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eri-blogs-life · 1 year

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Fire Emblem: How Engaging Really Is It?

Fire Emblem: Engage has been out for two weeks now, and I just finished my first playthrough, and I figured it captured my attention enough that I wanted to write up some of my thoughts about it on my blog. And that’s what this post you’re reading now is! :o

So, first off, I am not gonna avoid spoilers, if anyone cares about that, just as a heads-up.

Second off, tl;dr: if you don’t wanna read what’s probably gonna end up being a lot of paragraphs about this game, then here’s my short answer: It’s a good game! Probably one of the best games in the fire emblem series... in certain respects. But it’s also got some big issues which may not be issues for everyone but which did cause me to have a hard time getting into the game at the beginning. If you want to know whether I’d recommend it, I’d say it’s absolutely worth picking up if you have liked any other FE games before, but as an entry to the series I think Three Houses is probably a better first pickup on the Switch.

Alright, so let’s break it down. Broadly speaking, I think the game is really good. It also serves as a nice love letter to past fire emblem games without overdoing the callbacks

But let’s start with probably the most obvious aspect of the game, the aesthetics:

(Alear, the protagonist of FE: Engage)

The main character of FE:E is Alear. Alear has very striking features. And mind you, there is an understandable story reason for it. (As you might guess, basically she lies halfway between two states of being in the story and so that’s represented by her blend of red and blue.) (Also, you CAN play as a male Alear instead but I play with female avatars and will likely continue to refer to Alear as a she throughout cause that was my primary experience with Alear in my playthrough.) (Also also, my friend mentioned they might’ve colored her red and blue specifically because as a reference to the switch’s default joycon controllers? But IDK about that.)

Toothpaste-chan, as Alear was affectionately called by the community after her original reveal (among other nicknames), has a very striking design with those two colors mixed like that. It looks weird as heck at first glance, and continues to look weird as heck throughout the game. But you get used to it.

As I understand it, the Fire Emblem team hired a notable japanese visual artist who’s done a lot of vtuber designs before, so when Alear was first revealed people were all “oh you can TELL this was made my someone into vtubers” (said in a derogitory kinda way), which does kinda suck. It’s a real offputting design at first, but it also is a design that kinda works in a nice way to capture a big part of what Alear IS. Alear is the bridge between Good and Evil within the setting and story of Engage, at least to some degree - the bond that draws together people from all over the wartorn world to unite together and work as one.

Though, if we look at that as a piece of political commentary it gets kinda weird. Alear unites all the people of her world to fight against a common threat, the evil Lord Sombron, but that threat is revealed to come from outside the world. He’s a foreign entity and Alear as the hero units the people of her part of the multiverse to kill that guy who came from elsewhere. But I guess they do also ally themselves with the Emblem, people from other worlds, so it probably is more intended as a story to be about fighting for the world alone vs together.

(Vander, one of the early characters, when you speak to him in your hub area)

The other characters of Fire Emblem: Engage range from being relatively mundane in their appearances, to even more out there than Alear. And a lot of the really weird designs are front-loaded, and relegated to story-significant characters (looking at you, Timerra).

And... I get that. From a character design perspective, you want your main characters of your story to really stand out and stay in people’s minds, as well as making them easy to identify what they’re all about at a glance. And Engage’s designs certainly do stick in your mind! BUT not all for good reason.

The game also puts a lot of the weirder characters early in the story, and the story early on really isn’t all that strong, being a kinda generic forgettable adventure until about a third of the way through the game, but I’ll get to the story later.

I REALLY dislike a lot of the character designs in Engage (and I really like a lot of the others), but I’m absolutely willing to put up with the weird ones. Because...

(The greatest Override I have ever or will ever accomplish)

Fire Emblem: Engage’s gameplay is AMAZING. As a long-time Fire Emblem fan, who’s been into the series since it came to America in the GBA era and has played every game save for a couple of the older ones, I have to say... FE:E may be my new favorite game in terms of gameplay. There’s a decent variety of maps, lots of mechanics both old and new that blend together really well, lots of different objectives on maps both required and not, which push you in different directions and do what I think any good strategy game should do - make every turn its own puzzle, custom-built by the decisions you and your opponent (the computer) have made over the course of a fight.

