It’s been three years since the last Fire Emblem (Engage). In a world of annualised franchises, that’s almost quaint, given how commercially successful the series is for Nintendo, but I’m very glad that Intelligent Systems is given the time to explore what it can achieve with its property. Fortune’s Weave is the new one, and I’ve been playing it with a greater level of addiction than I care to admit. This is just a preview, so I’m not forming definitive opinions just yet, but to preview what seems to be my likely response in the final review, this might just be my favourite Fire Emblem ever.
Yes, even more than the GBA one with Lyn. The series has finally topped that absolute masterpiece.
Mind you, it helps that it has Leda, a dancer character who is every bit Lyn’s equal as a character. The other characters are great too, but I really, REALLY love Leda. To explain the structure of the game a little – after a prologue, you’re given the option of one of four different “pillars” to select. Each covers a different, connected story of the intertwined fates of the characters. Each story has one lead character and, as with Fire Emblem tradition, a small army of additional characters join them on their journey.
With all four stories, the main protagonist is given plenty of time to breathe. In fact, what is really interesting about Fortune’s Weave is that, at least as far as I’m into it, it focuses very heavily on the main character of that story arc, and a small retinue of their closest allies. Typically, Fire Emblem tries to get a large cast involved and give every character a chunk of screen time. Here, outside of the core 4-5 characters for each art, the others are fairly backgrounded.
The positive side to this is that the main characters really do feel like fully fleshed-out JRPG heroes, and are written really well to go with that. Take Leda, for example: Her story starts out as a pretty standard quest for revenge arc, and at first Leda herself seems like that uncompromising, angry, violent type. A John Wick with a killer Flamenco routine, basically. But, thanks to her extended screen time, we do start to see her vulnerabilities, her sensitivities, and even a sense of humour in places. The four main characters that she surrounds herself with all bring personalities rather than flat stereotypes, too. Even Sirocco, a womaniser of the absolute thirstiest calibre, has much more going for him than that character type does in almost any anime or game.
What’s also impressive is that Intelligent Systems is not shying away from respecting the audience and having the characters do things that aren’t always… nice. In an era where everything needs to be sanitised so no one finds what they’re playing confronting (the big gaming controversy this week was a Steam post by someone demanding that the developers “cover up” a character in Fields of Mistria – a very non-erotic game – wearing perfectly mundane clothing because a bit of cleavage made them “uncomfortable”), it’s genuinely nice to see a developer tackle their story in a way that respects the intelligence of the player. It’s not just that the weaving and layered story arcs and character interactions provide a lot of lore and worldbuilding, but this is a game that dares to have themes. I can’t wait to dig into that with more substance for you in the full review.
What is every bit as interesting and, so far, well implemented is just how expansive Fortune’s Weave’s gameplay is. There’s an overworld map that slowly ticks down the number of days you have until the next important battle. In that time you can explore around, recruit characters, complete side quests and gather resources. It reminded me of the earlier Atelier games (especially the Arland series), and while having a “time limit” does put some pressure on you to consider what activities you undertake, you’re given plenty of time to play around with, so it’s not stressful.
Meanwhile, you’ll frequently come across dungeons. We’ve had those in Fire Emblem in the past, but previously combat in dungeons played out like standard Fire Emblem maps. Here, battles are more like traditional turn-based JRPGs, which means that a battle is over more quickly, while giving you a different system to engage with.
And there are, of course, traditional Fire Emblem tactical maps, which are, as always, beautifully designed to test your ability to position units and target enemies with attacks they’ll be weak to while also protecting weakened heroes from being defeated by enemies (traditional Fire Emblem permadeath is a difficulty option, but you can also opt to have characters return at the end of battle). There are also some really interesting variations on maps – for example, in one battle, I needed to play a game of Othello by lighting lanterns that were placed around the map in a grid formation, while preventing the enemy side from lighting the lanterns in their colour instead. That variety is really welcome in what is clearly a substantial, lengthy overall narrative. Like, Brendan Sanderson-length. Four stories, each with arcs that would be enough for a standalone game all on their own, and an overarching story to tie them all together. This is, structurally, tonally, and in execution, a real epic.
If my enthusiasm isn’t coming through clearly enough from the above, my initial impressions of Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave are that it is truly brilliant. It features exceptional writing for wonderful characters, deep, rich and varied gameplay systems, and while I didn’t note this in the review, it’s gorgeous too. And Leda is my new waifu. Bravo all round, and look forward to my full review.
