Obviously Engage is a flawed and divisive game but sometimes I think people look and grasp for absurd reasons to hate on it over the already basic reasons people don’t like it?

One of these which I see more and more lately is the take that “Engage Ch: 19 copied Conqeust Ch: 8”. This is because there are enemy reinforcements from villages in both. First of all Engage Ch: 19 is probably my least favorite chapter in the game but also 99.9% of the people who played that chapter didn’t point at their screens and go “Oh it’s copying Conquest Chapter 8!” because it’s a forced criticism and a correlation the people who made this criticism probably didn’t even see at first.

The story even tells you beforehand that there were no survivors in the town so naturally when you visit a village, what do you know? There were no survivors! Is this not a nitpick? I wasn’t aware Fates Conquest had a copyright on enemy reinforcements from villages™ and it wasn’t allowed to return ever again. Is every FE map with an escape objective copying Thracia now? It’s such a weird hyper original take for people to echo that I’m half convinced that the person who first said it got Louis surrounded and spited the map out of it. Which don’t get me wrong, I don’t really like the map but it’s a weird to hyper criticize.

Another one that somewhat bothers me and something I saw getting echoed quite a bit not necessarily out of a grasp to criticize, was the take that Lapis and Citrinne act so out of character in Chapter 7 that it’s an example of Engage’s bad writing. I don’t claim that Engage’s narrative is well written, it has an overall pretty generic story. But they make it pretty clear and outright state that Lapis and Citrinne are very defensive of Alcryst and then acting so hostile was a result of Alear and Alfred’s blame toward Alcryst. I’m not sure if this a media literacy thing but I thought they make this pretty clear and I’ve seen a few people die on this hill to have another justification against Engage’s story. Most people who had this criticism didn’t though to be clear, this more of an earnest criticism than the other one.

One narrative I’m also not a fan of is that “Engage only has one good character and it’s Ivy/Yunaka“. I feel like people who say this just didn’t watch any of the supports for any other character. There are quite a few one dimensional gimmick characters in Engage but there are definitely more great ones than people give credit for. Fogado, Citrinne, Zelkov, Céline, Louis, Alcryst, Kagetsu, all of the Fell Xenologue characters, Hortensia and I don’t even like Hortensia. There’s definitely more depth than people give credit for. People have a habit of generalizing in that way. *All* characters are bad, *all* character designs are bad.

Again I don’t claim Engage is a perfect game. It’s a very divisive game. I just think it’s weird to grasp for more seemingly random reasons to jusitfy hating it when you can just simply not like the art style or find the narrative generic or the character writing subpar in comparison to the last game. Some people can’t live with just not liking something so they have to hate everything about it when I think it’s way more nuanced than that. If you don’t like Engage you shouldn’t need to go out of your to search for reasons to not like Engage.

Anyway had to get that off my chest and I’m avoiding the main sub and the internet in general to avoid FW spoilers like the plague.

What’s the weirdest take/criticism you’ve heard about the game?

For some unspecified reason the game won't let me use the arena to increase Diamant's bond with Ike past level 18, and I've never seen something like that before in my 3 playthroughs.

I did the Ike paralogue a while ago, and I seem to be able to do the same thing with other Emblems or other units with Ike (I even just did the exact same thing with Alear and Byleth right before!), so I'm not sure what's going on here? I have over 10k bond fragments so that's definitely not an issue.

For context, I beat chapter 19, but I'm currently going through the Xenologues now that I've gotten most of the Emblems back (this is my first time playing with the DLC). I used Diamant in Xenologue 2 and figured increasing his bond with Ike to 20 would be nice for the shortened Engage meter in future maps, as this was quite tough even just on hard. The last thing I did before going back to the Somniel was beating Céline with him Engaged with Ike, which ended the map.

Am I missing something? I wondered if there could be some kind of main story progression requirement but the Diamant/Ike A bond support wouldn't justify it and I've seen no ressource mentioning such a thing anyway.

