Does Magic Suck in Fire Emblem Fates?

In my last article about Fire Emblem Fates, I wrote something that I wanted to expand on:

My opinion on magic users was fairly pessimistic prior to this playthrough, but now I’m a believer. Well, I’m a believer that Magic Corrin is broken as shit after watching her tear through so much of Conquest. Odin, Leo, and especially Nyx still belong in the trash bin.

In general, I think that Magic is fairly weak across the whole of Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest. Part of that might just be a perception issue though. The previous Fire Emblem game that I played, Awakening, had very overtuned Magic users. Magic was almost always your strongest attacking option in the majority of situations, and it ultimately cheapened a bunch of Awakening’s more interesting levels.

By comparison, Fates puts nowhere near as many Magic weak targets in front of the player. It’s not just that though – there are other factors that reduce the usability of Magic, or otherwise directly nerf the abilities of Mages. After reflecting on my time with the Fates, I wanted to share why I believe Magic users just don’t feel all that strong across the entirety of the Conquest campaign.

Weapon Triangle Advantage

One of the core tenants of Fire Emblem’s combat design is the Weapon Triangle. This is a combat system wherein your unit will receive a damage and accuracy boost, or penalty to their attacks based on the weapon they’re using. Similar to Pokémon’s elemental types, each weapon has some kind of offensive advantage against another type of weapon, and an associated weakness. Thus, combat in Fire Emblem becomes a delicate balancing act where players try to exploit these advantages while they’re attacking, and defending throughout a skirmish.

While the Weapon Triangle has always existed, the specifics have changed numerous times over Fire Emblem’s history. The basics have remained the same: swords beat axes, axes beat lances, and lances beat swords. However, beyond that it seems developer Intelligent Systems isn’t afraid to shake things up. They’re always looking to re-balance things in a way that creates exciting new micro, and macro level strategies across a Fire Emblem campaign.

Editor’s Notes: minor correction here – the Weapon Triangle hasn’t existed in all Fire Emblem games. It was reportedly introduced in the fourth game, but was a staple by the seventh game, which is when Fire Emblem games started being released in North America where I live.

As a result of this design philosophy, Fire Emblem Fates features a revision over Awakening’s implementation of the Weapon Triangle. You still have your basic triangle that I previously outlined, but it has been bolstered to include magical tomes, bows, and knives. In Awakening, neither tomes, nor bows were subject to Weapon Triangle Advantage (henceforth WTA). This gives both weapons a radically different feel in Fates, especially Fates: Conquest when compared to my limited prior Fire Emblem experience. For example: in Awakening, I’d use magic tomes to attack anything with a low Resistance stat. However, in Fates things aren’t that simple because I also have to factor WTA into account.

As it would turn out, having to factor WTA into if you want to attack with a tome was a huge additional wrinkle. The first, and most obvious, reason for this is that Mages now have an accuracy penalty against Knights. The Knight class is notorious for its impressively high defensive stats, but has one critical weakness: low Resistance. This means that Knights are easily dispatched by any of your magical weapon users.

However, in Fates, Knights have WTA against tomes. This means that attacking them with a tome wielding Dark Mage will incur an accuracy penalty, which reduces the reliability of Mages in an area where they previously dominated. This is also true for Cavalier units, which frequently charge into battle with lances, and have a low Resistance stat. 

This is particularly notable because Fire Emblem, in general, is a game where you almost never have a guaranteed chance to hit your opponent. Planning around misses, and using WTA to bolster your hit rate are the keys to success. Trying to use a Mage in a scenario where they have a shaky hit rate can lead to critical compounding failures that entirely scuff your plan of attack. While it can be fun to adjust your plans mid-fight, constantly having to do so because your Dark Mage can’t reliably hit their key targets is annoying, and can lead to scenarios where the player is putting their other more valuable units at risk of being killed.

What’s even worse, is that the enemy types that Mages do have WTA against are very easy to take out with other weapon types. Archers, and most axe wielding unit types have next to no defensive profile, so they’re easily crushed by sword users, the weapon type that tomes share their WTA slot with. This, combined with the fact that you’re given 2 very powerful, and several mid-tier, sword users in the Conquest campaign mean that there isn’t really a lot of space for Mages to breathe. At best they feel somewhat redundant next to your sword users, and at worst Mages feel wholly unnecessary because there aren’t enough high defense targets to justify wasting a deployment slot on them.

Tomes Are the Worst Magic Weapon

That’s all before we touch on what is likely the most damning aspect for Mages in the Conquest campaign: that other magical weapons are simply better than tomes. I’m not exactly sure what the folks at Intelligent Systems were thinking, but players are able to buy 2 of the best magical weapons in the whole of Fire Emblem Fates during the Conquest campaign: Bolt Axe, and Shining Bow. Both of these weapons have an incredibly high base Might, 1-2 range, and the ability to strike an enemy’s Resistance stat. This comes at the cost of neither being able to land a critical hit, but that hardly matters when both weapons can consistently deal SO much damage. Personally, I’d take consistent high damage, over infrequent critical hits any day of the week.

