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The story
EDGE Magazine, the UK gaming publication known for its harsh reviews, gave Nintendo’s simulation RPG “Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave” a high score of 9 out of 10 — news of this was shared on X (formerly Twitter) and sparked discussion on 5ch’s hardware/industry board. Since EDGE is known for handing out low scores even to blockbuster titles, this high score is considered unusual even by the magazine’s own standards. In the thread, opinions were traded from all kinds of angles: the gap between the glowing overseas reception and the harsher reactions seen in parts of Japan, takes on political correctness, and doubts about the reviewer’s own scoring standards.
EDGE Magazine just awarded Fire Emblem Fortune’s Weave a 9/10 🔥
That’s an especially impressive score, because EDGE is notoriously brutal on games — their scores don’t come easy.
Source: x.com / original post here
What people said
What hit them so hard?
This is genuinely baffling
Maybe it's hitting the same kind of nerve as BG3?
I don't even like SRPGs so I can't really tell
Review standards have suddenly shifted lately so it's honestly hard to say
If anything's changed, it's that the PlayStation favoritism has died down
Either way, it's a good thing if Japanese games get judged fairly without the biased lens
Japan's scores are high too, what are you even talking about?
Nintendo favoritism maybe?
Oh, and sure, Wolverine's trash too, of course
Wolverine's already been abandoned lmao
How far did you even play it?
the loudest complaints are basically "I can't play it flawlessly on my first try" or "there's too much content, it's exhausting" — that kind of thing
Both examples boil down to the standard of "it's crap because I can't grasp it at a glance"
Re: #27
The standard for judging SIE/Sony titles does seem to have changed, but not much seems different for Nintendo
This one's popular partly because it leans heavily into TRPG elements too
meanwhile in Japan you'd think from the sheer intensity of the bashing it's something serious, but it's just "the UI's a bit off" or whatever
If that's really it, that'd be pretty dumb lol
This game has a ton of "women written as women" type material, and the beautiful characters stay straightforwardly beautiful as the story moves along, so content-wise it genuinely doesn't feel PC at all
If anything it swings pretty hard the other way, to the point you wonder if that's even allowed these days
Ah, yeah, I get that a bit
I also wondered what was so great about BG3 given its score
Re: #7
It's such a shame the cut protagonists aren't included
If they got added even as DLC, I'd probably give it the same score as everyone else
Not being able to objectively grasp the sheer effort behind everything BG3 lets you do and how far the story branches out — that's rough
Think about it the other way: the reason you didn't know what to do is exactly why overseas gamers rate it as "you can do anything"
Honestly it wasn't well understood back then either, and it didn't sell on PS5 — though there were a fair number of Japanese-language users on PC
Probably because there's nothing comparable out there; especially in an environment where people jumped straight to JRPGs without ever experiencing tabletop RPGs
Well, that's exactly the point — isn't that the kind of thing FE is being credited for too?
Though that's a separate question from whether it's actually fun
That scoring logic actually makes sense
Wolverine's game doesn't let you wander off at all, it just wants to railroad you forward
FE, on the other hand, is all about letting you do every kind of thing
Maybe that's the score after the bonus points
Honestly, I don't think 10 hours is enough to get why it's fun
Well, I guess it just ends with "not for me"
I'm over 90 hours in, finished Part 1 with my third character, and honestly the first 10 hours were the shakiest stretch for me too
Mostly in terms of difficulty
Once you're on your third character it flows a lot smoother, and a different kind of fun opens up — I'm hooked
other Nintendo games would score high too
but the rest score low, so that tells you something
The Sony-favoritism guys are keeping quiet on this one — that boomerang came back and hit so hard they're bleeding, huh?
The cocky Fire Emblem fans ("Emblemers") who called this game a total pushover are already starting to whine — cracked me up
Compared to recent FE games, this one's actually pretty hard, which is unusual
That said, there are already people who dove straight into Hard mode's final chapter and cleared it — skilled players really are just different
If low scores can come from people who never actually played it, the same logic cuts both ways
The clear rate after pushing through that slog is also worth keeping an eye on
To begin with, most people who've cleared every route of Part 1 haven't even reached Part 3 yet, and rushing through probably factors into it too
I personally haven't even touched Part 2
That's what happens when you rush through and level everyone up haphazardly
Someone recommend me a healer
Do I really have no choice but to use the Yokai Monk?
The healers considered strong are the ones with the "Riburō" healing skill: Sofia, Olympia, Yokai, and Tiara
Nine and Lillian can also learn Riburō on top of that
If it were just this one title you could chalk it up to it not being his taste, but he's gone and savaged Nintendo's top two Metascore titles of the year almost like he's targeting them on purpose
The fact that he's nowhere near as harsh on other multiplatform PlayStation games makes it hard not to smell some console-war ("geha") bias
The moment you realize he never even touched Wolverine, that says it all
It's a garbage review, but just look at the padded view count and you can tell everything lol
Oh, really?
That guy's no good then
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
EDGE Magazine is a long-running British gaming publication dating back to the 1990s, known for giving tough scores even to major titles, which makes a 9-out-of-10 a rare high mark even by the magazine’s own standards. “Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave” is the latest entry in Nintendo’s simulation RPG (Fire Emblem) series; while it earned praise overseas for its deep strategic gameplay, domestic reactions in Japan showed notable frustration with its difficulty and controls. Opinions in the thread split between those who felt overseas review standards have shifted in recent years, and those who simply believed the title’s quality was that high. At the same time, some posts claimed certain reviewers’ scoring tendencies are biased toward specific platforms, and others asserted that critical reactions on social media were an organized campaign by operators from a specific country — but it’s worth noting these are all individual speculation from 5ch posters, not substantiated claims.
*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary from the 5ch Hardware/Industry (“Geha”) board thread “EDGE Magazine, notorious for being brutally harsh on games, gives Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave a 9/10!“
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