Current Events > Started playing Fire Emblem Engage (maybe spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

Engage is far better than Three Houses

Engage is far better than Three Houses

Engage is far better than Three Houses

Eh, FEE is cringe story and character personalities and design for the most part. The game takes numerous steps back from FETH, except in graphics, it has online modes, fan service, the map design, which is more varied and a bit better, but that's because the maps are smaller and because it's a more traditional, focused FE experience with one storyline and no extended prep time between main story missions to tutor units, etc..

FETH has a much better story with better dialogue, more story paths and endings, character personalities and design, more character customization, better music and more content. The DLC for both games sucks though and isn't worth it.

The Three Houses DLC is excellent. Really interesting, difficult new missions with a new story to go along with them, and the 4 new characters all have their own supports and monastery dialogue for the main campaigns.

Nah for the original $25 MSRP it had it was underwhelming and it took forever to get to the good DLC content, which was still disappointing after it was all said and done.

I got it for $17. DLC is always far worse value than the base game, but whats there was high quality for FE3H. The best missions are all in the DLC.

Engage is far better than Three Houses

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/6/4/8/AAe9DEAAEphY.jpg

The weapon triangle is not in 3H? That game requires several playthroughs though right? Since you pick house like in Fates.

Nope no weapons triangle in that game. And three houses had 4 different endings, depending on which route you chose. I found birth games fun though. They each just have strengths and weaknesses

So it's like Echoes? Does it also have the other Echoes quirks, or is that it?

Every character has their own spell list instead of using tomes/staves. However, instead of deducting from HP every spell has a limited amount per battle. Archers have extra range and can counter 1 range with a quickly earned skill making it one of the best games for Bows like Echoes. Like Echoes promotion boosts any stat up to its class bases so it's recommended to promote as soon as you can instead of waiting (although the level cap in TH is 99 which you're never realistically reaching anyway, you just keep your level when changing classes).
Although you're also expected to promote as soon as possible for Engage too since you keep the same internal level compared to past games where you "skip" the levels and promoted classes have higher growth rates.
No shapeshifting units

That sounds interesting. I'll likely play it after I finish Engage. How's the fan service? Keep in mind that I like it when there's none of it.

Didn't get to play yesterday. With all the random encounters popping up and my obsession with a clean map, I have a feeling that this game is gonna be very grindy.

Not sure what you mean by fan service, but of the 3 definitions I could think of, Three Houses probably has some of the least of it of all FE games.

I mean the tendency that female characters either:
- wear extremely skimpy outfits that would raise eyebrows at sex parties,
or
- are thousands of years old lolis,
or both. The mobile gacha is the most extreme I think, which makes sense since it's a gacha. But Engage and Fates in particular of the ones I've played stand out.

Besides the generic Sage outfit, which you don't need to put any characters into and I doubt you'd have gotten to, most of the outfits in Engage aren't that sexualizing or skimpy at all. Most people's issues with the outfits are it just being too colorful and gaudy.

Maybe it's been pretty front loaded but I dunno.. Chloe, Yunaka, Zelestia, Ivy, heck even Alear, they're all pretty out there. And I'm only 8 chapters or so in.

F Alear just has a miniskirt and is fully covered otherwise, basically the same as Eirika

Zelestia
Villain

Mate,
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/9/9/AAPa_qAAEo03.jpg
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/3/4/AAPa_qAAEpsG.jpg
You confused

Nah, F Alear is actually more modest than Eirika whose flashing her panties even when she's not moving, F Alear is wearing spats under her skirt
https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/3/3/5/AAPa_qAAEpsH.jpg

Only Zelestia is "sex party" level skimpy and she's a villain. F Alear just has a miniskirt and is fully covered otherwise, basically the same as Eirika and Celica. Yunaka weirdly has her hips exposed but it's not that bad otherwise, certainly not sex party. Chloe and Ivy have typical "pegasus knight" outfits of the series and Ivy is about as bad as it gets.
The playable Engage outfits are generally considered to be on the mid to tame side of the series.
https://old.reddit.com/r/fireemblem/comments/10xuv64/i_like_engage_buuuut/j7upcnv/

The main issue people have is that a lot of the outfits are gaudy and clownish.

I dunno, Ivy is pretty much wearing lingerie. Yes, Chloe is not way out there compared to previous pegasus knights, but I feel like designs in general were a lot more understated in previous games. Going back to the GBA generation, things are a lot milder.
And it's more than just showing skin! Alear imo is a lot worse than Eirika not just because her outfit is worse (her top is a bit worse in the way it's like a skin tight thing designed to emphasize her chest), but also, the camera angles are a lot more gratuitous. In the old games, you generally see characters' faces and then one or two still images that are generally not set up in very sexualized poses or anything. In Engage, the camera ogles a lot!
But I don't think it's worth bickering about. The art direction of FE games has been going in this direction for quite a while and it's something I was somewhat aware of going in. I personally prefer the more understated designs and direction of the SNES/GBA titles and that's that. I'm glad to hear Three Houses leans more towards that. It's not a deal breaker either way. Like I said, my main motivation for playing these games is because I like moving my little guys around and seeing their numbers go up.

I honestly hope in the next game they do away with paired endings all together and if they want romance to actually give the protagonist an in game love interest

I see. It sounds like it's less about the outfits themselves, but more about how you see them more often as models and how it's presented. I've always said that the removal of the VN style portraits from Engage was a mistake. The presentation is probably the key aspect here. It's less that Engage is actually sexualized, it's more that Engage's scene direction and dialogue are just more light-hearted and tweeny so it feels like it's more pandering compared to the more serious games due to association. Like how there are still people who claim Engage "felt like a dating sim" when this has probably the least amount of romance in the

Yeah. The outfits are part of it, but it's the scene and art direction in general that is the root cause. And it brings me a bit out of it. Like I really like the more generic medieval fantasy look and feel.

I wouldn't mind if they cranked up the dating sim mechanics though! Like if there's meaningful choices that result in, say, different offspring like Awakening or branching story paths, that'd be good fun. It's still in the ball park of micro managing my little guys. I heard Three Houses focuses more on that? It's kinda why I went for this one first, to have a more "vanilla" FE experience to get into things.

Unfortunately, no.
Only emblem skills carry over.

Did you win?

Nah, I'm at like.. chapter 16? Ish. I just got the Eirika and Ephraim emblem. So I've got some missions left but I think I've promoted all my units now. Only issue is I can't really decide what class I want Yunaka to be. Maybe it would be better to keep her as thief?

It's fine to keep her as a thief, especially if you're putting a ring on her that has a good Covert bonus (like Corrin with the fog dragon vein).

Her other best options are probably wolf knight, wyvern knight, and warrior. Wolf knight keeps her as a dagger class while allowing her to use specialized weapons if daggers aren't cutting it against a specific enemy type (like an armor slayer/Levin Sword for armored knights that daggers can struggle against). Wyvern knight and warrior are just generally great classes for any physical attacking character, while also patching up her lowish strength growth (of the 2, wyvern would be better since her low build will probably hinder her ability to use axes, whereas a sword wyvern won't have to worry about it as much). Do note however she's not going to be as good in those classes as some other characters.