Fire Emblem Warriors (ファイアーエムブレム無双, Faiā Emuburemu Musō, Fire Emblem Musou) is a hack and slash game for the Nintendo Switch and the New Nintendo 3DS. This collaboration between Intelligent Systems and the Koei Tecmo studios Omega Force and Team Ninja is a crossover between the Fire Emblem series and Koei Tecmo's Warriors franchise.
A second Warriors game, Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, was released on June 24, 2022.
Release[]
Fire Emblem Warriors marks the second time a Nintendo IP has received a Koei Tecmo Warriors styled game, the first being Hyrule Warriors. It also marks the third time Nintendo characters have appeared in a Warriors game: the first was Takamaru from The Mysterious Murasame Castle, who appeared as a guest character in the Wii version of Samurai Warriors 3.
Fire Emblem Warriors was briefly showcased during the Nintendo Switch Presentation on January 12, 2017. The trailer briefly teased Chrom from Fire Emblem Awakening. During a Fire Emblem Nintendo Direct, gameplay was shown of Chrom in battle. The trailer concluded with a slated release of Fall 2017 and a version developed specifically for the New Nintendo 3DS was also announced for a Fall 2017 release.
DLC was initially announced for Warriors with 9 bonus characters to be added in three separate packs.
Setting[]
The story of Fire Emblem Warriors takes place in another dimension outside of all previous main series titles of the Fire Emblem franchise. The story focuses on the two Kingdoms of Aytolis and Gristonne.
While a separate universe, several characters from past Fire Emblem titles are pulled to the world to fight. The characters of Shadow Dragon were mainly pulled an unspecific time after the events of the Dark Pontifex chapter. The characters of Awakening were pulled sometime after the Plegia-Ylisse War but before the Valm Invasion. The characters of Fates are pulled in shortly after the events of The Path is Yours in the Revelation route. Additionally, Lyn from The Blazing Blade appears to have been pulled after the events of the game while Celica from Shadows of Valentia appears to have been pulled sometime after the start of The Pilgrimage but before the end of Land of Sorrow.
Plot[]
During a routine sparring match between the royal twins of Aytolis, Rowan and Lianna, and their friend Prince Darios of Gristonne, mysterious portals open in the sky, from which monsters appear and attack. The three make their escape from Aytolis Castle, but in the process are separated from Queen Yelena, who gives them the Shield of Flames before being captured. The group learns that Darios's father Oskar is seeking to revive the Chaos Dragon Velezark, and they must power up the Shield of Flames with Gleamstones created from the power of heroes from other worlds in order to stop his evil scheme.
Rowan and Lianna travel across Aytolis, rallying support from heroes from the nations of Ylisse, Hoshido, Nohr, and Altea. However, during an attack on a Gristonne fortress, Velezark successfully possesses Darios and steals the Shield of Flames. Rowan and Lianna pursue him to back to Aytolis Castle, where they discover Yelena has been captured and Oskar intends to sacrifice her to fully revive Velezark. Rowan, Lianna, and the other heroes successfully rescue Yelena, and so Darios sacrifices Oskar to complete the ritual. Now freed from the possession, Darios returns the Shield of Flames to the group before falling to his death.
Rowan, Lianna, and the other heroes battle Velezark's forces and finally slay him. With their mission complete, the other heroes return to their home worlds and Yelena crowns the twins as rulers of Aytolis.
Gameplay[]
Combat[]
As a part of Koei Tecmo's larger Warriors franchise, Fire Emblem Warriors is a hack-and-slash action game in which the player fights in battlefields populated with hundreds of enemies. The player can execute combos to cut through enemies while working toward completing a series of stage objectives. Attacking enemies builds a special gauge that can unleash powerful Warrior Specials that can clear a large group of enemies at once.
Battles are played out over various maps in which two or more armies clash. Players are given primary objectives to complete during each battle, requiring the capturing of forts to gain territory, as well as defeating Captains, who are much stronger than average soldiers and may serve as high-priority targets. Players are also given secondary sub-missions, tasking the player with objectives such as rescuing a stray NPC, stopping a messenger from requesting back up, or stop enemies from boosting enemy morale. These missions are optional, but will help swing the tide of battle in the player's favor if they are completed. Most battles allow for the deployment of multiple playable characters that the player may swap between direct control of, and characters not under the player's direct control may be given orders to target specific enemies or bases in order to advance objectives in different parts of the battlefield at once.
