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[jshackles]

Amazon finally shipped my order. So much for "release date delivery". Would have been nice to have it today too, since I just finished Pokemon.

Oh well, gives me a few days to catch up on some other games. But I'm really looking forward to this now that the impressions have been good!

 

[NanaMiku]

Kind of strange to see the popularity for this series now considering it was close to cancellation a decade ago.

I was watching a game ranking show in Japan yesterday. I also feel strange when the host said Fire Emblem is a big series

 

[Ulysses 31]

Kind of strange to see the popularity for this series now considering it was close to cancellation a decade ago.

That's what adding waifu's can do.

 

[Punished Miku]

Observations:
1) This game is fully boobin' out. Boobs. Nice.
2) I may not even know this was Fire Emblem unless it said so on the box. The tone is honestly very different. Its just so much less serious than in the past.
3) Image quality seems to vary a lot.
4) Game is still a lot of fun so far. Glad I got it. Animations are nice.
5) There's going to be porn for this game in like 24 hours. For men and women.

 

[Punished Miku]

Man my opinions are all over the place. But no matter what, if I'm thinking it I gotta say it and be honest. People read these threads to make decisions about buying.

Starting chapter 3. Barely done with tutorials. But so far I thought the visuals were nice in cutscenes. Then as the game goes on you notice how terrible the voice acting, dialogue and story is. Like reallyyyyy quite bad.

Waiting for the battles to pick up because they are very basic at the moment. Might be the worst first 2 hours ever in the entire series.

Character designs are very bad. And the whole art style is nice looking but has some major caveats. It's probably the most feminine game I've ever played. Everything has the yaoi art style.

 

[Pejo]

Was in GameStop today and three other people were there to pick up their preorder for the game. Two were in the 11-13 range with annoyed looking parents and the third was an old fart like myself(40s) who mentioned he has enjoyed the series for a long time.

Kind of strange to see the popularity for this series now considering it was close to cancellation a decade ago.

All thanks to

And the ability to marry your friend's children.

 

[Danjin44]

Finally got my copy and so far it really and I have to say got to be best looking Fire Emblem game to date.

2) I may not even know this was Fire Emblem unless it said so on the box. The tone is honestly very different. It’s just so much less serious than in the past.

I just came form beating Tactic Ogre Reborn and that last boss

, I loved it but I'm happy that this time around playing SRPG with less political drama....I think I had my fill with both Tactic Ogre and Triangle Strategy.

 

[Punished Miku]

Hard mode is no joke. Got rocked on battle 3 and have to restart. Break status is a nice addition for battles. Very high stakes. Chain attacks can drop you in 2 turns.

 

[Astral Dog]

I just finished chapter 4. I'm so happy that my favorite seiyuu is in this game. I thought she won't be in this game because she already voiced other FE character before. What's interesting that she voiced Chloe, who ride pegasus and use lance. It's the same classs and weapon as her previous character, Caeda


Yup, they really focused on the eyes, that's why all story part is using 3D, no 2D art. You can read the interview: https://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/ask-the-developer-vol-8-fire-emblem-engage-part-2/

the developers sound so proud of the art direction
. they clearly love it and enjoyed working with this artist

All thanks to

And the ability to marry your friend's children.

This game was a revelation, instant classic on 3DS

 

[Punished Miku]

Jesus christ at the dialogue in these cut scenes lol.

Spoiler: chapter 3 end

JUST DIE ALREADY MY GOD. That was reallyyyyyy drawn out lol

 

[The_hunter]

Got the Divine edition and I've played it to chapter 5 on hard/classic.

Gameplay is very good so far, I really like the new mechanics, break and engage are great additions. The English dub is very robotic, I'll probably switch to the Japanese audio. Visuals are really good for the switch and I like the art.

The dialogue is a bit robotic and stiff.

 

[Punished Miku]

Got the Divine edition and I've played it to chapter 5 on hard/classic.

Gameplay is very good so far, I really like the new mechanics, break and engage are great additions. The English dub is very robotic, I'll probably switch to the Japanese audio. Visuals are really good for the switch and I like the art.

The dialogue is a bit robotic and stiff.

I switched to Japanese just to avoid the English VA. Its much better.

 

[Fully engaged]

I switched to Japanese just to avoid the English VA. Its much better.

