Sega’s ’90s-era Fire Emblem Competitor Was Years Ahead of Its Time

The Aug. 4 Nintendo Direct was all about Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, the tactical RPG coming to Nintendo Switch 2 next month. The showcase revealed a bunch of new info about Intelligent Systems’ latest, including new details about how the game’s four branching story paths will merge together. While Fire Emblem has been around since 1990, it truly popped off amongst worldwide gaming audiences with 2019’s Fire Emblem: Three Houses, whichhelped bring the subgenre out of the niche and into the mainstream by combining turn-based battles with Persona-like social sim elements. In the years since, other studios have followed suit with excellent tactical RPGs like Ubisoft’s Mario + Rabbids: Sparks of Hopein 2022 and last year’s stellar remake Final Fantasy Tactics: The Ivalice Chronicles. But the latest Nintendo Direct reminded me there’s one publisher I’d particularly love to see get in on this burgeoning trend, and that’s Sega.