![]() I probably have to dig into the 70s to find stuff that I really feel was a touch hard done by the critical consensus. It’s just a result of games reviews clustering around a few numbers and, where it used to be reasonably hard to get 90+, the review environment now has hundreds of outlets so it’s dropped to a consensus of 85+ being hard to achieve these days. Going by ‘best of the year’ lists there’s plenty of games that get 86%+ as a critical consensus that I’m either uninterested in or found lacking too. All of those accomplish exactly what they set out to do to me but it’s not like I don’t get some of the criticisms I’ve seen. Monster Hunter Generations Ultimate (80), Live A Live (81), Infernax (84). Almost all my favourites sit between 80 and 86. I think it’s just really hard for a game to get, say, 87+ on metacritic these days. *Speaking of which, Triangle Strategy is on 83 and I’d score that way higher. It’s a style of storytelling that works OK when told in a handful of sentences with just the headshot of who is talking/acting on screen, but is just bizarre in 3D cut scenes. Meanwhile, Engage now runs into issues where NPCs can rob PCs and run away and yell back from a mile away post-battle, and it’s never really clear whether they are close enough to talk, close enough to fight, close enough to shout or why the player force seems to allow the enemy leaders constant free movement to move and escape post-battle, while they can only stand in place and object to what’s going on. Which makes it feel dull and lifeless and skippable compared to when the GBA/3DS games did so by necessity, and it wasn’t as obvious as your mind was already filling in the blanks around movement and scale. One issue is that it’s a story still stuck in the static portrait mode of the GBA/3DS, but now shown in lifeless 3D scenes. You can still have a lighthearted anime adventure with sparkling dialogue and exciting action, and Engage just isn’t that in its storytelling. ![]() But it does so without any flair for dialogue and direction and movement in the cut scenes, it’s just so static as the huge cast lines up to watch and whine as the NPCs perform their schemes in front of them. I was fully on board for Engage to be a lighthearted anime romp. Not only that, but a SRPG war story doesn’t have to be relentlessly dark either. Even if you think the first one is the most essential. There’s room for an SRPG to have a great battle system, fun characterisation and a cracking plot these days. I loved the battles in Engage but the story is really dull even compared to the genre in general, not just games as a whole. I mean, I like SRPGs, I play as many as I can, and the battles are the reason why. Which is likely why Triangle Strategy* scored higher. Which other games would you strongly disagree with the average Metacritic score for on Switch?Ĭlick to expand.I don’t think it’s down to games critics not enjoying pure turn-based strategy games, as much as it’s reasonable for critics to expect the story not to be dull and predictable. There are also a couple of games I can think of on the opposite end of the spectrum that feel too high for me - I don't really wanna bash indie games but I'm not really sure how games like Undertale & Death's Door are rated as high as 93% and 89% on Metacritic respectively, so I'd probably count those in that category. I have no idea what this game is doing in the low 70s honestly. The Wonderful 101 is probably another game I could say the same about in terms of being scored too lowly. It's probably just down to most game critics & casual players not enjoying pure turn based strategy games as much as myself, but it did get me wondering. I realise Metacritic scores can't really account for things like taste in this way, but even just in comparison with the rest of the franchise, an 80% for this game does feel wildly out of place. I'm really enjoying the more light/comedic tone of the game, and it has perhaps my favourite turn based SRPG combat I've ever played. Out of any of the Fire Emblem games I've played this one is fast becoming my favourite and I'm not even done with the main story yet. Noticed recently that Fire Emblem Engage had dropped to 80% on Metacritic, making it the lowest rated Fire Emblem game almost 15 years? I thought that was kind of crazy to think about honestly, as I'd probably rank it closer to 90% based on my own tastes. ![]()
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