The big new mechanic is obviously Engaging - there are twelve Emblems (kind of? There are twelve main ones, but then there’s also like some shenanigans late in the story that change it up, plus you can also get extra emblems from the DLC too). These Emblems are heroes from previous Fire Emblem games, though within the world of Engage, those emblems are known to be something like effigies of the spirits of heroes from another world - not the hero themself, but a representation of them. During combat, characters who have an emblem’s ring equipped can Engage.

This mechanic lets them fuse with the emblem to become something new, getting a new costume and new abilities. The new abilities a character gets depends both on which emblem they’re using, and how strong their bond with that emblem is, with bond being mostly built up from fighting together in previous fights. Bond can also be built up with training in the Arena, or with another new mechanic you can do in your home base area, the Somniel.

You know that mechanic that got cut from Fire Emblem Fates where you would invite allies to your home base and you would have to pet them with the touch screen and that would increase your relationship with them? Engage has something like that, but it feels even creepier somehow, and this one didn’t get cut for censorship reasons

(Technically, there’s nothing perverted about this scene, but it still feels off)

You can have different characters polish the rings, thus increasing their bond. But it’s a mini game where you have to move the cursor around and press A to polish, and the emblem gives you words of encouragement along the way and it just feels... off. It feels perverted somehow. I don’t know that I can elaborate how or why, but it is one of many Somniel activities I just stopped doing entirely like 2/3 of the way through the game.

There were a lot of those.

Like in a few recent FE games, you have a base that you can run around between missions, called the Somniel. In the Somniel you can eat meals with your team to increase your supports and get buffs for the next fight, work out to get Alear temporary buffs for the next fight, farm animals to get eggs and stuff (or exclusively ingots once you realize putting dogs on your farm gets you ingots), and all kinds of other activities. Honestly, it just got to be too much for me. I was spending way too much time in the Somniel and not doing the fun strategic puzzle gameplay that I WANT to be getting up to in a game like this.

So eventually I just stopped polishing rings, eating meals, and just about anything else. I’d just come back to the Somniel between missions to restock on healing items, inherit any emblem skills I had finally unlocked for a character, and check out any new Bond and Support conversations.

The Bond conversations, between characters and emblems, are all pretty lame. They’re usually a two-sentence back-and-forth, with just some pleasentries exchanged that don’t really say much about either character in the exchange. Supports are better than that, at least. A lot of them feel really light, though, in my opinion. Short. And they are REALLY poorly animated, using a lot of repeat stock character animations that don’t feel like they fit the mood of the scene at all.

But, to be fair, there are definitely some cool characters in the game, and even if the support conversations feel kinda short, and even if their designs visually sometimes leave a lot to be desired.

(one of the bests of the bests in terms of characters in this game)

One big appeal about the Fire Emblem formula definitely is digging into the personal lives of all your characters and learning about what makes them all tick and what they get up to outside of the ongoing war, and even if most characters will appear on the surface to be pretty tropey and one-note, being just a class and a gimmick, supports usually flesh those characters out into being much stronger characters overall. And Engage certainly does a decent bit of that, in my opinion.

One aspect I really liked about a lot of older FE games was seeing how a character’s supports you’d built over the game changed their ending in the epilogue. Unfortunately, Engage doesn’t seem to have any characters pair up if you max out their supports in the ending, at least as far as I saw on my first playthrough, which is a bit disappointing. Like, I think Celica and Alcryst would make a great couple, for example.

But you can get a special relationship with a character of your choosing and your protagonist in this game, which is pretty cool. And you can be gay!

