7 reasons Fire Emblem fans will love Fire Emblem Warriors

Nintendo Switch owners will soon get a taste of Fire Emblem - though not in the form they'd suspect.

Fire Emblem Warriors isn't the franchise as you know and love it. Instead, like Hyrule Warriors before it, it has more in common with Dynasty Warriors. It's made by the same folks, after all.

Even so, there are plenty of reasons Fire Emblem fans will love Warriors, and we've compiled the best of them into just one list for you. Aren't we nice?

Fire Emblem Warriors features a supergroup of your favourite characters from the franchise's recent, and distant, history.

Not only will you love getting a chance to play as them again, you'll also see them interact with each other. It leads to some very interesting situations.

We don't want to spoil anything for you, but suffice to say if you're a diehard fan of the franchise, you don't want to miss the surprises in store here.

Strategic options

This might be closer to Dynasty Warriors than Fire Emblem, but that doesn't mean the strategy has been entirely cut from the equation.

In fact, Koei Tecmo has made a serious effort to please Fire Emblem fans, and that's never more evident than in the strategic menu you can access with a simple tap of the + key.

Here, you can order your units to perform a variety of different actions, from attacking a stronghold to guarding an ally. Not only does it feel very Fire Emblem, it's made Dynasty Warriors a better game as a result.

Weapon triangle

Then, of course, there's the weapon triangle, which makes a valiant return here. In case you don't know, swords beat axes, axes beat spears, and spears beat swords.

Given you're usually slaying hundreds of foes with each slash, Koei Tecmo has tied the system into the leaders. So, for example, if a fort captain carries a spear, all of his army will also.

Again, it's a great system that feels very Fire Emblem. You'll constantly refer back to the strategy menu, ordering your units to dispatch foes with a weaker weapon type to them.

Relationships

As you can expect from a Fire Emblem, relationships play a sizeable role in Warriors. Each character has a bond rating with all other characters, and to increase it you merely have to send them into battle together.

In battle, you can increase two character's relationships faster by linking them together. This lets them fight as a single unit, increases their bond faster, and allows them to use incredibly powerful double attacks.

Also, once you've reached a certain bond level with another character, you can earn special crests that provide powerful skills and boosts to a particular character. It's an integral part of the experience.

Perma death

It also wouldn't be Fire Emblem without tragic permanent deaths, where characters never return if they fall in battle. That's all here.

Well, kind of. It's optional, and you can turn it off if you're not really a fan of that sort of thing. You can also revive them using currency if you regret losing them, so it's not as tragic as usual.

Still, it does add a bit more tension to the experience. When you hear that a character is about to fall in battle, you'll be really keen to send someone to save them or do so yourself. It's much more dramatic.

History Mode

Here's a nice little unexpected feature that ended up standing out for fans of Fire Emblem - History Mode. This lets you revisit historic battles from the franchise's history, and dictate how they played out.

Again, we don't really want to provide any spoilers so we won't go into exact details, but those passionate about Fire Emblem lore sure won't be disappointed.

Play with your friends

Okay, so multiplayer isn't anything new to Fire Emblem - we've been able to do it in the last few 3DS offerings after all.

Still, you can't really have a Switch game without multiplayer and it works a charm here. Instead of bossing around your units on the tactical screen, you can shout at a friend next to you instead!

Also, now you and a friend can play as your favourite Fire Emblem characters and battle alongside each other. You couldn't do that before, could you?