In what was a shock to basically everyone who wasn’t intimately familiar with the series, Fire Emblem: Three Houses arrived on Nintendo Switch last year in stellar, eye-catching fashion, immediately cementing itself as one of the best RPGs released in 2019 along the way to a Game of the Year nomination at that year’s Game Awards.
The series has long been a favorite of those well acquainted with tactical combat, and carved a niche for itself within the genre by combining intuitive and deep mechanics with narratives that often let players pair up their favorite characters with marriage. In the case of Fire Emblem: Three Houses, the game pivoted harder into the social sim elements that were always working away under the surface of past titles, and the result was a refreshing take on the franchise that made it more accessible to fans who could tolerate the grind of tactical combat if it meant they got to attend school and recruit classmates into their house.
That’s what makes the game’s major DLC side story, Fire Emblem: Three Houses: Cindered Shadows, such a surprise. Although it still fully embraces the quirky dialogue, character interaction, and personal narratives that made the base game so appealing, it also returns to the series’ roots in a major way. Instead of an even-keel pacing that often allowed players to prepare for weeks in-game between battles, Cindered Shadows piles the pressure high, and doesn’t let those who’ve built up an incredibly over-powered army exploit that by trouncing the side content. That tonal shift works, though, and makes Cindered Shadows an enjoyable side story that preserves the most important elements of the base game but eschews a lot of the fluff in favor of offering fans a concise, self-contained adventure that doesn’t require days of play time to progress through.
It bears repeating that Cindered Shadows is a side story, which means that it exists mostly separate from the main game’s story. That means players will find their characters locked in on level, class, and funding, placing a great deal more restriction on how the game is played. While there are main story unlocks associated with progression through Cindered Shadows, it’s best to just view the side story as it’s own Fire Emblem: Three Houses spin-off: a quick look at a new area of the Garegg Mach Monastery with some characters that are well-worth the price of admission. Luckily, the characters that players will inevitably become so fond of will carry over to the main game once the side story is finished, which also makes for a great excuse to explore another route of the game should players not yet be finished all three.
While Cindered Shadows’ story is good, it’s also pretty adjacent to the main concerns of the base game and, understandable or no, that means it can feel somewhat low stakes at times. The end of the arc is still as intense as fans might have expected from Fire Emblem, but the real value of this side story is in the gameplay itself. There are no side battles to worry about, nor long breaks in between skirmishes to hone a player’s army into the perfect weapon. Cindered Shadows moves at an accelerated clip, removing the ability of players to teach lessons to their students and grow their stats that way. Byleth also can’t use side battles to grind experience points to be better-prepared for a major fight, either, meaning Cindered Shadows places a heavy emphasis on resource denial and the need to plan accordingly.
That’s familiar territory for the series as a whole, but it’s not quite how Fire Emblem: Three Houses played out prior to this DLC. That makes it feel refreshing even if it is more nostalgic, and the added pressure of these battles is felt immediately. Each fight in Cindered Shadows is difficult, equivalent to late-game content in the main story. Without better equipment to lean on because purchasing funds are also restricted, and with no ability to grind up characters into insurmountable juggernauts, Cindered Shadows is as tactical as Fire Emblem: Three Houses gets. Each maneuver has added importance, especially given the fact that the new Ashen Wolves characters each bring something new to the table. The ability to experiment with lineups and battle formations is doubly fun because the whole experience takes maybe ten hours to complete, meaning no one has to rush through anything in the hopes that it will accelerate a plodding progression system. Things happen quickly in Cindered Shadows and each battle is important as a result.
The map design in Cindered Shadows is also a strong point. Each one feels extremely clever, pressuring players into re-analyzing their battle plan as fights unfold. The only knock against Cindered Shadows here is that it only introduces a limited number of new maps, and some of them are repeated - but even still, it’s a small complain, and one that’s easily dismissed thanks to the quality of the environments. Fire Emblem: Three Houses had sheer quantity down pat, and Cindered Shadows focuses on being a quality DLC instead of attempting to add 40 more hours to the game, which is the right call.
Overall, the only real issue with Cindered Shadows is how rote the story feels. In particular, the “twists” players are subjected to are so predictable that they might as well be screamed in Byleth’s face by the first guard they come across. Luckily, that’s balanced by the truly great Ashen Wolves characters, who are both interesting in ways that make them feel like their own people and, in some cases, actually pretty useful in battle too. Releasing Cindered Shadows as a stand-alone story that forces players into a specific version of Byleth and company was a wonderful way to freshen up Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and Cindered Shadows succeeds in breathing even more life into a game that was already one of the best RPGs available on Nintendo Switch. The DLC season pass - which, to this point, has mostly been a lot of fluff and minor extras - is now a fully justifiable purchase and, in fact, a recommended one, as Cindered Shadows adds much more to the player experience than is necessary to justify its price.
Next: Why Fire Emblem Heroes Is Nintendo’s Most Successful Mobile Game
Fire Emblem: Three Houses: Cindered Shadows is available now on Nintendo Switch. Screen Rant was provided with a Fire Emblem: Three Houses season pass for the purposes of this review.
