The Quiet Man is a unique approach in storytelling using a protagonist that does not have the ability to hear the world around him. You, as the player, are also subject to piecing together the story without the use of dialogue during the first playthrough of the game. Theoretically, this could have been a great game that stands out from the rest by giving the player a small glimpse into the life of someone processing trauma while also living with a disability, but it was quite apparent that not much effort was put into the game as a whole.

Most of the game is spent watching live action cutscenes in silence. This, by itself, isn’t that bad but the constant switching between live action and mediocre looking 3D models gives it a very sloppy feel. This would be better if the story was something to be enjoyed but because the player is deprived of dialogue, the cutscenes are hard to understand and most of the time straight up nonsensical. Not to mention, while engaged in combat, story related content flashes on the screen, which, presumably, is important but it’s very hard to pay attention to what it is while repeatedly mashing the punch button.

On that note, the combat in this game is genuinely terrible. The grabs do not work, neither do the kicks for that matter. It wasn’t until two or three chapters in the game I was made aware of a special turbo-like button that changes the protag’s normal moves into all finishing moves that deal much more damage than usual. Only from being told by other people and spamming every button during fights out of sheer boredom would someone ever find out about it. The game genuinely feels like you stare into space for 20 minutes at a time then spam the punch button until someone dies.

In conclusion, someone definitely had an idea for a game and people really did code, test, and release it. The question of why someone on the team didn’t raise concerns about the overall quality of the game before it was greenlighted for release is honestly beyond me. It should be a complete embarrassment to SquareEnix to be associated with a lazy, half-assed project such as this. Amazing they have the gall to charge people $15 for three hours of pure garbage. I want the $3 I paid for this game on sale back.

Ah, I’m not even sure where to begin. As a very long time fan of the series, my excitement for this game could not be contained. This came in the form of checking obsessively for updates and news since the initial Reddit leaks around June of 2022. From that leak, we learned that this game was intended to release during the Fire Emblem 30th anniversary but was delayed.
Knowing that information, the expectation that this game would properly honor the long legacy of well-crafted games that FE has offered in the past 30 or so years weighed very heavy (partly cause I’m a complete sucker for fanservice in the form of nostalgia bait lol).
I have a lot of thoughts, so I’ll try to structure this in a way that makes sense.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Before the game released, I had my eyes constantly peeled for information about characters/ gameplay mechanics as they slowly came to light over the months until its release and my outlook stayed consistently mixed.
The art style was unique, straying far away from FE’s generally more gothic style. I would be inclined to call it more ‘anime’ but then I remember that FE has been anime from the start. Probably a better comparison is that Vinland Saga and Love Live! are both anime but with distinctively different styles. Engage’s character design style is quite vtuber-esque, which makes sense as the character designer makes vtubers in the first place.
One thing I did dislike was how youthful all the characters looked and how old a supposedly 45-year-old Vander looked closer to 60 instead. I feel as though a lot of the characters look “same-y” with most of the main cast of girls having similar faces and body types. This is something I hoped would be helped with each of them having unique and interesting personalities. I had the same issue with how the ‘emblems’ or heroes from games past, however I suppose that’s to be expected when translating old designs with varying artists over the years into a common art style.
To appeal to veterans of the series, one thing that was emphasized was the effort put into things such as battle mechanics, returning maps and, ring gacha, and of course, emblems featuring iconic protagonists from past games. A little disappointed in the decision to not include Alm along with Celica since they are a lord duo much like Eirika and Ephraim, who were both included in base game. Felt the same in the case of Eliwood, Hector and Lyn from Blazing Blade (FE7).
Before release, day 1 DLC was announced at the Game Awards 2022. This DLC would be four waves and cost a whopping $29.99 (jeez!). Wave 1 would feature the very popular three lords from FE16 in their academy attire available as usable emblems. Aside from my general distaste for day 1 DLC, the announcement … was not a good look, but also not a surprise since it is increasingly common with games nowadays. In the past, DLC hasn’t been handled very well in the series, mostly being used to host easy money, item or exp farming maps in the ‘newemblem’ games Awakening (FE13), Fates (FE14), and Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (FE15). In the case of FE16, the DLC was mostly costume content and the Ashen Wolves extra storyline that took about a year to come out, which, in my opinion, took way too long.
That being said, I purchased the DLC day 1 like a good little player hoping that it’s handled much better than before, even if my expectations for that are low (lol).

CHARACTERS
In this game, you are the Divine Dragon Alear (or any other name you so choose) and have recently awaken from a slumber that lasted for tens of generations. Upon your awakening, the stewards that were tasked with overseeing you are very much shocked and honored to be in your presence, as most of the characters are when they find out you are the Divine Dragon. It was very cute at first but the constant fangirling got a bit old. Here’s a fun drinking game: take a shot every time you hear “Divine Dragon.”
Alear starts the game as cowardly but finds their resolves after a few major turns of events in the story It was nice seeing them develop the traditionally brave and unyielding personality as expected of a lord. The change seemed a bit abrupt, but the new personality was a very appreciated development.
As far as the other characters, it’s really a mixed bag. In their supports with Alear, some characters feel one note and rather “trope-y” or just straight up forgettable. However, there is a certain handful with complex personalities or are simply enjoyable to be around. Pandreo’s constant AWOOOs never fail to make me crack a smile.

