Fire Emblem Engage opens with a big battle against the game’s antagonist, the Fell Dragon. The player-created character, Alear, finishes the Fell Dragon off before things fade out. Next thing Alear knows, they awaken in bed a thousand years in the future. They have also forgotten their memory and slowly have to piece everything together.
Eventually, they realize they have awakened once again because the Fell Dragon is about to be reborn. With the help of past warriors from the series via rings call Emblems, Alear must stop this resurrection at all costs. That’s the basic breakdown of Fire Emblem Engage’s story, so let’s see how it stacks up next to the other games and what the game's best and worst aspects are.
8 Best: Doubling Down On Tactics
Fire Emblem Engage feels like Nintendo and Intelligent Systems dialing things back to the game that made this series a big hit, Fire Emblem Awakening. It’s all about tactical gameplay without a lot of smaller things getting in the way. There is some busy work to handle in-between battles, but those annoyances are worth going through for the sweet victory of combat.
The addition of the Emblems is a cool idea for combat, as well as a nice nod to the series like Marth, the original hero. The allure of the Draconic Time Crystal, which can rewind time in battle, cannot be overlooked as well.
7 Worst: The Online Component
The multiplayer is where the game falls short of greatness from Fire Emblem Awakening’s offerings. Players can tackle three sets of modes within the Tower of Trials, the online HUB. Tempest Trial is a three-round survival mode against random enemies. Relay Trial gives players a set amount of turns before the game passes the battle onto a random player online to finish the fight.
It’s as close to a co-op mode as the game gets, and Outrealm Trial is like Fire Emblem Engage’s version of a versus mode. The rewards and setup for each mode are not worth the time investment.
6 Best: Alear Speaks
Byleth, the main character of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, didn’t speak a word in the game. This was changed in Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, which was a spinoff of the Dynasty Warriors franchise and also like a reimagining of Three Houses. Also, Byleth was a female in that game.
Alear has no restrictions in Fire Emblem Engage and is completely voiced in both male and female forms in this game. This is a great change of pace from the previous entry, giving players more reason to invest themselves in the plot.
5 Worst: The Intro
It takes a while for the game to get going. It’s a linear affair until Chapter 5, when players will unlock the world map and their headquarters, The Somniel. There is a lot of text upfront that could have been streamlined to allow players to jump into the fray faster.
Also, the intro battle is not needed as it depicts what happened to the Divine Dragon a thousand years ago. It doesn’t add anything to the story and could have been relegated to a simple recap like the cutscene that explains the nations of the world.
4 Best: The Character Designs
Fire Emblem Engage runs well on the Switch, which is surprising since a lot of recent Nintendo games have struggled. The backgrounds are drab, but the colorful cast of characters more than makes up for the environmental flaws. The anime art style is alive more than ever, with Alear being one of the most striking characters in the game. They have a red eye and blue eye along with red and blue mixed hair.
The mixture of colors does get explained by the end of the adventure, which is a bit of a shocker. The characters come alive thanks to the voice work, which also deserves some recognition in both Japanese and English for those that prefer the dub.
3 Worst: Leveling Up Struggles
As forward-thinking as the game is, there are still some things setting it back. Players can grind to increase their levels via random battles called Skirmishes which unlock in Chapter 6. How is never explained, but all players have to do is wait in real-time, or change the Switch’s internal clock.
Putting players through an extra step like that just to grind in an RPG seems backward. Also, the random stats that level up has to stop, especially the unlucky times when only one or two stats increase. It’s even more problematic if this happens to a character three times in a row which can happen.
2 Best: The Media Gallery
It’s always great when an RPG includes a way for players to rewatch cutscenes. The Kingdom Hearts series was ahead of the game on that front for years. Players can go into their bedroom in Fire Emblem Engage to rewatch cutscenes, listen to music, check up on character profiles, and so much more. It’s a little extra something for the fans to keep them happy.
The save system is another mechanic that allows players to relax more, as the save system can be used anytime and anywhere.
1 Worst: The Clunky Menu
The item system has always been a bit of a clunker in this series. Characters can carry a set amount of items between healing things like Vulneraries and weapons like swords. If players defeat an enemy with an item, that item will go into their inventory. After missions, players then have to comb through every character to remove or swap out items. They have to restock items in some cases too.
It’s a lot of busywork that applies to a lot of things in Fire Emblem Engage, like having to pick up the glowing items on the ground after every map. It doesn’t take long, but it gets monotonous after a while, just like managing the menus overall.
Fire Emblem Engage was released on January 20, 2023, and is available on Switch.