(i obviously married best girl Yunaka. my assassin wife <3)

(there’s even unique CGs for which character you marry, apparently! which means I’m going to have to replay a bunch of times to see all of them I guess lol)

And that’s cool. Cause relationships is definitely a big part of Engage. Not just romantic relationships, though. Bonds, Supports, the Pact Ring (the marriage item), they’re all part of trying to tie into what seems to be the narrative core of the game:

At least, that seems to be the narrative core of the game once you get up to the final battle. Before that... well, I didn’t really pick up on any specific themes that really felt strong up until you get to that last third or so of the story.

But yeah, let’s talk about that story a little.

Fire Emblem: Engage’s story is definitely FUN, I’ll say that. It starts off really weak, though. The first third or so of the game is fairly slow, mostly just introducing you to the world and a lot of the major characters, but having a fairly generic story about going to fight against some guys who stole your cool rings from you. Which isn’t necessarily a bad story on its own, but its execution does feel like it leaves a lot to be desired.

(Also, quick side note, in like the second chapter Alear’s mom dies, but because of the way the story’s set up neither us nor Alear really got much time to spend with her, so what feels like it SHOULD be a big dramatic moment in the story rings REALLY hollow as the player. Like, why is Alear crying over someone she basically met, like, yesterday?)

But things really pop off about a third of the way through the story, when we start getting some good character development from Alear. Alear starts out fairly bold and confidant, but gets her ass handed to her about a third of the way through the story, and we get to see her rebuild up her army and her confidence.

And about two-thirds of the way through the story, we get some reveals about the nature of the world, and things really start to pop off. This is when it goes from being a solid story that’s enjoyable as a backdrop for the amazing gameplay, to being a point where I was REALLY invested in the story.

And then we go to what is basically a fucking meteor in space and fight an epic final battle against a dragon and it’s amazing

(Sombron, the big bad, summons Dark Emblems that represent the big bads of previous games, but they’re subtle enough as references that it feels like a nice nod to past games while still letting Engage do its own thing. This also makes the final fight into a really cool puzzle challenge of its own that isn’t just all about wailing on a lonely old guy)

(Also, if you do Game Over during the final fight - which is hard to do since you can normally use your Time Crystal to reset to a previous turn of the fight - you actually get a Bad Ending, which surprised me when I was expecting to just go back to the title screen)

So... I think that sums up most of my core thoughts. Here’s just another fun set of screencaps I took. I started the game taking like <10 minutes per map:

Then through the midgame I took roughly 30-50 minutes per map, until we get to the final fight:

Almost 2 hours. Damn.

Anyway, I think I gotta wrap this up. I enjoyed the heck out of my time with Engage, even if it felt really weak at the start. I’m looking forward to my next playthrough, just gotta decide what to do with that playthrough (maybe if I can do the new tumblr polls I’ll make one of those).

I’ll just end it with one last screencap. My feelings for Engage overall I think:

#eri blogs games #fire emblem #fire emblem engage

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maligknights · 7 years

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Thoughts on Echoes: Shadows of Valencia

Just finished the main game and…

This game is incredible. *Gross sobbing*

I am amazed at how it is so faithful to the original to the point the gameplay retained some of the clunkiness of Gaiden, but uplifted in a way it is way more fun than the original.

The original NES title will always have a je ne sais quoi that people seem to either love or hate (which I personally find unique and charming) and that Echoes cannot emulate, however I would recommend Shadows of Valencia over the original a thousand times.

SoV took a honestly kinda tedious game and turned it into a thrilling experience filled with great characters, an incredible atmosphere and most importantly, upgraded the level design into something fun and exciting.

The new characters are fun, the new designs and dialogue are gorgeous and full of flavor; and the retcons to the original plot not only create a much more complex and poignant narrative, but fix Gaiden’s biggest issue as a sidequel to Shadow Dragon and fill in the blanks that the Lore of the original did not have the time to bridge.

I will admit I am a bit sad I did not get to see your reactions to “the twist” since I finished late bc time so I avoided the tags like the plague (which apparently spared me a lot of drama as well).

