Thanks to Fire Emblem Engage and the continual enjoyment of Fire Emblem Heroes, my addiction to this series has been riding a high for the past few months. In the honor of that (and to buy myself more time to get further in Tears of the Kingdom before committing to articles about THAT incredible game), let’s take a look at my Top 10 Favorite Characters/Units in Fire Emblem Engage. If this game has any universally praised features, its the exciting gameplay and the eclectic cast of memorable faces that you hangout with and bring into battle!
10) Mauvier
Fine, fine. Let’s address the obvious elephant in the room: it is painfully obvious that Mauvier is going to abandon the villainous team and join you from the moment he first appears. It’s almost comically obvious how ill-fitted he is to be a world-conquering baddie. Of course, that dovetails pretty nicely with his overall personality and character traits, especially in regards to fellow villain Marnie, and Mauvier’s dedication to Veyle. He’s a nice guy that does some bad stuff because he’s trying to keep those closest to him safe, and it’s great to see those ideals shifted towards your team once he makes the switch. Plus, his mounted magic lance gimmick is fun, as are his “straight-man” tendencies in support conversations.
9) Veyle
Veyle’s awesome, whether during the two-thirds of the game wherein she’s an unplayable but critical NPC, or in the last few chapters where you finally get to wreak shop with her magic daggers and insanely high critical rate. She might be squishier than a marshmallow, but she decimates foes who can’t counterattack. Her youthful optimism is infectious, and I love that she’s not blindly naïve like most child characters are, but instead understands the complexities of war and is willing to atone with the world and not expect their gratitude in return. Her interactions with Alear and Mauvier are great to witness, I love her central story role, and her voice acting is downright chilling at times (especially in the secret bad ending during the final boss).
8) Yunaka
The character that was first to ride the hype train upon Fire Emblem Engage‘s release. You could hardly take a step without bumping into another meme about papayas (her trademark greeting is “Hiya Papaya!”), or some tasteful (and not so tasteful) fanart. While I’m not sure I love her to that excessive of a degree, she just might be the most engaging character during support conversations, to the point where I went out of my way to unlock as many of hers as possible. See, her whole backstory is that she’s a contract killer hiding from her past life and masking herself in a bubbly persona to compensate. This leads to some incredible character work, and truly noteworthy vocal range from her voice actress.
Also, yeah, she’s a nigh-untouchable dodge tank assassin unit, so she has a space on every team!
7) Chloé
In a slight shift from the characters who took the spots on this list above Chloé, I don’t actually love her characterization all that much. She’s…fine as a character, but I find her shtick of being obsessed with weird folk foods to be a bit unoriginal compared with the rest of the cast. No, instead, the reason I placed Chloé on this list is because she’s an undeniably exceptional unit who outperforms a majority of the cast in sheer enemy-killing prowess. Whether it’s her ability to soar across the battlefield, dodge enemy attacks with ease, crit fairly easily, or wield a massive assortment of weapons (especially with an Emblem like Leif), there is no reason NOT to use Chloé at any and all times.
6) Jade
Until the day I die, I will stand by the effectiveness of taking a hyper-tanky armored unit into the field in the Fire Emblem series, irregardless of their questionable quality across the series. Yes, the reduced movement of armored units is a noticeably drawback, but forgive me if I don’t continue to put my impenetrable iron warrior woman on the frontlines as she stoically stands by taking zero physical damage and counterattacking all enemies into the ground. As long as I keep Jade nice and safe from any nefarious spell-slinging enemies, there’s no one who can even scratch her.
Plus, her out-of-battle characterization is great, as she’s this straight-laced soldier who rarely speaks, and yet has a side hobby writing (apparently absurd) comedy novels, inspired by the other members of your army.
5) Alfred
At the most cursory of glances, Alfred can feel like nothing more than a retread of Dimitri from Three Houses (eager blonde boy who uses lances, can ride a horse, wears a lot of blue, and is the prince of a kingdom). Truthfully, they couldn’t be further from each other, and I found myself consistently startled by just how incredibly written Alfred is. Alongside his sister, Céline, Alfred and her might be the best written characters in the game. I used him in practically every single battle from the moment her joined, and never regretted it.
Left with a bond pair with Emblem Sigurd (the emblem you receive when Alfred joins, and the clearly intended recipient of said emblem), Alfred will be a force of nature through all of Engage. But battle prowess aside, Alfred is an absolute joy during support conversations, showcasing his effervescent optimism and bumbling positive outlook. The real meat of his character comes when you learn these traits of his are a purposeful exaggeration to distract from the fact that Alfred is suffering from an incurable life-long illness, one that with certainty will strike him down one day. It’s why he pushes his optimism so much, because he wants to leave his friends with happy memories and not the realization of what he was enduring. It’s shockingly heartbreaking.
4) Alear (Alanna)
I’m not one of those vocal toxic people online who will scream about Robin, Corrin, and Byleth until the day they die, but even I am hesitant to immediately accept a new Player Avatar character with open arms. Thankfully, Alear follows in the footsteps of Three Hopes and the purple-haired mercenary Shez, creating a character who completely works in service of the story and the world while also being their own unique character, and a slight deconstruction of the “Chosen One” trope.