Pairing[]
The game also features a pair-up mechanic inspired by the pairing mechanic seen in Awakening and Fates. When approaching another playable character on the battlefield, the player has the option to pair up with that character. This action will remove the second playable character from the battlefield, but will boost the stats of the character under the player's control. When paired-up, characters can perform a dual special attack. The player can also ask the other unit to attack the enemies, or this unit can automatically shield the player from taking a hit, with a gauge system that seems similar to the paired-up defense mechanic featured in Fates. The player may also swap back and forth between control of each unit in the pair. Additionally, the player may pair a playable unit with an allied unit that is not controllable. This allied NPC unit becomes a Vanguard and will aid the defense of the playable unit, but cannot be controlled directly.
Weapon Mechanics[]
The close range weapon triangle is featured in Fire Emblem Warriors. Fighting with a character whose base weapon has an advantage over their enemy grants them higher base damage, the ability to expose Armor Gauges during a combo, and can deplete the Armor Gauges quicker as their armor gauge is golden instead of gray. Fighting with a neutral matchup causes the character to deal normal damage. They cannot expose Armor Gauges during a combo, but depletes them at a normal rate. Weapon disadvantages causes the character to deal reduced damage against the advantaged enemy, cannot expose Armor Gauges during a combo, and depletes the Armor Gauge much slower. Other weapon traits from the main series have carried over into the series. Bows deal effective damage against Flying Units while a Staff can heal allies. Weapons can have special skills like Wyrmslayer or Armorslayer which deals effective damage against specific unit types. Most legendary weapons in game retain their same unit effectiveness in Warriors such as Falchion dealing increased damaged to Dragon units or the Wing Spear dealing increased damage to Armor and Cavalry units.
Special Units[]
The game features playable Horseback Units, Flying Units, and Dragon Units, all of which retain similar weaknesses in the franchise. Horseback Units have the special ability to deal damage as they are dashing and Flying units can fly over gaps on the map that no other unit can traverse. Armor units are also featured, but there are no playable versions.
Awakening[]
Awakening is a special state that a hero can enter by filling a special Awakening gauge that can only be filled by Awakening potions and special skills. When activated, the warrior receives a parameter boost and all attacks against Captain characters become Weapon Triangle advantage attacks, however, players do not have access to their Warrior Special attacks. Players can extend the duration by KO certain amounts of enemies while in Awakening while also gaining bonus effects for each milestone. Once the Gauge is depleted or the player ends it prematurely by activating a Warrior special, the warrior performs one final large special attack.
Aside from the final finisher move, all warriors retain their normal moveset except for Tiki, who turns into her Divine Dragon form and gains a new moveset during the duration.
Character Progression[]
Leveling Up[]
When the player character levels up, the action pauses to display a Fire Emblem-style Level Up screen. This can be toggled off in the menu if players don't wish the action to be interrupted. When a character levels up, they receive a boost to their HP and other statistics, though these growths are fixed. A character does not have to be under the player's direct control to earn experience or level up.
At the end of battle, the character declared MVP will receive an extra experience point boost.
The stat system from Fire Emblem is retained as well but tweaked and adapted to fit Warriors gameplay. For example, Luck now governs all chance-based skills such as Sol and Luna, while Speed now affects how long a character can have Awakening active.
Technique and Skill Progression[]
The Camp allows players to boost the attributes of their characters through the Badge Forge. By spending Materials gained from defeating enemies, players can upgrade the attributes of their warriors, granting new perks like new attacks, more warrior gauges, longer Awakening modes, and reduced damage from enemies. Players can also spend Master Seals to promote their units, boosting their stats and further unlocking new perks like higher tier weapon equipping and the use of character skills.
Weapons and Forging[]
Every character in the game wields a specific weapon type and are locked to this specific weapon type. For example, though Frederick can wield Swords, Lances, and Axes in Awakening, he can only wield Axes in Warriors. Characters can only wield E rank Bronze weapons at the start, but by upgrading their Weapon Boost levels in the Camp, they can equip progressively stronger weapons up to Hero weapons if they are able to equip S rank weapons.
Every weapon also has the chance of having passive skills attached to them including damage boosts to Strong attacks, increased Material rarity, stat manipulation, and bonus damage during Warrior Specials. These skills can be "forged" in the Camp onto other weapons. Players choose skills from a weapon and can forge it onto another, sacrificing the original weapon to power up the new one. Certain Weapon Skills first requires the player to kill a certain number of enemies with the weapon it's attached to before the skill is awakened and active.
