@@Bert439 Yeah, it definitely pushed me to using some strategies I haven't before. Even though my Constance was a one shot for most of the fight, she got the game saving double crit, which just felt amazing.
However I wasn't surprised that I had to cheese the entire final boss since it took basically single digit damage while everyone either got 1 shot or 2 shot. I had to wait for it to teleport itself into a room on one of the four sides and kept using hit and run strats since it couldn't move. Yuri would wait on the out skirts of the danger area and a unit would go in and deal damage. Then Yuri would foul play and due to his canto passive he would walk out of the danger area while all of my other units (Everyone but Yuri, Byleth, Dimitri and sometimes El) would sit around healing the hit and run unit and killing phantoms for 19 rounds.
It was unique. Probably one of the most claustrophobic bosses in the series, if not the most. Kind of reflects the game, really. A very limited approach where problems gradually appear and need to be dealt with. I find it interesting, though, how the armor break was really easy. Made it easy to finish it, but wasn't quite required.
Cindered Shadows is the most fun I have had playing three houses since release. Hate to hear there are so many people who were disappointed. Ah well, to each his own.
My biggest issue is everyone putting the 25$ tag on JUST cindered shadows. It was the expansion pass that added the four waves... that’s the $25. Not just wave 4 :-/
I think the general concept was solid (using Hapi/Batallion baiting to ensure your low res units survive) but the map and golem spam was just painful to play through
@@YourAdHere4 chapter 3 was annoying but chapter 6 made me want to stop playing all them mages spamming bolting from across the map putting most characters in one shot range then the ashin wolfs losing hp every turn and a boss that done shit tons of damage I really hated chapter 6
bta07smarks I killed the bolting mages pretty fast by abusing Ashe’s Retribution gambit- as long as a unit can take a hit they can counterattack the mage
@@YourAdHere4 Yeah same really... I just spent the first two/three turns (depending on RNG) just letting Edelgard and Dimitri tank the Boltings with Retribution so they could kill them right away so I didn't even need to worry about them at all for the rest of the battle.
I was honestly hoping for an actual 4th house in the main story, the fact we get more info about Byleth's mother is nice, but it was honestly worth around $15, not $25.
and it said side story I wasn't expect much but a 6 hour campaign with 4 new characters you can recruit to you team and some addition activities The only Issue i have our three thing: 1. if want to promotion any unit to new class you spent renown to get Abyssian Exam Passes instead of buying them in shop like other seal 2.That class are gender-locked 3. Jeralt should have been involved in this dlc since you know Rhea was hiding his wife corpse
Cindered Shadows taught me something that I was suspecting for a little while, and it's that, barring a few exceptions, I was better off having everyone focus on only one weapon. After messing around a bit, having a sub-weapon isn't all that helpful. It also makes it needlessly harder to reach a S-rank proficiency. I also learned via Twitter that apparently some people call the Death Knight "DK", and now I want a mod of the Death Knight being replaced with Donkey Kong.
His Powerful Scythe, can crit you in spurts, if he hits ya, it's gonna hurt! He's bigger, faster, and stronger too! He's the first member, of the DK crew! DK, the Death Knight! DK, the Death Knight is here! I LIVE!
Wow, ok. I can only speak for myself, but i had more fun with the maps of this DLC than with most of the regular maps in the main game. The characters are charming and the story is interesting, if you're interested in the lore of the game. I had a tiny heart attack, when i saw Byleth' mother. It was pretty heartwarming in my opinion. I loved the difficulty. It wasn't impossible but you had to think about every single move. I imagine, this is what the old Fire Emblems felt like, in a way and i think i get now, why people love them so much, why they love limited ressources and such. Is this DLC worth 25$? I think it is more than worth it. I really can't complain about anything.
If you could ever afford it or emulate it, you should check out the Tellius games. They are by far my favorite. Oh, and of course FE7 is fun. FE4 is great, but I'd say play the others first, since it's older and you should be used to the franchise before trying it.
@Masticatious The 3rd map is SIMILAR to other maps from the main game, yes, the 5th and the 6th are recycled. That's still only 3 out of 7. That's not "most"
I liked it enough, the final boss just *annoyed* me near the end. spamming random teleports, and having to kill phantoms that will heal the main boss by existing the turn they pop up was kinda ... dunno. didn't enjoy it is all. Resources......... weren't limited nearly at all though? Unless you spam the hell out of weapon arts..? You get a bit of gear from the abyss discard room, enemies drop gear, and optionally the online hotspots are plentiful as well.... they also flood you with smithing stones. I was just focusing on the story and exploring abyss before i realized it i wasted 60 smithing stones ... to literally no detriment at all. I had gold which kinda served no purpose at all.
I haven't bought the dlc, but from the looks of it, I think it all comes down to if you like the new characters and the characters from the original game that join you or you don't.
"Since Dimitri and Edlegard will be dealing substantial damage to the final bosses." *Hears my Hilda off in the background sharpening her Killer Axe* o.o;
I think the analogy you applied to Cindered Shadows units likening them to chess pieces was very apt in the context that chess pieces are not dynamic game elements. Chess pieces' performance do not change throughout a game of chess. A knight will always hop over your pieces and move two squares in one direction and one square perpendicularly. A bishop will always move diagonally on squares of the same color they started on. A queen will always do...everything. Likewise, the skills and classes your CS units grow into are more or less statically predetermined from the beginning of the DLC since, as you said, student growth is not the point of the DLC. I know that some people may not interpret your chess pieces analogy 100% as you intended because the meme has always been "FiRe EmBlEm iS JuSt WeEaBoO cHeSs," but all things considered, comparing Fire Emblem units to chess pieces has never been more appropriate than in Cindered Shadows.
@@coonrat1 A Pawn is no longer a pawn when you promote it to a Bishop, Knight, Rook, or Queen. It becomes whatever you promote it into and from that point onward ceases to be a Pawn. Therefore, a Pawn's performance, just like any other chess piece's, does not change throughout a game of chess.
@@GeraltofRivia22 Why do you think people play FE with 0% growths? Some people find it enjoyable for the rigor that format presents. Fire Emblem isn't always about growth and sometimes it's just about finding a way forward.
Leaving at the beginning of the stream when you were all pumped, and then coming back hours and hours later when you were frustrated and defeated, was honestly kinda sad. Sorry you didn't enjoy it.
The point about perma death is spot on. In this insulated game mode with only a set amount of characters, having a unit die is pretty much a reset and doesn’t make sense to exist in this mode. Imagine if the maps were actually tailored toward the resources and units you had in a more thoughtful way, if you were missing a unit then suddenly this tailored experience falls apart.
I prefer the possibility of a sacrifice of one of my units, so as long as Classic is possible it's the best way to maximize the challenge in a mode thats already missing the Maddening difficulty. You can beat Hard/Classic Cindered Shadows without any Gambits whatsoever, that was the only way to keep the challenge up.. Maybe next time throwing away half the Bullions could make it seem like resource management actually matters. At present it really doesn't.
You're supposed to play classic without losing any units, if any units die than you failed the game and should always reset, also you can just play casual mode and stop whining about losing characters
@@cm_0011 having options caters to a greater majority. As long as Classic remains, those who rob themself of the strategic combat by utilizing Casual shouldn't bother anyone. The option no matter how much many may dislike it's existence, draws a greater audience. I myself detest it, but I'm happy it is there for those who want to use it.
What it actually is *DID SOMEBODY SAY REINFORCEMENTS?!?!* (Gasp) *DONT FORGET ABOUT US WAVE 2 REINFORCEMENTS!* No *Hey we're the 3rd wave reinforcements* I haven't even started the chapter *YOU CANT DO THIS TO ME!!!*
I found Yuri's "foul play" to be an excellent repositioner, especially as he essentially has canto too. It just needs a bit more thought and setup than a straight warp
Especially since he has the stealth ability. I use foul play to remove a low health unit from the enemy range, then put Edelgard in range so the enemy attacks her instead of Yuri. In fact, that's probably why I beat hard classic on this DLC.
Foul play is probably one of my favorite combat arts in this game. I like how you can use it to move slower units. And because Yuri can move again after sending them. Your get your tanky unit up to a important spot and Yuri can follow them with only a minor movement decrease.
I saw the twist in the story coming the moment Ginger Aelfric was kidnapped and they got his ransom note, and people were shocked to find out he was a cardinal and people were like "something is off about this." The story starts by saying the Chalice can bring back the dead, and your first interaction with Aelfric Stormcloak was reminiscing over the time he was simping over your mom. Foreseeable plot twist aside the man had both a bowl cut and a mullet at the same time, he wasn't exactly hero material. At least the DLC classes are pretty fun. Seeing my Trickster Felix finger gun a lightning bolt at people is worth it. And Airnette is busted.
I haven't showered in over six months. I like to have a thick layer of dirt encasing my entire body to protect me from the various STDs in the world. When I do finally shower, and I need to fast way to build up that protective layering again, I buy the Fire Emblem: Three Houses DLC, because nothing makes me feel dirtier than supporting scummy business practices, like being forced to buy four waves of DLC at once instead of being allowed to pick and choose what I want. So for me, Cindered Shadows was totally worth it.
Here I am trying to resist the urge to buy battlepasses that are part of most games I'm playing right now and Fire Emblem 3H was kind enough to not give me that issue! I love this game and has probably totally revived the interest and my Switch but they must be out they damn mind to not allow us to buy packs separately. And then you're the first guy to mention the recycled maps. Wtf? How is recycling maps even considered in a DLC about being underground?!
Not trying to defend Fire Emblem DLC, as I've barely bought any of it across all the games (and do not plan on buying any FE16 DLC atm), but I'm curious what you and others would think if the DLC was revealed and released all at the same time for the same price, as in: "Cindered Shadows campaign plus all these other bonuses". I feel most people's issues stem from choosing to buy the DLC before knowing exactly what was in it. Pre-ordering has long become useless to consumers in the video game industry outside of limited production special editions and select, purposely under-printed Nintendo products that artificially create scarcity. Especially without any incentive to pre-order, these disappointed buyers only have themselves to blame imho.
@@BHox01 For me, the main problem is that all of it is packaged. You can't buy anything separate, so unless the price was really low ($10 or less), I would examine the whole thing. At the end of the day, they added very little that is relevant to the FE 3H experience. Sure the sauna and pets seem nice but those both seem like they should've been part of base game since, you know it's part of the monastery. The only building you're ever in (except in Crimson Flower). Past that we get some outfits. Ok, cosmetics like that is where many people get divided on how much outfits in any game is worth, so I'll leave that alone. Wish there was more though. Then the support characters. Only one is recuritable and it's only on one route and the other has NO supports. Wtf?! Then the side story is the main course then they recycle maps on top of limiting units you can use. Idk, whether people see that as positive or not is fine, but for me there are still not enough objectively new things here. I won't judge the supports because I heard only good things, but the story seems to be the universal weakpoint. This is my 2nd FE game, but it seems like fighting games where the bar is so low people don't care if it's bad. To me, I don't buy that. At least not when it comes to me considering a purchase. Idc if there is a reputation or expectation for it to suck, it still shouldn't. That said, I get your point and it is possible that it being sold as one package would've made it more enticing for some, but definitely not me.
