Game informer quote sounds perfect
Engage’s characters and social systems never quite hit the high bar set by Three Houses, but it does surpass its predecessor in almost every other way. Players looking for deep customization, expertly crafted strategy RPG combat, and a heartfelt story with adoration for more than 30 years of Fire Emblem history will find that and more in Engage. It’s one of the most gripping games I’ve played on Switch and, ultimately, one I struggled to peel myself away from. If Three Houses was an experiment with where Fire Emblem’s social mechanics can go, then Engage is doing the same for the series’ evolving combat, and excelling just as much, too."
And good bit on performance from Nintendo Life:
We should also give mention to the overall presentation of Fire Emblem Engage at this point. Three Houses certainly had a few issues with its overall performance upon release, as we noted in our review, but this new entry is nigh-on flawless in this regard. Over our entire extended play time here, we didn't experience a single noticeable hitch in the frame rate, no bugs, no crashes, no stuttering as you rush around the Somniel or explore battlefields for treasure once the fighting is done. In both docked and handheld modes it looks and sounds glorious, too, with Mika Pikazo's artwork and Yuka Tsujiyoko's stellar soundtrack making for one of the most polished experiences on Switch thus far.
Basic impressions is that it has better maps and fighting than the most 3 Houses, but that the story and some of the social interactions have taken a step back. So basically, if you liked Fire Emblem before Awakening, this is largely a return to form, with some of the modern conveniences (like the rewind function) kept.
It looks incredible.
It sounds like it also allows you to learn skills in a mix-and-match fashion a la Final Fantasy Tactics.
Bought and downloaded. Can't wait for Thurs midnight.
Likewise! All of the reviews seem to agree it's a good back to form with regards to the actual fighting.
I played a bit of Blazing Blade recently. Was just trying out Android emulator and stumbled on my old save in the middle of Eliwood route, chapter 16 or so. Took it up to Ch 19 or 20, including a couple of X (paralogue?) chapters. Thought I might try to finish before Friday but it looks like I'm running out of time.
Still it was fun to see Lyn, Eliwood and Hector again. Been a while.
I also stumbled on a translated ROM for Binding Blade, the Japan only one released before that. Kind of want to add that to the pile but so many games...
That one is definitely worth it. I think I’ve talked about it here, but I’ve completed Binding Blade twice recently.
Tomorrow is the day. I'm so excited. I had a lot of anticipation for Three Houses, but I'm even more excited for this one, given that it's appears to be a more mainline Fire Emblem game.
3 hours man! 9pm for you in Pacific time. Midnight here on the east coast
That was the easiest midnight unlock yet for me. Checked once at midnight, said not ready. Checked again 30 sec later, and game launched.
Mario Kart, Metroid, Animal Crossing, lots of others it took 5-10 minutes, sometimes even stopped and came back at 1220 or 1230 to try again.
Got into Ch 3 last night. Mostly tutorial until then. Felt like the first real battle.
One of the nice things I love early on is that the healer is a melee monk with staff for healing. So if things go smoothly can still get her XP.
I assume Vander is the usual Jagen character that you should not use for any kill XP? Started using him as bait and to soften up enemies for easy kills for everyone else.
Yep. I need to take his weapons off of him. That’s usually my first move with a Jagen.
Not having much luck when I google this:
What features are enabled with an active Nintendo Online account?
All I was able to find was vague allusions that similar to Three Houses there will be some kind of passive data sharing that effectively just gives you access to extra/free resources from time to time.
I honestly just said "no" to that since it seemed optional. I don't want the game phoning home when I'm away from home and taking longer to start up.
It connects when battle loads. There are 2 types of squares on the map. Purple is where many foes have fallen, and if you end turn there you get free item drops. Yellow ones are where many allies have fallen, so watch out. And ending turn there gets you free XP.
After a couple more battles at lunch I think I screwed up. I went classic/normal, figuring with the time crystal I could rewind. Turns out on normal you get unlimited rewind. On hard and the extra hard you get only 10. Which is still a ton. I only used it once so far and it wasn't a death, just I blocked my teammate out of attack range.
So you can turn difficulty down from the base but you can't turn it up. Wondering if I should restart on hard before I get too far. Can skip all cutscenes and be back where I was in an hour probably. I'm afraid the game is just going to be boring this way. Haven't had anyone below half health even yet.
Finished chapter 3 this morning, and dang, I wish they would go back to having a standard main character. Seeing the emblem characters reminds me how much Ephraim, Erika, and Chrom stick out in my mind, but gloss over Robin, Corryn, and Byleth. Also the other characters constantly having to refer to you as Divine Dragon or you instead of Alear and young one instead of daughter or son really makes the dialogue feel clunky.
Combat feels pretty good on hard/classic so far. Got into a tight spot in chapter 3 and almost lost Alear, but survived it and finished the map without issue. The break mechanic is quite interesting, I want to see how it is going to play out later, as I already ran into one enemy that did not break from an advantaged attack.
