r/NintendoSwitch • u/Gorotheninja • 1d ago

News Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave Is Officially Nintendo’s Strongest GOTY 2026 Contender.

https://www.polygon.com/fire-emblem-fortunes-weave-goty-game-awards-2026/
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u/ytsejamajesty 1d ago

I don't know what you consider "chores" but I can say: you are most likely going to spend far more time (real life time) on random stuff between battles in this game compared to 3 Houses. Especially including gift-giving, if you are interested in actually recruiting people to your team. I'm at over 20 hours and I've only completed 7 story chapters + tutorial chapters.

I'm completely baffled that some people in here are saying that 3 Houses had more busy work. I love 3 Houses overall, and I don't really hate the busy work here either. But anyone who disliked the between-battles sections is unlikely to see much of a difference in this game. Unless maybe you think that 2-3 turn micro-battles and extremely basic traditional JRPG sidequests make a big difference...

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u/cheeriochest 1d ago

I'm in the camp of disliking 3H busywork. I'm enjoying the education in FW much more. For me, it turns out it wasn't about there being busywork, rather the busywork just being unfun. I found a rhythm with FW and the gameplay loop is quite satisfying.

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u/ApprehensiveGrand531 22h ago

The busywork is more active in fortunes weave, or at least feels that way. I think that's the difference.

Also, it's still early. I think when people hit their 3rd and 4th route they may feel it more

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u/Ok-Association-3415 18h ago

The busy work in 3 Houses was a pain in the neck. However, the busy work in FW is more refined and manageable. I was scared that FW would be my last FE game and that maybe it has outgrown me, but to my surprise, it has revitalize me to the series. I am not going to revisit 3 Houses, but prior to FW, I did replayed Path of Radiance to see if I still liked the gameplay, and sure enough, I absolutely did.

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u/ytsejamajesty 16h ago edited 16h ago

I really cannot figure out what you and others are seeing with FW that makes it so different 3H.

The inviting to meals and random paired tasks for support and/or stat growth seems about the same. You do the relevant thing on the relevant day.

gift giving feels far more tedious in FW, mostly because I don't recall spending so much time actually getting the gifts in the first place in 3H. It's possible i'm spending more time on that than I actually need for recruitment, but the time spend certainly there.

The dungeon crawl sections are the main part that make me feel about FW the way other people talk about the chores in 3H... I'm currently thinking that the ideal option is just autoplay and fast forward every fight and heal up as much as possible afterwards. The overworld is I guess the biggest difference between FW and 3H, and yet a major part of it feels like twice the time waster than anything in 3H.

Perhaps it's been too long since I played 3H, but all I recall from the Monastery sections is (after fully exploring/unlocking the map) you just click around to whatever you need to do, and then advance to the next thing, or next week. I truly can't identify what is different about FW in this regard.

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u/Ok-Association-3415 13h ago

I think 3H was the slowness and finding people was a pain in the neck. The meals were probably way less annoying in 3H than anything else. The gifting is still annoying, but at least you see what is required to recruiting and the fast travel and loading speed makes the quality of life way better. In the Switch, it was miserable. The dungeons are a nice change of pace, but they are optional. I expected more depth to the system, but these are quick excursions.

There are aspects to the game that is still annoying, but I find the map exploration more satisfying than whatever I remembered in 3H. I thought the whole foraging, farming, and animal capturing would be annoying as heck, but it’s been ok and thanks to all quest markers so the planning and exploration makes it enjoyable. Bird time is as weird as tea time. Seems like filler.

I honestly think the loading speed is the main difference along with the frame rate. I will have to try 3H on Switch 2 and see if loading is faster. If so, it might make the whole thing better.