Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave Preview
by Dom Leighton · tsaIn the pantheon of Nintendo’s colourful plumbers, incarcerated pocket monsters and elves with annoying fairy sidekicks, Fire Emblem doesn’t quite fit in. In some circles, in fact, it might still be best known for providing a bunch of characters to Super Smash Bros., but that diminishes the fact that it’s one of the highest-selling strategy RPG series of all time. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is the first entry on the Nintendo Switch 2, and with the added power, Intelligent Systems have crafted a world more expansive and open than ever before.
This time out, your player character is Eshmel, though you can naturally give them any name you like. There is a very limited amount of character customisation available here – seriously, this must be one of the most stripped-back creators I’ve seen in a long time – giving you a choice of gender, skin colour, four hairstyles per body type, and five Moon Knight-like outfits which all look the same. It’s a disappointing start, though shout out to the inclusion of an arachnophobia option for some of the beasts you’re going to face.
To say that there’s a pretty major tonal shift in Fortune’s Weave would be underselling the opening of this newest Fire Emblem. As the recent Nintendo Direct gave away, Fortune’s Weave is a time-travelling adventure, with Eshmel tasked with returning to the past to guide four heroes – the Fire Lords of Dagda – safely to the gravely imperilled present. It’s not this, though, that really makes Fortune’s Weave feel different, it’s the sci-fi trappings and the inclusion of weaponry that look like guns.
Through the opening, you’re treated to a post-apocalyptic landscape, a synth-led soundtrack, Eshmel’s new body being grown in a tube, giant laser batteries defending your holdout, and, stunningly, one of your allies executing an undead with a salvo of close-range gunshots to the head. This is not the Fire Emblem you’re used to.
There’s plenty of the series’ central pillars, though. The tactical combat of Fortune’s Weave will not bring any surprises for fans who’ve been playing Intelligent System’s iconic strategy titles for the past few decades. You move your characters around the grid-based battleground, with a careful eye for positioning, and the weaponry you’re equipped with. Combat Arts bring an added wrinkle into this mix, giving you more effective offensive options at the cost of reducing your weapon’s durability. Overuse them, and you’ll find yourself without a weapon in your hands.
Blaze Arts take things one step further, requiring HP to use, which brings a further element of risk and reward to each encounter. You’ll have little choice in the opening, as Eshmel’s Purifying Flash is massively effective against the undead units you’re faced with, but Intelligent Systems have seen fit to give you a host of healing options to get you through, either way.
The main crux of Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is travelling back in time and following all four of the different timelines through, preparing each of the central heroes for the final showdown against the dragon Dagda, the big bad at the end of the road. The Heroic Games bringing them all together to the same place, alongside a wealth of supporting characters. You can tackle these adventures in any order you like, whether you start with Cai, a young boy whose father is taken away, Dietrich, a Fódlan elite wielding a Hero’s Relic, Theodora, the Queen of Saramis, or Leda, the Siren of the Six Strings who’s on a journey of revenge after her father is murdered.
I decided on Theodora as the assassination of her father, and the loss of her own right arm to the attacker sounded pretty intriguing. It turns out to be a case of familial jealousy, with her younger brother Dyan wanting their father’s throne. Dyan is easily one of the most hateful characters Intelligent Systems has ever created, and you’ll feel very deeply about keeping the snivelling weasel from becoming Saramis’ new king.
There’s hope in the shape of a Mamhadu’s arm, replacing Thodora’s injured one, though it carries a heavy burden that she doesn’t share with her retinue. She’s joined by her loyal vassals Bonaventure, an extremely well-spoken advisor, despite looking like a pirate, and Tobias, a joyful axe-wielding numbskull who can’t remember to call Theodora “Queen”, opting instead for “Boss”, to Bonaventure’s considerable annoyance. They’re a great trio, and just through the first couple of hours in their company, things look hopeful for the remainder of Fortune Weave’s narrative.
Relationship building remains a crucial part of creating the most effective combat force. Keep your teammates together, and they’ll support each other in battle, growing stronger together until you unlock the next stage in their relationship. Building that rapport brings newfound strength and, you can assume, the potential for romance as you reach later levels.
Beyond the series’ penchant for togetherness, there’s a raft of further systems to dig into between the central story bouts, from building your own reputation so you can sway new recruits to your team, to making offerings at the temples to curry favour with the different deities, each of which can grant you different boons to support you in battle. Don’t be surprised if you spend a long time tinkering between bouts.
I think one of the most impactful changes that the shift to the Switch 2’s more powerful hardware is in the improved performance in the free-roaming sections of the game. These have you take control in third-person, and where previous games have often struggled to deliver these on the original Switch, here they’re much more solid, with far more detailed and expansive areas to explore. They actually perform even better in handheld mode – perhaps with a spot of VRR helping to smooth things out – but either way, it’s a big jump over the past few outings.
That’s important, as you’ll find yourself spending a lot more time in third person, even beyond the relationship building, training and upgrading afforded to you as you progress through the Heroic Games. While you have a bout on the calendar, you can spend your time and efforts in training, or completing quests, all in the name of getting stronger. Moving out into the world map, you can spend turns moving around the map, aiming for quest points or places of interest where you can delve into a dungeon searching for treasure, collect resources or take part in battles to further prepare for the trials ahead.
My other favourite thing is much more subtle: a gentle nudge of HD Rumble from the Joy-Con 2 when you’re going to move into an enemy’s attack range. I’m a very careful Fire Emblem player anyway, and it’s a little like someone whispering in your ear while making a risky chess move, but this is a quality-of-life improvement I can definitely get behind.
The visuals as a whole look incredible. The anime-infused art direction is most apparent in the extended, fully-voiced cut-scenes, with some excellent voice acting, particularly in the English dub. There’s a sense that Intelligent Systems have been able to push a step further with the storytelling and presentation this time out. If the multiple story threads can be pulled together with the same level of class we’ve seen through the opening, it’s going to be an all-timer. Whether Fortune’s Weave can beat out Fire Emblem: Awakening or Three Houses as the pinnacle of the franchise remains to be seen, but this is an auspicious start.