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StarTopic Fire Emblem Engage |ST| Your Hidden Desire to Have Neon Joy-Con-Coloured Hair. Mark spoilers!
- Thread starter kuroneko0509
- Start date
Thunder84
Gerudo
- Pronouns
- He/Him
My stupid ass thought that the royalty would still be playable after they die in battle and say they're "retreating". Accidentally locked myself out of Celine right away on Hard Classic, whoops. Thankfully, it only took like 30 minutes to restart and get back to the beginning of Chapter 4 in Hard Casual by skipping the cutscenes. Was never particularly attached to the permadeath mechanic anyway, so I'm not too torn up about that.
Don't have a ton to say so far that hasn't already been echoed in here. Game looks fantastic; if it was running at 60FPS, it'd stack up to a lot of the JRPGs being released on current-gen consoles. The writing though is, uh, not that great. Chapter 3's ending is self-expalanatory, but nothing else has really stuck out to me at all so far. Everyone but Alear so far is firmly either boring or borderline insufferable so far, although maybe that'll change once I dig into some more supports. Haven't really been impressed by those either so far, although I've only seen a couple. Only thing I got from them is that Vander is kind of a dick.
Really like the new UI though, it's so easy to reference pretty much everything you need at a moment's notice.
Don't have a ton to say so far that hasn't already been echoed in here. Game looks fantastic; if it was running at 60FPS, it'd stack up to a lot of the JRPGs being released on current-gen consoles. The writing though is, uh, not that great. Chapter 3's ending is self-expalanatory, but nothing else has really stuck out to me at all so far. Everyone but Alear so far is firmly either boring or borderline insufferable so far, although maybe that'll change once I dig into some more supports. Haven't really been impressed by those either so far, although I've only seen a couple. Only thing I got from them is that Vander is kind of a dick.
Really like the new UI though, it's so easy to reference pretty much everything you need at a moment's notice.
blue2425
Bob-omb
I KNEW I recognized his voice.
Three chapters in, and I already almost lost a unit lol
Yeah as much as I loved Three Houses (favorite in the series and one of my favorite Nintendo games period), a more classic Fire Emblem like this is exactly what I wantedbecause if I had to play another entry that expected me to do multiple playthroughs I would have screamed. If Fire Emblem alternates between the two styles going forward, I'd be perfectly fine with that.
I Threw Vander at the last two pegasus knights to bait them closer to my other units, but also ended up aggroing the boss and enemies that could break him. He barely hung on with just 3 hp, but my other units were able to remedy things on the next turn.
Yeah as much as I loved Three Houses (favorite in the series and one of my favorite Nintendo games period), a more classic Fire Emblem like this is exactly what I wanted
- Pronouns
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Why were you adopting a dog when you could have been playing Fire Emblem?
- Pronouns
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I just finished Chapter 5! Mostly enjoying it, my thoughts so far:
The Good:
The Medium:
The Bad:
The Good:
- The game is very pretty. The colors pop, the environments look nice, the character designs are way more extra but they stand out well. Great animations. The game also seems to run quite well, all I've experienced so far are a few frame hitches
- Combat is fun, the Emblems are powerful and fun to use
The Medium:
- I'm not in love with the ring gacha system, but it's fine and doesn't seem to be too bad
- The music so far is good, but isn't hitting me nearly as much as Three Houses' OST did yet. But I'm still quite early so we'll see!
The Bad:
- I'm not feeling the characters or the plot at all so far, but again I am super early. Still seems like a big step down. Also the scene everyone was mentioning at the end of chapter 3 was a big oof.
- Somniel is okay, but I'm really missing the monastery. I don't want to do a random exercise minigame just to slightly boost my stats for only one battle. I want to boost my units' stats, or proficiencies, or work toward something more permanent.
- Speaking of unit stats: It'd be nice to have some kind of upgrade/job path laid out for me. You can unlock weapon proficiencies via emblems, and the game says they're necessary for 'certain classes', but like... okay, what are those classes? Can I see in advance so I can start mentally planning out where my characters are going to go? I like having new jobs visible as a 'carrot' leading me on
- Pronouns
- He/Him
One question:
Maybe I'm missing it, but in battle when you scroll over a unit it works much like Three Houses where it shows you the enemy 'attack lines' if they can be targeted, etc. And if you attack an enemy, it gives you the battle preview of what will likely happen with all the percentages, etc.
