Fire Emblem Engagemarked the series' 17th installment in a long-running, high-profile Nintendo fantasy, tactical RPG series. Its release comes after one of the more popular mainline series entries,Fire Emblem: Three Houses, which has inspired a litany of persisting mechanics and spin-offs, and has been lauded as a pillar offantasticFire Emblemcharacter design, development, and interrelations, worldbuilding, gameplay, and atmosphere. Naturally, the two titles share bones and reflect Nintendo’s tendency to re-purpose peculiar ideas within the series that worked previously in fresher ways, as good sequels tend to do. This even extends to both of the games' protagonists, in a sense.
The protagonist ofFE: Three Houses, Byleth, played a major role in the outcome of the game’s story because of the canonical fact that a lost god thought dead is housed in their spirit/mind (Sothis), and the entire Garrach Mach monastery — which serves as your primary base of operations and a haven for most all important figures in the game — stems from that point of contention. Byleth, in short, has the power of a god. Similarly,Fire Emblem Engage’s protagonist, Alear, is themself a god, and resides in the Somniel, essentially a floating monastery that serves the same purpose for gameplay purposes as Garrach Mach.
To Play a Fire Emblem Title is to Play God
There are distinctions in how these characters navigate their roles — one of which being that neither Byleth nor anyone else knows that the god that the largest faction in the story serves lives inside them, while Alear is a well-known and worshiped deity to everyone but themself. However, it does call into question what new avenuesFire Emblemcould take about presenting a new protagonistdynamic for a completely new, enriched experience dissimilar to what fans have come to be familiar with.
There is a measure of caliber and respect that both Byleth and Alear command by their birthright, but other characters with strikingly different backgrounds (both in and outside of theFire Emblemseries) have been the subject of deeply moving and immersive stories.Fire Emblemhas the opportunity to create a protagonistcompletely contrasted with the latest two and approach a new narrative from a brand-new angle. Maybe a protagonist with a common background could play the role of an underdog, or a bittersweet revenge story could kick the story off only for revelations over the course of the journey to reshape initial goals. Precedent stands in defense of Nintendo’s ability to implement such ideas, as well, given that they have an entire library of belovedFire Emblemcharacters that have had rich, memorable character arcs.
Fire Emblem Needs a More Well-Rounded Protagonist for Its Next Entry
A protagonist that forges their own reputation through deed or grit rather than entering the game with it (or maybe even a route that involves regaining lost respect/honor) would deviate from a concept threatening to oversaturate the series. What’s more, most of the characters ofEngagehave been critiqued as being one-note personalities that added very little to the quality of the game save for filling out the number of playable characters. Theplayable characters inThree Houses, by comparison, are multifacetedand layered with their own complex yet personable issues involving themselves, others, and the state of current events. The character writing goes a long way toward creating an enjoyable experience, and a return to focusing on more dynamic characters is a must for the next mainline entry.
A few examples ofThree Housescharacters with varying (often poor) backgrounds but impactful stories that made them fan favorites include:
All in all, though bothByleth and Alear successfully carried the plots of two popular titles, the sequel toFire Emblem: Engagecalls for a protagonist that can reset the tone for the series and demonstrate that one doesn’t necessarily have to be a god (or have a lost one whispering in their ear) to be a legend.
