Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave | REVIEW | Nintendo Switch 2

''PLAYING INSTRUMENTS IS DANGEROUS''

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Developed: Intelligent Systems

Published: Nintendo

Genre: Tactical RPG

Release Date: Sept 17th, 2026

Platforms: Switch 2

GAME PROVIDED TO ME BY NINTENDO

Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave is latest entry into this ever growing franchise and it is developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo. With the franchise growing bigger and more popular by the day since the series entry Awakening, Intelligent Systems now attempts to make this the grandest entry into the franchise. However, was it a wise decision to go THIS bold? or should they have taken the Engage approach once again when it comes to structure? Only one way to find out, so lets go!

''LEDA'S DANCING IS FIRE....LITERALLY''

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GAMEPLAY:

For people that know me, you know that I love tactical based R.P.G's, always have and always will, and in the case of the Fire Emblem franchise, that love is no different. As gamers we've been pretty blessed with receiving some really high quality tactical R.P.G's over the last generation or so with games like the Mario and Rabbids series, Untamed Tactics, Final Fantasy Tactics Ivalice Chronicles, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Fire Emblem Engage, yeah yeah you get it, we've been eating pretty good. In Fire Emblem's case, its crazy to think about how we are only in this position due to Awakening succeeding in its goal at being a success and revitalizing the franchise, because had it failed, more likely than not, the I.P. would've been as dead as Bowser's chances of marrying Princess Peach...yeah, sorry bro. Luckily that wasn't the case and we proceeded to get titles in the franchise that continued to up the ante like Fates on 3.D.S, Waifu simulator on Switch, also known as Fire Emblem Three Houses, and then finally the most recent entry, Fire Emblem Engage, with characters who's hair always reminded me of mixing together slurpee flavors at a Seven-Eleven or something. Beyond Awakening being the new life of the franchise, out of the entries that followed, like Fates, Three Houses and Engage, I'd have to say Three Houses was my favorite due to its characters, story and overall development of the in game mechanics, alongside the affection system that allowed you to try to rizz up as many characters as you wanted by gifting them things or by starting overall dialogue with them. My choice of Waifu was obviously Dorothea, who's name literally means ''Gift Of God''. Yes... yes she is. But were off topic, Tifa is gonna have my head if she finds this. With Three Houses being a rounding success, Engage entered the scene afterwards, and while it was still a good game to me, it didn't hit the levels of high that Awakening and Three Houses did for me, so in a way it was slightly underwhelming. Which honestly, I think most developers would prefer that outcome. When you get a game that's highly rated into the 80's as far as reviewer scores go and that's considered ''LOW'', then even when you aren't at your ''best'', your lowest is still better than 80% of the industry scores, and that's nothing to scoff at. But beyond Waifu's and underperformers, were here to talk about the newest entry into the franchise with Fortune's Weave, and if it achieves the same level of success as Awakening and Three Houses did as far as ideas, structure, characters and story go. Well honestly for the most part it absolutely does, but sometimes to its detriment at being a little TOO overwhelming for the player with its content. Being overwhelming is pretty much a Fire Emblem staple at this point dont you think? I mean just look at how they overwhelmed us as players in the Smash Bros titles, like literally half the roster are Fire Emblem characters, which is pretty crazy... and now with Engage and Fortune's Weave, we just know the next Smash Bros for Switch 2 is going to get even crazier!. I'm both hyped and scared at the same time for the prospect of it. But that's a therapy session that should be saved for another time.

Starting you off in the capital of Dagsion, you are treated to an event that brings the greatest warriors together in one place in order to win the chance to be able to be granted one single wish. So basically its like finding the Dragon Balls for one perfect wish? NO not you Dragon Ball Evolution, oh god, no. But in true R.P.G. manner, things don't always go as planned, and instead of these games of bravery and strength ending peacefully with a rightful winner crowned, an evil presence that's been lurking begins to reveal itself, one that threatens to unravel the very foundation of the realm of Dagda itself, similar to the way the evil in your belly lurks after a night of Taco Bell, but NOT QUITE as evil. But where normally the game would now set you in the point of view of one specific character that is thrusted into a story and needs to become the hero to save the day like most modern R.P.G's tend to do with their wide eyed reluctant heroes destined for greatness, which is exactly what Three Houses and Engage did with one main protagonist, Fortune's Weave says, ''yeah no, we going big'' and instead pulls a page out of Octo-path Traveler's book, and now puts you into the action from the perspective of FOUR different characters, Leda, Theodora, Dietrich and Cai, all of who have their own narratives you must see through. Like Octopath Traveler and even SaGa Frontier before it, each of the stories of these characters take on their own twist and turns before ultimately meeting in the middle for a confluence of all their narratives, just as Sephiroth foretold. Which honestly, if you're looking to go bigger and broader on the scale of the story, this is definitely the way you want to do it, especially with the way it allows you to spend time with each character, learning their personalities and stories, which ultimately lets you not only pick and choose your favorites, but also immerse yourself deeper into the larger narrative the game is trying to tell, whether it be attempting a tear jerker moment, self reflection, or even the darker side of things that you may or may not have seen coming - its a great way to make everything look and feel more diverse than just a straight and narrow view from one perspective once more, and for that, Fortune's Weave nails it. However, they aren't just four characters added just for the sake of it, nope, because they are not only unique in their way own way beyond personalities and gameplay styles, but also with how they interact with others as well. While you cant go overboard with the social dating mechanic as you could in Three Houses, which may bum some people out, you can still do a version of it that feels more balanced and less of a ''chore'' so you aren't going through a panic at the prospect of giving someone the wrong gift, and having them hate you like what could happen in Three Houses. Trust me guys, It was stressful, I was getting rejected something FIERCE in my time with that one. With each character comes a trait, like for example Cai being the typical goodie two shoe like character that feels straight out of Shonen due to the way he wants to help out ordinary citizens of the world by doing good by them, or even Leda who gives performances for others in order to further improve this games version of social elements. But why should you do things like this? what is even the point? just to try to wife them up again like past games? not quite. Instead of it just being used as a tool to outright swoon characters, instead, now its used as a way to help recruit new people to your party to aid you in your adventure, which not only brings about more allies to your side, but also further broadens your reach in combat and lets you have more reign on deciding whether you want to take the fight on using sheer power alone or mix it up and strategically take on fights with careful and thought out ways to utilize each new members skill sets as they level up.

