Topic: Fire Emblem Engage for Nintendo Switch

I agree, the game looks really strong. Colorful, sharp. But yeah, it looks very different from Three houses. The character designs (especially from the lead) look very weird. But overall I think the game looks very strong. But I think this game will be quite dividing in terms of artstyle. We'll see.

@XandertheWise

I also still need to do the last battle in Awakening. There where a couple of optional missions left for me, but mostly I still need to "build" the healing girl (forgot her name) since she can't fight and she can't defend herself. No need to attempt the final fight when she gets killed in one strike.

@JaxonH What blows me about people hating the post-Awakening art styles is that it's absolutely a natural progression in what anyone would expect. Sure, some of it can be a bit fanservice-y (especially Fates), but even then, I feel like the main characters have looked fine. I really love how bold Engage's main character is, and I feel like more games need to take those big, bold swings.

Yeah, Fire Emblem has always looked anime to me, so I never really got the complaints about Awakening being some sort of major shift (it maybe modernized the look a bit, but that's about all).

I mean, this is a character from Sacred Stones, which was one of the first 2 games released in the west so is probably representative of the look those fans want to "go back to":

Still looks thoroughly "anime" to me.

I should make a new file for my Fire Emblem Awakening game to sort of start over to understand the story a little better, but Im still holding on my main save file where Im at the very end to fight the final boss. i still dont understand the whole thing about the children or whatever from the "future" gimmick but the rest of bthe game story i dont mind.

at least Shadows of Velentia remake was easier to understand and play through

@JaxonH I think the issue is how much the style of the 3DS entries clashed with the more grounded look of previous Fire Emblem games. Especially in conjunction with the heavy focus on matchmaking.

Three Houses kind of split the difference. It doubled down on the social aspect, but downplayed the romantic elements, and the look and general design of the game was grittier and more in line with pre-Awakening titles. It made fans of both styles of FE happy.

For my part, I'll say this: I would be disappointed if this was confirmed to be the direction the series was going in the future. As a smaller, one-off '3DS throwback'-style entry, though, I don't mind it. It certainly helps that the game is INCREDIBLY pretty looking. Whoever is developing this (was it confirmed to be Gust?) seems to have a better sense of how to exploit the resources of the hardware than the team that worked on Three Houses and the Warriors spinoffs.

@Ralizah
Fire Emblem doesn't really have a "direction it goes in". They're constantly changing things up. From Shadow Dragon's drab realism, to Awakening and Fates more anime style, to Shadows of Valentia's overworld exploration, to Three Houses unique approach. Some games offer multiple paths, others offer single paths, art styles are always changing... it's one of the aspects I most appreciate about the series. They're always changing it up.

Awakening didn't even have much focus on romantic relationships- some characters could S rank for a special 2 minute support convo with a quick extra scene in the time skip. But it's not like that was a major aspect of the game.

At the end of the day, as long as the game is good, I'm OK with every style they go with and any direction they choose to take it, knowing the next entry will likely diverge again into a different direction. But even if it was more permanent, I'd be OK with this. It's definitely the most attractive game I've seen in the series, and I always preferred the style of Awakening over other entries.

@JaxonH I'm not saying the games were carbon copies of one-another, but localized pre-Awakening FE games absolutely had a sense of identity to them that Awakening (and especially Fates) disrupted, which is what caused the fandom split to emerge in the first place.

And like it or not, being able to pair off the characters in Awakening was a big part of the appeal of that game. You can say 'oh, it wasn't really that big of an aspect of the game,' which is probably true in the strictest sense, but it's what most people remember Awakening for.

In terms of future games... Three Houses felt like it built on and evolved the best aspects of previous games (sans good map design, but it's not like Awakening was very notable in that regard either). This doesn't. I'm still excited for this, but it doesn't feel like 'the next generation of Fire Emblem,' y'know what I mean? It doesn't feel ambitious.

@Ralizah I always felt that Awakening gave a pay off to the unit ranks. Relationships (friendships or romantic) are not new to the series or new with awakening (nor imo is the anime artstyle...have yall SEEN Marth?) but folks take one thing being fleshed out and want to cry a river of tears. From my perspective the only thing that has really changed is that IS likes to play with the the gameplay be it weapon triangle or leaning on transforming units (be it my unit or the laguz), even the my unit technically started with Rekka no Ken, the FE most folks in the west are familiar with. And that the My Unit has become the pivot character instead of the Lords (mainly because the My Unit is now the Lord). And even 3Houses tried to share the spotlight far more evenly than Fates did. The artstyle changes because they don't have a stable character designer (which is also at this point part of the FE identity) but the art direction is largely the same (and of course the platform the game is on limits how the character models look). Folks act like FE used to look like Elder Scrolls or something.

@RR529 It is...it's always been anime...as in animation. It is just like any popular media, FE follows the artstyles of the time in Japan.

@Ryu_Niiyama The funny thing to me is that it wasn't even Awakening that introduced the whole 'pair off your units and they'll have kids' thing, which is what is complained about most often. I know for a fact this element was present in Genealogy of the Holy War as well.

Of course, most older Western fans never played the Jp-only entries and base their opinion on the series almost fully on the GBA/GC/Wii entries.