I named my Alear “Alanna”, and I went with the Female option, but regardless of your choice, Alear wakes up with spotty memory and being told that they are the Divine Dragon, a literal goddess. Despite this, Alear actively avoids the praise and worship the people around her try to throw on her, wanting instead to just live as a normal person. That humility is refreshing to see (turning typical complaints of “Avatar Worship” on their heads), and it makes her all the more interesting to follow through the plot…especially with some dramatic late game revelations and surprisingly well-planned twists that come flying at you in the final chapters.
It also helps that Alear’s a great support unit in basically any class and with any emblem, and she rocks in battle if left with a sword and Emblem Marth (like I did, because I love swords).
3) Céline
I’m a sucker for battle-ready royal ladies, I’ll admit it, and Céline checks about every one of my personal preference boxes. She’s refined and dignified, but more than ready to throw down if someone poses a threat. She’s methodical and well-spoken, but by no means unemotional or uncaring. She loves her friends, family, and homelands dearly, and will sacrifice just about anything (and sometimes anyone) in defense of said friends, family, and homeland. She’s a quiet sort of intimidating, which comes across wonderfully in both support conversations and battles.
Céline manages to excel in all areas of the game, which is something most characters can only strive for. As a frontline mage, her magic stat is exceptionally high, though her respectable strength allows her to wield swords in a pinch (including the unforgettable Levin Sword). Paired with Emblem Celica, Céline can teleport around the battlefield, or wreak AOE destruction with Emblem Soren. Then in the story, Céline proves an unwavering force for justice (declaring in one conversation her unflinching intent to put an entire bandit clan to death for disrupting trade in her kingdom).
Also, as one might expect, the DLC expansion (which features an alternate, twisted version of the base game world) gifts us the extremely entertaining Evil Céline, which is nice!
2) Lapis
In every single Fire Emblem game that I’ve ever played, my favorite class always ends up being Swordmaster, so I naturally gravitate towards characters that both look cool and wield a sword. I used Hana in Fates more times than I can count, activated critical hits until the break of dawn with Inigo in Awakening, and even changed the fate of the world with Byleth as a Swordmaster in Three Houses. Lapis follows this tradition yet again, but she honestly might be my most favorite Swordmaster in the franchise yet.
Pushed to the limits of the Swordmaster class, Lapis becomes a nigh-untouchable assassin, capable of fighting against enemies who have a 0% hit chance in nearly every encounter. Combined with her high critical rate, Lapis destroys enemy forces, and even more so when powered to the limit with Emblem Roy. And yet, for as menacing as she is on the battlefield, Lapis’ quietly anxious speech patterns and countryside behavior during support conversations are almost painfully sweet (especially with how embarrassed Lapis gets about her rural upbringing). Whether it’s wrestling bears that threaten her farm, or frantically growing and spreading the love of potatoes, Lapis is a sweet-hearted, kind-natured ally.
Or more than ally, if you’re like me and chose Lapis as your one and only S-Support. I even have a clip saved of Lapis and Alear (Alanna, if you will) decimating the final boss with the uber-beam you unlock exclusively with your S-Support partner.
1) Framme
Let’s try a little thought experiment, shall we? Imagine that you’re a hardened evil warrior, having spent your entire life in service to your corrupt warlord, and you’re inches away from destroying a town. Then, from out of the corner of your eye, a slim pink-clad ponytailed girl races up to you through a hailfire of arrows, punches you in the face for triple the damage of your health bar, then runs away laughing.
You’ve just been bodied by The Framme Freighter, courtesy of Framme herself, the healer with the hands of hurt, and my favorite character in the entirety of the game without question.
My love of Framme started as a joke, because she’s clearly just meant to be your weak little healer who stays around in the backrow and tops-up the health of damaged allies. However, in a similar vein to Shining Force, healers in Engage can also use their fists to pummel enemies, striking twice with each blow (but obviously having low strength to compensate). I quickly began to wonder two things. Firstly, I thought about how much damage I could theoretically do if I pumped up Framme’s strength as much as possible and took advantage of the ability for fist weapons to hit twice with each attack. Secondly, I thought about how funny it would be to watch this pumped-up, energetic girl slaughter enemies and monsters by the hundreds.
Thus, The Framme Freighter was born, running full-steam-ahead and mowing enemies down before they even know what’s hit them.
Sure, a lot of Framme’s success in my playthrough is owed to the stat-boosting items I dumped into her, the bonuses granted by Emblem Edelgard, and the resources I used to forge her fisticuffs. Still, it can’t be denied how utterly devastating a fully-invested Framme is, as there’s not a single enemy in the game who could withstand a combat encounter or two with her (and it helped that her high stats also ensured she had good accuracy, crit rate, and a low chance of being hit by enemies).
Then, just to top it all off, Framme is hysterical in support conversations. She’s obsessed with Alear to an almost unhealthy degree, basically passing out at the mere sight of her Divine Dragon walking by. Her frenzied enthusiasm is infectious. Plus, Framme has plenty of non-Alear focused conversations that delve more into her upbringing, her straight-forward outlook on life (she really gives brooding princeling Diamant a piece of her mind when he tries rationalizing war to her), and her devotion to doing good.
Framme intrigued me even before I started playing Engage, but I can safely say now without question that she’s my favorite character in the game, and very high up on my list of favorite Fire Emblem characters ever!
But hey, that’s just my opinion!
The Contrarian Corner 