Nintendo Should Make More Games About People
It's rare for Nintendo games to embrace messy humanity, but Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave does it and then some
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I'm not playing Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave; as I discussed last week, I'm not sure when I'll ever have time to fit this epic in. So I've been fulfilling my curiosity vicariously, by reading about it. It's a great game to read about, because it seems to inspire an obsessive, passionate engagement with its tiniest details in the people who play it. And also because it's full of gorgeous anime freaks.
In the past week, we've written (at least) six stories on Polygon about those freaks. Giovanni Colantonio ranked the game's heroes by how much he wants to party with them (Lena's #1, obviously), and compared the game's operatic setup — in which each hero brings a personal agenda to a wish-granting gladiatorial tournament — to, um, Twisted Metal. That's a weird pair of dots to join, but it speaks well of Fortune's Weave, in a way: it's plugged into an elemental, mythic kind of storytelling that can leap between almost any genre.
Meanwhile, Jen Glennon and Josh Broadwell put forward conflicting pieces of advice. Josh argued that it's important to recruit as many characters as possible, train them up, and not play favorites. Jen said the opposite, arguing that the luxurious freedom of the game's setup, in which you can play all the heroes' paths and replay chapters, frees you of the obsessive need to collect 'em all.
Josh, who has played the game for well over 100 hours, is offering hard gameplay advice, while Jen's recommendation has your mental health and sense of fun in mind. I love that, in a game this big and all-encompassing, with such inclusive flexibility of design, they can both be right.
And I love that what really seems to be motivating Fire Emblem players is people.
It's not often that Nintendo games get this personal. The Fire Emblem series reached a new level of prominence with 2019's Three Houses. The Hogwarts premise and sexy cast of that game inspired a huge shipping community, but in itself it was pretty chaste and open to interpretation. As Jen reports, Fortune's Weave is different. Its relationships are specific and character-led, and the game is about as sex-positive as a family-friendly RPG can be.
These weirdos seem to know exactly what they want. They're, you know, people. Meanwhile, Josh went deep on the support conversation system that has attracted some criticism for its limited set of options compared to previous games, arguing — persuasively, to this layman — that focus has led to better writing and much deeper characterization.
It's not often that Nintendo makes games that inspire this kind of response. Nintendo makes games with big stories (like the Xenoblade Chronicles series) and, of course, iconic characters. But, perhaps due to its family market and image, it doesn't often get its hand dirty with human emotion. There are exceptions, like the secret lives of a clockwork community in The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask, but they're rare.
You don't usually love Nintendo characters the way people seem to love Leda or Dietrich. And you certainly don't usually have the hots for them. In Fortune's Weave, Nintendo and Intelligent Systems let their hair down. It's good to see.
eShop game of the week: Well Dweller
Kyle Thompson is an indie developer who makes a high-quality new Metroidvania game every two years, like clockwork. His latest is a dark fairytale starring a valiant little bird wielding a matchstick — a compact experience that "won't wear out its welcome on its way to becoming one of 2026's must-play Metroidvanias," reckons Austin Manchester.
Nintendo Classics game of the week: Luigi's Mansion
I am not speaking to Gio after he failed to rank Super Monkey Ball first in his list of the top five GameCube launch games. (It might be in my top five games of all time, period.) But he is right that they all hold up really well, including Luigi's first haunted-house adventure, which seemed underwhelming at the time — it's certainly no Super Mario 64 — but can now be appreciated for its immense charm and superb animation.
Nintendo Music track of the week: "Drawing Board 1" from Mario Paint
A comical, life-affirming classic from the unexpectedly incredible soundtrack to the SNES' Mario Paint. Impossible to describe: a sort of honky, jolly, oompah ditty that is guaranteed to break out a massive grin on your face. (You can find a playlist of all Switchboard's Nintendo Music picks here.)
This week's most interesting releases
Hell is Us
- Sep. 24
- Switch 2
- Port of the moody 2025 Soulsike about the horrors of war
Superstar Strategy
- Sep. 24
- Switch
- Indie strategy game with pixel art and strong GBA vibes
EA Sports FC 27
- Sep. 25
- Switch, Switch 2
- EA's annual soccer juggernaut, now with new street-style social hub The Grounds (on Switch 2 only)
Keep Driving
- Sep. 28
- Switch
- Charming road trip management RPG simulates the aimless drives of youth
Minecraft Dungeons 2
- Sep. 29
- Switch, Switch 2
- Return of the hack-and-slash dungeon-crawler set in the Minecraft world
The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt — Remastered
- Sep. 29
- Switch 2
- Modern classic action-RPG epic gets an overhaul and a Switch 2 version