VideoGame A Bona Fide Celebration of FE
From its addictive gameplay to its ENORMOUS CAST (all with stellar, reimagined art and voice acting), Fire Emblem Heroes is every FE fan's wet dream come true. Add in a tried and true gacha system, and you have a recipe for both a major cash cow for Nintendo and an authentic FE experience fans can play anywhere right off their phone. Despite being significantly condensed and simplified, Heroes still retains the FE spirit, offering solid strategic gameplay but on a much smaller scale and fast paced map.
While at launch the game was pretty bare bones in what could be done, the developers are constantly improving the experience, frequently listening to user feedback and reworking old nuisances and adding new game modes. In addition, the intimidatingly large roster of iconic characters is constantly expanding with no signs of slowing down anytime soon. The story campaign of Heroes is mostly an excuse plot to have the characters fight each other, but has been getting more complex and dramatic as of late with each new chapter. Of course, the real attraction of the game remains Hero summoning.
Heroes is a gacha game, so what characters you pull is completely up to chance - brutally so - but as a F2P player, I've never felt like I am at any significant disadvantage even when competing with players who do put in money to obtain their optimal teams because the game is so fine-tuned and balanced. Heroes' roster has experienced a natural power creep over its course, but with new ways to customize your units being introduced and the brilliant Weapon Refinery feature, even objectively weak units have their chance to shine. What's more, the game is quite generous with free orbs, and the developers will even pass out 10 or 20 orbs every once in a while for any reason they can think of, like as apology if they made a technical mistake. This is especially nice considering the cost for orbs is pretty pricey ($75 for 140 orbs = 35 possible pulls).
While gacha games can often feel like a cheap cash grab, the authentic love and care put into Heroes is plain to see. It's a game designed for both veterans and newcomers to enjoy, and in a much more effective fashion than any mainline entry has managed so far. Nintendo can rest easy (and with their wallets full) knowing Heroes is an experience that has confidently staked their claim on the mobile platform and only speaks encouragement for the franchise moving forward.
VideoGame The best free Fire Emblem game
This review was written in late November 2021, at the end of Book V.
Many mobile games are little more than cash grabs to allow the developers to make money off of microtransactions. Fire Emblem Heroes, however, is an enjoyable game in its own right, even if it isn't as deep as many of the main series games.
The plot, which takes place in a world in which it is possible to summon characters from other FE games, isn't anything special. It primarily focuses on the Original Generation characters, with characters from other FE games usually serving as mini-bosses. The setting is decent, but many plot threads never go anywhere.
The truly interesting part is the character interactions in the Paralogues and Forging Bonds events. These pair off characters with others from their own games or others for some fascinating scenes, whether funny(Ingrid meeting other Big Eaters) or serious (Alm enjoying the Day of Devotion with his father.)
The gameplay is fast-paced. Most of the maps are only 6x8 tiles, so battles often last for three turns or fewer and in a couple minutes real time. This can be a nice change of pace if you're tired of restarting a map you spent an hour on because you lost a unit.
There are a wide variety of game modes to play, with different levels of challenge. Some of the easier maps (e.g. story mode on Normal) will be a breeze even for newcomers, but some of the harder ones (e.g. Arenas at high rank) will require careful strategies and a team that's tailored to the task.
You have hundreds of heroes from various FE games to play with, each with various strengths and weaknesses. The sheer number of ways to strengthen units, from merging them with other units to applying Sacred Seals, can be daunting, but the game has hints and other tools for casual players. Many of the abilities can be rather convoluted compared to those in the main series, with myriad conditions and extra effects.
Combat features series mainstays such as the Weapon Triangle, but otherwise is a bit simplified. Unlike most games, units can't switch weapons in battle, nor can they use items. Instead, they have a standard attack, an ability to use on their allies(e.g. healing) and a "cooldown" attack. Units cannot miss, get critical hits or randomly proc skills, which removes a lot of the RNG, for better or for worse.
The game is free to download, but features microtransactions for things such as the orbs used to summon heroes. However, I've been able to get some good heroes on my squad with the orbs collected from completing quests and getting daily login bonuses, and haven't had to spend any money on the game.
If you have a smartphone and are interested in FE, whether as a newcomer or a veteran, I recommend checking Heroes out. It serves as a good entry point for the former, and the latter will likely enjoy many of the challenges and the chance to see characters from relatively obscure FE games.