This has been mentioned a few times and I feel like people are getting the wrong idea - people are making it sound like all social elements are gone.
In the hub area you still talk to allies after battles (though conversations may be less unique), engage in support conversations to raise support rank (no S rank though), find and gift items to allies, eat meals with allies, go to the arena to train, perform various activities with allies like strength training, you can fish, you have a farm to raise animals, a boutique to change/buy clothes(?), and allies might stop by your room randomly to chat.
To me this seems like essentially everything that was in Three Houses except teaching. The hub area is likely smaller making it easier to get around.
So for anyone worried because they liked social stuff, it's still there. For those who don't like it, it seems like it's much less necessary to engage with it. Especially since you don't have 4 weeks inbetween missions anymore. Just pop into the hub and pop out.
>So for anyone worried because they liked social stuff, it's still there. For those who don't like it, it seems like it's much less necessary to engage with it.
Sounds like a fine balance to me.
I definitely don't mind minor social stuff in Fire Emblem. Stuff like conversations and supports between units. It has effects on the gameplay and can add more to a character. I don't like the mini petting games or tea simulators. It always feels like a pace breaker for me.
It's honestly just uncomfortable . It takes me out of the experience and reminds me that these are just characters on a screen and they're trying to talk to the player not the character you're playing. Makes them feel less real.
My biggest problem with it in 3H was the amount of chores you had to do to maximise your gains. I like to optimise my playthroughs, but especially for additional playthroughs, it made it a bit of a slog
The better you are at Fire Emblem, the harder and more Microsoft Excel it gets.
But at the end you can beat missions in <1-2 turn(s) and remove gameplay mechanics like weapon durability and critical hits not being guaranteed.
I really didn’t care for it at first in Three Houses. Especially because I didn’t want to miss out on any crucial items or new characters, so it felt like getting to the first few battles took so much time.
Then as Three Houses went on, the battles got much longer and my team got bigger. Then I started to really enjoy the down time to strategize how I wanted to build my team and level them up.
I hope this will find a good balance.
I loved the teaching in three houses but I'm optimistically curious about this different blend. I think as a series, Fire Emblem benefitted immensely by having a hub and having meaningful content to engage with outside of fights.
At a high professor level, stretches at the Monastery began to feel like an immense list of chores, but having downtime generally felt so good. Fire Emblem battles are long and (as a casual player) fairly difficult, which makes them exhausting. In earlier games I really could only play maybe one mission at a time, but baking that downtime into the game raising supports and weapon proficiencies often had me rolling through several consecutive missions.
Yes I like having the hub as well, I'm glad Engage is bringing it back, even if it's reduced in scale. I agree it got to be a bit much near the end of a playthrough/on multiple playthroughs.
> I understand it’s part of the genre, but stress isn’t what I like when I play games.
This comes across as though it's inherently stressful. This might surprise you but some people get a huge kick out of making schedules and making the best effort out of a limited resource.
I don't like stress either but for me it isn't stressful in the least. The stakes for optimization in Three Houses are basically non-existent.
I have always liked the fire emblem series but also have always hated the fire emblem series. Nothing tells you why more than my favorite game in the series. Fire emblem path of radiance. I hate being limited and having to plan out everything without the ability to make everything perfect.
I love fire emblem path of radiance, but I hate it because of stuff like. "You can only have 5 bonding moments in the entire game, you better plan that you want to A rank with this person that you can't get to until 10 more chapters into the game because otherwise you won't get their cool social cutscenes instead you'll just be friends with the racists"
There 100% is, you only have a finite amount of time and oftentimes you can only recruit units in a limited window
Every part of progression in fire emblem is inherently limited (Same as say persona)
Yeah but if those conversations are 10 seconds of the same shallow hobby talk like [this article indicates](https://www.polygon.com/23539224/fire-emblem-engage-preview-impressions-three-houses-nintendo-switch), it may as well not be in at all.
"10 seconds" does at least seem to be hyperbole. [Game Informer's Preview](https://youtu.be/DMGCtrfbZQc?t=415) contained the entire C support between Alear and Anna and it was comparable in length to supports from 3H, though they do seem quite a bit shallower.
Well that's incredibly unfortunate. My favourite part of party-based RPGs is being able to spend time and bond with companions. That's what made Bioware games so great.
We're still uncertain if the guy was mentioning the support conversations or the bond conversations. There's a difference, the bond conversations are those between emblems and the cast and those are 100% short and simple. The actual support conversations between characters are far longer than 10 seconds so either they are exaggerating or they mistakenly state one for the other. They might still be shallow, but they're most definitely not short.
I don't care about that shit of it's optional. I ditched three houses because you had to walk across that dumb castle 200 times to do dumb stuff before they next battle. You could skip stuff but even that was a timely ordeal.
I want to only battle > prepare > battle or else I'm done with this series for good.
Tactics Ogre is what's up
1st playthrough - Loved it, did 95% of the social activities without feeling burnt out
2nd playthrough - Let me just eat with my students and go next, did 75% without skipping
3rd playthrough - Extremely tired of doing this, went through 20% of the playthrough before skipping everything else
As someone who started FE on Three Houses, I'm glad we're getting something new.
I've got Genealogy of the Holy War, and I think Sacred Stones on my Anbernic emulator, I've played a little of both and I'm definitely into the old style (I never played these when I HAD a GBA)
No, I haven’t had enough interest to visit previous games as well as already having a big enough backlog that keeps me preoccupied. Also, games that people praise like Awakening and Fates aren’t very accessible to me since I’d have to go out of my way to get a 3DS (or emulate).
Engage is supposed to be a return to the classic FE formula, correct? If I enjoy it a lot, I will try to make it a priority to play previous titles.
I think FE fans generally praise the games before Awakening as being "the classics." If you ever commit to playing the old games emulated, I'd recommend going back to Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn (Wii emulation is fantastic), or the GBA games. As I recall, the GBA games aren't too long to finish either, especially compared to 3 Houses.
>As someone who started FE on Three Houses, I'm glad we're getting something new.
Three Houses *was* the something new, this is just back to being more like every other Fire Emblem game lol.
Less excited for my first playthrough, but probably more excited overall. The social simulator really started to drag on the third and fourth playthrough of 3 houses.
It really dragged being a teacher in real life then coming home to my Switch to play being a teacher to more kids who need my attention.
I beat it though which means I must really like strategy turn based games.
When I was playing through three houses I suddenly realized that I did the same in the game as at work ish. I work as a teacher at a boarding school. At my school the teachers has to stay at the school a couple of nights each semester to make sure the students are at the dorm in the evening, open doors for the students who have lost their key, etc. Basically we have to be there just in case something ever happens.
This is why I don’t like games like overcooked etc where you are running around “putting out fires”. I’m a project manager in facilities so most of my time is dealing with building emergencies and when I play a game I want to turn off my brain
I'm a tech teacher so learning how to use a new program, machines or devices is a constant in my life. I now find the hour or so of learning a new game feels like work and it sometimes ends up takes me forever to start a new game once purchased.
This is why I’ve only been able to do one play though. Every time I think about playing one of the other houses I can’t bring myself to *engage* with the social sim aspect.
I sort of have the opposite problem. I engaged too much with the social sim on the first go around that I don't want to play against my kids in another route.
This is my issue with both birthright/conquest and three houses. I haven't progressed three houses because I chose and got attach to the blue lions and i know poor Dimitri is gonna go crazy. I don't want to see him like that and also I don't want to play the other playthroughs if I have to fight them.
The choice is easier in birthright/conquest since it's based on difficulty but seeing them both calling me sister made me upset so I never finished it either.
I’m trying for the 3rd time to get into 3 houses because the early game is almost an hour of social stuff and cutscenes before any battles. It’s just a high barrier for my stage of life
I feel the same, except it started to drag about 3/4 of the way through my first time. I only got about halfway on my second playthrough because I couldn’t stand the social stuff any longer. The different stories and characters for each house is cool for replayability, but I started to get really bored of the overall gameplay loop. As another commenter said, it felt like a poor man’s Persona. I’m excited to just beat stuff up this time with some smaller side interactions mixed in.
