The second chapter of the main Fire Emblem series on Switch, after the more than excellent Three Houses of 2018, is a strategy game that pays homage to the entire history of the famous Nintendo franchise, born in 1990 and only successfully distributed in the last few decades even in the West. Through the narrative pretext of the rings that each enclose a hero of the whole saga, we will follow the (long) story of Alear, the last incarnation of the Divine Dragon awakened after a thousand years of sleep without memory, and determined to save the world from the threat of a dragon dark along with a huge amount of friends and allies from neighboring kingdoms. Fire Emblem Engage is a turn-based strategy game with a very strong competent narrative, just like any Fire Emblem, but the addition of beloved characters from all previous episodes and the mechanic of merging with the aforementioned gives an unexpected twist to the game mechanics.
After all, like any of its predecessors, Fire Emblem Engage is also a sequence of long pieces and moves, chess in which to take into account many parameters. However, as has been the case for some years in the latest releases of the saga, it will be possible to face the game as beginners without worrying too much about the statistics of our heroes. Also in Engage the possibility of not losing allies eliminated in battle is back: an option that limits the sense of danger but certainly gives newbies more breathing space. Fire Emblem Engage, more simply, is a paradise for strategy lovers which, however, will end up pleasing all lovers of fantasy and Japanese animation thanks to its unmistakable style and its long and articulated history.
A story that is told not only through the interactions between the characters, with dating sim moments and long dialogues with an already dramatic imprint, but also by spectacular interludes all made with game graphics, one of the best technical results for Switch thanks also to the vibrant and often “over” aesthetics of the characters. Engage is a poppier game than Three Houses, more like Echoes than the previous game was. Unfortunately, the story and the charisma of the characters are not up to par, and often the dialogues and the game events are just a long interval between one battle and another. All the “extra” elements, including the 3D exploration sections, are fillers and little more. The same battles, in general, give the impression of lasting too long, and that precisely because of the amount of parameters to be controlled, they are often not very comfortable on a portable screen. If Three Houses glued the player to the screen until the end with an exceptional story and convincing characters, what will lead you to the conclusion of Engage will be the desire to collect all the rings of the emblem, in an exceptional game from many points of view but a bit lazy under others.
Format: Switches publisher: Nintendo Developer: Intelligent Systems Vote: 7/10
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