Fire Emblem Heroes Isn’t the Fire Emblem Game you Think it is

I’m a huge Fire Emblem fan. I loved playing through every single Gameboy Advance title as a kid, and pretty much every game on every platform since.
I love strategy games, and as such seeing a Fire Emblem game for mobile devices was a surprise to me. It meant I could not only play the game while out at the store, but also while pooping, in bed, or.. pretty much anywhere.

So, Fire Emblem Heroes begins by throwing you right into the action.
Apparently we’re some kind of highly-skilled tactician summoned through a portal and are tasked with aiding.. heroes from all the different Fire Emblem games?
You know, Lyn, Eliwood, Ephraim, Marth, Ike. Yup – from what I could tell, they somehow find the time to stuff every single hero they can into this game, the most popular ones appearing earlier on.
However, unlike traditional Fire Emblem titles, Fire Emblem Heroes doesn’t allow you to have nearly as much control and customization over your team as you’d like.
See, traditionally, you can hold how many characters per battle? 10? 12? 15? Off the top of my head I don’t recall, but I know it varies depending on the story mission you’re playing.
However, in Heroes, you have a maximum number of.. 4 heroes per battle. And there are always a maximum of 4 enemies per battle. This makes it highly anticlimactic, and requires little to no effort on your part.
I used the same 4 characters for an hour of play and never had a single issue with any fight – no enemy ever did more than a couple points of damage, and the game required absolutely no strategy, no forethought on my part.
I mean heck, I don’t even know if a character dying in battle incapacitates them permanently.

There’s quite a lot of differences with regards to Heroes that just aren’t present in traditional Fire Emblem games, enough where, if the characters weren’t from the main Fire Emblem series, it wouldn’t feel remotely similar.
Fire Emblem Heroes isn’t a bad game by any means. Is it a bad Fire Emblem game? Yes. Is it a bad strategy game? No. There are enough recruitable characters, customization, maps and story to waste time in and enjoy.
I just don’t feel like they should have necessarily slapped the Fire Emblem name onto it.

So if you’re looking for a Fire Emblem game to play on mobile devices, this might not be up your alley.
It’s far too simplified and offers little to no need for any form of real strategy, unfortunately. Something Fire Emblem is known for.