Reviews Fire Emblem Engage | Review Thread

[DecoReturns]

I’m getting the urge to play Conquest on hard again.

Amazing game to play.

Tho it’s funny to see it called a Failure in most things it’s tried when it’s flaws is it’s writing and story.

 

[Hailinel]

I’m getting the urge to play Conquest on hard again.

Amazing game to play.

Tho it’s funny to see it called a Failure in most things it’s tried when it’s flaws is it’s writing and story.

I mean, I don't care how good the gameplay is when the writing is just that bad. Its failure in that regard overrides anything I might feel about the gameplay.

 

[Hero of Hyrule]

I mean, I don't care how good the gameplay is when the writing is just that bad. Its failure in that regard overrides anything I might feel about the gameplay.

And the gameplay isn’t a total win either, the entire social sim side of things is awful

 

[rickyson33]

I think what hurts Engage's story is the presentation of it. Using an example of a similar scene from Three Houses and Engage

Spoiler: Spoilers for Chapter 11 Engage and Chapter 9 Three Houses

When Veyle steals the Emblem rings and the time crystal, we don't really see how she steals them, we just get a "you're too slow" and she's somehow holding all of them while everyone's still standing in place not moving. The game seems to imply it's because Alear had the time crystal that she intentionally dropped for them, but we're told this and not shown it. On top of all that the scene is done in engine so the scenes looks and plays out like any other scene in the game despite how significant it is to the narrative. By comparison, when Jeralt dies in Three Houses, you're immediately hit by a beautiful, animated cinematic to alert the player this is an important scene. Jeralt is stabbed, and Byleth instantly thinks to use their time rewind powers to save him which is a nice blending of gameplay mechanics and story. Another villain teleports in to block Byleth's attack, so Jeralt still ultimately dies, but most players aren't likely to feel that the story is insulting them or that the characters are morons compared to how Engage handles it's scene

to be honest I think I actually prefer the Engage example of just not explaining this stuff than the Three Houses example you use that honestly just raises more questions than it answers

Spoiler

for example how does Solon know how and when to stop the time thing? why doesn't Byleth try it more than once? none of this is explained and trying to justify stuff like this and doing it poorly is worse to me than just kinda letting it stand on it's own like the Engage example you mention

 

[BassForever]

to be honest I think I actually prefer the Engage example of just not explaining this stuff than the Three Houses example you use that honestly just raises more questions than it answers

Spoiler

for example how does Solon know how and when to stop the time thing? why doesn't Byleth try it more than once? none of this is explained and trying to justify stuff like this and doing it poorly is worse to me than just kinda letting it stand on it's own like the Engage example you mention

Sorry, this is some Cinemasins tier analysis and question nonsense

Spoiler

Solon teleports in to block Byleth's attack, revealing he's been watching the scene to make sure everything goes according to plan. In one timeline he sees Monica kill Jeralt as per the plan, in the second timeline Solon sees Byleth going to attack Monica. It really doesn't matter how/why Byleth knows of Monica's betrayal, Solon warps in to ensure Monica can finish the job. The game itself explains that the time rewinding is limited, if Byleth had another charge they likely would have tried again to save their father. Solon would still be watching, and Byleth alone even with the Sword of the Creator isn't strong enough to get past Solon.

 

[rickyson33]

Sorry, this is some Cinemasins tier analysis and question nonsense

Spoiler

Solon teleports in to block Byleth's attack, revealing he's been watching the scene to make sure everything goes according to plan. In one timeline he sees Monica kill Jeralt as per the plan, in the second timeline Solon sees Byleth going to attack Monica. It really doesn't matter how/why Byleth knows of Monica's betrayal, Solon warps in to ensure Monica can finish the job. The game itself explains that the time rewinding is limited, if Byleth had another charge they likely would have tried again to save their father. Solon would still be watching, and Byleth alone even with the Sword of the Creator isn't strong enough to get past Solon.

Spoiler

I mean I guess I can sort of see where you're coming from but in all honesty i'd still rather them just not try and justify not being able to use the whole time travel thing if the alternative revolves around stuff like "they just happened to only have exactly 1 charge" and "he was fast enough that watching for possible attacks is enough to counter literal knowledge of exactly when and how something is going to happen"

 

[BassForever]

Spoiler

I mean I guess I can sort of see where you're coming from but in all honesty i'd still rather them just not try and justify not being able to use the whole time travel thing if the alternative revolves around stuff like "they just happened to only have exactly 1 charge" and "he was fast enough that watching for possible attacks is enough to counter literal knowledge of exactly when and how something is going to happen"

Spoiler

as I said in a later post, FE needs to stop trying to justify the rewind mechanic in the narratives anyway.

Unrelated but there are other scenes in Engage's story where the low budget feel of the story scenes makes things feel kind of silly. I just cited the chapter 11 as a moment that I feel works fine on paper but doesn't work for a lot of people due to the execution.

 

[Lord Azrael]

Spoiler

I mean I guess I can sort of see where you're coming from but in all honesty i'd still rather them just not try and justify not being able to use the whole time travel thing if the alternative revolves around stuff like "they just happened to only have exactly 1 charge" and "he was fast enough that watching for possible attacks is enough to counter literal knowledge of exactly when and how something is going to happen"

The point was comparing the presentation between the two games so frankly this is a complete tangent.

