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What games are you playing 2023: WGAYP, Engage!

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SnowFire:
Guess somebody might as well start the new thread.

Finished C9, up to C10 in FE Engage.  Playing on Hard Casual (for 10 Divine Pulses + battle saves, death = reload / rewind still) with the Heroes DLC but without doing any grinding, at least so far.  It seems pretty great so far, definitely a nice update of some of the "classic" FE ideas (i.e. *strong* counters, somewhat fixed character initial builds) rather than the more freeform system of Fates.  I also like the reduction of some of the "monastery busywork"...  although stuff like the Arena is still "press this button 3 times and watch the game play itself" for a huge support bonus at the cost of your time, and there's still some picking-up-glowing-stuff-on-the-ground simulator also seen in Triangle Strategy.   (I know you automatically get all bond points when you exit even if you missed a conversation, but is the same true for ore?)

I am a little worried with the Emblem system getting a little too nonsense once more rings are acquired.  I'd have definitely kind of preferred a system where you only had 3-4 Emblem users on the team, a la Jeanne d'Arc, to make them stand out more - will this still be true when there's 10 Emblem Rings on the field?  (And it'll presumably devalue the Bond Ring internal gacha system after practically nobody is wearing a Bond Ring anymore.)  I do like the lack of Rescue / Shove and fairly low movement by default to make the crazy Emblem movement powers feel properly significant.

Plot-wise, I was chatting with Djinn in Discord on this...  some speculation as of C6 or so.  (Usual disclaimer that I haven't read Internet spoilers/leaks/trailers, so this is just SF's speculation, not raw truth.)
Before the game begins, the totally obvious assumption everyone had was that Alear is the child of a Divine Dragon and a Fell Dragon to explain the mixed toothpaste hair + heterochromia eyes.  As of C3, I was saying that I was getting the impression based on dialogue that it would also be entirely consistent with what was stated that Alear was in fact just a Fell Dragon straight-up.  (Or, alternatively, that there is no distinction between Fell Dragons and Divine Dragons to begin with.)  Basically, do the Knights of the Old Republic plot where you are a mind-wiped villain given a new start, it's about choices not an evil nature or some such.  Lumera specifically says that she enjoyed *becoming* Alear's mother, which is a very suspicious turn of phrase (yeah, yeah, amnesia excuse).  Lumera also asks "did fighting me trigger any memories" after C2.  The flashback Alear has shows a mysterious red-haired person talking with Lumera, but Alear isn't in the picture.  More bluntly, the opening video shows a red-haired person "beneath" Alear, suggesting that the blue is just a nice magical coat of paint on top of a red fell dragon, perhaps explained by Lumera injecting her divine dragon energy into Alear as she claims at the end of C3.  At the time, I thought it was still possible there's some DBZ-fusion between Mysterious Red Person and Lumera's real kid that made Alear...  but...

..as of C6, I'm willing to call the original theory near-confirmed, or at least the narrative wants us to think this (and ruling out the fusion possibility).  Both the bad guy in C5 and at the very start of C7 express surprise that Lumera had a kid at all, saying that they thought she was the last of her kind.  Once might be flavor, but twice is a plot point - this is pretty well identical to the "Huh, that's weird, I thought Mycen didn't have a grandkid" lines in FE Echoes.  So yeah, Lumera somehow "adopted" a fell dragon kid, used Emblem Marth to turn them into a paragon of fighting for friends and justice. and that's gonna be the Big Surprise revealed soon, and the villain's gonna be all "YOU CANNOT DENY YOUR NATURE" and Alear's gonna be all "I stand with my friends!" etc. etc.

Going to presume that the mysterious magical girl is the same person as the shadowed boss ordering the evil team around and is also a fell dragon.  She also had a fully red-stone she said came from her sibling so I presume she's dealing with the fact that her sibling has been brainwashed to join team good.

Cmdr_King:
Final Fantasy VII Remake- Fin, kept forgetting to make a threat!

