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. karican
    Feb 12, 2023
    5
    (On chapter 21 out of 27) I'm a long term Fire Emblem fan and was disappointed by this game. The only thing that keeps me playing it is that the gameplay is good. And what you would expect from Fire emblem. Maps had pretty good variety but it wasn't a great challenge (played on normal, classic). The emblem mechanic was enjoyable and interesting. Gameplay isn't amazing but it's good.(On chapter 21 out of 27) I'm a long term Fire Emblem fan and was disappointed by this game. The only thing that keeps me playing it is that the gameplay is good. And what you would expect from Fire emblem. Maps had pretty good variety but it wasn't a great challenge (played on normal, classic). The emblem mechanic was enjoyable and interesting. Gameplay isn't amazing but it's good. Music is good graphics are fair.

    The story very predictable and dull. The things that the characters say they feel seems so fake and contrived because the game doesn't work to show the player why they feel anything. The characters aren't great. They all are unbelievably smitten with the main character, its weird. The voice acting is not good, particularly for a lot of the emblems. I'll likely finish the game since the gameplay is fun and it isn't a huge time investment but it's not a game I would recommend unless you just love tactical gameplay and would play it for the ganeplay only.    … Expand
  2. Klusterx
    Feb 4, 2023
    5
    Great gameplay and the ring mechanic is great but goddammit the story is awful
  3. Lemanto
    Feb 2, 2023
    6
    one of the worst stories I've ever seen in a video game, with the most boring characters
    the game is fun, but the story is unforgivable
  4. 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
  5. PlayorNaygames
    Feb 10, 2023
    5
    If I had to review FE: 3 Houses I'd give it a 10/10. I absolutely loved it and played it for over 500 hours. FE Engage was not mostly developed by TecmoKoei like 3 Houses was and is back in the hands of the creators, Intelligent Systems. What this means is that many of the things that really turned me off on FE Fates are back in perhaps an even bigger way. I'm going to break down this gameIf I had to review FE: 3 Houses I'd give it a 10/10. I absolutely loved it and played it for over 500 hours. FE Engage was not mostly developed by TecmoKoei like 3 Houses was and is back in the hands of the creators, Intelligent Systems. What this means is that many of the things that really turned me off on FE Fates are back in perhaps an even bigger way. I'm going to break down this game by several categories for review. Let's start with the elephant in the room that many reviews are missing: the DLC.

    DLC: You might be thinking "why is DLC a topic for review"? Let me explain. While the game can be beaten without DLC, just like FE: Fates, it deeply impacts the experience. The entire game is designed around incentivizing you to by the DLC packs ($30 total). You're probably confused at this point, because most games have figured out how to do DLC without greatly affecting gameplay balance. Let me go over the systems affected, so you can understand:

    Gold and metals are very scarce. You can farm them in side missions, but at a very slow rate. There are some cheese methods that slightly enhance your rate, but if you really want more gold and metals, you're going to spend many hours farming. These side maps are set 2-4 levels above your highest character and have over 50 enemies, so they aren't trivial either. Do you see how that might incentive someone to buy DLC when DLC packs give you weapons, permanent stat boost items, gold, and SP scrolls (a currency used to purchase skills)? Speaking of SP, I should mention how agonizingly slow it accumulates from killing enemies and how many skills are priced so expensive that I could not afford them by the time I beat the game. You will earn about 4-5k SP normally per character over the game, but I've seen skills cost as much as 8400 SP. There is no new game plus either and none coming later either. So seriously, you can see how their desire to have you purchase DLC permeates the whole game's design.

    Then there is a spot in the game's story where they take away a large chunk of your power. Also, unlike 3 Houses, reinforcement spawns are infinite and provide low exp, but are just as powerful. If you have all the DLC packs the give you 7 powerful bracelets that are just as powerful, if not moreso, than this obstacle is a lot more trivial. Hardcore players will be fine, but this heavy handed approach hurts the game balance as a whole because they wants casual players to feel like they need an edge and buy the DLC.

    I know it's bad form to spend half a review talking about the DLC and its impact on game design, but it's not talked about by major outlets and Intelligent Systems needs to be be called out for doing it wrong again. Fates had the same problems, but to a lesser degree. 3 Houses figured out how to do a fair DLC, but it probably didn't sell as well, so we're back to this model from Fates. With that out of the way, lets break the game down into its core bits:

    Story:

    Well, if you've seen anything, you've read that the story is bad and it is. Worst in the series bad. Some of the hammiest, cringiest dialog I've read from a 1st party, AAA game. It feels like they wrote the whole game for the mobile game audience (that spends way more than us normal FE players, btw). There's many times in the story things happen for no other reason than the writers will it to happen. It constantly breaks whatever immersion you have and the world does not feel believable or real. There is very little world building and what is there is lock into support conversations with your allies. Most of these support conversations revolve around 2 characters with 1 personality trait/hobby talking about that in the most boring way possible. The only thing that saves it from being a complete waste of times is the voice acting. They spared no expense and hired many top tier voice actors that you'll recognize if you watch any anime. They do a great job. It's a shame that Bernadetta voice actor from 3 Houses players the main female character, because she is given nothing to work with. The main character is the worst thing about the game. Everyone loves you and even those that don't usually end up loving you. There's no tension in the plot at all. It's closest to maybe the Pokemon kids show from the 90s. Be aware the player has no agency whatsoever over the story as well. Routes are gone, as well as dialog choices. It's the biggest letdown of the game, considering what 3 Houses gave us.

    Gameplay:

    I'm running out of characters, so I'm going to have to keep this more brief than I would like. Many people have praised the gameplay. It's mostly what you would expect from a FE game that gets rid of all the enhancements of 3 Houses. It's closest to FE Awakening, but we now have 12 rings and 7 DLC bracelets. All of which are varying degrees of extremely powerful. Which leads me to say that this is the easiest FE to date. I think they had real trouble balancing the game.    … Expand
  6. Harper321
    Feb 3, 2023
    5
    fire emblem engage is definitely one of the fire emblem games of all time..
  7. Saizoreita
    Feb 6, 2023
    2
    the game is very good in the combat parts but the rest is horrible. in the social parts the game is horrible compared to fire emblem three houses, the character development is not good and neither is the intention between them making them boring you don't care about any of them ,and those animals you take to your base will do why not to interact with them to touch them at least for whatthe game is very good in the combat parts but the rest is horrible. in the social parts the game is horrible compared to fire emblem three houses, the character development is not good and neither is the intention between them making them boring you don't care about any of them ,and those animals you take to your base will do why not to interact with them to touch them at least for what those animals are there. And where is the romance in Fire Emblem Engage because Fire Emblem Three Houses had and was part of the charm of that game as the character development and its history. I recommend anyone who has never played a game in the fire emblems franchise to buy three houses and better than fire emblem engage… Expand
  8. 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
  9. Keyston3
    Mar 14, 2023
    4
    Scared for the future of fire emblem. the combat is great, somneil is a waste of time because nobody has anything worthwhile to say. On top of already bad dialogue, the localization team butchered the game with their personal politics (representing roughly half the populous with the "inclusion" agenda) with that being said i'm all good with the changes made to Jean and Anna supports itsScared for the future of fire emblem. the combat is great, somneil is a waste of time because nobody has anything worthwhile to say. On top of already bad dialogue, the localization team butchered the game with their personal politics (representing roughly half the populous with the "inclusion" agenda) with that being said i'm all good with the changes made to Jean and Anna supports its all the other changes they made. can't talk about weight gain and forget mentioning anything womanly or manly. This is what happens when 20+ people are "needed" to translate/localize a game. The game is fun, played through it...… Expand
  10. Mene0
    Mar 5, 2023
    7
    Fire Emblem Engage has the best gameplay the series has had so far. This is complemented by the excelent map design, also some of the best this series has ever had.
    However, this game has a few shortcomings, mostly it's story and characters. The story is generic at best and really, really bad at its worst points(ch 20-22), the characters that the story focuses the most are kind of    Fire Emblem Engage has the best gameplay the series has had so far. This is complemented by the excelent map design, also some of the best this series has ever had.
    However, this game has a few shortcomings, mostly it's story and characters. The story is generic at best and really, really bad at its worst points(ch 20-22), the characters that the story focuses the most are kind of uninteresting, with the rest of the roster being a lot cooler. Also, some of the character designs are really, really weird, not fitting at all in a medieval fantasy setting. I much prefer the simpler design of some characters over the really exagerated ones.
    The soundtrack is also good, but it's great how it dinamically shifts between a more action focused version of the song it's playing when you go into combat.
    The UI of the game is also somewhat bad and clunky, you will spend a lot of time in menus when you are not in battle.
    In the end this is a very worthwhile game if you are a fan of the franchise, but bad story and characters really do hurt the overall enjoyment of and RPG, for obvious reasons.    … Expand
  11. selika39
    Feb 2, 2023
    8
    EDIT at end after putting in 60 Hours, revised my review to 8/10 from 7/10

    TLDR: If you're looking for a solid SRPG strategy game, this is a must-buy. Best gameplay out of any FE game I've played. However if you don't care about strategy, but can't stand cheesy writing and poorly developed characters, this is a hard one to swallow. ----- After putting in a good 30+ hours, I first    EDIT at end after putting in 60 Hours, revised my review to 8/10 from 7/10

    TLDR: If you're looking for a solid SRPG strategy game, this is a must-buy. Best gameplay out of any FE game I've played.
    However if you don't care about strategy, but can't stand cheesy writing and poorly developed characters, this is a hard one to swallow.

