Fire Emblem Fates: multiplayer mode revealed, more screenshots

Fire Emblem Fates: Birthright and Conquest comes out today in Japan, and yet, there’s a feature that remained secret until today… multiplayer battles! Those are playable with another player via local wireless, or internet (friend list or randoms). In this mode, you can take part in 5 vs 5 battles, with units picked up from your current army in the game (at any time, you don’t need to beat the main story).

In this mode, there is no fog of war, and each turn has a time limit (5 minutes). If you play with random players online, you can chose to use the standard rules, or go with restrictions (for items such as Eternal Proofs for example).  If you’re not happy with the players you played with, you can chose to blacklist them after the battle.

By default, only 5 maps are available:

– Mountain village
– Opera house
– Destroyed city
– Crumbled fortress
– Palace

Obviously, it’s possible to use the Dragon Veins abilities on those maps, even though some elements cannot be destroyed. Also, each player’s “My Castle” is available as a map, provided you’ve progressed far enough in the story to unlock this feature. Just like in StreetPass battles, this special map features destructible elements. You get to experience the change from nighttime to daytime (and vice versa) as the battle progresses.

In those multiplayer battles, there’s one player attacking, and the other defending. That being said, the roles are chosen at random: even if the battle takes place in your “My Castle”, that doesn’t mean you will be the one defending. In fact, you might even end up defending your opponent’s castle! Team position and colours are assigned at random, but it’s always the Blue Team who gets to make the first move.

Before each battle, you can see the name of your opponent, but also their total combat strength rating. If you get to pick the map, you can also decide whether there will be a handicap. Apparently, you can move the cursor freely during your opponent’s turn, so you can use that to your advantage.

Finally, a reminder about the DLC: the third route won’t be the only additional content for the game, as there will also be bonus maps and more.

Finally, here’s many screenshots from Fire Emblem Fates:

Source: Serenes Forest / Famitsu