Apollo Kid
Veteran
Is it me or is Alear weak AF?
Fire Emblem Engage (January 20, 2023)
- Thread starter Responsible Allen Iverson
- Start date
ReggieFlare
Superstar
They kinda are compared to some of the past avatars. Mine started putting in hella work once I leveled up their bond Marth emblem
He’s only decent in the early part of the game but you can definitely make him OP by mid-late game
Beat the game and I had a blast with it 
The only place this game falls short is in the generic story and more lighthearted tone overall. I like the characters themselves but the plot was very bland to me. The last 25% of the story gets a lil more interesting and unpredictable but ultimately this game lacks the charm of other FE games
That being said, graphics, music, performance, and gameplay are all excellent IMO. I really liked developing my army and all the potential builds I could make. On Hard the gameplay is challenging and forces you to play a high risk/high reward playstyle. Yeah you have a ton of crazy engage abilities but you’re still gonna be put in some tough situations that require you to use everything at your disposal just to make it to the next turn
Overall I say this is a 8.6 out of 10. Excellent mechanics and presentation, but the narrative wasn’t really compelling to me at all
The only place this game falls short is in the generic story and more lighthearted tone overall. I like the characters themselves but the plot was very bland to me. The last 25% of the story gets a lil more interesting and unpredictable but ultimately this game lacks the charm of other FE games
That being said, graphics, music, performance, and gameplay are all excellent IMO. I really liked developing my army and all the potential builds I could make. On Hard the gameplay is challenging and forces you to play a high risk/high reward playstyle. Yeah you have a ton of crazy engage abilities but you’re still gonna be put in some tough situations that require you to use everything at your disposal just to make it to the next turn
Overall I say this is a 8.6 out of 10. Excellent mechanics and presentation, but the narrative wasn’t really compelling to me at all
tripleaamin
All Star
Finally finished this. Biggest thing the gameplay imo is a big jump from 3 Houses on hard+classic. It has a good balance between not too difficult, but not brain dead easy. It is not to say there is broken setups. Diamant's hold out + wrath + vantage + sol setup + killing edge with max crit is one example. You get so much flexibility with your setups. Like while each character has their clear proficiencies. But you are locked to it. Which is cool.
Also the rings themselves have flexibility as well. Marth being great when breaking. Celica for magic DPS, etc. So many options with inheriting skills that each play through can feel fresh. Also map design did feel very solid where this was a problem in 3 houses.
Story wise it is more generic and predictable. Twists themselves were very predictable, but they did job executing them after the fact. (Late game spoilers) Regarding Alear's relationship with both Veyle and Lumera were good to me. Veyle's grit to try to stand out and not be dependent on her sibling. Showcasing Lumera's impact on Alear was well executed. Ch. 25 + Ch. 26 Compared in 3 Houses after Jeralt died the writers forgot about him completely.
Music was good. Animations did have a nice improvement. Supports like in 3 houses start kind of wack but the B and A supports for most of them made up for it. Alchryst + Celine one was an amazing one talking about their concern of their brothers and how that was haunting them. Or Yuneka trying to keep her secret hidden.
I don't think this will satisfy the hardcore FE fans. But imo it strikes a very good balance between casual and hardcore. Having only played 3 Houses where that was more so on the casual side of things imo.
Ending felt safe, but even the direction was weird and predictable. Overall I had a blast with it.
Anyway about to start a maddening run.
Also the rings themselves have flexibility as well. Marth being great when breaking. Celica for magic DPS, etc. So many options with inheriting skills that each play through can feel fresh. Also map design did feel very solid where this was a problem in 3 houses.
Story wise it is more generic and predictable. Twists themselves were very predictable, but they did job executing them after the fact. (Late game spoilers) Regarding Alear's relationship with both Veyle and Lumera were good to me. Veyle's grit to try to stand out and not be dependent on her sibling. Showcasing Lumera's impact on Alear was well executed. Ch. 25 + Ch. 26 Compared in 3 Houses after Jeralt died the writers forgot about him completely.
Music was good. Animations did have a nice improvement. Supports like in 3 houses start kind of wack but the B and A supports for most of them made up for it. Alchryst + Celine one was an amazing one talking about their concern of their brothers and how that was haunting them. Or Yuneka trying to keep her secret hidden.
I don't think this will satisfy the hardcore FE fans. But imo it strikes a very good balance between casual and hardcore. Having only played 3 Houses where that was more so on the casual side of things imo.
Ending felt safe, but even the direction was weird and predictable. Overall I had a blast with it.
Anyway about to start a maddening run.
tripleaamin
All Star
If anyone is interested in playing on maddening difficulty. Now for any difficulty you can choose whether you want randomized growth rates vs fixed growth rates. For maddening you would need to beat it on fixed growth rates first. You shouldn't be playing this difficulty until beating hard at least once imo.