Combat here in Fortune's Weave is more refined than even that of Engage, which was the strong suit of that game overall. Each character having their own unique abilities like Theodora harnessing her inner earth bender by tossing literally pieces of the ground at people, or being able to use your Blaze Arts strategically in the right moments to teleport or initiate another characters special ability from it. However, it can't be spammed, and it has limited usage, so don't go into battle thinking you can just keep using Blaze Arts over and over without any consequence because that's how you end up in the dirt or crashing and burning like poor Link into the side of a building. What are the consequences for over use? well for one, your health takes a serious cut because once its over used, in a nutshell, it basically acts like an overheat of the skill, and once its overheated, which is known as Overblaze, then... uhh... bye bye health. That obviously puts you at a MASSIVE disadvantage because now you have to monitor not only the enemies strength and how to gain the advantage over them, but now you're also on babysit watching with your health. So... don't be stupid yall, thats my job. There were time's where I'd get a little TOO anxious with wanting to end the fight faster, so I figured, meh, whatever, gotta risk it to get that biscuit.. only... that biscuit was burnt, and so was I, and of course I'd lose. Go me. As you find new battles to engage in and new foes to fight as you try to unravel the mystery behind the evil force that plagues the world, and learn more about this games four main characters, you can travel across this games version of an overworld, partake in dungeons, swap into turn based combat, and if you're just not feeling like fighting and just want to explore without a headache of constant encounters, then thankfully, like a lot of modern R.P.G's are adapting nowadays, you are free to fast forward your encounters to even bypass or speed them up, letting keep the pace YOU want to keep playing at for your own self enjoyment. Good quality of life addition, sure, but... its an R.P.G, so WHY are you playing an R.P.G. just to SKIP the battles? you big goof. For me personally, after beating the game, its honestly pretty shocking how thoroughly well balanced this game is, even when tackling multiple different gameplay mechanics with the overworld exploration, traditional Fire Emblem combat, social elements for characters, and dungeon implementation on top of it, its just weird how none of these seem forced or have more of a focus over the other, which honestly makes each element feel fleshed out in their own right. The main gripe I might see people run into however is your predetermined days you are allotted. Much like Majora's Mask scarred people with the ''days remaining'' moniker, Fortune's Weave also gives you a number of days left you have to use, and every action you take, that time will dwindle down, especially when moving across the main overworld. This in turn kind of puts you on a time limit on what you can do and accomplish. I mean, granted its per chapter, but still, the mechanic is still there, and for people not familiar with this feature that is used in other tactical R.P.G's in recent years, it might be a bit stifling to them at first. From a graphical stand point, Fortune's Weave is somewhere in the middle. Some areas like character models and cities you venture to look stunning, some are even wow inducing, but on the other hand, some dungeons and outside environments really stand out as far as the ugly scale goes. To be fair, I've seen worse in other games, but when you have so much polish elsewhere, the bad textures tend to stick out like a sore thumb. Its not entirely distracting, but with a game that can run you 30 to 100 hours of gameplay, depending on how much you accomplish, you're going to notice it here there. Its not BIG RIGS level though, so be thankful. Man, we pick on BIG RIGS too much, we need a new gag. OH NO, NOT YOU, YOU GREEN DISEMBODIED HEAD, I LEARNED TO FLY AT STAR FOX ACADEMY, I DONT NEED YOUR HELP, SO GO AWAY.

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''ON MY WAY TO SPEND 20 HOURS CREATING BONDS''

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OVERALL:

At the end of the day, for me personally, Fortune's Weave ends up being my favorite Fire Emblem game since Awakening in 2012. Its got its issues, yes, like sometimes there being TOO MUCH content to the point that it overwhelms you with things to do, which can make you lose focus on the main story or its immersive atmosphere, the day cycle between chapters I could also see people get annoyed with due to it feeling a tad bit restricting for their liking, and then finally, a less robust social sim from Three Houses that is more balanced, sure, but for people that enjoyed that feature heavily previously, you might be dampered to know its not as grand as it once was. But with strong character narrative, gorgeous environments, fun combat system that switches between the franchise traditional and turn based, story that converges on all four main characters, and an amazing soundtrack... again, it just makes Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave one of the best Fire Emblems we've had in the last decade. So with all that having been said, my verdict is clear, GameNChick says BUY NOW.

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