Fire Emblem Engage Reviews

As an experience more in-line with the pre-Fates era of Fire Emblem, Engage is a worthy celebration of one of Nintendo's longest running and most storied franchises. Despite many flaws, none of them offset the experience so drastically to sour the overall experience, making for another great entry into the gilded halls of Fire Emblem.

It's time to Engage those rings as we look to review Fire Emblem Engage. How does the latest entry in the series fair? What's up with the Pepsi can protagonist? All this and more will be answered as we delve into one of Fire Emblem's best entries.

Fire Emblem Engage is an excellent way to celebrate the series' 30th anniversary, with outstanding combat and visuals. Just don't go into it expecting a gripping story or compelling worldbuilding.

It's time to engage.

Fire Emblem Engage is a fantastic entry in the long-running strategy RPG series, offering a fun and enjoyable story with some of the best gameplay the series has to offer. New and old fans alike have a spectacular title in front of them that will be fondly looked upon for years to come. Engage is a celebration of the past and the worlds we’ve seen, while also celebrating the strong future this franchise holds.

Fire Emblem Engage brings a lot to the table to entertain fans of past games while also welcoming new fans. Not everything works, and some things do fall flat, but overall, it’s a lot of fun.

Fire Emblem: Engage is a return to the more linear Fire Emblem style of storytelling while continuing the path that Fire Emblem: Three Houses began with the graphics and combat upgrades. The game feels fresh and new while also paying homage to Fire Emblem’s storied past with the inclusion of iconic characters in the Emblem Rings such as Marth, Roy, Lyn, and more. With a collection of adorable characters you’re sure to cry when you lose them and a story that has its fair share of twists and turns; new and old Fire Emblem fans can find something to enjoy about this game. It’s a story of friendship, family, and doing whatever you can to save the ones you love; Fire Emblem.

The music in Fire Emblem Engage is exciting and memorable. The opening theme is very silly and feels like it came straight out of a 4Kids/Fox Box show, but it fits the less dramatic atmosphere of Engage and is quite catchy. The voice acting is strong as well, with many of the Emblems using their very fitting Fire Emblem Heroes voice actors in this mainline title.

Fire Emblem Engage may lack the same quality storytelling and interaction as past releases but offers some of the best tactical RPG combat and deep customization that fans could ask for.

When the issues of a game are rolled and stomped by its greatness, then it’s something to invest on if you have some spare.

Improving on its classic features, this new entry in the Fire Emblem series - Engage - is sure to please fans and newcomers alike with its robust offerings and focus on combat.

Fie Emblem Engage tries to give a new life to stable franchise mechanics, but it might have gone a tad too far and created an unbalanced experience.

When taken as a whole, Fire Emblem: Engage often succeeds, though where it falls, it falls a bit hard. With a largely less-than-stellar cast keeping you company for the 40+ hours you may find yourself playing this game, there are many times when the game’s solid narrative and excellent gameplay aren’t able to carry it through to the finish it feels like it deserves.

As far as the two mainline Fire Emblem titles go on Switch, Engage knocks it out of the park when it comes to general flow of gameplay and combat itself. It feels somehow fresh despite being so familiar and while it might have been nice to upgrade the combat a bit more, it's hard to complain about when it still feels so tight. The biggest downside is just that the story is lacking any sort of compelling draw. Fortunately for those who just want a light story focused on friendship and defeating the big bad at the end of the day, Fire Emblem Engage has that to offer in full. It's a charming adventure that doesn't overstay its welcome or drag the gameplay down with too much fluff in between fights and allows players who just want to get through everything quickly the opportunity while having a small handful of side activities that let those who want to take it slower the chance to take a breather between encounters. Fire Emblem Engage feels like one of the tightest experiences in the franchise since Awakening and is well worth giving a try for those looking for something with a perfect clash of old and new.

It’s time once again to dive into the Fire Emblem series! Although Fire Emblem: Three Hopes has been keeping fans of the tactics strategy series occupied, we knew it wouldn’t be long before we saw another mainline title. Fire Emblem Engage combines some of what it learned in Three Houses with traditional Fire Emblem gameplay, while bringing in a few new tricks of its own. Unfortunately, its weaknesses do a lot to stunt what would otherwise be a great game.

