#and tikis paralogue is annoying

[sieglinde-freud]

gay nerds flirting

gerolau is so funny to me. what if all of our other friends were fucking stupid and youre the only one who doesn’t make me pop an ulcer when you open your mouth. and we were both guys. like omfg ok boys we get it youre both losers go make out with white noise playing in the background

[yuuminni]

diamant's special class having access to S sword is such bait considering he does best at being an axe boy. great build growth AND decent speed growth AND a personal that gives him +15 hit on player phase which is extremely good for axes since axes by nature have low hit rate... whats not to like. doubling with tomahawk is very nice and its just not worth it to weigh kagetsu down with it, and panette is glued to her lyn engraved killer axe

[zorua-gaming]

Divine Paralogues

Guess who finally got around to buying and playing the Engage DLC?

So apparently I just head to the Lookout Ridge to pick up the 3H bracelet.

Ooh, new invocation for the list! “Lead us, Emblem of Rivals!”

XD omg they did the 3H box art pose!

Okay, so I’ve already beaten the game at this point on this save file, so I’m getting a neat lil Byleth dialogue that I’m assuming is a bonus since they can be unlocked WAY earlier than when you get him.

I’ve heard that Tiki’s paralogue is pretty tough, so I find it interesting that in the same DLC wave as her came a new Emblem that you can just get by walking to a specific spot and has a starting weapon that is effective against dragons. And I mean that in the sense of there being other Emblems that also have later weapons that can be effective against dragons, but if you bought the DLC on launch and started it as soon as it was unlocked, you wouldn’t any of those Emblems or weapons unlocked yet.

And now we have “Dream well, Emblem of Dragons!” for the list.

Omg, LOVE that she starts that Emblem wake-up as a dragon.

Hear that, Alear? Tiki is ALSO a Divine Dragon, SO WHERE ARE YOUR POINTY EARS?!

ULTRA-MEGA-NAP SLEEP BONDING!!

Ooh, the 3H bracelet randomized to Dimitri for this map!

Oh, it randomizes every turn.

Oooh, engaging with the bracelets looks slightly different than engaging with the rings!

Once again, maybe this is because I’m playing Normal/Casual, but that wasn’t so bad. Only reason it took so long is that I sent Chloé and Seadall out back to get that glittery tile.

Add “Embolden us, Emblem of Strength!” to the list.

Hi, Hector. Wanna mind explaining to me where the FUCK Eliwood is? You know Roy is gonna cry that you and Lyn ditched him, right?

“Looks like you’ve got grit, just like he did.” Wait, are you comparing me to Eliwood? Okay, I might forgive you.

We’re gonna be fighting Soren on a lava mountain?

And now we have “Advise us, Emblem of Acumen!” for the list.

Stay away from the paw prints to avoid being hit by lava, got it.

Alright Soren, I brought you your boyfriend. Will you please cooperate with us now?

And now we have “Soar high, Emblem of Revelation!” (Still don’t like that they localized it as Revelation; Azura got done DIRTY.)

Oh she did the lil camera-facing walk forward that she does in her cutscene in Birthright.

That map layout was annoying. Why did I bring so few fliers?

Kinda thought Alear was about to say something along the lines of “Interesting, because in this world we have a Ring of the Princess Exalt.”

And now we have “Awaken, Emblem of Bonds!” for the list.

I like how Chrom started that in his Awakening box art pose.

Okay, why did that Emblem awakening cutscene only show Chrom if Robin is in there too?

Also why is Robin so fucking TINY?!

Why is Alfred giving us instructions/advice this paralogue when in all the other ones, it’s been Vander doing that?

“I feel a bit self-conscious fighting my father’s other half, but I will do the best I can!” Lucina, GIRL. WHAT are you talking about? You literally tried once to kill Robin!

And now we have the final one for the list, “Heed our summons, Emblem of Heroes!”

Okay right off the bat, Veronica’s kinda funny here. Like, “No it is YOU who will be serving ME.” Not the exact line, but the way she delivered it...

And I have now completed all the Divine Paralogues. Onto the Fell Xenologue!

[derekscorner]

Fiery Opinions: Elyos Sillyos

Four Dragonstones but only two Dragon units

I finally crawled my way through the dlc after waiting for what felt like ages for the rest of it to release. It’s been so long in fact that I had to reread my initial ramble of the base game to put some thoughts together.

I had a couple restarts but only two full (currently on third) playthroughs of this game and I’ve found myself with more mixed thoughts than positive ones. In a weird way at that because the dlc isn’t bad per say but there’s subjective issues I had with how it works.

The first thing I’ll get out of the way is that I find it a bit frustrating due to lack of New Game +.

You see, I didn’t like the dlc for 3 Houses either but a plus of that dlc is that I only had to play it once. It’s story was (apparently) non-canon and okay at best but once you deal with that frustrating final chapter you dont have to worry about it anymore.

Any time you begin a new game plus on 3 houses you can march into the Abyss and recruit any dlc character you like. You can also use the Abyss’ facilities and even level it up, it’s fully open to you.

FE: Engage does not have this perk. It’s lack of new game plus means that you have to replay the DLC every time you do a file if you wish to make use of it’s five addition units.

