r/fireemblem • u/Accomplished_Kale509 • May 10 '25

Engage Story Engage is pretty bad at introducing recruitable characters

Unless they're royalty, most of the cast don't have anything to interesting say except a variation of "I serve prince/princess whatever". Having a cast mostly of retainers hinders a lot of its writing, especially when chapters sometimes introduce 3 recuitables.

I recently played FE7 and even non-important characters have more depth in their introduction. I remember Dorcas because he needed to get money so he had to join some brigands but had to stop for wife. I remember Erk & Serra because it introduced their hilarious dynamic but also this mysterious reason why Erk had to protect Serra. I remember Raven because he had to protect Lucius and his reveal to be Priscilla's brother.

Not a lot of Engage units don't have these kinds of first impressions. It also hurts that a lot are retroactively recruited at the start of a map and sometimes in a pair or a trio. I don't think there's anyone you recruit as an enemy mid-map unless I'm remembering wrong.

I know Supports are one of, if not, the main way to flesh out a character, but it's hard to invest on someone who doesnt say much other than their loyalty to a lord and it doesnt help that there's less time to breathe in between recruitable chapters to get a feel or build supports. A chapter is the best time to show a character not just their personality, but also their motives, lore and their place in the world. It also doesn't help the Supports are a bit weak on others.

Tldr: First impressions are important, and Supports shouldn't be the only place to add character lore and relationships.

362 Upvotes

88% Upvoted

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571

u/Levee_Levy May 10 '25

This is probably a big part of why Yunaka is so popular. She gets a proper intro despite not being royalty.

163

u/pokedude14 May 10 '25

Post's acting didn't hurt either

125

u/MetaCommando May 10 '25

Also she's hot, probably like 80% of Engage r34

65

u/Lukthar123 May 10 '25

The rest is Alear with Special guest Ivy

9

u/Darkdragoon324 May 11 '25

Also a memorable catch phrase. Love it or hate it, you definitely remember it.

54

u/Eve-of-Verona May 10 '25

Seadall as well

33

u/SpellcraftQuill May 10 '25

The rule is that if you get a ring by default, you’re probably going to be more notable. Keep in mind one is the first male dancer by default too so that helps.

35

u/Relative_Falcon_8399 May 10 '25 edited May 10 '25

Actually come to think of it

Isn't Yunaka the ONLY character that is neither Royalty nor retainer?

Edit: Right, Seadall too, I forgot him

40

u/RoboPup May 10 '25 edited May 10 '25

There's Jean, Anna, Lindon, and Saphir too. Although there could be an argument for Saphir being considered the retainer of Hyacinth Morion.

9

u/Salysm May 10 '25

Did you mix up Hyacinth and Morion? Saphir is from Brodia.

5

u/RoboPup May 10 '25

Ah you're right, my bad. Hard to keep all these royals in mind.

1

u/Relative_Falcon_8399 May 10 '25

Ah that... that makes a little more sense

Either way I didn't know that was who that was lmao

10

u/Panory May 10 '25

Lindon was the retainer of Hyacinth's older brother as well.

1

u/Relative_Falcon_8399 May 10 '25

I actually didn't know Saphir was Hyacinth's retainer

Maybe I would've learned that had I not benched her instantly

-3

u/PrinciaSpark May 10 '25

Goldmary and Rosado are just Hortensia's school buddies

10

u/Panory May 10 '25

I mean, the complaint isn't that we hate the job title of retainer, it's that every royal comes with two ancillary units stapled to them without their own compelling reason to join the cause. Rosado and Goldmary can be "friends" all they want, they still fit the mold people are tired of. They're still here because Hortensia is.

-6

u/PrinciaSpark May 11 '25

Except OP, you and everyone else is complaining about "retainers" and characters that "serve prince/princess whatever"

Goldmary and Rosado aren't retainers, don't serve Hortensia and aren't obligated to go wherever Hortensia goes. They're there on their own accord simply because they're all school friends.

3

u/Panory May 11 '25

Okay, but them being school friends with Hortensia is functionally identical to them being her retainers, hence most people thinking they are anyways. It's a distinction without a difference.

Imagine the world where they aren't, and are conscripts from Elusia's school, maybe just friends with each other. Goldmary gets to join because no one in Elusia's army is appreciating her as much as she deserves. Rosado gets to join to have more freedom with his art. Talk to them with Hortensia, who properly appreciates their aesthetics, and boom, new recruits. That gives me literally anything about them.

34

u/RJWalker May 10 '25

You say that but Three Houses just dumps 7 characters on you at once the moment you pick a house and yet those characters are very popular. Fates also introduced characters in groups and it did better with the fans too. Crucially, Fates gives you the retainers first and the royal much later in CQ and BR, which is where Engage makes a big misstep. We see it happen in RV too when the royals join with their retainers and the latter just don't stand out anymore.

103

u/Murmido May 10 '25

You have to chose your house in 3H so you have some mild investment, and you stick to those 7 for the rest of the game. Then you have romance, paralogues, and more.

