Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave is my ideal RPG sequel and the Three Houses followup I always wanted

• Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave is perfect if you want hours upon hours of grid-based tactical combat, plenty of role-playing game elements like levels and classes, and so very many different characters.

Here's the 60-second pitch for why you should play Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave this weekend: Fortune's Weave has consumed my life. While that might at first sound hyperbolic, please understand that I nearly completed three out of four protagonist routes before the Nintendo Switch 2 game was even released. I'm not even close to done, either. Between the multiple protagonists, lengthy combat cycles, RPG elements like levels and classes, and multitude of recruitable characters, there's still so much to see and do that I can't wait to experience.

Why play it today?

• Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave feels like a long time coming. It marks the first true sequel (prequel?) to Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the SRPG with a new Fire Emblem continuity that absolutely blew me away back on the Nintendo Switch. It takes all of the elements that I loved so much and enhances them in ways I'd not expected.

My Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave preview gets into it at length, the my biggest problem with Fire Emblem: Three Houses wasn't the length; it was the fact that you essentially committed yourself to a single path several times over. Fortune's Weave gets around this by constructing a narrative reason for you to mechanically swap between different routes at will without making a mess of things. In fact, there's every indication that this might actually be useful to do.

So if you've been looking forward to a meaty, chunky RPG with plenty of combat skills, support conversations, team composition considerations, massive amounts of proper nouns, and a singular conceptually fascinating story told from multiple vantage points, your prayers have been answered in the form of Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave.

Time commitment:

If you're looking for how long it takes to beat Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, the exact amount of time will vary because of how many different paths you take or want to explore more thoroughly. At 95 hours, I've yet to roll credits myself, so expect to spend several long sessions putting your units through their paces.

Play Fire Emblem Fortune's Weave if you love:

Skip Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave if you want:

One thing to know:

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave is, to stress again, a game that you'll be in for the long haul. Even if you're looking to put in the absolute bare minimum amount of effort in order to roll credits, you are almost certainly still looking at sinking above 60 hours into it.

A moment you'll remember:

From the moment you begin, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave absolutely dumps you into the deep end. Between proper nouns, references to events in other games, and a wild pivot from fantasy to something much more heavily inspired by science fiction than might be expected, the game doesn't hold your hand, nor does it hold you back. But it is a lot to take in.

The final verdict:

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave is really for a particular kind of sicko. The kind of person that happily dumps dozens of hours into moving digital dolls around maps but also goes "and now kiss" from time to time. It's a great RPG with multiple elements from previous Fire Emblem games returning, a smart tactical game with plenty of grid-based combat to go around, and an absolutely massive tome of story and lore for anyone that ever wanted more of what Three Houses was doing. It's not perfect, but I also can't recommend it highly enough.

So, where can you play it?

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave is now available on the Nintendo Switch 2, and it's an exclusive; you cannot play it on the OG Switch.

How to get started with Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave:

Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave is better off for not immersing yourself in tips and tricks, but if you absolutely must know where to start with Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave this weekend before you begin, we've got you covered.

Have your say:

If you're looking for something in a similar vein, more Fire Emblem-style games appear in our best RPG games ranking.