This game took me A LONG TIME to get into. Having never played a game of this style, the game really didn't have a lot of instruction and most of it I figured out through trial and error (lots of error). I just felt like for a long time that I was just REALLY bad at this game and it was really discouraging to say the least. It felt clunky and I just couldn't get used to the controls for the life of me, but once I got them down and unlocked more useful shards and weapons, the whole game was easier to navigate. This game really isn't forgiving and save rooms are few and far between so when you fuck up, it feels worse than usual. Once I was about 50% done with the game I started to get hooked and had my own shard formula that worked very well for my playstyle. The bosses for the most part were very challenging and I had a lot of fun with them but I must admit, they were glitchy. The two bosses that my game glitched out for were the twin dragons and the doppelganger. For the twin dragons fight, I randomly fell through the walkway and fell 2 levels down and saw the dragons from behind (they don't have full tails by the way; fun fact) and the doppelganger got stuck in the wall at some point and wouldn't come out. It just felt like for the boss fights, there should be little room for glitches to happen and they still do. Overall this game doesn't have a lot of replay value (at least to me) but I do feel like I got a full experience and am able to form a solid opinion on it.

First of all, fuck J.K Rowling.
This game was super ambitious and had a lot going for it. I remember the general public being pumped for this, even non-Harry Potter fans. When it came out I was disappointed to learn switch users were gonna have to wait longer and for the most part, it was worth the wait. The open world is beautiful with a lot of exploration to do with secrets around every corner. I was hooked to the story from the beginning but I soon found myself putting the main quest on the backburner for a long time because of the amount of side content. But I pulled through and finished the main quest and I was very happy with it.
This game has many faults though and it wasn't stuff I could overlook most of the time. This game has TOO much content first and foremost. As a completionist, this game hurt me. There are way too many collections, for example; landing pads, balloons, demiguise statues, field guide pages, Merlin Trials, collection chests, SOOOO MANY COLLECTION CHESTS. And for the outcome and lack of new "treasure" it felt like a chore to do it do I chose not to (and that's unusual for me). The only thing I 100% completed was the challenges and there was no reward for completing all of that (just saying), but it didn't bother me too much as by that point in my playthrough I was SO READY to put this game down. The Room of Requirement was fun in theory and I'm sure it could have been better if I messed around with it but it just wasn't worth it in my opinion, the creature care was actually one of the strong points of this game and could have been a lot more fun if they had the offsprings grow up instead of them staying little forever. It doesn't give you any reason to come back to it. Combining genetics to get different creatures after generations and generations could have been super fun and satisfying but they just.... didn't? It felt like a dead end and kind of annoyed me.
The voice lines also get super repetitive because there just isn't a lot of variants. Every enemy camp you came across had the same voice lines, it just got annoying after awhile. I did enjoy the combat and I after I realized that you can set 4 different spell sets, it was even better. The Ancient magic meter was super fun to use and I loved the variety of different attacks.
I had heard horror stories about how laggy this game is and I found it to run surprisingly well on the switch, but one of my complaints that was hard to ignore (and I'm not sure if it's like this on other platforms, let me know) is the fact that there are so many loading screens, I don't mind if it needs to buffer a second while you're walking through the door but Hogsmeade was especially super annoying to navigate because every single building had a loading screen, it made it hard to collect pages or finding treasure because Revelio wouldn't show what was inside buildings behind loading screens. Hamlets and Hogwarts didn't have this problem but I hated going to Hogsmeade for this reason.
The last point I'm going to talk about is the MC being insufferable, I wish they had different varieties or points of personality that you build up with your reputation over time but I know this was a large game and there was a lot going into it, I just wish they made them feel less stuck-up.
Overall, while I had a lot of fun with this game, it's not worth it to 100% it and I probably won't be going back to it ever.

Alright, so I tried this game years ago, played for a few hours and then put it down because I was really turned off by it being a roguelike game. Just picked it up again after all this time and I’m so glad I did. The characters are so likeable and the art style is absolutely gorgeous. Took me a little while to get hooked at first because I really don’t like the idea of roguelikes (just personal preference, just not my style of game) but I pushed through and started finding my build and once I figured out something that worked for me, I absolutely loved it. I found the gameplay frustratingly addicting and the story was such an incredible use of the game style. The dialogue was hilarious at times, I found myself saving videos of interactions all the time. I know to fully “beat” the game you have to complete it 10 times and I MIGHT do that in the future but right now, I don’t have any urge to. I beat it once and that was enough for me, but the story does make me want to see more eventually.

