Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave Review, Gameplay Impressions, Videos and Features

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave is the most epic and grand blockbuster exclusive to hit the Nintendo Switch 2.

Fortune's Weave is an impressive refinement of the Fire Emblem formula and easily the most accessible release in the series. Featuring incredible tactics gameplay, endearing characters and a story worth seeing every bit, Fortune's Weave is a generation-defining, must-play masterpiece for all gamers and a true contender for Game of the Year.

Fire Emblem boasts exceptional turn-based, tactical role-playing gameplay and Fortune's Weave expands the formula to be even more satisfying and rewarding. The primary battle encounters tasks players with navigating a grid-based environment where each character can move a certain number of spaces and perform a specific task, such as attacking or healing. It is strategic greatness that will have players often agonizing over every decision in order to achieve the optimal path of success.

In Fortune's Weave, gamers will control four unique main playable characters (Cai, Dietrich, Theodora and Leda) across an interwoven story that is the most engaging and expansive tale from an exclusive on Switch 2. It is absolutely worth seeing each arc to the fullest to gain a better sense of each character and the story. It's impressive how each arc provides different perspectives to key characters and pivotal moments, which also helps build intrigue and mystery while playing an arc.

A key feature allows players to switch to different arcs to advance chapter by chapter across the four perspectives, or simply play one arc to completion at a time. It's a fascinating decision, but most importantly, ensures that players have agency in how they want to advance the story and ensures that players won't miss key aspects.

Each of the four main characters have unique character traits, weapon proficiencies and Blaze Arts, which is one of the coolest combat features associated with the main characters. As gamers progress, they'll recruit new allies to join their squad in each story arc. There are tons of different weapons, skills, classes and characters to unlock, many of which feature unique aspects that will completely change the way players approach each battle.

As players improve characters, they'll unlock different Combat Arts for their weapons that provide great damage output at the cost of a weapon's finite durability. However, it is the Blaze Arts that really help set Fortune's Weave apart from others titles. Blaze Arts introduce an intriguing risk-reward mechanic during battles as gamers must decide if they want to sacrifice a portion of that character's health in order to gain a major perk for that turn or an upcoming turn. During battles, the decision to use a normal attack, Combat Art or Blaze Art really enhances the strategic nature of an already engaging gameplay system as players will scrutinize every decision they make en route to victory... or defeat.

Thankfully, one of the other elements during combat is the access to Blessings from the different Gods. There are several Blessings to unlock, and even level up for additional perks. For example, Fortuna's blessing allows players to rewind to previous turns during battle and is by far one of the best features in the game as it is often a saving grace before defeat. Of course, players can choose not to rewind or use any other blessing they unlock if they want a more traditional experience but the rewind feature is easily one of the best possible features for a strategy game.

Although Fortuna's blessing is free to use, using a Blessing from another God costs in-game currency called Divine Sand, which is limited to a specific number of uses per cycle. The different Blessings are a great expansion of the in-battle perk system. Fortuna's blessing, for example, is especially useful in Fire Emblem as players can choose their difficulty options, with the traditional experience meaning that if a character is defeated during battle, they're gone for good compared to the casual difficulty where fallen characters revive for the next battle.

Fortune's Weave features great level designs, especially during the main quest as environments are varied and some battles even have specific win conditions to break up the flow of combat and add new elements of strategy. Maps also feature unique characteristics that impact battle, such as different terrain or elevation. For example, if a character is on a spot with a bush, they'll have an increased chance to dodge an incoming attack. Different classes will have different advantages based on the terrain, and there's also flying mounts that can travel over water or have an elevated advantage, for example. In addition to the intriguing level designs, the battle theme music is also excellent.

Where Fortune's Weave differs from some recent Fire Emblem games and other tactics game is the turn-based encounters in dungeons that resemble turn-based gameplay most commonly found in JRPGs like Final Fantasy, or even previously seen in Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. Given how massive the game is, these traditional turn-based encounters serve as a great way to mix up the gameplay and add another element to the pacing to keep the game refreshing. These dungeons are excellent opportunities to find loot and level up characters in battles against various types of monsters and enemies.

Should players want to try to speedrun the game or have an itch to advance to the next intriguing story bit, there's an auto-battle option for each type of combat encounter. If a battle is lost, gamers can choose to restart from before battle, at a certain point in battle or from the beginning of battle, with the option of retaining any experience gained up until the moment of defeat. This is by far one of the best quality-of-life features available as it softens the blow of restarting a battle from the beginning and allows players to keep improving their squad if they went into a battle feeling underleveled. This fantastic feature should be implemented into more role-playing games to prevent frustration.

Another quality-of-life feature during the grid-based battles is the option to adjust battle animations. For example, players can choose to watch flashy and stylish animated attacks unfold for each individual encounter during the grand-scale battle. If players decide they want to limit the animations for time or speedrun purposes, they can limit how expansive the animations are, even to the point of not seeing them at all. Given the magnitude of the game and the general release calendar in gaming, it's a necessary option that is sure to be beloved by many gamers.