So everything in the game, for the most part, is at worst drags a little or is kinda messily executed and at best is fucking brilliant.  The degree to which the characters are captured really just makes the subset of people who were just angry at the ending completely baffling to me.  Like, look, whatever you think about Nomura or Kingdom Hearts or whatever the fuck, the writers clearly understand the cast and the heart of the original FFVII, so any new directions they take here are gonna ring true.

Honestly I think the game starts off kinda overtuned, enough that I just cranked it down to easy and left it.  It probably is actually fine after Guard Scorpion?  Or mostly fine, especially once the game properly explains some of the more arcade mechanics, but it really doesn't start very fun.  I do appreciate the balance they found though for making the customization robust but also giving themselves space to play later to make the next part feel like an expansion rather than having to treadmill the same level arc again.  I mean, it might anyways, but there's space left to explore.

Random Consonant:
Fire Emblem but it's also a magical girl anime Engage - Got past C11 and oh no it's the consequences of listening to a bunch of idiots from toxic masculinity kingdom, who could've seen this coming, certainly not I.  Oh well, can't say I was expecting much from the game on the writing front and it hasn't really... sunken below my low expectations, yet.

Dark Holy Elf:
Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hope - Finished this since my last writeup, more or less posted my thoughts in the Game Reviews 2022 thread already. A good game.

Tactics Ogre Reborn - Completed. An enjoyable enough spin on the original, I was a little leery of the cards but they ended up being pretty fun. Revival giving you a turn instantly makes most of the game easier than PSP, but then the final boss is much tougher, and a very satisfying ending to the game when he was a dud in PSP, so that's a good change in my books.

Into the Breach - Definitely enjoying this! It makes a fun little bus game. Had a bit of a learning curve but after a couple failed playthroughs I've had a 100% success rate as I work through each of the teams in sequence (going for four island finishes because why not), although two of the most recent teams (the frozen titans and the hazardous mechs) I've come very close to losing. One thing I appreciate about the game is that there were several points where I thought "man the game really needs this" and then it turned out the game actually had this (namely: you can check the enemy turn order, and you can go back and check your party before choosing a reward). Overall mostly pretty polished. I wish it was a little more generous on rewinds I suppose?

Fire Emblem Engage - Probably the game to talk about. The writing... yeah I'm not really happy that this is the followup to Three Houses. Good thing the gameplay is really good! Map design is excellent, boss fights are exciting in a way the series hardly ever manages, classes feel interesting and reasonably balanced, same-turn reinforcements are once again gone even on the highest difficulty. Emblems are a bit IDK, I'm the opposite of Snowfire in that I really don't like feeling that I'm really favouring 3-4 of my units over the others (something the game has a lot of between emblems, limited master seals at my point, weapon engraves, etc.). But I'm having a great time anyway. Just finished Chapter 8. Unit notes! No second seals yet.

Alear - Probably the weakest main character since Marth. Sword lock is pretty blah because javelins/hand axes are good in this game. If I didn't give her an Emblem she'd probably be quite trashy. As is she can at least mess up axe-users something fierce, and Lodestar Rush is solid (and legitimately a bit better on her than other units).

Vander - In a similar vein, probably the weakest jagen since... Jagen. By my point he's basically fallen off. Still really great early, though - that 40 HP in particular let him take punishment nobody else could (except Louis vs physicals).

Clanne, Celine, Citrinne - All seem generically competent. Mages are solid since they troubleshoot certain enemy types very well and do competent chip against a bunch of others, and Thunder is a nice option. Celica's also an extremely good emblem because Warp Ragnarok is busted. These three all have slightly different stats but I don't have a strong feeling on which one is best and it may depend on RNG a bit.

Framme - Chain Guard is a nifty feature for a healer. Sometimes healers lack a useful action on a quiet turn right before a messy turn. Not any more! Lets you bait on some things that might otherwise be dangerous indeed. Besides that she heals nad occasionally attacks though she's pretty bad at it.

Alfred - 6 base speed is no bueno at least on Maddening, and unfortunately (spoiler alert) lance user competition is stacked. He only has +1 move on Louis, though does not make up for being only slightly faster and having about 10 less def.