I really really enjoyed this game and am already planning a second playthrough. Though at first, I couldn't get hooked, mainly because the game is heavily story based and it takes a good amount of time for it to get set up, so there is A LOT of cutscenes towards the beginning and I just felt like I was playing through a narrative. But as the plot starts to unfold, this set-up is absolutely justified. This is a very emotional, politically driven story with heartbreak around every corner. I really appreciate how the decisions of the player significantly impact the direction of the story. I for one, can't stand games where they give you a dialogue decision and no matter how you answer, it doesn't change anything. This game absolutely makes you live with the consequences of your actions, making every decision a hard one. The characters are extremely well written, Frederica being on of my personal favorites. The fact that each character plays completely different then one another is so fun to mess around with. There are no identical classes so it gives you an excuse to use each and every character and find what works best for you as the player. Overall, the narration, voice acting, gameplay, and story make this a real treasure of a game, one that I can certainly go back to since there are so many other paths to take.

Now that I beat the main story, I feel like I can finally review this. After the feeling of wonder and awe that I felt with Breath of the Wild, I had high expectations for this game. For the most part, this exceeded my expectations in more ways than one. But I must say, this game didn't give me the same feeling when I began it, it was a good feeling but very different. Maybe it was the beginning sky island or the vibe of the story but it didn't feel the same and that may be no fault of the game; in all honesty, I don't think any game will make me feel the way that BOTW felt. But besides that impossible expectation, this game is near perfect. It is everything I would want in a sequel game. The controls frustrated me to no-end at the beginning but after awhile of playing, it became very familiar. I applaud the amount of new content this game gave with the addition of the sky islands and the depths (it took me an embarrassingly long amount of time to discover the depths by the way) and even the new content and flow of the surface. They left a good amount to discover with the additions of the caves and wells. I loved the sages and their powers. They all proved to be very helpful at times, I mostly had Tulin and Yonobo out at all times. As for the story, while it wasn't perfect, I feel satisfied with it. I don't feel like there were any loose ends and there were no questions that went unanswered. I'm planning on returning it to 100% it, I'm at about 70% as of finishing it. (Just need to finish side quests).

Finally pushed through and finished this one after months of putting it off. Engage is a great game, don't get me wrong. This game had a chokehold on me for the first half of it but as it went on, the story got way too unnecessarily ambitious. There were way too many twists and turns that it turned into something I didn't care to be invested in by the end. That being said, the ending was absolutely beautiful and specifically the cutscene with all the emblems right before the final battle. (shoutout to my boyfriend for pulling up the cutscene on youtube when I accidently skipped it). It got me excited for a fight the first time in awhile.
The gameplay was great for the most part. I loved the engage feature, it made fights more fun, finding new and creative ways to take down enemies. The maps were very fun, with terrain effects and gimmicks that made the game not as repetitive.
The characters were enjoyable but compared to the close-knit groups in three houses, they fell short. This game made it a lot harder to achieve A-Support with units that by the end, I was disappointed with the amount of content I wasn't able to see. I can see it being easier if you grind support with a few select characters but me being me, I like to give everyone a chance to participate and Somniel activities and battle (Except Saphir and Lindon, screw them. Literally had to just look up their names, that's how much I don't care about them). A few of these characters became very dear to me, my favorite being Zelkov. Honorable mentions include Pandreo, Amber, Alcryst, Rosado, and Merrin.
As far as units go, this game has some broken characters. I can literally send Merrin off on her own to take out a large group of enemies and she is fine. No one even comes close to even hitting her. A few characters who also are very close to that level of broken are Panette, Kagetsu, Diamont, Yunaka and Timerra. Most of these units can be pretty self-sufficient and were a consistent staple in my army.
I found the game overall enjoyable. It wasn't perfect by any means but it wasn't bad at all. I thought the running sibling theme really worked for a game like this. Maybe it was because I didn't get supports up all the way up but some of the characters didn't even feel like they were close to the characters who were written to be close with other characters. EX: Diamont/Amber, Merrin/Timerra. To me, that just takes away from the close-knit feeling that games like three houses gave me. So perhaps that's why I wasnt as emotionally invested in this story. Some of these characters who are saving the world together felt like absolute strangers. Overall, I'm glad I got to play this game and I'm glad I got to know some of these characters from the franchise that I didn't know about before. For a long time fire emblem fan, I can see this being a great crossover game and a solid stand-alone game with its own story. I usually can tell by the end of a game if its something I'll ever go back to. For this one, I can't tell. Mainly because 'New Game+" isn't an option. If it were, I might be tempted to get support conversations that I wasn't able to get in my first playthrough. But since its not, going back to it feels pointless and starting a new game would feel like a chore. So for now, I'm done with it. It was fun for what it was :)