#& I dont have Alear yet either

[magic-biscuit]

We're going green bois

[derekscorner]

Fiery Opinions: Elyos Sillyos

Four Dragonstones but only two Dragon units

I finally crawled my way through the dlc after waiting for what felt like ages for the rest of it to release. It’s been so long in fact that I had to reread my initial ramble of the base game to put some thoughts together.

I had a couple restarts but only two full (currently on third) playthroughs of this game and I’ve found myself with more mixed thoughts than positive ones. In a weird way at that because the dlc isn’t bad per say but there’s subjective issues I had with how it works.

The first thing I’ll get out of the way is that I find it a bit frustrating due to lack of New Game +.

You see, I didn’t like the dlc for 3 Houses either but a plus of that dlc is that I only had to play it once. It’s story was (apparently) non-canon and okay at best but once you deal with that frustrating final chapter you dont have to worry about it anymore.

Any time you begin a new game plus on 3 houses you can march into the Abyss and recruit any dlc character you like. You can also use the Abyss’ facilities and even level it up, it’s fully open to you.

FE: Engage does not have this perk. It’s lack of new game plus means that you have to replay the DLC every time you do a file if you wish to make use of it’s five addition units.

I personally find that annoying because it defeats the point to a degree. I found the added paralogues more annoying than fun and, sure, you can joke that it’s a skill issue. The point is that I do not find it fun and I do not wish to redo it.

This becomes a problem because I rather liked the parallel Zephia (Zelestia) as well as the addition of actual dragon units.

It’s already ridiculous that the two dragon units in the base game can’t turn into an actual dragon without Tiki’s bracelet but now I have to play through something I find frustrating just to get two additional dragons.

Dragons that come with two stones each yet, even then, Alear can’t use those stones. As of writing this I have yet to check of Veyle can make use of those stones. I am hoping at least she can due to sharing the Fell Child/Dragon class with Nil and Rafal but I am skeptical.

As I’ve come to play through Fire Emblem I can understand the frustration of being handed a dragon lord only to be denied being a f*cking dragon. I actually made my run of Fates harder than necessary because I refused to be anything other than a dragon when playing Corrin since they’re the only lord that has had the option.

As for the twin dragon units that I do get I do like them. I really like their dragon designs but I do not see myself ever using them after this playthrough because I don’t find the Fell Xenologue worth the annoyance.

I may be more annoyed than I’d normally be about this but I can’t help but rant when my only method of turning three of my five dragon units into actual dragons is via dlc. (3 of the 5 units coming from said dlc)

As for the two additional classes added I have yet to use them much. Just one of those seals costs a hilarious 28k in the shop even with the Silver Card. I’m not even sure I’ll bother testing them out between that cost and the hours of dlc I have to play through just to unlock them.

But enough of that rant let’s talk story.

More simplicity but that pleases me

It’s a simpler story than I expected but I appreciate that. I enjoyed the base game greatly for it’s simple & flawed story and this continued that. I was even convinced that Nil may be the bad twin for a moment...I mean I expected one of them to be bad but they did at least fool me as to which one it would be.

Alear is summoned to another Elyos but one that’s in it’s final moments. It seems like a simple reverse world (to the point that even the world map is flipped) but things are more different than it seems.

The first obvious change is the alternative Alear. They noticeably have full blue hair and given Nil’s infatuation for that alternative Alear I would go as far as to suspect that this Alear was a true divine dragon. A real child of Lumera.

I only have context clues at best for this theory but it’s what I’m choosing to go with because the alternative would be Nil wanting to f*ck her own sibling. I made that ‘greek gods incest’ joke when I did the Fates post but that’s still a step too far for me....despite the series’ tendency to add questionable love options.

Other stark changes I noticed was that alternative Sombron’s children are always born in twin pairs. He makes it so that one twin always kills the other as per his comically evil archetype but it’s something key to the story.

The Veyle of this world seemingly died in the war as well among many others such as Lumera. There’s some more typical stuff you’d also expect like the cast having flipped personalities but you see so little of them that it is of little note to me personally.

