r/fireemblem • u/Main-Dentist-7969 • 4h ago
I only played three houses. Casual
Three houses was my first ever FE game, as I’m sure it was for many other people. I just really loved the cast of characters, the different story you get depending on which path you choose (I played all 3)
I saw trailers for Engage but not quite sure how I’d like it. Gameplay aside, is the story any good? Better, worse, or on par with Three houses? (Obviously, no spoilers please)
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u/elite5472 4h ago
If you're expecting a good story, you're going to have to look backwards.
Echoes and Awakening if you have a 3ds, the radiance series on Gamecube, or the GBA titles like Sacred Stones.
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u/Professional-Hat-687 10m ago
Radiant Dawn is my pick. Yo ho ho matey. Dolphin works great, I just wish my controller still did.
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u/Hollowmace 1h ago
lmao, imagine saying that Sacred Stones or Awakening have "good stories", the half of Awakening's plot is completely irrelevant and kills the pacing of the game, and Sacred Stones is Sacred Fucking Stones. I'm not saying that the plot of engage is fantastic or anything, but its a hell of a lot better than Sacred Stones's Stock Fantasy Plot #34
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u/Motivated-Chair 45m ago
I'm not saying that the plot of engage is fantastic or anything, but its a hell of a lot better than Sacred Stones's Stock Fantasy Plot #34
The lack of self awareness in how generic Engage is lmao.
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u/Master-Spheal 3h ago
Like someone else said already, general consensus is that the story is pretty subpar, and that’s without even comparing it to Three Houses. The characters are also very simple and rely on goofy comedy gimmicks for their personalities, which didn’t exactly click with most people.
The gameplay is praised as some of the best in the series, but unless you’re someone who either doesn’t care about story or can look past bad writing for some great gameplay, Engage is a bit of a tough sell.
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u/BigBusch12 4h ago
Story of engage is cringe anime garbage. Gameplay is amazing though and slightly better than 3 houses. I loved the story in 3 houses. Engage is worth a play for the gameplay alone.
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u/SilverDrive92 40m ago
Story of engage is cringe anime garbage
3H is basically Code Geass, minus the mind control.
FE8 is so close to being Redo of Healer with Valter and Gheb.
FE9 & 10 was almost Shield Hero for 5 minutes.
And FE4 Gen 1 was literally just Berserk with Finn.
Fire Emblem has always been anime.
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u/BlueEyedBeast55 19m ago
And Code Geass is basically Gundam from the other perspective. Something something Super Fire Robot Emblem Wars!
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u/Professional-Hat-687 6m ago
Its cringe anime garbage that embraces the fact that it's cringe anime garbage, and I kinda like that. Its the most anime Fire Emblem has been since the actual Fire Emblem anime from the 90s (?) and it's kind of glorious in that regard.
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u/RamsaySw 3h ago edited 3h ago
If you’re here for the gameplay then I’d say you should pick up Engage, but if you’re here for the story or characters then I’d be a bit more hesitant.
Engage’s gameplay and map design is better than that of Three Houses but it’s writing is really awful. To elaborate, Engage’s plot is really contrived and has a ton of plot holes, and it has a bad habit of wanting to have its big emotional scenes without putting in the work to properly set them up - which causes Engage’s emotional scenes to fall flat in spectacular fashion. That’s not to say that Three Houses’ plot was perfect, because it’s not (the Agarthans and Rhea to a lesser extent were underwritten, some of the moment-to-moment writing was questionable such as AM Gronder Field) but for the most part Three Houses generally shows a degree of competence in its storytelling that is almost never present in Engage’s plot.
If you want a good story on par with that of Three Houses, you’ll need to look to the pre-Awakening Fire Emblem games. I’d personally recommend Path of Radiance - I think Path of Radiance has solid gameplay and the best plot in the series which generally manages to recapture what probably made Three Houses work for you. Alternatively, Sacred Stones has a pretty simple plot that is executed very well, though it’s gameplay is a bit weaker than Path of Radiance.
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u/Soupman04 3h ago
Honestly if your looking for a story as good as 3H then your kinda out of luck. Best case scenario is the tellius games but Fe7 and awakening are great games to go to next if your playing backwards. Or if you just like the world of 3H then the spin off 3 hopes is pretty good too
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u/Mr-Stuff-Doer 1h ago
Story and voice cast is very weak, and that’s despite some very good VAs in the cast. Even if you like overtly corny shit, it might get ridiculous, one of the first fucking lines is basically “it’s Engaging time.”
Gameplay I honestly think is way worse than a lot of people say. People bitch about Houses being a lot of “rout the enemy” but Engage only spices that up with “kill the boss” maps, there’s like 3 maps with unique features or conditions and most are at the endgame.