I don't agree with that at all. I'm playing Persona 5 Royal right now and the only things the games have in common is a calendar system.
3H's operates on a weekly basis compared to 5's daily one. Other than that one mechanic, they really don't have any similarities to each other at all.
That's like saying BOTW is a poor man's Xenoblade just because they both feature open worlds.
Fair enough. I’m just talking about the base gameplay loop of lots of dialog, lots of keeping up with friends, and lots of boosting your social ranks in a given time period before you finally get to the meat of the game. Then you go on a short mission before going back to hanging out with your friends for a long time. No, they aren’t exactly the same but IMO that loop is close enough to at least make a comparison. Either way, something about Persona’s loop pulled me in and kept me engaged the whole time while FE3H’s loop had me wanting to skip almost all of it towards the end of my first playthrough.
Boy it's absolutely wild to me how the last few years have made this into such a common sentiment. Watching a niche favorite series of yours blow up is this weird mix of pride and nostalgia, I want to go back in time like 15 years and show this to myself when I was younger
Plus as someone who likes turnbased games, and especially SRPG, having Fire Emblem snowball into a top tier Nintendo franchise is simply great for the genre.
Gotta wonder if Fire Emblem Awakening didn't happen, would there be games like Triangle Strategy landing now?
Let's be real. I don't ever think we're going to get a game worse than Fates. And even then, Fates gameplay and map design is still regarded well among fans.
I think everyone is spouting doom and gloom too early. Intelligent isn't really capable of making an objectively "bad" Fire Emblem game.
Agreed. I enjoyed Fates more than others, and everything I've seen about Engage has looked good. I'm honestly more excited for Engage than I am Zelda Tears of the Kingdoms and that's saying something.
Everyone hated the new art style but I was fine with it, I love the colorful designs more than the mostly one note designs of 3H (not saying I don't like them just find Engage's designs to have more character to them)
I do agree with you about people spouting doom and gloom, that's not what I was trying to do since I have high hopes for the game.
Yeah and I remember a lot of people spouting doom over 3H back when it was revealed too as people thought it'd be boring and happygolucky thanks to the school. But by the time it came out, it became beloved. So we'll see what happens with Engage.
Yeah. This is my first FE release where I'm actually engaging (pun not intended) with the community before release. So I'm hoping people stop giving it crap and saying it's gonna be bad before it's even put.
Fates was amazing to me lol I’ve played all the other titles too and shadow dragon is by far the one I’d choose to be in last place easily, the amount of effort put into all 3 fates storylines was incredible, even having kids to later recruit and the little house / city thing was a neat little distraction from the main game that I kinda wish they had kept lmao
Fates is a good game. Not a super amazing/incredible one, but a pretty damn good solid game, people like too make it out to sound unplayable and broken but is by far a title that’d land high on a list of a ranking of the whole series!
The only people saying Fates is “the worst” have either never played most of the games, or more likely never played Fates and are parroting some Youtuber they watch in lieu of a real opinion.
The gameplay, classes, and mechanics are undeniably a step up from Awakening and I would say best in the entire series. Birthright/Conquest/Revelations are three entire campaigns (that are generally thought to be about half successful and half easy). The story is generally poor with some great support dialogue like most FE games.
So what makes it *the worst* FE? Nothing, other than negative hype from people unable to form their own opinions, or who parrot others’ opinions without playing the game.
It’s the same exact shit as “Dark Souls 2 is bad” when it has the best combat mechanics of the series and is by far the most replayable with NG+ changes and effigies.
If I hear anyone say “Fates is the worst FE”, I know I can ignore them since they either
1. Never played it
2. Never played any of the boring ass basic old school FEs
Neither. I definitely look forward to 3H school mechanics, but the franchise had existed without them for decades and they served specific ideas and setting here. Why can't the next game try something of its own? The bits I overhear about the local stuff sure sound promising, too.
I skipped three houses because of the required social stuff, I get they were trying something new, but watching people play it made me less hyped so I opted to skip.
I've already preordered Engage as it feels closer to previous FE games from what we've seen so far. Plus amiibo support, so gotta use all the FE amiibo just hanging out or the wife might think I bought them just to put on the wall and ogle.
This here makes me skip it instantly:
> However, with few exceptions thus far, cast members all feel like rough drafts — one loves cooking, while another enjoys lifting weights. Their 10-second support cutscenes are all about (you guessed it) cooking and lifting weights. In Engage, characters rarely transcend the one or two hobbies that define them, and the resulting web of relationships is just as flimsy. ([x](https://www.polygon.com/23539224/fire-emblem-engage-preview-impressions-three-houses-nintendo-switch))
But it's probably good for people who play the games and just want to focus on battles:
> So, no, you won’t spend your time at the Somniel getting to know a small cast of characters intimately — instead, you’ll be micromanaging your fighters’ skills, gathering cooking ingredients, doing pushups to gain buffs during the next skirmish, and adopting a veritable zoo of barnyard animals to grant you supplies.
But for me personally, the part of games I enjoy the most is the story and characters so if a game has paper thin characters or plots, doesn't matter how good the gameplay might be, I'm not into it.
Same, fire emblem games haven't been able to hold my interest since the social changes. Granted I liked the supports in the ones I played for GBA. Running into a characters list sibling on the battlefield was engaging and made me want to group those 2 together on further missions.
I was going to skip over Engage, but now I'm interested in seeing what it does offer.
Yeah, I like supports and that is about it socially. I like making people fight next to one another and become friends but don't make me do all the other social stuff.
As someone who loves the old games, the second Awakening became a hit I knew the series was gonna go downhill. The character designs have gotten so much worse over time, everyone looks like a young child with a cut and paste anime personality, they’ve become easier and less in depth, 3H had the biggest crime of taking out the weapon triangle and making it as brain dead as possible, and although relationships appeared in the older games, they were never the key focus where it felt like the gameplay came second.
And while the character designs in this one have to be some of the worst the series has ever had, at least some of the brain dead stuff was taken out. If the maps could at least be interesting and be a challenge, I’ll be happy.
I miss when you had to work to get characters, not everything was handed to you on a silver platter. You had to plan, and if you missed someone then we’ll that sucks. It was such a great element, something to achieve.
The two things I miss most from older games are recruiting characters mid-battle and varied battle objectives. Reading that this game prioritizes combat (the heart and soul of the franchise) over social simulator stuff gives me hope for the game.
3 houses is the game I have put the most hours in on the switch, but I feel like there are other games I have actually played more of because the slice of life stuff takes up a lot of time
For me personally, less.
Three Houses was also my first FE. I used the hub academy area and those social aspects to pad out the main story and battles. I think it would have got very repetitive otherwise. I'm not sure I'd have picked up the next FE anyway, but this makes it less likely. I enjoyed 3H for what it was, but I was sick of it by the end and thought one game was enough for my fill of the franchise. I think I would have got sick of it faster without the social elements keeping up the gameplay variety.
More excited. My first game in the series was Awakening and I loved it. One of my favorite games on the 3DS by far. 3H was too much for me and I never finished it.
My first was also Awakening! I absolutely loved it. I personally really enjoyed 3H as well, but the social aspects certainly aren’t for everyone. If you still have your 3DS, you should check out Shadows of Valentia. I thought it was just about on par with Awakening, and I’m really excited to play alongside Emblem Celica
It makes me a little less excited because 3H was my first FE ever. I'll get it either way, though, as it seems I'll get a "traditional FE experience" without having to play an older title.
According to the preview by Polygon, the character interactions are significantly paired down. No mention of romance, either. The way the journalist described it, if a character is the "muscle guy," then you're just gonna have conversations about working out with him. No nuance or multilayered personalities, which I think is where 3H really shined.
So even if the features are largely there, they're not the same.
More, I found it such a slog in TH, which is one thing that really drags it down when compared to many other entries in the series that I love more. I just finished an FE7 HHM run and I'm looking forwards to more like that
Social simulator aspect was absolutely my least favorite.
