As Nintendo's first fully free-to-play mobile game, Fire Emblem Heroes has a lot to prove.
Sure, Nintendo dabbled in the free-to-play model with Miitomo, but let's be honest,
that was less a game and more a social media experiment slathered in a Nintendo coat of
paint.
So all eyes are on Fire Emblem Heroes to prove that Nintendo can be a real contender in the
free-to-play mobile space.
Fortunately, Nintendo seems all too eager to let Fire Emblem Heroes prove itself, as
we were invited to take the game for an hour-long spin in advance of its February 2nd release
later this week.
The first thing that really struck me about Heroes in an overall sense is just how closely
it hews to the series' audiovisual tradition.
Heroes may be an upstart mobile title on hardware that isn't Nintendo's, but it's also
unmistakably Fire Emblem in how it looks and sounds.
From the familiar music and sound effects complementing the action to the full-screen
character cut-ins heralding deadly special attacks, Nintendo has spared no expense on
Heroes' aesthetics, and I can only imagine they'll delight the hardest of the hardcore
Fire Emblem fans even more than they delighted me.
The high-resolution character art is particularly on point and always eye-popping, with each
character having multiple illustrations showing off various poses and facial expressions.
Each character even has their own battle-damaged illustration for when their HP drops dangerously
low!
Better yet: you can also view all these gorgeous full-screen illustrations from any unit's
status screen, allowing you to appreciate details you're likely to miss in the heat
of battle.
The attention to visual detail here is genuinely impressive, and don't think for a second
that the chibi-like art style for the battle sequences detracts from the game even a little.
On the contrary, the chibi characters are well animated and really pop, lending Heroes
its own distinct style without taking away from the overall Fire Emblem vibe.
Fire Emblem Heroes looking and sounding great is all well and good, but understandably,
the real question on fans' minds is "How does it play?"
The answer seems to be more straightforward than you might expect: this is Fire Emblem
as you know it, optimized for one-handed play on the go and tuned to fit a free-to-play
model designed for mobile platforms.
For example, Heroes features the same fast, wonderfully efficient grid-based battles you
know from the core titles.
But Heroes' battles are scaled down from those titles into 4-on-4 skirmishes that can
be wrapped up in mere minutes - and while fans may scoff at that thought, it's a change
that perfectly fits Heroes' role as a smartphone take on Fire Emblem, allowing you to reap
the rewards from a quick battle or two while standing in line at the grocery store, for
example.
Similarly, even though Heroes doesn't necessarily have the kind of focus on story and character
interactions you would expect from the series' more traditional outings, units still have
varying support skills that can be activated by placing them next to other units during
combat.
Again - faithful to the Fire Emblem core but streamlined for a mobile context.
And of course, it wouldn't be a Fire Emblem game without the weapon triangle in full effect,
and while it's been slightly simplified here - red beats green, green beats blue,
and blue beats red - rest assured that it's every bit as much a governing force in Heroes
as it is in the rest of the series.
Even powerful units get waylaid in incompatible matchups, and gray units - which exist somewhat
outside the weapon triangle and specialize in ranged attacks - will utterly eviscerate
any and all flying units in range.
So far, so familiar then.
Taken as a whole, Heroes' battles are as fast and flashy as they are familiar and fun,
emphasizing forward progress in bite-size chunks over the longer, more thoughtful and
drawn-out battles found in traditional Fire Emblem titles.
Even better, they're punctuated by an elegant touch screen interface that makes perfect
sense for the platform, enabling you to move units around and initiate conflicts quickly
and efficiently - just drag and drop units where you want them to go, and drop one of
your units onto an enemy unit to attack them.
Notably, purists still have the option of doing all this via traditional menu selections,
but I tried both approaches, and the touch controls won out for me pretty much instantly.
So Heroes' battles are on point, but what about the game outside of those battles?
Free to play games tend to live and die by their economy, and all the entertaining battles
in the world won't mean a thing if Heroes' economy stifles player progress to encourage
in-app purchases.
