Fire Emblem Engage primes new players for a foray into tactical combat

Nintendo of America just released a new trailer to teach new players the ins and outs of Fire Emblem tactical and social mechanics. The Fire Emblem for All trailer is roughly eight minutes long and goes over characters, classes, tactical warfare, building your army, and support conversations.

Based on this trailer and all the recent reviews/previews that have just come out, Fire Emblem Engage is focusing much more on the tactical strategy side of the Fire Emblem series. Recent titles like Fire Emblem Three Houses and Fire Emblem Awakening brought social mechanics like building bonds with characters and the prospect of marriage to the forefront of gameplay. That focus on social aspects is often credited as the reason for the series’ renewed interest in the public.

Despite focusing only on character support conversations, Fire Emblem Three Houses saw the player in the shoes of a school professor and gave the player many ways to spend time with their students. There were several social aspects to this game, with there being a much larger split in gameplay between social mechanics and battling. The social mechanics often looped back into the battle mechanics, however, as they were used as a way to build up your students and army without being in battle.

Fire Emblem Engage has a similar hub world area as Three Houses, but as stated above, the game doesn’t focus as much on social aspects, meaning Engage clearly takes inspiration but isn’t bringing over all the same social mechanics. The Fire Emblem for All video explores multiple aspects of how the player will build their army and only briefly mentions support conversations.

With Fire Emblem becoming more popular than ever, more new players are sure to try out Engage. This trailer is an excellent way to help prime them for Engage’s different gameplay mechanics. Fire Emblem Engage is due to come out on January 20.