I made a (half) joke review right after I finished the game, but now that I've played like 110 hours of this game, time for a not-joke one. Octopath Traveler II may have definitively claimed the throne as my game of the year, but Engage is a molecularly close second place. It's a game like this that makes me so happy to be a ride-or-die Fire Emblem fan. Be prepared, this is gonna be long; I have a lot to say, and basically all of it is gushing about this beautiful game.
Mechanically, this is the perfect Fire Emblem game. Intelligent Systems cannot possibly hope to do better than this, because they have achieved perfection with Engage. It takes many of the great parts of every previous game's core mechanics, like Awakening's reclass system, Three Houses' limitless reclass options (with no gender locks this time, thank you!), map design that feels akin to Fates and the GBA trilogy, and a skill system more like the Tellius games with its limited space, along with its own original mechanics, like the Break mechanic, class types, and the focal point of the game, the Emblem Rings, throws them all together, and melts down into the most fun first playthrough I've ever had in with Fire Emblem game. Everything blends together so mind-bendingly perfectly; it reminds me a lot of Thracia 776 in that regard, but with actually fun and cool mechanics, instead of mechanics so unfair and brutal that they somehow loop back to being fun.
I could gush on and on about how much I love the Emblem Rings, but we'd be here for a while if I did, so...you know what, no. Fuck it. I will. I'm gonna gush about all of them. The Emblem Rings are so flavorful to their original games, and I need to scream about them. I fucking love this game.
Marth is the first Emblem you get access to (I mean, yeah, no shit it's him), and he serves as a great tutorial on the Rings themselves and the game as a whole, while also still being really strong. His quickly learned Break Defenses skill provides an extra incentive for the player to learn the importance of the weapon triangle, and more so how to effectively use the Break mechanic. Given that Marth's whole shtick in recent games is being a fastboi, it's only natural that he's the prime dodgetanking Emblem ring, given that nearly half of his skills increase Avo and Spd. Lodestar Rush is is goober attack, and is the epitome of what playing against him in Smash is like, as well as his fastboi nature, since big Spd = double attacking, and this is septuple (or more) attacking. It's amazing. I love it.
Anyway, Celica. Celica is the funny mage Emblem Ring, and was probably the one I used the least, since mages don't feel that insane in this game (for once). Like Marth, and Sigurd later, she serves as a way to showcase just how crucial the Emblem Rings can be in swinging a battle in your favor, and look no further than her goober attack, Warp Ragnarok. Warp Ragnarok throws you up to 10 tiles forward, regardless of what terrain is in the way, and does a big attack on an enemy within 2 spaces. It's likely a reference to the Witches from her home game, and their ability to omae wa mou shindeiru your low-Res ass from halfway across the map. More importantly, though, its application in her introductory map implies that Céline, the one who has Celica equipped, is meant to jump in and save Chloé and Louis from wave of enemies, teaching the player just how useful the ability to move your units far away in a pinch, be it offensively or defensively, really is.
Sigurd, the second Emblem you get, is really funny. They saw how overpowered he is, both in Genealogy of the Holy War and with his Legendary alt in Heroes, and were just like "yeah let's do that, they'll love it." Yes, I did. I guess Sigurd's whole shtick now is just having a billion Mov, because he innately gives +5 Mov (which doubles most of your units' Mov stats in this game) while Engaged, and an additional +1 Mov just for being equipped, Engaged or not. The only thing I can think of for a sort of "teaching moment" he gives is when Lumera uses him in the Emblem Ring tutorial map, as a sort of "hey, pay attention to what the enemies can do" reminder; having Lumera charge at Clanne out of nowhere, from halfway across the map, was genuinely terrifying lol
LEIF LITERALLY TURNS WHOEVER ENGAGES WITH HIM INTO A THRACIA ENEMY, OH MY GOD I CANNOT TAKE IT THIS GAME IS AMAZING
...ahem. Anyway, Roy is more akin to his Smash counterpart than his Fire Emblem counterpart, but let's be real, his Smash incarnation is what he's more well-known for anyway, and it is much better off that way than the literal wet noodle he is in Binding Blade. He's meant to be used on your frontliners; the unit equipped with him hits obscenely hard, and has additional survivability with the Hold Out skill. Blazing Lion, Roy's goober move, acts as both an offensive tool and a defensive tool; after use, it leaves an AOE of fire on the tiles surrounding the enemy you targeted with it, making it harder for grounded enemies to pass through and attack past it. Roy's tutorial map, the attack on Brodia Castle, is a defend map, so it makes perfect use of this by making it harder for the enemies Diamant is facing to reach the defense point. I'm telling you, this game is so masterfully designed, it makes my head explode.
