Fresh previews for Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave are popping up and they’ve all honed in on one particular thing: this game is a big one. Nintendo has revealed that players will have the ability to hop between any of the game’s four heroes and play through their stories in parallel. And while experiencing four different journeys simultaneously would certainly pad the runtime for any game, these previews are also saying Fortune’s Weave is deep as well as wide.
The Game Is Big Big
Judging from the previews, Fortune’s Weave will feel very much like a Persona game. Players will have a date set for their next big fight in the Heroic Games, the gladiatorial tournament that figures heavily into the plot, but before that battle arrives, they’re free to use that time however they wish. Go shopping for useful items, use the training grounds, take certification tests to unlock new classes, or venture out beyond the capital city of Dagsion to look for raw materials.
“There’s a surprisingly expansive world map you can uncover while harvesting materials, visiting other towns and Temples, and delving into dungeons,” writes Dave Aubrey in VGC. In dungeons, he writes, battles are quick, turn-based affairs called clashes in which, instead of fighting in traditional Fire Emblem strategy combat, you pick a handful of characters and their attacks to whale on enemies back and forth until one party dies.
Play As The Four Fire Lords of Dagda
We know you’ll be able to see the stories of all four characters simultaneously, but who are they? Revealed by the previews as the Fire Lords of Dagda, each of the four have stories that sound surprisingly deep.
“Each of the four characters you can follow through the first part of the game feels like a fully-fledged protagonist,” writes Dave Aubrey in VGC. “You’ll be able to get to know the full cast by following any single story, but each perspective fleshes out their backgrounds, personalities, and motivations heading into the Heroic Games.”
Covering Fortune’s Weave for GameSpot, Steve Watts digs into just how these characters are different from each other. In exploring the stories of Leda, the songstress, and Theodora, the queen, he writes that both are struggling after the deaths of their fathers, but handle their grief in different ways. Where Leda is single-minded in her quest for vengeance, Theodora is focused on becoming stronger to hold onto her throne. There’s also another detail in GameSpot’s preview that stuck out to me: Theodora has a magical prosthesis.
Fortune’s Weave Could Be A Fire Emblem With A Futuristic Setting
It’s neat that Intelligent Systems is playing around with magical realism in this way. People in our real, modern world have ability aids and you make that fit in a fantasy game like Fire Emblem by covering everything with magic sparkles. But that prothesis, along with the fact that there are actual factual firearms in this game, makes me think this might be the first Fire Emblem to go beyond the series’ traditional sword and sorcery setting. The Sixth Axis preview strengthens that feeling, with Dom Leighton writing, “Through the opening, you’re treated to a post-apocalyptic landscape, a synth-led soundtrack, Eshmel’s new body being grown in a tube, giant laser batteries defending your holdout, and, stunningly, one of your allies executing an undead with a salvo of close-range gunshots to the head.”
Many of the previews likened Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave to Three Houses not only in setting but narrative and overall vibe—and more than one also invoked Shadows of Valentia, an earlier Fire Emblem game on the 3DS known for its dungeon crawling mechanic. While there’s still another month to go before the game releases, I already like what I’m hearing.