"Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave" is the best Switch 2 exclusive game so far
"Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave" is a game of superlatives. The monstrous strategy RPG is one of the largest and most ambitious titles Nintendo has ever released. A masterpiece from A to Z.
After over 160 hours with «Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave», my head is spinning. How am I supposed to pack all the impressions, anecdotes, and thoughts about this epic masterpiece into a single review?
Nintendo and developer studio Intelligent Systems have created an incredibly ambitious strategy epic with «Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave» and executed it almost perfectly. With its massive scope, the game puts all other Switch 2 competition in the shade and sets new standards for the series. It is the best exclusive game for the Switch 2 so far – and one of the best games I have ever played.
200 hours of playtime? Easy!
«Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave» is huge. Full disclosure: at the time of writing this review, I have not yet completed the final battles against Balor. Nevertheless, I have over 160 hours under my belt. I could have easily stretched this playtime to 200 hours. The reason for this epic length is an exciting time-travel story and the unconventional game structure associated with it.
I take on the role of the mysterious warrior Eshmel, who is sent by the gods to the almost completely destroyed continent of Dagda. There, the demon god Balor is raging, having opened numerous gates to hell and sent the undead into the realm of the living.
My task is to defeat the demon god – obviously. I don't have to do this alone. Fortunately (pun intended), the deity Fortuna grants me the ability to travel back in time five years. This way, I am supposed to save four legendary heroes from death in the past so that they can support me against Balor in the present.
Source: Nintendo
Make a wish at the Hero Games
In the first and largest part of the game, I step into the roles of the four heroes and play through their individual stories in the past. They all participate in the «Hero Games» in the capital city of Dagsion. In this brutal gladiator competition, the winning team is granted any wish.
Unlike «Fire Emblem: Three Houses», I don't have to decide on one path. I can switch back and forth between the protagonists at any time to change their fates and lead them to victory.
The game also gives me the choice of how many heroes I even want to save. I can recruit all four protagonists or – if I'm completely insane – go into battle against the demon god alone.
Source: Nintendo
The four heroes and their motivations for participating in the Hero Games could not be more different. The young boy Cai is trying to save his father from execution. Dietrich, a legendary warrior, is simply looking for a worthy opponent. Queen Theodora wants to use the victory to fulfill a long-cherished wish of her subjects. The dancer Leda is driven by a desire for revenge and is trying to find her father's murderer.
The storytelling in the first part is interwoven across the four paths. In one path, I only get a fraction of the complex backstory at a time. This non-linear narrative style acts like a big puzzle. With each playthrough, I understand certain mysteries better and learn more about the characters because I am viewing the story from a different perspective. Truly great cinema!
The escalation: War and Redemption
The second part of «Fortune's Weave» takes place some time after the Hero Games, but still in the past. War breaks out in Dagda and I fight on the front lines with the four heroes – not united, but again in separate timelines. The game focuses here on an epic story, compared to the intimate moments in the first part.
I won't reveal who is waging war against whom and why – spoilers and all that. However, if you paid close attention in the first part, you can look forward to some exciting twists and strong character moments.
Once I have survived the war with my heroes, the battle against Balor in the present begins. Here, all timelines converge and the heroes fight with combined forces. The game calls the final chapter «Redemption». Epic.
Depending on how many heroes I have saved, the final battles play out differently. My decisions in the past thus directly influence the difficulty of the third part of the game – and the outcome of the story.
In my playthrough, I save all the heroes. It feels incredibly cool to see «my» four playable characters (and their allies) in the present. I saved these characters, spent countless hours with them, and watched them grow stronger. And now they are here. Visibly older, scarred by life. But alive. And ready to save the world.
Classic «Fire Emblem» feeling
If you have ever played a «Fire Emblem» game, you will feel right at home in the battles of «Fortune's Weave». A tip for genre experts: definitely play on the higher difficulty level – otherwise, many optional battles degenerate into trivial encounters where you don't have to do anything right and still win.