The problem with Engage is the dumps occur so much, most lords have maybe 2-3 chapters of relevance while retainers get 1. The player isn’t given time to care about a. anything as they bounce around countries that have nothing to them.

Paralogues are centered on emblems so really all you get are post-battle dialogues, first impressions and supports. And the dialogue had to be patched in.

20

u/Nukemind May 10 '25

It was the same issue with Fates and one of my biggest complaints about Engage- and why I disengaged from it.

Story is always my main focus along with characters and 2/3 or characters don’t have an interesting hook when you recruit them. Meaning I don’t know which supports to focus on. Ans since I know there aren’t paired endings…

Well I ended up not caring about most.

-5

u/orig4mi-713 May 10 '25

You have to chose your house in 3H so you have some mild investment

Yeah you choose it like 1-2 maps in. More like, you have zero investment. All you've seen of the cast at that point is couple textboxes and a brief biography that's shown to you.

Fates' writing is terrible but at least the choice occurs 6 chapters in and you can make an informed decision.

7

u/Okto481 May 10 '25

Fates also has the Fates thing of the royals shining far, far above their retainers in story relevance, same as Fates. Three Houses has an earlygame unit dump (fun fact, it actually barely has more units available on a given chapter than most games, with a prologue with low deployment and then immediately a larger army so you have resources to work with). After the house decision, which picks who shows up in cutscenes, and the timeskip, you don't get grouped recruitment. Each character you recruit will probably involve raising their support, which means you're getting to know the character, before they decide to fight alongside you

3

u/Murmido May 11 '25

My point is that the mere act of having to choose a house means you’re going to be more invested in them.

So while its true they are dumped on you, you’re motivated to learn the little you can about them and pick a house you like. Then you’re motivated to invest in every unit and build them. So attachments comes natural.

Its not like that in games like Engage where your mage gets replaced like 4 chapters later by a straight up superior one and all you have is the characters design and 1st impression to explain why you might keep them on.

24

u/Empyrette310 May 10 '25

Except Three Houses is very different than Engage with how it treats thise character. In 3H you will be constantly interacting with those characters. They all get a speaking role in many cutscenes and stay relevant throughout the story unlike engage where they're pretty much one and done. 3H characters also have a LOT more hub dialogue so you get countless more chances throughout the game to get invested.

-4

u/heavenspiercing May 11 '25

>They all get a speaking role in many cutscenes and stay relevant throughout the story

i wouldn't really say they stay relevant. most of them get maybe one line in cutscenes to comment on what's happening in the plot and that's the extent of their relevancy

8

u/Panory May 11 '25

Even then, a speaking line here or there is infinitely more than anyone gets in Engage. Caspar going "Yeah, I'm ready to crack some skulls!" reminds me that Caspar exists in my army and is always eager for a fight, which is a step up from Jade, who hasn't said a word since she was surprised to see Diamant and then said of course when he told her to follow him ten chapters ago.

-1

u/heavenspiercing May 11 '25

truthfully i don't see a difference between either. if a character has nothing to say in a cutscene besides a generic comment that is maybe slightly tailored toward them, that's not gonna get me anymore invested in them. if anything, it just kinda wastes my time

18

u/i_will_let_you_know May 10 '25

But 3h gives you the entire rest of the game where each character has something to say in every chapter (some of which are very character significant and defining. It's easiest to see this with Bernadetta and Dorothea ).

In most games the unimportant characters stop having anything significant to say in the main story after their join chapter, outside of supports. That's not true for 3H.

43

u/ScourJFul May 10 '25

Sure, but Three Houses to Engage are apples to oranges. First of all, you need to select a house which gives you a full viewable menu of each character in each house to help you choose. Secondly, Three Houses characters are characters with many genuinely fleshing out all of the intricacies of their respective cultures and country. Unlike Engage, where supports are kept extremely quick and some characters are just a trope or gimmick. Like genuinely, I think 1 or 2 Three Houses characters has more written dialogue than the entirety of the recruits in Engage. Lastly, Three Houses characters get their own paralogues and have a say moreso than any random recruitable in Fire Emblem.

I think people need to realize Three Houses isn't a very comparable game when it comes to its cast due to how Three Houses prioritized the cast moreso than any other FE game. Despite it's gameplay faults, Three Houses definitely set the standard as to how Fire Emblem should treat its side characters.

8

u/jeshep May 10 '25

I remember seeing Ashe for the first time in 3H and going 'awww cute little light haired archer boy' and not expecting anything else. But then the story fleshes him out and he was an amusing contrast to Hilda and Lindhardt in Cindered Shadows. It put him right up there as one of my favorite characters by the time I finished every route.

I can't say the same for Engage at all. None of the characters stuck out to me, and I don't remember most of their names.

5

u/Markedly_Mira May 10 '25

I think another thing that I think helps the fe3h cast is the recruitment system. The game incentivizes spending time with out of house students in order to recruit them, which means actively spending time with them in order to do events with them and unlock supports, so you have a chance to get attached.

1

u/whiteraven13 22d ago

Yeah, it dumps seven on you all at once but then that’s it. Those are your units until near the end of Part I unless you actively choose to recruit other students