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With the release of Fire Emblem Engage, the series leaves behind Fódlan, the world of Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes. Now is the perfect time to jump on board and see what the series has to offer.
Off To Elyos
When the game begins, we find ourselves in Elyos, a world where four kingdoms surround a holy land ruled over by a Divine Dragon. The inhabitants of Elyos are fighting a war to protect the land from the evil Fell Dragon. You’re plunged straight into the last moments of the last battle for the tutorial. It’s a refreshing approach – even knowing it’s a tutorial, the stakes somehow seem higher when you’re standing opposite the final boss. However, if you end up replaying, you might wonder what some familiar faces are doing in the hall you charge through along the way.
Chapter 1 picks up with your character, canonically named Alear, waking from a deep sleep. It is 1000 years later and evil is again at large (flashbacks to Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, anyone?). You don’t have many memories of life 1000 years ago, but you have some overeager yet rather sweet stewards who are more than happy to support you as you get back on their feet. Your task is to build your strength and defeat the Fell Dragon. How do you do that? By travelling to the four kingdoms and collecting Elyos’s 12 Emblem Rings.
Emblem Engage
The major new gameplay feature in Fire Emblem Engage is the Emblem Rings. These pretty pieces of jewellery contain the Emblems (essentially spirits) of warrior heroes from other worlds. If you’ve played previous games in the series, you’ll recognise several of these characters as you gather these rings. If not, you might still recognise some familiar faces from SuperSmash Bros. Ultimate, such as Marth, Lucina and Roy. So, if you’ve ever wanted to play the older characters in a Fire Emblem game, now is the time to give it a go.
Even if you don’t recognise any of the characters, this is a fun addition to the gameplay. For each ring you collect, you’ll gain an Emblem hero to fight alongside one of your characters, giving them access to special weapons and allowing them to merge for special attacks. As you gain more characters and more Emblems, you’ll need to work out who to pair up in order to fight most effectively. For example: Micaiah’s strength is in healing, so she’ll initially pair well with Framme.
Additionally, some of the Emblem’s special moves are perfect for getting you out of a tight corner. Byleth’s Goddess Dance allows adjacent allies to move again and Lucina’s All for One triggers a chain attack from nearby allies. These attacks bring an extra level of drama and creativity into battles, letting you pull a last-ditch success from the jaws of a sure defeat. It also gives you an extra element to contend with when an enemy is wearing one. In fact, I would say that it’s worth getting this game just for the novelty of having to incorporate Emblem Rings into your strategy.
Permadeath … What Permadeath?
Fire Emblem’s combat style is perhaps its most unique draw. As a turn-based RPG, combat in Fire Emblem Engage relies on strategy. Characters have different classes that determine their strengths and weaknesses. As you get more experienced, you’ll want to play around with these to find the ones each character is best suited to in your roster. I would say the class advancement system using seals is less complicated, but arguably less instinctive, than in Three Houses. You won’t spend anywhere near so much time fine-tuning your units.
Out on the battlefield, there are a few things you’ll need to bear in mind. The game guides you through weapons advantages, which will help you massively if you’re coming to it for the first time. At the heart of this is the weapons triangle, where axe beats spear, spear beats sword and sword beats axe. This is marked above the units in this game, with a red sign over the weapon at a disadvantage. The map can be set to show the range of your enemies. There are also often types of terrain on the map that either hep or hinder you in battle. In terms of weapon durability, most weapons don’t break. However, be careful with powerful healing items, such as elixirs and staffs as there are a limited number available in game.
Of course, one of the things that the Fire Emblem series is known for is its permanent character death. This is ‘Classic’ mode, where any characters who die outside of a practice battle are lost to you forever. If that doesn’t appeal, there’s also ‘Casual’ mode, where they’re returned to you at the end of each battle. The game has three difficult levels ‘Normal’, ‘Hard’ or ‘Maddening’ mode, and you can switch the difficultly level in-game. As with Fire Emblem: Three Houses, once you get a few chapters in, this game has an equivalent of the Divine Pulse, which lets you rewind moves if you misjudge and lose a character you just can’t live without.
Hiya Papaya
The characters are, of course, another major element of the Fire Emblem games. If you’re still enjoying Three Houses, you might be wondering whether it’s worth moving on. Well, let me reassure you. Although Alear has a very different personality to Byleth – being both chatty and positively sunny – you quickly get used to both their bright appearance and their cheerful nature. Plus, you get to keep Byleth as an Emblem.
As well as Alear, Engage has a wide cast of characters. People join you at a rapid pace from every kingdom you travel to, so your roster fills out quickly. What’s more, every one of them feels fresh. For example, Prince Alfred, the first character you meet, seems like he might fit a well-worn mould of a fantasy prince. Yet his indefatigable optimism and zest for life soon show he is not a carbon copy of the many princes this series has seen before.
The cut scenes do a good job of introducing new characters and you tend to be forced to play one battle with each new character you acquire. Inevitably, there will be a number of characters you rarely or never interact with again due to the number of available characters. Think of this as leaving scope for additional playthroughs rather than wasted opportunities. In the meantime, the support conversations between characters you do play with provides enough backstory to flesh out their personalities and contribute to the worldbuilding between the battles.
All That And I’m Beginning To Feel Sleepy…
Fire Emblem Engage has added a couple of additional features between battles. You can now run around a version of the map you’ve been fighting on after every battle. How the designers have managed to make these maps reflect the maps you’ve been fighting on is impressive. It really brings to life the idea that you’re battling for a town full of people when you can meet the people afterwards. However, this is a feature that got old quickly. It’s annoying to have to run around to collect resources when you also have the Somniel to explore. If your main focus is the battles, this is just another distraction to click through.
Once you’re done with that, you can head over to the Somniel. The Somniel is a beautifully designed floating island that is used as a base in a similar way to Garreg Mach Monastery. There are shops, mini-games, and opportunities for support conversations, among other things. However, everything feels much more optional than it did at the monastery. Depending on your play style, you will probably either love or hate this. While I often found myself skipping it, it’s good to have the option for training and meal boosts when you need the extra edge.
Emblem Expand
On top of all that, the expansion pass is now completely out. Wave 4 was released in the UK on 5th April 2023. This gives you access to the Divine Paralogues that result in Emblem Bracelets for characters such as the Three Houses leaders and Tiki. You’re also provided with numerous other weapons, resources and upgrades, which make the main storyline significantly easier.
Then, of course, there’s the Fell Xenologue – six additional chapters which give you access to an alternative story and several more recruitable characters. Fire Emblem Engage has no New Game+. If you get attached to your characters or want to stick to one difficulty level, the expansion pass will let you vary your gameplay. However, the base game easily stands alone without it and it is definitely not needed for an enjoyable playthrough.
Verdict
Overall, Fire Emblem Engage is a solid addition to the Fire Emblems series. It has a bright new art style and continues to have points of notably good music. The story hits all the usual notes of a fantasy RPG and includes lots of dramatic cut scenes. Although these can be slightly jarring earlier in the story, they work better as the narrative progresses. With such a diverse set of characters, there’s sure to be someone you like, and the supports do a good job of adding to the overall worldbuilding.
As with all Fire Emblem games, however, the battle style is the real draw. The world lends itself to a range of varied maps and there are some tricky mission objectives that encourage you to shake up your tactics. The one thing I would really have liked to see was a New Game+ option. Nevertheless, Fire Emblem Engage is well worth a playthrough or two. And with the addition of the expansion pass, I’m sure I’ll be heading back to Elyos again.