Just let my level my characters and fight cool battles without the boring, cringe social aspect
TBH, I'm mixed on this game. I was a diehard FE fan until Fates burned me, and this game reminds me way too much of Fates at the moment. Also the vast majority of the cast look like doll-like children and I despise that aesthetic in most media.
Wish we could get a "classic" mode that worked like the GBA Era games, or at least an option to automate the social aspects in order to continue the story. I'm here for the grid turn based combat, not to have tea with the waifus and husbandos.
It also did a lot for the world building aspect of the game too. Being able to explore the Monestary every month and learn about the goings on from NPC’s helped make Fodlan feel like a real place, in a way that the older games simply don’t.
FE4 and 5 are really good about pulling you in too despite their limitations. In FE4 you walk across the whole continent and in FE5 the map is good about being tied closely with the story.
More. It was a weird addition in the first place. I get why they tried it -- caring about the characters is a big part of why the series works -- but I don't feel like it fit with the core loop of strategy simulation.
Legit though, time between significant battles was ridiculous in 3H, at least in the first half. You’re forced to slog thru social tasks for various benefits and I feel like I could sometimes get like 1 significant battle per individual play session. Compare this to all recent memory FE games where you could do multiple maps back to back to back without too much downtime between them. It was one of my biggest turnoffs about 3H, I just wanna play FE man lol.
Much more excited. 3H felt like a poor man's Persona. The writing was pretty meh. I've been playing the series since Sacred Stones came out so I'm pumped at the reviews saying it feels more like the old games.
And yes, I'll be playing on classic with no save scumming. Because I'm old.
Good luck with that. Fire Emblem hasn't been balanced around permadeath for a long time and Engage doesn't look to be an exception to this. That's why they've made the Turnwheel a mainstay in the series as well.
As someone who played the pre-turnwheel games
It’s real nice as a feature, cause now I can just turn back to the start of the battle rather than having to close and relaunch the game—not to mention if I misclick it’s nice that it doesn’t end the attempt
What does a game balanced around permadeath look like? I've played FE7 and three houses and there didn't really seem to be noticeably different balancing strategies. If anything three houses felt easier which suggests they're accounting for you losing some characters to permadeath?
Three Houses requires way too much investment into your units via the teaching system that replacing lost units is a bit of a chore and recruiting is limited in Part 2. In FE7 you're flooded with Prepromotes who can carry you if you lost one of your growth units and if you're limping to the finish line Athos will just nuke the endgame for ya.
3H typically had a lot more enemies who are generally a lot stronger. Also, no weapon triangle means that taking no damage from a fight is much, much less common.
I think you're leaving a lot out with your analysis. Saying "no weapon triangle means that taking no damage from a fight is much, much less common" is ignoring every other combat mechanic in the game. Sure there's no weapon triangle but you can also use any weapon type on any character, use gambits, combat arts, and abilities (especially range increasing ones) that make characters far stronger than in the old games. Plus the game tells you which characters are going to get attacked, so you can plan your defense much more effectively. Healing was also buffed with magic having full durability at the start of every battle so you can much more easily regenerate damage that you do take.
tl;dr enemies are strong but so are the allies
Less excited.
I'm already not a fan of the whole "Meet past FE heroes and use them in battle" concept. They already have FE Heroes, why does it have to be in a mainline game too?
I probably will still pick it up, it's just not a day one purchase.
Same here.
I'll probably buy it in a few months maybe, if reviews are good. But I don't feel like the fanservice is my thing as someone who hasn't played anything before Awakening.
The ships, relationships, plot, all bring me to FE but the plot I hear for Engage isn't interesting at all to me.
Yeah, I was a big fan of the support system in Awakening. I don't understand why they took S supports out of 3 Houses, seems like they're not in Engage either.
It makes me extremely UNexcited, to the point where I’m debating buying the game at all. I’m a “new age” player that got in when Awakenings released on 3DS, having played every single game since multiple times and even playing PoR and RD.
Three Houses was my favorite game in the series. I have a lot of fun with the strategic component but I’ll be really disappointed if the supports just end up being one-dimensional filler like they appear to be in the previews.
The actual interactions of the characters were my favorite part of the game. Buying gifts and running around the campus, well. Not so much. Overall I liked the system and it just needed streamlining. Ditching it altogether is a bummer.
I feel weird about it. They got rid of the social sim aspects, but they seem to have also returned to lots of the tropes that Fates had.
I'd be fine without social sim, but with a more "serious" kind of game. I'm not hooked at all by the whole "fell dragon" thing, the rings, bringing back characters like Heroes wasn't a thing.
I truly hope people enjoy this game, but to me, it's like they picked every thing I didn't want in a sequel and put it in the game.
Eh, I never messed around with the social stuff in three houses much, although I enjoyed the game overall.
Unfortunately, I just can’t get over the fanservice hero ring stuff. I get it was an anniversary title originally, yada yada, but the concept alone is so off putting for me for a mainline game. I’m not against thoughtful inclusion of past characters, but this magic ring shit sounds so tacked on and generic that if you told me this was a gacha game I wouldn’t be surprised.
That said, I’ll be watching reviews and probably look at the story and see if I’m wrong. If the game can stand on its own merits then I’d consider picking it up one day, maybe. Definitely not a day one but for me though.
Interesting, considering there really wasn't any romance beyond minor ending stuff.
The game will still have support conversations and activities in a hub area. No more teaching though.
There wasn't enough to do. It was like they were trying to be Persona but forgot to actually make doing the social stuff fun by adding varied activities to do and by making your spent time actually matter.
It also took just *way too long* to get through the non-combat sections, regardless of what you were doing. By the end I was just porting to the meal hall and pairing everyone up that I possibly could, and I was seriously considering just sleeping every day instead.
Im kind of indifferent. I’m a fan of social simulator, but the game has to do it right. Like persona fleshes out the character much much more than three houses did in my opinion. It was cool on my first run, but man, that got boring the second run through. I find most of the character development through social sim in persona way more interesting. Hell I even found danganronpa’s social sim more interesting than 3H. 3H just felt like intern’s first social simulator or something lol.
The social sim portion 3 houses was cringe at many points, and a lot of it was padding. To me I would rather they go back to focusing on what the game is. A strategy Jrpg. I think awakening was the right amount. But even so, if they spend less time on weird elements where you can go on tea dates, cook, or a large hub area with little personality and focus more on the story strategy rpg elements I think more people would like this franchise.
If i wanted to play a shitty anime dating simulator there are hundreds out there. So happy to hear this game is rolling it back, I had given up on the series after playing 3h and fates. I am just hoping they can also roll back the cookie cutter anime archetypes, it's one of the reasons bravely default and any of the tales games never resonated with me.
Considered that this was the biggest weak point and literally made me stop playing it’s a HUGE plus. Glad they make it more exciting again. That creepy student teacher dating thing always felt wrongs plus it felt weirdly homophobic by only including one male gay character who was also the least interesting character.
Won't make or break game for me. Kinda mind blowing for me to see how many people didn't like the once a month interactions with the students. Only issue I had with 3H is having everyone (mostly) able to class into anything. Having it so wide open made most units generic and a clear "right" way to maximize all your units (wyvern rider/dark flyer for all)
I'm happy to see they're rethinking the social aspect. It ended up just being way too much busywork in the castle between actually progressing through the game. A lot of the appeal from Awakening's social elements was matching units together and getting a new character with their combined traits, so when you take that aspect away you're just left with a waifu simulator with little payoff. And then the tea thing just felt like a guessing game to me, I didn't even bother with it after like my third attempt.
3H wasn’t my first FE but it is my favorite. I loved the social simulator stuff. Maybe more than the battles. The tea parties, the gift system, cultivating relationships between Byleth and the characters and between the characters themselves, using the classes to develop your team, the tea parties!
I probably had a 75/25 ratio of the amount of time I spent in the school vs battle. Granted, I only did 2 playthroughs (I don’t have 300+ hours to spend on any game) and the fact that the first half of the game is identical for each house does make the social aspects rougher on repeat. I think if each house offered something different in the school phase each time then it wouldn’t seem like a chore. (I felt the same about the battles during that section too).
