Fire Emblem heads to Android on February 2, but iOS users look like they’ll have to wait a bit longer for Nintendo’s next mobile game.
Nintendo’s newest Direct event offered us a closer look at the game’s art style, story and combat. This is a new chapter in the Fire Emblem franchise, with two kingdoms pitted against one another in an epic battle. You play a summoner from the kingdom of Askr, tasked with calling upon allies and heroes to fight beside you to save your people.
Based on the trailer, there’s some beautifully hand-drawn artwork to look forward to, and the style of combat will be your typical turn-based strategy, but with some twists. Terrain will come into play on the maps, and it seems like certain characters will have specific movement limitations\/abilities. Each map is on a simple grid, and individual fights occur in a cutscene-like popup window.
As for your party’s heroes, you’ll be able to collect orbs as you play (or, of course, buy them via IAP — according to one screenshot, a pack of 35 orbs will cost about $20 — roughly converted to \u00a316 or AU$26, and 3 will set you back $1.99) and summon random heroes to your party that you can decide to make an ally. If you don’t ask them to join up with you, they could show up on the opposing kingdom’s lineup, so there does seem to be a bit of depth there in terms of choosing who joins up and who doesn’t. All the standard RPG mechanics are here, including leveling up your characters and raising their attributes, making them (and your team) more powerful as you play.
In a slight surprise, Nintendo announced an official release date for Android today, but not iOS. Super Mario Run currently enjoys an iOS exclusive, and the Google Play Store page for the game still says the game is „coming soon,“ so seeing an official launch date already set will be a nice surprise for Android users.
UPDATE: In a tweet posted after the Direct event, Nintendo announced the game would release simultaneously on both iOS and Android on February 2, 2017.<\/p>\n