The Fire Emblem series has gone from strength to strength in recent years, with its Switch debut Three Houses proving hugely popular.
The mixture of an interesting story and visual novel elements blended with hardcore tactical battling has gained legions of fans, all of whom will be thrilled to know that a new chapter is coming – Fire Emblem Engage.
Keep reading to find out all the key details about Engage, and check out our list of the most exciting upcoming Nintendo Switch games right here.
Fire Emblem Engage release date
The major upside to Nintendo’s secrecy about upcoming games is that it often drops big surprises with release dates attached, and that’s the case for Fire Emblem Engage.
The game will release on 20 January 2023, just a few months after it was unveiled during a Nintendo Direct in September 2022.
Fire Emblem Engage platforms
Fire Emblem has long been an exclusive franchise to Nintendo’s hardware, and that’s set to continue with Engage.
The game will come out for Nintendo Switch, and that’s it – you won’t be able to play it on any other consoles or on PC.
Fire Emblem Engage trailers
The first Fire Emblem Engage trailer came during the aforementioned Nintendo Direct, and it’s a healthy chunk of footage.
There’s a whole heap of detail in there, including the reveal of our protagonist Alear, some glimpses of gameplay, and much more. We’ll add any more trailers that get released right here for you, too.
Fire Emblem Engage story
As that trailer and the game’s official listing on the Nintendo website confirm, Fire Emblem Engage is set in the world of Elyos, made up of four realms.
In ancient history, these lands teamed up to take down the Fell Dragon, a mythical beast that was terrorising them. Emblem Rings allowed them to summon warriors from other worlds that are recognisable as heroes from past Fire Emblem games.
Now, a thousand years later, the Fell Dragon might be breaking free, and it’s up to Alear (who you can play as a male or female character) to step up and put things right.
It sounds like Alear has been slumbering ever since that ancient war, known as a Divine Dragon with the power to use Emblems. These heroic figures include the iconic Marth – almost as famous for his Smash Bros presence as for his Fire Emblem history.
Sigurd, from the original Fire Emblem, is another potential hero, and in each case your fighters will fuse with a chosen Emblem to unleash powerful attacks and turn the tide of battle.
It would seem we’ll be on a quest to gather these Emblem rings together to bring peace back to the realm, which sounds about right.
Fire Emblem Engage gameplay
Both from gameplay glimpses in the trailer released in September, and based on certain consistent parts of the Fire Emblem saga, you can build up a pretty strong picture of how the game will play.
The main gameplay loop will involve tactical battles on a square-based grid, with a variety of unit types that have strengths and weaknesses. You can actually see a fair few gameplay tips on the Japanese Fire Emblem Twitter feed, if you don’t mind the language barrier, like the one below.
ヴァンドレの初期兵種は「パラディン」。経験を積んだ高位の騎士で、馬に乗っているため移動力が高く、斧で敵を蹴散らします。#FEエンゲージ pic.twitter.com/ptYsLv0ECH
— 『ファイアーエムブレム』総合 (@FireEmblemJP) September 16, 2022
Many of these units will be unique and level up as you use them, letting you develop characters into different classes to fit different tactical needs.
The Emblem rings will clearly add a twist to let you swap out a character’s equipment and abilities by blending them with a hero when you need it, a cool change that could open up some major tactical possibilities.
These battles are often lengthy and challenging, but they’re interspersed with long sections in which you’ll play more of a visual novel-style RPG story, letting you take time to chill out with your companions, and get to know them better.
The last few Fire Emblem games have let you pursue romantic relationships as part of this process, which we’d again expect, and all of this makes things even more gut-wrenching if you play on the classic difficulty mode where units who fall in combat are gone for good.
The way battles dovetail with story beats is a huge strength for Fire Emblem, so we’re hoping that Engage can nail that balance, like Three Houses did before it.