PETER HOSKIN reviews Fire Emblem Engage and Tortuga – A Pirate's Tale

2023-01-20

Heroes turn up the heat in super role-play fantasy: PETER HOSKIN reviews Fire Emblem Engage and Tortuga – A Pirate’s Tale

Fire Emblem Engage (Nintendo Switch, £49.99)

Rating: *****

Verdict: Highly engaging

Somewhere in the factory where they make video games, there’s a machine that comes up with totally random three-word titles. It did its best ever work back in 2017, with Horizon Zero Dawn, but now it’s trying again, with Fire Emblem Engage.

I jest, of course — because those words aren’t totally random. The ‘Fire Emblem’ part means that this game belongs to one of the best series in gaming, one that stretches back to 1990 but that really took off outside Japan with 2012’s Fire Emblem Awakening.

These games are tactical RPGs. Tactical, because they involve you moving your tiny knights and soldiers around board-like landscapes. Roleplaying games, because they involve you growing your characters through a grand fantasy story.

Engage, the first mainline entry in the series since 2019’s Three Houses, definitely puts the tactics ahead of the RPG. There had been a move in the series towards more soap opera — everything seemed to be about getting your little warriors to smooch. But while Engage does have some of that, it puts far more effort into its battles, which are more detailed, challenging and visually impressive than ever before.

It did its best ever work back in 2017, with Horizon Zero Dawn, but now it’s trying again, with Fire Emblem Engage

Then there’s the ‘Engage’ part of the title, which refers to the game’s biggest innovation. Your characters can, well, engage with the souls of previous Fire Emblem heroes, gaining superheroic powers in the process. It adds new levels of gameplay and, when the baddies start doing similar, jeopardy.

If you’re a long-time fan of the series, it’s great to see these heroes reincarnated. If not, don’t worry: Engage is still a great game and certainly better than whatever the three-word-machine will produce next. Scourge Boss Duct, anyone?

The ‘Fire Emblem’ part means that this game belongs to one of the best series in gaming, one that stretches back to 1990 but that really took off outside Japan with 2012’s Fire Emblem Awakening

There had been a move in the series towards more soap opera — everything seemed to be about getting your little warriors to smooch. But while Engage does have some of that, it puts far more effort into its battles, which are more detailed, challenging and visually impressive than ever before

These games are tactical RPGs. Tactical, because they involve you moving your tiny knights and soldiers around board-like landscapes

Your characters can, well, engage with the souls of previous Fire Emblem heroes, gaining superheroic powers in the process. It adds new levels of gameplay and, when the baddies start doing similar, jeopardy

Tortuga: A Pirate’s Tale (PlayStation, Xbox, PC, Switch, £24.99)

Rating: ***

Verdict: Yo-ho-hum

It’s the Caribbean in the 17th Century. The English are there, so are the Spanish, the French, even the Dutch — as well as you, the doughty captain of a pirate fleet.

I say ‘fleet’, but, actually, you start off with just the one ship. Your job, in Tortuga: A Pirate’s Tale, is to add more, improve your crew and its equipment, ally with other captains, take on the colonial superpowers, and just generally raise your reputation from middling to murderous.

You do this through, effectively, three types of gameplay. Most of the time, you’ll be pressing forward on your controller, steering your ship — then fleet — through the high seas.

Other times, almost Fire Emblem-style, you’ll be battling against other ships on patches of water divided into boardgame squares. Then you’ll be chatting away with other reprobates, through text screens, in some island’s tavern.

It’s the Caribbean in the 17th Century. The English are there, so are the Spanish, the French, even the Dutch — as well as you, the doughty captain of a pirate fleet

You’ll be battling against other ships on patches of water divided into boardgame squares. Then you’ll be chatting away with other reprobates, through text screens, in some island’s tavern

At one point, I spent far too long circling around the same patch of sea, just looking for a particular ship that I’d been instructed to capture. In the end, this took its own turn from murderous to middling. It’s a pirate’s life for me — but only for so long

This mix is engaging at first. The sailing is utterly straightforward — but relaxing because of it. The fights, while lacking the poise and polish of Fire Emblem’s, are an enjoyable form of punctuation. The conversations, and the missions that arise from them, add to the sense that this is your pirate, making his or her own stories.

But there’s not quite enough here to sustain you past, say, the first few hours. Everything starts to look and feel a bit samey — sometimes to the point of madness.

At one point, I spent far too long circling around the same patch of sea, just looking for a particular ship that I’d been instructed to capture.

Besides, Tortuga never quite knows what it wants to be. Is this a lightweight pirate romp, full of yo-ho-hos and arrrrs? Or is it a serious historical simulation in which you make exacting choices about your fleet’s economy?

There’s some of both, but not enough of either. The experience is quite a dissonant one.

In the end, this took its own turn from murderous to middling. It’s a pirate’s life for me — but only for so long.

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