The Drawing Room

Dietrich: Answerer’s Cry

Dietrich’s unique world map ability is ‘Answerer’s Cry,’ which allows him to sound his blade to flush out enemies in hiding. This has the effect of forcing ambush spawns to become visible on the world map, allowing Dietrich to either engage or avoid them. Like I said, on the face of it, this is the least useful of the abilities (the big question mark hovering over Cai’s ability notwithstanding), because its uses are restricted to the battlefield, with no off-battlefield benefits. However, there are some factors that could potentially make this shoot up in value:

- We don’t yet know what the gold economy is like in Fortune’s Weave. Games without weapon durability can be pretty stingy with cash, especially in the early game, and if skirmish enemies drop gold like they do in a lot of games, this could be useful for getting Dietrich’s team some more money early on. Especially considering that, if the four lords don’t start with the same amount of gold, Dietrich really ought to be staring with no gold, since he washed up on shore after a shipwreck. We all know the knock-on effects of having more money in a Fire Emblem game: gets you more weapons, more weapon forges, more weapon repairs after use of Combat Arts, more supplies, more class-changing seals, more gifts and meal components to build support ranks with. Training at the arena in Dagsion also costs money.

- Related to the above, this gives Dietrich’s team more opportunities for level and weapon experience.

- If the turns spent in skirmish battles are deducted from the total you can spend between Heroic Games battles, this could be useful in saving Dietrich’s team turns and letting the player have more control about how they spend their turns investing into the team.

Theodora: Battalion Recruitment

Theodora’s unique world map ability allows her to recruit battalions, which further enables her to deploy them in battle and send them out to locations on the world map to gather supplies for her. We see them coming back with two ores, Thunderstone and Windstone, the names of which suggest that in addition to being able to forge weapons, magic spells may be able to be forged as well, somehow? Also, she’s the only person in the game so far who can use Gambits, thanks to this.

Overall, pretty solid. Let’s discuss details.

- We’re coming back to the gold economy again. If the lords have different starting gold balances, Theodora should have the highest starting gold, being the reigning queen of her country, but being able to gather more ores (and probably other supplies as well, even if we didn’t see that), will help her and her team get a jump start on weapon forges.

- This has the potential to save Theodora turns, depending on how it’s implemented. Presumably, sending out a battalion consumes a set number of turns, but if it’s less turns than it would take for her to get to the location itself, that’s more turns the player has to develop Theodora’s team to their liking.

- Like I said, Theodora is so far the only unit in the game confirmed to be able to use Gambits, which gives her and her team an edge in combat.

Leda: Perform for Rewards

Leda’s unique world map ability allows her to perform in exchange for gold and supplies. In the Direct, we were shown that she received 5,000 gold, Pepper Leaves (presumably a meal component), a Luxury Vegetable Crate (presumably containing a set number of meal components), and a Gift Box (Presumably containing a set number of gifts).

This is, even without analysis, a nice ability to have, but upon analysis, we see that it can potentially become really broken.

- First, since this doesn’t have branching components, let’s talk about the fact that Leda can get meal components and gifts from performing. So far, she is the only unit in the game confirmed to be able to get these things without paying for them. It’s possible that they’ll be obtainable through overworld exploration, and possible that Theodora can get them through her unique ability as well, but so far, it’s just Leda confirmed. This is big for her for a few reasons:

Firstly, the Direct shows us that three units sharing a meal together has the effect of restoring those three units’ HP and magic, as well as increasing their support points. We’ve already seen that units using spells reduces the durability of those spells, suggesting that spells operate on the same system as Combat Arts, and their durability isn’t automatically replenished after the battle concludes. It also suggests that when units taken damage in battle, if they aren’t healed to full HP before the battle concludes, their lost HP won’t be replenished after the battle concludes, and they have to get their HP back some other way. Renting a room at the inn is shown to restore HP, magic, and motivation, but that costs money and a turn. It’s possible that you can just command a unit to use a vulnerary, but like renting a room at the inn, vulneraries cost money. As do meal components. Unless you’re Leda, in which case you don’t have to pay for meal components. If she can perform multiple times per chapter, she potentially doesn’t have to pay for meal components ever. She just has to pay to put the meal together, and the Direct showed that a Level 3 meal costs 300 gold to put together, not a hard amount to scrape up. This ability gives Leda the edge in keeping her team at full HP, and keeping the mages on her team able to cast spells without interruption.

It also gives Leda the edge in building support ranks, getting support bonuses with allies, and recruiting new units to her team. Not having to spend money on meal components or gifts is a real boon for her, as she can potentially build a big team earlier on than the other three lords.

Now, let’s talk about the money aspect of this, since that’s a little more ambiguous. Getting any amount of money is good, to be sure. In a world where the lords start with different amounts of gold, Leda probably has the second highest amount, being a working adult and successful performer, but it’s always good to get more. I touched on the benefits of getting a steady stream of gold in Dietrich’s section, but having a steady means of buying weapons, forges, repairs, and other sundry supplies is always good. The use of certain facilities in Dagsion also costs money.

