This review contains spoilers
I'm mixed at best.
Overall, I think the gameplay is solid. I think Break is an excellent mechanic that encourages aggression on the part of the player and makes the game's combat player-phase focused. The Engage effects are really flashy, really cool and really interesting - if a bit overpowered (Sigurd's effect is pretty bonkers, especially combined with Chloe which gives her a ridiculous amount of movement). Whilst I don't think there's an astounding map in Engage akin to Conquest Chapter 10, many of the maps in the early and mid game are very good, with the highlight being Chapter 11 in my view.
That being said, though Engage's gameplay is an improvement over Echoes and Three Houses, I absolutely wouldn't say it has the best gameplay in the series. In particular, I think Conquest overall has better balance by virtue of not having the Engage effects be so powerful, and whilst the early and mid game's map designs are good, I think that outside of the (admittedly great) final boss, Engage's map design deteriorates significantly in the late game. Out of the last 10 maps, I think there are only two maps with meaningful side objectives (in Chapters 19 and 20) and one additional anti-turtling incentive (via a time limit in Chapter 24) - and many of the late game maps feel like open fields without much in the way of interesting terrain - to the point where I'd argue that if it wasn't for Engage's core mechanics, most of the late game maps aren't any better than those of Three Houses.
My biggest issue with Engage's plot is there is nothing that is at all compelling. There's nothing that is compelling enough to really hook players in and leave a lasting impression on them either. None of the game's emotional beats manage to hit particularly well and nothing the game presents has provoked any kind of thought. Whilst Fire Emblem has had its share of simple stories in the past, no story in the series has been this incredibly shallow. I would be perfectly fine with a simple story (Sacred Stones is one of my favorite games in the series because of how well it is executed) - but Engage isn't the next Sacred Stones. If anything, it's the next Birthright in how poor the story's execution is despite how little the story attempts to do.
The dialogue is abysmal - characters at times feel like they were written by aliens who read about how humans talk in a book. This, I would argue, worsens the game's incessant avatar pandering. Whilst avatar pandering has been an issue with every Fire Emblem game since Awakening, it has never been this blatant.
Another minor issue with Engage's plot that may have been forgivable if it was attached to a more interesting story is its tonal inconsistencies. Whilst I wouldn't have had that much of an issue if Engage had committed to being a more comedic Fire Emblem game (and the first few chapters are by far the best for this reason) - there are countless moments where the game wants me to take it seriously, and because of how jarring this is compared to the silly anime hijinks that fill the rest of Engage's plot, none of these moments land.
Whilst Engage is not supposed to be a groundbreaking plot, given that it is clearly an anniversary title, I also have to note the sheer unoriginality of Engage's plot - to the point where certain late-game plot points are flat out ripped from Fates.
Engage's plot really suffers in its pacing. Because it tries to rush players from plot point to plot point without giving the player time reflect upon events or actually showing the backstories of certain characters, nothing in Engage that resembles an emotional moment feels at all earned. Of particular note is Lumera's second death in Chapter 25 where she gets revived and dies in the span of one chapter just like Mikoto did in Revelation and which my response basically was "At least Mikoto had the decency to not drag out her death for five minutes". Compare this with Lyon where there are numerous cutscenes in Sacred Stones showing his backstory and humanizing him well before he is ever fought, or even Emmeryn or Jeralt's deaths, which occur far later in the plot that that of Lumera's and after the point where you've grown attached to these characters.
I haven't even gotten to the contrivances yet - and there's a lot of contrivances attached to Engage's plot. Key plot points seem to be driven by events that come out of completely nowhere. Most notable of which are the Chapter 10-11 sequence where Veyle magically steals your time crystal out of nowhere, or the Chapter 21-22 sequence where Sombron suddenly appears out of completely nowhere, only for Alear to begin fading despite the fact that the game never hints that Corrupted die after summoning Emblems only for Veyle to try to revive Alear and fail despite successfully doing so in the previous cutscene only for Alear to get revived out of nowhere by the other twelve Emblems revive them out of completely nowhere due to some sort of thousand year miracle (which they could have done the first time Alear got killed) that the writers were clearly making up as they went along - it's a contrivance on top of a contrivance on top of a contrivance.
