Fire Emblem: Three Houses is the best-selling game in the entire franchise, so it’s little wonder Nintendo would want to return with another entry set in the land of Fódlan. Unlike the first Fire Emblem Warriors, the upcoming Three Hopes focuses exclusively on the characters and world of Three Houses and seemingly doesn’t loop in any other games in the franchise. Of course, the game also follows in the footsteps of Koei Tecmo’s Dynasty Warriors series. Here’s what you need to know about the release date, story, and gameplay of Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes.

When is the Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes release date?

Alongside its reveal during the February 2022 Nintendo Direct, it was announced that Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes will launch worldwide on June 24, 2022, for Nintendo Switch.

Is there Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes trailer?

There’s currently one trailer for Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, the reveal trailer from the Nintendo Direct. The two-minute trailer heavily focuses on Edelgard, Dmitri, and Claude, showing a bit of gameplay as well as story context. We’ll dive more into both below, but you can watch the trailer for yourself.

What is the Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes story?

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes will apparently tell an entirely different story set within the same universe, meaning the events of Three Houses won’t apply here. While the reveal trailer was a bit light on story, it does seem like the three lords (Edelgard, Dmitri, Claude) will be teaming up to face a larger threat.

At one point in the trailer, we hear the voice of Sothis cut in and say “Revenge is not a thing you take for someone else. You seek revenge to slake your rage and heal your wounded heart.” This line is played over footage of Byleth fighting a mysterious new character, with the words seemingly applying to Byleth themselves. The box art for the game also features a second mysterious character standing opposite Sothis, which could imply that players are going up against another kind of “divine” character.

The trailer does still have the three lords at odds with each other, and interestingly there also seems to be a time skip, just like in Three Houses. Certain scenes show characters looking older with different costumes, but it’s not exactly clear how this plays into the overall story.

What do we know about Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes gameplay?

Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes will sport the same hack-and-slash gameplay of the previous games and most Dynasty Warriors games. The trailer shows plenty of massive battles, with the player cutting through dozens of on-screen enemies. There does appear to potentially be a few changes this time around, however.

There appear to be boss battles against the Demonic Beasts, similar to how boss battles worked in Hyrule Warriors. The original Fire Emblem Warriors put a larger emphasis on strategy, letting players issue commands to different units on the battlefield. That seems to be the same here, with the minimap highlighting different areas that could be bases or objectives.

One of the more interesting details, though, is what looks to be a world map system with different icons to interact with. Stopping the trailer at 54 seconds shows the player selecting a house with a rewards tab listed under the card that pops up. The world map probably functions similarly to the one in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, allowing players to interact with different parts of the map and undertake side quests.

Who are the Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes characters?

One of the biggest questions with any Warriors is game is which characters will be playable, and we at least know a few from the first trailer for Three Hopes. Obviously, Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude, and Byleth will all be playable. However, we also have future versions of the characters, which could play differently based on the screenshot above. The future version of Claude seems to be riding a dragon during combat, while the past version is seen on foot during the trailer.

The first Fire Emblem Warriors also had two different characters for the male and female versions of Robin and Corrin, and that seems likely to happen with Byleth. Past that we don’t know many other playable characters, and Hubert and Jeralt are the only Three Houses characters that pop up. Hubert seems like a good pick for a playable character, and it’s likely we’ll get at least one or two others from the other houses. For comparison’s sake, the first Fire Emblem Warriors featured 25 playable characters in the base game, then added on nine other characters via DLC.