Oli Welsh’s position is that Nintendo should make more games in which the people in the story, rather than its recognizable mascots or large-scale plots, are the main reason to keep playing. His example is Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave, a Nintendo Switch 2 game whose four heroes each have their own goals and whose relationships invite close attention. This is an opinion piece. It makes a case about the kind of emotional response Nintendo’s games could aim for, and it does not measure how players actually respond.
What Welsh is actually arguing
The argument turns on a distinction between two ways a game can hold your interest. The first relies on characters you already know, such as a famous mascot, or on a plot big enough to carry the whole experience. The second makes specific relationships and personal motives central, so that a player cares about particular people because of how they relate to one another and what they want. Welsh’s claim is that Nintendo has excelled at the first and could do more with the second.
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That is a narrower claim than “Nintendo games lack characters” or “players don’t care about Nintendo stories.” Welsh is not arguing that the company’s existing games are empty. He is arguing that a more people-centred approach is an underused direction, and that it could produce a different kind of attachment.
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Welsh points to Fire Emblem: Fortune’s Weave because its structure puts individual people in front. According to Nintendo’s official US product listing, the game follows four heroes who each have distinct personal aims, and whose stories are woven together in a time-travelling saga. Players prepare for tactical battles and have opportunities to build bonds of friendship with the heroes. Nintendo’s UK page describes the same core premise: four heroes leading tactical battles and changing the past to save the future.
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Welsh’s own reading goes further. In his view, the relationships in the game are specific and character-led, and the support conversations between characters are a route into who they are, not just filler between fights. These are his judgments, and they are the part of the case readers should weigh most carefully, because the official listings describe features rather than how well those features work.
Product facts for readers who want to try it
- Platform: Nintendo Switch 2 exclusive, per Nintendo’s US listing.
- Publisher and developer: Nintendo publishes; Intelligent Systems develops.
- US release date: September 17, 2026, according to Nintendo’s US listing.
- Format: a physical edition is listed by Nintendo. The listing does not establish which other editions exist.
- Rating descriptors: fantasy violence, mild language, suggestive themes, and use of alcohol. The listing also notes in-game purchases.
The rating descriptors matter if you are thinking about the game’s audience or tone. Welsh’s argument about emotional attention does not depend on them, but readers choosing this game for a teenager or a younger player should check the descriptors rather than assume the game is family-neutral.
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The comparisons Welsh draws
Welsh names three earlier games as points of comparison: Fire Emblem: Three Houses, Xenoblade Chronicles, and The Legend of Zelda: Majora’s Mask. He uses them to show what people-centred storytelling looks like in practice, in his view. Because this is a summary of his opinion and not a verified account of each game, check the specific details of those titles against Nintendo’s or the developers’ own materials before repeating them.
If you want to test the argument across any Nintendo game, Welsh’s framing suggests four questions:
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- Are the relationships specific? Would one character be easy to swap for another without changing the story?
- Do personal motives shape the story or the systems? Do a character’s goals change what you are asked to do, or only what they say?
- Do support or bonding mechanics reveal character? Do the conversations tell you something new about who these people are?
- How directly does the narrative engage emotional complexity? Does the game leave room for characters to be conflicted, or do they only serve the plot?
These questions are useful for discussion. They are not a scoring system, and they do not produce a verdict on any game by themselves.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.What the case does and does not establish
The argument rests on Welsh’s interpretation and on Nintendo’s product descriptions. It does not rest on a survey, a statistic, or a study of player behaviour, and the piece does not cite one. Welsh says in the copy available that he had not played Fortune’s Weave and was following it through coverage, so the example reflects his reading of the game’s structure and reception rather than hands-on testing. Readers should keep that in mind when weighing his description of how the game feels.
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The copy available for this article is a syndicated reproduction attributed to Polygon and dated September 26, 2026. The original Polygon page was not independently located, so the wording here reflects the reproduced text. Welsh’s phrasing, such as “specific and character-led,” should be checked against the original before it is quoted directly. Nintendo’s own pages confirm the game’s product facts but say nothing about whether the company should pursue more games like it.
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How to use this argument as a reader
If you are deciding whether Welsh’s point applies to a game you play, start with the four questions above and pay attention to what changes when you spend time with a character outside the main plot. If the answer is that little changes, the game may rely more on the plot or on the recognisability of its cast, which is the approach Welsh is questioning. If you want to see the argument in its strongest form, Fortune’s Weave is the example he uses, and it is available on Switch 2 in the physical edition Nintendo lists.
Whether Nintendo should make more games about people is a question about priorities, and the evidence here supports it as a reasonable opinion rather than a settled conclusion.
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