Game:

Fire Emblem Engage (2023)

Duration: 6:23

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1

This game is difficult to rate. The battles are excellent, and the emblem system gives you a lot of interesting strategic options on the field. The core strategy RPG elements are tons of fun.

All the stuff around that core is less impressive. The character designs feel like uninspired anime cast-offs (with a few really interesting exceptions), and the casual outfits worn by the characters at base raise a lot of troublesome questions about just what kind of game world you're inhabiting. And the story is too busy being a bland, generic rehash of every main FE storyline to address anything like an interesting question about the ontology of its world.

Everything you do outside of combat is kind of a drag. You can run around the field after each battle talking to your teammates and picking up extra items, but those items are often less than valuable and your teammates rarely have anything useful to say. You can perform a dizzying array of actions at base between each battle, but the rewards for those activities are often so minimal that it makes them feel like total superfluities. Strength training, which carries a tangible but small bonus for your avatar, is easy but time consuming, thus swiftly becoming tedious. I loved spending time running around the monastery between battles in Three Houses; I have come to dread it in Engage.

If you can overcome a bunch of mostly dumb-looking characters and aren't too keen on satisfying activities between battles, you will have a great time with this game. The three-star rating I have it is kind of misleading--it's a 4- or 5-star tactical RPG with 1- or 2-star art, story, and mini-games.

#fireemblemengage #fireemblem #nintendoswitch

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