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DLC Wave 4 revealed at the end of the Smash Direct


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2 minutes ago, B.Leu said:

T...that's what I just said... "if it wasn't for".
I called it dumb because, I'm just not impressed with the story.

Ooooh.

Indeed, if he wasn't willing to be evil and selfish he'd probably be pretty okay! Like most people.

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2 hours ago, Crysta said:

Ooooh.

Indeed, if he wasn't willing to be evil and selfish he'd probably be pretty okay! Like most people.

I want to say "it's the joke" to save face, which is true but yeaaaah... I poorly expressed myself. My bad.
Although according to what Yuri said, they might have tried to gather sympathy for him, I think he's cool, not good.

Huh, in insight, I have a weird sense of "cool".

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5 minutes ago, B.Leu said:

I want to say "it's the joke" to save face, which is true but yeaaaah... I poorly expressed myself. My bad.
Although according to what Yuri said, they might have tried to gather sympathy for him, I think he's cool, not good.

Huh, in insight, I have a weird sense of "cool".

tbh whenever the npcs in the game go on and on about how x is amazing and they owe everything to him, I immediately get suspicious. And uh how did he get a retinue of warping dark mages? I don't remember.

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3 hours ago, Crysta said:

tbh whenever the npcs in the game go on and on about how x is amazing and they owe everything to him, I immediately get suspicious. And uh how did he get a retinue of warping dark mages? I don't remember.

From their design, I'm pretty sure the Agarthans were helping him. I expect it's probably backed up in the text somewhere too. Was their Dark Mages with Metody? I think so. That would outright confirm it.

Edited by Jotari
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Cindered Shadows was... okay. Very short, not much to do other than just move through the few chapters it has. Several of them were quite daunting at first just based on sheer quantity of enemies, but everything always turned out fine. The final battle comparatively was underwhelming, for it took only a few turns.

When it was first announced that you could only have Linhardt, Ashe, and Hilda, I was disappointed because I would have liked making the dream team across the Houses. But I got to thinking that it could be perfect, since if the characters are tied to the story, they could actually bring something to the narrative. Honestly, if they did, I cannot even remember.

I wouldn't recommend buying the dlc UNLESS you've not completed all four story routes. Because for me where I got the value was in encouraging me to start my fourth and final playthrough for Silver Snow that I couldn't bring myself to do at release. All the costumes and little extra things to do in the monastery helped a bit to make things fresh (also the long break since release helped too). Though biggest of all was the addition of the Ashen Wolves as recruitable allies.

If there is one saving grace to Cindered Shadows, it is the students. Amusingly it had occurred to me that they resemble half of the Golden Deer House (a bit of a stretch, admittedly). But they are all at least solid, in particular Yuri, who even the side story seems to favor.

His character is closer to what I had hoped for in Claude. Any fears that he was just a Leon clone were utterly demolished; I only wish he, with his long purple hair, didn't pose with his arm just like Lorentz (another GD student ironically lol). His supports are all great--even Bernie's (though C and B are a bit redundant); there's a rather interesting connection between the two. Also having looked up his S-Support, it ends on a frustratingly good moment lol. As an aside, sometimes on the map his voice will sound suddenly much deeper. Has anyone else noticed that? It sounds like legitimately a mistake.

Balthus has connections as well, to Claude and Hilda. I found him to be quite funny. A bit of a meathead like Raphael, just not at all innocent, so I guess ultimately very different lol. My only complaint is that he suffers Ferdinand's war arc problem: his long hair awkwardly floats bent in the air and it looks god awful.

Constance has a very pretty design, arguably like her hair better before the time skip so it's a bit of a Mercedes situation except they swap lengths... ironically they are both childhood friends lol. Unfortunately she is very gimmicky in personality. Away from the sunlight she is as loud and narcissistic as can be. Then out in daylight, she becomes extremely, gravely depressed. It's like Marianne's state of mind fused with Bernadetta's ability to twist any scenario into a delusional interpretation. It CAN be amusing every so often, seeing the mental gymnastics, and having looked up the Heron Cup (the personalities swap then swap back afterwards) it can create funny discrepancies. But... by and large, it can be a bit loathsome to listen to. Not unbearable though if you can tolerate/adore Bernie as I do, especially since she only does it half the time. As far as I know, it isn't ever explicitly explained why she has this affliction? A source was hinted at but not delved into. Presumably linked to what happened to the downfall of her House, I guess.

Lastly there is Hapi, who like Lysithea, was forcibly altered and thus cursed in such a way that affects her ability to connect with people and have a future. Although personality wise she is a bit more mature in most aspects, without Lysithea's penchant for being very serious when sweets and "ghosts" aren't around. Her affliction is... rather silly. If she has a sigh, people will probably die. When it is brought up I suddenly feel very conscious of my own sighs, and depending on how strict the definition is, that seems like it would require constant vigiliance, just as she says. She has a connection with Dimtri, with regard to who it was that kidnapped her, so it is nice to give him an avenue for learning more about those people. It is hard for me to feel definitively positive or negative towards her. She is somehow very real despite her ridiculous circumstances, more so than many students. But I had detected a sort of condescending whim about her, or something hard to define, that didn't endear her to me. She's been compared to a cat before, which is odd because I LOVE cats. But I guess that's because they act that way as cats, not as people.

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I finished Cindered Shadows on Day One (which took me just over 10 hours) on Hard/ Classic. While the early challenge comes from multiple reinforcements, I love the difficulty. It's perfect; tricky without being overly frustrating like Maddening's same turn reinforcements! ...So I'm not surprised we didn't get Maddening (yet) 😛 The limited Divine Pulses were interesting too, as were the gimmicks. They were all so unique!

