Fire Emblem Engage

Fire Emblem Engage is a tactical role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Switch. It was released on January 20, 2023, and is the seventeenth installment in the Fire Emblem series. Nintendo first announced the game during a Nintendo Direct in September 2022.

The game is set on the continent of Elyos, which is split into five regions: Lythos, Firene, Brodia, Elusia, and Solm. Players control Alear, a dragon in human form who wakes from a slumber of one thousand years without memories of the past. As the Divine Dragon, Alear sets out to gather the twelve Emblem Rings, while Sombron, the Fell Dragon, seeks the same rings for himself. The rings hold phantasmal copies of heroes from earlier Fire Emblem games, including Marth, Celica, and Byleth.

Battles play out on grid-based maps and alternate between a player phase and an enemy phase. Each unit has a class that determines its weapon types and movement, and the weapon triangle returns, with swords beating axes, lances beating swords, and axes beating lances. Landing a hit with this advantage inflicts a Break status that stops the target from counterattacking. Characters who wear an Emblem Ring can Engage, merging with the Emblem for a limited number of turns to gain extra skills, the Emblem’s weapons, and a powerful single-use action.

Players choose from Normal, Hard, and Maddening difficulties, as well as Classic mode, where defeated allies are lost for good, and Casual mode, where they return for later chapters. Between battles, the floating Somniel serves as a hub with a shop, weapon forging, a café, and minigames such as fishing and working out. Relay Trials and Outrealm Trials offer optional online battles through Nintendo Switch Online. A Divine Edition added an artbook, poster, steelbook case, and art cards, and an Expansion Pass delivered four waves of content, including new Emblem Bracelets and the Fell Xenologue side story.

Illustrator Mika Pikazo, new to the series, served as the main character designer, and Intelligent Systems switched from its own internal engines to Unity for this entry. The team chose a single story path early on so that players could focus on tactical gameplay. On Metacritic, the game holds a score of 80 out of 100 based on 129 reviews, with critics praising its gameplay, music, and visuals while finding the story and characters weaker. Engage sold 1.61 million copies worldwide by March 31, 2023.