is a free-to-play tactical role-playing game developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for Android and iOS. The game is a mobile spin-off of the Fire Emblem series featuring its characters, utilizing a more simplistic gameplay style as well as a gacha system in order to obtain characters from throughout the series. Fire Emblem Heroes was created as one of Nintendo's first attempts to create games for the mobile market, with developers at Intelligent Systems aiming to capture the core Fire Emblem gameplay formula while making it friendly for newcomers to the series. Heroes released worldwide on February 2, 2017. Since then, it has received consistent updates, which have added new gameplay modes and playable characters to the game.
At launch, Fire Emblem Heroes received a largely positive response from critics, who praised its gameplay and beginner friendliness, among other attributes. However, other critics felt the game's story was weak and that its stamina system at launch was detrimental to its playability. Fire Emblem Heroes received a number of awards and nominations in "Best Mobile Game" categories, and as of 2025 has grossed over $1.3 billion USD worldwide, becoming Nintendo's first mobile game to gross over $1 billion USD and the most profitable game in the Fire Emblem franchise. Characters and elements from the game would appear in other Nintendo and Fire Emblem series games following its release.
Gameplay and plot
Fire Emblem Heroes is a tactical role-playing game. It uses a simplified version of the usual Fire Emblem gameplay style that removes many complex aspects of the main series, including "permadeath", a mechanic from the main series in which a character can no longer be used following their defeat in battle. In Fire Emblem Heroes, players control a team of up to four characters ("Heroes") against enemy teams of varying sizes on an 8x6 grid map. Different characters have different movement restrictions, with battlefields having numerous hazards that can restrict movement, such as destructible walls and mountainous terrain. The game strictly alternates between a player phase and an enemy phase every turn, with the player's units moving before the enemy's does soon after. In combat, heroes deal either physical or magical damage types; they also have a "color" that informs the player of a rock paper scissors-esque system that makes it so some units have advantageous match-ups over other units. If a hero is defeated in battle, they cannot be used again until after the battle is over. After combat, they will be restored to full health, but will not gain any experience points from the battle if they are defeated.
Battles available in the game include set story missions divided by chapters for the player to complete, rotating challenge missions, a training tower for increasing character's strength in random battles, and fights against other players' teams (albeit controlled by the game's AI) in the Arena. A form of player versus player combat was later added in 2021, dubbed Summoner Duels, which allow players to use their teams to battle against each other. Heroes will gain experience points by defeating enemies in these battles, but also gain "SP", which can be used to acquire skills that improve a hero's combat abilities. Another mechanic, "skill inheritance", allows characters to use weapons and skills that come from other heroes themselves.
The game has an in-game currency known as "orbs". Orbs are either earned by completing in-game activities or with in-app purchases. Orbs can be used to acquire new heroes, who primarily hail from prior Fire Emblem series games, via the game's "Summon" mechanic, which works on a gacha system. Random heroes are summoned using the orbs, with the heroes having a different star rating depending on strength; heroes of a lower star rating can be improved to a higher star rating using in-game items. If a player gains duplicates of the same character, the duplicates can be merged to create a single more powerful character. Though some heroes are obtained for free at the start of the game, most need to obtained using the summon mechanic. Other heroes can be gained for free by completing in-game missions of varying difficulty and effort. Other uses for orbs include to restore stamina. Missions cost stamina to play, and while stamina is recovered over time, players can either use orbs or a "stamina potion" item to replenish their stamina to full at any given time. The exact cost of missions and maximum of stamina held has varied over the course of the app. Orbs can also be used for other purchases, such as leveling up the player's "castle", which increases the amount of experience points gained in battles.
Plot The main conflict in Fire Emblem Heroes is a war between the nations of Askr and Embla. The protagonist, also known as the summoner, whose name can be chosen by the player, aids the Kingdom of Askr and its Order of Heroes, whose members include its Commander Anna, Prince Alfonse, and Princess Sharena. Embla is led by Princess Veronica and Prince Bruno. Both sides use summoned heroes from other worlds, with the other worlds being the settings of other Fire Emblem games. The story of the game is broken up into different "books", with each book having a different focus. Subsequent books focus on different realms based on those in Norse mythology: the second book focuses on Askr working alongside the kingdom of ice, Nifl, against the invading forces of Surtr, ruler of the kingdom of flame; the third focuses on a conflict with Hel, the realm of the dead; the fourth focuses on a conflict in the realm of dreams between the Dökkálfar and Ljósálfar; the fifth focuses on a conflict with Niðavellir, a technologically advanced realm; the sixth focuses on the resolution of the conflict between Askr and Embla as Askr tries to remove an Emblian bloodline curse; the seventh focuses on Askr working alongside Vanaheimr, the realm of light, to combat the threat of Gullveig, who can control time; the eighth focuses on a conflict against Yggdrasil; the ninth focuses on a conflict with Ásgarðr, who seek to capture a boy named Rune; and the tenth focuses on Rune, revealed to actually be the true Alfaðör and creator of all, summoning Fimbulvetr to attack and destroy Nifl.
