Fire Emblem Engage is probably in my bottom fire emblem games. I did enjoy parts of the game, but it feels like it has a certain whiplash in quality. One that isn’t “Gameplay good & Story bad” like many would say, but more complex than that.
I suppose let me start this post with the tier list of my mom:
Alear has someone’s favorite character? Yep, my mom’s favorite character is Alear. She likes her positive traits and while she does find the Alear worship annoying she more so finds it annoying of the others, not respecting Alear’s wishes.
My mom was very fond of the between battle activities, from the cooking, talking, sommie feeding and all that. I admit the Somniel routine was pretty pleasant. Even though she did grew annoying of the “They say one character trait” supports.
But still she would put it on the same level as FE7, as she finds the map of Engage way too long, despite the increased variety. Especially certain maps would be ones that took us several session to beat became purgetory for the two of us. At least for that little bit.
Which is also why I dropped the game in chapter 25, my mom was bored and I was not having fun. At the point where all the story was told I just lost my patience.
In general I would say the gameplay is ok, it’s just that the maps are too long for my taste and as my mom finds this entire “preparation” stuff boring, we didn’t do it much, also because I don’t like it. In Three Houses, I barely did doing own classes.
Although I do admit we had a long warming up period on this game, it took us a while to get used to the artstyle, especially my mom who has a problem for sexualized women. Like I admit I did not get a lot of the mechanics for a long time. And even at it’s best I feel like the player phase style of game works best for few turn maps, I never want to replay engage because I never want to replay these maps that will forever be tainted by their lenght taking me and my mom several days to beat. I suppose because my mom is a hard working woman, she doesn’t seek that much challenge in games, and therefore would I have enjoyed Fire Emblem Engage’s gameplay more, my mom would have been even more bored.
We played on Hard/Casual btw, I didn’t want to annoy my mom with resets and still I thought I was up for t least some challenge.
One final note: My mom finds these voice lines in battle like when choosing someone or winning a battle annoying. Would Serra have talked in FE7, we would have probably put her in the: “We keep mocking THE DIVINE DRAGON LOOKED AT ME” tier of characters.
One other neat note: When I asked her which game she prefered, she mentioned the animations as a plus for FE7.
I know I just rambled, but I hope this is interesting. I had way more to say, but I think this summarizes my feelings. Considering I dropped both Fates Conquest and Birthright, I would have probably dropped Engage if it wasn’t for my mom. I did enjoy Shadow Dragon despite ignoring the story, so I can enjoy a FE game purely for Gameplay.
I would say Fire Emblem Engage is a game of highs and lows. I am pretty neutral on the game in the end, that does put it in the lower end of Fire Emblem games for me as it is a series I usually like, but I suppose there is value in that. I see what people love about it, I see what people what people hate about it. Although I suppose that does make me an oddity, being neutral on the gameplay. Considering it is a loved aspect. But, I don’t mind, “skill emblem” or whatever you may call this JRPG emblem. That just isn’t for me. I am a “Chess piece” fire emblem player. And I am a “Let’s keep maps short” sort of Fire Emblem player, which player phase focused games aren’t as they have long turns.
I hope these thoughts have something interesting. I thought a lot about this. I also drafted an essay, and I can finally put this game to rest. Move on to new games, better games. I can’t wait to play more simple detective games with my mother again. Maybe we will try Three Houses next, I only played one route and considering she did enjoy the non battle aspects. Maybe we will do Awakening, as I don’t know that game much and we can experience a new game together. Or maybe I will just go with her for my third FE8 playthrough. Or maybe we look at other SRPG series, but for now, I am not going to play Fire Emblem with her, get a change of pace, variety is the spice of life.