@@ChrisNel12 The thing is, most of waves 1-3 would have to be a few dollars each max for what little they offer. The separate campaign, new units, and new classes are all linked together, so id estimate they'd be at least $20 by themselves. To me it makes sense to an extent to bundle everything together and trickle stuff out as its developed, but obviously that results in the situation we are in now. Moral of the story is stop pre-ordering stuff and make an educated decision once it's out if you dont want to get burned.
I liked the DLC. For the price of 25€, we got a side story that interacts and modifies the normal routes in a SUBSTANTIAL way with new quests, items, characters, ecc. that being said, the story is a bit short. Although I liked it and went in blind hard/classic (why no maddening?), there was a decent difficulty spike (the escape one was the best for me). I disagree about the lack of gambits and such; the side story is purposely limited and I liked a different way to play the game. Of course, anyone can have a different opinion; mine is the following: try to do a route with the new options and characters even if you are not taken by the story. The amount of options the new classes provide is alone worth it in my opinion. That being said, 25€ (or $ leave me alone please) feels a bit much but not wasted at all. I think it should have been priced at 15 for the whole pass
I found the difficulty to be really inconsistent personally. The 4th fight (escape one) was the hardest by a large margain. The number of enemies in that last room was brutal. In contrast, for the 3rd fight you kill one golem, walk down the side and you've won. Also the final 'boss'. I don't see how you could possibly lose, considering you get infinite concoctions.
lyonis grado I would have liked the option to choose between hard and maddening. The chalice chapter is all but difficult, considering that half of the map don't aggro you, Dimitri tanks and deals insane amounts of damage, the golem themselves are paper thin (aside from the two buffed ones, one of which you don't have to fight. I don't know yet if the chalice seals are randomized but if not, it's the one on the right. You get the key, take Claude, fly to the seal, end). I farmed at least a dozen of them thinking "hey, these drop mithril, I could use that" lol. After Reunion at Dawn on maddening church I have no fear of anything the game can throw at me.
Leatherhide it is, since it was added with a patch after the release but since there is the option to play on maddening even if it's the first time I was surprised. Still, maddening is the right difficulty for NG+, "hard" gets easy even on NG.
Dan Bradford the final boss is a cool fight that rewards proper resource management and unit specialization. Magic units have an easier time dealing with phantoms but don't do much against the umbral beast (aside from the occasional Constance crit with Fimbuveltr but eh) while physical units like Claude, Dimitri and Edelgard have monster-specific attacks with a relatively high chance to crit (Edelgard in particular). Combine these with a smart use of gambits to avoid having to deal with final healthbar vantage and maddening is absolutely possible. The escape one was absolutely a spike in difficulty, but even then, since most of the units only spawn when one of yours enters the final area you can trick the AI very well. 20 turns are a good amount to both give time to the player but also forcing an objective strategy rather than a brute force rout. That was very cool and like Chaz said, it's a shame we don't have many types of maps like "A Harrowing Escape" (I think it was called like this?).
@@nooneimportant1244 actually the best thing to do is move to one side and gradually advance and then just use the key on the stones. It seems scary at first but it's not too difficult.
It's way easier than it seems. Keep your units together and exploit the golem's weaknesses. The only extremely dangerous ones are the boss golems. Once you reach the bottom, you can try out the keyhole, and if it's a trap use Divine Pulse. Now, the level that follows? That's pure fucking anxiety. Again, not super hard, but holly fuck.
This DLC is a 50/50 experience for me. I liked the characters (I feared they were going to be beyond edgy, but they're rather nice and fun to interact with), thank goodness they are not an official house (it's called THREE Houses, as Count von Count gladly reminds us, and having an official fourth house would feel beyond shoehorned and half-assed). The story is... fairly good for what it's worth, i.e. a side story. Not the best, though. The plot twist (spoiler alert for those who haven't played) with evil older Shinjiro Aragaki was super predictable. But the idea's nice, it's fine. Not great, but fine. Abyss was also an interesting place to run around, even though it's small. New classes are fun, too, I will definitely check them out in my playthrough. The maps are atrocious, really, and recycled ones don't really add to the price of the DLC. You said it, it felt like a chore. It took me an hour, an HOUR to get through a Three Houses map that is nowhere near as big as maps in, say, FE4, that made me bang my head on my desk sometimes. Designs of these maps are cool, ideas are cool, execution could be better. I am also quite confused by the casting for this DLC. Aside from the lords, that is. I love Ashe, Hilda and Linhardt, but there wasn't much to this choice except for maybe Balthus having history with Hilda's brother, and maaaaybe we could pull Linhardt's interest in Crests out of a hat like a rabbit, but still. I do not regret playing it. Not at all. But I definitely expected something, if not bigger, better, with more substance, maybe diving much deeper into the existing lore than adding more lore on top of what we have. Also I am not a fan of, and that is me being nitpicky, how you get to develop a meaningful bond with the new characters only for them to act like total strangers when you recruit them in the main playthrough. Does it bother me too much? No, and maybe I even see the reasoning behind this, but it did make me feel a teensy bit salty. But overall, I was super skeptical and feared the worst when details dropped in the DLC's trailer, so I am pleasantly surprised. Could be better, but thank goodness it's not a total disaster. Quick edit: I'm Russian, and the exchange rate is not in my favor. As a result, the DLC's price sure was quite high. Like I said, I do not regret it, but I do think that for this much money we should have gotten a little more.
Muffle, routes, not houses. I meant school houses, like in Harry Potter (which has four). But of course I've played all routes and clearly there's 4 of them, but to me, there is still a difference.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but the customization and optimization from the base game wore me down to the point where I didn't even want to play the game anymore. I'm actually thankful that Cindered Shadows, as you put it, treated units as chess pieces. I feel like the devs are completely clueless on the concept of permadeath. The point of permadeath is that even if important units die, you at least have less than steller replacements. I felt like the overabundance of divine pulse was already a counterintuitive design. It seemed like the devs realized this until you go through the game without recruiting anyone.
I enjoyed the DLC, but I honestly think the characters carried it. Yuri, Constance, Hapi and Balthus are all really fun characters. Apparently Yuri doesn’t have a support with Ashe tho, like wtf???? Sooo yeah I wish there a few more supports for the DLC characters (would love to see Claude and Yuri too) or I would be happy if Linhardt, Ashe and Hilda would all get supports with each other or the other house leaders. Although I am VERY happy about the Yuri/Bernie support. The story of the DLC was kinda predictable, at least to me. If not for the Wolves (the characters themselves), the DLC would’ve been a no for me.
The lack of repositioning combat arts was the single most annoying thing for me in the DLC. Yuri ended up being my least leveled character because I was constantly spamming the Foul Play art and his false canto to save Lindhart and sometimes other units from inopportune situations. In the main game, reposition was my favorite combat art to use in so many situations, whether it was saving a villager or my own units, and every time I went to make Dimitri move someone, it was beyond frustrating so find him unable to do so.
if you compare yuri's stats, growths, and personal item with everyone else's, its very clear yuri probably should be underleveled because you shouldn't be using him for fighting. he's meant to be a dodge tanky ferry for units like fortress knight edelgard who would otherwise struggle to get where they needed to go quickly. base yuri can pretty decently handle the abundance of axe units in the dlc if he needs to, but very clearly isn't the intended method of killing most things. every character in the dlc feels unique in what you should use them to accomplish, and giving other units movement arts would give yuri nothing unique to do.
i love the DLC so far, brutally hard and the battle take forever, but its structured like old school fire emblem which got me into the series to begin with - but most of the player base did join in with Awakening at this point so they might be turned off a little by a traditionally structured campaign, but I wouldn't know because i am an old school FE player. Yes, I am playing through the story on hard-classic, but since this has -Mila's Time Wheel- Divine Pulse the game is not frustrating unlike how conquest was since the feature values my time. While i played three houses, i was missing the traditional fire emblem structure, and the DLC story is fulfilling that completely!
I didn't plan on buying the 3 Houses DLC because I knew it wouldn't be worth it in the long run just like all of FE's DLC, so I'm just gonna watch a let's play of it on UA-cam.
@@Ajia_No_Envy At least with Echoes you don't have to buy the entire DLC pass just to get certain content. I don't have to buy the whole Season pass just to play Rise of the Deliverance, i can pay for just that. Same for Awakening and Fates, each pack of DLC can be bought on its own. Three Houses decided to make you buy a $25 pass (which becomes $37.50 here in Australia), for a bunch of terrible costumes, extra quests and auxiliary battles, the sauna and CS. That's just terrible.
As...interesting as the DLC was, tuning in to the stream was very enjoyable. Seeing you slowly lose it towards the end when things went from bad to worse was hilarious. I especially enjoyed having to put the students in the vortex!
Its almost like restriction encourages strategic play... I find FE games better when people are set classes pretty much and when its a linear experience.
tbh the complete reclassing freedom diminishes the storytelling aspect of Fire Emblem as well. It's silly how 100% skill sword guy Felix can be made a warlock.
@@arachnofiend2859 At least it's funny lol. But yeah, I think reclaiming was done best in fates, honesty. It took work, and even then, they were restricted to the same archetype.
I thought I was the only one that didn’t like having the option to reclass your characters. Felt like I’d just get a “why do you care, you don’t have to reclass them” But classes used to feel like a part of the characters identity, and also not knowing what their “canonically intended” promotions are bothers me 😅
I think the reclass option is cool, specially for people new to FE like myself. There's times where I didn't have enough healing input so I had to reclass or not enough tanking etc. If you don't like it you could always do a challenge without using them sort of like pokemon players do nuzlocke challenges.
Birthright/Conquest were $40 standalone, with the other game being $20 DLC. Naturally, I felt that was appropriate price given the context....somewhat.
This was 25$ to use much less characters, play on much less original maps, and adds much less to the overall story. By comparison it makes Revelations look like a good product on substance alone
@@CarbonMalite cindered shadows wasn't the only thing included in the $25... you get costumes for over half the characters in the game, additional quests and activities to do in the monastery, Anna and her paralogue, as well as the side story and 4 new characters with paralogues. Frankly to me that's well worth $25.
@@friendlyelites That's the biggest problem. CS was worth 15$ at most and the other 10$ comes from garbage I don't want which they're forcing me to pay for. Rev is 20$ for a whole game and CS as a game isn't even half that. The final 2 battles are a recycled map and an empty room.
I feel basically the same way, the whole three houses DLC pass honestly seems like a scam, considering the previous waves added even less. That being said this dlc has Yuri in it, so I'm obligated to like it.
