Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave Preview
Fire Emblem games are generally pretty big affairs. Epic stories, huge battles, tons of content, all that good stuff. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave feels massive in an unusual way that I’m already very excited about. The plot has long tendrils ready to dig into my brain, the setting stretches beyond the franchises’ normal boundaries, and the battles show a lot of promise. We’re going big with this one, and I can’t wait to see just how big.
Going into too many specifics would be terribly rude, so I’ll keep things relatively breezy in the plot department. Fortune’s Weave follows four heroes destined for a terrible fate. Maybe with a little time travel and some causality-based shenanigans, these fates can be avoided? I’m around a dozen hours into the campaign, so I’m working with a limited supply of concrete information. It’s all incredibly enticing stuff, at least so far. Again, I won’t go into many details, but the setting includes both lasers and spears. I am straight-up dying to know more. Thankfully, I at least have some answers about the mechanics and the gameplay loop.
Battles move fast, which I appreciate. Combat Arts and Blaze Arts are available to speed things up (in exchange for HP or durability), plus you can actually fast-forward through the fight animations. Not that the animations aren’t rad, because they very much are. I’m just not like, the most patient person on Earth when playing these games. Even without me slamming on the gas pedal, fights in this game are paced pretty well so far. Also, I can’t be certain, but I don’t think we’re doing the rock/paper/scissors thing anymore?
The New Shape of Battle
If you’ve played other Fire Emblem games before, you’re familiar with this system. Swords, spears, and axes (along with the rest of the attack types) used to operate on this triangle of effectiveness. You used swords on axes, axes on spears, and spears on swords. But I’m not sure that’s a thing. At the very least, there was no tutorial slowly explaining this to me. Instead, the different weapons just have different strengths and weaknesses. It feels more flexible, which is great! But it also means you’re flying sort of blind. Honestly, that’s pretty exciting. I look forward to slowly learning what weapons are perfect for every encounter. Maybe there’s even a whole new shape to memorize!
The character designs in Fortune’s Weave are amazing. They’re big on detail, but they’re also beautiful, elegant, and powerful. Theodora, the queen of Saramis, is all decked out in a bone crown, armor scales, and a massive cape. Eshmel’s armor, meanwhile, is completely white – feathered and delicate while still feeling martial. Every character I’ve met so far is dressed to kill. Your retainers, the minor fighters, the announcer at the games, everyone. I know this has been the case for several games, but it’s still nice to see the devs upping their fashion game with this entry.
Everyone Looks So Cool
I haven’t seen any romance stuff yet, but there has been ummmm, bird time. In the beginning, you created your own character, Eshmel. Then they get immediately sidelined for the four rad heroes of the recent past. Long story short, the only way (so far) you can interact with everyone is as a bird. The thing about birds you see, is that they can’t talk. Also you can’t get all that romantic with a bird – not unless this game takes a truly bizarre turn later. So I’m hopeful that things will evolve later, but I’m not terribly optimistic. Maye your character’s human form will be re-introduced in the future? Fingers crossed!
After playing Fortune’s Weave for a dozen hours or so, I’m psyched. The story is full of mysteries, the battles are awesome, everyone looks amazing, and there’s so much to do. This game already feels huge, like I’ve barely scratched the surface. I’m hoping we get more romance stuff later, as opposed to just ‘bird time.’ And maybe the Fire Emblem triangle has been abandoned! A new, slightly more confusing system rises to take it’s place. Again, I still have to confirm that one. But the battles definitely feel different from everything that’s come before, at least in that respect. The point is, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave feels like a massive new entry in the series, and I simply can’t wait to devour the full game.
***A Nintendo Switch 2 code was provided by the publisher***