Yeah I was annoyed they couldn't use son/daughter voice lines. And I hoped that leaving the default name would let people say the name. Alas, nope.
Might as well restart on hard and rename myself. Dragon Stele it is!
After a couple more battles at lunch I think I screwed up. I went classic/normal, figuring with the time crystal I could rewind. Turns out on normal you get unlimited rewind. On hard and the extra hard you get only 10. Which is still a ton. I only used it once so far and it wasn't a death, just I blocked my teammate out of attack range.
So you can turn difficulty down from the base but you can't turn it up. Wondering if I should restart on hard before I get too far. Can skip all cutscenes and be back where I was in an hour probably. I'm afraid the game is just going to be boring this way. Haven't had anyone below half health even yet.
Can't believe this is still a thing. It's what caused me to eventually bail on Three Houses, and certainly dampens my enthusiasm for picking this one up. I'd be very annoyed to again reach a point 45 hours in where my group is completely over-leveled and combat is no longer interesting. On the one hand, I'd have gotten 45 hours of enjoyment out of the game, but on the other I got 60 out of Three Houses and this exact situation left me with very negative feelings about a game that I mostly enjoyed playing.
It connects when battle loads. There are 2 types of squares on the map. Purple is where many foes have fallen, and if you end turn there you get free item drops. Yellow ones are where many allies have fallen, so watch out. And ending turn there gets you free XP.
Thanks!
So that's more or less it, then? Hm, going to be hard to convince myself to keep it active once the seven day trial expires.
Yeah I was annoyed they couldn't use son/daughter voice lines. And I hoped that leaving the default name would let people say the name. Alas, nope.
Might as well restart on hard and rename myself. Dragon Stele it is!
Are you using English or Japanese voices?
I played through the intro this morning and got about about 30 seconds in before I decided English voices were NOT going to work for me. I can't even remember what I ended up settling on for Three Houses, because there were definitely some strong performances in the English cast, but here where there's instantly a decidedly more Saturday morning cartoon tone, switching to the Japanese voices was a no brainer. Much easier for me to set myself in the appropriate mental space that way (and to not get annoyed as easily).
But anyway, if you go that route, the voices will be referring to you as "Shin Ryu" rather than "Divine Dragon" which feels a bit less clunky to me. 
That said, I know a lot of you are happy to have the focus be returning to combat with this entry, but I still wish that the tone could have remained a bit more... well, a bit less Saturday morning cartoon. While I generally enjoy tactics games, it was the fact that Three Houses was essentially a Persona game wrapped around a tactics game that really made me love it, and got me to finally give the Fire Emblem series the attention I probably should have at least a few entries earlier. (The fact that it was primarily a handheld series for quite a while was the other big issue for me, since I just don't have much place in my life for handheld games.)
Anyway, hopefully I'll still warm up to it as I go along (and again, I think playing with Japanese voices will help), but man, it's a bit of a struggle at least at the start here.
Is Japanese Framme still a giddy teenage cheerleader voice? Because that's the only one that irritated me the first few chapters. Her C support is just awful.
Is Japanese Framme still a giddy teenage cheerleader voice? Because that's the only one that irritated me the first few chapters. Her C support is just awful.
Heh, I mean yeah, the twins at the beginning were definitely my instant nope. The Japanese versions were still youthful and excitable, but significantly more listenable. 
The break mechanic is quite interesting, I want to see how it is going to play out later, as I already ran into one enemy that did not break from an advantaged attack.
From the tips video just posted, your strength has to be greater than the enemy, in addition to using the right weapon.
The battle tips in the UI are amazing though. You can see X on enemies you can attack and break when you choose your character to move. The battle preview stuff is so detailed. Basically aside from crit there shouldn't be any surprises.
Yeah, the prebattle UI is great. Even shows the order of attacks, when someone will die, and when you get Marth's healing. That would explain the non- breaks since it was against knights (armored units).
Game is also pretty forgiving before you attack, you can engage, move, then cancel it all back to the beginning of that unit's turn.
I noticed that so far every unit aside from Framme can only use a single weapon type. Even your two cavalry units, which typically can use sword/lance, can only equip their starting type (and paladins normally can't use axes at all, so Vander is weird).
Yeah I'm guessing advanced cavalry will use swords and spears eventually.
As that video pointed out you can use emblems to equip a second weapon type in some cases so that's nice.
When I cut scene in so long with the switch goes into dimming mode, I think it might be a bit too long. It has happened twice so far and I am just starting
Combat feels pretty good on hard/classic so far. Got into a tight spot in chapter 3 and almost lost Alear, but survived it and finished the map without issue.
Got back up to Ch 5 on Hard after 90 min or so. Yes much tougher in 3 and 4. Had a death I had to reload a mid-battle save a couple times to line my team up better and protect someone. And then had a character down to 3 health on Ch 4 but didn't have to use rewind or anything. Just a close call hehe.
I want a little challenge at least. Normal was boring.
So wait, is hard on Engage closer to normal in the GBA games or hard in the GBA games?
Pages