A scam? You're a fucking idiot dude. The price and contents are all 100% available for you to see before you buy it. Do you have any idea what a scam even is? Moron.
I've actually liked the first few maps, it was genuinely hard to keep my units alive while trying to kill things in player fase and positioning myself well for enemy fase. I'm not saying they're amazing maps but they're not as shitty as you're making them out to be :(
@chinchirorin It's not just hard because of number of enemies, it's hard because your options are restricted heavily and you're heavily punished for making risky choices or relying too much on one unit. And there's also a sense of urgency that's not there in the vast majority of maps in the main game. The new mages will basically be killed in 1 round of combat despite being on a flier so you have to be extremely careful about using them. In the main game you can just do basically the same strategy for each map on hard (you can even have one unit sometimes roll through the map single handedly) but in this one, your units are actually in danger of running out of durability/spell uses/HP if you use the same character too much. And it's really hard to turtle in choke points because the enemies attack from multiple sides, but terrain is still really useful (like the +40 Avo tiles). It's basically an endurance run. And also, you can speed up killing the final boss by abusing canto movement and pretty much HAVE to use items, unlike every other boss since you have fortify or multiple healers available, which is unique. Also the second to last map has poisoned controlled units + enemies outside of the range of physic, so you have to rush but can't abuse warp cheese. That's pretty unique even if it is on the same map played before, it feels different.
@Ced von Noish One of the interesting things about lots of enemies is that it heavily encourages smart offensive gambit usage to stun groups of enemies. That's mostly unnecessary in the main game because enemy density is generally somewhat low and more spread out (and you can just abuse movement mechanics like stride + dancing on big maps anyways or Thsyrus/ multiple archers). Admittedly, the DLC can sometimes feel a little cheap, but you still have the tools to deal with it and you still have a restricted divine pulse (5 uses), which means you actually have a chance at losing, unlike hard mode. But the biggest thing is that the map objectives generally make you feel like each turn matters since you can get into some very dicey scenarios if you don't play offensively, and item usage is encouraged. Honestly you should look at an actual playthrough to decide yourself. It's most worth it if you're doing an additional main playthrough afterwards (or still have one in part 1), but it's understandable if you've already played through the game 3 times that it might not be.
Honestly, it all depends on what you look for in Fire Emblem DLC. I wanted Cincered Shadows honestly because in FE DLC, I’m looking for new characters and fan service. And I get just that. I’m just glad all of the 3H DLC isn’t the price that Awakening and Fates has.
I agree, people forget that Conquest had MANY maps like Kitsune Lair, faceless stairway, and Fuga's wild ride which were long boring slogs with gimmicks designed to waste your time. The only map that felt like this in CS was map 3, which I will admit is an abomination, chapter 6 is also very luck based but not close to as bad as those 3 conquest maps. The map reuse is also overemphasized when they play completely differently. 25$ is definitely a bit much if you consider the paid content in a vacuum but I really appreciate how they added things such as Jeritza who now Bernie supports for free, people talk about scummy business practices but part of the value of the DLC for me is supporting them releasing free content for everyone.
I feel like you didn’t take into account the way in which it enhances the experience of a new run. If you’re going-ho planning on doing a second or third run, I think the $25 is worth it for how much more varied it can make it. I’m sad you didn’t like the story content itself, but you do get access to four new characters and classes for completing it.
I actually loved chapter 3, basically throwing around Hapi as a baton to absorb the Golem damage since she already automatically attracts them and has high res made for a cool experience because it turned a glass cannon character into the leader for the chapter basically.
Also, in addition to the mentioned mechanics added by DLC, there are facilities in Abyss that can be used to guarantee paired endings and progress Support Levels with Renown...or so I’ve heard. Just things to account for when deciding on whether or not to buy the DLC. -I am a non-attorney non-paid non-spokesperson-
I think we should have at least gotten some animated cut scenes for Cindered Shadows. $25 is almost half the price of the main game, and we got lots of beautiful cutscenes there. Cheap Crimson Rose styled cutscenes made it seem like they didn't care much about making the DLC worthwhile. I don't regret buying it since I wanted the characters, classes, and extra chapters, but it's not worth $25.
I already bought the season pass so I suppose I’m part of the problem here. I appreciate Chaz’s opinion and I’m going to go into the DLC with tempered expectations now. I also can’t wait for what Chaz is working on next! It’s gonna be a good one!
The main thing I liked about the Cindered Shadows DLC is getting those op stat boosters for the main game. That chalice of beginnings items is also broken but fun to use
6:50 Hapi actually does a shit ton of damage to the boss thanks to her personal skill that makes all her attacks effective against monsters. At least thats how my playthrough turned out. Dimitri and Hapi beat the shit out of the boss while everybody else focused on killing the phantom things and healing each other
For me, I had Dimitri, Hilda, Hapi, and Balthus all doing decent to great damage against the boss, along with plenty of gambits, particularly from Byleth and Yuri.
Byleth's mother was the subject I had the most questions about, so I was pretty excited when I finally got answers. With that being said, I will admit that it felt a bit lacking in some other areas, but overall I enjoyed it.
@@BeeLy1011 what tp see her she get green hair go bacl play stroy doni fianl bsos batl ebfor he become mosnter you see ehr nsd you her name it Sitri dude mybe you mnever play stroy or you skiep or you di not lsint you get her name and you see how she looks they shwop [cio her byath dad dateing so worng
From what I could gather from this wall of moon runes you just dropped into this thread, you seem to have misunderstood me. Yes, I know all that, I've played Cindered Shadows. When I said "we never got an official name," I meant we didn't have one before Cindered Shadows was released.
My take is that Cindered Shadows and the extra content is fine, but holy hell was than not worth 25 dollars. If it was 10/15 I’d more accepting of its quality, but for 25 dollars the expectations were for something far more meaty. The extra lore, characters and classes it adds are cool, but it’s only worth it if you really love 3Hs
I didn't mind spending 25 dollars on it, the strange thing though was that I got the entire game itself off Amazon (new condition) for 25$. So basically I paid the same amount for 4 loaded routes with 18-22 chapters that I did for a side story with 7 chapters
The only thing I disagree with here is actually a bone that you threw the expansion. That the story wasn't going to be poor by virtue of being DLC. Awakening's A Future Past was the best piece of writing that game had and while I wasn't much a fan of Lost in The Waves, it at least had a stronger premise to go off of in a game about "what-if's". DLC does not excuse this game from being worthless from a writing perspective. There were stronger premises and better means of execution that this DLC could've taken from a writing perspective. They didn't have to center this DLC around students introduced within the DLC itself, but they did, and the result is all the poorer for it. Cindered Shadows is a worthless waste of money that outside of it's solid OST, fails on all fronts.
I mean, I disliked how in Awakening and Fates in those DLC's they imply that your parent characters died, which I mean, I'm sure that my omega cherche died, thats believable.
Even in the base game, the child characters exist because the parents died, I mean those end game enemies are chew toys, and occasionally match the power of level 10 enemy soldier. And they want me to believe that any of my super units died. Unless my Robin killed them all personally, doubtful.
It isnt worth it honestly but like it's not Echoes overpriced DLC or SWSHs doc which should've been in the base game. And on that note I'd buy Cindered Shadows still as I love FE and I wanted more content. However i feel this is a step up from Echoes. IS still needs to learn how to handle DLC better.
What really bugs me that the Ashen Wolfs treat you in the main game like you never even interacted with them. There's no way to transfer your completed Cindered Shadows file and have those characters recognize your friendship with them. What's even more bizarre is that you can recruit them with no requirements even though contextually in the main game, you never met them.
@@jerrygdr4557 god that "noncanon" shit is annoying as much as I enjoyed the dlc it kinda ruins the fun to be told "jk it was an alternative timeline" imop.
It's bad enough that the Ashen Wolfs don't recognize you, but this whole non-canon side story brings Aelfric into question: you eventually see him at your mother's grave. Is he still plotting to resurrect your mother? It's so confusing and irritating!
What are you even talking about? They all call you friend after you beat the dlc in abyss in the main story and interact with you based on the current situation above ground, plus support conversations
After just finishing it, I do agree that some of the chapters felt needlessly dragged, while other chapters had really cool objectives that forces you to experiment with new things such as Foul Play + Canto with Yuri. I also like how the later chapters forces you to think outside the box of how we usually approach things(Warps and Stride), for me something so simple like Vantage + Killing Edge + Retribution on Byleth was just enough carry my team past the Bolting mages and not make it turn into a slug fest.
My problem with the dlc is that it could’ve been so much more in the sense of world building and lore but instead we got a nonsensical storyline with huge lore dumps that are barely even touched on afterwards.
4:40 wait, were some of the CS maps reused from paralogues? I don't remember seeing them before... (unless it's something from wave 3, as I haven't played since launch except rushing through CS this week)
There were 2 maps I recognized from the vanilla version of the game, I believe they were the second and third maps from the end. I can't think of any others that were reused, although by nature of the setting some were very similar aesthetically to the Flyan rescue mission map.
Dont get me wrong, CS had some great moments like I was not expecting Sitri at all and the Wolves are great but like THIS is what we waited for, about 6 hours of content? Besides the fact that I think we all were expecting a 5th route the side story itself was just underwhelming, even if they just wanted a side story they could've given us additional supports within it like between house leaders, or even made Jeralt playable for it (which I think wouldve made a LOT of sense and wouldve fit pretty well) Maybe I'm just spoiled since I was expecting something more akin to Torna for XC2, but idk. There's no real reason to ever replay it once you finish it
The support conversations are the best part about Cindered Shadows, the main game support conversations are not only as long as normal, but also give each charachter very high amounts of extra characterization, and even ties into other supports previously done.
Honestly when I saw that the support screen wasn't greyed out I was hoping there would be a little bit (maybe only C rank and POSSIBLY a B or c+ rank) between the characters specifically about abyss. It would've been really cool to see something like Dimitri and linhardt talking about the plot twist. I did like rest of it, but the maps were really sluggish except for the one where you're being chased. That was kinda fun especially with tricking through walls
Shoutouts to chapter 6 for 4 bolting mages and taking 10 damage every turn while all essential characters are permanently poisoned also hapi and constance vs 2 assassins and snipers is fair and good
Good review choopi. I similarly stayed up for 10 hours straight on launch but had a real good time because my money was always in on the premise of more supports, more facilities, and more characters for replaying the main game. Heres hoping that their paralogues are as interesting as chapter 4 of the side story.
