Why Fire Emblem Three Houses excels In staying relevant whilst Engage fails

My love for the Fire Emblem series has dated back to Fire Emblem Awakening in 2015 when I innocently sighed out loud that I was £6 off buying a copy off of Ebay (a time when this game was merely £30) to my dad. A pleasant memory of which my dad insisted on making up the difference which lead to a love for a franchise that reaches up until the present day. A game genre I had never touched before, and something none of my friends had heard of, I cherished it as my thing. What stood out to me playing this game was the strength of its story and characters, I’ve always been a devotee to games with these qualities and when I found out I could match these characters up in marriage (sims who?) and make a unique team that grew and learned with me, I poured hours into Awakening. (I will definitely be making a review on Awakening and why it’s so perfect to me). This love stretched to pre-ordering the Fates games and picking Three Houses up a day after release, and whilst both 3DS titles were fond memories, it was Three Houses that changed this franchise for me.

Fire Emblem Three Houses will forever be my game, a game I can hear the criticisms in the back of my head but choose to ignore them. Everybody has a game that they know is objectively not 10/10 material, but felt a spiritual connection to it. To me it’s perfect and I’m about to gush about why I think this. The major standout quality of this game is the sheer possibility of what you can do with its gameplay and even story. A choice between three groups of students, each with a colourful cast and its own unique story, right off the bat replaybility is hinted at, as once you choose a house you wonder what the others can offer. I sunk over 100 hours into this game and still haven’t played the last route which is a feat that gives Three Houses its staying power. Regarding the Three Houses, each character demonstrates their own growth and personality as we see them grow from pre-war to war itself. This development and time to get know your team is unparallel in fleshing out such a big cast. Its themes entangled with its characters, that of the perils of war and the trauma individuals have to go through is what gives this game a mature and dramatic feel. The characters are goofy and light-hearted, but faced with death and war they are forced to grow up, seeing this development hits home to what the events of the game are capable of. The use of different stories, with a focus on each head of the house and their kingdom also allows for development of the landscape. We are introduced to intricate politics and culture that effects the way characters think and do. For example, in such a religious landscape of Faerghus we see Dimitri conflicted with his duty to honour and duty as a prince to the church and protecting the memories of his dead parents, in contrast to the slow descent into the realisation that the church is corrupt. Which is the right course of action? This question is what drives the Blue Lions route and creates a compelling development for Dimitri’s character, from an uncontrollable husk that needs to kill what tries to combat his ideals, to a king at peace with how to move on from his trauma. This only being one story out of a possible 4 makes me fall in love with how much through is put into the world and its inhabitants. Without writing an essay on this game, I just wanted to convey what this game means to me in terms of its story telling. FE has always been thought provoking in its story, so when it came to FE Engage I was confused on how we went from war crimes to 4kids openings (disclaimer i low-key love it) and ghosts/spirits? in rings.

After a heavy hitter like Three Houses I was understandably excited for the future of FE. Three Hopes came out as a spin-off alternative game that was dynasty warriors style but still held the same fun story ideas and fantastic character development (how could they develop them anymore!?). So when FE Engage got leaked and then announced, I followed every bit of promotional material available. A brand new look in its vibrant colours and poppy cartoony look, it was a change I was excited for (despite how ugly I always though Alear looked). However, the time came for me to play it and I rapidly became more and more angry at what was being presented to me. The biggest criticism I get for my opinion on Engage is that ‘not everything has gotta be about war crimes and death hunnie’ which okay, yes but. Fire Emblem has always been a series about the repercussions of war, whether that be the side we take in Three Houses or defying the fate and finding your place in the conflict in Awakening. Engage is set during a war so it’s not like they’re trying to steer away from these themes. However, it’s the way Engage presents its war and the people in it that fails. A prevalent theme in engage is generations (totally not done before), how Alear and the princes/princesses break from their parents rule and realise themselves as individuals, with Alear primarily symbolising that you aren’t your parents product, you are your own person. While this sounds like a compelling story, it’s the lack of character development that causes this structure to deteriorate. We are given very little time with the rulers of each region and their corresponding retainers, with little to no detail about their country in between. For example, Brodia is supposed to be a militant region with overbearing ideals. However, we are only shown the castle and their relationship with their father. We don’t see any towns or products of this cultural aspect. Diamant is bland in how he just gets on with becoming king, with Alcryst only being mildly more interesting with how he is overshadowed in his brother’s status. These concepts are not very deep or fleshed out. Very rare are examples of good characters in Engage, my primary example being Yunaka. A surface-level jokester who spends most C-Supports acting goofy, but with every interaction she becomes more complex. You begin to see her damaged side where she is abandoned by her parents, forced into a life of assassination. With Goldmary she desires routine and normality in washing clothes, with Merrin she is harsh in how fake and dramatic she is, angered by Merrin’s love for violence and chivalry, things Yunaka was forced into and can see the dark sides of. There are other characters that stand out to me as well-written, Yunaka, Panette, Pandreo and Ivy being the standouts. However the rest of the cast is merely one-note, with not enough banter to go back and forth to make them interesting. Dialogue is often cringey and weird and even though I love goofy, its bizarre where these support situations come from.

Without getting into too much depth of why I don’t like Engage, in regards to its characters, this aspect is what doomed Engage in its longevity as a piece of media. Discourse is an important aspect of a game, as if there isn’t something to talk about, then it has no staying power. For example, with the recent TOTK, because there was a sheer amount of things to discover, it keeps it relevant in discussion for many years. Three Houses successfully did this in its replaybility. As mentioned before, there are 3 (plus one secret) path to take, each with a different cast and story. Each route being 40 plus hours long and endless possibilities for character classes and abilities (thanks to the school like system), replaying was effortless. However, what was a step back for Engage was its lack of New Game plus. Whilst there was range with what emblem rings could do and what skills to assign, you had the same cast of characters and same story every time. Additionally, new game plus is used to make a game easier to play again, Three Houses let you retain supports and grades for Byleth. Engage doesn’t possess any of this, so the momentum of the early game is just as slow as any other start to a game is. This inability to discuss what you did in different playthroughs damaged Engage’s longevity. You could argue that Awakening is the same, no New Game Plus, but Awakening had cultural capital, a staying power that highlighted how different of a step the series was going in. Engage lacks any innovative ideas to reach past its first year of discussion. It was only the nail in the coffin for me when I realised that the characters were nothing to write home about.