All of these issues wouldn't be particularly problematic if they were attached to a more interesting story. The problem with Engage's plot is that very little works particularly well. It's an aggressively mediocre plot even on paper - and as such, all of these minor issues ultimately drags this story down from a serviceable plot to one that is barely better than Fates. Even Awakening, for all of the issues with its plot, managed to have some highlights in its story which Engage just doesn't have.
In my view, the character writing of Fire Emblem is arguably the most essential aspect of the series. In this stead, Engage's character writing isn't just a very noticeable step down from Three Houses (which admittedly was always going to be a very tough act to follow), but outright mediocre at best even when taken on its own merits.
On paper, Alear is a serviceable character. They're like Shez in that they're goofy and charming (albeit maybe a bit less charming), and their suggestion to run early on is a highlight of their character. The problem I have with them, however, are twofold: the constant avatar pandering which I mentioned above, and their presence in the story.
Alear has the same issue with Corrin in that they are the only protagonist in the game. In Awakening and Three Houses, having a bland avatar, whilst still problematic, wasn't as detrimental to the plot because there were other, far more compelling lords in these games which drove the plot. The problem with Engage, though, is that since Alear has no supporting protagonist, the story requires them to be a compelling character in their own right to hold up the story - and unfortunately, whilst Alear can be charming at times, they are not a compelling character at all. The only remotely interesting aspect to their characterization is the fact that they are Sombron's child - which gets resolved in Chapter 20 immediately after it gets brought up. It isn't even brought up in their supports despite the fact that Veyle being part Fell Dragon is brought up in her supports. It's a shame, especially coming off of the two most compelling lords in the series in Edelgard and Dimitri.
I don't like Sombron as an antagonist either. He has the same issue as the Agarthans in that whilst there's something to his character, it's let down completely by the fact that most of his presentation shows him doing generically evil things. Whilst the writers wanted him to be sympathetic to an extent given his motive rant in the final chapter and in his backstory, because he isn't humanized at all, it falls completely flat. Just a scene or two where he does do good things would have worked wonders for his character.
The side characters are a massive mixed bag at best. To its credit, I feel that Engage's cast has a little more to them than that of Awakening or Fates' casts, and there's no character that's quite as offensively awful as Peri or Camilla. That being said, I think Engage's cast is presented horribly. Almost all of the C supports and even most of the B supports revolve around each character's gimmicks or is needless fluff, and very little that is particularly enlightening is brought up at all. Whilst this wasn't something that was particularly noticeable when the game leaked and I first read the supports, it's feels outright grating when I'm actually playing the game and I can't just read all of the supports at once. The A supports are much better in this regard, but even these supports aren't at all exceptional. Even the more meaningful supports feel contradictory and incohesive - compare Diamant making a bit deal about how he has to be better than his predecessors and resist his people's temptation to wage war with his support with Framme and his support with Alfred where he all but admits that he will be willing to wage war if his people demand it, making him look downright cowardly. Or how Celine makes a big deal about doing anything to protect Firene but gleefully helping Mauvier without any hesitation despite the fact that Mauvier destroyed a city in Firene and never apologizes for it - apparently she only cares about named characters in Firene?
My biggest criticism of Engage's cast is that for one reason or another (i.e. maybe Engage's worldbuilding isn't particularly deep), many of the characters don't feel like they are grounded in the world they live in. As a result, many of the characters don't have a cohesive worldview that they can use in interactions with other characters, which I think the Tellius games and Three Houses did really well. For an example, Alfred trains a lot because according to his support with Celine, he has an old illness and he doesn't want his allies to see this weakness of his. Compare this to Jill from Path of Radiance, who initially is racist due to the systemic racism within Daein, or Dorothea from Three Houses, who is desperate to marry a rich noble due to her unstable childhood as a result of Fodlan's classism. The latter two are characters whose writing wouldn't make sense outside of the world they exist in - whereas Alfred (and most of Engage's cast, for that matter) feel like they could be in any other game in the series and not much would change.
