Fire Emblem Warriors was one of my favorite games in 2017. It nicely mixed in the Warriors formula with the mechanics and characters of Fire Emblem. Since I enjoyed the game, I didn’t hesitate to support the game further by investing in its Season Pass, which costs an additional $19.99 from the eShop. You can even purchase the DLC separately if you choose to, in which they’ll cost $8.99 each for the three packs. Needless to say, you’ll save money for investing in them all at once, plus you’ll get an exclusive Lucina bridal costume. So you know the costs, but what do you get and is it worth it? For me, I say it was very much worth it.

If you’re curious on my full thoughts of Fire Emblem Warriors you can read my review here: http://otakudome.com/reviews/fire-emblem-warriors-review/.

The Season Pass of Fire Emblem Warriors consists of three packs which represent the main three Fire Emblem games that are heavily represented in the base Fire Emblem Warriors experience. Those three games are Fire Emblem Fates, Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon, and Fire Emblem Awakening. The main highlight of each pack is the addition of three characters from their respective games. There are also three new History Mode maps that bring in new alternative stories and more missions to complete that are themed around each game. Rewards for completing these DLC missions will include special costumes for specific characters and unique weapons for the already existing cast from the same game. In summary, the DLC packs expand the overall experience of Fire Emblem Warriors by adding more to the History Mode portion of the game, along with new playable characters.

First released was the Fates pack which added in Azura, Oboro, and Niles. The second pack was Shadow Dragon that added in Navarre, Minerva, and Linde. Lastly the Awakening pack rounded out the Season pass and added in Owain, Tharja, and Olivia. You can check out the official Nintendo site for complete details on what each pack gives: https://fireemblemwarriors.nintendo.com/dlc/.

THE GOOD: With the addition of new characters, that means some new gameplay additions. Since each character in Fire Emblem Warriors has their own unique skill that can be inherited by others once unlocked, that means each pack will bring in new skills to help aide you in battle. Some of these additional skills are quite helpful too. You also get new looking special attacks and dual combo interactions.

There is also the added fact that these characters are now fully voiced. Many of the characters featured in Fire Emblem Warriors never had many voiced lines in their original games, with Shadow Dragon not having voices at all. Hearing familiar characters getting modernized with fully voiced lines was one of my favorite experiences in Fire Emblem Warriors. So getting to experience more of that with all these new characters is just another benefit.

I’m someone who mainly enjoys the story aspects of Fire Emblem, like the Support Conversations that occur between characters. With these new characters, that does mean more support conversations. Just like with the original cast, you’ll get conversations with characters from the same game and also ones with characters from different games. So if you’re someone who wanted to see a fully voiced conversation between Robin and Tharja from Awakening, that’s possible. As an extra incentive to invest in all the packs, there are even conversations that happen between DLC characters. Like a conversation between Azura and Olivia, who are both DLC characters. So that conversation wouldn’t exist if you invest in a single pack and not the other. So if you’re a fan of Support Conversations, you’ll definitely find enjoyment with these new additions.

Then there’s the History Mode maps that are added. As I said, they mainly centralize around each game. So you’ll see some familiar looking map designs from each of the three games. Nothing too new since you already see this with the base game. New history maps means new missions though. So there is plenty more to play after completing the story. The rewards these missions offer are also pretty good and some are DLC exclusive. There’s costumes like a maid costume for Camilla in the Fates pack, and an exalt costume for Chrom in the Awakening pack. Along with a couple others for already existing characters. There are also unique weapons for each character. For example, the History Mode maps in the Shadow Dragon pack will include unique weapons for Caeda and Tiki, who didn’t have a unique weapon before. This also applies to the other games too, so by getting all the DLC and completing them, you’ll eventually have every character (base and DLC) with a weapon that is unique to them.

Also, I should mention that while you do get three new History Mode maps, these maps aren’t used for unlocking the new characters, as was the case with characters like Lyn, Celica, and Anna. You actually get access to these new characters right away. So you can get started on playing and leveling them as soon as you download them.

THE BAD: Similar to how many felt about the base game, these DLC packs don’t fully address one of the main faults with Fire Emblem Warriors. That being the cast of characters. Fire Emblem has a huge library of games full of many different characters. So when the announcement of DLC came out, many were hoping this would mean more games would get featured. So it was disappointing to hear that only characters from Fates, Shadow Dragon and Awakening were getting added in. Mainly because those games were already well represented. Even more disappointing is that a fourth pack didn’t come out that could’ve added more characters from Echoes for Celica and Fire Emblem (GBA) for Lyn. So you’ll just have to keep waiting if you’re someone who was hoping for other FE games to get the Warriors treatment. I should also mention that the contents of the DLC were somewhat told in advance, so we did already know early on that new games weren’t going to get featured. Still disappointing nonetheless.

My other main complaint with the DLC packs is that while there are new characters, some aspects of them don’t feel that new. That’s with the fact that some of these newly added characters feel similar in gameplay to already existing ones. For example, Owain is a clone of Ryoma in terms of fighting style. Azura, on the other hand, is actually a unique character. So it was disappointing to see paid characters getting the clone treatment. Not too surprising though, since clones were already something you could see in the base game. I just expected a bit more effort for something you had to pay extra for.

Also, nothing new in terms of story or even new battlefields. While there are unique stories being told in the History Mode maps, they’re more or less a retelling of familiar events that occurred from each respective game. So if you were looking for something that would perhaps further expand the main story of Fire Emblem Warriors or new areas to do battle in, you won’t get that. You can use any of the added stuff in the Story Mode missions though. However, if you’re going into this DLC after completing the story, there really isn’t much reason to go back since all the new content is in History Mode.

OVERALL THOUGHTS: I enjoyed the base experience of Fire Emblem Warriors and didn’t hesitate to purchase the Season Pass. Some parts were disappointing though, like character clones and the lack of new Fire Emblem games getting featured. However, I enjoyed playing the new characters and experiencing all the newly added content. This does mean playing more Fire Emblem Warriors, so if you’re not a fan of the gameplay, these new additions won’t change your mind. On the other hand, if you really enjoy the gameplay and don’t mind more of the same, you’ll certainly get a lot of play time out of these DLC packs. I’ve nearly doubled my overall playtime thanks to the DLC packs. So, for me, this was a very worthwhile and enjoyable purchase. Highly recommend checking it out if you crave more Fire Emblem Warriors.