E3 2017 – Hands on with Fire Emblem Warriors

Fans of Fire Emblem have been requesting a console version of the series for a while and we might not be getting that until next year, today we do have Fire Emblem Warriors, the next entry in the Warriors series that Nintendo and Koei Tecmo have partnered on.

Much like Hyrule Warriors brought the many worlds of Zelda together, Fire Emblem Warriors have brought the characters from many games together. This time though, they are coming together to assist Rowan and Lianna, whose world has fallen prey to a dark dragon and the Gates of the Other World appeared, in the middle of the palace, letting monsters loose into the castle garrison and decimating the soldiers. While initially the soldiers are overwhelmed, Rowan fights back to protect his people and as he does, members of other Fire Emblem worlds appear to assist, including Chrom, Corrin, Ryoma, Marth, Xander and more.

Once you get control, the game plays the same as Hyrule Warriors, while you are attempting to claim keeps from the opposing side, members of your group will try to battle their way to victory as well. However; while you are taking down scores of enemies, your fellow fighters will either find themselves succumbing to the vast numbers of the other side, or having to fight a special general fighter that appears. So, you need to keep going back and forth, making sure that you pay attention to all parts of the battle.

While the gameplay has not changed to much, the characters are what you are going to come here for and while during my time with it at E3, I did not get any indication of the level of character interaction that the main games are known for. One cool part is that Rowan and Lianna can combine their attacks to unleash a massive attack, so it gives me hope that characters will interact.

Playing the game was pretty straight forward, one button is your light attack, the other is your heavy and when you combine them both you can get some massive combos going. As you attack, your power meter will increase and when you fill the gauge, you can demolish your opponents with staggering attacks, the downside, at least so far is that the animation is the same, if there is no variety, it will get real old, real fast. Really the only thing that has changed between Hyrule Warriors and Fire Emblem Warriors are the characters and settings, if you have played any of the Warriors games over the years, you know exactly what you are getting.

Does it have the potential to be more, perhaps, but right now, there is nothing too special that I could see, but maybe Fire Emblem fans will enjoy it more.