Post Script
Could Fire Emblem benefit from an Awakening-style rethink?
As a retainer to Elusian princess Ivy, Kagetsu was once an opponent. Now, however, the samuraigarbed swordmaster has become one of our most trusted and capable allies. And so we think little of it when we send him on a solo mission down a separate path from the rest of the group to open a pair of chests – only to leave him within the attack range of five enemy units. We could, of course, use our Draconic Time Crystal that lets us rewind and retry our actions, but our gut tells us we should see how this plays out.
We’re glad we do. First, Kagetsu nimbly sidesteps an incoming blow from a wyvern rider, who is dispatched with a powerful counter. None of the other four learn from their ally’s error: one after the other, they approach, but fail to land a single blow (or, in one case, a fireball). The closest they come is a swipe with a sword, which is parried for zero damage and returned with interest – the camera descending to below Kagetsu’s waist as he lands a critical hit, having apparently struck faster than the naked eye can see.
It’s a thrilling moment, one of a handful when we feel pride that our time invested in developing a unit’s skills has paid off. Likewise when our sniper Etie, another who really doesn’t need any spectral assistance, finishes off two dangerous opponents without a scratch. Or when wolf knight Merrin, on 2HP, sidesteps four consecutive attacks alongside her vulpine mount. And these best-in-series animations lend such dramatic flair to exchanges that, for once, we’re disinclined to skip them, even well into the game’s extended final act.
Beyond that, there are precious few examples of meaningful improvement here. Where 2019’s Three Houses felt like a step forward for the series, building upon the tactical foundations of the handheld games while bolstering the visual presentation, it’s hard not to conclude after this latest entry that Intelligent Systems is a little unsure where to take Fire Emblem next. Engage not only lacks its predecessor’s holistic design – its social elements and tactical combat may have been separate, yet those two halves worked harmoniously – but also its narrative strengths. Nothing here comes close to matching the emotional power of seeing your pupils become peers, noticing the traits they have inherited as a result of your tutelage, and the ones they have developed independently in the intervening years.
More than that, there’s a sense that Fire Emblem is beginning to stagnate mechanically, too. Removing the classic weapon triangle from Three Houses was seemingly a divisive choice among long-term fans, but a bold one. Reinstating it here doesn’t feel like the wrong decision necessarily, and it works well in concert with the game’s ‘break’ system (though that idea has been done in plenty of other series before), but it’s a disappointingly safe choice – particularly so when you consider that
Engage largely relies on the same weapons and spells Fire Emblem has been using for decades. There is little here that shakes up the established formula, and while the Engage mechanic has its moments – not least in the way it lets you diversify a unit’s abilities – it mostly feels like an act of fan service.
It’s hard not to conclude that Intelligent Systems is a little unsure where to take Fire Emblem next
Could it be time for another Awakening-style shake-up to refresh the series? Indeed, Intelligent Systems could do worse than take a second look at the innovations it introduced during the 3DS era. The pairing mechanic that allowed two units to occupy the same space (costing you one offensive option, but letting you protect weaker allies, or quickly move less mobile units around the map by partnering them with mounted units) allowed the social elements to shine. There, allies with whom you’d bonded would sometimes follow up with an extra attack, or put their bodies on the line to deflect an incoming blow. You will still occasionally see this in Engage: the Chain Guard command lets one unit step in to protect another in an adjacent square from attack, but it’s only available if they’re at full health. Besides, it’s less of a thrill when we know it’s coming – that block arriving not because you’ve nurtured a relationship between the two, but because you instructed them on the previous turn.
Though perhaps Awakening isn’t the best choice for inspiration, since its biggest flaw is one it shares with
Engage: a lack of mission variety. Its settings might be more visually varied, with environmental features factoring into a handful of skirmishes, but the objectives seldom involve anything other than routing the enemy or taking down their leader. With that in mind, it could further develop some of the more memorable maps in
Fire Emblem Fates. Conquest in particular introduced some fascinating ideas, with one mission giving you a turn limit to get your leader to safety while surrounded by smashable pots – some containing healing properties and the rest producing harmful status effects. Another map gave you just three units to keep alive. Meanwhile, 2017’s Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows Of Valentia leaned hard into survival-style systems, limiting you to a single weapon and having powerful moves cost health points.
Rumours that another Echoes game – a remake of 1996’s Japan-only Genealogy Of The Holy War – might not be far away suggest the future of Fire Emblem may be two-pronged, the Echoes games providing a more tactically focused offshoot, with the next mainline entry perhaps pushing social elements to the fore once more. Either way, we hope the next entry is as unskippable as
Engage’s battle animations. We’re not going through the motions, but too often here we wonder if its maker is.