As soon as I loaded the game for the first time... the song started and I restarted. Switched my Switch to Japanese and reloaded...Worth it..I had to stop my ears from bleeding from the English dub of a song that was clearly meant to be sung in Japanese.

 

[The_hunter]

This English dub is so bad. There's no emotion, and they repeat the same thing multiple times, switched to Japanese.

 

[Danjin44]

Yeah the english dub is not really good, I knew that from the first trailer so played in Japanese voice from get go.

 

[Punished Miku]

I admit defeat. Going down to normal difficulty. Holy shit. Chapter 4 is just damn near impossible on hard. Had the knight on a tower healing +10 every turn and he took out literally 12 guys by himself. If my main character tries to attack a knight even while engaged she loses like 80% life in one hit. Finally on like turn 12 some mages showed up and nuked my knight. 6 of my crew were toast. Just decimated.

Only thing I can think to do differently is try equipping emblems on other characters. You basically can't make a single bad move. Have to highlight every enemy to see their move range every turn. And you still get wrecked many times. It is still fun but oof lol. I want to watch a video of people beating this on hard.

 

[Danjin44]

I admit defeat. Going down to normal difficulty. Holy shit. Chapter 4 is just damn near impossible on hard. Had the knight on a tower healing +10 every turn and he took out literally 12 guys by himself. If my main character tries to attack a knight even while engaged she loses like 80% life in one hit. Finally on like turn 12 some mages showed up and nuked my knight. 6 of my crew were toast. Just decimated.

Only thing I can think to do differently is try equipping emblems on other characters. You basically can't make a single bad move. Have to highlight every enemy to see their move range every turn. And you still get wrecked many times. It is still fun but oof lol. I want to watch a video of people beating this on hard.

And people were too afraid the game is gonna be too easy because your character is gonna be too OP.

 

[Naked Lunch]

Only thing I can think to do differently is try equipping emblems on other characters. You basically can't make a single bad move. Have to highlight every enemy to see their move range every turn. And you still get wrecked many times. It is still fun but oof lol. I want to watch a video of people beating this on hard.

That kinda sounds like how the Japanese Super Famicom FE games played, no? One single wrong move and game over.

 

[OuterLimits]

Finally got my copy and so far it really and I have to say got to be best looking Fire Emblem game to date.

I just came form beating Tactic Ogre Reborn and that last boss

, I loved it but I'm happy that this time around playing SRPG with less political drama....I think I had my fill with both Tactic Ogre and Triangle Strategy.

It has been awesome seeing the amount of quality SRPGs lately. Switch in particular has numerous choices. Not long ago I bought one of the more recent Mercenaries Saga games on sale and even that was a pretty fun 20 hours or so.

 

[Northeastmonk]

I got to the last bit of chapter 4 and I am gonna start a new game. I picked Casual and not Classic. After playing 50+ hours of Tactics Ogre Reborn, I feel like I can handle Classic. I have no idea why I picked it. I’m definitely accustomed to this style of game. I feel like it’ll feel better on Classic.

 

[NightmareFarm]

Can't wait to play it this weekend.

 

[Punished Miku]

I got to the last bit of chapter 4 and I am gonna start a new game. I picked Casual and not Classic. After playing 50+ hours of Tactics Ogre Reborn, I feel like I can handle Classic. I have no idea why I picked it. I’m definitely accustomed to this style of game. I feel like it’ll feel better on Classic.

Yeah I'm starting over. Super fast to catch up skipping all cutscenes

 

[Northeastmonk]

Yeah I'm starting over. Super fast to catch up skipping all cutscenes

Hell yeah. Turn on “fast” battle speed too

 

[april6e]

The gameplay is great as it always is but the game lacks any of the positives that the other three modern games had. The story is mediocre compared to Awakening/Fates and the dialogue is borderline bad (in English). The characters are the weakest out of any of the modern FE games, have very bland designs and pale in comparison to Three Houses. The game also lacks effort put into the romances and support systems that Awakening/Fates did. Also, I may be crazy but the game looks worse graphically than Three Houses did somehow?

The game is solid but it doesn't excel in any area unlike the other three games. The only area that has impressed me so far is the sheer amount of RPG aspects to tweaking characters builds with the gacha ring system, legends, inheritance skills, and a million other systems to the point where I spend more time at base min-maxing my characters than playing the battles.

 

[Danjin44]

I may be crazy but the game looks worse graphically than Three Houses did somehow?

