Fire Emblem Engage

The game features many battles, which are turn-based, occurring on a grid resembling a chessboard. The player controls a multitude of unique units, which are characters that the player can have fight in battles. There are several classes that units can have, affecting how they fight and how their stats increase. How a unit's stats increase also depends on which individual unit it is.[2] The stats of units affect how powerful their attacks are and how much health they have, among other things. The weapon triangle from previous games returns, where axe beats lance, lance beats sword, and sword beats axe. However, instead of simply increasing damage dealt, the weapon triangle is now the center of a new break system, where attacking enemy units while having a weapon triangle advantage makes them unable to counter-attack the unit. Enemy units can also use the break system. If the player has not activated Casual Mode, units who are defeated in battle die permanently, and cannot be used again during that playthrough.[3]

Like previous games, Fire Emblem Engage includes many maps, which function as the levels players must complete. The game features some tools, like Warp, which allow units to traverse maps more easily.[3]

Occasionally, players will encounter enemies called Gold Corrupted and Silver Corrupted. Upon defeat in battle, Gold Corrupted drop large amounts of gold, the game's currency, while Silver Corrupted drop a lot of experience points.[4]

The game adds Emblem Rings as the main new mechanic. The Emblem Rings allow units to fight alongside the lords of previous Fire Emblem games, which are powerful characters important to the story of their origin game. These include Marth and Celica.[5] These items can be used to have units learn new weapon proficiencies, letting them change classes. The Emblem Ring system also works together with the system of classes and skills, allowing units to learn some of the skills from the ring and use them without equipping it.[3] The main rings are obtained during the main story, but additional ones can be obtained through a gacha system.[6]

The game also features social sim elements. Most of these are accessed at the Somniel, which is the game's main hub. One of the social aspects of the game, unlocked after completing Chapter 6, is the dining system. To use it, the player must collect ingredients, have a chef cook them into a meal, and pick the right units to feed that meal to. The player must also be mindful of which units they pair up to eat together, as certain units will increase their bond when they dine together.[7] Additionally, after visiting a kingdom for the first time, the player can donate gold to that kingdom, causing the player to receive bonuses. There are five levels of donation, with each level increasing the quality of bonuses received, such as an increasing chance of finding Gold and Silver Corrupted.[4] The Somniel also includes a location called the Amiibo Gazebo, a returning feature from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. It is used to scan Amiibo for resources, as well as unique items.[8]

The game contains a Support system similar to previous installments, allowing characters to bond and increase effectiveness fighting alongside one another in battle by having conversations in the Somniel. A special Pact Ring can be gained from one of the game's Paralogues that allows Alear to befriend or romance another character, greatly increasing their bond.[9] Some suggestive dialog was converted to friendship in the English localization to avoid controversy involving romancing younger characters.[10]

Engage is set on the continent of Elyos and features previous protagonists of the series that can be summoned as spirits called "Emblems" with Emblem Rings.[11]

Alear, a divine dragon, is awoken from a one thousand year slumber to help defeat the Fell Dragon Sombron by gathering the Emblem Rings spread across Elyos.[11][12]

One thousand years ago, the evil Fell Dragon Sombron appeared in Elyos and launched an invasion, but was defeated by the Divine Dragon Lumera. However, her child Alear was gravely wounded and placed into a slumber to save their life.

At the game's outset, Alear finally awakens from their slumber and briefly reunites with Lumera. However, Alear has lost most of their memories prior to falling asleep, and can only remember how to use their Emblem Ring. In addition, undead creatures called Corrupted begin to appear all across Elyos, signaling Sombron's return. Lumera's castle is then suddenly attacked by an army from the Kingdom of Elusia, who seek to revive Sombron. The Elusians manage to steal most of Lumera's Emblem Rings, and Lumera sacrifices herself to protect Alear from a sorceress' attack.

With Lumera's passing, Alear resolves to take up her mantle as the Divine Dragon. They venture out to help the Kingdoms of Firene and Brodia resist attacks from Elusia, as well as recover several more Emblem Rings. Along the way, Alear also befriends Veyle, a mysterious young girl. Alear eventually confronts King Hyacinth of Elusia, but fails to stop him from reviving Sombron, who devours Hyacinth. Veyle reveals she is Sombron's daughter and Lumera's assassin, stealing all of the Emblem Rings and forcing Alear and their companions to flee for their lives. Princess Ivy of Elusia defects, deciding to give Alear Elusia's two Emblem Rings.

Alear and their companions head to the Queendom of Solm to regroup and recruit more allies and Emblem Rings and battle Sombron's top generals, the Four Hounds. They discover that Veyle has an evil split personality that is loyal to Sombron. In the course of the fighting, Alear learns, to their dismay, that they are actually Sombron's biological child who turned on him during the war and was adopted by Lumera. Meanwhile, two of the Hounds defect to Alear's side in order to save Veyle. They warn Alear that Sombron intends to invade the Land of Lythos and revive his own kingdom, Gradlon, from which he can take over both Elyos and the multiverse.

