r/fireemblem • u/Rex__Lapis • Jul 05 '26
Engage General Playing engage atm. Seriously who writes these dialogues?
Just met this Yunaka girl and holy crap who writes this shit?
Also every mf gushing over the divine dragon from the second the game starts... I can not take this game serious.
What happened?
Edit: okay after a day with Yunaka she's my favorite character and literally my wife. Am i schizo?
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u/Square-Friend-9219 Jul 05 '26
My issue with the dialogue is how everyone is so... Openly supportive and caring. The support between Yunaka and Alear for example. To me it sounds like "I'll never make you uncomfortable 😀" and they're all "thank you 🥺" over and over.
I actually liked the more confrontational ones like Alcryst and Ivy, or even Alcryst and Lyn. Those ones didn't sweep away prior enmity and Morion's death.
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u/ragunyans Jul 05 '26
Even Diamant is initially bothered by Lyn in their bond convos, yeah. Oh, and Hortensia and Veyle too? Was pleasantly surprised to see how much Hortensia was still holding her accountable for things. Also appreciated the snippy dynamic Alear and Nel had for like half of the DLC lmao
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u/Far-Childhood-4640 Jul 05 '26
Alcryst genuinely had some of the best supports in the game, be they funny or serious. I wasn't using Celine much but his conversations with her on my royals run made me appreciate her and him so much more that I did even more of their conversations on purpose. When the writers actually locked in on serious supports, they did pretty good with them. Wish we got more of that.
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u/EQGallade Jul 06 '26
That’s really only the supports with Alear. Avatar supports are bad, news at 11.
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u/RamsaySw Jul 06 '26
IMO this is low-key one of the worst parts of Engage's writing - it feels like the game is outright allergic to any sort of interpersonal conflict. Even when the game manages to stumble into a situation where there is potential for some great character drama, it gets resolved immediately and forgotten about because the writers are so afraid of making the player uncomfortable - Alcryst lashes out at Ivy at the end of Chapter 11 which is solid, but he immediately forgives her in their C support and the only takeaway I can gleam from this is that Morion wasn't very important to Alcryst if he treats his death as water under the bridge so quickly.
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u/Panory Jul 06 '26
It's even funnier. In the main story cutscene, Ivy apologizes for her role in Morion's death, and Alcryst basically tells her to fuck off. In their C-Support, Ivy again apologizes, and Alcryst is straight up stunlocked, because he never even considered that and Elusian would ever apologize to him.
I'll also point out another stupid moment, Hortensia in Solm Palace. She's snuck in by pretending to be a recruited enemy (actually pretty good) and is holding the Queen hostage to make us give up the Emblem rings to get back in Sombron's good standing and somehow get her dad back, and views Ivy's defection as a betrayal.
We're all set for a big map to happen here, followed by talking her down and explaining things. Instead, Ivy talks her down, processes their grief together, Alear calls her a little bitch who isn't serious about stabbing the Queen, etc. It's a good scene, but it's weird that it happens here.
Because now we can't have a big map with a bunch of enemies. So Zephia and Marni(?) enter stage right, mind control Hortensia instantly (does Hortensia also have draconic instincts to amplify, or can Zephia just do this now?), teleport us to the front of the palace to have a big map. It was maddening to watch Engage throw away an excellent set-up for a map that I'm emotionally invested in for no reason, then jump through the stupid hoops for stupid people to justify something they already had.
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u/FoxBallFlat Jul 06 '26 edited 2d ago
Rafal from the DLC was a breath of fresh air. He's literally the ONLY team member who's actually confrontational with the others.
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u/Cranberry-Holiday Jul 05 '26
Man... would be shame if Yunaka talking like a cringelord was actually done on purpose and a big part of her character.
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u/maxhambread Jul 05 '26
It was fun when Yunaka breaks character, or imitates other characters in cutscenes. Let the VAs flex!
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u/Cojalo_ Jul 05 '26
Yunakas crit lines are so peak for exactly this reason, she suddenly gets quite brutal
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u/Mahelas Jul 05 '26
It's especially funny because IN-GAME, Alear and Alfred comment on how cringe she talks and it's clearly meant to be uncomfortable for them
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u/Use_the_Falchion Jul 05 '26
Her whole intro is famed as a comedy and it’s glorious.
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u/Mahelas Jul 05 '26
For all the "nooo Engage take itself seriously it's not meant to be funny" criticism, it have the best comedic timing in the entire franchise, between the "Come again ?" when Yunaka talk about her speaking ring, anything Goldmary says and Vander breaking down when Alear say they need to run
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u/Shanicpower Jul 05 '26
That doesn't really work when most characters act just as cringy and it's not called out when it's with them.
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u/Mahelas Jul 05 '26
No, there is no other character that act even remotely like Yunaka. There's gimmicky and preppy characters, but nobody else is as obviously "whacky random xd" as her fake persona.
Hortensia is much more serious, so is Rosado and Celine. Alpcaca guy is not particularly whacky in his dialogues, nor is Zelkov. Who else would you say even come close ?
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u/Shanicpower Jul 05 '26
If you don't think there's any other cringy characters in Engage, I don't think there's much I could do to convince you.
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u/S0uled_Out Jul 06 '26
Which is why they asked you to name them. If you can’t do that, then it’s a you problem.
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u/Shanicpower Jul 06 '26
They named multiple in just their initial reply, but the vast majority of the cast just acts and/or talks weird, even the supposedly normal characters.