6:37 you don't have to deploy every unit. the only way I managed to slip away during the escape themed map on hard mode was because I deliberately did not bring Lindhart and Edelgard
Do you plan something like:"Cindered Shadow story is good if you use one simple trick :)" or so? It would be nice but the choices isn't mine so it's up to you Chaz. (And if I somehow hurt you in someway I am sorry to hurt you)
Tbh, I like this DLC but I wish this was part of a collection of small side stories that flesh out the world, like maybe we go to Brigid & Dagda and bring along Petra & Shamir, or visit Duscur with Dedue to see just how bad it’s become and try to fix it a bit, while learning more about the tragedy. The Characters were fantastic, the music is awesome & I loved the different map objectives. The maps themselves were pretty good all round imo, except for the chasm map with all the doll beasts & the Chapel map where Balthus is seperate. This is probably because I feel that the map reusing isn’t that bad. Changing the starting position & enemy placement makes for a different experience, and reusing maps like the chapel which was just a demonic beast fest originally feels like a new map to me. I think CS is a bit too steep price wise, but it’s such a huge step up from the previous games’ DLC (besides future past) that I think if you bite the expensive bullet you’ll enjoy it if you’re a dedicated FE fan. $10-15 would,’be made it an easy recommend, but it’s a little much, even though I know how much effort it takes to make the new characters and supports.
I really enjoyed it. It was quite a fun challenge on maddening. The level designs didn't really bother me as we saw new victory conditions like "reach this area before 10 turns" or "find the hidden switch." I thought it was fun. The story itself was also alright for what I paid. I learned lore while getting new lovable characters, the actually story itself wasnt too important. Plus Constance and yuri can be great units to use in base game. Yuri's paralogue relic and the grail item are also super useful in maddening. I dont know if I ended up buying something different, but I bought the $25 DLC and got all the other DLC too which was pretty nice. Overall Id say the $25 was well spent.
It really does feel like the limitations were designed specifically for that one escape chapter. When I saw Linhardt was one of our three extra students, I naturally assumed we'd have Warp access. Silly me. also you never told me to stay frothy what am I going to do
Only thing i didnt like about the dlc was its length. I loved the maps. Yes, they were difficult. I didn't consider them annoying, at all. All decisions made had consequences, so it felt like an older fire emblem game. I likes the change. Also, yes the price is definitely too high for the dlc. But i still loved the dlc, the characters and the gameplay.
I really enjoyed Cindered Shadows. I was originally hoping for a 5th route but that is far too ambitious of an expectation. The Ashen Wolves are fantastic characters, and fun units. The addition of the classes and more worldbuilding was very fun.
In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, none of your decisions matter, but we pretend that they do, so no one notices that we made a game where every ending is basically the same thing and it all depends on who you wanna bang the most.
2:17 yeah but also when they were present in cutscenes and what not I feel like they just like asked obvious plot questions or were like “yeah Byleth lets go” if I’m making any sense. I felt like they were just there to prop up the Wolves story, but i didn’t really buy the dlc for the Wolves, I had bought it for more witty rhetoric between Claude and Edelgard and the sort of rivalry between her and Dimitri, or the teasing Claude sends Dimitri’s way. Instead they had filler lines and avatar worship in the cutscenes and only really showed their own character when you talked to them while exploring abyss
The one thing that bothers me is the laughter from one of the new characters, Constance. It's just too obnoxious , at least in Japanese version. Like seriously, it TRIGGERS me to hear her laughter during dialogue or after a battle.
Okay but why arent Judith, Nader, Fleche, Randolph, Ladislava, Rodrigue, Rhea, Aelfric, Gwendal and Acheron playable in some routes like, these guys are done dirty
I could not disagree more ... just knowing of Byleths beautiful mother is enough for me. no seriously when the fan base is so massive is always to please every single fan I think. like I said I disagree I like all hehe, and I hope that for the next fire emblem we get online fights or a least an online as the one good in fates. I love fire emblem though so yeah.
Yo that final Boss music is on my playlist on repeat and my co workers hate me for it, beautiful simply wonderful...I'm also surprised you didint meme on the main villain which is nice of you, but luckily this is only the first DLC hopefully we get more bang for our buck later down the road.
I feel like the gimmicks of each map have a strong impact on how good or bad they are Chapter 1 was just a basic trek through a hallway with Hapi siccing a monster on you partway through, didn't really have a gimmick but was an alright intro. Chapter 2's gimmick was huge waves of enemies that would spawn immediately upon finishing the last one, sometimes partway through a turn when you had units left in unfortunate positions that had already used up their move for that turn. Hated it. Chapter 3's Spell key was annoying. "Put the key in the wrong lock? -3 movement penalty for your entire army, summon more enemies." Chapter 4 basically forced you to play classic mode, since if anyone died you had to reset (which... honestly might have been a better idea just for classic mode in Cindered Shadows in general). It also had the pursuing golems but that's dropped halfway through for another generic bandit enemy rush, and the excessive enemy reinforcements in the final room that almost requires gambit spam was also aggravating. Chapter 5 is... eh? Filler-ey? Most memorable thing about it was that time the bandits all got frozen for a turn when the extra monsters showed up. Chapter 6's blood vortex mechanic I think is interesting enough of a twist on how the holy mausoleum played during the main story to make it not feel like too much of a rehash, but the enemy placement can be really aggravating. Chapter 7... I actually really liked. Good final boss. I thought it'd be too easy given there's only one enemy, but the phantoms summoned every turn take away enough of your units attention to keep you from whittling him down in just a few turns while not taking away so much attention that you never get to actually fight the boss. The chaotic nature of his special attack sometimes leaving you in a tight spot and needing to come up with a strategy on the fly from wherever your units ended up was great.
I liked the dlc my only real problems were that the story was very predictable (I pretty much guessed the entire story when the villain was introduced) and some maps felt tedious. Also enemy dodge rates were insane btw.
When I got to the Final Boss, I was rather surprised to not see him surrounded by 50 armor knights and 5 guys with bolting.
I appreciated the limited resources, that finale felt worth it.
@@Bert439 Yeah, it definitely pushed me to using some strategies I haven't before. Even though my Constance was a one shot for most of the fight, she got the game saving double crit, which just felt amazing.
However I wasn't surprised that I had to cheese the entire final boss since it took basically single digit damage while everyone either got 1 shot or 2 shot. I had to wait for it to teleport itself into a room on one of the four sides and kept using hit and run strats since it couldn't move. Yuri would wait on the out skirts of the danger area and a unit would go in and deal damage. Then Yuri would foul play and due to his canto passive he would walk out of the danger area while all of my other units (Everyone but Yuri, Byleth, Dimitri and sometimes El) would sit around healing the hit and run unit and killing phantoms for 19 rounds.
It was unique. Probably one of the most claustrophobic bosses in the series, if not the most. Kind of reflects the game, really. A very limited approach where problems gradually appear and need to be dealt with. I find it interesting, though, how the armor break was really easy. Made it easy to finish it, but wasn't quite required.
@@Bert439 I thought there would be like 20 chapters with limited resources so dead seriously bought NOTHING
Can we all agree the most unrealistic thing about the DLC is that Linhardt was awake at night and wandering around to get involved?
Thanks, now I want my money back
Fucking unplayable.
I thought Linhardt was napping all the time because he's always up so late fucking around in the library or whatever
It's the most realistic actually, he stays awake at night and sleeps through the day, it's mentioned in one of his supports.
My thoughts exactly
Cindered Shadows is the most fun I have had playing three houses since release. Hate to hear there are so many people who were disappointed. Ah well, to each his own.
I know i watch your videos.
My biggest issue is everyone putting the 25$ tag on JUST cindered shadows. It was the expansion pass that added the four waves... that’s the $25. Not just wave 4 :-/
nah all that stuff is for free imho
the real value does come from the characters and v/o lines
both are great but Japanese Constance XD
Personally after buying all the dlc for Awakening, Fates and Echoes I feel that for what you get $25 was a damn good deal.
@@pighotwheels thx for saying that bc i was wondering specifically about that
I'd appreciate chapter 3 a little more if it didn't have a fetish for monster units
I think the general concept was solid (using Hapi/Batallion baiting to ensure your low res units survive) but the map and golem spam was just painful to play through
I've seen enough research to know where this is going
@@YourAdHere4 chapter 3 was annoying but chapter 6 made me want to stop playing all them mages spamming bolting from across the map putting most characters in one shot range then the ashin wolfs losing hp every turn and a boss that done shit tons of damage I really hated chapter 6
bta07smarks I killed the bolting mages pretty fast by abusing Ashe’s Retribution gambit- as long as a unit can take a hit they can counterattack the mage
@@YourAdHere4 Yeah same really... I just spent the first two/three turns (depending on RNG) just letting Edelgard and Dimitri tank the Boltings with Retribution so they could kill them right away so I didn't even need to worry about them at all for the rest of the battle.
Ha! Jokes on you.I don't even have a Switch to play the DLC.
Get your girlfriend's boyfriend to get you one
@@MegaDeathRay10 I wish i had one .-.
gabriel sobral Lol
foda ser brasileiro né amg
@@Arc_ride Fazer oq
I was honestly hoping for an actual 4th house in the main story, the fact we get more info about Byleth's mother is nice, but it was honestly worth around $15, not $25.
with the way they went around advertising it I thought the same thing, but nope barely 10 hrs
to be fair, everything from wave 1 to 4 is worth worth 25 bucks and CS is only in the 4th wave.
and it said side story I wasn't expect much but a 6 hour campaign with 4 new characters you can recruit to you team and some addition activities
The only Issue i have our three thing:
1. if want to promotion any unit to new class you spent renown to get Abyssian Exam Passes instead of buying them in shop like other seal
2.That class are gender-locked
3. Jeralt should have been involved in this dlc since you know Rhea was hiding his wife corpse
@@MattRogan28 yeah, jeralt should've been involved somehow and i also find it weird that sothis isn't in this story for some reason...
Bruh, the maid outfit alone was worth the other 10$, and bless intelligent system for giving us *free items*
You know what you can buy with $25? A 3h body pillow, because at least then you'll only be disappointed by your own imagination
This guy's onto something
I am Ferdinand Von *FBI! OPEN UP!*
@@AkameGaKillfan777 Timeskip designs maybe 👀
Honestly I would spend 25 dollars on three milkshakes so this still sounds pretty worth it.
@@AkameGaKillfan777 Wow this Lysithea pillow looks amazing.
Post Timeskip ofc
Cindered Shadows taught me something that I was suspecting for a little while, and it's that, barring a few exceptions, I was better off having everyone focus on only one weapon. After messing around a bit, having a sub-weapon isn't all that helpful. It also makes it needlessly harder to reach a S-rank proficiency. I also learned via Twitter that apparently some people call the Death Knight "DK", and now I want a mod of the Death Knight being replaced with Donkey Kong.
His Powerful Scythe, can crit you in spurts, if he hits ya, it's gonna hurt! He's bigger, faster, and stronger too! He's the first member, of the DK crew! DK, the Death Knight! DK, the Death Knight is here!
I LIVE!