All characters in Warriors also have a personal weapon that only they can use. For example, the Lady Sword can only be wielded by Celica while the Spellbane Yumi can only be wielded by Sakura. These weapons can be obtained either upon character recruitment, through Story Mode in the case of Facinna and Enliron, or through History Mode. Several character's weapons can only be acquired through DLC. All character specific weapons feature the same unit effectiveness they had in their original games so the Wing Spear deals effective damage to Cavalry and Armor units while Falchion is effective against Dragon units. All character weapons have moderate to weak base level strength, ranging from 30 to 160. However, by acquiring Weapon Scrolls, their power can be boosted to 240. If DLC can be accessed, Opus Scrolls can be acquired which further boosts a weapon's strength to 720. Both require the player to use Materials to gain access to them and eliminate a certain number of enemies to fully awaken their power.
Supports[]
Supports play a role in Warriors by having characters in the roster forge bonds during battles. By having multiple characters participating in battle, they can passively gain Support points with each other whenever Captain units are defeated or certain objectives are completed. Characters gain more Support points if they are in a Pair Up and if the leading character is wearing the Bond Charm.
Gaining support ranks reward the player with materials for the specific supporting characters with C rank gifting that character's Silver Material, B giving their Gold Material, and A giving a Character Essence. Character Essence allows characters to learn skills that are tied to specific characters. For example, Chrom's unique skill is Luna while Tiki is Armored Blow. Any character who forges an A Support will result in earning an essence of that character, but you can give any character the ability so long as you have at least one essence. The essence will then be used up to learn the skill provided that you also have the B rank material. Characters can forge supports with all other characters in game, allowing the player to gather all skills and create unique skill builds for each character. While each support level does not have a conversation to tie in, characters may have a special support dialogue with specific characters once they reach an A Support. These are noted as A+ Supports in the Support Level menu, but do not have any other benefits or advantages when compared to a normal A Support.
Permadeath[]
The permadeath mechanic is represented in the game's Classic Mode. Characters lost during the course of the story do not die, but as with story-important characters in traditional Fire Emblem titles, they sustain injuries that prevent them from rejoining the battle. It is possible to revive a character within the camp's temple. There also exists a Casual Mode that turns permadeath off. If a player starts Story Mode in Classic, it is possible to switch to Casual, and any lost units will be returned to the active roster. However, it is not possible to switch from Casual Mode to Classic.
Losing a character in Story Mode prevents the player from using that character in other modes.
amiibo[]
The game, like Hyrule Warriors, has compatibility with amiibo. By scanning an amiibo, the player will receive a random weapon or amount of gold, and up to five amiibo can be scanned each day. Two new amiibo released in conjunction with the game based on Chrom and Tiki unlock unique weapons. Using the Chrom and Tiki amiibo for the first time after the characters are unlocked in game will grant the player Chrom's Training Sword and Tiki's Tear respectively.
Game Modes[]
Story[]
An original narrative in which the prince and princess of Aytolis search for heroes from other worlds in order to save their kingdom. The story progresses with each battle completed. After a chapter is completed, it can be replayed in Free Mode, allowing the player to use whichever characters they prefer without restriction. Completion of Story Mode unlocks the Lunatic difficulty setting.
History[]
A mode that reviews battles from across the history of the series. The game mode is divided into maps based on select battles from the games represented in Fire Emblem Warriors. Additional maps are unlocked by collecting illustration pieces from Anna, who will set up shop when specific conditions are met during battle. Enemy units on these maps represent different sorts of challenges, such as rescuing an ally, defeating a particular enemy, or simply defeating as many enemies as possible within a time limit. The player's performance is ranked upon completion, with some challenges offering extra bonuses for completion with an S rank.
As the player advances through a History map, story sequences will play out loosely based on the scenario that the map originated from. Characters that were part of these stories that are not in Fire Emblem Warriors have their roles replaced by other characters. For example, in the DLC History Map Grief, instead of a possessed King Sumeragi being the final boss of the map, Female Corrin will play his role as the final boss. Once the map's scenario has been cleared, space-time distortions will appear, offering more challenges and different twists to the story.
Characters[]
- See main article: List of characters in Fire Emblem Warriors
Warriors features twenty-three playable characters in the base game alone. Lianna and Rowan serve as the primary protagonist Lord characters of the game and are the only two original playable characters in the game. The other twenty-one characters are representatives of past Fire Emblem games; three are from Shadow Dragon, six are from Awakening, and nine are from Fates. Lyndis from The Blazing Blade and Celica from Echoes: Shadows of Valentia also appear as sole representatives of their respective games. Finally, an Aytolisian Anna rounds off the base cast.
