Fire Emblem Engage: Addicting Gameplay, Bland Story

This morning, I reached the end of Fire Emblem Engage.

This is an unusual one for me. Normally, story is my top priority for an RPG, but Fire Emblem Engage is a rare example where I didn’t care about the story much at all, but found myself addicted to the gameplay.

The story is… there. It’s not bad exactly, just bland, with predictable plot beats and moments that could have been impactful if not for questionable story decisions.

You play as the Divine Dragon, who awakens after 1000 years with no memory. You soon learn of the Emblems, heroes from other worlds (meaning past Fire Emblem games) who can be summoned to fight alongside you, and set out on a journey to gather all of the Emblem Rings to stop the evil forces threatening the land.

Gameplay is mostly the same sort of turn-based strategy combat found in other Fire Emblem games, with the weapon triangle returning after being excluded from Three Houses, as well as the ability to “break” enemies so that they can’t counterattack on that turn. But the biggest addition is the Emblem Rings. If you have an Emblem Ring equipped, you can “engage” with them to gain special abilities and other enhancements for the next few turns.

There’s a rewind function in combat, which lets you rewind a certain number of times to try different strategies. I played on Hard/Classic, and I found the rewind to be the perfect way to prevent me from getting too frustrated in my mission to keep every character alive.

In between battles, you visit the Somniel, which acts as a hub. There are a handful of activities to do at the Somniel, which can raise support between characters, improve stats in various ways, and so on.

Structurally, the Somniel is perfect for me. It lets me talk to characters and do other things in between battles, without becoming the tedious chore that the monastery in Three Houses eventually became. Taking care of things at the Somniel is much faster, and I never felt like I was hindering myself if I decided to skip some aspects on a visit.

My only wish is that if they stick with this style of hub, they make the activities more enjoyable. There are some small mini-games, but I found them so un-fun that I only did them a couple of times.

Building support between characters is a good use of the other Somniel activities, although the Support conversations are a mixed bag. Some are funny, but others are fairly bland, and too many of them tend to retread the same topics and themes (with an unusually high number of Support conversations about tea). The characters are more interesting than the story, but I didn’t find most of them too compelling. Romance is also significantly lessened, as paired endings are gone entirely, there aren’t many romantic implications (though this might be the result of the translation, from what I’ve read), and only the main character can have an S-Rank Support with another character, which itself might not be too romantic.

A large number of characters join you over the course of the story, most automatically. They came so regularly, I found there were some I barely even got to try before I had new characters to use instead. Still, I assume that adds replay value since you can try out different teams.

Everything I said above about Support conversation applies to the characters you can use in combat. Technically, Emblems have something similar, but… while you unlock “bond conversations” whenever a character and an Emblem fight together enough to reach a new rank, these conversations are so short and basic, it would have been better if they weren’t in the game at all.

Every Emblem has a paralogue, which they preface by talking a little about the story of the game they’re from, but they barely felt like characters to me.

That probably sounds like a litany of complaints. Yet despite my general lack of interest in the story and characters, I found myself obsessed with this game. The gameplay kept me coming back for more. Whenever I’d have trouble with a battle, I’d set it down only to find myself returning to try again. I’d pick up the game to play for an hour and check the clock two hours later. I poured over 100 hours into the game without realizing it, because it didn’t feel like it had been that long.

In short, Fire Emblem Engage is not the sort of game you should go into expecting a good story. I’m not sure the game realizes that, since it certainly has enough cutscenes, and I can see how the story could have been great with some different writing decisions, but this is how it is. If you want a fun turn-based strategy RPG, though, Engage has great combat that I found surprisingly addicting!

I haven’t decided yet if I’ll get the DLC. For now, at least, I’m ready to get back into the games my sudden Fire Emblem obsession distracted me from.