Poll Fire Emblem Engage comes out on 20th, Previews out today and really positive. (15 votes)
Tears of the Kingdom may be the most promising Switch game of the year, but that doesn't change the fact that there are other tasty morsels on the way. The most promising of the bunch being Fire Emblem Engage. What definately left a bitter taste in people's mouths over the honestly awful artstyle (especially the hideous Pepsiman/Colgatechan protagonist), has only gotten more and more promising with every new bit of gameplay that has been shown every week since the Direct Trailer.
Fire Emblem Three Houses was for all intents and purposes a solid entry, but replay value was seriously diminished due to Garrech Mach. In Engage, that part does seem toned down quite a bit. Being more a thing for optional buffs, rather than making long term permanent investments in your platoon. Mission design also seems vastly improved. And the game seems to have far more restrictions in your resources and opportunity costs in general, which should make for a more engaging experience (pun not intended).
Fire Emblem Engage is a grid based, phase based tactical RPG. Based on the Advance Wars games, but every unit is more of an individual with their own quirks, strengths and weaknesses. Among the game the game's features include the weapon triangle, in which swords beat axes which in turn beat lances (which beat swords), this feature returns after being mostly absent in Three Houses, and it has seen a makeover this time. Rather than a bonus to damage/defense and hit/dodge chance, attacking with a weapon advantage now causes the defending target to drop their weapons preventing them from counter attacking for the rest of the turn.
The most interesting mechanic are the engage rings. Of which, there are 12 and each represents a past protagonist in the franchise. Mechanically speaking, each ring comes with passive bonuses in the form of sync skills, utility can be further increased by activating in an engage, which gives access to more potent engage passive skills as well as weapons, attacks and utility skills. Whom to apply these skills on is not as straight forward as it might initially seem, even the healer ring, can provide some really useful utility to your berserker. Turning him into a makeshift healer should you so desire.
Resource management I feel a bit mixed on. Durability is gone (again), but previewers noted always being short on cash. If the economy is gonna be stingy enough that managing your gold becomes an actual part of the game. That certainly makes me very happy though. Fire Emblem hasn't had the best history of gold management, as they have often been too generous.
Then there is solheim, which replaces the monastery, you even have a pet cat this time around. It has its own minigames, thankfully fishing and the professor level seems to be gone. Most buffs are for temporary stat boosts, rather than long term investments. There are also arenas, an excercise minigame (should have included the option for using the ring con), and a tower which allows you to create your own maps as well as play on maps other players have made online. You also have a cat, which you can pet, that does seem to matter a lot for some people :P
Overall, the package here looks really solid. The story and art looks pretty bad, but where the game seems to truly shine is in the game and mechanics. The emblems do not only seem to encourage some really aggressive play, but also opens up the game to be more emergent than ever, not to mention the opportunity costs. As for my hype level, I would say an 8, but you know what, I have said 8 for too long now, time to take some risks just so you guys can laugh at my expense if it flops. That said Three Houses got a 9 here, and this looks to be an improvement in the area that truly counts (Gameplay).
I will be ironmanning Lunatic/Classic. Fire Emblems and strategy games are the most fun in general that way.
Log in to comment