Owlboy

D-Pad Studio’s Owlboy first released in 2016 following years and years of development. Its charming art-style and believable characterization meshed well with the quasi-Metroidvania platforming it had to offer. Playing as Otis and flying through the skies to battle pirates and learn the truth about the world may not have been revolutionary but it’s utterly amazing adventure all the same.

In all the news surrounding Nintendo hardware and software sales data today was the snippet of information released by Koei Tecmo this morning in their own earnings release- Fire Emblem Warriors, the hack and slash action game based on the Dynasty Warriors template that they made for Nintendo and Intelligent Systems’ Fire Emblem franchise, has managed to hit 1 million units worldwide in sales.

This is a remarkable result, because “musou” games (which is what the Dynasty Warriors style hack and slash games are called) generally don’t hit numbers that high. Ironically, one of the only other games of this style to hit that number in recent memory was also one based on a Nintendo property- Hyrule Warriors, which came out on the Wii U (and then the 3DS, with a Switch launch soon).

Fire Emblem Warriors is available now on the Nintendo Switch, as well as the New Nintendo 3DS.

Koei Tecmo has now announced their financial results for the fiscal year that ended on March 31, 2018. Overall, the company has enjoyed positive results and report growth in all the relevant areas. The company expects further growth in the coming year, as the Japanese home console market continues to achieve significant growth. We also get to learn the sales figures of the company’s recent titles such as Dynasty Warriors 9 and Attack On Titan 2. 

Koei Tecmo has been enjoying success with its long-running series Nobunaga’s Ambition as the series has shipped over 10 million units. When it comes to recent games, Fire Emblem Warriors sold over 1 million units, Dynasty Warriors 9 sold 730,000 units worldwide and Attack on Titan 2 sold 520,000 units. The company also expects further growth with both consoles games as well as with smartphone games. The company will also continue releasing titles from their recognized series while also working on new IPs, according to the financial report.

Overall, it has been a great year for Koei Tecmo and it looks like the coming year will also be a good one for the company.

A new DLC pack was just recently released for Fire Emblem Warriors, Koei Tecmo’s title which mixes Musou style gameplay with the Fire Emblem setting and characters. Now, Koei Tecmo has released a bunch of new trailers which mainly showcase features of the new DLC pack and focuses on the three new characters from Fire Emblem: Awakening, Tharja, Olivia, and Owain.

The new DLC pack adds quite a lot of new content changes to the game. For one, Cordelia, Chrom, and Lissa receive new abilities, new costumes, and more. Furthermore, new armor break models and weapons have been added for Frederick, Cordelia, Chrom, Lissa, Robin, Lucina, Olivia, Tharja, and Owain. This DLC pack certainly adds a lot of new content to look forward to in Fire Emblem Warriors, so this would be a great time to get back into the game.

Fire Emblem Warriors is currently available for the Nintendo Switch and 3DS.

The second DLC pack for Koei Tecmo’s Fire Emblem Warriors, the Fire Emblem themed hack and slash action game that launched last year, will be based on Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, the Nintendo DS remake of the original game in the series.

Among other things, the DLC pack will add Navarre and Minerva as playable characters, and also add more maps to the mix. It will also add new costumes and armor break models, and new weapons, and be accompanied by a new update (which you can see the patch notes for below).

It will also be launching in less than a week- Nintendo has announced it will be available on February 14. It will be $9 USD/$11.60 CAD, but will be available to Season Pass holders at no additional cost. Fire Emblem Warriors is available now; it is available on the Nintendo Switch, as well as on New Nintendo 3DS systems.

Version 1.4.0 Update (due out alongside DLC Pack #2)

• Maximum Character Level Increase
  • Increases the maximum character level from 110 to 130.
• Weapon Skills
  • “Critical Specialist” Effect – Makes it easier to deplete the enemy’s Stun Gauge.
  • “Anti-Air Specialist” Effect – Increases damage dealt to launched enemies.
  • (These can be obtained via a random drop.)
• Blessings – The following blessings have been added to the Temple:
  • “Str Blessing,” “Mag Blessing,” and “Skill Blessing” Effects – Increases the stats of all deployed party members.
  • “Bond Blessing” Effect – Makes it easier to increase the bond of all deployed party members.
  • “Swift Attack Blessing” Effect – Increases the damage dealt for a fixed time after the battle begins.
• Other
  • Turn On / Off Crest Creation confirmation and presentation from the settings.
  • UI improvements, including the map and menu composition of the deployment screen.
  • Bug fixes.

