Engage spoilers below, this was a jambled rant I wrote the day after the Soren DLC map came out that was in my drafts for a while.
Okay, so, Soren being added as an Emblem is the funniest thing to me. When he and Alear first meet, he makes it very clear that there is only one person he is loyal to and provides help to by simply asking, and if Alear really has to have his help, then they're going to need to prove themselves worthwhile.
I don't know how all the mechanics in Engage work, but I brought Ike’s Emblem on Alear, and had her attack Soren. It is only at that time that Ike shows up to Soren, teasing him a little at first. Immediately after the battle, Soren basically says to Ike, "You could have just said you were here and saved everyone the trouble."
Which is really funny to me, because Ike was with Alear. Ike could have just popped out at the beginning (but also not, because then we wouldn't have had the battle map).
Ike doesn't respond to that in any real way, but I think he wanted to fight against Soren. Ike enjoys testing himself against people stronger than him, and he constantly says (in the Tellius games and in Engage) that Soren is one of the strongest people he knows, so obviously he'd be eager to face off against Soren.
But also the fond/tired line of "You always did make things difficult, didn't you?" first before "Let's see if this is good enough for you," knowing damn well that Soren thinks the absolute world of him. I'm dying. (Also matches the JP script of their RD Base Conversation, you know the one, where Ike calls Soren a pain.)
Also, I'm never going to recover from how well delivered "Stop! You don't have to prove yourself to me!" is. The absolute panic.
I'm playing through Fire Emblem Engage and I'm playing as male Alear this time around. I know who I'm going to give the pact ring to and I chosen Chloé. I think she's a really sweet character and I love how she's pressuring her fairy tale dreams by being a knight.
i have been seeing so many grown ass adults whining about not being able to be a pedophile in the english release of engage that it is shaking my faith in humanity