This review contains spoilers
Nothing I say here is going to be a hot take:
The gameplay in Engage is the best a Fire Emblem has ever felt: the weapon triangle is back (praise the gods!), the map design is nearly always exquisite, and once you figure out how the break mechanic works it's a wonderful addition.
The graphics and models (discarding any personal feelings about the Genshin Impact-ass designs) are actually really great, the polish and detail that went into this makes it one of the best looking games on the Switch in my opinion. Playing this hot off the heels of Pokemon Violet was like putting on glasses again. The detail work put into the combat animations was also quite exceptional.
The main story is just fine, I deeply miss Three Houses here but it's not worse than Fates. The part where this game really fails is it's supports, they're incredibly hit and miss with a skew towards miss.
Three Houses, Echoes, Awakening, and even Fates had care and detail put into their supports. Here, there's mostly the following:
Working Out/Muscles
DIVINE DRAGON I AM NOT WORTHY
One actual support split into three
"Nice day we're having." "Yeah, that grass sure is green"
And a handful of good ones, usually involving the Brodian and/or Elusian nobles/retainers.
And don't even get me started on the absolute nothing burgers that almost all of the Bond conversations are, they almost would've been better off not including them
Overall, it may not be the best Fire Emblem game, but it's certainly still a great one, and a pretty good "anniversary/multiverse" entry for the series.
The gameplay in Engage is the best a Fire Emblem has ever felt: the weapon triangle is back (praise the gods!), the map design is nearly always exquisite, and once you figure out how the break mechanic works it's a wonderful addition.
The graphics and models (discarding any personal feelings about the Genshin Impact-ass designs) are actually really great, the polish and detail that went into this makes it one of the best looking games on the Switch in my opinion. Playing this hot off the heels of Pokemon Violet was like putting on glasses again. The detail work put into the combat animations was also quite exceptional.
The main story is just fine, I deeply miss Three Houses here but it's not worse than Fates. The part where this game really fails is it's supports, they're incredibly hit and miss with a skew towards miss.
Three Houses, Echoes, Awakening, and even Fates had care and detail put into their supports. Here, there's mostly the following:
Working Out/Muscles
DIVINE DRAGON I AM NOT WORTHY
One actual support split into three
"Nice day we're having." "Yeah, that grass sure is green"
And a handful of good ones, usually involving the Brodian and/or Elusian nobles/retainers.
And don't even get me started on the absolute nothing burgers that almost all of the Bond conversations are, they almost would've been better off not including them
Overall, it may not be the best Fire Emblem game, but it's certainly still a great one, and a pretty good "anniversary/multiverse" entry for the series.