Fight fire with fire
by Jim Norman Fri, 5pm
Image: Nintendo Life
Believe it or not, today marks five years since Fire Emblem: Three Houses launched on Switch. We’d imagine that most of you SRPG fans out there have polished it off by this point — we’d go even further to wager that you have likely done the same for its successor, Fire Emblem Engage, which is now a little over a year old.
Despite existing in the same series, anyone who has played the two latest titles will have noticed the staggering differences between them. Three Houses (the first home console release for the franchise in over a decade, let’s not forget) took things in a bold new direction, with a game that was just as tied to its social sim appeal as it was to the tactical battles. The turn-based shenanigans were all still present and correct — bar the removal of the iconic Weapon Triangle — but the moments between were packed with OTT drama, romance and slice-of-life activities to make the whole experience feel that bit different. Brilliant, but different.
Engage, on the flip side, is an entirely different beast altogether. You’d be forgiven for thinking that Intelligent Systems would wheel out more of the same after seeing Three Houses’ lovey-dovey success four years prior, but no, this was a return to the series’ roots. The Weapon Triangle was back, the interpersonal dialogue was diminished and the focus was put back, firmly, on the combat.
The two games are so very tonally different, in fact, that it’s difficult to definitively weigh in on which one’s better. We awarded both a 9/10 in our Nintendo Life reviews — you can read our Three Houses and our Engage ones for a refresher. And, much like cheese and chocolate, we’d struggle to put one substantially above the other for more than two minutes before swapping them round again. The better question, is which one do you prefer?
Did the narrative rollercoaster of Three Houses steal your heart, or was it the heat of Engage’s battles that really got your blood pumping? You can let us know your preference by filling out the following poll and then take to the comments to tell us what convinced you.
Jim came to Nintendo Life in 2022 and, despite his insistence that The Minish Cap is the best Zelda game and his unwavering love for the Star Wars prequels (yes, really), he has continued to write news and features on the site ever since.
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