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u/cheekydorido Jul 05 '26
Yeah, engage has alot of issues, but yunaka isn't of them.
I loved her support conversations, that cringe peppy talk of her really sounds forced
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u/Mr-Stuff-Doer Jul 06 '26
If there was a character who loved punching babies but all the others were annoyed by him, does that mean I should like them because it’s an intentional trait?
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u/RJWalker Jul 05 '26
The problem with her is that there isn’t simply isn’t any world building to support her hidden serious assassin side.
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u/omfgkevin Jul 05 '26
Yeah while supports are nice, when even the ROYALS themselves have barely any development even when they basically kill off the other sibling from the plot, yeah....
While the devs have said the story "just exists to exist" (which is exceptionally tone-deaf considering what FE is supposed to be about), it still doesn't excuse making something that exists that is just plain awfully written.
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u/FeanorianStar Jul 05 '26
I just learned from this thread that she was secretly an assassin, what?? I found her so cringe that I benched her immediately. Lesson learned I guess
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u/Life-Land-1020 Jul 05 '26
honestly i wish the whole game was that silly.
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u/Queef3rickson Jul 05 '26
Same, I think my biggest issue is the game just can't pick a lane. It takes itself incredibly seriously, but all the serious sections are dumb as shit.
Meanwhile, my favorite moments were when it leaned in to the silly goofy stuff. It's like there were two different groups duking it out in the writers room when making the game.
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u/X_Marcs_the_Spot Jul 06 '26
Yeah, the game tries to be serious sometimes and silly other times, but half the serious moments are more clown-shoes than the silly ones.
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u/Suspicious-Still-999 Jul 05 '26
Right?
My wife walked in on what's her nuts' death scene and started laughing, then said wait I'm sorry is this like sad for you?
I'm like no I don't even know this bitch.
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u/Shanicpower Jul 05 '26
We all cracked the fuck up when Marni died and Mauvier struck that wide legged squat of grief for some reason
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u/whereisthisplac Jul 05 '26
That one made sense though he knew marni for a while and they were basically family
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u/Shanicpower Jul 05 '26
It's not that he gets upset, it's that he strikes an utterly incomprehensible pose that is just hilarious to witness.
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u/Frostbitten_Moose Jul 05 '26
Yeah, that thing managed to replace the dude telling the MC how much he meant to him, and how it's gonna suck for the MC and who's gonna take care of him now as he's on the other side of a wall getting slowly eaten by flesh eating microbes as the most ridiculously bad death scene I've seen. Mostly just because she's mortally wounded and she yammers on for so long that the Switch goes into power saving mode.
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u/X_Marcs_the_Spot Jul 06 '26
What's this other death scene you're talking about? That sounds... special.
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u/Frostbitten_Moose Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
[Game in question]Genso Suikoden 1.
Old Dreamcast/PSX game that got a remake last year.
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u/ragunyans Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
The "saturday morning cartoon" and "it doesn't try to be serious" is so weird to me because it very much does try to be serious? There are plenty of comedic moments, but the story that IS there does delve into some pretty dark themes and tries to deliver earnest messages about family, identity, one's place in the world.
I like Engage, and think the overall story is pretty unambitious and average (and the devs themselves have said this - when you're just making a story to push along the gameplay, it's not gonna BE groundbreaking), but it's not the intentional clown show folks make it out to be. A little silly and inspired by tokusatsu? Sure. More aimed towards kids this time? Yeah.
I do agree that you should meet it where it is, though. This is not some grand, political war story. The dialogue quality IS poorer, and there are legit criticisms to be had, but I think how bad it is gets overblown because of the game it followed, and the huge expectations it gave people.
Also y'all realize Yunaka only says Hiya Papaya in her intro chapter, right? She has a quirky way of speaking (and many people have touched on why she does this), but it's nowhere near as bad in the rest of her conversations lmao
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u/shhkari Jul 05 '26
The "saturday morning cartoon" and "it doesn't try to be serious" is so weird to me because it very much does try to be serious? There are plenty of comedic moments, but the story that IS there does delve into some pretty dark themes and tries to deliver earnest messages about family, identity, one's place in the world.
The thing is saturday morning cartoons also do try to be serious but they do so in a way that is fitting for a saturday morning cartoon.
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u/Shanicpower Jul 05 '26
The "saturday morning cartoon" defense has always felt very copium to me. Those shows are funny, lighthearted and charming. Engage takes itself super seriously, dwelling on extremely drawn out death scenes like with Lumera or the villain team whose names escape me. The supports feel almost alien a lot of the time with how strange and stilted the dialogue is. I wish the game fully embraced being nonsensical and wacky, that would be fun. Give me some goofy-ass audacious villains like Metal Face from Xenoblade or Raphael from BG3, not Sombron's lame ass.
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u/P0STCARD Jul 05 '26
bro I wish Zephia was as much of a shit head as Metal Face. Dude had zero redeeming qualities and dies a pathetic death and I'd have it no other way! Elizabeth Maxwell is a great va and she's really giving it her all but unfortunately the material for Zephia just wasn't good.
I quote Metal Face's "yyyuaaarrrrrrrgh!!!! no... not like this.... NOT LIKE THIIIIIIIISSSSSSS!!!!!!!" daily. Such a fun loser.
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u/Shanicpower Jul 06 '26
Metal Face is unironically one of my favourite villains of all time. He has plenty of screentime to shine without ever overstaying his welcome, manages to both be a genuine threat while also being hammy as shit, and has a surprisingly interesting background/motivation while still having zero sympathetic qualities.
