It’s no secret that the latest Fire Emblem Engage’s character designs were a bit, uh, unconventional for the series and attracted some backlash. They were often criticized for being too “V-tuber” like and for clashing with the typical fantasy setting of the series. And I have to say, they are a far cry from what I’m used to and the fans have a point here. Luckily for Nintendo’s wallet, such a small aspect of the game like that wasn’t going to stop Kinky and I from playing Engage together cause at this point it’s somewhat of a tradition. However, we started to notice there’s something deeper missing here from these characters than their designs alone.

You see in Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the previous main entry, the support conversations (which are essentially conversations between two characters you unlock by having them fight together and similar activities) were pretty deep and complex. For example you might have Bernadette confide in another character about her past trauma. She would explain herself, but then also work with the other character to try and improve her lacking social skills over the course of the support storyline. Basically the point is you learn deeper things about the characters besides tropes like “I’m the nervous one” or “I’m the tough one”. However, so far in Engage they have been watered-down significantly. So far most Supports tend to revolve around really basic premises like two girls talking about which tea they like. What’s worse is that if a character is known for something, like Celine drinking so much damn tea, then EVERY support tends to mention the same shit. “Oh wow, Celine you know a lot about tea” says Chloe. And Yunaka. And so many people I fucking forget them all cause every conversation sounds the same. So far Celine is the tea girl, and for the most part nothing more. This is the same for most characters. Etie is the muscle girl. Louis is the guy who likes watching people. Chloe enjoys food and fairy tales. It’s more about what they like than trying to grow and develop with the help of another character, and it results in a bunch of conversations that don’t really amount to much and get repetitive fast.

I am ONE more tea party away from letting this girl die in battle on purpose.

For a disclaimer I should say two things 1) Kinky and I have yet to complete all the supports or max them, this is simply a complaint we have so far with the game (though others have had it too and you didn’t need to progress very far in Three Houses before realizing the supports were well written) 2) I’m wondering if we suffer somewhat from sequel bias. You see, I think one reason people hate sequels so much is because it’s so much easier to see the flaws in a product when you have already experienced a previous iteration that was great. As someone who has played Persona 3, watched Persona 4, and played Persona 5, I can confidently say that Persona 5 had the best gameplay, 4 had the best characters, and 3 had the best theme and storyline. Persona 5’s storyline was actually somewhat weak to me, and this is because it essentially follows the same damn story beats as the other two modern games in the series. That’s another article for another day in itself, but my point is I think it’s easy for me to make these claims because I’m a veteran of the series. Someone new who has only played Persona 5 may think it was a great story with fantastic gameplay and are now unable to find enjoyment from the previous installments in the series. Therefore, because Kinky and I have seen and loved when the supports were amazing in Three Houses, perhaps it’s having an extra negative impact for us to see them watered down with Engage. Hell we are about 12 hours deep into our playthrough and still don’t even have favorite waifus… though Yunaka is growing fast for ya boy.

This is so NOT a Fire Emblem character, but I'm down bad regardless.

Regardless it may take us forever, but we still plan to finish this bad boy. The core gameplay is fun as ever and the sigh of relief after a hard-fought, nail-biting battle never gets old. Have you played any of the Fire Emblem games? Do you think it’s easier to identify flaws in a series compared to a stand alone game? Organize your units, prepare your strategy, and don’t let anyone die lest you see them disappear from the battlefield forever in the comments below!