MAIN STORY/TONE
I won’t get too much into this as it would be better for people to experience it for themselves but, I’m not gonna sugarcoat it. The story is not good. Laughable at times, really. The more serious, if you can even call it that, scenes are presented so terribly it’s hard not to cackle out loud. Aside from the comically “villainous” band of clowns that feel like they were featured in a 4Kids animation, the twists and big reveals in the story are more than predictable and honestly not that interesting in first place. And the ones that were not expected seem so off the wall. Even the canon deaths in cutscenes had 0 emotional impact and lasted way too long. I really did try to give this story many, many chances but it managed to ping pong between comical and straight up nonsensical.
This … is probably the thing I’m most disappointed about. Especially since multiple games in the past have had such rich and nuanced stories with memorable parts that still have left an impact on me. There’s nothing inherently wrong with the “light dragon good and purple dragon bad” formula but the motives behind … everything seems too random and convoluted.

GAMEPLAY AND MECHANICS
The combat in this game is fun; it’s easy to see that this is where a lot of focus was placed during development.
The weapon triangle is back after taking a hiatus for FE16. Properly following the triangle rewards the player with a ‘break’ to the enemy which forces them to drop their weapon and does not allow them to attack until the end of the turn. This is easily exploitable, allowing players to absolutely destroy map bosses on a single turn. This is negated by the revival stones that some of them hold which gives them an extra health bar. This is similar to the multiple health bars that certain beast encounters had in FE16 albeit on a smaller scale.
I still have very mixed feelings about the break mechanic. On one hand, its good to reward new players for following the weapon triangle but on the other, it makes boss encounters a bit of a cakewalk.
The enemy AI seems generally smarter. They can properly utilize the same mechanics, allowing them to chain attack, chain guard, use terrain and movement type to their advantage too. This can get tricky at times with bad unit placement but honestly I think it’s part of the thrill.
Time rewind, or action rewind, seems to have become a permanent feature in FE after its initial introduction as Mila’s Turnwheel in FE15. This is great for players who need to rethink their unit’s position or to reroll on some less than favorable RNG. The location this time is hidden in the menu during battle, out of the way for those who do not want to see or use it.
The abundance of skills available via the emblem rings make for units that are more customizable than ever before. I do think since the game encourages you to rotate rings across units, there are too many skills to keep up with at times which is a bit overwhelming.
Though the UI is quite modern now, there are a few things that do need to make a comeback. The menu is so compact, it’s quite easy for things such as the bond conversations and the support conversations to get lost. There is no longer an icon that notifies the player when there is new activity there, making it very easy to forget to do them.
It is my understanding that the Somniel is supposed to feel rather grand and spacious, however it did feel a little too big at times.
The paralogues are fun. It’s nice to see the return of old maps in an updated form. It’s even cooler that Alear can walk around said maps after battle. The amount of detail placed into each is more than admirable.

SOUNDTRACK
Here is where this game REALLY shines. Amazing remixes of old tracks as well as new ones using motifs from the opening song.
Personally, not a fan of the opening song as it gives vibes more akin to Sonic or Saturday morning cartoons, but its fine.
Really hoping some time in the near future there will be uploads online of the soundtrack so I can listen to it more carefully. A shame that it did not come included with the Divine Edition of the game.

BONUS – DIVINE EDITION / AMIIBO FUNCTIONALITY / DLC CONTENT
I of course needed to get my grubby little hands on the Divine Edition the moment it was up for preorder, and I was very luckily able to get it before it sold out. The edition comes with the game in a regular plastic game case, a steelbook with the same outer design, one medium sized poster, a set of 12 holographic cards of the emblems featured in the base game and a very nice and heavy artbook. It’s … fine. A little disappointed it didn’t come with the soundtrack like the special editions for FE15, FE16 and FE: Warriors did. The art cards and poster are fine but overall, the contents are underwhelming other than the artbook. Felt about the same when receiving the FE14 special edition back in 2014.
Amiibo functionality makes a return but not in the same way it did in FE14 and FE15. Each scan grants the player one music ticket and one costume ticket which they can later use to unlock clothing modeled after emblems in the game. I’m not sure why but the cap the scan amiibo within a 24 hour period is 5 which is odd. If someone has all 11 of the FE amiibo released as of Jan 2023, it’d take them an entire three days to scan all of them just for some tickets. As far as the actual outfits and music, they’re pretty cool. The only thing that disappoints me is that the costumes are gender locked as well as by certain units. This is a little disappointing considering that the emblems when engaged have unisex outfits. But I suppose it was easier from a development standpoint.
As of writing this review, only one wave out of four has released. This included some costumes available for units to wear in the Somniel as well as Tiki and the FE16 trio in the form of emblem bracelets.

(p.s. Don’t forget to grab the Silver Card on Tiki’s map xoxo)

FINAL THOUGHTS
There was a lot of love put into this game, and I could tell the devs had fun with it too. Though some things about this game doesn’t fit my tastes, I hope it’s attractive enough for new players to want to play it, then maybe play some other entries too. I won’t hark on about how other games in the series blow this one out of the water. Honestly, variation in quality is something that should be expected of a nearly 33-year-old game series. Thankfully it now has the opportunity to keep improving and taking risks as it has been doing for some years now.
FE means a lot to me, it’s my favorite JRPG series for a reason. I'll always have very high expectations for it.
It makes me very happy that the previously niche little title has grown into one of Nintendo’s biggest selling IPs after a very close brush with death. Cannot wait for what’s in store next time.

Playtime: 48:33

I distinctly remember going to buy this at the local Walmart in 2009 along with a copy of Sonic Unleashed on the ps2. The woman at checkout scanned the ps2 game and even offered a warranty on the disk.
Unfortunately, she forgot to scan Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Winter Games.

It was just OK even for a free game. Not fun enough to potentially lose a job over.

The figure skating portion was pretty fun though.