Are you joking!? The animation, character models and even map is much higher quality here compare to Three Houses.

 

[The_hunter]

Items that increase stats permanently, are they best used on the main character?

 

[Migu]

I admit defeat. Going down to normal difficulty. Holy shit. Chapter 4 is just damn near impossible on hard. Had the knight on a tower healing +10 every turn and he took out literally 12 guys by himself. If my main character tries to attack a knight even while engaged she loses like 80% life in one hit. Finally on like turn 12 some mages showed up and nuked my knight. 6 of my crew were toast. Just decimated.

Only thing I can think to do differently is try equipping emblems on other characters. You basically can't make a single bad move. Have to highlight every enemy to see their move range every turn. And you still get wrecked many times. It is still fun but oof lol. I want to watch a video of people beating this on hard.

I started the game on normal difficulty and I'm now at the end of chapter 3 I think. Almost fell asleep during one of the cutscenes. I found the first battles to be laughably easy and considered restarting in hard mode, but I changed my mind after reading your post. Thank you for this! I like a challenge but I think hard mode might be too much.

I love the FE series, but that monastery stuff in Three Houses killed it for me. Fun in the beginning but extremely grating towards endgame. I wanted to try the other two houses in subsequent playthroughs but I'm just not willing to sit through it again. Happy this is gone in Engage. I wonder if IS analyzed the online stats of player decisions in Three Houses in order to decide removing the social sim content.

 

[AREYOUOKAY?]

This game was a revelation

Then what was this?

 

[Danjin44]

I beat chapter 4 on hard and it’s not that hard, you just need lure to the guy out of the spot that heals him but because his class, his extremely weak to magic. I would say Chapter 5 stage is little more tricky.

Some of bosses in Tactics Ogre can be way more BS, for example one boss fight very beginning of the game you only allowed to bring Denam to the fight with two AI controlled companion and the boss already has full buff cards from very beginning so he hits like fucking truck……you have to pray those red cards appear near you so you can lure him in to the card in order to undos his buffs.

 

[Punished Miku]

I beat chapter 4 on hard and it’s not that hard, you just need lure to the guy out of the spot that heals him but because his class, his extremely weak to magic. I would say Chapter 5 stage is little more tricky.

Some of bosses in Tactics Ogre can be way more BS, for example one boss fight very beginning of the game you only allowed to bring Denam to the fight with two AI controlled companion and the boss already has full buff cards from very beginning so he hits like fucking truck……you have to pray those red cards appear near you so you can lure him in to the card in order to undos his buffs.

Well you're better than me. I kept it as a separate save file so I may try it again. Normal seems too easy and hard seems too hard.

 

[ANDS]

On vacation and I've legit found myself thinking about this game. The story is terrible and the cheesecake is out of control, but the gameplay and the team management have the same secret sauce that I liked about FETH.

I beat chapter 4 on hard and it’s not that hard, you just need lure to the guy out of the spot that heals him but because his class, his extremely weak to magic. I would say Chapter 5 stage is little more tricky.

Some of bosses in Tactics Ogre can be way more BS, for example one boss fight very beginning of the game you only allowed to bring Denam to the fight with two AI controlled companion and the boss already has full buff cards from very beginning so he hits like fucking truck……you have to pray those red cards appear near you so you can lure him in to the card in order to undos his buffs.

I don't remember where I was in the game (I got my first thief and associated emblem I recall), but I haven't found any of the chapters "hard" - yet. Not with the ability to save in combat and the extremely generous rewinds. FETH was kind of like this as well and didn't really start getting hairy until we started getting close to the second half of the game. It sounds like this fight was the one with the first "towers" and the third emblem. I'm not sure how long this will remain viable, but I've just been grinding through the maps in clockwise fashion and haven't had too many unwinnable positions (again, this is making liberal use of the rewind and reloads if needed).

For this map (if it is the one I'm thinking of): I just parked the fat guy who won't open his eyes on a tower on turn 1 and let him soak up all the hits from folks in the north and then split up my party to branch out to the sides to join up with him. After clearing out tower areas, I just left the weakest link on a tower and kept moving up until I baited the dude off his tower. I'm not sure what the leash range is or what kind of check the AI does - that info would be nice to know but parking them just outside (like one tile) of attack range seems to be enough to get the AI to start advancing.

