Fire Emblem Three Houses: Cindered Shadows - Review

The house to rule them all?

Console: Nintendo Switch (2)

I'm certain that every game has at least one series they have drifted away from. For me, that's Fire Emblem. The last one I truly committed to was Three Houses back in 2019. I adored it, but by the time I’d wrapped up my Crimson Flower run, I was completely burned out. With all of Fate’s paths, it was the 6th Fire Emblem game I played in only a couple of years and the idea of sinking another 80 hours into Edelgard-less routes was unthinkable. So, I shelved the series “for later.” 

That “later” never came. The PS5 made its grand entrance in my life and with it became new games and new series that pulled me in. Fire Emblem slowly but surely slipped from my gaze. 

Recently though I found myself thinking about the series again during a sleepless night. I didn’t want to restart the full game, but the Three Houses DLC, Cindered Shadows, seemed like the perfect re-entry point. It’s shorter, more focused, and still familiae. If it rekindled the spark, I could take those new characters and features into a full replay. 

Without further ado, let's talk about this DLC, this side story, and see not only what it brings to the Three Houses table but also if it can reawaken that Fire Emblem joy!

At Garreg Mach Monastery, Edelgard, Dimitri, Claude and professor Byleth chase after a suspicious person lurking around. The individual gets away but the four do discover a mysterious tunnel leading deep underground. Here they find an entire settlement, Abyss, where people live who have nowhere else to go. Together with a group of students living in Abyss, the Ashen Wolves, the group set out to not only find out who the intruder was but to protect the Abyss from the legion of mercenaries that threaten it. 

To describe the narrative of this DLC in one word: it's fine. Nintendo wasn’t kidding calling this a “side story.” It’s enjoyable enough but very short and largely inconsequential. The big mystery at the core of it all is executed well enough but I can't say I ever was all that engaged with it. It felt somewhat predictable and I don't think they deliverd on this idea that it would develop some underdeveloped aspects of the main game. It also doesn't affect the story of the basegame much so if you were looking for somesort of massive revelation that put the main story (well, stories) into perspective than you will be dissapointed. 

The best things this narrative did is that it packs in a good amount of references and tidbits about the story and characters of the main adventure. It has been years since that Crimson Flower playthrough but even I catched a couple of throwaway lines that are hints to story developments in different story paths. Stuff that you might not have experienced (yet). It is also a pretty good showcase for our four new characters, the Ashen Wolves. Each get a good amount of screentime that shows of their personalities and unique classes. As characters they are interesting and fun and I am already chomping at the bit to recruit them in the maingame, one of the many perks completing the sidestory has. They are definitely the biggest perk to the main story this expansion comes with aside from the extra quests perhaps. 

The gameplay as tried and true Fire Emblem (image taken in Handheld mode).

With this servicable but underwhelming story, the combat is by far the star of the show here. The gameplay here is stripped down version of what the main game offers but that isn't bad thing in my book. Nearly every life simulator element has been stripped in favour of the classic 'you command units on a grid-based map in turn-based battles, using strategic movement and character stats to win' thing.  There are no supports, no tea parties, the small roam area that is Abyss only has merchants and even character classes and resources are limited. 

What all of this does is create a tighter, more difficult combat loop. You have to be a lot more thoughtfull and creative here as your options are so much more limited. You have only one dedicated healing unit for example severly limiting your healing options meaning I had to rely more on healing items and play more defensively when it came to him. The levels themselves are also more focused, whith each of the seven battles being very different from one anohter. No battle is alike with its victory conditions and some of them through you some neat curveballs. 

I really liked this as it pushed me to think a lot more strategicly than I had in the past. Whenever I can get away with it I use the weaker weapons so the more powerful onces won't break as easily. In the main game, I can remember going with the mots powerfull weapons I could equip my units with all the time because I nearly always had the gold to repair them after a battle or two. 

Cindered Shadows is thanks to all of this inherently more difficult than the basegame, regardless of on what difficulty and what mode you play in. The 'easy' difficulty is also completly gone here so keep that in mind as well. What this meant for me? That as relapsed player the first battle kicked my teeth in. It took me close over 90n minutes of playtime and 2 restarts to get it done. It was a bit off putting, I'll admit, but finally beating it made me feel like a king.

The more I progressed though the easier it thanfkully became. I think a combination of my units gaining more exp., better equipment and me getting back into the groove of things culminated in a backhalf that was easier for me. Chapter one took me, like, 90 minutes to beat in total which is a stark difference. I liked that I could play the game a bit more casually because of this but don't misunderstand me: it didn't suddenly turn into a cake walk. The maps still challenged me and I used that bookmark feature to let the game rest for a bit while so I could come up with a way to get out of the tightspots I had gotten myself into by sacrificing, say, Constance a few turns ago. I just got better at it and reaped the rewards. 

Should you keep having trouble I got a few tips for you. If you think you can absolutely not win this fight, keep playing as long as possible before retreating. All the experience your units earned in the batlle will carry over while all your resources will be replenished. Turning on the online feature, which sprinkles bonuses around on the battlefield based on wins and losses from other players, can give you a much needed leg up should you struggle with the finite rescources available to you. On hard and classic modes, where fallen units are lost forever, the latter is most welcoming. 

Lastly, a brief paragraph on the graphics. The graphics in general is a talking point for a review on Three Houses itself but I noticed it here and don't want to wait months to actually write about it. I like the art direction Three Houses has going on but its shortcomings, its faults, are more visibly to me know that 5 years ago. The one example I will give is that character lines aren't smooth but jagged which results in some 'blocky' visuals. This is not a dealbreaker, by far, but after playing games with incredibly high fidelity and quality visuals such as Horizon Forbidden West I just could not stop noticing it. 

If you look at Hilda's hair you can see what I mean by those ugly, jagged lines. 

Conclusion

Cindered Shadows is a compact, combat-focused side story that dishes many of the life simulator elements in favour of the combat. The gameplay shines thanks to tighter design, resource scarcity, and challenging maps which more or less makes up for the servicable but utlimately forgettable story. If you’re a hardcore Three Houses fan, it’s worth experiencing for the pretty colourfull cast that are the Ashen Wolves and the extra tactical fun. If you only casually enjoyed the main game, you won’t miss much by skipping the story and the extras it unlocks for the basegame. 

As for me, it did exactly what I silenty hoped for: it rekindled that Fire Emblem spark. After writing this, I’ll be jumping back into Fire Emblem sooner rather than later. Be that with a Verdant Wind run of Three Houses, a 4th attempt at Shadows of Valentia or with Fortune's Weave once that is out next year remains to be seen.