And the presentation in Engage is horrible. So many scenes where your characters are just standing around and let the villains get away with bullshit right in front of them

 

[BassForever]

The point was comparing the presentation between the two games so frankly this is a complete tangent.

And the presentation in Engage is horrible. So many scenes where your characters are just standing around and let the villains get away with bullshit right in front of them

I like in chapter 14 when

Spoiler

Hortensia is standing near the queen threatening to kill her, and then the screen goes dark, and there's a line that's like "they're taking her away" and the screen lights up and unseen guards removed the queen model from the scene, I mean dragged her away while our heroes stood there

. Again, another example of a scene that's fine and works in text form (or if this was old school FE with just talking heads and little sprites running around the map), but comes off as just awkward in Engage.

 

[Truno]

Fire Emblem Engage

In a war against the Fell Dragon, four kingdoms worked together with heroes from other worlds to seal away this great evil. One-thousand years later, this seal has weakened and the Fell Dragon is about to reawaken. As a Divine Dragon, use rich strategies and robust customization to meet your...

www.metacritic.com

It seems like in the weeks since launch, Engage’s review score has dropped to an 80, making it the second lowest rated mainline Fire Emblem game on Metacritic.

Lowest rated Bayonetta game -> Lowest rated Pokemon generation -> 2nd lowest rated Fire Emblem back-to-back-to-back

Switch is killing it!

 

[SammyJ9]

.

 

[SammyJ9]

I like in chapter 14 when

Spoiler

Hortensia is standing near the queen threatening to kill her, and then the screen goes dark, and there's a line that's like "they're taking her away" and the screen lights up and unseen guards removed the queen model from the scene, I mean dragged her away while our heroes stood there

. Again, another example of a scene that's fine and works in text form (or if this was old school FE with just talking heads and little sprites running around the map), but comes off as just awkward in Engage.

Similar in Chapter 17 post-battle, the blocking makes no sense:

Spoiler

The villains are on the docks, then they’re suddenly on a ship and Veyle tosses you the ring, then it cuts to them back on the same docks again?

The locations and spatial orientation of everyone in cutscenes just constantly feels off.

 

[Jbone916]

Lowest rated Bayonetta game -> Lowest rated Pokemon generation -> 2nd lowest rated Fire Emblem back-to-back-to-back

Switch is killing it!

Alternatively:

A strong 86 MC Bayonetta game -> The best Pokémon since gen 5 -> A return to form for FE strategic gameplay

 

[ragolliangatan]

Lowest rated Bayonetta game -> Lowest rated Pokemon generation -> 2nd lowest rated Fire Emblem back-to-back-to-back

Switch is killing it!

when an 80 is the second lowest rated Fire Emblem game I'd hardly call it a major issue, Bayonetta 3 is an 86 which again is a very good score.

Reading through the lowest FE scores the criticism is pretty fair as for many the story presentation and social aspects are a clear step back from Three Houses. I really enjoyed the gameplay in the game, but everything else around it just seems undercooked - and that's a creative decision on Intelligent Systems part. It feels like a game looking towards the past and for core FE fans, whereas Three Houses seemed like it was trying to push the series forward and was rightly rewarded and praised for it.

 

[PixelKnight]

Similar in Chapter 17 post-battle, the blocking makes no sense:

Spoiler

The villains are on the docks, then they’re suddenly on a ship and Veyle tosses you the ring, then it cuts to them back on the same docks again?

The locations and spatial orientation of everyone in cutscenes just constantly feels off.

Yeah

Spoiler

you go from having defeated the villains, having cut them down in melee and trashed their army, to… the villains managing to get onto a ship and be sailing away while the victorious PC army just gawks at them. The concept of defeated enemy leaders having guards making sure they don’t just run away is something Engage constantly struggles with, as if there’s nothing anyone can do to stop the movement of enemy commanders you’ve just surrounded and beaten up.

It’s not even just spatial, it’s one of scale too, in that just because they might only have Alear and 2/3 of the most relevant royals in a cut scene, the story pretends that that’s all there is, as if it’s a small undersized JRPG party only able to watch while defeated forces threaten them, drag people away and retreat. Then in other cut scenes it’s all ‘we should send troops to secure x’, as if the force in massive. There’s this constant disconnect with the cut scenes wanting it to be a small handful of passive observers watching the NPCs do whatever they want to drive the plot, as if armies are something leaders carry in their pocket like a pokeball that disappear immediately afterwards. Plus imprisonment for defeated enemy generals being something that never occurs to Alear, so if you don’t want to kill someone your only option is to let them go and amass more armies for the big evil dragon. Presumably because they’ve only made so many characters and they all need to be active until endgame or recruited. So none of the four enemy leaders can actually be removed, meaning you fight them a comical amount of times. Ridiculous.

 

[Jimmy Joe]

Alternatively:

A strong 86 MC Bayonetta game -> The best Pokémon since gen 5 -> A return to form for FE strategic gameplay

Now in fairness, Cindered Shadows was very much a return to form for Fire Emblem's strategic gameplay

Absolutely nonsense story, but for gameplay? Fantastic

 

[bixente]

9/10