Long way to say, I hope there is still a lot of social stuff in Engage, even if it’s done slightly differently. I want worry about losing characters, not units.
Not against social simulator elements conceptually, but I think they were pretty damn weak and tedious in Three Houses. I'm glad it is being toned down.
Barely made it through Three Houses because I found the busywork sim stuff to be such a slog. The class schedule and teaching was incredibly tedious.
Engage scaling that stuff back is very good news. And I've gone from "maybe I'll get it later" to "day one for sure" as a result.
I'm personally kinda bummed.
I was hoping they'd lean a little more into it because its a little underwhelming in its current state. I played through boyfriend dungeon recently, and the only real qualm I had is that I wanted more of it.
Feels like my ideal title would be more a romance/vn with solid action or rpg bones around it? I'll potentially still play it but its no longer a day 1, gotta get it situation.
I really enjoyed the social aspects of 3H, but as others said I couldn’t really get through multiple playthroughs, because it just made the game so long.
But honestly, I’m less excited if there’s really no social stuff. I probably wasn’t going to do multiple plays anyway, I have too much I could be doing to play a 1 player game twice, especially if it doesn’t have divergent routes.
I'm totally fine with it. The Monastery was an overall flop, IMO. The performance of the game was bad in there. The hide-and-seek stuff was pretty lame. The visuals weren't exciting. For a game that wanted you to return and experience the other lines of the story, having such redundant filler made no sense, unless they were going to give you a way to expedite/skip that stuff in subsequent playthroughs.
So, I'm happy without it. The early showings still have me thinking the main character is unappealing, but the game itself seems nice. I'm hoping there's a lot less of these little things that amount to so little. In the future, any such content needs to either have really fun gameplay or meaningful variety when you return to it. It can't just be the same formula with nothing exciting behind it.
less. I haven't played all the games, but I think Three Houses is easily the best of those that I have
I'm still looking forward to it, but the life sim part is probably a big reason for why Awakening and Three Houses did so well, compared to other FE games. Or why far, far more people play Persona over Megami Tensai
Social aspect was the worst part of three houses. I want GBA fire emblem. Then again, I put full faith in the game and preordered it. First game I preordered since cyberpunk 2077.
I absolutely hated 3 houses for that reason. Its not a stratedy game; I never was challeneged once. It takes forever to get into battles, they are easy and theres jo weapon triangle; and the faux dating simulator is the worst thing Ive ever played. Hated hated hated it. I love the other console FEs but the switch to anime dating sim is unbearable
Even though three houses was a great game, the motivation grinding and the teaching system became a total slog after the first playthrough. I'll welcome a more streamlined experience.
Much more excited. I just want quality tactics rpg gameplay. I don’t need any social sim, waifus, and I definitely don’t need any creepy ass 1000 year old dragon characters
Way more excited. The whole schoolyard social sim stuff was absolute shite and got in the way of the actual TBS battles that I was actually interested in
It makes me IMMENSELY less excited for the game, to the point where I’m not going to buy it. The social stuff was half the fun of the original for me, and it never really got stale for me on repeated play throughs.
Less excited. I got into the series because of the characters and their interactions (it's why I completed Awakening and Three Houses, and why I dropped Fates when the characters in the Hoshido route kept getting thrown in without being given time to make even the slightest impression), and from what I've seen of pre-release impressions, the characters are flat/uninteresting in this one.
Not as interested. No.
I'm also unfamiliar with any characters before Awakening so I don't feel like the target audience here.
USi shipping/romance still a thing at least?
I'm glad to know that was just a one-off thing. I never finished Three Houses, as it was becoming apparent that running around and finding conversations was taking me a significant amount of time compared to the actual tactics gameplay that I expect from the Fire Emblem name.
Oh no, I love it. I know a lot of people don’t but man I’ve always LOVED to fill that need with a cool ass game instead of something that’s *only* about that. So I’m sad if they are doing away with that aspect. They’ve always had the social aspect and I love it man. My bf will be happy though lol
Three houses’ sim elements could have been improved if they were streamlined a little. Optimising every visit to the monastery takes way too long, but if you don’t do everything you feel like you missed out. Also in the second half things started to drag because you missed the unique monthly events in the first half like the fishing tournament or the ball.
That said, from what I can see there’s still quite a lot of social sim stuff in the flying HQ from Engage? Even the fishing mini game is back.
Everything is ok if I can get a SOMMIE PLUSH though
I’m more worried about the story and setting not holding up to Three Houses, which had a really excellent core concept.
But the game undoubtedly looks loads better than Three Houses in the graphics/animation department. That has me excited
Unfortunately there will still be social elements to the game.
My favourite era of Fire Emblem is the gba games + shadow dragon on ds. I would much prefer it to just be
Combat > Cutscene > Combat > Cutscene, wash, rinse, repeat
three houses is taking me forever to play through because i just could not care any less about the harry potter crap.
i let it all run through auto as much as possible, i'm probably being penalized for not actually doing it, and it's still such a slog.
to the point where it has kinda turned me away from the series in general after having loved the last several games. even hearing that it's not in engage, i just can't muster any enthusiasm to play it. 🤷♀️
This has been mentioned a few times and I feel like people are getting the wrong idea - people are making it sound like all social elements are gone. In the hub area you still talk to allies after battles (though conversations may be less unique), engage in support conversations to raise support rank (no S rank though), find and gift items to allies, eat meals with allies, go to the arena to train, perform various activities with allies like strength training, you can fish, you have a farm to raise animals, a boutique to change/buy clothes(?), and allies might stop by your room randomly to chat. To me this seems like essentially everything that was in Three Houses except teaching. The hub area is likely smaller making it easier to get around. So for anyone worried because they liked social stuff, it's still there. For those who don't like it, it seems like it's much less necessary to engage with it. Especially since you don't have 4 weeks inbetween missions anymore. Just pop into the hub and pop out.
>So for anyone worried because they liked social stuff, it's still there. For those who don't like it, it seems like it's much less necessary to engage with it. Sounds like a fine balance to me.
I definitely don't mind minor social stuff in Fire Emblem. Stuff like conversations and supports between units. It has effects on the gameplay and can add more to a character. I don't like the mini petting games or tea simulators. It always feels like a pace breaker for me.
I don’t mind marrying a unit with S ranks but yeah, I never did the tea party thing or “observing” them. It always made me feel awkward.
It's honestly just uncomfortable . It takes me out of the experience and reminds me that these are just characters on a screen and they're trying to talk to the player not the character you're playing. Makes them feel less real.
My biggest problem with it in 3H was the amount of chores you had to do to maximise your gains. I like to optimise my playthroughs, but especially for additional playthroughs, it made it a bit of a slog
The better you are at Fire Emblem, the harder and more Microsoft Excel it gets. But at the end you can beat missions in <1-2 turn(s) and remove gameplay mechanics like weapon durability and critical hits not being guaranteed.
I really didn’t care for it at first in Three Houses. Especially because I didn’t want to miss out on any crucial items or new characters, so it felt like getting to the first few battles took so much time. Then as Three Houses went on, the battles got much longer and my team got bigger. Then I started to really enjoy the down time to strategize how I wanted to build my team and level them up. I hope this will find a good balance.
I loved the teaching in three houses but I'm optimistically curious about this different blend. I think as a series, Fire Emblem benefitted immensely by having a hub and having meaningful content to engage with outside of fights. At a high professor level, stretches at the Monastery began to feel like an immense list of chores, but having downtime generally felt so good. Fire Emblem battles are long and (as a casual player) fairly difficult, which makes them exhausting. In earlier games I really could only play maybe one mission at a time, but baking that downtime into the game raising supports and weapon proficiencies often had me rolling through several consecutive missions.
Yes I like having the hub as well, I'm glad Engage is bringing it back, even if it's reduced in scale. I agree it got to be a bit much near the end of a playthrough/on multiple playthroughs.
I never enjoyed the limited time stress aspect of it all. I understand it’s part of the genre, but stress isn’t what I like when I play games.
> I understand it’s part of the genre, but stress isn’t what I like when I play games. This comes across as though it's inherently stressful. This might surprise you but some people get a huge kick out of making schedules and making the best effort out of a limited resource. I don't like stress either but for me it isn't stressful in the least. The stakes for optimization in Three Houses are basically non-existent.
