This review contains spoilers
I need to preface this with that I only played fates and 3h, so my knowledge is limited. There's really good reviews on here that focus on the past games in comparison to this one.
I finished the game just earlier and I'm a bit conflicted. The start of it was super weird in the way where I didn't feel like the target audience at all. Alear was also mega annoying and all they really did was cry around and do nothing... while every character worshiped them. Only when they reached the desert area it kinda started going upwards story wise. I won't lie to you though, the story is predictable but that didn't really bother me per se. I liked a lot of lategame to endgame moments, Alear finally started becoming cool and not just whiney. But here comes the part I didn't like: The villains. In the game we meet the four hounds, loyal followers of Sombron. In reality most of them, much like Alear, are just traumatized bc of their past and how their caregivers treated them. These four form a found family, a trope I adore usually but Engage did it so horribly I can't even laugh at it. Mauvier I knew from the very beginning that he'd switch sides so he's really not the issue since he was always an anti-hero. Marin was just really looking for parental affection and praise, because her own mother abandoned her since she only wanted to keep her sons.. this affection she got from Mauvier but realized too late. So she was fine too and not exactly what I'd call a villain either. Griss is just a masochistic freak. He was handled okay since he didn't really do much except follow people, namely Zephia, around bc mommy issues. But Zephia... oh my god this character. Zephia is the oldest of the bunch, having fought at the 1k years old war alongside Sombron and Alear when they were bad still. From the very beginning she's shown as motherly but in a twisted and evil way. She punishes all other 3 constantly by hitting them, keeps calling Veyle a defect and is honestly just horrible. She ends up killing Marin, too, when Marin attempted to free Veyle from Zephia's spell and does not feel regret even when Mauvier gets mega pissed. Even calls her a bad child who needed to get punished accordingly. Anyway fast forward to when we actually do end up killing her, Zephia reveals that she wanted to bear a child; Sombron's child. Not because she loved him, but because she wanted to know what having a family was like. Griss, while dying, tells her that she's the closest he had to a mom ever in his life. Zephia then says when she called the other three her family she meant it. But yknow, she also abused them constantly, KILLED Marin without regret and so much more. Oh my god Intsys what is this insane attempt of trying to redeem her bc it did not work. Literal bottom 1 villain for me. Speaking of redemption, they tried this with the big bad too and while redemption itself isn't bad, it was shoehorned in last second. Sombron sought revenge because the rings originally belonged to the world he is from. In that war, he was the sole survivor and was granted exile in Alear's world and did the same thing in Alear's world as his oppressors in order to get his emblem, the Zero Emblem, which left him after seeing how much destruction Sombron brought. This storyline, while sympathetic, just gets shoved in right at the end of it all. I just think it could've been done earlier. It certainly would've been better. While on the topic of the finale, they really missed the opportunity to put the main villains of each emblem's game as the dark emblems in the final fight. They even get described as the foes the emblems beat in the past... come on. THIS ALL BEING SAID it honestly was less bad than I had expected. It even had a lot of good moments such as the miracle being performed on Alear and them becoming the 13th emblem. Marin's death was also super sad to me. Visually it was easily the most polished of all fe games. Animations were really good, no more jpg textures. Art style wise it was the wrong choice though. All characters look like vtubers and I don't mean this in a bad way per se since I watch vtubers myself but... fire emblem was kinda known for having medieval influence combined with anime. This game barely has any armored characters and Intsys straight up admits in an interview that Mika Pikazo was made to draw 50 character designs without even knowing what kinda game it is for. The sameface on all female characters and Rosado (feminine guy) is very annoying too and I wish it had more variety. But that's honestly the only beef I have with it visually.
Tl;dr Game wasn't bad, villains dragged the score down mostly. I give it 3 stars. It wasn't super good but it also wasn't awful, just mediocre and unexceptional. I enjoyed 3h more.
I finished the game just earlier and I'm a bit conflicted. The start of it was super weird in the way where I didn't feel like the target audience at all. Alear was also mega annoying and all they really did was cry around and do nothing... while every character worshiped them. Only when they reached the desert area it kinda started going upwards story wise. I won't lie to you though, the story is predictable but that didn't really bother me per se. I liked a lot of lategame to endgame moments, Alear finally started becoming cool and not just whiney. But here comes the part I didn't like: The villains. In the game we meet the four hounds, loyal followers of Sombron. In reality most of them, much like Alear, are just traumatized bc of their past and how their caregivers treated them. These four form a found family, a trope I adore usually but Engage did it so horribly I can't even laugh at it. Mauvier I knew from the very beginning that he'd switch sides so he's really not the issue since he was always an anti-hero. Marin was just really looking for parental affection and praise, because her own mother abandoned her since she only wanted to keep her sons.. this affection she got from Mauvier but realized too late. So she was fine too and not exactly what I'd call a villain either. Griss is just a masochistic freak. He was handled okay since he didn't really do much except follow people, namely Zephia, around bc mommy issues. But Zephia... oh my god this character. Zephia is the oldest of the bunch, having fought at the 1k years old war alongside Sombron and Alear when they were bad still. From the very beginning she's shown as motherly but in a twisted and evil way. She punishes all other 3 constantly by hitting them, keeps calling Veyle a defect and is honestly just horrible. She ends up killing Marin, too, when Marin attempted to free Veyle from Zephia's spell and does not feel regret even when Mauvier gets mega pissed. Even calls her a bad child who needed to get punished accordingly. Anyway fast forward to when we actually do end up killing her, Zephia reveals that she wanted to bear a child; Sombron's child. Not because she loved him, but because she wanted to know what having a family was like. Griss, while dying, tells her that she's the closest he had to a mom ever in his life. Zephia then says when she called the other three her family she meant it. But yknow, she also abused them constantly, KILLED Marin without regret and so much more. Oh my god Intsys what is this insane attempt of trying to redeem her bc it did not work. Literal bottom 1 villain for me. Speaking of redemption, they tried this with the big bad too and while redemption itself isn't bad, it was shoehorned in last second. Sombron sought revenge because the rings originally belonged to the world he is from. In that war, he was the sole survivor and was granted exile in Alear's world and did the same thing in Alear's world as his oppressors in order to get his emblem, the Zero Emblem, which left him after seeing how much destruction Sombron brought. This storyline, while sympathetic, just gets shoved in right at the end of it all. I just think it could've been done earlier. It certainly would've been better. While on the topic of the finale, they really missed the opportunity to put the main villains of each emblem's game as the dark emblems in the final fight. They even get described as the foes the emblems beat in the past... come on. THIS ALL BEING SAID it honestly was less bad than I had expected. It even had a lot of good moments such as the miracle being performed on Alear and them becoming the 13th emblem. Marin's death was also super sad to me. Visually it was easily the most polished of all fe games. Animations were really good, no more jpg textures. Art style wise it was the wrong choice though. All characters look like vtubers and I don't mean this in a bad way per se since I watch vtubers myself but... fire emblem was kinda known for having medieval influence combined with anime. This game barely has any armored characters and Intsys straight up admits in an interview that Mika Pikazo was made to draw 50 character designs without even knowing what kinda game it is for. The sameface on all female characters and Rosado (feminine guy) is very annoying too and I wish it had more variety. But that's honestly the only beef I have with it visually.
Tl;dr Game wasn't bad, villains dragged the score down mostly. I give it 3 stars. It wasn't super good but it also wasn't awful, just mediocre and unexceptional. I enjoyed 3h more.