Honestly, this Fire Emblem is very beautiful and its music is spectacular, but apart from that, the game is bad. There's no other way to put it. The story is very weak; it couldn't be more cliché, and the interactions between characters are too few and quite bland. Not to mention that the characters treat you like a deity, which often makes the dialogues seem strange. It's the worst FE game in a long time. I won't say more because I know this game is merely a commemorative one for FE, which is probably why it has this classic storyline reminiscent of the early FE games and a linear plot.

I'll admit first and foremost, I saw the leaks before release, I saw the trailers for this game, and I thought it looked like absolute dogshit! I was terrified to see where Fire Emblem was headed with this, and lord knows I wasn't anywhere close to interested in those avatar designs. I thought it looked like complete and utter ridiculousness, but... time went on, and it grew on me. As wheatie does, the game released and I saw a few clips of it floating around on different platforms. It looked ridiculous. Almost... intentionally so?

The story is terrible, yeah, of course, I think that's been made abundantly clear by everybody, but I can't help but smile at it still. Everything about Fire Emblem Engage is silly, from its writing, to its character designs, to just its whole damn premise, it's absurd! And yet, they seem to know that! So instead of desperately trying to claw its way into a dark and brooding story, it almost felt like they were more leaning into the absurdity of what they had. This isn't a game you're supposed to take seriously, and I fuckin' love it.

Looking past that, though, as a Fire Emblem in gameplay, it does a stellar job. I don't feel the need to go over what everyone else already has countless times before, general consensus seems to be shockingly positive regarding the map design and the gameplay, but I also really enjoyed some of the paralogues, getting to revisit maps from the older games and even getting to walk around them somewhat freely after the fight's over. That's something I'd also like to talk about, because good god this game is so fucking pretty! Maybe I'm just surprised after having played Three Houses for so long and staring at its boring and repetitive maps so many times, but even besides that, the hub worlds like the Somniel or the post-battle, fully modeled maps, I was absolutely astounded by just how beautiful Engage was to look at. Could very well be the prettiest game on the Switch, helped by its already vibrant and colorful/flashy design everywhere else.

Now combine those beautiful atmospheres with a just as beautiful soundtrack, pure bliss. I spent so much time in the Somniel just spacing out and wandering the area, listening to whichever song fit the time, and at this point I think it's going to stay with me for the next while. The serenity that comes with these tracks is something I find scarcely matched in other media. Shit, I'm listening to them even now, writing this review, thanks to this cool little compilation I found of all of 'em. That's not to say the other tracks aren't amazing as well. Being as obsessed with this series as I have been for the last eight years or so, it was more than exhilarating listening to the throwbacks they whipped up for all of the Emblem Trial paralogues, or the slow and gratifying buildup of Last Engage at the end, to be followed shortly after by a lovely vocal track for the credits roll, among god knows how many others.

Engage was a stunning, whimsical, and just overall fun experience, in every sense of the word. I regret being so doubtful of this game at first, and I especially regret taking 14 entire months to finish it (oops). It's, as I said, absurd and ridiculous the whole way through, and I've learned to appreciate that sort of thing so much more over the years. I can't call it my favorite Fire Emblem, Sacred Stones has that nostalgia (and GBA) bias over me, but this was still a marvelous love letter to one of my favorite franchises ever, even despite some of its more prominent shortcomings.

"camp" as the kids say

Strategically very fun game, but the story declines compared to 3h.

I have it pending to finish, sooner or later I will pick it up, but I feel the same thing happens lately. Either they make a mechanically entertaining game (awakening, fates...) with a normal story, or they make a game with a very good story (3h echoes of valentia...), but more boring gameplay.

Juego estratégicamente muy divertido, pero la historia decae en comparación con 3h.

Lo tengo pendiente de terminar, tarde o temprano lo retomaré, pero siento que pasa lo mismo últimamente. O hacen un juego entretenido mecánicamente (awakening, fates...) con una historia normal, o hacen un juego con muy buena historia (3h echoes of valentia...), pero jugabilidad más aburrida.

The gameplay is really tight; there's a lot of customization involved with your various units and the Emblem Rings that fundamentally alter or reinforce their playstyle. The levels are really good too, and if you want to grind endlessly, the game gives you the tools to have a lot of fun doing so. That said, the narrative is hilariously messy and the aesthetic is all over the place. They really went all-out on the character designs and visuals, and not necessarily in a way that I enjoyed. Still, this is a great tactics game and should satisfy anyone who likes Fire Emblem's turn-based action.

A quite delightful strategy RPG offering some of the best gameplay in the post-Awakening portion of the series. The emblem ring system let me feel like I could tinker away at my units to satisfaction, and almost all of the maps are very interesting to play. Hell, I’m into the character designs!

Unfortunately, this is sandbagged with some of the worst cutscenes I’ve seen in a video game. The body animations (such as the very theatrical hands-on-hips pose every female character does) feel out of sync with the English dialogue, and the love of constant camera movement for every cut highlights that every background is a static image. It’s ugly, and it caused me to put the game down at least twice, for months. This is a shame, because not only is the game really fun, some of the later story sequences kinda hit me in a way I didn’t expect.

Also, a lot of the characters are unmemorable, but Alfred, Lapis, and Rosado are personal faves.

Characters outside of story and core gameplay, good. Story, abysmal. Music, fine until you realize every level theme is the engage theme in a different rendition. Engaging, cool in concept but felt like it shouldn’t have been as vital as it was even on normal difficulty. The game was a solid 3/5 until I hit the big Alear reveal that I won’t mention, but the game spiraled so hard from that point forward that a point was lost in all that nonsense both story and level design wise.