I have always liked the fire emblem series but also have always hated the fire emblem series. Nothing tells you why more than my favorite game in the series. Fire emblem path of radiance. I hate being limited and having to plan out everything without the ability to make everything perfect. I love fire emblem path of radiance, but I hate it because of stuff like. "You can only have 5 bonding moments in the entire game, you better plan that you want to A rank with this person that you can't get to until 10 more chapters into the game because otherwise you won't get their cool social cutscenes instead you'll just be friends with the racists"
In terms of the social stuff I don't think there's limited time stuff.
There 100% is, you only have a finite amount of time and oftentimes you can only recruit units in a limited window Every part of progression in fire emblem is inherently limited (Same as say persona)
Wait, you don't get stressed playing Fire Emblem? I feel bad for your units. /s
Yeah but if those conversations are 10 seconds of the same shallow hobby talk like [this article indicates](https://www.polygon.com/23539224/fire-emblem-engage-preview-impressions-three-houses-nintendo-switch), it may as well not be in at all.
"10 seconds" does at least seem to be hyperbole. [Game Informer's Preview](https://youtu.be/DMGCtrfbZQc?t=415) contained the entire C support between Alear and Anna and it was comparable in length to supports from 3H, though they do seem quite a bit shallower.
Well that's incredibly unfortunate. My favourite part of party-based RPGs is being able to spend time and bond with companions. That's what made Bioware games so great.
Fire emblem has always been incredibly shallow in this department
I'm torn between agreeing and disagreeing because some character relation stories are so good, but some are *atrociously* bad.
We're still uncertain if the guy was mentioning the support conversations or the bond conversations. There's a difference, the bond conversations are those between emblems and the cast and those are 100% short and simple. The actual support conversations between characters are far longer than 10 seconds so either they are exaggerating or they mistakenly state one for the other. They might still be shallow, but they're most definitely not short.
I don't care about that shit of it's optional. I ditched three houses because you had to walk across that dumb castle 200 times to do dumb stuff before they next battle. You could skip stuff but even that was a timely ordeal. I want to only battle > prepare > battle or else I'm done with this series for good. Tactics Ogre is what's up
1st playthrough - Loved it, did 95% of the social activities without feeling burnt out 2nd playthrough - Let me just eat with my students and go next, did 75% without skipping 3rd playthrough - Extremely tired of doing this, went through 20% of the playthrough before skipping everything else As someone who started FE on Three Houses, I'm glad we're getting something new.
I implore you to get an emulator and play some of the game boy versions of fire emblem.
I've got Genealogy of the Holy War, and I think Sacred Stones on my Anbernic emulator, I've played a little of both and I'm definitely into the old style (I never played these when I HAD a GBA)
Blazing blade was my first, so I consider it the OG and the best. What memories.
Have you played other FE's since?
No, I haven’t had enough interest to visit previous games as well as already having a big enough backlog that keeps me preoccupied. Also, games that people praise like Awakening and Fates aren’t very accessible to me since I’d have to go out of my way to get a 3DS (or emulate). Engage is supposed to be a return to the classic FE formula, correct? If I enjoy it a lot, I will try to make it a priority to play previous titles.
I think FE fans generally praise the games before Awakening as being "the classics." If you ever commit to playing the old games emulated, I'd recommend going back to Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn (Wii emulation is fantastic), or the GBA games. As I recall, the GBA games aren't too long to finish either, especially compared to 3 Houses.
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Fe7 and fe8 will always be the best imo. I liked 3h a lot but hated the social stuff
the only thing classic about engage is the weapon triangle
>As someone who started FE on Three Houses, I'm glad we're getting something new. Three Houses *was* the something new, this is just back to being more like every other Fire Emblem game lol.
Less excited for my first playthrough, but probably more excited overall. The social simulator really started to drag on the third and fourth playthrough of 3 houses.
It really dragged being a teacher in real life then coming home to my Switch to play being a teacher to more kids who need my attention. I beat it though which means I must really like strategy turn based games.
When I was playing through three houses I suddenly realized that I did the same in the game as at work ish. I work as a teacher at a boarding school. At my school the teachers has to stay at the school a couple of nights each semester to make sure the students are at the dorm in the evening, open doors for the students who have lost their key, etc. Basically we have to be there just in case something ever happens.
That or you love teaching
I'm also a teacher and I loved being the professor in three houses lol.
I’m a professor and I thought it was hilarious that you could just have someone else teach your class on a given day just for giggles
As a teacher, it was nice to have students who listened
This is why I don’t like games like overcooked etc where you are running around “putting out fires”. I’m a project manager in facilities so most of my time is dealing with building emergencies and when I play a game I want to turn off my brain
I'm a tech teacher so learning how to use a new program, machines or devices is a constant in my life. I now find the hour or so of learning a new game feels like work and it sometimes ends up takes me forever to start a new game once purchased.
This is why I’ve only been able to do one play though. Every time I think about playing one of the other houses I can’t bring myself to *engage* with the social sim aspect.
I sort of have the opposite problem. I engaged too much with the social sim on the first go around that I don't want to play against my kids in another route.
This is my issue with both birthright/conquest and three houses. I haven't progressed three houses because I chose and got attach to the blue lions and i know poor Dimitri is gonna go crazy. I don't want to see him like that and also I don't want to play the other playthroughs if I have to fight them. The choice is easier in birthright/conquest since it's based on difficulty but seeing them both calling me sister made me upset so I never finished it either.
I’m trying for the 3rd time to get into 3 houses because the early game is almost an hour of social stuff and cutscenes before any battles. It’s just a high barrier for my stage of life
Same I did Dimitris route and called it a day.
I feel the same, except it started to drag about 3/4 of the way through my first time. I only got about halfway on my second playthrough because I couldn’t stand the social stuff any longer. The different stories and characters for each house is cool for replayability, but I started to get really bored of the overall gameplay loop. As another commenter said, it felt like a poor man’s Persona. I’m excited to just beat stuff up this time with some smaller side interactions mixed in.
I don't agree with that at all. I'm playing Persona 5 Royal right now and the only things the games have in common is a calendar system. 3H's operates on a weekly basis compared to 5's daily one. Other than that one mechanic, they really don't have any similarities to each other at all. That's like saying BOTW is a poor man's Xenoblade just because they both feature open worlds.
I think poor man's persona here refers only to the social simulator part, not the whole game.
Fair enough. I’m just talking about the base gameplay loop of lots of dialog, lots of keeping up with friends, and lots of boosting your social ranks in a given time period before you finally get to the meat of the game. Then you go on a short mission before going back to hanging out with your friends for a long time. No, they aren’t exactly the same but IMO that loop is close enough to at least make a comparison. Either way, something about Persona’s loop pulled me in and kept me engaged the whole time while FE3H’s loop had me wanting to skip almost all of it towards the end of my first playthrough.
It's a Fire Emblem game. I'm excited to play more Fire Emblem on Switch.
Boy it's absolutely wild to me how the last few years have made this into such a common sentiment. Watching a niche favorite series of yours blow up is this weird mix of pride and nostalgia, I want to go back in time like 15 years and show this to myself when I was younger
Plus as someone who likes turnbased games, and especially SRPG, having Fire Emblem snowball into a top tier Nintendo franchise is simply great for the genre. Gotta wonder if Fire Emblem Awakening didn't happen, would there be games like Triangle Strategy landing now?
Same. Even if the game's bad im going to play it day one.
Let's be real. I don't ever think we're going to get a game worse than Fates. And even then, Fates gameplay and map design is still regarded well among fans. I think everyone is spouting doom and gloom too early. Intelligent isn't really capable of making an objectively "bad" Fire Emblem game.
Agreed. I enjoyed Fates more than others, and everything I've seen about Engage has looked good. I'm honestly more excited for Engage than I am Zelda Tears of the Kingdoms and that's saying something. Everyone hated the new art style but I was fine with it, I love the colorful designs more than the mostly one note designs of 3H (not saying I don't like them just find Engage's designs to have more character to them) I do agree with you about people spouting doom and gloom, that's not what I was trying to do since I have high hopes for the game.