Lyn is the embodiment of "we do a little trolling." She's an excellent way to weaken, or outright get rid of, annoying enemies from really far away with her goober move, Astra Storm, which shoots an enemy with 5 arrows from up to 10 spaces away (20 if you're a Covert class, did someone say Alcryst?). She can summon doubles to participate in Chain Attacks from any distance, which is probably a cheeky little reference to how many alts she has in Heroes. The doubles can be used defensively, too, being summoned in a pinch to distract enemies from your weakened allies, since they all have 1 HP, and to block enemy paths. I also have to shout out her Speedtaker and Alacrity skills, which will carry you on Hard and Maddening. Honestly, she's one of the best Emblems in the game (unsurprisingly, given that, you know, she's Lyn).
Eirika and (more forgettably) Ephraim, the last Emblem you get access to in the main game, is a pretty powerful one if you know how to use them effectively. Their whole gimmick is that you can switch between them at will with the Night and Day ability; Eirika cuts through bulkier enemies whenever you initiate combat, essentially giving you a Moonbow effect, and gives a flat decrease to incoming damage. Meanwhile, Ephraim heals you for each attack whenever you initiate combat, essentially giving you a Noontime effect, and gives a flat increase to your damage output. However, if you Engage with them, you get all four effects at once, making your unit an obscenely strong player phase unit. Their goober move, Twin Strike, is a powerful double attack that's effective against Corrupted enemies, which, given that they're basically the only enemies you'll encounter after a certain point in the story, will be a godsend for dealing with the stronger ones.
Ike is probably the funniest Emblem in the game. His main goal is to blow up, and act like he don't know nobody. See, he makes your unit unable to avoid attacks while Engaged, but halves all incoming damage, and even has ways to increase your defensive stats to become even more unkillable. Perhaps the funniest application of this is with his goober move, Great Aether, which makes your unit unable to counterattack for a turn, but will boost their defenses during that turn. At the start of that unit's next turn, that unit will unleash a massive attack on all enemies within 2 spaces, and heal a chunk of the damage dealt. I have so many clips saved on my Switch of doing this stupid attack with Panette and blowing up an entire group of enemies with it. Special shoutout to his updated Wrath skill, which increases Crit rate by 1% for each HP you've lost, capping at 30. It's the sole thing responsible for so many ridiculous interactions with Panette, the absolute MVP of my playthrough, she is a goddess.
Micaiah is the ultimate healing Emblem; she cares about staves, healing with staves, and beating mounted and armored enemies senseless. Shine having a Torch effect stapled on to it is a "fun" callback to Radiant Dawn's abundant fog of war maps. It's very rarely useful in this game, but is great when the occasional darkness map shows up...like her tutorial map, for instance. Giving Micaiah to Yunaka, a thief who likes critting and dodging, in her tutorial map, was a great way to show how useful Micaiah can be to even random units on your team who don't care even slightly about healing. Since Micaiah lets anyone use staves while she's Engaged, you can turn that unit into another healer on top of their usual role, and her goober skill, Great Sacrifice, is the definition of a "break glass in case of emergency" ability, fully healing your entire team (including green units!), while setting the user's HP to 1.
Lucina basically turns your unit into a paired-up Awakening unit, and for those who remember how overpowered pair-up was in Awakening...it's pretty strong here, too. She makes use of this game's version of pair-up, chain attacks, in practically all of her abilities. She lets other allies chain attack with her goober move, All for One, regardless of their class type, which is great for whittling down bulky enemies really fast, since chain attacks deal flat damage and aren't affected by defensive stats, and she can enable whoever is Engaged with her to chain attack any enemy an ally attacks within movement distance. Another ability of hers is Bonded Shield, which is a more OP version of the Chain Guard ability that Qi Adept classes have, since it just flat-out prevents damage instead of redirecting it, and can be used at any HP threshold, not just full HP. Basically, she's a fantastic support Emblem that will be obscenely useful in more situations than you think.
Corrin is the most versatile Emblem in the game. Her Dragon Vein ability, which can be used regardless of whether or not you're Engaged with herum, yes please?, works like a more micro-scale version of the Fates Dragon Veins; upon use, it alters the terrain around you based on your class type for one turn, and can be used once each action. The one used in her introduction map (which is honestly one of the best maps in the game, full stop) is with Seadall, the dancer of this game and a Qi Adept class, which spawns a fragment of the Revelation Ice Map™ in front of you to block the enemy's path. There are plenty of others, too. Backup classes summon a ring of rocks to boost the defenses of those inside; Cavalry summons an AOE of water tiles that plummet Avo; Covert summons a ring of fog that boosts Avo (which is great with Yunaka's personal skill); Armored summons a ring of vines that make all units inside immune to breaking; Flying summons a ring of healing that...does exactly what it sounds like it does; Mystical does the Roy thing and summons an AOE of flames in front of you, which was the one I used the most by far; and Dragon, which is exclusive to Alear and [REDACTED], lets you choose any one from all seven of these. That's not even her strongest attribute, though. One of her skills, Pair Up, makes the user immune to damage from chain attacks, which is not only a nice callback to Fates' modified pair up, but is one of the best skills a tank unit could ask for. Her goober skill, Torrential Roar, is a lifesaver, as it makes all foes in range of it unable to move for one turn, saving your ass from a scary attack during enemy phase if used effectively.