    -----

    After putting in a good 30+ hours, I first want to congratulate whoever was handling the difficulty. It's miles better and more balanced than the previous entries, and so far I've enjoyed playing the gameplay for what it is.

    Art style can be hit or miss, but I'm still amazed at how every playable character has unique designs to them. There are also a LOT more units than before, so props to the amazing artist.

    The huge glaring issue for me is that the characters are too shallow. The story is simple, but then a lot of JRPGS are. For me, it’s more about the interactions between the interesting cast of characters that impact the story. This entry however doesn’t have that.

    Part of the issue I believe is needing more screen time for the many different characters. Interactions between emblems and different characters are too short. Except for a few characters, they don't even get screen time in the main story. There aren’t any character unique missions, and this also makes the characters lack depth. I feel like they had something here, but either had not have enough time or just weren't competent enough. It's sad because the characters all had unique interesting designs.

    As a result, classic didn't feel classic enough. When units died, I reverted time out of habit and because of completionism. Not because I had attachments to characters.

    All in all, it's a solid game, but I really miss some of the story elements they left out.

    EDIT: the story and character interaction with the main story are still pretty lackluster even towards the end, but I really have to give this game a higher score for the devs who did an amazing job on map design and ability balance for units, on both hard and maddening difficulties.
    Reclassing and skill choice is more focused compared to 3H, but I feel like that actually helped out the devs with balancing the game.    … Expand
  12. 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
  13. Traumereix
    Feb 7, 2023
    0
    Such a waste of money. This game is not even fun. The characters are completely one-dimensional and stupid. Their design are bland and terrible. The story is terrible. And the ring system breaks the game entirely, every character has thousand of skills and can become thousand of stuff. I hated this in F3H. I wish they would bring back a more basic system like its old entries.
  14. AmigoUA
    Feb 8, 2023
    4
    Game feels half finished - a lot of things in the game are pointless.
    And I don't even take into account mediocre story and writing.
  15. voc
    Feb 9, 2023
    3
    I created an account just to leave a review on this game. Honestly it is a chore to play. Even though I love turn based combat games, it gets stale midway in as you basically only have one class upgrade for characters (dumb as it limits possibilities and discourages you from exploring builds and going in a designed path imo). Then, you have a generic and bland cast. What was once an areaI created an account just to leave a review on this game. Honestly it is a chore to play. Even though I love turn based combat games, it gets stale midway in as you basically only have one class upgrade for characters (dumb as it limits possibilities and discourages you from exploring builds and going in a designed path imo). Then, you have a generic and bland cast. What was once an area of excitement has now become unbearable. Most charachters have 0 development. I am in chapter 22. 4 more to go. But this game is a mess compared to 3 houses. I think Nintendo rushed this one out.… Expand
  16. 5PercentCrit
    Feb 10, 2023
    6
    Anyone else really hyped for this after 100's of hours dumped into Three Houses?! Shoot I know I was and as a big fan of the series I must say I had a lot of fun with this game. The new gameplay mechanics and difficulty on maddening (usually what I play) were a welcome addition. This game is hard on Maddening, like vastly harder than Three Houses where you could break the game with aAnyone else really hyped for this after 100's of hours dumped into Three Houses?! Shoot I know I was and as a big fan of the series I must say I had a lot of fun with this game. The new gameplay mechanics and difficulty on maddening (usually what I play) were a welcome addition. This game is hard on Maddening, like vastly harder than Three Houses where you could break the game with a bit of understanding and effort. So Difficulty and skill ceiling, definitely there. But Story, and game progression from Act to Act (if you can say there are) is very poor here. Story is a shallow 3/10 at best and I often didn't feel like I was moving forward due to some new leveling and skill mechanics (only two tiers of classes and SP). The Engage mechanic was fun to experiment with on a first run and swapping Emblems felt neat for a while, however I feel this game has very little replay value and that was something I was really looking forward to. If you are a long time FE fan then I would recommend and am sure you will enjoy your time. But with a bland paper thin story, lack of compelling game progression, and removal of loved mechanics(NG+, rotating the freaking camera on a map) this game doesn't quite reach the highs of Three Houses or older titles and will certainly disappoint some.… 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. Twnkek
    Feb 3, 2023
    3
    While some areas were definitely improved from other games (mainly the visuals: animations, shaders, ...), most aspects have me worrying about the future of the license.
    Music is good but I won't go as far as saying it is great. I find the UI pretty difficult to read and even the controls feel weird sometimes.
    Character designs are arguably bad, annoying, and frequently would take me out    While some areas were definitely improved from other games (mainly the visuals: animations, shaders, ...), most aspects have me worrying about the future of the license.
    Music is good but I won't go as far as saying it is great. I find the UI pretty difficult to read and even the controls feel weird sometimes.
    Character designs are arguably bad, annoying, and frequently would take me out of the story. I couldn't take a single character seriously either because their design was straight up stupid or their backstory was uninteresting/often non-existent. Some characters have literally no backstory and are completely one dimensional, only existing because of a specific trait that they will bring out in 80% of their conversation. I found myself skipping the support conversations for the first time in the series, it's hardly forgivable after the supports we had in Three Hopes recently.
    The story events feel artificial, forced, and just impossible to take seriously. In general I feel like the tone of the game is too serious for what it has to offer, if there were effective jokes that could make me smile from time to time I would have certainly enjoyed it more. The involvement of the emblems in the story also felt extremely minimal and artificial, but I guess it was to be expected.    … Expand
  19. mgao22
    Feb 26, 2023
    6
    The content of Engage is about paying respect to the whole series, which is wierd in first place, because they already did that in fire emblem warriors. Paying respect twice in one generation? What's so respectable about this franchise?

    Fine, I am okay with it. However, while the characters are taken from decades back, the painting style is completely modern, it looks like a cheap    The content of Engage is about paying respect to the whole series, which is wierd in first place, because they already did that in fire emblem warriors. Paying respect twice in one generation? What's so respectable about this franchise?

    Fine, I am okay with it. However, while the characters are taken from decades back, the painting style is completely modern, it looks like a cheap mobile game! I'd played the Genealogy on SNES, in which Sigurd was illstrated with exquisite, handsome 80s darwing style, and now what Engage turn him into? A completely un-identifiable pedestrian. Same thing with Lindis from the Blazing Blade, and many other classic characters. Seriously, get your mind straight. Don't let Nostalgia become a cheap excuse for saving money.

    I'm too loyal to Fire Emblem to give it something lower than 6, but I gotta be honest, the more loyal you are, the more disappointed you will be with this new instalment.    … Expand
  20. 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.
  21. Ewas228
    Jan 28, 2023
    5
    I'm not big fan of Fire Emblem, but Three Houses was one of the best tactics in which I have ever played.
    Fire Emblem Engage much worse, than Three Houses. First of all absolutely stupid plot, characters action like imbeciles, in one moment I thought that story was written school girl as homework fanfic.
    Gameplay interesting, graphics also on high level, but all other aspects awful    I'm not big fan of Fire Emblem, but Three Houses was one of the best tactics in which I have ever played.
    Fire Emblem Engage much worse, than Three Houses. First of all absolutely stupid plot, characters action like imbeciles, in one moment I thought that story was written school girl as homework fanfic.
    Gameplay interesting, graphics also on high level, but all other aspects awful realised.
    For me Fire Emblem Engage is 50/50, but Three Houses better and Tactics Ogre: Reborn much better.    … Expand
  22. sushiroll
    Feb 1, 2023
    0
    Don't know why they decided to throw good writing and good characters out the window with this latest installment in the FE series, but they did.
  23. Zski
    Jan 27, 2023
    7
    I have mixed feelings about this game. Part of me was very satisfied with the return to classic Fire Emblem form. It got rid of the awful school setting, the overwhelming amount of character relationships, and painful social management system. It’s back to the tried and true classic gameplay tied in with a story that’s relatively straight forward. This game introduces a few new ideas, butI have mixed feelings about this game. Part of me was very satisfied with the return to classic Fire Emblem form. It got rid of the awful school setting, the overwhelming amount of character relationships, and painful social management system. It’s back to the tried and true classic gameplay tied in with a story that’s relatively straight forward. This game introduces a few new ideas, but none of them are really game changers. The exploration post game adds some unique flavor to this game, but truthfully these types of changes don’t make any difference to me. Regardless, it was miles better than the last game.

    Unfortunately the Fire Emblem formula is really starting to feel a bit dated. This gameplay was very fun throughout the 3DS years, but it has not really grown much since then. Each Fire Emblem release is beginning to feel like the same game with a new gimmick and new story. It no longer has the allure that it used to have. I enjoyed this game for about 10 hours, but then I hit a wall where I realized that the series needs something because it’s no longer pulling me in like it did before. Great game, but you have seen it all before.    … Expand
  24. L498
    Feb 16, 2023
    2
    As someone who's played and beaten every Fire Emblem game since Path of Radiance on the Gamecube, I can say with almost equal pride and shame, this is the first one I couldn't finish. There's no one in this story worth rooting for, nothing worth getting invested in, and the story itself feels like a crappy seasonal anime that no one would actually pay attention to if it didn't have "FireAs someone who's played and beaten every Fire Emblem game since Path of Radiance on the Gamecube, I can say with almost equal pride and shame, this is the first one I couldn't finish. There's no one in this story worth rooting for, nothing worth getting invested in, and the story itself feels like a crappy seasonal anime that no one would actually pay attention to if it didn't have "Fire Emblem" in the name... it's just painfully boring to try and play through.

