I’m going to have to agree with the postulation I’ve seen that Engage is a confused game because it clearly is. The fanservice elements with the emblems are weirdly implemented and old school FE fans clearly weren’t going to be too hot on the upped cliché anime shenanigans. The game’s weak narrative is at odds with itself, most notable when it comes to its villains, who are mainly all cardboard cutout psychopaths who eat puppies and kick babies, but then as they lie dying they try to give them the most unearned and nonsensical sob stories imaginable that doesn’t gel at all with the personalities they had up till that point. The main cast are all paper thin and it really sank in for me how checked out I was with them when it I just started skipping support conversations, which I had never done in the previous FE games I played. The protagonist worship is also rather gag-inducing in the most insipid dime-store light novel way. It’s such an utter stark contrast to Three House’s fantastic cast and enthralling narrative despite any missteps it may have had. (I’m also kinda salty that Engage clearly got more of a budget than TH did.) The character design also sucks as they all look sameface gacha characters. The Somniel was also mainly grinding busywork that I also checked out on like midway through the game and I hate how most of the early game units are so much worse than later game units. Ultimately though, it’s still a Fire Emblem game, and the core of Fire Emblem is still a lot of fun so I did enjoy my time with Engage, but like with Shadow Dragon, I’m not really going to go to bat for it any time soon. I just really hope it’s not going to be the future of the series, because Three Houses is my favorite and there’s room for improvement there.