S-Rank Bond Rings in Fire Emblem Engage give Love to More Franchise Favorites (2024)

The chief selling point for Intelligent Systems' Fire Emblem Engage is in its name: "Engaging" with 12 Emblem Rings based on significant characters from throughout the franchise. In order to stop the returning Fell Dragon from wrecking havoc, the player's avatar character Alear must use their powers as the Divine Dragon to awaken each Emblem, allowing modern allies merge with heroes of legend like Marth, Lyndis, Byleth, and Sigurd from the Japan-exclusive Genealogy of the Holy War. Alear's army is much larger than those 12 rings can accommodate, so luckily there are also Bond Rings that spotlight additional characters.

Ring management is one of many activities to unlock in players' home base, the Somniel, while advancing through Fire Emblem Engage's main story. Early on they have the ability to polish Emblem Rings as a means of building support between one character and the associated Emblem, but soon the Somniel's Ring Chamber will have functions like inheriting Skills, augmenting Emblem weapons with boosted stats, and taking part in a gacha-like system to unlock Bond Rings. These Bond Rings include 10 characters from each Emblem's universe, and the strongest "Rank S" variants can include unique references that help them stand out.

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Fire Emblem Engage's Ring Crafting is an Interesting Twist on Gacha Mechanics

Fire Emblem Engage clearly takes a lot of inspiration from Intelligent Systems' mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes. Early marketing for Engage showed off Emblems like Ike and Lucina wearing variant outfits from Heroes, and the Switch release carries over concepts like "Tempest Trials" as part of its multiplayer offerings. Fire Emblem Heroes is a gacha game where players can spend real money to buy an in-game currency called Orbs, used to try and summon a growing catalog of characters from across the series' history.

Bond Ring crafting is similar to Heroes' gacha mechanics in that players spend an in-game currency called Bond Fragments to create up-to 10 random rings from one Emblem's pool of characters - though no microtransactions are included. There are 40 rings total in each Emblem set, as every character can have C, B, A, or S-rank Bond Rings. The characters individually focus on a few stats - mages typically buff magic, armored units buff defense, etc. - and higher ranked rings offer bigger, more diverse stat increases. A system is also in place for players to merge Bond Rings if they have multiple in one tier, making the collection manageable to finish so that more context behind each character is available in the Ring Reference encyclopedia.

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Some of Engage's Best Bond Rings Offer More Than Stats

As mentioned, the main reason to go after S-rank Bond Rings is to give any member of Alear's army who doesn't have an Emblem Ring some buffs. There will be something for everyone with the sheer variety of Bond Rings available, and players who understand Fire Emblem's history can correlate who to give which Bond Ring. For example, the Rank S ring for Genealogy of the Holy War's lance-wielding cavalier Quan offers +2 strength, +1 speed, and +1 defense; whereas the Rank S ring for Shadows of Valentia's cleric Genny offers +1 luck, +1 magic, and +2 resistance.

Yet minor stat buffs and blurbs with flavor text about each character are not the only reason why Fire Emblem Engage players will want to spend their Bond Fragments on forging rings. Two characters from each Emblem's pool also offer an additional Skill to whomever wears their S-ranked Bond Ring. These skills serve as references to their original appearance similar to an Emblem's unique abilities, such as Navarre from Mystery of the Emblem granting the "Deadly Blade" Skill that boosts critical hit rate when initiating combat with a sword.

The diversity on offer in these Bond Rings is also great for players who want to constantly swap out members of Alear's army, as some S-rank Skills overlap. For example, Mae from Shadows of Valentia offers "Great Thunder," boosting the strength of any thunder-based magic tome; whereas Olwen from Thracia 776 offers "Dire Thunder," guaranteeing the base Thunder tome hits twice. In a title where 12 Emblems garner the most attention, it's great to see Intelligent Systems also put effort into differentiating the friends they bring along. After all, in their B-rank support conversation, Marth tells Alear, "You can accomplish great things if you let your bonds with your friends become your strength."

Fire Emblem Engage is available now on Nintendo Switch.

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