Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave is setting a course that looks both to the series' past and a high-tech future, blending familiar dungeon crawling with futuristic elements like magic-infused firearms. The preview indicates a narrative that leans heavily on flashback plotlines to establish a present-day apocalyptic scenario. While the game has not yet fully merged its distinct strategic gameplay with its overarching war and political intrigue, early elements have been compelling enough to drive a desire for continued play.
The opening hours of Fortune's Weave present a complex scenario that can be difficult to fully explain. After a brief period of character customization, players are introduced to a world where medieval aesthetics clash with advanced computer systems and futuristic weaponry. A central figure, a goddess named Fortuna who speaks for Sothis from Fire Emblem: Three Houses, tasks the player with revisiting the past to rewrite the histories of legendary heroes. This setup, while dense, is presented as just the initial stage of the game's elaborate narrative.
The game's structure involves choosing from four "obelisks," each linked to a fallen hero from the past who has become an "evil flame lord." Selecting an obelisk initiates a narrative path leading to Dagsion, the capital of the Dagdan Empire. Here, the "Heroic Games," a Fire Emblem interpretation of ancient Roman gladiator tournaments, serve as a central event. The preview highlights characters like Leda, a bard seeking revenge for her father's murder, and Cai, an optimistic youth whose journey through the Heroic Games may prove more challenging than initially expected.
Gameplay mechanics in Fortune's Weave revisit established Fire Emblem systems. Leda, for example, can use her "Blaze Art" to buff allies, a move that consumes HP and requires strategic deployment. Similarly, "Combat Arts" enhance weapons but reduce their durability, adding another layer of tactical consideration to the series' signature grid-based turn-based strategy battles. The satisfaction of executing strategic advances remains a core element, complemented by highly detailed battle animations that showcase Intelligent Systems' artistic direction, enhanced by development exclusively for the Switch 2.
However, the return of dungeon crawling, while welcome, is accompanied by turn-based combat that does not utilize the grid-based system and has so far proven underwhelming. The inclusion of options to fast-forward or skip these encounters suggests a potential lack of confidence in these particular mechanics.
Despite some underdeveloped systems, the narrative threads and strategic depth presented in the preview have created enough intrigue to make players eager to see how the disparate elements of Fortune's Weave ultimately come together.