But is there no way to see what will happen TO YOU if you leave a unit in harms way? I could have sworn in Three Houses it gave you a little preview with your health bar vanishing and if you scrolled over the enemy unit it showed a battle preview of what would happen if that unit attacked you, including damage, percentages, all that jazz
Maybe I'm missing it, but in battle when you scroll over a unit it works much like Three Houses where it shows you the enemy 'attack lines' if they can be targeted, etc. And if you attack an enemy, it gives you the battle preview of what will likely happen with all the percentages, etc.
But is there no way to see what will happen TO YOU if you leave a unit in harms way? I could have sworn in Three Houses it gave you a little preview with your health bar vanishing and if you scrolled over the enemy unit it showed a battle preview of what would happen if that unit attacked you, including damage, percentages, all that jazz
skullwaker
Piranha Plant
- Pronouns
- he/him
It feels so damn good to play classic FE again after nearly 4 years. Three Hopes scratched a little bit of that itch with its take on strategy and social systems, but nothing beats the classic tactical gameplay.
Although I will say we have been absolutely fed with new SRPG games lately, and Engage is a nice addition to that!
Although I will say we have been absolutely fed with new SRPG games lately, and Engage is a nice addition to that!
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Aesthetically, the game is beautiful. The visuals, the cutscenes, it's great. The music is really good as well. There are some things that don't look too good, like the grass sometimes, but not a big deal.
In terms of gameplay, it's awesome. I had only played TH and Awakening before and this game gives me Awakening vibes and i love it. I think it has a decent amount of challenge even while playing on Normal. Really enjoying the battles.
I agree that the writing is bad, though. For now, the game didn't manage to make me care about most of the characters.
In terms of gameplay, it's awesome. I had only played TH and Awakening before and this game gives me Awakening vibes and i love it. I think it has a decent amount of challenge even while playing on Normal. Really enjoying the battles.
I agree that the writing is bad, though. For now, the game didn't manage to make me care about most of the characters.
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I know that feel. my poor Pepsi has had pretty bad stat ups so far. She's got great speed and dex, but almost no strength or defense ups
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Raysu Delight
Boo
Really digging this game so far - feels a lot like Awakening in a good way & it's really scratching that classic Fire Emblem itch for me. The combat is probably going to end up being my favourite in the series.
Playing on Hard/Classic which I don't normally do for Fire Emblem games (usually too scared to go above normal) but it feels about the right difficulty for me.
I know some people probably consider it "cheap" but I just can't help myself from getting excited whenever one of the emblems show up.
At certain times the game just looks & sounds really beautiful. Quite noticeable how good the presentation is.
Agree about the story being nothing special but it's doing enough for me to keep me invested in that damn good combat. The game just feels deliberately brisk and light in a sort of "let's just get to the point" kind of way which I'm loving. Same goes for the Somniel area.
Playing on Hard/Classic which I don't normally do for Fire Emblem games (usually too scared to go above normal) but it feels about the right difficulty for me.
I know some people probably consider it "cheap" but I just can't help myself from getting excited whenever one of the emblems show up.
At certain times the game just looks & sounds really beautiful. Quite noticeable how good the presentation is.
Agree about the story being nothing special but it's doing enough for me to keep me invested in that damn good combat. The game just feels deliberately brisk and light in a sort of "let's just get to the point" kind of way which I'm loving. Same goes for the Somniel area.
- Pronouns
- he/him
The characters may not be super great but I'm kinda liking Alear so far
They're just such a dork and always have this look of mild bewilderment on their face, it's great
They're just such a dork and always have this look of mild bewilderment on their face, it's great
- Pronouns
- He/Him
75%~85% feels like the cursed range for me.
Finished chapter 3 and just got to somniel. I'm really enjoying the game, some excellent music and the battles have been so smooth and sleek in their presentation.
Also I just did Alear and Framme's C support and it made me seriously LOL, a big difference sersus Vander and Clanne.
Also I just did Alear and Framme's C support and it made me seriously LOL, a big difference sersus Vander and Clanne.
blue2425
Bob-omb
Loving the gameplay. The Bond Rings may eat up ALOT of my time. Save Scumming at least when it came to doing 10 at a time, each always gave 1 A Rank ring. So rarity of the rings may be predetermined at some point during the gameplay; maybe per chapter idk. The specific rings you get are also locked in so you are limited to scumming based on the amount of Emblem Rings you have. Didn't really do detailed testing though as I was more curious what would happen and went back to my first ring opening.
