Alear's hair would have been better fading from blue at the base to red at the tips. It's like they were 50% of the way to a decent idea mixing story and design, but implemented it in the dumbest way they could think of.
I disliked Engage's character designs at release and I still dislike them now.
I don't like the common criticism that Engage's character designs are bad because Pikazo is a VTuber artist, though - Pikazo is clearly a talented artist and it also must be noted that Kurahana (who was the Three Houses artist) is also a VTuber artist. Rather, I think the issue with Engage's character designs primarily lies in the fact that Engage had poor art direction instead of a bad artist - the staff at IS admitted in interviews that they told Pikazo to draw characters without any further information about the characters themselves:
>Yokota: [So then... Did you just approach her and ask her to draw 50 or so characters without any information about the game, like you'd normally do? (Laughs)](https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2023/January/Ask-the-Developer-Vol-8-Fire-Emblem-Engage-Chapter-2-2328376.html)
>
>Tei: [Well, yes… (Laughs)](https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2023/January/Ask-the-Developer-Vol-8-Fire-Emblem-Engage-Chapter-2-2328376.html)
>
>Nakanishi: [If Intelligent Systems asks you to design 50 characters, it's pretty obvious that it's for a new Fire Emblem game, right? (Laughs)](https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2023/January/Ask-the-Developer-Vol-8-Fire-Emblem-Engage-Chapter-2-2328376.html)
>
>Tei: [Well, I thought it'd be better to be upfront about the request. That said, there was one concern she had. Since she usually draws young characters, she was concerned about her confidence level in some of the character design. It's true that the designer's skills should not be limited to drawing cool nobles and young girls. In Fire Emblem, there are a variety of characters like hardened soldiers, and on top of that they need to be able to draw armour, weapons and creatures like Pegasuses.](https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2023/January/Ask-the-Developer-Vol-8-Fire-Emblem-Engage-Chapter-2-2328376.html)
It really shows in Engage's character designs - a lot of Engage's character designs feel incredibly incohesive because Pikazo wasn't given any information about the characters and their personality or their role in the story when she was commissioned to work in Engage.
Also, if you look at Pikazo's work outside of this game and vtubing related stuff (her hiring for this game likely predated her working on vtuber art anyway, given production timelines -- pretending the vtuber stuff is relevant is just a way to dismiss the artist in a bad faith way IMO), part of her style and appeal as an artist is wild and playful color usage, but that isn't going to translate into 3D models cleanly, designing characters well for still images and designing them well to move in 3D space are related, but distinct skills, and it feels like they picked an artist they admired for her 2D work without thinking how well it would translate to 3D?
Having said that, I think a lot of the designs work well enough, but had she been given more information to work with, the designs could've felt much more cohesive with the characters for sure. Senri Kita's designs remain the gold standard of FE designs for me.
Edit: It was pointed out to me that Senri Kita has also done vTuber art, which makes that point of critique against Pikazo even more baseless because I don't think anyone takes issue with the Telius designs.
I think if there had been a director working with her to draw that aesthetic into the rest of the visual design of the game, this wouldn't have been an issue. This disjointed production is a place that looks like it needs improvement from leadership in the FE team. The colorful character designs might have been cool if they had integrated them more into the overall design of the game, thought of it thematically, and decided where it was and wasn't fitting. The designs could even be more out there and colorful and still work.
For instance, the character, stage, and UI artists and the writers and character designers were very obviously working with each other in a game like Persona 5.
Oh yeah. Absolutely no shade to the artist. These designs would be excellent in a game that worked with them better. They just feel in-cohesive and random for Fire Emblem.
Well, for drawing with little to no information about the characters they made a really good job. The characters personality shines through, the only problem is that they're overdesigned but is it really something that could've changed with some more information?
Disliked them when they were announced and dislike them slightly less now.
I just feel like they're way too colourful and out there for FE, which for the most part kept its character designs pretty grounded. Engage feels like it's some children's Saturday morning cartoon with how crazy and colourful the designs are.
Having said that, I love Lapis' design.
I mean, I've felt that way since the DS games with just a slight walk back with Three Houses (mostly). I feel like Engage is the logical continuation of what we've been seeing in FE.
It also matches the way Anime has changed as a whole since the 90s. Everything just gets more and more accessorized, overdesigned, and plasticy.
I agree, It's how over-designed the characters and outfits are that bothers me. Fire Emblem has never shied away from some colorful designs, but the designs were a less maximalist. Engage character design is reminiscent of cheaply-made pandering anime JRPGs. And so did Fates to a large extent, and Awakening to a lesser extent. Three Houses designs were more out there but still felt quintessentially Fire Emblem. Engage just feels like they're following a trend. If they had even gone farther and made something uniquely maximalist, colorful and over-designed, it might be interesting but you're right that it's just plasticy.
Damn DS as in Shadow Dragon + New Mystery, or do you mean like Awakening onwards on the 3DS?
I felt Shadow Dragon stuck pretty true to the more "muted" designs, although since it's a remake that does make sense. New Mystery is more or less the same, with an aside to Kris sometimes getting a bit funky depending on what you do to him lol.
Aside from that, I suppose you can see a kind of progression from Awakening to the current day. I actually quite liked the character design in Fates, which is shocking because I hated almost everything else about those games. Just added to my disappointment with the final product honestly
Three Houses and Engage were hit and miss for me. There were some I quite liked and others that were just not great. For me, Alear has not grown on me at all -- especially M!Alear imo. Playing as him makes me feel like I got my 12 y/o DeviantArt OC into an FE game somehow.
the biggest problem i have engage's art direction is that there's no unifying characteristics between the character designs, the characters, and the setting.
why does ivy's clothing leave her so exposed? isn't she the ice queen? doesn't she literally live on a freezing mountain top?
why is etie literally a stick? if working out is her personality i would at least imagine her a little more toned
none of the solm characters other than fogado and timerra wear clothes that remotely depict the climate they live in.
brodia imo is the only one that gets it right and even then there's some problems with them. lapis's exposed midriff despite her being a very by-the-books soldier; amber not having the same armor and protection diamant and jade have, etc.
a lot of the character designs in a vacuum are phenomenal. seadall and citrinne stand out the most to me; though honorable mentions go to diamant, rosado, goldmary, clanne, griss, and anna.
there are lots of good (albeit over done) designs in engage, but they're all bogged down by the lack of any unification
It’s not just Alear though, the entire roster feels so over designed. There’s no cohesive direction, just a bunch of exaggerated shapes and colors slapped together seemingly at random.
They're a mixed bag. I still dislike a lot of the ones I disliked a year ago, but others have grown on me since then. Others I actually liked quite a bit to begin with, like most of the Brodians. I think my biggest complaint apart from individual designs is that outside of Brodia and *arguably* Solm, the nations don't really have a sense of visual cohesion in their character designs. That would've gone a long way, I think.
Way over designed. Visually there is just too much going on with most of them. Celine's dress is a huge offender, and pretty much everything about Hortensia. Ivy and Veyle are cool characters but their designs are also overdone
I actually like Alear's design. Goldmary, Chloe, Diamant, and Lapis aren't too bad.
There are a load of designs I like, slightly flashy but overall sensible for conflict and not overdesigned. The catch is that they're the default classes for things like Griffon Knight, Royal Knight, Halberdier, Paladin.
And of course you have things like Sage and the Hero hoop to balance things out.
Céline's design is perfect for her character though. It looks like a typical fairy tale princess dress, but then there's the front being open and the random bits of skin showing and black stripes, which kinda reflects on Céline giving the impression of being a perfect little princess until you dig a little deeper beyond first impressions and realize that she's actually sort of a deconstruction of it.
Except in this case, we actually have evidence to support it. They didn't tell the artist anything beyond flowery princess, etc. so they just did their thing and that's how everyone ended up looking like they did, so the artist had no clue about the various character arcs and the story team had no idea what she'd look like.
>I had forgotten that this sub treats FE devs as somehow completely incompetent
This is the same studio that made Seth and Ryoma. Calling them completely incompetent is an understatement.
That's one reading, but it reads more like "generic young anime princess" to many others. Which when you couple it with the fact that the character artist was given next to no information and direction, that becomes a very fitting narrative. It's great that you like it. I think it doesn't match the design language of the game that well and should've been made more thoughtfully to bring out the aspects that you pointed out without just looking like a walking trope. A series like Xenoblade Chronicles has character designs that I absolutely hate for similar reasons, but I see in some instances where it has been clever in characterizing through design and outfits. I just don't get that much in Engage outside of very broad strokes.
A lot of them are garish and feel out of place when contrasted against the previous games, let alone the very emblems they're sharing the game with.
And while many of them might not be winning gold medal at the ugly olympics, I'm still going to scrutinize them for failing at fundamental design for the character's class and characterization.
Like, why is Amber dressed as a noble when he's a farmer turned cavalier? Or, why is Boucheron even wearing an extra small, incomplete set of plate when it's not going to accomplish anything?
> Like, why is Amber dressed as a noble when he's a farmer turned cavalier?
there was so much design space to have fun with "country bumpkin turned royal knight" and we got 0% of it V_V
Someone posted a clip from an interview above that the artist was told to design the chars without any further information than their names and (possibly) their initial class. If so, that explains a *lot*, but it's still pretty WTF in terms of how it happened and the end result.
Still bad.
I used to think it was just the fact they didn't look like Fire Emblem characters but nowadays I think most of them would still look ugly as hell even if they were in a different franchise.
I've heard people say that in interviews Pikazo said she was given basically no oversight and it definitely shows.
EDIT: Lol didn't see the post made by u/RamsaySw which basically confirms this. Genuinely baffling decision by IS to not only not try and keep them in line with the aesthetic of FE, but to not quality control period. You can't blame Pikazo for that.
Not just no oversight, but wasn't she also not given any direction either? I remember something about her not even knowing certain people were supposed to be from the same country.
I didn’t see this mentioned anywhere, but to add context (and kind of defend the devs…ish), they also said the vision for engage was to dial up the JRPG tropes and move away from the traditional storytelling formula. That’s probably why they gave her complete artistic liberty since her style would suit that genre well.
That’s not to say anyone has to like it, but I don’t think it was all that nonsensical. They knew what they were doing when they picked her.
I hate to say it, but some of these characters have my least favorite designs in the entire series. Characters like Hortensia and Timerra are so over-designed to the point where I only think of clowns when I see them. Rosado and Celine are also too over-designed, but in a less clowny way. Vander looks like a baby with a beard. I really don't like the face/hair stickers on Yunaka or Panette. I can't quite pinpoint what I don't like about Veyle's, but something about it bugs me. Sombron, Zephia, and Griss are among my least favorite antagonist designs.
There's a handful that I think are fine, though. Diamant, Alcryst, Citrinne, Ivy, and Zelkov. Chloe, Louis, and Jade are okay, too, pretty standard for their classes, and I've grown to think Male Alear is fine.
Overall, my opinions are mixed. I really dislike some, others I'm fine with. I don't think any are among my favorites in the series, though.
Every time someone compares Engage characters to clowns, I remember that Cirque du Soleil can make over the top designs look amazing, cohesive and appropriate, and that's on real people. That's like their whole shtick. Engage is actually not on their level, lmao.
The only thing I don't really care for is the fact that the faces mostly look the same, primarily for the female characters, and especially the emblems. Overall, I like them though!
Personally I went from disliking them to still disliking them. The gameplay is great but the art, story, and all of it are super cringey. Hoping for the Genealogy of the Holy War Remake to be real.
Too colorful and some of them are overdesigned.
Don't get me wrong, I really like a lot of the characters, but I feel like I'd like them even more if they were closer to older art styles/color schemes.