Regardless would strongly recommend looking at the growth rates in Serene Forest. It has everything you need to know for gameplay. Most importantly character and class growth rates.
Regardless would strongly recommend looking at the growth rates in Serene Forest. It has everything you need to know for gameplay. Most importantly character and class growth rates.
Engage - Serenes Forest
Overview The latest Fire Emblem for the Nintendo Switch. Announced during the September 2022 Nintendo Direct, this is a new Fire Emblem game set in the continent of Elyos. A
serenesforest.net
tripleaamin
All Star
Finished up Ch. 10 on my replay.
No doubt the game has writing issues, but these two dialogue exchanges were executed so well.
tripleaamin
All Star
Finished up the Xenolouge story.
Story wise it is a fun thing. You get kind of an idea how it was to be a fell child of Sombron. And like with Alear & Veyle in the base game I throught the sibling relationship between Nel and Nil was very nice. But not too much with that if taking the story seriously.
Now the different personalities in the royals was really fun to see. Alfred is a conquerer. Celine is a fukking dictator. Alchryst is now an alpha and Diamant is beta. Fogado is fukking unhinged. I guess Timarra is a no chill ruler. Ivy worships the fell dragon ironically and is fukked up evil. Hortensia has no life in her soul.
The winds relationship is obviously much better done then the hounds. Not great but it is a lot better. And somehow more is done with them in a short time.
Gameplay wise from an enjoyment standpoint this is a step down from the main story. Given this is DLC they wanted to throw everything at you. But the issue is you might not have the options available to you with regards to units or emblems. Imo you should set the difficulty down from what you are doing in the base game the first time you run through this. It's evident when you play the last 2 maps.
The new classes you unlock is really nice. It gives some units like Jean and Bouche much better use imo.
Also keep in mind if doing a fresh playthrough the units you unlock are classed as levels 20/21.
Story wise it is a fun thing. You get kind of an idea how it was to be a fell child of Sombron. And like with Alear & Veyle in the base game I throught the sibling relationship between Nel and Nil was very nice. But not too much with that if taking the story seriously.
Now the different personalities in the royals was really fun to see. Alfred is a conquerer. Celine is a fukking dictator. Alchryst is now an alpha and Diamant is beta. Fogado is fukking unhinged. I guess Timarra is a no chill ruler. Ivy worships the fell dragon ironically and is fukked up evil. Hortensia has no life in her soul.
The winds relationship is obviously much better done then the hounds. Not great but it is a lot better. And somehow more is done with them in a short time.
Gameplay wise from an enjoyment standpoint this is a step down from the main story. Given this is DLC they wanted to throw everything at you. But the issue is you might not have the options available to you with regards to units or emblems. Imo you should set the difficulty down from what you are doing in the base game the first time you run through this. It's evident when you play the last 2 maps.
The new classes you unlock is really nice. It gives some units like Jean and Bouche much better use imo.
Also keep in mind if doing a fresh playthrough the units you unlock are classed as levels 20/21.
It got nominated for best strategy/sim
The Game Awards
Check out the nominees for Best Sim / Strategy at TheGameAwards.com. Who will you vote for? #TheGameAwards @TheGameAwards
thegameawards.com
You right. Maybe it's just a bias against this style of game but Three Houses didn't get an RPG or GOTY nomination either.It got nominated for best strategy/sim
The Game Awards
Check out the nominees for Best Sim / Strategy at TheGameAwards.com. Who will you vote for? #TheGameAwards @TheGameAwards
tripleaamin
All Star
I mean if BG 3 can be GOTY. I don't see why FE can't get nominated for these genres if they put a quality game.
The thing with Engage the gameplay is great, but the story is poor. I do have a soft spot for the characters tho don't push the envelope like the house leaders. 3 Houses had a fantastic cast that and its music are by far its best trait.
Three Houses in particular is a game that feels great in a first play through tho honestly it feels worse after each play through.
- Most common criticism is the issue with the repeated playthroughs. Given that you are playing the same first half in each of the 4 routes. And the monastery after your first playthrough is a misery and you just want to skip.
- Map design is repetitive and very poor.
- Difficulty wise it is not well designed because unlike with Engage where it is designed for you to make broken builds and the difficulty on maddening is balanced around this. This isn't the case for 3 Houses where its so easy to break it for a game that wasn't designed to be broken. Hard is a joke and maddening is tedious with fukking bullshyt mechanics like ambush spawning.
- The routes are incomplete and feel like copy and paste of each other. The only one that I was satisfied with was Blue Lions. Golden Deer is a copy and paste of Silver Snow. Then the issue with Silver Snow your don't have a house leader and consider Byleth is an atrocious Mc makes it so much worse. Crimson Flower the edelgard has a good portion of the story written in the epilouge. There is prob 2-3 chapters of content they could have put in but skipped.