The characters of Engage also feel far too idealized. While I don't think every character needs to be outwardly flawed, so many of Engage's cast feels generically nice that the cast begins to feel outright interchangeable. Almost every character interaction has the characters in question acting polite and friendly towards each other. Because of this, there is very little room for the drama, misunderstanding, character growth or ideological disagreements that are required to make a character compelling - and just because Engage's characters are nice people don't mean that there isn't any room for such drama or disagreements to occur (Dorothea's support with Ferdinand and Mercedes' support with Sylvain are excellent examples of this despite the fact that Dorothea and Mercedes are kind people). Hence, there is nothing in Engage's character writing that is nearly as memorable as Jill having to grapple with her racism, or Marianne finding her will to live, or Lysithea grappling with her own mortality, and that's simply a shame.
It's not all bad, though. In particular, there are some standout characters that do have some compelling character interactions. In particular, Ivy is a real highlight because it feels like the worldbuilding of Elusia was very carefully considered when the writers were designing her character. The fact that she's a worshipper of the Divine Dragon makes sense because she's had poor experiences with the fact that Elusia worships the Fell Dragon, and as a result, she changed religions in secret. Similarly, the fact's that she's very distrustful can both be attributed by both her mistreatment within the Elusian court and her mistreatment at the hands of the Fell Dragon's worshippers. In this stead, she genuinely feels like a Tellius or Three Houses character in that her worldview and personality traits are informed by her place in the world. Similarly, whilst Veyle has a similar backstory to Alear in that she is part Fell Dragon, this fact is meaningfully brought up in her supports, and she is a far stronger character as a result.
Overall, it's exactly what I expected from all of the trailers - good gameplay, but really poor storytelling and characters.
Overall, I think the gameplay is solid. I think Break is an excellent mechanic that encourages aggression on the part of the player and makes the game's combat player-phase focused. The Engage effects are really flashy, really cool and really interesting - if a bit overpowered (Sigurd's effect is pretty bonkers, especially combined with Chloe which gives her a ridiculous amount of movement). Whilst I don't think there's an astounding map in Engage akin to Conquest Chapter 10, many of the maps in the early and mid game are very good, with the highlight being Chapter 11 in my view.
That being said, though Engage's gameplay is an improvement over Echoes and Three Houses, I absolutely wouldn't say it has the best gameplay in the series. In particular, I think Conquest overall has better balance by virtue of not having the Engage effects be so powerful, and whilst the early and mid game's map designs are good, I think that outside of the (admittedly great) final boss, Engage's map design deteriorates significantly in the late game. Out of the last 10 maps, I think there are only two maps with meaningful side objectives (in Chapters 19 and 20) and one additional anti-turtling incentive (via a time limit in Chapter 24) - and many of the late game maps feel like open fields without much in the way of interesting terrain - to the point where I'd argue that if it wasn't for Engage's core mechanics, most of the late game maps aren't any better than those of Three Houses.
My biggest issue with Engage's plot is there is nothing that is at all compelling. There's nothing that is compelling enough to really hook players in and leave a lasting impression on them either. None of the game's emotional beats manage to hit particularly well and nothing the game presents has provoked any kind of thought. Whilst Fire Emblem has had its share of simple stories in the past, no story in the series has been this incredibly shallow. I would be perfectly fine with a simple story (Sacred Stones is one of my favorite games in the series because of how well it is executed) - but Engage isn't the next Sacred Stones. If anything, it's the next Birthright in how poor the story's execution is despite how little the story attempts to do.
The dialogue is abysmal - characters at times feel like they were written by aliens who read about how humans talk in a book. This, I would argue, worsens the game's incessant avatar pandering. Whilst avatar pandering has been an issue with every Fire Emblem game since Awakening, it has never been this blatant.