    I wouldn't recommend it on sale, or at all for that matter.    … Expand
  25. iMustang
    Apr 12, 2023
    7
    Fire Emblem Engage was a return to formula for the franchise, backpedalling on new ideas in favor of the traditional storytelling the series is known for. Fell Dragon bad guy, dragon child hero, and parents who proudly wear their death flags with pride as their kids join your party. As I worked my way through the 26 chapter narrative I was hopeful I would find some hook, some great plotFire Emblem Engage was a return to formula for the franchise, backpedalling on new ideas in favor of the traditional storytelling the series is known for. Fell Dragon bad guy, dragon child hero, and parents who proudly wear their death flags with pride as their kids join your party. As I worked my way through the 26 chapter narrative I was hopeful I would find some hook, some great plot twist to make this experience stand out from it's predecessors. And after logging in nearly 70 hours I can confidently say... There's nothing here we haven't seen before. The story was predictable to a fault with very little in the way of plot twists or surprises, and overstayed it's welcome by being unnecessarily long to tell a tale that was fairly straightforward. I know I've not played many Fire Emblem games as I started with the 3DS era, but I would go so far as to say this story was the weakest of any Fire Emblem game I've played.

    The characters have interesting designs and fun personalities, but with a cast of nearly 40 characters you get so little time with any of them. Support conversations return and are a delight, but unless you’re willing to dedicate an insane amount of time to grinding you won’t be seeing even half of them the game has to offer. The main story eventually condenses the cast down to about 6 core characters and shelves most of the others along the way, which is a shame because many of them looked interesting and I would have liked to spend time with them. As is also the case with quantity over quality, many of the characters I did spend time with lacked depth and leave me with few I’ll remember.

    Now to give credit where it's due, mechanically speaking this easily was an achievement in the franchise. The Emblem system greatly impacted every battle with a unique ultimate move of sorts characters could use to influence the tides of battles. They were as pleasing to watch the characters use as they were to actually put them into practice, with each one being dynamically different. This was only made more incredible by the fact that there are so many emblems each with a unique move and skill set that you always wonder what the next thing is you can do. Given that Engage is even in the name, I will say it delivered on that core feature.

    Ultimately playing Fire Emblem Engage felt like playing Fire Emblem Fates Revelations, but without playing two journeys to lead up to the big adventure and just starting there instead. A cast too big to enjoy, a thin story that overstays it’s welcome, and an experience that’s overall forgettable. I’ll remember a few characters I liked, or some of the villains that had surprisingly more depth than most the heroes. I’ll remember how fun the game was to play, or how fantastic the soundtrack was. Overall I will remember that I enjoyed this game… but only just enough to say, “it was alright.”    … Expand
  26. KittyLove
    Feb 12, 2023
    3
    Diamant should have been the protagonist.

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

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

    There are a good amount of characters in the Fire Emblem series since Fates that I feel deserve a second shot. Diamant is definitely one of them. He is the protagonist that I desperately wanted for so many years, and yes. A character like him deserves his own game, or a least a series of maps where the avatar is not involved.    … Expand
  27. Truetobytrue
    Feb 1, 2023
    3
    I'm an RPG fan who ran across the series since Awakening. To those ppl assuming negative ratings come from otome crybabies, Let me tell you something.

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

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

    So yea. I don't need any otome bishoujo element, especially after watching all those scenes.
    BUT
    I would rather have that than the uncomfy 'petting' feature they added back. Now that's more otome, but it came out to be nasty. That ring polishing with all that kimochi this, kimochi that... was absurd.    … Expand
  28. GhoulStoryBro
    Jan 26, 2023
    9
    I am very conflicted about this game. On one hand, the gameplay and map design are fantastic. They reminds me fondly of some of the better conquest maps. The engage mechanic works really well and keeps combat interesting. But the story and characters are just not up to those of three houses, or even the old-school fire emblem game. It's not fates level bad, but the story never grabbed meI am very conflicted about this game. On one hand, the gameplay and map design are fantastic. They reminds me fondly of some of the better conquest maps. The engage mechanic works really well and keeps combat interesting. But the story and characters are just not up to those of three houses, or even the old-school fire emblem game. It's not fates level bad, but the story never grabbed me and I never felt incentivized to max out the character's supports, as they were almost all lackluster and light on any meaningful dynamics. I was disappointed when I reached the end of the game and found out that they also didn't bother putting in paired endings for other characters,. The lack of a NG+ mode on launch is also disappointing, even if it is nice maddening difficulty is available day 1. Additionally, due to the non-branching story, it's much less replayable than three houses or fates. Overall, a great game if you're looking for a tactical RPG, but those seeking out a solid story and characters are better off going with the recently ported to switch (and much cheaper) persona titles.… Expand
  29. Ruthtria
    Feb 1, 2023
    1
    While this game shines as the forefront for what gameplay should be like in the Fire Emblem franchise, ir tries to make a return to a simpler, more straightforward story akin to the entries before the critically acclaimed 3 Houses. And yet, this story does not support and motivate the player to enjoy their time in the world of Elyos and connect with its large cast, instead throwing nonstopWhile this game shines as the forefront for what gameplay should be like in the Fire Emblem franchise, ir tries to make a return to a simpler, more straightforward story akin to the entries before the critically acclaimed 3 Houses. And yet, this story does not support and motivate the player to enjoy their time in the world of Elyos and connect with its large cast, instead throwing nonstop gameplay at them with thr narrative serving only the purpose of pushing you towards the next battle. It is disappointing to see so many long time fans call it par for the course because there is always better than something so lifeless.… Expand
  30. Meatball-bandit
    Feb 3, 2023
    3
    The gameplay and mechanics are fantastic; Maddening seems really balanced; but besides that, I do not like anything else in the game. Characters are undeveloped, writing and story is horrible. Worst of all, there’s no ‘new game+’. once I beat maddening, what’s the point of replaying? I don’t get to keep any SP, or skills.
  31. OliverGaming
    Feb 12, 2023
    3
    As a veteran of the series. I can tell you from first-hand experience that everything about this game fails in comparison to its predecessors. New players will be blissfully unaware of how bad the story, gameplay, music, and animation is through no fault of their own. What's worse is Engage constantly takes shots at veteran players who like characters such as Ike, Marth, or Roy over theAs a veteran of the series. I can tell you from first-hand experience that everything about this game fails in comparison to its predecessors. New players will be blissfully unaware of how bad the story, gameplay, music, and animation is through no fault of their own. What's worse is Engage constantly takes shots at veteran players who like characters such as Ike, Marth, or Roy over the cowardly, badly
    voiced acted, and completely forgettable Alear. When a character like Diamant actually goes through an arc, fits the world he lives in, and is hands down the best character in the game. It makes me question why he wasn't the protagonist instead. Worst of all, the series is so predictable that when I guess something would happen later down the line, it did. That's probably because Engage rips plot points from other fire emblem games and the supports and conversations characters have with each other are embarrassing and cringy at its worst. It's that bad.

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

    Edit: So I thought about it and realized my score was a little bit too harsh. So, I wanted to change it. It's still not a good game by a long shot, but I will admit some, but not all of the gameplay is fun. There are music tracks in this game that are composed really well, and characters like Diamont and Ivy were really the only things keeping me playing. Other then that, I still wouldn't recommend this to my worst enemy. Play Awakening first, or if you have a good way to do it. Fire Emblem Path of Radiance.    … Expand
  32. Anothergame
    Feb 1, 2023
    0
    I will just list what I felt throughout gameplay.

    - Satisfactory combat and animation. - Level of visual action lays on power rangers or precure - The artist doesn't seem to know what Fire Emblem is, or maybe her only FE game was the mobile Heroes. - Female characters full of lolis. - i thought to make comrades, but ended up with a bunch of ppl of cult of Divine Dragon (me). - No    I will just list what I felt throughout gameplay.