Nine additional characters were later added as paid DLC characters, bringing the total playable roster to thirty-two characters. Three DLC packs added three characters each from Shadow Dragon, Awakening, and Fates respectively.
Fighting Styles[]
Warriors features nineteen distinct fighting styles. While several of these fighting styles are shared between characters, each warrior has a unique set of stat growths and perks from their classes to help differentiate from each other. The nineteen fighting styles and their respective users are:
- Aytolisian Lord: Lianna and Rowan
- Ylissean Lord: Chrom and Lucina
- Nohr Prince/ss: Corrin
- Lodestar: Marth and Celica
- Blade Lord: Lyn and Navarre*
- Battle Cleric: Lissa
- Great Knight: Frederick
- Awakening Mage: Robin and Tharja*
- Swordmaster: Ryoma and Owain*
- Cavalier: Xander
- Pegasus Knight: Hinoka, Caeda, and Cordelia
- Wyvern Rider: Camilla and Minerva*
- Archer: Takumi, Sakura, Anna, and Niles*
- Mage Knight: Leo and Elise
- Manakete: Tiki
- Spear Fighter: Oboro*
- Songstress: Azura*
- Archanea Mage: Linde*
- Dancer: Olivia*
(*) indicates a DLC Character.
Gharnef, Validar, and Iago appear in the game utilizing the Awakening Mage moveset. Darios is a Story Ally character and Enemy character who utilizes the Aytolisian Lord moveset. Velezark is a boss character who utilizes his own moveset, Chaos Dragon. All five of these characters are unplayable.
Recruitment[]
Warriors begins with the player selecting either Rowan or Lianna as their main Lord character. At the start of the game, the selected Lord is their main Lord for the Story Mode and the sole playable character. All Shadow Dragon, Awakening, and Fates characters as well as the non-chosen twin is unlocked during Story Mode after completing Chapter 5. Lyn and Celica are recruited once the History Maps Noble Lady of Caelin and Together to the End respectively have been cleared of its main objectives. Anna is recruited once a Map Illustration has been completed and a special Anna mission on the same map as the illustration has been cleared.
If the player has bought any DLC Packs, the characters are immediately available once the Pack has been downloaded and made available. Even if they do not appear during the story mode, all DLC characters can be used.
Content[]
Chapters[]
- See main article: Chapters (Fire Emblem Warriors)
Voice cast[]
- See main article: List of Voice Actors in Fire Emblem Warriors
Music[]
- See main article: List of Music in Fire Emblem Warriors
Classes[]
- See main article: List of Classes in Fire Emblem Warriors
Weapons[]
- See main article: List of weapons in Fire Emblem Warriors
Skills[]
- See main article: List of Skills in Fire Emblem Warriors
Materials[]
- See main article: List of Materials in Fire Emblem Warriors
Weapon Attributes[]
- See main article: List of Weapon Attributes in Fire Emblem Warriors
Stages[]
Though none of the stages are taken directly from Fire Emblem titles, the influences from Awakening and Fates are recognizable:
- From Warriors
- Aytolis Castle
- Aytolis City
- The Interspace
- From Awakening
- Kingswood - Based on The Northroad.
- Dragon Valley - Based on Wyvern Valley.
- Desert Arena – inspired by Regna Ferox, including Arena Ferox
- The World Tree - Based on the Mila Tree.
- Fortified Citadel - Based on West of Ylisstol.
- From Fates
- Desolate Gorge
- Castle Sol – inspired by Castle Shirasagi, Hoshido
- Ebony Volcano
- Dusk Castle – inspired by Castle Krakenburg, Windmire, Nohr
- Great Plain – inspired by the Plains of Hoshido
Downloadable Content[]
Warriors features several post release content added through downloaded patches. The first of which was a free set of DLC released on November 16, 2017 which featured a new History Map, costumes, and weapon skills. The game also regularly receives patches to fix bugs. Upon each DLC pack release, the Level cap for characters is raised permanently as well as new Temple Blessings for all players regardless if they own the Season Pass or not. International versions of Warriors received a free Japanese Voice pack while Japanese versions later received an English voice pack for free as well. This last feature is not present in the 3DS version.
Warriors announced three separate DLC packs which features new characters, History Maps, costumes, character weapons, and weapon attributes. Each map focuses on a specific Fire Emblem game with the three being Shadow Dragon, Awakening, and Fates. Each map also features bonus completed map battles which reward the player special Weapon Opus scrolls, allowing their personal weapons even higher base power.
