Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes launches later this month, and in preparation, a demo has just appeared on the Nintendo eShop. The problem is that you can't currently play it.
Following its surprise announcement during the February Nintendo Direct, we're not expecting much for Three Hopes. Released on June 24, Nintendo has yet to officially announce the existence of a demo, but it was just spotted on the official Nintendo Store page (credit to My Nintendo News). However, if you click "download demo" nothing happens, so you will have to be patient.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes follows 2019's Three Houses. Taking these characters on a new journey, this spin-off ditches the turn-based action of Fire Emblem for Dynasty Warriors-style combat.
It's an almost identical approach to Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, which offered a prequel to The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild in 2020. As was Three Hopes, which was also developed by Koie Tecmo's Omega Force team.
try before you buy
Many fans were excited to see a new Fire Emblem game announced, but not everyone was thrilled with the change. 2017's Fire Emblem Warriors made a good effort to translate this tactical RPG series into a larger action setting, but it fell short. So it's not too surprising to see Nintendo promoting Three Hopes with a demo, considering Age of Calamity did the same thing.
Either way, Nintendo isn't limiting this push to these occasional spin-offs. Their other big June release, Mario Strikers: Battle League, received a "First Kick" demo last week. Throughout 2022, it previously allowed players to try Triangle Strategy and Kirby and the Forgotten Land as well. Both have been quite successful for Nintendo, so at least to some extent this try-before-you-buy strategy seems to be working.