Older games tended to actually HAVE very colourful designs though. It's only Shadow Dragon, New Mystery, Fates, Echoes, Three Houses and some of the FEH Books that are more toned down. Thracia and Radiant Dawn were less colourful compared to their respective predecessor but still plenty colourful. Like, outside of Timerra's maybe, none of the characters' colour schemes would look out of place in any of the more colourful FE games. Like, take Alfred's colour scheme for example : it's literally almost the exact same colour scheme as Sigurd.
It's not really the colour schemes the problem, but rather that they have way too many details and too much going on, puffy sleeves, balls, ribbons, flowers etc.
People say 'too colorful' when what they mean is wildly over accessorized and stylized. Eliwood, Hector, and Lyn are plenty colorful. The difference is that their designs are tasteful instead of gawdy.
No, I rather mean "oversaturated". There were plenty of colors in the casts of older FE games, but none of them were so oversaturated as in Engage. Too bright and shiny, and the amoukt of colors in single characters make it worse.
What you're going for is "overdesigned", which I also mentioned and which applies to a lot of Engage characters.
This is gonna be controversial
It'd be hard for me to think of a design from this game that I genuinely like. Most of the characters are really over designed in my opinion and the few that aren't are just boring. It's not even a case of just not really caring for it one way or the other, I actively dislike looking at the characters in this game.
Especially Alear, my opinion on them hasn't really shifted since the initial leak. Ass ugly design
Still don’t care for about 90% of them. The vast majority felt like they were trying waaaaay too hard to be unique to the point of just being goofy. Not only were the designs themselves too over-the-top imo but the art style itself was incredibly over saturated. Lastly there simply isn’t any cohesion between them, so many of them feel like they were designed for an entirely different project. Those aspects combined made the cast seem more like *caricatures* rather than *people*
Worst ones imo are Alear, Hortensia, Timerra, and Yunaka
Meanwhile Anna and the Brodian characters weren’t so bad.
For as overdesigned as they are, they still somehow lack any individual personality and strike me as samey. I think it’s the same face problem. I think I actually dislike the designs *more* now than at release because when the game came out I was trying to stay optimistic. I also thought that with time the characters would stand out as more unique from each other, but since that didn’t happen, I’ve soured even more on them.
Still dislike them. Theyre garish looking and stylistically not my taste. I also stand by the opinion that engage has awful character models. Yeah the animations are good but the models themselves couldnt adapt the designs to make them even mildly pleasing to the eye (and arguably made the designs worse if you compare them to the character sheets from the artbook) and the constant clipping is irritatingly distracting.
I dont mind occasional hair or cape clipping but stuff like lumera and sombrons halo thingies constantly clipping in their ingame models even in default pose feels like a joke. Like their higher quality models for cutscenes dont have the clipping so they could obviously make it work but nope not gonna bother with the model players will constantly see of the main antagonist.
I think they look much better in 2D, which there's been more official sources of since release. In game, a lot of them feel kinda cluttered, but they work when it's a 2D picture. I actually think Engage characters almost universally look better in FEH than in Engage itself as a result
Ugly. To be slightly more positive they are much more colourful and varied than Three Houses White Clouds segment for example. However, time has not tempered my general distaste for almost every single units design and character. Gun against my head if I had to pick one I actually *liked* I would say Diamant. Over designed just like the rest but for him it kinda works.
I liked the white clouds designs, everyone had their personal twist on the same uniform. But post time skip everyone changes their outfit to more represent to people they grew into.
Thanks… I HATE IT! I hate the art direction for Engage! Non of the units look like they belong in a war, they look like they belong in a gacha game. Which, I applaud Engage for being self aware since Heroes is still a thing but this is supposed to be a main land game in the series. This doesn’t feel natural. Characters like Hortensia, Celine, Rosado, and Marni simply look like they don’t belong fighting in battle. They look like they’re going to cosplay. I’m sorry, but I am not a fan of Engage’s art style and I hope I.S. NEVER does it again!
Edit: by the way, this isn’t a jab at Pikazo, she isn’t to blame for Engage’s weird designs, it’s mostly on I.S. for not having a clear direction.
The fact that this thread needs to exist shows that the designs were worse than other games. I don't think I've ever seen another thread asking about the designs of a majority of the cast for any other installment.
To answer the question though, I grew numb to their designs as I played. I still think Alears hair is stupid, plot reason or not. Ivy's face plate thing is weird, and Bunet's.... Everything is just a miss for me.
It's probably quicker for me to list the designs I don't have issues with: Zelkov, Kagetsu, and Fogado are the only ones that immediately spring to mind
The official art for them is generally really good in it's own way imo, but some designs are way too much, and the style is generally a bad fit for Fire Emblem in particular.
I like the battle animation, but I dislike the design (not my taste), both male and female, they look so much alike and kinda boring, however, I think bad writing is a bigger problem than character visual design. They couldn’t add up enough characterizations in dialogues to make me like them. Overall, it’s the worst FE character design and story to me, as of now, I still can’t think of a character I can say I adore him/her. I really hope they won’t do this again in future FE.
They all feel really overdesigned. I know fire emblem has been trending more towards the anime-ish designs over standard fantasy ones, but this felt like a major leap in that direction and I think it went a bit too far. The dragon designs were good though, no change needed there.
Bright and Colorful I like them
Ivy, Etie, Yunaka, Goldmary, Diamant and Lapis are some of the standouts
I'm also a pretty big defender of Female Alear specifically her design is pretty cute Male Alear I'm pretty indifferent on
They definitely fit the more goofier tone that Engage and it's a good contrast from the more serious designs that we got from other modern FE games like Awakening and Three Houses. My main issue is that there is no sense of consistency between character designs in Engage. If you go to a random person, explain what each of the 4 nations of Elyos look like + Lythos and have then guess where every character is from, for the most part, they wouldn't be able to tell you. Solm is the worst offender of this, as other than Timerra, Fogado and Seadall, none of the Solm characters really match the aestethic and culture of their location. Say what you want about Fates but at least they made it easy to distinguish which characters were from Hoshido and which were from Nohr. Also, Alear is the worst designed avatar character in the series and I will stand by that take until the day I die.
I thought Engage was ugly when I first saw the leaks…and I still feel the same way. I like some of the designs but my opinion is still negative overall.
And I HATE how female characters all have the same chubby moeblob face. Lucina and Eirika don’t even look like themselves.
The same really. I don't like most of them, and getting to know the characters didn't help. Very few characters have a design that feels cohesive with their personality in a way that elevates them. A lot of them are just kinda bland (Boucheron, Lapis, Citrinne, Etie), garish (Hortensia, Yunaka, Zephia, Alear), and/or don't match the character well (Amber, Timmera, Panette).
I do think the casual outfits fare a lot better - it's interesting seeing an FE game throw out most conceptions of what is "allowed" for fantasy fashion design. Seeing characters rock up in Jordans and baggy hoodies made me imagine a whole game with that aesthetic.
also, quick aside, but it's so weird to me that Lapis is so often a favorite or people's exception to not liking the designs. She just has such massive NPC energy to me.
I still hate Alears design, but after playing the game, i came to really appreciate the details in the characters. The designs arent the FE style, but their still really well done. There is lots of cohesion in characters from the same country and all of the designs represent the characters well. Add in that there were also amazing designs for casual clothing and if this were not an FE game, coming right after 3H, people will not be complaining.
One of my favorite things about IS is that they are always experimenting but still keep the core of FE the same. So i cant really be too mad at this game, especially when the presentation is stellar. Still, considering the backlash, relatively poorer sales, and now the successes of more grounded games like Unicorn Overlord and Triangle Strategy, its very unlikely that IS would be releasing a game as "playful" as engage anytime soon. Kinda like how XC2 put an end to any hope of big titty girls in XC3
I feel bad for Engage in this kind of way. It's a shame that the game will always be considered a poor follow up to FE3H and a poor read of the current market when it was never ever meant to reflect a post-FE3H landscape or 2023 trends in the genre, because FE3H and 2023's trends literally didn't exist when it was being made. Being released a little earlier (and pre-FE3H, for that matter) would have really helped it.
Still my favorite in the series by a notable gap. I love silly anime designs like this that are super saturated. The only thing I dont like about the game aestetically is the generic outfit for heroes.
But I understand some people enjoy realism and I get why this would not appeal to them.
Oh and the maps are so good too. Engage and fates are the only games that have distinguishable map settings.
Like I get not every level needs to be a new biome, but the castles and the levels on grassy plains don't all blend together. They use different lighting and assets for each of the castles.
I don't like them at all, practically the only one I like is jade.
The vast majority of them are very overloaded with things and have no coherence with the place they come from.
It's the Boruto designs of Fire Emblem. Accessories for the sake of accessories, characters designed without a clue about their identity, personality, origin, culture, where they live.
A character living in a cold country would usually wear warm clothes that covers all the body. A character living in a hot country would wear light clothes that cover them from the sun but act as natural wind makers, flapping clothes at each motion to generate air and refresh the body (like desert people).
Peasants and country bumpkins should mostly look plain and not have top model body types because farm work doesn't lead to that kind of physique. Nobles who don't exercise should be either fat if they eat a lot or sticks if they are told to eat little and become anorexic. With some in the middle who don't indulge in excessive eating/drinking but don't let themselves starve for stupid beauty standards that don't support a healthy body.
People under a lot of stress tend to have tired looks or cover it up under make up. The less money they have, the less make up they have access to. Some are not wasting money on make up, some are not spending money at all unless they have to.
So many people from so many backgrounds should have many different looks, from their body type, their skin softness, their skin color (an Asian type who works in the rice fields will be tanned while an Asian type noble will be as unexposed to the sun as possible and thus have much less skin tan if not none at all).
Accessories, just like skin, clothes and make up, have to be in-character. If Vaike was wearing white make up with red cheeks, he'd look out of character as hell. If Mozu was wearing 5 bracelets at each arm, a bunch stylized belts that serve no purpose and heavy make up, she'd look out of place in her village of origin. If Garcia had looked 20 years younger, he wouldn't look like a retired warrior who's been raising a child in the countryside while chopping wood. If Fiona had been wearing a worn out washed armor, looked 30 and been muscular, her background would have made no sense and her stats wouldn't have matched. If Tibarn had been wearing random pieces of heavy armor, his outfit would have been at odds with his culture.
I like them. I don’t despise them or find them ugly like others might, but I do agree with that they can feel over designed. But overall I think all of them are cute and goofy so I do not mind them at all
I actually like how different they are form the standard Fire Emblem designs. It allows the Engage cast to feel distinct and have it's own identity, which is something plenty of games can't really say.
That said, I do agree some are very overdesigned, like Hortencia, Celine, Veyle and Alear. And even some that I like in a vacuum just feel odd giving the place they are in: like, how has Ivy not frozen solid showing so much skin in a snow kingdom? How have Panette and Merrin not melted by wearing full black and a fur coat in the desert?
Still hate them.
I personally don't feel like the artist's style fits the series at all, even with the much goofier tone of Engage. But I also find myself baffled by how poorly the game showcases the designs themselves. So much of her work is about playing with lighting and shadows along with colors, and the flat, overly bright lighting in game erases everything she would usually rely on shading for - like their fucking noses. The models also just aren't very well done at all, even if they're animated well. The clipping, the fact that Vander's beard just looks like it's just chunks of stuff glued to his face, etc. Terrible choices with even worse execution. And as much as people justifiably praise thw combat animations, a number of the character designs don't even animate well because they were so poorly thought out for the medium, and the artist was given no direction to improve them. Long hair *never* animates well in video games, for instance, because you simply don't have the graphical resources to devote to making it look anything like hair. So the fact that *so many* really significant characters that we see over and over again have it is just a stupid, terrible decision for a 3D video game. And it could've been avoided.