Fire Emblem Warriors, on the other hand, cannot. It’s not a bad game- indeed, there’s no part of the experience that is unenjoyable at all, and even at its nadir, you will be actively having some mindless fun with the game, if nothing else. But where Hyrule Warriors felt like a (tongue in cheek) celebration of Zelda‘s history, and went crazy with trying to keep players engaged, Fire Emblem Warriors feels curiously subdued.

Consider, for instance, the fact that the bulk of the characters in the game come from Fire Emblem Awakening and Fates. On some level, this makes sense- Awakening and Fates are where the series broke out into the mainstream, and saw the success that has made it the major brand it is today. Consequently, most fans will be most familiar with those games’ characters and settings. I have to imagine those fans will actually be reasonably happy with what they get here, though even then, some flaws begin to emerge (I’ll get to those later).

For others, who are more familiar with Fire Emblem, this game is actually heart breaking in terms of its missed potential. Almost none of the major characters from the franchise pre-Awakening have made it here- Ike and Roy are missing. To be clear- Ike and Roy. They’re arguably the most popular characters in the series (apart from Marth)- they were representing the franchise in Smash Bros. before it hit it big. It feels like some of the most popular characters are cynically being held back for DLC.

"Griping about the characters aside, the game plays well- it is thoroughly mindless, and you shouldn’t even bother trying to keep up with its increasingly contrived narrative that really only exists to justify all these disparate characters coming together for epic battles."

Griping about the characters aside, the game plays well- it is thoroughly mindless, and you shouldn’t even bother trying to keep up with its increasingly contrived narrative that really only exists to justify all these disparate characters coming together for epic battles. But it’s fun, and slicing down waves of enemies as Lucina never quite got old for me. It’s especially fun because the game runs great, the animations are amazing, and the special attacks are spectacular- and in a sense, the endorphin rush from unleashing those contextualizes the otherwise mindless slashing and makes it all thoroughly worth it.

The interesting thing is that Warriors tries to integrate some more strategic elements from the actual Fire Emblem games, too. Warriors games have always had an element of strategy and battlefield troops management simulation- they’re just a bit more pronounced in Fire Emblem Warriors. They don’t change the mindlessness of the moment to moment action, but it adds a layer and element of nuance to the larger metagame (although the management of placement can become tedious, forcing you to pause the action and go through the menu each time).

Warriors fluctuates wildly in terms of the quality of its stages, however. This is important, because these stages are not just backdrops- they are actual physical locales you battle in, meaning their layout and geography matters in terms of the action, and the flow of a battle. This is where we return to the problem I brought up earlier regarding the game choosing to source most of its material from Fates and Awakening– Awakening in particular wasn’t known for having the most varied maps, so a lot of the stages feel repetitive. Fates was better in this regard, and I guess the Fates stages work better than the Awakening ones do- but on the whole, I did find myself wishing for better stages. Going to some of the older games in the franchise would have fixed this issue. Admittedly, the incorporation of Fire Emblem‘s classic weapon triangle leads to some interesting considerations about positioning that keeps maps more interesting than they otherwise are, but on the whole, they feel like a missed opportunity here.

"In what has to be the most asinine decision surrounding this game, there is no online play."

Fire Emblem Warriors also features another of the joys of the Warriors franchise- multiplayer. Partner up with a buddy and take on hordes of enemies together, which remains as fun as always. Performance and graphics both take a severe hit when you do, but it’s compensated for by just being able to take on these armies with a friend by your side- but they need to be by your side because, in what has to be the most asinine decision surrounding this game, there is no online play.

Now, let’s consider the fact that Warriors games usually have online play. Let’s consider that the Switch is more than capable of online play. Why does Fire Emblem Warriors not have online play, then? I don’t know. I mean, I laud its support for local multiplayer, and for the Switch’s out of the box multiplayer capabilities- I really do. But I see no reason why that had to come at the expense of support for online play.

