Absolutely perfect game from start to finish. After playing Returns I can clearly see that it walked so that Dread could run. Dread takes all of the best aspects in the previous games along with refining all the issues of the previous games and combined them to create this masterpiece. Every area is super memorable and fun to explore; the gameplay flow is just seamless and that makes returning to previous areas feel natural and not like a chore. The abundant number of boss fights is incredible and they're all super fun to fight against. They also added so much enemy and boss variety which was a problem that I had with Returns. The EMMIs are leagues above the SA-X in Fusion when it comes to gameplay due to their unscripted nature and forcing you to be skillful in avoiding them until you have the means to destroy them.

Lastly I wanna talk about the story and Samus' character in this game. While this game is much more focused on the gameplay (as the previous games mostly were as well), there isn't an insane amount of story content, which is fine. Instead we get major story reveals throughout the game which unveil a ton of cool lore and story that ties the previous stories together. Overall, this made Samus' character the most interesting she has been in the 2D series, and she didn't need to utter a single word for me to feel that way about her.

Dread is easily the best 2D Metroid, and probably the best 2D platformer I've played so far. It expands on everything the previous games had set up for it, and refines all the issues to create the most smooth gameplay experience in the series.

The original was not fun. This remaster is only slightly less annoying and unfun to play. The story parts that cover the OG FFVII characters and story beats were good stuff, everything else involving Genesis and the new lore they tried to incorporate was not compelling or interesting at all. After I beat the original Crisis Core, I found myself forgetting about a lot of the CC exclusive story stuff that they added and decided to just consider any of the really strange new story and characters to be not canon to the original FFVII, aside from Cissnei, Angeal, and Lazard. I wish this prequel to the OG FFVII just focused only on the original FFVII characters and story without adding a new major character to disrupt what happened in the original. I feel like Zack and Aerith should have had more scenes together because they were in love. It would have been more believable that they would fall for each other if they got more time to interact. Same goes for Cloud.

Going into Engage I had zero clue what to expect. After seeing so much post-launch discourse about this game, I wasn't sure if I was getting into something good or potentially disappointing, but I'm glad to say it exceeded far beyond my expectations and has become one of my top 10 games of all time. In a way, I feel like Fates Conquest walked so that Engage could run, and I don't even mean to say that Conquest was bad in any capacity; Engage is just that many miles ahead of every other game in the series that I have played. The vibrant and colourful artstyle is controversial but I honestly don't care if it fits the franchise or not, it's really fucking pretty. To enhance this aspect even further, the combat animations and overall flow of gameplay is immensely satisfying and nice to look at. I don't think any FE game's animations come close to Engage's. On the topic of art direction, I really like a lot of the character designs in this game, yes even Alear's. I don't think this should be the standard for Fire Emblem but I think most of the characters in this game look really cool and fun.

The emblems gimmick of this game is incredibly fun to customize with the insane pool of skills and perks to choose from. It adds a whole new layer of strategy beyond the typical map preparations from prior entries. With reclassing making a return alongside a new skill system, there are quite literally an infinite amount of possibilities for how you might want to build your army and playstyle. One minor issue I have with Engage is that the Somniel does make the gameplay loop a tad bit worse; albeit it's definitely an improvement on the monastery in terms of time and playing optimally.

The cast of characters in Engage are also very good. Many characters in this game ended up becoming some of my favourites in the franchise, though as an ensemble it does have competition with the likes of Three Houses, Tellius, and Awakening. Some of my favourites in the game include Nel, Ivy, Yunaka, Merrin, Boucheron, Celine, Alear, Veyle, and Mauvier. My one criticism for the characters are the emblems. They are either very underwhelming in terms of content, or are completely different from how they were in their origin games. Lyn, Eirika, and Micaiah are some major examples of characters who just feel very different than they were in their source material. And the rest of the emblems are just kind of bland, and I think a lot of the blandness is due to the bond conversations being so short and one-note. Not exactly anyone's fault, because I wouldn't want bond conversations to be as long as support conversations, but it's just unfortunate. It just feels like a big missed opportunity that some emblems who do know each other have hardly anything to say to each other.

Finally I want to discuss the story. I like it a lot. It's definitely safe and very simple, but that's fine. I would have liked a deeper story similar to Tellius or Fodlan, but I liked what we got. I do think the last handful of chapters were a bit underwhelming (especially the finale) but otherwise I enjoyed it throughout the whole game despite some obvious issues.

Engage is one of the best Fire Emblem games and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. If you go into the game without the influence and expectations of all the negative feedback this game got, it's one of the most enjoyable experiences you can get from this series.