It also bears mentioning that both the Bolt Axe, and Shining Bow have WTA against those aforementioned lance wielding unit types. This means that the niche that mages once held exclusively, is now better handled by classes with access to either of these weapons. Sure, Mages still have the highest Magic stat, but, as previously stated, both of these magical weapons have a tremendous Might stat. This helps to compensate for a lower Magic stat, and makes either weapon downright oppressive in the hands of any unit that actually has a halfway decent Magic stat. As I noted in my Conquest postmortem, I made Corrin magically aligned in my fourth playthrough, and she was an absolute behemoth when equipped with the Bolt Axe.

Now, I think it would be unfair to not mention the Calamity Gate at this juncture. It, like the aforementioned magical weapons, also has WTA against lance users, and allows Mages to regain their former dominance over them. However, players can only obtain a single Calamity Gate in Conquest, and it’s a little out of the way. You’ll need to obtain an S rank support between Odin, and one of your women recruits. This unlocks his daughter Ophelia’s recruitment chapter where you can scoop up a Calamity Gate tome.

However, while the Calamity Gate is very obviously useful, you only get 1. This means that it can never be upgraded. This limitation doesn’t apply to either the Bolt Axe, nor the Shining Bow. This only further widens the power gap between these different offensive options, and further supports the notion that magical weapons are superior to tomes.

Mages Just Don’t Make a Good First Impression

Finally, and, arguably, most crucially, there’s the fact that none of the Mages in Conquest manage to make a very strong first impression. That may seem like an odd point, but first impressions matter a lot in Fire Emblem. This is especially true on a blind playthrough. Players are given a limited number of deployment slots for every map, and several potential options to fill those slots with. I can only speak for myself, but a unit that fails to make a strong first impression during the chapter that they join the party will always end up benched for the remainder of the campaign. This happens with absolutely no exceptions. Resources are tight, so I simply can’t afford to waste time on anyone who hasn’t demonstrated why I should care about them.

To really illustrate what I mean about the strength of a good first impression, we can look to Chapter 8: Cold Reception. This is the map where Conquest gives the player their first Dark Mage: Odin. Unfortunately, the map’s design doesn’t help to highlight any of Odin’s, admittedly limited, strengths. Instead, he’s completely overshadowed by the other unit that joins in the same map: Niles. Niles is able to punch holes through the numerous enemy Dark Mages that are deployed across the map, which is something that your party is likely to struggle with at this point in the campaign. Odin does…nothing. There are a few axe wielding Fighters on the map, but they’re easily dispatched by everyone. Odin just feels like he’s along for the ride during the whole skirmish.

Likewise, in the following chapter, players are able to recruit Nyx who is also given nothing to do. There are a couple of Archers that she could help with, but she’s likely to get shot to death if she tries to take them on at a distance. This means that you’ll need to approach them directly, and at that point you might as well use one of your sword wielders. In fact, Silas’ increased Cavalier movement means that he’s more likely to get to the Archers first so you’re almost certainly going to be using him to pick off the enemy Archers before Nyx could meaningfully contribute. That’s without mentioning how Nyx has almost no points in her Skill stat, so she struggles to even land hits with WTA which further compounds how poorly she introduces herself.

The one exception here is Leo who fairs a little better than either Odin, or Nyx. There are several targets in Chapter 14: Voice of Paradise which Leo can take advantage of by utilizing his access to Magic, and WTA. However, players can still easily finish the skirmish without ever using Leo. Just because he can be used doesn’t mean you’re going to use him. This isn’t like how Camilla, Elise, and Xander completely bail the player out during their respective join chapters. Leo is just sort of there if you want to use him when he joins your party. As one could imagine, this makes Leo feel like a bit of a wet noodle, especially when compared to his other 3 siblings.

With those 3 introductions I wouldn’t be surprised if a player completely dropped using all 3 of the Dark Mage options that they’re provided in their first playthrough. I certainly did. I only wasted a deployment slot on Leo because his Heartseeker ability made it easier to take out the boss of each level. Otherwise, he was used for ferrying units around the battlefield. As previously stated, resources were at a premium, and none of the Dark Mages made a good case for themselves, nor did I find myself desperate for a magic user throughout my campaign when alternative magical attackers were available thanks to the Bolt Axe, and Shining Bow.

I hope throughout this piece I’ve clearly demonstrated exactly where the problems exist for Mages throughout Fire Emblem Fates: Conquest. The problem is less about them being nerfed into the Stone Age, and more that a variety of system changes made them far less desirable to use. The addition of WTA to tomes helped to reign in their overwhelming dominance from the previous Fire Emblem, but this also allowed other magical weapons to steal the spotlight from Mages. Combine that with a slew of terrible first impressions, and it’s no wonder that Dark Mages feel so underwhelming throughout the majority of Conquest.