General Discussion

@Symbowry yeah, i wasn't sure what to think of her design when it was first revealed, but now that we have her official art i can confidently say that it rules. i even like the silly gardevoir spikes on her gloves. just a really great set of lord designs all around, really, it's hard for me to choose a favorite between her and timerra

i wouldn't even mind having a lot of t3 skills be 5* locked as long as they're like, available. they're so bizzarely inconsistent about that. like, we can get 3 different ideals demoted within a year of their release, but catches and solos (other than spd/res solo) are out of the question...? sure they're technically "demoted" on seasonals, but i'd hardly call that budget-friendly when you have to spend orbs on them. it's almost 2023 and i'm still having to run fury + desp on my arena bonus units sometimes

yuri does seem to be their go-to when they need to make a banner more desirable. every time he gets a random rerun i get more annoyed about him winning that mini-AHR. like, thanks for the TP fodder, but i think i would've preferred s/d near trace instead

yeah embla was uh, a mistake, to put it mildly. i honestly think she's the most overtuned unit they've released this year and that's REALLY saying something. they could've left her C at the undefended bit and it still would've been great, but no, they had to add the feud status AND dodge AND penalty neutralization just to rub sulfuric acid in the wound. i feel like one unit shouldn't be able to hurt this many strats by existing, but what do i know about game design :p
funnily enough though, i tested b!dimitri against my dark AR-D (catriaball with yune + l!m!byleth) and he can survive without any drives, provided i run him with 3 mythics + bonus doubler support. i'm not sure if that says more about my defense or his refine

@Symbowry I prefer Conquest to Birthright as well, but I agree with you about the "watching my favorite character clear the entire map" bit. Something about it feels REALLY good. I can't speak for Rev too much yet, as it's been like, 4 or 5 years since I last played that game, but from what I remember, many of the maps were slow-paced, and some of the gimmicks were annoying at times (the snow shoveling and elevator maps come to mind). Which are two things the community at large isn't particularly fond of lol. Wyvern!Shigure is lots of fun, so I definitely recommend giving him a try. He's basically a stronger, slightly faster version of Beruka that can learn like, 4 Rally skills and snag Darting Blow for free. I'd only recommend going with Wyvern Lord with him as his magic growth is subpar and Malig locks him out of his lance rank. The only drawback to Wyvern Shigure is that you'll need to marry Azura and Jakob (unless you want to go the Percy A+ support route, which could take a while if you don't grind), but honestly, I can't really say it's a bad thing at all. Dwyer inherits the Pegasus class line via Azura, allowing you to reclass him to Falcon Knight and slap his staff rank on a pair of wings. He's got an oddly high Strength growth on the Pegasus line too, so you could use him as a secondary Shigure of sorts offense-wise when he isn't healing, given you get his lance rank up. I agree with Fates being pretty good overall! It's got fun gameplay, it looks good for a 3DS game, the music is stellar, the cast is enjoyable (at least in my opinion), and it's very replayable thanks to its reclass and second gen systems. Also, there's no noticeable glitches, which is something I like a lot. I feel like the fandom just hates the game out of habit at this point - sure, it's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's nowhere as much of a dumpster fire as some people claim in my opinion. Certain parts of the community get so weird about people enjoying Fates too, which... they do they, but I don't think someone enjoying a game you didn't like is a good reason to harass them. I think this comment is starting to get a bit too rambly, so I'll stop myself here. [emoji=obelisk laughing size=1]

Hi guys! Just stumbled on this thread, really awesome to see such passionate discussion about these games :]
I've been a big FE fan for years now, i got Birthright on one of my birthdays and the rest was history. I've played Birthright, Awakening, 3 Houses, SoV, Sacred Stones, and I'm slowly working my way through FE7 now that i've scored a solid emulator.
I think the GBA+3ds eras are my favorites in the series, the art, gameplay and soundtrack are all distinct, but super charming and i really dig it. I play FEH too, albeit super occasionally (its a pretty good timekiller)

I can't say i'm completely sold on Engage yet, but it looks pretty fun, and thats kind of all that matters, really. I'll probably wait a month or two after release and decide from there, lol.

@Symbowry I saw! Pulled for him today, I got 4 copies of him (2 of which were 5*) along with a LOT of 5* characters (Rinkah, Lilith, two rearmed Ophelias, a Caeldori, a B!Lys and a Ronan I think?). I plan on eventually merging him to +10, which shouldn't take too long since he's on the 4* pool, but we'll see.

Jakob!Shigure can learn Rally Res, Speed and Def; his personal skill is coded as a Rally so that's technically four in total. You can snag Rally Res with Jakob via a Strategist reclass (learnt at level 5), this removes the need of reclassing Shigure to Strategist and could potentially save a Heart Seal or two if you decide to pass it down to Dwyer too. Rally Speed is learnt by Falcon Knights at level 5, Rally Def is learnt by Wyvern Lords also at level 5. So you could reclass Jakob to Strategist, snag Rally Res, do Shigure's paralogue, and snagging Rally Speed and Rally Def at any order (Speed -> Def saves you more Heart Seals, but if you're doing a Rev playthrough, resources shouldn't be a big issue).

