Fire Emblem Engage Review
Potential spoilers for Fire Emblem Engage!
Fire Emblem Engage by Intelligent Systems is the seventeenth mainline entry in the Fire Emblem franchise. The game released on Jan. 20, 2023 for the Nintendo Switch after being announced in September 2022. It is a turn-based tactical role-playing game (RPG).
In Fire Emblem Engage, you play as the avatar character Alear (this is their default name, you can change it and choose between a male and female avatar). Alear is the child of Queen Lumera of Lythos, the Divine Dragon who is worshipped throughout the majority of the continent of Eloys, and was asleep for a thousand years after the war with the Fell Dragon Sombrom. They sealed Sombrom away a thousand years ago, but his followers are attempting to revive him as his powers return. Alear and their companions must travel the continent to collect the 12 emblem rings to defeat Sombrom.
Emblem rings contain the spirits of previous fire emblem protagonists from every mainline entry. The first emblem ring you receive is Emblem Marth. Marth is the protagonist of Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, the first game in the series, and he grants units access to weapons such as his swords Rapier and Mercurius. The rings can be equipped on any of the playable characters. They grant the unit stat boosts such as Emblem Sigurd, from Fire Emblem Genealogy of the Holy War, which boosts the unit’s movement and allows the unit to move after an attack. Enemy units also have emblem rings, so your units never feel too overpowered. I was surprised in chapter 17 when enemy units started healing each, which I thought was interesting. There is plenty of room for customization with Emblem rings. You could equip an archer Emblem ring such as Lyn with a flying unit to combat their weakness of arrows.
It was nostalgic seeing familiar faces from previous entries like Lucina, Celica, Ike, Erika, Leif, Byleth and Micaiah. Unfortunately, Shez from Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes did not make it into the game. There’s still hope they could be added in future downloadable content as they did with Dimitri, Claude and Edelgard from Fire Emblem Three Houses in the first wave of DLC. The units can also bond with the emblem rings the more they use them in battle. It is important to view these conversation as they allow you to equip different skills like plus 10 hit on an enemy that you can use even if the unit isn’t equipped with the weapon. You can level up your bond in the Somniel.
The Somniel is your base camp where you can interact with your units and view support conversations. Units can increase their support for one another in various ways:
Fighting alongside each other on the battlefield or if they get lucky during training and get paired against a unit they can have a conversation with.
Sharing a meal with two of your units.
Pair units up in either the Stable, Orchard or Pool area of the Somniel (this feature doesn’t appear until chapter 22 and you have to continuously go back to the Somniel after a skirmish battle or finishing a chapter).
Alear can also give other units gifts they purchase from Timerra’s shop after she joins the party in Chapter 13.
Personally, the novelty of the Somniel wore off for me after chapter 23. While it is completely possible to skip the Somniel, you lose out on getting the see the characters interact with each and potentially achieving an S support with one of your favorite characters. S supports are Avatar-paired endings with a particular character that can be romantic, but some are platonic. The game didn’t necessarily explain that there were S supports (it is assumed given recent entries) and you can completely miss the opportunity if you don’t complete The Connector Paralogue (a side mission).
There are other things you can do because the game doesn’t explain them to you. You can miss out on earning bond fragments by collecting achievements near the donation table, where you can donate money to the four countries in the game: Firene, Brodia, Elusia and Solm. The game also doesn’t tell you how to create bond rings. Bond rings function similarly to Emblem rings except you can’t perform a special skill or get their weapon, but if your characters don’t wear rings at all you can’t gain skill points (SP) and you need SP to purchase skills like staff or sword proficiency and several others that are useful in battle. While there are gameplay elements that could be better introduced, maps and battles are very fun. I loved playing the Paralogue maps of the different Emblems that are references to their games like The Exalt where you fight Lucina in the Arena Ferox where she fought her father dressed as fake Marth in Fire Emblem Awakening.
The game story felt more lighthearted than more recent games in the franchise. It doesn’t take itself too seriously like in the first battle when Alear’s retainer asks what to do when they are attacked and he says let’s run. Timerra, the princess of Solm, has a singing group with her retainers and one character is very obsessed with muscles. While it does have its serious moments and a lot of good twists that kept it interesting, it’s just a good time overall.
The game felt like a love letter to Fire Emblem. If you’re a fan, definitely give this a try. If you’re looking to get into the series this is a great entry point and you don’t need any knowledge of previous games.