Despite its massive size, Fortune's Weave still manages to respect the player's time. It's constantly expanding at a gradual pace, managing to keep mysteries of the story present and intriguing, while also incorporating new mechanics to keep gameplay fresh across all of the story arcs. There's many quality-of-life features that help decrease the amount of time required to complete certain tasks.

For example, between battles players can explore the city and open world. There are tasks specific to the open world, such as searching for materials, battling enemies, capturing wildlife and recruiting soldiers. While exploring the open world to complete specific tasks, each action takes a turn and there's only so many turns available to the player until the next main story mission. If a player chooses not to engage with the open world in totality, they have an option in the city to automatically advance a specific number of turns and accomplish certain tasks, such as leveling up a character's total experience, leveling up a character's class-specific experience or searching for loot and gold. It's just a smart mechanic for gamers who wish to advance a bit quicker to the main quest.

Another excellent quality-of-life feature that ensure the player's time is respected is that the game will automatically complete side quests for one character if the player already completed that quest by another character in a different story arc, which will then provide in-game currency, Renown, experience and items. There are also overall game tasks that can be completely across all characters that will unlock new featured, one of them being able to increase experience gain by reaching certain milestones in progress.

Each main character also has a unique task fit for their personality and motives, which keeps the four paths feeling fresh, in order to increase their Renown. For example, Theodora can recruit non-playable soldiers that she can deploy at specific spots on the map to search for loot, Cai can farm for materials and capture horses, Leda can put on performances to unlock Blaze Arts and Dietrich is on the hunt to battle enemies. Renown is important to build up during each arc as it unlocks perks along the way, including the important option of taking an exam for a new, improved class. By taking a certification exam for a more advanced class, each character can improve their base stats and learn new skills.

In the city, players can train characters at the arena to improve skills, unlock new classes, have meals with other characters and give gifts to characters to improve relationships, plus more activities that unlock over the course of the game. Giving gifts and having meals with other characters is essential to increasing their support with the main playable character within each arc in order to eventually recruit them to the party. The support system is a mainstay in the Fire Emblem series and is important here in order to build out the squad with as many allies as possible.

Fortune's Weave is among the deepest, most intense and most mature stories in Nintendo's vast library. The four main characters have clearly-defined motives and developer Intelligent Systems does a great job pacing each chapter of the four story arcs, ensuring players can quickly get invested in each character from the beginning and then forming a long-lasting bond with each character, and their companions, by the end of their arc. Characters, even beyond the main leads, are endearing, charming and have unique personalities. Over dozens of hours of gameplay, players will learn about their motives, quirks, humor and distinct characteristics. There's fantastic voice acting, especially for the main characters but also the supporting cast. Each character is distinct with easily-identifiable voices. However, the main characters, especially the actresses for Theodora and Leda, do phenomenal work to get the player invested in their motives and back stories.

Players can listen to exhilarating music from the soundtrack in the menu but one amazing feature, which more games should add, is the ability to rewatch cutscenes and events from a menu. Many of these are epic cutscenes worth watching many times again, so it's awesome to be able to see them without having to replay the entire game.

Among other accessibility and quality-of-life options, there's a text log to keep track of dialogue and the tons of side quests. Inside dungeons, there's an icon showing how many unopened chests are left when roaming dungeons. There's also options to toggle game speed, fast forward through certain scenes and animations, fast travel to specific locations in the city and even mask insectile enemies for phobias. With the advanced hardware of Switch 2, there's extremely fast loading through the game and players can even choose to use mouse controls if they feel more comfortable than the traditional controller setup. Overall, Fortune's Weave runs flawlessly and is truly the complete package for an epic tale.

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave is a monumental release for the series and Switch 2. It features arguably the best voice acting and cinematics seen in a Nintendo game. The movie-quality art design, music and epic cutscenes are feats pushing Switch 2 to the next level in Year 2.

Gamers can easily sink in hundreds of hours of gameplay due to the vast nature of the story and how many permutations there are with different characters and gameplay elements. It is the peak of the series, impressively managing to surpass recent favorites like Three Houses and Awakening. The progression system doesn't overwhelm the player with mechanics at the start but gradually layers new systems and techniques at a nice pace during the story.

Fortune's Weave is the culmination of decades Nintendo spent refining aspects of the formula to literally weave them into one complete package. The presentation style is near flawless with distinct chapters, access to tons of characters, excellent menus, easy-to-follow tips and a lot of accessibility options. The expansive lore, carefully-crafted world-building and fascinating characters are sure to hook players from beginning to end of this unpredictable, grand journey featuring one of the best stories in the franchise.

The story, character development, art style, music, accessibility, and most importantly, gameplay all come together to create an experience that will stick with gamers for years to come and have many immediately dreaming about more. Easily one of the best games of a stacked year, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave deserves to be nominated for Game of the Year with the very best of the bunch.