Spoilers for Fire Emblem Engage aheadSeeing the marketing for Intelligent Systems' Fire Emblem Engage, one wouldn't be remiss to think it was a spin-off fueled by nostalgia. There are 12 Emblem Rings, each able to channel the spirit of a main character from previous games, alongside plenty of connections to the mobile title Fire Emblem Heroes; from Emblems wielding specific weapons to a gacha-esque Bond Ring melding system. Engage is a full experience in its own right, but while it effectively utilizes the Emblems mechanically, its narrative is murkier.

Amid the politics of Divine Dragon Alear helping out the nations of Elyos and gathering allies against Fell Dragon Sombron, more than half of Fire Emblem Engage's main story introduces the Emblem Rings and their abilities. Much of the second half is then spent recovering lost rings, with optional Paralogue missions available to unlock an Emblem's true potential. The collective power of the Emblem Rings is only teased prior to the last five story missions or so, but when they use their "Miracle" it poses a lot more questions than answers about the universe's mechanics.

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How Fire Emblem Engage's Emblems Work

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The 12 Emblems - Marth, Celica, Sigurd, Leif, Roy, Lyn, Eirika, Ike, Micaiah, Lucina, Corrin, and Byleth - are enigmatic parts of daily life in Elyos. Unlike Fire Emblem Heroes, which has its player-character protagonist summon characters from other worlds, Engage's Emblems have the memories of each original Lord but are aware they're disconnected constructs. Divine Dragons can summon "good" versions of an Emblem by praying with positive intentions, whereas Fell Dragons can use invocations to summon corrupt Emblems as tools without free will and speech.

The final mission brings Alear's army into a space between dimensions and introduces Dark Emblems based on final bosses for each Fire Emblem title, with Sombron implying there are countless universes that have Emblem Rings. In many ways, this cleanly delineates Emblems from their primary counterparts by using the multiverse themes that pervade all kinds of media in today's pop culture. Some universes just happen to have a certain amount of magic manifest into rings that represent heroes - or villains - of other branches (with some unknown characters out there like Sombron's Zero Emblem).

It's a simple, unobtrusive way to hand-wave the conceit of Fire Emblem Engage, which is clearly more focused on using each character to teach Alear strong leadership qualities: Celica's kindness, Ike's desire to protect his friends, Lucina's unyielding hope, and so on. There are also a number of DLC-exclusive Emblems such as Tiki and Soren, but they have no bearing on the story.

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Fire Emblem Engage's Alear Problem

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Where the concept gets muddled is in its third act twist. After Sombron absorbs the power of the 12 Emblem Rings, Alear dies fighting to free their sister Veyle from the Fell Dragon's control. She is able to bring Alear back as a Corrupted just long enough to revitalize the Emblems, and in return these spirits use their once-in-a-lifetime blessing to bring Alear back permanently as the new 13th Emblem; Fire Emblem Engage's instance of the Fire Emblem.

Unlike Marth and the other returning protagonists, Alear is both his original self and a corporeal Emblem at once. The player character can still wander the Somniel and eat meals with their allies (the game explicitly states that Emblems can smell, not taste), but the Engage+ battle mechanic seemingly allows Alear to split their spirit with someone else through the Ring of the Connector. All 12 original Emblem Rings disappear at the end of the story because they're no longer able to hold their forms after passing outside Elyos' dimension, but Alear lives a long life as the new ruling Divine Dragon.

One can easily gloss over this story beat as anime-inspired nonsense to get Engage's hero a super form based on creating bonds - opposing Sombron's desire to stand alone. Yet it's hard not to wonder where the original Emblem Rings came from if they aren't also elevated versions of their real counterparts. The fact that Emblem Alear plays by different rules confuses a lot of prior worldbuilding, and introduces further questions like whether the Dark Emblems could similarly choose a permanent new ally. Intelligent Systems doesn't do enough to explain itself given these reveals hit near the end of the story, which is a shame given how integral Emblems are to the experience.

Fire Emblem Engage is available now on Nintendo Switch.

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