Fire Emblem Warriors

Genre: Action Brawler

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local Split-Screen)

The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

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Review:

Fire Emblem Warriors, released on Nintendo 3DS and Nintendo Switch in 2017, is a Musou-style Action Brawler in the same vein as Hyrule Warriors and the Dynasty Warriors franchise. Players take the role of various heroes from across the Fire Emblem franchise to take on hordes of enemies in an action-focused game that incorporates some signature elements of the Fire Emblem franchise.

Graphically, Fire Emblem Warriors looks good – despite fairly large areas, large numbers of enemies, nice-looking 3D characters in a cel-shaded anime style, and lots of effects blasting around the battlefield at any given time, the framerates remain mostly steady, though things do slow down a bit during more impressive special attacks. However, this doesn’t negatively affect the game at all, and could simply be a way of highlighting these massive attacks in a more cinematic fashion.

These visuals are backed by a fittingly energetic (though somewhat forgettable) orchestral soundtrack, as well as a lot of fully-voiced character back-and-forth. This… is a mixed bag. On the one hand, it’s great to hear characters from across the Fire Emblem franchise conversing with one another… but at the same time, the writing here is particularly cringey, like someone who wanted to not just highlight that this game is basically Fire Emblem fan fiction, but make you feel embarrassed for having taken part in it.

As for the gameplay, you probably know the basics if you’ve ever played a Warriors Musou game before – tons of enemies that are little more than fodder for your hyper-exaggerated attacks, slightly-stronger enemies whose defeat means taking over an area, occasional boss characters who give you a bit more fight, and multiple heroes to swap between for variety’s sake, each of whom can be leveled and upgraded in a variety of ways.

All of this is par for the course for a Warriors game, and what results is the same strengths and weaknesses you’ll find in other games of this ilk – namely, this sort of gameplay makes for shallow but fun action that’s almost relaxing in its simplicity, but is also somewhat mindless and repetitive. It’s not going to be for everyone, but it’s absolutely enjoyable if you’re the sort of person who can appreciate this sort of thing.

However, what Fire Emblem Warriors does differently is the way it incorporates elements of the Fire Emblem franchise into its gameplay. Different heroes fight using different weapons, each of which is stronger against some enemies and weaker against others. In addition, your allied characters can be assigned to partner in pairs, strengthening the character they’re fighting alongside and enabling enhanced offensive and defensive moves. And in a really nice touch, at any time players can pause the action to give commands to their characters on a gridlike map, directing them where to go to take a more strategic approach to the action.

All of this works great, and does a wonderful job bringing the spirit of the Fire Emblem franchise into the Musou genre. What doesn’t work so great is this game’s menus and maps, which are unhelpful and do a poor job of giving you the pertinent information you need. Even spotting my own character’s cursor on the mini-map to try to orient myself and head in the direction of a goal was difficult given how busy that map is, and even pausing to see the full map requires some searching around to find your allied characters.

There is one other element here that I should highlight, and that is the two-player split-screen co-op. As with this feature in Hyrule Warriors, this seems like something of an after-thought, but that’s okay because it is still an absolute delight to trounce enemies alongside a friend, or split up the battlefield so you can cover different areas. I’ll note that playing this mode drops the framerate somewhat lower, and unfortunately there’s no online support. Also, due to the more strategic approach this game takes to the genre, this is somewhat less well-suited to multiplayer gameplay than these titles usually are, though it’s still plenty of fun in multiplayer – players looking to trounce enemies with a friend will find this to be an excellent time.

In the end, I think that Fire Emblem Warriors’ menu and map issues make it a bit less successful than either of the Hyrule Warriors games, but it’s still a blast to play, and I thoroughly enjoy how this game works in gameplay elements from the Fire Emblem franchise to make it more of its own entity. If you’re looking to plow through hordes of enemies with some degree of strategy to the action, Fire Emblem Warriors is an excellent choice.

tl;dr – Fire Emblem Warriors combines the Musou-style action-focused gameplay of games like Hyrule Warriors and Dynasty Warriors with some of the strategic elements of the Fire Emblem franchise, along with tons of (sometimes embarrassing) fan service for that series, resulting in a game that’s delightfully fun, if a bit shallow. Map and menu issues detract from this game a bit, but overall this is a wonderful action-packed romp.

Grade: B+

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Difference

Fire Emblem Warriors

Genre: Action Brawler

Players: 1-2 Co-Op (Local Split-Screen)

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Review:

While the Fire Emblem Warriors games didn’t suffer nearly as much as Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity when it came to the limitations of the Nintendo Switch hardware, the massive number of enemies on-screen at any given time along with the explosive effects of larger attacks could make for moments of slowdown. With this being the case, it seemed prudent to check these games out and see how they perform on Nintendo Switch 2.

For Fire Emblem Warriors, most of the slowdown is gone, even in 2-player split-screen. All that remains are what seem to be purely stylistic moments where the action slows down to highlight a moment, but this has nothing to do with the hardware the game is playing on.

All the other graphical limitations remain – the overall framerate is okay but not great, the resolution and aliasing still looks ugly, and there’s still pop-in of enemies as you enter their areas. None of that has changed.

There is one other noteworthy change here, in the form of improved loading times. On Nintendo Switch, it takes 11 seconds to load to the opening logos when first starting a game, and 10 seconds to load into a level. On Nintendo Switch 2, that is cut down to 4 and 4.

Overall, it’s a modest improvement over what we saw on the original Nintendo Switch, but it is an improvement. It’s definitely not going to look as nice as a newer game like Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, but if you already own Hyrule Warriors, this will be a nice little extra improvement.

tl;dr – Fire Emblem Warriors combines the Musou-style action-focused gameplay of games like Hyrule Warriors and Dynasty Warriors with some of the strategic elements of the Fire Emblem franchise, along with tons of (sometimes embarrassing) fan service for that series, resulting in a game that’s delightfully fun, if a bit shallow. Map and menu issues detract from this game a bit, but overall this is a wonderful action-packed romp.

Grade: B+

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