Fortune’s Weave is a new kind of Fire Emblem experience. Sure, it has all the hallmarks of the long-running tactical RPG series—a high-fantasy world where gods walk among humans, elaborate turn-based battles, a time-spanning narrative fraught with danger and political intrigue—but it levels up the experience considerably in its debut Nintendo Switch 2 offering.
First off, the continent of Dagda, located to the south of Three Houses‘ Fódlan, is positively massive. Even its hub city, the capital of Dagsion, makes the Garreg Mach Monastery seem quaint in comparison. Likewise, while Three Houses encouraged gamers to go back and explore the story from multiple perspectives, Fortune’s Weave displays a much more lenient approach to the timeline (referred to often in the narrative as “a swirling vortex of causality”) by allowing the player to swap between hero paths practically at any time.
It all begins in a dark and hopeless future, where your mysterious player character is tasked with defeating the demon god Balor. To do this, he must travel back five years to the time of the Heroic Games to recruit allies who can help him with this otherwise insurmountable task.
While mighty warriors from across the land have come to take part in these Heroic Games, enticed by the knowledge that the winner can be granted one wish, our story hinges on four particular combatants, each with their own story and playstyle. Not only bound by fate, these characters, dubbed Flame Lords, are also each in possession of a seemingly cursed artifact that grants them great power but opens them up to corruptive otherworldly forces.
The musician Leda is on a mission of vengeance after the murder of her father and the betrayal of her people. Her magical vihuela allows her to cast helpful spellsongs and to earn Renown by performing at local taverns, but it harbors a dark and dangerous secret. Dietrich, a swordsman from Fódlan, simply seeks more powerful opponents. Using his fell sword, he can challenge foes to learn their unique Combat Arts.
Theodora, a queen from the south, possesses an enchanted arm that gives her great strength but corrupts her mind. She can use her royal standing to recruit and deploy battalions of soldiers for assistance in and out of combat. Cai, by contrast, is a kindhearted boy from a nearby village who seeks only to save the life of his imprisoned father. A jewel from his late mother’s locket becomes embedded in his hand, allowing him to sense nearby enemies while also seemingly drawing him closer to the other Flame Lords. His young age initially makes it difficult for him to visit the temples and other locations accessible to other combatants, but he can gather materials, farm, capture rideable animals, and even receive tutoring in combat from sympathetic adults.
Your character, in the form of the Pale Raven, largely interacts with the Flame Lords by providing Foresight regarding upcoming main mission battles and rewarding them with Boons of Salvation (perks) for completing Notable Deeds (achievements). This Perch is also where players can go to easily switch between each hero’s path.
After some initial exposition and the requisite tutorials, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave quickly places each Flame Lord in Dagsion, where they prepare for their initial qualifier match for the Heroic Games. These large battles pair your current character up with other contestants, allowing our Flame Lords to interact early on. This becomes even more meaningful as you hop between stories, seeing conversations, misunderstandings, and minor breakthroughs from varying perspectives.
The bulk of the game, though, occurs in between these main battles, where you are allotted a certain number of turns to explore the city and the larger world map. Activities in Dagsion include purchasing weapons, items, and gifts—the latter of which can be used to increase the support level between characters and potentially recruit new fighters—as well as visiting multiple temples devoted to various gods that can be beseeched for their favor and more benign locations like the local watering hole.
Conveniently placed bulletin boards provide subquests, as do citizens who may require help collecting resources or simply need someone to strong-arm a specific group of beasts or bandits against which they have a grudge. Successful completion of these increases your Renown level, which can open up more activity options and make those potential allies easier to recruit.
Once a week, you can hit up the Innkeeper to share meals to strengthen bonds and consult the Arena Receptionist to take part in training to increase your party’s combat abilities. Once you’ve exhausted your options in the city (or if a job requires you to travel elsewhere to complete it), you can navigate to the World Map.
From the map, you can explore other towns, collect helpful resources, encounter random enemies for more turn-based battles, and discover explorable dungeons. Containing materials, treasures, and enemies, the dungeon experience often results in combat of a different kind.
These turn-based clashes give each side a collective number of life points, with the winner being the first to reduce the other side’s number to zero. This is done using a combination of standard attacks, Combat Arts, and combination attacks with allies to efficiently rout the enemy before they can do the same to you.
Speaking of Combat Arts, Fortune’s Weave once again tweaks the classic Fire Emblem combat triangle in favor of a more nuanced and modern battle system. While spells can only be used a specific number of times before the spellcaster needs to rest or eat, weapon durability is largely a thing of the past. Durability only comes into play when using Combat Arts, which chip away at a weapon’s resilience in exchange for increased damage, range, or other such perks.
Flame Lords also have access to Blaze Arts. These attacks and actions work similarly to Combat Arts, only at the expense of the character’s HP rather than a weapon’s durability rating.
If this all seems like a lot, that’s only because it kind of is. Fortune’s Weave is a very big game with some incredibly high stakes, and it takes a while to get a good idea of what you’re doing and the most effective way in which to do it.
Thankfully, there’s an Adventure Guide that can be accessed to provide hints and reminders and to give you an idea of any big events on the horizon. Unlockable Blessings (like the ability to rewind time a few turns) are available to help smooth out the learning curve, as is an expansive tutorial list in case you forget the finer points of gift-giving or low-visibility maps.
The best way to learn, though, is to switch hero paths early and often. I got my feet wet using Leda, mastered my combat rhythm with Dietrich, and by the time I moved on to Theodora and Cai, I was confident enough in my navigation and time management to really appreciate the story being told. (Especially when I get to re-experience the meeting of the latter two Flame Lords from both sides of a particularly tense interaction.)
Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave arrives on the Nintendo Switch on September 17, and if you haven’t already, check out last week’s Fortune’s Weave Direct for a 20-minute deep dive into this epic tale of swords, sorcery, and Salamanders. In the meantime, I really should return to my game; it appears I still have a world to save.
Early access to Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave was provided by Nintendo of America for the purpose of this preview. This post contains affiliate links. What kind of conditioner do y’all think Dietrich uses?
