Fire Emblem Awakening was the first game in the West that changed this series for the better. It introduced the concept of a Casual Mode, which allowed players to not have to worry about permadeath. It also opened up a world map so that battles could be fought time and time again for leveling-up purposes.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses was the next big leap after that, which introduced branching storylines and social aspects similar to the Persona series. There were some other improvements and changes with sequels in-between those two games, but they were the biggest leaps since the series began in 1990. What, then, does Fire Emblem Engage bring to the table?
6 Emblems
The biggest addition to FireEmblem Engage over the last game is the inclusion of Emblems. This game overall is like a celebration of the entire series as it gathers main characters from twelve games in the series. These characters are known as Emblems, and the game includes classics like Marth from the original 1990 game up to Byleth, who was the hero from Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
Characters can fuse with these heroes to get power boosts, almost like a combination between Power Rangers and how Personas work in the Persona series. There are twelve powerful ones in the game that unlock through the story, but these Emblems can create minor rings which act like standard accessories in other RPGs for all to equip.
5 No Split Timelines
Nintendo and Intelligent Systems have experimented with the idea of multiple split campaigns based on choices since 2016, or in North America at least. This was when Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright and Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest were released on 3DS, with a third entry to follow, Fire Emblem Fates: Revelation. Then, in 2019, Fire Emblem: Three Houses was released, which included three campaigns as well, but thankfully players didn’t have to spend additional money to play through the campaigns of Claude, Edelgard, and Dimitri.
Fire Emblem Engage dials things back a bit as Alear, the main character, only has one campaign to play through. This makes the experience shorter overall, although there is plenty of extras to make this latest Switch RPG a worthwhile investment.
4 Your Character Speaks
There is a little bit of a choice when it comes to Alear. Players can choose between a male or female version of Alear, which does not change things much besides some romantic choices later on. The biggest difference between Alear and Byleth though is that Alear is fully voiced. Byleth couldn’t say a word in Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
Strangely enough, Byleth did speak in the remake/reimagining of the game called Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, which was a spinoff to the Dynasty Warriors franchise as well. Canonically Byleth is a female in that game, whereas Byleth appears as a male in Fire Emblem Engage. This time around Byleth can speak in this game too, which is a nice plus.
3 A World Map Similar To Fire Emblem Awakening
The lack of multiple campaigns makes this game a closer cousin to Fire Emblem Awakening than any of the more recent entries. There is a world map that is populated with main missions along with Paralogue chapters and Skirmishes. These are randomly generated battles that reuse maps to give players extra rewards as well as more opportunities to grind for experience.
It is a simple layout overall, as Fire Emblem Engage is a smaller game overall. Sometimes dialing things back is a good idea for the brand, though. As much as fans loved Fire Emblem: Three Houses, it could be a bit daunting to balance all of the various tasks from school life to fighting tactical battles.
2 Bosses Have Revival Stones
Fire Emblem: Three Houses had giant monsters that had to be defeated multiple times for them to disappear completely. Fire Emblem Engage features a similar mechanic via Revival Stones, which revive the host automatically. This auto-life ability has been seen in RPGs before, such as many of the Final Fantasy games. Now, most bosses in the story missions have Revival Stones to make the game more challenging.
Players cannot simply run through a map to get to the boss and slay them in one hit. It’s less of an addition to the series and more like a remixed idea. To note, there are still monsters that appear in the game with the same lizard-like qualities as Fire Emblem: Three Houses.
1 The Tower Of Trials
As big as Fire Emblem: Three Houses was, it lacked one thing that could have made it even better: multiplayer. There is an online component to Fire Emblem Engage that differs from previous entries in the series. The overall area is called The Tower of Trials, and it is located in the HUB world of The Somniel. There are three separate modes to choose from, including the Tempest Trial, the Relay Trial, and the Outrealm Trial.
The Tempest Trial is like a survival mode wherein players must survive three maps worth of enemies. The Relay Trial is kind of a co-op RPG mode wherein players fight for a few turns and then pass the battle on to another player, similar to a relay race. Finally, the Outrealm Trial is the versus mode of the game. Playing all three types of missions will net players with additional rewards, but experience is not one of them.
Fire Emblem Engage was released on January 20, 2023, and is available on Switch.