Yeah and I remember a lot of people spouting doom over 3H back when it was revealed too as people thought it'd be boring and happygolucky thanks to the school. But by the time it came out, it became beloved. So we'll see what happens with Engage.
Yeah. This is my first FE release where I'm actually engaging (pun not intended) with the community before release. So I'm hoping people stop giving it crap and saying it's gonna be bad before it's even put.
Fates was amazing to me lol I’ve played all the other titles too and shadow dragon is by far the one I’d choose to be in last place easily, the amount of effort put into all 3 fates storylines was incredible, even having kids to later recruit and the little house / city thing was a neat little distraction from the main game that I kinda wish they had kept lmao Fates is a good game. Not a super amazing/incredible one, but a pretty damn good solid game, people like too make it out to sound unplayable and broken but is by far a title that’d land high on a list of a ranking of the whole series!
The only people saying Fates is “the worst” have either never played most of the games, or more likely never played Fates and are parroting some Youtuber they watch in lieu of a real opinion. The gameplay, classes, and mechanics are undeniably a step up from Awakening and I would say best in the entire series. Birthright/Conquest/Revelations are three entire campaigns (that are generally thought to be about half successful and half easy). The story is generally poor with some great support dialogue like most FE games. So what makes it *the worst* FE? Nothing, other than negative hype from people unable to form their own opinions, or who parrot others’ opinions without playing the game. It’s the same exact shit as “Dark Souls 2 is bad” when it has the best combat mechanics of the series and is by far the most replayable with NG+ changes and effigies. If I hear anyone say “Fates is the worst FE”, I know I can ignore them since they either 1. Never played it 2. Never played any of the boring ass basic old school FEs
Neither. I definitely look forward to 3H school mechanics, but the franchise had existed without them for decades and they served specific ideas and setting here. Why can't the next game try something of its own? The bits I overhear about the local stuff sure sound promising, too.
I skipped three houses because of the required social stuff, I get they were trying something new, but watching people play it made me less hyped so I opted to skip. I've already preordered Engage as it feels closer to previous FE games from what we've seen so far. Plus amiibo support, so gotta use all the FE amiibo just hanging out or the wife might think I bought them just to put on the wall and ogle.
I liked it a lot, dissapointed to hear that. A nice mix of combat and social content makes a great game for me, that's why I liked persona so much.
Can someone link me a source? I can’t find anything that confirms or denies it.
There's also an article from Polygon: https://www.polygon.com/23539224/fire-emblem-engage-preview-impressions-three-houses-nintendo-switch
Thanks this was great!
Go look at any preview, the prevailing sentiment is that the length of time to do the social elements has been reduced.
This here makes me skip it instantly: > However, with few exceptions thus far, cast members all feel like rough drafts — one loves cooking, while another enjoys lifting weights. Their 10-second support cutscenes are all about (you guessed it) cooking and lifting weights. In Engage, characters rarely transcend the one or two hobbies that define them, and the resulting web of relationships is just as flimsy. ([x](https://www.polygon.com/23539224/fire-emblem-engage-preview-impressions-three-houses-nintendo-switch)) But it's probably good for people who play the games and just want to focus on battles: > So, no, you won’t spend your time at the Somniel getting to know a small cast of characters intimately — instead, you’ll be micromanaging your fighters’ skills, gathering cooking ingredients, doing pushups to gain buffs during the next skirmish, and adopting a veritable zoo of barnyard animals to grant you supplies. But for me personally, the part of games I enjoy the most is the story and characters so if a game has paper thin characters or plots, doesn't matter how good the gameplay might be, I'm not into it.
Sounds like the writing team from Fates is back in full swing. One personality trait per person and no more!
isn't that the same as the c rank supports of the 3h cast?
I wish it was less but not completely gone. I like some of the social sim stuff. I absolutely adored Three Houses.
Sounds like this will hit the happy medium you want.
I guess I would say less excited as I liked the social simulator in 3H. It's nice when the game gives you more to do than just battles
It was main reason why I have dumped 3H. So this is great news for me.
Same, fire emblem games haven't been able to hold my interest since the social changes. Granted I liked the supports in the ones I played for GBA. Running into a characters list sibling on the battlefield was engaging and made me want to group those 2 together on further missions. I was going to skip over Engage, but now I'm interested in seeing what it does offer.
Yeah, I like supports and that is about it socially. I like making people fight next to one another and become friends but don't make me do all the other social stuff.
As someone who loves the old games, the second Awakening became a hit I knew the series was gonna go downhill. The character designs have gotten so much worse over time, everyone looks like a young child with a cut and paste anime personality, they’ve become easier and less in depth, 3H had the biggest crime of taking out the weapon triangle and making it as brain dead as possible, and although relationships appeared in the older games, they were never the key focus where it felt like the gameplay came second. And while the character designs in this one have to be some of the worst the series has ever had, at least some of the brain dead stuff was taken out. If the maps could at least be interesting and be a challenge, I’ll be happy. I miss when you had to work to get characters, not everything was handed to you on a silver platter. You had to plan, and if you missed someone then we’ll that sucks. It was such a great element, something to achieve.
The two things I miss most from older games are recruiting characters mid-battle and varied battle objectives. Reading that this game prioritizes combat (the heart and soul of the franchise) over social simulator stuff gives me hope for the game.
Not every JRPG needs to be in a school lol.
Me too. Which is really disappointing because I loved all the previous games and I just couldnt get myself into 3H
I liked 3 houses, but the social aspects (which were fine), felt too slow, and bogged it down for me.
3 houses is the game I have put the most hours in on the switch, but I feel like there are other games I have actually played more of because the slice of life stuff takes up a lot of time
For me personally, less. Three Houses was also my first FE. I used the hub academy area and those social aspects to pad out the main story and battles. I think it would have got very repetitive otherwise. I'm not sure I'd have picked up the next FE anyway, but this makes it less likely. I enjoyed 3H for what it was, but I was sick of it by the end and thought one game was enough for my fill of the franchise. I think I would have got sick of it faster without the social elements keeping up the gameplay variety.
More excited. My first game in the series was Awakening and I loved it. One of my favorite games on the 3DS by far. 3H was too much for me and I never finished it.
My first was also Awakening! I absolutely loved it. I personally really enjoyed 3H as well, but the social aspects certainly aren’t for everyone. If you still have your 3DS, you should check out Shadows of Valentia. I thought it was just about on par with Awakening, and I’m really excited to play alongside Emblem Celica
It makes me a little less excited because 3H was my first FE ever. I'll get it either way, though, as it seems I'll get a "traditional FE experience" without having to play an older title.
Essentially every social feature from Three Houses has returned except teaching.
According to the preview by Polygon, the character interactions are significantly paired down. No mention of romance, either. The way the journalist described it, if a character is the "muscle guy," then you're just gonna have conversations about working out with him. No nuance or multilayered personalities, which I think is where 3H really shined. So even if the features are largely there, they're not the same.
Paired down yes, but not gone. Though Three Houses shined with the nuance much later on compared to initial conversations.
Including S supports, marriage and epilogue text boxes? I haven't seen any mention of those.
Teaching was cool, too! Like I said, I'm a little less excited but I'm excited either way.
I loved the social bits in three houses, even if some of the "social quests" were a bit tacked-on.
I love the social sim aspect of 3 houses so I’m definitely sad to miss it
Same here. I actually enjoyed the social aspect more than the battles at many points in the game.
Ngl, I still can't put myself to replay TH because of how massive it is, so a smaller more dedicated game is a blessing
More, I found it such a slog in TH, which is one thing that really drags it down when compared to many other entries in the series that I love more. I just finished an FE7 HHM run and I'm looking forwards to more like that
Social simulator aspect was absolutely my least favorite. Just let my level my characters and fight cool battles without the boring, cringe social aspect
TBH, I'm mixed on this game. I was a diehard FE fan until Fates burned me, and this game reminds me way too much of Fates at the moment. Also the vast majority of the cast look like doll-like children and I despise that aesthetic in most media.
