Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, grand strategy is back and we're reviewing it!

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, the tradition of strategy

Releasing on September 17th, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave is the highly anticipated new installment in the strategic saga developed by Intelligent Systems, exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2. After spending a lot of time with the game, I'm ready to share our review of Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, to see if, once again, Intelligent Systems has managed to uphold the name of its most acclaimed brand. But let's proceed in order and see what Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave has to offer gamers who love strategy.

The Fire Emblem brand has been synonymous with Japanese turn-based strategy since 1990, so much so that I find it extremely difficult to name a main chapter of the saga that hasn't managed to captivate me. Of course, we can recall some underwhelming episodes or those with some improvable elements, but the fact remains that when we talk about Fire Emblem, we always expect something memorable. Fire Emblem Engage, released in 2023, gave us deep and elaborate gameplay, but left a bit to be desired regarding the plot and the quality of character interactions, with frivolous dialogues and a game hub, the Somniel, lacking in emotion. Needless to say, we are talking about minor flaws, but for all fans, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave is called upon to take another leap forward compared to its predecessor, continuing to offer gameplay worthy of the saga. 

In Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, we play a hero resurrected from death by the goddess Fortuna. Fortuna grants us her time-traveling powers, allowing us to go back several years, to when the Dagan empire was still flourishing and not devastated by the attacks of the powerful demon Balor. At this point, our story intertwines with four characters: the young Cai, the swordsman Dietrich, Queen Theodora, and the musician/dancer Leda. Each of them, before the advent of Balor, is in Dagsion, the rich and beautiful capital of Dagan, precisely during the very important Gladiator Tournament, a competition that sees the world's greatest warriors challenge each other to determine the strongest. The winner will receive a highly coveted prize: the ability to make a wish. Through the powers bestowed upon us by Fortuna, we can embody each of the four protagonists and experience their intertwining adventures. Thanks to pillars present in our character's headquarters, we can move from one protagonist to another, carrying forward the various plotlines in parallel, in a system that offers interactions at various levels.

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, characters and combat

Each of the four main characters has an interesting and mature story, although there are some stereotypes typical of Japanese video game narratives. To be clear, you can rest assured: the tones are decidedly more satisfying and profound than those of Engage. Revenge, values to fight for, and, why not, the pursuit of self-perfection as warriors, are sentiments that give Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave a strong and human soul and make the game's plot decidedly memorable, despite some somewhat "telegraphed" passages. Great importance is given to characterization, both protagonists and secondary actors, who manage to make the player empathize with them and become fond of many of the personalities encountered. Needless to say, in a short time, you end up with a list of your favorite characters just like in a novel or a TV series.

The gameplay consists of separate moments that converge into classic grid-based battles. If you already have experience with the saga, you will have no difficulty immersing yourself in Fortune’s Weave's combat system, as the basics follow the system that uses movements and actions to be performed one turn at a time, on maps of varying sizes. The base is always the same: you move and choose what to do, between attacks, magic, item use, and support functions. The strategic component is, once again, predominant and manages to transform every battle into a challenge to the player's intellect, especially when the difficulty is maximized. Regarding the difficulty level, the basic one seemed a bit too simple to me, while the most difficult one requires a degree of commitment that stimulates ingenuity and encourages players to make the best use of all available possibilities. There are two game modes, one with permadeath (recommended) and one without, which, however, in my opinion, removes one of Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave's most important immersion tools. Becoming attached to units and fighting intelligently to ensure everyone survives continues to be a very important lever in the dynamics that push gamers to give their best. In Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, there isn't a true weapon triangle, but each weapon has specific characteristics that make it more useful in specific situations. The sword increases damage when performing double hits, the bow is lethal against flying troops, the spear against mounted ones, and so on. In short, not the classic "rock paper scissors" system, but a variant that comes close.

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, gameplay innovations

The main novelty is the system of blazing moves, specific to only certain characters. Extremely powerful and effective on various levels, blazing moves must be used sparingly, as they consume the user's health points and are linked to a fervor indicator. By using blazing moves, we will fill the indicator and see our stats improve, but if we abuse these arts, we will lose the acquired bonuses. The system adds further strategic depth to battles, although it is a bit more streamlined than Engage's. So, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave's combat system works, and works well, managing to uphold the saga's name, with variations on the theme that fit perfectly into the mechanisms we all know. The ability to rewind time returns, and each protagonist will receive a sandbag from the goddess Fortuna that will allow them to correct mistakes made and, perhaps, save a character from an inglorious end. Moreover, over time, we will be able to gain the favor of other deities and receive further help. To make battles more interesting, there are also enemies large enough to occupy multiple squares, bosses with multiple health bars, and various objectives such as defeating every enemy, surviving a certain number of turns, activating or deactivating items, and so on.

