I think we may not be getting the Hoshidan/Nohrian Bonds DLC

[Lightchao42]

Whether we'll get the Bonds DLC or not depends on how well the rest of Fates's DLC sold and how well Awakening's Scramble pack sold. If they did do well then we'll probably get them, and if they didn't then we probably won't.

No one except Nintendo knows this data so it is impossible for us to tell for sure if they will be localized or not, but personally I think they will be released eventually.

[TheTuckingFypo]

If I were to guess, I think it'd be released around Halloween. There is a a lot of work in translations so I wouldn't blame them for taking their sweet time (especially with 200+ support convos as someone previously mentioned O_O). If it doesn't ever release, oh well. It may not be fair to NA/EU players, but really, is anything fair?

It's really a double-edged sword, because regardless of what they do (whether it be Fates DLC or you know, the everything else they need to work on), people will complain if it's not exactly what they want, and 99% of the time, its not the developer's fault.

I'll stay positive, and be patient. It's probably not high priority at this present time.

If not, I would at least hope they patch the beach brawl dlc and add the Hero/Exalt Brand as rewards, like the Battle Royale does with Dread Scroll/Ebon Wing. You know, because there's always one hiding in the sand everytime a winning royal goes to the resort island.

[Tango]

Yeah, Fire Emblem is more popular than ever.

I reaaally hope these get localized. :(

[SpellHexerOrochi]

I kinda agree to what Hithere said though. That was the subject of my edited post above. They got money from Fire Emblem, so they're glad and try to make more, but I do not feel the same consideration, the same proud from Nintendo towards Fire Emblem, than toward their normal/historical hits, like Star Forx, Metroid, etc, whose a lot of them are dead now, sorry for those who like these series, they tried/try to make a new one, but that failed/will fail. That deeply annoys me since many years, the way they hide Fire Emblem like that, as if they were ashamed of having it. Nintendo's big problem, who is to slowly killing them, is that they're stuck in their glorious past and can't evolve anymore. Fire Emblem doesn't have a glorious past in their opinion. Just look at how they launched Fates in Europe. A few ads on TVs and internet during one or two weeks, no new trailer (and just a few translation from the US' ones), then silence, except for the weekly DLCs on their Youtube channel. Yet all versions of Fates reached the Top 5 sales in my country during their release week. In fact, Nintendo's revenues decreased from 30% during the second trimester, whereas Fates sold very well and they made big money from it. So yeah, a mobile version would make some money too, but will it get the same consideration as Animal Crossing, Mittomo, etc? No. Look at Sm4sh. 6 Fire Emblem characters, one page of trophies, when franchises belonging to the past got 5-6 or even more showcases.

Concerning the localization, I agree though. I just don't care if it's not the exact same game than in Japan, as long as it makes sense as a whole. I'm even glad they made Fates less Japanese, I don't think I would like it as much as I do if kept it like that, because I'not into Japanese culture at all (I find it ridiculous anyway). They made the game more Occidental/(Western?), and it's better like that. That's this mix between Japan and European culture I always loved in Fire Emblem. The "adult you technically are'" was laughable too, because obvious, but... Why not ?

no clue what you meant by that last paragraph but ok?.... Edited September 1, 2016 by SpellHexerOrochi

[sirmola]

Honestly, given how much meney Fates appears to have made in the US, they'd be crazy to not localize it. If anything, they'd just be carefull ton not include any censurable material like the face rubbing minigame in the japanese version of fe15 to begin with.

Edited September 2, 2016 by sirmola

[twice]

Yes it's a lot to translate, there's been more than enough time for that though.

Best bet is that they're waiting around October to distribute the DLC (makes sense). If they've kept it off all this time, releasing it by October seems perfectly logical.

[VallaKnight12]

Fire emblem is dead to Nintendo. It was good for the first few months but now it's dead to them.

Edit: I meant fates but oh well

We still need to get the Bold Stance and the Winged, Beast, and Armor Shield scrolls, so more DLC should be coming.

[Brand_Of_The_Exalt]

We still need to get the Bold Stance and the Winged, Beast, and Armor Shield scrolls, so more DLC should be coming.

These are enemy-only skills, so we'll probably never get them (and all the Shield skills are useless anyway). You get shadowbanned if you use them online, if I remember well. Anyway, the Bond DLC is probably the last one.