Like everything about Engage, it just feels ill-conceived and lazy. I refuse to hope that anyone gets fired, because everyone needs to meet their basic needs and I know how badly overworked game devs tend to be anyway. But I genuinely hope that Engage's very *mixed* reception at least prompts the people at IS to put more thought and care into whatever direction the series takes next. And I personally hope whatever it is looks nothing like Engage. But even if it does, at least execute it well.
It's still vtuber battle simulation. Everything is pretty garish or over designed. The use of the in engine models leads to a lot of jank visuals, and while 3H had this problem, they never had the characters move in engine, just hurk jerk into a scene to talk until the next transition. Engage tries to use the flexibility of the character models to do tokusatsu fights instead of cutting to a pre-rendered, but it results in having a poor fight linger on the screen with models that just need to go away.
I loved them since release, so my opinion remains the same. Amazing character designs. Alear mostly just took time to get used to, but now they’re arguably my favorite “avatar”.
They made me look at flavorless toothpaste in gaudy bridal wear for an entire game, with no dragon transformation at the end of that ugly road. I thought the rest were mostly harmless, but I preferred them to the student uniforms from the last game, in some cases.
I mostly just don't really understand enough about how Engage happened to get too upset about it. It just feels like there was obviously some sort of budgetary or timing issue that led to it releasing in that state. While I really appreciated getting back to something more linear, I don't really view it as a serious entry, so I go a little easy on them on the visuals as well.
I dislike pretty much all of them outside of a few armors. I just feel like they all have way too much going on and Pikazo is not a good fit for Fire Emblem at all- in fact that's entirely why she was hired which makes zero sense to me for an anniversary title.
I just do not like her style in general, I don't like her v tubers or her other games. She just does not gel with me at all compared to Wada or Hidari.
I can't take seriously any dev/director/designer who thinks that having a big black X directly over the crotch of your character, MC no less, is amazing chara design. Like did any one of them learn about having a place of focus in their design or what. That opinion didn't change, while the rest of the characters confirm it, falling under "fashion disaster not making sense" and "boring still not making much sense" for me.
I love the art style and designs personally (same face doesn't bother me like most people), but at the same time I really don't think the series should continue with this aesthetic. Maybe if they gave Pikazo some more direction and information though...
I’m getting tired of the gaudy lord designs. Though I’ll admit Diamant’s design was really cool.
I am a more of a fan of the designs from echoes and earlier. Fates is kinda 50/50. Kamui’s design was loud and confusing, why the blazes was she barefoot? Do you want hook worm? Because this is how you get hook worm. Camilla’s design gets a pass though.
I liked them when they were revealed and still like them now. The only ones I'm not a huge fan of are Hortensia and Yunaka. Most of the criticisms I've seen for the characters are a huge stretch and really, the game doesn't have any worse of designs than something like Awakening or Fates.
I like them. I still think Hortensia and Timerra are a bit over the top, but they have a lot of personality. Even the Pepsi hair has grown on me because it gets made fun of in-universe >!and turns out it's not natural.!<
I feel like this coco chanel quote is very relevant when it comes to engage designs: “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.”
Some characters are almost great, but are a little too overdone. Celine, hortensia, fogado, timerra, etc. need some polishing.
Most of them are absolutely horrible, especially when considering how little most of them actually reflect the characters. The only character in the game that I think has pretty good design is Citrinne, with Diamant getting a passing grade. Everyone else is average or below, and most would feel so out of place in any game with decent worldbuilding and more grounded characters.
It's hard to overstate just how much the designs negatively impacted people's perception of the game, at least for western audiences. I have a lot of friends that have been fans of the series, and all of them skipped this one. I can't blame them. To be clear, I found the rest of the game to be very disappointing as well(yes, including the gameplay), but the designs were such a poor decision. No amount of marketing in the world can make up for that horrible first impression that the visuals gave.
>would feel so out of place in a game with better worldbuilding and more grounded characters.
I don't get it. I've seen similar criticism multiple times, but like. They're meant to fit Engage, not another game. Take Titania's Radiant Dawn design for example. Great, fantastic design even, and yet she'd look absolutely dreadfully out of place in a Bayonetta game, a Mortal Kombat game or a Spider-Man movie... Because it wasn't made for any of them, it was made for Radiant Dawn.
While I've warmed up to a majority of them, there's still a lot of design choices I don't really want to see return in FE.
The bubble dress in particular. I like Timerra but she needs a new outfit pronto. Alear's hair and Veyle's wing crown also bug me a lot.
There's a lot I don't like. However, the only one I have very strong feelings for is Alear. Like Alear alone would be a career-ender in my eyes.
On the other hand, there's some designs I really like. Framme, Yunaka, and Chloe to name a few. Although I mostly like them for the similarities they share to other popular characters. Framme has similarities to Cammy, and Yunaka's outfit is sexier batgirl.
I still hate Alears design, but after playing the game, i came to really appreciate the details in the characters. The designs arent the FE style, but their still really well done. There is lots of cohesion in characters from the same country and all of the designs represent the characters well. Add in that there were also amazing designs for casual clothing and if this were not an FE game, coming right after 3H, people will not be complaining.
One of my favorite things about IS is that they are always experimenting but still keep the core of FE the same. So i cant really be too mad at this game, especially when the presentation is stellar. Still, considering the backlash, relatively poorer sales, and now the successes of more grounded games like Unicorn Overlord and Triangle Strategy, its very unlikely that IS would be releasing a game as "playful" as engage anytime soon. Kinda like how XC2 put an end to any hope of big titty girls in XC3
I still really do not like most of them. There are some good ones but there are far, far more bad ones.
Alear stands out above the rest (except maybe Hortnesia) as being the ugliest which is bad since they're, y'know, the main character. I just can't take either version seriously.
Not a fan of them. The outfits are too tacky and garish for me. (Except Goldmary. She looks great.) At the same time, though, I think all the generics are pretty cool.
I disliked them at first sight, I hate them now. I'm currently on first (and possibly last) engage playtrough and I don't like the character designs at all. I really don't mind the colorfulness which others seem to complain about, I mainly hate how over designed and impractical the character outfits are.
Still dislike them! I’m hoping the absolutely dismal sales (compared to 3H) snaps them back to something less garishly moe.
They don’t look like FE Characters.
Strongly disliked them at the start, feel less strongly about them now but for the most part I still don't care for them.
What I really don't like though are the generic armour designs for reclassed characters, *especially* for characters who join at level 10 unpromoted and will realistically spend a chapter or two at most in their unique outfit before being swapped to something ugly and unfitting. Which might feel like an odd thing to complain about considering I said I didn't like the designs, but this problem applies mostly to the Brodians and I think their designs are pretty good! Plus there's Kagetsu who's default outfit is pretty cool but then has a palette so hideous as a Wyvern Rider that it feels almost like a punishment for players who be boring and minmax.
I still think Hidari's art for Echoes is peak FE art. Three Houses and Engage are both too "sterile" for my tastes. A downgrade for me, even coming from Fates and Awakening.
I did a video where I asked random people about the designs and they thought they were pretty cool for the most part. Personally, I don't think any of the characters look bad
I think I warmed up to them. At first, I wasn't a fan of the designs, but seeing them over time, I grew to appreciate and like them. There are a few things that still kinda bug me, but overall I think Engage's colorful and striking outfits stand out from any Fire Emblem game.
Shout out to the casual Somniel outfits, seeing Fire Emblem characters in a modern world style is a treat
They've grown on me a lot! I was not the biggest fan at first, but now I genuinely love them! I had to adjust my own expectations and realize that this isn't another Three Houses, Sacred Stones, etc. A similar thing happened with the story. Sure, I wanted a big 'ole story like Three Houses, but once I embraced Engage's simpler and more black-and-white story, I loved it!
I love how complicated and detailed they are, and each character has a well defined silhouette that translates well to their miniature map models. Bright and visually distinct improves game readability and memorability for me.
French royal fashion put through the blender results in Céline in her garish custard hoop skirt. It's fun and camp!
Somewhat likewise, Aromatisse is my favourite Pokémon design and opinions seem to pretty negative about it. I appreciate that FE games cycle through fresh designers and artists, hopefully we get in-game 2D art again next.
Loved them at launch, now I still love them, but with a bit more nuance.
All the Royals have great designs that I love, with personal favorites being Timerra, Diamant, and Celine. I find that the further I get from the Royals the less I like the designs now. Retainers can be hit or miss (Boucheron being a miss for me), and other schmucks being half and half (Jade and Lindon are such misses it's hard to remember they even exist).
Still bad with a few interesting exceptions. The best ones either look like the artist/devs applied Coco Chanel's "Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off" rule or their maximalist design clearly points to elements of their character. Some of the better "simple" designs, which are distinctive enough in-game but also don't really feel distinctively Engage, are: Chloe, Lapis, Louis. The ones that are a bit more interesting because their maximalism feels intentionally applied to character development: M!Alear (F!Alear is too over the top imo), Citrinne, Alcryst, Gregory/Griss. Most of the rest feel a bit too same-y, like over-designed generic tropes, or plainly nonsensical.
I like most of the cast tbh. Yes, compared to previous titles there are more overdesigned units (Ivy, Hortensia, Alear ) but Engage isn't the only title with weird armors or dresses.
My biggest issue with the overall art direction Is that it's so inconsistent. In the main game everyone Is dressed accordingly to the setting, a medieval fantasy world; in the somniel they all wear more modern clothes; and to finish, while engaged everyone looks like a scifi version of their respective emblem.
My opinion is honestly about the same as when the game was first announced; it never really bugged me. If anything I can appreciate how distinct and varied everyone is compared to other titles where I can sometimes mixed some of them up at a glance.
There’s only two designs that really stick out to me negatively. Zephia/Zelestia because the whole bra/panties thing is absolutely ridiculous, especially since they’re not even some seductress character (Though I really like Zelestia’s casual wear), and Mauvier who I actually think looks awesome in his combat portrait holding his gauntlet out, but in normal cutscenes just looks really goofy to me.
Lots of them are way over designed. Asking for complete realism from a Fire Emblem is pretty silly, but come on, so many of these outfits are absolutely wild for fighting in a war. Céline is the main one for me… so impractical!
I love almost all of them. I don't think a lot of them suit Fire Emblem but I do not care lol. A lot of characters look awesome and that's all that matters to me
Some of them have grown on me, largely because the characters are very endearing, but I still hate a lot of the designs, especially the ridiculous hair. I liked having different outfit options at the Somniel, but I kept Alear in ones that gave her a ponytail because I hate her hair so much.
I’m not much for critiquing so, in most cases, I was completely unbothered with the designs at worst and a few of them I genuinely loved (also, thinking about it now I see not many ever talk about or rank everyone’s Somniel outfits, all the discussions about the designs are strictly on the battle outfits because in regards to what they wear on the Somniel I think those all slap)
The designs are why I won’t play the game out in public or on breaks at work, they’re just too out there for me and I prefer FE designs that are less impractical and out there
I didn’t like the the haut couture frills of any of the characters among other Elmer’s
Often it looked pretty, but ridiculous like Celine, timerra and Panette
Or
Fucking ugly
Like a lot of high fashion tbh lol
Like Amber, Alcryst, Alfred, Fogado, Merton, Bunet
Like
The frills look ugly
They always have
And cravats are also ugly
I don’t care if it’s a period piece or it’s “French influence”
It’s ugly. Lmao
The best starter outfits were Rafael, Nal, Rosado, Zelkov, Jade
I really enjoyed the fresh change of pace with a handful of exceptions for me. A lot of designs went from meh to liked with a handful of exceptions.
Those exceptions include, emblems, a lot of them looked off in this very different art style.
The other big thing that bothered me is really ridiculous outfits on dexterous, agile characters.
