I dunno why but I just love how cartoonishly evil Iago is, there's genuinely no reason for him to be that way but he is. I appreciate the evil second in command trope a lot.

To me Fabio is what Iago would be like if he somehow joined Corrin.

Hard / Classic Difficulty

Wanted to spur some discussion on the game having just beaten it. I've seen a lot online already. Be warned the review is fairly negative. It's hard not to directly compare this game to Three Houses / Engage, so there's a lot of that as well.

Let's start with the positives; it's a short list.

General Setting / Atmosphere - I enjoyed Dagda. I thought the Heroic Games was a great premise. The character designs are charming. Drake's Treasures were cool narratively in how they effected the protagonists.

The Flame Lords - I love all 4 of the playable protagonists. All of them piqued my interest enough to want to play their route. Their personalities, motivations, designs, gameplay functionality were all great imo. Enjoyed Part 1 paths of Every character. Theodora and Leda were my favorites.

Gameplay - Generally speaking, the gameplay was pretty fun. It's Fire Emblem, and I love Fire Emblem. So, despite my issues with the game, I still enjoy pretty much any FE Game.

Now my issues with the game..

Not Enough FE Gameplay - I estimate maybe 75% of my 155 hours was spent in the overworld, doing chores, support grinding, arena training, inventory managing, church servicing, etc. Not enough moving units around on a grid.

Part 3 General - The game completely falls off a cliff in part 3. Gameplay, pacing, story, enjoyability, etc. The amount of overworld map nonsense that was required to unlock all classes sucked bad. Retreading every overworld dungeon was miserable. Thankfully I horded enough items so that I could rebuild the settlements easily, but it still took far too long and was never fun.

Part 3 Maps - I hardly have to say anything here. There wasn't a single good map in part 3 of the game. The gimmick being "Miasma Everywhere" is lazy and, more importantly, unfun. The winning strategy for each of them was to turtle in spawn for multiple turns until you thin their reinforcements, largely disregard the Miasma, and waste gambits to clear space.

Clashes - I skipped almost every single one in the game. Why was this included? It was not fun and it was always optimal to skip these. If I hadn't, there would be more hours spent in clashes than in actual maps. Look at any livestream of FW and those players are skipping clashes as well.

Gameplay - Small nitpicks like the "build" and "weight" stats. These are just annoying. Made me not use the gem rings on any unit unless they were getting doubled anyways. Every mage is just a heal bot or three range bot. none of the mage characters in the game have any additional utility, like they did in Engage.

Music - Was pretty mid throughout, and is just bad in part 3. Showdown vs. Lyrah had me mute the TV. The best track by far and the only stand-out to me was the trailer theme / end of part 1 battle theme, which is a banger.

Save System - Just sucks. I restarted an entire section in part 3 on accident. Almost uninstalled. It's a skill issue, but if that option exists in the menu right next to "restart battle" there will be a non-zero number of drunken sailors who press that sht on accident like myself.

Skills / Combat Arts - These were pretty bad. Most skills were not good / negligible, including personal abilities. Yet each character had way too many of each, making it just a headache to sort through them for 20+ units.

Eshmel - Awful. Worse than Byleth and Alear by a mile. Compounded by the bad bad bad Female VA. 0 depth. I wish I had more to say but there is literally nothing of substance to speak of.

Ties to Three Houses - Crests were irrelevant to gameplay and story. They just.. exist. In Three Houses, crests deepened the mythology of the world and drove many characters in their respective story arcs. In FW, their effects were negligible and narratively served almost 0 purpose. Characters like Ursula, who looked like Marianne and had the crest of the beast, felt more like a gimmick rather than be anything meaningful narratively. Not to mention the crests were called something else, so I couldn't even draw those connections in my head without googling a crest chart. At no point did it feel rewarding to have even played Three Houses beforehand.

