Playing engage atm. Seriously who writes these dialogues?

[u/Rex__Lapis]

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?

[u/Square-Friend-9219]

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. 

[u/ragunyans → u/Square-Friend-9219]

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

[u/TurnToShadow → u/ragunyans]

Counterpoint: make the dragon ladies kiss

[u/Far-Childhood-4640 → u/Square-Friend-9219]

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.

[u/acart005 → u/Far-Childhood-4640]

Celine x Alcryst is why I'm so mad they didn't have paired endings

[u/EQGallade → u/Square-Friend-9219]

That’s really only the supports with Alear. Avatar supports are bad, news at 11.

[u/RamsaySw → u/Square-Friend-9219]

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.

[u/Panory → u/RamsaySw]

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.

[u/FoxBallFlat → u/Square-Friend-9219]

Rafal from the DLC was a breath of fresh air. He's literally the ONLY team member who's actually confrontational with the others.

[u/cheekydorido → u/Square-Friend-9219]

You speak as if everyone doesn't treat byleth the exact same way.

For alear at least it makes sense considering they're equivalent to jesus.

[u/VillainsGonnaVil → u/cheekydorido]

Byleth is less of a character and more of a silent protagonist so their supports, imo, often do a good job of bringing character development to the person Byleth is conversing with. Off the top of my head I'm thinking of my favorite character Ferdinand, who has some really good character development in his Byleth B and C supports.

Yes, the characters all admire Byleth and feel supported by them, but the conversations seem much meatier than the "I'll support you always" "Thank you" vibes of the Alear supports.

[u/cheekydorido → u/VillainsGonnaVil]

I get what you're saying but i don't buy it.

The characters are simply too quick to open up to byleth and tell them their deepest secrets and traumas unprompted. Despite them being basically mute and with dialogue options that don't ammount to much.

All of the class leaders constantly lick byleth's boots and don't feel earned, especially since they're supposed to be something like a newborn since they only really gained sentience last week.

You expect me to believe this mute shell of a human being that had their first thoughts last month that doesn't even know what the continent's main religion is is this incredibly swave and charismatic person that everyone trusts completely? They get put into a teaching job too, holy nepotism!

Hell the whole war is predicated on whatever path byleth choses even.

Byleth is a bigger mary sue than robin, and hell even corrin. At least corrin has faults

[u/VillainsGonnaVil → u/cheekydorido]

Byleth is just a boring, nothing character. Corrin has "faults" but never suffers any consequences for them so they don't matter at all. For example when they blindly trust Anthony and Ryoma and Xander are like "we love that you're such a naive idiot, you're the best, Corrin." They even are able to have an entire war in Conquest without killing anyone, somehow.

But I digress. Yes you can say they're too quick to open up to Byleth, but I'd rather have that than a support like Ferdinand's than Alear/Yunaka, where it just regurgitates the same conversation over for two supports and you learn nothing about her.

It was so bad that I changed my plans to S support her and S supported Pandreo instead.

[u/girlsareicky → u/cheekydorido]

Technically Byleth is like 17 years old. Only baby Sothis gained sentience last week.

If you imagine that you, the player, controlling the class leaders in the prologue is actually Byleth shouting combat tactics at them, it helps make more sense. Also Byleth just shows up and Rhea instantly makes them a professor. The class leaders don't know that she didn't test him...they think he's hot shit

[u/tirex367 → u/girlsareicky]

Byleth is 20 at the beginning of FE16