Review: Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave

Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave may be one of the most ambitious games Nintendo has ever published. Fire Emblem: Three Houses on the original Nintendo Switch already pushed the boundaries of what a first-party Nintendo game could accomplish, and its successor, now on the Nintendo Switch 2, pushes the bar even higher. Between modern masterpieces like The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and ever-expanding sagas like Xenoblade, Nintendo’s past decade has been extraordinary, and Fire Emblem now has another entry that can stand among the company’s most special. Though not without its flaws, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave has unmatched grandeur, surprising variety, and moments so stunning that it earns itself ample applause as the curtains close.

The Dagdan Empire, long a land of abundance, has fallen to the demon god Balor. With the army of the underworld encroaching on the remnants of humanity, the goddess of fate Fortuna sends a lone guardian named Eshmel five years into the past. The mission? To guide Dagda’s four best fighters—the Flame Lords—safely through the apocalypse so that their strength may be used to fell Balor in the future. Eshmel’s quest opens with the Heroic Games, a wish-granting tournament that sees heroes from across the realm spar with their dreams on the line. A kind boy out to save his father, a queen with unshakeable will, a battle-crazed foreigner, and a vengeful dancer find themselves raising their swords against each other as the battles begin. Cai, Theodora, Dietrich, and Leda take center stage as a tapestry is woven across time to free the world from evil’s embrace.

From the prologue to its final moments, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave relishes in theatrical flair and poetic drama. Good and evil, competing interests, and cosmopolitan identities converge on the imperial capital of Dagsion as the tournament runs its course. As Eshmel, players shepherd the Flame Lords through the Heroic Games and ensuing events, with each of the four routes having unique stories, setpieces, and battles in the game’s opening act. Part 2 is mostly the same between all four, while Part 3 sees them merge as one. While the different routes were one of the game’s major selling points, it’s those arcs later on where its vision really comes together and the story picks up.

Much of the excitement of Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave still comes from Part 1. Cai and Theodora’s paths are safe but solid, telling stories of love and righteousness, while Dietrich and Leda’s paths are more unconventional and led by a pair of unpredictable protagonists. Dietrich’s story is the only one to distinguish itself, as its blend of eccentricity, mystery, and loveable companions makes it unlike anything else seen in the series. Cai and Theodora’s paths get the job done, though Leda’s is the only one that has more bad than good. The events that instigate her revenge quest are glossed over in a flash, and her abrasive personality, rife with man-hating and wild outbursts against people who mean her well, makes it hard to have respect for her, especially since she doesn’t grow much throughout the story.

Rushed plots and surface-level characterization are endemic to the whole game, but it’s easier to forgive missed potential or different priorities than it is to look past an unwelcoming protagonist. The writing and drama, for instance, is nowhere near the level of Three Houses, but it accomplishes something else entirely through its commitment to its premise and setting. And while individual characters are not too special, it’s a very large cast, and all their support conversations and connections to each other makes for an ensemble well worth spending time with. Be it the story or characters, it ultimately makes a fair trade by sacrificing depth and some quality for variety, as well as sheer scale.

Parts 2 and 3 raise the stakes higher and higher, and threads from Part 1 are stitched together to bring all four routes in step. Part 2 deals with events some time after the Heroic Games, while Part 3 sees Dagda’s bravest lead the campaign against Balor in the future. The final act’s ambition and cool factor makes it quite the sight to behold. Reuniting with the Flame Lords in the future and leading the charge as Eshmel is epic and euphoric in ways that may win over any players disappointed with the game up to that point. Were it not for a few gameplay issues that drag down this part of the game, it could have been the series at its best.

Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is a gift that keeps on giving. As if its multi-act, multi-route story wasn’t enough, the gameplay leaps from Persona-style social simulation to dungeon crawling to open warfare without ever losing its footing. Though undeniably guilty of trying to do too much, it succeeds in having something for everyone. Each of the three parts specializes in a gameplay style, with Part 1 being the most open, 2 being strictly battles, and 3 focusing on large-scale army management and strategy. The calendar system is most relevant in Part 1, where players can spend in-game days fighting skirmishes, recruiting and training units, completing quests, exploring dungeons, and charting the farthest reaches of the world map. Quests and dungeons are shared between all four routes, though unique mechanics like Cai’s ability to capture animals or Leda being summoned to perform at taverns across Dagda keep it interesting enough.