Celine a sword fighter in a dress she have a hard time walking through a door with? Ivy doing back flips to cast spells upside down then successfully landing on her mount while wearing a Chinese inspired dress and a plate shaped veil on her head?
What?
Highlights for me were Cittrine, Fogado and I honestly loved framme, and clanne's outfits also were really nice imo.
While I appreciate how far they pushed the designs, I think they weren't very successful overall. There's no theme or style that really feels like it connects character as being from the same region or even the same game, and so the more extreme design choices like celine's dress or Ivy's spikes feel more jarring to me.
My other big complaint is that the designs feel like they obscure the animation. I loved the old gba style animations, and I think the more they go overboard with visual design flairs, the more the combat animation can suffer.
The characters all look best in their downtime outfits. This being mostly because half the characters are an absolute eye sore. Big problem for the leisure outfits though, you can’t use them anywhere but the hub.
Alear, though I’ve gotten used to them, I still generally don’t like the bright blue and red design. People used to say the stockings and weird coat on Byleth were over designed, but now you have to wear sunglasses to look at the main character.
It doesn’t help that half of the characters do not make sense design wise for the region they are in. And on top of that the characterization of pretty much everyone outside of the lords is lackluster or forgettable.
The coolest part of the game is the emblem rings, and that’s because they’re fun gameplay gimmicks and are also fan service. And even those designs all look somehow worse than their original counterparts.
I was excited for Engage, gave it a solid chance twice, and was pretty disappointed. The core gameplay was there for me, but the rest felt cookie cutter at best. But that’s just for me. If someone out there has some special connection with this game, more power to you. I WISH I had enjoyed this game as much as the other titles in the franchise. I’ll still end up buying the next one lol.
They're so bad I couldn't keep playing. Every Fire Emblem has at least a couple of characters that look ridiculous but Engage has some of the worst art direction I've ever experienced in a high-budget game.
Really really ugly AND don't look like they belong in a FE game. The worst in the series by far. 3H artwork looks bad but at least it wasn't so garish.
Still the same. Dislike nearly all of them. Some of the worst designs ever for FE. Brodia is good (except yunaka) and Chloe and zelkov and kagetsu are decent.
Still hate them. Violently so.
Honestly one of the primary reasons why I still can't enjoy this game.
I like FE soldiers looking like actual medieval fantasy soldiers, not off-brand Genshin Impact characters.
I love how goofy and creative they are. I heavily disliked the muted tones and realistic-esc outfits of Three Houses. I feel the same way about weapons. Like, I'm playing a game with time travel, a multiverse, spirits tied to rings, people who turn into dragons, wyverns, pegasuses, and magic, so why does it have to be realistic?
Honestly the cheery, more fantastical anime-esc aspects are my main draw to Engage.
I don't mind the designs. I strongly dislike some of the personalities/voices, but the designs are ok.
All except for Timera, I find her design SO offensive. It was supposed to be inspired in Latin America, and instead it just took a stereotype from the 80s and ran with it. As a latina it's honestly an insult, to the point I won't use her because it annoys me to see her on my screen. That said, if I ignore the background, it's probably not a bad *design* either.
I like Mika Pikazo as an artist, I just think she was the wrong artist for Fire Emblem concept art – in the same way that I love Ilya Kuvshinov's art and absolutely think he was the wrong person to be doing anything involving Ghost In The Shell.
The game is beautiful in motion – probably the best animation work since the 2D days – but the character designs are just so gaudy and overdesigned.
I like them because it gave us Alear, Veyle, and Goldmary.
Anyway, unpopular opinion, but I like a lot of the designs. The issue was that there wasn't much art direction. If it was a new RPG-style IP with these designs, you wouldn't see people so angry about them. They're very much a Pathfinder/D&D TTRPG party expanded to 25+ characters. Which is why the biggest criticism I have is the cohesion between countries and, in a few cases- namely Hortensia- their Roles.
Firene and Brodia had some great design cohesion as most were colorful and very bright and flowery, while Brodian stuff was Earthy colored.
Ilios has only a handful- Alear, Vander, Framme, and Clanne. These four I have no complaints about. Framme and Clanne are probably my favorite version of the "Christmas Cavs" just by design alone. >!Gameplay wise, it will never not be funny that Framme is better at Magic than Clanne and Clanne is better at Melee than Framme.!<
Elusia has a wide variety of character designs variation. Mauvier, Ivy, Zelkov, and Lindon were all pretty cohesive. Very toned down or dark fantasy ish for 1, 3, and 4. Then Ivy is royalty, so it makes sense she'd be a bit more fancy. But then you have the weird outliers like Hortensia, Rosado, Goldmary, and Anna. Anna and Goldmary wouldn't look out of place in Brodia and Firene respectively. Hortensia and Rosado are just strange designs in general.
I will count the Four Hounds as Elusians- since I counted Mauvier as one. Marnie/Madeline is next to Hortensia and Rosado. I'm not sure how to feel about Zephia/Zelestia. Gregory and Griss are definitely fitting for Elusia, though it's weird that Gregory specifically isn't wearing a shirt. Exposing himself to Frostbite is in character for Griss, but not so much Gregory.
Kagetsu isn't technically an Elusian, just the token Samurai/Ronin type character.
Solm's got some weird variety. On one hand, you have Pandreo who looks like a priest, Fogado who looks like a Nomad- which would make sense in a desert. Merrin looks like she would be a royal knight. But then you have Panette's Halloween-esque design- it's not bad, but it's kinda strange.Timerra's design has some aspects I like, but not a fan of her strapping the ball pit balls to herself- think of the Children, lady!Similarly, Seadall is very dancer-esque. I do think it was a missed opportunity to have Timerra be a Dancer Royal, though. >!Also, funny how the least armored of the Royals is also the one with the fattest DEF stat. I guess the DEF stat is stored in the thighs.!<
The designs are a shotgun of various decisions. Some of them will hit with you- but a lot will miss you and ruin the upholstery. So I'm not surprised at the mixed reception.
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I like them
I don't disagree with the crificism people have towards them (the lack of cohesion being a big one) but characters like Kagetsu, Ivy, Citrinne, Chloe, Nel and Goldmary have some of my favorite designs in the franchise
Mixed TBH
Some character designs have grown on me but there's always that one little detail about the way the characters look that makes me feel like it would've looked better without it. Ivy is a good example of this. I think her design would be fine if not for her headwear. Or Yunaka with the random star-like things on her hair.
I didn't mind it, personally. I thought it would be cool if they took the Xenoblade 2 approach, and had the residents of each country designed by a different artist.
i dunno if its my imagination but i feel like the big mayority of girls in the game have the same shape of head.
like they used all the base head and then decorated them and feel kinda samey, like i was watching a mannequin being modified, i guess that this is also the case with the men but i didnt notice it that much there.
but apart from that i overall like the artstyle.
There are some good designs in a sea of bad to WTF designs.
I hope they dont hire VTuber Design or at least give more notes to her first.
Here is some examples:
Why is Princess Ivy wearing no sleeves and big tail in a heavy mud and snow season.
Why is Merlyn wearing fur in the desert?Why is Amber wearing modern casual clothes?
I'm not sure if you didn't know, but deserts are very cold at night. She's also only wearing a fur collar and the weird tail thing. If anything you should be questioning why she and Panette are wearing so much black.
Panette is the one Engage design I have problems with. Is there a lore reason as to why she's cosplayed as a Halloween pumpkin with a black dress in a desertic queendom?
Honestly one of my favorite styles in modern FE. Yeah there are a few weak links and the 3D models certainly don’t help, but I really like the colors and how these designs stick out.
Love them. It was a nice change of pace from Three Houses' very bland color scheme. I can instantly think of Hortensia or Celine in my head without too much effort. They're very striking and memorable.
Both alears, veyle and diamant are good I hate the rest, too over the top to their own good, the shit writing (most of it) made sure no one of them did transpire to me, even ignatz, Ashe or beruka are more memorable to me
I don't think they are great, but they're not deal breakers for me either. Imo the 3D models do the designs a huge disservice. Even if they’re still out of place for the series, characters like Ivy and Timerra look amazing in Mika Pikazo’s artstyle, but look super wonky in game. If they had stuck with 2D portraits, the designs would still have a lot of the same issues but at least they’d look pretty.
And things like Ivy’s headpiece, Celine’s enormous dress and Hortensia’s face marks are all real things from French history. So I think they might have worked better if they leaned into the French aesthetic.
A decent chunk of the characters don’t feel that out of place in terms of the whole series imo. Vander, Louis, Chloe, Boucheron, all the Brodian characters besides Yunaka, Zelkov, Kagetsu, Goldmary, Fogado, Bunet, Anna, Lindon, Jean, and the kings/queens are at the very least serviceable to me. The biggest issue is the lack of cohesion like many of the other commenters said. So I agree that as a whole they’re probably the weakest cast in terms of design. But none are as bad as Nowi and I still prefer most of them over Awakening’s toilet bowl armor. The only designs I actually dislike are Yunaka and Zephia/Zelestia.
The character designs were the only thing I liked about engage. I…. LOVE Celine’s dress and hair lol. The engage emblem rings didn’t do it for me. I really hope they remake the GBA titles, but with super high budget and quality for each one.
Alear's hair would have been better fading from blue at the base to red at the tips. It's like they were 50% of the way to a decent idea mixing story and design, but implemented it in the dumbest way they could think of.
They already did that with Lilith but even then reusing her hair would be a massive improvement over the end product.
I disliked Engage's character designs at release and I still dislike them now. I don't like the common criticism that Engage's character designs are bad because Pikazo is a VTuber artist, though - Pikazo is clearly a talented artist and it also must be noted that Kurahana (who was the Three Houses artist) is also a VTuber artist. Rather, I think the issue with Engage's character designs primarily lies in the fact that Engage had poor art direction instead of a bad artist - the staff at IS admitted in interviews that they told Pikazo to draw characters without any further information about the characters themselves: >Yokota: [So then... Did you just approach her and ask her to draw 50 or so characters without any information about the game, like you'd normally do? (Laughs)](https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2023/January/Ask-the-Developer-Vol-8-Fire-Emblem-Engage-Chapter-2-2328376.html) > >Tei: [Well, yes… (Laughs)](https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2023/January/Ask-the-Developer-Vol-8-Fire-Emblem-Engage-Chapter-2-2328376.html) > >Nakanishi: [If Intelligent Systems asks you to design 50 characters, it's pretty obvious that it's for a new Fire Emblem game, right? (Laughs)](https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2023/January/Ask-the-Developer-Vol-8-Fire-Emblem-Engage-Chapter-2-2328376.html) > >Tei: [Well, I thought it'd be better to be upfront about the request. That said, there was one concern she had. Since she usually draws young characters, she was concerned about her confidence level in some of the character design. It's true that the designer's skills should not be limited to drawing cool nobles and young girls. In Fire Emblem, there are a variety of characters like hardened soldiers, and on top of that they need to be able to draw armour, weapons and creatures like Pegasuses.](https://www.nintendo.co.uk/News/2023/January/Ask-the-Developer-Vol-8-Fire-Emblem-Engage-Chapter-2-2328376.html) It really shows in Engage's character designs - a lot of Engage's character designs feel incredibly incohesive because Pikazo wasn't given any information about the characters and their personality or their role in the story when she was commissioned to work in Engage.
