Ever since Baldur's Gate 3 won a billion awards back in 2023, a chorus of steadily louder role-playing game fans have shouted from rooftops that traditional turn-based titles should make a comeback. Fast-forward two years, and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33, a French-developed game writ large in the style of the JRPG subgenre, won even more awards and delivered a straightforwardly old-school turn-based combat system—with the modern bells and whistles that make it all shine.
Arguments have since raged over whether the behemoth of Final Fantasy should return to that route in the next big title, and the reveal of Final Fantasy Resonance, with its turn-based flair, has only heightened that clamor. But now along comes Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, with a dedicated Nintendo Direct today that's got plenty of heads turned for myriad reasons. A Three-Houses-style time skip? Check. A ton of variety imbued into the gameplay loop? Check. Elephant-riding? Check.
And what's this? Traditional turn-based battles.
Forgive the Japanese-only screenshots, by the way. As is often the case, Japan's website for this game is far heftier than its English companion, at least as of this writing.
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