Another minor issue with Engage's plot that may have been forgivable if it was attached to a more interesting story is its tonal inconsistencies. Whilst I wouldn't have had that much of an issue if Engage had committed to being a more comedic Fire Emblem game (and the first few chapters are by far the best for this reason) - there are countless moments where the game wants me to take it seriously, and because of how jarring this is compared to the silly anime hijinks that fill the rest of Engage's plot, none of these moments land.
Whilst Engage is not supposed to be a groundbreaking plot, given that it is clearly an anniversary title, I also have to note the sheer unoriginality of Engage's plot - to the point where certain late-game plot points are flat out ripped from Fates.
Engage's plot really suffers in its pacing. Because it tries to rush players from plot point to plot point without giving the player time reflect upon events or actually showing the backstories of certain characters, nothing in Engage that resembles an emotional moment feels at all earned. Of particular note is Lumera's second death in Chapter 25 where she gets revived and dies in the span of one chapter just like Mikoto did in Revelation and which my response basically was "At least Mikoto had the decency to not drag out her death for five minutes". Compare this with Lyon where there are numerous cutscenes in Sacred Stones showing his backstory and humanizing him well before he is ever fought, or even Emmeryn or Jeralt's deaths, which occur far later in the plot that that of Lumera's and after the point where you've grown attached to these characters.
I haven't even gotten to the contrivances yet - and there's a lot of contrivances attached to Engage's plot. Key plot points seem to be driven by events that come out of completely nowhere. Most notable of which are the Chapter 10-11 sequence where Veyle magically steals your time crystal out of nowhere, or the Chapter 21-22 sequence where Sombron suddenly appears out of completely nowhere, only for Alear to begin fading despite the fact that the game never hints that Corrupted die after summoning Emblems only for Veyle to try to revive Alear and fail despite successfully doing so in the previous cutscene only for Alear to get revived out of nowhere by the other twelve Emblems revive them out of completely nowhere due to some sort of thousand year miracle (which they could have done the first time Alear got killed) that the writers were clearly making up as they went along - it's a contrivance on top of a contrivance on top of a contrivance.
All of these issues wouldn't be particularly problematic if they were attached to a more interesting story. The problem with Engage's plot is that very little works particularly well. It's an aggressively mediocre plot even on paper - and as such, all of these minor issues ultimately drags this story down from a serviceable plot to one that is barely better than Fates. Even Awakening, for all of the issues with its plot, managed to have some highlights in its story which Engage just doesn't have.
In my view, the character writing of Fire Emblem is arguably the most essential aspect of the series. In this stead, Engage's character writing isn't just a very noticeable step down from Three Houses (which admittedly was always going to be a very tough act to follow), but outright mediocre at best even when taken on its own merits.
On paper, Alear is a serviceable character. They're like Shez in that they're goofy and charming (albeit maybe a bit less charming), and their suggestion to run early on is a highlight of their character. The problem I have with them, however, are twofold: the constant avatar pandering which I mentioned above, and their presence in the story.
Alear has the same issue with Corrin in that they are the only protagonist in the game. In Awakening and Three Houses, having a bland avatar, whilst still problematic, wasn't as detrimental to the plot because there were other, far more compelling lords in these games which drove the plot. The problem with Engage, though, is that since Alear has no supporting protagonist, the story requires them to be a compelling character in their own right to hold up the story - and unfortunately, whilst Alear can be charming at times, they are not a compelling character at all. The only remotely interesting aspect to their characterization is the fact that they are Sombron's child - which gets resolved in Chapter 20 immediately after it gets brought up. It isn't even brought up in their supports despite the fact that Veyle being part Fell Dragon is brought up in her supports. It's a shame, especially coming off of the two most compelling lords in the series in Edelgard and Dimitri.
