Each Emblem Ring will also have their own quests that increase their bond level maximum, it’s just a shame that every narrative structured around those quests is the exact same concept.Īnd, since you often won’t have enough rings to outfit your whole party, you can use their power to fashion similar bond rings, comprised of characters from their own adventures.

These rings are gained, stolen, lost, and returned throughout the story, giving you time to grasp their power before being overwhelmed with too many options at once. These rings hold the essence of previous Fire Emblem protagonists such as Marth, Roy, Celica, and Byleth. The main mechanic to Engage is through the use of Emblem Rings. This is on top of various character turns where you have to suspend some disbelief at the events that are transpiring for the sake of earning more characters and moving the story forward. While there is a reason as to why we should trust them, there isn’t much here earned through Alear themself, making them far too trusting for their own good as they makes friendships that never feel genuine. While you’ll soon build friendships and allegiances with neighboring nations, thus building out your army, the pace at which the Divine Dragon just accepts these unknown nations as allies without much thought can, at times, feel like a narrative conceit to simply move the story forward and build your forces up. While Engage might have the best-looking cutscenes of the entire series, the narrative elements on display don’t quite hold up as well, making for my least favorite story I’ve played of the series. While the payoff to what is locked behind that amnesia is a decent enough concept, the better aspects of the story only really start to pick up within the last few chapters, making for a largely uninteresting road to get there. And as it turns out, you have amnesia, unable to remember anything before you mysteriously fell into this long rest.

While this may be a moment of celebration for those who worship you, you soon find out that an ancient evil has also awoken from a deep slumber, spreading its influence and enemy forces across this once-peaceful land.

In Three Houses I couldn’t wait to talk to my team, whereas in Engage I never found enough reason to bother, and that’s unfortunate.Įngage has you taking on the role of the Divine Dragon, Alear, who has woken up from a thousand-year rest. Engage simply doesn’t pull you in towards its cast in any meaningful way. Conversations are largely nonsense and tend to only pay attention to their core personality traits than actually having something important to say. This further presents no real reward for the bonds that grow between one another. Where this continues to fall apart is how abrupt and unfinished the actual conversations you have with your team or those they have amongst themselves.

Fire emblem engage archer