The main hub is the city of Dagsion, where the gladiatorial games take place and where we can find many facilities such as shops, taverns, bulletin boards for discovering side quests, and, of course, many characters to recruit thanks to a system of gifts and fame: the more renowned we become through our deeds, the more we will be able to convince strong warriors to join our ranks. Dagsion is clearly inspired by Roman architecture, and its amphitheater cannot but recall the Colosseum and its gladiatorial challenges. Outside, the world map allows us to move to many places of interest, between classic battles and places to explore. This is precisely the biggest novelty regarding the game structure, as we are talking about sections where Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave's gameplay echoes that of JRPGs. With a third-person view, you move through actual dungeons, and when you encounter opponents, you fight them in a turn-based system that seems taken directly from a Japanese role-playing game, where you can even leave the battle to artificial intelligence. The system recalls a function from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadow of Valentia, a remake of the second Fire Emblem, released in 2017 on Nintendo 3DS, but here the combat phase is extremely more streamlined. Naturally, these phases do not eliminate the epic strategic battles, which remain the beating heart of the game. As far as I'm concerned, this innovation is somewhat inconsequential and represents a variation on the theme inserted in some plot situations and side quests, but it does not have enough depth to satisfy Fire Emblem fans. 

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, many strengths, some weaknesses

In a style very reminiscent of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, between one section of the plot and the next, we will have free time to manage as we please, choosing from various activities to perform including explorations, training, services at the temples of the deities, the always useful rest, and more. There is a real strategic system that, over time, emerges in these situations: how we use our time will have a real impact on the growth of the characters and the ranks of our group. The character growth system linked to exams to pass in order to change class returns. By purchasing specific tickets to access the trials, we will see, based on our situation, which classes we can aspire to. Based on our qualities and experience, we will have a certain percentage chance of passing the exam and changing jobs. To be clear, if we wanted to become soldiers and saw the percentage at 100%, by taking the exam we would be sure to succeed, while if we saw 30%, the attempt could prove to be a gamble with the result of having wasted an exam access ticket. There are many classes suitable for every type of strategy, and compared to the past, there are new features such as the Ornius Knights, lethal fighters riding fast and dangerous large bipedal birds similar to ostriches. The four protagonists, among other things, have unique qualities that make them substantially different from each other, both in and out of battle, and further enrich an already sumptuous gameplay, making it an almost perfect machine that creates addiction. The problem is that the sections between battles end up diluting the action too much, and after several hours of play, I was very tempted to use the fast-forward systems, even though they don't allow for perfect troop growth. The longevity is excellent; the four available campaigns exceed thirty hours each, and a completionist will have no problem exceeding the fateful hundred hours of gameplay.

Technically, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave is a small gem, not so much because it moves an incredible number of polygons at a rock-solid frame rate (although I haven't noticed any slowdowns), but because of an artistic direction capable of effectively utilizing cell shading, which finds its peak in the realization of the city of Dagsion and the character models. The latter are the result of both careful scripting and a design capable of giving us many unique and detailed fighters. The style is colorful, but it manages not to clash even in the most dramatic situations, and in the cutscenes, the direction shows respectable shots capable of capturing the pathos of the situation. The music is of high quality, as is all the sound, and some excellent arrangements of songs that have made Fire Emblem's history stand out. The two available voice-overs, Japanese and English, are excellent, while all texts boast an accurate Italian translation, a choice that demonstrates Nintendo's attention to our market. Among other things, I also point out the possibility of using Joy-Cons 2 in mouse mode, simplifying life for those who don't like to combine the words "strategy" and controller: the result is more than satisfactory. 

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave does not disappoint and re-proposes much of what made the brand successful, retouching it and making intelligent additions. The taste and satisfaction provided by the battles on the grid map are unchanged, but the actions to be performed between one clash and another end up prolonging the experience rather than enriching the offering. However, these are venial sins that do not undermine what is a great title. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is a must-have for gamers who love strategy and is among the Switch 2 exclusives that would be a real shame to miss.