Digital foundry played the latest copy of Fire Emblem: Engage and were impressed stating that the game is a big step up from Fire Emblem: Three Houses from a visual standpoint. While Fire Emblem: Three Houses was a great entry in the series, the art style and execution were nothing to write home about. Intelligent Systems has improved things visually for Fire Emblem: Engage and successfully created a bright and colorful game that holds up well against the recently released Paper Mario: Original King. If you’re curious, the resolution for Fire Emblem: Engage is 972p in docked mode and just under 720p in handheld mode, and generally runs at 30fps in both modes. Here are some excerpts from the article that you can read here.
“Regardless of all that Three Houses did well, I always felt that the presentation was a disappointment compared to previous entries. The muted color scheme, extremely simple background design with no lighting, and thin edges on the characters are just three of the problems the game faces. It’s not a pretty game when you get started – but developer Intelligent Systems has the pedigree here as Paper Mario: The Origami King is a beautiful game.”
“In terms of resolution, most of the pixel counts I performed were just under 1080p – usually in the 972p range. Portable mode is also a bit below the original 720p Switch, but thanks to AA, it ends up looking a lot cleaner. So the overall picture quality is a big win for this title.”
“Performance is also improved over Three Houses. As with the last game, there is a 30fps target, but it is achieved more consistently, which is a big plus when combined with the improved image quality. It should be noted that there is one area where the game exhibits regular hiccups – the transition point. Now this is a great feature that was also present in Three Houses where the game seamlessly zooms from the battlefield to the combat view, but every time this happens there is basically a brief pause in the action that manifests itself as a stutter. However, other than that, the overall performance feels more consistent than the Three Houses, both in the dock and in the hand.”
“Overall, I am pleased with the technical improvements compared to the previous application. It looks and feels much better than the excellent but domestic Tri House, while fixing many performance issues – and that includes long loading times. Fire Emblem Engage may not be a technical marvel, but it is an example of a game that feels perfectly at home on Switch.”
