Fire Emblem Engage

I haven't finished this one yet, but I doubt my opinion will change much when I do. For better and for worse, there's not much to say about this game that hasn't already been said, and mostly because it can so clearly and easily be summed up by saying that the gameplay is some of the best Fire Emblem in years, while the story is one of the worst in Fire Emblem history.

Update after finishing: yep, I was right. Though I’ll be a little kinder to the story, because I think the ending hammered in a vibe that made it feel similar to a Saturday morning cartoon (in a good way!). I also really enjoyed the characters despite their one-dimensionality. Alear was a surprisingly touching protagonist, meeting his comrades and their absolutely bizarre quirks with no judgment or scorn, simply listening and engaging (heh) with them as they were.

On the other side of the coin, the only thing I’ll critique about the gameplay is the parts at the Somniel, which got tedious very quickly (more so than the monastery in 3H). For the next game, I hope that the hub isn’t quite so mindless. I love the idea of returning to a hub after each battle, but I think they need to give the player solid reasons to come back that aren’t just collecting consumables. I felt the same way about visiting the battlefield after every battle: extremely cool in theory (especially for the Paralogues), kinda tedious in practice.

Still, the actual in-battle gameplay was extremely solid! I think the ring mechanism was balanced exactly right: it made my characters feel Strong without making them feel overpowered. The difficulty was also just right: I played on Hard and it was tough enough that it made me think but it didn’t make me feel like it was a slog.

I will also say that the DLC was pretty fun, and I think FE has recently nailed what makes a good DLC.

It’s a very good game! I hope the next game has a better story, but if the battles are this fun, I don’t think I’ll mind too much.