I command my team in turn-based battles on a grid-based field. Each unit belongs to its own class with individual strengths and weaknesses. To win battles, I must be aware of the interactions between different class and weapon types. For example, mages easily kill heavily armored units from a distance, but are vulnerable to physical attacks. Archers shoot flying units out of the sky with arrows, but cannot counter in melee combat.
The classes in «Fortune's Weave» are not rigid structures. For instance, I can train a swordsman in black magic and turn him into an all-rounder. This deepens the already complex and satisfying combat system even further.
In «Fortune's Weave», there are some new classes that provide a breath of fresh air. My favorites are the elephant rider and the charioteer. Both are brutal units that thunder across the battlefield with their special attacks and leave a trail of devastation.
It looks damn funny, feels satisfying, and can significantly influence the course of a battle.
There are two major changes regarding weapons. Now, swords, spears, and bows no longer wear out with normal attacks. Only the use of powerful combat techniques damages the weapons. That means: fewer visits to the blacksmith to repair my equipment, yay!
Intelligent Systems also expands the weapon selection with new laser pistols, with which I launch magical ranged attacks. Wait, what? Sci-fi pistols in a fantasy game?
What initially seems out of place and ridiculous is explained later in the game – believe me, it works damn well. The guns prove to be not only a welcome gameplay innovation but also an exciting storytelling element that drives the game's backstory forward.
Four heroes, four combat styles
To ensure that the four hero paths differ from each other in terms of gameplay, Intelligent Systems gives the protagonists so-called «Brand Techniques». These are powerful, but unfortunately cursed, special attacks. Each use costs health points and should therefore be carefully considered.
Cai roasts enemies with wide-area fire attacks. Dietrich teleports himself several squares forward. Leda plays magical songs with which she summons beasts that fight by her side.
I am most impressed by Queen Theodora. The powerful monarch rips chunks out of the earth and throws them across half the battlefield. It looks so gloriously stupid that I have to laugh out loud every time.
But Theodora has another ace up her sleeve. She and her units can recruit and deploy so-called battalions. These are powerful armed forces with which I launch area-of-effect special attacks or defensive maneuvers.
It becomes especially spectacular when all the heroes and their special abilities come together in the third part of the game (Redemption). I love watching the amount of chaos I can cause on the battlefield.
An addictive pull of leisure activities
Between the story battles, the heroes and their team members are free and can do whatever they want. I have a fixed time budget that I use up with various actions. I can't do everything – so I should think carefully about how I spend my free time.
Source: Nintendo
Dagsion serves as the base for all four heroes. Here, I complete numerous tasks in my free time that are reminiscent of life-sim game series like «Persona».
I invite my team members to eat to strengthen our bond – helpful for tricky situations on the battlefield. I perform services in temples to unlock blessings (temporary perks for battles), and I train in the arena to improve my combat stats. I diligently complete side quests and thus increase my reputation. The more famous I become, the better team members I can recruit – but only if I have wooed them beforehand with gifts and food.
The life-sim tasks are busywork. Nevertheless, they are fun for me because they are completed quickly and I am constantly making progress. A welcome change and break from the sometimes strenuous strategy gameplay.
It gets really exciting when I leave Dagsion's protective walls. I explore the overview map of Dagda like a board game – every move costs me valuable time. So, wandering around aimlessly is not a good idea.
There is a hell of a lot to discover. In distant settlements, I find valuable goods and weapons. Bandits and monsters are waiting to be beaten up by me. I collect numerous resources that I need for quests or for repairing and upgrading my equipment. I love zipping across the map and completing tasks in a frenzy. The only criticism: many optional battles are very simple and, compared to the mandatory story battles, offer hardly any exciting objectives.
Depending on the selected hero, different activities are available to me on the map. Cai plants vegetables in open fields, Dietrich searches for powerful enemies with his magic sword, Leda dances for money and XP in settlements, and Theodora recruits battalions that she uses in battles.