Yeah, in chapter 2 it was very interesting that I character entered saying essentially saying "Never fear I am here!...ZOMG is that the Divine Dragon!"
Not a big fan of literally every character in the entire world falling over themselves to praise Alear. I get it, she’s the divine dragon and all, but come on. Maybe dial it back a bit?
This game needs more smug jackasses like Felix
Yeah, in chapter 2 it was very interesting that I character entered saying essentially saying "Never fear I am here!...ZOMG is that the Divine Dragon!"
PixelKnight
Observing the process
- Pronouns
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This is exactly why I really dislike player avatar characters that the plot revolves around and that everyone fawns over in this way. It’s just relentlessly pandering to the player, while the few actually developed major characters they have all slide into second place while everyone talks up how fab the lead is in almost every single line. It just comes off as awkward, a comparatively unearned level of praise giving that everyone else is fighting hard against incredible odds too.Not a big fan of literally every character in the entire world falling over themselves to praise Alear. I get it, she’s the divine dragon and all, but come on. Maybe dial it back a bit?
This game needs more smug jackasses like Felix
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Thunder84
Gerudo
- Pronouns
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The bond events are so incredibly pointless that I can't help but chuckle when they pop up. Two sentences, wow, really flexing your writing chops their IntSys lol.
Also, is it just me or is Framme absolutely terrible in combat? I've had damn near no use for her. Her healing is pretty lackluster, her attack power is pathetically low, and she dies almost immediately if I move her up with the rest of the units. Had to resort to training her in Somniel, and even then she still gets absolutely walloped.
Also, is it just me or is Framme absolutely terrible in combat? I've had damn near no use for her. Her healing is pretty lackluster, her attack power is pathetically low, and she dies almost immediately if I move her up with the rest of the units. Had to resort to training her in Somniel, and even then she still gets absolutely walloped.
- Pronouns
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It was my birthday on the 20th so it was nice having all the characters wish me a happy birthday and give me gifts in the Somniel lol
I'm playing maddening casual which I think should be a good balance, without getting too frustrating. Difficulty really jumped at chapter 5 though, we'll see how it goes from here
The story and characters are a complete afterthought but the gameplay is great. Love the emblem mechanic. Pacing is whack though, we just crossed the sea with no boat map? How dare
I'm playing maddening casual which I think should be a good balance, without getting too frustrating. Difficulty really jumped at chapter 5 though, we'll see how it goes from here
The story and characters are a complete afterthought but the gameplay is great. Love the emblem mechanic. Pacing is whack though, we just crossed the sea with no boat map? How dare
PixelKnight
Observing the process
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah I’ve mostly used her behind others for the chain guard thing. But levelling her up takes a while, although that’s often the case with FE healers.
For me it’s often axe infantry units that I end up leaving on the subs bench, when the first one turned up I was like ‘yeah why don’t you stay on rearguard’
Linkstrikesback
Starman
- Pronouns
- He
It's not like fire emblem was any stranger to main lord jerking off before avatars became a thing either; and Alear isn't really an avatar in any meaningful sense, with the only decision you got to make by chapter 4 being the name and gender (and even that's a generous description of choosing one of two models because it's lacking in gender options for a modern game)
PixelKnight
Observing the process
- Pronouns
- He/Him
I agree that the lords also get a disproportionate amount of praise compared to everyone else. The difference I think is that Alear, Robin, Corrin and Byleth are barely characters and with little backstory in case anything that happens breaks the player’s idea of what they are like. They don’t fit into a faction, they stand apart as a super-special, dropped in, generically-heroic unit. Whereas the actual lord characters at least have the characterisation of existing relationships with other characters that makes them feel a little more grounded.
For example, Ike is part of a mercenary group with junior members that are his peers, a family member that’s pretty much a dependent and senior members that are his commanders that he looks up to. Hector and Eliwood have each other as peers plus various characters that fit into their service. Even the TH lords have wider relationships and things to manage, with some characters as their childhood friends (with the weight that they’ll also be in their service in one way or another as adults, if they aren’t already), the other two lords as rivals, equals and peers, but other NPCs they need to be wary of as teenagers before the mantle of faction leadership falls to them. The whole ‘player character is an amnesiac or just dropped in and is immediately the sole focus and the best thing since sliced bread’ just feels a lot less grounded than lords that actually exist as part of a faction, and fit into a small web of relationships.
