I’m invited to a powerpoint party this weekend, and I decided to do a presentation on Fire Emblem. But SPECIFICALLY why the Engage fandom seems to be a little quiet, while the Three houses fandom gets to keep chugging along (although quieter than before).
I thought tumblr might like to look at some (not all) of my slides as I know this has been a topic of discussion in the community for the past week or so. My basic thesis is that 3H has deeper, more interconnected characters who all have a very clear voice - so they are quite easy to plop into different scenarios and make fanfic/fan comics/etc about them. They are very compelling and it’s easy to fall in love with many of them. The replayability of 3H also means that fans are engaged with it for much longer - so they are probably actively consuming or producing 3H related content longer than they would be for engage. If a game keeps you hooked for a long time, it’s going to prevent you from finding new fandoms to join.
Anyway, these are just my ideas. Who knows if they’re correct, and there are LOADS of other factors that I didn’t discuss as for likely reasons 3houses is a more popular game (first fe switch release, 3hopes spin off, pandemic). I just hope some of you find it mildly thought provoking.
i know it's been literal years since fire emblem three houses was relevant to the discourse, but honestly the biggest question left in my mind about the game is whether or not rhea/seiros had a thing with wilhelm, the first emperor of adrestia. it would be very funny if the entirety of the plot was edelgard having a violent thanksgiving argument over politics with her grandma rhea
“So Edelgard was supposed to be able to rewind time like Byleth but that idea was cut for being too complicated to implement into fights and for story reasons, especially once it was decided that you could join Edelgard in one of the story paths. Crimson Flower was a late addition to the game, that’s why it has fewer chapters than the other paths. But, they reused the concept of an enemy taking the protagonist’s signature power for Engage in chapter 11 especially, where it’s the enemy who has the ability to summon Emblems instead of the protagonists and you can’t rewind time, but if you have the DLC emblems you keep those and that kind of dampens the stakes.”
OFFICIAL WEAPON TRIANGLE FOR FIRE EMBLEM ENGAGE RELEASED
TRADITIONAL WEAPON TRIANGLE RETURNS
GAUNTLETS ARE REPLACED WITH MARTIAL ARTS AND ARE EFFECTIVE AGAINST DAGGERS (which return in this game!), TOMES AND BOWS
using a weapon that has advantages against the opponent will “Break” them, making them drop their weapon and be unable to counterattack “until the end of the next combat”
info and pic from the official fire emblem twitter account (@FireEmblemJP)
Yunaka, realizing that she has been invited to the super secure base of operations without anyone doing a background check on her: "Alfred, Alfred, WTF is wrong with all of you?!"
Alfred: "... we can chat and learn more about each other?"
I actually came up with this meme as a silly joke years ago, but upon thinking about it, there really ARE startling similarities between the plot of Chainsaw Man and Fire Emblem: Three Houses. Like these are extremely specific plot points that are being shared and they both came out at around the same time. Obviously I'm not accusing one of stealing from the other but this is an extremely interesting coincidence.