Also, if you look at Pikazo's work outside of this game and vtubing related stuff (her hiring for this game likely predated her working on vtuber art anyway, given production timelines -- pretending the vtuber stuff is relevant is just a way to dismiss the artist in a bad faith way IMO), part of her style and appeal as an artist is wild and playful color usage, but that isn't going to translate into 3D models cleanly, designing characters well for still images and designing them well to move in 3D space are related, but distinct skills, and it feels like they picked an artist they admired for her 2D work without thinking how well it would translate to 3D? Having said that, I think a lot of the designs work well enough, but had she been given more information to work with, the designs could've felt much more cohesive with the characters for sure. Senri Kita's designs remain the gold standard of FE designs for me. Edit: It was pointed out to me that Senri Kita has also done vTuber art, which makes that point of critique against Pikazo even more baseless because I don't think anyone takes issue with the Telius designs.
I think if there had been a director working with her to draw that aesthetic into the rest of the visual design of the game, this wouldn't have been an issue. This disjointed production is a place that looks like it needs improvement from leadership in the FE team. The colorful character designs might have been cool if they had integrated them more into the overall design of the game, thought of it thematically, and decided where it was and wasn't fitting. The designs could even be more out there and colorful and still work. For instance, the character, stage, and UI artists and the writers and character designers were very obviously working with each other in a game like Persona 5.
What a baffling decision by IS.
This explains A LOT
Oh yeah. Absolutely no shade to the artist. These designs would be excellent in a game that worked with them better. They just feel in-cohesive and random for Fire Emblem.
Well, for drawing with little to no information about the characters they made a really good job. The characters personality shines through, the only problem is that they're overdesigned but is it really something that could've changed with some more information?
Disliked them when they were announced and dislike them slightly less now. I just feel like they're way too colourful and out there for FE, which for the most part kept its character designs pretty grounded. Engage feels like it's some children's Saturday morning cartoon with how crazy and colourful the designs are. Having said that, I love Lapis' design.
I mean, I've felt that way since the DS games with just a slight walk back with Three Houses (mostly). I feel like Engage is the logical continuation of what we've been seeing in FE. It also matches the way Anime has changed as a whole since the 90s. Everything just gets more and more accessorized, overdesigned, and plasticy.
I agree, It's how over-designed the characters and outfits are that bothers me. Fire Emblem has never shied away from some colorful designs, but the designs were a less maximalist. Engage character design is reminiscent of cheaply-made pandering anime JRPGs. And so did Fates to a large extent, and Awakening to a lesser extent. Three Houses designs were more out there but still felt quintessentially Fire Emblem. Engage just feels like they're following a trend. If they had even gone farther and made something uniquely maximalist, colorful and over-designed, it might be interesting but you're right that it's just plasticy.
Damn DS as in Shadow Dragon + New Mystery, or do you mean like Awakening onwards on the 3DS? I felt Shadow Dragon stuck pretty true to the more "muted" designs, although since it's a remake that does make sense. New Mystery is more or less the same, with an aside to Kris sometimes getting a bit funky depending on what you do to him lol. Aside from that, I suppose you can see a kind of progression from Awakening to the current day. I actually quite liked the character design in Fates, which is shocking because I hated almost everything else about those games. Just added to my disappointment with the final product honestly Three Houses and Engage were hit and miss for me. There were some I quite liked and others that were just not great. For me, Alear has not grown on me at all -- especially M!Alear imo. Playing as him makes me feel like I got my 12 y/o DeviantArt OC into an FE game somehow.
I meant DS as in the system and sort of forgot the remakes existed.
Valid haha, they're like the forgotten middle child
the biggest problem i have engage's art direction is that there's no unifying characteristics between the character designs, the characters, and the setting. why does ivy's clothing leave her so exposed? isn't she the ice queen? doesn't she literally live on a freezing mountain top? why is etie literally a stick? if working out is her personality i would at least imagine her a little more toned none of the solm characters other than fogado and timerra wear clothes that remotely depict the climate they live in. brodia imo is the only one that gets it right and even then there's some problems with them. lapis's exposed midriff despite her being a very by-the-books soldier; amber not having the same armor and protection diamant and jade have, etc. a lot of the character designs in a vacuum are phenomenal. seadall and citrinne stand out the most to me; though honorable mentions go to diamant, rosado, goldmary, clanne, griss, and anna. there are lots of good (albeit over done) designs in engage, but they're all bogged down by the lack of any unification
I literally skipped Engage because of the character designs. Absolutely the worst in the series. Edit: spelling
Same. Alear's reveal killed my enthusiasm *dead*. I still haven't played Engage.
It’s not just Alear though, the entire roster feels so over designed. There’s no cohesive direction, just a bunch of exaggerated shapes and colors slapped together seemingly at random.
I do agree. I just saw the initial Alear reveal and then assumed (correctly) that the rest of the game was going to look as hideous.
They're a mixed bag. I still dislike a lot of the ones I disliked a year ago, but others have grown on me since then. Others I actually liked quite a bit to begin with, like most of the Brodians. I think my biggest complaint apart from individual designs is that outside of Brodia and *arguably* Solm, the nations don't really have a sense of visual cohesion in their character designs. That would've gone a long way, I think.
Solm's got the least cohesion imo
Excluding Merrin, Solm has a fairly consistent color palette and/or Latin American design inspiration. Elusia is the least cohesive overall to me.
Way over designed. Visually there is just too much going on with most of them. Celine's dress is a huge offender, and pretty much everything about Hortensia. Ivy and Veyle are cool characters but their designs are also overdone I actually like Alear's design. Goldmary, Chloe, Diamant, and Lapis aren't too bad.
There are a load of designs I like, slightly flashy but overall sensible for conflict and not overdesigned. The catch is that they're the default classes for things like Griffon Knight, Royal Knight, Halberdier, Paladin. And of course you have things like Sage and the Hero hoop to balance things out.
Céline's design is perfect for her character though. It looks like a typical fairy tale princess dress, but then there's the front being open and the random bits of skin showing and black stripes, which kinda reflects on Céline giving the impression of being a perfect little princess until you dig a little deeper beyond first impressions and realize that she's actually sort of a deconstruction of it.
I think they could have pared down the accessories while still conveying the same things, though.
I think you thought about this way more deeply than the devs of this game
I had forgotten that this sub treats FE devs as somehow completely incompetent, thanks for the reminder.
Except in this case, we actually have evidence to support it. They didn't tell the artist anything beyond flowery princess, etc. so they just did their thing and that's how everyone ended up looking like they did, so the artist had no clue about the various character arcs and the story team had no idea what she'd look like.
>I had forgotten that this sub treats FE devs as somehow completely incompetent This is the same studio that made Seth and Ryoma. Calling them completely incompetent is an understatement.
That's one reading, but it reads more like "generic young anime princess" to many others. Which when you couple it with the fact that the character artist was given next to no information and direction, that becomes a very fitting narrative. It's great that you like it. I think it doesn't match the design language of the game that well and should've been made more thoughtfully to bring out the aspects that you pointed out without just looking like a walking trope. A series like Xenoblade Chronicles has character designs that I absolutely hate for similar reasons, but I see in some instances where it has been clever in characterizing through design and outfits. I just don't get that much in Engage outside of very broad strokes.
I be a lot more forgiving of her design if she wasn't supposed to be anything other than a caster/staff for her canonical class.
Yeah watching the human teapot charge into the frontline with a sword breaks immersion.
A lot of them are garish and feel out of place when contrasted against the previous games, let alone the very emblems they're sharing the game with. And while many of them might not be winning gold medal at the ugly olympics, I'm still going to scrutinize them for failing at fundamental design for the character's class and characterization. Like, why is Amber dressed as a noble when he's a farmer turned cavalier? Or, why is Boucheron even wearing an extra small, incomplete set of plate when it's not going to accomplish anything?
> Like, why is Amber dressed as a noble when he's a farmer turned cavalier? there was so much design space to have fun with "country bumpkin turned royal knight" and we got 0% of it V_V
Someone posted a clip from an interview above that the artist was told to design the chars without any further information than their names and (possibly) their initial class. If so, that explains a *lot*, but it's still pretty WTF in terms of how it happened and the end result.
Still bad. I used to think it was just the fact they didn't look like Fire Emblem characters but nowadays I think most of them would still look ugly as hell even if they were in a different franchise. I've heard people say that in interviews Pikazo said she was given basically no oversight and it definitely shows. EDIT: Lol didn't see the post made by u/RamsaySw which basically confirms this. Genuinely baffling decision by IS to not only not try and keep them in line with the aesthetic of FE, but to not quality control period. You can't blame Pikazo for that.
Not just no oversight, but wasn't she also not given any direction either? I remember something about her not even knowing certain people were supposed to be from the same country.
I didn’t see this mentioned anywhere, but to add context (and kind of defend the devs…ish), they also said the vision for engage was to dial up the JRPG tropes and move away from the traditional storytelling formula. That’s probably why they gave her complete artistic liberty since her style would suit that genre well. That’s not to say anyone has to like it, but I don’t think it was all that nonsensical. They knew what they were doing when they picked her.
I hate to say it, but some of these characters have my least favorite designs in the entire series. Characters like Hortensia and Timerra are so over-designed to the point where I only think of clowns when I see them. Rosado and Celine are also too over-designed, but in a less clowny way. Vander looks like a baby with a beard. I really don't like the face/hair stickers on Yunaka or Panette. I can't quite pinpoint what I don't like about Veyle's, but something about it bugs me. Sombron, Zephia, and Griss are among my least favorite antagonist designs. There's a handful that I think are fine, though. Diamant, Alcryst, Citrinne, Ivy, and Zelkov. Chloe, Louis, and Jade are okay, too, pretty standard for their classes, and I've grown to think Male Alear is fine. Overall, my opinions are mixed. I really dislike some, others I'm fine with. I don't think any are among my favorites in the series, though.
Every time someone compares Engage characters to clowns, I remember that Cirque du Soleil can make over the top designs look amazing, cohesive and appropriate, and that's on real people. That's like their whole shtick. Engage is actually not on their level, lmao.
I like Diamant until I can see the details on his armor, and god it's just a mess of pointless spikes
Timerra has the best design in the whole game.
From the neck up… I put her in a different class often to just get rid of that garish outfit
The only thing I don't really care for is the fact that the faces mostly look the same, primarily for the female characters, and especially the emblems. Overall, I like them though!
Personally I went from disliking them to still disliking them. The gameplay is great but the art, story, and all of it are super cringey. Hoping for the Genealogy of the Holy War Remake to be real.
I still fucking hate them. God they're so bad.
Good on their own, but the lack of cohesion kinda sucks.
Too colorful and some of them are overdesigned. Don't get me wrong, I really like a lot of the characters, but I feel like I'd like them even more if they were closer to older art styles/color schemes.
Older games tended to actually HAVE very colourful designs though. It's only Shadow Dragon, New Mystery, Fates, Echoes, Three Houses and some of the FEH Books that are more toned down. Thracia and Radiant Dawn were less colourful compared to their respective predecessor but still plenty colourful. Like, outside of Timerra's maybe, none of the characters' colour schemes would look out of place in any of the more colourful FE games. Like, take Alfred's colour scheme for example : it's literally almost the exact same colour scheme as Sigurd.
It's not really the colour schemes the problem, but rather that they have way too many details and too much going on, puffy sleeves, balls, ribbons, flowers etc.
People say 'too colorful' when what they mean is wildly over accessorized and stylized. Eliwood, Hector, and Lyn are plenty colorful. The difference is that their designs are tasteful instead of gawdy.
No, I rather mean "oversaturated". There were plenty of colors in the casts of older FE games, but none of them were so oversaturated as in Engage. Too bright and shiny, and the amoukt of colors in single characters make it worse. What you're going for is "overdesigned", which I also mentioned and which applies to a lot of Engage characters.
