Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave wins over critics with 89 Metacritic score

Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave has received strong reviews, with 89 score on Metacritic and OpenCritic

Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave launched on Friday and has received strong reviews from critics, with the game currently holding an 89 score on both Metacritic and OpenCritic.

Metacritic’s score is based on around 70 critic reviews, while OpenCritic reports that 97% of critics recommend the game.

Fortune’s Weave follows 2023’s Fire Emblem: Engage and returns to the social-simulation elements associated with Fire Emblem: Three Houses.

Rather than locking players into one route, the game allows them to move between four main character paths, providing different perspectives on its story.

The game is set centuries before Three Houses in the Dagdan Empire, south of Fodlan. Players can travel through time and guide different Flame Lords, including Leda, Theodora, Dietrich and Cai, each pursuing different goals before the Heroic Games in the capital city of Dagsion.

According to reviews, the game expands on the structure of Three Houses with activities between battles, including finding allies, completing quests, improving combat skills and exploring the continent.

Players can also restart chapters and replay completed sections while developing their armies in different ways.

The game also introduces extensive character-specific skills and build options. Each character has abilities that reflect their individual traits, while classes, combat arts and weapon specialisations provide further opportunities to customise units.

The reviews also highlight Fortune’s Weave’s technical improvements on Nintendo Switch 2. Battle animations, cinematics, character models and portrait movements have been improved compared with Three Houses and Engage, while loading times are described as significantly shorter.

With more than 120 hours spent playing the game, Polygon's review described Fortune’s Weave as a “monumental achievement for Nintendo and Intelligent Systems”.