Fortune’s Weave Is the Cure For a Terrible RPG Habit

For several hours, I spent my free time meandering the world map of Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave like a woman crazed. No matter what the calendar said, every day was Black Friday, and I was in feverish pursuit of gifts. From east to west and back again, I cleaned out vendors’ stock of gifts for the several dozen randos I was determined to make my new besties. Back in Dagsion, I meticulously ticked through the full laundry list of recruitable characters and dutifully handed them their pastries or fish sauce, one swarthy pirate or pegasus girl blending into the next. I continued to do this for several in-game months, until I realized I wasn’t actually enjoying the game to its fullest.

I knew going in that there are more characters than you can actually recruit in one route in Fortune’s Weave. Some folks are exclusive to just one or two routes. That’s why you have the option to play as all four protagonists, if you like. For some reason, my brain took this as a challenge akin to gathering Suikoden‘s 108 Stars of Destiny, or maxing out every social link in the Persona games. But actually, Fortune’s Weave is far more generous than those games. If you miss a character on Leda’s route, you can pick them up on Cai, Deitrich, or Theodora’s route. Alternatively, if you’re looking for less of a time commitment, you can simply replay a chapter of Leda’s route and use that time to recruit the one who got away. I knew there was no good reason to try to recruit everyone on my first playthrough. But that didn’t stop me from wasting a whole lot of time doing exactly that.

For Act One of Fortune’s Weave, each of the game’s four protagonists has a twelve-chapter story. By the time you get about partway through those chapters, your renown rank — one of several factors that allows you to recruit new teammates — starts climbing higher. Suddenly, buying the love of all those aloof prospects with swanky dinners at the inn and boatloads of fish sauce feels like a very real possibility. I spent the middle chapters of Leda’s route scraping by while being underleveled, because I was more focused on expanding my team rather than improving it.

While Fortune’s Weave gives you free rein on who to recruit, you’re simultaneously encouraged to play favorites. As Leda, I’ve found that most main story battles during the Heroic Games have a limit of somewhere between five and seven party members. That means there are probably a dozen characters on my roster who I spent hours wooing and have never actually used. (Turns out, there are very few situations where you’ll need — or want — a party consisting of six mages.) Instead, the characters I use most are the ones acquired by default through Leda’s route, along a rotating ensemble of three or four recruits I actually invested training and combat time into.

Image: Nintendo EPD/Nintendo via Polygon

It took me a few hours longer than it should have, but I’ve finally learned my lesson. Much like in real life, trying to make everyone your friend in Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is an exhausting exercise that’s doomed to failure. Instead, choose a few people who catch your eye early on, knowing that a couple of them will work out great, and a lot of them will be duds. Just remember, it’s truly never too late to pursue the sad goth girl with the cool hat.