After a long wait, it’s finally here—the grand debut of the Fire Emblem series on the Nintendo Switch 2. While I have only been tangled with the series since that one time I bought Fire Emblem: Awakening and absolutely enjoyed it, I was very excited to see how the series would evolve on Nintendo’s new hardware. Though, I will say that the game before it, Fire Emblem: Engage, was one that I wasn’t particularly “engaged” with (pardon the pun), and that made me worried about potential future titles. But in just a few hours, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave managed to hook my attention, in ways that I did not expect.
Our World is No More
Our story begins in the year 1450. Unfortunately, humanity is practically on the verge of being extinct, as the God of the Underworld, Dagda, has awakened from his slumber. His army of undead people kills and uses the dead’s corpses as mindless puppets to do his bidding, so the more his army kills, the stronger it grows. And this is where you come in. Deep inside a ship known as the Nuwa, two researchers—Hong Hua and Zenon—begin to nurture an artificial vessel who, together with the Goddess of Fate, Fortuna, has the ability to change the world… literally and figuratively.
However, the process of creating said body takes a long time. Three years to be exact. But the underworld army soon takes over a vast majority of the world, so in a desperate attempt, Zenos unplugs his life support vessel to give the incubator containing the vessel’s artificial body the power it needs to finish nurturing. And now, with the help of Fortuna, you must travel back into the past and convince the four Flame Lords of Dagda to join your cause. And believe me when I say that this is just the beginning.
After you’ve concluded the Prologue, you are given the option between four obelisks, each of them following a different protagonist, which Fortuna calls a Flame Lord. You got Cai, a young, energetic boy who strives for a better life. Dietrich, a stylish swordsman from Fódlan who seeks worthy opponents. Theodora, a queen who means well for her nation. And finally, we have Leda, a dancer whose origins are shrouded in mystery. In a similar vein to Fire Emblem: Three Houses, there is no particular order in which you may tackle each of those routes. In my playthrough, I went through the obelisks as they appeared from left to right. So Cai, then Dietrich, then Theodora, and finally, topping it off with Leda.
My favorite route by far has to be Dietrich, because not only was it rich with lore, but the characters are some of the funniest I’ve ever seen. A lot of my friends keep saying that he looks suspiciously like Alucard, and honestly, with how he keeps muttering about how he wants to see blood, I can’t help but feel someone on the development team was trying to pull some inspiration. I wish I could say the same of Theodora’s route, however, which was so incredibly bland, and was one I felt fatigued just in the first few hours of it.
Where Have I Seen You Before…
In more ways than one, Fortune’s Weave‘s story carries a lot, and I mean, a LOT of references to Fire Emblem: Three Houses. While it is definitely not a requirement to play that game in order to understand it, I did feel like that one Leonardo DiCaprio meme where he’s pointing at the screen, because it’s sometimes amusing to me how many times the story referenced that game, down to the narration of the locations being made by Saint Cichol (reviewer note, remove upon editing: I believe his name is officially pronounced as kee-hol?) and the fact that Sothis makes a pretty notable appearance.
If there’s one thing I enjoyed a lot about each of the routes, it’s that, even though they’re all happening in parallel, the game manages to separate them enough in a way that I think Three Houses sort of failed at. While the characters do meet each other at some points, their underlying stories aren’t exactly too entwined with one another, other than the fact they’re all competing in the Heroic Games. And Fortune’s Weave even does a good job of setting you up with a tease of what could be brewing as you progress through each of the routes and continue learning more about the past.
I will say that one of my favorite bits is just how much the English dub of the series has improved. Ever since Fire Emblem: Three Houses, I’ve been playing the series in English. This is admittedly a rare thing, as for the most part, I largely prefer Japanese voiceovers. But this game’s voice acting is sublime, and it really makes the personalities of each character shine. I think my only problem was that at first, I did have to adjust the voice volume to be a bit louder, because there were some scenes where the background music would drown out what they were saying, but I didn’t have to do extreme adjustments, thankfully.
Your Move, Soldier
Of course, we cannot forget about the classic turn-based tactical system of Fire Emblem. When it comes to Fortune’s Weave, there are a few new things you can do, but the basic gist is still there: You have your objectives, characters with classes and weapons they can wield, and our best friend, the weapon triangle. So, let’s put a lens on what Fortune’s Weave does differently. First and foremost, the protagonist of each route will have something called Blaze Arts. At the expense of HP, you may use an attack that can greatly turn the tide of battle.