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u/omfgkevin Jul 05 '26
I like Engage, and think the overall story is pretty unambitious and average (and the devs themselves have said this - when you're just making a story to push along the gameplay, it's not gonna BE groundbreaking)
See this is one thing I find even worse about Engage. You are the developers of FIRE EMBLEM, and it's honestly so tone-deaf as the devs of the franchise to look at your history of work and go "yeah, we know FE fans literally don't give a fuck about the story so we didn't put any care into it".
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u/ragunyans Jul 05 '26
I think there was effort, but they very deliberately wanted to take a different direction from the "adult war story" (their words) that 3H was, as they were aiming for younger audiences with this game. As such, it wasn't as heavy, or intricate - and yeah, the gameplay seemed to be the main focus. I don't particularly begrudge that.
But the execution, as a result? You can definitely argue there was much left to be desired.
I think Engage had several writers? I remember counting at least 6 or 7 in the credits, and think it would have benefited from a much tighter and smaller writing team. There are cool hooks and foundations of interest in the plot, but I think the pacing ultimately does it a disservice.
The manga improves on this by actually slowing the neckbreak pace and using the extra information in the game's side content (supports and the like) to restructure certain scenes and expand on things a bit. (This was especially well done in the Brodia-Elusia arc.)
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u/Palladiamorsdeus Jul 05 '26
Why wasn't their focus...ya know, fans of Fire Emblem?
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u/RamsaySw Jul 06 '26
The big problem is that Engage as a whole had no coherent vision and as such the game as a whole ended up being a bunch of contradictory ideas that aren't bad in isolation but do not mesh together well - it's why, for instance, the story is so juvenile and tries to appeals to kids, but the game itself is pretty hardcore SRPG gameplay which the average child probably won't enjoy.
I bring this up all the time because this is the fundamental problem with Engage in which all of the game's other issues can be traced back towards.
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u/KyleMCarthage Jul 12 '26
I say it's a tokusatsu show. Those shows are silly but do have an emotional core to them. Seriously, watch King Ohger and then play Engage back to back, you start to realize that Engage works really well as a Tokusatsu show given that the former is basically Engage but as a Tokusatsu show.
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u/Drhappyhat Jul 05 '26
I'll take a thousand "zappy's" over a single "technically an adult's" any time.
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u/SomeIdioticBrit Jul 05 '26
I honestly love how the game treats the avatar worship, you're supposed to find it weird and off-putting because Alear does as well. They wake up after 1000 years and suddenly everyone is treating them like a god when they just see themselves as a regular person. It's a pretty neat take on the concept and easily made Alear my favourite avatar we've gotten so far (not that I think the bar is very high for that category, the only other one I like is Robin lol)
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u/Basaqu Jul 05 '26
Oh I replied basically this somewhere else but yeah I fully agree. I usually hate avatar worship, but it weirdly works with Alear. Mostly cause they do it in a comedic way and yoy're supposed to laugh at how absurd it is with Alear acting as the straight (wo)man.
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u/Gamer4125 Jul 05 '26
Alear telling Framme to cool it or telling Merrin that they're not some sort of exotic animal is 10/10
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u/SomeIdioticBrit Jul 05 '26
The Ivy B support is what fully sold me on this, Alear's reaction to Ivy saying she loves them is so good
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u/Mahelas Jul 05 '26
Yeah it work because Alear is a sappy wet dog that look like they're two seconds away from running off by how weird everybody is
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u/LadyAntiqua Jul 05 '26
Making jesus the only normal person in the entire cast was a genius move. Love Alear so much.
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u/SomeIdioticBrit Jul 05 '26
I remember when their appearance first leaked I was super negative on them. Little did I know that in a couple years that weird toothpaste lord would be one of my favourites in the series lol
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u/AmbitionAwkward4602 Jul 05 '26
Yunaka is supposed to be cringe, that's a big part of her character lmao.
Also you're literally the Jesus of their world, no wonder they gush over you.
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u/TrikKastral Jul 05 '26
At some point “supposed to be cringe” loses all meaning.
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u/Potato_Lyn Jul 05 '26
Yea... it starts sounding like an excuse to justify the awful writing/dialogue.
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u/King_Ed_IX Jul 05 '26
Okay, but Yunaka specifically is supposed to be cringe because it isn't her real personality.
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u/duhu1148 Jul 05 '26
I mean, there are ways to do your spoiler without doing it in the cringe way lol
(I did like Yunaka a lot though)
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u/stillestwaters Jul 05 '26
It’s not all that bad, she just has a few weird catch phrases she throws out there. Everything else is pretty basic.
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u/KoriGlazialis Jul 05 '26
Also, her crit quotes when she actually drops her tone and goes all serious work so much better with her typical mask of whimsy.
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u/AmbitionAwkward4602 Jul 05 '26
But that's Yunaka's whole character. She's a assassin that hides her true personality with a hyperactive girl personality with dumb catch phrases.
Clearly that's worse writing than Petras outright racist character of not knowing how to speak english even after 5 years.
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u/Odovakar Jul 05 '26
Clearly that's worse writing than Petras outright racist character of not knowing how to speak english even after 5 years.
As a former language teacher, I can assure you that many people spend decades struggling with the majority language of the country they move to.