I personally find that annoying because it defeats the point to a degree. I found the added paralogues more annoying than fun and, sure, you can joke that it’s a skill issue. The point is that I do not find it fun and I do not wish to redo it.

This becomes a problem because I rather liked the parallel Zephia (Zelestia) as well as the addition of actual dragon units.

It’s already ridiculous that the two dragon units in the base game can’t turn into an actual dragon without Tiki’s bracelet but now I have to play through something I find frustrating just to get two additional dragons.

Dragons that come with two stones each yet, even then, Alear can’t use those stones. As of writing this I have yet to check of Veyle can make use of those stones. I am hoping at least she can due to sharing the Fell Child/Dragon class with Nil and Rafal but I am skeptical.

As I’ve come to play through Fire Emblem I can understand the frustration of being handed a dragon lord only to be denied being a f*cking dragon. I actually made my run of Fates harder than necessary because I refused to be anything other than a dragon when playing Corrin since they’re the only lord that has had the option.

As for the twin dragon units that I do get I do like them. I really like their dragon designs but I do not see myself ever using them after this playthrough because I don’t find the Fell Xenologue worth the annoyance.

I may be more annoyed than I’d normally be about this but I can’t help but rant when my only method of turning three of my five dragon units into actual dragons is via dlc. (3 of the 5 units coming from said dlc)

As for the two additional classes added I have yet to use them much. Just one of those seals costs a hilarious 28k in the shop even with the Silver Card. I’m not even sure I’ll bother testing them out between that cost and the hours of dlc I have to play through just to unlock them.

But enough of that rant let’s talk story.

More simplicity but that pleases me

It’s a simpler story than I expected but I appreciate that. I enjoyed the base game greatly for it’s simple & flawed story and this continued that. I was even convinced that Nil may be the bad twin for a moment...I mean I expected one of them to be bad but they did at least fool me as to which one it would be.

Alear is summoned to another Elyos but one that’s in it’s final moments. It seems like a simple reverse world (to the point that even the world map is flipped) but things are more different than it seems.

The first obvious change is the alternative Alear. They noticeably have full blue hair and given Nil’s infatuation for that alternative Alear I would go as far as to suspect that this Alear was a true divine dragon. A real child of Lumera.

I only have context clues at best for this theory but it’s what I’m choosing to go with because the alternative would be Nil wanting to f*ck her own sibling. I made that ‘greek gods incest’ joke when I did the Fates post but that’s still a step too far for me....despite the series’ tendency to add questionable love options.

Other stark changes I noticed was that alternative Sombron’s children are always born in twin pairs. He makes it so that one twin always kills the other as per his comically evil archetype but it’s something key to the story.

The Veyle of this world seemingly died in the war as well among many others such as Lumera. There’s some more typical stuff you’d also expect like the cast having flipped personalities but you see so little of them that it is of little note to me personally.

I do think this was intentional though. The dlc is short anyway so rather than focus on a “evil” cast they focused more on the new twin dragons Nil & Nel and reversed Hounds.

Oddly the Mauvier of this world is the same as the other but what stood out to me was the other three Hounds. They get enough attention that you’ll actually come to like them. Personally I liked Zelestia the most to the point I replayed it just to get those supports.

It wasn’t much but it was still a pleasant surprise to see a focus on more than just the two new shiny dragons. I honestly left the dlc indifferent to the dragon twins. They’re fun units to use because they can change into an actual dragon but I dont have strong feelings beyond that.

Daddy Issues

That’s not to say they didn’t get enough story themselves. These twins are at the root of the dlc and I was momentarily fooled by which one was bad. I just can’t really express thoughts deeper than this since I left the dlc more frustrated than happy.

I will say that Rafal left more of an impression on me than his sister solely because of one tangent he goes on. It’s made clear that Sombron cursed the dragonstone to some extent but rather than take that easy way out Rafal refuses to admit it was solely his fathers fault.

He accepted that he did the evil things and that he sought to be the Fell Heir. This stood out to me due to how easily things were forgiven or ignored in the base story just so a unit could be recruited to your army.

I do think that it’s brushed aside too quickly once he’s recruited in the main story but that Rafal is 1000yrs older and I’ve yet to see all his supports so I’ll leave it at that.

I’m sure some one who sees the previous post would expect more on the personality reversed main cast but I sadly can’t come to care for them. All of the story goes to the Four Winds and the twins.

I will admit that alternative Celine is hilariously pro war and I do find the state of this world intriguing due to it’s dead nature. Make no mistake, there is no alternative Elyos to save.

It also seems that Elyos as a world needs it’s divine dragons to thrive. I say this because the alternative Alear died when they killed Sombron yet the world wilts to nothing anyway.

And I know that Rafal is the one that turned the royals and many (if not all) citizens and soldiers into corrupted but he alone wouldn’t cause the land itself to wilt away. He doesn’t even have a dragon form nor that level of power until he gets the bracelets in chapter 6.

OH! Wait let’s talk about the Bracelet Emblems a bit.