. . .but overall that's just been my strat: just overly conservative advancement of my team (no more than 2 or 3 enemies at once) since there doesn't seem to a be - so far - a rating system for encounters, and liberal use of chain guard to bait out attacks. Also the Break system, while seemingly a small addition, has really been a key component in quickly bursting down enemies.

 

[Punished Miku]

I never knew how much I wanted to do sit ups and squats with the Fire Emblem girls.

 

[Punished Miku]

By the time you get to chapter 5 the game does feel a lot more fun. Skill customization opens up. World map. Adopting some animals. Break system remains one of the best battle additions the series has had for a while.

 

[Punished Miku]

Items that increase stats permanently, are they best used on the main character?

Really just whatever you want. Sometimes a +5 HP can make a weaker character into someone you use more aggressively. You can max out existing strengths, cover weaker stats, or just max your main.

 

[ValiantTraveler]

The gameplay is great as it always is but the game lacks any of the positives that the other three modern games had. The story is mediocre compared to Awakening/Fates and the dialogue is borderline bad (in English). The characters are the weakest out of any of the modern FE games, have very bland designs and pale in comparison to Three Houses. The game also lacks effort put into the romances and support systems that Awakening/Fates did. Also, I may be crazy but the game looks worse graphically than Three Houses did somehow?

The game is solid but it doesn't excel in any area unlike the other three games. The only area that has impressed me so far is the sheer amount of RPG aspects to tweaking characters builds with the gacha ring system, legends, inheritance skills, and a million other systems to the point where I spend more time at base min-maxing my characters than playing the battles.

Post and avatar synchro rate: 100%

Looks like I'll be skipping this one, especially considering that I have yet to play Three Houses.

 

[Gabbelgak]

On chapter 10. I'm enjoying it so far. I played three houses some, but got sick of all the school time, this feels more up my alley. I like not needing to talk to people in post fights and still getting the rewards.

When can I get more Relay Tickets? I got obliterated my first attempt at the trials.

I've gotten far enough to get class change seals, it resets me to level 1. Would I be better off just leveling a base class up higher for more stat points or just change classes ASAP?

 

[Punished Miku]

On chapter 10. I'm enjoying it so far. I played three houses some, but got sick of all the school time, this feels more up my alley. I like not needing to talk to people in post fights and still getting the rewards.

When can I get more Relay Tickets? I got obliterated my first attempt at the trials.

I've gotten far enough to get class change seals, it resets me to level 1. Would I be better off just leveling a base class up higher for more stat points or just change classes ASAP?

If there's some ability to grind then absolute max stats is to hit level 20 on the base class then change to advanced class. But that's pretty time consuming. The advanced classes are usually significantly better than the base classes.

 

[Punished Miku]

Its worth exploring the settings.
Unit control type: switched to cursor.
Grid visibility increased 50%.
Voice volume decreased 50%

 

[NanaMiku]

Just finished chapter 8. Pretty nice mission, quite challenging

Yeah the english dub is not really good, I knew that from the first trailer so played in Japanese voice from get go.

Yeah, it's really sad, especially compared to the Japanese VA which is all-star cast

I got to the last bit of chapter 4 and I am gonna start a new game. I picked Casual and not Classic. After playing 50+ hours of Tactics Ogre Reborn, I feel like I can handle Classic. I have no idea why I picked it. I’m definitely accustomed to this style of game. I feel like it’ll feel better on Classic.

Classic is not that affecting you, especially if you play on normal. You can spam the rewind time. I'm currently at chapter 8 and the difficulty ramp is pretty nice. It's quite challenging in normal

Also, I may be crazy but the game looks worse graphically than Three Houses did somehow?

What?! Three Houses ran badly on Switch, frame rate drop everywhere. The school also looks really bland, almost all grey color
Even Digital Foundry found it's looks and run better

 

[Punished Miku]

On hard mode I feel like Yamcha. On normal mode I feel like Goku. On chapter 7.

Level up tip: I get like 70% of a full level every time I use Great Sacrifice. Use it every single battle.

 

[Punished Miku]

Post battle tip: set the mini map to max size. Pick up all the yellow glowing spots on the map and the orange dots (animals) then just leave. You don't miss any items or bond points. Nobody ever says anything worthwhile. Youre out in 45 seconds.

I do the same thing on somniel but the fast travel makes it even better and highlights who you can talk to.