Finally, Byleth. Like Roy, Byleth also draws from his Smash counterpart, with his whole shtick being "I confiscated my entire class's legendary equipment because they couldn't behave, and 'forgot' to give them back before coming here." Whatever the first Relic is, like Corrin's Dragon Vein, is determined by class type: Backup gets Marianne's Blutgang, Cavalry gets Dimitri's Areadbhar, Covert gets Claude's Failnaught, Armor gets Felix's Aegis Shield, Flying gets Ingrid's Lúin, Mystical getsLysithea's Lorenz's Thyrsus, Qi Adept gets Mercedes' Rafail Gem, and Dragon gets Edelgard's Aymr. The other two relics are Balthus' Vajra-Mushti, and, of course, the Sword of the Creator. His goober move, Goddess Dance, is a neat little reference to Three Houses' ability to make anybody a dancer, while giving a one-shot taste of what Genealogy dancers were like...which, in and of itself, is a callback to the game that inspired Three Houses' creation. Neat. It's also really OP, being able to dance Seadall, too; Goddess Dance allows for some really nutty turns. One really funny callback Byleth has that I've neglected to mention until now is with his Lost and Found skill, which has a Luck% chance to raise support with an adjacent ally after finishing an action. The fact that they made this skill a Luck% chance to activate, which is a callback to many Three Houses players randomly shuffling through their bag of lost items to see if that character owned the item(s) in question, made me lose my shit when I realized what it was referencing. Stuff like this is what highlights how much love went into this game, and how this game goes out of its way to be a game for Fire Emblem fans alone. It's awesome.
..Good lord, that was a lot of words. Anyway, time to talk about everything else I love about this game. I told you this was gonna be long, and I meant it.
I'm gonna stay on the mechanical side for the time being, to keep in line with what I was just talking about. The new Break mechanic marks the first time where the weapon triangle has a significant strategical impact. Breaking an enemy requires you to initiate combat against an enemy that you have weapon triangle advantage against, or are using fists against non-fist weapons that aren't part of the weapon triangle. When the attack lands, that enemy will be unable to counterattack for the rest of that combat, as well as during their next combat on that same turn. It sounds obscenely OP on paper, but in practice, it's a very well balanced mechanic that indirectly encourages you to diversify your team to make you more prepared for what's to come. Also, enemies can break your units too, so it's not just a one-sided beatdown.
Speaking on that previous point, that's another thing this game does exceptionally well: encourages class diversity. Many veterans of the series may be familiar with how the more recent games were so open with reclassing, culminating in Three Houses almost being too open with it, making an optimal strategy to just make everyone a Wyvern Lord and call it a day. This game flips that on its head; it still has the open reclassing that Three Houses does, but with the class types affecting the Emblems' abilities and having their own passive abilities, as well as the Break mechanic encouraging weapon diversity; it acts as a self-sustaining teambuilding check that doesn't outright prohibit the player from doing whatever they want, but still encourages the player to be expansive with their options. If you still want to make a full Wyvern Knight team to relive the Three Houses dream, even in spite of it being suboptimal now, you absolutely can! There's literally nothing stopping you. This is what a reclassing system in a Fire Emblem game should be, and honestly, what they should keep doing going forward.
What good is a strategy game if there aren't some maps for you to play on and do strategy shit, right? Luckily for you, the map design in this game is, honestly, the best it's ever been. I've played every single Fire Emblem game, and I haven't seen maps better than this game, on a consistent scale. Each map is challenging, even in spite of you having access to what is essentially god mode on one or more units, but also never feels unfair. Some standout maps are the aforementioned Roy and Corrin tutorial maps, Chapter 11, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 20, Chapter 25, basically all of the Emblem Paralogues, which are twists on iconic maps from their home games...I could keep going. The maps in this game are incredible. Honestly, they make the maps of Thracia, Binding Blade and Conquest look like child's play; this is Fire Emblem at its absolute peak, and needless to say, my expectations for the eventual next game's maps are much higher than they were with this game coming off of Three Houses.