Otherwise we end up with, like Engage, where early dramatic scenes carry little weight as the character is a blank slate with no connections to anything or anyone. Which always feels a bit odd to me about these blank slate characters that have nothing to them at all. I get that it’s fun to have these characters develop, to choose which characters are important to them and which they barely interact with. So by the end it all feels epic and the player has chosen who is important, which dozen characters are their true inner circle. Perhaps it’s just that it feels a bit weird at the start.
Anyway, hopefully will find time to play chapter 4 this weekend. So far I’m really enjoying it, the battles are really, really good and something I’m hoping to talk about in-depth later on, and I love the UI and visuals in particular. I just find the writing a bit simplistic and disjointed. I’m also not convinced that being able to run around the battlefield after and pick up 1-3 items is anything more than needless busywork to show off that they built 3D battlefields.
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- Pronouns
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Yeah same here. What I liked about Byleth more is that while there’s certainly a fair bit of that player pandering there, it feels much more subdued compared to Alear, since lots of the characters don’t think they’re anything special and are even suspicious/annoyed/angry they got elevated to teacher so quickly; there’s a lot more variety to the character interactions and conversations as a result.
PixelKnight
Observing the process
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Yeah that’s fair, the confidence of the faction leaders works in contrast to them rather than immediately deferring to them. Same goes for Robin, where Chrom is still in charge and Frederick is still suspicious. Or Corrin, where they are special in that they are the link between everyone and royalty so part of all the inner circles, but Xander and Ryoma still have a lot of authority. Whereas Alear just wakes up with no idea of anything and everyone immediately treats them like they are a walking demigod, the best thing to happen in generations. Which, to be fair, seems to be accurate in terms of the plot, but feels a bit awkward to have everyone be so deferential. I think I just prefer the more ‘you might be the lead character but that doesn’t mean faction leaders have to immediately worship you’ approach to relationships with these player characters. Admittedly, I’m only an hour in. Maybe it’ll all round out later on, but my early impressions are that I love the battlefields but the writing just feels stilted so far. Still, with most of the time on the battlefield, I’d rather that than the other way around.
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Appelsider
OvO/ ✨
- Pronouns
- She/Her
This has been my experience so far on hard mode, I even got a game over LOL
But my goodness this game is gorgeous and the ost slaps!
i just realized the typo in my post RIP
But my goodness this game is gorgeous and the ost slaps!
i just realized the typo in my post RIP
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- Pronouns
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I think this game may have a pure single rng and not the true hit double rng that a lot of localized FE's had. The double rng took the average of two numbers to determine if you hit/miss and generally favored the player as it made you more likely to hit at higher accuracy.
On the one hand I do feel Engage justifies the slurpage of the lord better then other recent FE games. Your character is literally a god like being in this world who most of your army would pilgrimage to several times a year to pray at. Just imagine IRL if Jesus's body was preserved in an animated state and suddenly he got up after 2,000 years, Christians would be falling over each other to kiss his feet until Jesus started to bitch them out for being hateful pricks that use religion for their own twisted means.
Also I've been complaining about Avatar worship since the mechanic was introduced in New Mystery. The slurpage has always been bad and the handful of token characters that questioned Kris/Robin/Corrin/Byleth never offset for me the 90% who worshipped the ground they walked on. Heck, the plots of Fates and Three Houses comes down to whichever faction Corrin/Byleth decides to ally with are the ones that don't go completely insane and try to murder everyone. Alear is above Byleth for me just because they actually talk and have a personality, I hope FE never does a silent protagonist ever again.
Forkball
Octorok
- Pronouns
- He
Just unlocked the arena and most importantly, the tailor. Enjoying it so far. Hard mode doesn’t play around. The ring mechanic is a good compromise for pair ups in Awakening. The bond rings let everyone have at least a bit of a boost, plus you can see that sweet old school art.
Ramune
they call me carpet
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- he/they
It hurts! The number of times I’ve thought “well this avo bonus will mean they don’t take ALL of the hits coming their way” and then the enemies are just like “um standing next to a tree doesn’t make you invisible lol.”