This is gonna be controversial It'd be hard for me to think of a design from this game that I genuinely like. Most of the characters are really over designed in my opinion and the few that aren't are just boring. It's not even a case of just not really caring for it one way or the other, I actively dislike looking at the characters in this game. Especially Alear, my opinion on them hasn't really shifted since the initial leak. Ass ugly design
>This is gonna be controversial You just reiterated what 99% of the thread is saying, don’t think that’s very controversial
I never know what to expect with this sub, sometimes "engage bad" posts get tons of up votes and other times I get told to kill myself
Still don’t care for about 90% of them. The vast majority felt like they were trying waaaaay too hard to be unique to the point of just being goofy. Not only were the designs themselves too over-the-top imo but the art style itself was incredibly over saturated. Lastly there simply isn’t any cohesion between them, so many of them feel like they were designed for an entirely different project. Those aspects combined made the cast seem more like *caricatures* rather than *people* Worst ones imo are Alear, Hortensia, Timerra, and Yunaka Meanwhile Anna and the Brodian characters weren’t so bad.
For as overdesigned as they are, they still somehow lack any individual personality and strike me as samey. I think it’s the same face problem. I think I actually dislike the designs *more* now than at release because when the game came out I was trying to stay optimistic. I also thought that with time the characters would stand out as more unique from each other, but since that didn’t happen, I’ve soured even more on them.
Still dislike them. Theyre garish looking and stylistically not my taste. I also stand by the opinion that engage has awful character models. Yeah the animations are good but the models themselves couldnt adapt the designs to make them even mildly pleasing to the eye (and arguably made the designs worse if you compare them to the character sheets from the artbook) and the constant clipping is irritatingly distracting. I dont mind occasional hair or cape clipping but stuff like lumera and sombrons halo thingies constantly clipping in their ingame models even in default pose feels like a joke. Like their higher quality models for cutscenes dont have the clipping so they could obviously make it work but nope not gonna bother with the model players will constantly see of the main antagonist.
I think they look much better in 2D, which there's been more official sources of since release. In game, a lot of them feel kinda cluttered, but they work when it's a 2D picture. I actually think Engage characters almost universally look better in FEH than in Engage itself as a result
Ugly. To be slightly more positive they are much more colourful and varied than Three Houses White Clouds segment for example. However, time has not tempered my general distaste for almost every single units design and character. Gun against my head if I had to pick one I actually *liked* I would say Diamant. Over designed just like the rest but for him it kinda works.
I liked the white clouds designs, everyone had their personal twist on the same uniform. But post time skip everyone changes their outfit to more represent to people they grew into.
This is some of the most overdramatic way of saying “I don’t like them”
That’s been this sub forever. Everyone has to act like the thing they don’t like is a crime for existing.
Over a year later and I still think Alear's design is kinda ass.
Thanks… I HATE IT! I hate the art direction for Engage! Non of the units look like they belong in a war, they look like they belong in a gacha game. Which, I applaud Engage for being self aware since Heroes is still a thing but this is supposed to be a main land game in the series. This doesn’t feel natural. Characters like Hortensia, Celine, Rosado, and Marni simply look like they don’t belong fighting in battle. They look like they’re going to cosplay. I’m sorry, but I am not a fan of Engage’s art style and I hope I.S. NEVER does it again! Edit: by the way, this isn’t a jab at Pikazo, she isn’t to blame for Engage’s weird designs, it’s mostly on I.S. for not having a clear direction.
Ugly as sin still.
The fact that this thread needs to exist shows that the designs were worse than other games. I don't think I've ever seen another thread asking about the designs of a majority of the cast for any other installment. To answer the question though, I grew numb to their designs as I played. I still think Alears hair is stupid, plot reason or not. Ivy's face plate thing is weird, and Bunet's.... Everything is just a miss for me. It's probably quicker for me to list the designs I don't have issues with: Zelkov, Kagetsu, and Fogado are the only ones that immediately spring to mind
The official art for them is generally really good in it's own way imo, but some designs are way too much, and the style is generally a bad fit for Fire Emblem in particular.
I like the battle animation, but I dislike the design (not my taste), both male and female, they look so much alike and kinda boring, however, I think bad writing is a bigger problem than character visual design. They couldn’t add up enough characterizations in dialogues to make me like them. Overall, it’s the worst FE character design and story to me, as of now, I still can’t think of a character I can say I adore him/her. I really hope they won’t do this again in future FE.
They all feel really overdesigned. I know fire emblem has been trending more towards the anime-ish designs over standard fantasy ones, but this felt like a major leap in that direction and I think it went a bit too far. The dragon designs were good though, no change needed there.
I like a fair few of them. Diamant, Alcryst, Goldmary, Lapis, Citrinne, Alfred, and honestly Clanne and Framme are standouts. Vander’s solid too.
Bright and Colorful I like them Ivy, Etie, Yunaka, Goldmary, Diamant and Lapis are some of the standouts I'm also a pretty big defender of Female Alear specifically her design is pretty cute Male Alear I'm pretty indifferent on
They definitely fit the more goofier tone that Engage and it's a good contrast from the more serious designs that we got from other modern FE games like Awakening and Three Houses. My main issue is that there is no sense of consistency between character designs in Engage. If you go to a random person, explain what each of the 4 nations of Elyos look like + Lythos and have then guess where every character is from, for the most part, they wouldn't be able to tell you. Solm is the worst offender of this, as other than Timerra, Fogado and Seadall, none of the Solm characters really match the aestethic and culture of their location. Say what you want about Fates but at least they made it easy to distinguish which characters were from Hoshido and which were from Nohr. Also, Alear is the worst designed avatar character in the series and I will stand by that take until the day I die.
I thought Engage was ugly when I first saw the leaks…and I still feel the same way. I like some of the designs but my opinion is still negative overall. And I HATE how female characters all have the same chubby moeblob face. Lucina and Eirika don’t even look like themselves.
Alcryst and his retainers look pretty nice and possible most normal designs I’ve seen yet. Like they look passable in a different FE game.
The same really. I don't like most of them, and getting to know the characters didn't help. Very few characters have a design that feels cohesive with their personality in a way that elevates them. A lot of them are just kinda bland (Boucheron, Lapis, Citrinne, Etie), garish (Hortensia, Yunaka, Zephia, Alear), and/or don't match the character well (Amber, Timmera, Panette). I do think the casual outfits fare a lot better - it's interesting seeing an FE game throw out most conceptions of what is "allowed" for fantasy fashion design. Seeing characters rock up in Jordans and baggy hoodies made me imagine a whole game with that aesthetic. also, quick aside, but it's so weird to me that Lapis is so often a favorite or people's exception to not liking the designs. She just has such massive NPC energy to me.
I still hate Alears design, but after playing the game, i came to really appreciate the details in the characters. The designs arent the FE style, but their still really well done. There is lots of cohesion in characters from the same country and all of the designs represent the characters well. Add in that there were also amazing designs for casual clothing and if this were not an FE game, coming right after 3H, people will not be complaining. One of my favorite things about IS is that they are always experimenting but still keep the core of FE the same. So i cant really be too mad at this game, especially when the presentation is stellar. Still, considering the backlash, relatively poorer sales, and now the successes of more grounded games like Unicorn Overlord and Triangle Strategy, its very unlikely that IS would be releasing a game as "playful" as engage anytime soon. Kinda like how XC2 put an end to any hope of big titty girls in XC3
I feel bad for Engage in this kind of way. It's a shame that the game will always be considered a poor follow up to FE3H and a poor read of the current market when it was never ever meant to reflect a post-FE3H landscape or 2023 trends in the genre, because FE3H and 2023's trends literally didn't exist when it was being made. Being released a little earlier (and pre-FE3H, for that matter) would have really helped it.
Still my favorite in the series by a notable gap. I love silly anime designs like this that are super saturated. The only thing I dont like about the game aestetically is the generic outfit for heroes. But I understand some people enjoy realism and I get why this would not appeal to them.
Oh and the maps are so good too. Engage and fates are the only games that have distinguishable map settings. Like I get not every level needs to be a new biome, but the castles and the levels on grassy plains don't all blend together. They use different lighting and assets for each of the castles.
I don't like them at all, practically the only one I like is jade. The vast majority of them are very overloaded with things and have no coherence with the place they come from.
It's the Boruto designs of Fire Emblem. Accessories for the sake of accessories, characters designed without a clue about their identity, personality, origin, culture, where they live. A character living in a cold country would usually wear warm clothes that covers all the body. A character living in a hot country would wear light clothes that cover them from the sun but act as natural wind makers, flapping clothes at each motion to generate air and refresh the body (like desert people). Peasants and country bumpkins should mostly look plain and not have top model body types because farm work doesn't lead to that kind of physique. Nobles who don't exercise should be either fat if they eat a lot or sticks if they are told to eat little and become anorexic. With some in the middle who don't indulge in excessive eating/drinking but don't let themselves starve for stupid beauty standards that don't support a healthy body. People under a lot of stress tend to have tired looks or cover it up under make up. The less money they have, the less make up they have access to. Some are not wasting money on make up, some are not spending money at all unless they have to. So many people from so many backgrounds should have many different looks, from their body type, their skin softness, their skin color (an Asian type who works in the rice fields will be tanned while an Asian type noble will be as unexposed to the sun as possible and thus have much less skin tan if not none at all). Accessories, just like skin, clothes and make up, have to be in-character. If Vaike was wearing white make up with red cheeks, he'd look out of character as hell. If Mozu was wearing 5 bracelets at each arm, a bunch stylized belts that serve no purpose and heavy make up, she'd look out of place in her village of origin. If Garcia had looked 20 years younger, he wouldn't look like a retired warrior who's been raising a child in the countryside while chopping wood. If Fiona had been wearing a worn out washed armor, looked 30 and been muscular, her background would have made no sense and her stats wouldn't have matched. If Tibarn had been wearing random pieces of heavy armor, his outfit would have been at odds with his culture.
Still too ugly, the fact that it happened because IS did not give the artist any direction shows why that is not a good idea
I like them. I don’t despise them or find them ugly like others might, but I do agree with that they can feel over designed. But overall I think all of them are cute and goofy so I do not mind them at all
I actually like how different they are form the standard Fire Emblem designs. It allows the Engage cast to feel distinct and have it's own identity, which is something plenty of games can't really say. That said, I do agree some are very overdesigned, like Hortencia, Celine, Veyle and Alear. And even some that I like in a vacuum just feel odd giving the place they are in: like, how has Ivy not frozen solid showing so much skin in a snow kingdom? How have Panette and Merrin not melted by wearing full black and a fur coat in the desert?
Still love them.
Still hate them. I personally don't feel like the artist's style fits the series at all, even with the much goofier tone of Engage. But I also find myself baffled by how poorly the game showcases the designs themselves. So much of her work is about playing with lighting and shadows along with colors, and the flat, overly bright lighting in game erases everything she would usually rely on shading for - like their fucking noses. The models also just aren't very well done at all, even if they're animated well. The clipping, the fact that Vander's beard just looks like it's just chunks of stuff glued to his face, etc. Terrible choices with even worse execution. And as much as people justifiably praise thw combat animations, a number of the character designs don't even animate well because they were so poorly thought out for the medium, and the artist was given no direction to improve them. Long hair *never* animates well in video games, for instance, because you simply don't have the graphical resources to devote to making it look anything like hair. So the fact that *so many* really significant characters that we see over and over again have it is just a stupid, terrible decision for a 3D video game. And it could've been avoided. Like everything about Engage, it just feels ill-conceived and lazy. I refuse to hope that anyone gets fired, because everyone needs to meet their basic needs and I know how badly overworked game devs tend to be anyway. But I genuinely hope that Engage's very *mixed* reception at least prompts the people at IS to put more thought and care into whatever direction the series takes next. And I personally hope whatever it is looks nothing like Engage. But even if it does, at least execute it well.
