Fire Emblem Three Houses vs. Engage: A Comparison of Rings.

This blog entry contains spoilers for Fire Emblem: Three Houses and Fire Emblem Engage

I have two announcements before I begin this blog entry. First, while I've tried to post regularly in the past, I will now do so only when I have something to write about. Second, the Engage review is postponed for now. Instead, I will compare how Fire Emblem Engage

Three Houses: Jeralt's Ring

In Chapter 5, during a relative lull in the story, Seteth notes that Byleth's adoptive father is looking for them. After speaking to Jeralt's disciple Leonie and Catherine, Byleth will learn that Jeralt is visiting a grave. Byleth then learns that their mother is buried there, and Jeralt shows them his wedding ring, asking Byleth to give it to someone they hold dear. Seteth gives the player a small reward for completing the quest but is surprised to learn that Jeralt knew someone who was buried in the monastery.

There's a reason for that- Jeralt keeps his wife's death a closely guarded secret, especially from Rhea and her aide Seteth. While Rhea knows that Jeralt's wife had died, Jeralt lies and claims that Byleth was born after he left the monastery, when Byleth was born beforehand. It's a small detail that comes again after Jeralt accidentally lets slip that he left the monastery with Byleth.

After Jeralt dies in Chapter 9, Byleth visits his office and finds the ring.

Anywhere from eight to 13 chapters later, just before the final battle of the route, Byleth can choose to give the ring to someone they cherish, assuming that person survives the final battle. After the battle, Byleth speaks with that person, and the two discuss their future after the war, including developments brought up in their support. For example, in Edelgard's event, Byleth calls her "El"- a nickname only used by those closest to her, as she explains in her A support- and she is deeply touched by the gesture.

The scene concludes with a CG image of Byleth's chosen partner, and the game ends. A list of every story battle and Paralogue follows, with how many turns were needed for completion and which unit was the MVP. It then shows a list of all the units in the player's army, including how many battles they fought and how many foes they defeated, as well as their fates. If they died, the game will show where they died, but if they survived, they will have one of several endings, depending on the route and whether they're paired with anyone. The same goes for Byleth, whose ending can change entirely based on the partner.

Engage: The Pact Ring

Now for Engage's Pact Ring.

Unlike Jeralt's ring in Three Houses, Engage's Pact Ring is never mentioned prior to near the end of the game. While Lumera gives her child Alear a ring as a birthday gift early on, it serves a different purpose- namely, allowing Alear to become an Emblem in human form and cheat death.

Instead, upon the start of the last Paralogue in the game, Alear and company stumble across a ring in what looks like the ruins of Lythos Castle. They're surprised by this, as all of the 12 Emblem Rings, plus Alear's personal ring, are accounted for (while there are DLC Emblems, they're bracelets, rather than rings), and while the presence of Corrupted that come to steal the ring distracts them, Emblem Marth appears to recognize the ring.

After the battle, Emblem Marth reveals that it is the Pact Ring, which the Divine Dragon gives to their closest ally, at which point you see a brief scene with the character, including a CG image of them. One thing that Engage does better than Three Houses is that it's far easier to see everyone's Pact Ring scenes, since Three Houses required you to play through the final battle to see the scene. Another is that Alear can give the ring to anyone, whereas only a handful of same-sex S supports were available to Byleth in Three Houses.

Unfortunately, Engage's pact ring scenes leave much to be desired. While it's more convenient to be able to view the Pact Ring scenes prior to the final battle, it comes at the cost of tying them into the ending and giving a glimpse of the characters' futures. In a separate but still relevant problem, many of the Pact Ring scenes were allegedly rewritten to be platonic in the localization, and while some, such as the young child Anna, are understandable, others come off as unnecessary censorship.

Like Three Houses, each surviving character has an ending slide, but only Alear can pair up with someone. What's worse, the paired ending for Alear only has a single short paragraph for them, followed by a short paragraph for their partner that usually summarizes the partner's solo ending, but can be different in some cases (e.g. Alfred doesn't die young like in his solo ending, and it's implied that the Pact Ring extended his life).

Conclusion

Fire Emblem Three Houses and Fire Emblem Engage's respective rings are a good example of how things changed from the former to the latter. While Engage has many quality of life improvements over Three Houses, the story is noticeably inferior, lacking the buildup and payoff that Three Houses delivered, as well as much of the character depth and worldbuilding. Here's hoping that the next game brings back Three Houses' quality of writing, while continuing to improve the gameplay.