Hmm, these maps are all played as part of a story, right? Yeah, let's talk about that next. Truly genius segue, I know. Real quick, though, I want to get this little rant out of the way, because this has been bugging me for a while now. Engage's story is probably the most contentious part of the game online, with many calling it the worst in the series, and many others clapping back with a "it's fine, because Fire Emblem has always had mediocre stories," and to both I say, DEAR GOD, SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT. In my interpretation, this game's story wasn't trying to be this grandiose epic about the morality of war or some shit; it's not trying to be some emotional masterpiece of Shakespearean magnitude; I mean, look at the damn cover. Have you seen the opening movie, or listened to the absolute banger of a main theme attached to it? Have you, perhaps, thought critically for three seconds instead of comparing it to stories that are completely different in both their aim and tone, and then screaming at randos online about it? All this game is trying to be, is fun. It's trying to be a fun video game, first and foremost. Think about this for a second: how in God's green earth could anyone, even the best writers on the planet, possibly write a deep, thought-provoking, and/or "mature" story, a la Tellius and Three Houses, for a game where the main premise is summoning previous Fire Emblem protagonists as Jojo Stands? ...You can't. It is not possible. In fact, it's about as possible as trans people being invalid (trans rights, btw; fuck transphobes). This game was not trying to be those things, it was trying to be Fire Emblem Engage; How this realization has flown over so many people's heads, I will never understand. I figured the story would play out like a fun, tropey, anniversary romp from the reveal trailer, and I set my expectations appropriately. Game comes out, I play the shit out of it, and wow, what do you know, that's exactly what it was. A game like this not being "mature" or "serious" is not inherently bad; it's just different. I feel like that's something that a lot of people have trouble grasping, and the weird backlash against this game regarding its lack of seriousness is exemplary of that. It's a bit frustrating. Anyway, rant over, back to gushing about peak.
Engage tells a story that's so unapologetically Fire Emblem, it makes me giddy. It checks off like every Fire Emblem trope in the book. The main character has some relation to a dragon (I'll go more into Alear later, because I have a lot to say about them); there are a set of MacGuffins that drive the plot forward; the main antagonist is a Dark Dragon that's worshipped in the evil kingdom; even some spoilery ones I won't get into, but general gist is, this is recognizable as a Fire Emblem story from miles away, and it's adorable. I'm not gonna say any more than I want to about it, because I want to preserve as much of a blind experience for anyone who even bothered to read this far as I possibly can, but basically, I love this, I didn't know I needed this, it is shonen/anime bullshit at its absolute finest, and it is peak.
Stories are often told with characters, yes? That's one of the broadest appeals of Fire Emblem, after all, so let's talk about that next. I like a lot of them plenty enough. I haven't fully seen all the support conversations yet, despite by 110+ hour playtime, but I have a general idea of the characters I've gravitated towards. There's a bit of a trend with Fire Emblem specifically where I tend to gravitate towards the side characters that don't have as much story relevance, if at all, more so than the main cast, and that trend continues in Engage (with some major exceptions: Alear, Ivy, and Veyle, but, again, I'll get more into the first one later). While I feel like the Solm royals were not done much justice in the main story, the side characters were fantastic. I really like Panette and Pandreo especially, and their support chain with each other exemplifies why. Panette's polite facade crumbles away as we see her unload the secrets of her past on her brother. Seeing such a different side to these siblings kept me wanting more with each conversation. It also helps that Panette and Pandreo are both obscenely powerful units in their own right due to their personal skills, with Panette being a crit goddess and Pandreo being the absolute turtling king. There are others I want to spotlight, namely Citrinne, Lapis, Seadall, the fan favorite Yunaka, and, of course, best mom Lumera, but if I had to pick a favorite at gunpoint, that would probably be Lapis. Not only is her design really appealing; visually, she channels heavy Sakura from Fates energy, and that is very much a compliment, because I love her design; but she's also just a really likable character. She's got low self-esteem (ayo, literally me frfr), but is pretty humble about it and doesn't make it her whole shtick, like her liege does. The thing about her being way stronger than she looks is also used in a variety of ways, both in the realm of the funny and for character growth. I remember a specific moment where she fights bears that get too close to her hometown, and the image of someone who looks as scrawny as her beating the absolute shit out of a massive bear was really funny to me, and that was probably the defining moment when I knew I loved Lapis lol
Flashing back to a previous thing I said, I said I was gonna talk about Alear before, so let's do that now. Ahem...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Alear is best Fire Emblem protag. I love them so much. They have literally everything going for them: charming personality, fun supports and character interactions, extremely fun and powerful application in battles, a gorgeous design to look at, and one of the best voice performances I've ever heard in a video game, they've got it all. Without spoiling anything, I really want to emphasize just how good of a performance Laura Stahl did with female Alear; I was already somewhat familiar with her through Barbara and Xinyan in Genshin, but man, she POPPED OFF with this role. After hearing her do this amazing of a performance, I can't imagine anyone being more fit for the role than her. I haven't heard Brandon McInnis as male Alear yet, since I'm saving that for my Maddening run when the last wave of the DLC comes out, but I'm imagining McInnis did just as good as Stahl did. I can't wait to hear more in the final wave of the DLC.
