Inb4 people who didn’t read the post defend the game for the gameplay when the post is criticizing the story only.
I don’t like the idea of that it’s “so bad it’s good” that other people echo (I.e. calling it campy) since it gives the impression that they deliberately wanted their story to be bad.
wicktus
The story, character designs and dialogues were quite underwhelming, for me.
Thing is, I bought the game knowing that a good gameplay was more than enough for me, and I do not regret picking it up.
I do think that it’s time to evolve F.E story wise, some sort of soft reboot or something
I like Engage’s pace tho ! Feels more dynamic than 3H, 3H has its own advantages still but overall I’m curious to see how the formula will evolve for the next entry (probably on switch 2)
NYJetLegendEdReed
I didn’t buy a fire emblem game for the story. The combat is the best the series ever had.
Complicated-HorseAss
Is there a good TLDR for the story? I really liked 3 houses, it’s the only fire emblem I’ve ever played and I would probably pick this one up if I got play as byleth again.
[deleted]
Yeah that’s why I sold my divine edition. Not interested in this game the moment I heard it has a bland story
kolt437
Engage has a typical “anime game” story.
[deleted]
[deleted]
jessej421
Hopefully it gets a good price drop next black friday. Should be worth $30-40 for the gameplay at least.
No-Instruction9393
Yeah, story feels like it was written by 13 year olds. Three houses was my first fire emblem, and while it’s not the best story ever, it was still far more interesting and *engaging*.
myjumboeggs
I’ve never cared about the story in fire emblem games. They’re almost always lame
OoTgoated
Well yeah. It’s Fire Emblem. The story is typically just an excuse for cool anime battles to happen lol.
Sussyimposter14
I dont like gatekeeping at all. My first game was awakening I was part of the “new crowd” at one point. But damn im so tired of hearing all the people who have not played a single game outside of 3 houses completely dismiss engage cause its not exactly like how 3 houses was. Guess what yall: *3 houses was a fluke and we will probably never see a game like it for a very long time* 3 houses is absolutely the new black sheep, even more than gaiden/echoes. Now Don’t get me wrong 3 houses DOES have the best story imo. However the characters are no better than awakening/fates/engage. They all one note outside the lords. Either drop the series or realize each and every entry is vastly different and even if you dont enjoy certain aspects of the new one realize each game has its strengths and weaknesses. Most people agree 3 houses gameplay was lackluster, but see how its still popular and loved? Learn to do that when the aspect you enjoy most is weaker or just stop playing the series.
Siendra
Fire Emblem has a balance problem. Three Houses went too far with the social sim stuff and multiple narrative paths and ended up with egregiously poor pacing and significant quality issues between the story paths.
Engage meanwhile over corrected. After the first couple hours the pacing is fine, but there’s not a lot to most of the units characters or the overall narrative, and the dialogue is just… yeesh at times (Although I’ll defend “Hiya Papaya” to my death).
~~Camelot~~ IS should probably bring in an outside writer and scenario designer for the next game. We’re three games deep with basically the same problems.
WEEGEMAN
First games PoR, then SS, and then RD when it came out.
I thought as a duology PoR and RD had great story. With some QoL features I’d probably do anything for a remake of both.
RZA3663
So? The gameplay is great. Go watch a movie or read a book if you want to be enthralled.
n1nj4d00m
How much of this is the result of trash localization? Are the Japanese reviews similar?
PreferenceGold5167
Everyone who compares engage to fates needs to play fates again, it’s not an apt comparison at all, rather it just makes it seem like you never replayed fates.
the_pedigree
Is there any FE story that’s actually good? They all just seemed like generic fantasy anime from the few I played.
serenade1
Does people not realize the person who directs the writing in this game is the same one as Fates and Awakening?
You know, the lady that dissed her company, the people working on the card game, the fans, and clearly showed her bias towards her own characters on Twitter until the 2ch/5ch detectives discovered her identity, which led to her quickly deleting her account (the speed indicates she was watching 2ch)? That lady?
How can you be disappointed when the writer has shown time and again she couldn’t write a war story to save her life?
Also, don’t ask me how she got appointed to such an important position again. Probably no one joining IS so they have no one else.
BeautifulBoy92
Never been gripped by a Fire Emblem story. Just want to fight stuff and that’s what Engage specializes in.
Lazyback
3 houses spoiled us. The story was great there.
Engage lacks that for sure.. however. They did streamline a lot of the stuff that wasn’t for me and the battles are really the focus of engage.. Which I love.
