As most Fire Emblem fans are aware, the series was nearly canceled leading up to the smash-hit 3DS title Awakening in 2012. The revival that ensued has resulted in 2019's Fire Emblem: Three Houses being its most successful title, as well as numerous spin-off games including Atlus' Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE and Koei Tecmo's Fire Emblem Warriors. Intelligent Systems' next project is another developed alongside Koei Tecmo, this time capitalizing on Three Houses' sales with Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes.
The February 2022 Nintendo Direct led off with a trailer for Three Hopes, which has a strong resemblance to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Both 2014's Hyrule Warriors and 2017's Fire Emblem Warriors were standalone titles that mixed characters from various entries in their respective franchises; Age of Calamity and Three Hopes center their latest Switch entries with an "alternate universe" story. One Musou/Dynasty Warriors pattern that bodes well for this upcoming Fire Emblem game is how it uses the hack-and-slash formula to give its cast members even more character.
How The Warriors Series Brings Characters to Life
Warriors games boil down to players defeating waves of faceless enemies, as well as more nuanced boss characters, in order to capture settlements. This core formula offers a satisfying power fantasy for many fans, but it can get repetitive even with bells and whistles applied to match the series a game is crossing over with, such as The Legend of Zelda, Fire Emblem, or Persona. That's why nailing diversity in character move sets is so important.
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity offers a good example of how developer Omega Force differentiates what would otherwise be similar character archetypes. A major plot point in Age of Calamity is that the descendants of Hyrule's four Champions from Breath of the Wild travel back in time to defeat the Blight Ganons and create a brighter future. Since all four characters join the party, players have access to two Zora, Rito, Goron, and Gerudo characters. Both the Zora Mipha and Sidon use spears; likewise both the Rito Revali and Teba use bows.
Yet these characters are all distinct from one another in the way that they play, and these styles also say a lot about their characters. Mipha moves gracefully across the field, stirring up whirlpools and healing her companions. Meanwhile, Sidon wields a pair of tridents that he can power up with a Gears of War-style active button press, and his water manipulations tend to take the form of sharks.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes Has Fan-Favorites to Work With
Fire Emblem games are strategy RPGs, so they have many character archetypes and weapon styles to experiment with. However, combat animations are often little more than characters running forward to swing an axe, or launching a magic spell from afar. Fire Emblem Warriors made each character's battle strategies more dynamic, even for warriors like Marth, Lucina, and Chrom - all of whom wield the same blade, Falchion. One stand-out example is Lissa from Awakening, who augments her axe with thunder magic and uses energetic combo moves such as rolling like a wheel, pulling in waves of enemies.
Despite Fire Emblem: Three Houses' narrative strengths, in which each student at the Officers Academy has support conversations and moments in the Garreg Mach Monestary hub to flesh out their characters, battles are still similar to previous titles. Everyone has unique quips and can access different abilities via their Crests, but any student can be re-classed at will and won't visually perform that different from their peers.
This is where Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes may find its greatest strength. Not many in-game battle scenes are depicted during its reveal trailer, but Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude show off different acrobatic feats. Whereas Edelgard holds steadfast and advances on armies slowly to deal powerful strikes, Claude leaps around to deliver a barrage of arrows from all angles. Everyone also appears at varying points in time, battling both soldiers and Demonic Beasts, so their combat styles have room to evolve.
It's unclear how many characters will be returning in Three Hopes, nor how many new adversaries the people of Fodlan have to face. However, Koei Tecmo and Omega Force's track record with Warriors games suggests fans of Three Houses will have ample opportunity to appreciate its cast all over again. They only have to wait until June to see those characters differentiate themselves in battle.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes releases for Switch on June 24, 2022.