I also feel like I should point out we're talking about a fantasy nation made by a Japanese studio. Not only would Petra's dialogue be different in the original Japanese version, it's also unlikely that Fódlan is meant to be speaking English. The continent is a hodgepodge of European influences, with many names, including the continent itself, stemming from Irish, and a majority (?) of nobles have the Geman "von" in their last names.
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u/Trialman Jul 05 '26
Not only would Petra's dialogue be different in the original Japanese version
For those wondering, in the original JP script, Petra's speech quirk is stopping in the middle of a sentence to remember the right word.
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u/PrivateVasili Jul 05 '26
That sounds a lot better than we got in localization tbh. Petra always annoyed me because she talks with broken grammar, but basically perfect pronunciation/accent. While I suppose that's totally possible, it is exceedingly rare across my experience (which is of course limited like everyone elses). None of my many immigrant relatives ever completely lost their native accents even after 50+ years. She's a character who I feel I should like, but I got turned off by that. Though I never made it far in my BE run anyway, so maybe I would've got over it eventually.
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u/TaskEnvironmental270 Jul 05 '26
I think that 5 years can be a long time to learn english and that theres potential to have a charecter with some kind of accent in these games, i dont think they handled it well. I dont think the intent was to be racist but i think thats how the charecter can come off for sure
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u/Mahelas Jul 05 '26
Maybe in general but Yunaka is CANONICALLY PUTTING UP A FAKE CRINGE PERSONA, and said persona is canonically acknowledged by Alear and Alfred as being off-putting and awkward when they meet.
Like holy hell that's baby level media litteracy
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u/TrikKastral Jul 05 '26
Brother, I know you’re fighting a losing battle here, but if everything regarding the story and characters are cringe the fact that Yunaka’s cringe doesn’t stand out too much is part of the issue. It’s not a question of understanding.
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u/Mahelas Jul 05 '26
But she does stand out, I don't understand this argument. There is no other character that talk even half as whacky as her, not even Framme and she's a weeb kid.
Like, who else is acting/talking cringey, actually ? Even Amber isn't at all like Yunaka
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u/Ipokeyoumuch Jul 05 '26
I think the writers intended to make it sort of cringe-like and make it you are uncomfortable with it like Alear is. With Yunaka it is not her real personality and works well within the context of her character.
I think that storyline falls flat because of the rest of the tone of Engage is too similar to differentiate moments of levity, comedy, and seriousness.
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u/Admirable-War-7594 Jul 05 '26
The problem with engage is that the whole game's writing is bad, which makes yukana feel like she wasn't supposed to be cringe, but ended up being cringe.
If all your writing is cringe, the character that is supposed to be cringe wouldn't be ironic, they would just be following the pattern
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u/Chedder_456 Jul 05 '26
Cmon man I understand the internal logic of why Alear gets doted on. I just wish there wasn’t a Mary-sue fanservice self-insert dragon-god player-avatar in the first place.
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u/Palladiamorsdeus Jul 05 '26
Oh so much this. I get it. Alear is a deity to these people. That doesn't mean that I enjoy hours upon hours of people constantly praising them. Just like I understand Nels trauma, doesn't mean I like watching her be an utter trashcan to the person she literally summoned to save her world. At least Nel gets some plot though.
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u/Temporary_Virus9302 Jul 05 '26
The answer to your question can be found on a physical copy of the game. It is age-restricted at 12+, which is a huge difference from previous games that were restricted at 15+.
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u/Running_Rampant Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
To me, yunaka is the most demonstrable point of good in theory, terrible execution. I get what they were going for with her character, I really do, and there's something there. But its so bogged down by the execution and I ended up so annoyed with her. And thats what I feel about the entire game. They really just ended up worse Awakening and incorporating Fates worst story moments in the end.
Anyone who says the story is bad on purpose are really missing the point. No one makes a bad story on purpose.
I think they aimed younger, and this is the least serious story and cast in the franchise, I would argue, but thats also a terrible excuse when people try to defend it on those points. Avatar: the Last Airbender is for younger audiences and is a cartoon but its excellent and well regarded. You can do cartoony fun and make it truly great. But they didnt.
There are characters I like, supports that flesh them out, but the story and world cant support them and it is by far one of if not the weakest, worst story in the series. I dont need, like, Mario to have a compelling story but I think i do need Fire Emblem to. Enjoy it for what it is, fun gameplay and interesting gimmicks. Because that's all the characters are anyways.
Edit: spelling
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u/Limlomlom Jul 05 '26
Honestly the complete pivot in tone is why I never liked Engage. If you can’t hack it start skipping cutscenes now. It gets worse
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u/Telosloslos Jul 05 '26
“I make avalanches happen. Even when they don’t want to happen. I just do this.” is unironic Engage dialogue I wish I never read.
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Jul 05 '26
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u/Limlomlom Jul 06 '26
It’s not that I am close-minded to Yunaka specifically, I’m commenting on the overall Saturday-morning cartoon tone of the game personally putting me off after adoring 3H
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u/Palladiamorsdeus Jul 05 '26
"Oh by the way I stole your time rock while you weren't looking even though I was never actually there. Also I used it to steal your rings even though that's literally not how this thing works. Also also it's going to get stolen back in a similarly nebulous manner in about three minutes, we just needed you to not have it for a little bit "
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u/TwiceDead_ Jul 05 '26
Yeah the writing is shit. Enjoy the gameplay and ignore the story, thats the correct way to play engage. Reddit will tell you otherwise but dont worry, your reaction solidifies you as utterly sane.
