Fire Emblem: Three Houses was one of the best tactical RPGs we got to play in 2019, and offering players four different routes to go through meant that there was a ton of content to dig into. Intelligent Systems is looking to extend your playtime of this game even further by releasing the first story expansion, titled Cindered Shadows.
This isn’t just some new quest that you can bring your students on; it introduces an entire fourth House to Fire Emblem: Three Houses, and there’s a lot of new stuff to dive into. Here’s everything you need to know about the Cindered Shadows DLC.
The Ashen Wolves
As mentioned previously, this DLC will introduce a fourth House called the Ashen Wolves. It’s not exactly a full House, as it only contains four new students at the moment.
From what we’ve learned from the reveal trailer, these four students have been basically living in the basement of Garreg Mach Monastery for years. There’s a whole settlement down there, full of people who have never seen the surface, and it really raises the question of how they’ve survived all this time, and why Byleth and gang never saw them when they ventured into the basement.
The Ashen Wolves are Yuri, Constance, Balthus, and Happi. All four characters will be playable in Cindered Shadows.
Three Houses Unite
For the first time since literally the tutorial stage at the very beginning of Fire Emblem: Three Houses’ main story, the leaders of all three Houses will come together and fight on the same side. Which is really nice.
Edelgard, Claude, and Dimitri will all be playable in the DLC, and one other representative from each House will also join Byleth’s party. We have Linhardt from the Black Eagles, Hilda from the Golden Deer, and Ashe from the Blue Lions.
At the moment, it doesn’t look like any of the other students from the Houses will be available to join your party, but this mix between the original three Houses should make for some interesting party dynamics. When you include the four new faces from the Ashen Wolves, players will have plenty to consider in battle.
A Completely Separate Side Story
Before Cindered Shadows was officially unveiled, there was speculation that the new story expansion would probably arrive in the form of a Paralogue battle like in past Fire Emblem games on the 3DS. However, that isn’t the case.
The good news is that you don’t need to have progressed through the story and reached a certain point to access the DLC, which is great for players who might have just started a fresh file on new game plus. Cindered Shadows is available as a side story separate from the main campaign itself, and you’ll essentially be starting fresh with set characters as listed above.
The somewhat bad news is that this also means you can’t carry over anything from your original save file. Though if we’re being honest, this isn’t really much of an issue, as Cindered Shadows is supposedly meant to be a little more challenging than the main story. It’s a good change, as the main game didn’t really start to get really tricky until the last few stages on the default difficulty.
The Ashen Wolves Can Join the Main Game
Last but not least, and perhaps most importantly, the four new members of the Ashen Wolves can join your class in the main game once you clear the side story.
It’s not clear exactly how or when in the story they’ll be able to join you, but it was revealed via the game’s Japanese Twitter account that they can be recruited past a certain point in the game.
The Cindered Shadows DLC is set to be released on Feb. 12.
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