An explanation I didn’t expect

At first I was a bit disappointed that the bracelet emblems didn’t speak in the Xenologues. They get a few words out but Nel’s goal is to put them to sleep. Our Alear seemingly lacks the power to revive them in Elyos Alter and Nel, as a fell dragon, can only put them to rest.

Nil/Rafal has the power to awaken them but they only appear as fell emblems and thus do not emote. At first this feels like a missed opportunity but I chalked it up to time & money shortage. (gotta pay for those voices)

But it was half way through that I realized something; the bracelets being put to sleep explains their presence in the main story.

In the base story you just randomly find Edelgards bracelet on the Somniel but now it makes sense as to how it got there. The twins and Winds aren’t the only ones who came to your Elyos as these bracelets also found their way there.

There’s no telling for how long they were in our Elyos due to the time difference of the parallel worlds nor do they acknowledge the other world but they will reference the dlc story in supports with someone like Rafal or Nil.

It wasn’t much but it was a neat little thing for me.

Conclusions

I think I’ll end it here since I feel like I’m stretching to even get this far. I ultimately liked the Four Winds and the little world building stuff I noticed but I’m not sure how strongly I’d pitch the dlc as “must buy”.

It’s a pain to replay it every time to get your new units and more than one person has pointed out how the DLC emblems can break the game. They can even break the story if you’re wearing one in moments like Chapter 11 or 22.

Why? Because those are key story moments when the intent can be undercut. You lack emblems in those moments due to story reasons...unless you’re using a bracelet. It wont mean much to some but it will mean more to others.

I will say that I think FE: Engage is perfectly fine if you avoid the DLC so buy at your own discretion. Bye now~

================================

Editors Note: This is a addition to my previous post on Engage. A part 7.5 if you will. For more of my trip through fire emblem you’ll find them here: Fiery Opinions <–(link)

[inversionimpulse]

So the Emblem Bracelets.

I’m sure it’s been datamined already, but don’t tell me, I want to guess.

Firstly - I expect it’ll be one bracelet to a continent. There’s too much Fire Emblem to draw from the same well more than once, maybe twice.

Second - I think they’ll focus on characters who do not use swords. There’s already a lot of those guys in the base game.

Before I get into hazy speculation based on the icons in the Ring Chamber, I’m going to guess based on other factors. Roy’s conversation with Alear after his paralogue feels like enough of a mirror to Marth’s conversation after his paralogue that I feel fairly confident that, since Tiki is the first Emblem Bracelet, Idunn will be the last.

In fact, I’m generally inclined to give more weight to characters who’ve been mentioned by name in the Paralogues, so Deirdre and Saias for example also seem plausible. Both of them would break my prediction that there won’t be more than one from each setting, though.

One of the DLC Emblems has some kind of sentimental connection to a volcano map. This is... annoying, because I can’t think of many good examples. Durandal’s hiding place in 6, in which case, Lilina? Kauku Caves, and a member of the Laguz Alliance? I think the best bet is that one map at the end of Awakening for Robin, which wasn’t a volcano map but was story-wise on a volcano.

Icons now.

One of the icons is a flame. I suspect this is connected to the volcano, in which case we have a really annoying double-requirement of both [associated with fire] and [a volcano is important to them], and I can’t think of anyone who fits that and also seems like a likely choice. Maybe Lilina, maybe maybe Robin.. If it’s not related to the volcano, then I strongly suspect that this is Saias.

Another of the icons is just a thing with four arrows pointing out from it. This is such a weirdly specific and yet vague symbol that I don’t know who it could represent. My gut says Robin, for some reason. On the other hand, I think it might represent the Loptr icon at the centre of Holy War’s blood zodiac thing, in which case Deirdre (or her kids, or Arvis) are possible.

One icon appears to be a dish containing two objects. My guess is this symbolizes either water or duality. If it’s water, that’s easy, Azura or Lilith. If it’s duality, that’s tougher. I Can’t Believe It’s Not Eirika and Ephraim from Warriors? Eliwood and Hector to complete the set? Lyon? It’s also worth noting that the dish resembles the sort that you would drink sake out of, in which case, perhaps Ryouma? And something in my gut says Pelleas, although I’m sure I could not say why.

The next resembles stylized wind, or perhaps a shooting star. I think it’s likely one of the raven, hawk, cat, or wolf laguz. Tibarn, Naesala, Ranulf, or Nailah. The herons also seem possible, but I really doubt they’re going to let you have three dancers at once.  Maybe Sephiran, though. Shooting star probably means Astra, which seems unlikely when that’s already represented by Lyn and in any case would mean another sword character, but I guess it could be Ayra, Shannan, or Mareeta. It could also represent Shez’s Shadowflash. ... it does also remind me of a dragon’s head and neck, though. Duma’s in particular. Alm?

As I’ve said, I suspect this last one is Idunn... and if it isn’t I really don’t have any guesses as to who it could represent.

[j0hb0y]

Idk who designed that tiki divine paralogue, but it's like the worst experience of the entire game.

Who would've thought that 2 dragons, who can freeze your units and can attack from 1-3 tiles, (and 2 other annoying enemies) every 3 turns as reinforcement is annoying as hell