Video games with good stories are honestly tremendously rare
Zartron81
To be fair… I don’t really see the whole “story being lighthearted” as a crime, like loads of the dislikers are saying.
Ok, despite me reaching chapter 15 only, we all agree that the gameplay is spectacular, as for the story , it isn’t that good, BUT… despite that, it’s still slightly enjoyable, and definitely far away from the load of horse shit that lots of people are crying about, because let’s be honest…
LOTS of those are definitely exaggerating their rants lmao.
RingTeam
*”Engage is full of juvenile dialogue, rushed pacing, and unearned emotional moments.”* This line I’ve read here made me saved a lot of money. The game might be good, but unfortunately, I don’t have the patience for this type of dialogue, rushed pacing and unearned big moments.
It’s a pity, because I think Awakening, while it has a very simple story, it works for the characters in the sense that there’s an organic flow between them. They have different opinions, sometimes they clash, there’s always a conflict, etc. I think the conversations they had is way more fun than the main plot. Engage… My main complaint is that the color palette of the main character is too saturated with this weird mix of saturated blue and saturated red. Apart from that, I don’t think I’m gonna buy this game.
MisterBuckethead
I’m usually quite tolerant with corny stuff, especially in jrpg because it can be regarded as a little bit cute or at least harmless towards my appreciation of the story.
But man does this game go overboard with cringey stuff : Characters talk and behave like they escaped from freaking Dora the explorer, which matches the good chunk of seemingly underaged characters. MC is a wimp but worshipped by everyone for no reason, characters are walking tropes with no backgrounds ( the one who likes food, the one who likes working out, etc ) and even the cameos from past FE games feel like their soul has been sucked out.
I know it sounds harsh but i’m not even asking for a super deep story.
In fact, the outlines of the story are not so far away from other FE games : you lead an army against an evil empire / evil dragon lord who’s trying to conquer the world. But most characters and dialogues are insufferable and i don’t think they’ve ever been quite THAT corny, even in recent FE games.
Gameplay was great though, it’s the only reason i actually finished the game. It still has a bunch of good chara designs and music here and there, overall i would say i still had a good time with the game itself, but story is a miss for me.
brendyismybestfriend
Some of the points that seemed like they were supposed to have the biggest emotional impact were some of the most bland for me. the characters and story just did not get me invested to the point where I started skipping the end of major scenes because they just felt like they dragged and I didn’t care.
AdamParker-CIG
every FE since Awakening has been like this. instead of being about a group of characters in a complex war or something, theyre all about Your Custom Anime Dude magically appearing with no memory and everybody falls over themselves to love them and put them in charge of everything immediately because theyre secretly a god or reincarnation or whatever. its the same in Awakening, Fates, Three Houses, Engage and it sucks. i dont use the term mary sue often but the main create-a-character of these titles is a huge mary sue with how easily the settings bend to them, and they have no personality of their own because theyre blank slates for the player. its really boring.
DarkKirby14
somewhat of a step up from Three Hopes
isaac3000
I read some plot spoilers I didn’t want to, I tried to scroll directly to the verdict but oh well. Though you know, I don’t really care, with Three Houses (or the identity of the black knight on Tellius) I avoided every little bit of spoilers as possible (and i was sad to have been hinted to the identity of the black knight days before I actually got to see it in game), because the stories have been so good!
Engage? I don’t care, so what the tone of the game is childish, but don’t get me wrong I really enjoyed it so far (just beat chapter 5) and I am one of the few who absolutely loved the themes of Fates (but the execution is questionable) but it feels like Engage is a dumbed down version of Fates.
Here they tried to give a lore, the continent a name but it feels like Fates’, Nolore 02.
I just hope, this won’t make the next game to sell less because people have been disappointed, I mean the gameplay is top notch!
armycat23
I REALLY enjoyed FE3H for the charming school environment, the choices you could make, the romances, the combat, and the story.
It’s a 9.75 to me.
Fire Emblem Engage? I’m not all the way finished with it, but it’s about 7. It actually feels like a decent cellphone game, rather than a console game.
– There’s a lot of “still shots” of the world
– Limited area to roam(much less comparted to FE3H)
– The overhead battles seem less detailed from the overhead view and you can’t even tell who’s who sometimes without hovering over the character.
– Battle maps seem uninspired
The story definitely has some of the oldest clichés possible. spoiler – I mean, c’mon, who didn’t expect that MC’s mother to die early into the game? The amnesia thing again? Really?
It’s a fine tactics game, but it doesn’t necessarily do anything new or groundbreaking. All in all, it’s a very very very meh installment in the series.
