Fire Emblem: Engage (2023) [Switch] review

‘No words – action’ was the lesson my mother taught me: as artists, we have the privilege of holding a mirror to the world, to engage, to question, to bring beauty to a complex universe.

-Mira Nair

Many gamers have stories of unexpected introductions to games or franchises which have since become staples in their lives, and for me, Fire Emblem is definitely that. Before receiving Fire Emblem: Awakening for Christmas in 2012, I had only heard of the series in references to it from Super Smash Bros. Melee and Brawl. “Anime swordfighter” characters? Sign me up. At any rate, the person who gave me Awakening only knew that I liked RPGs from Japan, and thought I might like this one despite neither party really knowing anything about Fire Emblem.

I went into it with an open mind. My first experiences with tactical RPGs were both within the Final Fantasy realm, with Final Fantasy Tactics Advance followed by Final Fantasy Tactics: War of the Lions on PSP. I adore both of those games to this day, so I figured I should give this on a try just to see how I liked it. Awakening is now easily one of my top 5 favorite games of all time. I was blown away by the wonderful story, the incredible soundtrack, the depth of the combat system (especially the weapon triangle, which was not something I had ever experienced in a game before), and the level of social immersion the player can have with the characters. It was one of those games where I was genuinely sad after I finished it because I didn’t want the ride to be over.

*cue “I think he likes it! Hey Mikey!” commercial*

There’s always something personally compelling about “power of friendship” stories, and Engage is no exception.

Since Awakening, the Fire Emblem series has been firmly planted in my gaming mind. I’ve played and enjoyed Fire Emblem: Fates (yes, all of them) and Fire Emblem: Three Houses, but found them both to be a bit less compelling than Awakening for various reasons. With Fates, I think the biggest issue for me was that the full experience of the story was split across three games. And while many people praise and adore Three Houses for its social sim aspects, I found them to be overdone and overwhelming.

Nonetheless, I anticipated Fire Emblem: Engage with great eagerness and curiosity at some of the new mechanics being introduced like Emblem Rings and the powers that the characters of past games can lend to the current characters in battle. (Yes, I was also curious about Alear’s hair colors, too. No, it doesn’t look like toothpaste to me.) Engage definitely did not disappoint, and brought a lot of the same feelings I had while I played through Awakening that first time while being very fresh and unique–which is what Fire Emblem is all about. The story, the world design, the characters, the gameplay, the soundtrack–all of them delivered a fantastic experience for me.

The 8-bit Review

Narrative: 8/10

Fire Emblem: Engage follows the narrative format of many of the other games in the series. The plot is presented as a traditional conflict between a benevolent deity and a malevolent counterpart, with both deities manifested as dragons in human form. The story of Engage rarely deviates from this good vs. evil archetype, and it must be said that many JRPG tropes appear along the way (specifics omitted to avoid spoilers).

However, the story is granted nuance and gravity by the characters, their development, and their relationships with each other. Alear and his/her allies all have the same objective in mind: to save the world from the Fell Dragon. The narrartive is given weight as its characters navigate this conflict, particularly considering their respective personal emotional investment. The characters all represent a motive: becoming a leader of a realm, fealty to a kingdom/queendom, escaping past misdeeds, and even finding spiritual perfection through honing their craft. While it takes time and effort, the character relationship affinities (a signature of the Fire Emblem franchise) reveal a marvelous amount of depth and personality to the narrative by showing us the personal sides of our heroes away from the battlefield.

While the story is predictably concentrated on Alear and the noble scions of their respective realms, the retainers and other allies are just as interesting (and on many occasions, much more so). It’s certainly worth the effort to build support between characters. In getting to know them, you get to know why their stories matter and what their stake is in the overarching war.

Visuals: 7/10

As a Nintendo Switch title, expectations have to be placed lower on graphical standards, but Fire Emblem: Engage delivers solidly on the visual front. Character models are rendered very nicely, and each costume is articulated well, with very few minute textural issues. Considering the uniqueness and detail of each character’s outfit, including the various costumes for different classes, this is an excellent contributor to the overall experience. Facial expressions and gestures are done well, even if the variety is a bit lacking. The battlefields and character animations during each fight are the best graphical components by far.

Everything is animated fluidly and the environments are more polished than in the preceding Switch title, Fire Emblem: Three Houses. While the playable characters, villains, and the battles are quite good graphically, NPCs and the textures of the Somniel (home base) are not up to the same standard. On the whole, Engage gives the player a graphical presentation in the upper tier of Switch titles, but one that remains comparatively short of the current upper echelon of gaming.

Cutscenes are where the visual aesthetics of Engage are at their peak.

Audio: 9/10

Fire Emblem has always been noteworthy for its soundtracks, and Engage is certainly up to the standard set by its predecessors. The music is varied but tailored to each specific scenario: tranquility within the confines of headquarters, intense tones during battle, and highly charged symphonics during critical plot scenes. As with other Fire Emblem games, there is a particular leitmotif that is woven into most of the soundtrack, and this is a particular highlight as the melody is always well-placed and adapted for each occasion.

Full voice acting is an addition that has only featured in the titles on the Nintendo Switch, of which there are now two (Three Houses and Engage). On the whole, the acting performances are very good and the dialogue for each character lends them a genuinely unique personality. The performances of Megan Taylor Harvey as Veyle and Laura Post as Yunaka are truly outstanding in particular. Some of the lines delivered by Alear’s character felt over-acted, but these were few and far between and they did not detract from the gravity of the story.

