Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave Review - Part 1

We as gamers sometimes like to pick single pieces of games apart, instead of enjoying the whole experience. This part is too slow, this is too fast, this single feature is annoying and so on. Reading online about Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave shows me that especially many old fans tend to do exactly this. But in my eyes Fortune's Weave is the best Fire Emblem game to date, if you are willing to go with the flow.

Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave - Part 1 of an epic tale

Now first you might be wondering why this review is called “Part 1”. Fire Emblem is a truly epic tale. The game features 3 acts and Part 1 is the largest of these. Part 1 is also split into 4 different character stories. By the time of writing this I spent around 55 hours playing Fortune's Weave and played through 2 of these character stories.

The first key feature of Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave for me is that all 4 characters offer a totally different experience. Cai is a young boy from a small village, his story, is the typical shonen anime story. A boy and his friends get thrown into an adventure that is way too big for them, but by the end they rise to the challenge. It's light hearted and fun.

Dietrich's storyline feels like it's straight out of Dragon Ball, a man who wants to find and prove he is the strongest. Theodora, on the other hand, is a queen who fights for her people and wants to lead them in a safer and better future. For this review however, I want to focus on Leda on her path of revenge.

Fire Emblem Fortune's Weaves Story - Leda’s Path of Revenge

What would you do if your whole world gets destroyed right in front of your eyes? When everything you love and care about gets killed and burned down? How far would you go to get your revenge?

Those are the questions Leda's story focuses on. We start her story with her as a teenager, watching her father, the leader of a small town, getting killed right in front of her eyes. All of this as part of a political scheme later known as the massacre of Cydonia. The whole scale of this we won't really know till much later, but even this early on voice actor Katiana Sarkissian does an amazing job delivering the pain Leda feels in this moment.

From that point on, Leda's path is clear, she wants to take revenge on everyone who was involved in this scheme and kill each of them. In the first hours, we mostly see in Leda an almost insane person, fully taken over by the pain and rage she feels inside her. On her path, she slowly collects more and more people around her and it's those people who show us a different side of Leda.

There is, for example, Buccar, a faithful servant of Leda's father. He saved Leda on the day of the massacre and has been with her ever since, but he worries about her path of revenge. Then there is Mu, a young girl who dresses like a boy. She looks up to Leda and through her we get to see a softer side of Leda. Then there is also Sirocco, a smart and mysterious man who supports Leda on her path, while also having his own agenda.

What I really loved about Leda's story is how personal it feels. Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave is a truly big and epic game. A game about ancient mysteries, political schemes, big wars and world ending events. In each of the four paths we get different pieces of this world and conflict, but more than anyone else's story, Leda’s is truly personal.

Sure, we get to know more and more about the political side during her 30 long Act 1 story, but the bulk of it focuses on her personal development. By the end of it, I was fully invested in her and her whole group of people and I shed a tear more than once.

The flow of Fortune's Weave

As with every Fire Emblem game, at the center of it all are the Turn Based Strategy Battles. Fortune's Weave offers the best version of those in my eyes. Intelligent Systems did a good job this time to offer a huge variety of objectives in those battles. In Fire Emblem Three Houses, you most of the time simply had to kill all enemies on a rather blank map.

This time, however, you often have unique map designs with choke points like a bridge and many unique mechanics that only get used once to make a battle feel special. Those battles also help build an ever closer connection to your party members. While Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave in Act 1 never feels overly difficult, it still offers some nailbiting moments thanks to the classic permadeath feature the series is known for.

Where the biggest controversy of Fortune's Weave comes from is everything that happens outside those core battles. Ever since Fire Emblem Awakening, the series has been expanding its social features. Since Three Houses, Fire Emblem became very Persona like. Meaning you have a calendar you follow and between battles you have to talk to your party members, go out to eat with them, have tea parties and give them gifts to raise their relationship level with you.

I wasn't a fan of this in Three Houses, every time I had to interact with it, it felt very mechanical and boring to me. Like a checklist I have had to follow and it took way too long each time, simply put, it was exhausting!

Now Fortunes Weave, still has parts of this, but it scaled back on the social side and replaced it with more adventures. Now you can explore a world map, which helps to flesh out the whole lore and gives a better feeling for the scale of Fortune's Weave. It almost feels like a board game.

You also get to explore dungeons featuring turn based battles that are simplified versions of something like old school Final Fantasy. Now, as I said in the intro, it's easy to pick apart each of those elements.

Dungeons are simple to the point that you can use automatic combat in them, exploring the map is really just like a board game, most sidequests involve much more straightforward battles that don't feature all the unique ideas you see in the main battles. Going back to the city and doing some activities like training in the area each week can feel like busywork. So why is it that it works so well in my eyes when you take everything together?

Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave is a Game Design Masterclass

To me, Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave is a game that just perfectly fits into my life. For one, its dialogues are on point. Most modern JRPGs are very talkative with a lot of fluff. Fortune's Weave however, keeps them and its cutscenes short and effective.

At first, the gameplay flow also pushed me away a bit. Knowing that you would have to spend an hour or two between those big story battles could feel a tad draining at first. However, my thoughts on this shifted over time. There is something deeply satisfying about all those small, simple gameplay systems if you see them together.

I fell in love with my group of characters, so to level them up, grind for new gear, or travel far on the world map to find a merchant who sells just the right weapon for my Mu, just felt right. Sure, if you see each of those elements in a vacuum, they can look dull, but you will never spend too much time with each of them to feel that way.

A dungeon run may take 5 minutes, exploring the world map to reach a new place another 5 minutes and one of the random battles to grind for experience points another 5 minutes. It all clicks together so well.

I also feel that this kind of flow fits so perfectly in my life. After a long day at work, when I feel tired and exhausted, spending an hour just exploring the world and refining my character just feels relaxing and rewarding. Then at a later time, when I rested I was thrilled to see the next big story battle.

What also helps with all of this is the great class system Fire Emblem is known for. There is just always something new to strive for and watching my Mu grow from a clueless fighter into a true warrior by the end of my playthrough, just makes me happy.

Is Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave worth your time?

Now, I'm still only in act 1 of my journey in Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave, so you might be wondering why I already wrote this review? Well, for one I'm not someone who spends over 100 Hours in a single game usually. The only game I did this with in the last 10 years was Elden Ring. So the fact that I'm willing to invest this time into Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave should tell you a lot.

But my goal is also to take away some of the fear of starting such a huge game. If I'm totally honest, I could have walked away from Fortune's Weave after around 35 hours and finished Leda’s Act 1. Simply because this already was one of the best and well rounded JRPG adventures of the past few years.

Sure, after finishing her story, not every question is answered. But the main question about her and her journey was answered and I was satisfied with it. So even if you only choose one character and only play Act 1 with them, this game is worth your time. In the end, Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave is a game that isn't for everyone, but it certainly is for me. In my eyes, this is a huge step up from Three Houses and one of the best games you can play this year.

Rating: Essential

Rating System Order: Masterpiece | Essential | Strongly Recommended | Recommended | Mixed Feelings | Disappointing

Vaulted: Games that make it into the Kasur Gaming Vault have a special place in my heart and are games that define my gaming taste.