![]() One subscription across all of your devices. Oh, and don’t bother picking out your waifus there’s a ring ceremony to cement your friendship, but marriage isn’t an option (even though “Engage” is right there in the game’s name).Xenoblade chronicles soundtrack. Or going to your room for a “Rest” to unlock a cutscene of a random teammate waking you up there’s a whopping total of six unique cutscenes for each unit depending on your support level with them. A few simply weirded me out too much to spend much time with them, like polishing the Emblem Rings to improve your bond as the character reminds you to clean out all its nooks and crevices (ugh). Different minigames for working out and, later, a wyvern riding minigame grant temporary stat buffs or bond fragments, used to level up your bond with Emblems, but none of these rewards felt compelling enough to justify sitting through their simple and repetitive gameplay. ![]() ![]() You can cook meals to increase your support level with allies, using ingredients farmed from the animals you adopt ( which you can’t pet). The Somniel feels like a pastiche of different management sims, simple to a degree that my time there felt like mindless grinding. When you’re not duking it out in battle, you can return to your home base, the Somniel, to train your forces, resupply and collect resources. They were also some of the most difficult, as the boss in each Paralogue is the Emblem itself, abilities and all, and it turns out that it’s terrifying to be on the receiving end of those. Fighting on maps inspired by the Sacaen Plains from “The Blazing Blades” or the Black Temple from “The Sacred Stones” made me feel like I was back on my Game Boy Advance, staying up past my bedtime to spend endless hours trying to level up my units. If you’re a longtime fan of the series, prepare to get weepy-eyed with nostalgia (or at least, I did). The Paralogue side quests were some of my favorites there’s one themed to each Emblem Ring that resembles a level from past Fire Emblem games. Figuring out a solution to each chapter - where to push, when to retreat, which combination of Emblems and units has the most potential to devastate enemy lines - is a thrilling challenge. Confrontations play out across sandy coastlines with ships carrying hordes of enemies, sprawling castle courtyards outfitted with ballistas and other ranged weaponry, fortresses with miasma choking its narrow hallways, and mountainous fields flowing with lava, among others. Where “Engage” shines most is in its level design. Now that I’ve completed the main campaign (around 40-50 hours) and spent plenty of time playing around with “Engage’s” other modes and completing side quests, it all feels second nature, but getting to that point involved one hell of a learning curve - and that’s saying something for a series with gameplay as dense as Fire Emblem’s. It felt like an unnecessary roadblock being billed as a shiny new feature. Similarly jarring was how some Emblems are the sole wielders of weapons that, in previous games, were rare but otherwise available to all units, such as rapiers or the Nosferatu tome. Or I’d try to use Corrin’s Dragon Vein, which adds special effects to the terrain surrounding a unit, to set up a blockade of ice, but discover that this particular class can only use her ability to create a healing circle. ![]() I’d confidently send my knight forward with Lyn’s Emblem Ring only to realize his bond level was too low to access her Mani Katti, a sword strong against cavalry and armored foes, which put a serious dent in my plan to carve through the mounted units in my path. ![]() Keeping track of it all proved difficult during the game’s first few hours, compounded by the fact that certain plot points during the main campaign add and subtract from your supply of Emblem Rings. Both sides seek to collect all 12 Emblem Rings, but the Fell Dragon’s top brass seems to be given carte blanche to take them into battle whenever the mood strikes (losing them just as quickly). The Emblem Rings are hyped up to be these highly sought-after treasures, only one or two of which have been entrusted to each nation, guarded for millennia, but throughout the story, they’re treated more like office staplers than priceless heirlooms. In another, a foreign nation’s queen is held hostage after she lets one of the Fell Dragon’s generals walk right into her castle due to a misunderstanding. In one of the first chapters, the Divine Dragon’s head guard boasts about the security of the holy land of Lythos just moments before the Fell Dragon’s peons break in and murder your mother. As in past games, you assemble a ragtag group of nobles, mercenaries and fighters to build an army strong enough to topple the big baddie, but the plot unfolds more like a series of sitcom mishaps than a tale of war. ![]()
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