Summary
- Fire Emblem Engage celebrates the series' history with united heroes and sharpened mechanics.
- The game introduces the Emblem mechanic, unlikely to reappear, but lacks innovation.
- It's time for the next Fire Emblem to revolutionize the series after the reflection in Engage.
Fire Emblem Engage was released shortly after the thirtieth anniversary of the Fire Emblem series. Heroes from every previous game united under one cause, and age-old mechanics were sharpened to perfection. Despite mixed reception in some areas, Fire Emblem Engage was a wonderful celebration of the series' history, so much so that it's time for the next Fire Emblem game to move on from the past.
Fire Emblem Engage truly brought the best out of many staples of the series. However, the game is most defined by the newly introduced Emblem mechanic, which allows players to wield the power of previous protagonists from the distant past. This mechanic is strictly tied to the context of the game, and very unlikely to reappear. With that in mind, the general lack of innovation in Engage is striking.
The Next Fire Emblem Game Should Revolutionize the Series After Engage
Fire Emblem: Three Houses Raised the Bar
Fire Emblem's resounding success on the Nintendo Switch is incredible. Fire Emblem: Three Houses brought the series to new heights both critically and commercially. More importantly, it heavily experimented with several core aspects of Fire Emblem, and introduced brand-new dimensions to the game that may have otherwise been unheard of.
First and foremost, Fire Emblem: Three Houses is characterized by its branching story. While this may have been done in Fire Emblem Fates through the sale of multiple versions of the game, Three Houses did this on a much larger scale. Fire Emblem has always featured a dynamic blend of personal and political drama, but Three Houses showed the way the series may go about this in the future.
Between its school setting and calendar system, Three Houses sometimes appears to borrow more inspiration from Persona than it does from any given Fire Emblem game. This is the logical extent of Fire Emblem leaning further into social mechanics, such as an increased emphasis on romance. More importantly, it shows the potential next steps for the series, steps that its successor largely overlooked.
Fire Emblem Engage is the Perfect End of an Era
Fire Emblem Engage and Fire Emblem: Three Houses are very different games. Engage's main purpose is to reflect on how far the series has come already, and this is on full display in nearly every aspect of its design. Previous protagonists return as Emblems, and may not contribute much to the story beyond their MacGuffin status, but their homage is by no means empty.
Perhaps the main criticism leveled against Fire Emblem Engage is its relatively shallow story. However, others have embraced it for what it is: a campy celebration of the best this series has to offer. While many have come to expect Fire Emblem games to feature themes more mature than the power of friendship, Engage rarely flaunts such an ambition. However, Fire Emblem 18 is the time to shoot for the stars.
The Next Fire Emblem Game Needs to Stop Looking Back
Fire Emblem Engage isn't even the first time the series has leveraged its legacy to make up for lost time. Fire Emblem Awakening revived the series on a very similar principle, with both games sharing reverence for previous protagonists and other time-honored traditions. While they may have had their reasons for tapping so heavily into nostalgia, the next Fire Emblem game needs to leave this trend behind.
Fire Emblem has already entered a new era, plain and simple. While the series' legacy is certainly worth embracing, Fire Emblem remakes leave more than enough room for that. As much as Engage and even Awakening were celebrating the series in its entirety, they'd both be nearly unrecognizable when compared to the first dozen games in the series. This goes doubly so for Three Houses, which clearly indicated the direction the series would like to take next.
Fire Emblem is now a household name, with more mass appeal than it has ever had. Many fans who have come to love the series were introduced to it by Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and some may have reverence for that game's unique approach to the series' formula. Likewise, it's hard to imagine a brand-new fan having a lot of nostalgia towards a character as distant as Sigurd. With all this in mind, Fire Emblem 18 should boldly blaze a trail towards the future, and leave the past in the tender care of Fire Emblem Engage.
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 81 /100 Critics Rec: 83%
- Released
- January 20, 2023
- ESRB
- T for Teen due to Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes
- Developer(s)
- Intelligent Systems
- Publisher(s)
- Nintendo
- Engine
- Unity
- Franchise
- Fire Emblem
WHERE TO PLAY
The Divine Dragon awakens: 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
Team up with iconic heroes from past Fire Emblem games: Summon valiant heroes like Marth and Celica with the power of Emblem Rings and add their power to yours in this brand-new Fire Emblem story.
Engage in a new style of combat: Aside from merging appearances, Engaging lets you use weapons, skills, and more from these legends during battle. The turn-based, tactical battle is back with the brand-new Engage system to add more layers to the strategy.
Welcome to Somniel: Explore the paradise of Somniel, your base of operations, located in the sky above the continent of Elyos. It hosts a variety of facilities and activities for the player to prepare for upcoming battles and strengthen bonds.
- Platform(s)
- Switch
- Genre(s)
- Tactical, JRPG
- How Long To Beat
- 40 Hours