Speaking of hearing things, the soundtrack. FUCK, it's good. It's not quite Fates tier (but let's be real here, no Fire Emblem soundtrack is Fates tier), but it's one of the best ones yet. From what I know, many of Engage's composers were new to Fire Emblem, and they managed to nail Fire Emblem's musical identity better than Three Houses ever did (insert unfunny dubstep joke here). There's so many songs that I can and have listened to for hours on loop, from basically all of the Emblem trial map themes, to Faraway Holy Land, to the fan favorite Bright Sandstorm, to the title screen theme, aptly named Engage, that pulls a Shin Megami Tensei IV and leaves the best part for after all the uncultured people have opened the game already, to the absolute banger of an opening theme, Emblem, Engage!, that I have, in fact, completely memorized word for word, it's all just...so good. GOD, IT'S SO GOOD. JUST LIKE THE REST OF THIS GAME. FUCK.
That was fun to write. This review is longer than any essay I've written for college so far, and honestly might be the longest review on this entire site (4400 words lmao), and that should show just how passionate I am about my adoration for this incredible game. I love being a Fire Emblem fan, and this game validated that fact more than anything ever has, which feels like exactly what this game set out to do. This was a genuine treat to play, and I would gladly wipe my memory of it if it meant I could play through it all over again.
Mechanically, this is the perfect Fire Emblem game. Intelligent Systems cannot possibly hope to do better than this, because they have achieved perfection with Engage. It takes many of the great parts of every previous game's core mechanics, like Awakening's reclass system, Three Houses' limitless reclass options (with no gender locks this time, thank you!), map design that feels akin to Fates and the GBA trilogy, and a skill system more like the Tellius games with its limited space, along with its own original mechanics, like the Break mechanic, class types, and the focal point of the game, the Emblem Rings, throws them all together, and melts down into the most fun first playthrough I've ever had in with Fire Emblem game. Everything blends together so mind-bendingly perfectly; it reminds me a lot of Thracia 776 in that regard, but with actually fun and cool mechanics, instead of mechanics so unfair and brutal that they somehow loop back to being fun.
I could gush on and on about how much I love the Emblem Rings, but we'd be here for a while if I did, so...you know what, no. Fuck it. I will. I'm gonna gush about all of them. The Emblem Rings are so flavorful to their original games, and I need to scream about them. I fucking love this game.
Marth is the first Emblem you get access to (I mean, yeah, no shit it's him), and he serves as a great tutorial on the Rings themselves and the game as a whole, while also still being really strong. His quickly learned Break Defenses skill provides an extra incentive for the player to learn the importance of the weapon triangle, and more so how to effectively use the Break mechanic. Given that Marth's whole shtick in recent games is being a fastboi, it's only natural that he's the prime dodgetanking Emblem ring, given that nearly half of his skills increase Avo and Spd. Lodestar Rush is is goober attack, and is the epitome of what playing against him in Smash is like, as well as his fastboi nature, since big Spd = double attacking, and this is septuple (or more) attacking. It's amazing. I love it.
Anyway, Celica. Celica is the funny mage Emblem Ring, and was probably the one I used the least, since mages don't feel that insane in this game (for once). Like Marth, and Sigurd later, she serves as a way to showcase just how crucial the Emblem Rings can be in swinging a battle in your favor, and look no further than her goober attack, Warp Ragnarok. Warp Ragnarok throws you up to 10 tiles forward, regardless of what terrain is in the way, and does a big attack on an enemy within 2 spaces. It's likely a reference to the Witches from her home game, and their ability to omae wa mou shindeiru your low-Res ass from halfway across the map. More importantly, though, its application in her introductory map implies that Céline, the one who has Celica equipped, is meant to jump in and save Chloé and Louis from wave of enemies, teaching the player just how useful the ability to move your units far away in a pinch, be it offensively or defensively, really is.
Sigurd, the second Emblem you get, is really funny. They saw how overpowered he is, both in Genealogy of the Holy War and with his Legendary alt in Heroes, and were just like "yeah let's do that, they'll love it." Yes, I did. I guess Sigurd's whole shtick now is just having a billion Mov, because he innately gives +5 Mov (which doubles most of your units' Mov stats in this game) while Engaged, and an additional +1 Mov just for being equipped, Engaged or not. The only thing I can think of for a sort of "teaching moment" he gives is when Lumera uses him in the Emblem Ring tutorial map, as a sort of "hey, pay attention to what the enemies can do" reminder; having Lumera charge at Clanne out of nowhere, from halfway across the map, was genuinely terrifying lol
LEIF LITERALLY TURNS WHOEVER ENGAGES WITH HIM INTO A THRACIA ENEMY, OH MY GOD I CANNOT TAKE IT THIS GAME IS AMAZING
...ahem. Anyway, Roy is more akin to his Smash counterpart than his Fire Emblem counterpart, but let's be real, his Smash incarnation is what he's more well-known for anyway, and it is much better off that way than the literal wet noodle he is in Binding Blade. He's meant to be used on your frontliners; the unit equipped with him hits obscenely hard, and has additional survivability with the Hold Out skill. Blazing Lion, Roy's goober move, acts as both an offensive tool and a defensive tool; after use, it leaves an AOE of fire on the tiles surrounding the enemy you targeted with it, making it harder for grounded enemies to pass through and attack past it. Roy's tutorial map, the attack on Brodia Castle, is a defend map, so it makes perfect use of this by making it harder for the enemies Diamant is facing to reach the defense point. I'm telling you, this game is so masterfully designed, it makes my head explode.