    - Satisfactory combat and animation.
    - Level of visual action lays on power rangers or precure
    - The artist doesn't seem to know what Fire Emblem is, or maybe her only FE game was the mobile Heroes.
    - Female characters full of lolis.
    - i thought to make comrades, but ended up with a bunch of ppl of cult of Divine Dragon (me).
    - No reason shown why they see me as their Idol, except that I'm just a Divine Dragon. Creepy.
    - Lines and actions that only weebs would take. JP players hated it even more than us.
    - ItnSys did not learn and inherited in the cursed scenario writer along with the weird petting. But worse this time.
    - No respect shown to old fans by making us listen dirty unpleasant lines from past heroes (ring cleaning minigame).
    - Definitely not worth for $60. It should be $10 or under.    … Expand
  33. SpaceKow
    Feb 1, 2023
    0
    The tactical gameplay is great, but I just can't stand the characters or the story.
  34. 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.
  35. ransom77
    Feb 5, 2023
    0
    This game is so **** bad. I have no idea how anyone could write the story and dialogue for this game and think its good.
  36. daniellaplays
    Feb 4, 2023
    0
    Great gameplay but everything else is horrible. Characters are paper thin, with very little to offer by way of meaningful conversations. Alear is so stupid, and believes everything at face value - even from the villains. I was so frustrated by how little effort was given to the writing. Story was predictable at best, and disappointing at worst. I found myself skipping through theGreat gameplay but everything else is horrible. Characters are paper thin, with very little to offer by way of meaningful conversations. Alear is so stupid, and believes everything at face value - even from the villains. I was so frustrated by how little effort was given to the writing. Story was predictable at best, and disappointing at worst. I found myself skipping through the cutscenes, because I could care less about what was happening.… Expand
  37. Mandra
    Feb 10, 2023
    5
    The MC is bland and their hair color is weird, combat is good (hard to **** that up), music is mid at best, social interactions have been reduced to bare minimum, the main hub is boring.
    Not a fan of the main feature of using rings and merging with emblems, also dealing with who equips which ring at all times is not fun at all.

    5/10, made me wanna replay Three Houses even more.
  38. 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
  39. Lair0
    Feb 12, 2023
    6
    The gameplay in this entry is a improvement in te series but the story, characters and characters design are a jugar downgrade all the more coming from a Game like three houses
  40. Serperiorgaming
    Jul 8, 2023
    8
    Although the story is bad and the dialogue is cringe the gameplay makes up for it. This is the most fun I've had on a fire emblem game
  41. P1AVG45
    Feb 1, 2023
    0
    As far as gameplay is concerned, the gameplay mechanics of Engage are incredible and extremely fun, it is some of the best gameplay in the series. However, it is extremely unfortunate that the characters, dialogue and story have once again been deliberately sabotaged by the miserable localizers at Treehouse, rewriting characters, inserting cheesy dialogue, and completely censoring any andAs far as gameplay is concerned, the gameplay mechanics of Engage are incredible and extremely fun, it is some of the best gameplay in the series. However, it is extremely unfortunate that the characters, dialogue and story have once again been deliberately sabotaged by the miserable localizers at Treehouse, rewriting characters, inserting cheesy dialogue, and completely censoring any and all hints of romance out of the game. These translators must have a deep-seated resentment for the projects that they’re working on for them to end up with translations this poorly-made and low-effort. It is truly unacceptable.… Expand
  42. radiantmirror
    Feb 4, 2023
    0
    Even though the strategic battle is exceptionally interesting compared to past works, the clichéd and shallow storyline ruins everything.
    As a rpg, the story needs to be the motivation for playing, and if it doesn't have that ability, at least make it bland. The thought of manipulating children like childish and clueless virtual youtubers is getting on my nerves.
  43. Leifur
    Feb 4, 2023
    4
    A major step backwards in many ways. Characters are flat and display a single personality trait that they hammer into the ground. The writing is cringe - a certain death scene meant to be emotional feels more like a comedy as you have known this person for about 10 seconds and have no emotional attachment. The gameplay is strong, but this is a below average attempt from IS. Play ThreeA major step backwards in many ways. Characters are flat and display a single personality trait that they hammer into the ground. The writing is cringe - a certain death scene meant to be emotional feels more like a comedy as you have known this person for about 10 seconds and have no emotional attachment. The gameplay is strong, but this is a below average attempt from IS. Play Three Houses or an older Fire Emblem if you are looking for something more enjoyable.… Expand
  44. WomanSlayer69
    Feb 4, 2023
    4
    Fire Emblem Engage more or less takes a step back from Fire Emblem Three Houses. The visible improvement is only from the graphics, while for the gameplay it only adds the weapon triangle system which was already in the old game and the emblem ring system which is exclusive to this title. even though the emblem ring is innovative and unique, the basic gameplay only relies on that, if it isFire Emblem Engage more or less takes a step back from Fire Emblem Three Houses. The visible improvement is only from the graphics, while for the gameplay it only adds the weapon triangle system which was already in the old game and the emblem ring system which is exclusive to this title. even though the emblem ring is innovative and unique, the basic gameplay only relies on that, if it is removed, then you can say there is no other innovative thing in the gameplay. And regarding the story and characters in this game, the story is boring and the character designs are too over the top and their dialogue is abysmal. There are even some mobile games whose stories and characters are better than this exclusive switch game, this is really embarrassing. overall I do not recommend buying this game at full price, because it is not worth your hard earned money… Expand
  45. 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.
  46. 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.
  47. Beamer92
    Feb 1, 2023
    4
    Absolutely the worst Fire Emblem I've ever played.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    I think this really disillusions me to the franchise. I'm unlikely to preorder, much less purchase, the next game in the series. At best, if it reviews well, I may get it after its been out a while.    … Expand
  48. sunshinehairpin
    Feb 12, 2023
    2
    This game is definitely the next "black sheep" in the Fire Emblem series alongside Fates and Warriors. The story is hilariously bad (especially towards the end) and most of the characters are completely forgettable. I know people will argue that Fire Emblem "was always anime", but believe me and other older Fire Emblem fans (my first game was Path of Radiance on the Gamecube, currentThis game is definitely the next "black sheep" in the Fire Emblem series alongside Fates and Warriors. The story is hilariously bad (especially towards the end) and most of the characters are completely forgettable. I know people will argue that Fire Emblem "was always anime", but believe me and other older Fire Emblem fans (my first game was Path of Radiance on the Gamecube, current favorite is Echoes: Shadows of Valentia) when we say that this game ACTUALLY IS TOO ANIME. You can easily tell just from the art style and Vtuber aesthetics (if the story and voicelines weren't already big indicators). Completely far-flung from the more medieval fantasy-like world the series is more known for.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

    Edit: I gave it a few points for good music and visuals. Like I said before some of the gameplay is fun, but it loses its novelty towards the end of the game on higher difficulties.    … Expand
  49. Kaseijin64
    Feb 5, 2023
    4
    Fire Emblem Engage is a return to a more classic style of Fire Emblem. The map design and tactical gameplay are quite good, and among some of the best work done in this series, albeit with some baffling balance decisions concerning the in game economy and too heavy a focus on grinding for post game content. The main campaign offers very solid gameplay and each map is consistently fun toFire Emblem Engage is a return to a more classic style of Fire Emblem. The map design and tactical gameplay are quite good, and among some of the best work done in this series, albeit with some baffling balance decisions concerning the in game economy and too heavy a focus on grinding for post game content. The main campaign offers very solid gameplay and each map is consistently fun to play. However, the game is hobbled by what is by far one of the worst plots in gaming history, the writing is poor the story massively cliched in a way that doesn't offer any enjoyment or pay off and by the late game the plot is such a train wreck it completely ruins the experience. 8/10 gameplay. 0/10 utter trash story that starts weak and just gets worse as the game goes on.… Expand
  50. Jonlol
    Jan 28, 2023
    9
    The maps are much better designed than three houses. A lot more variety in objectives and map gimmicks. Graphic and animations are great. I personally like the character design and the simpler story and supports. It’s a more chilled experience compared to FE3H.
  51. Mornsong
    Jan 28, 2023
    0
    I have made an account simply to comment on this game. I'm seeing a lot of reviews that seem unfair to me although I understand the reasons for them.

    The game's story is horrible, it has an online mode that doesn't quite work, and you have to do a lot of mini-games and repetitive farming between missions (not mandatory, but it provides too much improvement to pass up, especially if you    I have made an account simply to comment on this game. I'm seeing a lot of reviews that seem unfair to me although I understand the reasons for them.

    The game's story is horrible, it has an online mode that doesn't quite work, and you have to do a lot of mini-games and repetitive farming between missions (not mandatory, but it provides too much improvement to pass up, especially if you play on high difficulty).

    Fire Emblem engage seems to me a game totally based on combat, very large scenarios, full of enemies with nice animations. The amount of emblems and characters that there are allow a huge (even overwhelming) customization and depth. It forces you to measure very well not only your movements on the battlefield, but also how to manage your resources, who to equip the emblems to, what class they should have, what equipment to buy or improve...

    In short, in this Fire Emblem they have completely left aside all the story and character interactions, but if you are looking for a real spectacular tactical challenge, Fire Emblem seems to me superior to Three Houses, although the latter is undoubtedly a much more rounded game.

    Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)I have made an account simply to comment on this game. I'm seeing a lot of reviews that seem unfair to me although I understand the reasons for them.

    The game's story is horrible, it has an online mode that doesn't quite work, and you have to do a lot of mini-games and repetitive farming between missions (not mandatory, but it provides too much improvement to pass up, especially if you play on high difficulty).

    Fire Emblem engage seems to me a game totally based on combat, very large scenarios, full of enemies with nice animations. The amount of emblems and characters that there are allow a huge (even overwhelming) customization and depth. It forces you to measure very well not only your movements on the battlefield, but also how to manage your resources, who to equip the emblems to, what class they should have, what equipment to buy or improve...

