Fire Emblem Warriors – Feature
A game from the brief era where there were Switch and New 3DS simultaneous launches.
If it wasn’t solidified that Fire Emblem was a valued franchise at Nintendo, Fire Emblem Warriors was part of the onslaught of games that solidified that. 2017 saw the launch multiple Fire Emblem games, including the thriving mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes, the excellent 3DS remake Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia, and near the end of the year, this here Fire Emblem Warriors game. The second attempt from Koei Tecmo to make a Nintendo Warriors game was far more confident than Hyrule Warriors, which was important because it didn’t have the shock and awe of the spinoff to carry some missteps. This is the first of three Nintendo Warriors games on Switch (technically the first of four if we count Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition) and it honestly stacks up well despite being the first out on the system.
Syrenne McNulty: Fire Emblem Warriors ****ing rules. I think that a lot of the original characters and original dialogue are hilariously mediocre. I think that the character selection that they picked is, well, understandably, very shallow. I wish that they had maybe had three fewer characters from Fire Emblem Fates and three more characters from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia. But overall, the recurring loop of going into the map battles where there is a larger grid and you are going through taking on individual combat challenges, engaging in the gameplay, having access to the weapon triangle, and bringing in from Hyrule Warriors Legends on the Nintendo 3DS being able to guide your other units in battle. This is the first one of these Warriors spin-offs that has that on console. I think just a tremendously well considered gameplay flow for this being a launch year title for the Nintendo Switch. I really think that this is overall such a strong package. I played this for maybe 400 hours and sometimes I still get the urge to go back to it.
Donald Theriault: My chief complaint about Fire Emblem Warriors is that the character selection is too limited both in game selection – aside from a pair of later unlocks and the OCs, you get 3DS and Marth and that’s like it – and character choices within those games. I know far too well that Heroes was a going concern when this launched, but the fact that it took until the final DLC to get a lance unit that wouldn’t get their stuff utterly pushed in by a stray arrow when the weapon triangle was supposed to be in full effect is extremely irritating. If they leaned more into the crossover aspects by adding, I dunno, the Path of Radiance / Radiant Dawn casts and some characters from the world of Blazing / Binding Blade there’d be a lot more appealing characters and many more options for team building. We were just a year removed from a musou on the 3DS that had four universes recommended, and it ran fine (Unless you played it on the original 3DS, you poor soul. There’s a reason the 3DS version of Fire Emblem Warriors is New 3DS exclusive).
The core gameplay and the game’s take on a Legend mode is a lot of fun, and the main story is just the right length to be fun but also warm you up for the real endgame grind. It ran well for an early Switch game and even held up well in multiplayer back in the day, I imagine running it on OLEDs now would probably see it run better. But if I never see the warring royal families of Fates again, I’d be much happier.
