Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave has the juice. I may have spent only around 10 hours with it so far, but it’s already proving to be one of my favourite games this year. The next chapter in Nintendo’s beloved strategy series is easily one of the hottest games this Fall. While not every entry is created equal and some are better than others (ahem, Engage), the time I’ve spent so far with Fortune’s Weave has been incredibly rewarding.
So while I can’t give a verdict just yet, what I have played has been immensely satisfying and challenging. What I can say is that the opening hours leave a strong impression, immediately set the stakes, and provide enough tutorialization to make anyone jumping in feel confident engaging enemies.
Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave Is Immensely Fun
I had doubts going in because while I did like Engage, its story and characters were lacking, resulting in an uneven, if uninspired, adventure. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave picks up where Three Houses left off, as it is one of the strongest games in the series with a ton of things to do. Intelligent Systems returns to this world with some exciting new ideas, and September cannot arrive soon enough for fans to find out what’s to come.
While we’ve seen the four heroes in most of the trailers and deep dives, Nintendo revealed that they are just one part of an overarching story which stars Eshmel, or the Herald of the Pale Raven, described as a saviour sent into the past with the help of the goddess Fortuna to fix what was broken.
So it came as a surprise that the four heroes we’ve seen in promotional images and in trailers aren’t the true protagonists. Instead, that’s a privilege given to Eshmel, a rather ominous avatar the player can customize from the outset, who can be a man or a woman.
Five years after these games, the shadow of an ancient threat looms over the Empire: the resurrected god Balor threatens to plunge the world into chaos. Faced with this calamity, the four key heroes of the Heroic Games have mysteriously vanished. To stand against the threat, the goddess Sothis entrusts you with a mission of vital importance: to save the world from its imminent annihilation.
The prologue begins five years in the future, when the undead have taken over the lands. Eshmel is stacked against the odds as he quickly learns there is nothing left to save in the current time, so they’re tasked with returning to the past and saving the future by controlling the Flame Lords (the four heroes we’ve seen in trailers).
The Past Is The Key
Fortune’s Weave is set in the Dagdan Empire. Its capital, Dagsion, is the stage for the Heroic Games, an event where warriors come together to battle it out, with the promise that a wish will be granted to the grand victor.
You play as Cai, a boy determined to save his imprisoned father; Dietrich, a swordsman searching for strong enemies; Theodora, a queen looking to fulfill a dream for her home; and Leda, a musician with dreams of revenge.
The opening chapters for each hero help the player learn who the hero is, a bit of their backstory and the journey to reach the Heroic Games, while later chapters branch off to set the stakes for the rest of the game. Early chapters focus exclusively on the Flame Lords and their friends and family, with the other Lords sometimes crossing over. I’ve really enjoyed Cai’s story so far, as he reminds me of Hugo from Suikoden.
Eshmel is sent to the past to help the four heroes survive and help you in your present. What happens next is you’re presented with four characters whose stories you’ll play through. I like being able to pick a hero and experience their story, with each one having its own path and characters you’ll come to know. It reminds me of Suikoden 3, where you could choose which hero to play with and witness their story.
Exploring the world of Fortune’s Weave shows great potential, with many recruitable characters available on the streets of Dagsion and elsewhere. Part of the series’ DNA is finding people to join your roster and then build them up to be some of the strongest units in your party. Exploring the world, which is so obviously Rome-coded, is, unsurprisingly, fun, with so many people littering the streets on the way to the Colosseum. As you recruit for your party, you can build your bonds with party members, provide them gifts, and eat with them to grow closer.
Battles Are Engaging As Ever
Battles are the heart of Fire Emblem; you know what you’re getting into when you hear the music kick off the next excursion against enemy combatants. Many of the series staples return, including turn-based combat with the familiar rock-paper-scissors combat, alongside party levels, the ability to read tons of menus, and party relationships. It’s all very familiar if you’ve played any of the games, and you’ll move your characters across a grid while focusing on positioning and the weapons in your hands.
You can work on equipping your battalions whilst working to win the famed Heroic Games. Everyone you meet has a purpose, with a ton of versatility offered to help build an ultimate team that can take on the trouble ahead.
In battle, you can choose an Attack Link, which allows an ally to attack an enemy right after you or a Recovery Link, which heals an ally, or a Mixed Link, which blocks an enemy attack while attacking with an ally.
Combat Arts are where weapon degradation is tied. Using Cai as an example, his Tempest Spear ability deals high Hit damage at the cost of 2 degradation points.
The new addition of Blaze Arts is one of my favourite things added thus far. Each character has their own iteration, and they allow each of the four heroes to perform special abilities in battle, like Cai’s fireballs or Dietrich’s ability to teleport around the arena. They each add a level of versatility to battles that I’m excited to exploit, and each has a great use case, too. The skills are tied to some cursed artifact, so for every use of a Blaze Art, you lose health and face the risk vs reward of losing HP to win. As you use the skills, you add to a gauge which can be used to buff your hero, but it comes at the cost of losing your max health for the remainder of the battle.
Fire Emblem Dungeons
Dungeons are found on the world map, each one offering treasures in addition to various enemies. If you enter with Cai, for example, you can use Third Eye to give you an idea of where enemies are in a dungeon, but it locks you in place, which makes you susceptible to being caught off guard. The UI indicates the distance to the goal at the top, alongside the number of chests you have yet to discover. Enemies can even spot you if you make too much noise or move too quickly, so it’s often wise to move slowly when you know enemies are around the corner.
Additionally, in the early hours at least, these dungeons don’t overstay their welcome. Some have taken me about 10 minutes, while others have taken almost double that. Thankfully, you don’t need to focus too much if you’re only interested in collecting treasure, as you can auto-finish battles here to make quick work of thieves.
Exploring The Dagdan Empire
Exploration via the world map offers plenty of opportunities to see what this land has to offer. Once you’re somewhat settled, you can freely explore the world, and it reminds me of Three Houses’ Garreg Mach Monastery. You can complete a lot of activities and then head out to travel the roads to find items and resources needed to bond with your teammates.
Subquests are also a great way to speak with the locals, help them out, and then open up the map for even more exploration. However, you will need to find a place to rest and eat, or you’ll quickly see that unless you take a break, you’ll struggle to survive battles.
