So now it’s time to see what other outlets think. As ever, we’ll try to present a decent spread of scores, but we’ll be honest, there are a lot of 9s and 10s for Fortune’s Weave.
Let’s kick things off with VGC…
VGC – 5/5: “Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is an essential game for fans of Fire Emblem and SRPGs, and if you’re new to the series or genre, there’s no better place to get started. The stories of Dietrich, Theodora, Cai, and Leda are all brilliant, worthy of their own Fire Emblem game, and the fact that we get them all in one is just a bonus. It’s still early days, but I’m confident that Fortune’s Weave will be considered one of the best RPGs in the Switch 2’s library even a decade from now.”
IGN – 10/10: “Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave builds upon its strategic arts in ways I couldn’t have anticipated. It’s never satisfied to make me grow only as a battlefield tactician, or only in my ability to manage my time between skirmishes wisely, but both in perfect harmony. Every time I turned around, I was being given more challenges to face and more tools to master in order to overcome them. The many unique twists of each hero’s story path had me eager to see all the ways those journeys differed from each other, making the grand culmination in the final act hit so damn well. Planning out my expeditions across an imposing map became an unexpected highlight that not only hooked me, but rewarded my persistence by continuing to expand all the ways I could direct my armies as I tried to stay on top of newly emerging threats. The scope of both its formidably challenging battles and intricate management systems would be wildly ambitious for one path, let alone spread across four – yet somehow Fortune’s Weave only gets better and better each time you guide its captivating heroes into the colosseum and far beyond.”
Eurogamer – 5/5: “Ultimately, Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave represents the pinnacle of Intelligent Systems’ achievements. It plaits a tapestry from all of the series’ various highest highs, somehow managing to entwine the storytelling prowess of Three Houses with the clean, satisfying combat of Engage, threading a bonus party-based battle system from the 3DS title Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia into a world map that’s bigger and better than anything we’ve seen in the series to date. It reminds me of Path of Radiance, at times, with its taste for drama and consequence. It is an absolute visual treat, and its lush Mediterranean setting inspired by medieval Spain makes the whole thing feel exciting and unfamiliar. Even complaints about the difficulty can be distilled into something playful – a look into how Intelligent Systems likes playing with its food, a flirtation with power fantasy and a break from the grindstone in a game all about contrasts. Fortune’s Weave has an obsession with scale; but it never loses sight of the minutiae because of it – this is a game with heart, and brain. A shining jewel in the strategy RPG genre, and an essential one for the Switch 2. I can’t wait to play another 80 hours.”
The Gamer – 5/5: “Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is excessive in almost every conceivable direction. It has more story than it strictly needs, more characters than most players will fully explore, systems that disappear for dozens of hours before returning in wonderfully ridiculous combinations, and a campaign long enough that reaching its ending felt like completing an actual journey. Yet almost none of that excess feels careless. After 121 hours, I was exhausted, but I wouldn’t wish away any meaningful portion of that time. Fortune’s Weave takes the foundations of modern Fire Emblem, stretches them further than I could have ever expected, and somehow makes that enormous ambition feel justified. I wanted it to be the absurdly comprehensive Fire Emblem game its premise promised me. Somehow, it was.”
CG Magazine – 9/10: “Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is not only a great continuation of the series, but an amazing entry point for newcomers. The combat, recruitment mechanics, and story are firing on all cylinders for this 100+ hour Tactical RPG.”
Destructoid – 9/10: “Fortune’s Weave is absolutely packed with things to do, but if you want to fast-forward through battles or sim through parts that occur between main chapters, you can do that too. I found this to be very handy during battles, especially when spending multiple turns moving closer to enemies or retreating to heal. This game has been a learning experience as much as it was a work assignment, but it never really felt like a chore, and I’m glad to have played it to spite my own biases.”
Pocket Tactics – 9/10: “Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is a true colossus of a game, almost always for the better, but occasionally for the worse. The core strategy gameplay is varied and engaging, most of the new ideas work, and the narrative is unprecedented in terms of scope. There’s more admin than I like, and the lack of multiple save files and bird interactions can be frustrating, but outside of that, I doubt I’ll play a better game in 2026.”
Gamespot – 9/10: “Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is a sprawling masterpiece of a strategy RPG, building upon the successes of past Fire Emblem games with new interconnected elements, expertly designed combat puzzles, and an emphasis on flexibility and choice. Nintendo and Intelligent Systems have topped themselves, making this the new high point to beat for future entries.”
GamesRadar+ – 4/5: “Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave has such grand scope and ambition that it might have been the series’ high, were it not for its mire of busywork that persists through to the endgame, which doubles down by introducing another kind of grind altogether. Yet, when you wade through some seemingly impossible odds to land the killing blow that ends a gruelling battle in triumph, it does compel me to want to see the other remaining paths through to completion so that I can see this rich tactical tapestry in full. All you need is time, and turns, to spare.”
RPG Site – 8/10: “Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave ended up being something of an inversion of Three Houses. I loved the characters and world of that game, and thought the tactical gameplay was just fine. For Fortune’s Weave, I spent so many sessions just unable to put the game down. The time management system has been designed to satisfyingly feed into just about everything you do, and battles feel polished, stressful, and exciting. It doesn’t nail everything that it sets out to do, but I think this is an exceptionally strong SRPG for most of the run time. I’ll just need to take a long break from huge RPGs to try to get my sleep schedule back on track.”
Gfinity – 7/10: “Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is a visually stunning departure that trades the series’ beloved tactical combat for heavy JRPG exploration. While the core grid battles are brilliant, they often get buried under clunky real-time dungeons and tedious open-world busywork. It is an ambitious, beautiful experiment, but strategy purists may find themselves left out in the cold.”
At the time of writing, Fortune’s Weave is sitting at 89 on Metacritic, which is pretty darn good indeed. Only time will tell, but this could wind up being up there with Fire Emblem: Awakening.
