Blake Hunter

A thoroughly enjoyable Fire Emblem experience as someone who has played all but 3 entries in the series. A host of new and revived mechanics make and intriguing challenge which to be fair can get downright infuriating on the higher difficulties provides a brilliant workout for the mind. Supplemented by beautiful and vibrant character designs (which I know aren't exactly some people's cup of tea) and exemplary Japanese voice casting - including Fairouz Ai and Satori Hayami to name a couple highlights - the non-combat areas of the game form a most exciting checklist between battles in pursuit of gaining supports and taking full advantage of class changing features to build your units to your whims. The extensive cast begs replays to use all of them and so I may gripe about the lack of new game + and being able to retain supports as a collector but it's a small thing. Another thing greatly catering to the experience is the Emblem feature which, admittedly, made me anxious at the trailers as I was concerned for a sad nostalgia play. However, their integral place in the story and the fun combinations and builds their skills and weapons and the "engage" feature make the gameplay exciting and add a layer of extra strategy, with just the right amount of nostalgia for those who have played previous installments. It would be nice if the bond conversations with them were a little longer. The story keeps similar themes but it trademarks it as a Fire Emblem game and the meat on the bones of the plot is new and still slightly refreshing like revisiting a familiar friend after Three Houses, however this does make it less immediately enrapturing than Three Houses was and I do hope for another major deviation in a possible next installment. Some of the localised dialogue is a bit meh, but I realise that certain Japanese dialogue also doesn't necessarily translate well so I'll retain my not-so-favourable opinions of Nintendo Treehouse aside and not punish the game for this. Overall, I find myself constantly excited to play more when I get the chance and am sure I will replay it a significant amount of times. Definitely a must-play for long-standing fans. New people, I'd recommend playing Three Houses first at least as it's a better entry game, then revisit Engage when it's slightly cheaper.