André S.

I really liked Fire Emblem Engage. A lot of people compare with Three Houses, and I prefer Engage. I played the base game only, and the combat system is both very good and challenging if you want to increase the difficulty. After some time, I turned off the animations because they are very time-consuming. The story was enough to keep me interested, while not overly heavy on dialogues or useless missions. You don't need to build relationships or do all the tedious chores in between battles – which, to me, is a plus. The downside for me is that it has a LOT of confusing mechanics without clear benefits. Some of these can be very costly, like melding rings or upgrading weapons to +5 (which costs a lot for very few extra stat boosts). Meanwhile, other features that seem like they should have more benefits — like polishing rings (while the emblem keeps saying "you're wasting time") or keeping Sommie happy (which has no role in the story) — feel underwhelming. Then there are activities like throwing items in the well, adopting pets, and merging emblems with weapons — etc., etc. I just wish they had focused the time they spent on these 'extras' to improve the battles and the story even more.

The show is disappointing, to say the least. In the first couple episodes, there’s barely any real competition to justify calling it a ‘game.’ Instead, it feels like we’re watching emotional and psychological torture on repeat, with participants going home at random. It’s as if the concept of sadistic, exploitative entertainment funded by rich people has been normalized and turned into mainstream content.

I really enjoyed that the protagonist was hopeless but still had some control over the situations. Making it more unique, relatable and engaging for the genre. I couldn’t take my eyes off of the screen.