HoleRhino
LMFAOOO the replies trying to defend this game generic ass boring story.
Scallywag-Skuzzy
I haven’t played it yet, but the premise told me right off the bat that it wasn’t going to be a good story. Bringing old heroes into the story has always been poorly written in the franchise, all their time stuff has been poorly written. The warriors game which had elements of this was also exceptionally poorly written.
Arshkoraa
The story just reminds Me of the different fire emblem games. I don’t hate it or anything, just very similar in a way. Also disappointing that you can’t technically romance Like in other FE games. It’s more of a ‘we’re friends forever!” Which makes me sad because damn I was looking forward to some of the romance this time 🥺
Profound-Cookie27
The story in on itself doesn’t bother me. Defeat evil dragon, go around world to collect rings, tropey and linear. I’m not in it for the story. Gameplay – fantastic. Not my kind of thing, but objectively, it’s really good and I don’t have complaints.
But the characters. Everyone – except a few of them – don’t seem to be taking the situation and literal WAR seriously at all. There’s kings/queens who seem like they couldn’t lead a dog on a leash, let alone an entire nation. Also, the game is tell, not show, so we don’t get much from them. And unlike Fates who went out there full swing, no hesitation and fear, Engage seems like it’s very afraid to step out of its comfort zone.
And yes, cringe dialogue. Some was really fun, but when the entire game is like that… yikes.
Evilbefalls
Just started and it has the same main character plot as most of the fire eblem games
A main character with memory loss
p3r3ll3x
I mean they clearly wanted to appeal to a younger audience with this title
Also unlike the Three Houses, the English localization is mediocre at best, resulting in some really atrocious lines of dialogue.
DaVeYyYyYyYyYyYyYyYy
Its even more disappointing because I played FE3H recently which Story was really good in my opinion while engage has this typical cliche writing.
Sonicyellow49
One of the reasons I didn’t buy this game, it really didn’t engage my interest
Ayahime_0
I agree that Engage is a disappointment.
Just beat Engage and…whelp. I felt like I just wasted 56 hours and 31 minutes of my life. Most of them was from grinding that I became OP during the final fight. If only they cut off half of the cast or at least give them character development, I would’ve learned to care about them. The story was underwhelming too. But at least they got one thing done right in the story. Giving us the Four Hounds’ background story unlike Three Houses with TWSITD.
At the end, I just can’t see Engage as a great game as most (hardcore) fans would claim because of the generic story and the lack of character development. But I guessed that’s what long-time Fire Emblem fans loved. The revamped gameplay and the songs are the only things keeping me playing for 5+ hours.
39 Comments
It’s not “engaging” enough?
Inb4 people who didn’t read the post defend the game for the gameplay when the post is criticizing the story only.
I don’t like the idea of that it’s “so bad it’s good” that other people echo (I.e. calling it campy) since it gives the impression that they deliberately wanted their story to be bad.
The story, character designs and dialogues were quite underwhelming, for me.
Thing is, I bought the game knowing that a good gameplay was more than enough for me, and I do not regret picking it up.
I do think that it’s time to evolve F.E story wise, some sort of soft reboot or something
I like Engage’s pace tho ! Feels more dynamic than 3H, 3H has its own advantages still but overall I’m curious to see how the formula will evolve for the next entry (probably on switch 2)
I didn’t buy a fire emblem game for the story. The combat is the best the series ever had.
Is there a good TLDR for the story? I really liked 3 houses, it’s the only fire emblem I’ve ever played and I would probably pick this one up if I got play as byleth again.
Yeah that’s why I sold my divine edition. Not interested in this game the moment I heard it has a bland story
Engage has a typical “anime game” story.
[deleted]
Hopefully it gets a good price drop next black friday. Should be worth $30-40 for the gameplay at least.
Yeah, story feels like it was written by 13 year olds. Three houses was my first fire emblem, and while it’s not the best story ever, it was still far more interesting and *engaging*.
I’ve never cared about the story in fire emblem games. They’re almost always lame
Well yeah. It’s Fire Emblem. The story is typically just an excuse for cool anime battles to happen lol.
I dont like gatekeeping at all. My first game was awakening I was part of the “new crowd” at one point. But damn im so tired of hearing all the people who have not played a single game outside of 3 houses completely dismiss engage cause its not exactly like how 3 houses was. Guess what yall: *3 houses was a fluke and we will probably never see a game like it for a very long time* 3 houses is absolutely the new black sheep, even more than gaiden/echoes. Now Don’t get me wrong 3 houses DOES have the best story imo. However the characters are no better than awakening/fates/engage. They all one note outside the lords. Either drop the series or realize each and every entry is vastly different and even if you dont enjoy certain aspects of the new one realize each game has its strengths and weaknesses. Most people agree 3 houses gameplay was lackluster, but see how its still popular and loved? Learn to do that when the aspect you enjoy most is weaker or just stop playing the series.