Chaz: is probably the biggest meme in the FE community
Also chaz: is the only one that offers a critical analysis of fire emblem content
And that's why we love him
Mekkah still exists yknow
@@shanner Oh yeah lol I forgot about him for a sec
I just saw a video he made where he put ced and cyas in the same tier. Dude's a liar with a blatant agenda.
MongoIndyleo “only one that offers a critical perspective”
Different opinion = only one apparently
Wow, ok. I can only speak for myself, but i had more fun with the maps of this DLC than with most of the regular maps in the main game. The characters are charming and the story is interesting, if you're interested in the lore of the game. I had a tiny heart attack, when i saw Byleth' mother. It was pretty heartwarming in my opinion. I loved the difficulty. It wasn't impossible but you had to think about every single move. I imagine, this is what the old Fire Emblems felt like, in a way and i think i get now, why people love them so much, why they love limited ressources and such. Is this DLC worth 25$? I think it is more than worth it. I really can't complain about anything.
I wholeheartedly agree. I think this was progressively the best dlc for fire emblem franchise. I don’t think 25 dollars is overpricing it.
If you could ever afford it or emulate it, you should check out the Tellius games. They are by far my favorite. Oh, and of course FE7 is fun. FE4 is great, but I'd say play the others first, since it's older and you should be used to the franchise before trying it.
@Masticatious The 3rd map is SIMILAR to other maps from the main game, yes, the 5th and the 6th are recycled. That's still only 3 out of 7. That's not "most"
I liked it enough, the final boss just *annoyed* me near the end. spamming random teleports, and having to kill phantoms that will heal the main boss by existing the turn they pop up was kinda ... dunno. didn't enjoy it is all.
Resources......... weren't limited nearly at all though? Unless you spam the hell out of weapon arts..? You get a bit of gear from the abyss discard room, enemies drop gear, and optionally the online hotspots are plentiful as well.... they also flood you with smithing stones. I was just focusing on the story and exploring abyss before i realized it i wasted 60 smithing stones ... to literally no detriment at all. I had gold which kinda served no purpose at all.
I haven't bought the dlc, but from the looks of it, I think it all comes down to if you like the new characters and the characters from the original game that join you or you don't.
"Since Dimitri and Edlegard will be dealing substantial damage to the final bosses."
*Hears my Hilda off in the background sharpening her Killer Axe*
o.o;
She got the finishing blow against the Umbral Beast in my playthrough.
homegirl helped out plenty w her hand axe in my run
(sadly got killed off but she def helped lmao)
Ha. You think she'd put in the work to sharpen her own weapons. That's adorable.
She can carry your entire team and do all the fighting, but sharpening the axe is Byleth's job.
I think the analogy you applied to Cindered Shadows units likening them to chess pieces was very apt in the context that chess pieces are not dynamic game elements. Chess pieces' performance do not change throughout a game of chess. A knight will always hop over your pieces and move two squares in one direction and one square perpendicularly. A bishop will always move diagonally on squares of the same color they started on. A queen will always do...everything. Likewise, the skills and classes your CS units grow into are more or less statically predetermined from the beginning of the DLC since, as you said, student growth is not the point of the DLC.
I know that some people may not interpret your chess pieces analogy 100% as you intended because the meme has always been "FiRe EmBlEm iS JuSt WeEaBoO cHeSs," but all things considered, comparing Fire Emblem units to chess pieces has never been more appropriate than in Cindered Shadows.
>chess pieces' performance do not change throughout a game of chess pawn moment
@@coonrat1 A Pawn is no longer a pawn when you promote it to a Bishop, Knight, Rook, or Queen. It becomes whatever you promote it into and from that point onward ceases to be a Pawn. Therefore, a Pawn's performance, just like any other chess piece's, does not change throughout a game of chess.
I definitely don't like that. Half the fun of Fire Emblem is building up your units and watching them grow
@@GeraltofRivia22 Why do you think people play FE with 0% growths? Some people find it enjoyable for the rigor that format presents. Fire Emblem isn't always about growth and sometimes it's just about finding a way forward.
@@HalosTWM then it's more of a puzzle game than anything else.
Leaving at the beginning of the stream when you were all pumped, and then coming back hours and hours later when you were frustrated and defeated, was honestly kinda sad. Sorry you didn't enjoy it.
I actually kinda liked it 😅
Never forget Ashe's trash heap.
the Trashe heap.
I don't get it
Salty Saltmaker, I think you mean “thee Trashe Heape
Nah, Ashe is a ok sniper.
@@ironmantis25 Ikr he's so good. 🔥
The point about perma death is spot on. In this insulated game mode with only a set amount of characters, having a unit die is pretty much a reset and doesn’t make sense to exist in this mode. Imagine if the maps were actually tailored toward the resources and units you had in a more thoughtful way, if you were missing a unit then suddenly this tailored experience falls apart.
Hey guess what...................it’s optional
I prefer the possibility of a sacrifice of one of my units, so as long as Classic is possible it's the best way to maximize the challenge in a mode thats already missing the Maddening difficulty.
You can beat Hard/Classic Cindered Shadows without any Gambits whatsoever, that was the only way to keep the challenge up.. Maybe next time throwing away half the Bullions could make it seem like resource management actually matters. At present it really doesn't.
You're supposed to play classic without losing any units, if any units die than you failed the game and should always reset, also you can just play casual mode and stop whining about losing characters
There’s a non perma death mode for a reason.
@@cm_0011 having options caters to a greater majority. As long as Classic remains, those who rob themself of the strategic combat by utilizing Casual shouldn't bother anyone. The option no matter how much many may dislike it's existence, draws a greater audience. I myself detest it, but I'm happy it is there for those who want to use it.
What it actually is
*DID SOMEBODY SAY REINFORCEMENTS?!?!*
(Gasp)
*DONT FORGET ABOUT US WAVE 2 REINFORCEMENTS!*
No
*Hey we're the 3rd wave reinforcements*
I haven't even started the chapter *YOU CANT DO THIS TO ME!!!*
*knock knock knock*
Yes it is I wave 4 reinforcements nearly a year later when you least expect it
@@Jamstaro1
😡
*Ah Linhardt has no movement jump him!*
@@Jamstaro1
Later
"So how was cindered shadows?"
Battle play was cool...
@@Jamstaro1 I bet y'all thought you were done with this huh? IT IS I, WAVE 5 REINFORCEMENTS
You know what is worth $25?
2 ASCII GRIP CONTROLLER'S.
A what?
“Conquest was a Great Game”
*Smiles* you have made us fates apologists happy
I still love Fates. Ppl can fight me.
Well it is from a gameplay perspective if nothing else.
@@ladyfarona1988 If we're talking about the story I could dismantle it's stupidity with ease.
@@superbeaner4428 Oh there's a looot wrong with Fates but I still love that flaming disaster.
SuperBeaner yeah- there’s a reason people love Fates, and it’s certainly not the writing 90% of the time.
I found Yuri's "foul play" to be an excellent repositioner, especially as he essentially has canto too.
It just needs a bit more thought and setup than a straight warp
Especially since he has the stealth ability. I use foul play to remove a low health unit from the enemy range, then put Edelgard in range so the enemy attacks her instead of Yuri. In fact, that's probably why I beat hard classic on this DLC.
Foul play is probably one of my favorite combat arts in this game. I like how you can use it to move slower units. And because Yuri can move again after sending them. Your get your tanky unit up to a important spot and Yuri can follow them with only a minor movement decrease.
I saw the twist in the story coming the moment Ginger Aelfric was kidnapped and they got his ransom note, and people were shocked to find out he was a cardinal and people were like "something is off about this." The story starts by saying the Chalice can bring back the dead, and your first interaction with Aelfric Stormcloak was reminiscing over the time he was simping over your mom. Foreseeable plot twist aside the man had both a bowl cut and a mullet at the same time, he wasn't exactly hero material.
At least the DLC classes are pretty fun. Seeing my Trickster Felix finger gun a lightning bolt at people is worth it. And Airnette is busted.
It is ok but it should have had jeralt show up as a playable unit due to the plot having to due with his wife and friend
I haven't showered in over six months. I like to have a thick layer of dirt encasing my entire body to protect me from the various STDs in the world. When I do finally shower, and I need to fast way to build up that protective layering again, I buy the Fire Emblem: Three Houses DLC, because nothing makes me feel dirtier than supporting scummy business practices, like being forced to buy four waves of DLC at once instead of being allowed to pick and choose what I want. So for me, Cindered Shadows was totally worth it.
Based bagel
Here I am trying to resist the urge to buy battlepasses that are part of most games I'm playing right now and Fire Emblem 3H was kind enough to not give me that issue!
I love this game and has probably totally revived the interest and my Switch but they must be out they damn mind to not allow us to buy packs separately.
And then you're the first guy to mention the recycled maps. Wtf? How is recycling maps even considered in a DLC about being underground?!
Not trying to defend Fire Emblem DLC, as I've barely bought any of it across all the games (and do not plan on buying any FE16 DLC atm), but I'm curious what you and others would think if the DLC was revealed and released all at the same time for the same price, as in: "Cindered Shadows campaign plus all these other bonuses". I feel most people's issues stem from choosing to buy the DLC before knowing exactly what was in it.
Pre-ordering has long become useless to consumers in the video game industry outside of limited production special editions and select, purposely under-printed Nintendo products that artificially create scarcity. Especially without any incentive to pre-order, these disappointed buyers only have themselves to blame imho.
@@BHox01 For me, the main problem is that all of it is packaged. You can't buy anything separate, so unless the price was really low ($10 or less), I would examine the whole thing.
At the end of the day, they added very little that is relevant to the FE 3H experience. Sure the sauna and pets seem nice but those both seem like they should've been part of base game since, you know it's part of the monastery. The only building you're ever in (except in Crimson Flower).
Past that we get some outfits. Ok, cosmetics like that is where many people get divided on how much outfits in any game is worth, so I'll leave that alone. Wish there was more though.
Then the support characters. Only one is recuritable and it's only on one route and the other has NO supports. Wtf?!
Then the side story is the main course then they recycle maps on top of limiting units you can use. Idk, whether people see that as positive or not is fine, but for me there are still not enough objectively new things here.
I won't judge the supports because I heard only good things, but the story seems to be the universal weakpoint.
This is my 2nd FE game, but it seems like fighting games where the bar is so low people don't care if it's bad. To me, I don't buy that. At least not when it comes to me considering a purchase. Idc if there is a reputation or expectation for it to suck, it still shouldn't.
That said, I get your point and it is possible that it being sold as one package would've made it more enticing for some, but definitely not me.
@@ChrisNel12 The thing is, most of waves 1-3 would have to be a few dollars each max for what little they offer. The separate campaign, new units, and new classes are all linked together, so id estimate they'd be at least $20 by themselves. To me it makes sense to an extent to bundle everything together and trickle stuff out as its developed, but obviously that results in the situation we are in now. Moral of the story is stop pre-ordering stuff and make an educated decision once it's out if you dont want to get burned.
