by Jed Pressgrove
Any RPG lover knows the prophesied hero. A person, often of modest origin, destined to defeat evil.
With the protagonist Alear, Fire Emblem Engage delivers the most annoying version of this character yet. Alear’s personality, flat as it is, doesn’t raise unique objections. The problem comes from the companions Alear meets on the journey.
Each time a new party member enters the picture, Fire Emblem Engage pummels its audience with depictions of awestruck, surprised, even groveling individuals who have awaited a being called the Divine Dragon. When people learn Alear is the Divine Dragon, they become part of an apologetic mass, begging the chosen one to excuse their ignorance. Read the Bible. Not even Christ received this consistent level of absurd reverence. God knows people are different. Outside of the blatantly wicked, there are doubters, skeptics, and the hardheaded. Fire Emblem Engage denies this reality.
Alear becomes the unfortunate victim of hype, which destroys any chance of Fire Emblem Engage rising above good-versus-bad cliches. Atrocious red-and-blue hair aside, Alear isn’t the most insufferable subject in the long history of juvenile video game storytelling. But she irritates one the way other things do because of exaggerated praise. Harry Potter. Lady Gaga. Star Wars. The Legend of Zelda. Coffee. The clueless, one-dimensional script of Fire Emblem Engage places Alear in the company of such ballyhooed imperfect things that nonetheless gain almost infinite notoriety thanks to automatons with no apparent life perspective, i.e., fans and addicts.
The decision from publisher Nintendo and developer Intelligent Systems to put Alear on a pedestal might cause a person to scratch their head until the skin turns red. Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the predecessor to Fire Emblem Engage, became the best-selling entry of the tactical RPG franchise, and featured one of the most complex, conflicted heroes in video game history in Dimitri. Dimitri’s response to his inner demons turns him into a figure of camp—in startling contrast to the treatment of Alear. Fire Emblem: Three Houses also resists convenient morality. Its linking of war to education pits teachers against students. Its portrayal of religion and atheism defies easy conclusions about blame. Why did the creative minds—if I might stretch the definition of that phrase—behind Fire Emblem Engage conclude that hero worship was the correct path, narratively or financially, for this sequel in the beloved series?
The answer seems to be: They’re banking on the undying fragility of gamer egos. Many gamers feed on groupthink (see the constant pearl-clutching over game review scores), instant gratification (see the game design principles behind recent hits like Hades and Vampire Survivors), and tradition (see the idiotically predictable plot of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom). In a cynical move, Nintendo and Intelligent Systems offer Alear as an embodiment of this gaming culture, complete with nostalgic references to previous Fire Emblem characters and scenarios, divorced from their complications.
One might find hope for future Fire Emblem sequels given the lukewarm reception to Fire Emblem Engage’s story. But when we wait for a sequel to fix what was wrong with a game, it’s time to reevaluate our allegiance to a franchise that has no end (that which has no end has no dignity). As long as people clamor for more of the same, thematic insults like those in Fire Emblem Engage are cards that game companies are willing to play.
Game Bias 
There’s a couple of observations I would like to make. The lead writer for Engage, Nami Komuro, is not the same person who was in charge of Three Houses’s story. Komuro instead had worked on the scripts for Awakening and Fates, whereas Three Houses was written by the personal of Koei Tecmo.
Another thing is that Engage was produced in parallel to Three Houses. Engage was supposed to be released in 2021 as celebration for the 30th anniversary, but the pandemic forced Intelligent Systems to postpone the release.
I mention those two pieces of information because t answers why Intelligent Systems chose to follow-up Three Houses with Engage. They really didn’t, instead they were working as if they were continuing from the point after Awakening and Fates. It doesn’t deny anything about what you said, since your points, especially the cynical attitude of the industry towards its consumers, apply to those two games as well, but it’s something that dispels doubts on why this game turned out as it did after the previous game was such a success.
If it helps, it is rumored that the next game will be a remake of Genealogy of the Holy War. On the one hand, this means that the next game may be distanced from Engage’s tone. On the other hand, it is a remake. We will see.
By the way, the observation about there being no skeptics is apt and I hadn’t thought about it. It’s surprising that this game is very uncritical of religion, as if everyone believed messianic figures. I can understand this being particularly jarring after Shadows of Valentia and Three Houses, which made a point against the dependence of deities and churches. It is also jarring in the general context of the franchise, which in numerous occasions hasn’t flinched on pitting humans against gods.
Thanks for all the info, Ronaldo! I also thought Fates was poorly written, but Engage’s story is even worse. It’s a shame because Engage does have its share of interesting character concepts; it just doesn’t give these people anything interesting to say.
Also, I have a mixed reaction about this potential remake of Genealogy. While I like the idea of Western audiences finally getting a translated version of that game, I would prefer a port that’s true to the original version.