There are some clues that lead me to think we are not going to get the Bond DLCs. If they were actually working on it, they would have at least something to show (screenshots at least), to say "Hey, don't worry, it will come but it takes time" (they did that for Sm4sh amiibos), to keep some visibility for the game. A direct is a show a lot of fans will watch, or will at least read a summary in the press. It's the best way to announce something, except shows, events, but Directs are cheaper. What's the best strategy? To show something to keep attention on the game, to get a larger audience? Or to wait and to release it silently later ? Also, don't forget that EU/AUS were released seperately, so it will take more time to translate the convos in every European language, so I think it would have been already announced for US.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Brand_Of_The_Exalt

[VincentASM]

These are enemy-only skills, so we'll probably never get them (and all the Shield skills are useless anyway). You get shadowbanned if you use them online, if I remember well. Anyway, the Bond DLC is probably the last one.

They aren't. There are even usable skill scrolls for them in the base game.

My guess is that our Map Pack 3 is tied to the release of Japan's not-yet-announced Map Pack 4, which contains Bold Stance and the other unreleased skills and finally completes the DLC package. We're still lacking a 5 star map and ending with 4 star maps just seems weird.

However, I have a bad feeling that the plans for Map Pack 4 may have fell apart for some reason. That or IS are just taking their sweet time...

Edited September 2, 2016 by VincentASM

[Brand_Of_The_Exalt]

They aren't. There are even usable skill scrolls for them in the base game.

My guess is that our Map Pack 3 is tied to the release of Japan's not-yet-announced Map Pack 4, which contains Bold Stance and the other unreleased skills and finally completes the DLC package. We're still lacking a 5 star map and ending with 4 star maps just seems weird.

However, I have a bad feeling that the plans for Map Pack 4 may have fell apart for some reason. That or IS are just taking their sweet time...

They are ? I didn't know, I'm not playing online, and I don't like hacking for others reasons than experiment.

I don't think a map pack 4 is planned, for the reasons I told in my previous post. Furthermore the game is more than one year old in Japan, they're not working on it anymore imo. But if we may see the Shield seals (and I'm 90% sure we're not), I'm sure Bold stance will stay enemy only, as it breaks the game balance. EDIT: Besides, we (in Europe) got a notification when the last Heirs of Fate DLC was released to show all available DLCs, so why did we get it at this moment if something else was planned ?

The difficulty in DLC is disapointing anyway, even Royal Royale (4 stars) is easy.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Brand_Of_The_Exalt

[VincentASM]

Eh, Nintendo is funny. They prefer keeping everything to themselves until they think the time is right. Excluding the very first wave (which was teased in Directs etc.), every Japanese DLC (for Awakening and Fates) was announced without so much a hint of their existence.

While it's unlikely they've spent aaaaages developing new DLC, there was a big gap between their Map Pack 2 (October 2015) and Map Pack 3 (March 2016), so it's not entirely out of the picture IMO.

Also, the point about the lack of a 5 star map isn't to do with the actual difficulty, but that it feels incomplete without one. Even Awakening had 5 star and MAX star difficulty maps. Plus when you use a rating system, you generally have it out of 5 stars or 10 stars--you don't normally stop with 4.

In any case, I have no idea what the future has in store, but hopefully IS haven't abandoned Fates support just yet...

[shadowofchaos]

They are ? I didn't know, I'm not playing online, and I don't like hacking for others reasons than experiment.

I don't think a map pack 4 is planned, for the reasons I told in my previous post. Furthermore the game is more than one year old in Japan, they're not working on it anymore imo. But if we may see the Shield seals (and I'm 90% sure we're not), I'm sure Bold stance will stay enemy only, as it breaks the game balance. EDIT: Besides, we (in Europe) got a notification when the last Heirs of Fate DLC was released to show all available DLCs, so why did we get it at this moment if something else was planned ?

The difficulty in DLC is disapointing anyway, even Royal Royale (4 stars) is easy.

You forget: Japanese Awakening DLC was released (not even hinted at) late into the life of Japan Awakening.

Drawing conclusions on DLC timing from the North American releases is kind of a faulty basis.

Awakening's release in America was nearly a year after Japan's. Considering the amount of DLC content that was released compared to Awakening, it's not surprising it's taking them longer.

And if they decide to end on no more DLC, cool. But it's not by any means "Fire Emblem is dead" to Nintendo.

That's just edgy veteran "no fun allowed" talk there.