I don't like Sombron as an antagonist either. He has the same issue as the Agarthans in that whilst there's something to his character, it's let down completely by the fact that most of his presentation shows him doing generically evil things. Whilst the writers wanted him to be sympathetic to an extent given his motive rant in the final chapter and in his backstory, because he isn't humanized at all, it falls completely flat. Just a scene or two where he does do good things would have worked wonders for his character.
The side characters are a massive mixed bag at best. To its credit, I feel that Engage's cast has a little more to them than that of Awakening or Fates' casts, and there's no character that's quite as offensively awful as Peri or Camilla. That being said, I think Engage's cast is presented horribly. Almost all of the C supports and even most of the B supports revolve around each character's gimmicks or is needless fluff, and very little that is particularly enlightening is brought up at all. Whilst this wasn't something that was particularly noticeable when the game leaked and I first read the supports, it's feels outright grating when I'm actually playing the game and I can't just read all of the supports at once. The A supports are much better in this regard, but even these supports aren't at all exceptional. Even the more meaningful supports feel contradictory and incohesive - compare Diamant making a bit deal about how he has to be better than his predecessors and resist his people's temptation to wage war with his support with Framme and his support with Alfred where he all but admits that he will be willing to wage war if his people demand it, making him look downright cowardly. Or how Celine makes a big deal about doing anything to protect Firene but gleefully helping Mauvier without any hesitation despite the fact that Mauvier destroyed a city in Firene and never apologizes for it - apparently she only cares about named characters in Firene?
My biggest criticism of Engage's cast is that for one reason or another (i.e. maybe Engage's worldbuilding isn't particularly deep), many of the characters don't feel like they are grounded in the world they live in. As a result, many of the characters don't have a cohesive worldview that they can use in interactions with other characters, which I think the Tellius games and Three Houses did really well. For an example, Alfred trains a lot because according to his support with Celine, he has an old illness and he doesn't want his allies to see this weakness of his. Compare this to Jill from Path of Radiance, who initially is racist due to the systemic racism within Daein, or Dorothea from Three Houses, who is desperate to marry a rich noble due to her unstable childhood as a result of Fodlan's classism. The latter two are characters whose writing wouldn't make sense outside of the world they exist in - whereas Alfred (and most of Engage's cast, for that matter) feel like they could be in any other game in the series and not much would change.
The characters of Engage also feel far too idealized. While I don't think every character needs to be outwardly flawed, so many of Engage's cast feels generically nice that the cast begins to feel outright interchangeable. Almost every character interaction has the characters in question acting polite and friendly towards each other. Because of this, there is very little room for the drama, misunderstanding, character growth or ideological disagreements that are required to make a character compelling - and just because Engage's characters are nice people don't mean that there isn't any room for such drama or disagreements to occur (Dorothea's support with Ferdinand and Mercedes' support with Sylvain are excellent examples of this despite the fact that Dorothea and Mercedes are kind people). Hence, there is nothing in Engage's character writing that is nearly as memorable as Jill having to grapple with her racism, or Marianne finding her will to live, or Lysithea grappling with her own mortality, and that's simply a shame.
It's not all bad, though. In particular, there are some standout characters that do have some compelling character interactions. In particular, Ivy is a real highlight because it feels like the worldbuilding of Elusia was very carefully considered when the writers were designing her character. The fact that she's a worshipper of the Divine Dragon makes sense because she's had poor experiences with the fact that Elusia worships the Fell Dragon, and as a result, she changed religions in secret. Similarly, the fact's that she's very distrustful can both be attributed by both her mistreatment within the Elusian court and her mistreatment at the hands of the Fell Dragon's worshippers. In this stead, she genuinely feels like a Tellius or Three Houses character in that her worldview and personality traits are informed by her place in the world. Similarly, whilst Veyle has a similar backstory to Alear in that she is part Fell Dragon, this fact is meaningfully brought up in her supports, and she is a far stronger character as a result.
Overall, it's exactly what I expected from all of the trailers - good gameplay, but really poor storytelling and characters.