 

[Punished Miku]

Played a ton of skirmishes and moving onto chapter 8 battle now. The more you play, the more its obvious this is Awakening part 2. Very similar story. Very similar gameplay loop.

Battles are very similar to Awakening but the addition of emblems, break and smash elevate it substantially.

The gameplay loop is extremely addicting and feels like Awakening. Couldn't out that game down. Battle, then go to the base and quickly supply up, train / eat to boost support rank, then back to battles. The bond rings are nice little collectible distraction, all with art from past games. Ranking up the meals and the different country ranks add another little notch in the gameplay loop.

Visuals are the best in the series. The cutscenes have incredible animation. Some of the character designs are a bit weak though. The artwork on the game box is phenomenal but it doesn't always translate to the game flawlessly in 3d models. The villains all look great and they don't hold back at all on T&A character designs.

Even though the story is similar to Awakening it is still the worst in the series so far.

Overall this will likely land on an 8/10 for me. Really enjoying it. Not flawless but battles and visuals got a nice upgrade and the gameplay loop is 100% better than Three Houses.

 

[Danjin44]

Played a ton of skirmishes and moving onto chapter 8 battle now. The more you play, the more its obvious this is Awakening part 2. Very similar story. Very similar gameplay loop.

Battles are very similar to Awakening but the addition of emblems, break and smash elevate it substantially.

The gameplay loop is extremely addicting and feels like Awakening. Couldn't out that game down. Battle, then go to the base and quickly supply up, train / eat to boost support rank, then back to battles. The bond rings are nice little collectible distraction, all with art from past games. Ranking up the meals and the different country ranks add another little notch in the gameplay loop.

Visuals are the best in the series. The cutscenes have incredible animation. Some of the character designs are a bit weak though. The artwork on the game box is phenomenal but it doesn't always translate to the game flawlessly in 3d models. The villains all look great and they don't hold back at all on T&A character designs.

Even though the story is similar to Awakening it is still the worst in the series so far.

Overall this will likely land on an 8/10 for me. Really enjoying it. Not flawless but battles and visuals got a nice upgrade and the gameplay loop is 100% better than Three Houses.

Yeah the gameplay loop is really good and super addictive, the visuals also really good and yeah it runs much better than Three Houses.

 

[NanaMiku]

Just finished chapter 11 and open the tempest trial. Damn, it's really challenging

 

[Punished Miku]

Im dumping all my items into Framme. Put her in the arena and she gets like 4 attacks to the opponents 1 lol.

 

[The_hunter]

Just finished chapter 11 and open the tempest trial. Damn, it's really challenging

I'm on chapter 11 now. I've reset 5 times already.

 

[Danjin44]

I'm on chapter 11 now. I've reset 5 times already.

When this game coming out lot of people thought the whole Engage system going to make the characters too OP but when you actually play the game you see this is not the case at all. Engage still strong and can save ass but it’s far from being OP.

 

[The_hunter]

Spoiler: chapter 11

I can see why they put those avoidance boosting weapons in the shop. To clear chapter 11 you probably need those.

 

[NanaMiku]

I'm on chapter 11 now. I've reset 5 times already.

I reset 1 times because one character died when the rewind time was removed lol

When this game coming out lot of people thought the whole Engage system going to make the characters too OP but when you actually play the game you see this is not the case at all. Engage still strong and can save ass but it’s far from being OP.

Yup, in the interview they also mentioned this: https://www.nintendo.com/whatsnew/ask-the-developer-vol-8-fire-emblem-engage-part-3/

I think the OP emblems are Celica and Sigurd. Sigurd + Cavalry + Momentum = deadly

 

[Komatsu]

As a FE fan of 20 years and counting, I am having a blast with the game, even though, plot and characterization-wise, it is a massive, but a MASSIVE stepdown from the glory that was Three Houses.



Maps, mechanics, the ring system and this banger of a battle prep theme, all great. This is also the best looking FE game of all time.

That said, the story is relentlessly idiotic. I am fine with anime tropes, but after giving us something like 3H (written, one must add, mostly by the folks at Kou Shibusawa, the cream of the crop of Koei Tecmo), it really is grating to go back to the whole Good Dragon x Bad Dragon Sunday morning cartoon routine. Characters are paper-thin, muscle guy likes muscles, bishounen and bishoujo twins are just such otakus for the Shinryu-sama (tee-hee~). I find myself almost skipping the cutscenes, something I never did, not even with the blander entries in the series.