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u/Suspicious-Still-999 Jul 05 '26
I really really wish I could have retroactively played it skipping every cutscene
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u/Impolitecat Jul 05 '26
the dialogue in engage was so cringe it made me realize i would probably like awakening a lot less if it was fully voiced. and i love awakening.
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u/Cojalo_ Jul 05 '26
Tbf if basically god showed up and started walking around and talking to people irl too, you'd probably see people obsess over them too
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u/Palladiamorsdeus Jul 05 '26
No one's arguing that it doesn't make sense. It just sucks to have to hear that over and over and over again.
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u/Bokuja Jul 05 '26
As good as the gameplay is (and as likely as I am to catch downvotes here), the plot and dialogue of this game are atrocious.
Objectively. And to anyone claiming that this series is not about good writing or characters, kindly play FE4 or the Telius games.
Sure, not every game has to be some grand political war drama with absurd stakes and social commentary...but ffs even more lighthearted stories tend to be better written than this.
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u/Ythapa Jul 05 '26
It's a really bad sign when I can confidently say, that amongst the games I've played/been exposed to, Engage + Fates both are personally unparalleled in my absolute worst stories I've ever read.
To be worse than many gacha game story arcs, which are notorious for its medium being a terrible way to tell good stories, is a colossal feat.
For any vet gacha players, I actually PREFER FGO's Agartha/Septem arcs and HSR's Luofu, and Genshin's Inazuma arcs compared to Fates + Engage if I had to pick a story to sit through.
That's baaaaaaaaaaad because those arcs are all pretty well-acknowledged to be a whole-tier of awful.
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u/Odovakar Jul 05 '26
To be worse than many gacha game story arcs, which are notorious for its medium being a terrible way to tell good stories, is a colossal feat.
While I think Nikke is in a huge slump writing-wise and has been for a long time, it's bonkers to me how well a Korean gacha gooner game holds up in terms of story quality, characterization and chemistry between characters and clowns on supposedly higher quality games. I recommend anyone who's interested in a good video game story in general check out this video. It's long, but well worth it if you have the time.
I'd recommend the actual best Christmas story I've ever seen outside of It's a Wonderful Life if it was the season for it.
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u/Bokuja Jul 05 '26
Agreed.
I cannot comment about the gacha thing, as I don't play gacha stuff, but Fates/Engage was bad on a uniquely bad level. Like, I can sit through games that have narrative flaws but have something decent here and there...but Fates (particularly Revelations) and Engage I almost felt like my intelligence was being insulted.
Does nobody proofread the planned storylines anymore? And, to stress, I am not asking for Witcher 3, Disco Elysium or Berserk (Manga) levels of writing here, just something with a basic plot structure executed in a competent way. Though if we got Berserk levels of writing, I would certainly not be complaining.
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u/Odovakar Jul 05 '26
Engage failed in every conceivable way in terms of its writing, and I think one of the reasons is that it had no vision behind it. Even years later there is something of a debate in the fandom over whether or not a fully voiced main series installment was meant to be taken seriously or not.
The game could never find a balance between its drama and silly elements. If the entire game had been like Yunaka's chapter, I believe Engage would've been remembered more fondly, because at least the game would've picked a lane. Now we have shallow, overly colorful and incohesive characters looking out of place in scenes meant to be taken seriously. It's the worst of both worlds.
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u/BebeFanMasterJ Jul 05 '26
Honestly Yunaka is one of the best characters in the game in terms of her dialogue.
"I have a killer's eyes."
Like, people dunk on Engage's dialogue a lot (and it's fair to) but this is a legitimately great clue in as to what kind of person she actually is.
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u/Mustang1718 Jul 05 '26
Laura Post is a fantastic voice actor. That line especially was very good. Yunaka is cringe as hell, but you feel the shift there once she realizes she fucked up.
And to save some Googling, Laura Post voices a ton of stuff, but I know her from Catherine in FE3H, Kasumi in Persona 5 Royal, and Yuki in 13 Sentinels. I have also seen a ton of talk about Primrose in Octopath Traveler, and I just learned she voices her too.
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u/RamsaySw Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
At its core, the fundamental issue with Engage's story is that the writers had no plan and no vision for it - when writing a story, having an actual plan is extremely important because it provides an anchor to ground all of the writers' ideas around so that they can remain focused. Engage's plot is what happens when you don't have a vision - you end up writing scenes in isolation because they sound interesting in theory without any understanding of how they would fit in a broader overarching story, and the result of this is a story that feels contrived, incohesive and incoherent.
It explains why Engage cannot commit to a tone, or why key character arcs that should form the emotional core of the entire story are resolved in minutes, or why its main villain's objective changes multiple times throughout the story, or the countless contrivances that plague its writing.
I'd be remiss not to bring up Camelin's analysis of Engage's plot which breaks this problem down comprehensively: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbV5xfrrEVQ
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u/MelkorTheDarkOne Jul 05 '26
You thought we were lying when we said this games writing was trash? 😭
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u/LegalFishingRods Jul 05 '26
This is the normal reaction. People will tell you through forced smiles that they like it and "it's bad on purpose" or "so bad it's good" but it really isn't, it's just straight up bad.
The other excuse is that it doesn't take itself seriously, but you already know from Lumera's 9 minute death scene that this isn't true. It never succeeds at being emotional when it tries to be and it's never really funny when it tries to be either.