I liked the DLC. For the price of 25€, we got a side story that interacts and modifies the normal routes in a SUBSTANTIAL way with new quests, items, characters, ecc. that being said, the story is a bit short. Although I liked it and went in blind hard/classic (why no maddening?), there was a decent difficulty spike (the escape one was the best for me). I disagree about the lack of gambits and such; the side story is purposely limited and I liked a different way to play the game. Of course, anyone can have a different opinion; mine is the following: try to do a route with the new options and characters even if you are not taken by the story. The amount of options the new classes provide is alone worth it in my opinion. That being said, 25€ (or $ leave me alone please) feels a bit much but not wasted at all. I think it should have been priced at 15 for the whole pass
I haven't played the DLC yet but I always got the feeling that Maddening was meant for New Game+.
I found the difficulty to be really inconsistent personally. The 4th fight (escape one) was the hardest by a large margain. The number of enemies in that last room was brutal. In contrast, for the 3rd fight you kill one golem, walk down the side and you've won. Also the final 'boss'. I don't see how you could possibly lose, considering you get infinite concoctions.
lyonis grado I would have liked the option to choose between hard and maddening. The chalice chapter is all but difficult, considering that half of the map don't aggro you, Dimitri tanks and deals insane amounts of damage, the golem themselves are paper thin (aside from the two buffed ones, one of which you don't have to fight. I don't know yet if the chalice seals are randomized but if not, it's the one on the right. You get the key, take Claude, fly to the seal, end). I farmed at least a dozen of them thinking "hey, these drop mithril, I could use that" lol.
After Reunion at Dawn on maddening church I have no fear of anything the game can throw at me.
Leatherhide it is, since it was added with a patch after the release but since there is the option to play on maddening even if it's the first time I was surprised. Still, maddening is the right difficulty for NG+, "hard" gets easy even on NG.
Dan Bradford the final boss is a cool fight that rewards proper resource management and unit specialization. Magic units have an easier time dealing with phantoms but don't do much against the umbral beast (aside from the occasional Constance crit with Fimbuveltr but eh) while physical units like Claude, Dimitri and Edelgard have monster-specific attacks with a relatively high chance to crit (Edelgard in particular). Combine these with a smart use of gambits to avoid having to deal with final healthbar vantage and maddening is absolutely possible. The escape one was absolutely a spike in difficulty, but even then, since most of the units only spawn when one of yours enters the final area you can trick the AI very well. 20 turns are a good amount to both give time to the player but also forcing an objective strategy rather than a brute force rout. That was very cool and like Chaz said, it's a shame we don't have many types of maps like "A Harrowing Escape" (I think it was called like this?).
I haven't played Cindered Shadows but one look at that map with all the golems made me throw up a little in my mouth, not gonna lie.
Tbh, it's really not as bad as it looks
I just finished that level. If you’re not fast you get swarmed by golems. It wasn’t very fun.
@@nooneimportant1244 actually the best thing to do is move to one side and gradually advance and then just use the key on the stones. It seems scary at first but it's not too difficult.
Be glad the golems didn't all have poison strike.
It's way easier than it seems. Keep your units together and exploit the golem's weaknesses. The only extremely dangerous ones are the boss golems. Once you reach the bottom, you can try out the keyhole, and if it's a trap use Divine Pulse.
Now, the level that follows? That's pure fucking anxiety. Again, not super hard, but holly fuck.
This DLC is a 50/50 experience for me. I liked the characters (I feared they were going to be beyond edgy, but they're rather nice and fun to interact with), thank goodness they are not an official house (it's called THREE Houses, as Count von Count gladly reminds us, and having an official fourth house would feel beyond shoehorned and half-assed). The story is... fairly good for what it's worth, i.e. a side story. Not the best, though. The plot twist (spoiler alert for those who haven't played) with evil older Shinjiro Aragaki was super predictable. But the idea's nice, it's fine. Not great, but fine. Abyss was also an interesting place to run around, even though it's small. New classes are fun, too, I will definitely check them out in my playthrough. The maps are atrocious, really, and recycled ones don't really add to the price of the DLC. You said it, it felt like a chore. It took me an hour, an HOUR to get through a Three Houses map that is nowhere near as big as maps in, say, FE4, that made me bang my head on my desk sometimes. Designs of these maps are cool, ideas are cool, execution could be better. I am also quite confused by the casting for this DLC. Aside from the lords, that is. I love Ashe, Hilda and Linhardt, but there wasn't much to this choice except for maybe Balthus having history with Hilda's brother, and maaaaybe we could pull Linhardt's interest in Crests out of a hat like a rabbit, but still. I do not regret playing it. Not at all. But I definitely expected something, if not bigger, better, with more substance, maybe diving much deeper into the existing lore than adding more lore on top of what we have. Also I am not a fan of, and that is me being nitpicky, how you get to develop a meaningful bond with the new characters only for them to act like total strangers when you recruit them in the main playthrough. Does it bother me too much? No, and maybe I even see the reasoning behind this, but it did make me feel a teensy bit salty. But overall, I was super skeptical and feared the worst when details dropped in the DLC's trailer, so I am pleasantly surprised. Could be better, but thank goodness it's not a total disaster.
Quick edit: I'm Russian, and the exchange rate is not in my favor. As a result, the DLC's price sure was quite high. Like I said, I do not regret it, but I do think that for this much money we should have gotten a little more.
techincally 4 routes in the game. in the Japanese text its something about FOUR winds.
Muffle, routes, not houses. I meant school houses, like in Harry Potter (which has four). But of course I've played all routes and clearly there's 4 of them, but to me, there is still a difference.
@@waffleempress5772 ah I see what you mean. My bad
Muffle nope, totally not your bad, so no need to worry. After all, there are, indeed, four routes in total, Church included.
Well, better to have a video backing up your thoughts I suppose. Sorry you were disappointed m8.
This might be an unpopular opinion, but the customization and optimization from the base game wore me down to the point where I didn't even want to play the game anymore. I'm actually thankful that Cindered Shadows, as you put it, treated units as chess pieces.
I feel like the devs are completely clueless on the concept of permadeath. The point of permadeath is that even if important units die, you at least have less than steller replacements. I felt like the overabundance of divine pulse was already a counterintuitive design. It seemed like the devs realized this until you go through the game without recruiting anyone.
Yup agreed. I think there should always be situational merit to letting a unit die which there is not in this game.
You do know that permadeath is optional, right?
@@capngeeoff Not if you actually want to play the game.
@@capngeeoff did you say OpTiOnAl?
That's why I personally dislike playing the game myself too. Watching others play it? Sure!
Play it myself? Never.
I played it and enjoyed it. To me personally it was worth the money, but I can understand others feeling it wasn't worth it.
I enjoyed the DLC, but I honestly think the characters carried it. Yuri, Constance, Hapi and Balthus are all really fun characters. Apparently Yuri doesn’t have a support with Ashe tho, like wtf???? Sooo yeah I wish there a few more supports for the DLC characters (would love to see Claude and Yuri too) or I would be happy if Linhardt, Ashe and Hilda would all get supports with each other or the other house leaders. Although I am VERY happy about the Yuri/Bernie support.
The story of the DLC was kinda predictable, at least to me. If not for the Wolves (the characters themselves), the DLC would’ve been a no for me.
Wow, the 3 main lords are fighting alongside each other. Who knew $25 would stop a 5 year war
The lack of repositioning combat arts was the single most annoying thing for me in the DLC. Yuri ended up being my least leveled character because I was constantly spamming the Foul Play art and his false canto to save Lindhart and sometimes other units from inopportune situations. In the main game, reposition was my favorite combat art to use in so many situations, whether it was saving a villager or my own units, and every time I went to make Dimitri move someone, it was beyond frustrating so find him unable to do so.
if you compare yuri's stats, growths, and personal item with everyone else's, its very clear yuri probably should be underleveled because you shouldn't be using him for fighting. he's meant to be a dodge tanky ferry for units like fortress knight edelgard who would otherwise struggle to get where they needed to go quickly. base yuri can pretty decently handle the abundance of axe units in the dlc if he needs to, but very clearly isn't the intended method of killing most things. every character in the dlc feels unique in what you should use them to accomplish, and giving other units movement arts would give yuri nothing unique to do.
@@Namingway248 Yet he gets a relic that lets him use Canto like Dimitri.
i love the DLC so far, brutally hard and the battle take forever, but its structured like old school fire emblem which got me into the series to begin with - but most of the player base did join in with Awakening at this point so they might be turned off a little by a traditionally structured campaign, but I wouldn't know because i am an old school FE player. Yes, I am playing through the story on hard-classic, but since this has -Mila's Time Wheel- Divine Pulse the game is not frustrating unlike how conquest was since the feature values my time.
While i played three houses, i was missing the traditional fire emblem structure, and the DLC story is fulfilling that completely!
I never realized how much of a chore the monastery "exploration" is until it got taken away
you forgot eating with everyone with the same unskippable dialogue every time
OMG, you're right. It's mostly Awakening babies now!
@@Lisa_Minci96 The dialogue is skippable, it's the cutscenes that trigger
It has constance so yeah
I didn't plan on buying the 3 Houses DLC because I knew it wouldn't be worth it in the long run just like all of FE's DLC, so I'm just gonna watch a let's play of it on UA-cam.
I think it isnt worth it but it isnt as bad as echoes, which was unnecessary
Heirs of Fate was fun though.
@@Ajia_No_Envy At least with Echoes you don't have to buy the entire DLC pass just to get certain content. I don't have to buy the whole Season pass just to play Rise of the Deliverance, i can pay for just that. Same for Awakening and Fates, each pack of DLC can be bought on its own. Three Houses decided to make you buy a $25 pass (which becomes $37.50 here in Australia), for a bunch of terrible costumes, extra quests and auxiliary battles, the sauna and CS. That's just terrible.
@@ShadowVincent3 yeah I guess so
As...interesting as the DLC was, tuning in to the stream was very enjoyable. Seeing you slowly lose it towards the end when things went from bad to worse was hilarious. I especially enjoyed having to put the students in the vortex!
step 1: fetch a student. step 2: place directly into the vortex.
Chaz Aria LLC Step 3: Profit... from our $25
Its almost like restriction encourages strategic play... I find FE games better when people are set classes pretty much and when its a linear experience.
tbh the complete reclassing freedom diminishes the storytelling aspect of Fire Emblem as well. It's silly how 100% skill sword guy Felix can be made a warlock.
@@arachnofiend2859 At least it's funny lol. But yeah, I think reclaiming was done best in fates, honesty. It took work, and even then, they were restricted to the same archetype.
I thought I was the only one that didn’t like having the option to reclass your characters. Felt like I’d just get a “why do you care, you don’t have to reclass them” But classes used to feel like a part of the characters identity, and also not knowing what their “canonically intended” promotions are bothers me 😅
I think the reclass option is cool, specially for people new to FE like myself.