I tend to play other games with music off, so I can't really blame you for playing FE with no music. There are a few characters that are Not Good in Fates, but as you said, it's a trend present in all FE titles, and it's kinda subjective anyways. Fates is an overall solid game despite of its flaws and later games executing some stuff it tried to execute better, and I think it's kinda sad to see a decent chunk of the community dunking on it.

Hello, FE thread! I managed to get my hands on a copy of Engage, and something to play it on. I've played all the way through chapter 6 and so far, all of my negativity regarding the game is gone.

Vague spoilers below! Nothing too detailed, but since the game just came out, I want to be on the safe side of things.

Plot & character stuff:
Very basic, it's just a "collect the plot McGuffins" so far. And honestly? I don't think it's a bad thing. It's engaging (heh) enough to keep me invested on it. Or maybe I'm just easy to entertain.

The pace feels good, and if other nations get as much screen time as Firene is getting, things could be very good overall.

The "bring back characters from other games" stuff isn't as fanservice-y as I was expecting it to be. The ring characters interact here and there, but they aren't in the spotlight as much as I was expecting them to be.

I haven't unlocked many supports yet, but they feel more on the lines of Awakening and Fates supports. Clanne and Framme are hilarious, I really like Alfred, Yunaka's introduction was pretty good and I wish to see more of her, and Alear has far exceeded my expectations. I find them endearing and root for them :)

Gameplay:
I'm playing on Hard/Classic. It's much harder than Three Houses's Hard mode, but it hasn't reached Conquest Hard/Classic levels of difficulty yet. Enemies hit like trucks, and my units have to gang up on them unless they're on Engage mode.

Break makes the game Player Phase heavy. I like Player Phase action. I like Break.

There's a decent variety of maps, and they have anti-turtling measures, so that's cool. My favourite map is chapter 5 so far, but I enjoyed chapter 6 a lot as well.

Based on previews, I was expecting rings to be pretty broken... and they kind of are? But their effects wear out in three turns, and it takes a bit to recharge them, so it's actually quite balanced. Coolest thing I've been able to pull off with rings so far is saving some chests with the Celica ring's warp skill. I'm very excited to see the other rings in action!

Divine pulse is back, and honestly, I think it's a good thing. It's a nice feature that allows for experimentation and reduces the amount of resets over losing an unit significantly. I hope it becomes a series staple, if it's not one by now.

Also, I really like the fact that we're going back to a more traditional formula, with gameplay archetypes and stuff. Vander is a very interesting take on a Jagen unit - his offense is not great, but he's pretty tanky and can easily set up kills for the rest of the gang.

Music, visuals, menus and performance:
Game runs VERY smoothly, and the only place I've noticed some frame drops in was the lobby. Nothing too major, though.

Menus are very simple yet still pleasing in the eye, and nowhere as nightmare-ish as they were in Houses (I had a LOT of trouble navigating those, even after a run or two).

The original songs are good, and the remixes of the classics are incredible. I became SO excited when the Bearer of Hope remix started playing - it's one of my favourite themes from the franchise. Voice acting is pretty good so as well.

Slowly warming up to the character designs. They look much better in motion. The "genshinness" of them is no longer a concern for me tbh.

Oh, and the dynamic camera angles from Fates are back! Happy to see those again. They really help the story cutscenes feel more alive.

The lobby:
They really hit the balance between My Castle and the Monastery with this one. It's compact, very pleasing in the eye, and the activities there are pretty good to unwind after a tense battle. Also, Sommie is super cute! I love seeing it chase Alear around :)

I'll admit I was kind of scared coming in, with that bad first impression and with the community backlash and whatnot. My heart told me to ignore what the people were saying and to give it a chance - it's unfair to judge a book for its cover, after all. So far, Engage's been a blast! I'm looking forward to see more of this game.

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EDIT: finished the game last night! My opinion on the game hasn't changed much other than (late game story stuff, not detailed but spoilered just in case) lots of telling not showing during the final chapters, which honestly doesn't bother me *that* much since FE tends to do that sometimes but a gripe is still a gripe, & a bit of confusion regarding some things from the final chapters and (gameplay) emblems feeling much MUCH better than I was expecting them to.

Had lots of fun with the game overall, despite some tiny gripes here and there. Super corny and super fun, which fits for what was supposed to be an anniversary game.

I'm a bit of a casual FE fan, I haven't really delved much into the backlog of games. I got into the series through Sacred Stones through the 3DS ambassador program, shoutout if y'all know what that is. I never finished the game, though I did enjoy it. I've also played uhhhhhhhhhh the one with Roy's Dad?? Blazing Blade I think. That was a long time ago. During the pandemic, I decided to get FE3H after hearing about the expanded mechanics that make it similar to the Persona series, which I'm a massive fan of (I'm really enjoying the Switch port of P3P right now). I fell in love with the game, and finished a playthrough of the Golden Deer route, and the Cindered Shadows DLC. I've got a couple active saves for the Black Eagles and Blue Lions routes, though I haven't touched them in a few months. I did also grab Awakening on the 3DS after playing 3H, though it's one I haven't finished yet. I'm a huge completionist so as soon as all the paralogues opened up for the child units, I got real sidetracked on those and stopped making story progress. I'm really looking forward to getting Engage at some point, I hear people are enjoying it a lot!