    In short, in this Fire Emblem they have completely left aside all the story and character interactions, but if you are looking for a real spectacular tactical challenge, Fire Emblem seems to me superior to Three Houses, although the latter is undoubtedly a much more rounded game.    … Expand
  52. assaultcuirass
    Jan 26, 2023
    1
    Cringe characters and story. This SRPG gets a big F on the RPG part. While maps are more complex than 3H everything else is still horribly unbalanced.
  53. alienant
    Jan 30, 2023
    0
    Once the novelty of the combat system wears off, there's nothing left to talk about as the characters and story line are both abysmal. Really wish Intelligent System could get their games right. There's always a glaring issue no matter what and with Engage it's more apparent than ever.
  54. lilybylanz
    Jan 31, 2023
    0
    U got to be kidding me. How did they go from Nintendo's Top RPG to a disastrous weeb game? This is exactly the 'Xenoblade 2' of Fire Emblem.

    Combat? Gameplay? Okay. I enjoyed it. UNTIL the ring polish. You think it's just a small little feature? Welp, Def not for someone like me who've built old memories with the series. I can't believe how they dishonored their entire hero with just a    U got to be kidding me. How did they go from Nintendo's Top RPG to a disastrous weeb game? This is exactly the 'Xenoblade 2' of Fire Emblem.

    Combat? Gameplay? Okay. I enjoyed it. UNTIL the ring polish. You think it's just a small little feature? Welp, Def not for someone like me who've built old memories with the series. I can't believe how they dishonored their entire hero with just a side feature. BRUH. It made me so uncomfortable. Some of them are married and even have a child. And I hear dirty lines and moaning from each historic characters for polishing... a ring...? That's a huge damage they've done to their hero's reputation AND their gaming history. I as an old FE fan, have to put this as the worst game released from Intelligent System. Terrible story, useless side features, and censored lines. Just nope.

    I would give 4 bc of gameplay, but decided to rate '0' so they can learn that Kitajima is ruining their game. Just like he did for FE Fates. That weird 'petting', line censorship, and terrible writing always happens only when he's assigned for scenario. That's how bad influence he is to this series.    … Expand
  55. jebacon
    Jan 26, 2023
    0
    Have to rate this game this low to fight back against the senseless English localization of the game. I want to play these Japanese games as the developers intended. Not as the Nintendo of America team think I need to so that I won’t be offended.
  56. Frenchoswarr
    Jan 28, 2023
    0
    I am worried about the franchise after finishing this fame, while perfectly playable the game feels odd to me, somehow the mechanics and characters feel blander than awakening’s while I am enjoying the game way less than shadow dragon. So far, I also don’t feel invested in any oof the characters. I hope Nintendo and Intelligent Systems don’t follow this route for the following game.
  57. ffp
    Feb 6, 2023
    0
    i wish fire emblem games would drop the date sim mechanics cuz if not, better convert this whole franchise into a visual novel.

    the technical aspects of the game are amazing, props to the devs for making this game's performance an issue.
  58. Oscelios
    Jan 30, 2023
    8
    Really enjoyable Gameplay, meh story and character supports, but if you're looking for some of the best strategy Gameplay out there, this will be a worthwhile purchase
  59. Syne_00
    Jan 30, 2023
    7
    The game is more fun than I expected, the modeling of the characters at first did not convince me but when you see the engage fusions you can understand why they did so, plus the level and character design is far superior to the previous release in my opinion.
  60. SomeName
    Feb 9, 2023
    5
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I'm about 10 hours into the game and am writing this now because I don't think my opinion will change: Fire Emblem Engage is mechanically strong, but creatively a new low. A more detailed breakdown below.

    +Gameplay - the battles are decent. The weapon triangle is fun and the break mechanic is an interesting addition, even though I think it serves the AI more than the player, but this is fine. An effort was also made to make the battle maps varied, although to be fair I have not seen all of them yet. The win objectives are a bit plain though and are usually either rout or defeat boss. There are also quite a few mini-games, which are passable, but nothing compared to ones like in the Yakuza series.

    +Graphics - an overall improvement on FE 3 Houses. The lighting and colour palette are much better and the animations are more fluid. I feel the menus are a tad convoluted though, it feels a bit like I'm operating a spreadsheet over a game at times.

    +/- Soundtrack - honestly I didn't really notice it one way or the other, so I guess it is ok. Definitely not as impactful or memorable as FE 3 Houses though.

    -Story - it's the generic fantasy template of collect the X things to defeat the conveniently colour-coded evil Y. That's not an issue on its own because many games manage to implement this template well, but Engage is definitely not one of them. This game is incredibly lazily written and it really shows in how little of an effort it makes in developing characters.
    A benchmark for this is the "parental figure" that is in basically every FE game who is usually scripted to die so the protagonist can mature. In FE Path of Radiance, said parental figure acts as a mentor, advisor and integral support to the protagonist and their group. Roughly a 3rd into the game, they are killed under mysterious circumstances and their death both shatters the group and furthers the plot in a significant way. A similar, albeit weaker form exists in FE 3 Houses.
    Now here's FE Engage's variant: our protagonist has amnesia so they don't remember their parent. Roughly 1 hour into the game the parent shows up in the plot in a somewhat awkward reunion scene. The next in-game day, the parent is killed and our protagonist has a tearful death scene over what is basically a complete stranger to them. It's so bad and pointless that I would argue the story would have been better without the parental character existing at all. There are many more examples of poorly written, ham-fisted character interactions like this one in Engage but I'm not going to list them because that would be doing more work than the writers did.

    -Art Design - With the release of 3 Houses I had thought that Fire Emblem had finally escaped the underage waifu pit that it had been stuck in for the past decade. Sadly, it appears to have dug itself back in and arguably even deeper than before. Characters look like overly sexualised v-tuber avatars whose average age is somewhere in middle school. This appearance is incredibly jarring in a game about war and conquest, where the average soldier is twice their size and wearing armour instead of a cosplay costume. The implications are also somewhat haunting: is our protagonist leading an army of child soldiers who are so psychotic that they have no qualms about casually murdering hundreds of designated "baddies"? This dissonance and the sexualisation of what clearly are minors are just a poor direction to go.

    -Launch-day DLC. I understand wanting to advertise the season pass, but they could have also made these cosmetics later and put more polish into the base game.    … Expand
  61. Awwlexis
    Jan 31, 2023
    10
    This game got me into Fire Emblem and made me a new fan. I tried previous games and they just weren't for me, but this game is incredible. 10/10 combat feels very fun, fast, and even anime like with the cool abilities

    10/10 Art. This is why I was interested in the first place, I'm a fan of the artist for their FGO and Vtuber work. 6/10 Story. Very generic but it sounds like most of the    This game got me into Fire Emblem and made me a new fan. I tried previous games and they just weren't for me, but this game is incredible. 10/10 combat feels very fun, fast, and even anime like with the cool abilities

    10/10 Art. This is why I was interested in the first place, I'm a fan of the artist for their FGO and Vtuber work.

    6/10 Story. Very generic but it sounds like most of the FE games are story wise.

    Some reviews are complaining about the characters, play the game with Japanese voice acting, English voice actors for games like this always suck. The characters are fine, it's ironic some of these reviews are calling them bland when the entire old fire emblem cast is just generic blue haired guy with sword. This cast has some hits and misses, but I've seen the characters in past games and these people are full of it if they think all the generic trash from before is any better. Zappy!