I even find dungeons in Dagda. In these game segments, «Fortune's Weave» switches to a JRPG mode. I explore winding dungeons, collect valuable loot, and fight wild animals or human enemies. My resources (health points, attack points, and magic) are limited – every excursion into a dungeon carries risks.
The battles play out like in a classic role-playing game. My units have the same weapons and attacks available as in normal battles – but they sometimes work differently. For example, my entire team shares a health and magic bar as well as «Connection Points», with which I trigger powerful combo attacks.
And just when I feel like I'm familiar with the game mechanics, «Fortune's Weave» surprises me after completing the first part of the game with far-reaching changes in the gameplay loop between battles.
Because of these changes, part two (War) and part three (Redemption) sometimes feel like completely new games. The bold changes ensure that, despite the extremely long playtime until the final battle against Balor, I never get bored.
It's just insane how much variety «Fortune's Weave» offers.
Skip, skip, hooray!
The unique game structure of «Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave» doesn't just bring advantages. At the Hero Games, there are inevitably overlaps between the four paths. I complete the same missions, recruit the same team members, unlock the same weapons, and do the same busywork in my free time.
Intelligent Systems seems to have noticed that the same routines can become repetitive over time. That's why «Fortune's Weave» offers a clever, overarching progression system with which I can speed up many processes. For example, as the game progresses, I can activate XP boosts and thus level up faster, recruit, collect weapons, and so on.
This doesn't completely eliminate the sometimes labor-intensive tasks in the gameplay loop – they are part of the game's core design. But the progression system significantly reduces the grind and repetition.
Some game segments can even be completely automated or deactivated. For example, the entire second part. I only have to play through the war in Dagda manually with one hero and can skip it for the remaining three heroes and jump directly to the final act.
Sound top, graphics so-so
The ambitious story of «Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave» would only be half as epic without the bombastic soundtrack. When a huge orchestra and divine choral singing blare from my speakers during a boss fight, I get goosebumps. A belated sorry to my neighbors – but you just have to play «Fortune's Weave» at full volume until the walls shake and the windows tremble.
Special praise goes to the different arrangements of the same pieces of music, which differ in the four paths. While flute sounds accompany Cai's battle music, I hear hard electric guitar sounds in Dietrich's path. The subtle changes accentuate the different character traits and give the already excellent soundtrack additional charm.
The English voice acting for the numerous characters is also successful. The actors deliver their dialogue confidently, full of energy and attitude. The performances fit perfectly with the exaggerated, colorful anime style of the game. When Dietrich ponders his next fight with a psychopathic look, I sit in front of the TV smiling.
Visually, Intelligent Systems has made a huge leap compared to the «Fire Emblem» games on the Switch 1. «Fire Emblem» has never looked this good – both in the cutscenes and in the gameplay. Above all, the detailed character designs impress with creative armor, crazy hairstyles, opulent jewelry, and other subtleties.
On the negative side, there are dreary environmental graphics that look like relics from past PS3 times. Blurry, muddy textures, angular objects, low draw distance.
Given the immense scope of the game, I forgive Intelligent Systems for these isolated missteps. What remains are the memories of one of the best games I have ever played. Oh, if only I could turn back time to experience this masterpiece all over again. Where is Eshmel when you need her?
«Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave» will be released on September 17th for the Switch 2. The game was provided to me by Nintendo for testing purposes.
In a nutshell
An epic strategy masterpiece – and the best Switch 2 exclusive game so far
Pro
- epic story with dozens of exciting characters
- unique structure and freedom in game design
- classic Fire Emblem strategy gameplay with new twists
- addictive mix of side activities
- the music – oh my god, the music
Contra
- visually lackluster in places
- some repetitive gameplay elements can dampen the mood
My love of video games was unleashed at the tender age of five by the original Gameboy. Over the years, it's grown in leaps and bounds.
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