Fire Emblem Engage Came And Went Too Fast

The word “longevity” has been in my vocabulary a lot recently, as I’ve been sinking in quite literally hundreds of hours into Baldur’s Gate 3. The game will undoubtedly be something I return to down the road over and over, like Dragon Age and Mass Effect. They all have something special, and revisiting them is a major dip into nostalgia. Not to mention there are new things for me to discover each time I play … even though I end up going through with the same romances a lot of the time.

I bring up longevity because, besides Baldur’s Gate 3, the game that astounded me earlier this year was Fire Emblem Engage. Not only was it a great strategy RPG, but it also gave me my first authentically queer experience in a JRPG. My time with it was amazing, and I wondered if the game would become a Nintendo staple like Three Houses.

Oh, how I wish it did. In the past year, it seemed to have been forgotten in the larger scheme of things. So what happened?

The Quick Rise Of Fire Emblem Engage

Between January 20 and March 31, Nintendo’s fiscal year earnings report revealed that Fire Emblem Engage sold approximately 1.61 million units, with 430,000 of those sales coming from Japan. These numbers may seem impressive at first glance, considering the game had been out for 10 weeks by that point. However, when you compare it to its predecessor, Fire Emblem Three Houses, the differences become apparent.

The first solid sales data we received for Three Houses came from a Nintendo financial report covering sales until September 30, 2019. By that time, Three Houses had sold 2.29 million units, with 480,000 copies coming from Japan. Engage, on the other hand, started with a significant advantage, thanks to higher pre-order numbers and digital sales (although digital sales data is not available). However, shortly after its launch, Engage’s sales took a steep nosedive, and it quickly disappeared from the sales charts in both Japan and North America. This suggests that Engage had a very front-loaded launch and hasn’t maintained consistent sales numbers over time.

Engage, even with four waves of DLC content, just doesn’t have the same replayability as its predecessor.

Currently, the most recent update was added in April. At first, I remember being excited that all the content updates were happening in quick succession. There wasn’t a frustratingly slow trickle of updates spread out over the year, which meant that replaying the game early on was a viable option. I decided to wait, because I was already chipping away at the massive amount of content in Assassin’s Creed Valhalla.

I’ve checked for more updates periodically, but each week, nothing pops up. And while my desire to jump back in is still there, it feels like Engage has been forgotten about by its devs, especially when looking at how Three Houses was treated.

Three Houses was announced in 2017 and released in 2019, in a relatively less-competitive gaming landscape. Engage, on the other hand, was revealed post-pandemic in 2022 and launched in early 2023 in a more competitive environment, facing other significant game releases. Three Houses also received post-launch support and free marketing through its inclusion in Super Smash Bros. This means that Engage had to compete in a different market scenario and had less time in the spotlight compared to Three Houses.

This spotlight is actually how I myself got into the Fire Emblem series, starting with Three Houses. I have a friend who kept telling me to play it, and I had been really apprehensive, because I had never played a strategy game successfully prior to that. But she told me that the strategy was accessible to new people, and really, the big pull for the game was the relationships you could build with the game’s many NPCs. I finally tried it out, and she was totally right. It sucked me in.

What I found so encouraging was all the support that the game received after its launch. I jumped into the whole thing in 2020, after all the major pieces of content had been added, and I was pleasantly surprised that updates had continued even during the time I was playing it.

Engage Needs More Post-Game Support

Engage, on the other hand, seems like it will not be getting any more updates, which is a shame. There are many quality-of-life improvements in Three Houses that could help out this game too. I think about the outfits. While we were given some additional content like this, it wasn’t implemented as well. You can’t wear the casual clothes into battle, nor can you wear the battle clothing in the more casual interactions of the game. And for the love of everything, I wish we could get rid of Jean’s hat when it comes to changing his class.

Replayability plays a significant role in the longevity of a game. Engage, even with four waves of DLC content, just doesn’t have the same replayability as its predecessor. Xenologue did a good job of adding context and even showing a different side to the game with an alternative timeline, but in the end, the story remains the same. In contrast, Three Houses benefited from multiple routes and New Game Plus, allowing you to experience different storylines and build your characters in new ways. Engage lacks these features, making subsequent playthroughs less enticing.

I personally love the ability to play from New Game Plus in Three Houses. It made going back to the game feel a little less daunting. Certain things transferred with me and made some of the more tedious tasks in between battles less frustrating to deal with. It can be very hard to go back and replay something as big as a Fire Emblem game.

Instead of giving us New Game Plus, the devs’ decision was to create more post game content and give us the ability to replay missions, but to me, it feels disjointed. I like to treat my replay of a video game like rereading a good book. I crack it open and begin from the beginning, not just jump into the chapters that engage me the most. And given all the time I put into making my reverse harem, I’d love to go back to replay without having to start from ground zero.

As Fire Emblem Engage slowly fades from view, and 2023 comes to a close, it leaves behind a trail of unfulfilled potential and unmet expectations. The legacy of Three Houses looms large, setting a high standard for what could have been, but wasn’t.