I do think this was intentional though. The dlc is short anyway so rather than focus on a “evil” cast they focused more on the new twin dragons Nil & Nel and reversed Hounds.

Oddly the Mauvier of this world is the same as the other but what stood out to me was the other three Hounds. They get enough attention that you’ll actually come to like them. Personally I liked Zelestia the most to the point I replayed it just to get those supports.

It wasn’t much but it was still a pleasant surprise to see a focus on more than just the two new shiny dragons. I honestly left the dlc indifferent to the dragon twins. They’re fun units to use because they can change into an actual dragon but I dont have strong feelings beyond that.

Daddy Issues

That’s not to say they didn’t get enough story themselves. These twins are at the root of the dlc and I was momentarily fooled by which one was bad. I just can’t really express thoughts deeper than this since I left the dlc more frustrated than happy.

I will say that Rafal left more of an impression on me than his sister solely because of one tangent he goes on. It’s made clear that Sombron cursed the dragonstone to some extent but rather than take that easy way out Rafal refuses to admit it was solely his fathers fault.

He accepted that he did the evil things and that he sought to be the Fell Heir. This stood out to me due to how easily things were forgiven or ignored in the base story just so a unit could be recruited to your army.

I do think that it’s brushed aside too quickly once he’s recruited in the main story but that Rafal is 1000yrs older and I’ve yet to see all his supports so I’ll leave it at that.

I’m sure some one who sees the previous post would expect more on the personality reversed main cast but I sadly can’t come to care for them. All of the story goes to the Four Winds and the twins.

I will admit that alternative Celine is hilariously pro war and I do find the state of this world intriguing due to it’s dead nature. Make no mistake, there is no alternative Elyos to save.

It also seems that Elyos as a world needs it’s divine dragons to thrive. I say this because the alternative Alear died when they killed Sombron yet the world wilts to nothing anyway.

And I know that Rafal is the one that turned the royals and many (if not all) citizens and soldiers into corrupted but he alone wouldn’t cause the land itself to wilt away. He doesn’t even have a dragon form nor that level of power until he gets the bracelets in chapter 6.

OH! Wait let’s talk about the Bracelet Emblems a bit.

An explanation I didn’t expect

At first I was a bit disappointed that the bracelet emblems didn’t speak in the Xenologues. They get a few words out but Nel’s goal is to put them to sleep. Our Alear seemingly lacks the power to revive them in Elyos Alter and Nel, as a fell dragon, can only put them to rest.

Nil/Rafal has the power to awaken them but they only appear as fell emblems and thus do not emote. At first this feels like a missed opportunity but I chalked it up to time & money shortage. (gotta pay for those voices)

But it was half way through that I realized something; the bracelets being put to sleep explains their presence in the main story.

In the base story you just randomly find Edelgards bracelet on the Somniel but now it makes sense as to how it got there. The twins and Winds aren’t the only ones who came to your Elyos as these bracelets also found their way there.

There’s no telling for how long they were in our Elyos due to the time difference of the parallel worlds nor do they acknowledge the other world but they will reference the dlc story in supports with someone like Rafal or Nil.

It wasn’t much but it was a neat little thing for me.

Conclusions

I think I’ll end it here since I feel like I’m stretching to even get this far. I ultimately liked the Four Winds and the little world building stuff I noticed but I’m not sure how strongly I’d pitch the dlc as “must buy”.

It’s a pain to replay it every time to get your new units and more than one person has pointed out how the DLC emblems can break the game. They can even break the story if you’re wearing one in moments like Chapter 11 or 22.

Why? Because those are key story moments when the intent can be undercut. You lack emblems in those moments due to story reasons...unless you’re using a bracelet. It wont mean much to some but it will mean more to others.

I will say that I think FE: Engage is perfectly fine if you avoid the DLC so buy at your own discretion. Bye now~

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Editors Note: This is a addition to my previous post on Engage. A part 7.5 if you will. For more of my trip through fire emblem you’ll find them here: Fiery Opinions <–(link)