Etie - Archer with a strength focus, well I'm glad they got the memo that the starting archer needs some sort of offensive stat. Her other stats are pretty bad, but you can do worse than one-shotting fliers in this game. Mini Bow and Longbow provide cool options to a class that often feels underbaked, but not in this game.

Boucheron - Axedude. So the niche of regular infantry is backup, free extra chip damage (3), amazing for one-rounding bosses. His stat build doesn't really inspire past that, but hey, someone's gotta sue axes and Vander sure is falling off so.

Chloe - Basically my team superstar, Chloe has run Sigurd so has crazy offence (thanks, Momentum which she can basically always utilize well thanks to flight + game-best speed), canter. Now she has promoted and can even use staves.

Louis - Armour knights... good? Is this still FE? Move could obviously be better but right now it's at least still infantry level, and he has really good def! And he's immune to break so yeah, tank things and toss javelins/melee weapons back as needed. Dies horribly to mages which is a bit limiting, but still one of my better units.

Jean - Not in the mood to play around with the villager archetype on a first playthrough, thanks. Healer version is at least easier to level than they sometimes are (looking at you, Donnel).

Yunaka - Generically solid stats: not as fast as I'd have expected from a thief, but bulkier? She can absorb punishment and counters everything (1-2 range, can't be broken by WTD). Have left Micaiah on her because her enemy phase is good (and player phase is less relatively good because she can't break things herself), so healing's a good player phase option. And certainly Micaiah's healing potential is very impressive. As is the exp you gain if you heal 3+ people with Mend.

Anna - Seemed kinda terrible, Boucheron but worse/underlevelled (better speed largely offset by worse build, the durability was bad).

Alcryst - Strength is a bit lower than Etie, but other stats are significantly better, so he can be used in a lot of situations, and he's still got the oomph to one-shot most fliers so far. One of my earliest promotions because of his good starting level, no regrets.

Lapis - Of the non-paralogue characters she seems like the clear loser so far? Sword lock is bad in this game (especially since she's a backup, like Boucheron, but can't equip a 1-2 weapon axe, at least right now), Alear's already forced to snag the good swords, and you get a better sword user one chapter later anyway.

Diamant - i.e. this guy. Not too impressive before promotion (4 move + 1 range woes, but promotion has made him very solid. None of his stats are exceptional but with hand axes as an option he becomes a versatile backup you can position in a lot of places, just as long as he isn't forced to take too much heat (especially magical).

Amber - Alfred is that you again. I guess he's a bit faster but I'm still not a big fan.

Random Consonant:
Fire Emblem Engage: Cleared C17, that one was fun (except for corrupted wyrms which are the bane of my existence, yes i totally want the fe7 dragon in miniboss form and for anti-dragon weapons to not work on them because fuck you fell dragon isn't dragon dragon), the bumbling escapades of Magical Vtuber Alear continue to continue in the established weird mix of camp and drama direction (which in fairness has still managed to avoid falling below my low expectations) and I cannot hold all these shitty dads.  Seriously there is so much shitty dad energy from the villain cast (and King Moron tbh, fuck that guy too).

I'm not as enamored with the gameplay as Elf is.  CON is still a bad balancing mechanic and should feel bad, the pre-C11 team is... dangerously close to Dawn Brigade levels of incompetence (and don't even get me started on winners like Lapis and smol Anna) which doesn't at all help the aforementioned focus on 3-4 PCs issue (which is and has always been the lamest way to play FE), which is also not helped by how SP/skill inheritence works, and despite the game utiliizing revolutionary techniques to make armor knights actually good while preserving their core identity class balance is still pretty bad honestly, just in different (and perhaps hilarious) directions.  Like how are we still finding new and exciting ways to make monosword culture worse?  And of course Smash weapons, while not... completely useless do feel a bit underbaked. 

I mean, don't get me wrong, this is still beating the GBA experience pretty cleanly, probably Awakening too if I'm honest (the lack of ninja reinforcements helps), but it's harder to say that it's beating 3H on that front so far and I definitely don't think 3H is in the conversation for best FE gameplay.

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