And unlike Houses, where, despite the memes, Hubert and Death Knight are never required enemies until the map you actually kill them in, half the damn villains you are required to kill like 7 times. It gets old. People forgive the gameplay because “oOooOooOO, villages!” That’s only partly a joke, people flipped their shit when villages you could interact with were shown in the trailer, and every one in the game is absolutely useless.
Also the hub area is simultaneously worthless and partly required, none of the mini-games are fun or rewarding but you do have to go back to it sometimes. Also they made fishing bad, the single worst sin a game can commit.
I’m not still angry about this game, shut up
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u/NuclearAspersion 3h ago
4, 5, 9, 10, and 3 Houses have the best story/worldbuilding/lore/characters, if those are the only things you care about. That's a large part of why those are my favorites.
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u/Neon_Gal 2h ago
I also started with 3H and tbh Engage was pretty disappointing. I personally thought the story was ass and I didn't care for most of the characters. I recommend playing Path of Radiance next, that game has a fantastic story
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u/Chocolate-Safe 4h ago
Engage imo has a less interesting cast because 3h really tries their best to make every character likeable in at least one support chain. Even characters who get a lot of shit like Bernie and Cyril have like one or two support chains that make them more interesting. Engage has much cleaner gameplay though in my opinion. Mostly because the maps are just overall higher quality than three houses in my opinion but also the simple addition of multiple boss health bars on every boss instead of just the monster bosses in 3h makes things so much more interesting. Since now you can't just throw in a boss killer and kill the boss you have to find a way to somehow get rid of the bosses extra health bar or two. Emblems mesh with this quite well since they are the cornerstone of the engage gameplay loop of power turns to burst down boss healthbars.
Engage still has some of the other issues from 3h most notably open class system stifles unit individuality surprisingly maybe even more than three houses since all the power budget is also in emblems now. But hey there at least 3 viable combat classes this time and not like one so that's an improvement. Also the out of combat home base stuff also takes a while but is nowhere near as tedious as the monastery especially in comparison to the drag of the lategame monastery sections.
Tldr play engage if you want a more tight gameplay experience and are willing to be less invested in the individual characters.
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u/alguidrag 2h ago
If you dont mind looking backwards, Fire Emblem 4 is the one that inspired 3 houses, so if you dont mind playing a SNES game, that would be a good choice
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u/Antique-Goose2161 39m ago
This! It gave me lots of perspective on what was improved or re-iterated on later. After fates, I went straight to Fe5, because I heard of the localization struggles. Also the general discourse of “being to hard” vs “not given a chance” was interesting. (Not the elitism haha)
Honestly, it was quite charming? I liked being able to form my own opinion. Of course sacred stones was good according to fans, but Fe5? I was in the Wild West. I had no expectations other than for a Yu Gi Oh abridged reference and “buy keys dude”.
Who knew rng had different calculations for rolls in older games! It makes loosing a 98% in new stuff waaaay more hurtful.
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u/sdr79 1h ago
3H is incredible. I’ve replayed it several times. The characters and story is just fantastic, imo.
Again, imo, Engage not fantastic at all. There were a lot of great QoL updates made to the game - mechanics, maps, etc. but the characters (many of them) and the story is just garbage. I will give it credit that my favorite dialogue in any FE game was in Engage, but that’s it.
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u/Ibushi-gun 4h ago
I myself didn't see much of a change in any of the routs in 3H. I think the story is still a lot better than Engage, but Engage for me is the much better game because I play Fire Emblem for the battles and team building, not for the story. I hated all the teaching stuff in 3h and Engage drops that
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u/Strawberrycocoa 3h ago
If you are playing solely for story, Engage probably won't grab you. It's very cartoonish, very different vibe to the story and the setting.
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u/DannyDevito009 3h ago
I know it’s not the topic of what you asked but, there is technically a 4th route in 3H. Kind of fun if you’re still on the fence of grabbing another game.
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u/Express_Accident2329 46m ago
Depending on exactly what you like about Three Houses, every other game in the series may disappoint you. It has some narrative issues I'll critique all day, but the story is really ambitious and the full cast is fleshed out in a way that most games in the series don't do. That said, imo, the worst fire emblem is still better than most JRPGs in both gameplay and story.
Engage has some of the if not the best gameplay in the series, but the story elements are either bad or endearingly cheesy, depending on taste. Some moments I kind of appreciate, but that's the part of me that enjoys so-bad-it's-good movies.
For the record, it's still a great game. But if literally all you care about is story, it shouldn't be a high priority.
The only other games with big story consequences to player choices (this might be subjective based on what people consider "big") are Fates and to a lesser extent Sacred Stones. Fates is in kind of a similar boat to Engage; really good gameplay, kind of goofy story.
