Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is the latest entry in Nintendo’s long-running tactics series, and the first built natively for the Switch 2. Reviewed on Switch 2 | Publisher: Nintendo | Developer: Intelligent Systems | Release: September 17, 2026. Score: 8.75/10 (Must Play).
The Setup
Fortune’s Weave starts at the end of all things. After a quick character creator for a mysterious Pale Raven and an in medias res run through a world crumbling and haunted by the living dead, your avatar and Fortuna — a goddess of fate — are some of the only survivors. To save the world, you need to defeat the encroaching lord of the underworld, Balor.
You retire to a chamber outside of time and zip back through the lives of four Flame Lords of Dagda: Cai, Theodora, Dietrich, and Leda. All have found their way to the continent’s capital, Dagsion, where Divine Emperor Solel is hosting the Heroic Games, with a promise that any wish will be granted to the ultimate victor. Correct the causality of these fallen heroes, and they may survive and rally under your banner in the changed future for the final fight.
Three Acts, Four Routes
Fortune’s Weave takes on a three-part structure, with each lord getting an individual story through the Heroic Games. They each have their own reasons for fighting: the young Cai wishes to rescue his father from prison and imminent execution; Saraminian queen Theodora wants to reclaim land important to her people; songstress Leda has murder and revenge against her father’s killer on her mind; and Dietrich is just in it for the love of battle.
It’s a little overwrought to explain, but it lends itself well to the size of the tale Fortune’s Weave is telling. All four face trials and strife throughout the games — Faustian bargains, shadowy organizations plotting in the background, and old secrets brought to light by the influx of every interesting and notable person in Dagda to its capital. It’s not required to play any of the routes, as you could go fight Balor on your own if you wish — but each lord’s story adds more context, nuance, and character to this huge tale.
Where It Weighs Itself Down
This is where Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave starts to lose altitude. Dungeon exploration — a returning mechanic from Echoes: Shadows of Valentia — turns Fire Emblem into a classic RPG dungeon-crawl with a small party, strike-to-engage exploration, and turn-based combat. It feels like a microcosm of big strategy battles, only they get repetitive and too frequent. The first lord’s route is engaging; by the second, you’ll probably be spamming auto-battle.
Free time is most interesting when you’re pressed against the clock to finish quests, acquire resources, and resolve paralogues before deadlines — but keeping up with the numerous weekly activities and checking in at home for any random events often meant just going through the motions. Some periods I’d be stressed out trying to build up support levels for a new Archer recruit while finishing enough side quests to get the renown level I needed for a big battle with flying foes. Other cycles, I was just in a loop: train, eat, auto-activities, repeat.
Where It Soars
When it finally comes back to the bread-and-butter strategy of Fire Emblem, Fortune’s Weave is excellent. Overworld map fights are fairly straightforward, but the bookending fights of chapters are highlights, especially when they take place in Dagsion’s arena. Intelligent Systems concocted some brilliant coliseum battles that have all the theme and flair you’d hope for: charging chariots, puzzling mechanisms, and special combat arenas that push you to utilize your units as best you can.
There’s no shortage of options for combat, as each unit archetype can go down interesting upgrade lines. In Leda’s path, I had the aspiring mercenary Mu train up into a deadly sword-wielder who could cut through anything with a strong critical strike. In Cai’s path, I secretly trained the lord in magic alongside one of his childhood friends, Thialla, so he could become a spell-slinging mounted Caldarius for the final fights. Fortune’s Weave eschews the weapon triangle to place more emphasis on what weapons can handle individually — magic against armor, lances against horses — and Combat Arts make training within a fighter’s specific strengths rewarding. Lords also pack their own Blaze Arts, like Leda’s spellsongs or Dietrich’s shadowstep, giving them fun tools to enable strategies and close out maps.
The Verdict
The opening act is great — and yet somehow only one part of the pie, as Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave still has two more acts to play out. The repetition in dungeon crawling and free-time busywork is real, and the campaign’s sheer size is going to overwhelm some players. But the core strategy loop, the brilliant Dagsion coliseum battles, the four Flame Lords and their intertwined stories, and the moment-to-moment feel of building a unit you actually care about — that’s what the series is for. Fortune’s Weave commits to the bit at full scope, and for the most part, it pays off.
8.75/10 — Must Play.