And while it's impossible to get a true feel for a free-to-play game's long-term
economy from an hour-long demo, what I saw gives me hope that Nintendo won't be nickel-and-diming
you if all you want is simply to progress through the game's story.
But if you're dead set on quickly building an army that only includes your favorite Fire
Emblem characters, you're almost certainly going to have to break out your wallet.
The story of Fire Emblem Heroes casts you, the player, in the role of a summoner who
can call upon Fire Emblem characters from other worlds - called "Heroes" in-game,
hence the title - to fill the ranks of your army.
To do this, though, you'll need Orbs - and lots of them.
Orbs can be gained as in-game rewards for winning battles and completing missions, or
they can be purchased in various bundles using real money.
To summon a new warrior for your army, you'll need to select a "Focus" and commit 5
Orbs, with each Focus essentially drawing from a different pool of characters.
But committing those 5 Orbs is always a gamble - you won't know until after you've pledged
those 5 Orbs where in the weapon triangle your summon possibilities will fall, and on
top of that, you of course won't know which character you've summoned and what their
rank is until you've summoned them.
For example, you may really need a green unit to fill out your current army, and you'll
commit 5 Orbs only to find that all of the characters you can summon that time are red,
blue, or gray units.
If you still need that green unit, get ready to pony up more Orbs - and hope you get lucky
this time.
Furthermore, that green unit you eventually get may turn out to be a character you don't
care about, or a low-ranked version of a character you love.
It's all about the luck of the draw.
Of course, "the luck of the draw" comes part and parcel with the free to play model,
and to Nintendo's credit, they're not exactly hiding this element of Fire Emblem
Heroes.
It's important to note, though, that Orbs don't seem to be exceedingly rare - I was
awarded with at least one Orb for every new story battle I won, and Nintendo says there
are various other means in-game by which you can earn Orbs.
It's also worth mentioning that Nintendo allow you to "game the system" to a degree.
Your Orb cost per character will go down if you summon multiple characters in the same
session, and your chances of getting a high-rank version of a popular character will slightly
increase every time you don't get one.
So no matter how bad your luck is, you're guaranteed to get a great pull… eventually.
I should also stress that low-rank heroes can eventually rank up into 5-star heroes
if you're willing to put in the time, work, and materials to get them there.
In a twist on the class change system seen in core Fire Emblem games, a unit can rank
up once they reach level 20, but ranking up will set them back to level 1 to start the
process over again - with improved stats and skills, of course.
So like most free-to-play games, Nintendo's approach to Heroes seems to boil down to a
choice between time and money.
Get powerful versions of fan-favorite characters more quickly by spending money, or build up
to them over the long term by playing over a longer period of time.
The classic free to play model!
But what if you just want to play the game and aren't too fussed about which characters
you do it with?
I'm happy to report that while Heroes does run on a Stamina-based system, it seems rather
difficult to run out of Stamina during the course of normal gameplay.
Case in point - I began with 50 Stamina in my demo, with early story missions only requiring
2 Stamina each on Normal difficulty.
Kingdom Hearts: Unchained Key has a similarly lax Stamina system in the early going, and
would be an apt comparison for those who have played it.
While the Hard and Lunatic difficulties require more Stamina per mission and Stamina costs
will gradually increase as you advance through the story, the whole Stamina system does seem
to be weighed in the player's favor, or at least not in favor of making you wait for
your Stamina to recharge or sacrificing an Orb to recharge it instantly.
As I wrap this preview up, perhaps the most illuminating thing I can say about Fire Emblem
Heroes is that I walked away from my demo actively excited to download it on my own
phone and play it casually in the weeks and months to come.
There's always the chance that an aggressive focus on microtransactions could spoil the
fun over the long term, but what I've played so far leads me to believe that Nintendo is
not going out of their way to wall off basic progress behind in-app purchases… just be
prepared to spend some cash if you want a 5-star Lucina right off the bat!
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