Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave To Keep Classic Permadeath Mode

If you're planning on picking up Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave when it launches, you'll want to know exactly what you're getting into before you jump in, and thanks to a new update, you finally can. According to insiders, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave will let you choose your difficulty right from the start, and the setup should feel familiar if you've played the series before.

You'll be given two difficulty tiers to pick from: Normal and Hard. Normal is built for players who are either new to Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave or who consider themselves somewhere in the middle skill-wise, while Hard is aimed at players who already know their way around tactics-heavy RPGs and want a real challenge.

If you're someone who's been through a few Fire Emblem titles already, Hard is likely where you'll end up settling in Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave.

On top of that, you'll also have to decide between Casual and Classic. Choosing Casual means that any of your units who fall in battle will come back once the fight is over, so you don't have to stress about permanent losses. Classic is the opposite: once a character dies on the field in Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, they're gone for good. There's no bringing them back, so every decision you make in a fight actually carries weight.

For players who want the most intense version of Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, going Hard and Classic together is the way to do it. It's a punishing combination, since losing a unit permanently on a difficulty that already doesn't forgive mistakes can put your entire playthrough at risk.

Miss too many teammates along the way and you might not have enough firepower to make it to the credits, so plenty of veteran players end up restarting fights or reloading saves the moment things go sideways in Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave.

None of this should come as a surprise if you spent time with Fire Emblem: Three Houses, since that game offered the exact same setup: Normal and Hard paired with Casual and Classic. What's still up in the air is whether Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave will eventually get a Maddening difficulty option too.

Looking at how Three Houses handled the same question offers a useful clue.

Three Houses didn't launch with Maddening either; it arrived later as a free update after release, so there's a real chance the same thing happens here, though nothing has been confirmed either way yet. For context, Maddening is about as unforgiving as tactics RPGs get. Enemies hit far harder than usual, critical hits can wipe out a unit out of nowhere, and there's essentially zero room to make a mistake.

Every unit has to stay out of danger at all times, which usually means playing defensively and turtling through most encounters instead of pushing forward at a natural pace. It's a difficulty built for players who want to be tested constantly, but it's not for everyone, and plenty of fans find it drains the fun out of the experience rather than adding to it.

Whether or not Maddening ends up coming to Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, the return of the classic difficulty structure is a welcome sign for longtime fans. If you're newer to the series or just want a more relaxed playthrough, sticking with Normal and Casual should give you a smooth, enjoyable run through the story without the added pressure.

If you want the stakes to feel real from the very first chapter, Hard and Classic will deliver that in Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave. With everything currently known about the game, Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave is shaping up to be one of the more anticipated tactical RPGs heading to Switch 2, and it's set to release on September 17th.