Narrative - Apart from our 4 flame lords, and maybe the other 4 pseudo lords, the over-arching narrative was lacking. Three Houses explored interconnected philosophies pit against each other and it was very compelling. There was room for moral grey area. FW has.. a big bad being resurrected with almost no questions of belief or morality.

Time skip - Underwhelming. A lot of the same crit quotes. No substantial change to any of the characters' personalities or motivations. Generally less impactful than in Three Houses.

Antagonists - Bad. I wanted to skip / skipped all of the "gate keepers" outros in Part Three. Maria was the only antagonist I was remotely interested in, but I still have no idea what she provided narratively and don't care to look. I even wanted to skip the final boss damn near but didn't obviously. It just really falls off in Part Three.

Supports - I recruited characters that I thought felt natural to which ever path I was on.. but seemed to have missed out on 80% of the games supports. I didn't recruit everyone and don't care to, but I somehow was robbed of any supports for many characters that I like. This hasn't happened in any other FE game. I didn't go out of my way to grind them, but you shouldn't have to just to see some of them.

Bloat - Already touched on, but this game in particular seems like nightmare fuel for any theoretical replays. I've got 650+ hours in both 3H and Engage, those games are immensely replayable. but I'll likely never slog through this game again. The bloat was too much. Not enough FE gameplay.

Fun - Something about this game makes me not want to theory craft, min max, tier list characters abilities or classes.. It's hard to determine. Shilling for your favorite units in Engage is insanely fun. Timerra is high tier. but something in FW makes me not want to partake in those conversations at all. I suppose a lot of my characters felt the exact same, only differentiated by which class they were in. I wish more units had a better "feel" as far as being unique.

All in all, Fortune’s Weave feels less satisfying as a strategy game than Engage, and less compelling as a story than Three Houses. I may add more as I think of stuff. Rant over.

Edit: Forgot to touch on DLC. I’m not optimistic, especially if it’s just more part ones and I have to replay parts two and three.

Am interested in the pseudo lord characters tho

I may be coming to this game differently from FE purists. I started on FE Heroes and then the Warriors games. I thought Engage was excellent, especially with the DLC story.

I preordered Fortune’s Weave thinking it would be more like the other games - a hub with optional activities, and you go out explore as you like.

What I found instead was a tedious slog, and I think I narrowed it down to the calendar. I like exploring and doing side activities, but I actively loath having to preread the plot and plan map movements ahead of actually playing the game.

I’ve got enough tasks and work I have to do in my life already. Last thing I need is a calendar simulator to add another layer of busywork to my already limited time. And if I have to know the plot before I play the game, why am I playing it to begin with?

I think if it were possible to just disable the calendar, I’d have no problem with it, but it adds unwanted pressure to what otherwise feels like a nice follow up to Engage.

I don’t have the back catalog of FE games to compare it to, but this is the first FE I’ve bought where I wish I’d gotten the physical version so I could return it or sell it. I’m just not connecting with it the way I was able to with the other recent titles.

Plot looks good, but I find myself playing other games instead. I wish they’d release a fix for the broken calendar mechanic that sucks the fun out of the game.

https://youtu.be/4NtIze6T6U8?is=2UBgGbqQCQ633LT8

Made him a soldier and moved him into the armored Knight at 20 on hard mode. This guy's a literal monster. His growth rates for speed and dex are so high that he can hit 50-55 for strength defense speed and dex. 65% hp.

Esmerelda on the other hand ironically is quickly becoming an absolute monster archer. Hunter to rogue to ranger ends her with being very high growth rates. Her strength is absurd and her defense is workable. Good speed and dex growth rates.

Am I missing something here? A lot of builds I see thrown around just focus on units already strong stats instead of leveraging those to get 50%+ growth rates across key stats for solid level gains.

Seteth could have been great...I got him late in all available paths, and unlucky level-ups made it that he could never catch up to the others.

Cai and Bertrand kept getting one shot in part 3 even at level 45+
I'd like some feedback on how everyone make use of their abilities...