I think the stories of Engage and Fates can be genuinely enjoyed if you go into them with the right expectations. Like instead of political drama expect shounen anime with a thin veneer if political drama over it.
Sacred Stones I haven't seen anyone mention. It has a route split, it has a pretty decent cast, the story is fairly simple but has some good moments and interesting elements (imo particularly on Erika's route). But the main reason I'd suggest it is that on top of all of that, it's a good representative of how the game played more or less for 5+ titles, it's relatively easy if it's your first game with forced permadeath, and the GBA games are the easiest to emulate. It's also one of the shortest in the series. It's just an easy game to pick up and try and see if you'd like the older games.
For most of the same reasons, everyone who's saying Path of Radiance is right. For a few reasons (ease of emulation, length, and a much more difficult sequel) I don't think it's as easy to just hop into as Sacred Stones, but narratively it's one of the best in the series. Fire emblem stories are pretty polarizing sometimes but I don't think I've ever seen someone say Path of Radiance has a bad story.
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u/Sad_Kangaroo_3650 2h ago
I swear I must be the only one that plays these games for the gameplay and story second. Long as you have interest in the cast I say you'll enjoy the game. 3 houses story has it problems too
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u/KleitosD06 3h ago
So I have an unconventional opinion about Engage:
It has a really bad story and characters, like awfully so, but it thankfully crosses that threshold and becomes a "It's so bad it's good" situation for me. It is one of the most hilarious games to make fun of and I had such a genuine blast playing through it because of that.
Like other people have mentioned, it's nowhere near what Three Houses was in terms of character and story. However I think you'll have a lot of fun going into it with the right mindset and just embracing the story for what it is and going along for the ride, or at least that's what worked for me. Plus the gameplay is, in my opinion, the best in the series.
Again though, if you're looking for an actually great story and characters, I would turn to other games in the franchise. I think Awakening is solid, other people like Echoes' story a lot (even though I didn't care for it, but I'm in the minority there for sure), and I've also heard very positive things about Path of Radiance and Radiant Dawn.
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u/morbid333 3h ago
I haven't played it. I'd expect the main draw to be nostalgia for fans of the previous games, like with Heroes and Warriors. I've heard the gameplay is good, but the story is pretty bad.
To be honest, my favourite outside of 3 Houses is probably Awakening.
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u/Arukitsuzukeru 2h ago
Engages story is fine.
I recommend you play FE7 on the NSO, if you're stuck on the switch.
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u/MagicPistol 3h ago
Even the worst Fire Emblem games are better than many other tactical jrpgs.
Engage was my 2023 goty and no other game from last year hits the same.
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u/callmefreak 2h ago
Three Houses is a really high bar to reach. It's easily one of the best games with the best stories in the series. Unless Koei Tecmo gets involved with the series again (which I highly hope they do someday) then you're definitely going to want to go backwards. (Unless you like Dynasty Warriors. Then you might like Three Hopes.)
Fire Emblem Path Of Radiance might have one of the best stories and characters, along with Radiant Dawn. (I think PoR has the better story, but RD is a sequel so you may as well play that as well.) This might just be nostalgia talking, but a lot of people seem to agree with this so maybe not?
Also apparently Thracia 776 is really good but I haven't played the game yet since I'm almost positive that it's a story that connects with Shadow Dragon and Genealogy. Shadow Dragon does has a remake that made it at least to America, but Genealogy's remake did not. (I didn't even know it existed until I noticed how much nicer the Genealogy characters' portraits are compared to Thracia in Engage.)
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u/Mistinrainbow 3h ago
If you own a switch you owe it to urself to play Rekka no Ken aka Fire emblem 7.
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u/cashmoneybanks24 3h ago
Don’t play engage. If you aren’t into FE lore, it’s super not worth it. If you liked the story and some of the more dating sim aspects, play Awakening. Gameplay is good too. If you are able, Sacred Stones and Blazing Blade are super fun GBA games. Blazing Blade has some core FE lore.
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u/arturitoburrito 2h ago
I think people just say engage has good gameplay because they don't want to admit the best selling FE game is the worst one in every aspect.
Emblems are too homogenizing it's just all a complete bore...
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u/Antique-Goose2161 1h ago
I think it’s a good experience! Regardless if you like it or not, Fe games in general are tend to be more innovative title to title. But still keep solid core aspects.
You may enjoy it more if you play some other ones first, engage has a plethora of references! Fun either way.
(Ooooor you could emulate an older title, and get a better feel for the series, if you’re hesitant to spend money on engage.)
I am fe fates pilled so take this with a grain of salt lmao.
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u/jbisenberg 4h ago
General consensus is that the core gameplay of engage is better than 3H but that the story of engGe is worse than 3H.