Packs are individually priced at $8.99 US ($11.59 CA) each. All three packs can be bought under a Season pass for $19.99 USD ($25.79 CA) which also rewards the player with a Bride costume for Lucina. Koei Tecmo producer Yosuke Hayashi stated at TGS 2017 that future DLC beyond these packs are a possibility and will depend upon fan feedback.
Free DLC[]
Released November 16, 2017.
- New History Map: Hero Challenge
- New Costumes: Golden Prince Rowan and Golden Princess Lianna
- New Weapon Attribute: Armor Strike+
Fates[]
Released on December 21, 2017.
- New Playable Characters: Azura, Niles, and Oboro
- New Costumes: Maid Camilla, Butler Takumi, Veiled Songstress Azura, Hoshido Noble Female Corrin, and Nohr Noble Male Corrin
- New Weapons: Blessed Lance, Oboro's Spear, Niles's Bow
- New Items: Bond Necklace
- New Weapon Attribute: Fury Builder
- New History Maps: Grief, Land of Gods, and Cold Reception
Shadow Dragon[]
Released on February 14, 2018
- New Playable Characters: Minerva, Linde, and Navarre
- New Costumes: Bride Caeda, Groom Marth, Bridesmaid Tiki, and Swordmaster Lyn
- New Weapons: Wing Spear, Divinestone, Anna's Bow, Wo Dao. Aura, and Hauteclere
- New Weapon Attributes: Critical Focus, Anti-Air Focus, Genpeer, and Gencross
- New History Maps: A Brush in the Teeth, Princess Minerva, and Knorda Market
Awakening[]
Released on March 28, 2018
- New Playable Characters: Olivia, Tharja, and Owain
- New Costumes: Exalt Chrom, Sage Lissa, and Dark Flier Cordelia
- New Weapons: Missiletainn, Cordelia's Lance, Frederick's Axe, Lissa's Axe, Thoron, Tharja's Hex, Olivia's Blade
- New Weapon Attributes: Bolster, Acceleration, and Amped
- New History Maps: Scion of Legend, Emmeryn, Caravan Dancer
Trivia[]
- Koei Tecmo began development of Fire Emblem Warriors without knowledge of Fire Emblem Heroes, which was in development at the same time. When they presented their original concepts for the siblings Rowan and Lianna to Nintendo, they learned that the designs were coincidentally very similar to the sibling protagonists of Heroes, Alfonse and Sharena. As a result, both Rowan and Lianna had their designs adjusted to differentiate them.
- Similarly, there is a History Mode map in the game based on Fire Emblem Gaiden rather than its remake due to the fact that the development team was not initially aware that Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia was in development. However, Celica was planned for inclusion in the game before the development team learned of the existence of Echoes, and eventually giving her the current remake looks, including on hiring her voice actors.
- Lyndis of Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade has her original appearance updated with shorts to avoid any sorts of censorship for this game.
- Fire Emblem Warriors is the first Fire Emblem or related game, including Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE and TearRing Saga: Berwick Saga, to have neither lance using cavalry or playable Armored Knights. Due to the absence of the latter, it is also the only game to have no pure Armored Units.
- Despite all Cavaliers and Paladins using swords due to reusing Xander's moveset, their map sprites, taken from Awakening, still depict them brandishing lances.
- Originally during the development of Fire Emblem Warriors, Fire Emblem Fates character Azura was meant to play a role in base game's main storyline. However with the abundance of Fates characters due to the inclusion of all of Corrin's siblings, she was removed from the final product with the intention of adding her as DLC at a later date. She was subsequently included as one of the playable characters in the Fates-themed DLC pack.
- Fire Emblem Warriors is the first Fire Emblem spin-off and crossover to have full English voice acting, as Tokyo Mirage Sessions ♯FE only had Japanese voice acting with English subtitles.
- Marth's army is still called Altea, when based on the presence of Tiki and Minerva, Marth should be leading the Archanean League.
- During livestreamed demonstrations of the game at E3 2017, a game mode dubbed "Coliseum Mode" was shown off. In it, the player took on a series of hero characters in addition to standard soldiers, but no such Coliseum Mode was included in the game at release. History Mode does, however, include challenges similar in nature to what this mode was supposed to provide. Whether Coliseum Mode was removed or simply misrepresented as a mode separate from the then-unannounced History Mode is unclear.