Edited September 2, 2016 by shadowofchaos

[Brand_Of_The_Exalt]

Eh, Nintendo is funny. They prefer keeping everything to themselves until they think the time is right. Excluding the very first wave (which was teased in Directs etc.), every Japanese DLC (for Awakening and Fates) was announced without so much a hint of their existence.

While it's unlikely they've spent aaaaages developing new DLC, there was a big gap between their Map Pack 2 (October 2015) and Map Pack 3 (March 2016), so it's not entirely out of the picture IMO.

Also, the point about the lack of a 5 star map isn't to do with the actual difficulty, but that it feels incomplete without one. Even Awakening had 5 star and MAX star difficulty maps. Plus when you use a rating system, you generally have it out of 5 stars or 10 stars--you don't normally stop with 4.

In any case, I have no idea what the future has in store, but hopefully IS haven't abandoned Fates support just yet...

Yes, it is funny but this dumb strategy does not work in every case. For the NX, or Zelda, that works because there's a lot of people waiting for their release and they know the press makes them a better publicity by spreading rumors than they could make, and for free. But we're talking about a Fire Emblem DLC. I'm not sure most newfound fans (and it's a big proportion) will try to know if a new DLC is currently under development. Of course it's an exaggeration, I just try to say that a lot of people that bought Fates finished all paths for the story, and moved on, when a smaller proportion (here, on GameFaq, etc.) are following news. So that's definitely a dumb move for Nintendo, not to show something during their Direct, if there was actually something to show. In my opinion, this Direct was a deadline to know if there was really something under development.

I would not be suprised if 4 stars was actually the highest difficulty. Awakening went until 6 stars, so why not? The way I saw the 4 star is just something above the max difficulty, that was supposed to be 3 stars (and 3 stars makes sense for a rating system).

In any case, we'll see, but the more time pass, the less we'll likely get it.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Brand_Of_The_Exalt

[WinterOkami]

To be honest I don't think Fates is done yet, chances are the dlcs will come out on certain key dates.

Like the Halloween Dlc who will probably on Halloween, for the Hoshidan Festival will have to wait near december, maximum to the 31st of december since this festival is like a new year festival.

Fates brought a lot of money with the shipping and MyCastle so we'll definetly see more of it however the price will be as high as the Heirs of Fate in my honest opinion because the more work, the more money they demand so I bet it would be near 5-9 euros

[VincentASM]

Yes, it is funny but this dumb strategy does not work in every case. For the NX, or Zelda, that works because there's a lot of people waiting for their release and they know the press makes them a better publicity by spreading rumors than they could make, and for free. But we're talking about a Fire Emblem DLC. I'm not sure most newfound fans (and it's a big proportion) will try to know if a new DLC is currently under development. Of course it's an exaggeration, I just try to say that a lot of people that bought Fates finished all paths for the story, and moved on, when a smaller proportion (here, on GameFaq, etc.) are following news. So that's definitely a dumb move for Nintendo, not to show something during their Direct, if there was actually something to show. In my opinion, this Direct was a deadline to know if there was really something under development.

Think what you will, but the sad truth is that Nintendo isn't going to change their strategies just 'cause a handful of people are complaining on Internet message boards.

I'm not saying you're wrong. I am sure most casual players have probably moved on from Fates by now. Even in the European version, I'm starting to get much less castle feedback than I used to, as a tiny example.

Personally, I would also love it if Nintendo shared more news about things in-development.

However, as a whole, Nintendo is generally very secretive when it comes to news. If they have something to announce, they will announce it, for example in a Nintendo Direct or press announcement. But if they don't want to, they won't.

A bigger example is the NX. I've seen many fans desperate for news about the NX, but Nintendo clearly aren't ready to reveal any new details and they sure as heck haven't for a long time.

Whether it makes business sense or not is a story for another time.

[Brand_Of_The_Exalt]

Think what you will, but the sad truth is that Nintendo isn't going to change their strategies just 'cause a handful of people are complaining on Internet message boards.

I'm not saying you're wrong. I am sure most casual players have probably moved on from Fates by now. Even in the European version, I'm starting to get much less castle feedback than I used to, as a tiny example.

Personally, I would also love it if Nintendo shared more news about things in-development.

However, as a whole, Nintendo is generally very secretive when it comes to news. If they have something to announce, they will announce it, for example in a Nintendo Direct or press announcement. But if they don't want to, they won't.

A bigger example is the NX. I've seen many fans desperate for news about the NX, but Nintendo clearly aren't ready to reveal any new details and they sure as heck haven't for a long time.