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u/Basaqu Jul 05 '26
Or people genuinely like it and just have a different opinion than yours? Just cause my opinion is I like it doesn't mean i'm lying through forced smiles lmao. Wild concept I know.
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u/LegalFishingRods Jul 06 '26 edited Jul 06 '26
I say that because it's tied to the whole "you're not SUPPOSED to take it seriously" or "it's just a cheesy Saturday morning cartoon!" excuses which are just factually wrong. The idea that Engage isn't playing itself fully seriously flies in the face of what is in the actual game. Engage is not being ironic. It actually expects you to be sad at Lumera's death and thinks it's a dramatic moment. The devs talk about Engage in interviews as a dramatic character-driven story and cast of characters people were supposed to be invested in for years.
I can't even understand the reverse argument, because if it's not playing it straight, then you're suggesting that the scene is ironic and the game is making fun of the MC's mother dying which when you think about it, that is a fucking bizarre thing to put into the story of your game.
If the game is playing it straight it's a bad scene because of how horrifically executed it is. You have no reason to care about this character and it is overly melodramatic.
If it isn't playing it straight, then it is an equally awful scene just for a different reason - that it's incredibly tone deaf to start your game with "haha the protag's mother died lol look at her flop around for 9 minutes as she dies lol."
That's what I meant. If you assume the game's scenes have the opposite intention the scenes still do not work, it literally does not make sense to defend the game with "its bad on purpose" because the scenes are still bad even when you view them in that way. It's an excuse people force to defend Engage that doesn't actually make any sense when you apply it to scenes from Engage.
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u/No_Lemon_1770 Jul 07 '26 edited Jul 07 '26
I'm surprised you bother. Can't even have a different perspective on Engage without dickheads going "cOPE!!!" lol.
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u/AtsuhikoZe Jul 05 '26
It's okay to admit you have a lower bar than most
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u/Basaqu Jul 05 '26
Nah just different tastes. I don't look down on others like that.
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u/Hellioning Jul 05 '26
It's remarkable how a good half the comments in here are not only 'Engage is bad' they're also 'everyone who likes Engage is lying to themselves.'
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u/Tuskor13 Jul 05 '26
I can not take this game seriously
Life-changing advice for Engage's story. Don't take it seriously. I'm serious. As Engage's biggest dickrider, I've learned that if ypu stop viewing Engage's story seriously and just look at it more like a Saturday morning cartoon, it becomes way more digestible. It's a genuinely fun story when you stop expecting anything groundbreaking from it.
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u/TehProfessor96 Jul 05 '26
Saturday morning cartoons had characters I could get invested in. Engage has none.
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u/RCRocha86 Jul 05 '26
I play for gameplay so I don’t mind at all. Btw, if you play in Japanese VA with English subtitles and you can nderstwnd Japanese ofc… there are some hilarious change.
Example: the scene alear meets the villain and the rings got stolen, he scream some thing like: kashitekudasai (please give me back) very different in English, totally funny since alear is suppose to be mad at that moment.
Just enjoy the support dialogue, Rosado, kagetsu and diamante/ivy (wish they were a couple) have some good interactions. Almost everyone of the desert kingdom are fun to listen.
Also there is unique dialogue for some emblems and their dlc. Ike/soren e.g.
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u/shin_goji Jul 05 '26
Another aspect of the dialogue I noticed was that everything was so platonic?
I'm not entirely sure how to word it but I noticed that when going down support routes there wasn't anything solid or concrete. As far as I remember I don't recall a single character saying "I love you" or any thing big like that. There was definitely stuff like "I care for you" and "you're a good friend" or "you mean a lot to me" but thats it. I might be mistaken its been a while since I played.
I also don't remember anyone in the main cast of heroes being mean or rude to anyone else but again its been a while.
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u/ragunyans Jul 05 '26
There are a few characters who will say I love you in their S supports, but for the most part a lot of references to romance were toned down in the English version. Though the original still didn't have much of it outside of Alear and their chosen partner (with Lapis and her implied crush on Alcryst being the LONE indication of other characters having feelings for one another.)
Fogado being the flirt character of the game, but constantly calling Alear "ally" in what was clearly meant to be an affectionate/romantically charged S support is an example that kills me lol.
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u/shin_goji Jul 05 '26
Ah thanks. I haven't played this game for a while so my memory of it isn't the best. I remember Lapis having a crush on Alcryst but thats pretty much it. Its funny because I'm a massive fan of the support system and I remember grinding for hours to get all of the Fates supports (perfect example of quantity over quality imo) but I don't recall a lot of the supports in this game. I remember ones from older games but most of these just didn't click with me, some of them were good but maybe its just me.
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u/Sufficient-Owl-2925 Jul 05 '26
Well, Alear was a mythical being asleep for a thousand years. I would also go nuts if they woke up while I'm alive.
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u/Sentinel10 Jul 06 '26
Yunaka is what happens when someone gets the weird idea to put in literal meme humor for a character.
And that's not even a joke. From what I've read, Yunaka's dialogue (at least in Japan) is literal internet humor over there.
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u/eshy752_ Jul 05 '26
I mean I’d also be pretty pumped talking to literal jesus which is what Alear practically is in Elyos.
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u/InfoWarrerREBORN Jul 05 '26
Poor guy read the online opinion on the game before purchasing then posted about it for people to agree with him. THEN continued to keep playing!
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u/LycanChimera Jul 05 '26
Yunaka is one of the few places where they are doing it purposely. See some of her supports for more details. In general though, yeah. This game can have hilariously bad dialogue at times.
