Welcome to our review of Fire Emblem Warriors, the newest big title on Nintendo Switch!
Coming a week before the big new Mario game, Nintendo is giving us the first Fire Emblem game on the Nintendo Switch, a musou game based on the Fire Emblem franchise. This is a full-fledged AAA title and the first musou game in the Fire Emblem universe, the second for any Nintendo IP, after Hyrule Warriors. This game consists mostly of all the famous characters of the Fire Emblem games, characters like Ryoma, Marth, Lucina, Camilla and many others are featured in this game.
The main storyline itself begins when the twins Rowan and Lianna are suddenly forced to escape the castle and try to escape with their mom, Queen Yelena. Sadly they fail to escape together and prior to separating from their mom, Yelena gives them the shield of Flames, shortly in the story, it becomes clear the country is being invaded and heroes from other realms need to be found in order to finish the story.
Like most Musou games, the story is a little thin, but that is all ok, this game has enough to link the levels together and will not distract you too much from the action throughout the game. But do not think the story itself is lame or so, no no, this is a great game. A game that is very elaborate in the main storyline. What I love about this genre, the mindless button mashing and basic hack’n slash action. Fire Emblem Warriors is a musou game, a genre originally linked to the Dynasty Warriors games, famous for the endless hordes of enemies that you need to slay in order to advance.
Add in the tactics of the mainline Fire Emblem games, where you can order your teammates to perform tasks in their parts of the map. I really loved this part, unlike some other games, where the entire map needs to be crossed in order to perform a task.
Fire Emblem Warriors is very clean in its set up and execution of this mechanic. Easy to use and easy to abuse! At one point I was heading towards the final boss straight from the start and I had instructed my teammates to mass attack another part of the map, a big fort, as soon as they conquered the fort, I moved them to the next one, each time in tandem. It really added to the speed and efficiency of finishing a level. Sure, you can take the scenic route and do things slowly, I prefer not to!
As you progress through the levels, you encounter many smaller tasks, I remember having to ignite a geyser in order to cool down a lava-covered plain, this game is just so well-balanced in the levels itself. It is never just one thing, the game really keeps you busy even if you can opt to skip some of them, like protecting random villagers, …
Amiibo support is also present, like many other games, scanning an amiibo rewards you by giving you in-game currency or weapons. As I was writing this review, I purposely scanned Fire Emblem amiibo that rewarded me with weapons and when I scanned Shovel Knight and my Splatoon one, I was rewarded with 500 and 5000 gold respectively. You can scan 5 amiibo per day and I would recommend doing so, money can be used to power up your fighters.
For the completionists among us, Fire Emblem Warriors has a very nice little bonus, you can see which mode you were playing when you finished a level, straight from the level selection screen! I just love that it shows I finished a level at the beginner level or expert or the normal one.
Now, let us talk about the graphics… This game has 2 settings, either you go for Quality or for performance, my personal preference is quality. This setting makes this game look outright gorgeous. The cutscenes, in true musou style, the attacks, … everything just looks like so much time was spent on this game trying to make it perfect!
While musou games are generally not very popular outside of Asia, this is a game that will deserve some time, I loved everything about this game and I would recommend seriously considering buying this game.
Another nice little bonus is history mode, a mode where you can relive famous battles from the past! While I mostly love the story mode myself, this is a nice little addition to the game!
In conclusion, this game is coming out a week before Mario Odyssey and while that may hurt its sales, I am buying the collector’s edition on day 1. This game is absorbing all of my free time and I just adore everything about it! From the great voice acting to the amazing cutscenes all the way back to becoming a master tactician in order to slaughter the hordes of enemies! The variety in mission is something I really appreciated as well.
My rating is high at 95% but this game deserves it, I really hope I will finish the storyline before I buy the new Mario end of this month, if not, I guess Mario can wait!
