There once was a time when it seemed like Nintendo had given up on Fire Emblem and was ready to lay the turn-based tactics franchise to rest, but that all changed with the breakout 3DS hit that was Fire Emblem: Awakening. Since then, Fire Emblem has been one of Nintendo’s premiere franchises, with no time wasted producing a Switch 2 entry. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is the Switch 2 debut of the franchise and is easily one of the biggest and most ambitious FE games to date. Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is truly great, but sometimes it does feel like it’s overextended itself a bit.
Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is a massive game with five main playable protagonists, dozens of characters to recruit, an expansive overworld map, social elements, side quests, dungeon crawling, turn-based “Clash Battles,” and more on top of the core tactics gameplay. It can be overwhelming, but there’s no denying that players are getting their money’s worth, which is a good thing considering Fortune’s Weave‘s high $80 price tag.
Fortune’s Weave Nails the Core Fire Emblem Experience
First and foremost, it should be stressed that Fortune’s Weave‘s core turn-based tactics gameplay is excellent. Each decision made on its varied battlefields carries a great deal of weight, as one wrong move can result in the death of a party member and render them inaccessible for the rest of the game when playing with permadeath turned on. Unlike the old-school Fire Emblem games, permadeath is optional in Fortune’s Weave, but I highly recommend playing with it on. While it’s devastating to lose a unit, the stakes that come with permadeath makes every Fortune’s Weave battle that much more thrilling.
Fortune’s Weave doesn’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to Fire Emblem‘s turn-based tactics battles, but it does make some quality-of-life changes that I greatly appreciated. At the top of the list is the change to how weapon durability works. In previous Fire Emblem games, weapons can only be used so many times before they break. Like in most games with weapon durability, I have always found it more of a slight inconvenience than anything that has ever actually added something meaningful to the gameplay. Fortune’s Weave does away with traditional weapon durability, and makes it so weapons only break when using them for powerful Combat Arts attacks. This way, players have to weigh whether the extra oomph or perk behind their hit is worth it, and it makes for a far more interesting implementation of the weapon durability concept.
Another change that adds an extra layer of strategy to the proceedings is the introduction of Blaze Arts. Blaze Arts are special attacks and abilities that cost HP to use. So players have to decide if unleashing one of those attacks is worth it if it means potentially having to waste the turn of another unit healing the Blaze Arts user, which could ultimately put them in a less advantageous position overall.
Thanks to smart changes, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave has absolutely nailed the turn-based tactics battles at the heart of the franchise and offers them in their greatest form to date. Fortune’s Weave battles are enthralling and simply fun to conquer, and are, by themselves, a great reason to pick up the game. The stuff in-between these fights is less compelling, but mileage may vary.
Fortune’s Weave Side Content Is Sometimes a Mixed Bag
Between main quest developments, Fortune’s Weave gives players X number of turns to do whatever they would like in the world. There are a variety of side quests to complete that offer valuable rewards, chances to acquire new gear, battles to partake in on the overworld map, places to search for supplies, and more. Similarly to how every decision matters on the battlefield, Fortune’s Weave players have to think about what they want to do with their free time between main quest fights if they want to put themselves in the best position to keep winning.
Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave side quests are rewarding to complete for the most part, but the dungeon crawling and Clash Battles are lackluster and uninteresting. The dungeons are underwhelming and the Clash Battles, which play out more like turn-based combat in traditional JRPGs, are nowhere near as engaging as the tactical fights. The good news is that Clash Battles and most of the other side stuff can effectively be skipped, which is nice for those that only care to complete the main quest, though that does beg the question if the content is potentially boring enough for people to want to skip it, why include it in the first place?
Fortune’s Weave also stumbles with its narrative at times. There are some great story moments here, and the narrative is full of memorable characters. However, there are definitely times when the pacing slows to a crawl, or the momentum of the story is thrown off by the downtime between main quests.
The voice acting in Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is tremendous, and the music is phenomenal. The world is bright and colorful, coming together with the audio to create a truly top-tier presentation. Fortune’s Weave uses an anime aesthetic and isn’t going for photorealism by any means, but it’s still one of the better-looking games on the Nintendo Switch 2. Performance-wise there isn’t really anything to complain about either, with the game definitely taking advantage of the Switch 2’s beefier hardware compared to its predecessor.
Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is a dense, massive game that will easily eat up over 100 hours of your time if you want to see and do it all. The turn-based tactics battles are the best they’ve ever been, but dungeons and Clash Battles leave a lot to be desired. Existing Fire Emblem fans will completely lose themselves in Fortune’s Weave, and it’s also a solid jumping-on point for those that may be new to the franchise.
- Released
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September 17, 2026
- ESRB
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Teen / Fantasy Violence, Mild Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Alcohol, In-Game Purchases
- Publisher(s)
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Nintendo
- Core tactical battles are better than they have ever been
- Memorable characters
- Well over 100 hours of content
- Dungeons and Clash Battles are underwhelming
Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is out now, exclusively for Nintendo Switch 2.
