‘An evil dragon appeared bringing chaos and destruction’, cue the Fire Emblem Warriors announcement trailer at Nintendo’s Spotlight E3 conference.
Let’s face it, Fire Emblem fans have been spoilt for choice this year with Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia (on Nintendo 3DS), the mobile game Fire Emblem Heroes and now Warriors. I’m all for more Fire Emblem as a fan, but is it too much at once?
Back to Fire Emblem Warriors for a second. It’s being developed by Intelligent Systems, and Koei Tecmo and it’s an homage to fans of the franchise, chock-full of easter eggs and characters (Marth and the lovely Chrom to name but a few) from different worlds and time periods. It’s a hack and slash action game much like Hyrule Warriors in terms of gameplay and the fact you’ll be taking on hordes of enemies.
The weapon triangle, leveling up, special moves/critical hits and the pairing of characters, which are famous in the series, are back in Warriors. Aesthetically, the special moves look glorious as you slaughter enemies with sword strokes (obviously this will depend on your character!).
The story follows two twin siblings, embarking on a journey to kill an evil dragon in order to protect their people. Standard stuff, but it’ll work. Here’s Nintendo’s short synopsis on the E3 Trailer:
Clash with legions of soldiers and fierce monsters as Marth, Xander, Corrin, and other Fire Emblem heroes unleash over-the-top-powerful Dynasty Warriors-style moves.
I’m happy to see Warriors shaping up so nicely and I think it will be great fun to play, although, again, I’m surprised at how quickly they got this game out (granted that it’s not your average FE). Hopefully, the Fire Emblem series won’t be churned out every year like some franchises though…
I understand that Fire Emblem is a big IP for Nintendo (now it is, thanks to Awakening), but what about other grid-based games and IPs? A new Advance Wars game would be welcomed and I’d like to see Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. on the Switch too. Can you imagine how good that would look? Drools. (Maybe that’s just me?) I think it’s time to take a few more risks again basically – the biggest strength the company has is their creativity and innovation after all.
Overall, I was very pleased with Nintendo’s E3 Spotlight, it must be said. I just want to see Nintendo go full-out with their creativity, and hopefully that’s the path they’re going down. Maybe less Fire Emblem in the future and more Advance Wars (something, please!) would scratch my itch.
What do you think? Am I right to worry about the Fire Emblem IP being used to much? Let me know in the comments below.
Fire Emblem Warriors will be released on Nintendo Switch in Fall 2017.