She’s not great so far, yeah. Chain guard is useful in theory but once she’s taken that hit you can’t use it until she’s healed up again, and if enemies can reach her for direct damage it seems too risky/pointless. At least I can have her brother hide behind tanks and burn things.
PixelKnight
Observing the process
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Yeah as soon as we get a better healer Framme is likely to be on the subs bench for the rest of the game. I might just have her killed off at that point.
Belinda Blumenthal
Sales Director
blkjgffhhybb
PixelKnight
Observing the process
- Pronouns
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“Master, you’re so amazing, we’re so lucky you’ve woken up your holiness.” /waves arms around and starts crouching and doing fist pumps or whatever for some reason
“…Yes. You’ll be on the front line.”
“But I’m a healer.”
“I’m aware.”
If I thought it would stop her appearing in cut scenes I’d do it even faster and just rely on vulneraries for a bit
I do really like the monk concept and the chain guard ability. I kinda want to see how they progress a bit more, so I’m using the time until her replacement turns up to see if she gets any better.
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After more time on this.
Yeah, the writing is worst then Fates for me. Voice acting is very good all around so far. But for a straightforward story, it’s fumbling pretty badly, just no time for set-up and rushing towards the finish line. At least fates went in with a ambition that they just could not achieve. Here it’s coming off very simple story, but neither fun or ambition. It’s just feel like it’s there. A reason to fight battles and seeing Old characters, all around a boring execution. Which is a shame since it’s about fighting alongside past Heroes.
Think if the game didn’t take itself seriously it would’ve been much better, because while the story is goofy, the characters so far are taking it too seriously. They’ve also made some of the old heroes boring, but the again some of them have always been boring. So can’t really fault
Just very disappointing.
Yeah, the writing is worst then Fates for me. Voice acting is very good all around so far. But for a straightforward story, it’s fumbling pretty badly, just no time for set-up and rushing towards the finish line. At least fates went in with a ambition that they just could not achieve. Here it’s coming off very simple story, but neither fun or ambition. It’s just feel like it’s there. A reason to fight battles and seeing Old characters, all around a boring execution. Which is a shame since it’s about fighting alongside past Heroes.
Think if the game didn’t take itself seriously it would’ve been much better, because while the story is goofy, the characters so far are taking it too seriously. They’ve also made some of the old heroes boring, but the again some of them have always been boring. So can’t really fault
Just very disappointing.
- Pronouns
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I've gotten a lot of use out of chain guard. It's best use is to prevent a character from being broken on enemy phase. This is especially true if you've got a super effective weapon on the person your chain guarding.
Metroid
Enemy of the Process Believe in Progress #BiP
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I'm not a math guy, so I hope I'm not regurgitating misinformation, but apparenty this uses the same system as Fates, so its 2 random numbers above 50%, which makes every attack from 51 and on a little more accurate that you would mathematically expect, while 50% and below are 1 random number which makes the percents there exactly as accurate as they would seem to be. On 2 numbers, the lower percentages are actually even less accurate than you would expect
- Pronouns
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That would make the most sense, I'm just seeing a lot of people lament missing attacks at 70%-80% which in a true double rng should be a lot rarer. Maybe we all just have really bad luck
Please tell me I'm not the only one who keeps misunderstanding the combat forecast? For example, I see 40 dmg and keep thinking that's going to be 1 hit and kill the enemy before they can counter back instead of 2 attacks of 20 dmg totaling 40 dmg overall.
I vastly prefer how all previous FE games told the combat forecast lol.
I vastly prefer how all previous FE games told the combat forecast lol.
- Pronouns
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I think they make it very clear, below the forecast they add how many actions, when and who is going to take it, with blue and red arrows. So its somehting like
-------> 20
<------ 10
--------> 20
Yeah I'm aware of it but I keep forgetting about the arrows. Whereas in the previous FE games, the combat forecast information was much more clear and obvious in my opinion.
It's funny that Lumera's death feels so unearned to the point of comedy, but Morion's feels more emotional despite him having the same amount of screentime. If you attack his Corrupted form with his sons they have some great dialogue, perhaps some of that for Lumera would have changed the tone there.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
It's a necessary evil when you have chain attacks, chain guards, extra attacks from skills, and extra attacks from emblems all over the place.