If it’s just a static amount of 5,000 gold, this is the kind of thing that would be huge for Leda’s early game, only for it to probably taper off in value later on, even if she’s able to perform multiple times per chapter. If it scales with Leda’s level or some other measure of progression, and 5,000 gold is an amount Leda gets early on, then she’s just going to keep snowballing. If it scales with Leda’s level or some other measure of progression, but starts at a smaller amount, then it depends on the sort of scaling used as to just how good it is. But like I said, being guaranteed any amount of gold is good, and Leda’s being able to obtain meal components and gifts for free is so strong that she’d still have a great unique ability even without the gold.

Cai: Captures Animals

Okay, this is the one I have a ton of questions about, since its potential is highly variable, ranging from a nice buff to potentially really, incredibly broken.

Cai is shown capturing a meganius, a fantasy cassowary, by the looks of it. This is described as a ‘success,’ suggesting that there is a chance to fail at the attempt to capture an animal. The captured meganius comes with two ‘Learnable Mounted Abilities,’ detailed here. The first is ‘Heart Level 3: Paired Bulk: [Cavalry] Build +4.’ The second is ‘Heart Level 5: Paired Bulk+: [Cavalry] Grants Build +4.’

This is interesting, and we know so little about what this is going to do that all I can really do is speculate. But even the weakest explanation I can think of still sounds pretty solid, and the strongest sounds broken.

- Firstly, I am running on the assumption that Cai’s ability provides a benefit to his whole team, and not just him. The other three lords’ unique abilities provide benefits to everyone on their team and not just them; I’m assuming things are the same with him.

- The first option is that this provides Cai and his teammates a simple stat buff when they’re in a mounted class (Cai probably has the opportunity to capture flying animals as well). The ‘Heart Level’ thing is interesting. Either it refers to support levels, probably with Cai, or there’s going to be a new meter, maybe based on how long a unit spends in a mounted class, indicative of the bond they form with their mount. Cai having captured the meganius featured in the Direct would grant them these buffs to their Build, 4 at Heart Level 3 and then another 4 at Heart Level 5.

An alternate strain to this theory is that units on Cai’s team can swap out the standard mounts they get from classing into mounted classes for the ‘custom’ mounts that Cai can capture. Either way, Cai’s team gets unique stat buffs compared to the other three teams, and there are some units who I think would especially appreciate it. In Fire Emblem games with the Constitution stat, female units, and especially female mages, tend to have poor Constitution, and we know that Cai’s going to have at least two female mages on his team. Ultand and Tialla will definitely appreciate the buff to their Build if there are mounted classes with magic access. Or maybe even if they aren’t in mounted classes. Though the description says ‘[Cavalry] Build+’, it’s not clear if a unit needs to be in a mounted class to take advantage of it. It’s possible that every unit can take advantage of the buffs, and ‘[Cavalry]’ just refers to the kind of buff the captured animal conveys, similarly to units in Engage getting certain buffs when engaging with an Emblem, depending on their movement type.

These buffs might be unique to Cai’s route, or it might be possible for other teams to obtain similar buffs, as I outline in the theory below.

- Do we know that certification into mounted classes automatically comes with the matching mount? Or do units in this game have to obtain them separately?

Seriously, Cai’s ability to capture animals makes me wonder about this hard. He can capture an animal which is presumably the mount for a promotion class to the Ornius Rider. Why can he do that? Is it really just a flavor explanation for Cai being able to provide himself and his teammates with stat buffs? Or is it a sign of how the class system works as regards mounted units?

This would be huge for him and his team if true. Every other team has to go out and get their mounts the hard way, presumably by buying them. If it’s possible to buy mounts with these stat buffs, they must be more expensive than ‘standard’ mounts. And Cai, in this scenario, can go out and get them for free. If he can do it multiple times per chapter, he can get multiple mounts. And yeah, there’s a chance of failure, but we don’t know what that chance of failure is. In most Fire Emblem games, the most powerful classes tend to be either Cavalry or Flying, and if they have to be obtained separate from the certifications, Cai is the only lord who can get multiple mounts for his team without potentially breaking the bank doing it.

Summing Up:

On a whole, I’m interested to see in greater detail how all of these abilities work. To sum up, my assessment of these abilities are:

- Dietrich: Very straightforward, doesn’t appear to have much complexity, but has hidden potential depending on the game economy and how world-map turns work.

- Theodora: Solid ability mainly focused on utility, but has battlefield potential as well

- Leda: Empowers her to get a full team assembled much more quickly than the other three, and get them outfitted with good weapons, rocking steel weapons when everyone else has to wield iron, forged weapons when everyone else has to wield basic.