Even for a series known for its sprawling scope, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave is ambitious. Nintendo and developer Intelligent Systems clearly approached this latest entry in the series having learned from its success in Three Houses, its missteps in Engage, and even some of the series' historical oddities. Fortune's Weave rewards those craving both deep interconnected stories and intricate, interlocking RPG systems in equal measure, creating a new high-water mark for the series.

The structure of Fortune's Weave often feels like a series of concentric circles, constantly broadening and deepening your understanding of its systems and its characters. It's so massive it's hard to even know where to start, so I'll begin where the game does: in the future.

Or at least, in a futuristic, science-fiction setting that is strikingly different from the series' norm. Right from the beginning of Fortune's Weave, your created character, Eshmel, is literally created, birthed by sci-fi-coded magic as the last hope for humanity against the army of the Demon Lord, who is already on the verge of total victory. Fortuna, the Goddess of Fate, is cooperating with the last bastions of humanity and sees an opportunity to turn the tide in your favor. Four instrumental heroes, the legendary Flame Lords, can be recruited to help in the coming fight, so Fortuna sends Eshmel back in time to a key moment in the Flame Lords' lives to guide them. That moment is their participation in the Heroic Games, a sort of gladiatorial and tactical version of the ancient Greek Olympics. 

Right away, this imbues the story, and the Flame Lords' individual stories, with propulsive force. You know from the very beginning that your ultimate destiny is leading toward a major escalation, but you also know these four characters are special, destined for greatness in ways that make them inflection points in history. In many stories like this, you see individual protagonists and slowly come to learn of a mysterious visitor who reveals a greater destiny. In Fortune's Weave, you are the mysterious visitor, and you have hidden knowledge that they don't, creating an interesting dynamic as you watch the events of their lives unfold.

This premise also creates a setting that confidently blends tropes from the Age of Antiquity, smooth futuristic science-fiction, and high fantasy. Regardless of the particular details in your character creation, Eshmel has an otherworldly quality to them that seems distinctly out of place in the nation of Dagda, which is obviously inspired by ancient empires, and both Eshmel and the Flame Lords themselves all regularly interact with actual gods and goddesses. It's a compelling blend of storytelling motifs that feels fresh and new for this series.

Fortuna emphasizes the importance of recruiting the Flame Lords to have any real hope of defeating the Demo

A few hours into Wolverine I found myself asking, “Why did Insomniac Games make this?” There are obvious answers, of course: It has three excellent Spider-Man games under its belt; it's an opportunity to expand its Marvel Universe; and Wolverine presents ample opportunities for a brutal and bloody action game. But none of that explains why Insomniac Games, specifically, made Wolverine.

Spider-Man is an ideal fit for the studio: an energetic and dynamic hero in the hands of a team known for open-worlds that are sprawling jungle gyms, where it can let players loose with thrilling traversal mechanics and varied combat systems for crime fighting fun. Insomniac also excels at crafting narratives that are as earnest as they are dramatic--perfect for the tumultuous lives of Peter Parker and Miles Morales.

Wolverine is much less ideal of a pairing, as was evident throughout my time with the game. Insomniac doesn't make bad games and Wolverine certainly isn't one. It's a solid, cinematic, and occasionally thrilling experience that ticks all the necessary boxes for a decent action game. But it does so in a workman-like fashion and never aspires to much more than the essentials. Wolverine is an action game that serves the character well enough, but it doesn't lean into Insomniac's strengths or leverage its creativity, and the game feels unremarkable because of it.

Straying too far from who Wolverine is and how he operates would no doubt create questions around the authenticity of the adaptation, but only coloring inside the well-defined lines means never offering anything new or exciting. It turns out that the most authentic version of Wolverine, in this case, is also the embodiment of the character action genre at its plainest.

In a world where pretty much every superhero game subscribes to the Batman: Arkham template of combat design, describing how you fight would belabor how familiar it all is. Suffice it to say: light attack, heavy attack, dodge, parry, a few special abilities, and some attribute modifiers. 

There are very few distinguishing elements of Wolverine's combat system that make it stand out. The closest it comes is a leaping attack, which allows players to launch him across distances to close the gap and begin an assault on unsuspecting enemies. It's an undeniably satisfying tool to keep up the intensity of each skirmish and ensure you're always applying pressure, but loses its luster after a couple of hours when it becomes clear that it can be employed pretty mindlessly.

The other unique element, a mechanic that represents an escalation of power and brutality as Wolverine's rage boils over, has more longevity in how drastically it shifts the dynamic of combat and amps up the satisfaction of it. As players dispatch enemies, an on-screen rage meter builds until the point where Wolverine goes berserk, putting him in a state where you can chain together executions to tear enemies apart in quick succession. In just a few seconds, Wolverine can create piles of brutally mauled bad guys, and there's a feral savagery to the whole thing that is very effective. 

It's a consistently exhilarating moment because, as well as shifting to desaturated visuals to emphasize how unstable and blinded by rage Logan is, these sequences are strong instances of synchronicity between the character and the player. As Wolverine's rage builds, the player needs to be more efficient in dispatching enemies

Lucy awakens from cryo and finds herself trapped in another twilight zone of danger. She is a heavy-armor mech pilot that serves aboard the interstellar cargo behemoth, *The Anna Bella*. Stranded in the uncharted depths of an outer-rim quadrant, the massive freighter becomes the target of a relentless syndicate of void-marauder space pirates. Lurking in the cosmic shadows is the enigmatic Dracon hegemony—an alien intelligence with a sinister, unknown connection to the attacks. Light-years from ESF reinforcements, Lucy must strap into her mechanized combat rig and rally her outgunned crew. It will take every ounce of their grit, tactical brilliance, and raw firepower to untangle the Dracon conspiracy and survive the darkest reaches of deep space.

Dark Siege of the Anna Bella Lucy

In the waning decades of the 23rd century, during the height of the Earth Space Force epoch, heavy-armor mech pilot Lucy serves aboard the interstellar cargo behemoth, *The Anna Bella*. Stranded in the uncharted depths of an outer-rim quadrant, the massive freighter becomes the target of a relentless syndicate of void-marauder space pirates.

The crew is forced into a brutal, two-pronged war for survival: enduring devastating zero-G ship-to-ship bombardments outside, while fighting off vicious, close-quarters boarding parties in the ship's claustrophobic corridors. But the corsairs aren't acting alone. Lurking in the cosmic shadows is the enigmatic Dracon hegemony—an alien intelligence with a sinister, unknown connection to the attacks. Light-years from ESF reinforcements, Lucy must strap into her mechanized combat rig and rally her outgunned crew. It will take every ounce of their grit, tactical brilliance, and raw firepower to untangle the Dracon conspiracy and survive the darkest reaches of deep space.