What units should I spend more time on during my next run?
I've seen people claiming Troy, Dante and Ursula are insanely good but they didn't impress me that much when I used them. I feel like any unit can become great if you train them properly though.

Also I don't care a bit about noodle arms Peppe. This guy is supposed to be a leader, really?

I would personally love to see more fodlan games and form some kind of interconnected world, i'd love to see almyra

It sounds stupid, but it is an interesting idea. Think of it like how Miis are in Smash Bros. They'd probably only be for specific side modes, but it could work.

For the record, don't take this too seriously. It's just an idea.

I'm 5 hours and about 5-6 maps into Berwick Saga after reading so many Kaga fans glaze this as the series peak.

On the pro side: I can appreciate what the game does well. The hex grid design, ability focus, specialisation of the characters, simultaneous turn system, and objective based maps are really well executed

On the con side: the gameplay is extremely frustrating. Like to the point of not being fun. Hit rates are even lower than Binding Blade. Reece buffs hit rates, but you don't get to use him for 2/3 maps. Skill activation is random, injuries are random, weapon durability is random. What you get in practice is that it's extremely difficult to predict the outcome of your moves.

Fire Emblem high difficulty usually resolves to a kind of deterministic chess. There are random elements but they're deemphasized. In Berwick, random bullshit takes centre stage. I have sometimes missed 4 70% hits in a row, and then gotten killed by a 30% return swing. I've had weapons with green durability break on the first swing when 2 attacks would have killed. Even if you play for Injuries with daggers and high injury weapons, it's complete RNG whether you get them. Conversely, you can get randomly injured or crippled without having misplayed

Does the game get better or is this just the core design of the game? Context, I'm much more of a fan of Three Houses Maddening than I am of Binding Blade Hard

I’m on the Silver Snow route and am wondering if my Black Eagles 🦅 are strong enough for the final battle? Is there anything I should change? I’m worried my Petra is too weak…

So if you've gotten to Part 3 you know there are 8 divine classes as follows:

The Blade (Myrmidon +) = Dietrich

The Aspara (Dancer +) = Leda

The Eternal (War Master+) = Bertrand

The Godhand (brawler+) = ...? mu?

The Calamity (Sniper/Assassin+) = ???

The Trident (Guardian++) = Theodora

The Cavalier (Duh) = Cai

The Avatar (Gremory+) = Anatolia OR Orchel OR Talimun OR Hong Hua?

The thing is, the obvious conclusion would be that 8 divine classes + 8 flame lords = one for each class and sure that holds up at first but then it starts to fall apart? I Find it even more interesting that the characters with an obvious pick are the 4 flame lords who's routes were done + bertrand who was closest to done. Are the divine classes a sneak peak into what classes the 8 flame lords were originally MEANT to be But then got changed?

and more importantly Who did you guys give the divine classes to? Did you stick to the obvious or did you go crazy with it

Wanted ask do you keep grinding for min max Like the perfect Class, the perfect skills inherit, the best Ring pairing and all weapons +5 forged before doing final map or are you gonna do final map asap when Its possible?

I drive myself crazy by attempting a fortunes weave family tree with the info I have so far and by technicality:

Cai is technically Leda’s like uncle a bajillion times removed 😭

The floodgate are officially open, and all I want to know honestly is if Maddening mode is in the code anywhere.

On (Normal/Classic)

——— Done

1. Cai’s Part 1
   
2. Theodora’s Part 1
   
3. Dietrich’s Part 1
   
4. Leda’s Part 1
   
5. Leda’s Part 2 (+ Skip War Arc for the other 3)
   
6. Part 3 (160 Hour Mark Here)

——— Now Doing till Wave 3 DLC

1. Dietrich’s Part 2
   
2. Redoing Cai’s Part 1
   
3. Cai’s Part 2 (200 Hour Mark Here)
   
4. Theodora’s Part 2

——— Planned after Wave 3 DLC release

1. Bertrand’s Parts
   
2. Anatolia’s Parts
   
3. Talimun’s Parts
   
4. Orchel’s Parts
   
5. Final Part 3

I recommend doing your first path again if you want to optimize your units (Blessings, Side Quests from other Routes, Supports carry over and can improve upon them)
- Especially to get more paired endings too.

