SinceFire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Lightreleased in 1990, Intelligent Systems' franchise has slowly morphed from pure tactical RPGs into something resembling dating sims. Romantic elements have periodically appeared sinceFire Emblem: Genealogy of the Holy Waron SNES, but gained more prominence starting with the 3DS era asAwakeningoffered a smorgasbord of mechanics to send off the then-failing series. Over a decade later,Fire Emblem Engageincludes its own take on the Support system that inadvertently turns its player-character protagonist into a serial regifter.
Fire Emblem AwakeningandFatesincluded full character customization for their player protagonists Robin and Corrin, butEngagemerely lets players decide the (binary) gender of Alear, as well as their name and birthday. Alear’s set name doesn’t make much of a difference since other units mime over the text by calling them Divine Dragon or Divine One, but there is celebration when a player’s birthday comes around. Having a timely birthday makes it easier to build Support conversations, but at the cost of making Alear look calloused toward their friends.
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Building Supports in Fire Emblem Engage
Every character inFire Emblem Engagecan bond with their fellow units, unlocking new flavor text as they increase their Support level from “C” through “A” rank. Units with higher Support levels also provide one another stat bonuses on the battlefield, making it worth the investment even if players preferFire Emblem’s tactical-RPG elements to its dating-sim veneer. The most common way to build up rapport is having units fight side-by-side, but Alear can also call two units together for lunch or get lucky with a random pairing in the Somniel’s Arena.Fire Emblem Engageupdate 1.2.0 also added new Support-building activitiesto interact with between missions.
However, Alear carries on the tradition of past protagonists by having Support conversations with every unit in the army - including “S” ranks with deeper romantic or platonic implications. The Divine Dragon also has more ways to build Support levels as a result, with players able to talk with characters around the Somniel hub and offer them gifts. AfterFire Emblem Engage’s Chapter 12, a Flea Market opens up with unique gifts to pass around, though a steadily respawning supply of Pretty Pebbles and Spirit Gems means Alear doesn’t have to spend any extra gold.
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Fire Emblem Engage’s Birthdays are a Nice Idea with Awkward Implications
When a player’s set birthday rolls around, thesituation around the Somnielreverses. Every unit has unique dialogue related to wishing Alear a happy birthday, and this is accompanied by a variety of gifts ranging from poetry books to training weights, or even food like yams and yogurt. However, these are all the same gifts that cycle through the Flea Market. This means they all have the same purpose: gifting them back to members of the army, with certain personality types gravitating toward particular items.
From a game design perspective, this is a smart idea. Intelligent Systems uses the conventions of real-world birthdays to implement a system that gives players a tangible reward via closer bonds with their units. Birthday gifts forAlear make it easier to build S-rank Supports, which in-turn opens up more conversations and battlefield bonuses. Yet in the fiction ofFire Emblem Engage, this suggests Alear is at least indifferent about material possessions, if not underhanded in their desire to woo one of their friends by regifting a thoughtful present from someone else.
This too can be explained away if one thinks of Alear as a character who does simply care more about bonding with their fellows after sleeping for 1,000 years than any one landscape painting or set of playing cards. But it is a funny leap of logic that players are forced to make given how Intelligent Systems' mechanics intersect withFire Emblem’s role-playing elements.
Fire Emblem Engageis available now on Nintendo Switch.
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