Less than an hour into Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, firearms produce the game’s funniest and most memorable narrative moment.
Troy quickly emerged as my favourite character, despite not being one of the four central protagonists. She is an older woman, a welcome rarity in games that often overlook older characters, and one of the first people encountered who uses a gun.
How guns work in Fortune’s Weave
Firearms are a new weapon type for the series. In gameplay terms, they belong to the gauntlet category. Equipping one increases a character’s evasion, making them more difficult to hit.
Their position among the game’s other weapons is still difficult to assess. I had only seen guns in the brief prologue and had not yet unlocked them during the main game, so their full effectiveness remained unknown.
When the healer carries a gun
The most entertaining part of the idea is how the story frames firearms. Troy is a priest, which makes her weapon choice particularly amusing in a traditional sword-and-shield fantasy world. Healers in Fire Emblem are not normally the characters you expect to see carrying a firearm.
Here, guns appear to be standard equipment for the healer class. The party includes armoured soldiers and dagger-wielding rogues, while Troy embodies the familiar “I’m a healer, but…” joke. The image also recalls the gun-toting nun archetype, along with Mercy from Overwatch.
Guns become part of the story
Firearms are not introduced in a tutorial and then ignored. The game gives them a central role in a cutscene that may be the most spectacularly funny sequence in Fire Emblem history.
After the party defeats the evil lieutenant of Balor, the death god, he launches a surprise attack. The heroes are caught off guard as a building collapses around them. Fortuna, the goddess of Fate, intervenes by rewinding time, giving the party a chance to avoid the ambush.
When the lieutenant finds his enemies have suddenly vanished, he briefly looks around. Troy then appears and unloads a barrage of bullets into his skull at point-blank range before declaring, “That’s the force it takes to get anything into the skull of a man like that.”
The scene makes guns feel like more than a mechanical addition. Their presence changes the tone of the world, especially when a priest is the one delivering the punchline with a firearm.
That combination may appeal to players who enjoy the immediacy of arcade light guns and shooting games. For anyone considering a home setup, RETROCADE’s arcade machine buying guide offers a useful place to start, while the wider arcade machine collection covers different cabinet formats.
It remains unclear how prominently guns will feature throughout the rest of Fortune’s Weave, but Troy’s introduction has already made them one of the game’s most intriguing additions.
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