i am writing this newsletter while very sleepy

“OK YAY!!! HOW’S YOUR LIFE GOING!!!”

good! i’ve been playing fire emblem: fortune’s weave!

this is now a fire emblem: fortune’s weave newsletter. i won’t talk about spoilers unless you consider “this is how this character’s path starts” a spoiler. if you dont care (gasp) then you can close this email right now. thank you for your support

“UH OKAY!!! WHATS FIRE EMBLEM?”

fire emblem is a video game. imagine chess but your pieces are anime characters and some are knights, some are mages, some are soldiers on a pegasus. and if they fight next to one another then their relationship gets a bit deeper. and you can see them interact when you’re at camp. and thats the real game

so i am one of those people who started my fire emblem journey with awakening. where it got Very Anime and you could get your units to marry and have a baby that is immediately an adult and it can also fight in the fantasy wars. it was anime. it had its flaws. it was great. it was fun.

i have played pretty much every mainline entry since then, which of course included Three Houses, which of course awoke the devil in me

but this is not about those games. this is about fortune’s weave.

yall its good! its a really good game! i have 50 hours on it! and again i just finished act 1! i think there are three acts? holy cow!

so for act 1, you can choose between the 4 main characters, and follow their story for the entirety of act 1. different paths to follow. and, already, the big hurdle. WHO TO START WITH?

ok so i see this lineup and i see dietrich and im like “i HAVE to keep this man for last or im not gonna play the other paths” because sadly he is Exactly My Anime Type. so cant start with him. leda (dancer) seems like she has a good story (she wants revenge, girlboss style) so cant start with her either (i have to eat my veggies first). theodora seems fun but she is not veggies material because she looks cool. and so i only have one choice left. i gotta start with the little boy.

so i start with cai. which is great because he’s the tutorial, really. his story is cute (wants to fight in the Big Empire Games so he can save his father) and has just enough bite and lore to keep me interested.

i then went with theodora. which was really fun right after cai because her map is IMMENSE. and this is when i realize that each character has slightly different gameplay styles. cai’s style is “little boy”. he likes to garden and catch animals. and so on the world map, you can garden and catch animals. small map for a small boy.

theodora is a QUEEN and she has a BOAT and an ARMY and she RULES and so she can go ANYWHERE on her BOAT and she can RECRUIT PEOPLE to go to WAR so each of your units has a LITTLE ARMY. very fun. her story is fine. shes a queen she wants to participate in the big empire games. ok

and then, leda. at this point i could see many players started with her first. because her story is “she saw her father die as a kid and now she has sworn revenge and will go and kill”. i love it? i havent seen many stories where it’s a woman doing the killing for revenge. very fun.

and so anyway through these paths you can kind of tell what every character is doing on their own path. im little boy and in the distance i see theodora being a queen and shaking her fist like “my country…”. as theodora i see leda in the background going “i have… to kill… that man…” etc etc.

but i finished 3 paths and had no idea what dietrich’s story was all about. he’s a man? he likes to fight? thats his goal? anyway so when i started his path i was very excited. finally, its been 40 hours, but i can play My Man’s path.

and it’s just really good.

let’s be honest here. to me, fire emblem is not about the plot. it is game of thrones-adjacent and talks a lot about different countries and who annexed who and politics and then inevitably a dragon appears and the countries fight against the dragon and everything is fine now. like its not for me. no, what shines for me are the character interactions. this is what i remember of those games.

there’s something really fun about putting two random units next to one another and realizing they somehow can become friends. or see two units you think would go together well and then you see their scenes and youre like oh my god. this lady WOULD see this guy as her pupil. and then, yeah, most of the time if you put a guy and a woman together, their last scene will be them falling in love. and sometimes itll be cute but mostly itll be “oh, ok, sure, whatever”.

all this to say that the main characters of the dietrich path have such a nice dynamic.

you have dietrich, who’s calm and detached, unless he’s in a battle and then he goes all “I WILL MAKE YOUR RIBS INTO A CUP TO DRINK YOUR BLOOD FROM YOUR HEART” and its just cute. he just likes to fight to the death. thats his whole thing. and also literally everyone, men and women alike, see him and go “what a beautiful man” and it takes me by surprise every time. like yes, yes he is.

you have esmeralda, a teen girl who gets saved by dietrich and immediately gets a massive puppy crush on him, and follows him because she loves him, and also because her village wanted to kill her so what else is she gonna do.

you have mikaela, a mercenary who’s also a single mother trying to understand her daughter, and just seems to follow dietrich and the others around because it sounds fun.

and you have fabio, who sucks, but is genuinely the highlight of my playthrough so far, starring in a scene with voice acting so poignant i was actually close to tears??? in a fire emblem game???? what the hell????????????????

of course, not to say this game is perfect. it does do this thing where an adult woman will talk to little boy (hes 15. which is little to me) and then the adult woman will go “(blush) maybe i should start thinking about marriage…” GIRL WHAT DO YOU MEAN. WHAT MADE YOU THINK OF THAT. WHY. WHY WOULD YOU DO THIS (it happened twice in 50 hours which is TOO MANY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! but also it happened only twice so im pleasantly surprised. you know how it is)

anyway i dont want this post to turn into a spoilery one (but know i COULD go on for hours about the dietrich path), just know that i dont recommend this game unless you have time and/or you like Lore. i just like it :) its fiya emblem :) very excited to play more dietrich

Listening: my playlist gave me this stressful Ace Combat 7 song while i was writing an email and this became a Life Or Death email situation

Watching: saw Primetime finally. it was good! it was not the Best Movie Ever, which is what i expected from ppl talking about it

Reading: That Asian Girl Is A Problem by Rachel Phan. i was expecting something comedic and it isn’t really— doesnt mean its not very good!!

Playing: fiya emblem