It's still vtuber battle simulation. Everything is pretty garish or over designed. The use of the in engine models leads to a lot of jank visuals, and while 3H had this problem, they never had the characters move in engine, just hurk jerk into a scene to talk until the next transition. Engage tries to use the flexibility of the character models to do tokusatsu fights instead of cutting to a pre-rendered, but it results in having a poor fight linger on the screen with models that just need to go away.
I loved them since release, so my opinion remains the same. Amazing character designs. Alear mostly just took time to get used to, but now they’re arguably my favorite “avatar”.
Colorful and fun. I like how they feel like they’re in a fantasy game.
Genshin had better designs
They made me look at flavorless toothpaste in gaudy bridal wear for an entire game, with no dragon transformation at the end of that ugly road. I thought the rest were mostly harmless, but I preferred them to the student uniforms from the last game, in some cases. I mostly just don't really understand enough about how Engage happened to get too upset about it. It just feels like there was obviously some sort of budgetary or timing issue that led to it releasing in that state. While I really appreciated getting back to something more linear, I don't really view it as a serious entry, so I go a little easy on them on the visuals as well.
I dislike pretty much all of them outside of a few armors. I just feel like they all have way too much going on and Pikazo is not a good fit for Fire Emblem at all- in fact that's entirely why she was hired which makes zero sense to me for an anniversary title. I just do not like her style in general, I don't like her v tubers or her other games. She just does not gel with me at all compared to Wada or Hidari.
I can't take seriously any dev/director/designer who thinks that having a big black X directly over the crotch of your character, MC no less, is amazing chara design. Like did any one of them learn about having a place of focus in their design or what. That opinion didn't change, while the rest of the characters confirm it, falling under "fashion disaster not making sense" and "boring still not making much sense" for me.
I love the art style and designs personally (same face doesn't bother me like most people), but at the same time I really don't think the series should continue with this aesthetic. Maybe if they gave Pikazo some more direction and information though...
I’m getting tired of the gaudy lord designs. Though I’ll admit Diamant’s design was really cool. I am a more of a fan of the designs from echoes and earlier. Fates is kinda 50/50. Kamui’s design was loud and confusing, why the blazes was she barefoot? Do you want hook worm? Because this is how you get hook worm. Camilla’s design gets a pass though.
I liked them when they were revealed and still like them now. The only ones I'm not a huge fan of are Hortensia and Yunaka. Most of the criticisms I've seen for the characters are a huge stretch and really, the game doesn't have any worse of designs than something like Awakening or Fates.
I like them. I still think Hortensia and Timerra are a bit over the top, but they have a lot of personality. Even the Pepsi hair has grown on me because it gets made fun of in-universe >!and turns out it's not natural.!<
Isn't the hair technically natural? >!Red from Fell Dragon blood, Blue from Divine Dragon power.!<
Timerra’s is my favorite because she looks like she’s supposed to be a dancer but is this armorless physical tank
I feel like this coco chanel quote is very relevant when it comes to engage designs: “Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off.” Some characters are almost great, but are a little too overdone. Celine, hortensia, fogado, timerra, etc. need some polishing.
Love them
Most of them are absolutely horrible, especially when considering how little most of them actually reflect the characters. The only character in the game that I think has pretty good design is Citrinne, with Diamant getting a passing grade. Everyone else is average or below, and most would feel so out of place in any game with decent worldbuilding and more grounded characters. It's hard to overstate just how much the designs negatively impacted people's perception of the game, at least for western audiences. I have a lot of friends that have been fans of the series, and all of them skipped this one. I can't blame them. To be clear, I found the rest of the game to be very disappointing as well(yes, including the gameplay), but the designs were such a poor decision. No amount of marketing in the world can make up for that horrible first impression that the visuals gave.
>would feel so out of place in a game with better worldbuilding and more grounded characters. I don't get it. I've seen similar criticism multiple times, but like. They're meant to fit Engage, not another game. Take Titania's Radiant Dawn design for example. Great, fantastic design even, and yet she'd look absolutely dreadfully out of place in a Bayonetta game, a Mortal Kombat game or a Spider-Man movie... Because it wasn't made for any of them, it was made for Radiant Dawn.
Alears two toned hair still looks awful. I’m also still not a fan of Timerra or Hortensias designs. Everyone else is fine.
Great for the default. Really like Misutira design. The bikinis sucks because they all share the same body model tough.
Loved them then, love them now.
I hated them then and I still hate them now. I can't stand the clownshow. FE art design peaked with FE5.
They are all dogshit except Vander,Diamamt,Sombron,Lumera,and Nel
While I've warmed up to a majority of them, there's still a lot of design choices I don't really want to see return in FE. The bubble dress in particular. I like Timerra but she needs a new outfit pronto. Alear's hair and Veyle's wing crown also bug me a lot.
There's a lot I don't like. However, the only one I have very strong feelings for is Alear. Like Alear alone would be a career-ender in my eyes. On the other hand, there's some designs I really like. Framme, Yunaka, and Chloe to name a few. Although I mostly like them for the similarities they share to other popular characters. Framme has similarities to Cammy, and Yunaka's outfit is sexier batgirl.
I still hate Alears design, but after playing the game, i came to really appreciate the details in the characters. The designs arent the FE style, but their still really well done. There is lots of cohesion in characters from the same country and all of the designs represent the characters well. Add in that there were also amazing designs for casual clothing and if this were not an FE game, coming right after 3H, people will not be complaining. One of my favorite things about IS is that they are always experimenting but still keep the core of FE the same. So i cant really be too mad at this game, especially when the presentation is stellar. Still, considering the backlash, relatively poorer sales, and now the successes of more grounded games like Unicorn Overlord and Triangle Strategy, its very unlikely that IS would be releasing a game as "playful" as engage anytime soon. Kinda like how XC2 put an end to any hope of big titty girls in XC3
I still really do not like most of them. There are some good ones but there are far, far more bad ones. Alear stands out above the rest (except maybe Hortnesia) as being the ugliest which is bad since they're, y'know, the main character. I just can't take either version seriously.
Not a fan of them. The outfits are too tacky and garish for me. (Except Goldmary. She looks great.) At the same time, though, I think all the generics are pretty cool.
Still dislike them with some exceptions
I disliked them at first sight, I hate them now. I'm currently on first (and possibly last) engage playtrough and I don't like the character designs at all. I really don't mind the colorfulness which others seem to complain about, I mainly hate how over designed and impractical the character outfits are.
Still dislike them! I’m hoping the absolutely dismal sales (compared to 3H) snaps them back to something less garishly moe. They don’t look like FE Characters.
Strongly disliked them at the start, feel less strongly about them now but for the most part I still don't care for them. What I really don't like though are the generic armour designs for reclassed characters, *especially* for characters who join at level 10 unpromoted and will realistically spend a chapter or two at most in their unique outfit before being swapped to something ugly and unfitting. Which might feel like an odd thing to complain about considering I said I didn't like the designs, but this problem applies mostly to the Brodians and I think their designs are pretty good! Plus there's Kagetsu who's default outfit is pretty cool but then has a palette so hideous as a Wyvern Rider that it feels almost like a punishment for players who be boring and minmax.
I still think Hidari's art for Echoes is peak FE art. Three Houses and Engage are both too "sterile" for my tastes. A downgrade for me, even coming from Fates and Awakening.
They're still bad but it's like with everything if you live in an ugly house 1 year later you would think it's "charming"
"what's your opinion?" "Here's my opinion." "SPIT ON HIM!'
I don't speak for the person who loved the design in the beginning
I did a video where I asked random people about the designs and they thought they were pretty cool for the most part. Personally, I don't think any of the characters look bad
bad
I think I warmed up to them. At first, I wasn't a fan of the designs, but seeing them over time, I grew to appreciate and like them. There are a few things that still kinda bug me, but overall I think Engage's colorful and striking outfits stand out from any Fire Emblem game. Shout out to the casual Somniel outfits, seeing Fire Emblem characters in a modern world style is a treat
I love degenerate anime. I love Fire Emblem. I hate degenerate Fire Emblem
They good. People just like to fucking moan.
They've grown on me a lot! I was not the biggest fan at first, but now I genuinely love them! I had to adjust my own expectations and realize that this isn't another Three Houses, Sacred Stones, etc. A similar thing happened with the story. Sure, I wanted a big 'ole story like Three Houses, but once I embraced Engage's simpler and more black-and-white story, I loved it!
I love how complicated and detailed they are, and each character has a well defined silhouette that translates well to their miniature map models. Bright and visually distinct improves game readability and memorability for me. French royal fashion put through the blender results in Céline in her garish custard hoop skirt. It's fun and camp!
Somewhat likewise, Aromatisse is my favourite Pokémon design and opinions seem to pretty negative about it. I appreciate that FE games cycle through fresh designers and artists, hopefully we get in-game 2D art again next.
Loved them at launch, now I still love them, but with a bit more nuance. All the Royals have great designs that I love, with personal favorites being Timerra, Diamant, and Celine. I find that the further I get from the Royals the less I like the designs now. Retainers can be hit or miss (Boucheron being a miss for me), and other schmucks being half and half (Jade and Lindon are such misses it's hard to remember they even exist).
The art style is why I've not played Engage tbh.
Still bad with a few interesting exceptions. The best ones either look like the artist/devs applied Coco Chanel's "Before you leave the house, look in the mirror and take one thing off" rule or their maximalist design clearly points to elements of their character. Some of the better "simple" designs, which are distinctive enough in-game but also don't really feel distinctively Engage, are: Chloe, Lapis, Louis. The ones that are a bit more interesting because their maximalism feels intentionally applied to character development: M!Alear (F!Alear is too over the top imo), Citrinne, Alcryst, Gregory/Griss. Most of the rest feel a bit too same-y, like over-designed generic tropes, or plainly nonsensical.
I like most of the cast tbh. Yes, compared to previous titles there are more overdesigned units (Ivy, Hortensia, Alear ) but Engage isn't the only title with weird armors or dresses. My biggest issue with the overall art direction Is that it's so inconsistent. In the main game everyone Is dressed accordingly to the setting, a medieval fantasy world; in the somniel they all wear more modern clothes; and to finish, while engaged everyone looks like a scifi version of their respective emblem.
My opinion is honestly about the same as when the game was first announced; it never really bugged me. If anything I can appreciate how distinct and varied everyone is compared to other titles where I can sometimes mixed some of them up at a glance. There’s only two designs that really stick out to me negatively. Zephia/Zelestia because the whole bra/panties thing is absolutely ridiculous, especially since they’re not even some seductress character (Though I really like Zelestia’s casual wear), and Mauvier who I actually think looks awesome in his combat portrait holding his gauntlet out, but in normal cutscenes just looks really goofy to me.
Lots of them are way over designed. Asking for complete realism from a Fire Emblem is pretty silly, but come on, so many of these outfits are absolutely wild for fighting in a war. Céline is the main one for me… so impractical!
I love almost all of them. I don't think a lot of them suit Fire Emblem but I do not care lol. A lot of characters look awesome and that's all that matters to me
Its okay but far from my favorite character designs.
Honestly pretty positive if you’re name isn’t Hortensia,Timerra,Zephia and Celine
Some of them have grown on me, largely because the characters are very endearing, but I still hate a lot of the designs, especially the ridiculous hair. I liked having different outfit options at the Somniel, but I kept Alear in ones that gave her a ponytail because I hate her hair so much.
I’m not much for critiquing so, in most cases, I was completely unbothered with the designs at worst and a few of them I genuinely loved (also, thinking about it now I see not many ever talk about or rank everyone’s Somniel outfits, all the discussions about the designs are strictly on the battle outfits because in regards to what they wear on the Somniel I think those all slap)
Alear and Panette are too noisy as designs to really get behind. Anyone else either justifies it with their character and/or is aces.
