Every so often, anime series will get a spinoff movie that takes place outside of the events of the main series. They can be fun and entertaining, but they’ll almost certainly never bring up the main story, and you may end up wondering if these extra adventures ever really happened at all. The Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Expansion Pass DLC feels very similar to those movies. While most of the seven new missions that make up its modestly-sized side story are engaging and fairly challenging in their own right, the way they are woven into the original plot doesn’t feel fully thought out, even if the new characters it brings along are a welcome addition to the cast.
The Expansion Pass is made up of a bunch of scattered elements – extra items and new costumes for Byleth (so you can finally run around the Monastery without your sleeves flapping about), a few new auxiliary missions, a recruitable fan favorite merchant named Anna, and the ability to invite other characters to join you in a sauna (which is thankfully way less creepy than it could be). None of these features are really must-haves, but they do sprinkle in some fun variety, especially for those in New Game+ looking to try out another route.
The side story Cindered Shadows is the real meat of the Expansion Pass, but the way its implemented can be a bit confusing. On one random night at Garreg Mach Monastery, Byleth and their friends chase a mysterious figure deep underground to a hidden and forgotten refuge known as Abyss. Rather than taking place during (or even after) the events of the main story and its separate routes, Cindered Shadows is accessed outside of your normal save file entirely. The strange side effect of this is that its handful of missions give you a preset group of characters (including Byleth and all the house leaders) to fight with, all as specific advanced classes at a predetermined level. Since the side story doesn’t follow the month-to-month format of monastery life, you aren’t really able to customize your team – it’s understandable, but also disappointingly limits replayability.
Cindered Shadows really shines best as a grueling gauntlet of battles. With limited funds, weapons, and units, these missions offer a healthy amount of challenge even on normal mode. Several of the fights even feature objectives beyond just routing an enemy force, which I was very happy to see since inventive battle parameters were something that the main story was sorely lacking. One such mission has you retreading a map seen earlier, but in a vastly different context. Where previously you were slowly battling up narrow corridors, this time you’re being chased by overwhelming odds, and must dash through several gates with all of your units before they close.
By turning the tables on my expectations for how to overcome enemies, I was constantly kept on my toes, excitedly changing my entire strategy multiple times to solve problems I didn’t think I’d be facing. That said, I do wish the tail end of Cindered Shadows didn’t rely on re-using maps we’ve already seen in the main story quite as much, given how good its new maps turned out. Luckily, the final fight (avoiding spoilers) helps make up for this by taking the battle somewhere I’ve always wanted to fight in.
Is the Expansion Pass Worth its Weight?
Nintendo has been leaning into the season pass DLC model a lot recently, but compared to something like Breath of the Wild Expansion Pass or Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s first Fighter Pass, the content and missions you’re getting in Fire Emblem’s feels decidedly sparse. However, it’s not that simple, as most of this Expansion Pass is deliberately designed to unlock items, costumes, facilities, and characters that can be easily accessed across all save files – and that can definitely breathe new life into a New Game+ run for one of Three Houses’ many routes, or even give your first run more features to check out.
The Cindered Shadows side story provides some good content, but it’s only the tip of the iceberg for what you’re getting access to in the longer run. The ability to add several new characters to my roster - all of whom have lost items to find, skill to learn, tea parties to attend, and support conversations to unlock - had me genuinely excited to revisit the main story once again to experience these new elements.
I particularly enjoyed chatting and fighting alongside the group’s leader, Yuri. He feels like the fully realized shrewd-yet-mischievous schemer that Fire Emblem tried to make Claude out as (nothing against Claude, he just turned out to be too nice of a guy to fill that role), and Yuri’s ability as a Trickster to warp and change places with another unit make him incredibly valuable for getting units where they need to go. Meanwhile, the odd and sometimes silly personality quirk of Constance makes her either stronger indoors or more guarded outdoors, and is even disturbingly reflected in how she acts when having tea outside!
Cindered Shadows manages to be entertaining enough in the story it tells, even if it raises more questions than it answers. It was also nice to see it tie into Byleth’s backstory, though considering the results of the adventure, I found it surprising and a bit disappointing that characters like Jeralt and Sothis had absolutely nothing to add to such a personal tale. Just like so many of those anime movies, its events feel unnaturally walled off, never to be mentioned again.
Verdict
Fire Emblem: Three Houses’ Expansion Pass has no shortage of amusing characters and activities to interest anyone playing through the main story, be it for the first time or fourth. If you can get past the confusing nature of unraveling a story that seems to exist in its own universe before reaping the rewards back in a more familiar world, Cindered Shadows provides some great challenge that’s agonizingly close to being wholly unique to the rest of Three Houses, offering a few exciting new mission objectives while leaning a little too hard on familiar maps. Its missions may not be as replayable as the main story, but they do give an enticing look at what the four new characters are capable of, leaving me itching to recruit them into my team
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