Common Sense Media Review
By Chad Sapieha
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Compelling strategy game lets players set the stakes.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 12+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
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Fire Emblem Engage
Parent and Kid Reviews
What’s It About?
FIRE EMBLEM ENGAGE is set in a fantasy world composed of multiple kingdoms that have more or less been at peace for a millennium, since a warrior known as the Divine Dragon -- the player's character -- fell into a deep sleep following the end of the last great war. But a rising menace has awoken the Dragon, and now they are on a quest to recover the 12 magical Emblem rings -- each capable of summoning the specter of a great warrior from another time and place -- in order to defeat this ancient evil. Play is broken into a couple of elements: exploring a small hub environment and taking part in strategic turn-based battles. The hub is a floating island where the hero can run around and interact with the game's large cast of characters, purchase and upgrade weapons, outfits, and items, and engage in activities such as exercise mini-games, caring for adopted animals, and trying online battles against other players. Once you've exhausted activities in the hub, you can jump to the world map where a variety of missions await. These missions take place on gridded maps, allowing players to maneuver their heroes like chess pieces before choosing their actions (attacking, healing, etc.) and watching them perform their assigned tasks in quick anime-style clips. As the game progresses, players add many more heroes to their party, and bonds between heroes begin to form as they battle and chat together, increasing their performance. Depending on the difficulty and play modifiers chosen, heroes can die permanently if they fall in battle.
Is It Any Good?
The latest entry in Nintendo's quintessential series of turn-based tactics games delivers a fresh cast of heroes and some evolutionary changes. The combat in Fire Emblem Engage will be instantly familiar to anyone who's played one of these games in the past, with overarching strategy reliant upon the rock-paper-scissors-like triangle weapons system in which swords beat axes, axes beat spears, and spears beat swords. It also adds a second system that introduces the notion that melee arts classes have an advantage over magic users, archers, and thieves. Also new to combat is the ability to "break" opponents by attacking them with the proper sort of weapon, leaving them unable to retaliate. Another novel feature comes in the form of new fighting styles. Backup fighters, for example, can chain attacks with others when positioned nearby, while covert fighters can use various environments and terrain tiles to great advantage. All of this strategy may be daunting for new players, but tinkering with the game's wide variety of play modifiers (such as switching off "permadeath") can greatly adjust difficulty, making it pretty easy for rookies to find their footing and begin experiencing success right away.
Speaking of which, those drawn to the series more for its colorful characters than its combat will find plenty of fun new personalities to get to know, from the charming rogue Yunaka, whose inner goodness needs to be drawn out by the Divine Dragon, to the stalwart, gray-haired knight Vander, who is willing to lay down his life for the player's character from the get-go. Players are encouraged to develop bonds between members of Engage's constantly expanding roster of heroes by initiating conversations with them, training with them, dining with them, and offering gifts. The new Emblem ring mechanic, which sees heroes equipping rings containing the souls of characters from previous games -- like Marth from the original Fire Emblem and Celica from Fire Emblem Awakening -- means fans will get to see some of their favorite heroes lend their experience and skills to this new crop of champions. Fire Emblem Engage may not push many boundaries, but it's another strong entry in one of the best strategy franchises currently going.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about screen time. Fire Emblem Engage is broken up into individual chapters (and accompanying after-action exploration) that typically makes for about an hour of play per mission, but is this enough for you to be satisfied before taking a break?
Fire Emblem's "permadeath" feature is often not used by players who'd rather not allow beloved characters to die, but is there something to be learned or gained by playing a game about war in which heroes are legitimately at risk of dying?
Game Details
- Platform: Nintendo Switch
- Pricing structure: Paid ($59.99)
- Available online?: Available online
- Publisher: Nintendo of America
- Release date: January 20, 2023
- Genre: Strategy
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy , Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More , Horses and Farm Animals
- ESRB rating: T for Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Mild Suggestive Themes
- Last updated: January 24, 2023
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