New year, new month, still same old game of the month posts. My first one of 2023 will be featuring a couple of honourable mentions before the main highlight. A highlight that I have been incredibly psyched for, because I always love when my all-time favourite series gets a new entry. I do love me some turn-based strategy.
But first, the honourable mentions. There are two, and funnily enough, they come from the same series. They are Persona 3 Portable and Persona 4 Golden. It took a little while, but those two titles are finally being released on all modern platforms. Digitally only, unfortunately, but hey, better than nothing. In both titles you’ll be building bonds with characters, as well as exploring dungeons and fighting Shadows by using the power of Personas.
Now we come to the main event, and perhaps my most anticipated game of 2023 – well, alongside The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
Fire Emblem Engage is the seventeenth main entry in the Fire Emblem series, following on from Fire Emblem: Three Houses. The story takes place in the world of Elyos, focusing on the Divine Dragon Alear. As the protagonist of Engage, you can choose whether Alear is male or female.
In Elyos, there are rings known as Emblem Rings that can summon legendary heroes known as Emblems to aid in battle. Alear intends to collect the rings for the sake of peace, but they are not the only one searching for them. The Fell Dragon Sombron seeks them as well.
Compared to Three Houses, Engage dials back the social sim aspect of things. The focus here is much more on combat, giving it a feel of the more classic Fire Emblem titles. Plenty of reviews say as much, and that is something that has very much got me even more excited for this game.
I definitely want to take a moment to say that Mika Pikazo’s artwork is fantastic, as well. Her character designs are something that I like a lot. An artist I learned of thanks to hololive, she is the one who designed Hakos Baelz. And considering Baelz has my favourite design in hololive English Council, discovering that Mika Pikazo got to work on a Fire Emblem game was something that only increased anticipation for this title.
Some familiar elements returning from older titles include a world map and the Weapon Triangle. In terms of new content, we have the Emblems – heroes who slumber within rings that your characters can call upon in battle. These Emblems are various heroes from Fire Emblem‘s history, such as Marth and Sigurd. Emblems provide unique weapons and skills for the character they are equipped to. Definitely adds a pretty interesting thing to consider when planning out your tactics.
Fire Emblem is my favourite game series of all time, and I am incredibly excited to get stuck into Fire Emblem Engage.
Rory Muses 