Development Fire Emblem Heroes was initially conceived of by Nintendo, who at the time sought to expand into the mobile game market, and wanted a new Fire Emblem title as one of these titles. Fire Emblem Heroes is developed by Intelligent Systems, the studio within Nintendo that has produced the other games of the Fire Emblem series, with the company leading development of Heroes to ensure it would be a proper Fire Emblem game optimized for mobile devices. Many of Heroes developers had also worked on the mainline Fire Emblem titles, and were heavily focused on ensuring the game's quality compared to mainline titles while maintaining a beginner-friendly, smaller-scale gameplay environment compared to them, notably in the form of the game's map design, which was kept smaller for simplicity. Kouhei Maeda and Shingo Matsushita serve as the directors of the game at Intelligent Systems and Nintendo, respectively. According to Matsushita, the game's free to play gameplay model was conceived of to allow for as many people to get interested in the game as possible. The overall development team also came up with the idea to bring back characters from prior games, with the team feeling as though the game's gacha mechanics would help players get familiar with characters from throughout the series they may be otherwise unfamiliar with.
The game was announced by Nintendo as the third mobile game made under the DeNA partnership in April 2016, alongside an Animal Crossing mobile game, and was originally set for release that year. The game's title and gameplay details were later revealed during a Nintendo Direct presentation in January 2017. Immediately afterwards, Nintendo launched an online "Choose Your Legends" promotion, in which players could vote for various characters from the series to be included in the game. The game was initially released in 39 countries for Android and iOS devices on February 2, 2017. As was the case with Nintendo's previously released mobile game Super Mario Run, Fire Emblem Heroes requires players to have an internet connection to play.
Since launch, the game has periodically released new characters and features. All characters in the game feature new artwork created specially for the game, with each hero also having unique voice lines. There are also many alternate variations of heroes that are added to the game present in different costumes, such as swimsuits. Matsushita compared a normal Fire Emblem game to a movie, and Heroes to a television series; there would be a constant demand for new "episodes", but there would also be a feedback loop between the producers and the players that could affect the initial vision of the product. In an interview with Polygon, Maeda stated that the development team constantly monitored player data for balancing purposes, changing things if they disrupted game balance and team diversity. Matsushita noted that the team was focused on combatting power creep, where new characters get more powerful as the game progresses and older units remain underpowered in comparison, as Matsushita wanted to ensure players could still continue to use their favorite characters as the game continued to expand. In an interview with Nintendo Life in 2019, Matsushita stated that the team's goals largely focused around adding new modes and expanding upon the game's original story, with the team taking player feedback to improve upon the game where possible.
The game features a number of in-game microtransactions, predominantly in the form of letting players buy orbs. The game was shut down in Belgium in 2019 due to legislation regarding gambling in video games in the country. In 2020, the Feh Pass was announced. The Feh Pass serves as a monthly subscription service, costing $9.49 USD per month, with the Pass letting players get extra rewards and other bonuses.
Reception
At the time of the game's release, Fire Emblem Heroes received mixed reception, according to review aggregator platform Metacritic. Critics felt as though the game was easy to start, enjoying the gameplay's strategy, beginner-friendliness, and similarity to mainline Fire Emblem gameplay. Others positively highlighted the game's presentation, such as its artstyle, voice acting, and soundtrack. Allegra Frank, writing for Polygon, found the game to be an entertaining adaptation of the traditional Fire Emblem gameplay style, though she felt the game's summoning system made it hard for players to obtain and use their favorite characters. Thomas Whitehead of Nintendo Life found the game to be best enjoyed in short bursts rather than long sessions, similarly finding it a game that was easy to start. GamingBolts Shubhankar Parijat also found the game to be best enjoyed in smaller sessions, as due to the more simplified gameplay system, gameplay could become repetitive in longer sessions.
Nick Dincola, writing for PopMatters, criticized the game, finding its story and character writing weak, with Dincola feeling as though the game did not do anything to add on players' past attention to the series' characters. Nintendo World Reports Daan Koopman also felt that outside of a few interactions, most of the game's story was very forgettable, with Whitehead believing that the lack of an in-depth story was a missed opportunity for the game due to its large character roster.