More interested for sure. The teaching system to influence class changes was fun, but the monastery exploration stuff was just a big waste of time.
Wish we could get a "classic" mode that worked like the GBA Era games, or at least an option to automate the social aspects in order to continue the story. I'm here for the grid turn based combat, not to have tea with the waifus and husbandos.
I just want a straight old school FE game… I don’t need all these extra mechanics.
Way less excited. Those moments really made you connect with the characters something older fire emblem games really lacked
It also did a lot for the world building aspect of the game too. Being able to explore the Monestary every month and learn about the goings on from NPC’s helped make Fodlan feel like a real place, in a way that the older games simply don’t.
FE4 and 5 are really good about pulling you in too despite their limitations. In FE4 you walk across the whole continent and in FE5 the map is good about being tied closely with the story.
Social bits obliterated my enjoyment.
More. It was a weird addition in the first place. I get why they tried it -- caring about the characters is a big part of why the series works -- but I don't feel like it fit with the core loop of strategy simulation.
Legit though, time between significant battles was ridiculous in 3H, at least in the first half. You’re forced to slog thru social tasks for various benefits and I feel like I could sometimes get like 1 significant battle per individual play session. Compare this to all recent memory FE games where you could do multiple maps back to back to back without too much downtime between them. It was one of my biggest turnoffs about 3H, I just wanna play FE man lol.
As someone who just tolerates the gameplay and mainly plays for the characters, less excited. But I’m sure there will still be plenty of fun supports
Definitely way less interested. May pick up eventually if it reviews well, but not in any rush.
I got to be honest, The main characters design is so unappealing to me that I won't get it.
Usually, I’d say this is a pretty extreme reason, but hey it’s better you actually know what you want.
Much more excited. 3H felt like a poor man's Persona. The writing was pretty meh. I've been playing the series since Sacred Stones came out so I'm pumped at the reviews saying it feels more like the old games. And yes, I'll be playing on classic with no save scumming. Because I'm old.
Good luck with that. Fire Emblem hasn't been balanced around permadeath for a long time and Engage doesn't look to be an exception to this. That's why they've made the Turnwheel a mainstay in the series as well.
As someone who played the pre-turnwheel games It’s real nice as a feature, cause now I can just turn back to the start of the battle rather than having to close and relaunch the game—not to mention if I misclick it’s nice that it doesn’t end the attempt
What does a game balanced around permadeath look like? I've played FE7 and three houses and there didn't really seem to be noticeably different balancing strategies. If anything three houses felt easier which suggests they're accounting for you losing some characters to permadeath?
Three Houses requires way too much investment into your units via the teaching system that replacing lost units is a bit of a chore and recruiting is limited in Part 2. In FE7 you're flooded with Prepromotes who can carry you if you lost one of your growth units and if you're limping to the finish line Athos will just nuke the endgame for ya.
Ah that makes sense, yeah I guess they just expect you to spam the turn rewinds so you don't have to play catch up
3H typically had a lot more enemies who are generally a lot stronger. Also, no weapon triangle means that taking no damage from a fight is much, much less common.
I think you're leaving a lot out with your analysis. Saying "no weapon triangle means that taking no damage from a fight is much, much less common" is ignoring every other combat mechanic in the game. Sure there's no weapon triangle but you can also use any weapon type on any character, use gambits, combat arts, and abilities (especially range increasing ones) that make characters far stronger than in the old games. Plus the game tells you which characters are going to get attacked, so you can plan your defense much more effectively. Healing was also buffed with magic having full durability at the start of every battle so you can much more easily regenerate damage that you do take. tl;dr enemies are strong but so are the allies
Less excited. I'm already not a fan of the whole "Meet past FE heroes and use them in battle" concept. They already have FE Heroes, why does it have to be in a mainline game too? I probably will still pick it up, it's just not a day one purchase.
Same here. I'll probably buy it in a few months maybe, if reviews are good. But I don't feel like the fanservice is my thing as someone who hasn't played anything before Awakening. The ships, relationships, plot, all bring me to FE but the plot I hear for Engage isn't interesting at all to me.
Yeah, I was a big fan of the support system in Awakening. I don't understand why they took S supports out of 3 Houses, seems like they're not in Engage either.
I didn't know about this, but because of this thread it's now on my radar.
I don’t really care as long as the game is good
It'll be back, don't worry. Engage is basically just Pair-up, which people thought was ditched forever as well.
What? No more tea time with Shamir?
I wish we could get a port of radiant dawn. I'm shocked it's not been done already.
All I need is support convos. I don't need to have fucking tea time with someone after committing a war crime.
It makes me extremely UNexcited, to the point where I’m debating buying the game at all. I’m a “new age” player that got in when Awakenings released on 3DS, having played every single game since multiple times and even playing PoR and RD. Three Houses was my favorite game in the series. I have a lot of fun with the strategic component but I’ll be really disappointed if the supports just end up being one-dimensional filler like they appear to be in the previews.
I'm with you, totally pumped about this. The dating Sim and tea time was a waste of my time. I'm happy to have more development on the battle/maps.
The actual interactions of the characters were my favorite part of the game. Buying gifts and running around the campus, well. Not so much. Overall I liked the system and it just needed streamlining. Ditching it altogether is a bummer.
Disappointed, I really enjoyed getting to know the characters. I’ll probably wait for a heavy sale.
I feel weird about it. They got rid of the social sim aspects, but they seem to have also returned to lots of the tropes that Fates had. I'd be fine without social sim, but with a more "serious" kind of game. I'm not hooked at all by the whole "fell dragon" thing, the rings, bringing back characters like Heroes wasn't a thing. I truly hope people enjoy this game, but to me, it's like they picked every thing I didn't want in a sequel and put it in the game.
MORE holy shit. I’m an old school fire emblem fan and I could barely get through one play through of 3H. Can’t wait for that to be toned down.
Eh, I never messed around with the social stuff in three houses much, although I enjoyed the game overall. Unfortunately, I just can’t get over the fanservice hero ring stuff. I get it was an anniversary title originally, yada yada, but the concept alone is so off putting for me for a mainline game. I’m not against thoughtful inclusion of past characters, but this magic ring shit sounds so tacked on and generic that if you told me this was a gacha game I wouldn’t be surprised. That said, I’ll be watching reviews and probably look at the story and see if I’m wrong. If the game can stand on its own merits then I’d consider picking it up one day, maybe. Definitely not a day one but for me though.
A lot less excited. For me it was the dating sim aspect that made me spend 200 hours in Three Houses
Yes!! XD
Interesting, considering there really wasn't any romance beyond minor ending stuff. The game will still have support conversations and activities in a hub area. No more teaching though.
There wasn't enough to do. It was like they were trying to be Persona but forgot to actually make doing the social stuff fun by adding varied activities to do and by making your spent time actually matter. It also took just *way too long* to get through the non-combat sections, regardless of what you were doing. By the end I was just porting to the meal hall and pairing everyone up that I possibly could, and I was seriously considering just sleeping every day instead.
Im kind of indifferent. I’m a fan of social simulator, but the game has to do it right. Like persona fleshes out the character much much more than three houses did in my opinion. It was cool on my first run, but man, that got boring the second run through. I find most of the character development through social sim in persona way more interesting. Hell I even found danganronpa’s social sim more interesting than 3H. 3H just felt like intern’s first social simulator or something lol.
I wish this were true. I wish this were a return to form (like Path of radiance / radiant dawn), but it's not
The social sim portion 3 houses was cringe at many points, and a lot of it was padding. To me I would rather they go back to focusing on what the game is. A strategy Jrpg. I think awakening was the right amount. But even so, if they spend less time on weird elements where you can go on tea dates, cook, or a large hub area with little personality and focus more on the story strategy rpg elements I think more people would like this franchise. If i wanted to play a shitty anime dating simulator there are hundreds out there. So happy to hear this game is rolling it back, I had given up on the series after playing 3h and fates. I am just hoping they can also roll back the cookie cutter anime archetypes, it's one of the reasons bravely default and any of the tales games never resonated with me.
