Nintendo today released a new trailer forFire Emblem Engage, Intelligent Systems' upcoming strategy RPG for the Switch. With a runtime of nearly three and a half minutes, the new promo delves into the game’s story centered onlong-dormant Divine Dragon Alear, while still having enough time to introduce its main factions, the countries of Brodia, Illusia, and Salm.
NintendoannouncedFire Emblem Engagewith a gameplay trailershown during its Direct broadcast back in September. The game is a follow-up toFire Emblem: Three Houses, which released on the Switch in 2019 to critical acclaim and fan adoration, despite a couple of polarizing design choices.
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Today’s trailer expands on the developers' previously confirmed decision to once again use amnesia as a narrative device. Much like Byleth’s mental pal Sothis took time to remember who she was inThree Houses, the protagonist ofFire Emblem Engage, Alear, will spend a significant portion of the game searching for a dozen Emblem Rings that will help them recollect their scattered memories. In terms of gameplay, the rings will also function as conduits that allow Alear to summon characters from the series' rich lore. The complete list of summonable heroes has yet to be confirmed, though Nintendo already hinted at plenty ofFire Emblem EngageEmblem Ring summonsduring the game’s September reveal.
In terms of factions, the trailer presents Brodia as a typical medieval European kingdom, while also providing a glimpse of Illusia’s snowy peaks and Salm’s vast deserts, thus establishing the three main settings that players will traverse during their time withFire Emblem Engage. And though the trailer consists solely of in-game cutscenes, Nintendo already showed a fair bit ofFire Emblem Engagegameplayover the last few months.
Speaking of which, it’s been confirmed that the upcoming game will return to the series' traditional weapon triangle balancing, a rock-paper-scissors system featuring swords, spears, and axes. WhileThree Housesdidn’t completely remove this staple mechanic, it integrated it into a more fluid RPG system that allowed any character to specialize as any class, while still being able to pick-and-choose traits like Swordbreaker and Spearbreaker from any of their previously mastered classes.
That system fromThree Housespolarized the fandom, though it did boost the game’s already impressive replay value by allowing near-infinite team compositions and making it near-impossible to get stuck due to bad leveling decisions, thus making the gameplay more accessible to newcomers. That said, it’s still unclear how much of those class-switching mechanics will make their way toFire Emblem Engage, even though Intelligent System is reverting to weapons triangle balancing.
Fire Emblem Engageis coming to Nintendo Switch on July 11, 2025.