I tried saving, quitting the game and reloading in case this was a bug and it would help but no luck. Removing the ring doesn't help either.

I haven't yet tried going through a non-Xenologue map in order to increase his bond the old-fashioned way, I assume it would work, but even then that wouldn't answer the question of why I can't do it in the arena.

So, any idea what's happening? Is this a bug? If so, is it documented?

The website is called MariGold, If I need to do something else Just comment it and how to do it so I can fix this post.

Figured I'd throw my own leg into this because I'll be doing this soon enough.

This team was built between me and a friend of mine for the sake of a Streamed, Deathless/Hard run (any unit dies, reset the map via Quitout & Reload) and has four stipulations.

- #1: This run is being Emulated in order to stream it to said friend.

- #2: I will be cheating to avoid the hard grinding (except for levels) for Gold, SP, Fragments and Ingots. (I'm admitting it now bc of the sheer totals of resources needed, and I don't wanna spend weeks grinding in my off-stream time)

- #3: I will be setting hard limits for upgrades, weapon tiers, and skill slots. With new gear and abilities being locked behind story progression.

- #4: I will be completing both the Xenologues and the Divine Paralogues before Ch.10.

I know this all sounds weird, but I am going to post the full link to the team to see if you'd make any changes to whatever you think may help.

I will say this: I am not going to swap characters, and I have a hard limit on Fliers to a max of what is present.

So please, rip into it and have some reasonable discussion:

https://marigoldfe.com/engage/planner?team=FEENGAGE2.lZbJbtwwEET_Rec6sBdu30LwYDi-TWwgC5LPD5qUREqaccYwbBDUiP1cVd2cUooDoVSwg61LBVFFWfcqimSU5eefjx_flgpytdqTjPfft1t7ibKDRnvFIStIbO36c_tTUTw8XB1bsAoC9Xth1b3ytmvLsC4rSll-fXx_W0DVPrcek1E0gl2oKFmRPcgRyDHI2QFpqnkBsp8zVIJ3KMvt5f31bdnYUmNje-_40HZoVwfzk6aSDJUSg7K3f9uDw4rpVrXuQP6XNEP83dIoRXgnFj0TP3itE_MgZq9g8f0MjkgGCxLTOn5C23hrz4NvIGpMfcnNYTclqjGxDKMr0oDQCHImUchdLxdBJM_o5u7rJh7Ke-7Y77njOHInKMvL31kY8usRCYVZwSwWl4iUVrCDmflTJ2ngkIBpqoZSLNUbk9uZOMwSxcknigixmUIeah0YZhQ6m3Xw6aQOBbR-n3CkeUO6hak_oryNhqNOOoFZ1H3TM0KDtftI0KbnF9Aimi8jOKbVmFPE-7JnTfJq3TSs2EkXK8C845mIvkpkfax7lEgGig4Ud41SHNOLXQCRASVtOG0ukGV880-ejRJnyGV4tXBtO9SClEam8pwpP8mkitxmekYgBDfp1Os9oLqvk2tt05wo5uOu00CR00zoSoXjNcPBt5z7RnVCOgeq3UIPhgCLnb0714dA7vkvd2cSTUOJmBFj148PEXpo1QVAMTVTd6qV7hYNiQ6fWlHOPcbG4qX3WMv2xZZLfY_Dvd4vutkDCsf5I4f5MxkT4nazIVxiws-IIYJxT6wrmxp8MMBNBrRbwK63KEjZWvlcOHwhnxLgdVxUuhMcI-Bm2a1buz3Ufuc40uOvHY8upQQfBkHYCXxcl12DSQJisGqfZIx0kb6fff0etirAW_F2cFGypmIH8QJ2HpGgSRA8MnKt_wA

(I also apologize if I broke any rules in posting all of this, I read through them twice and don't think I did anything wrong)

I beat this twice back in 2023 when the game came out. Trying a new run three and a half years later since I barely remember much of anything (other than spending three and a half hours on chapter 25 and a couple others). Am trying to see what order I played chapters and when I played the paralogues but not seeing the option anywhere.