    Don't listen to the bad reviews. It looks like this game got review bombed, everyone I've spoken with loves the game both my friends who are huge FE fans and random strangers as I work at GameStop and talk to people about games regularly. I imagine it's the Pedos upset you can't romance the 6yr old in the English version.    … Expand
  62. 0nearmedbandit
    Feb 8, 2023
    8
    It's a step forward in terms of the combat, presentation, look, etc.
    But the story, dialogue and relationship systems are a step back from Three Houses.
    Ultimately I like this gameplay loop quite a bit! Yet I find myself not caring as much about most of the characters in previous games. As A 'classic FE fan' I really have a lot to love, and it might even be my favorite combat system...    It's a step forward in terms of the combat, presentation, look, etc.
    But the story, dialogue and relationship systems are a step back from Three Houses.
    Ultimately I like this gameplay loop quite a bit!
    Yet I find myself not caring as much about most of the characters in previous games. As A 'classic FE fan' I really have a lot to love, and it might even be my favorite combat system... but I have enough complaints to keep it from rising to my favorite FE game overall.    … Expand
  63. Maestr
    Feb 12, 2023
    5
    Unfortunately, this game was not so much interesting as I wanted. Most main battles are boring and did not push me to try different tactics. Base is awful, story is stupid. I do not want to hear listen again and again about Divine Dragon. Craft is useless as much as level up mechanics. Only during additional battles I'm stressed.
    If only I could do refund. And I'm definitely sure that    Unfortunately, this game was not so much interesting as I wanted. Most main battles are boring and did not push me to try different tactics. Base is awful, story is stupid. I do not want to hear listen again and again about Divine Dragon. Craft is useless as much as level up mechanics. Only during additional battles I'm stressed.
    If only I could do refund. And I'm definitely sure that only big fans could try this game.    … Expand
  64. re9757
    Feb 16, 2023
    8
    Excellent map and game playing design.
    Battle animation has been improved a lot.
    Weak story and character design.
  65. Jlpp35
    Jan 28, 2023
    9
    A love letter for new and old fans of the franchise. Great gameplay, excellent map design, very vanilla but good story (sometimes the writting feels a bit sloppy but only in some moments), tons of new features and mechanics well added, simple but great characters (some are more one note and others have more deep to them but nothing super complicated in most cases) and the best animationsA love letter for new and old fans of the franchise. Great gameplay, excellent map design, very vanilla but good story (sometimes the writting feels a bit sloppy but only in some moments), tons of new features and mechanics well added, simple but great characters (some are more one note and others have more deep to them but nothing super complicated in most cases) and the best animations the franchise has ever got. The normal difficulty is easy but still offers a challenge for newcomers while hard and Maddening can be really challenging but still feeling fair most of the time. And there are tons of references to past games that still make sense by themselves if you don't understand them. The supports could have been better but most of them are still good, and some of the designs or characters can feel a bit annoying but nothing super important.… Expand
  66. NaoRei
    Jan 31, 2023
    10
    One of my favorites, Engage and Three Houses has Pros and Cons IMO, and I like them both.
  67. irishyardball
    Feb 3, 2023
    10
    Game has great gameplay, none of the forced fluff of 3 Houses. The story is driven by the battles, not the classroom. They are both good, they each aren’t perfect, but they are great entries. FE3H social sim aspect is my main complaint about that game, as it does take me out of the flow, and made it harder for me to want to keep moving through the chapters. I took a long break fromGame has great gameplay, none of the forced fluff of 3 Houses. The story is driven by the battles, not the classroom. They are both good, they each aren’t perfect, but they are great entries. FE3H social sim aspect is my main complaint about that game, as it does take me out of the flow, and made it harder for me to want to keep moving through the chapters. I took a long break from FE3H, only to finish up the last 8-10 chapters in Dec/Jan before FEE came out. I couldn’t put down FEE, finished by the 2nd Saturday after release. I think FEE is really going to be seen as that perfect point for newcomers to jump into the series and give them snapshots into the older games to entice them to want to play them. (Though a lot of those games are cost prohibitive at this point)

    FEE was super enjoyable and the only other “step back” is that I would have liked the Somniel to be more important overall like Garrett Mach was, and I do think a couple of the moments in the plot needed some work, but overall I’d say FE3H and FEE are very much both great games, and neither is perfect, but because they do have some of differences and the majority of the people i see not liking FEE call out the Persona-like limitations being the thing they didn’t like.

    Anyone review bombing the game cause of the lack of Persona elements, doesn't really like Fire Emblem.    … Expand
  68. iloveprotein
    Feb 3, 2023
    9
    The schoolroom social mechanics of Three Houses took away from the core Fire Emblem gameplay and in my opinion made the game a real drag at times. Engage moves away from that and also moves away from the Pair-Up mechanic that Fates relied heavily upon. This leads to a much more straight-forward and pure version of the game, which I thoroughly enjoy. The story leaves something to beThe schoolroom social mechanics of Three Houses took away from the core Fire Emblem gameplay and in my opinion made the game a real drag at times. Engage moves away from that and also moves away from the Pair-Up mechanic that Fates relied heavily upon. This leads to a much more straight-forward and pure version of the game, which I thoroughly enjoy. The story leaves something to be desired, but Fire Emblem has never been about the stories for me, so isn't too big of a deal.… Expand
  69. ggol1998
    Feb 26, 2023
    7
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. As a die-hard fan ever since shadow dragon. This entry to the series feels like a huge step back.

    Lets start with the positive first.

    Gameplay
    The gameplay is still top-tier and in my opinion the combat is probably one of the best in the entry. I like how fast the character's animation move compare to 3 house the combat was very slow and stiff. It brings back the old classic fire emblem from the 3DS entries. Both the characters and environments are very colourful and well design. I like how they removed the weapon durability because in 3 house that was annoying. The ring pair mechanic is also not bad in this game. They do add some parts of the duo features from awakening/fates but in a more balance way.

    Now to the Negative. As a Huge fan, I have to be honest because I love this franchise and wish the next entry can succeed.

    Story and characters
    Now if you take a step back and look at fates. The game setting copies it. For example at the start, the Queen dies. The MC is a dragon, and each kingdom has a sibling in it. The story is quite bad for the first half of engage, but as you progress on it does get better. However, this is probably the least engaging fire emblem story I have witnessed. They also didn't bother voicing the leveling part where the characters has unique dialogue like only one stat up. This may be a little detail, but little details counts. The most disappointing part is. You can't transform into a dragon. In every Fire emblem game. If you have a dragon character (Manakete). You can transform into a dragon with unique abilities. In engage you have none of that, but a sword. I can see many potentials in the story however the characters and story is clearly rushed, which ruins the game's pacing.

    World Map
    If you look at the World map. Both engage and echoes have map travelling which I really like. Back in Awakening when you travel around the world. Theres area where you can purchase special weapons. In Echoes they improved the formula with dungeon traveling and you are also allow to travel to villages and gain characters and weapons. In Engage there is none of that. In past fire emblem series. As you progress through the story you unlock side maps/quest and characters at the same time. You get that feeling of exploration and the game reward you with a character. Its true you still unlock characters in engage, but all the characters are unlocked in the main story and the side story is replaced with bond expansion. It feels linear and unrewarding.

    Classes
    This time the classes system are just weird. In Engage they segregated the weapon category of the same class into multiple class that are the same. In all the Fire Emblem series. The advance class can wield more than 1 weapon. For example the great knight in battle can wield both sword, lance and axes at the same time, but this time in engage a great knight can only wield 1 weapon in battle, however if you want to switch the weapon you need to switch the class each time before a battle which is called great knight axe, great knight lance or great knight sword. This is egregious. How can they mess this up so badly?

    Skill
    This happens in 3 houses as well. They need to animate all the skills that is ability based. Back in awakening, there is animation for Ignis, Astra, Luna and sol, this makes the game feel engaging, but none of that in the current switch generations.

    Conclusion
    Most of the characters and story is rushed. They tried to implement fates story to engage however it is not as good as fates. The world map is cool and beautiful, but the story is misplaced and the class system needs a revamp. The only part they did right is the gameplay. It is still excellent, but they need to start animating some skills into it.

    With all that said. This game still packs a lot of content and play hours. We are lucky to still get a game like this. I rather play this than play an abomination like Star wars Battlefront 2 (EA) at launch.    … Expand
  70. Brainrot
    Feb 15, 2023
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. I love Fire Emblem, I've been playing these games since the original US GBA releases, so it pains me to say this but this one just didn't hit right.

    I think my biggest gripe comes down to lazy design. This game feels like a step back in the areas I value Fire Emblem most, areas where the series is known to excel above other strategy rpgs; gameplay, character interaction and replayability.

    In terms of gameplay, the map gimmicks the game depends on to artificially increase difficulty are just boring and tedious. Miasma, a ground hazard that buffs enemies and weakens allies, is often thrown haphazardly over the map at random with no thought and feels too shallow and arbitrary to give any sense of achievement. It's an annoyance.

    I find darkness almost equally unfun as a mechanic, though it was used well in a certain chapter with a character who teleports, so I'll give it a pass.

    As for character interactions, the lack of S rank supports between allies was a huge disappointment, followed by the equally huge disappointment of the removal of support based end cards. The endings for characters are the same no matter what you do (short of letting them die in classic, in which case you just get "name died at place").

    The lack of support based endings is one part of the replayability problem. Another is the extremely linear storyline. Maybe I was spoiled by Fates and Three Houses, but this return to one single storyline free of any player direction really didn't do it for me. It just feels like we've been given a lot less game this time around by comparison.

    I guess that (and the addition of currently broken online game modes) may be why they didn't include new game plus either, but that just serves to cripple the replay value even further.

    All in all, it's not a horrible entry to the series. It still offers some charming characters (I'm personally very fond of Alcryst, Ivy and Griss), decent gameplay, interesting new mechanics/strategic choices in the form of the emblem rings and skill inheritance reminiscent of FE: Heroes, and some fairly elaborate and sometimes aesthetically pleasing maps. It's just a shame it's a step back in the ways that really matter to me most.    … Expand
  71. 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
  72. 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
  73. Literallymade
    Jan 29, 2023
    0
    As a person who's been playing since Fire Emblem Fates I have to say this is one of the worst most boring games I've played EVER, period. I'm sorry but I actually love Fire Emblem Fates for its flaws even if it was hated l, but for some reason I can't stand this game. The story is absolute nonsense, characters talk like they are in some kind of baby cartoon and not just one or two butAs a person who's been playing since Fire Emblem Fates I have to say this is one of the worst most boring games I've played EVER, period. I'm sorry but I actually love Fire Emblem Fates for its flaws even if it was hated l, but for some reason I can't stand this game. The story is absolute nonsense, characters talk like they are in some kind of baby cartoon and not just one or two but nearly every character is the "anime joke character" here. It hurts me after fire emblem three houses - one of my favourite games of all time to see it slip so much. The story in that game in my opinion was actually a masterpiece and gets you thinking about the morality of your actions with memorable characters and THE MUSIC IS SO GOOD. Sorry I'm going too much on about much better game that anyone reading this should buy instead of engage. I pray other entries in the fire Emblem series are not like this and if you are on the edge of considering buying this game JUST DON'T. It has day 1 DLC and a inbuilt (although free) gacha system. - and I like games with them in sometimes...