However, these skills do come with a caveat. Upon entering what is known as an Overblaze state, the unit will receive a +3 stat increase. Sounds really good, doesn’t it? Well, if you keep using it, you’ll eventually fill a gauge that reduces the unit’s max HP by half of its maximum until the battle ends. Given that enemies can easily ambush you and cause you to fail the battle, you must take care to ensure an unfortunate enemy ambush doesn’t cause that to happen.
Furthermore, all weapons have durability, but they work a bit differently here. In Fortune’s Weave, characters can perform a Combat Art, where the character can use a skill that, at the cost of Durability, will cause them to deal a powered-up attack. And it’s not like the weapon itself will be utterly lost when it reaches 0, though the unit equipping it will have this brief moment where their broken weapon will decrease their stats, which can lead to a fatal outcome if you’re suddenly surrounded by enemies.
And last but not least, you have various Blessings you can utilize, with the biggest being Fortuna’s Blessing, which can rewind the flow of time. This comes in handy in case you feel you have made a tactical mistake that led to a unit’s death, or if you want to bet on that 15% Critical hit chance to trigger. Besides her ability, you also have the blessings from Dagda’s various temples, and they each offer a specific ability that can add some defensive capabilities to your units, or really buff their attacks.
Take Your Time, But Don’t Dawdle
An important aspect of Fortune’s Weave is its calendar system. During each chapter, you’re given a number of “turns”, and once you run out, the main story will progress, regardless of how ready you are. How you choose to prepare yourself for the next big fight of the story is up to you. By interacting with the perch where the white bird rests, you can receive a Foresight, which will give you some advice on your recommended level and how the map and its enemies will be positioned.
This is also quite literally “free time”, as all you’re allowed to do is leave Dagsion and explore the world beyond it. Scattered across the world are various tiles that you can stop on to scavenge for resources, purchase items, and much more. You can also enter dungeons, which contain enemies and treasure. Furthermore, you can also complete side quests from the various merchants and NPCs, which will increase your Renown across the city of Dagsion. That is perhaps the most important stat you need to keep in mind. Because to successfully claim victory in the Heroic Games, you’re going to need party members.
Luckily, scattered across the city’s hubs, you’ll find a bunch of units that will be glad to join your cause… but they won’t just join out of the kindness of their hearts. Each unit has a specific requirement that must be met before they’ll even consider joining your party. On the surface, this seems fine, but I’ll be honest, some characters are deceptively tough to recruit, and even when you do recruit them, chances are they won’t have any support conversations or many meaningful interactions. Don’t get me wrong, I loved building my own team with my favorite characters, but unlike the recruitment system in previous Fire Emblem games, this one didn’t feel as satisfying.
The First Route Syndrome
I will say that it took me a long time to get the first route done, and I won’t deny that it did feel like a huge slog at times. Honestly, I feel the calendar system just in general is probably the worst part of Fortune’s Weave. I was constantly fatigued and had trouble keeping up with all of the things that happened, especially during the later parts. It adds this layer of stress as you’re constantly wondering whether you’re using your turns effectively. I have no idea how the development team decided on how many turns each chapter should have, because some chapters will only give you a very small number of turns sometimes. I’m talking about going from a generous 130+ turns to less than 30 in some cases.
This is combined with how certain characters will require you to do certain Paralogues, and quite frankly, if you don’t have a guide to tell you when these happen, I can see you missing these completely, unless you just so happen to be inside Dagsion and you spot the icon for it. Worse, their start time is sometimes so specific that even the quest menu itself is inaccurate. For example, one of the Paralogues in Theodora’s route has an end date that goes past the actual time her final chapter ends, so even though the game calendar says you have until then, you actually have even less time than you initially thought.
Now thankfully, any subsequent routes you do after the first are smooth sailing. This is because these routes can feature the same side quests, and instead of making you redo them four times, those you’ve finished will have their Renown rewards given to you, so you won’t need to spend precious turns on them again. Your discovered locations are also retained, and I must say that this shocked me quite a bit. It took me 3 to 4 weeks and nearly 40 hours to clear even a single route; the others paled in comparison, taking only a few days each.
The Most Ambitious Fire Emblem to Date
Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is perhaps one of the most ambitious leaps the series has taken. While some aspects of it play it safe, and the beginning of it can get rather slow, there are so many improvements that Intelligent Systems added, and so much content to explore… honestly, given my mixed feelings I had for the series after Fire Emblem Engage‘s… interesting plot, I’m happy that a game like Fortune’s Weave swept in to reclaim that trust.
Of course, I won’t say it is a perfect game by any means, especially because it does have its fair share of issues. Most of which boil down to the calendar system, but still. The characters of this game are so well-fleshed out, and the story is so engaging that I still highly recommend it for both series veterans and anyone looking to try out the series for the first time.
Disclaimer: Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave was reviewed on Nintendo Switch 2.
