The Awakening and Fates of Fire Emblem Warriors

Nintendo gave in to fan demand when they confirmed they were working with developer Omega Force and publisher Koei Tecmo on Fire Emblem Warriors at the beginning of the year. As its name implies, it’s a Dynasty Warriors-style action game starring Fire Emblem characters, that will combine the 1-against-100+ gameplay of the former with strategic elements from the latter. Only Chrom from Fire Emblem Awakening was confirmed alongside the game with the announcement, but Marth from the first and third FE titles and four original characters (with apparently only two of them being playable) were announced shortly before E3. Since these games thrive off having multiple characters, this was just the start.

The character reveals at E3 focused on the most recent non-remake installment: Fire Emblem Fates. Here, female Corrin was confirmed along with Ryoma and Xander, who were usable characters in the Birthright and Conquest versions, respectively, though all three were usable in the Revelations version. Producer Yosuke Hayashi explained that the female version of Corrin was chosen because of her popularity, and was announced now because they didn’t want promotional materials to be overly male-dominated. Xander sticks out the most here, who’s noticeably fighting while permanently attached to his horse, like his Fates counterpart. He’ll have a unique skillset compared to the other sword users as a result.

Two points of contention with these character reveals put a damper on excitement for the game among some. It was confirmed that most choices will be from Shadow Dragon, Awakening, and Fates, which upset those who wanted characters like Ike, Lyn, and Eirika from Path of Radiance/Radiant Dawn, Blazing Sword, and The Sacred Stones. This should have made picking characters much easier for Omega Force, however.

(I still think there’s a chance Ike will be a bonus character for those who own the Amiibo, though I’m not certain enough to bet money on this.)

Note that I said “should have” in that last paragraph, because it’s ostensibly still been difficult due to one commonality among the characters: they’re all sword users. Even both original characters, sibling duo Rowan and Lianna (Shion and Lian in the Japanese version) are sword users. This could result in some characters feeling too similar to one another, which would be underwhelming given how its cast will be smaller than those in the recent Dynasty/Samurai Warriors games.

Fortunately, they made sure to quell fears that the character lineup will entirely consist of sword users with the unveiling of four more from Awakening: Male Robin, Lissa, Frederick, and Lucina. Of those, only Lucina uses a sword.

Male Robin was chosen as a counterpart to female Corrin from Fates, and is currently the only character that relies on magic attacks. Like Xander, Frederick is also bound to horseback like his Awakening counterpart, and is an axe user. The strangest one is Lissa, who’s also an axe user despite initially relying on a stave as a healer in Awakening — though she can be made to use an axe if the player changes her class. It appears the team wanted to include her because of her popularity, but since she wouldn’t fit in the game as a healer, they gave her a melee weapon. It’s still a strange decision because of the other characters they could have used, but she could be fun to play.

I initially thought this would be all for the Awakening reveals, but it’s tough to see them leaving the ever-popular Tharja out. She could be confirmed over the next several weeks, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they’re saving her for DLC.

Fire Emblem Warriors’ battles are reminiscent of traditional Dynasty/Samurai Warriors games, though with added features from mainline FE titles. They occur on a field where enemies are situated within zones, which can be captured if the player or someone on their team defeats a captain or boss. Characters can either go solo or can be paired up with one another, similar to Awakening and Fates, and the player can freely switch between both of them within the same location. Other characters can be placed on the map in various locations and can be given commands, and the player can switch to and directly control them regardless of location. They’ll also level up after obtaining enough experience points. Take a look at the archived streams from the Nintendo Treehouse E3 presentation to get a good look at it.

Basically, this game won’t do anything for you if you’re not a fan of core Warriors gameplay, but it represents the best fusion they could create for those who are fans of both styles. Hopefully the final version is more polished in performance, as the framerate looked a little rough in the Treehouse videos.

Fire Emblem Warriors will release in Japan on September 28th for Switch and New Nintendo 3DS, with Koei Tecmo publishing. Meanwhile, Nintendo will handle it in western territories, where it still has a “fall 2017” timeframe. It will receive a more definitive date soon, but expect it to be spaced away from titles like Super Mario Odyssey and Xenoblade Chronicles 2 — assuming there are no delays.