@Ralizah
I think the pairing was more influential in Awakening because of the time skip with children, not because of the actual "pair-up" mechanic. Which ya, that didn't land with everyone. At least, it didn't when they repeated it in Fates, where it felt shoehorned. In Awakening it was great, and most ppl loved it for that game, both old and new fans.

As far as ambition, I think it's far too early to jump to conclusions. We don't know anything about this game, what features it will have or what it will do differently. The initial reveal trailer for Three Houses didn't show much of anything either, barring battalions. But the ring engage mechanic easily dwarfs that. It wasn't until later we learned how it evolved the series. Maybe this one won't, but it's far too early to be making that claim.

Having said that, I don't really feel the need for it to evolve in some massive way. I'm perfectly content with the way things are. Even if this was nothing but Awakening 2.0 in HD, I'm there for it. Not every game needs to evolve. It just needs to be good. If it does evolve, great. I'm not against that. Even though evolution can also lead to the game being worse as a result. It's a roll of the dice. At the end of the day, I just wanna play some Fire Emblem. Give me a good art style (check) with pretty graphics (check), interesting characters and that classic grid based strategy gameplay (check), and I'm good.

Though it should be noted the leaks for this game claimed there would be overworld exploration like Shadows of Valentia. If so, this game could evolve the series far more than Three Houses ever did.

@Ralizah THANK YOU! I usually site Holy War immediately but some people have a fake FE in their heads. Honestly I think people are conflating FFTactics or Ogre Battle because FE really hasn’t changed drastically. Have they fleshed out some pre existing mechanics? Yes but there isn’t some big chasm between Awakening and Pre-Awakening.

Even the Waifu aspects were optional. And could be ignored and you could still build rank, just not as fast. And the base building isn’t new either. To me it feels like people that button mash through rpg text/cutscenes and then complain that they don’t understand the story or the game is too wordy. It’s an RPG by not an RTS. Perhaps they are looking for a different genre but won’t accept that.

@JaxonH It didn't work well in Fates because it didn't organically arise from the plot like it did in Awakening. They had to invent some ludicrous excuse for why you were seeing your adult children five minutes after consummating a relationship.

That's fair. It's rare that the first trailer we see for a Nintendo sequel showcases what makes that game unique. Actually, it almost never does.

I still like what I've seen of the game already, so it's fair to say my opinion of it will probably only improve as we learn more about it.

I will agree with you both about the kid mechanics in fates. I think IS got overexcited by the positive response and neglected to really think through how they would bring these kids (and awakening characters) and the dlc proves that as they keep trying to explain the reason awakening characters are in fates aside from being popular which is the real reason. I enjoyed fates but think 3 houses did a better job at what they were going for. That and FE’s eternal weakness of dropping you into a story mid plot and making world building like sifting through sand. I spend more time digging out the story and character motivation than i do playing the game. And while they build an interesting story I don’t think it is good that FE forces that digging.

@Ryu_Niiyama Hard to blame them for being somewhat conservative. They went from struggling to sell a million units per entry to selling millions of units with Awakening and saving the franchise. I'm sure that makes it a bit nerve-wracking to experiment with the game design.

I enjoyed the gameplay of Fates, but the writing, characters, tone, etc. were all pretty bad. Especially in Conquest, which is the first time the narrative elements have actually ruined an otherwise fun game for me. Some of the worst writing I've ever seen in a game.

@Ralizah @Ryu_Niiyama
Exactly. I loved the mechanic in Awakening, but it was a natural fit from the start and integrated into the plot. Fates was just IS too afraid to diverge from the one game that finally found success. And tbh, I guess I can understand their mindset. FE was set to be benched indefinitely and they suddenly struck gold. They didn't want their newfound success slipping from their grasp. With further successful entries they've become more confident in changing things up and not clinging to every aspect of a successful game.

Never thought I'd one day have to dust off my Nokia N-Gage to play a Fire Emblem game.

🙄

I'll leave myself out.

@Mioaionios Good one

@Ralizah @JaxonH of course that is a fair point and I’m not overly bothered by it as I enjoyed fates mostly, just stating what I figured happened. It’s funny though because I personally feel it was more the vehicle (3DS) and making it less centered on perma death that helped more than anything to make awakening a success. As we have all noted Awakening didn’t really do very much that was new, but it was that perfect storm. I’m just happy the series continues on since I’ve been a fan for decades.

@Ryu_Niiyama
I also think Awakening benefitted from the expansion and adoption of the internet.

Sure, internet was around prior to 2013, but it's use for leisure wasn't nearly as prevalent. It wasn't until the advent of smartphones and their mass explosion onto the scene around 2010 that everyone, their mom and their dog had immediate access to the internet in their pockets 24/7. And Fire Emblem Awakening was the first game in the series to launch in that brave new world.

This, I believe, helped spread awareness. Granted, internet alone isn't enough. You also have to have a game that looks appealing and grabs peoples' attention at first glance. The previous entry, Shadow Dragon, wasn't exactly an eye-catcher. But Awakening, with it's snazzy new art style, gorgeous 3D visuals with classic 2D sprites on the map, vivid colors and amazing box art, was a real head-turner.

Compound all of that with the release of a demo- another thing previous entries couldn't benefit from, and the positive reactions to it from gaming media which was spread by the now-widely-available internet, and you had the perfect storm for success.