Fire Emblem has been all over the shop in recent years. Not critically, or even commercially, but from a design perspective. While the success of Three Houses in 2019 marked the moment Fire Emblem transitioned to the mainstream, the seeds that sowed that transition were planted as early as 2013 with the excellent Fire Emblem Awakening. While both of these titles are successful, they couldn’t be more different in structure.
That brings us to Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave – a game that seemed inevitable to follow the same path as Three Houses. If my 20 or so hours of hands-on time is anything to go by, though, it’s clear that Intelligent Systems set out to craft something new here, combining elements of traditional and modern Fire Emblem in what feels like the beginning of an ambitious and bold adventure.
Fortune’s Weave is set in Dagda, a continent southwest of Fódlan, with the Heroic Games taking centre stage in most of the early proceedings. The Heroic Games are an event held in Dagda’s capital, Dagsion, beckoning the continent’s strongest warriors to come and fight for the grand prize of having a wish of the victor’s choice granted. In a move similar to Three Houses, you can choose to live the path of four different entrants into the Heroic Games.
Each of these secondary protagonists has their own goals and motivations for entering the Heroic Games. Each is as justified and engaging as the last, overlapping and entwining as the Heroic Games unfold. What’s especially neat about Fortune’s Weave, though, is that you can and are encouraged to play through all four paths. This isn’t just so you can see everything Fortune’s Weave has to offer in a single playthrough – it’s also because the narrative extends beyond the Heroic Games.
You may have noticed I referred to the main four paths as secondary protagonists. What surprised me most about Fortune’s Weave’s opening was its prologue. Set some five years after the conclusion of the Heroic Games, I got to create a custom avatar character known as Eshmel. Eshmel has been called by Sothis as a last-ditch attempt to stop Dagda’s fall to the Demon God Balor.
You can try to take down Balor on your own, or venture through the paths of the four entrants, known by Eshmel as the Flame Lords, each of which disappeared before Balor invaded. Through the power of causality and time-travel, you’ll progress through each path, guiding the Flame Lords to the current time so that they can fight alongside Eshmel and take down Balor. It’s up to you how many of the Flame Lords you want to guide, but Cai, Dietrich, Theodora, and Leda are all integral to Fortune Weave’s story.
It’s a great setup that caught me off-guard in the best way possible. My biggest worry at this time, though, is that the core plots of these four heroes will end up taking a backseat to accommodate the larger conflict. Each path is engrossing in its own way, and I’m invested in seeing these characters get satisfying endings to the arcs and narratives established on their paths, and I’ll be disappointed if they’re cut short to focus on the Balor plot.
If you’ve played all of Three Houses, experiencing the Heroic Games four times may sound tedious. That’s Fortune’s Weave’s other big surprise – each path feels distinct. Every Flame Lord has unique mechanics and systems to engage with. For example, where Leda can travel the world map and put on performances at taverns across Dagda to gain Renown, Cai will complete odds and ends for Dagsion citizens outside of usual sidequests.
Even the main battles of these early chapters are entirely different, with only two skirmishes in particular sharing the same map layout with another path. In some ways, it feels like four separate ideas for a Fire Emblem game without any of the bloat. Whether that stays true all the way to the credits is yet to be seen, but after five chapters with each of the four paths, I can confidently say that I’m eager to keep playing to see how each unfolds and evolves.
So far, combat is also a definitive step-up from Three Houses and feels more in-line with the quality of Engage. Great map designs with fun mechanics and a wide variety of objectives keep things feeling fresh. My biggest gripe with it at this stage, though, is that it’s just too easy. That’s partially because the weapon triangle is absent yet again, but also because of a new mechanic called Overblaze.
Each of the main heroes and some other key units gain access to Blaze Arts. These are insanely strong, but they cost health to offset their power. Cai can blast distant foes with a haze of purple flames, Leda can use her Vihuela to play tunes that buff her allies, Dietrich can teleport short distances, and Theodora can hurl literal chunks of the earth in a straight line.
Frequent use of Blaze Arts will eventually activate Overblaze, buffing the associated units stats until it runs out, reducing your max health for the remainder of the fight. This means you’re constantly sacrificing health to activate Overblaze, but it’s so easily nullified with smart healing that it never feels as risky as intended. I sincerely hope the difficulty curve gets steeper further into the game, because I’m finding the normal difficulty underwhelming at present.
The tactical battles of Fortune’s Weave are only half of the equation, though. Much like Three Houses, you have a deadline for a chapter’s main battle, and are incentivised to spend time in and around Dagsion to power up your army before the fight. All the staples are here, you can train at the arena, bond with allies over a meal, complete side quests, and much more.
One new addition to this that feels pointed towards those who didn’t enjoy the social stuff of Three Houses is the world map. Here you jump from node to node, fighting enemies, collecting supplies, and visiting other towns. You can also stumble across dungeons ala Shadows of Valencia, featuring their own turn-based battle system instead of the usual grid-based strategy.
As someone who didn’t love the amount of social sim elements in Three Houses, this compromise feels much better in Fortune’s Weave. The world map is huge and it feels like I’ve barely scratched the surface of what’s on offer here. I enjoy this core loop more than the Somniel and Garreg Mach monastery, but I’m worried the repetition may set in as I near the end of each path.
As someone who was concerned that Fortune’s Weave would strive a little too hard to emulate Three Houses, I’m happy to say that my time with it so far has put those concerns to bed. Difficulty and narrative worries aside, Intelligent Systems don’t seem to be resting on their laurels here. Fortune’s Weave is shaping up to be a Fire Emblem game all its own, with ambition that’s rivalled only by its sheer size.
Fire Emblen: Fortune’s Weave is launching on September 17th exclusively for the Nintendo Switch 2.