Gameplay: 10/10

As in previous Fire Emblem installments, the gameplay is where Engage truly shines. The battlefield map is easy to navigate and all the information you need to plan your movements and execute your strategy is immediately available. Every space on the battlefield is clearly articulated, and the player is presented with the relevant details on the terrain and the advantages or disadvantages to occupying the space. The ranges of movement and attack for each unit, allies and enemies alike, are easy to see and create an invaluable visual aid for how to plan your next moves. The ability to manipulate the camera view and rotate the battlefield are limited, but these limitations hardly detract from the experience because the player is able to freely move their focus to any space on the field during their turn.

The traditional weapon triangle (a sort of “rock-paper-scissors” mechanic which gives swords an advantage over axes, axes over spears, and spears over swords) has been expanded to include unarmed strikes granting an advantage over the users of magical armaments (tomes, staves). Additionally, the Break mechanic has been added to the weapon triangle advantages, causing an enemy attacked by a dominant weapon to be unable to counterattack. Ranged weaponry and the varying movement ranges of each unit class remain critical to success, as do the variations in terrain. Successfully navigating the plethora of natural and artificial surroundings and using them to your advantage can lead the player to victory even when outnumbered.

It’s not a surprise that the tactical battles are where Engage is nearly peerless in the genre.

Challenge: 10/10

The Fire Emblem franchise has always been noteworthy for the challenge it presents to the player, and Engage follows neatly along that path. Players can opt for a whole range of difficulty options for their journey through the game, and can also choose between a casual or classic format (characters who are knocked out return to the party after battle or die permanently, respectively). The expansion of the weapon advantage system adds another wrinkle of nuance to the difficulty, and the myriad abilities of the Emblem Rings can often make or break a battle when deployed correctly. Every single action in every battle feels like it matters, because it often does. One stroke of tactical genius or a single misstep can turn the tide of an entire battle, and the repercussions of the decisions you make can last well beyond the cessation of the fires of war. Fire Emblem: Engage is as challenging as any tactical RPG available, and fans of the genre will relish that.

Replayability: 10/10

The gameplay, narrative, and the challenge factors of Engage all combine to make it a superbly replayable addition to the Fire Emblem roster. The sheer number of varying tactics, equipment, terrain, and abilities available to the player all create a truly unique experience for everyone who plays the game. The story, while focused mostly on the handful of core protagonist characters, is highly engaging (had to use that at least once) and certainly powerful enough to captivate a gamer from start to finish. No two playthroughs will ever be exactly the same, and each tour through the game is a massively entertaining one with almost limitless options for how to choose a different path each time.

The options available to players for crafting their own unique playstyle are incredibly vast.

Accessibility: 6/10

There are three difficulty settings to choose from in Engage: Normal, Hard, and Maddening. For an additional difficulty spike, the player can also choose between Casual or Classic gameplay (in which characters KO’d in battle return to the party after its conclusion or die permanently, respectively). The difficulty increase between each setting is quite dramatic, and players choosing Classic mode will have a much smaller margin for error during each battle. The difficulty can only be lowered on a save game, and if you choose to lower the difficulty, the change is permanent. Difficulty cannot be increased on a save file, unfortunately. Any degree of flexibility in adapting the difficulty setting to meet a player’s experience would have been a positive feature, especially since the story battles on certain chapters have a severe increase in their challenge level after a certain point in the story.

There is a smorgasbord of nostalgic references for longtime fans of the Fire Emblem series to enjoy in this entry to the series, none more obvious than the Emblem Rings themselves. Each of the ring-bound allies has a personality and dialogue to match their characterizations in their own respective titles, and their dedicated side missions also hearken back to the conflicts of their own games. Players who are new to the franchise will get some insight into the lore surrounding these characters and their stories as well as some clues about their motivations, but not very much beyond that. Still, it provides a well-received seasoning to the story as a whole.

Intelligent Systems tried to strike a balance between catering to Fire Emblem devotees and neophytes alike, and they were reasonably successful, in that the focus remains squarely on the characters taking action in the plot of this game rather than the specters of the past. The inflexibility regarding difficulty settings is what holds this rating back.

Personal: 9/10

As previously mentioned, Fire Emblem games tend to reward you for the time you put in: not just on the battlefield, but also in the time your characters aren’t fighting to save the world. Increasing the rapport between the various characters is time-consuming, but the ways in which these side stories play out are all incredibly humanizing and very often relatable to our own lives. Being able to identify with characters in ways like fighting evil to save a friend or getting into a fight with a friend over a baked potato are all important in a successful RPG: the best characters and the best stories are ones we resonate with in ways both profound and mundane. The gameplay shines, the world-building is well done, but none of that matters if the characters and story fall flat in how much they compel the player to care about the conflict in front of them. Fire Emblem: Engage is illustrative of this formula that Intelligent Systems has remained steadfastly committed to throughout the generations of the series, and it works magnificently here.

Fire Emblem: Engage feels like a return to more familiar tactical JRPG territory after the vastly expanded social elements included in Three Houses. The game feels more focused and less overwhelming as a result, and highlights the strengths of the franchise that have withstood the tests of time and obscurity to bring it to the level we see today. Fabulous gameplay, astronomically high replayability, and a personally compelling narrative given meaning by characters you can truly get to know and love are all achieved here. As such, Engage caters to both the newly initiated and the seasoned campaigners alike. It’s a wonderful way for new players to take their first steps into the Fire Emblem universe, and it’s extremely satisfying for those who have already spent hundreds upon hundreds of hours with the series.

Aggregated Score: 8.6

JRPG fiend turned Twitch streamer, Mystraker (Myst for short) turned his childhood love for role-playing fantasy adventures into the driving passion of his life! You can find him on Twitch, usually waist-deep in a sprawling epic tale with more than a few anime tropes thrown in. His love for RPGs even inspired him to earn a degree in religious studies, so you can also expect some deeper thought on his favorite games as well as an appreciation for references to real-world cultures and connections.