Whether it makes business sense or not is a story for another time.

Amen I'm just scared that this strategy is slowly killing Nintendo. They're losing money, they can make more but they chose not to, for obscure reasons. If they continue like this, I predict a similar fate than some other big companies that could not evolve either, not that I'd be glad of it, but I'm realistic.

The other funny thing about Nintendo listening to their fans is that they always hear the worst part of them. They don't want to/can't evolve to avoid upseting their core fans. Look how many people critizing BotW because Link's green tunic was absent from the demo. I mentioned Star Fox for this reason too. They kept the same system for the new one, but that did not work, because the only players that could like it are their core fans that played the game at the time it was great. But now, that's not enough to find a new public. That almost killed Fire Emblem too, but IS's capacity to innovate while keeping their basis saved it.

Edited September 2, 2016 by Brand_Of_The_Exalt

[kelror13]

I'm in the camp that believes that the final DLC will probably be released around the month of October, at least I hope so.

[DragonFlames]

I think Nintendo withholds information from us to create a hype large enough that any announcement will feel like the biggest thing in the world, even if it really isn't. It's a basic marketing strategy really.

I agree that the figures show that Nintendo seems to be losing money. Look at the sales figures for the Pokémon games for example, which show an almost shocking degree of decline, something which normally would be considered a failure in the business world (almost 50 million copies of the Red, Blue and Yellow Versions were sold, ever since then, they have been declining to 10 to 12 million, which is still a lot, but in any normal business situation, a fall of almost 15 million sales is considered a failure) but they seem unaware of that fact. I don't know what kind of people run Nintendo, since I know none of them personally, but they don't seem to know/care much about all of this.

http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Pok%C3%A9mon

And don't even get started on the utter flop that was the Wii U (compared to the Wii and the 3DS anyway).

But even despite all of that, Nintendo is far from dying right now. They may very well die in the future if this continues, but for now, I think they're fine.

Concerning the DLC for Fates, I agree with VincentASM, shadowofchaos and the others: We will have to wait and see. Fire Emblem has been going well by its own standards (increasing sales from Awakening, even), so that's a plus, but on the other hand, now that the hype has settled down, it does appear that Fates is more hated than it is loved and if IntSys and Nintendo are aware of that fact, well...

[VincentASM]

I don't know any Nintendo bigwigs, but Nintendo definitely are aware of the situation and far more than fans. Simply because it literally is their business.

You have to keep in mind that the video game industry is very volatile. It's not just Nintendo that's experiencing lower sales over the years, but pretty much every other video game company as well. There are many reasons for that, such as consumers shifting away from dedicated gaming consoles and towards mobile and social gaming, etc.

It's why many companies these days are jumping on the mobile bandwagon and why Nintendo, despite being a very traditional video game company eventually made the plunge, developing their own mobile tiles and outsourcing Pokemon Go.

It's totally reasonable to comment about or ague about Nintendo's potential failings, but to pretend you know more about the industry than Nintendo seems a bit... strange, if you ask me. Unless you're an industry analyst or something similar ^^

I think a lot of disdain comes from the difference between what Nintendo want and what fans want. Obviously the two will mix sometimes, but since Nintendo is a business at the end of the day, there are going to be many occasions where they will operate differently than what fans expect.

Edited September 2, 2016 by VincentASM

[Brand_Of_The_Exalt]

I think Nintendo withholds information from us to create a hype large enough that any announcement will feel like the biggest thing in the world, even if it really isn't. It's a basic marketing strategy really.

I agree that the figures show that Nintendo seems to be losing money. Look at the sales figures for the Pokémon games for example, which show an almost shocking degree of decline, something which normally would be considered a failure in the business world (almost 50 million copies of the Red, Blue and Yellow Versions were sold, ever since then, they have been declining to 10 to 12 million, which is still a lot, but in any normal business situation, a fall of almost 15 million sales is considered a failure) but they seem unaware of that fact. I don't know what kind of people run Nintendo, since I know none of them personally, but they don't seem to know/care much about all of this.

http://vgsales.wikia.com/wiki/Pokémon

And don't even get started on the utter flop that was the Wii U (compared to the Wii and the 3DS anyway).

But even despite all of that, Nintendo is far from dying right now. They may very well die in the future if this continues, but for now, I think they're fine.

