Fire Emblem Engage impressions: a drastic departure from Three Houses

If Three Houses: The Fire Emblem It was a zig. Fire Emblem is Engage The resulting zig. The 2019 epic plunged headfirst into simulation of relationships between turn-based battles. Engageis almost exclusively focused on militarism.

That’s not to say there aren’t Any Social elements Engage. Throughout the first eight chapters (the chunk I’m allowed to talk about here), I’ve spent a great deal of time at the Somniel, this game’s base of operations. I’ve dined with some teammates, exercised with others, and gifted my allies a variety of items I’ve found lying around our HQ. Occasionally, the “support rank” between two characters has improved from a “C” rating to a “B,” promising proximity buffs in subsequent missions.

Engage’s intermittent social elements are cursory, less concerned with character development than in how these interactions will manifest in the next fight. Three Houses You had a group of people to teach, train, and love throughout your campaign. Engage The old method of recruiting new soldiers when you cross the globe map is still used. It is actually quite the opposite. Hurls New recruits available to you. Chapter 8 was over, and I had already started to default to the dozen same characters in most fights. This meant that I kept the eight extra characters on reserve.

Image: Intelligent Systems/Nintendo

To avoid missing the enticing subplots, I disabled permadeath to make it easier for me to rely on greenhorns less often. However, with few exceptions thus far, cast members all feel like rough drafts — one loves cooking, while another enjoys lifting weights. The 10-second supporting cutscenes focus on (you guessed right) lifting weights and cooking. The In EngageCharacters rarely go beyond the two or three hobbies they are passionate about, so the relationships that result from them can be fragile.

So, no, you won’t spend your time at the Somniel getting to know a small cast of characters intimately — instead, you’ll be micromanaging your fighters’ skills, gathering cooking ingredients, doing pushups to gain buffs during the next skirmish, and adopting a veritable zoo of barnyard animals to grant you supplies. If you are interested in this job, please let me know. Three Houses drew inspiration from Persona’s calendar-focused and character-oriented gameplay loop, Engage feels more like a management sim in which you’re returning to base to perform menial chores and maintenance before the action kicks in again. This loop feels more Fire Emblem like. Use Before, to Three Houses This was an important step. (I’m also reminded of last year’s Cult of the Lamb.)

It is as if it were not. Engage It excels in turn-based battles and is socially active. There are many maps to choose from in Chapter 1. The map is varied with rivers, castle ramparts as well as siege equipment and the fog of war making it difficult for players to find solutions and exploit. It’s an absolute joy to send a strong armored unit (in this case Louis, a royal bodyguard) into a group of bandits before covering him at a distance with a lightning bolt from a mage (Clanne, a powerful sorcerer who began as a lowly peon), and finishing off the remainders with cavalry, archers, and skilled sword masters.

Image: Intelligent Systems/Nintendo

Pre-Three HousesFire Emblem games utilized a rock-paper, scissors weapons system. It is returning here. For example, Alfred, the crown prince, who has strong spear skills and begins the game can keep enemy sword wielders away from counterattacking. This swordsman is able to break all my soldiers by using axes. Final words: Axes are the enemy of spears. Each move is subject to the cycle of vulnerability.

Engage’s biggest departure from previous games may be in how these characters actually master new weapons, classes, and skills. You can enter the ring system. By “bonding” with different Emblem Rings (whether by wearing them in battle or through a useful activity in the Somniel), characters can inherit the skills of the ring’s associated character, each of whom is a character from the franchise’s past. For example, increasing the bond between Marth and a character will allow them to become proficient with swords. This allows them to progress into more sword-centric classes. They’ll also gain new attacks, defensive skills, and passive abilities that are all vaguely Marth-themed.

Image: Intelligent Systems/Nintendo

Any character who wears an Emblem Ring in battle will also be able to perform the titular “Engage” maneuver, essentially supercharging them for three turns and granting them game-breaking abilities. Micaiah’s ring is my favourite (from Radiant Dawn: Fire Emblem): It heals every ally in the battle, but knocks the user’s hit points down to one.

Engage’s ring system is initially difficult to parse, but now that I’ve spent hours in the menus, I’ve uncovered one of the more flexible class systems in any Fire Emblem to date. You allow any character to learn any weapon regardless of what their character traits are. Engage There are many options for army formations. My current army relies heavily on mages, cavalry, and an armored frontline, but I’m already theorycrafting several other army compositions when I’m not playing.

As of today, Engage It has hooked me. The social aspects of the game are missing, which I can only imagine is why it’s so addictive. Lots The number of people who were there with Three Houses You will likely be dissatisfied and/or overwhelmed by this experience. Looking back is actually a good thing. Three Houses Get it now It feels more like a deviation from the previous series’ trajectory than if it were a model for what is to come.

But as someone who appreciates tactics games that let me find my own stories among a multifarious band of fighters, I’m enjoying the hell out of it so far. It’s always rushing to get to the next battle, where one of my weaker archers can deliver the killing blow to a problematic enemy, rank up, earn a new class, and become one of my most prized snipers. Fire Emblem is EngageThe first eight chapters are all about turn-based combat. The rest of the chapters are merely preparation.