In short, apologize to Fates now.

I try to keep game comparisons to a minimum when writing a review because I think it’s only fair to judge art by its own merits, but there was only one thing on my mind while playing Engage. That it was just Fates again.

Gameplay wise this is a fantastic experience. Not only is the map design quite solid but the Emblem Rings provide some of the craziest and fun tools the series has ever offered. The flexibility at play is almost unmatched, and the good news is that they did not sacrifice a challenging experience this time around, because the difficulty modes cover the wide spectrum of player skill very well. What I really admire about Engage is how easy it is to customize your own experience without sacrificing a healthy dose of challenge. The game is (mostly) balanced around you having the crazy Emblems powers, and will frequently match you against those same powers in a way many other developers wouldn’t dare. The beauty of it is that you don’t have to engage with this mechanic if you don’t want to. Emblem Rings are stashed into it’s own little menu and the player is given full freedom to use the mechanic as much or as little as they want to. “If you don’t like, don’t use it” is a tired argument point for any game balance topic but I am always happy to see developers actually giving the player a chance not to use their overpowered mechanics.

The story is complete garbage in a way where sadly I don’t have too much to say on it. This game will test you on your belief that gameplay rules above all, if you are one of those types, and your real opinions on that issue will probably color your entire experience.

Bad story aside, Engage is without a doubt a really fun and well-designed game. It strikes well the balance between giving you crazy and powerful tools while providing interesting challenging obstacles that are consistently fun to overcome. It is up there as one of the best gameplay experiences of the entire series that makes it worth a playthrough. It also looks and sounds really good, that helps too.
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I am an avid Conquest defender and Engage is cut from the same exact cloth, but there are sadly some points that clearly put the former above the latter in terms of quality for me.

-Both Fates and Engage have some of the worst stories in the medium, but Fates actually tried telling a story. Engage feels like it's not even trying for the first half, with the barest justifications to actually having a plot, only to fall completely into the worst overdone cliches of the genre during the last few hours. In my opinion, this is the worst of both worlds, the premise and initial setup is fucking boring, if not downright rotten, so there is nothing to chew on in terms of potential. But when the stakes are actually raised it falls into the same writing pitfalls as the rest of the series. Fates had an interesting premise with a lot of potential, only to become a complete trainwreck on execution. Engage's story is a complete bunch of nothing, only to fall into the same exact problems that made Fates that much of a trainwreck. I think it only doesn't hurt as much for most people because NO ONE expected anything out of Engage after the initial trailers. For this reason I consider Engage has an even worse story than Fates, Conquest in particular, but your mileage will vary.

-Engage sadly has one of the blandest casts in the entire series. Every FE has been able to squeeze a reasonable amount of likeable or interesting characters to follow but Engage is such a complete nothing in the characterization front. This is partly fault of the complete lack of world building, characters spawn with almost no backstory or context behind them and the few supports that explore anything behind them are buried under the inmense amount of supports that just add NOTHING to the table. There are still enough decently charming characters to fill out your team, I have a particularly soft spot for the Brodian royals, but the overall quality of this cast is fucking dire. I think this is the worst cast since Binding Blade. Fates, especially Conquest, wasn't this bad either. But the fact every support conversation is now voiced might be the reason why the bad nothingburguer support conversations this team really loves writing stand out so much more now.

-The most damming thing about the game is that not even the amazing gameplay is flawless. Conquest stands high and above with the best map design the series has ever seen, with few maps I would state were outright bad. Engage, while having really solid maps overall, and in my opinion, the best earlygame of the entire series, has full stretches of mediocre ones during the Solm arc and parts of the endgame that water down the entire experience. The game balance is also nowhere near as solid. Are the Emblems astoundingly well balanced for what they are? Absolutely, and I think their contribution to how fun they make Engage cannot be overstated. But we are talking about full map healing (which is rechargeable!) as early as Chapter 6 among the dozens of tools the game gives you. I think it’s impossible to fully account for all the possibilities they created here and that shows in the game balance. I can see the argument this makes Conquest better designed too, but they are pretty even for me.

Hopefully IS hires some fucking writers next time because it is seriously getting embarrassing how bad the storytelling of their recent games is.

Like everyone else said, great gameplay, terrible story and characters.

The graphics are great for a Switch game, the animations improved a lot and everything is overall much prettier to look at.
Unfortunately, all of this is often ruined by the weebification of the character design.

This is not only reflected on the visual design of the characters, but also in how they're written and voiced. Every dialogue is extremely cringe or excessively melodramatic, making it impossible to take anything seriously.
This is especially disappointing after Three Houses, which had one of the best stories among the Fire Emblem games.

This game is saved entirely by its great gameplay, mixing classic Fire Emblem with new balanced mechanics that never feel underperforming or busted.
The same can't be said for the gameplay outside the actual maps. The Somniel is a terrible hub with no personality, and ends up being a place where you run around doing boring chores between every level.

- Take ores from the dogs
- Take the reward from the well and put some more weapons in it
- Do the social gatherings to increase support level (only for boosts because I skipped most of the cringe support dialogues)
- Go to the arena to train
- Take the shards from the achievements
- Eat to get stat boost

All of this separated by various loading screens, which made it even more frustrating.

It's very rare for a game to have such a big margin between the good and the bad. In some moments I felt like giving it 4.5 stars, and as soon as a cutscene started the score in my mind would lower to 3.0.