Fire Emblem has a balance problem. Three Houses went too far with the social sim stuff and multiple narrative paths and ended up with egregiously poor pacing and significant quality issues between the story paths.
Engage meanwhile over corrected. After the first couple hours the pacing is fine, but there’s not a lot to most of the units characters or the overall narrative, and the dialogue is just… yeesh at times (Although I’ll defend “Hiya Papaya” to my death).
~~Camelot~~ IS should probably bring in an outside writer and scenario designer for the next game. We’re three games deep with basically the same problems.
First games PoR, then SS, and then RD when it came out.
I thought as a duology PoR and RD had great story. With some QoL features I’d probably do anything for a remake of both.
So? The gameplay is great. Go watch a movie or read a book if you want to be enthralled.
How much of this is the result of trash localization? Are the Japanese reviews similar?
Everyone who compares engage to fates needs to play fates again, it’s not an apt comparison at all, rather it just makes it seem like you never replayed fates.
Is there any FE story that’s actually good? They all just seemed like generic fantasy anime from the few I played.
Does people not realize the person who directs the writing in this game is the same one as Fates and Awakening?
You know, the lady that dissed her company, the people working on the card game, the fans, and clearly showed her bias towards her own characters on Twitter until the 2ch/5ch detectives discovered her identity, which led to her quickly deleting her account (the speed indicates she was watching 2ch)? That lady?
How can you be disappointed when the writer has shown time and again she couldn’t write a war story to save her life?
Also, don’t ask me how she got appointed to such an important position again. Probably no one joining IS so they have no one else.
Never been gripped by a Fire Emblem story. Just want to fight stuff and that’s what Engage specializes in.
3 houses spoiled us. The story was great there.
Engage lacks that for sure.. however. They did streamline a lot of the stuff that wasn’t for me and the battles are really the focus of engage.. Which I love.
Video games with good stories are honestly tremendously rare
To be fair… I don’t really see the whole “story being lighthearted” as a crime, like loads of the dislikers are saying.
Ok, despite me reaching chapter 15 only, we all agree that the gameplay is spectacular, as for the story , it isn’t that good, BUT… despite that, it’s still slightly enjoyable, and definitely far away from the load of horse shit that lots of people are crying about, because let’s be honest…
LOTS of those are definitely exaggerating their rants lmao.
*”Engage is full of juvenile dialogue, rushed pacing, and unearned emotional moments.”* This line I’ve read here made me saved a lot of money. The game might be good, but unfortunately, I don’t have the patience for this type of dialogue, rushed pacing and unearned big moments.
It’s a pity, because I think Awakening, while it has a very simple story, it works for the characters in the sense that there’s an organic flow between them. They have different opinions, sometimes they clash, there’s always a conflict, etc. I think the conversations they had is way more fun than the main plot. Engage… My main complaint is that the color palette of the main character is too saturated with this weird mix of saturated blue and saturated red. Apart from that, I don’t think I’m gonna buy this game.
I’m usually quite tolerant with corny stuff, especially in jrpg because it can be regarded as a little bit cute or at least harmless towards my appreciation of the story.
But man does this game go overboard with cringey stuff : Characters talk and behave like they escaped from freaking Dora the explorer, which matches the good chunk of seemingly underaged characters. MC is a wimp but worshipped by everyone for no reason, characters are walking tropes with no backgrounds ( the one who likes food, the one who likes working out, etc ) and even the cameos from past FE games feel like their soul has been sucked out.
I know it sounds harsh but i’m not even asking for a super deep story.
In fact, the outlines of the story are not so far away from other FE games : you lead an army against an evil empire / evil dragon lord who’s trying to conquer the world. But most characters and dialogues are insufferable and i don’t think they’ve ever been quite THAT corny, even in recent FE games.
Gameplay was great though, it’s the only reason i actually finished the game. It still has a bunch of good chara designs and music here and there, overall i would say i still had a good time with the game itself, but story is a miss for me.
