DS3 has to be the hardest game I've ever played. After beating Elden Ring, I came to this game for a similar experience. Needless to say, I was NOT expecting the difficulty jump to be so high. The game starts off pretty easy, but quickly progresses into a poise-breaking nightmare. The enemies hit incredibly hard and bonfires are few and far between. As an intelligence build, the casting animations were super slow, and with enemies that are constantly spamming attacks, I died a lot more than I'd like to admit (thanks Abyss watchers). Overall, I still had lots of fun with this game, completing all the messy and intricate quests and enjoying the story to its fullest.

Fire Emblem Engage is definitely not a bad game. The gameplay is really well done and a lot smoother than what we saw in Three Houses. The classification system has been heavily simplified but still leaves lots of room for unique customizations, especially with inherited skills. Beefing up units was also much easier with the availability of unlimited skirmishes. Additionally, I found the features offered at the Somniel fun to mess around with, even though the "effects" or "rewards" were often useless (except The Well of course). The story, however, was terrible. It started off decent enough, but slowly devolved into a mess of plot holes and rules made to convenience it. It was clear to me that there were some serious budget cuts when it came to portraying story elements, particularly on the last few chapters. This game can ultimately be boiled down to a nostalgia cash-grab with a great focus on gameplay but a story worse that an Isekai light novel.