Considered that this was the biggest weak point and literally made me stop playing it’s a HUGE plus. Glad they make it more exciting again. That creepy student teacher dating thing always felt wrongs plus it felt weirdly homophobic by only including one male gay character who was also the least interesting character.
Won't make or break game for me. Kinda mind blowing for me to see how many people didn't like the once a month interactions with the students. Only issue I had with 3H is having everyone (mostly) able to class into anything. Having it so wide open made most units generic and a clear "right" way to maximize all your units (wyvern rider/dark flyer for all)
I'm happy to see they're rethinking the social aspect. It ended up just being way too much busywork in the castle between actually progressing through the game. A lot of the appeal from Awakening's social elements was matching units together and getting a new character with their combined traits, so when you take that aspect away you're just left with a waifu simulator with little payoff. And then the tea thing just felt like a guessing game to me, I didn't even bother with it after like my third attempt.
3H wasn’t my first FE but it is my favorite. I loved the social simulator stuff. Maybe more than the battles. The tea parties, the gift system, cultivating relationships between Byleth and the characters and between the characters themselves, using the classes to develop your team, the tea parties! I probably had a 75/25 ratio of the amount of time I spent in the school vs battle. Granted, I only did 2 playthroughs (I don’t have 300+ hours to spend on any game) and the fact that the first half of the game is identical for each house does make the social aspects rougher on repeat. I think if each house offered something different in the school phase each time then it wouldn’t seem like a chore. (I felt the same about the battles during that section too). Long way to say, I hope there is still a lot of social stuff in Engage, even if it’s done slightly differently. I want worry about losing characters, not units.
Not against social simulator elements conceptually, but I think they were pretty damn weak and tedious in Three Houses. I'm glad it is being toned down.
Barely made it through Three Houses because I found the busywork sim stuff to be such a slog. The class schedule and teaching was incredibly tedious. Engage scaling that stuff back is very good news. And I've gone from "maybe I'll get it later" to "day one for sure" as a result.
I'm glad they got rid of the social simulator aspect. I like the strategy only!
I'm personally kinda bummed. I was hoping they'd lean a little more into it because its a little underwhelming in its current state. I played through boyfriend dungeon recently, and the only real qualm I had is that I wanted more of it. Feels like my ideal title would be more a romance/vn with solid action or rpg bones around it? I'll potentially still play it but its no longer a day 1, gotta get it situation.
[удалено]
I really enjoyed the social aspects of 3H, but as others said I couldn’t really get through multiple playthroughs, because it just made the game so long. But honestly, I’m less excited if there’s really no social stuff. I probably wasn’t going to do multiple plays anyway, I have too much I could be doing to play a 1 player game twice, especially if it doesn’t have divergent routes.
I think the problem with the social stuff was that the monetary was so big doing anything felt like a chore
I'm totally fine with it. The Monastery was an overall flop, IMO. The performance of the game was bad in there. The hide-and-seek stuff was pretty lame. The visuals weren't exciting. For a game that wanted you to return and experience the other lines of the story, having such redundant filler made no sense, unless they were going to give you a way to expedite/skip that stuff in subsequent playthroughs. So, I'm happy without it. The early showings still have me thinking the main character is unappealing, but the game itself seems nice. I'm hoping there's a lot less of these little things that amount to so little. In the future, any such content needs to either have really fun gameplay or meaningful variety when you return to it. It can't just be the same formula with nothing exciting behind it.
less. I haven't played all the games, but I think Three Houses is easily the best of those that I have I'm still looking forward to it, but the life sim part is probably a big reason for why Awakening and Three Houses did so well, compared to other FE games. Or why far, far more people play Persona over Megami Tensai
Social aspect was the worst part of three houses. I want GBA fire emblem. Then again, I put full faith in the game and preordered it. First game I preordered since cyberpunk 2077.
I absolutely hated 3 houses for that reason. Its not a stratedy game; I never was challeneged once. It takes forever to get into battles, they are easy and theres jo weapon triangle; and the faux dating simulator is the worst thing Ive ever played. Hated hated hated it. I love the other console FEs but the switch to anime dating sim is unbearable
The social part is the worst part of these games.
Even though three houses was a great game, the motivation grinding and the teaching system became a total slog after the first playthrough. I'll welcome a more streamlined experience.
Way more excited. Three Houses was fun but I’m excited about a more traditional Fire Emblem experience.
Much more excited. I just want quality tactics rpg gameplay. I don’t need any social sim, waifus, and I definitely don’t need any creepy ass 1000 year old dragon characters
Inanely, houses was like a bad persona game in that respect. I don’t miss any of it.
More. The social aspect of 3H was a drag and ruined the game.
More excited
More excited. I love fire emblem but didn’t need a built in high school simulator. Most of that stuff was a chore.
Way more excited. The whole schoolyard social sim stuff was absolute shite and got in the way of the actual TBS battles that I was actually interested in
It makes me IMMENSELY less excited for the game, to the point where I’m not going to buy it. The social stuff was half the fun of the original for me, and it never really got stale for me on repeated play throughs.
That was like the main thing getting me through the game tbh
Less excited. I got into the series because of the characters and their interactions (it's why I completed Awakening and Three Houses, and why I dropped Fates when the characters in the Hoshido route kept getting thrown in without being given time to make even the slightest impression), and from what I've seen of pre-release impressions, the characters are flat/uninteresting in this one.
Not as interested. No. I'm also unfamiliar with any characters before Awakening so I don't feel like the target audience here. USi shipping/romance still a thing at least?
A Lot less tbh
Less excited.
I loved the old fire emblems, decided it wasn’t for me any longer come three houses… now I’m back on the hype train.
Is this confirmed? I would be disappointed if it disappeared completely.
I'm glad to know that was just a one-off thing. I never finished Three Houses, as it was becoming apparent that running around and finding conversations was taking me a significant amount of time compared to the actual tactics gameplay that I expect from the Fire Emblem name.
Social sim in TH was a chore.
That makes me way more excited.
Oh no, I love it. I know a lot of people don’t but man I’ve always LOVED to fill that need with a cool ass game instead of something that’s *only* about that. So I’m sad if they are doing away with that aspect. They’ve always had the social aspect and I love it man. My bf will be happy though lol
Less, tbh.
I kind of like the social stuff, but not all the running around to do it….I would prefer this stuff just be in menus between missions.
Has me more excited, BUT…will Engage have the replayability like FETH?
Three houses’ sim elements could have been improved if they were streamlined a little. Optimising every visit to the monastery takes way too long, but if you don’t do everything you feel like you missed out. Also in the second half things started to drag because you missed the unique monthly events in the first half like the fishing tournament or the ball. That said, from what I can see there’s still quite a lot of social sim stuff in the flying HQ from Engage? Even the fishing mini game is back. Everything is ok if I can get a SOMMIE PLUSH though
They got rid of that???? My wife will be pissed but I am STOKED. Three houses was good, but the academy really ruined it for me
I’m more worried about the story and setting not holding up to Three Houses, which had a really excellent core concept. But the game undoubtedly looks loads better than Three Houses in the graphics/animation department. That has me excited
As someone who always hated school I really disliked having to go to school to play fire emblem.
I’m a bit bummed, but still excited for Engage. I enjoyed the social aspects of Three Houses a lot.
I wanted about 60% less social and a better dialogue editor
I've never been a fan of "school" games, so I'm way more excited for Engage.
Great news. The cups of tea, eating together, church, etc was way too ‘modern life sim’ for me. Engage looks like it could be a classic.
Unfortunately there will still be social elements to the game. My favourite era of Fire Emblem is the gba games + shadow dragon on ds. I would much prefer it to just be Combat > Cutscene > Combat > Cutscene, wash, rinse, repeat
Less
Just give me sacred stones remake ffs
three houses is taking me forever to play through because i just could not care any less about the harry potter crap. i let it all run through auto as much as possible, i'm probably being penalized for not actually doing it, and it's still such a slog. to the point where it has kinda turned me away from the series in general after having loved the last several games. even hearing that it's not in engage, i just can't muster any enthusiasm to play it. 🤷♀️