Fire Emblem Engage
Feb. 1st, 2023 11:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
autodachI finished the latest entry in the FE series yesterday, so I thought I’d put my thoughts into words and write a little review. Let’s go!
Recently I made a post complaining about gender-locked classes and romance options in Fire Emblem. Well, in FE17 I mostly got my Wish. Amost all classes for both sexes. Why not go all the way?
While the last couple of FE games really pushed the romance angle, this one does not. Most supports seem to be platonic. However, the ones that are flirty/suggestive are so for both avatars.
The story is entirely predictable, very clichéd, nothing new. At times the game does a good job milking the drama; others it lays it on too thick. They did an ok job giving motivations to the villains.
The characters are also nothing new, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing, and indeed I have found myself some favorites (Alcryst my beloved). Some of the character designs are a little out there and make it hard to take these characters seriously.
The Avatar is super boring.
The gimmick this time is the Emblems, who are essentially the spirits of past FE characters, bound to magic rings.
If you give a ring to your unit, they gain special skills and, when their meter is full, can enter Engage mode to unlock even more skills and abilities. Managing your Emblems and using them wisely is a major aspect of the gameplay. I’m sure we will see lots of different strategies arising from the many possibly combinations of units and Emblems.
The actual maps are very classic - we get some minor gimmicks like fog of war or obstacles, but nothing too crazy. If you have played the GBA games you will be right at home. I have absolutely no complaints about the map design, which is the highest compliment I guess XD
There’s more to the game than beating the maps. Similar to the monastery in Three Houses, there is once again a base of operations to explore, the Somniel. You can do a ton of activities there, for minor stat boosts and other rewards.
I found all of them tremendously boring and never bothered with them.
I hated that the game makes you move to and load a location in the Somniel for an action that could have been a menu, such as inheriting skills.
I played this game with German text and Japanese audio. My Japanese is not the best, but I noticed some huge discrepancies between the spoken dialogue and text in several scenes. Very glaring in Rosado and Louis support – the translation just gives an entirely unrelated conversation.
I don’t care much about graphics, but the game looks nice. I had some framerate stuttering in the lategame; it’s no big deal though.
An example:
Equipping the Emblems is a whole menu of its own, rather than part of the equipment menu as you might expect.
Information about the Emblem skills is not to be found in there, though. For that you have to go to a different submenu, located in the Encyclopedia menu.
If you want to strengthen you bond with an Emblem or character, you also do that under Encyclopedia.
Makes sense? What do you mean no
Final Verdict:
I love this game! <3
Recently I made a post complaining about gender-locked classes and romance options in Fire Emblem. Well, in FE17 I mostly got my Wish. Amost all classes for both sexes. Why not go all the way?
While the last couple of FE games really pushed the romance angle, this one does not. Most supports seem to be platonic. However, the ones that are flirty/suggestive are so for both avatars.
The story is entirely predictable, very clichéd, nothing new. At times the game does a good job milking the drama; others it lays it on too thick. They did an ok job giving motivations to the villains.
The characters are also nothing new, but that doesn’t have to be a bad thing, and indeed I have found myself some favorites (Alcryst my beloved). Some of the character designs are a little out there and make it hard to take these characters seriously.
The Avatar is super boring.
The gimmick this time is the Emblems, who are essentially the spirits of past FE characters, bound to magic rings.
If you give a ring to your unit, they gain special skills and, when their meter is full, can enter Engage mode to unlock even more skills and abilities. Managing your Emblems and using them wisely is a major aspect of the gameplay. I’m sure we will see lots of different strategies arising from the many possibly combinations of units and Emblems.
The actual maps are very classic - we get some minor gimmicks like fog of war or obstacles, but nothing too crazy. If you have played the GBA games you will be right at home. I have absolutely no complaints about the map design, which is the highest compliment I guess XD
There’s more to the game than beating the maps. Similar to the monastery in Three Houses, there is once again a base of operations to explore, the Somniel. You can do a ton of activities there, for minor stat boosts and other rewards.
I found all of them tremendously boring and never bothered with them.
I hated that the game makes you move to and load a location in the Somniel for an action that could have been a menu, such as inheriting skills.
I played this game with German text and Japanese audio. My Japanese is not the best, but I noticed some huge discrepancies between the spoken dialogue and text in several scenes. Very glaring in Rosado and Louis support – the translation just gives an entirely unrelated conversation.
I don’t care much about graphics, but the game looks nice. I had some framerate stuttering in the lategame; it’s no big deal though.
An example:
Equipping the Emblems is a whole menu of its own, rather than part of the equipment menu as you might expect.
Information about the Emblem skills is not to be found in there, though. For that you have to go to a different submenu, located in the Encyclopedia menu.
If you want to strengthen you bond with an Emblem or character, you also do that under Encyclopedia.
Makes sense? What do you mean no
Final Verdict:
I love this game! <3
