Nintendo will bring Fire Emblem Heroes, a brand-new story in the tactical role-playing game franchise, to smart devices, the company announced during a Nintendo Direct livestream presentation today.
The game will come toGoogle Play and the Apple App Store on Feb. 2 as a free download.
As a summoner, players will “call upon Fire Emblem heroes throughout history,” including characters from Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade, Fire Emblem Awakening and Fire Emblem Fates, in turn-based battles. Those battles will take place on an 8x6 grid designed to fit on smartphones, Nintendo said, and feature the same weapon triangle system from the Fire Emblem franchise. Players will be able to upgrade their heroes and can even summon additional heroes to supplement their army.
Those summoned heroes come at a real-world cost, it appears. Fire Emblem Heroes will feature optional in-app purchases. Nintendo promises “free and timely updates” that will add new content and characters to the game.
Fire Emblem Heroes will feature new art of well-known characters, as well as new voiceover dialogue.
In addition to a story-driven campaign, Fire Emblem Heroes will feature a number of additional modes, according to the game’s official description:
Story Maps: The story brings together new Hero characters along with familiar faces from the Fire Emblem series. Lead your army to victory to save the Kingdom of Askr.
Training Tower: Engage in battle scenarios of varying difficulty that you can play over and over to earn rewards and experience (EXP) for your allies. Each time you take on these maps, the enemies and terrain change to offer a new challenge.
Arena Duels: Fight against your rivals around the world. Your high score and ranking will determine your rewards—items that can increase your Heroes' abilities.
Hero Battles: Under Special Maps, discover various battle scenarios that are available for a limited time. Defeat the Heroes who oppose you to convince them to join you as an ally.
Fire Emblem for mobile devices was announced last year — alongside a new Animal Crossing game — as part of Nintendo’s first foray into mobile games. The company’s first mobile game, Super Mario Run, was released in December.
Update: Nintendo confirmed after today’s Fire Emblem Heroes announcement that the Android and iOS versions of the game will arrive on the same day, Feb. 2, 2017.
