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Fire Emblem: Three Houses “Cindered Shadows” DLC Revealed

 Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Jan 172020
 

Fire Emblem: Three Houses, which got an honorable mention on my Top 5 Games I Played in 2019 list since I’ve only beaten one route so far, also has a DLC Expansion Pass available for $24.99.

The first three waves of DLC have added new costumes, more activities, and similar things, but the fourth was announced as story DLC. Yesterday, it was finally revealed to be a side story called “Cindered Shadows” with a February 13 release date.

Cindered Shadows deals with a “secret fourth house” known as the Ashen Wolves, students who are apparently living under the monastery. This led to a lot of speculation about whether this would be a full route or if the Ashen Wolves would simply be recruited into your house after you played their story.

Nintendo Japan has now cleared up some of these questions. As translated by Serenes Forest, you will not encounter the Cindered Shadows storyline as part of a normal playthrough. It is a separate option from the main menu, with its own save files.

However, due to data mining, it is believed that completing the side story will allow you to recruit the new characters in the main game, as well.

Cindered Shadows will also deviate from the normal teaching/activities/battle gameplay cycle, although they didn’t specify how, and the battles will be more difficult than those in the main game. You will also be given a set team, without the ability to recruit other characters.

There’s still a lot we don’t know about Cindered Shadows and how it will fit into the plot, but at least some things are clearer now. I haven’t actually bought the Expansion Pass, but if this side story is good enough, maybe it will sway me.

In the meantime, I’ll get back to slowly working through my second playthrough. What do you think of the Cindered Shadows DLC and what we’ve learned so far?

My Introduction to Fire Emblem Through Sacred Stones

 Reviews, Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Aug 162019
 

About three weeks ago, I asked for opinions on whether I should play Fire Emblem: Three Houses and mentioned that I’d tried Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.

My main takeaway after that post was that since I already had Sacred Stones (through the 3DS Ambassador Program), I might as well give it a longer try before buying a new Fire Emblem game.

So I did.

Yesterday, I finished Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones and found it to be an enjoyable, if sometimes harrowing, experience.

Two misconceptions I had about the series stood out to me right away. First, there was a lot more story than I expected. Somehow I thought Sacred Stones would be mainly battles with some brief scenes to set them up, and while that was the game’s structure, those scenes between battles were longer and more numerous than I thought they’d be.

Second, I had the impression Fire Emblem was fairly realistic, maybe with fantasy trappings like mages but focused on more grounded, political conflicts. Sacred Stones threw that out the window by giving me demons and monsters alongside human enemies.

So to put these two things together, while the story of Sacred Stones never blew me away, it felt much more like my sort of thing than I thought it would be. And although I was terrible at getting support conversations, I did enjoy the character interactions I got to see.

I haven’t played a lot of strategy RPGs, so I had some trouble with it, but I got better as I went on. Early on, I thought I might accept deaths… but instead I ended up restarting the battle if I lost any characters.

This made some battles pretty tedious. Although I enjoyed it overall, there were times when I’d be near the end of a battle only to have someone die and realize I needed to start the entire battle over from the beginning, and I’d be tired of trying the same battle after a few attempts. I know it’s my own fault since I decided I needed to save every unit, but I couldn’t help wishing for a way to save partway through the battle or even an “undo” button.

Still, the tension this introduced to combat made the relief so much sweeter whenever a character narrowly escaped death.

Partway through the game, the story splits into two different routes. I only played one of them, but maybe someday I’ll return and play the second. For now, I’m happy I played Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones and took this first step into the Fire Emblem series.

Have you played Sacred Stones? If you aren’t a 3DS Ambassador and don’t want to track down the original GBA release, it’s also available from the Wii U eShop. Let me know your thoughts on Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones in the comments!

Should I play Fire Emblem: Three Houses?

 Video games  12 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Jul 262019
 

I’ve never played a Fire Emblem game.

The closest I’ve come is about 30 minutes I played of Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones.

I don’t remember disliking the game, but I was in the mood for something shorter at the time, so I quit and never went back to it.

(Although I switched to Metroid Fusion, which I didn’t finish until last year, so who knows?)

While checking my 3DS Activity Log (a feature I wish Nintendo would bring to the Switch, since it’s far superior to the vague time tracking the Switch uses), I noticed I also played about 30 minutes of the demo for Fire Emblem Awakening. I don’t remember it at all, but since I didn’t buy Awakening, the demo must not have won me over.

Now Fire Emblem: Three Houses is out, and it’s getting stellar reviews.

The game is getting so much praise, I’m tempted to pick it up and really give the Fire Emblem series a try. Of course, I’m mainly interested in the story and characters, which I’ve seen positive feedback about so far.

What do you think? Should I pick up Three Houses as my first Fire Emblem game?

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