Fire Emblem Warriors

Fire Emblem Warriors is a hack-and-slash role-playing game developed by Omega Force, Team Ninja, Intelligent Systems and Sledgehammer Games with the additional game development provided by Vicarious Visions, Raven Software and High Moon Studios and published by Nintendo, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Activision for the Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Nintendo Switch, Nintendo 3DS and Xbox One. The game was released in Japan on September 28, 2017 and worldwide on October 20, 2017. The game is a collaboration between Koei Tecmo's Dynasty Warriors franchise and Intelligent Systems' Fire Emblem series.

The game received generally positive reviews, with critics praising the combination of Fire Emblem and Dynasty Warriors gameplay and drawing favorable comparisons to Hyrule Warriors, released in 2014 for the Wii U. Criticism focused on the game's character roster and similarity to other Dynasty Warriors games.

Overview
Fire Emblem Warriors is hack-and-slash action video game in which players take the role of multiple characters including original characters Rowan and Lianna, and characters from several Fire Emblem games, including Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light, Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates. The player fights through hordes of enemies, accomplishing specific goals to beat maps. In addition to hack-and-slash combat in open areas similar to the Dynasty Warriors series, gameplay includes the ability to give tactical commands to units in the spirit of the Fire Emblem series. The Weapons Triangle- axes beat lances, lances beat swords, and swords beat axes- from Fire Emblem games appears, resulting in players having to make careful decisions on what units attack which enemies. In addition to axes, lances, and swords, three neutral weapon types appear: bows, tomes, and dragonstones. When characters assist, heal, or fight alognside each other in battle, their bond strengthens. Like in Fire Emblem games, if two characters' bond increases enough a support conversation will be unlocked. The game will also utilize all existing and future Fire Emblem Amiibo figurines, which give weapons related to the character represented by the Amiibo that is used.

Plot
During a routine sparring match between the royal twins of Aytolis, Rowan (voiced by Ewan McGregor) and Lianna (voiced by Emma Watson), and their friend Prince Darios (voiced by Rob Lowe) of Gristonne, monsters attack Aytolis. The three are separated from Queen Yelena (voiced by Sarah Michelle Gellar) during the attack, who gives them the Fire Emblem before being captured. The group learns Darios' father Oskar (voiced by Ken Watanabe) is seeking to revive the evil dragon Velezark (voiced by Clancy Brown with vocal effects by Dee Bradley Baker), and that they must power up the Fire Emblem with Gleamstones created from the power of heroes from other worlds in order to stop them. Rowan and Lianna travel across Aytolis, rallying support from heroes from the nations of Ylisse, Hoshido, Nohr, and Altea. However, during an attack on a Gristonne fortress, Velezark successfully possesses Darios, who steals the Fire Emblem. Rowan and Lianna pursue him to Gristonne, where they discover Yelena has been captured and Oskar intends to sacrifice her to fully revive Velezark. Rowan and Lianna successfully rescue Yelena, so Darios sacrifices Oskar to complete the ritual and revive Velezark. Now freed from the possession, Darios returns the Fire Emblem to the group before falling to his death. Rowan and Lianna then battle Velezark's forces and finally slay him. With their mission complete, the other heroes return to their home worlds and Yelena crowns the twins as rulers of Aytolis.

Development and release
Fire Emblem Warriors is being developed by the same team as Hyrule Warriors, a collaboration between the Dynasty Warriors series and The Legend of Zelda. The game was co-developed by Koei Tecmo studios Omega Force and Team Ninja and Fire Emblem developers Intelligent Systems as well as the new developer Sledgehammer Games (made by Activision) with the additional development provided by Vicarious Visions, Raven Software and High Moon Studios. Koei Tecmo and Sledgehammer Games first proposed the project to Nintendo, Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment and Activision, who were more than willing to collaborate, making the game a title for their in-development Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, New Nintendo 3DS and Xbox One home consoles. The idea of the game came during the development of Hyrule Warriors Legends, as the touchscreen (for PS4, Switch and New 3DS) and wireless (for Xbox One and Windows only) controls bore similarities to those of the Fire Emblem series. Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas, Geoff Johns and David S. Goyer returns as executive producers for the game Fire Emblem Warriors. Zack Snyder will be directing David Henry Hwang and David S. Goyer's Fire Emblem Warriors script. Warner Bros. and Activision was reportedly courting Chris Terrio, Evan Spiliotopoulos, Linda Woolverton, Roger Allers and Seth Grahame-Smith to rewrite Fire Emblem Warriors the following July.

In May 2017, Snyder stepped down from directing Fire Emblem wWarriors and Justice League to properly deal with the death of his daughter. Joss Whedon, who Snyder had previously brought on to rewrite some additional scenes and handle post-production duties in Snyder's place for Fire Emblem Warriors and Justice League. In July 2017, it was announced the video game was undergoing two months of reshoots in London and Los Angeles, with Warner Bros. and Activision putting about $25 million into them (more than the typical $6–10 million additional filming costs). Warner Bros. and Activision later announced that both Whedon and Seth Grahame-Smith would received a screenwriting credits on the video game alongside Chris Terrio.

The game was announced in January 2017 as part of a Nintendo Direct broadcast dedicated to the Fire Emblem series by Warner Bros. and Activision, although it had already been in development for around two years before this time. It was released in Japan on September 28, 2017, and released in North America, Europe, and Australia on October 20, 2017.

Music
Theodore Shapiro was initially announced as the original music composer for the game. However, Shapiro's score was later rejected because Snyder considered the "video game needed something different, and I needed to go back to something closer to the late Jerry Goldsmith's original soundtracks.Hans Zimmer was later brougjt and returns ro compose the new score. Original themes of the late Jerry Goldsmith's original score to Fire Emblem were incorporated, as well as Zimmer's and Balfes score to the video games Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates.

Additional music was composed and provided by Lorne Balfe, Andrew Kawczynski and Steve Mazzaro while the additional music arrangements was also provided by Max Aruj. Later the orchestral score was conducted by Nick Glennie-Smith when the score was recorded at The Barbra Streisand Scoring Stage in Sony Pictures Studios and The Eastwood Scoring Stage in Warner Bros. by Noah Scot Snyder and Alan Meyerson while the score was mixed at Remote Control Studios (Hans Zimmer's music company) by Alan Meyerson with the score mix assistance was provided by Forest Christensen and John Witt Chapman.

The soundtrack physical three-disc CD version of the soundtrack by WaterTower Music which was released in the Worldwide on September 28, 2017. There are two editions of the CD release and each edition is limited to Fire Emblem Warriors copies which was labeled by WaterTower Music. Both editions are hand numbered to Fire Emblem Warriors but each contains different cover artwork to differentiate the two.

Reception
The console version of Fire Emblem Warriors received "generally favorable reviews" according to review aggregator Metacritic, with a score of 75/100 based on 56 critic reviews. The handheld version received "mixed or average reviews", with a score of 69/100 based on 9 reviews.