Now to spoiler discussion:

On my first thoughts I really was expecting the new twists to strip the aim of the bare narrative of the original, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well the retcons were handled to the point they could find a converging point. SoV is still about man giving their gods the finger which is just great.

Like I have already said, the fact that Duma and Mila were turned into Divine Dragons and how Alm and Celica’s bloodlines now have a crusader esque touch, gives Valencia the sense of continuity it was sorely missing. Lorewise, the original had nothing to do with Archanea to the point that Judgral made a better sidequel to Shadow Dragon and Mystery of the Emblem because of how their timelines kinda add up and their struggles have the same origin point. This gives the FE Multiverse more continuity and makes it larger as a Multiverse and bridges the Kaga Era games into one, more complete Universe.

Alm is much less of the homicidal nutjob of the original which loses memetic value but is a much more compelling character. Celica is just adorable gimme so I can hug her and bake her a cake or something. The characters are pretty cool, not as complex as some other FE titles but very very enjoyable, even the flatest are fun to hear. Rudolf is a great antagonist, the fact that we have townspeople to flesh out the world so much is great, the music is excellent, agh I can just gush about this game for hours.

I really love the narrator’s final lines and how it ties to Medeus’s dying words.

I am not going to say that this is 100% perfect, but it comes really close, so if I had to nitpick:

Well, Duma and Mila broke the agreement between Divine Dragons by: First, interfering with man so deep they became FUCKING GODS and messed with the natural conditions of their habitat. Second, knowing how powerful Divine Dragons are and how dangerous they become when degenerating, why did Naga allow them to keep their dragons forms? Gotoh and Xane discarded their dragonstones to prevent them from destroying worlds and Naga instead of punishing them gave them a Falchion twin to Marth’s in case they degenerated so wtf Naga, do your job! IDK seems kinda unfair that Naga actually went to Jugdral to stop an Earth Dragon, but left Mila and Duma to their devices knowing Divine Dragons are waaaay more powerful.

The DLC and Postgame are coming though, I am awaiting that to see how Grima’s origin tale gets, but with how the retcons have been handled, I have a certain hope for how they are going to fix the hot mess that is Ylisse’s lore which is VERY commendable. I am still intrigued whether Robin is the true descendant of Alm and Celica or if Grima’s pact stems from a completely different bloodline (Judah’s maybe?). I love the fact that they specify that Alm and Celica’s bloodline lasts a thousand years because you know with what that aligns? That’s right, the first exalt. So my prediction that their bloodline was uprooted to prevent Grima from returning via vessel might be true. It’s very interesting that you get to look at Ferox’s origins, a hint of how the climate of Archanea changed and a few tidbits about Grima.

Fernand had way more focus than Berkut. I really like Fernand but let’s face it, Berkut was the bigger villain so his breakdown and death was not as emotional as Fernand’s who had a really long and cheesy death scene (that brought me to tears but yes). In the same vein, we needed his relationship with Rinoa to get more buildup so the sacrifice could be much more effective, although I will say that when he turns her into a witch is the best thing ever. Berkut you asshole.

The Zofian royal family could’ve been fleshed out a little bit more, especially with the addition of Conrad. And like Fernand’s death there were some slightly forced and/or predictable moments, but the story was pretty well handled.

But all in all…. It is an amazing game as both a standalone and as a remake, far better than Heroes of Light and Shadow thanks to the risks they took with the gameplay and story and how wisely they used the assets of the original.

THIS is in spirit how Fates should’ve handled itself. Especially considering that Nohr and Hoshido have similar setups and a similar truth about the protagonist.

I have faith that Echoes as a brand will continue, I am really looking forward to the next remake which will probably be either Genealogy of the Holy War or Binding Blade. I am looking forward to how they’ll fix Elibe’s lore and how they’ll expand the gameplay and the already vast world of Jugdral. Elibe’s history has a similar flavor to Archanea, so it might make sense that they also share an origin (especially with that theory about the Dragon’s Gate and Nagi and how Heroes has handled Elibean lore which has its issues but eh… we’ll see).

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