Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave is a sprawling tale composed of four different interconnected heroes, each with their own story campaign. These can be played in any order, and the choice might seem daunting. Which hero is the best to start your journey with? The simple answer is that you can begin with any hero you choose, but if you want to make an informed choice about which one might work best for your tastes, we can help.
After a brief prologue, you’re taken to the Obelisk Chamber, where you’ll see the obelisks to the four Flame Lords. Those are your passageways into their individual stories. What sets the Flame Lords apart are their special questlines, their Blaze Arts, and their surrounding cast. While you have a great deal of flexibility in recruiting new soldiers to your side and steering your party members in any direction, they are mostly built to excel at particular class types and that will define the type of parties you build with each.
The Starter Option: Cai
You can think of Cai as the starter character. His special quests grant renown a little more quickly than the others, and so he has an easier time recruiting party members. His Blaze Art is one of the most powerful, an area-of-effect attack that can hit multiple enemies at once, which is a rarity in Fortune’s Weave. And his map is more restricted than any of the other Flame Lords, letting you get a feel for how map exploration works without it becoming too dauntingly large and complex.
Cai’s story is similarly made to ease you into the world. Cai is just a kid, so he’s not involved in the complex politics of Dagda and the surrounding regions. His goal in the Heroic Games is to free his father, who has been falsely imprisoned. So during his path you’ll meet other characters and get a general sense of the sequence of events during the Heroic Games, but it’s all very digestible.
Thus, both from a mechanical and story perspective, choose Cai if you want to ease into Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave.
For Combat Lovers: Dietrich
Dietrich is a bit more complex, and aimed at getting in reps with the combat system. His special quest is all about finding formidable opponents to fight, which means you can gain lots of combat experience (and valuable experience points) while also getting renown for recruitment. His Blaze Art emphasizes movement and positioning, allowing him to close gaps quickly on an opponent. He can also learn a wide variety of Combat Arts, giving him a ton of combat versatility. And his map opens up fully to let him find faraway opponents to fight, so it will feel like an expansion if you played Cai’s story first. He can also summon enemies to fight close to his current location, so you’re never far from a battle with Dietrich.