Alear confronts Veyle and Sombron in Lumera's former castle, but Veyle breaks free of her brainwashing. Sombron tries to kill Veyle, but Alear takes the fatal blow, allowing Sombron to drain the Emblem Rings' power and raise Gradlon. Desperate to save Alear, Veyle overcomes her evil side permanently and revives them as a Corrupted. Corrupted Alear recovers the Emblem Rings and reactivates them, revealing the Emblems still have power. They decide to make Alear the 13th Emblem to save them from permanently dying, at the cost of most of their remaining power.

After regrouping, Alear and Veyle lead their companions to destroy Sombron's Fell Dragon Shards to break the barrier protecting him, allowing them access to Sombron. The group faces Sombron, who reveals he was exiled to Elyos from another universe, bringing the Zero Emblem with him. Believing it abandoned him, he wishes to find it so he can return and take revenge. Alear and their companions kill Sombron once and for all, and he is seemingly reunited with the Zero Emblem. They close the portal, and the Emblems are forced to depart Elyos. Afterwards, Alear's companions return to their respective kingdoms to rebuild Elyos, while Alear becomes the new Divine Dragon Monarch.

In a post-credits scene, as Alear is preparing for their coronation ceremony, it is revealed that the Emblem Rings still partially function. Emblem Marth muses that the Emblems and Alear will meet again someday.

Fell Xenologue is a DLC side-story that runs parallel to Engage's main story. Alear finds themselves summoned to a parallel version of Elyos by dragon twins Nel and Nil. They ask for Alear's help in reclaiming the seven bracelets after they were seized by Sombron in a war one millennium prior. Nel and Nil also reveal that in this universe, Alear inherited the throne of the Divine Dragon after Lumera's death and died while defeating Sombron. In the present, an unknown force is trying to collect the seven bracelets.

As such, the trio sets out to obtain the seven bracelets first and travel to the nations of Elyos to retrieve the bracelets from the ruler of each nation. In their battles with the armies of Firene, Brodia, Elusia, and Solm, the trio is joined by alternate versions of the Four Hounds known as the Four Winds. After defeating the alternate Elusia and Solm, Nil reveals that all of the armies and royals they've encountered were actually Corrupted and the original versions of them died much earlier. Nel storms off to process her own unrequited love for her version of Alear, leaving Nil alone with Alear. Nil steals the bracelets and attacks Alear, revealing his ability to reawaken the Emblems.

Looking for Alear, the Four Winds and Nel are drawn into underground ruins by Nil. After discovering Nil's treachery, the group defeats him and rescues Alear. Nil captures Nel, flees to a version of the Somniel that has fallen out of the sky, and threatens to kill Nel if Alear doesn't use their unique power to break the seal on the final bracelet. Alear cooperates and Nil obtains the ultimate power of the seven bracelets, transforming him into a new more powerful dragon form known as Fell Nil.

Nel, Alear, and the surviving members of the Four Winds battle and defeat Fell Nil. After the battle, Nil reveals that his real name is Rafal and that he took the place of Nel's brother at his request when he died during the war a thousand years prior. In order to force Rafal to move on, Nel strikes herself in the stomach with her own blade. He is overcome with grief and vows to spend the next thousand years reviving her. With no one left in their version of Elyos, the Four Winds agree to accompany Alear back to their world, and are eventually followed by Nel and the repentant Rafal.

Fire Emblem Engage has received "generally favorable" reviews holding an aggregate score of 80/100 on Metacritic, based on 125 reviews.[1]

Polygon praised the addition of the ring system as "one of the most flexible progression systems the series has ever implemented", but criticized the game's story as "terrible".[40] Nintendo World Report similarly noted the plot was a bit threadbare in comparison to previous entries, but liked Engage's cast of characters, saying it "has one of my favorite casts in the franchise, with a number of characters that are fleshed out very well in support conversations".[36] IGN enjoyed the game's implementation of fanservice, "There's a reverence for Fire Emblems past that is clear in every aspect of it".[34]

The game's lack of social depth and branching paths was highlighted as a negative by Will Greenwald writing for PCMag.[37] The minigames in the game also received criticism for being tiring, repetitive and not changing much in the game at large by Giovanni Colantonio writing for Digital Trends.[29] Sisi Jiang at Kotaku opined that the game "took ten steps back" in terms of the main story, and complained that the support conversations were too boring.[6]

Fire Emblem Engage was the best-selling retail game during its first week of release in Japan, with 144,558 physical copies being sold across the country.[41] By March 31, the game had sold 1.61 million copies worldwide.[42]