The February 2022 Nintendo Direct featured major reveals. Switch owners can look forward toMario Strikers: Battle League, the revival of a fan-favorite extreme soccer series, on June 10; as well asXenoblade Chronicles 3in September 2022. However, the show kicked off revealingFire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, the latest collaborative project between Nintendo, Intelligent Systems, and Koei Tecmo.
Koei Tecmo studio Omega Force spearheaded theMusouseries, known asDynasty Warriorsin the west, and its hack-and-slash formula has become more popular thanks to crossover titles.Warriorsgames have released for gaming franchisesranging fromThe Legend of ZeldatoPersona, as well as manga/anime likeOne PieceandBerserk.Fire Emblem Warriorsreleased in 2017 with a focus on characters from the originalFire Emblem: Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light,Awakening, andFates,butThree Hopeswill exclusively center on the world of Fodlan established in 2019’sFire Emblem: Three Houses.
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Similar toHyrule Warriors: Age of Calamityoffering fans a new twist onThe Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild,Three Hopespromises to tell a different story in the same universe asThree Houses. The reveal trailer forFire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopesseemingly suggests this story will bring warring lords Edelgard, Dimitri, and Claude together against a new threat, but if so, the developer shouldn’t forget to include key characters fromThree Houses' DLC content.
Fire Emblem: Three Houses and the Cindered Shadows Route
Three Housesleaned into ahistory of branching story paths withinFire Emblemgames. Players influence whether central protagonist Byleth should lead the Black Eagles (Edelgard), Blue Lions (Dimitri), or Golden Deer (Claude) at Fodlan’s Officers Academy — and take one side when all-out war engulfs the land following a five-year time skip. Each path results in a different victor while presenting players with new lore, and there’s an additional “Silver Snow” route to uncover in which Byleth starts with Edelgard, but backs the Church of Seiros.
An Expansion Pass released in four waves followingThree Houses' launch, with the fourth adding a new “Cindered Shadows” side story in February 2020. Cindered Shadows sees Byleth discover a town called Abyss beneathGarreg Mach Monastery, where the Officers Academy is housed. A secret fourth house of school-aged individuals called the Ashen Wolves is being instructed in Abyss, and Byleth — alongside a handful of students from the surface — help protect their home and prevent a religious relic called the Chalice of Beginnings from falling into the wrong hands.
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How Cindered Shadows Could Benefit Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes
Cindered Shadows can be experienced on any route pre-time skip, serving as a more difficult challenge using limited resources. Its focus is largely on four characters: Balthus, Constance, Hapi, and Yuri — the Ashen Wolves house leader; each of whom offer new insights into Fodlan from the perspective of rejected vagabonds. However, the Cindered Shadows story also marks the only time players can useEdelgard, Dimitri, and Claudeon the same team outside the base game’s tutorial.
The reveal trailer forFire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopesshows those original house leaders battling one another and fighting back-to-back at various points. If the story leans into them grouping up, as opposed to the inevitable divisions of the base game,references to Cindered Shadowsmay be a good inroad. Perhaps Abyss is the one place everyone can hide from the new force threatening Fodlan as the story hits its low point.
It would be silly forThree Hopesto not use this set piece after the original game’s DLC canonized its presence in the universe, and incorporating the Ashen Wolves would promote fighter diversity.Warriorsgamesoften have dozens of playable characters with varying skill sets, and the Ashen Wolves characters have their stand-out powers to offer; from Constance’s unique Pegasus-mounted Dark Flier class to Balthus' gauntlet Heroes' Relic called the Vajra-Mushti.
The Ashen Wolves don’t even have to be playable within the base game, asMusoutitles like the originalFire Emblem WarriorsandHyrule Warriors: Age of Calamityestablished a standardof auxiliary characters in the story being added via DLC. Regardless,Three Hopesshouldn’t ignore the events of Cindered Shadows just because it was originally a post-game expansion. If anything, its unique aspects could benefit the story of the upcoming spin-off. Fans will just have to wait and see whatThree Hopesoffers upon release.
Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopesreleases for Switch on August 04, 2025.
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