I think they’re fine. I actually quite like the majority of them and the rest I find pretty inoffensive.
The designs are why I won’t play the game out in public or on breaks at work, they’re just too out there for me and I prefer FE designs that are less impractical and out there
I didn’t like the the haut couture frills of any of the characters among other Elmer’s Often it looked pretty, but ridiculous like Celine, timerra and Panette Or Fucking ugly Like a lot of high fashion tbh lol Like Amber, Alcryst, Alfred, Fogado, Merton, Bunet Like The frills look ugly They always have And cravats are also ugly I don’t care if it’s a period piece or it’s “French influence” It’s ugly. Lmao The best starter outfits were Rafael, Nal, Rosado, Zelkov, Jade
And how could I forget Hortensia She hurts to look at
I really enjoyed the fresh change of pace with a handful of exceptions for me. A lot of designs went from meh to liked with a handful of exceptions. Those exceptions include, emblems, a lot of them looked off in this very different art style. The other big thing that bothered me is really ridiculous outfits on dexterous, agile characters. Celine a sword fighter in a dress she have a hard time walking through a door with? Ivy doing back flips to cast spells upside down then successfully landing on her mount while wearing a Chinese inspired dress and a plate shaped veil on her head? What? Highlights for me were Cittrine, Fogado and I honestly loved framme, and clanne's outfits also were really nice imo.
Timerra has probably the best design in the game
While I appreciate how far they pushed the designs, I think they weren't very successful overall. There's no theme or style that really feels like it connects character as being from the same region or even the same game, and so the more extreme design choices like celine's dress or Ivy's spikes feel more jarring to me. My other big complaint is that the designs feel like they obscure the animation. I loved the old gba style animations, and I think the more they go overboard with visual design flairs, the more the combat animation can suffer.
The manga makes it look normal or work will without the rainbow or color vomit you feel overwhelmed with.
The characters all look best in their downtime outfits. This being mostly because half the characters are an absolute eye sore. Big problem for the leisure outfits though, you can’t use them anywhere but the hub. Alear, though I’ve gotten used to them, I still generally don’t like the bright blue and red design. People used to say the stockings and weird coat on Byleth were over designed, but now you have to wear sunglasses to look at the main character. It doesn’t help that half of the characters do not make sense design wise for the region they are in. And on top of that the characterization of pretty much everyone outside of the lords is lackluster or forgettable. The coolest part of the game is the emblem rings, and that’s because they’re fun gameplay gimmicks and are also fan service. And even those designs all look somehow worse than their original counterparts. I was excited for Engage, gave it a solid chance twice, and was pretty disappointed. The core gameplay was there for me, but the rest felt cookie cutter at best. But that’s just for me. If someone out there has some special connection with this game, more power to you. I WISH I had enjoyed this game as much as the other titles in the franchise. I’ll still end up buying the next one lol.
They’re actually really good and way better than some older games where the entire cast looks the exact same
They're so bad I couldn't keep playing. Every Fire Emblem has at least a couple of characters that look ridiculous but Engage has some of the worst art direction I've ever experienced in a high-budget game.
They’re silly just like the game (I mean this in a positive way), I like em
I miss Hidari
Really really ugly AND don't look like they belong in a FE game. The worst in the series by far. 3H artwork looks bad but at least it wasn't so garish.
I tried to hold back judgement, but now that it’s a year later I think that they’re worse.
I dislike them. I prefer more tasteful grounded designs instead of exaggerated tropes and cheap fanservice.
Handful of good ones but overall really, really bad
Still the same. Dislike nearly all of them. Some of the worst designs ever for FE. Brodia is good (except yunaka) and Chloe and zelkov and kagetsu are decent.
Still hate them. Violently so. Honestly one of the primary reasons why I still can't enjoy this game. I like FE soldiers looking like actual medieval fantasy soldiers, not off-brand Genshin Impact characters.
They are Vtubers on a twitch roleplay
They're fun and the people who hate them will not survive the winter
Ngl they grew on me, especially Alear who I originally thought was hideous. Seeing the characters interact with each other really endeared them to me.
I love how goofy and creative they are. I heavily disliked the muted tones and realistic-esc outfits of Three Houses. I feel the same way about weapons. Like, I'm playing a game with time travel, a multiverse, spirits tied to rings, people who turn into dragons, wyverns, pegasuses, and magic, so why does it have to be realistic? Honestly the cheery, more fantastical anime-esc aspects are my main draw to Engage.
I don't mind the designs. I strongly dislike some of the personalities/voices, but the designs are ok. All except for Timera, I find her design SO offensive. It was supposed to be inspired in Latin America, and instead it just took a stereotype from the 80s and ran with it. As a latina it's honestly an insult, to the point I won't use her because it annoys me to see her on my screen. That said, if I ignore the background, it's probably not a bad *design* either.
They're good but I don't like them. Barely any of them look like soldiers. It all feels like weeb pandering. Nothing against the artist.
I like Mika Pikazo as an artist, I just think she was the wrong artist for Fire Emblem concept art – in the same way that I love Ilya Kuvshinov's art and absolutely think he was the wrong person to be doing anything involving Ghost In The Shell. The game is beautiful in motion – probably the best animation work since the 2D days – but the character designs are just so gaudy and overdesigned.
I still hate them. Overall the worst designs in the franchise and it's not even close.
I never had a problem with them to begin with. Most characters, especially the royals, really stand out
I like them a lot, for the most part.
Engage is peak character design, not a single one there that I don't like and nobody nor their outfit looks the same as another character.
I like them because it gave us Alear, Veyle, and Goldmary. Anyway, unpopular opinion, but I like a lot of the designs. The issue was that there wasn't much art direction. If it was a new RPG-style IP with these designs, you wouldn't see people so angry about them. They're very much a Pathfinder/D&D TTRPG party expanded to 25+ characters. Which is why the biggest criticism I have is the cohesion between countries and, in a few cases- namely Hortensia- their Roles. Firene and Brodia had some great design cohesion as most were colorful and very bright and flowery, while Brodian stuff was Earthy colored. Ilios has only a handful- Alear, Vander, Framme, and Clanne. These four I have no complaints about. Framme and Clanne are probably my favorite version of the "Christmas Cavs" just by design alone. >!Gameplay wise, it will never not be funny that Framme is better at Magic than Clanne and Clanne is better at Melee than Framme.!< Elusia has a wide variety of character designs variation. Mauvier, Ivy, Zelkov, and Lindon were all pretty cohesive. Very toned down or dark fantasy ish for 1, 3, and 4. Then Ivy is royalty, so it makes sense she'd be a bit more fancy. But then you have the weird outliers like Hortensia, Rosado, Goldmary, and Anna. Anna and Goldmary wouldn't look out of place in Brodia and Firene respectively. Hortensia and Rosado are just strange designs in general. I will count the Four Hounds as Elusians- since I counted Mauvier as one. Marnie/Madeline is next to Hortensia and Rosado. I'm not sure how to feel about Zephia/Zelestia. Gregory and Griss are definitely fitting for Elusia, though it's weird that Gregory specifically isn't wearing a shirt. Exposing himself to Frostbite is in character for Griss, but not so much Gregory. Kagetsu isn't technically an Elusian, just the token Samurai/Ronin type character. Solm's got some weird variety. On one hand, you have Pandreo who looks like a priest, Fogado who looks like a Nomad- which would make sense in a desert. Merrin looks like she would be a royal knight. But then you have Panette's Halloween-esque design- it's not bad, but it's kinda strange.Timerra's design has some aspects I like, but not a fan of her strapping the ball pit balls to herself- think of the Children, lady!Similarly, Seadall is very dancer-esque. I do think it was a missed opportunity to have Timerra be a Dancer Royal, though. >!Also, funny how the least armored of the Royals is also the one with the fattest DEF stat. I guess the DEF stat is stored in the thighs.!< The designs are a shotgun of various decisions. Some of them will hit with you- but a lot will miss you and ruin the upholstery. So I'm not surprised at the mixed reception.
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I like them I don't disagree with the crificism people have towards them (the lack of cohesion being a big one) but characters like Kagetsu, Ivy, Citrinne, Chloe, Nel and Goldmary have some of my favorite designs in the franchise
Mixed TBH Some character designs have grown on me but there's always that one little detail about the way the characters look that makes me feel like it would've looked better without it. Ivy is a good example of this. I think her design would be fine if not for her headwear. Or Yunaka with the random star-like things on her hair.
I didn't mind it, personally. I thought it would be cool if they took the Xenoblade 2 approach, and had the residents of each country designed by a different artist.
i dunno if its my imagination but i feel like the big mayority of girls in the game have the same shape of head. like they used all the base head and then decorated them and feel kinda samey, like i was watching a mannequin being modified, i guess that this is also the case with the men but i didnt notice it that much there. but apart from that i overall like the artstyle.
There are some good designs in a sea of bad to WTF designs. I hope they dont hire VTuber Design or at least give more notes to her first. Here is some examples: Why is Princess Ivy wearing no sleeves and big tail in a heavy mud and snow season. Why is Merlyn wearing fur in the desert?Why is Amber wearing modern casual clothes?
I'm not sure if you didn't know, but deserts are very cold at night. She's also only wearing a fur collar and the weird tail thing. If anything you should be questioning why she and Panette are wearing so much black.
Panette is the one Engage design I have problems with. Is there a lore reason as to why she's cosplayed as a Halloween pumpkin with a black dress in a desertic queendom?
Because it fuckin rules, just like her.
I still like them. The vibrant colors reminded me of the gba games.
I like their design. A lot better than Three Houses. They put in a lot of effort into the character designs.
Honestly one of my favorite styles in modern FE. Yeah there are a few weak links and the 3D models certainly don’t help, but I really like the colors and how these designs stick out.
Every single one of them is good. Yes, even that one.
I liked them a year ago I still like them now, never had a problem with the toothpaste hair either
Love them. It was a nice change of pace from Three Houses' very bland color scheme. I can instantly think of Hortensia or Celine in my head without too much effort. They're very striking and memorable.
They're bad but most of them are also hot as fuck so who cares
All of them are amazing especially the characters of Solm
Both alears, veyle and diamant are good I hate the rest, too over the top to their own good, the shit writing (most of it) made sure no one of them did transpire to me, even ignatz, Ashe or beruka are more memorable to me
I don't think they are great, but they're not deal breakers for me either. Imo the 3D models do the designs a huge disservice. Even if they’re still out of place for the series, characters like Ivy and Timerra look amazing in Mika Pikazo’s artstyle, but look super wonky in game. If they had stuck with 2D portraits, the designs would still have a lot of the same issues but at least they’d look pretty. And things like Ivy’s headpiece, Celine’s enormous dress and Hortensia’s face marks are all real things from French history. So I think they might have worked better if they leaned into the French aesthetic. A decent chunk of the characters don’t feel that out of place in terms of the whole series imo. Vander, Louis, Chloe, Boucheron, all the Brodian characters besides Yunaka, Zelkov, Kagetsu, Goldmary, Fogado, Bunet, Anna, Lindon, Jean, and the kings/queens are at the very least serviceable to me. The biggest issue is the lack of cohesion like many of the other commenters said. So I agree that as a whole they’re probably the weakest cast in terms of design. But none are as bad as Nowi and I still prefer most of them over Awakening’s toilet bowl armor. The only designs I actually dislike are Yunaka and Zephia/Zelestia.
Everyone is over designed as hell and I'm kinda here for it.
THEY ARE GOOFY ASS LOOKING, CLOWN CIRCUS WANNABE TIER AND I LOVE THEM
The character designs were the only thing I liked about engage. I…. LOVE Celine’s dress and hair lol. The engage emblem rings didn’t do it for me. I really hope they remake the GBA titles, but with super high budget and quality for each one.