Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave Review

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave Review: a Switch 2 Strategy Masterpiece

I honestly can't recall the last time a review assignment swallowed this many hours of my life — and even now, mid-write, I'm itching to get back to Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave. Sure, there are strange choices for an RPG this ambitious (one save slot and softened difficulty jump to mind), but nothing has hooked me this thoroughly in years. This is Fire Emblem at its absolute best: as crisp and rewarding as Awakening on the 3DS, with storytelling and characters every bit as strong as Three Houses. Developer Intelligent Systems has taken the map and scenario craftsmanship from Engage and fused it with the narrative power of Three Houses, and the result is remarkable from every angle. It's a genuine reason to own a Switch 2.

A story told four ways

The game opens at the end of the world. You play a mysterious, godlike avatar who rewinds time to the Heroic Games of 1449, digging through the political machinations of the Dagdan continent to figure out how everything collapsed into an undead apocalypse. It's dramatic, very anime, and — frankly — the weakest stretch of the game. Push past the exposition dump and the sluggish tutorial fights, though, and something special emerges: four distinct storylines following four distinct leads.

Because the paths are all interwoven, you're limited to a single save slot and can jump between stories whenever you like (though some self-imposed discipline helps, or you'll never escape Chapter 1). By the 80-hour mark I'd touched all four routes, two of them rushed through story-critical battles only. A thorough completionist run could easily stretch past 200 hours.

The four protagonists are Theodora, a citizen-minded warrior queen; Dietrech, a sharp and violent outsider chasing Dagda's secrets; Cai, a village boy pulled into a strange conspiracy; and Leda, a travelling performer hungry for revenge. All four arcs boast excellent writing and voice work, with Leda's route standing out as the most emotionally powerful. There's more production value in a single path than many smaller RPGs manage in their entirety — you just have to tolerate the fact that most cutscenes cycle through the same 30-ish backdrops. The writing and animated portraits carry it.

Combat at its peak

What impressed me most is how differently each path plays. I braced for repeated battles on recycled maps, but Intelligent Systems has paced and placed everything so no two routes feel alike. Even when two characters' stories converge, the journey there — and the climactic fight — is twisted enough that you'd never guess it's the same encounter. There's easily double the content of Three Houses, and that's being stingy.

The combat itself is the series' best. The classic weapon triangle has been softened by countless weapon variants, type-specific special moves, and class reworks, so battles are no longer simple "mage beats armour" equations. Victory conditions are more varied than in any previous entry, too, and the new Blaze Arts let leads unleash devastating HP-costing abilities. Some maps let you gleefully steamroll enemies; others hammer you onto the back foot until a perfectly executed flank finally cracks their formation — and when it clicks, you feel brilliant.

Easy does it

The likeliest complaint from newcomers and veterans alike is difficulty. On Normal, this is the gentlest Fire Emblem yet — I saw exactly one permadeath across four routes, and free time-rewinds are available. Hard mode brings genuine friction, and your chosen path matters too: Cai's route eases you in, while Dietrech's demands real strategy. Classic or Casual modes (permadeath on or off) add flexibility, but overall this is an easy game by series standards. A Maddening-style update seems plausible down the line.

Karma crystals earned across your whole save file — for playtime, kills, support conversations — unlock Boons of Salvation like XP doublers and weapon discounts. You can ignore them, but they turned what could have been a grind through the later paths into an enjoyable victory lap.

The verdict

Fortune's Weave is a towering achievement: four richly written campaigns, the best tactical combat the series has produced, and a structure that somehow never buckles under its own complexity. Whether you're a longtime tactician or a narrative-first RPG fan, this belongs on your Switch 2.

Source: Eurogamer