Some of the points that seemed like they were supposed to have the biggest emotional impact were some of the most bland for me. the characters and story just did not get me invested to the point where I started skipping the end of major scenes because they just felt like they dragged and I didn’t care.
every FE since Awakening has been like this. instead of being about a group of characters in a complex war or something, theyre all about Your Custom Anime Dude magically appearing with no memory and everybody falls over themselves to love them and put them in charge of everything immediately because theyre secretly a god or reincarnation or whatever. its the same in Awakening, Fates, Three Houses, Engage and it sucks. i dont use the term mary sue often but the main create-a-character of these titles is a huge mary sue with how easily the settings bend to them, and they have no personality of their own because theyre blank slates for the player. its really boring.
somewhat of a step up from Three Hopes
I read some plot spoilers I didn’t want to, I tried to scroll directly to the verdict but oh well. Though you know, I don’t really care, with Three Houses (or the identity of the black knight on Tellius) I avoided every little bit of spoilers as possible (and i was sad to have been hinted to the identity of the black knight days before I actually got to see it in game), because the stories have been so good!
Engage? I don’t care, so what the tone of the game is childish, but don’t get me wrong I really enjoyed it so far (just beat chapter 5) and I am one of the few who absolutely loved the themes of Fates (but the execution is questionable) but it feels like Engage is a dumbed down version of Fates.
Here they tried to give a lore, the continent a name but it feels like Fates’, Nolore 02.
I just hope, this won’t make the next game to sell less because people have been disappointed, I mean the gameplay is top notch!
I REALLY enjoyed FE3H for the charming school environment, the choices you could make, the romances, the combat, and the story.
It’s a 9.75 to me.
Fire Emblem Engage? I’m not all the way finished with it, but it’s about 7. It actually feels like a decent cellphone game, rather than a console game.
– There’s a lot of “still shots” of the world
– Limited area to roam(much less comparted to FE3H)
– The overhead battles seem less detailed from the overhead view and you can’t even tell who’s who sometimes without hovering over the character.
– Battle maps seem uninspired
The story definitely has some of the oldest clichés possible. spoiler – I mean, c’mon, who didn’t expect that MC’s mother to die early into the game? The amnesia thing again? Really?
It’s a fine tactics game, but it doesn’t necessarily do anything new or groundbreaking. All in all, it’s a very very very meh installment in the series.
LMFAOOO the replies trying to defend this game generic ass boring story.
I haven’t played it yet, but the premise told me right off the bat that it wasn’t going to be a good story. Bringing old heroes into the story has always been poorly written in the franchise, all their time stuff has been poorly written. The warriors game which had elements of this was also exceptionally poorly written.
The story just reminds Me of the different fire emblem games. I don’t hate it or anything, just very similar in a way. Also disappointing that you can’t technically romance Like in other FE games. It’s more of a ‘we’re friends forever!” Which makes me sad because damn I was looking forward to some of the romance this time 🥺
The story in on itself doesn’t bother me. Defeat evil dragon, go around world to collect rings, tropey and linear. I’m not in it for the story. Gameplay – fantastic. Not my kind of thing, but objectively, it’s really good and I don’t have complaints.
But the characters. Everyone – except a few of them – don’t seem to be taking the situation and literal WAR seriously at all. There’s kings/queens who seem like they couldn’t lead a dog on a leash, let alone an entire nation. Also, the game is tell, not show, so we don’t get much from them. And unlike Fates who went out there full swing, no hesitation and fear, Engage seems like it’s very afraid to step out of its comfort zone.
And yes, cringe dialogue. Some was really fun, but when the entire game is like that… yikes.
Just started and it has the same main character plot as most of the fire eblem games
A main character with memory loss
I mean they clearly wanted to appeal to a younger audience with this title
Also unlike the Three Houses, the English localization is mediocre at best, resulting in some really atrocious lines of dialogue.
Its even more disappointing because I played FE3H recently which Story was really good in my opinion while engage has this typical cliche writing.
One of the reasons I didn’t buy this game, it really didn’t engage my interest
I agree that Engage is a disappointment.
Just beat Engage and…whelp. I felt like I just wasted 56 hours and 31 minutes of my life. Most of them was from grinding that I became OP during the final fight. If only they cut off half of the cast or at least give them character development, I would’ve learned to care about them. The story was underwhelming too. But at least they got one thing done right in the story. Giving us the Four Hounds’ background story unlike Three Houses with TWSITD.
At the end, I just can’t see Engage as a great game as most (hardcore) fans would claim because of the generic story and the lack of character development. But I guessed that’s what long-time Fire Emblem fans loved. The revamped gameplay and the songs are the only things keeping me playing for 5+ hours.
But now, I’m done with Engage.