Hands on: Fire Emblem Engage is on the right track

I think the Polarizers will have an effect.

If I only had the main character, it was easy to see how divisive the design of Fire Emblem Engageare are – and the game hasn’t gone yet! I have to admit it that I grew to think as if I saw it. Here are some short thoughts after hand-on time with Fire Emblem Engage.

[Note: The only story snippet that is discussed here is a brief intro.

A view by Destructoid. The video is taken from Destructoid. Screenshot taken by Destructoid. Screenshot by Destructoid.

Fire Emblem Engage is a loud game (figuratively).

Excited on your face – at when it is at 12.6GB – – and in the direction of your face, as opposed to a tense moment of story and the bright, sometimes zany visual style.

When you open an open source system and open open windows for this, the groups of enemies are running up with newcomers, with new occurrences like Marth and the latest Fire Emblem stories. The intro actually happened in the past – more precisely 1000 years ago – and as a result, your Divine Dragon avatar vanquishes the great foe and falls into a disenchanting sleep. Now things become arguably more egocentric in nature like downtown with a party-based anime like El Hazard.

Alear wakes up and acts inexcusable and wants to defeat their first battle. You go along the path to acquire your power and memories,and I hear some groans very well. I think some people will straight up hate this shonen/shojo approach, but not mesmerized by it. After the fairly traditional medieval storytelling in Three Houses, to rubber band back to this seems a bit jarring, but it also differentiatesEngage from many modernFire Emblem releases.

Cutscenes are elegant, colourful and full of details. While I won’t leave off here, I have enjoyed some of the cast so far, including the relationships they have built with Alear, who’s a legendous power warrior and a blank slate. How you compare them to Marth will appear at the moment. The pairing/Engage system is so fun I am just learning how to roll.

Screenshot by Destructoid. Screenshot by Destructoid. A screenshot from Destructoid shows how to see the picture.

Gameplay has been smooth and fun at all.

Fire Emblem Engage brings back the classic SRPG format, and it works remarkably well when moving around the battlefield. Most of the existing options (i.e. slowing out battles/removing animations) came back, but unlike many other entries, it still kept on to watch them.

While there is some emphasis on strategic unit placement (including placing them in bushes to obscure them), and a rock-paper-scissor’s conceit, the technology essentially made me want to compete. There’s a lot of build potential here, particularly with the power to increase individual character bonds and to give them new skills. I think many people will love that gimmick, and spend some time messing about it. It’s also great fun to be powerheaded and turn an enemy around with floating angel wings and a beam sword.

The option to customize your playthrough will surely help. Here are the big settings to change: the apes and the apes and a pear.

Japanese and English audio
The ability to name the protagonist and choose from two forms is what comes with a name for the protagonist.
If one is a normal, hard or angry matter, it is inevitable.
A casual toggle (no character death) or a classic (permadeath) switch (no character death).

Fire Emblem Engage is a fun tactical romp that has far exceeded the expectations of people who are interested in seeing where it is going. It’s not certain that it’ll top Three Houses (which is for many of us a big bar), but the closer one will begin.