There's times where I didn't have enough healing input so I had to reclass or not enough tanking etc.
If you don't like it you could always do a challenge without using them sort of like pokemon players do nuzlocke challenges.
@@sadied0g I'd say it's pretty easy to guess what their canon classes are. Just look at what they would be as enemies.
Birthright/Conquest were $40 standalone, with the other game being $20 DLC. Naturally, I felt that was appropriate price given the context....somewhat.
This was 25$ to use much less characters, play on much less original maps, and adds much less to the overall story.
By comparison it makes Revelations look like a good product on substance alone
Revelation was $40
@@AkameGaKillfan777 It's always been 20. Or at least, I remember specifically paying less for it than Birthright/Conquest
@@CarbonMalite cindered shadows wasn't the only thing included in the $25... you get costumes for over half the characters in the game, additional quests and activities to do in the monastery, Anna and her paralogue, as well as the side story and 4 new characters with paralogues. Frankly to me that's well worth $25.
@@friendlyelites That's the biggest problem. CS was worth 15$ at most and the other 10$ comes from garbage I don't want which they're forcing me to pay for.
Rev is 20$ for a whole game and CS as a game isn't even half that. The final 2 battles are a recycled map and an empty room.
Was anyone else surprised at how clutch Ashe was on this dlc?
Also ch2 was trash.
No and Yes.
Ooops Ashe died for me on the second chapter
I remember the final boss and finishing it with a yuri crit saying “let’s wrap this up” which was super cool
I feel basically the same way, the whole three houses DLC pass honestly seems like a scam, considering the previous waves added even less.
That being said this dlc has Yuri in it, so I'm obligated to like it.
Its not a scam if you got what you were promised, which you did.
A scam? You're a fucking idiot dude. The price and contents are all 100% available for you to see before you buy it. Do you have any idea what a scam even is? Moron.
Zovioh _FGC They said it SEEMS like a scam. Not that it IS a scam.
@@bluejellybeancos That's nice of you but that distinction doesn't make any difference. Was pretty pointless to point out.
Uh this isn’t actually worth $25, this is only a wave of DLC. All of the other 3 waves make up a portion of $25.
E X T R E M E V A L U E
Costume DLC should be FREE in any video game if it's purely cosmetic.
I've actually liked the first few maps, it was genuinely hard to keep my units alive while trying to kill things in player fase and positioning myself well for enemy fase. I'm not saying they're amazing maps but they're not as shitty as you're making them out to be :(
@chinchirorin It's not just hard because of number of enemies, it's hard because your options are restricted heavily and you're heavily punished for making risky choices or relying too much on one unit. And there's also a sense of urgency that's not there in the vast majority of maps in the main game.
The new mages will basically be killed in 1 round of combat despite being on a flier so you have to be extremely careful about using them.
In the main game you can just do basically the same strategy for each map on hard (you can even have one unit sometimes roll through the map single handedly) but in this one, your units are actually in danger of running out of durability/spell uses/HP if you use the same character too much. And it's really hard to turtle in choke points because the enemies attack from multiple sides, but terrain is still really useful (like the +40 Avo tiles).
It's basically an endurance run. And also, you can speed up killing the final boss by abusing canto movement and pretty much HAVE to use items, unlike every other boss since you have fortify or multiple healers available, which is unique.
Also the second to last map has poisoned controlled units + enemies outside of the range of physic, so you have to rush but can't abuse warp cheese. That's pretty unique even if it is on the same map played before, it feels different.
@Ced von Noish One of the interesting things about lots of enemies is that it heavily encourages smart offensive gambit usage to stun groups of enemies. That's mostly unnecessary in the main game because enemy density is generally somewhat low and more spread out (and you can just abuse movement mechanics like stride + dancing on big maps anyways or Thsyrus/ multiple archers).
Admittedly, the DLC can sometimes feel a little cheap, but you still have the tools to deal with it and you still have a restricted divine pulse (5 uses), which means you actually have a chance at losing, unlike hard mode.
But the biggest thing is that the map objectives generally make you feel like each turn matters since you can get into some very dicey scenarios if you don't play offensively, and item usage is encouraged.
Honestly you should look at an actual playthrough to decide yourself. It's most worth it if you're doing an additional main playthrough afterwards (or still have one in part 1), but it's understandable if you've already played through the game 3 times that it might not be.
Honestly, it all depends on what you look for in Fire Emblem DLC. I wanted Cincered Shadows honestly because in FE DLC, I’m looking for new characters and fan service. And I get just that. I’m just glad all of the 3H DLC isn’t the price that Awakening and Fates has.
If it weren't for that movement debuff I would have enjoyed that golem hellscape map
I agree, people forget that Conquest had MANY maps like Kitsune Lair, faceless stairway, and Fuga's wild ride which were long boring slogs with gimmicks designed to waste your time. The only map that felt like this in CS was map 3, which I will admit is an abomination, chapter 6 is also very luck based but not close to as bad as those 3 conquest maps. The map reuse is also overemphasized when they play completely differently. 25$ is definitely a bit much if you consider the paid content in a vacuum but I really appreciate how they added things such as Jeritza who now Bernie supports for free, people talk about scummy business practices but part of the value of the DLC for me is supporting them releasing free content for everyone.
7:25 But chaz FE7 already exists
you could buy vestaria saga with that 25$
I feel like you didn’t take into account the way in which it enhances the experience of a new run. If you’re going-ho planning on doing a second or third run, I think the $25 is worth it for how much more varied it can make it. I’m sad you didn’t like the story content itself, but you do get access to four new characters and classes for completing it.
I actually loved chapter 3, basically throwing around Hapi as a baton to absorb the Golem damage since she already automatically attracts them and has high res made for a cool experience because it turned a glass cannon character into the leader for the chapter basically.
Also, in addition to the mentioned mechanics added by DLC, there are facilities in Abyss that can be used to guarantee paired endings and progress Support Levels with Renown...or so I’ve heard. Just things to account for when deciding on whether or not to buy the DLC. -I am a non-attorney non-paid non-spokesperson-
I think we should have at least gotten some animated cut scenes for Cindered Shadows. $25 is almost half the price of the main game, and we got lots of beautiful cutscenes there. Cheap Crimson Rose styled cutscenes made it seem like they didn't care much about making the DLC worthwhile. I don't regret buying it since I wanted the characters, classes, and extra chapters, but it's not worth $25.
By itself? I'm not sure. But as part of the entire dlc content released to date for the same price, oh hell yeah.
The DLC gives me a Class that can Finger-gun magic spells.
100% worth
I already bought the season pass so I suppose I’m part of the problem here. I appreciate Chaz’s opinion and I’m going to go into the DLC with tempered expectations now. I also can’t wait for what Chaz is working on next! It’s gonna be a good one!
The main thing I liked about the Cindered Shadows DLC is getting those op stat boosters for the main game. That chalice of beginnings items is also broken but fun to use
6:50 Hapi actually does a shit ton of damage to the boss thanks to her personal skill that makes all her attacks effective against monsters. At least thats how my playthrough turned out. Dimitri and Hapi beat the shit out of the boss while everybody else focused on killing the phantom things and healing each other
Hilda actually crit with the finishing blow for me. I made sure to save the clip.
@@AkameGaKillfan777 Hilda did ok but she wasnt bulky enough to survive more than one hit from the boss so I moslty used her to kill the phantoms
For me, I had Dimitri, Hilda, Hapi, and Balthus all doing decent to great damage against the boss, along with plenty of gambits, particularly from Byleth and Yuri.
Byleth's mother was the subject I had the most questions about, so I was pretty excited when I finally got answers. With that being said, I will admit that it felt a bit lacking in some other areas, but overall I enjoyed it.
Silver snow reveals the same info + more.
@@Choops6969 We never saw her or even learned her name though
@@BeeLy1011 what tp see her she get green hair go bacl play stroy doni fianl bsos batl ebfor he become mosnter you see ehr nsd you her name it Sitri dude mybe you mnever play stroy or you skiep or you di not lsint you get her name and you see how she looks they shwop [cio her byath dad dateing so worng
From what I could gather from this wall of moon runes you just dropped into this thread, you seem to have misunderstood me.
Yes, I know all that, I've played Cindered Shadows. When I said "we never got an official name," I meant we didn't have one before Cindered Shadows was released.
My take is that Cindered Shadows and the extra content is fine, but holy hell was than not worth 25 dollars. If it was 10/15 I’d more accepting of its quality, but for 25 dollars the expectations were for something far more meaty. The extra lore, characters and classes it adds are cool, but it’s only worth it if you really love 3Hs
Isn’t that what DLC’s for? Fanservice?
Eh fire emblem dlc always seems to be overpriced but at least it’s not as bad as it was in the last game lol
I didn't mind spending 25 dollars on it, the strange thing though was that I got the entire game itself off Amazon (new condition) for 25$.
So basically I paid the same amount for 4 loaded routes with 18-22 chapters that I did for a side story with 7 chapters
The only thing I disagree with here is actually a bone that you threw the expansion. That the story wasn't going to be poor by virtue of being DLC. Awakening's A Future Past was the best piece of writing that game had and while I wasn't much a fan of Lost in The Waves, it at least had a stronger premise to go off of in a game about "what-if's".
DLC does not excuse this game from being worthless from a writing perspective. There were stronger premises and better means of execution that this DLC could've taken from a writing perspective. They didn't have to center this DLC around students introduced within the DLC itself, but they did, and the result is all the poorer for it. Cindered Shadows is a worthless waste of money that outside of it's solid OST, fails on all fronts.
Ive never played awakening. u are now my new awakening consulate. I will trade u a boarder for your services.
@@Choops6969 dealio
I mean, I disliked how in Awakening and Fates in those DLC's they imply that your parent characters died, which I mean, I'm sure that my omega cherche died, thats believable.
MyssleDissle It’s supposed to be an offshoot of the world Lucina abandoned but for another Lucina but the world is even shittier and you save it.
Even in the base game, the child characters exist because the parents died,
I mean those end game enemies are chew toys, and occasionally match the power of level 10 enemy soldier.
And they want me to believe that any of my super units died. Unless my Robin killed them all personally, doubtful.
ashen wolves is worth it because you can pat yuri on his cute little tsundere head in the main game
He's not a tsundere
It isnt worth it honestly but like it's not Echoes overpriced DLC or SWSHs doc which should've been in the base game. And on that note I'd buy Cindered Shadows still as I love FE and I wanted more content. However i feel this is a step up from Echoes. IS still needs to learn how to handle DLC better.
What really bugs me that the Ashen Wolfs treat you in the main game like you never even interacted with them. There's no way to transfer your completed Cindered Shadows file and have those characters recognize your friendship with them. What's even more bizarre is that you can recruit them with no requirements even though contextually in the main game, you never met them.
Have to agree, that was really odd.
