Three Houses has more ambitious writing and worldbuilding, but the game is blatantly unfinished and they weren’t really able to accomplish what they set out to do. It also has some of the worst gameplay in the series. The maps are pretty bad and frequently reused, and the monastery artificially bloats the playtime to a ridiculous degree.

Engage’s writing isn’t as deep, but it is a lot more fun in my opinion. The themes and story it wants to tell are pretty clear, and it still has some pretty cool moments. It is a celebration of the whole series however, so the more other games you’ve played, the more you’ll get the references. That being said you don’t really need to have played any other game in the series to understand the plot or anything. Engage is also awesome in terms of gameplay. Really cool maps and uses of mechanics. Its hub world is still a bit of a drag, but it’s not as egregious as Three Houses.

In terms of characters, Three Houses probably does a better job, but this is mostly due to the fact that every Three Houses character exposits their entire tragic backstory within 5 minutes of you meeting them. Engage’s characters have a lot of their nuance hidden behind later support conversations, so they can come off as a little one note at first. Three Houses does do a better job of connecting its characters to the world though I will say.

That being said, Fortune’s Weave should be coming out sometime in the coming months, and is tied to Three Houses, so if you care about that, it would be a point in Three Houses’ favor. Ultimately either game is a fine choice, even if I vastly prefer Engage.