That apart, the game actually looks pretty- the artstyle pops, it runs fine (you even get an option to focus on framerate), the geometeries are elaborate enough to support some good battles, and the animations are spectacular. Things take a decided hit for the worse with the co-op mode, but on the whole, the game looks fine. It sounds good too, and makes some good use of the sweeping scores that Fire Emblem has been known for. It’s not the most high budget or best looking and sounding Switch game, not even for the month of its release, but it’s good enough to get the job done.

Good enough to get the job done can be the game’s motto, actually. It’s not a bad game at all, but it never feels like it goes the extra mile, either. It’s an alright game with some good fan service especially for more recent Fire Emblem fans, and some fun gameplay, but some extremely poor choices, mostly pertaining to map design and multiplayer, hold back a game that otherwise could have been far more than it turned out to be.

This game was reviewed on Nintendo Switch. 

Fire Emblem Warriors is soon to be released, and we’ve now got more information about the three DLC packs that were announced. We have now learnt that each of the DLC packs will bring with it three new playable characters, three new history maps, additional costumes, additional weapons and additional bond conversations.  

They will cost 8.99$ at retail, and alternatively, players can purchase a season pass that will include all three of these packs at 19.99$. Additionally, players can also download a Japanese voice pack for free along with the game.

The game is set to release on the Nintendo Switch as well as on the New 3DS. The game has been available in Japan since September 28th and will have its Western release on October 20th.

You can read more about the three packs below:

• December 31st  – Fire Emblem Fates add-on pack
• February 28th- Shadow Dragon add-on pack
• March 31- Fire Emblem Awakening add-on pack

Fire Emblem Warriors received a new trailer at TGS 2017. It was also announced that Celica from Fire Emblem Echoes: Shadows of Valentia would be a playable character in the game. During a stage event today, Koei Tecmo released a debut trailer for the New 3DS version of the game, and it seems to run great, though for obvious reasons the graphics seem to be downgraded.

As we have mostly only been able to see the game run on the Switch console, this new trailer is reassuring that it does indeed run well enough on the New 3DS. Fire Emblem Warriors will be a mix betwen the Fire Emblem series as well as the Dynasty Warriors series, meaning that it will blend the over-the-top action of the latter with some of the strategic elements of the former, and using the former’s world and characters.

The game is set to release for the New 3DS  and the Nintendo Switch on September 28^th in Japan, and October 20^th in North America and Europe.

As the release of Fire Emblem Warriors draws nearer, Koei Tecmo has released the first of its trailers in what will be a “Hero introduction” series. The trailer provides a glimpse of the different characters in action, showcasing both the voice acting as well as each character’s individual fighting style.

The first trailer of the series showcases the following characters: Lissam Frederick, Robin (Male), Coredelia, Chrom, Lucina and Robin (Female). The game will play in the vein of the games in the Dynasty Warriors series, with a focus on epic hack-and-slash action while also including some strategic elements that calls back to the original Fire Emblem games. In a newly revealed History Mode, players will be able to experience famous scenes from previous games in this title.

More trailers of the “Hero Introduction” series will soon be out as the game is set to release in Japan on September 28 for the New Nintendo 3DS as well as the Switch. The Western release will be on October 20.

Fire Emblem Warriors, the real time action game spin off based on the Fire Emblem series, and starring Fire Emblem heroes from across the series and games, is almost here- it launches on October 20, which is actually a rather odd date to launch that game- and ahead of that, we are getting more trailers and media for the game on a more regular basis now.

Take this new trailer- it shows us Xander and Ryona from Fire Emblem Fates fighting together and unleashing a rather flashy co-op attack. Of course, people who have played Fire Emblem Fates know why seeing Ryona and Xander fight together is such a thrill- but even people unfamiliar with that game should manage to get some enjoyment from their joint attack.

Fire Emblem Warriors will launch on October 20, on the Nintendo Switch, as well as the New Nintendo 3DS. Make sure to check out the new trailer for the game below.