Lyn is the embodiment of "we do a little trolling." She's an excellent way to weaken, or outright get rid of, annoying enemies from really far away with her goober move, Astra Storm, which shoots an enemy with 5 arrows from up to 10 spaces away (20 if you're a Covert class, did someone say Alcryst?). She can summon doubles to participate in Chain Attacks from any distance, which is probably a cheeky little reference to how many alts she has in Heroes. The doubles can be used defensively, too, being summoned in a pinch to distract enemies from your weakened allies, since they all have 1 HP, and to block enemy paths. I also have to shout out her Speedtaker and Alacrity skills, which will carry you on Hard and Maddening. Honestly, she's one of the best Emblems in the game (unsurprisingly, given that, you know, she's Lyn).
Eirika and (more forgettably) Ephraim, the last Emblem you get access to in the main game, is a pretty powerful one if you know how to use them effectively. Their whole gimmick is that you can switch between them at will with the Night and Day ability; Eirika cuts through bulkier enemies whenever you initiate combat, essentially giving you a Moonbow effect, and gives a flat decrease to incoming damage. Meanwhile, Ephraim heals you for each attack whenever you initiate combat, essentially giving you a Noontime effect, and gives a flat increase to your damage output. However, if you Engage with them, you get all four effects at once, making your unit an obscenely strong player phase unit. Their goober move, Twin Strike, is a powerful double attack that's effective against Corrupted enemies, which, given that they're basically the only enemies you'll encounter after a certain point in the story, will be a godsend for dealing with the stronger ones.
Ike is probably the funniest Emblem in the game. His main goal is to blow up, and act like he don't know nobody. See, he makes your unit unable to avoid attacks while Engaged, but halves all incoming damage, and even has ways to increase your defensive stats to become even more unkillable. Perhaps the funniest application of this is with his goober move, Great Aether, which makes your unit unable to counterattack for a turn, but will boost their defenses during that turn. At the start of that unit's next turn, that unit will unleash a massive attack on all enemies within 2 spaces, and heal a chunk of the damage dealt. I have so many clips saved on my Switch of doing this stupid attack with Panette and blowing up an entire group of enemies with it. Special shoutout to his updated Wrath skill, which increases Crit rate by 1% for each HP you've lost, capping at 30. It's the sole thing responsible for so many ridiculous interactions with Panette, the absolute MVP of my playthrough, she is a goddess.
Micaiah is the ultimate healing Emblem; she cares about staves, healing with staves, and beating mounted and armored enemies senseless. Shine having a Torch effect stapled on to it is a "fun" callback to Radiant Dawn's abundant fog of war maps. It's very rarely useful in this game, but is great when the occasional darkness map shows up...like her tutorial map, for instance. Giving Micaiah to Yunaka, a thief who likes critting and dodging, in her tutorial map, was a great way to show how useful Micaiah can be to even random units on your team who don't care even slightly about healing. Since Micaiah lets anyone use staves while she's Engaged, you can turn that unit into another healer on top of their usual role, and her goober skill, Great Sacrifice, is the definition of a "break glass in case of emergency" ability, fully healing your entire team (including green units!), while setting the user's HP to 1.
Lucina basically turns your unit into a paired-up Awakening unit, and for those who remember how overpowered pair-up was in Awakening...it's pretty strong here, too. She makes use of this game's version of pair-up, chain attacks, in practically all of her abilities. She lets other allies chain attack with her goober move, All for One, regardless of their class type, which is great for whittling down bulky enemies really fast, since chain attacks deal flat damage and aren't affected by defensive stats, and she can enable whoever is Engaged with her to chain attack any enemy an ally attacks within movement distance. Another ability of hers is Bonded Shield, which is a more OP version of the Chain Guard ability that Qi Adept classes have, since it just flat-out prevents damage instead of redirecting it, and can be used at any HP threshold, not just full HP. Basically, she's a fantastic support Emblem that will be obscenely useful in more situations than you think.
