After the credits: Training characters is fun, but late reinforcements and gates become exhaustingMajor spoilers

Original video: Fortune's Weave after the credits: Enjoyable, but increasingly exhausting; Japanese gaming channel UZUMAX.

A growing campaign demands more and more time#

I finished in 85 hours. I enjoyed it, and I was exhausted. Two things bothered me most: the campaign keeps expanding, and battles keep dragging on through reinforcements and gimmicks.

You can tell the developers included a lot of things they wanted to do. But the farther I got, the more I wished they had been more selective. Plenty of content can certainly be appealing. Yet when every step forward adds another layer of tasks, anticipation for the next chapter eventually turns into wondering how long the current one will take.

Part 3's roster demands encourage training all four routes#

Part 1 tells each of four protagonists' stories. There are many activities at first, making priorities hard to see. After one protagonist's twelve chapters, the combat-focused Part 2 adds six more. Clearing Part 2 once allows it to be skipped on other routes, but I think many players will still replay it to train characters or recover missed recruits.

I originally thought I could pick one character and follow them to the ending. But Part 3 uses the units you trained earlier, and later splits them into several groups. The demands on roster size and completeness suddenly rise. That makes you feel you should return to another route or two, recruit more people, and train more units.

Part 3 surprised me most. After all that adventuring, training, and fighting, it almost says, “Now the real game begins.” The world map and exploration return, every chapter has a boss map, and the number of bosses keeps increasing. If you want to reach the ending soon, this is where the burden can set in.

Small waves of reinforcements keep extending battles#

From Part 2 onward, more large enemies have shields, so tough targets take time to handle. Small groups of flying reinforcements also keep appearing in map corners. Finish the current wave, and another is still coming.

I prefer reinforcements that arrive in a substantial group for a clear reason. You see them coming, divide your forces again, and adjust your strategy. This constant trickle instead feels like being held up repeatedly. I am ready to advance toward the objective, but keep having to turn back and clear a corner.

Destroy both gates together for full damage in the finale#

You need to deal with the gates on the field to deal full damage to the final boss. Breath attacks and hazardous zones also interfere.

Destroy one, chip away the shield, turn toward the boss, and before you have enjoyed much time dealing damage, the gates are back. You end up needing to handle both together to secure a full-damage window. This battle took me about two and a half hours. Near the end, a Wiseman appeared and healed the boss's HP. I was laughing through the suffering.

A mechanic can be strategic in itself. But with constantly returning gates, battlefield interference, and later healing all stacked into the final battle, I struggled to find fun in its length anymore.

Character writing and flexible training#

The story follows a classic heroic path with a strong Fire Emblem feel, and it is not dull. The characters are appealing too. Some important characters' histories get too little attention, but I still grew attached to many of them.

I had little interest in Sofia or Lilian before starting, but liked them more and more as I played. The soft way Lilian thanks someone after being healed even reminds me of someone at home. Spend enough time with characters, and that attachment builds naturally.

Training is fun too. There are plenty of classes, enough variety to take your favorites in the directions you want. That is a major reason I kept playing past eighty hours and pushed through to the ending. I want the game to keep those strengths while trimming the repetitive time sinks, giving the whole journey a brisker pace.