The Fire Emblem series has always prided itself on how it teaches you to become a master tactician on the battlefield, using its turn-based battle system to push you to truly think strategically. In its more recent games, strategy became an important aspect not just while waging war, but between battles as well: How will you make the most of your time before the next skirmish? Who needs extra training, or perhaps a nice shared meal to increase camaraderie? Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave doesn’t just take the next step down that path, it makes an ambitious leap forward. It expands the scope of how you manage your budding heroes and explore its unexpectedly engaging map, and introduces some of the most harrowing and clever battles I’ve seen in the series to date. Its branching story intertwines into a grand epic that always seemed to have a new twist up its sleeve, and even after a hundred hours, I’ve still got more unique paths to tread that I’m itching to dive back into. Like a gladiator risking it all, Fortune’s Weave never stops aiming for the top – and it rarely misses that mark.
This story begins with an undead apocalypse already in progress, but while your customizable character is asked to stop it, you’ll soon learn that salvation is only to be found in the past. Thanks to some very on-brand time travel shenanigans, you must go back and ensure four legendary heroes survive the trials and tribulations that surround a series of colosseum matches known as the Heroic Games, each with their own path full of distinct, large-scale battles. 2019’s Fire Emblem: Three Houses similarly let you choose your own story path, but its first act played out largely the same before the second diverged depending on your faction choice. Fortune’s Weave not only flips that structure on its head, it also manages to make its finale more robust and impactful depending on how much of its main cast you reach the last act with.
This works thanks in large part to a single save file system that helps funnel each path toward one merged conclusion. I’ll admit that I had my reservations at first, as just one save slot initially seemed to limit replayability. However, Fortune’s Weave has a surprisingly good solution for managing these multiple paths. A nifty little hub room allows you to not only pick which story path you want to progress at almost any time, but even go back and replay any chapter you’ve done, no matter which act it’s in. Looking back will give you a snapshot of the army you had at the beginning of that chapter, who you’d recruited, and how strong they were – and if you choose to redo it, the snapshot for the following chapter will update with any differences, allowing you to keep progressing along this new playthrough without wiping data from any subsequent chapters further down the line that you’d already completed. It’s a smart way to weave the time travel theme into a mechanic that would be invaluable regardless, and lets you see nearly everything Fortune’s Weave has to offer without having to start from scratch on a new playthrough.
Each story path is wonderfully unique, offering different glimpses of life in the Dagdan Empire: Cai, the exuberant country kid in over his head as he tries to find a way to rescue his father from execution; Dietrich, the detached (and slightly unhinged) swordsman from a distant land who really only cares about finding worthy opponents for his blade; Theodora, queen of a southern kingdom seeking relief and acceptance for her people; and Leda, a talented musician and dancer on a quest for revenge against her father’s murderers. Each has an intriguing tale to tell as their personal quests lead them to the empire’s sprawling capital, Dagsion (imagine Rome if it was literally ruled over by the pantheon of gods), and I loved discovering the larger conspiracy lurking beneath it all as their journeys start to intertwine.
These four heroes are initially out to win the grand Heroic Games and win their heart's desire, but I was delighted to see how the paths they take to get there all have their own twists and turns. Rather than treading the exact same ground, each branch had me alternate between colosseum matches and more personal storylines. I’m happy I chose to play as Leda first, as her tale of vengeance was a wild ride to watch unfold. The story doesn’t shy away from how badly her desire for revenge affects those around her (which is spurred on by a cursed instrument she carries), and even though things never get as dark as they could have, she isn’t above gleefully describing to people how much they’d suffer if they got in her way.
I also came to admire how each of the paths in Fortune’s Weave are their own specific strands on a larger web of intrigue. It’s not exactly a new concept to have a secretive evil group pulling strings from the shadows, but it's the way each hero uncovers certain pieces of their motives and operations that compelled me the most. It never felt like I was stumbling through the dark trying to figure out what was going on, but more that each path provided new context to the events that were unfolding, which then leads to a dramatic twist in act two that was quite effective.
When stacked against these champions and their quests, my own character (who defaults to the name Eshmel) came off a little lackluster at first… but oddly enough, I didn’t really mind that. Compared to Byleth from Three Houses, who constantly fought for my attention between the other main characters, Fortune’s Weave is wise to put Eshmel in the background for the first half of the story while the others establish themselves, only swooping in at critical moments with their best Tuxedo Mask impression to ensure the heroes survive until the present day. Otherwise, Eshmel is content to chill out in town disguised in the form of a cute, plump little bird that everyone seems to love. In the final act, they take on a more commander-in-chief role, and though they end up sharing a lot of moments with the goddess helping you achieve your goals, their main role is support – and it’s something they do very well, bolstering your chosen squad with their incredible powers.
While their smaller role is ultimately a smart choice, it is a shame that Eshmel is largely silent outside of a few specific sequences, mostly chiming in through inconsequential dialogue choices accompanied by a simple, non-verbal gesture. Given how good the voice acting is across the whole cast, I didn’t really feel like I gained anything from these attempts at roleplay (aside from occasionally having companions interact with me in bird form, and then trying to pick the appropriate bird-response so I could… observe them… you know what, never mind).
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.ign.com/articles/fire-emblem-fortunes-weave-review