Sometimes all the divine dragon worship feels a little better because Alear is actively uncomfortable with it.
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u/GrapefruitFar1242 Jul 05 '26
All the IQ went into gameplay design and nothing was left over for the writing of character designs.
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u/Motivated-Chair Jul 05 '26
Inteligent System writting team happened, same team that gave US Awakening and Fates.
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u/SlamSlamOhHotDamn Jul 05 '26
The way Engage fans defend the writing you'd believe this game was some kind of parody of the FE franchise that doesn't take itself seriously, but when you actually play it the game takes itself completely seriously and it's just dogshit writing.
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u/stillestwaters Jul 05 '26
It’s fine, it’s a little goofy but fine. How everyone gushes over the MC makes for a few funny situations.
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u/Palladiamorsdeus Jul 05 '26
Once or twice sure. Constantly, consistently the entire game, including the literal princess of the kingdom who worships your arch nemesis? Gets pretty old.
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u/ABSMeyneth Jul 05 '26
Yeah you're not meant to take the game seriously. The dialogues are awful and the story itself is atrocious. Some of the supports are fairly good but some characters are so one note as to be annoying. And there's a couple good characters, unit and personality wise, I can only play if I mute the game because their voice acting is that bad. It is what it is.
Game mechanica are great though. If you get past the foolishness, Engage is a top tiered FUN game.
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u/TrikKastral Jul 05 '26
Bruh this is such cope. The game tries to take itself completely seriously. Just because it’s terrible does not mean it’s not self serious.
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u/ComicDude1234 Jul 05 '26
Yunaka is hilarious and is one of the best characters in the game. Stay mad if you want, you can’t argue against perfection.
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u/EphidelLulamoon Jul 05 '26 edited Jul 05 '26
Nothing happened, Engage was always like this. When you see people praising it it's for its gameplay, not story or characters.
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u/HuntResponsible2259 Jul 05 '26
Would suck if that was a part of her character... Like a diliberate move to make herself look... Different and less of a threat... Humm... That would be so much better...
Also, quick little advice... Stop thinking about what other people say about the game. Make your own opinion rather than just play the game like someone else told you to feel.
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u/Sword_of_Dusk Jul 05 '26
I mean, OP brought this up because of how they feel, not anyone else. Clearly they have their own opinion.
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u/WeebWoobler Jul 05 '26
The worst part of the Fortune's Weave hype cycle is people kicking up all this dirt about Engage, drawing out this tired discourse.
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u/AtsuhikoZe Jul 05 '26
I agree with you OP, sadly people will say "it's supposed to be cringe and poorly written that's why it's actually good!"
A lot of people try to justify engages writing, just mash through dialogue and enjoy the gameplay and graphics/music
The writers didn't intend for anyone to pay much attention or think too deeply on it, so don't lol
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u/aquatrez Jul 05 '26
It's definitely more in line with the writing style of the 3DS games (Awakening and Fates), which gave me whiplash after how much I was enjoying the writing direction of SoV and 3H.
If you're not a fan, you'll be happy to learn that Fortune's Weave does not appear to be continuing in this direction and will likely be back to the writing style of 3H!
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u/SmokyDragon97 Jul 05 '26
Thats the caveat with Engage. Some of the best systems and gameplay.
But then story and dialogue so bad your almost aswell just muting the dialogue or skipping the cutscenes...
Personally I didnt skip a thing, determined I could find something worthwhile in these terrible characters and ultimately quit a few chapters off the finishline. The characters are badly written, incredibly cringe and one note.
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u/Sword_of_Dusk Jul 05 '26
There's one moment in the chapter before the finale where I think Alear completely kills it performance-wise. It contrasts well with a much earlier moment of theirs and actually shows a lot of character growth. It's the one moment I can think of that I legitimately like, no strings attached.
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u/Palladiamorsdeus Jul 05 '26
Some of the best combat, not systems. The game is at odds with itself at every turn. With money sinks that start early and SP coming in at a trickle combined with random encounters that level with you, you'd think they wanted you to grind. Wrong! Encounters respawn once a day. This limits not only that but any sort of experimentation you want to do with... anything. Want to see if forged weapons evolve into better versions than store bought? Too bad you don't have rare resource that you only get after combat!
The combat on Engage IS fun but you have to wade through so much to get there.
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u/Basaqu Jul 05 '26
I think some of you approach it with a way different/wrong mindset. It's not dead serious war story, it's shounen adventure with silly moments and some seriousness sprinkled it. These dialogues are basically just skits. Obviously humor is incredibly subjective, but I found a lot of it genuinely (unironically) funny and endearing.
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u/Palladiamorsdeus Jul 05 '26
Ah yes, the good old "You're doing it wrong!" Such a classic way of dismissing others opinions.
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u/NotOnTheDot__ Jul 05 '26
Just skip the cutscenes and focus on the gameplay, it truly is amongst the best in the series
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u/ShotzTakz Jul 05 '26
I mean, many FE games are explicitly cringe. And compared to Fates, Engage is high literature.
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u/TehProfessor96 Jul 05 '26
Fates at least had the decent to be catastrophically bad, Engage is just mind numbingly bland.
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u/bazzybond Jul 05 '26
She's more fun than all the other characters yapping about drinking tea in every support haha.