Corrin is the most versatile Emblem in the game. Her Dragon Vein ability, which can be used regardless of whether or not you're Engaged with her
Finally, Byleth. Like Roy, Byleth also draws from his Smash counterpart, with his whole shtick being "I confiscated my entire class's legendary equipment because they couldn't behave, and 'forgot' to give them back before coming here." Whatever the first Relic is, like Corrin's Dragon Vein, is determined by class type: Backup gets Marianne's Blutgang, Cavalry gets Dimitri's Areadbhar, Covert gets Claude's Failnaught, Armor gets Felix's Aegis Shield, Flying gets Ingrid's Lúin, Mystical gets
..Good lord, that was a lot of words. Anyway, time to talk about everything else I love about this game. I told you this was gonna be long, and I meant it.
I'm gonna stay on the mechanical side for the time being, to keep in line with what I was just talking about. The new Break mechanic marks the first time where the weapon triangle has a significant strategical impact. Breaking an enemy requires you to initiate combat against an enemy that you have weapon triangle advantage against, or are using fists against non-fist weapons that aren't part of the weapon triangle. When the attack lands, that enemy will be unable to counterattack for the rest of that combat, as well as during their next combat on that same turn. It sounds obscenely OP on paper, but in practice, it's a very well balanced mechanic that indirectly encourages you to diversify your team to make you more prepared for what's to come. Also, enemies can break your units too, so it's not just a one-sided beatdown.
Speaking on that previous point, that's another thing this game does exceptionally well: encourages class diversity. Many veterans of the series may be familiar with how the more recent games were so open with reclassing, culminating in Three Houses almost being too open with it, making an optimal strategy to just make everyone a Wyvern Lord and call it a day. This game flips that on its head; it still has the open reclassing that Three Houses does, but with the class types affecting the Emblems' abilities and having their own passive abilities, as well as the Break mechanic encouraging weapon diversity; it acts as a self-sustaining teambuilding check that doesn't outright prohibit the player from doing whatever they want, but still encourages the player to be expansive with their options. If you still want to make a full Wyvern Knight team to relive the Three Houses dream, even in spite of it being suboptimal now, you absolutely can! There's literally nothing stopping you. This is what a reclassing system in a Fire Emblem game should be, and honestly, what they should keep doing going forward.
What good is a strategy game if there aren't some maps for you to play on and do strategy shit, right? Luckily for you, the map design in this game is, honestly, the best it's ever been. I've played every single Fire Emblem game, and I haven't seen maps better than this game, on a consistent scale. Each map is challenging, even in spite of you having access to what is essentially god mode on one or more units, but also never feels unfair. Some standout maps are the aforementioned Roy and Corrin tutorial maps, Chapter 11, Chapter 16, Chapter 17, Chapter 20, Chapter 25, basically all of the Emblem Paralogues, which are twists on iconic maps from their home games...I could keep going. The maps in this game are incredible. Honestly, they make the maps of Thracia, Binding Blade and Conquest look like child's play; this is Fire Emblem at its absolute peak, and needless to say, my expectations for the eventual next game's maps are much higher than they were with this game coming off of Three Houses.
Hmm, these maps are all played as part of a story, right? Yeah, let's talk about that next. Truly genius segue, I know. Real quick, though, I want to get this little rant out of the way, because this has been bugging me for a while now. Engage's story is probably the most contentious part of the game online, with many calling it the worst in the series, and many others clapping back with a "it's fine, because Fire Emblem has always had mediocre stories," and to both I say, DEAR GOD, SHUT UP, ALL OF YOU ARE MISSING THE POINT. In my interpretation, this game's story wasn't trying to be this grandiose epic about the morality of war or some shit; it's not trying to be some emotional masterpiece of Shakespearean magnitude; I mean, look at the damn cover. Have you seen the opening movie, or listened to the absolute banger of a main theme attached to it? Have you, perhaps, thought critically for three seconds instead of comparing it to stories that are completely different in both their aim and tone, and then screaming at randos online about it? All this game is trying to be, is fun. It's trying to be a fun video game, first and foremost. Think about this for a second: how in God's green earth could anyone, even the best writers on the planet, possibly write a deep, thought-provoking, and/or "mature" story, a la Tellius and Three Houses, for a game where the main premise is summoning previous Fire Emblem protagonists as Jojo Stands? ...You can't. It is not possible. In fact, it's about as possible as trans people being invalid (trans rights, btw; fuck transphobes). This game was not trying to be those things, it was trying to be Fire Emblem Engage; How this realization has flown over so many people's heads, I will never understand. I figured the story would play out like a fun, tropey, anniversary romp from the reveal trailer, and I set my expectations appropriately. Game comes out, I play the shit out of it, and wow, what do you know, that's exactly what it was. A game like this not being "mature" or "serious" is not inherently bad; it's just different. I feel like that's something that a lot of people have trouble grasping, and the weird backlash against this game regarding its lack of seriousness is exemplary of that. It's a bit frustrating. Anyway, rant over, back to gushing about peak.
