Fortune’s Weave got a ton of hype when it was first coming out. This was going to be the big Switch 2 title to finally show that Nintendo was still operating at the highest levels. Fire Emblem games always have a lot of content to them but this would be taking it to an entirely new level. The game was going to have 4 complete campaigns within it and a ton of replay value. It took me nearly 70 hours to complete the game so I can definitely confirm that the reputation was deserved.
The game starts off with you playing as the savior of the world who must stop the apocalypse which has arrived at your door. The greatest warriors in history have all been turned over to the dark side and you are forced to destroy them all. These undead zombies will keep on regenerating infinitely though and so one of the goddesses manipulates causality to send us into the past. From there you can choose between 4 fire lords in order to complete their campaign. There are 3 parts to the game. The first part is 12 chapters for each of the 4 main characters, the second part is around 6 chapters for each one, and then they all converge on the final part.
A cool thing about the game is how much freedom you have. You can make this a quick game by just playing as one main character and rush to the end. In case it seems like you can even skip all 4 and dash to the end since the door is active but it’s possible that a barrier would stop you. This would just put you in a nearly unwinnable situation because the sheer number of enemy units would be too much. In a way you get to control how difficult the game is. The more campaigns you complete, the more soldiers you will have at your disposal for the final war.
From before I had even purchased the game, I knew that I would be playing all 4 campaigns. The fact that they all exist on the same save file is what made my decision clear. I wouldn’t bother with this if you had to start from scratch each time. Since that wasn’t the case, it felt to me like the organic way of playing this game was to experience each campaign. As such, that’s exactly what I did and it made for a really satisfying experience. It’s impressive how much content is completely unique for each story even if they do converge at some points.
You are also rewarded for actually playing through each story because the auto levels that the characters do off screen progress at much weaker intervals. For example a character you manually leveled from 1-20 will have far greater stats than a CPU who took him to level 20. It really emphasizes that human spirit there. In terms of the individual stories, Leda’s is probably the most interesting. She’s trying to avenge her father by murdering everyone who was involved in the attack on her kingdom. There are quite a lot of people who were involved so this is not a short list. Cai’s story is a bit more basic as he is trying to win the big tournament in order to save his father from the death sentence. Dietrich just wants to fight a bunch of strong opponents in order to satiate his bloodlust. Finally Theodora is trying to win the tournament in order to reclaim her ancestor’s birthright to the haunted islands. There are also a number of other characters trying to win the tournament for their own gain.
Originally there were going to be 8 stories but that wasn’t ready in time and so the second batch of 4 stories will be upcoming DLC. That’s definitely going to be really ambitious, almost like another game. I’m expecting that these stories will be shorter but it’s impressive just how much content the game is about to get on top of what is already there. There are also more gameplay mechanics than you may expect. There are close to a dozen classes, you have your equipment to polish, praying at the temples for power-ups, training your stats, etc. Then you also have all of the free roam activities like fixing buildings, completing quests, and obtaining materials in caves.
That comes to my only downside which is that the game does have a day/night system. For example you may have 5 days of free time before the next story mission. That means after you complete 5 actions, you will be forced to enter the next stage. It makes the game feel like a bit of a tease at times because there is not enough time to have fun with all of the modes/features that are available. Now, I hear that this becomes less of an issue as you do more playthroughs because your data is retained but that’s still rough. I never like a day/night system in general. Give me complete freedom and that’s a much better deal.
Also, the game actually penalizes you for playing each of the campaigns simultaneously. I found this out after starting the stories but it was a bit annoying. Basically you are meant to finish part 1 for a character first. Then you start character b and the game will auto complete all side quests and activities that you did with the first character. This will allow you more time to complete other missions and eventually the content won’t be so daunting. To me it had always felt more organic to play the stories simultaneously though so that was rough. I had to re-complete the side quests each time. Maybe it would have been difficult to set the code up to do a check after every chapter but that would have been more fun.
The gameplay is your classic strategy, Fire Emblem style. You control a number of units and control them all across an overheard board. Then your opponents respond in kind. The goal is to wipe them all off the map before your captain is defeated. This kind of game requires a ton of strategy and one wrong move can foil your whole operation. It feels really satisfying to complete a level after a lot of trial and error.
The game also tests how well you have understood the mechanics as it gets really difficult by the end. You better have made sure that you maxed out your blessing with at least one goddess before the end. I recommend maxing out Kalla since she increases your chance of dodging an enemy’s attack for 10 turns. That is incredibly useful here but each goddess has a different blessing so maybe you will prefer someone else’s.
The graphics are definitely great like you would expect. The characters look sharp and all of the attacks are really colorful. This is the kind of game that is really using all of the Switch 2’s power. There are a number of great cinematics here as well. Fire Emblem has never been afraid to get rather intense so you can also expect a higher stakes Nintendo game than usual. Each twist and turn will really have you be surprised.
In terms of replay value, well even if the game had 0 it wouldn’t be a problem with a 70 hour campaign. Still, there is a ton of replay value with the over 100 possible recruits you can obtain through the story. Upgrading each weapon will also take a long time. This is the kind of game that someone could sit down with for a very long time to try and 100% it. That’s not in the cards for me but I can see why this game is already so beloved. It’s absolutely one of the all time best Fire Emblems for me as well.
Overall, I definitely recommend buying this one. Fire Emblem continues to be a standout series for good reason. It may take a while between each release but they are always worth it. This works well as a jumping on point if you haven’t played Fire Emblem before. All of the mechanics are explained well and the game starts you off slow before really ramping up the difficulty. The main thing is to just not let yourself get overwhelmed by all of the gameplay options. You have to take it one step at a time and then you’re all set.
Overall 9/10