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u/SappyJoose Jul 05 '26
I mean, Yunaka talking like that is for a very good reason but even as someone who loves Engage I can admit the divine dragon worship is a bit much but does have at least one funny execution of it mid game
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u/BrotherCaptainLurker Jul 05 '26
Up until the Sombron stuff started to progress properly I was genuinely convinced it was all being played as a joke about chosen one/sacred relic plots. Alear's "no, let's run" and the English VA's delivery of the line was such a silly subversion of expectations, the way Alcryst and his retainers are introduced is a similar setup and payoff, Yunaka's "I have a killer's eyes" and then everybody going "OK, I believe you!" when she pretends that was a remotely normal tone of voice or thing to say, the part you're not at yet with the doodad drawer, etc.
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u/AvitarDiggs Jul 06 '26
The story of Engage is for Baby's First SRPG. You can ignore it.
The gameplay, though? Immaculate. I liked playing Engage's maps more than Three Houses and I think 3H is the better game. Admittedly, 3H is the only other FE game I've finished, but as a longtime SRPG player, Engage was still very enjoyable in terms of the combat.
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u/Peter_E_Venturer Jul 06 '26
The DLC is MUCH better but I love Yunaka because she is written so differently from the other characters
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u/Loogie1987 Jul 10 '26
Personally I'm not too big on engage. I'm trying to play through it but I'm not feeling it. Anyone got any advice? (In the time I got it I replayed all 4 routes of three houses and started and completed three hopes)
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u/Nikita-Akashya Jul 05 '26
1: Yunakas behaviour being insanely embarassing is just her overacting, while desperately trying to hide her past. She keeps slipping up though, so she overacts a lot to hide her slip ups.
2: Alear is literally God to these people. You are finding it cringe that people gush over meeting an actual deity walking among them. The funny part here is that Alear herself thinks it's weird, making her the straight man to everyone elses weird behaviour.
Engage is a great saturday morning cartoon and the gameplay is amazing. I also really liked the supports in this game. Zelkov and Kagetsu were 2 of my highlights. Both of them are absolute weirdos with a heart of gold. Not to mention Alfreds strange obsession with digging holes everywhere to fix problems. Also, once you get past the memes, the game is surprisingly deep and insanely depressing in certain parts. That one chapter neat the end made me bawl my eyes out. It was so sad.
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u/nannei Jul 05 '26
Calling Engage story Saturday morning cartoon is frankly an insult to your average Saturday morning cartoon.
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u/TrikKastral Jul 05 '26
Bruh Saturday Morning Cartoon’s have a way better understanding of storytelling tone than Engage.
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u/Metbert Jul 05 '26
Rather than Saturday Cartoon it's pretty much an old tokkusatsu, serious moments alongside funny, silly and over the top stuff.
The emblem ring are pretty much the "big cool thing" equivalent of giant mechas and kaijus.
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u/SomeIdioticBrit Jul 05 '26
I've said before that Engage has one of my favourite casts in the franchise, it's just alot of it's standouts join in the mid to late game (funnily enough I think Yunaka is one of a couple exceptions to this). I still love the early goobers but I kinda understand them souring someone's opinion of the game, even if it's a little unfair
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u/Mustang1718 Jul 05 '26
I see the Saturday morning cartoons line pretty often, and it finally hit me that it feels like the Masters of the Universe movie. The characters might as well shout "I have the power!" when using the Engage mechanic.
At other times it feels like RuPaul's Drag Race though. This is the story.
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u/BlackwingF91 Jul 05 '26
Get ready. Yunaka is literally the best written character in that game...
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u/ragunyans Jul 05 '26
We really gotta stop pushing this narrative when most of the cast has a similar 'deal' to her.
They hugely present some quirk that is either hiding something deeper, or explained by something deeper. Alfred, Celine, Pandreo, Panette, Diamant, Ivy, Hortensia, Zelkov, etc - there are definitely more standouts to be had in this cast. Genuinely don't get why people cling to Yunaka in particular.
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u/Odovakar Jul 05 '26
They hugely present some quirk that is either hiding something deeper, or explained by something deeper. Alfred
I think Alfred is the perfect example of how this method of writing characters, at least in the way it's executed in Engage, does not work.
Alfred is the first royal sibling to join Alear and is in a lot of cutscenes. He should be a character of importance, with enough time to have something of an arc, but story-wise he contributes next to nothing.
His supports are extraordinarily repetitive and you have to dig deep to find out the developers' stated reason as to why he acts the way that he does. Personally, I don't buy the excuse, nor do I think it justifies how badly written his supports tend to be. If anything it just raises a lot more questions than answers.
When Engage had just released, a lot of people on this very subreddit were confused as to why Alfred died so suddenly in the epilogues. His deliberately vague disease is so unimportant to who he is that many players miss it.
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u/MMAmaZinGG Jul 05 '26
I can't believe most of this thread is defending Engage's writing
I cannot believe this. Now I know why nintendo thinks this is what people want
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u/Rex__Lapis Jul 05 '26
Lots of cope in these comments for sure. Bro just ignore the story. Bro just look at it like a Saturday morning cartoon.
Imagine having some standards.
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u/charlieisawful Jul 05 '26
gonna be honest, next time I replay the game I’m gonna have it on mute and skip all the cutscenes. probably just gonna listen to a podcast or something when playing
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u/PetalPal4Life Jul 05 '26
Yeah I won’t deny that the dialogue/supports were by far the worst thing about the game. It’s just so jarring compared to every previous game in the series (even Awakening and Fates).
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u/Tarquaron Jul 05 '26
That's not very zappy of you