    I don't know if I'm going to continue playing...    … Expand
  74. pimpslickback
    Jan 31, 2023
    0
    Terrible designs, shallow writing, gameplay incentivizes you to replace characters ASAP. These three traits combined are toxic. It's the first game since like Radiant Dawn to be a true literal who fest where they spam you with filler. Fates and Awakening at least incentivized you to use every unit multiple times to get bonus chapters and their kids. 3H gave you a small, focused cast.Terrible designs, shallow writing, gameplay incentivizes you to replace characters ASAP. These three traits combined are toxic. It's the first game since like Radiant Dawn to be a true literal who fest where they spam you with filler. Fates and Awakening at least incentivized you to use every unit multiple times to get bonus chapters and their kids. 3H gave you a small, focused cast. Engage has gone back to dumping hundreds of pointless and expendable characters on you, which would be good for gameplay if so many of the characters weren't completely unusable so there's no variety to be gained from using them.… Expand
  75. hinst
    Feb 13, 2023
    6
    Here is my honest spoiler-free review for this game. I give it 6 out of 10.

    Fine: + Graphics + Animations + Battles + Support conversations + Characters + Battle preparations, equipment I put all 4 aspects above under the title of Fine; I mean that they're just good enough to be OK but nothing outstanding. Characters and support conversations range from decent to literally    Here is my honest spoiler-free review for this game. I give it 6 out of 10.

    Fine:
    + Graphics
    + Animations
    + Battles
    + Support conversations
    + Characters
    + Battle preparations, equipment

    I put all 4 aspects above under the title of Fine; I mean that they're just good enough to be OK but nothing outstanding. Characters and support conversations range from decent to literally clown and cringe. If you do not like the weird design of some characters you always have the choice of picking the other characters. There appears to be enough different characters for everyone

    Poor:
    - Paid DLCs
    - Nostalgia characters
    - Infinite grind
    - Locked on non-open gaming platform Switch
    - Poor plot

    I wish Nintendo just released Fire Emblem on PC so we could play in 4k 120 FPS. Some animations are too quick for 30 FPS so they wall apart.

    The predecessor game Fire Emblem 3 Houses casts a big shadow onto Fire Emblem Engage and this is the curse of this game. Fire Emblem 3 Houses is superior in many ways and people (myself included) judge Engage because of it.

    Overall I think this is an OKAY game, it gets well deserved 6/10 from me.    … Expand
  76. SoulFG
    Jan 28, 2023
    9
    Fire Emblem Engage

    Pros Great Gameplay back to the more strategic style of Fire Emblem + fresh new ideas! Improved Graphics definitly the best looking Fire Emblem so far x good stable 30fps -Great Music as always ranges to soothing themes to rock but + some returning ost -Great way of telling the story with cgi cutscenes gone are the horrid 2d/3d hybrid cutscenes -Has online    Fire Emblem Engage

    Pros
    Great Gameplay back to the more strategic style of Fire Emblem + fresh new ideas!
    Improved Graphics definitly the best looking Fire Emblem so far x good stable 30fps
    -Great Music as always ranges to soothing themes to rock but + some returning ost
    -Great way of telling the story with cgi cutscenes gone are the horrid 2d/3d hybrid cutscenes
    -Has online feature Tower of Trials

    Cons
    Strange story pacing sometimes too fast sometimes to slow
    Weird dialogs because off strange localization choices

    Gameplay
    In my opinion Fire Emblem Engage is a fine return to its roots with more focus on the strategic elements which are visible trough the return of the weapon triangle, better map designs and new elements like Emblem rings and Break mechanics which takes things in a fresh direction.
    But it also took some notes from Three Houses with its hub base Somniel wheres you can talk with
    allies, collect items, buy/sell items & weapons, eat in caferteria, battle in the arena, tower of trial and more.

    Technical aspect
    By far the best looking FIre Emblem to date with improved graphic, colorful designs, well modeled character models (even if you don't like the design they still did an awesome job of modeling them), stable 30fps, faster loadtimes.

    Story
    The story this time is more akin to Awakening or Shadow Dragon and has one straight path instead of 2-3. The story is told in great cgi cutscenes and ingame cutscenes gone are the days of the horrible semi 2d /3d cgi cutscenes and the small frames pictures. The story felt more lighthearted and more like a saturday morning anime instead of a romance of three kingdoms story that the previous installment had. So in my opinions it's not bad just a different approach and depending on what you like more could be a good ir bad thing. The only bad thing is the strange pacing of the story and the weird choices of dialog in the localization.

    So if you are realy looking for a similar game like three houses with the exact style of gameplay and story you may get dissapointed but if you're looking for more superb and strategic approuch of gameplay and don't mind the new elements and design choices you will definitly have fun with this game!

    So decide for yourself its your life, your money buy it if you like the premise of the game anybody has right to have their opinion and should not be swayed by the internet.    … Expand
  77. Sukoshi
    Jan 28, 2023
    10
    Fire Emblem Engage is probably one of the best Fire Emblem games to date, for many reasons. Beautiful graphics, great combat system that even OG players will enjoy. Overall it's a fire emblem game that will please the majority of fans. But that's not to say the game doesn't have it's faults, of course. Fire emblem Engage is not perfect, yes It's a vast improvement from the lastFire Emblem Engage is probably one of the best Fire Emblem games to date, for many reasons. Beautiful graphics, great combat system that even OG players will enjoy. Overall it's a fire emblem game that will please the majority of fans. But that's not to say the game doesn't have it's faults, of course. Fire emblem Engage is not perfect, yes It's a vast improvement from the last installment, but It still has it's problems of it's own, I will list some without spoilers.

    The story is not great.

    For long time fire emblem fans, one Thing that many of us can agree on is that the stories in most of the fire emblem games are not great. Awakening is very forgettable and over all not very well written. The Fate games lore is just not very good, and just just two of the many. But of course there are exceptions like Genealogy of the holy war, Three Houses, Echoes, and of course Radiant Dawn, games that have very rich and intriguing stories that will draw the player in. Overall I think a good story is essential in a game. It's what draw the player to play more, dig deeper into the game. So without a well written plot, what's the point of even playing the game?
    But again I'm not say the story is bad, I'm fact far from it. I just think it has too many cliches and generic trops in it. But over all I don't many people will have a problem with it.

    Now let's talk about the good things about the game because there is a bunch.