I heard the Cindered Shadows DLC is non-canon, which is why you spotted that detail.
@@jerrygdr4557 god that "noncanon" shit is annoying as much as I enjoyed the dlc it kinda ruins the fun to be told "jk it was an alternative timeline" imop.
It's bad enough that the Ashen Wolfs don't recognize you, but this whole non-canon side story brings Aelfric into question: you eventually see him at your mother's grave. Is he still plotting to resurrect your mother? It's so confusing and irritating!
What are you even talking about? They all call you friend after you beat the dlc in abyss in the main story and interact with you based on the current situation above ground, plus support conversations
After just finishing it, I do agree that some of the chapters felt needlessly dragged, while other chapters had really cool objectives that forces you to experiment with new things such as Foul Play + Canto with Yuri. I also like how the later chapters forces you to think outside the box of how we usually approach things(Warps and Stride), for me something so simple like Vantage + Killing Edge + Retribution on Byleth was just enough carry my team past the Bolting mages and not make it turn into a slug fest.
Yes because what you buy is the expansion pass from which Cindered Shadows is only part of the 4th Wave out of 4.
My problem with the dlc is that it could’ve been so much more in the sense of world building and lore but instead we got a nonsensical storyline with huge lore dumps that are barely even touched on afterwards.
4:40 wait, were some of the CS maps reused from paralogues? I don't remember seeing them before... (unless it's something from wave 3, as I haven't played since launch except rushing through CS this week)
There were 2 maps I recognized from the vanilla version of the game, I believe they were the second and third maps from the end. I can't think of any others that were reused, although by nature of the setting some were very similar aesthetically to the Flyan rescue mission map.
Dont get me wrong, CS had some great moments like I was not expecting Sitri at all and the Wolves are great but like
THIS is what we waited for, about 6 hours of content?
Besides the fact that I think we all were expecting a 5th route the side story itself was just underwhelming, even if they just wanted a side story they could've given us additional supports within it like between house leaders, or even made Jeralt playable for it (which I think wouldve made a LOT of sense and wouldve fit pretty well)
Maybe I'm just spoiled since I was expecting something more akin to Torna for XC2, but idk. There's no real reason to ever replay it once you finish it
The support conversations are the best part about Cindered Shadows, the main game support conversations are not only as long as normal, but also give each charachter very high amounts of extra characterization, and even ties into other supports previously done.
Would love to see your thoughts on Three Houses as a whole. I honestly don't think the choices one can make in this game matter that much, if at all.
Honestly when I saw that the support screen wasn't greyed out I was hoping there would be a little bit (maybe only C rank and POSSIBLY a B or c+ rank) between the characters specifically about abyss.
It would've been really cool to see something like Dimitri and linhardt talking about the plot twist.
I did like rest of it, but the maps were really sluggish except for the one where you're being chased. That was kinda fun especially with tricking through walls
"A linear chapter progression and limited economy doesn't necessarily equate to a good fire emblem"
Who are you and what did you do with Chaz?!
Bwahahaha
Shoutouts to chapter 6 for 4 bolting mages and taking 10 damage every turn while all essential characters are permanently poisoned also hapi and constance vs 2 assassins and snipers is fair and good
Buy Vestaria Saga
Also buy Cindered Shadows, but only because of Hapi
I liked Constance more
h-hey, I like them all
Vestaria Saga?
Karnacle Blackburn vesteria saga, cindered shadows, Hapi, Constance... I’m just trying to spread positive vibes
@@Blitz_Spencer i meant. What is Vestaria Saga
Good review choopi. I similarly stayed up for 10 hours straight on launch but had a real good time because my money was always in on the premise of more supports, more facilities, and more characters for replaying the main game. Heres hoping that their paralogues are as interesting as chapter 4 of the side story.
6:37 you don't have to deploy every unit. the only way I managed to slip away during the escape themed map on hard mode was because I deliberately did not bring Lindhart and Edelgard
I love the DLC and I'm Happy that we got a more traditional and strategic experience with this DLC. So far it is better then expected
Do you plan something like:"Cindered Shadow story is good if you use one simple trick :)" or so? It would be nice but the choices isn't mine so it's up to you Chaz. (And if I somehow hurt you in someway I am sorry to hurt you)
Dang I totally forgot I could reclass my Edelgard! Her movement really made some fights harder, I wish I would've saw this before playing the DLC!
Tbh, I like this DLC but I wish this was part of a collection of small side stories that flesh out the world, like maybe we go to Brigid & Dagda and bring along Petra & Shamir, or visit Duscur with Dedue to see just how bad it’s become and try to fix it a bit, while learning more about the tragedy.
The Characters were fantastic, the music is awesome & I loved the different map objectives. The maps themselves were pretty good all round imo, except for the chasm map with all the doll beasts & the Chapel map where Balthus is seperate. This is probably because I feel that the map reusing isn’t that bad. Changing the starting position & enemy placement makes for a different experience, and reusing maps like the chapel which was just a demonic beast fest originally feels like a new map to me.
I think CS is a bit too steep price wise, but it’s such a huge step up from the previous games’ DLC (besides future past) that I think if you bite the expensive bullet you’ll enjoy it if you’re a dedicated FE fan. $10-15 would,’be made it an easy recommend, but it’s a little much, even though I know how much effort it takes to make the new characters and supports.
I really enjoyed it. It was quite a fun challenge on maddening. The level designs didn't really bother me as we saw new victory conditions like "reach this area before 10 turns" or "find the hidden switch." I thought it was fun. The story itself was also alright for what I paid. I learned lore while getting new lovable characters, the actually story itself wasnt too important. Plus Constance and yuri can be great units to use in base game. Yuri's paralogue relic and the grail item are also super useful in maddening. I dont know if I ended up buying something different, but I bought the $25 DLC and got all the other DLC too which was pretty nice. Overall Id say the $25 was well spent.
It really does feel like the limitations were designed specifically for that one escape chapter.
When I saw Linhardt was one of our three extra students, I naturally assumed we'd have Warp access. Silly me.
also you never told me to stay frothy what am I going to do
1:44 ist this only possinle in the DLC the first view? I haven't played it yet (still on my 1st playthrough and i bought the game day 1 xd).
Only thing i didnt like about the dlc was its length. I loved the maps. Yes, they were difficult. I didn't consider them annoying, at all. All decisions made had consequences, so it felt like an older fire emblem game. I likes the change.
Also, yes the price is definitely too high for the dlc. But i still loved the dlc, the characters and the gameplay.
I really enjoyed Cindered Shadows. I was originally hoping for a 5th route but that is far too ambitious of an expectation. The Ashen Wolves are fantastic characters, and fun units. The addition of the classes and more worldbuilding was very fun.
In fire emblem three houses, none of your decisions matter, starting with the house you choose.
Will you be the 25$ IS needs?
In Fire Emblem: Three Houses, none of your decisions matter, but we pretend that they do, so no one notices that we made a game where every ending is basically the same thing and it all depends on who you wanna bang the most.
2:17 yeah but also when they were present in cutscenes and what not I feel like they just like asked obvious plot questions or were like “yeah Byleth lets go” if I’m making any sense. I felt like they were just there to prop up the Wolves story, but i didn’t really buy the dlc for the Wolves, I had bought it for more witty rhetoric between Claude and Edelgard and the sort of rivalry between her and Dimitri, or the teasing Claude sends Dimitri’s way. Instead they had filler lines and avatar worship in the cutscenes and only really showed their own character when you talked to them while exploring abyss
The one thing that bothers me is the laughter from one of the new characters, Constance. It's just too obnoxious , at least in Japanese version.
Like seriously, it TRIGGERS me to hear her laughter during dialogue or after a battle.
It's not as bad in English. to be honest they did an amazing job dubbing it.
Okay but why arent Judith, Nader, Fleche, Randolph, Ladislava, Rodrigue, Rhea, Aelfric, Gwendal and Acheron playable in some routes like, these guys are done dirty
I could not disagree more ... just knowing of Byleths beautiful mother is enough for me. no seriously when the fan base is so massive is always to please every single fan I think. like I said I disagree I like all hehe, and I hope that for the next fire emblem we get online fights or a least an online as the one good in fates. I love fire emblem though so yeah.
Should I have gotten it? No. Did I know in advance? Yes. Did I get it anyway because it’s Fire Emblem content? Absolutely.
A bit bummer that's all we are getting for Three Houses i must say, good music though!
Just Yuri was worth the money for me, his support links are just 👌
Don't worry Chaz, Berwick Saga soon.
Yo that final Boss music is on my playlist on repeat and my co workers hate me for it, beautiful simply wonderful...I'm also surprised you didint meme on the main villain which is nice of you, but luckily this is only the first DLC hopefully we get more bang for our buck later down the road.
I feel like this was a difficult and rewarding experience. I don’t agree with your review on this DLC. To me it was worth every penny.
I feel like the gimmicks of each map have a strong impact on how good or bad they are
Chapter 1 was just a basic trek through a hallway with Hapi siccing a monster on you partway through, didn't really have a gimmick but was an alright intro.
Chapter 2's gimmick was huge waves of enemies that would spawn immediately upon finishing the last one, sometimes partway through a turn when you had units left in unfortunate positions that had already used up their move for that turn. Hated it.
Chapter 3's Spell key was annoying. "Put the key in the wrong lock? -3 movement penalty for your entire army, summon more enemies."
Chapter 4 basically forced you to play classic mode, since if anyone died you had to reset (which... honestly might have been a better idea just for classic mode in Cindered Shadows in general). It also had the pursuing golems but that's dropped halfway through for another generic bandit enemy rush, and the excessive enemy reinforcements in the final room that almost requires gambit spam was also aggravating.
Chapter 5 is... eh? Filler-ey? Most memorable thing about it was that time the bandits all got frozen for a turn when the extra monsters showed up.
Chapter 6's blood vortex mechanic I think is interesting enough of a twist on how the holy mausoleum played during the main story to make it not feel like too much of a rehash, but the enemy placement can be really aggravating.
Chapter 7... I actually really liked. Good final boss. I thought it'd be too easy given there's only one enemy, but the phantoms summoned every turn take away enough of your units attention to keep you from whittling him down in just a few turns while not taking away so much attention that you never get to actually fight the boss. The chaotic nature of his special attack sometimes leaving you in a tight spot and needing to come up with a strategy on the fly from wherever your units ended up was great.
Wow that sounds interesting but it sure doesn't have Marianne
Man of culture and taste
I love the great mission you’re talking about. I really really liked the chasing aspect.
I liked the dlc my only real problems were that the story was very predictable (I pretty much guessed the entire story when the villain was introduced) and some maps felt tedious. Also enemy dodge rates were insane btw.
That chalice of beginnings reward is pretty great though.
Why is it that FE dlc always so bad? XC2 is how you do a expansion pass
MK8 spoiled me i think.
Your thumbnail saved me 8mins thanks
And $25 bucks i hope