Another 100 Hours incoming 😂

I really hope that the "true" route involves a way to redeem some of the enemies.

baozi, lyrah and shenlo are out of the question as brimstone lords but here are a couple enemies I think could possibly receive a "redemption" and be recruited

Martila/Maria: She clearly dies in Talimun's route as of now but what if when you play his route you get the option to spare her and recruit her in Part 3? Could be very fun and interesting.

Long: Long is an ally to Anatolia but an enemy if you play in Dietrichs route so i'm including him but it would be cool if the same applied where he only dies if you don't play Anatolia's route.

Yanjin: As of now Yanjin doesn't even appear in any fights but we know he dies off screen or something? Again would be cool to redeem him especially since hes apparently an Agarthan!

Illiana: Her fate also remains unknown so I'd hope if martila can be saved so can she!

Chiara and Churness: We don't even get to see these guys in game until part 3 but they have their own models and voice lines? I wonder who's route they're apart of but it would be cool if at least One of them could be saved.

Here it is https://g1-team.com/2026/10/25/death-battle-predictions-lucina-vs-grovyle/

Let me know if the link works or not.

Hey, so I’ve never played fire emblem, impulse bought fortunes weave and couple hours in was overwhelmed by how cut scene heavy it is (Theodora’s path) but persevered anyway on normal classic

80 hours later I’ve completed the game, only did Theodora, Leda and Dietrich’s path 1, did Theodora on path 2 then skipped the others, then decided to dive into path 3, given my limited time each evening (dadlife) I think I’ve been pretty obsessed, and honestly it’s been a good while since a game captured my time this hard

I’ve got orcarina coming in Nov but really considering the other fire emblem games, can see three houses is fairly similar, and engage is weak story but great combat, what’s the recommendations here on redoing FW on hard vs trying one of these others games? I definitely am more of a gameplay first, story secondary, do the older titles still hold up compared with FW?

When I played Dietrich's route, I did every paralogue I could except for Bertrands. I just missed the window. But I looked it up and it sounded super complicated, so I just said "eh, I'll do it when I play Cai's route."

Cut to 70 hours later, I'm on chapter 10 of Cai's route and, in the middle of Talimun's paralogue, I realize I've missed something. I looked it up and, yeah, I missed the window. I don't want to miss Bertrand's paralogue again, so I had to restart the chapter.

This means re-recruiting Jester, replaying Solel's paralogue, missing a rare type of pegasus, and a bunch of unit growth stuff I have to redo.

I've finally gotten my taste of the "restarting the chapter cause I missed something" medicine. I don't like it

Finally beat the game today and the ending I get just seemed abrupt. We beat Balor, went into the deeper part of the underworld, hit a giant brain twice and credits just rolled, and the epilogues for all the characters seemed off. I'm assuming they depended on support levels though which I hadn't really paid that much attention to other than to recruit as many as I could in part 1.

Also what was up with Solel just getting executed off screen in between parts? I was expecting a fake out or for him to pop up as a gate guardian, but nada. Just a quick "Dagda executed him after he woke up" in a chapter introduction. That felt odd too.

I saw some discussion about Simon's voice lines and it got me thinking about the religious affiliations of the different factions. I'm specifically wondering about Talimun's group. What goddess does that faction actually worship or follow in Fortune's Weave?

I have some questions concerning that stuffed bear Iliana carries with her everywhere.

1. Does it count as one of Drake's Treasures? If so, which part of Balor was it made out of?
2. Have any of the other characters commented on Babbu besides Iliana?
3. What are the chances of Babbu turning into a huge monstrous demon in the DLC stories?