I\'ve found the characters better than I expected, although supports are very hit-and-miss. I think a big problem is Firene cast are easily the weakest and most one-note of the bunch and you get them first. Once you get the Brodia characters I noticed a huge jump in support quality, best exemplified by Celine\'s Firene supports being mostly \"I like tea\" while her C with Alcryst is a heartfelt talk about their fears of losing their brothers.
I wouldn\'t personally recommend Three Houses for newcomers, since it\'s so radically different from the rest of the series. It\'s one of the best JRPGs ever made but it\'s a terrible example of what a Fire Emblem game is and might, as it did with this game, turn off players who go back to other entries.
If only Path of Radiance was more accessible, that would be my recommended starting point. Failing that, Blazing Blade, Sacred Stones and Awakening are also good places to start.
I agree that the later members of the cast have more interesting supports, especially Veyle and Mauvier, two characters I obviously can't mention without spoiling the plot. Unfortunately, by the time I got to Brodia, I already had more characters than slots in my army, so a lot of the people who joined later ended up falling by the wayside. Meanwhile, Chloe and Louis, for all their supports often revolved around folk food and people-watching, respectively, remained viable for the entire game.
You have a fair point about Three Houses, but I chose it based on a few factors- quality, difficulty and accessibility- and wrote the review assuming that the reader had a Switch or was considering getting one.
For the record, I started with Fates, then played Awakening, then Shadows of Valentia before Three Houses came out; I had a Game Cube and Game Boy Advance, but missed the FE games on those. I would recommend Awakening to anyone with a 3DS, and it might be nice if they release an HD version on the Switch.
Speaking personally, I’m finding three houses really impenetrable and inaccessible to start with. And it doesn’t help that I had to do the opening a bunch because I originally didn’t know I had to do the DLC campaign first to access the DLC content in the main story, or that I ended up liking its gameplay more because I’m not enjoying having to build my own units from scratch instead of getting premeds and the DLC just giving me a bunch of units to work with was a far superior experience for me so far.
I never downloaded the DLC for a few reasons, particularly the price for the amount of content and the lack of control over how your units develop(being able to spend time improving your units skills and choosing their class progression was one of my favorite parts of Three Houses), so I never had to deal with that problem.
I didn’t know about any of that and just wanted a complete experience. I will say the campaign is pretty short, which in someways I suppose is a detriment, for all that much of it feels like a preview introducing these characters so that you can then use them in a regular campaign.
I would be less harsh on the game for forcing me to build my own units from scratch if I felt like I fully understood what the choices I was making actually meant or how they would actually matter. It has done a terrible job of actually explaining this stuff to me when I am in a position to make important long-term choices, but I guess I am getting off topic in a review of a completely different title.
I guess part of it was because I played Three Houses when it first came out, which is why I thought of the DLC as something for experienced players who aren't on their first playthrough. Even if you purchase Three Houses after the DLC became available, there are multiple story routes, so you can wait until after you've done one or two to tackle the DLC.
I felt like I had a better idea of what direction to take my units in Three Houses, which tells you what skills units are good and bad in(for example, Felix is obviously a good sword unit, and his hidden talent with Reason implies he could be a good Mortal Savant), than in Engage, in which many units are less than ideal for the classes they start in (e.g. Clanne has bad magic growths despite being a mage). Of course, growth rates are a Guide Dang It element in any Fire Emblem game, and I wonder how people are supposed to find out about them without looking at the game code.
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More for Fire Emblem veterans than for newcomers
Full disclosure: I consider Fire Emblem: Three Houses my favorite in the series. Why does this matter? Because Engage is almost everything 3H isn't, improving the gameplay at the cost of the story, and if you appreciated 3H's strong points, you may be disappointed by Engage.
The plot is quite the Cliché Storm- Alear, a Divine Dragon, has awoken after 1,000 years, and must gather the 12 Emblem Rings to seal the Fell Dragon Sombron. The plot is rather predictable, especially since it borrows story beats from other FE titles and is forgettable at best.
The cast is mixed. Alear is a decent hero with good voice acting, but isn't compelling enough to serve as the sole lead without a Lord to support. The royals and other recurring characters can be interesting, but before long, their only role is reacting to events. The secondary characters are rather one-note, and that tends to show in their supports; I generally only found the ones between the royals, as well as those of a few others I won't spoil, to be worth completing.
The villains are lackluster. The Big Bad is one-dimensionally evil. Of his minions, the Four Hounds, three of them have poorly written backstories that fail to elicit player sympathy, while the fourth may not count as a villain.
The main draw is the Engage feature. Each unit can be equipped with a ring that has the spirit of a past FE hero, granting them access to passive abilities as well as the power to Engage, and use even more powerful abilities, giving you many options for battle tactics and character customization.
These are powerful advantages, but you'll need them, since the game is quite difficult. Your enemies are fairly strong, and this isn't even counting the bosses that can use Engage rings, so you won't stand a chance if you don't use every advantage. Many of the maps have special mechanics, such as Fog of War or periodic AOE attacks, which provide variety but can be frustrating and gimmicky. Engage is much harder than Three Houses; I completed Crimson Flower on a Maddening Classic New Game, but eventually had to switch Engage from Hard to Normal.
The graphics are excellent, and the animations are fluid. I wasn't fond of the character designs at first, but they grew on me. There are many UI improvements, but a few flaws- for example, they made the "danger radius"(attack range) for individually selected enemies too similar to the color for the entire enemy army, making it harder to read.
As an FE game, Engage is well-made, but it's not one I'd recommend to the uninitiated due to its high difficulty and many references to past titles, including those not released outside Japan. 3H is the better starting point for newcomers, due to its lower difficulty and standing better on its own, but if you're an experienced FE player who wants a challenge and/or didn't care for 3H, I recommend Engage.