Nintendo today held a Direct especially for the upcoming next entry in the Fire Emblem series, called Fortune’s Weave. Like many, many other games, this one is launching in the crowded quarter before Grand Theft Auto VI — specifically, September 17. And based on the Direct, the Big N is going for broke with this massive title, likely to help sell the soon-to-be-more-expensive Switch 2.
The Direct itself packed a large amount of detail within 20 minutes. In addition to character studies for each of the four main characters, we got a long showcase of gameplay features. Just to give you an idea of the enormity of the game, I’m going to give a list of the features revealed during the Direct in bullet-point form. In Fortune’s Weave, players can:
- Complete in the main events of the Heroic Games against the other teams
- Watch other matches to research their opponents on their off-days
- Buy and improve equipment in a dedicated shopping area
- Take timed quests from locals in exchange for rewards
- Train to improve their skills, culminating in actual exams to attain new classes
- Obtain blessings from a series of holy temples
- Recruit yet more characters, who may need to be sweet-talked and/or bribed with gifts
- Go dungeon-delving for treasures and materials
- Visit towns outside of the main location of Dagsion to gather intel and complete skirmishes
- Visit inns to rest, eat, talk and auto-reap XP and materials
- Play the stories of all four of the main characters in parallel thanks to a creature called the Pale Raven
And then to add a whole mason jar full of cherries on top: All of the above is only one half of the game, apparently. As Nintendo revealed at the very end of the Direct, the true protagonist of the game is a customizable player character called Eshmel. They are chosen by the goddess Sothis to avert the apocalypse caused by a dark god, which they’ll apparently accomplish by meddling in the timelines to influence all four of the main heroes (possibly as the humanoid form of the Pale Raven).
How all of this is going to fit together is beyond me. The Direct didn’t even get into the various relationships between the characters, another staple of Fire Emblem that will surely make a reappearance. Suffice it to say, Fortune’s Weave has everything previous entries in the series have had and more.
Why Fortune’s Weave matters in the games release calendar
The release calendar for games is absolutely packed with games up until about mid-October, when the path more or less clears for Grand Theft Auto VI. Games like Silent Hill: Townfall, Control Resonant, Marvel’s Wolverine, Gears of War: E-Day, Castlevania: Belmont’s Curse and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 4 are all stacked up before the critical November 19 date for Grand Theft Auto VI’s release.
However, Fortune’s Weave is the only triple-A title coming from Nintendo during that time period. It’s also the first major Nintendo game coming exclusively to the Switch 2 after September 1, when the new, higher price model for the console goes into effect. This makes it a critical release in what would likely otherwise be a very depressing month for the Big N’s console sales.
There’s still a chance that Nintendo can schedule another big game before the end of the year which will also boost its sales. The most likely candidate is the Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time remake, which is still set for a 2026 release date. If released, it would likely be the only major timeframe competitor for Grand Theft Auto VI.