Part 2 is an interlude that can technically be skipped, but players will want to beat it on at least one route as it houses major story beats, hours of gameplay, and the game’s best battles by a long shot. There’s no calendar and no free roam in this phase, only chapter-by-chapter progression. It appears to be the same between routes, so players can complete it as part of their favorite route and then skip it for the other three to advance all lords to Part 3. While it’s disappointing that Part 2 doesn’t seem to change between routes, it’s the most like classic, tactical Fire Emblem, and series veterans are likely to enjoy it thoroughly. Furthermore, the game is already so rich in content that there being only one iteration of Part 2 doesn’t hurt it too much.

Part 3 sees the calendar return, but free time is used to prepare for major battles by eliminating underworld forces and rebuilding towns across Dagda. Players coordinate the war effort by sending squads out to pursue multiple objectives in a single day. Since traveling a space on the map takes time and this phase of the game can be rather punishing, effective time management and unit delegation becomes a must. Certain units come close to being able to solo battles by themselves, but powerhouses are few enough in number that players never have a sense of security. Part 3’s story maps are very large and open, see constant reinforcements, and have a majority of the terrain corrupted by miasma, which debuffs units significantly, leading to protracted engagements and hard-fought victories.

On one hand, the difficulty drives home how strong Balor’s forces are, but on the other, it can be extremely exhausting. Part 1 is easy, 2 steps it up considerably, and 3 doubles down. However, the difficulty of the endgame doesn’t come from curated maps, unique objectives, or tricky situations, it’s the reinforcement spam and miasma everywhere that creates an artificial spike in challenge. Part 3’s story and squad management is compelling, both being among the more interesting things the series has ever done, but it’s soured a bit by the inflated difficulty and open map design. Part 2’s maps are the best as they have the curated design of Part 1’s tournament battles and the intensity of Part 3’s. Like some other aspects of the game, the final act has a lot to appreciate but tries to do too much at times.

Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is beautiful, though it again opts for variety when it comes to things like character designs and environments. Dagda’s many landscapes include beaches, deserts, jungles, and marshland, and its residents reflect the diversity in not just their skin tone, but their hair colour and attire too. A more lively and imaginative world is welcome, though some of the extravagant outfits and hair colours stick out like a sore thumb, and practically all of the environments end up being forgettable. These were issues in recent entries, so it may be underwhelming but isn’t without precedent. The game looks quite good in handheld play due to its bright, saturated art style and the 30 FPS framerate is solid, if potentially disappointing to some.

Comparisons to Three Houses are inevitable and one area where it remains undefeated is in its music. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave has several standout tracks, but songs like The Edge of Dawn, Fódlan Winds, and Chasing Daybreak were some of the series’ best. The English voice cast is excellent in both, though the stronger script and emotional storytelling of Three Houses led to more memorable performances. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave still wins on overall presentation, as its visuals are significantly better due to it being a Switch 2 title and having a stylized art style instead of a more realistic one, and it still boasts high production quality—having both a stacked voice cast and a varied, orchestrated soundtrack.

A semi-rushed playthrough of Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave comes in at 80 hours. This was with two full and two rushed playthroughs of Part 1, completing Part 2 once, a normal Part 3, and battle animations turned off past the opening hours. The calendar can be advanced at any moment with the press of a button, and while this comes with the option to level up units automatically, an effective player would be able to better optimize unit growth by using up free time instead. Some of the difficulty of Part 2 and 3 may come from auto-training units instead of doing it manually through skirmishes, but given how long the game is and how much content is repeated or shared in Parts 1 and 2, it doesn’t hurt to shave off a few hours by skipping some of it.

Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is sometimes too big for its own good, but that’s exactly what makes it easy to root for. Where lesser games cut their losses, it forges ahead—confident in its ability to win over audiences in spite of its stumbles. Like a jack of all trades, it crowns itself champion through the many shapes it can take and all the things it can do. The daring displayed by Intelligent Systems with this entry deserves a standing ovation, and in a year dominated by Grand Theft Auto VI, Nintendo has come out with a title so massive and ambitious that it may raise the standards for gaming in its own way. Whether it be with its bold storyline, constant genre-hopping, or treasure trove of content, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is a festival of creativity and spectacle, and players willing to overlook some of its shortcomings will find themselves swept away by all its magic.

9/10

A copy of Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave was provided by Nintendo UK for the purposes of this review.