Fire Emblem Warriors is coming to the Switch and 3DS this Fall, but there’s very little
we actually know about it.
Now we’ve already taken a look at the section of the reveal trailer that shows the various
weapons of characters like Marth, Corrin, Ryoma, and Xander.
But the Fire Emblem Direct provided an expanded trailer that showed off a few seconds of gameplay.
So, it’s time to break out the old Analysis Machine to see what secrets and hidden details
we can find in this extremely short look.
Let’s begin.
It all starts where the original trailer ended, with Chrom picking up the Falchion.
He swings it around a few times before the transition which makes us think that this
is his victory pose for the game, if only based on Hyrule Warriors.
Behind him, we can see a castle or maybe a fort, but it’s so indistinct that we couldn’t
possibly say if it comes from a particular game.
After the transition, we see Chrom fighting an army in red.
As he cuts through them, it’s possible to make out swords, axes, and spears; the three
main weapons of Fire Emblem’s Weapon Triangle.
The big question is, how much of the Triangle will we see in Warriors?
Will Chrom have an obvious disadvantage against spearman while tearing through axe wielders?
That doesn’t seem to be the case here as all of them fall easily to his combo.
Maybe he’ll only take more damage if hit by a spear in order to simplify things?
Or maybe it’s possible to switch between a party in order to maximize your efficiency
in any given situation?
Then again, all these weapons are mixed together rather than grouping all of the axemen, spearmen,
and so forth in separate troops so maybe it’s just not a consideration at all?
However, we do think there will be some strategy to who fights in a given stage, but we’ll
get into that later.
In the background, we can see a rock formation, but the interesting thing is on the left side
where there’s some kind of doorway carved into it.
However, there’s no opening.
It’s completely blocked off yet the stonework implies a door.
Is there some way to open it, or will stages change depending on the situation?
There’s no real way to know yet, but the right side of the screen also shows some kind
of wall or fort with several parapets and a wooden door blocking the way past, a very
familiar sight to those who’ve played Hyrule Warriors.
We’d suspect that claiming points on the map will be a major focus of the gameplay.
After all, it fits perfectly with common Fire Emblem missions.
But let’s look at Chrom himself.
He begins his combo with a wide horizontal slash before performing an arcing swing to
the right.
This is followed up by a thrust forward and small leaping downward strike.
The combo continues with two upward slashes that leads into a juggling attack against
all of the soldiers before charging the Falchion with a blue light and striking horizontally
to blow the enemies away.
That is one long combo which could mean the combat is a bit more extensive than Hyrule
Warriors.
The scene changes yet again to show Chrom throwing what seems to be a lightning spear.
It’s thrusted forward, clearing out the soldiers in front of him and keeps going.
However, as soon as the spear is thrown, we see that Chrom still has the Falchion in the
same hand.
Now there is a lightning lance in Fire Emblem, the Shockstick, which was first introduced
in Chrom’s game, Awakening.
But we kind of doubt this is the same thing, if only because of the continued presence
of the Falchion.
We might have an answer for this though.
Chrom then charges an attack with blue energy emanating around him while red and blue swirls
flow in him.
Once he’s finished charging, he leaps into the air with a lightning blade, which looks
exactly the same as his finisher in the previous scene, to continuously slash the soldiers.
As the attack nears its end, we’re given a close-up of his eyes in the exact same way
that Fire Emblem highlights a critical attack.
It’s safe to assume that this is his special, or Musou, attack in the game.
What it does is allow him to perform a spinning slash down to the ground that then spreads
lightning out in cone in front of him, clearing out every single soldier.
Based on all of this evidence, we feel confident in declaring that not only will Chrom have
a lightning element to him, but all the playable characters will have different elements.
This is pretty much the same system that was in Hyrule Warriors with each character having
an element and every element being weak to or strong against something.
Perhaps this will replace the Weapon Triangle in Fire Emblem Warriors.
Although we’ll be honest, we’d prefer something that stuck closer to the Triangle.
But we’ll see what actually happens.
We should also note that Chrom is now fighting in some nondescript ruins with columns all
around.
Nothing too interesting, but the previous scene also provided a vague look at a symbol
on the enemy soldiers’ shields.
We tried comparing it to other symbols used in Fire Emblem, and while it’s similar to
some, there’s no exact match.
So we think this is a brand new enemy.
It’s also interesting how Chrom is fighting another army rather than starting small like
in other Fire Emblem games where bandits are the primary early threat.
Although we’d be surprised if bandits didn’t make an appearance in the game.
But that’s everything we could find in this short glimpse of Fire Emblem Warriors.
It’s something fans have been asking for ever since Hyrule Warriors was revealed.
Now we just have to see what characters will be included and how it will make itself different
from other Warriors games.
And of course, we’ll be there to cover it.
But if we missed anything, make sure to let us know in the comments.
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