Engage tells a story that's so unapologetically Fire Emblem, it makes me giddy. It checks off like every Fire Emblem trope in the book. The main character has some relation to a dragon (I'll go more into Alear later, because I have a lot to say about them); there are a set of MacGuffins that drive the plot forward; the main antagonist is a Dark Dragon that's worshipped in the evil kingdom; even some spoilery ones I won't get into, but general gist is, this is recognizable as a Fire Emblem story from miles away, and it's adorable. I'm not gonna say any more than I want to about it, because I want to preserve as much of a blind experience for anyone who even bothered to read this far as I possibly can, but basically, I love this, I didn't know I needed this, it is shonen/anime bullshit at its absolute finest, and it is peak.
Stories are often told with characters, yes? That's one of the broadest appeals of Fire Emblem, after all, so let's talk about that next. I like a lot of them plenty enough. I haven't fully seen all the support conversations yet, despite by 110+ hour playtime, but I have a general idea of the characters I've gravitated towards. There's a bit of a trend with Fire Emblem specifically where I tend to gravitate towards the side characters that don't have as much story relevance, if at all, more so than the main cast, and that trend continues in Engage (with some major exceptions: Alear, Ivy, and Veyle, but, again, I'll get more into the first one later). While I feel like the Solm royals were not done much justice in the main story, the side characters were fantastic. I really like Panette and Pandreo especially, and their support chain with each other exemplifies why. Panette's polite facade crumbles away as we see her unload the secrets of her past on her brother. Seeing such a different side to these siblings kept me wanting more with each conversation. It also helps that Panette and Pandreo are both obscenely powerful units in their own right due to their personal skills, with Panette being a crit goddess and Pandreo being the absolute turtling king. There are others I want to spotlight, namely Citrinne, Lapis, Seadall, the fan favorite Yunaka, and, of course, best mom Lumera, but if I had to pick a favorite at gunpoint, that would probably be Lapis. Not only is her design really appealing; visually, she channels heavy Sakura from Fates energy, and that is very much a compliment, because I love her design; but she's also just a really likable character. She's got low self-esteem (ayo, literally me frfr), but is pretty humble about it and doesn't make it her whole shtick, like her liege does. The thing about her being way stronger than she looks is also used in a variety of ways, both in the realm of the funny and for character growth. I remember a specific moment where she fights bears that get too close to her hometown, and the image of someone who looks as scrawny as her beating the absolute shit out of a massive bear was really funny to me, and that was probably the defining moment when I knew I loved Lapis lol
Flashing back to a previous thing I said, I said I was gonna talk about Alear before, so let's do that now. Ahem...
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
Alear is best Fire Emblem protag. I love them so much. They have literally everything going for them: charming personality, fun supports and character interactions, extremely fun and powerful application in battles, a gorgeous design to look at, and one of the best voice performances I've ever heard in a video game, they've got it all. Without spoiling anything, I really want to emphasize just how good of a performance Laura Stahl did with female Alear; I was already somewhat familiar with her through Barbara and Xinyan in Genshin, but man, she POPPED OFF with this role. After hearing her do this amazing of a performance, I can't imagine anyone being more fit for the role than her. I haven't heard Brandon McInnis as male Alear yet, since I'm saving that for my Maddening run when the last wave of the DLC comes out, but I'm imagining McInnis did just as good as Stahl did. I can't wait to hear more in the final wave of the DLC.
Speaking of hearing things, the soundtrack. FUCK, it's good. It's not quite Fates tier (but let's be real here, no Fire Emblem soundtrack is Fates tier), but it's one of the best ones yet. From what I know, many of Engage's composers were new to Fire Emblem, and they managed to nail Fire Emblem's musical identity better than Three Houses ever did (insert unfunny dubstep joke here). There's so many songs that I can and have listened to for hours on loop, from basically all of the Emblem trial map themes, to Faraway Holy Land, to the fan favorite Bright Sandstorm, to the title screen theme, aptly named Engage, that pulls a Shin Megami Tensei IV and leaves the best part for after all the uncultured people have opened the game already, to the absolute banger of an opening theme, Emblem, Engage!, that I have, in fact, completely memorized word for word, it's all just...so good. GOD, IT'S SO GOOD. JUST LIKE THE REST OF THIS GAME. FUCK.
That was fun to write. This review is longer than any essay I've written for college so far, and honestly might be the longest review on this entire site (4400 words lmao), and that should show just how passionate I am about my adoration for this incredible game. I love being a Fire Emblem fan, and this game validated that fact more than anything ever has, which feels like exactly what this game set out to do. This was a genuine treat to play, and I would gladly wipe my memory of it if it meant I could play through it all over again.