Spoiler

It was interesting how we got two back-to-back Chapters with 4 and 5 followed by two back-to-back Abyss segments. That was pretty clever~

I wish the non-Wolves could have had their Class Masteries though. That seems an odd thing to have left out. I agree the DLC could have been cheaper, but I'm very happy with what we got - especially because I also played Crimson Flower again to see what was added to the main narrative.

As others have said, it's obvious this takes place right after Byleth gets the Sword of the Creator. There's some implied downtime in the middle though, so I suppose the second half could take place over more Moons. However, this is definitely an alternate continuity story, considering the final revelations clash with

Spoiler

Silver Snow's

ending. On top of that, some of the Wolves conversations and Supports in the main story also clash with Cindered Shadows. I appreciated the foreshadowing about the "canon" routes though, with

Spoiler

Edelgard/ Dimitri's conversation about the former's hair colour, which hints at both her experimentation (Crimson Flower) and their shared past (Azure Moon), and Claude wondering what the Noa and Timotheos Relics are - both Crest Stones show up at the end of his Route.

And of course everything about Sitri ties into Rhea's relationship with her and you, which is at the heart of Silver Snow.

Also, I think the added lore is one of the best new additions here. I love the Shadow Library! Especially that "Ways of Love" book xD

The Wolves are great. Yuri may be a bit too schemey but he's still brilliant in Cindered Wolves. If anything, my only gripes are with Balthus, but that's just my preferences in personalities talking. He's still really fun.

Spoiler

Speaking of lore, I loved finding out about Sitri. It was such a surprise when Aelfric casually namedropped her early on (and earlier than that even when he offered to tell me about both my parents, not just Jeralt) and I too wondered if the Chalice would be used to bring her back. I feel sorry for him too and it was nice to see a more vulnerable side to Rhea as well. That was surprising. I thought she would be up to something too, but she was on our side all along; that was nice :3

I have to say, I wish @VincentASM hadn't inadvertently spoiled the reveal though. I know he didn't mean to do it, but the sly "odd that the head honcho isn't Aelfric in the main story" comment on one of the news updates really wasn't necessary. I was trying to go into the narrative blind and reading that meant I was already expecting him to be a traitor or die by the end. I know Cindered Shadows wasn't out at the time of that post, but this was pointed out in the comments too so I know I'm not the only one upset by that. Which just makes the whole "non-canon" thing pretty painful in the long run...

(P.S. When I first played I could have sworn I heard Sitri's name as Sarah, so I was pleasantly surprised that I got the same first letter and length of name with my mishearing :P)

I wonder if those who didn't like the calendar system liked this one. If they made it so that you could train everyone directly in Abyss/ Monastery once a Chapter, I think it'd be a nice compromise between those who like the teaching aspect and those who just want to get through the story quickly; it'll be interesting to see if FE17 does this.

I may say something in depth about this later, but with the aforementioned lore expansions (both here and in the main story), I too would love to see a prequel - either in the distant past or earlier in the Monastery's life - to see more of it. Speaking of lore, I love how the Ashen Wolves' Supports build on it too. In addition to the aforementioned boss dialogues, Yuri and Hapi also have dialogue with

Spoiler

Gwendal and Cornelia

respectively, which is amazing since those two have nothing else to do with the new content. Say what you will about Three Houses, but the attention to detail is as incredible as ever.

Spoiler

Such as Constance's Personal being represented by her personality and how she has two sets of dialogue both pre- and post-timeskip for everything (and in the Monastery). A really awesome touch!

And as this was my first time with all the DLC, not just Wave 4, it was interesting to see how the season pass as a whole came together. I got more fun out of Byleth's outfits than I expected and Jeritza turned out far more interesting and likeable than I thought, but the new auxillary battles meant I was crazy overpowered until the timeskip difficulty jump. Also, while Anna's Paralogue and Battalion were neat, I still can't get over how she has no Supports. Even Fates and Awakening gave everyone a Support with at least the avatar!

Also, I hate that two of the four new Classes are gender locked. It would be annoying yet better if each gender had an exclusive Class each, but no: two are locked to women-only...even though the War Monk/ Cleric already implemented the best workaround for this by changing the name to suit the one in that Class! Again, Fates nailed this so I don't get why they went back on that here (I know this was an issue before too, but still - these are DLC classes!) Also, the cost to guarantee a paired ending is insane: 10000 renown?!

Still, with all the new content added, as well as the new content Cindered Shadows added to the main story as well as its own, I can see why the Season Pass was so expensive. I doubt all of that fee went to the wealth of background details added, but if it was it was money well spent and despite what I said before I wouldn't mind the high price.

Also, there's one small detail I asked myself would be included in the main story and was thrilled to see was:

Spoiler

Sitri's grave now has her name on it and, instead of being worn down, is described as being well-maintained and having flowers placed before it. Aelfric also appears for a side quest the Moon after Jeralt introduces you to her. It's a really lovely touch!

I'm hoping for a surprise Wave 5. Ideally it'd be another side story, but another batch of QoL updates would be really nice. It seems like the sort of thing they'd do. Though I can't get over the cat/ dog petting being paid content either.

P.S. The reward for completing Cindered Shadows is brilliant. A really useful item if you know what you're doing!

Spoiler

I feel no shame in admitting it hit me in the feels and I gave it to Byleth straight away after seeing it too.

 

Edited by DefyingFates
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