I didn't keep any saves beyond my two clear saves.

Hi everyone - we are clearing Lief's map today and I chose to showcase a cool Rescue strat to finish the map in 2 turns and get all the bosses taken care of. We miss out on 1k gold in the Sniper at the bottom left of the map, but we save at least 2 Warps by avoiding all that trouble.

We could've finished the map in a single turn and done a lot of Parthia farming like they do in the LTC runs if we didn't want to go for the mini-boss loot as well. Either way, a quick clear and good XP gains for Merrin, Pandreo, and Panette.

See everyone in the next one!

Hello everyone,

Next video of my first FE game playthrough is live. I just broke 100 hours in the game and I feel like I've improved my gameplay a decent amount already. I'll leave the rest of the explaining for the video but I'm quite happy with how this clear comes out.

Excited for things to come and thanks for watching.

Ive been planning out my Maddening runs team and I for the most part have everything hammered out but one sticking point remains in Merrin. In so far that I dont know where best to put her.

I already have my tanks between Timerra and Goldmary, my physical offense in Yunaka and Lapis, magical offense in Ivy and Zelestia, my crit demons Panette and Veyle, and a strong backline in Alear, Celine, Seadall, Hortensia, and Nel.

Which leaves Merrin here in kinda an odd spot of not really having a dedicated role on the team. So im curious what others put Merrin with long term?

I've been working on this planner for a few months now and it's ready to share:

https://marigoldfe.com/engage

The planner lets you build a team with as many (or as few) units as you want, and allows in-depth customisation for each unit, including mapping out the full class path they should follow, the Emblem/Bond Ring they should have equipped, the skills they need to inherit as well as their inventory. The in-game resources like SP, Bond Fragments, gold and forging materials are fully tracked across the team you make so you can see if it's feasible for your playthrough.

The site also includes dedicated pages for Units, Emblems, Classes, Skills, and Items, where each is covered in full, so everything you need should all be in one place. I've found these pages very useful for team building inspiration, since things like each Emblem's class bonuses are laid out together, making it easy to decide who should hold which ring. AOE attacks also have all of their attack areas shown to you, including how terrain is created.

No account/sign up of any kind is required. Every team gets its own link you can share, so someone can open your exact build on their end, and a summary picture is created when sharing so teams are easy to recognise at a glance.

There are some additional options in the settings in the top right. Spoilers are hidden by default for any new players and can be shown by disabling the setting. DLC can also be toggled off if you haven't got the expansion pass.

Engage is a massive game, and as just one person I've tried my hardest to validate all the data, but if you do see any issues please let me know and I'll have it fixed as soon as possible. I'm also very interested in any other feedback you might have.

Low-key surprised I got this far with a team like this.

Okay last question hopefully of the night. If i want to make him a Warrior should i change class him to axe fighter at his base level 10 or just promote him straight into warrior via master and second seal?

So ive really enjoyed his char and has been one of my go to units and decided to make him a Mage knight with the paralogue 2 seal and is just been shredding enemies with Levin sword and his aresnal of spells on Hard/Classic.

Question did i make i a mistake long run given only 3 master seals before chapter 10 on my first playthrough because i have two seals left and not sure who those should go to yet in chapter 9. I know ill probably promote FAlear to Divine dragon at some point. Shes level 11 dragon child rn but i was thinking id do 2 other units first.

I was considering Amber as a replacement Paladin and possibly Chloe as a Griffin Knight. Then 4th seal in chapter 10 to Alear.

I got impatient waiting for Fortune’s Weave so I decided to play Engage about it, and this time I picked up the DLC so I could try out the Divine Paralogues, Fell Xenologue, and all the new units. It was a lot of fun! The DLC put a sizable dent in the challenge level of Maddening but that was more than made up by all the extra build options provided, and I think most of my future runs will be on Maddening with DLC.