Fire Emblem Engage is enjoyable but leaves little impression. If the narrative was more compelling, if the character relationships were deeper and more interesting or if combat was more varied, there’s every chance that Engage would have felt more robust and impactful. In the absence of those things, Engage just feels…fine.

Over the past few years, the Fire Emblem series has entered its own personal Renaissance – when 2013’s Awakening became a reprise for the series rather than a swan song, each subsequent game has only boosted the franchise’s widespread appeal. Fire Emblem Heroes continues to dominate on mobile, and 2019’s Three Houses (and the subsequent 2022 spin-off-slash-sequel Three Hopes) have created a whole new generation of gamers asking the question if love can bloom… even on the battlefield?

There’s no denying how much fun it is to wade into battle with your Emblems. The Engage mechanic adds a welcome twist to battles, but a dull story and the drudgery of the Somniel drown it in hours of filler. Despite the fun I had in combat, I can’t seem to remember much of anything that happened in Fire Emblem Engage. I don’t think that’s a good sign.

In a war against the Fell Dragon, four kingdoms worked together with heroes from other worlds to seal away this great evil. One-thousand years later, this seal has weakened and the Fell Dragon is about to reawaken. As a Divine Dragon, use rich strategies and robust customization to meet your destiny—to collect 12 Emblem Rings and bring peace back to the Continent of Elyos.

Fire Emblem Engage's fantastic combat is held back by an underwhelming story that lacks the ambition of recent entries.

“Fire Emblem Engage is another reliable hit in the tactics series, even if it isn't as much a step forward as previous installments.”

Fire Emblem Engage resurrects the weapon triangle to great effect, making the turn-based combat feel like a game of death and dares, while an unmemorable cast of characters and an unexplored world sadly drag behind it.

Nintendo's long-running fantasy series looks to its rich history for this smart, satisfying turn-based tactical RPG game.

Despite a paper-thin narrative, shallow one-note characters, and a kitchen-sink approach to its many subsystems, Fire Emblem Engage is the best-looking 3D Fire Emblem title with excellent tactical gameplay.

Following on from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Engage has equal capacity to delight and frustrate – for newcomers and veterans alike.

A more traditional Fire Emblem experience than Three Houses, but one that’s filled with fun new features and emphasises deep and varied gameplay over dating mini-games.

Fire Emblem Engage balances the series' past and its future, offering a renewed focus on the tactical gameplay, an endearing cast of old and new faces, and the best visuals the franchise has ever seen.

Fire Emblem Engage follows the story of Alear, a divine dragon awoken from a thousand year slumber to find the continent of Elyos in dire straits. The threat of an evil force - the Fell Dragon - has begun to permeate the society of each country, and the once idyllic peace the amnesiac Alear helped establish is now crumbling at the seams. If that narrative sounds generic, it is, painfully so at times. For all of the great world and character building that Three Houses demonstrated the series can bring to life, Engage has pretty much none of it.

I don't necessarily see myself revisiting Engage anytime soon, but if you just want an excuse to see your favorite icons from the series again, or if you're craving more tactical RPG goodness, you could do a lot worse.

Fire Emblem Engage might not be as narratively ambitious as Three Houses or the Radiant games, and the Emblem system is torn between being useful and shallow. However, in practically every other way, Engage excels. Its open class and skill system mean you can shape every member of your army as you see fit. The engaging (ha) cast and their tapestry of sad, inspiring, and amusing stories make up for the somewhat lacking main narrative. Best of all from a tactics perspective, though, is the stellar map design and subtle, significant changes to how battles unfold. All this makes for a substantial step forward and turns Engage into one of the best Fire Emblems in years. Hopefully next time, we can get all that with a stronger story too.

The latest SRPG from Intelligent Systems is upon us and Fire Emblem Engage is quite an impressive offering so let's get to it.

Name a long-running Nintendo blockbuster and Mario or Zelda spring to mind. Fire Emblem may not be up there, yet this strategy series has been going strong for more than 30 years now. First localised in the early naughties, and only a commercial hit following Awakening on the 3DS, but hardly a sleeper success.