It’s been 35 years since Intelligent Systems debuted its Fire Emblem series on Nintendo's Famicom. Through its ever-evolving combat and the introduction of beloved character bonding mechanics, the series has ascended to the upper echelon of tactical RPGs, culminating in two excellent mainline entries on the Nintendo Switch.
As we near the end of the original Switch era, we’ve compiled a list of every Fire Emblem game available on the console as well as what's coming to the Switch 2.
There are five Fire Emblem games on Switch: two mainline games and three spinoffs. There are three additional Fire Emblem games available with Nintendo Switch Online, though Path of Radiance is only available to Switch 2 owners with the Expansion Pack.
The first Fire Emblem game released on Switch was the Dynasty Warriors crossover Fire Emblem Warriors. The mashup incorporates the best elements of each series, blending Fire Emblem’s team-based strategy with Dynasty Warriors’ button-mashing, hack-and-slash action. It’s a worthwhile spinoff for action fans, though the light story makes it inessential to those concerned with Fire Emblem lore.
The game was developed by Dynasty Warriors studio Omega Force in collaboration with the action gurus at Team Ninja (Ninja Gaiden, Nioh).
Fire Emblem: Three Houses was a milestone release for the series. It was the first Fire Emblem game released on a home console in 12 years, the first mainline entry released on Switch, and a critical and commercial success that carried forward the momentum of Awakening seven years before it.
Three Houses is a massive tactical RPG that balances the grand with the intimate. Large-scale battles progress an overarching story of politics and religion within a continental war, while quieter moments between battles are spent in the monastery training, teaching, exploring, and bonding with other characters through well-written and -acted conversations.
Three Houses is Fire Emblem at its best, and what we'd recommend as a starting point if you’re looking to jump into the series on Switch.
In 2020, Nintendo released Tokyo Mirage Sessions #FE Encore, an expanded port of the original Wii U release. Encore added new story content, characters, and music to the Nintendo-Atlus crossover game, which blends Fire Emblem’s “weapon triangle” combat mechanic — swords have an advantage over axes, axes over lances, lances over swords — with the flashy style, dungeon-crawling, and moment-to-moment combat of Atlus’s Shin Megami Tensei and Persona games.
The story is a comical, often over-the-top send-up of Japanese pop-culture that, as in Warriors before it, takes a backseat to the action.
Nintendo re-teamed with Omega Force for Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, the companies’ second Fire Emblem-Dynasty Warriors crossover following Fire Emblem Warriors. Three Hopes is a retelling of Three Houses set in an alternate timeline where Three Houses’ protagonist Byleth serves as the main villain.
Three Hopes is a more robust blend of the two franchises than its predecessor, integrating more of Fire Emblem’s social and tactical mechanics with Dynasty Warriors’ fast-paced action.
Fire Emblem Engage is the series’ latest game and its second mainline entry on Switch. Engage is a progression of Three Houses’ excellence and an ode to Fire Emblem's past: It refines and scales down the social and hub mechanics of Three Houses while shifting its primary focus to the series’ longstanding tactical combat, most notably reintroducing Fire Emblem’s “weapon triangle" system.
The story of Engage follows a Divine Dragon named Alear, who’s tasked with collecting 12 rings to defeat the Fell Dragon and save the continent of Elyos. Engage’s original story connects to the series past through these 12 rings, each of which houses the spirit of a past Fire Emblem protagonist, allowing you to summon past heroes such as Marth, Ike, Celica, and Byleth.
There are currently two Fire Emblem games available with a Nintendo Switch Online subscription outside of Japan: the 2003 Game Boy Advance game Fire Emblem, aka Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade, and the 2004 follow-up Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones. A third game, 2005's Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance, was also added to the catalog when GameCube games launched on the Switch 2.
Here’s the complete list of Fire Emblem games currently available with a Nintendo Switch Online + Expansion Pack subscription:
It was announced during the September Nintendo Direct that a new Fire Emblem game will be arriving on Switch 2 consoles next year. The upcoming game is called Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, and while we don't yet have a release date, we know that it will be out sometime in 2026. Nintendo has officially released the first trailer for the game you can check it out below for more details.
Jordan covers games, shows, and movies as a freelance writer for IGN.
