is maybe the best FE game when it comes to the ability to make sure your favorite units can clear the game.
    Yet at the same time there isn't very much strategy to be found in this turn-based strategy game. Mainly due to the fact that every enemy on the map attacks with zero regard for planning or tactics, in favor of just swarming your army asap. Some maps suffer greatly from this while others lose any challenge they might have presented otherwise.
    I won't hold the following criticism against the game too much, but with each new FE I hope they choose to make an effort to reduce RNG's influence on the gameplay. FE is always labeled a strategy game, yet ultimately what wins or loses battles are dice rolls. It is a problem that taking an optimal approach to any map can be rendered meaningless by RNG, just as making bad choices can be rewarded by lucky dice rolls. I will give the game credit for adding inheritable abilities that can help minimize RNG for the unit in question, but it is a small band-aid when a system wide solution is needed.

    Ultimately, a game that has many excellent concepts and mechanics gets bogged down by too many flaws to deliver a very middle of the road experience.    … Expand
  18. justfind
    Apr 29, 2023
    5
    It's unbelievable that this game scored 80 points. It has the advantage that the battle is fun, but the other disadvantages are too big. The characters, stories, and characters are piece of trash.
  19. 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
  20. 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.
  21. 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
  22. 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
  23. 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.
  24. 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
  25. 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.
  26. 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
  27. 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
  28. 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.
  29. 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
  30. 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
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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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