Pros:
- The way they do classes in this entry is pretty flexible, not every character is suitable for as many classes as in Three Houses, but the Emblem system is basically like another class system layered on the base one, and I really enjoyed some combinations
- Listen, the plot's a mess, but half (or more) of the FE games' plots are messes. At least this one has some good moments. The protag saying "no, we don't know what these enemies are, let's retreat" like an actual sane person right at the start was super refreshing and funny for those of us who've played a lot of the series. And the plot twist near the end of the game had me laughing my ass off. Truly, the Fire Emblem Engage was the friends we made along the way.
- Pretty good OST, but get ready to hear Somniel themes a lot...
- Enjoyable characters, up there with Three Houses' cast, easily beating the casts of other recent FE games. Came for Chloé because green(ish) hair and hot, but ended up really falling in love with Lapis because she's just such a sweetheart, she does so many nice things for everyone else, and she can apparently make anything out of stuff she finds out of the ground, so color me impressed. I'm glad they added her to FEH. Also, I'm glad Ivy isn't just "Camilla 2." She has a distinct and likeable personality.
- MALE DANCER, I REPEAT, WE HAVE A MALE DANCER
- Also, black characters who aren't villains! I think it's a series first. They've had lots of brown-skinned characters in the series before, but our black characters are dark skinned in this game, and we love them for that.
- Some of the maps are pretty good

Cons:
- It's made for series vets. It's literally just all fan service, but not big boobie anime women fan service (though there is a smidge of that here too,) no it's fan service in the form of characters from past entries in the series making references to their own games, and seeing them interact with you and your army. Wanna know what Ike likes to eat? Wanna know how Leif would react to getting hit on? Wanna know what Tiki would say in response to Anna trying to sell her stuff? No? Of course not! You have to be extremely FE-brained to enjoy most of this game's gimmicks. It's not a game meant for anyone who isn't already long-time franchise fan. That is not a good thing for a game to be.
- I'm pretty sure they designed Toothpate-chan first and then created a plot based around answering why she looks like that afterward. No, seriously, the person they hired who designed her is infamous for drawing characters with two hair colors and/or heterochromia. So either they had this honestly pretty bad story already planned out and hired the One Person Who Only Designs Characters Like That, or, more likely, they liked that person's work and decided to hire them, and that's how this plot got written. Yikes!
- Goldmary
- Framme
- Everything else about the game, but ESPECIALLY THE MINIGAMES AARRRRRGH STOP MAKING ME FISH I NEED THOSE GEM THINGS BUT WHY IS FISHING THE BEST WAY TO GET THEM

I kind of got bored trying to get all the support convos but I'll finish this eventually.

It had some dull/annoying moments and several crashes, but goddamn was this game still good as hell. They got most everything right about what made the old Doom games work, and they managed to retain a bit of what was cool about Doom 3, too, without letting the stuff that sucked about it taint this game. While I'm not the biggest fan of the arena encounter design they went with, it wasn't the worst option they could have chose. Having exploration and combat be mostly separated is basically how most casual players approached the old Doom games anyway, though there's unfortunately a lot less of the "welp there were a bunch of monsters behind that door" moments from Romero's old sadistic map designs that I miss. The soundtrack helps make up for it a bit. It's got a pulse to it that makes you want more and more. I kinda wanna replay it someday soon.