Concerning the DLC for Fates, I agree with VincentASM, shadowofchaos and the others: We will have to wait and see. Fire Emblem has been going well by its own standards (increasing sales from Awakening, even), so that's a plus, but on the other hand, now that the hype has settled down, it does appear that Fates is more hated than it is loved and if IntSys and Nintendo are aware of that fact, well...

I don't know any Nintendo bigwigs, but Nintendo definitely are aware of the situation and far more than fans. Simply because it literally is their business.

You have to keep in mind that the video game industry is very volatile. It's not just Nintendo that's experiencing lower sales over the years, but pretty much every other video game company as well. There are many reasons for that, such as consumers shifting away from dedicated gaming consoles and towards mobile and social gaming, etc.

It's why many companies these days are jumping on the mobile bandwagon and why Nintendo, despite being a very traditional video game company eventually made the plunge, developing their own mobile tiles and outsourcing Pokemon Go.

It's totally reasonable to comment about or ague about Nintendo's potential failings, but to pretend you know more about the industry than Nintendo seems a bit... strange, if you ask me. Unless you're an industry analyst or something similar ^^

I think a lot of disdain comes from the difference between what Nintendo want and what fans want. Obviously the two will mix sometimes, but since Nintendo is a business at the end of the day, there are going to be many occasions where they will operate differently than what fans expect.

Both have really good points. It's late so I'll just answer to the bold paragraph. You're right, and that's precisely where Nintendo fails in my opinion. We're in a very competitive (Does that word exists in English too?) world, where everything moves very quickly and permanently. If a company does not come to the market, it will not come to her either. Nowadays, most players buy a game, complete it to see the story, and then put it in the cupboard away to never use it again (or in a short session, in a distant future). Everybody's not like us here. If you're not keeping the attention on your products, you're losing a lot of people that could be interested. Look at EA and their Battlefront. Nintendo definitely tries to go to new markets, but that's still not enough. Instead, if a game or computer (*cough*) did not sell well, they blame it on bad luck. What would prevent NX to fail exactly like the Wii U? It's not because they'll launch a new computer that everything will suddenly go right. I have the feeling that they're not learning from their mistakes.

Anyway, I'd like to say that it's very interesting to discuss with you guys, that's why the Fire Emblem community is the best IMO. Never change :)

Edited September 2, 2016 by Brand_Of_The_Exalt

[JamesEmblem]

The die has been cast, now we wait...

Yeah, I realise a response is unlikely, but it's worth a shot.

I also find it odd how Nintendo of America is the only one with open DMs. Otherwise I would have tried both the European and UK accounts too.

Edited September 3, 2016 by BlitzMaster

[Dualazi]

However unlikely it may be, I hope we get a response. I thought the scramble maps were a blast in awakening and I'd love to see some DLC options for using your own team that aren't just a shortcut for progression.

[NeonZ]

Theres a ton of stuff to translate, so I wouldn't outright dismiss it yet. Granted, maybe a mention would help at least confirm it is being worked on, but I'd still bet on getting it. I don't think they outright skipped any Awakening DLC, so I don't see why they would for Fates.

They were advertising how well Awakening's DLC was doing, but there were never similar comments for Fates'. It is possible that its sales were lower, even though Fates' base game sold better.

Fates' DLC does have some oddities compared to Awakening's, like a high number of maps with preset teams and lack of content balanced for post-game (which was in the wave 1 of Awakening DLC already), in addition to stuff like lack of new characters (although I guess the fan consensus is that people didn't care for them in Awakening?).

[WinterOkami]

They were advertising how well Awakening's DLC was doing, but there were never similar comments for Fates'. It is possible that its sales were lower, even though Fates' base game sold better.

Fates' DLC does have some oddities compared to Awakening's, like a high number of maps with preset teams and lack of content balanced for post-game (which was in the wave 1 of Awakening DLC already), in addition to stuff like lack of new characters (although I guess the fan consensus is that people didn't care for them in Awakening?).

Heirs of Fate definetly pulled the trigger on the sales and it only came out about a couple of weeks in EU so maybe we should wait some months later, if we're lucky the success may be so big they would release DLC Pack 4

[VincentASM]

Since you mentioned DLC sales, I also had a sneaking (but completely unfounded) suspicion that it sold worse than Awakening's as well. I figure most people spent their money on or were burned out from buying the other story paths.

If true, it's a shame since, as a whole, Fates's DLC was pretty dang good and much better than Awakening's Wave 1 (which was plagued with samey battles against the Einherjar and low, low budget DLC characters).

In any case, hopefully we can have some answers soon...