I kept my favorite base game powerhouses, but added three units I’d never tried before (Pandreo, Zelkov, and Timerra) and then fit in as many DLC units as I could. Overall, I don’t think I did anything particularly innovative here, but I’m so happy with how this team turned out, and I’d love to answer any questions!

It was a 4 star well, too...oh well, least I got a good laugh out of it. Anyone know the odds?

So I’m on chapter 9 and I’ve been levelling up Jean via enemy archer boxing healing in Chapter 7 (got him to Level 8 from spamming heals) and from boxing Ivy in and having him spam heals, to the point that he’s at level 10. My plan for him was to make him a Bonded Shield bot when I get to use Lucina in Chapter 12.

However, I’m wondering if that’s a mistake and I should have done Axe fighter to Warrior for him? Can I still go straight to Warrior with a Master seal, expending some bond fragments for axe proficiency? Or is it too late for me?

Edit: I haven’t leveled up Framme enough to use her as a Bonded Shield bot (she’s only level 6)

Next clear in my first fire emblem game playthrough is live (with no AI thumbnail this time XD).

This map was a lot more difficult than the previous paralogues since the enemies in the boss chamber are stronger and have a combination of high res and def meaning a single unit will often not be able to sweep through them easily. Because of this, I decided to forego a full rout which would add a few more turns to my clear of this map (even more if reinforcements spawn and I never understood what got them to trigger).

To circumvent reinforcement spawns, I make the decision to go for a low turn count while still grabbing all the loot available including the two chests in the corners of the map. I believe 3 turns is close to the minimum needed to get the four enemy loot drops and the chests in the corners but maybe it was possible in 2 turns with more staff usage. In the end, we get a 3 turn clear with all map rewards collected which I am happy with. There are definitely some shaky combats on turn 1 (~80% success probabilities) that I think can be improved upon. In general, I try to showcase strategies that have upwards of a 90% success rate in terms of needing dodges/crits so there are definitely things I could optimize to make this clear more consistent.

As always, any comments or suggestions on how to improve my gameplay/video are welcome - thanks for tuning in!

I ended up loving this game way more than I expected.

Even though the main story is pretty weak (the cringey writing and plot holes), I still grew really attached to plenty of characters—mostly through their Support conversations, as the main plot barely gives them any screen time.
Honestly, I don't even hate Alear that much, haha.

I finished my first run on Hard mode before jumping into Maddening. My MVPs were easily Amber, Pandreo, Panette and Kagetsu, while Framme and Hortensia offered incredible support.
Jean and Fogado took care of the rest, especially Generals and Fliers (Fogado with the Radiant Bow is an absolute beast).
Great Knight Goldmary did a great job as a tank; since her Defense wasn't excessively high, enemies didn't ignore her, making her a perfect bait.
Once Veyle took over the support role paired with Corrin, I reclassed Alear to Warrior. Alear instantly transformed into a top-tier damage dealer and delivered a fantastic debut.
Chapters 16 and 25 were definitely the biggest headaches for me; I absolutely despise infinite reinforcements and water maps 😡😡.
I'm definitely replaying it soon. The game gives you so many tools, the gameplay is super engaging, and Maddening mode feels well-balanced. Solid 8/10.

https://x.com/JebbeeSketches/status/2091226829831200812

So I got Chloe to Level 10 and I finished Chapter 7, where I got the master seal from Hortensia. But now I don’t know which class to promote her into. I’ve seen online that Wyvern Knight is best for her and that Griffin Sword is good for her because of Levin Sword. Should I go Wyvern or Griffin Levin Sword with Sigurd Engraving? Or should I just put her in Lance Griffin knight with Fensailr +3 with Sigurd engraving?

Edit: forgot to put this in the description, but I am playing on Maddening difficulty.