    1. Beautiful cutscenes, graphics and Character animation.
    2. Great cast of unique well designed characters.

    3. Amazing voics acting.

    4. The best the combat system has been in FE

    5. Many fun and cool side activities to do besides the main story.

    6. Supports with characters.

    Overall I've had an amazing time with Fire Emblem Engage, and I plan on playing it many other times. For fire emblem Engage I give it a 10/10. Some people may thinks it's way to high, and it may be my own personal bias because I'm a huge FE fan. But I did genuinely have a great time playing and I think if you want to get into the franchise then this will be the best point to start.    … Expand
  78. En1
    Jan 29, 2023
    8
    The gameplay is easily the best it's been for the series in years, and the map objectives are varied, the emblem mechanic may seem fanservicey for the sake of it but they do a good job of not stepping on the toes of the story at hand. As for the story, it's simple but it's well executed, people seem to be of the mind of, if it's not complex or revolutionary it's mediocre, its prettyThe gameplay is easily the best it's been for the series in years, and the map objectives are varied, the emblem mechanic may seem fanservicey for the sake of it but they do a good job of not stepping on the toes of the story at hand. As for the story, it's simple but it's well executed, people seem to be of the mind of, if it's not complex or revolutionary it's mediocre, its pretty enjoyable if you let yourself kick back and have fun with it.The characters are vibrant and varied and have some fun support conversations, they have about the same amount of depth as usual with the series, even in the previous entry, Fire Emblem Three Houses, many of the characters start off one note or have a trait that's surface level, but as you get to know them more, you learn there's more to them than just that, the side content of the game can be ignored if it's not your cup of tea but it's a treat, somniel is a pretty sizeable area to mess around in and is a nice break after a difficult map. Some downsides are that the pacing of the game can drag a fair bit somewhere towards the middle of it, and that certain resources to improve your units, such as SP and weapon materials, are bit hard to amass, overall, Fire Emblem Engage isn't anything revolutionary in the series but what it is, is another good entry that returns and refined some of the tactical elements that were lost in the previous outing, if they can keep up releasing games of this caliber the future of the series looks bright.… Expand
  79. michaelflip
    Jan 31, 2023
    2
    This is the worst Fire Emblem game in the series. I got to Chapter 12 when I made this decision. The story is bad and there is no reason to use any particular character. There are over 6 different "Hero" units you get by Chapter 12. This game honestly seems like it's trying to tie in the mobile game into their Fire Emblem series.
  80. MagiChrist2
    Jan 31, 2023
    0
    After the success that was Three Houses, Engage is a major disappointment. Generic anime garbage with Genshin Impact rejects as characters with a story that's made for 5 years old. What happened ????
  81. 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.
  82. 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
  83. Schnem
    Jan 23, 2023
    1
    Not an RPG. no story to participate in it feels like a movie you watch and then battles to participate in. Game mechanic of battles are awful compared to three houses, hate everything they changed about battles and do not like the ring mechanics at all. Only good thing in the game is Sommie is cute but interacting with it is so slow and you can’t skip feeding or petting time so it takesNot an RPG. no story to participate in it feels like a movie you watch and then battles to participate in. Game mechanic of battles are awful compared to three houses, hate everything they changed about battles and do not like the ring mechanics at all. Only good thing in the game is Sommie is cute but interacting with it is so slow and you can’t skip feeding or petting time so it takes forever. I also feel like half of the time playing, you’re just waiting for the next scene to load. Do not recommend at all.… Expand
  84. EevieRoseAmalee
    Jan 28, 2023
    10
    This game is now one of my favorite fire emblems and games ever made. This is coming from an old school fire emblem fan who loves Fire Emblem like Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War and an some of the newer stuff like Awakening. To put it simply this game was able to invoke emotions that I have not felt from a game in awhile it really made me feel good to see Marth, Sigurd, Roy and theThis game is now one of my favorite fire emblems and games ever made. This is coming from an old school fire emblem fan who loves Fire Emblem like Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War and an some of the newer stuff like Awakening. To put it simply this game was able to invoke emotions that I have not felt from a game in awhile it really made me feel good to see Marth, Sigurd, Roy and the others, and the new cast is also very well done and the voice actors for alear knocked it out of the park including the rest of the cast. Even in the chapters leading up to the end I was assuming they would drop the ball leading into the final chapters as some games do but I was blown away that they where able to take the remaining chapters before the final boss into an emotional roller coaster, and then also to tie up loose ends. This game is simply a love letter to fire emblem fans especially if you missed seeing your boy or girl. Seeing Sigurd made me happy everytime! This game gets a 10/10 from me and a round of applause because I went in with low expectations after playing three snoozes that game made me lose a lot of faith in the series so tbh I went into this one expecting to be disappointed the same way, but came out with a game that I put among some of my favorite fire emblems now.… Expand
  85. Jason_VA
    Jan 29, 2023
    10
    This game has the best combat of all the franchise and story is funny it's a big fanservice with all the past of the franchise.
  86. minmaxer
    Jan 27, 2023
    0
    Engage undermines previous Fire Emblem games and characters. You hate to see it.
  87. MexicanGamer142
    Jan 28, 2023
    0
    I will leave this as a temporary review as I am around halfway point on my playthrough. So far, I am bored out of my mind. I will try to update this as I continue my playthrough if it gets any better.
  88. Kale090
    Jan 29, 2023
    1
    This games looks great on the outside but once you play it you see it’s glaring flaws. It has very little story, the cutscenes are cheesy and the characters are so incredibly forgettable. There’s almost no character development among anyone in this game and most the characters you end up not using. The gameplay itself is great but everything else in this game feels like a chore. DO NOT BUYThis games looks great on the outside but once you play it you see it’s glaring flaws. It has very little story, the cutscenes are cheesy and the characters are so incredibly forgettable. There’s almost no character development among anyone in this game and most the characters you end up not using. The gameplay itself is great but everything else in this game feels like a chore. DO NOT BUY THIS GAME!… Expand
  89. 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.
  90. 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
  91. alybry420
    Jan 28, 2023
    2
    The story, the voice cast, the art style… everything except gameplay are just straight up painfully childish and unable to endure. The worst purchase decision on switch.
  92. 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 :)
  93. Starfree
    Feb 2, 2023
    6
    This is my least favorite FE game. There isn’t anything bad about it, just a pretty standard story with obvious twists. The ending for lack of a better word is **** And a lot of small gameplay and mechanic changes that I don’t personally like. And after the massive deal that was 4 stories in 3 Houses I kinda feel cheated by getting just one story. In a positive note with only wave 1 dlcThis is my least favorite FE game. There isn’t anything bad about it, just a pretty standard story with obvious twists. The ending for lack of a better word is **** And a lot of small gameplay and mechanic changes that I don’t personally like. And after the massive deal that was 4 stories in 3 Houses I kinda feel cheated by getting just one story. In a positive note with only wave 1 dlc the dlc has already proven itself to be the best FE DLC to date. Already leagues better than 3 houses’ dlc imo. If you buy the game I recommend picking up the dlc as well. But if you are picking between this and 3 houses, 3 houses is the better game.… Expand
  94. 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
  95. bettergames
    Jan 29, 2023
    9
    It's the best strategic game I played after Three Houses. I like the new art style and the colours. Most of the battle animations are very cool, but the animations of riders and fliers can be a bit weird. I think this is a problem persistent from the GameCube era. It seems that they cannot figure out how to animate riders and fliers attacking animation better. But those units are veryIt's the best strategic game I played after Three Houses. I like the new art style and the colours. Most of the battle animations are very cool, but the animations of riders and fliers can be a bit weird. I think this is a problem persistent from the GameCube era. It seems that they cannot figure out how to animate riders and fliers attacking animation better. But those units are very cool, so I hope they can do better there. It's a bit frustrating that there's no second promotion like in Radiant Dawn. There are only basic and advanced classes, no third tier. I don't like that idea. There's no dragonlord, only wyvern riding units. I hate that, as dragons look much cooler than wyverns. Or call it a wyvern, but give it two arms, please.… Expand
  96. 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.
  97. Veiox
    Jan 27, 2023
    9
    I would be wary taking fair weather fan criticism as Gospel. If you play the first 3 chapters and are going to be upset that they removed all the anime love triangle filler then it isn’t for you. The story is very old school fire emblem and twists and turns quickly at the later chapters and the combat/maps is some of the best in the series. MASSIVE gameplay improvement over 3H.
  98. SSodeman07
    Jan 31, 2023
    6
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. While it is a standard Fire Emblem game (i.e. combat and strategy, turn based, story heavy), it lacks something that the recent Fire Emblems had.

    You don't feel a connection with characters and are forced into building bonds that you can get completely done within the first couple battles. The conversations are not really... interesting? The characters are pretty static and do not provide any real reason to have them on your main team other than possessing the rings and using said rings. Maybe the main goal was to have you focus on story and battles than marrying and getting close to a character? I don't know. But I miss the option to get closer and have choices when talking to the characters.
    The home base of the game is built around you upgrading your main weapons, buying weapons you need, enhancing your abilities, and... polishing your rings. (Yeah, I couldn't believe they put that in but not choices?)

    It is at best...
    The orginal fight style, turn-based strategic Fire Emblem game... but cash grabbing at the fact it introduces some newer characters from recent games (Three houses, Awakening), but a lot of old ones too. Which if you haven't played the older ones (1990 to 2007), you won't know a single Emblem Ring Character.

    If you like the strategy part, it's great for you. If you like the character development, making bonds with the characters (even as a player), then I suggest you wait for this game to have its price lowered, even if its adding to your game collection.... just wait.    … Expand
  99. Bonni44
    Feb 11, 2023
    4
    Three houses is one of my favorite games on the switch, so my expectations for engage were really high. I saw people say you can't compare engage to three houses if you haven't played other fire emblem games......yes I can. It's like telling me I can't say I prefer apples over oranges because I never tasted bananas..... that's just stupid. So let's start with the pros: - Beautiful graphicsThree houses is one of my favorite games on the switch, so my expectations for engage were really high. I saw people say you can't compare engage to three houses if you haven't played other fire emblem games......yes I can. It's like telling me I can't say I prefer apples over oranges because I never tasted bananas..... that's just stupid. So let's start with the pros: - Beautiful graphics (I'm not talking about the artstyle here). It looks better than most switch games.
    - Fun combat (not that different of 3H like people say but it's a plus for me, I love 3H).
    - Good music (not on 3H level) but a few tracts were really good. Now the cons: - Horrible characters. 90% of the cast looks underaged, male characters are just effeminate losers, except like one or two. Main character is really bland and worshiped by everybody and it's not earned. Characters are way too colorful to fit in a medieval setting.
    - Dialogue is super cringe, support conversations have no depth and don't develop the characters. They just talk about tea and things they are scared of etc. It's literally the conversations I was making my barbies have when I was 5. The supports were so boring I just started skipping them after a few. S support was also super dissapointing.
    - Story is not great. It's cliche and linear and with no choices at all.
    - Less classes with no visual preview of your character.
    - Skirmishes give no gold.
    - Somniel mini games are boring and useless.
    - Latest heros, Dimitri, Claude and Edelgard are locked behind an expensive dlc. Emblem's outfits are locked behind amiibos. I would have to spend hundreds of dollars to unlock everything in this game. Three houses was a more mature game, with incredible dialogue and voice acting. With grief, loss, romance, and difficult choices to make. Fire emblem is a game about war, and engage felt more like a morning cartoon. I know some people didn't want to do the other routes in 3H because they didn't want to do the monastery stuff again, but you can literally skip it with new gameplus. I personally loved the social aspect in 3H, it was a nice change of pace in between battles. It made me really care about my students and I was really motivated to build them right and use them on the battlefield. I could also pick which characters I wanted to recruit. In engage, they just give you a ton of characters for free, and I just didn't care about any of them. I just felt like I was fighting with a bunch of clowns... Overall this is a stepback compared to 3H and I was dissapointed enough to write this review.    … Expand
  100. 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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